BY CHELSEA FANNING

Evaluation

Developing/challenging conventions

The camera work in our film is somewhat conventional e.g. the establishing shot of a park to set up the scene and introduce key characters, however the credits appear after the first scene, which is somewhat unconventional, titles are usually shown before the opening scene when the audience have not already been introduced to key characters/locations.

Our use of some other camera shots is conventional e.g. a low angle shot to convey when a character has power and a high angle shot to convey when a character is vulnerable and has lost power.

We decided to use continuity editing for added realism, our editing is somewhat fast-paced in order to appeal to our target audience of 18-25 year-olds.

Our film is unconventional because a woman is playing a lead role, unlike in most action films in which men are usually cast as the main character and women are only cast for supporting roles.

Representation

Our film subverts some stereotypes about gender and gender roles and has a somewhat feminist subtext because Alex, the protagonist, is leading a double-life whilst her husband stays at home and looks after their child, she is also a strong woman, which is rare in modern mainstream films, as people can find strong female characters intimidating.

Our film has a very diverse cast - a black female plays the lead character in our action/drama film and her husband is white. Interracial relationships are not often depicted in mainstream (Hollywood) films, because they are still seen as a taboo by some people.

Representation (cont.)

I feel that we achieved our aim in representing minority groups, who are often shunned by mainstream films, in a different light and we did not advocate racial/gender stereotyping.

A central theme running throughout the opening sequence of our film is the good/bad side of Alex, by day she is a caring mother who has a regular day job and by night she is a ruthless assassin, however the audience are supposed to like and empathize her, despite the fact that she is technically an anti-hero because she is an assassin.

Our film is somewhat similar to action films such as ‘Mr & Mrs Smith’ and ‘Set It Off’ because a woman plays an assassin who the audience like and empathize with and like in ‘Set It Off’ where the reason the lead character leads a life of crime is so that she can provide a better life for her family.

Target audience

Our target audience is both men and women aged 18-25. We chose to target the aforementioned demographic because they generally enjoy watching action

films and the main characters in the film are within this age range, therefore the audience are more likely to empathize/identify with these characters and their struggles, particularly younger women, as there is a strong female character in our film who they could see as a role model.

Seeing the finished product of our film, I believe that we achieved our aim in successfully appealing to our chosen demographic.

Technology

For our main task I was introduced to some technology that I was previously unfamiliar with e.g. Final Cut Express (editing) and uploading our work onto a blog, as opposed to handing in a physical copy.

For our filming we used new equipment such as a dolly for tracking shots and a microphone/fishpole for higher quality diegetic sound in our film, which at first our group found challenging to set up.

Learning process

Personally, I have learnt to be more prepared by planning the specific camera shots (shooting script) we intended to use in our film, being underprepared was an issue for me in the preliminary task, which is why I feel it was not executed as well as the main task.

I feel that I have progressed significantly since our preliminary task in terms of working in a group and using media technology, such as Final Cut Express (editing).

Our filming process was delayed significantly because we had issues finding actors to appear in our film, as well as issues hiring filming equipment for the days we intended to film, consequently this meant that members of our group had less time to edit our footage.