SMC Media Studies Self Evaluation

By Joel Duxbury

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYtvACnED3A

This is the link to our film that we have uploaded onto the video sharing website YouTube. Sadly, the quality of the video has become distorted after we have added the video to YouTube. Regardless of this, we are all pleased with our opening sequence and how we worked well as a team. We believe we have achieved the best we could of achieved.

IntroductionAt the beginning of our media coursework, I had two options to

choose from, whether to make an opening sequence for a film, or whether to create a magazine. I thought hard on which route to go down, but decided creating a opening sequence would be the most influential decision. Me, Max Blanche, Louis Percival and Michael Keenan all decided we would work together to create this opening sequence. After some thought on what genre our sequence would be, we then had to find the location that we would use. After we had agreed on everything, we all needed roles that would help us achieve a good quality film and if we abided by these roles we work extremely well together. As a rule, Max controlled the camera, after we had all decided on the shot work, and me, Michael and Louis contributed to the acting. We all helped with the editing after we had the clips we needed.

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?As a group, we all had different ideas running through our

heads. But due to no funds and minimal technology to use props and create special effects with, we needed to keep our ideas realistic, yet still unique and effective. This is why we chose to make a paranormal thriller. We found that a paranormal thriller was easier to explain and create with the materials we had rather than a horror. I believe that our opening sequence fulfils/challenges the requirements of the paranormal thriller genre that our film belongs to. We have done this by using suspense. We have set suspense by the sound we have used, quick editing and the use of enigmas. We also allow our audience to get to know the characters, this therefore making the audience feel numerous emotions (as well as empathising with the characters).

Location shots

This is where our opening sequence starts. The soundtrack we used with our film has been strategically tweaked to burst into action as soon as the characters run the door and appear on the scene.

After the opening two clips we included to our sequence, we decided to play around with a shot. We did the same shot three or four times to see which would be the most effective. We decided to use a low shot looking up towards the characters running down the back alley.

This is where one of the most vital clips of our opening sequence occurs. This is where suspicions arise of something watching the characters coming towards the house.

The three boys realise there is a camera in the bag whilst they are walking down this street. This is where the first few handheld shots are filmed.

Location shots continued

How does your media product represent particular social groups?Originally, as we are teenagers ourselves and have been

stereotyped in a negative way at some stage, we believed it would be more affective if we represented teenagers in our opening sequence. This is because we also strongly believe that people have these perceptions that all younger generations are trouble-makers and thugs, when only a very small minority conforms to these perceptions. This is why their is a criminal view to our opening sequence, when the characters steal the bag (resulting in the camera being found) and leaving the scene. In my opinion, I believe our media product does adhere to stereotypes. This is due to all the bad press people consume about teenagers due to media. But, I think that our product also slightly challenges representation by allowing the audience empathise with the characters when trouble looms. This is odd, as teenagers in general do not usually see good lime light and are usually not empathised with at all.

Comparisons to British and Hollywood filming

Naturally, we tried to make our film look as professional as we could. This was hard, due to our film was created with no budget. This is a huge difference compared to Hollywood films that rely on massive budgets to use props and massive effects. Our film has a gritty look to it, more comparing to British films such as “Kidulthood” and “Adulthood” as well as British series aimed at teenagers “Skins”. Our film compared more to these films due to our costume and appearance. The clothing we have chosen to wear is rather similar to that worn in these films. Also, petty theft occurs in our film, resulting in us finding the camera. This idea was good as it fits well into the film and explains the shots of us running down away from the scene as well as allowing us to get some handheld camera shots to add to our sequence.

ComparisonsThis image shows the comparison in clothing worn in our clip. Before we filmed, we decided to wear dark clothing, especially a “hoody”. This is due to teenagers being stereotyped to being mischievous and the “Hoodies” have been targeted by the media numerous times before.

Skins is a British television series that targets teenagers. This is done by relating to things teenagers understand, e.g. college/school, partying with friends etc. This is what we wanted to achieve from our opening sequence, we wanted to relate to teenagers as well as other audiences.

ComparisonsThe characters we decided to play in the opening sequence definitely conform to stereotypes created about teenagers. This was done purposely by us as teenagers have been targeted by negative media on numerous separate occasions.

We chose to wear hooded clothing to enhance the current view of today's teenagers.

The characters we created were given mischievous roles to play, therefore complying with the “hoody” stereotype.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?As our film has similarities with such films as

“Kidulthood” and “Adulthood” I believe Stealth Films company would be an appropriate company to launch our film. This is due to the gritty, independent style they apply to their films. But, there are many other film companies where our film to rise to popularity due to the paranormal genre it portrays as well.

Overall, I do believe that Stealth Films would be the best choice due to their experience and success at distributing films of the same style and genre as our film. I do believe the institution would consider backing our product as this is the type of film they have distributed exceedingly well in past few years.

Who would be the audience for your media product? I believe that the target audience of our film has an age of

15+. This being due to the intended scary scenes that cause suspense within the audience.

As for gender, although not particularly true, I believe our product has a male gaze therefore appealing to more males than females.

Due to the film being a British production, the film will be targeted more to a British audience, although other English speaking nationalities would be able to follow the film subsequently.

Although targeting a majority view of teenagers, fans of sci-fi and paranormal thrillers will also be targeted by our film. I think this is a good audience to target due to the potentially large mass audience the film will be attracting.

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Questionnaire results and audience feedback

From the results that we collected from the questionnaire we created, we found so valuable information that helped us significantly to see from an outside perspective. From our questionnaire, we found that the target audience was 15+ and male orientated view.

From our audience feedback we found that the majority of viewers enjoyed our film, and those who didn’t had positive criticism to help us improve. The majority told us that they enjoyed our film as they could relate to it. Also, the editing was and special effects were credited.

Most important of all, said they were captured and wanted to know more about the characters and what happens next. This was good to know that our film caused this effect on the audience and it was also good to have positive criticism that could result in further success.

How did you attract/address your audience?The opening sequence starts with an immediate enigma of why

they are running away from the scene and what have they done. The enigma is made more intense due to the parallel sound symbolising something important has happened. The audience soon realise what is happening as the characters leave the scene. As this happens, the fast pace, action sound clip slowly changes to an eerie sound, setting suspense as used in horrors etc. This now grabs the attention of the audience as the camera, which has been stolen and is revealed and the boys set forward to the house where the next scene is set.

We also end with an enigma, which sets a good cliff hanger keeping the audience waiting for more. This is a good tactic to keep the audience focused on the film. We also used a voiceover a black screen for the last clip which builds up even more tension and danger. We also included transition effects when necessary to show the passing of time. This therefore prevents the audience from getting bored or agitated whilst watching the film as time passes to night time when the boys first started recording on the camera. The last few scenes of the sequence are the most gripping for the audience, this is due to many different key functions.

How did you attract/address your audience? (continued)

Lighting- The low key lighting makes the house look in total darkness

Editing (Editing pace etc)- Fast editing adds to the suspense and urgency of the situation

Music and sound- Diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound play there part in creating the suspense. E.g. The creaking of the doors and floorboards as well as the sound track added purely for this reason.

Effects- When the camera hits the floor after the boy is captured by the unexplained “thing”, effects were added to blur the camera view.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Technology has been a big part of our success in creating our opening sequence. For example, using Macs to edit our movie, by adding effects, transitions, adding sound , typography etc. Without this technology, our finished product wouldn't look as professional as it does. Other technology such as cameras and DTP software was needed to create our actual project. Websites were key to our success as well, by using the internet, we can post our work on Blogger as well as uploading our finished product onto YouTube.

Blogger.com allows us to post blogs containing work we have produced as well as movie clips etc. YouTube.com

allows us to upload our final product onto the internet to be viewed

Technology continued

Media college.com is a website where useful information and key terms can be shared.

http://www.imdb.com/

http://www.mediacollege.com/

http://www.mediaknowall.com

By using Imovie software on a Apple Mac, we were able to produce these effects. Without this technology we would of struggled to compromise for these specific effects.

Preliminary taskLooking back at our preliminary task, I believe we have made

great success as a group. This is due to hard work and commitment that we have put into our final product.

Also, more time and care has been put into our final product and more skills have been learnt in the process resulting in a better quality film.

Such skills as how to add effects and transition onto our film, as well as adding non-diegestic sound and typography. A whole array of different shots and camera angles have been learnt too; which has improved our film dramatically.

Preliminary task continued

Furthermore, as we got more familiar with the equipment me were working with, we became more confident and began to be more adventurous with the camera.

Additionally, we also began to feel more confident with the software (Imovie) and began to be experimental with our opening sequence.

Overall, I think we learnt a lot since we made the prelim task and the skills we have picked up along the way have helped us dramatically.

EvaluationOur goal for this task was to create a opening sequence to

a film from whichever genre we chose. This was done with no budget and only using certain college equipment. This was hard but I believe our group has been successful in making a professional looking opening sequence which would grip the audiences attention.

As a whole I believe that our group worked to our best ability and I am happy with the end result.

But, as with every film, their are strengths and weaknesses to it. Although weaknesses aren’t wanted, we can learn from the positive criticism and learn how to improve these weaknesses. Here are a few strengths and weaknesses of our film.

Evaluation

Strengths I think our array of different camera shots makes

our film look professional and captures different aspects.

I also feel that the sound tracks we chose for our opening sequence are very affective. These were carefully picked to fit in our film and I believe they are a vital aspect of our success

The use of effects enhanced the quality of our film. I believe this because they are relevant to what is happening and makes our film look sharp.

Continued

Weaknesses One weakness we picked up from the

audience feedback was the scene looking towards the top window, if we had chance to do this again, I believe we could think of a better way to create this shot to make the shot scarier.

Another weakness would be the close up shots of the boys whilst they were running down the back alley. I believe these could be done much better with some thought

Continued

Overall I am very impressed with our final product. I enjoyed working with my group and believe we had created a successful opening sequence.