Friday 11 April 2014

Evaluation:Part 8 Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in progression of it to the full product

Looking back i feel like the final cut of our title sequence went extremely well considering how many times the idea for the title sequence changed as the final cut kept the audience engaged and excited whereas our first ideas narrative was confusing and boring even to us, once we had discussed it as a group we decided to focus on the "chase" which was a good call as it pushed the narrative to the forefront of the sequence something the other two ideas failed to do.

The length of the sequence is also a slight issue as it is rather short compared to all the other groups, but on the whole i thought our sequence was one of the better ones as the only negative feedback we got was about the font which has now been changed to something that works much better, the fact that the fonts were the only complaint proves to me that a title sequence doesn't need to be long to be great.

I feel like i have learned a few things since we were given the preliminary task no least of which is learning how to use logic pro which was the program we used to make the music for our sequence. I also learned that you have to keep persevering with an idea for a story before it becomes perfect as at the beginning of the project the narrative felt confusing but eventually it evolved into something that was thrilling and easy to follow, my only regret is that we didn't get to that the idea didn't evolve quickly enough so we could fill the full two minutes.      

Thursday 10 April 2014

Evaluation: part 7 What i have learned about the technologies we used to create our product.

For the filming of the sequence we used Ben's DSLR for the filming this was quite challenging as Ben's camera didn't have manual focus  meaning that we had to make sure that I was in focus for all the shots,for the photos we used Michael's DSLR which had manual focus but unfortunately it couldn't record videos despite this they where both relatively simple to use, the only problems that we had with them was the camera shake as we had no Steadicam as it was not available for use on the days we needed it meaning that Michael had to hold the tripod and walk with it so some things we had to re-shoot due to camera shake.

For the editing Ben used final cut pro, we chose Ben to edit as he had the most experience with it but unfortunately he wasn't very experienced at final cut pro in the beginning, he got better at it the more he used it as the final cut of our sequence shows, meanwhile me and Michael worked on the music at first the music wasn't quite what we wanted so we scrapped it ans started again and what we ended up with was the perfect musical score to accompany our sequence.

Overall the technologies we used helped us to create a great final outcome of our product the only thing that I think would have improved our video is if we had got the Steadicam as it would have meant that we wouldn't have wasted time re-shooting  things because of the camera shake.      

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Evaluation: part 6 How did we attract our target audience

The target audience for our film is 15-20 year old's predominantly male. We plan to attract our audience by not showing them what is going on making them ask questions as to absorb them in to the  plot of the film, and making them want to watch more.

The plot of our film would get a lot of people interested at this time as shows such as breaking bad are extremely popular at this time and with breaking bad recently finished it's audience may be looking for a drug related film to enjoy meaning that this is an ideal opportunity to for our film. The title of our film "Twist of fate" would also encourage people to watch it as they may want to know what the twist is and who it affects.

All of the factors i have written about is how and why our audience will be attracted to our film, some may also be influenced to watched the film by friends who have seen it and a select few may even be drawn in by the music which creates tension and mystery.  

Saturday 5 April 2014

Evaluation: part 5 How our media product represents particular social groups

In our title sequence the we represent teenagers/ young adults in a stereotypical negative way representing them all as drug dealers or addicts except for the main character who is seeking revenge on the drug dealer he is following.

The films creates the representation of drug dealers by showing scenes of the dealer meeting with some of his clients here the representation of addicts and dealers is that they are pale and skinny a common stereotype for this sort of group, another common representation of addicts is shown during the opening of the title sequences with people in suits and ties as they have enough disposable income to be able too keep up their habit the juxtaposition of all the deals shows that this drug dealer sells to a diverse range of people.

The dealers clothes on the other hand are quite the opposite of a suit and tie, the clothing he wears suggests that he is more in the area of the "chav" social group this is reinforced by the fact that he always has his hood up too look intimidating to others which is what that social group does.The dark colors of the clothes also connote dark nature of the film as does the lighting as all the way through the sequence the lighting is very dark and gloomy in every place that was shown which captures the mod of the film well.

On the whole the film represents young people extremely negatively with them being either drug dealers, drug addicts or angry and vengeful people, these are all rather common stereotypes for teenagers of the 21st century.    

Evaluation: part 4 in what way does our film use/ develop or challenge conventions of crime drama films


Codes and Conventions of a Crime Drama Film.

Typical codes and conventions of a crime/drama film would be:
- A chase (usually car).
- A lot of involvement with props that can be harmful such as knifes or guns.
- The villain would usually have some unidentified problems that will be revealed at the very end of the film.
- The hero who saves everyone will have a partner (usually very intelligent or very dopey).
- Characters will usually include someone vulnerable and gangs.
- Crimes will usually be murder/dramas will usually be to do with family of the protagonist.
- Conflicts due to difference in policing.
- Someone’s private life becoming public.
- Betrayal.

These are the typical conventions from a crime drama film are film uses some of the conventions such as the convention of betrayal which plays a huge part in our film as it is why the main character is seeking revenge in the first place. We used to the convention of the chase but we developed it so instead of it being a car chase it was more of a hunt where the main protagonist is following the antagonist making the title sequence feel more authentic as the dealer doesn't know that he is being followed making the protagonist feel more anonymous, our film also adheres to some of the characters as the main antagonist belongs to a gang and the protagonist was once in the same gang perhaps making him slightly vulnerable as he is trying to seek revenge but must do it while remaining incognito as his some of his former gang mates may recognise him, another convention that are film develops  is that of the murder that occurs during the betrayal is the protagonists best friend rather than a family member as we felt that the protagonist should have no brothers or sisters to make him more of an independent character, who gets involved with the gang of his own accord we also felt that we could develop this convention as we could also use it to mould the protagonists personality as he would feel responsible for his friends death. we also conform to the harmful props convention as in the title sequence we have quite a few shots involving drug props such as flour to represent cocaine which can be extremely harmful later in the film we would have also included props such as guns and knifes.

The way our film challenges some of these conventions is first and foremost that our character is very solitary, relying on nobody so he has no partner or sidekick to back him up or help him,we thought to challenge this convention as our protagonist is a very lonely and distrustful character. Another way of which our film challenges the conventions is that there is no conflict due to policing as there is no gang war or police crackdown meaning there is no conflict for control of the gang,another convention we challenge is somebody's private life becoming public as the antagonists in the film will be well known notorious gang members within the context of the story and the protagonist private life has only one existing factor which is revenge. The final convention we challenge is that the main antagonist has some unidentified problems that are revealed at the end of the film, as we felt that it would create pity for a character who the audience is meant to feel nothing but contempt towards.                       

Evaluation: part 3 Media institutions that might distribute our product and why.

There are two possible distributors for our film: Universal and Revolver entertainment I decided this as they distributed crime drama films such as Green street, Adulthood, and Kidulthood meaning that they would be used to working with these sorts of films and the target market we are attempting to reach.













Universal:
we decided to use universal studios as a distributor as the studio distributes many crime drama films such as green street and illegal tender while researching i discovered that the films that they distribute have a similar budget to ours which was in the £7 million mark.
We also decided to use Universal as most of the films they distributed have similar conventions to ours, with crime, guns,revenge and betrayal being the main similarities, from what i researched on IMDB Universal's budget for films range from vary small $8 million mark with films such as  illegal tender to  $135 million for films like Miami vice these are all crime drama films showing that universal has experience distributing crime drama films, universal would also be a good distributor as we could also release our film In the US.
Revolver entertainment are the creators of several crime drama films such as Kidulthood, Adulthood and Dead man running  these are all small budget films with Kidulthood only having a budget of £600,000 and Dead man running at £5 million meaning that our film would probably be distributed by revolver and looking at the gross profit we stand to make a possible total of about £410,250 judging by dead man running's total gross.


After looking at both options we feel that universal would be the best option they are a high profile distributor allowing us to make the most profit and also because Universal makes films aimed at our target market.