Media Studies’

 foundation portfolio evaluation

 

In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our finished film has a variety of different styles merged into it that we got from certain films;

 

This black and white effect, from the film Kill Bill, creates a sinister and mysterious atmosphere to our opening scene. We wanted the scene to look like film noir, with a sense of style and character.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E55BayfLD7M    - Kill Bill scene above http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-sHrKrNAoU    - A Conflict of Interest scene above and below

 

This polarized cartoon-like effect, from the film Sin City, also helped to inspire and give us ideas for the style of the film. It creates a slightly comic-effect, without losing any seriousness or quality.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH8zLBpME3Y&NR=1 - Sin City scene above

In this sense, it is quite a conventional media product because it uses, as well as develops forms of real media products, such as the film Kill Bill and Sin City. It does not challenge the films because it is simply using effects used in both films.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Jason Cole (played by myself) is a young, 19 year old man from a working class background, we represented this by using a fairly simple, well known attire of that type of social class; a hoodie – with the hood up, in order to conceal my face to create a sense of wrongdoing and secrecy. Also ripped jeans, popular among most young men, as well as covering up all of the skin to hide any possible clues for the audience – this adds to the mystery of the scene. He is wearing white trainers, suitable for running – this adds to the possibility of a possible need to escape from the scene, as well as representing a stereotypical working class man’s attire. Furthermore, he is listening to music on an mp3; this is very typical of many young men, although he is listening to Hip hop/rap, even more common among working class teenagers. In addition, the music he is listening to is loud, fast-paced and the atmosphere is almost violent. Even the way he walks is suggestive of his background; he walks quickly, with determination and assurance, towards the house he is about to burgle.

The environment he is in is an enigma for the audience because the houses in the shots are all fairly expensive, they look too expensive to suit Cole’s background; therefore it leaves the audience wondering why he is there. The fact that he jumps over the gate shows the audience that he is trespassing, and for a reason too. In the kitchen scene, when the frame freezes and he speaks to the camera, he has a London cockney accent, which is also very representative of his working class background. The British film audience are, generally, supportive of British films which show and represent the other side of cultures and societies, such as the problems of the working class and their actions, unlike the American film audience. As a result, we thought that it was suitable to show as much of Jason Cole’s background as possible because it not only created a variety of characters in our film, but also reflected a large proportion of the British audience itself, the young working class men and therefore would attract an even greater audience.

            Even though Simon Gray is not seen, he is portrayed as a middle class, wealthy businessman who lives in an affluent area, as portrayed by the opening establishing shot (as shown above). We hoped that by creating a character whom is older and from a different background, not only would it enhance our film, but also it would attract a wider audience, from that sort of lifestyle.

 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We would aim to have Film 4 as the main distributor of our film. Film 4 has co-funded and distributed a variety of films from Slumdog Millionaire to  Trainspotting. We prefer Film 4 to other distribution companies such as Working Title Films because it has a reputation of a diverse range of films, normally about the reality of some regional, living, working and cultural conditions, often with explicit, unpolished views on the people’s ways of life (such as the contaminated, drug filled, vicious film Trainspotting). On the other hand, Working Title Films focus on feature films and TV dramas, often with a comedic twist to them, such as Shaun of the dead, Notting Hill and Wimbledon; we did not feel that this company, although having produced many blockbusters, could deliver A Conflict of Interest in the correct style or convey the film’s genre or style. It is true that Film 4 has distributed some films on a small scale, such as the exhibition of Yasmin (it first screened on Film 4, rather than at cinemas), yet at the same time, they have co-ordinate worldwide blockbuster releases, for example Slumdog Millionaire, which was released in over 50 countries, therefore they can manage high grossing blockbusters, which is what we would hope to achieve with our film. Furthermore, Film 4 deals with the DVD and Blu-Ray distribution aspect; which allows a wider and larger audience to view the film. Then, of course, Film 4 is itself a viewing platform allowing people to watch it for free on their TVs as well.

 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We have aimed to target as large a market as possible to increase total revenue; after all, the film industry’s main aim is profit. Our film is targeted at people aged between 15 and over; the film is rated 15 and therefore 15 year olds are our youngest audience possible. We chose for the film to be a 15 because we felt that it met the content of our film, a 12 rating would be too relaxed, and 18 would be too strict, as well as reducing viewing figures. Although we are targeting the majority of the market with our film, due to its genre (thriller); it automatically attracts the younger sector (15-40 year olds) of our target audience, as well as a predominantly male audience. However, despite the traditional male-predominant audience for thrillers, our film is not a typical, traditional thriller film, it has aspects of other genres in (including romance and drama) which we hope would attract too attract a female audience.

 

How did you attract/address your audience?

We took a survey initially to find out as much as possible about possible target markets;

http://issuu.com/svanstraten/docs/conflictofinterest_questionnaire - Questionnaire

As a result, it confirmed our first beliefs about the traditional themes of females preferring Romance, then comedy, then thriller, which consequently made us change our first ideas about the films plot; incorporating a more romantic and dramatic plotline. On the other hand, thriller/horror was the most popular for men. In addition, it taught us that the audience generally believes that it is the acting, then the music and then the storyline, which are the most important parts to a film. With our initial thoughts in mind, as well as the feedback from our questionnaire, we made the storyboard of how we perceived the opening 2 minutes of the film should map out.

-         Storyboard

 

For the actual film production, in order to attract the largest possible audience, we had to keep up to date with technology, this meant using HD cameras as well as tripods, tape, rather than SD cards (to ensure highest possible quality) and an external microphone. This helps to attract a greater audience because nowadays they assume a high quality of film, therefore HD rather than standard, and we met these preferences. In addition, we aroused public attention for the film by creating an official poster advertising the film. There was a lot of interest in the poster from many people; wondering what the film was about, when it was being released, and general information about it. Subsequently, this small poster campaign helped to attract a larger audience. Another means of advertising the film was an official you tube clip of the opening sequence;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-sHrKrNAoU

This helped us to get any extra public feedback so that we could take their opinions into account for the rest of the film, and like the film, it attracted a greater target audience

 

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

First of all, I knew little about the filming process and cameras in general. After the preliminary task, I had learnt all I needed to about using the camera; they were fairly simple handheld cameras; yet still developing my knowledge. What was more difficult was the actual filming process; learning different skills such as panning, gently zooming in and the time delay between pressing record and the tape actually recording. There were some problems that we encountered when doing the preliminary task; recording over already taped footage – we had to go and re-shoot our shots because of our mistake. Also, there were some small simple errors which just made life a bit more complicated, such as not leaving the tape in the same time position as the end of the footage, thus wasting time searching for footage when trying to copy it from the tape onto the computer. Until I started this coursework, I had never really used Apple Macs before, it was difficult at first because I had grown up with Windows. By the time we were editing our footage, I had learnt to fully use Macs, although I feel that if I were using Windows I could have saved valuable time when I was editing footage rather than learning how to use the computers, although Windows are said to be weaker on the design and arty side of computing in comparison to Macs. After learning how to use Final Cut Express, I loved the programme; it is so simple to use, yet so useful and equipped, I did all of my editing for the preliminary task and the final coursework piece on the programme, without any major problems. To add to that, not only is Final Cut Express an excellent tool for editing the video part of films, but it also is very able with editing the sound.

 I briefly used Garageband when looking for a heartbeat for the diegetic sound in our film; it was great because I had been looking for a heartbeat on the internet, but it was so difficult to find a free, good, legal heartbeat that I could use, then after searching Garageband for approximately one minute, I had found the ideal heartbeat. When designing the poster, Christian took a picture of me, then uploaded it onto the computer and he started to edit the photo for a suitable film poster. Although I had used many Adobe Photoshop many times before, I let him design it as I was editing all of our footage, and Christian, within one lesson had easily made a poster which then attracted much attention to our film when put up. Again, all I have for the programme Livetype is praise; we needed to quickly make the credits for the opening two minutes to our film, and Livetype provided that for us. We soon learnt how to use the programme and after having watched some opening credits to some appropriate films, and having decided what font and style we wanted, we made the credits with ease.

We decided to make a DVD with Directors commentary, extras and the opening itself to present and partially evaluate the film. In order to make the DVD, we needed a programme to help us, iDVD was that programme; it basically provided a template to insert the two minute film in, with a different link to the extras and another to the film with the directors commentary. In addition, it made the DVD look extremely professional with its animations and effects on the menu screens. Furthermore, iDVD helped to teach me about the importance of typography; it is necessary to choose a suitable font whenever creating a graphic because, not only does it enhance the graphic but it gives the audience an idea of the theme of the graphic, whether it be mature or young, animated or realistic, serious or light-hearted.

Finally, the last “technology” I have learnt about is blogs; until I had started this media studies coursework, I hardly knew what blogs were, let alone ever having used one. I have only used one blog website, Blogger, and I have had no problems with it. I have been posting roughly twice a month so far, trying to write about the status of the then current coursework and anything media-related that inspired me to write about it. It is an excellent medium of communication because not only does it allow you to post text on your blogs, but also pictures, music and sounds, videos, hyperlinks and more. It allows people to convey their thoughts and ideas in any way they want to. Moreover, it is so easy to use, there is no learning required,  even when uploading videos (simply copy and pasting the we blink).

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Final film storyboard =

 

In my view, I have learnt a lot throughout this process. In terms of technical skills, I feel that I am now much more knowledgeable than I was a year ago; I have learnt all about juxtapositions, cross cuts, enigma codes and all of the different camera angles which have all helped to greatly improve the final product. I have discovered the need to plan far ahead when producing a film, you need to take into account a variety of things, such as setting, mise-en-scene, the continuity of the mise-en-scene, the suitability of music, and if you don’t, then it could ruin the film. I have learnt so much about filming and editing, vastly improving those skills throughout the year; at the beginning I knew relatively little about either of them, which were both key to our success, and now, after we have produced the final piece, I feel I know a sufficient amount of knowledge to tackle another similar task of filming of an even higher standard. It was very interesting because in one class I was learning the theoretical side to film making, while in the other I was actually film making, therefore I was constantly putting my theory to practice and there wasn’t a better way of learning it.

 

Peter Trybus