Main task evaluation
- 1. Media Studies Main Task EvaluationPatrick Greenberg
- 2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Our media product immediately starts with a chase. The runner (Rory) thinks he has got away when out of the blue one of them re-appears and knocks him out. It then goes to the title of the film and the opening of the next scene starts with somebody else opening their eyes. There are lots of popular action films that have similar style openings, such as the Bourne series and more recent James Bond films. They tend to have a long chase scene to begin with to immediately grab the audiences attention. They also use gun shots and big stunt moves that we were unable to do as we had no budget. I feel we emphasised the fact that he was being chased when Rory tried to hold them off at the gate and we showed the violence of the chasers at the end when he smacked Rory on the head. I also feel we added a possible twist at the end when we see somebody else waking up. The audience must then judge for themselves whether this was all a dream or how this will then link to what has just happened.
- 3. Continued...The locations we have chosen suit our chase well as they are closed in roads. However it is unusual to see a violent/criminal chase in the rich college areas of Oxford. We chose to make the smallest person the runner as this creates a hierarchy of power, at the end this is shown as the biggest person is the one who hits Rory. The music we have chosen for the chase is very fast paced and the heartbeat sound afterwards keeps the tension from the chase right until the very end.
- 4. How does your media product represent particular social groups?We can tell that all three characters are teenagers. People immediately associate teenagers with hoodies and gangs. This film backs up that idea showing the two thugs chasing a scared male. We also see that the thugs are not afraid to confront Rory, showing there is no love loss between the characters. Therefore this film is representing teenagers as violent thugs who don’t mind hurting others to get what they want.
- 5. What kind of media institution may distribute your product and why?Film Four is the obvious institution to think of, as it takes on young British talent and helps them develop into successful directors. However after looking at similar films we saw that Universal was the institution that distributed the Bourne series. Therefore letting them distribute our product may help it become more successful as people can relate to other films of similar genres that they have liked from the same institution. However I imagine it would be a lot harder to get involved with an institution such as Universal as they have a worldwide reputation, whereas Film Four has a national reputation meaning we would have a much bigger chance of having our product distributed by them.
- 6. Continued...If neither of these institutions were to distribute our film we could try to appeal to a less well known but worldwide distributor. Babelgum (http://www.babelgum.com/) is a free, revolutionary Internet and Mobile TV platform supported by advertising. Although their main aim is to distribute professional videos they also try to nurture emerging filmmakers. This would help improve our filmmaking skills whilst at the same time allowing people worldwide to view our product.
- 7. Who would be the audience for your media product?Our target audience would be an age range of 15 to 25 year olds, predominantly males. I feel this is the age range that can most easily relate to teenagers and they are also the most likely to be interested in this genre. I feel that the idea of violence appeals more to the male market. It is most likely to attract a lower/middle class audience as action/crime style genres are less likely to appeal to an upper class audience.
- 8. How did you attract/address your audience?The audience is immediately attracted as it goes straight into the action of the chase with fast paced music. The only piece of diagetic noise they hear in the whole piece is the sound of Rory panicked calling his girlfriend. This creates tension which we have tried to build by using the sound of a subtle heartbeat over the top of it. The audience may side with the protagonist as he is outnumbered and looks scared. When I was reading the feedback sheets one of the main things people liked was the point of view shot. I feel this was probably due to the fact it allowed them for a moment to experience the position the protagonist was in, which made them even more sympathetic towards him.
- 9. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?I have learnt how to add 3D titles effectively into our piece. We carefully selected a font that worked as graffiti on the wall as people ran in front of it. This involved editing frame by frame using a mask to make sure the text was always behind the body. I also learnt that the music should always be added last. This is due to the fact that if you add it and then decide you want to cut out a frame the music will not be fluid.We chose to get rid of the sound from each individual clip as when they were put together it made the video sound amateurish. This was due to the fact there were different pitches of white noise in the background.
- 10. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?When we started this project we were very keen to take any good parts from our preliminary task and use them in our main task. As a group we all particularly liked the way we ended the prelim with it going to black. Therefore we have used this technique at the moment Rory is hit from a point of view shot.We used the stand a lot more than in the preliminary task as although it was frustrating setting it up, it allowed us to get much better looking shots that were much easier to edit.We have used a much bigger variety of camera angles to try and show different techniques and also in certain cases to try and show an amount of time passed or distance travelled. In our preliminary task we were limited on the amount of camera angles we could use due to the size of the rooms.For the lighting in our preliminary task the only choice we had to make was whether to keep the lights on or off. However filming outside we had to consider the brightness of each shot and what a bright shot may imply rather than a darker one.
- 11. Continued...Another problem we found with filming outside was the number of delays we encountered due to people/cars walking past. Also since were filming right next to the colleges every 15 minutes we would have the sound of bells ringing. This was not a problem we had to deal with in our preliminary task as we were inside away from the public. We realised when editing for our main piece that in our preliminary task we had used the basic iMovie options for adding titles. We felt this made the film seem a lot more amateurish so decided to upload a font of our choice from online (that suited the text) and manually place it into the film for our titles.I feel we realised how much filming was needed for us to have the selection when it came to editing. I also feel that if we had not had been as prepared as we were then it could have easily taken hours longer to shoot.
- 12. Our GroupAs a group I feel we have faced all the challenges that were put in our way:We had many conflicting ideas for our main task which we all felt very strongly about, this led to lots of arguments and reduced the amount of time we had to film our main task after getting ahead in our preliminary task. We then agreed on an idea for the main task and started to film it. Unfortunately then Matty fell ill and went into hospital. This left us short on an actor and meant we had to re-film what we had previously done. I sorted out a back-up plan for us and found a new actor, allowing us to continue filming. However when we came to our next filming date another one of our actors did not arrive. This meant Piyal had to take over as cameraman and I took the place as one of the chasers. I feel as a group we were all very hard working and put a lot of time into making the film as good as we possibly could. If we were to make another film I feel we would now have the experience and teamwork to show yet further developments in terms of film quality.