Media Studies
AS Media Studies
Foundation Portfolio
Evaluation
Our media video we made has been developed to match with the typical forms and conventions of real media productions, we used a flashback that is after our film opening so that the main character can be seen easily, we showed our first scene and then had a flashback with the title “Two Weeks Earlier” a voiceover was now used by Mickey, this was also to show narration. Directors use voiceovers to catch the audiences attention early in the film, the audience are now interested and want to see what happens next this makes them want to watch on, voice overs also sometimes set the scene as well and tells you information about the film or character. These conventions have been used in such films as “American Beauty” and “Fight Club”.
We now used a wide angle with establishing shots, this helped introduce the characters to our viewers, and we decided that Mickey should get in trouble straight away because it would make the audience sit up and watch.
The title appears near the start of the production. However we adapted and edited the title scene to attract the viewers interest by adding effects In the title scene such as sound, music, special effects etc. Also the dialogue is used to add the tension between characters throughout the film, credits the productions companies name and text are used at the end of the production as well as thorough the film. Also special and sound effects were used during the production of the film to add tension to the atmosphere like when Mickey is in trouble and is getting hurt, also with use of music that is used in the film to add effect.
These conventions are very common in film openings that involve nitty gritty or action films such as “Green Street” and “Snatch”.
The actors performance aspect in our piece was good at times but I believe we could have improved. The only make-up we used was hair gel, this supported modernism. The props we used were good because the matched the props in our example, poker chips, cards and sunglasses were used in our scenes and had a great effect to our piece. We chose Pockets Snooker Hall in Ware, because there are nice poker tables, and equipment. We didn’t have many disruptions in pockets which worked out nicely, the first place we filmed was inside a house this was also easy to film, and we could easily adjust the artificial lighting well which was good.
his body language shows anger and hostility to “Mickey”. The mise-en-scene in our video was very successful especially with our costumes, which were suited and matched our genre, which was British Gangster. Our lighting we used in our piece worked well and we didn’t have many negative times with it. Our costumes which we used emphasised the characters characteristics, for example “Big Ray” which is a very dominating person his costume relates back to him with the negative behaviour and influence, Mickey who is acted by Matt wore brighter colours such as a white shirt which shows innocence, this is also the opposite of the dark clothing which shows Mickey cOur work does represent a social group because it is aimed towards, middle working class and is based in the city of London. The characters in our movie are all of working class and are carrying out illegal activities to earn money and a living. Our piece shows dominating males negatively, our most powerful character, Big Ray is the villain in our film, while the weaker character is the more favoured character “Mickey” who the audience should sympathise with. We represented this with the use of camera angles and body language, especially at the start as “Mickey” is pinned up against the wall and he is in big trouble and how “Big Ray” is the villain with the wayould be in the wrong situation.
If a major film company would back our film production it would be a British company like C4 or ITV but our piece would be a very small British Gangster film and would be minor compared to films like The Godfather which is a massive Hollywood film. Despite this film would more be more likely to be shown in Multiplex Cinemas throughout Britain since the film is not made from an artistic perspective. Although our production could easily be targeted at small audiences and can be seen as a serious film. However this is not a intellectual film and our target audience would not be people who watch films at a art house, that are mostly watched by older generation and when watched by them are more like film critics and judges to put in the review of the movie after watching. That why our target audience are more for boys on a lads night out watching a movie, also they are only a small number of art houses surrounding Britain so when compared to multiplex cinemas there are more of them and attract more viewers that’s why our film production would be exhibited in a multiplex cinema.
This movie would be a big hit with males that are fans of such films as “Lock, stock and two smoking barrels” (budget of £960,000 approx, made $14.5 million) Kidulthood (Independent distributors backed them as well as the UK film council which uses national lottery funds) and Green Street, these sort of films have been reviewed very positively and our film could follow in the footsteps.
Our piece would never be popular or good enough as Hollywood films. Since there shown internationally because they have millions of pounds to spend.
The targeted audience for our piece would be males of many different ages, but mostly the younger generation because the actors are young and there is a youth feel about our video. I’m sure that people who have watched films such as The Godfather and Green Street would enjoy our movie.
We attracted the audiences attention because we used music that has been released lately which younger viewers could relate to. The places we picked to film in were local areas so people from around our town could notice that. The film we created was linked to Lock stock and two smoking barrels with our characters sporting smart attire and modern clothing, I believe this also relates to views that are interested in clothing and fashion.
During the making of our piece I think we have got a better knowledge of how film productions are made, I have learnt better technical skills as well, for example editing a film and adding in sound effects and fades. Our film makes the viewers sit up and watch, tension is also created in our movie. However what I earned greater experience in was planning and camerawork, I struggled to keep up with the planning, but we all joined as a group to ensure our video was of a good quality. I also learnt there is a lot more to filming than just pointing a camera, the planning is a massive part you have to plan everything, costume, make-up, actors performance and lighting.
Overall I learned a lot of information since we started out with this film, we had problems with our filming because when we watched the filming in class while editing there were glitches, we also cut out a large amount of filming, for example when we filmed a variety of shots to see which angle we preferred. As a group we learnt that we had to follow a certain rule called, the 180 degree rule. I personally think that our video looks quite nice, but I do think that certain parts could have been improved and that our planning could have been a bit more specific.
We attracted the audiences attention by using music that is modern, we also used familiar locations. We caught the audiences attention with our opening scene where Mickey is being interrogated by Big Ray because he wants his money that he won. Our production had stylistic similarities to gangster films such as Snatch, Layer Cake and Kidulthood due to the fashion, music and overall genre, the choice of music in these films would be similar to ours with it being popular with the younger generation.
During the construction of this project I believe I gained a much greater understanding of how a film production is developed and I have learnt lots more in technical skills such as how to add sound and music into a film. I also learnt that you need to cut out the video clips filmed over and over again so that it looks like Hollywood editing and shows continuity, by flowing through one scene to another easily. Special effects are what else I also learnt to add, I added them on Adobe Premiere, special effects help to grab the audiences attention to the film and effects the tension between characters as we did in one of the scenes within the movie we added in special so that it would fade out of one of scenes and into another. I struggled with the planning and scene orders, what is used in the scene, props, dialogue, editing (sound/special effects) and what the scene looks like and how long it will take to film.
I noticed looking back at our production there has been a lot of progress and improvements to the end product. Our narrative structure was fine but could have been improved because the film opening could confuse viewers because it can be viewed as loosely linked between shots, if we planned our storyboards and edited our production to a higher quality then this wouldn’t have been as obvious. We had problems with lighting throughout our production when filming, but we then re-filmed and used artificial light to improve the overall look. Some of our filming had glitches in it, and certain scenes we thought were too long for example when Matt and Me were walking up the stairs, we cut a lot of this out but still some glitches remain which we could have fixed. Shot reverse shot is a technique we could of and should of used more when two characters were in a conversation and matching on action we should have also used more this would have ensured our film flowed better and the audience didn’t get confused and fully understood everything that was going on.
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