Main task evaluation

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

District B13 is a typical example of an Action | Crime genre Set in the ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and ex-thug try to infiltrate a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb. The action is often fast paced and tense. In the chase scene, the camera durations are short and have a large variety this is conventional in film, as it adds pace to the running and urgency. Along with the Non diagteic music, which without the music it takes away the effect, the music actually makes the video work together. In our opening 2 minutes we wanted or even needed to incorporate for our film to look good. However the protagonist in District B13 an undercover cop goes against the convention of cops in films, conventionally we would normally be introduced to someone of such authority as in a suit, in a meeting etc where the audience would immediately made aware of his status. Whereas in District B13 we are introduced to him in a rundown block of flats, in tatty clothes, trying to dispose of drugs, which does not denote to the audience that he is an undercover police officer but actually the complete opposite. In our media product we keep mystery about the identities of the characters until midway through the film which builds up more suspense. The characters used were also carefully chosen, as the protagonist, the boy being chased was smaller and would be considered weaker than the chasers who are much larger. This keeps to conventions as changing this could possibly change the genre to a Comedy, if one person was chasing 2 or that the chasers are much more smaller than the person chasing, Being Male and involved in films is often the norm for crime films, women are considered innocent.

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

The institution which is mostly likely to distribute our preliminary task is 'Film4', which is part of channel 4 which has its only film production company, film4 productions. It is quoted on their website "The Company develops and co-finances film productions and is known for working with the most innovative talent in the UK, whether new or established." This would fit our criteria they also fund Projects, which we would need. Another institution could be Universal pictures which produced such films as The Bourne Supremacy which incorporates a Foot Chase across the city of Berlin. It has several similarities to our film with the chase building up tension as it goes along, The protagonist also hides from the chasers and think he's escaped. Universal Pictures would be good as it is a well established production company what know what the audiences want and know how to produce good action films.
Bourne Supermacy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E586mYraTUs

who would be the audience for your media project?

The audience we originally decided our product was for was 16-27, predominantly males. The final product we would say it's still around the same. However our original plan was to incorporate tense, potentially horrifying flashbacks of someone head being held under water, a girl tied up with a piercing scream and someone being thrown into a boot. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to put these into our film, which without, our age range may of slightly gone down to about 15- 25. We chose this age range because we could associate with this group and have similar views. It also would most likely be enjoyed by lower-middle class people, as things what happen in the film they could relate to in their own experiences of life around them.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?..

In our opening 2 minutes our characters are young teens, the audience automatically associates them with young gang crime, which in recent years has become a common news headline. Films often represent male teenagers being associated with crime. In our opening 2 minutes we have backed up this representation. With the chase, clearly not just a game but in fact that the guy being chased is In trouble. With the end of the chase ending with the protagonist getting knocked out with a D-lock what shows teens as violent criminal yobs.

How did you attract address your audience?

The start of a film goes straight into the action of the chase scene and the characters identity are kept mysterious, this creates a series of enigmas for the audience to think about ‘whats going on? Whys this person being chased? What’s going to happen to him? Etc. There is also dramatic tense music over the action, which adds to the suspense and suggests something bad is going to happen, we also end with the protagonist getting knocked out by a D-lock and then has the eyes opening as the final scene, this way it makes the audience question even more, “If this was a dream? Is this the same person waking up who was being chased? ” etc it keeps the audience engaged and wants to watch more, they want to find out what caused the chase, who are the characters and whats going to happen.

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

The main thing which is obvious in the film is the effective use of titles we used, I used Adobe after effects to make these, I had to learn about how to use 3d fonts, camera layers, stabilising motion and masking frame by frame so that the writing was strategically placed and so that the action took place in front of the text. We also had to find a suitable text which would suit our action, Windows fonts although many, there is little variation between them, so we had to download a font from a free website , we used a font called Philly Sans what was downloaded from dafonts.com. Which is a graffiti text. Making the titles took a lot of time and a lot of patience to get it right.
see more of how I made the titles at: http://cherwellmediamspringett5232.blogspot.com/2010/04/making-titles.html
We also discovered the difficulties of finding suitable copyright free music, we searched a variations of sites for free copyright free but google suggestions generally directed us to copyright free music, but which you had to pay for. The music from the start throughout the chase was "Killer" (www.freeplaymusic.com) then the heartbeat noise when Rory thinks he has escaped is called "Threatening Behaviour" (www.audio.lgfl.org.uk) and finally the "boom" sound at the end when the person opens his eyes is from iMovie. Music is a hard object to decide before the filming is complete. You can decide the type of music which could work, but not the actual piece of music to be used until the last thing.
Another major point is the realisation of how much minutes of raw footage we need to cut it down to make films work and how many hours it takes to film just 1 scene of a film and retakes needed. We originally filmed all the shots with me as the guy being chased, when editing it down we realised we needed more shots to link the scenes together, we also noticed that when played on the computer the scenes had more in than what the screen on the camera showed, so we planned a day to re-film some shots and do some extra ones to make the clips work well together. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances the plans had to be radically changed when I was admitted into hospital, the group had to re-film all the shots we did with new characters. We had originally filmed most of the shots handheld which added to the effect, e.g tension, but they had to film with a tripod which made a steady shot. We could of maybe added a slight digital shake to add to the effect if we wanted to do so.

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

Our prelim and final task were filmed and edited in different ways, in our prelim we filmed indoors, with only diagetic sound of the doors, footsteps and conversation with no music. We also didnt have to worry so much about lighting, sound (wind against the cameras mic) or continuity factors like people walking in the shot. However in our final task these all became a factor, the light had to be the same throughout, we has to bear in mind that the audio will be effected by the wind, traffic, planes etc. We also had to take into consideration that there will be people walking around, getting in the shot, driving by etc. To try and quash these to the minimum, we filmed very early in the morning so that it wasn't sunny which would go against the conventions of our genre and so that very minimal people and cars were about. This still didnt help the quality of the audio so even though the sound of the running, gates banging etc may have added to the effect, the wind noise would of ruined the effect and just be like a home movie. That the majority of it would have to be replaced by non diagetic music.
We wanted to carry aspects from our prelim into our main task, the sense of mystery, the enigmas created and we also liked how we ended our prelim by the action cutting to black with the opening of the brief case on to the camera because we all agreed these worked effectively and defiantly the going to black where we felt this would be an effective way to put the title of our film. We used the knock out of the protagonist with a D-lock to go to a black out, However when we first did this on our final task we had suggestions that it looked more like a short film than a start to a feature length film so we added the eyes opening at the end.
The titles in our prelim were also very basic and looked home movie style with them at the end on outtakes, made with a Imovie titles preset. This time we had to include them during the action as stated on the specification.
Being outside gave everyone more spaced this meant we could include more shots of the action from a variety of different angles, whereas in the prelim going up the stairs, which is an enclosed space so we only had a few options of shots to play around with. We also in our prelim didn't have a problem of going from scene to scene as it was laid out for us, whereas in the main task our scenes weren't altogether and were all over different places in oxford so we had the problem of linking them to each other.