This is our final cut of our a2 media film, Hate Mail.
Monday 13 April 2015
Final Film Poster
This is the final film poster that we have created:
This poster is a combination of all three ideas but the main inspiration was from Max's design. The overall layout was taken form Max's idea, but the idea of having the three images in the centre both featured prominently on both mine and James's design.
The idea around this design is to firstly showcase the three main characters as you would see in many film posters. Secondly to give the audience some clues about the film so they can create their own assumptions as to what to expect from the film. This was the reason behind having multiple objects and images overlapping each other.
The most important things in a film poster is to make sure that it is eye catching, which I feel it is due to the layered images, and to make sure all the conventions are met. This poster includes all the of the main conventions such as:
This poster is a combination of all three ideas but the main inspiration was from Max's design. The overall layout was taken form Max's idea, but the idea of having the three images in the centre both featured prominently on both mine and James's design.
The idea around this design is to firstly showcase the three main characters as you would see in many film posters. Secondly to give the audience some clues about the film so they can create their own assumptions as to what to expect from the film. This was the reason behind having multiple objects and images overlapping each other.
The most important things in a film poster is to make sure that it is eye catching, which I feel it is due to the layered images, and to make sure all the conventions are met. This poster includes all the of the main conventions such as:
- Title of the film
- Tag Line
- Eye eatching images
- Main actors names
- Production blurb
- Critic Reviews
Sunday 12 April 2015
A2 Media Evaluation Q1
A2 Media Evaluation Q1
In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our advanced portfolio we were set the task of creating a media product. We were tasked with creating a feature film , consisting of a start, middle, title sequence and end credits. This was similar to our foundation portfolio production of creating the first two minutes of a film.
In order to create a film there a certain conventions of production that you need to follow while filming. There are three main rules that you need to follow. These are the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. These rules need to be followed in order to give the film a flow and to keep it continuous. This will also make the film effective and believable.
The 180 degree line is a line the cuts through the middle of the scene, from side to side. Crossing this line changes the viewers perspective, which can cause disorientation and confusion. To prevent this, when filming you must not cross the 180 degree line at any time.
Match on action is a film edition and video editing technique that where an editor cuts from one shot to another that matches the first shots action, although the shots may have actually been filmed hours apart.
Shot Reverse Shot is a technique that includes shots that views the action from the opposite side of the previous shot. This can be used during dialogue between two characters, giving the effect of one actor looking at another.
In order to complete our film to a good standard we need to stick to these rules at all times to improve the continuity of our film. So in this sense we are using conventions of real media.
The idea we chose to carry out and produce was based around a man who was out to get revenge against a hitman who killed his friend. We decided that this film would be an action thriller. To confirm this we organised a questionnaire where the responses were videoed. we asked members of public who agreed that our film would be an action thriller type film. In order to accurately represent a film from that genre we conducted some in-depth genre research.
As the action thriller genre is a hybrid genre we researched each genre separately. We found that thriller films build suspense. So in order to meet this we added a part to the storyline where two characters have a stand off and a gunshot gets fired, but it isn't clear at first who has shot. This builds some suspension, also the killers identity is unknown for a short period so the audience will be guessing who has shot the gun.
We also discovered that an action film is described as a film that features a series of situations involving physical altercations. These types of film are often categorized by the presence of guns, fight scenes and explosions. A typical example of one of theses types of film would be Die Hard.
So in order to follow these conventions we decided that our film would feature fight scenes and guns more prominently. Due to budget reasons we could not include any explosions. We added a fight scene where two characters fight in the bathroom until one of the characters is killed. We identified death as an important part of these films too, so after we use the gun to shoot the hitman character in the knee, we decided that in a professional film of this genre we would probably see the character die. So for that reason we added the hitman's death at the end. This is yet another example of us using conventions as seen in real media products.
We wanted the film that we created to be a classic action thriller film. A homage to other action thriller films. However we did add somethings that you would not expect to see in this type of film. I feel that in a part of our film we had an element of pastiche or parody. When the hitman enters his car he puts on the radio. We decided to create and record a fake radio show to play while the hitman was driving. This featured upbeat funky music that doesn't really have any place in a film of this genre. This music is the repeated at the end over the credits where you would expect more fast paced rock style music as you would expect in the film. Also on the radio show there is a presenter speaking who whilst speaking says a phrase that we intended to be a pun to foreshadow the end of the film. The presenter says 'this song is for those of you who would kill to get out of work right now', this could trigger some of the audience to think that there will be a death at some point at the end of the film. We also feel that the name of the film 'Hate Mail' has a very similar effect in possibly foreshadowing a death of a character. Obviously 'hate' is a negative feeling so negative thoughts may have already been risen, however the first sight of an 'mail' in the film is the hitman latest 'hit', so that will have created more suspicion of a death in the film, all we did was subvert the audiences thoughts as to who would be killed. These examples show that we have challenged the conventions of this genre, I would argue that we have also developed conventions too as we have added another element and dimension to the genre in a way.
In terms of what pleasure we are trying to provide for the audience we have again used the conventions of an action thriller film. Richard Dyers theory of entertainment gives 5 ideal situations may provide. This is what the audience will see and how they will feel when watching a film. Every person will have a favorite situation however this may change as the persons mood changes. A typical action film will provide 'energy', which essentially means giving the audience things that they haven't got. We created our film in a way that captures this, we added action scenes, quick editing, fast music etc. to give the audience the 'energy' and excitement that may not be in their lives.
There have been many influences for our film, some of them being real media texts. It can be seen that there are elements of our film that can be compared to that of some famous films from the action genre, one that you would say are typical action films. The James Bond films have been a big influence for our film. Our story is quite similar to a Bond film, just the ending in in reverse. Bond is essentially a hitman that works for the British government that we see in each film get a target to eliminate which at the end of the film we see the target get eliminated. Our film follows this story arc except that at the end the killer gets eliminated instead of the target. There is also obviously elements of our film that is similar to that of the film Hitman. The whole concept of our film (The film being based around a hitman) is a homage to that film. One influence to our film was the film Sahara. This is slightly different to our genre film. Sahara is an action comedy,so it will still feature action conventions however they will be portrayed in a way that make it seem funny. Sahara was the influence to our title sequence. The title sequence for Sahara features one long pan shot which moves around a room full of objects and pictures which allows you to infer key details about the film. We did a similar thing in our title sequence by having one long shot around an office desk that had all of the key objects from our film on it.
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In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our advanced portfolio we were set the task of creating a media product. We were tasked with creating a feature film , consisting of a start, middle, title sequence and end credits. This was similar to our foundation portfolio production of creating the first two minutes of a film.
In order to create a film there a certain conventions of production that you need to follow while filming. There are three main rules that you need to follow. These are the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. These rules need to be followed in order to give the film a flow and to keep it continuous. This will also make the film effective and believable.
The 180 degree line is a line the cuts through the middle of the scene, from side to side. Crossing this line changes the viewers perspective, which can cause disorientation and confusion. To prevent this, when filming you must not cross the 180 degree line at any time.
Match on action is a film edition and video editing technique that where an editor cuts from one shot to another that matches the first shots action, although the shots may have actually been filmed hours apart.
Shot Reverse Shot is a technique that includes shots that views the action from the opposite side of the previous shot. This can be used during dialogue between two characters, giving the effect of one actor looking at another.
In order to complete our film to a good standard we need to stick to these rules at all times to improve the continuity of our film. So in this sense we are using conventions of real media.
The idea we chose to carry out and produce was based around a man who was out to get revenge against a hitman who killed his friend. We decided that this film would be an action thriller. To confirm this we organised a questionnaire where the responses were videoed. we asked members of public who agreed that our film would be an action thriller type film. In order to accurately represent a film from that genre we conducted some in-depth genre research.
As the action thriller genre is a hybrid genre we researched each genre separately. We found that thriller films build suspense. So in order to meet this we added a part to the storyline where two characters have a stand off and a gunshot gets fired, but it isn't clear at first who has shot. This builds some suspension, also the killers identity is unknown for a short period so the audience will be guessing who has shot the gun.
We also discovered that an action film is described as a film that features a series of situations involving physical altercations. These types of film are often categorized by the presence of guns, fight scenes and explosions. A typical example of one of theses types of film would be Die Hard.
So in order to follow these conventions we decided that our film would feature fight scenes and guns more prominently. Due to budget reasons we could not include any explosions. We added a fight scene where two characters fight in the bathroom until one of the characters is killed. We identified death as an important part of these films too, so after we use the gun to shoot the hitman character in the knee, we decided that in a professional film of this genre we would probably see the character die. So for that reason we added the hitman's death at the end. This is yet another example of us using conventions as seen in real media products.
We wanted the film that we created to be a classic action thriller film. A homage to other action thriller films. However we did add somethings that you would not expect to see in this type of film. I feel that in a part of our film we had an element of pastiche or parody. When the hitman enters his car he puts on the radio. We decided to create and record a fake radio show to play while the hitman was driving. This featured upbeat funky music that doesn't really have any place in a film of this genre. This music is the repeated at the end over the credits where you would expect more fast paced rock style music as you would expect in the film. Also on the radio show there is a presenter speaking who whilst speaking says a phrase that we intended to be a pun to foreshadow the end of the film. The presenter says 'this song is for those of you who would kill to get out of work right now', this could trigger some of the audience to think that there will be a death at some point at the end of the film. We also feel that the name of the film 'Hate Mail' has a very similar effect in possibly foreshadowing a death of a character. Obviously 'hate' is a negative feeling so negative thoughts may have already been risen, however the first sight of an 'mail' in the film is the hitman latest 'hit', so that will have created more suspicion of a death in the film, all we did was subvert the audiences thoughts as to who would be killed. These examples show that we have challenged the conventions of this genre, I would argue that we have also developed conventions too as we have added another element and dimension to the genre in a way.
In terms of what pleasure we are trying to provide for the audience we have again used the conventions of an action thriller film. Richard Dyers theory of entertainment gives 5 ideal situations may provide. This is what the audience will see and how they will feel when watching a film. Every person will have a favorite situation however this may change as the persons mood changes. A typical action film will provide 'energy', which essentially means giving the audience things that they haven't got. We created our film in a way that captures this, we added action scenes, quick editing, fast music etc. to give the audience the 'energy' and excitement that may not be in their lives.
There have been many influences for our film, some of them being real media texts. It can be seen that there are elements of our film that can be compared to that of some famous films from the action genre, one that you would say are typical action films. The James Bond films have been a big influence for our film. Our story is quite similar to a Bond film, just the ending in in reverse. Bond is essentially a hitman that works for the British government that we see in each film get a target to eliminate which at the end of the film we see the target get eliminated. Our film follows this story arc except that at the end the killer gets eliminated instead of the target. There is also obviously elements of our film that is similar to that of the film Hitman. The whole concept of our film (The film being based around a hitman) is a homage to that film. One influence to our film was the film Sahara. This is slightly different to our genre film. Sahara is an action comedy,so it will still feature action conventions however they will be portrayed in a way that make it seem funny. Sahara was the influence to our title sequence. The title sequence for Sahara features one long pan shot which moves around a room full of objects and pictures which allows you to infer key details about the film. We did a similar thing in our title sequence by having one long shot around an office desk that had all of the key objects from our film on it.
A2 Media Evaluation Question 1
Evaluation
Question 1 - In what
ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
For our advanced portfolio we were set the task of creating
our own media product. We were challenged with creating a short feature film,
consisting of a start, middle, and end with a title sequence and end credits.
This was similar to our foundation portfolio production of creating a two
minute opening to a film.
Rules
There are three main rules that we needed to follow as is
required with film production. These are the 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot
and match on action. These rules need to be followed in order to give the film
a continuous flow and aid the chronology of the film. As well as giving the
film a real and believable feel.
The 180-degree rule
is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a
character and another character or object within a scene. An imaginary line
called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side
of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame
right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The
camera passing over the axis is called crossing the line, and this must be
avoided at all times if possible.
The object that is being filmed must always remain in the centre,
while the camera must always face towards the object.
Shot Reverse Shot is a technique that includes shots that
views the action from the opposite side of the previous shot usually over the
shoulder of each actor. This can be used during dialogue between two
characters, giving the effect of a flowing conversation.
Match on action is a filming and video editing technique whereby
an editor cuts from one shot to another that matches the first shots action,
although the shots may have actually been filmed hours apart. For example an
actor opening a door from the outside cuts to the actor walking through the
door.
In order to complete our film to a good standard we need to
stick to these rules at all times to improve the continuity of our film. So in
this sense we are using the generic conventions of real media products.
-Weapons
The idea of film we decide to produce was based on a man who
was out to get revenge against a hitman who killed his best friend and business
partner. We came to the conclusion that our film would be an action thriller. In
order to accurately represent a film from that genre I thoroughly conducted
some in-depth genre research.
As the action thriller genre is a hybrid genre I researched
each genre separately and found that thriller films build suspense. So in order
to meet this we added a part to the storyline where two characters have a standoff
resulting in one character being shot, but it isn't clear at first who has
shot. This builds suspense, also the killer’s identity is unknown for most of
the film so the audience will be left guessing who has shot the gun.
I also discovered that an action film is described as a film
that features a series of situations involving physical altercations. These
types of film are often categorised by the presence of guns, fight scenes and
explosions. A typical example of one of these types of film would be Die Hard.
So in order to follow these conventions we decided that our
film would need to feature confrontation, such as fight scenes and guns. We
added a fight scene where two characters fight in a bathroom until one of the
characters is killed. We identified death as an important part of these films
too, so after we use the gun to shoot the hitman character in the knee, we
decided that in a professional film of this genre we would probably see the
character die. So for that reason we added the hitman's death at the end. This
is yet another example of us using generic conventions as seen in real media
products.
We wanted the film that we created to be a classic action
thriller film. A homage to other action thriller films. However we did add
somethings that you would not expect to see in this type of film. I feel that
in a part of our film we had an element of pastiche or parody. When the hitman
enters his car he puts on the radio. We decided to create and record a fake
radio show to play while the hitman was driving. This featured upbeat funky
music that doesn't really have any place in a film of this genre. This music is
the repeated at the end over the credits where you would expect a much slower
droned out sound to continue the intensity of the film right to the very end.
Also on the radio show there is a presenter speaking who whilst speaking says a
phrase that we intended to be a pun to foreshadow the end of the film. The
presenter says 'this song is for those of you who would kill to get out of work
right now', this could trigger some of the audience to think that there will be
a death at some point at the end of the film. These examples show that we have
challenged the conventions of this genre, as well as us possibly developing the
conventions of this genre by adding our own twist to them.
The main conventions that feature in this genre of film are
as follows:
-Weapons
-Death
-Blood
-Confrontation/Violence
-Suits
We included all of these in our own film so that we could
show our intent to follow the conventions of our genre of film and here are some examples:
There have been many influences for our film, some of them
being real media texts one example is that we needed a different type of shot
for the scene where the Hitman is confronted and shot by Quincey, then I came
across a shot used in the TV show Breaking Bad, where the character Jesse
Pinkman is shot in a 360 degree motion but is cut in the middle to add effect
to an around shot to increase the intensity and suspense of the shot.
Another influence on our film was the film Sahara. This is
slightly different to our genre film. Sahara is an action comedy, however we were able to take its title sequence as inspiration for our own title sequence.The title
sequence for Sahara features one long pan shot which moves around a room full
of objects and pictures which allows you to infer key details about the film.
We did a similar thing in our title sequence by having one long shot around an
office desk that had all of the key objects from our film on it, such as a gun, office equipment, car keys and a computer.
Audience Pleasure and Richard Dyers Utopian solution theory
Richard Dyer, a film theorist, argues that one of the functions of entertainment is to give the audience a Utopian environment.
Reality: Exhaustion, scarcity, dreariness, manipulation, fragmentation
But Dyer said that entertainment such as films should provide the following to give the audience the best experience possible.
Utopian Solution: Energy, abundance, intensity, transparency, community
In our film we tried to incorporate as many of these as we possibly could, within our time limit, budget and genre restraints.
Energy: In our film we have a lot of energy as a result of our action scenes, such as the confrontation/fight scenes and the chase leading up to that. This is helped by the fast paced editing and the underlying soundtrack that we gave these scenes.Abundance: In the time previous to our film being set, when Carlos had not yet being killed, Quincey would have had a great deal. Family, best friend, business, but during the time of the setting of our film, when Carlos is dead, Quincey has nothing, causing him to want to seek revenge during our film.
Intensity: There is a strong balance of this in our production, high intensity when the character Quincey gets his revenge and low intensity when the Hitman is pursuing Quincey only to find that he is actually the one who is being hunted and confronted.
Community: This has quite a strong link with abundance in our case, as when the Hitmans actions result in Quincey losing everything, Quincey was trapped and began to become depressed as a result.
Transparency: As we didn't have much time available in our film for character development, with our limit of 5 minutes, we used voice overs in order to describe the character and the position they are in quickly and effectively. This shows honesty and a more obtuse aspect of the characters and the film overall.
I think we were successful in creating a product that gave pleasure to the audience and this was backed up by the audience feedback in terms of enjoyment.
A2 Media Evaluation Question 2
Evaluation question two from james1397
This is my response to evaluation question 2 which I created on Powerpoint and the uploaded onto Slideshare in order to embed it into our blog.
This is my response to evaluation question 2 which I created on Powerpoint and the uploaded onto Slideshare in order to embed it into our blog.
A2 Media Evaluation Question 4
This is my response to evaluation question 4 which I created using Prezi.
Thursday 9 April 2015
Wednesday 8 April 2015
Tuesday 7 April 2015
Monday 6 April 2015
Friday 20 March 2015
Analysis of Rough Cut Questionnaire Results
From the questionnaire we learnt many things and were able to make changes accordingly. This will help us reach our audience better.
This is a pie chart of the ages of the respondents of the questionnaire:
As you can see the majority of the respondents were 25+, This is outside our ideal target audience which may be a problem as the feedback may give us information of changes that may not necessarily suit our target audience. Our ideal target audience is 18-25 year olds. 30% of responses to the questionnaire were in the 18-25 year old category. This is still a big proportion, so some useful feedback has been obtained.
This pie chart shows the proportion of people that enjoyed our film. This shows us that all of the respondents enjoyed the film, this is particularly as everyone enjoyed it even though there was a few mistakes and it wasn't targeted at the majority of the respondents.
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This is the graph of the responses to the question 'Do you understand the film?'. It is pleasing that the majority understood the film, however there we a select few who didn't. We think that the confusion may be around the flashback scene and how this arises. We may need to slightly alter this scene to make it obvious that it firstly is a flashback scene and secondly why this flashback scene has been shown.
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When asked what would be improved about the film we received some good, clear feedback. The most common answer was regarding the music. Before we released the final cut we had already identified the music as a weakness. The audience feedback has confirmed that we need to spend extra time improving the music of our film, by getting new music that matches the film better and syncing it to the footage show in our film.
Finally here is a selection of good things reported about our film:
This is a pie chart of the ages of the respondents of the questionnaire:
As you can see the majority of the respondents were 25+, This is outside our ideal target audience which may be a problem as the feedback may give us information of changes that may not necessarily suit our target audience. Our ideal target audience is 18-25 year olds. 30% of responses to the questionnaire were in the 18-25 year old category. This is still a big proportion, so some useful feedback has been obtained.
This pie chart shows the proportion of people that enjoyed our film. This shows us that all of the respondents enjoyed the film, this is particularly as everyone enjoyed it even though there was a few mistakes and it wasn't targeted at the majority of the respondents.
This is the graph of the responses to the question 'Do you understand the film?'. It is pleasing that the majority understood the film, however there we a select few who didn't. We think that the confusion may be around the flashback scene and how this arises. We may need to slightly alter this scene to make it obvious that it firstly is a flashback scene and secondly why this flashback scene has been shown.
These are some of the responses to the question 'what was bad about the film?'. There was a variety of answers. As this is only a rough cut we know that there is a few mistakes and we know that we have to correct them.
Finally here is a selection of good things reported about our film:
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