Q7 - Preliminary task compared to Final Film

Preliminary task compared to Final Film

For our preliminary task we had to create a short film and we had to consider the following things; the 180 Degree Rule, Match on Action, a Shot-Reverse-Shot, a shot of someone walking through a door and a conversation. For the preliminary task I worked with two of the people that I worked with for the final things, this is because the other person I worked with for the preliminary task left, meaning it was only two of us to complete the final film. We had to be careful not to create a trailer for our film as we had the choice of storyline and genre. For our final piece we focused on the planning and research stage a lot more, concentrating more on costume, props, angles, locations etc.

The differences between our preliminary task and our final film was that we were a lot more organised when we were planning our final film, for example we had all of the props and costumes set out the day before so that we know what order we needed each prop. Also for our final film we conducted a lot more research into the genre and the type of conventions we were going to use. For our final film opening we had to do a lot more research and planning in order to make sure, for example we had to make a storyboard and a photographic storyboard which displayed the different scenes of what we want our movie to look like.

Moreover, when we were researching into the genre we had a lot more time to think about it and research into it whereas for the preliminary task we were just told to do a series of things and to get on with it and we didn’t know what genre we were aiming for, therefore this made it hard as we just had to film something whereas with the final film we were allowed to research into the genre and gather as much information as we could about the generic conventions of that film and what are the best comedy films that are currently already in cinemas etc.

In addition to this, I believe that due to the fact we knew what shots we needed to capture and what order to edit it in. This helped the process to be smoother as we didn’t have to keep trying to think of what to do on the spot, it allowed us to be more organised when we were shooting and editing the film.

As you can see the image where the person is wearing the grey jumper is our preliminary task video whereas the image below is from our final film, as you can see the location has been thought about a lot more as the first one is from our preliminary task and the second image is from our final film of which looks a lot better as the clothing that has been used is a lot more thought through.

Furthermore, In comparison to our preliminary task our final film looks a lot more professional as we planned everything beforehand, spent a lot more time on it and used more complicated editing, for example;

The quality within the two images below can be seen, for example in the image with the man in grey was our preliminary task whereas the one with the title was our final film, you can clearly distinguish between the two.

Also with the images below you can see on the left is a preliminary task shot whereas the one on the right is a final film shot, you can see the difference in editing and lighting that are used. In the preliminary image you can see that the lighting is rather dark which makes it hard for the audience to see whereas in the other image you can see that there has been an effect that has been added to it, the use of the editing technique makes it easier for the audience to see and also makes that shot look more professional and impression so when the audience are watching they will be able to see the shot more visibly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we have had a lot of practice with the camera equipment due to the fact we made a re-make of an opening of our choice, a preliminary task and now a final film I feel that I am more confident when using not only the camera but also IMovie as at the start I did not know a lot about how to use IMovie but due to the fact I have played around with it a lot I feel that if I were to do it again I would know what I was doing. Furthermore, I feel that our end product fulfils the task of creating the opening two minutes of a film as our film has a duration of 2:06 which is only six seconds over which will not matter too much. Also, the fact that we have produced a film opening that has a fairly easy storyline to follow, uses a variety of camera angles, considered costume and location etc. I believe that we have fulfilled the task well as there was not an area of the film that we did not consider when producing which means that we have carefully thought about each aspect to a high degree.

Q6 - What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the product?

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

 

The first technology we were introduced to was Blogger, this was used to post different pieces of work. The work we displayed on this site was to show that we have completed research and planning. It was also used to plan out our film in various methods; Storyboard, Photographic storyboard, camera shots and how the filming schedule will run. We also had a group blog which consisted of me and my other member of my group. We would complete tasks that were set and we would divide them individually so that we both do equal amounts. The use of blogger helped me a lot when I was planning my film opening as it allowed me to keep on top of the work. Also the fact we could look back at previous years blogs helped me a lot as if I was struggling on a piece of work then I would look at other peoples to get an idea of what to do and how to answer the question. This also helped to improve my work as yet again I could compare and see how to get the top marks.

Next we were introduced to the camera, this piece of equipment was very useful when we were shooting our film, and this is because it was in HD quality which meant that each scene was the best quality it good have been. Also we were allowed to use a tripod to place the camera on which allowed us to shoot steady shots which helped to keep the camera still and meant that the film looked more professional. Due to the high quality camera we were able to make use of these settings, for example the use of the zooming in and out allowed us to get professional shots of close ups instead of having to stick the camera in the face of the actor. Moreover, the use of the dolly really helped to improve our film as it allowed me to get tracking shots. However, on the other hand the tripod wasn’t as good as we hoped

As the stands we somewhat rather weak which meant that we had to be careful when extending the legs of the tripod. Also the sometimes when we were shooting some scenes the quality was rather dark which meant that we thought we had to try and make the light brighter but however we found when we imported the clips onto the IMAC they were not dark and in fact it was just the camera therefore due to this fault we wasted some time that could have been spent on perfecting the scenes we thought needed improving.

 

IMovie

The editing software that we decided to use for was IMovie. We decided so use this as we were already familiar with this software as we previously used it for our Drive opening remake and our preliminary task, so we knew the procedure to apply certain features on the program into our clips. Alternatively we were going to use the final cut express program but we very unfamiliar on how to use therefore settled to use IMovie. IMovie was quite easy to use but we had some trouble trying to flip one of our scenes over in the clip so it played backwards in which after some time we found how to solve this problem, by using trial and error on certain options on the software.   The clips we imported were not all consistent on the colour scheme on the background for certain scenes. This meant we had to use the IMovie software to edit the colours of certain scenes to make them match the rest of the clip. This proved to be quite time consuming as it was not entirely straight forward as we had to play around either the lighting or the RGB to make the colour schemes of the scenes match. This suggests that if I had to create with film again I would try and get familiar with other media editing software’s such as final cut express as these may have features that could help me correct any problems faster than IMovie did.

When we were filming I found that we all worked successfully as a group as we both had the same vision which meant it was easier when we were shooting the film as we did not suffer from arguments over how the scene should have been shot, for example there was no misunderstanding and if there was we would just take a scene each and let that person give their insight into how they think it should be shot. The problems we faced were more to do with not putting enough effort into thinking about the shots and how they will be filmed. Also the fact we did not take at least 3 copies of each scene to pick which one was the best meant that we suffered when it came to editing as we had to really think about it more and use different clips to fill different holes. We overcame these problems by simply re-shooting a few of the scenes a day later, this meant that editing had come to a hold up though as we were no longer able to edit as we simply did not have enough clips to do so therefore the re-shooting gave us a second chance in hindsight and allowed us to improve our film. However due to these errors we learnt that when we are filming we must make sure that we take enough shots in order to compare between the two and see which one was better. We also learnt that about the different options the camera provides and that we do not just have to stay on the same setting throughout the whole piece.

 

Next time if we were to do it again, we would change a number of things, firstly we would make sure that before we went to film our piece we would gather enough research into the different locations so that we could choose the best one. Also we would change the way we shot some of the shots, for example due to the fact we were short for time we had to rush some of the shots which meant they were not the quality we thought they were and this effected our film in a bad way as it meant that not all shots were as professional as we first thought.

Q5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

In our opening we had to consider the use of audience and make sure we considered them when filming the opening.

Our target audience - When I search on 21 Jump Street on 'YouGov' it comes up with the type of person that would buy the product or in this case watch the product. I chose to type 21 Jump Street as when I was researching into films that are similar to the one my group are going to create therefore my typing in this film it gives me an idea of the type of audience that would watch my film and the type of person they are, including demographics, personality, brands they use and the type of entertainment they like. This is good for us as it allows us to see who we should target out film at and allows us to get an insight into their personality and the types of things they enjoy doing.

 

 

Below are the type of generic conventions you tend to see in a comedy:

Camera

·         Most likely high shots are used in a comedy to capture the whole event that is happening in that scene.

·         The use of medium shots are used in a comedy to catch all of the characters expressions.

·         Camera is very natural and follows the characters.

Themes

·         Anarchic comedy

·         Slapstick

·         Sports comedy

·         Parody

·         Romantic comedy

Iconography

·         The lighting tends to be rather bright and shot during the day time.

·         The kinds of props that I used tend to be sports equipment such as footballs, tennis equipment, rugby balls as they are used to make people laugh in the sense that one of the character will get hit by one.

·         In comedy bright colours such as blue, yellow are the most common colours used in a comedy as they are stereotypically associated with comedies.

 

What generic conventions did we use in our opening film to meet audiences expectations?

 

This use of this high/medium show displays the three main characters. This shot shows the facial expressions of all the characters. This shot is good as it shows the two friends facial expressions and as you can see they do not look impressed with how much the main character is eating therefore they are pulling a disapproved facial expression. This is an generic convention of a comedy genre is It shows their facial expressions as mentioned above but also it is humorous for the audience as they are pulling funny faces and because our target audience will find this funny it means that we have considered them before shooting this scene.

Also, we have used another a camera technique that is seen as a generic conventions of a comedy. The convention that we used was the use of the camera being very natural and following the character. Throughout our piece we tried to add a sense of rhythm to our piece as we wanted our opening to have a constant rhythm and not have to keep cutting every scene, therefore we tried to film as much as we good in one go without having to keep stop and starting the camera. Also to make sure we kept a constant tempo/rhythm we used a piece of non-diegetic music which kept the pace of the opening up, this links to our target audience as in a comedy there is normally a constant flow to the piece as the audience are there to make laugh therefore if you keep stop and starting the piece they will get bored.

Themes

In our opening there is use a kind of sports comedy that can be humorous. We used this towards the end of the opening as we believed the fact that are opening is based around a guy who gets bullied because of his weight we thought we would add a sports scene to show him get fit, we also knew this would make the audience laugh due to the fact he is overweight. This is called dark comedy, from audience research we found that our target audience like the use of dark humour as they know they shouldn’t really be laughing but they cannot help it.

As you can see in the image that the main character is getting involved in sports activities where is seen to be suffering as he does not regular exercised meaning this was a challenge for him. We considered our audience for this scene as we knew they would find this funny due to the fact he is suffering.

 

 

 

Iconography

The iconography we used was considered carefully to make sure we used generic conventions of our genre but also to meet our target audiences expectations, for example, we used bright lighting as this connotes to the audience that we want them to see everything in the clip but also because if it was dark then that would be a generic convention of a horror which we did not want. Also the props we used were thought about carefully as you tend to see sports equipment and in our piece as shown below you can clearly see we have used a football.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall how did you attract the audience’s attention? – Summary

We did a lot of different things to attract our audience’s attention, for example the use the generic conventions above, we also conducted a variety of different research into how other comedy films attract their audiences. Moreover, we also considered small details like the different camera shots/angles we should use, the types of lighting (High/Low Key), the types of clothing we should use for our actor’s and most importantly the types of coloured clothing.

Q4 - What would be your audience for your media institution?

Q3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Q2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film is shown from a males point of view as it is based in a pub and stereotypically a pub is a associated with males. Our opening shows representation of gender and age, this is because the in the clip you can clearly see that there are conventions of each of these that I will discuss below.

Gender is shown in our clip through the use of the different characters. For example the stereotypical man likes to get muddy and drink beer therefore our film shows. In our film our main character is shown as the stereotypical male, for example if you look at the images below it shows. Also in the opening, you can see that our main character is either drinking/eating or working out which shows that he is a stereotypical bloke.

Also the personal trainer who is also the friend of the fat man is seen to be wearing clothes that are associated with men as they do not really care about their appearance therefore what he is wearing is a good example to what the typical male wears/looks like. However, although this does show the stereotypical male it does not show the dominant, angry male that people generally associate men to be. The use of the slightly lower angle that can be seen in the football pitch seen shows that the men in the image are dominant, not necessarily over anyone but they are equally dominant. The clothing in the image shown is also stereotypical of a male as he is seen to be in sports clothing which shows he is going to be taking part in some sports event and this is stereotypical as men are typically associate with various sports.

 

 

 

 

As you can see in the image on the right it shows that the opening has been shown from a male’s point of view. The use of the over the shoulder shot shows that the camera is almost trying to make the audience feel like they are the person in black as he is the person who is speaking.

 

 

 

The image on the left shows the stereotypical pub scene that you would see in a professional movie as men are associated to always be in a pub and therefore the image reflects this. The lighting in this represents them in a positive light due to the lighting being bright also shows generic conventions of a comedy as this is the type of lighting you see in a comedy.

 

 

 

Our movie links to our target audience as it is aimed at men ages between 15 – 25, therefore due to the fact it is shown from a male’s point of view links to our target audience as they are also male and will understand some of the humour that is displayed throughout the clip.

Furthermore, age is also represented in this clip through the use of the props, for example this image shows that our film has representations of age as adults tend to drink a lot of tea and coffee and the act that the actors shown are drinking this shows that they are grown up and adult like. Due to the fact they are adult like it shows that they can relate to the target audience who are within the age category of 15 – 25 however our target audience members who are below the age of 18 will not be able to relate to this specific scene as they are not that sort of age where they would drink tea and coffee as it is stereotypically associated with older people. The type of clothing they are wearing do not reflect the stereotypical adult, this is due to the fact our main character is wearing a hoodie which is typically associated with people who are teenagers. All of the characters displayed in this clip are seen in both a positive and negative light, this is due to the fact the two friends of the main character are seen to bully/take the mick out of his weight, this is seen as not a very nice thing to do as it could be seen as bullying or dark humour. Moreover, the main character is seen in a positive light as he is the one that they keep calling “big” therefore the audience start to grow fonder of him due to the fact he is getting bullied.

Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

Our film opening that we produced reflects a variety of different generic conventions of our genre which is comedy.

Camera

Like all films, they typically have a storyline with one character being the main focus and other characters who are not the main focus but are always seen in the clip. Therefore, we tried to follow the same trend as we have with our main character being (black jumper) targeted by his friends who are also seen in this clip. , the ones sitting next to our main character. We did this as we believed it would be easy to follow as if they already watched a film with the same layout then it would be easy to follow what is going on for our target audience.

Furthermore, due to the fact we have followed a rather simple structured storyline it may be easy for our audience to relate to, for example, when they were younger they might have been overweight and could have potentially got bullied for it. However, this type of behaviour is common within young adults as it is seen as having a joke and therefore it could be either found humours for the audience or not funny at all. Moreover, a generic convention used within our clip is the high shot angle that is displayed in the image to the right. The use of this shot is stereotypical in comedies as it allows the viewer to see everything that is happening within the clip. We have used this shot as it clearly shows that Charlie is getting ready to eat his food, this makes it humorous for the audience as they have bullied him for being too big and making him eat more creates humour within the scene.

We used two establishing shots within our film opening, they include one at the start to show the location of where we are filming of which was the pub and the second establishing shot was used when we were filming the football scene to show the audience that we have changed location to the football pitch. These locations are typical generic conventions that you would see in a comedy as they are realistic settings that you would find my target audience to visit. The use of these establishing shots show our target audience where we are filming and also a pub would normally be associated with meeting friends and having a drink and a football pitch would be associated with a footballing activity. Mid shots are used in comedy films to signify to viewers the expressions on characters faces within a clip.  Our opening has used a mid-shot to show the audience how happy our main character is when he is eating.

 

Lighting

In addition to this, the use of lighting within a comedy is important to consider as comedies typically use bright lighting. We have purposely used this to make the characters stand out more in the pub scenes so that they can be clearly seen so that the audience can get to know more about the characters and what they look like etc. we have used this as it creates a realistic atmosphere. This generic convention is challenged in our clip as the part where there is bright lighting in the clip shows our main character eating and drinking which you would stereotypically see of someone of his weight calibre.

 

 

 

 

Props

There are also props that are used within our film opening to reflect generic conventions. For example the use of the football reflects the type of objects you see in a comedy as typically in comedy films you always see use of sports equipment to add to the humour as someone would usually trip over the ball, however, in our film opening instead of him falling over a ball he runs into a tree instead, this creates a humours atmosphere for the audience as people find it funny when someone hurts themselves in a clumsy way. Our film opening challenges this convention as we have used a ‘tree’ to reflect the prop in our film in which our main character runs into accidently. This therefore this shows that our film opening reflects other comedy film openings as we have used the props/objects in the same way to create a sense of humour.

Sound

Sound is also important when producing a comedy film, the form of sound you hear is normally diegetic sound so that dialogue can be heard clearly by the audience members. Moreover, I believe we have challenged this generic convention by playing a sound track throughout the opening, we used this so the pace of the film was at a constant rate of which makes it more interesting for the viewer.  During the football scene the use of the music was important as it showed that he was trying to lose weight as the fast paced, loud, energetic music allowed the audience to see that he has now stopped being this overweight depressed man to wanting a better, healthier lifestyle. Also, the fact that the music is quite fast and in the clip you can see our main character struggling, it makes it rather humorous for the audience members and also because it is quite funky music it all adds to create a funny scene. Furthermore, Non-Diegetic sound is also a vital component in a comedy film as edited sounds can create excitement on particular scenes to make them funny.