In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our product used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products through the use of the four technical aspects of camera, editing, sound and mise en scene. Our media product was made in a very similar way to which real films are made. First we brainstormed ideas for a plot, then we researched a vast amount into the thriller genre and its sub categories. then we created a storyboard and shortly after made an animatic. After this we began filming. Our media product is very similar to other thriller/action movies ( such as James Bond and the Bourne Identity ) due to it keeping very well to the codes and conventions of this genre. Audiences who watched our clip could immediately identify the genre of the film showing correct use of the four technical aspects and codes, as they not only recognized it as a thriller but recognized its sub genre of an espionage action thriller. Using the four technical aspects we have successfully engaged and informed the audience of the genre. The title shot where the title “Money” appears uses the same codes and conventions as many other films of this genre.
The non-diagetic soundtrack that runs parallel to the title sequence consists of upbeat, aggressive guitar and helps engage the audience in conjunction with the sudden opening ( 0:33 ) and matching fast editing. There is also a build up before of slow mysterious musical that again matches the slow blurring text that keeps the audience anxious before the initial drop. A zooming close up out of the gun barrel ( 0:39 )is used as a transition from the title to the animation, the gun is one of the many aspects of mise en scene that reinforce the espionage thriller genre. This continues through the animation and into the beginning of our film where initially a close up of the protagonist stamping out a cigarette creates mystery as his appearance has not yet been shown. The editing has slowed significantly since the title sequence due to the audience now being fully engaged the complex plot can now unfold. The editing, sound, mise en scene and camera use forms, codes and conventions of real media products, for example here are some screen shots showing other films of this genre and how ours matches the forms of thie chosen genre. However although we have kept to the codes and conventions very well our product also challenges these conventions in certain aspects. For example the protagonist in our piece instead of being a middle aged Caucasian, as in most films of this genre, is a younger black man. Typical protagonists for espionage thrillers are middle aged, handsome, Caucasians this can be seen in most films of our genre for example Ethan Hunt ( Tom Cruise ) from mission impossible, Harry Tasker ( Arnold Schwarzenegger ) from True Lies and all the Bonds from the Bond films. The fact our protagonist subverts this shows we are trying to develop and challenge the forms of real media products in our category. We feel this may appeal more to our target audience. Our media product takes a very similar look to other films in its genre especially James Bond, due to both have long animated title sequences. This has been said by many viewers that it has a very "bondish" feel but feels different and unique, which ultimately is what we wanted to achieve.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our thriller extract we tried to create certain social groups to make the narrative of the extract relatable. Mise en scene props such as the newspaper and the cityscape informed the viewer that the text was set in an urban area immediately using stereotypes to make the viewer analysis what the protagonist may be like if he is in an urban environment. During our first shoots, we had a difference in class in our extract with the hero being smart and formal and the villain young and hooded. Through mise en scene we had our protagonist wearing formal clothes including a shirt, tie and jacket, the colours were all black and white showing simplicity with contrasts the plot of the film, this would make him seem calm and collected in chaotic situations as most espionage protagonists are stereotypically seen as. The antagonist in our piece was then wearing a hooded jumper, trainers and jeans which reflected the rebellious and casual nature of the character. However the difference between the James Bond style detective and what looked like a typical English teenager was too abstract for the narrative we were trying to portray. After re-thinking and researching into what the villain should look like I realized both should be dressed smart and formal. Our hero in our extract looks to be aged late teens or early twenties representing the particular younger social group which is also the audience we intended to target with this text. This choice goes against the older aged heroes seen in most espionage thrillers subverting the usual stereotypes. Another key aspect that was subverted was the race of our protagonist. By having a black hero and subverting stereotypes of usual espionage heroes we hope to reach a wider audience. As racism is not a huge problem like it used to be I feel that we can easily attract a wide audience.
This seems to be an intelligent move as other films have recently taken this approach and had great success with subverting the protagonist for example Hancock starring Will Smith completely subverted what a stereotypical superhero is like and had great success. Both the age and race change I think will help to target our intended audience we are aiming at which is slightly younger than most espionage thrillers aim at.
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
Our media product is intended to be made and distributed as a Hollywood film, due to a number of reasons. As our genre is a very specific one which has had massive success in the past, it should be a Hollywood film. Films such as James Bond, Mission Impossible, XXX , Catch me if you can and the Bourne Identity were all Hollywood, large budget movies made by large institutions. These large financial budgets create opportunities for famous actors and extensive CGI to be incorporated into the products. Due to our budget of not being able to spend anything our resources were very limited and our equipment rudimentary. Our chosen genre has almost always been produced in this way. A suitable company to produce this product would be MGM ( Metro Goldwyn Mayer ) this is because the are a successful company which have had great success with films in our genre for example the James Bond franchise.
Other films by MGM in our a similar genre are :
-The world is not enough
-Agent Cody Banks
-Lucky number slevin
-Casino Royal
As well as a number of others and a range of other genre films. MGM’s huge success and resources would ultimately be able to make our product well publicized and successful. Our product would best be viewed in large cinemas due to its distributor and would stereotypically, like all other Hollywood blockbusters, come out on DVD in HD format a few months later. For our product in the beginning we created our own logo for LLC productions that ultimately was designed to mimic that of the MGM famous lion logo. I think our take on this was very comical and appreciated.
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
Our media product is intended to be made and distributed as a Hollywood film, due to a number of reasons. As our genre is a very specific one which has had massive success in the past, it should be a Hollywood film. Films such as James Bond, Mission Impossible, XXX , Catch me if you can and the Bourne Identity were all Hollywood, large budget movies made by large institutions. These large financial budgets create opportunities for famous actors and extensive CGI to be incorporated into the products. Due to our budget of not being able to spend anything our resources were very limited and our equipment rudimentary. Our chosen genre has almost always been produced in this way. A suitable company to produce this product would be MGM ( Metro Goldwyn Mayer ) this is because the are a successful company which have had great success with films in our genre for example the James Bond franchise.
Other films by MGM in our a similar genre are :
-The world is not enough
-Agent Cody Banks
-Lucky number slevin
-Casino Royal
As well as a number of others and a range of other genre films. MGM’s huge success and resources would ultimately be able to make our product well publicized and successful. Our product would best be viewed in large cinemas due to its distributor and would stereotypically, like all other Hollywood blockbusters, come out on DVD in HD format a few months later. For our product in the beginning we created our own logo for LLC productions that ultimately was designed to mimic that of the MGM famous lion logo. I think our take on this was very comical and appreciated.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience for this film is male, aged 12 - 30, middle and lower class. Through planning and preparation including questionnaires and surveys it has been determined that this is generally the type of viewer to watch espionage based thrillers. This is because it is a complex plot, high action and occasionally violent thriller that will appeal mostly to men. From our research we found that most fans of films like Mission Impossible and James Bond are similar to this. However women do watch these films occasionally to look at the male characters who are often handsome, muscular and sexually attractive or due to a romantic that takes a lesser role in the plot . Our research also suggested that it is working class people who enjoy these films with their often predictable plots and cliche characters. By following the codes and conventions of our chosen genre our product has developed a specific narrative and style that is immediately similar to other films in its genre making it immediately recognizable to its target audience. When audiences watched our extract almost all said it was like/similar to James Bond. This shows we have achieved what we were aiming for and after further questioning most answered although it seems very similar to films they have seen the would still go to see it. Also due to the BBFC our film would be given a certificate 12+ or 15+ . This would be because the film would feature violent or aggressive scenes. This is satisfactory however as the target audience is from this age up so the certificate is not in anyway restricting our possible viewers.
How do you attract/address your audience?
Due to our target audience we needed to create a text that not only attracted them but kept them engaged. Our engaging animated opening with fast music would immediately attract our intended audience and draw them into the story. Through the use of camera we created a shot were the title “Money” comes into the screen. This composition is a common feature in our chosen genre and helped establish what might be seen to the audience. Camera was used appropriately with fast zooms that matched the editing and music pace ( 0:42 ) and slower, longer shots to create suspense ( 1:25 ). Shots were used along with the enviroment/location to reinforce the idea of trying to find a criminal. A non-diagetic background soundtrack appropriate not only to the pace of the text but also the intended audience was used through the title sequence, which used similar techniques to the genre as Casino Royale. This non-diagetic music also reinforced the tone of the title sequence, creating excitement and anticipation throughout the audience. Mise en scene was the key technical aspect used to attract the audience using signifiers like the gun, cityscape and espionage protagonist to represent a genre that appeals to the viewer engaging them into the film.
Pace of editing changed dramatically between the title sequence and the start of the film, this was done to suggest to the viewer the genre of the text and to engage and captivate them. Once this was done we could lower the speed and pace of the film to a mysterious feel and let the plot unravel. From our feedback we have discovered our animated title sequence was the main feature our viewers enjoyed, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve and this engaging, effective animation follows the same codes and conventions as similar title sequences in Casino Royale and Catch me if you can.
This was shown to be very effective during our viewings of the film. Through the combination of the technical aspects and the codes and conventions of the chosen genre we created a product that directly addressed and attracted the audience we wanted to excite. All these props, location and dress code were chosen directly for this to successfully attract and address our intended target audience. We made a facebook group to publish our product and find out what people think of it. Every response was a positive one and further reinforced our success in addressing and attracting our intended audience.
This is the link to the facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=69145468033&ref=ts
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
From the process of creating and filming our two minute extract I have learnt a significant amount about technologies used. Before we began I already had large experience and knowledge in using Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Flash CS3 and Imovie which in initial discussions lead to me being given the role of editor and animator. My knowledge of shots and angles has greatly increased and I now know the correct techniques to really create continuity and flow through a piece of filming. They were several technological problems throughout the process of creating this product. One of these was the use of a poor quality camera which had poor focus and another being that during the making of the animation quality was lost when exporting scenes and putting them together. Both of these problems were due to limited equipment and resources available to us and overall I do feel this lack of higher quality equipment and software did lower the overall quality of our final piece. If given better resources I feel the final piece would have been much more sharper, detailed and generally a much higher quality. Software used when creating our extract was Adobe Flash CS3, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Imovie and Premiere Pro. All these were crucial in creating our extract, especially Adobe Flash for the animation and Premiere Pro for layering the audio sounds of the extract. Through the process of creating our product I feel I have learnt a very large amount about the software packages Premiere Pro and Adobe after effects CS3, as well as experience with the camera itself.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Throughout the whole process of making our product, from the brief right through to the final piece, I feel much has been learned. For me personally my skills with the software have always been very good especially with the Adobe CS3 collection but since the projected I have progressed even further to a point where I am completely confident with all the software used for this project. Since our first brainstorms and storyboards I feel that our product has changed dramatically but has become better rather than worse. Through camera I have leant the multiple different shot types such as close ups, mid shots, long shots etc. Editing I have learnt a lot on how to create pace and continuity creating footage that flows and runs to a parallel pace as to what’s on screen. I have learnt, mainly through Adobe Premiere Pro, how to layer sounds effectively creating a balance between ambient sound, dialogue and a non-diagetic sound track. As a group, through experience and research, we identified key aspects of mise en scene that would reinforce our chosen genre and implemented them appropriately and effectively into the text. Initially we planned to have more animated title sequence and the first few shots of real footage would be a shoot out between the antagonist and the protagonist, however as we have progressed, changed and learnt we created something much more like a thriller opening and less like a short movie or trailer. Every filming session we learnt more and changes were being made to the original storyboard every-time. Although the main plot hasn't changed and the order and main factors have been the same throughout (ie. Company logo, then titles, the animated title sequence and finally footage ) small things have been altered each week to create a more effective look, style and narrative. These small changes were simply camera-shots, angles, and props but the main plot stayed the same. Compared to the brief I think our media product has done very well. It fits the codes and conventions of its genre and sub genre and was reinforced by the audiences immediate recognition of this and positive feedback. It kept the audience engaged and alert. However there were still a few problems mainly unsolved due to the deadline and time restrictions. The animated title sequence could have gone on longer to continue over all the credits and the final over the shoulder shot was slightly unstable. If given a larger budget, with more appropriate equipment, time and software we would create a product better than this. Through the whole project much as been learnt through all technical aspects and these progressions have been implemented when possible, Overall apart from these very minor problems I think our product fulfills the brief set, creating the opening of a thriller that not only meets the codes and conventions of its chosen genre but continues by keeping the chosen target audience attracted and engaged during its play.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
From the process of creating and filming our two minute extract I have learnt a significant amount about technologies used. Before we began I already had large experience and knowledge in using Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Flash CS3 and Imovie which in initial discussions lead to me being given the role of editor and animator. My knowledge of shots and angles has greatly increased and I now know the correct techniques to really create continuity and flow through a piece of filming. They were several technological problems throughout the process of creating this product. One of these was the use of a poor quality camera which had poor focus and another being that during the making of the animation quality was lost when exporting scenes and putting them together. Both of these problems were due to limited equipment and resources available to us and overall I do feel this lack of higher quality equipment and software did lower the overall quality of our final piece. If given better resources I feel the final piece would have been much more sharper, detailed and generally a much higher quality. Software used when creating our extract was Adobe Flash CS3, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Imovie and Premiere Pro. All these were crucial in creating our extract, especially Adobe Flash for the animation and Premiere Pro for layering the audio sounds of the extract. Through the process of creating our product I feel I have learnt a very large amount about the software packages Premiere Pro and Adobe after effects CS3, as well as experience with the camera itself.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Throughout the whole process of making our product, from the brief right through to the final piece, I feel much has been learned. For me personally my skills with the software have always been very good especially with the Adobe CS3 collection but since the projected I have progressed even further to a point where I am completely confident with all the software used for this project. Since our first brainstorms and storyboards I feel that our product has changed dramatically but has become better rather than worse. Through camera I have leant the multiple different shot types such as close ups, mid shots, long shots etc. Editing I have learnt a lot on how to create pace and continuity creating footage that flows and runs to a parallel pace as to what’s on screen. I have learnt, mainly through Adobe Premiere Pro, how to layer sounds effectively creating a balance between ambient sound, dialogue and a non-diagetic sound track. As a group, through experience and research, we identified key aspects of mise en scene that would reinforce our chosen genre and implemented them appropriately and effectively into the text. Initially we planned to have more animated title sequence and the first few shots of real footage would be a shoot out between the antagonist and the protagonist, however as we have progressed, changed and learnt we created something much more like a thriller opening and less like a short movie or trailer. Every filming session we learnt more and changes were being made to the original storyboard every-time. Although the main plot hasn't changed and the order and main factors have been the same throughout (ie. Company logo, then titles, the animated title sequence and finally footage ) small things have been altered each week to create a more effective look, style and narrative. These small changes were simply camera-shots, angles, and props but the main plot stayed the same. Compared to the brief I think our media product has done very well. It fits the codes and conventions of its genre and sub genre and was reinforced by the audiences immediate recognition of this and positive feedback. It kept the audience engaged and alert. However there were still a few problems mainly unsolved due to the deadline and time restrictions. The animated title sequence could have gone on longer to continue over all the credits and the final over the shoulder shot was slightly unstable. If given a larger budget, with more appropriate equipment, time and software we would create a product better than this. Through the whole project much as been learnt through all technical aspects and these progressions have been implemented when possible, Overall apart from these very minor problems I think our product fulfills the brief set, creating the opening of a thriller that not only meets the codes and conventions of its chosen genre but continues by keeping the chosen target audience attracted and engaged during its play.
