Evaluation

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


Moving on from our preliminary to the main task i noticed several developments. One of the main ones being that the preparation was much more intense. Instead of just roughly planning our shots and the dialogue we had to become much more professional. This meant recording all our ideas from shot types to costume. I personally learnt alot of new skills whilst producing the film. I developed my basic camera skills, learning how to control a steady shot and time any movements i had to make with it (panning for example). I also used editing software for the first time, although most of the editing was done by Liam, i did help out with Thomas and stella, seeing how it works and gaining an understanding of it. I also learned about the importance of flow and continuity. By this i mean that the film needs to look smooth and not amatuerish. In our preliminary some of the shot changes didn't quite fit together right and looked jumpy. However i feel in the final task the shots all fit in with eachother making our product look good. This ties in with the planning as we knew exactly what we needed to film and what shot angles we would be using. Making it easier to forecast what we would need to do and when.

Evaluation

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


Our film challenges the the convention of the film industry, more specifically the action genre. We challenge the idea that men are the saviors and that women are only the damsel in distress type character. We do this by setting up Stella's character as being able to fight one man and knock him down. Not only is she seen to be able to fight the opposite sex but crucially she doesn't need a man to come and save her. Other films that have done this in the real film industry have been characters like Lara Croft from Tomb Raider.
However we use the convention of action films in that we use a getaway car, in real action films there is often fast sports cars or chase scenes. Since this wasn't available to us we had to just use a standard car as a getaway. This picture is an examply of a getaway car from Dead Man Running which is in the same sort of action/crime bracket that our film is in.

Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film Subject: Monroe represents women as strong and independant giving them a positive and modern representation. We do this by showing her as living alone or at least not having a man to protect her as when her house is being burgled there is no sign of anyone else living there. This occurs just within the first two minutes. If the rest of our film was to be made it would show that she is also a trained agent who has to work in a male orientated world everyday. Therefore we challenge the stereotype that women stand back and let the men do the important things. This was our main aim all along, to follow in the same footsteps of films such as Tomb Raider and Salt.
We represent middle aged men as being devious and vicious, as they are the ones commiting burglary and are quite happy to beat up a woman if it aids their escape. This is something that came about as an attempt to represent women in a modern way. But nevertheless we did portray a traditional representation of men through that and also they are meant to look strong and confident.

Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our film, as mentioned before, would be mainly males between the ages of 16 and 25. The reasons for this are that our film within the opening 2 minutes will contain violence and cars. These typically appeal to men of that sort of age, our thoughts were backed up by looking at things like social networking websites on which we found that we were correct. This PowerPoint (using stills from our film) will these show these aspects.

 

This is a still from the part when Monroe hits one of the burglars. Although it contains violence which will attract men to watch our film, it will also appeal to woman as it is a girl character who is on top of the situation rather than the man, showing her modern nature. 

This picture of our film is when the three burglars are escaping from the scene of the crime. This is a convention of the action genre and if given a high budget could have been a sports car, but we adapted to the conditions.

Questionnaire

Media questionnaire

View more PowerPoint from stellaaa16
This was made by Stella.

Evaluation

Evaluation 2

View more presentations from AdamTippett.

Media questionnaire

View more PowerPoint from stellaaa16

Evaluation

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?


We tried to attract the right sort of audience for our film by using some conventions of the action genre so people knew it was from that genre

Final Film, Subject: Monroe by GameFace Productions

Voki Target Audience

Initial Screening

Initial screening

View more presentations from AdamTippett.

Searching for music

This is a screenshot of us searching for possible music to add the our film for the shots in which Stella's character Monroe is punching pads in the gym. So we are aiming to find fast paced music to match the action on scene.

Suitable actors/actresses for our film roles

  

Vinnie Jones-  a possible candidate to be an actor for one of the burglars in our film is Vinnie Jones. He has a background of acting as hard characters often being gangster.

Plan to add more

After seeing that our initial film, once edited, only takes up about 1 minute 40 seconds we have decided that we need to film more. Our idea for the added shots will be of Stella in a gym possibly shadow boxing or hitting pads.  We will film this soon.

Character profile

Character profile
This is the character profile for my character, Gary.

View more presentations from AdamTippett.

Codes and conventions of action genre

This type of film often have very big budgets and are made by big Hollywood companies. This is becuase they often include exotic locations, fast cars and big explosions. However as we are obviously working with little or no budget we can't have this sort of thing filmed but what we are able to do is make it seem as though this sort of thing could feature later on in the film. This should help to make our opening exciting and make the audience want to watch more.
Setting: exotic locations, big buildings
Props: fast cars, guns
Costume: uniforms, suits
Plot: tension, jeopardy, car chases, fight scenes, antagonist/protagonist

Change from crime to action genre

Originally when we came up with the idea for our film we thought it was to be in the crime genre. However when we got closer to filming we realised that it would be more action than crime. This change means that our research into similar films and our actual production must be altered slightly to fit the stereotypes of action films.

First Mark and Further Improvments

The first mark i achieved for my blog was 8/20, to improve these results i will need to be more creative with my posts. I will also need to add the storyboards that were drawn up, possibly put in a Voki to show my target audience and put in research into our genre.

Location Shoot (pictures 10-13)

10. Next up will be a shot of the burglars running out of the house, one of the burglars will push Monroe over so her head hits the radiator.

11.There will then be another high angle shot from the stairs, this time showing the three still escaping the house.

12.This is a shot from the upstairs window in which a high angle shot is shown of the three burglars running out the door and into the Land Rover that will be in the road.

13. The last shot we planned for was a birds eye close up shot of Monroes hand reaching out to answer a phone call.

Location Shoot (pictures 7-9)

7. There will then be this shot, a high angle of Monroe walking through the door and into the hallway and looking through into the living room.

8.This will be followed by an eye-line match to a shot of a burglar looking in a cabinet.

9.Next will be a cut to where the camera is facing the burglar in question from the side and can see the door in which Monroe is looking through. The burglar will get up and turn to the other two to say he has found what they were searching for but as he says this the light will be turned on by Monroe who punches him to the floor.

Location Shoot (pictures 4-6)

4. This shot is a tracking close up of Monroes (Stellas) footsteps as she walks home.

5.The following shot is a long shot of Monroe walking up her path towards the camera, in this shot she will notice that there is someone in her house as a torch light will be flashed across the window.

6.This will then cut to an over-the-shoulder shot of her point of view when she sees the flash from inside her house.

Location Shoot (pictures 1-3)

1.



The first shot will be a long one of the three burglars (me, Liam and Thomas) running from the lane across the road, with Stella tracking us and turning round to follow our run.

2.The next shot was going to be of the burglars pick locking the door from the doors view but we thought this may be a difficult shot so when we film it will be a shot from the side looking at both the burglars and the door.


3.The third shot is to be of the three burglars opening the door and walking past the camera, as it will be filmed in the darm to keep the realism of a burglary being at night, visibility will be low so we will shine a torch across the camera to make the audience realise and see roughly what is going on.

Change Of Costume

Due to not being able to find or buy a smart business looking costume for Stella's character Monroe, we have had to change it to a sportier look and film her coming out of a gym instead of her coming back from a meeting. We decided to change to this as there is a gym on the road we are filming on anyway and seemed like a good and plausible alternative. Although it is plausible it still doesnt fit to the stereotype of a woman as she generally wouldn't be expected to be going to the gym.

Location shoot

We met up as a group at the location in which we will film. We created a written list of shots that would be in our film and then took pictures from the place the camera will be when we film. So for example we took a picture of a phone becuase there is a shot of a phone ringing in the film. Each of these shots was carefully thought about and are in there to do a certain job.

Initial ideas for filming

1. Burglars running down the road - Tracking from lane
2. Burglars breaking into the house - From the doors perspective
3. Burglars walking into the living room - Shot from armrest on sofa
4. Monroe walking home - Camera tracking feet.
5. Maybe a cut to burglars inside house (Max 2 seconds)
6. Monroe sees a light flashing through the window - Over the shoulder shot
7. Monroe subtly enters house - Camera at the top of the stairs
8. Eye line match of Monroe seeing one of the burglars
9. Burglars says "I think i've got it"
10. Monroe punches the burglar (Blood on burglars head) - Camera in the middle of the room in line with burglar
11. Other burglars push Monroe out of the way - Camera in the same place as number 10
12. Monroe hits her head on the radiator (Sound from hitting stool) - Camera in the same place as number 10
13. Burglars run out of the house - Camera at the top of the stairs
14. Burglars run out of the house and get into the land rover - Camera in the upstairs window
15. Shot of burglars getting in (from inside)
16. Gavins dialogue.
17. Close up of Monroes phone (Mystery name)
18. Camera slowly pans out and then sees Monroes hand pick the phone up.

This is the original idea we came up with for the film. This was discussed as a group and we all contributed our ideas.

Company Logo

This is our final design for our company logo and will be featuring in our film opening.

This image was created by Liam.

Film Credits

We have drafted what we would like our opening credits to say, we haven't yet decided if we want them to be over the top of the film or on seperate cuts


"Top Drawer Films presents...
A Game Face production...
Starring Stella Perryman, Adam Tippett, Liam Difford, Thomas Allward and Gavin Difford.
Directed by Thomas Allward
Filmed mainly by Stella Perryman
Edited by Liam Difford"

We came up with this as a group.

Preliminary task

This is our preliminary video which shows the basic understanding of how to film and met all the task criteria. We filmed a shot reverse shot without breaking the 180 degree rule and we also displayed an understanding of match on action.

Naming our film

We has a discussion on what our film could be named, we have now narrowed it down to two possible names:
'Monroe' - This is an option as it is a simple but effective name, easy to remember. This is the main characters surname and so it is obvious who the focus will be on. This follows in the same sort of style as the 'Bourne' films which is in a similar genre to ours (crime/action).

'Subject; Monroe' - This isn't massively different to the other option but it does add a sense of mystery to the film.

Task Deadlines

These are the deadlines which have been given to us for the blog marking dates and when our film will need to be up to a rough standard and when it should be completely finished.

Film Props

Props that will be needed for the film are, fake blood to be put one on of the burglars after the attack from the woman. A blank disc which we will write on and will be the focus of the burglary, a phone for the call, a car (land rover) for the get away and a camera. We will also decide on burglar props such as a lock pick and other weapons at a later date.

Film Resources

The main resource for our filming will be Stella's house as it is an ideal place to film the robbery. It is situated on a quiet road which means there will be less chance of interuption from vehicles or other people. It also has a big living room which means we can get all the actors and props in the shot with room for the camera to go aswell.
Other resources will include costume, which for the burglars will be black hoodies/coats, dark tracksuit bottoms and black trainers. We went for this look as it is realistic in accordance to the stereotypical burglar look.
For the woman we will have her dressed in smart business clothes as if just coming home from a meeting or formal event to point out her high status.

Script first draft

We have thought about and wrote down our initial ideas for the dialogue in our opening scene and this is what we have come up with.
When Liam is picking at the door i will say "Hurry up!"
To which Liam will respond "We're in."
Once inside the property, while Liam is searching for the item he tells me and Thomas "Hurry up, we haven't got long mind!"
Just after this Thomas turns around and says "I think i found it" he is then punched in the face.
As we run out I will push Stella out the way and say "See you later bitch!"
As us burglars are in the get away car, Gavin will turn to Liam and say "Have you got it?"
Liam replies "No, Phil dropped it" to which Gavin replies "He's not going to be happy"

Props

Woman props

View more presentations from AdamTippett.

This is our first draft of props needed to film.

Costume

Costume

View more presentations from AdamTippett.

This was our initial idea for costume, made by Liam Difford.

Age Rating

The certificate we are going to aim for is a 15 as in the first few minutes there is violence, blood and swearing which would continue throughout, this would bring us above a 12 certificate as this rating specifies infrequent strong language but this would be more regular. Also the violence is more than 'moderate'. However we would come in under the 18 because there would be no drug use, sexual activity or nudity.

Target Audience

We have decided that the target audience for our film would be 16-25 year old males, we think this as generally it is men of this age who prefer crime, violence and swearing more often than women do.

This also was discussed between us all.

Assessment Criteria

This is a table of what we as a group have already completed and the things in which we need to do.

Film Idea

We have come up with an idea for our film opening, we are going to be aiming for the crime genre. The film will begin with a woman (spy/agent) returning home from work to find her house is being burgled by three men, she then proceeds to attack one man whilst the other two and their wounded friend escape from the house to a get away car. The womans phone then rings and she has a mysterious conversation regarding an unknown object.

We came up with this idea as a group.

Company logo

This is an initial idea for our company logo 'GameFace productions'.
The G and F symbolise the Game and Face in our name, and the 4 stick figures in the picture represent the 4 members of our group.

This was discussed by the group as a whole and drawn by Stella.

Analysis of the opening of two other films

The Skeleton Key: (Psychological horror) This genre was established within the first two minutes as it was set in a hospice, we could tell this by the costume and the old man dying. Also there is natural lighting by a big tree as the nurse reads to him. This could be a pathway to heaven as she is reading to him from the bible.

Arlington Road: (Thriller) We were suggested that this was possibly the genre as the first scene is an injured boy walking down the middle of the road with a huge wound on his hand and blood everywhere. Also the editing made the screen look blurry which helped give us a feel of what was happening.

Main task brief

The aim is to create the opening two minutes of a new fiction film.