In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The ways in which my media product (film) challenges forms and conventions of a real media product is the inspiration I got from researching films within the same genre as my own, made by Guy Ritchie. I went about research of his films, by watching the opening scenes and analysing camera shots, edits etc. I feel watching the opening scenes it helped to replicate some of the features from Guy Ritchie’s films and incorporate them within my own. The films which I researched were, ‘Lock Stock and two smoking Barrels’, ‘Snatch’ and ‘RockNRolla’, the genre of these films are the underworld of crime within London. Within these films there was wide use of old London accents and Cockney slang, which I incorporated into my product. Because my film is based on the underworld crime era that London faced, to improve my product I replicated many generic features from the above films and implemented them into my own. From initial planning and research myself and Ben strayed away from many of our first ideas, keeping to the main idea, we decided to cut out some other features of the film, in order to not run over the time limit. In total I feel we accomplished what we wanted, with perhaps a longer running time we may have produced what we first embarked on, but all in all, I was very happy with what we produced. With the decision making process, we decided to not to add flashback scenes into our product, one because of timing but also because the fact it’s an opening scene, you do not want to give to much for your viewers to take on board. We also set out having London Gangsters and Russian, and also an Italian, we kept the initial plan of London and Russian gang members but decided to get rid of the Italian act due to struggles with getting the accent right when filming, which is why we decided to make the character an opposing London Gang mobster. When looking at forms of conventions used in the above films, I replicated features such as types of characters and editing techniques in my own product. In Rock N Rolla, there is a clash between London and Russian mobsters, which is what I have incorporated in my film, editing sequences such as character/actor names were shown on first appearances.
The convention of my film which I developed was the genre of London underground crime. This was presented using both Mise-en-scene representation, and characters. The film was shot inside a garage, which had good framing for many of our camera shots and it had little light, making it perfect for setting the scene to gangster ‘hideout’. The darkness gave the sense of that the Mobster’s were not looking to be found and were keeping the ordeals to minimum and to themselves. The Mise-en-scene of our film is replicated in Snatch, whereby meetings are normally held in a old and dull caravan, however it challenges the mise-en-scene in Rock N Rolla. This is because the mobsters in this film are successful in their area of work and have obviously rose in the ranks, allowing them to use money to buy respect and identity, this is shown where the Russian Boss, is seen having a one to one with his accountant on a luxury yacht, the London boss is shown to have a rich background and is shown to be based in a prestigious home, whereby his office/study is very well lit, grand paintings on the walls etc.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The specific social groups we targeted with our media product, were male who were ranged at the age of 16 to mid twenties, however we hoped it could still aspire to older generations, considering I’m 17 my dad still enjoys watching films which I enjoy watching such as ‘RockNRolla’. All the cast in my production were white males, so ethnicity wise our product would most dominantly appeal to white British males. Our film would most likely appeal to either middle class or working class people as, the film is established in a time where crime was common, and gangs were in action. Our production hasn’t appealed to social groups who may suffer from disability; however I do not think they would not enjoy it still. I feel in my production I have targeted and represented the social groups successful whereby the cast were all at a similar age to which the audience would be, clothing used, was shirt and tie etc, however as there was a sense of professionalism and pride within gangs status, I feel viewers would aspire, as they would see it as cool to be a gangster, as I know I do when I watch films.
Many films of today represent social groups by having the storyline and actors playing the life that many people may find them selves in, such as ‘Kidult hood’ & ‘Adult Hood’, whereby this film presents the life of crime and gang rivalry which mainly portrays the life of black teenagers. The way in which my film represents a particular social group, is not those involved in gang rivalry or crime, but in most cases when watching a film, the audience wish to be in the position of the actor. Peter Pan is a good example; many children wish they could aspire to be Peter Pan, so the use of having comedy in my Film gives the audience to be like the cast of my film whereby they are smooth, funny and subtle
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
If I were to produce my film the different studios that would originate with my particular product, would include the following, many of which have been associated with Films produced by Guy Ritchie; 20th Century Fox, Paramount motion pictures and Blue Sky Studios. In the past these studios have helped to produce films mentioned earlier, such as Snatch. A film that is due to be released in the future would be the sequel to Rock N Rolla.
Studios that were associated with distributing the films directed with Guy Ritchie would be likely to produce mine as they have already had experience wit the genre of the film, and the success that comes with this type of film. This would mean they would have a lot of expertise and input when helping to produce my film.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience for my media product are for males aged between 16 to early 20s, as my film would contain footage requiring maturity, and the comedy would be aimed specifically at a male audience of a certain age. My audience interests would contain action, obviously in my product this would contain gang warfare, however the audience would also look for comedy throughout, which is what I have aimed to accomplish in my product.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The ways in which I attracted my audience is through the use of comedy, also the age of the actors appeal to ages of the potential audience. Decisions made throughout my product included replicating successful films with the similar generic features which I hope to relate to my own. Many provisional plans were changed, as mentioned earlier I decided to cut out the idea of having flashbacks, considering I wanted my opening scene to be fast paced; I did not want the audience to have to go backwards and forwards in the first few minutes. In the end this was successful, as we show cased our product to fellow class mates, who enjoyed our product and felt happy with not bearing witness to flashbacks, as it may have been confusing.
With reference to presenting our film to classmates in order to get feedback on our product, a lot of the feedback gave credit to the editing and titles, the editing consisted of fades which meant the cuts from different scenes were clean and smooth, it was not jumpy, the title sequence was at a continuous pace with the film, the music also helped to make film have some character, much of the feedback complimented the music on the job it did of setting scenes, especially when it “kicked it”.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When taking on the task of producing an opening scene to a film, I was confronted by various technologies, which by the end I have overcome. I learned to use a camera in way that focused on using certain camera shots, rather than filming it Rambo style so to speak. I kept an organised structure when filming, as we had produced a storyboard and a script; as a result of filming I have become more confident when using a camera, other hardware I have come a custom to include iMovies on the MAC. This hardware allowed me to edit my film, to make final touches and cut it down to what I wanted.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?
When looking back to my preliminary task, it is clear I have come a long way since the first time I interacted with various hardware and the Media Course itself, I became more mature in my work and made sure Ben and I were organised. When making a prelim, our group was very rushed, to be perfectly honest our product was made using improvisation; we had neither script nor storyboard. So when it came to my making my product, I produced both a storyboard and a script. Our skills in acting and the use of the camera most definitely improved, as we took it seriously and took professional stance towards making our opening scene.
When looking at difference between our final product and looking at the prelim it is clear our creativity was a lot more successful, this may have been due to a different location whereby our prelim had to be filmed at school, with our product we were aloud to film at different location, either locally in Portishead or even head up to Bristol to film different scenes to help with mise-en-scene and the representation of different characters. Our organisation skills were a lot better as well compared to our prelim whereby we had a script and a storyboard to work from, in our prelim many of the scenes and dialogue were improvisational and made up on the spot.
Monday, 22 March 2010
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Email to Black Strobe, regarding permission for music
When we had completed our product the finishing touch was the right music which would correspond to our opening scene, the best piece of music which did this perfect was 'I'm a man, by Black Strobe, below is the letter I emailed requesting permission to use the piece.
Dear Sirs,
My name is Jack Pollock and I'm writing to you to request permission to use a piece of your Music 'I'm a man' in our AS Media product. This project is by no means looking to make any profits or be distributed, it is for the sole purpose of using it in our coursework.
Any credits regarding the music, will most definitely be aimed to Black Strobe.
Yours Sincerely,
Dear Sirs,
My name is Jack Pollock and I'm writing to you to request permission to use a piece of your Music 'I'm a man' in our AS Media product. This project is by no means looking to make any profits or be distributed, it is for the sole purpose of using it in our coursework.
Any credits regarding the music, will most definitely be aimed to Black Strobe.
Yours Sincerely,
Audience Feedback on our Product
In our Media lesson, we presented our product to fellow classmates and asked them to write down on paper, what they thought about our film, this included wha they liked, disliked what could be improved etc.
Response 1. I really liked how the music chosen flowed with the pace of the film, especially when it kick's in on the part where the Russians, walk past Vincent who is hiding from them. There was a really comical side to the film which is what i think was intended, considering it was a gangster opening i really liked the humour side to it. There were some camera shots which i disliked, such as the P.O.V shot at the end, i felt more quick shots could of been used in order to help with the cuts in editing. Any improvements would include actors who most likely enjoy acting for example drama students, in this case the cast were friends of Ben and Jack, so fimlimg may not of been taken seriously.
Response 2. The film overall was really enjoyable to wacth, it had a good variety of shots and a funny cast. I thought the editing was really well done with the flow and continunity of the edits which mentioned 'studios' and 'produced by' had a nice pace and flow with the product. The Mise-en-scene was unique in both a wierd way but also a comical way, considering these are potentially dangerous gangsters, they are holding what seems to be disputes and meetings in a familly garage.
Response 3. The film had a really nice touch which is often found in Guy Ritchie productions, for example the use of gangsters, some of the editing can be replicated from Guy Ritchie films, so it was cool to see the source of inspiration from an iconic figure. The factor i enjoyed most was the idea of having comedy is a film which is revolved around violence and gang rivalry, it was different, it was unique. Improvements would be things such as camera shots, the POV shot at the end was rather messy but im sure there were reasons for this. I also liked the choice of music, i felt it incorporated itself within the product.
Response 1. I really liked how the music chosen flowed with the pace of the film, especially when it kick's in on the part where the Russians, walk past Vincent who is hiding from them. There was a really comical side to the film which is what i think was intended, considering it was a gangster opening i really liked the humour side to it. There were some camera shots which i disliked, such as the P.O.V shot at the end, i felt more quick shots could of been used in order to help with the cuts in editing. Any improvements would include actors who most likely enjoy acting for example drama students, in this case the cast were friends of Ben and Jack, so fimlimg may not of been taken seriously.
Response 2. The film overall was really enjoyable to wacth, it had a good variety of shots and a funny cast. I thought the editing was really well done with the flow and continunity of the edits which mentioned 'studios' and 'produced by' had a nice pace and flow with the product. The Mise-en-scene was unique in both a wierd way but also a comical way, considering these are potentially dangerous gangsters, they are holding what seems to be disputes and meetings in a familly garage.
Response 3. The film had a really nice touch which is often found in Guy Ritchie productions, for example the use of gangsters, some of the editing can be replicated from Guy Ritchie films, so it was cool to see the source of inspiration from an iconic figure. The factor i enjoyed most was the idea of having comedy is a film which is revolved around violence and gang rivalry, it was different, it was unique. Improvements would be things such as camera shots, the POV shot at the end was rather messy but im sure there were reasons for this. I also liked the choice of music, i felt it incorporated itself within the product.
Decision Process
When planning and researching my product along with Ben, we had a variety of initial ideas, ideas including flashbacks, an Italian Character and a number of different scenes.
When it came to the final decision making process, many of our initial ideas were abandoned:
1. No Flashbacks
2. No Italian Character
3. A number of scenes planned were scrapped
Many of these decisions to get rid of the above were down to timing of the product as we didn't want to run over the alotted time that we had (2 minutes), this was mainly the reason for the flashbacks.
The reason for getting rid of the Italian character was due to the difficulty of pulling off the accent, and shhoting scenes in the perfect Mise-en-scene, such as an Italian Resturant; as this would help to establish the characters nationalitie; however being unable to film in a resturant or pull off the accent, meant it was easier to change the actor to 'Jimmy the Hustler' a rival London Gangster.
Linking with the Flashback's, provisional scenes such as one in an Italian resturant was neglected, as already mentioned; being unable to film on the premises and because of the trouble of timing. We also found that with too many scenes, including flashbacks; would disoreintate the audience. So we felt that keeping it simple would help the flow of the Film.
We did however add some features which we had not planned, this was mainly incorporated when editing the product, such as having the characters name appear in the Characters first appearence, this was frequently used in films directed by Guy Ritchie. Another feature which we had not planned was the Point of View shot at the end of the film, although very shaky, this was intended in order to represent to fear of 'Archie' and the uncertainty of what was about to happen.
When it came to the final decision making process, many of our initial ideas were abandoned:
1. No Flashbacks
2. No Italian Character
3. A number of scenes planned were scrapped
Many of these decisions to get rid of the above were down to timing of the product as we didn't want to run over the alotted time that we had (2 minutes), this was mainly the reason for the flashbacks.
The reason for getting rid of the Italian character was due to the difficulty of pulling off the accent, and shhoting scenes in the perfect Mise-en-scene, such as an Italian Resturant; as this would help to establish the characters nationalitie; however being unable to film in a resturant or pull off the accent, meant it was easier to change the actor to 'Jimmy the Hustler' a rival London Gangster.
Linking with the Flashback's, provisional scenes such as one in an Italian resturant was neglected, as already mentioned; being unable to film on the premises and because of the trouble of timing. We also found that with too many scenes, including flashbacks; would disoreintate the audience. So we felt that keeping it simple would help the flow of the Film.
We did however add some features which we had not planned, this was mainly incorporated when editing the product, such as having the characters name appear in the Characters first appearence, this was frequently used in films directed by Guy Ritchie. Another feature which we had not planned was the Point of View shot at the end of the film, although very shaky, this was intended in order to represent to fear of 'Archie' and the uncertainty of what was about to happen.