Note to the moderator
Note to the moderator-
As you probably already know, the video for our final piece; 'Femme Fatal' has unfortunatley been deleted off of the school system due to the media computer crashing, so even our back up has been lost. We hope you please take into consideration whats happened. We will be very greatful.
Thankyou
Evaluation question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task- what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
When I look back to when I did the preliminary task, I remember that I hadn’t done media before so I was all new to the subject. I didn’t have the knowledge that I have now regarding what we had to do, what angles we had to film from, what props are most suitable, actors, story line etc. We didn’t plan a story board that which was a big mistake, because we thought it would be easier to do it after because it would have been more accurate; encase we changed anything about the filming. This was the wrong thing to do because we hadn’t any plans of action or objectives. So when it came to filming we didn’t all have the same knowledge and idea in our heads on what we were going to do. This time, doing the final task we made sure we did as much story beards, mood boards, research and planning as we could in the given time we had until we began filming. I found this was a lot more efficient because we all pictured exactly how it was going to go. In our preliminary task we changed our idea half way through, after we had already nearly completed the filming. This is because our initial idea was to be in a small room with widows in the downstairs of our school, we was having one girl hold 2 girls hostage. But we all agreed that the story line wasn’t realistic as the villain didn’t have any weapons and managed to hold 2 girls her size and age hostage. We also didn’t like the room because it had windows in the doors and bright lights shining in from along the hall; failing to give off the ‘thriller’ theme we were going for. We changed it completely to a room upstairs in the school which was like an old library, no windows and the walls were made of thick oak; giving off a dark, mysterious feel. As well as changing the setting we also slightly mixed the storyline around by making one of the girls being held hostage a villain. This is because it was more realistic and the overall video had a much better outcome. Last minute we found a massive hall that looked like a church and agreed to do the final filming in there, to give the idea one more shot. We did the same story line but made it so that one of the two villains wife was actually the hostage so it created a more dramatic atmosphere. The church was a lot better to work in because it went well with the theme because people find churches creepy, and they can relate back to death alot better than a library. After changing the setting and story line so many times we improved our work by a great amount. This showed me that it is okay to change your ideas around a little and you don’t always have to stick with your initial idea because there is always room for improvement. Hence why in our final task we did research and planning on a ‘Rom-Com’ and actually filmed and edited but then decided that the idea didn’t play up to what we thought it would be like and didn’t show our full potential or skills enough. We changed it to a completely different genre which was an ‘Action thriller’ about spy’s, in the heart of London. We was a lot more impressed with this idea and after travelling around the sites of London and researching into the genre as much as possible, the overall film opening was brilliant and we couldn’t have been happier.
I feel like between the journey from my preliminary task to my final task was a very long, full filled journey icluding alot of learning and new skills along the way. i found i improved in my editing skills and also imporoved in my camera work and basic knowledge the most.i have learned alot about camera shots and the importance of them. for example shots taken from a low angle shows the importance of a person. i took this knowledge and incorporated it in to my filming for the final piece. Alot of the shots of the main characters who were independant, high class spys are taken from a low angle. i found this portrayed their significance and their crucial role in the film opening. In comparision to the preliminary task video, there are no shots that indicate anything throughout the clip. This is because i had no knowledge then or any experience on what will look best and which angles suit the scene or character. one camera shot we did do on our preliminary task was the close up at the end which was our 'match on acton'. We used basic straight cuts in our preliminary task, whereas in our final task 'Femme Fatal' we experimented a bit more and included the usage of dissolve shots and also did an effect where we flicked from shot to shot to build tension and keep the audience intruieged. below is the video link for my preliminary task final video:
Evaluation Question 6
what have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
camera, computer programmes used: fireworks, editing software, prezi, movie maker, slide share and basics like word and power point
camera
we used a jvc mini dv camera which was one from home as we felt it gave us a better quality as we had previously tried to use a photography camera to film and made our video too pixelated when converted onto the computer. we worked as a team taking turns filming different scenes and all gained knowledge of how to use/work the camera which angles were best and what gave you best shot relating back to things like the lighting how that affected the shot and if something was in the corner of the screen and making it a better shot by shooting it at a different angle. we used a hand held camera as we wanted it to have the effect of it being from someone's point of view at aspects like a camera following them watching them complete their tasks and we used filming out of the window of the taxi to show scenery and to let the audience know where the film was to be set by filming land marks and scenery of London by having handheld it allowed us to have tracking shots and different angles from the taxi whilst driving again giving the effect of it being from a person's point of view who is in the taxi.
computers
we used basic school computers provided for us from our media department we used many different types of programmes to create our final product and to present the idea through research and planning. we used the editing software: Adobe Premier Pro although we found the software difficult to work with at first we all adapted and can now do things we had no clue how to do in the beginning like creating a freeze frame and adding text around and importing music to play during the footage and simple skills like that we feel this will help us in the future as we will now be less worried to use a more technical type of software that will have greater impact on footage and clips.
we used adobe fireworks image editing software to create our production logo used in our opening. we used this software with confidence as had used it before in previous subjects and projects meaning we could use the software to our advantage adding features that we would find more difficult to do if we hadn't previously used it. we created a logo from combining two images found from Google and overlaying them in 'layers' to create the background image and then adding text in two different colors to stand out on both sides of the image. by knowing the programme it enabled us to work quickly on the logo task and carry on with things like the editing software which we were not as confident with in the beginning.
we used a new presentation format to create a more aesthetically pleasing presentation on our research and planning. we used a website called prezi which allows you to create a journey through a motion and more interactive PowerPoint style format. although at first we had to adjust to the new programme and more interactive it is than a power point we all as a group picked up how to work it very quickly and feel this benefited us because we were able to present out ideas in a more interesting way.
YouTube helped us to find our music used in the opening as we could find people who had created their own spy genre music to fit with different types of situations including a wide variety and having a choice of instrumental or lyrical.
we used a website called ''dafont.com'' to find a type of font this website helped us because on the site they have different categories and as ours was Russian based they have fonts that have Russian style theme and also spy genre theme meaning we could analyse and pick which type of font was best for our opening of the film.
overall in the end we feel we have gained many skills through this coursework as we now know how to use a camera successfully creating different shots and angles effectively, use prezi to create more interesting presentations and fireworks to create images to match our ideas and put with our own twist on to make it unique to us.
Initial Pitch Presentation 2
Before we came up with the idea of doing the action genre, we had thought up an idea of doing a film opening called 'Sweet Nothing' which was a Rom Com so completlety different to Femme Fatal. We decided not to use this as our final peice because it wasnt as efficient as we thought it was going to be; although we found it helped as alot with completing our final piece because it gave us great experience.
Initial Pitch
Before we came up with the idea of doing the action genre, we had thought up an idea of doing a film opening called 'Sweet Nothing' which was a Rom Com so completlety different to Femme Fatal. We decided not to use this as our final peice because it wasnt as efficient as we thought it was going to be; although we found it helped as alot with completing our final piece because it gave us great experience.
Evaluation Question 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our film varies, it would probaby appeal to poeple between the ages of 15 to around 25. This is because there is alot of action in the movie aswell as entertainment. The action involves gunss and knifes so it points itself towards the sector of an older audience. Whereas the majority of main characters and all relatively young therefore appeals to younger people around the age of 15 and above.
For example, the picture displayed is of a teenage girl that we think fits the criteria for the target audience. Her name is Alice, she is at college. She is 18 years old. Her favourite genre of film is action thriller; this is because she is full of energy and enjoys her heart racing and keeping up with action movies. She is a big 'Charlie's angels' and 'Spy kids' fan. Alice enjoys internet shopping, downloading music and watching films at the cinema. She is a self confessed technology addict, meaning that she loves to surf the internet and buy new movies to watch and songs to listen to. This would mean that Alice would come across alot of our advertising as we have planned to launch alot of our marketing through socail networking. This also would mean that once the film is released she will be able to download it as soon as possible from websites such a 'Netflix' and 'Love film'. Seeing as Alice is a student she doesnt have necesserily high income, meaning that it would be cheaper for her to wait for the movie to come out on the online sites, rather than pay to go to the cinema. She said that her favourite high street stores are HMV, WHSMITHS and newlook. This is because she likes seeing and purchasing all the new cd's and films that are in the charts in HMV, she enjoys looking through the books in WHSMITHS learning new things everyday and reading action thriller books. She likes New Look because she enjoys fashion and dressing well. Her favourite action character in 'Charlie's angels' is Cameron Diaz; who of which she aspires to be like, and enjoys watching her in movies as she idolizes young, modern, sexy, sophisticated actresses; not only for their class and character but also for their beauty and fashion sense. We hope that Alice will feel the same way about the 3 main characters we have chosen to use as they are veey much alike the 'Cameron Diaz' persona, and have fashion sense that will appeal to girls of Alices age. Alice's favourite genre of music is varied, this reflects on the films she enjoys to watch because they are so versitile. She said she likes Stone Roses, Likke Li and Conor Maynard.
The settings we used (The embankment, Westminster London and MI5 building), would draw an audience in because London is the capital of the UK therefore a big site seeing area, full of tourists. Many people that dont get the oppertunity to experience London and the whole feel of the fantastic city love to watched films based there because they find intrest and are amused by the sites.
Like every film, we would have an unexpected target audience, this is because our genre can appeal to older people too, because they like putting the puzzle pieces together, aswell as enjoying watching attractive young girls, and fighting and collisions. Another audience our film could appeal to could be foreigners of all ages, this is because the film shows alot of the city, and not stereotypical english girls, as they are Russian. This could also appeal to russian people and get a good response because they arent used popularly in films much these days, and we decicded to air them as our main characters.
Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our film opening appeals directly to particular teenage to young adult social groups; to both gender. Obviously is depends on the audiences personality because our film is an action, for example if their personality is quite adventurous and appeals to excitement and putting the clues together they will enjoy our film. A person who is reserved and quiet may not enjoy our movie genre because it might not meet their specification of a good film.
Our film opening is generally aimed at people who are out going, lively, like using their initiative and get a thrill out of mysteries pack with violence. We have shown the representation of gender through our usage of characters. We have used mainly women for the strong independent roles. This is showing our audience a different segmentation of spy films. This could appeal to a lot of feminists and women who believe that watching other women play roles of strong men is inspirational.
Our film doesn’t represent anything childish or too mature so it fits well with the target audience of young adults. This is because it shows a lot of explicit violence but also requires the knowledge and common sense to keep up with the story line as well as the knowledge of London. For example not everyone will know that one of the buildings we show in the opening is the MI5 building.
I think our film makes a lot of people aware that not every spy and secret agent is a man in a suit. And shows society the reality of the industry could potentially be completely opposite to the stereotype. This probably wouldn’t appeal to the male audience however the fact that there are 3 young attractive sophisticated girls could appeal to a lot to them for personal reasons. We have used 3 very different looking girls, one dark Asian looking girl, one with tanned skin and very short, bleached hair, and another with long thick fair hair and pale skin. They aren’t your typical Russian looking girls so when they start to speak it is surprising. A lot of males find the Russian accent sexy and provocative. Also by using girls that appear to look like different ethnic minorities could appeal to a lot more audience. This is because when you use for example all black people in a film a lot of white and Asian people don’t find it fair and the film doesn’t appeal to them as much as it would with a mixture.
We also portrayed the girls as high class, with the technological ear pieces, money to pay for black cabs all around London, the way they were dressed in expensive black sophisticated clothing and lastly the designer bag used. A lot of younger girls find women with high maintenance inspirational and aspire to be like them with the designer bags and expensive clothes.
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