ALL BAR NONE

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to your final product?
Overall from the prelim to our final product I feel that we have improved greatly in many different aspects. For instance, our knowledge and understanding of different camera angles and shots has improved as we noticed from comparing the two videos.
Our understanding of editing has also improved. For our final video we learnt how to change the settings to make our film look older. We also changed the color of the video from color to black and white. I think overall me and the rest of my group have developed our skills and knowledge from basic camera skills to editing and changing a film in order to achieve what we want.
I believe that we have fulfilled the targets we set when filming our prelim. We have definitley used more faster shots and our edits have worked well to flow nicely into eachother. Our film also contains a lot of shot reverse shot which is what we'd of hoped to achieve at the end of our preliminary task.

As you can see from the images there is a great difference between our opening sequence at the top and our prelim at the bottom. Not only has the color and contrast changed but the camera angle is also another skill we have improved on.

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 Whilst constructing our opening sequence the majority of our work was based on using this two way computer to the left. Where we would import our video on the left, edit it then put the new improved video on the right hand screen to watch.

To film our opening sequence and our preliminary task we used this canon camera. We went from learning the basics about the camera, how it works what buttons are where to developing how to use wide shots, extreme close up's, zooming in and out etc. Without the camera our opening sequence wouldn't have worked so all of it relied on this.

Powerpoint was another technology we used to present our presentations of our films to the rest of the class. This worked well as we used a different slide for every different piece of work.

 Blogger is the same website we used to keep track of our work, post regular updates and keep on top of our work.

Finally we used youtube to comapare our video with current films and to find ideas to use in our film.

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?
For our media product our main target audience would be men or women around the age of 30. They would be interested in history, old films, board games and problem solving. They may be interested in films to do with crime, horror, history and mystery. Our ideal audience would be into jazz music or any type of music with a high sort of tempo. This film would appeal to this ideal person as it fulfills all their interests and would leave the them on the edge of their seat.

The picture to the left is the sort of person my ideal person describes. A middle aged women who's lived a bit to know what sort of different and old films there are to discover.

Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A production company is something that spends time and gives money to other companies in order to find their film. 




Our production company is called Macromedia. We could of possibly thought of using Universal to distribute our film as its a well known company and would of made our film well known, quickly. However with low funding and not very well known actors we are unable to do this so for now we will put our film on Youtube and hope that people will watch it and enjoy it. I think our film would mainly attract american's as our social group is american women. I also believe that the best place to distribute our film would be over the internet as most people from our survey said they prefer watching films over the internet and it also gives people from all over the world a chance to see our video not just a small sample of them.


A few videos which are similar to ours are The Big Sleep, Sunset Boulevard, The Black Dahlia and many more. The people included in our titles are Harry Mercer (as the detective) , Helena Griffiths (as the waitress and suspect of murder) , Ellie Birch (suspect and singer in a bar) and Emma Johnson (editor). 

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

For our 1940's film noir we decided that the social group would be based mainly on American women. We came to this decision as the majority of our film is based on women from different class backgrounds who face problems involving another male character. The screen shot above is showing the contrast between the more innocent women behind the bar who's dressed in white, then we have the femme fetale in the background who's dressed in black implying she's more dangerous. We've done this dilibritly to confuse the audience through our use of mise-en-scene so the audience begin to doubt who they can trust.

We've successfully achieved this by our use of costume things such as the red lipstick indicating danger, the waitress in white implying her innocence. However we then brought guns and knifes into it showing the audience the change in personalities throughout the sequence. The attitudes also indicate this as we have the waitress as a more sweet and gulliable character where as the singer comes across as more deciving and evil.

We used a voice over of the detective as the narrator giving the audience more information and a bigger insight into what sort of charatcer he is, letting them play the detective role.

 Here we have Hiliary Swank from the film The Black Dahlia. We have compared the femme fetale from our sequence to Hilary Swank as they both hold a strong personality and show a more sexy and dangerous side.

Here we have Scarlett Johannson who we've compared to our ingenue. They both hold quiet and senstive personalities which indicate the innocence of both characters.

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?                  

For the title to our opening sequence we have challenged the conventions by bringing color into it creating a neo noir. We decided to create this effect for our film as we wanted a more stronger representation of women. The red colors also worked well as they made the more deadly features stand out more for the audience. 

Comparing our title to the one on my left we can see the obvious contrast between the two 'Behind closed doors' we can tell was set back in the 1940's. The contrast of the colors look archaic and old whereas we've included these features as well as some of our own, for instance the red and blue florescent colors bring a more modern feel to our sequence.

Here we have our next title. The font on the left is the font we decided to choose for all of our title sequences. However the font above and the one to my left both share some of the same similarities. This shows how we've brought more of a 1940's feel to our sequence showing a clear contrast between times.

 Our main location was set in a bar where the three characters were based. We tried to give the bar a 1940's feel with the singer in the background and the detective schmoozing the waitress.

 The image below shows how we have tried to keep to the same sort of conventions as a film noir.The image has been taken from a famous scene from the film, The Big Sleep. It's a scene where the detective and the femme fetale share a conversation. We've developed this further by bringing in a third character.

Our next location was based in a bathroom. Where we see one of the femme fatales planning to kill the detective. What we are unaware of is who actually did it. Here we have shown another shot of how we've made our sequence a neo noir with the red lipstick being seen as a deadly sort of prop.

Our last location was an alleyway which we used for a few of our scenes. Here we have a wide over the head shot which includes three characters. We have used low key lighting on the detective and his 'close source' showing something bad is happening. Then we have chosen to use high key lighting in the background where the waitress stands indicating to the audience that somethings about to happen.

Our first prop was a blood stained shirt which we used on detective, Harry. We wanted to show the audience he was dead as briefly as we could. This shot is again reiterating the neo noir we have used.

We then used a 1940's waitress skirt and blouse for this characters role, Helena who played an innocent waitress. However she is down as a suspect for the murder. We created this sort of personality for this character as we wanted to keep the audience guessing and the tension to be quite high throughout our sequence.

Our next character is seen as a more feisty and suspicious character. For her we decided to use red lipstick to show danger and of course reiterate our use of neo noir. Her hair was pinned up and we then used a scarf around the neck and a grey pencil skirt.

The next prop we decided to use was the knife which shimmered behind the detectives head. This was used as an indicator of what sort of person this waitress can actually be, and keeping the audience guessing whether she was capable of the murder or not.

We then used a gun as another prop indicating crime and also death. We had the ingenue seen with this showing a contrast between her innocent personality and what she may or may not have done to our detective.

Our final prop was the poison which was used by our femme fetale. This was used in a bathroom scene where our femme fetale was planning to 'kill' our detective.

During our bar scene we decided to use high key lighting around our ingenue behind the bar again indicating her innocence then we used low key lighting around the background where the femme fetale is showing indangerment and fear.

Here we have used an over head shot of Harry the detective in the middle of a 'deal' with a close source. We decided to use this camera angle as it includes all characters in one shot but also sets the mood and scene of the sequence. High and low key lighting has also been used here.

Next we have the femme fetale who was played by myself. I was dressed in more darker colors as my character held more of a dangerous and darker personality. The red lipstick also reiterates this.

Here we have Helena who played Bonnie our waitress. We dressed Helena in bright colours such as white and purple to indicate to our audience what sort of character she is. Her personality is sweet and quiet however we challenge the conventions with this during our sequence.

Finally we have our shooting schedule which helped us a lot throughout organizing our opening sequence. We arranged scene for a certain day and tried our best to keep to each bit of the schedule. I think the shooting schedule worked successfully as it reminded us of the things we needed to do and kept us organised.

For the detective we had to stain a shirt with fake blood to show the audience he was dead. We decided to do just one shot of blood trying to make it look as realistic as possible.

 The gun was used as a prop to show the audience what sort of weapon the femme fetale may have killed the detective with. We chose to use a gun as the main murder weapon as we felt it represented the 1940's the best.

Characters.
In our opening sequence there are three main characters in total.

Helena who plays one of the suspects of the murder is a bar maid. For this she wears a floaty 1940's skirt with her hair neatly pined up.  We wanted to show the contrast and class difference between Helena and myself who plays a fem fatal. 














Next there is myself, who as I've already mentioned plays the female fem fatal. My character, like Helena's is sly, suspicious and also a suspect of the murder of Eddie Gum who is played by actor Harry. For this part I had to also neatly pin my hair up, wear a 1940's pencil skirt with a neck scarf and red lipstick. 

Finally we have Harry who played the main character, the detective. His characters personality was sly, curious and very deceiving. For his costume we decided to use smart black trousers and black shoes with a white shirt which we customized with fake blood.

Location.
For our sequence we had many ideas as to where we were going to base it. We then came to the decision of basing the majority of the film in a bar. Then outside the bar we are thinking of using mysterious types of places such as alleyways and dark corners. The pictures below show some sorts of ideas as to what we mean.

The Pitch.
For our pitch we gave a 5-10minute presentation off powerpoint explaining and showing the rest of our group what our opening sequence was about and what ideas we had for it. The powerpoint included the following.
1. Film ideas
2. What the films about
3. Costume/prop ideas
4. Story and mood board
5. Conventions of a crime film
6. Genre
7. How to develop and challenge the conventions.

After we did this we got feedback from every other group with two things they liked about our film and one thing we could improve on. Most people said that our ideas were different and imaginative however we could improve by organising the presentation a bit better. The constructive criticism worked well as it will help us to improve and achieve the best we can.

Prop Ideas.
Most of the props we need for our opening sequence are props relating to death. Things such as knifes and guns are all weapons which could possibly be used. However the red lipstick would be for the femme fetale. Not only would it be a prop to suit her character but the red also symbolises danger and death. Then finally we have the poison which we believe will be used by one of the suspects as they are planning to kill the detective.

Costume Ideas.
For our film noir we have a wide range of thoughts and ideas as to what sort of costume our actors are going to be wearing. As it was set in the 1940's we understand that costume is vital in order for our film to work successfully. Below are some images of our ideas for our film.

Script.
Throughout our intire script the dialogue only consists of our main character narrating all the way through our opening sequence. He is telling the audience his story aswell as describing the other characters.We felt this would be a more effective way of letting the audience know what sort of character he is, if it's making them feel sympathy for him or the complete opposite it still brings a more personal relationship between the audience and characters.
As we decided to base our theme as film noir our main speaker also tends to talk in riddles. Given this we thought it would make the audience more kean to watch more as the dialogue will be as complicated as it can be leaving the audience guessing.

Script
Eddie Gum: There are many reasons as to why im lieng here now (pause) some Im aware of.
 It all began five weeks back, the seventh of november 1945.
And now I will tell you my story and how it came to an end.
The city has many faces. A close source of mine brought me here to suss out some dodgy deals.
They were closer to me than i'd imagined.
It was those words she spoke so softly that lured me into this mess.
Only time will tell who it is I can trust around these towns.
 How many things this sky has seen is beyond me.
A voice of an angel was pulling me over (pause) but I will not be fooled again.
 I thought I could trust her but the other one with those red lips (pause) she was dangerous.
She held many secrets of her own but some girls you can't help but fall for they just lure you in and you know instantly, your a dead man.
I was in too deep, thought I got the better of them seems that the tables had already turned. Who was I to trust? (pause) the people who I trusted were they on my side?
But Im getting ahead of myself (pause) let me start again.

Storyboard.
For part of our task to become complete we had to produce a story board which contained every single shot during our sequence. We have used a variety of shots including extreme close up's, medium close up's, over the head shots and so on.
Doing this gave us a positive over view of what we were planning to achieve from our sequence.

1. The first image on our story board is showing the close up of the detectives eyes as the camera slowly zooms out.
2. The next drawing shows a wide shot of the detective lying down dead as the camera slowly fades into another shot.
3. We then have a shot of the detective walking into the bar where we then meet the two other characters.
4.The next shot shows the man in the bar where he's about to meet one of the female characters.
5. Shot 5 shows the two characters meeting in the bar as the detective tries to sweet talk the waitress.
6.We now have the shot of the singer in the bar as the detective lays eyes on her.
7. A foot shot of the singer slowly rising up to her face.
8. A wide shot of the singer and the crowd below her.
9. A close up of the detectives face.
10. The detective sitting at the bar whilst the waitess is behind the bar working.
11. A quick shot of the waitress polishing a knife while her eyes are sharply set on the detective.
12. The detective and waitress walking out together and the singer watches from behind.

Audience research results from survey. 
For our exam piece to be successful and to be enjoyed by an audience we all had to take part in a survey gathering results which would help us to make improvements to our opening sequence. Each group made ten or more of their own questions. Ours were:

•  Are you male or female?
• What is your age?
• What's your favourite genre?
• How often do you visit the cinema?
• How much are you willing to pay at the cinema?
• What ways do you best enjoy watching a film?
• Would the film put you off if it was over 2 hours long?
• Would it put you off a film if it was in black and white?
• What day do you prefer going to the cinema?
• Do you prefer watching more modern or old films?

All the questions we asked had multiple choice answers so the student had a range of answers to choose from. 
Overall we found that the majority of people only visited the cinema once a month, the average age was around 16 and £6.00 was the average amount they were willing to pay. Most people either enjoyed going to the cinema to watch a film or to go online. They would not be put off if a film was over 2 hours long and most people said a film in black and white wouldnt put them off watching it either. Friday nights was the prefered day and time to go to the cinema and we found that the majority prefered to watch more modern films.

Mood Board.

As our opening sequence is a film noir all of our images were produced in black and white. We also decided to make all our images relevant to our sequence. For example, the image of an alleyway was used on our mood board and an alley way is one of our main locations throughout our sequence. The mood board has helped so far as a easy way to link things back to our work making sure all our ideas have been used successfully. 

Analysis of a title sequence.
For the analysis of a title sequence I chose to create a spider diagram and list off all the purposes of having a title/opening sequence. They were:
1. Cast and crew
2. Establish genre
3. Quality
4. Setting the story line
5. Time/period
6. Makes the audience interested
7. Gives the film a different structure
8. Plot
9. Characters
10. Raise interest-enigma.
Hopefully all the above will be achieved whilst making our opening sequence as I feel that all points from above would create a very successful title sequence.

Conventions of a crime genre.
Our next task, dealt with looking at the conventions of a crime genre. This could come in handy during our exam so we know what types of things to include in our opening sequence.
We were shown a number of images and video clips which were in relation to crime films. One of these was a James Bond opening sequence. The majority of the sequence consisted of gambling cards making the genre clear for us. We found that the cards could of  represented guns and violence and we also figured out that the different colours of the cards, could of represented the different types of people in the film.


From all the images and clips we'd seen we had come to the conclusion that all crime films include weapons such as guns and knifes. They all contain some sort of violence and fighting scenes. The majority of crime films also included a strong female character such as a fem fatal. 

Above is a video if a typical crime video which meets all the criteria and demands of a crime video. It also includes all the main features I have already dicussed.

Preliminary Task.
The first task we were set was the Prelim task. For this we had to get into the same groups for our final exam and do a brief bit of filming showing the examiner how we can use the camera properly. For ours we acted out a parents evening. In this we included the three basic rules:

1. 180 degree rule - A cut which splices together shots (two) making it seem to continue uninterrupted. 

2. Shot reverse shot - Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters typically in a conversation situation. It is vital that the eye line must match.

3. Match on action - Two characters in the same scene must always have the same left/right relationship to each other. They should never cross the line.

If we were to do this task again I think the three things we could improve are:

1. More shot reverse shot

2. Edits that flow into each other a bit more

3. Faster shots

Overall i felt the three of us worked well to make our prelim task successful. I felt the majority of the camera shots worked well in particular the over the head shots and the and shot reverse shots. I felt we understood what was expected from the preliminary task and worked well as a group to do this.

Ellie Helena Emma Prelim

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Ellie.