Final piece.

Hannah Matthews
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our final piece was based on the genre Film Noir. In previous lessons and for homework I researched and analysed the openings of other Film Noir’s. When it came to planning a storyline for the final piece, I used what I had found to influence what I was making. I noticed that a lot of the films that I was watching opened with an enigma. I also noticed specific characters that a lot of the films used. There was generally a femme fatale used, who would be very manipulating and a very strong character. There was also generally a detective type person and a male character for the femme fatale to manipulate. Also, in a lot of Film Noir’s, the editing and effects and what was shot are very similar, for example, they were generally shot in black and white, (although this could be due to the lack of colour film in them days), flashbacks are a very popular sequence and so are effects such as the venison blind effect. The locations were generally smokey bars and hotel rooms and relatively ‘dodgy’.
All of these things I thought about and took into consideration. A lot of these things me and my group decided to use. We use the types of characters, the enigma in the opening and our location suited the Film Noir style. The films that I analysed helped a lot in the planning process of our Film Noir Opening.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There are three characters represented in my groups opening sequence. The femme fatale in the sequence is represented as a very strong, powerful character. She is very much in charge of the situation in the cellar. Although this character is undermined by the ‘Mr Big’ character. Until she rebels and doesn’t do as he says when it comes to killing the other character. She is independent woman. This is shown by the way she dresses and the way she walks around the cellar. The ‘Mr Big’ character is not on screen for long in the opening sequence but he is still represented as a no-good, dangerous, powerful man. This is shown in how he has the power to order someone to be killed and not feel anyway about it. The other character, the one who is tied up, is represented as a very weak character that was taken in by the femme fatales sexuality and he is now in a situation that he has no control over. This is shown by the way that he tied up for the majority of the sequence and how he didn’t put up a fight when he met the femme fatale in the street and she was abruptly taken away by her boyfriend.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As our film opening would be produced on a small budget, our film would probably have a small marketing budget and only be known by word of mouth. It may start off by being screened at small independent events such as film festivals. E.g. Edinburgh Film Festival. Then, hopefully it would be talked about and it would be possible that a small independent distribution company, such as, Big Arty Pictures, Warp Films or Film Four, would be interested in distributing it to a few small art-houses around the country and it would slowly grow and make money. This is not an unknown way of a film producing money, for example The Blair Witch Project was produced and marketed for $60,000 and initially marketed online as a real story creating hype. This film was talked about and shown at small places, then captured the imagination of the public and went on to make around $248 million dollars world wide.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The majority of people that go to the cinema are people aged between 15 and 24. On average this age range would visit the cinema about once a month. Our films could be rated either PG, 12, 12A, 15 or 18. I would our opening sequence at a 12A. I think this because although there is minimal or no swearing in our film, there is scenes of violence but this is not dwelled on too much and is not shown in to much detail. I have been onto the BBFC website and looked at there classifications. This is what they say about violence in a film rated 12A. ‘Violence must now dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated.’ When I was in the planning stages of our final piece, we carried out a questionnaire on a variety of people of a variety of ages. With this information we was able to decide what appealed to the age range we intended this to be aimed at and was therefore able to incorporate this into our Film Noir opening. The way in which we attracted our audience was by using our questionnaire and making sure this was somehow put into the opening.
How did you attract your audience?
The characters that we used were teenagers around the intended audience’s age. By doing this the audience can relate to the characters and some of them may even be able to relate the situations the characters find themselves in. the titles we used were very to date. We also tried to do this with the costumes and locations. All of our locations we used were real locations, making the opening seem more realistic.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the planning stages I found that it was very helpful to stay in contact with other members of my group throughout the week and the weekend and also holidays. By doing this we were able to keep up to date with what was being done and when it was being done. This made things a lot easier and I knew what I had to do and when it had to be done by.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
During the whole time it has taken us to plan, produce and edit our opening sequence, I have learnt a lot. I have learnt a lot of technical terminology. I have how and why different shots are used, such as, point of view, over the shoulder, long shot, mid shot, close up, extreme close up. I have also learnt many of the rules when it comes to producing a film. Rules such as, 30 degree line rule, 180 degree line rule, match on action, continuity. I learnt how important research was in making a film. Without the research I carried out on film noir’s and other opening sequences, I would have found it very hard to know what to put in the sequence and how to plan it out.
I think I have made massive improvements since me and my partner filmed The Preliminary. There were many things that went wrong with our preliminary. Things such as, match on action and continuity. These were things that we saw as not too important in the early stages of our media as course. There was also not much planning involved in our preliminary which is maybe where things went wrong. I have found that planning is a crucial part of making and producing any type of film. If the planning stages are missed out then important parts of the product get left out or forgotten about. The way that I can now use lighting, location, costume, make up and camera angles and shots have improved the quality of my practical work immensely. I know now why and how techniques are used to make the audience feel a certain way about a character or a location. Over the time that we have filmed three different sequences, I feel that I have grown a lot more confident within every aspect of planning, producing and editing a film sequence.