Evaluative question 7:Looking back at your preliminary task, what have you learned from the progression from it to your final product?

This is a video I made outlining the main things that I have learned in progression from my preliminary task, in overview, the main things that I have learned are how to portray an appropriate message through the use of mise en scene, sound, editing and camera and how to edit sound effectively so that I can create the correct atmosphere and aim for realistic foley.

Sorry for mumbling (and the background squeaking)

Evaluation question 6: What have I learned about technologies from this task?

I created my evaluation question 6 on pixton however the technology let me down so I have had to post it as a screenshot.

Evaluation question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

The first time we addressed our audience was when we delivered our pitch to the group explaining what was going to happen in our drama piece, it was useful to do a pitch as it allowed us to immediately see who our target audience should be by gauging peoples responses to the idea of our film opening. Furthermore it was helpful to deliver a pitch as it allowed us to receive feedback early on in the creative process so that we could stem our ideas from the suggestions from the group, when we delivered our pitch we got rather good feedback from the majority of the class, all saying that the film idea sounded promising and engaging. 

When we showed our class or product it was in an unfinished state, with the sound effects not completed and the titles not put in, however we still got valuable feedback from the group, saying that the whole piece should be in black and white as the transition from coloured to black and white was confusing and it would add to the mood of the piece having it without colour.

We also showed our piece to a more primary audience (16 year old male) who said that the out of focus sections are effective and that the change to black and white was disorientating.

Evaluation question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3: What type of institution might distribute your film and why?

Evaluation question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents modern youth as a social group, this group is already portrayed in a rather negative light by the media and our product definitely conforms to these conventions. the modern media portrays youth as being reckless and loud, overall a nuisance, if not a threat. this can be seen in such films as Kidulthood, where the main characters (a group of London youths) are often seen committing violent acts, attacking people and other socially frowned upon acts.



Our media product conforms with this stereotypes as within it young people are shown dragging someone into a boot and at the end of the piece a gunshot is heard, implying that someone has been shot.

Not only does our product represent youth as troublemakers and a nuisance, it develops this stereotype even further, displaying them as criminals and murderers, which I think is a shocking image to viewers and creates quite an impact upon the audience.

Evaluation question 1: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Final piece

Sound editing in premier pro

These are screenshots from whilst editing the sound for my final piece, the first shows me adding among the first sound effects to the piece.

In this next screenshot you can see that the sounds have progressed greatly, however due to the time pressure that I was under I didn't take as many screenshots as I perhaps should have to document the process, however it mainly consisted of adding sound effects from the internet and trimming them so that they are the right length.

Sound Production and editing

I tried out a vary of different techniques to add sound to our media piece, my original idea was to create a backing track on the Ipad version of garageband, I managed to create some pieces that didn't sound terrible, however I found it quite hard to create a piece that had the right atmosphere for the piece.

This is what the garageband layout looks like.

These are all the songs that I made while experimenting with the software.

After experimenting with garageband on the Ipad I tried to create a backing track on the laptop version of garageband, however it had very little choice in terms of software instruments so was quite limiting.

Eventually I scrapped the idea of creating my own backing tack for the piece and decided to only use diegetic sounds, like is done in the opening of the film 'Goodfellas'. I did record a few original sound clips however I had technical difficulties such as the microphone not working and the sounds being ruined by wind, in the end I decided to download a majority of the sounds used from the internet, in particular a site called 'Freesound.org'. It was useful to use this site as it was free to sign up to and offered high quality soundclips however it was a bit limiting as it meant that some sounds did not align to the actions on screen properly, especially footsteps.

This is the layout of the freesound website, with me logged in as 'freelicksfitness'

Unfinished opening

This is the opening to our film so far, the foley still needs improving and titles need adding.

Problems with sound

I have had many problems with creating the sound for our piece, mostly down to my inexperience in creating sound effects and music for this medium, however also down to poor organisation, ultimately all of the problems I am facing fall onto my shoulders. 
 Problems I have been facing are that I have not been able to record live sound effects, meaning I have to download sound effects online and use these, this is okay apart from the fact not all can be found and so there are huge chunks missing in the audio of our piece. Also I am not experienced in the task of creating audio, and although I have created tracks on garageband that I would have liked to use in the piece none of them fit the mood and i have found it hard to create the right atmosphere, however I am determined to give the piece an audio track that is fitting to its subject.

Audience profile

This is Will Whales, he is part of our primary audience for our film, He is male, 17 and would identify to the characters in the film, Will lives in the countryside town of West Hill.

Will likes music such as bassline and drum and bass, however also likes grime such as Skepta and Bugzy Malone, however also has a soft side and loves a bit of Justin Timberlake.

Will likes films such as 'This is England' because it appeals to his regional identity, however also likes films such as 'James Bond' as they appeal to the boy inside him. Will also likes films such as 'Pulp fiction' as they have more storyline and he feels they are more gripping than films like 'James Bond'.

I feel that our film would appeal to will as he has interests that would align with those of the primary audience for our film.

Audience Profiling

The primary audience for our media product would be both genders, however mostly males aged from 16 to 35, the product would also attract an audience outside this profile as I think the gritty, violent nature of the film would attract fans of this type of film. I think that any other any other gangster film may not attract an audience so young however because our film is centered around this age group it will appeal to them more, being more relatable for some. I think that the film would be certificated at 15 due to the strong violence involved, probable drug taking and frequent strong language, however would not be an 18 certificate due to the lack of strong horror or sexual violence etc

Storyboard

This is the rough storyboard I have drawn for our title sequence

Genre & distribution and why it is important

The genre of a movie or show describes what is expected and how we categorise the films together depending on what is contained within the narrative. For example, in a rom com movie you would expect both romance, comedy and quite light-hearted subject matter, scattered with puns throughout. However in a gangster movie you would expect violence, crime and dark plot elements.

Genre is important as it gives the audience an idea as to what will be contained in the film so that they can have a vague idea as to whether or not they will enjoy the movie and what can be expected to happen in the film.

The genre of a film is built by the codes and conventions of the film, for example the codes and conventions expected in a gangster film would be that the colours will be dark, representing the subject matter, that there will be props such as guns and cars and that the characters will be dressed in suits, our opening, however will not follow the convention of the characters being in suits, as it is set amongst younger 'chavvier' gangsters.

Our film will be a British distributed film, meaning that the opening should be minimalistic but still dramatic and 'eloquent' as opposed to american films that tend to be less experimental and more fitting into a blockbuster/Hollywood mould for all films to be packed more full of explosions and stimulating elements than realism and storyline, there are obviously many exceptions to this rule.

Knowing how to distinguish between genres will help as it will help us make a piece fitting to the forms and conventions of a real gangster.

Location shots and reccie

Me, James and Will went to east hill, where we are planning to film our footage to reccie the area and take location shots for our film, we discovered that the area was very suitable for our setting, as the woodland creates a very eerie setting and the straight roads would make very nice shots. These are the location shots and other test shots we came up with.

It is useful to go on a reccie as it allows us to choose an appropriate location that will fit the theme of our film.

Timeline for Watchmen

This is a timeline I created for the opening sequence to watchmen, it is useful to do this as it will allow me to see how real media products break down.