Evaluation: Question 7

7)Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product:

In the beginning I learnt how to successfully follow the 180’ rule through the Preliminary Task, then after talking it through with my group we arranged who would be acting in our Film, we kept our plot very simple as we knew there are many pitfalls related to being too complicated, we also left out sound tracks and narratives in place for a simplistic wild track because we wanted to keep our films’ subject matter raw and frank which challenges a lot of the glamorisation of crime in the media today.
Most of what I have learnt over this course, turned out to be quite different from what I expected filming to be like. Originally I thought that through use of extensive planning the filming process would follow a rigid time table however I now know that practicality in many ways is more important than planning. I also learnt that you must be prepared to work longer than expected to achieve the desired material, and more often than not through exploration of your location and your actors that you discover that many of the ideas you had are unfeasible in terms of practicality, and that you will find many more interesting shots and ideas if you explore your locations and actors’ abilities.

Evaluation: Question 6

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Over the filming process I have learnt about all of the different elements of armature film making, in terms of filming technique I have learnt to use the basics of a digital camera, utilising light contrasts for more stylish effects, this was important especially in the last scene of our film.

In terms of software I have learnt how to display work on a blog and how to use different sorts of media to get my information across in the most effective ways. As well as knowing how to use Adobe Premier to edit a film, manipulating existing implementations to get specific desired effects which was put to use in making the titles for our film as we needed to use cross fading effects as well as picture movement to replicate the disturbed title menu in “Se7en”

Evaluation: Question 5

5) How did you attract/address your audience

The main way in which our film attracts the younger age demographic is the thrilling and shocking plot line featuring violence an chasing, its simplistic nature gives the audience less baggage in which to enjoy the raw excitement.
The social aspects of the play directly address the age group we have chosen, raising points about the way the media portrays youth as evil, brandishing them as “chavs” of “hoodies”. This addresses and attracts the audience because they can relate to the sort of characters who are included in the film and the way they cause trouble.
It also attracts our audience because the actors in it are young too, younger audience members like this because it makes them feel more involved as an age group and the way in which the characters of the same age deal with dilemmas applies more to the audience because they can relate.
The audience also feel included through the use of domestic location, it makes them feel that the place they live and the people in it are important and exiting.
An example of these different points would be the hit teen show “Skins”. With young actors and the domestic location on Bristol city as well as the youth orientated plotlines, the audiences tend to see a lot of themselves within the characters on the show.

Evaluation: Question 4

4) Who would be the audience for your media product.

The age demographic for our film is 16-25 year olds; this is mainly because it features young actors who would appeal to a younger audience. People of this age group are also attracted to our film for a number of reasons; the first is its Thrilling plot line. The plot line for our film is fairly mainstream because it is simple and based to thrill and shock the audience; we made it like this because of some of the data we got back from our Audience research, when I interviewed people within our selected demographic I asked them what sub genres they expected from independent and mainstream films. The highest response for mainstream was action followed by crime, with these in mind we decided to choose a sub-genre which included elements from both: British Gangster.

Evaluation: Question 3

3)What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Due to the raw and violent nature of our film it would lend itself more to affiliations such as Warp Films, Warp Films have a history of successfully exhibiting many short and independent films, most notably “Dead Man’s Shoes”. This film is similar to ours in may ways, it explores many contemporary social issues and is set in a domestic location

As our film is aimed at younger audiences it would be a good idea to use the internet for the majority of the marketing, Utilising websites such as YouTube or MySpace because young people who use these websites will be attracted to our film because of the domestic setting and references to the youth in contemporary Britain, as well as its thrilling plot line. One film too be successfully distributed over the internet is the gruesome horror “Beyond The Rave”. It was released in a series of twenty parts on the website MySpace which worked successfully because the young people who use MySpace were drawn to the musical references and thrilling content.

Evaluation: Question 2

2)How does your media product represent particular social groups:

We specifically made sure to include strong social representation in our film; however as the genres of our film are Thriller and British Gangster so the social representation is very negative, as violence, psychosis and unlawfulness are all associated with those genres.

In our film Daniel and Jordan are represented as British “hoody” Criminal youths, we thought that many thrillers and British Gangsters try to stylise the characters as wither being intellectual and mysterious or cheeky and charismatic, however we wanted to show something a lot more rawer that captures the reality behind physical attacks in the UK. This was created by the props we used such as cigarettes and the blunt weapon used to attack Jess’s character, as well as the clothing: Both characters are dressed in long coats similar to those worn in may British Gangster films , they also wear jeans and big durable boots, this not only links to them to aspects of British Gangster and Thriller, but also shows that they are working class as those clothing styles have been popular for years, these styles can be seen in the film “Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels”, however although many of the clothing styles have been drawn this film we made sure to stay clear of including the same sort of cocky and swaggerish attitudes displayed in the characters mindset. Instead we made sure both Daniel and Jordan kept their heads down with a low profile throughout the film and remained silent throughout the killing of Jess’s character. We did this because we thought that most instances of criminals in Thrillers or British Gangsters have been glamorised and don’t show the truth behind serious acts of violence and barbarity that we can see in our communities from day to day. We can show this issue is relevant because of data gathered from the Youth Justice Board showing the increasing amount of money being spent on dealing with crime inthe UK from years 2000 to 2007.

Jessica’s Character raises different sorts of social representations from the angle of the physical dominance men have over women. We showed this firstly by dressing jess in feminine clothes such as high heels and an impractical stylish cardigan, these clothing items make it very difficult for Jess’s character to compete physically against a violent male aggressor, and they also make Jess’s character look less threatening and more vulnerable, because of the strong feminine styles. We can draw parallels between Jess's character and the young girl in "London To Brighton" in the way that by letting her femininity show, she found herself in a bad situation at eh hands of an evil man. We did this to enhance the sense of victimisation by creating greater contrast between the attackers and the innocent, thus increasing the sense of shock that brings home the social representations I discussed earlier in a more efficient way.

This is also relevant to Britain with females taking a far smaller part in crime, as this data Youth Justice Board shows:

Evaluation: Question 1

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

Within the category of our film’s genres: Thriller and British Gangster we have included many traditional forms and conventions, which came naturally from our own preconceptions that stem from what films we have watched and what we are used to.
The first aspect of our film that we have drawn from classic forms within the conventions Thriller and British gangster is our filming location. “The Civ” is a burnt out old building which houses many different possible shots inside and out which share many things with our film’s genres.

From These two pictures alone we can see quite a few traditional examples of the sort of visual, metaphorical and social components that are linked with the Thriller genre as well as the genre of British Gangster, the first of these is the imagery that is implied by the setting, the most notable is the dark and sinister atmosphere which is created from the small and enclosed spaces, this creates a sense of entrapment, a technique used many thrillers, most notably “The Third Man”. The enclosed spaces also create strong contrast between light and, the forested area outside throws out many eerie shadows that can be very unsettling; this technique is known as chiaroscuro and was used widely in many classic thrillers, it is also present in the shot from the third man adding depth and intrigue into the end of the tunnel and further enhancing the sense of entrapment.
It is also clear from the state of the building that it has been heavily vandalised and covered in graffiti, this also creates the sense of danger and forbiddance because it implies that dangers and violent people tend to hang out there. It is these sorts of unsavoury places that often pop up in Thrillers and even more commonly British Gangsters. An example of this is the disused farm that the psychotic killer in “Dead Man’s Shoes” uses as a hide out.

The location also has social connotations often connected to British Gangster. It is usually the working class who are involved as gangsters in the films. And the setting for our film is a typical component of a working class area, and one that could easily see misguided visitors that have turned to violence or unlawfulness. The sound was also captured as a wild track; this includes far off machinery and birdcall, all of these sounds work with the visual imagery to build a very domestic environment which could be paralleled with any British Gangster film.

Our film also features conventions found in Thrillers and British Gangster within its plotline. Our film features a female running and hiding in the “Civ” before being beaten to death. This uses the obvious convention of violence to create a thrilling experience and is used in both Thriller and British Gangster.
Our film also includes social elements in the form of male dominating female characters, this is seen many Thriller and British Gangster films which we can see in the way the male gangsters treat the females around them.

The Final way in which our film follows the conventions of Thriller and British Gangster was through the use of costumes and props. Most notably is the way in which Jordan and Daniel’s characters are dressed almost entirely black with long coats and heavy boots, this clothing style is present in British gangster as both those clothing items are typically British clothing items as shown in this shot from “Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels”. Dark clothing styles have also been a part of Thrillers since they began because they add darkness and mystery to a character.
The props we used in our film also shared characteristics of Thriller, for instance before we show the clip in which Jess’s character gets killed Jordan’s character is shown dropping a cigarette on the flaw and stubbing it with his boot, the cigarette has been a staple in Thriller and British Gangster because they connote a somewhat disregard for the rules. They way in which an actor uses one can also connote many different things, in our film the stubbing out with the boot suggests authority and an unpleasant character.

We have also developed many aspects of the Thriller and British Gangster conventions in our film. We have heavily stylised and concentrated the themes of violence and darkness creating feelings that are corrupt or debased. This bleak imagery mixed with the actual plot context could raise some ethical and social issues to do with the state of British youth and problem of “hoody culture”. We also challenged the conventions by putting the film on the platform of an independent film, with the camera work being low tech in an almost fly on the wall style, sharing some styles with “Red Road” it gives the film a lot more of a raw feel.