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Due to compression rates on youtube, our video became out of sync. Our teacher will send you a syncronised copy.

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



For the final segment of my evaluation I have been asked to look at things that could have been improved in regards to both my preliminary task and my final opening product. To do this, I will split the evaluation into three areas: Camera, Editing and Planning.

Camera

In regards to the camera work, my first point would be that we have made a significant improvement in the framing of our shots, below you can see the contrast between two  scenes - one from our preliminary shot, the other from our final edit and see the progress we have made :

The screenshot from our preliminary shows amateur framework setup, for a small amount of time during that scene, all that could be seen was a large amount of headroom. However on the shot underneath, from our final product - there is an improvement in frameworking, the shot shows both a small amount of location and the protagonist in equal light, highlighting the two most significant things about the scene clearly.

Editing

Whilst watching the two videos, I believe as a whole the editing on our final product was much more cleaner, and flowed better than the prelim. Whilst watching the two clips side by side I see significant improvements in the overall looks in regards to the production value, and effort put in to make each clip look like a professional output. The preliminary video was almost entirely composed of diagetic sound, that seemed to alter between different levels, bringing down the quality of the pieces sound. In contrast our final piece had a soundtrack played over the top, giving the piece more quality
Planning


Before any of those areas above could be covered, the stage of planning had to be initiated. Overall i think that this in fact is the most important stage.
Our planning of our prelim was almsot non-existent. It was just a simple case of coming together as a group, and devising our plot and suggesting to each other variations in camera angles that we could use to make our piece better.

Our final product took a much different approach. We were determined to make the perfect piece, which resulted in alot of arguments between peers at the beginning, but our work ethic overshadowed this and we came past it to enter the research stages. For this I researched into other successful films in the specific niche we were aiming for. Detailed storyboards were also made this time around to really justify and put in prespective the plot of our final piece.

While planning we had to pitch our ideas, get feedback from our proposed plot and watched various videos on YouTube to see ways of making a good movie great in terms of editing after our finish product had been filmed.

Conclusion


In conclusion I regard our work a success and the whole process helped me to gain a greater knowledge of the subject.

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

Moodboard illustrating all of the technologies you have used in your production and blog.

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How did you attract/address your audience?



A unique selling point (USP) of our film is the dynamic setting and action on screen. Most british films would not feature a high level of violence that our film contains, this is much more conventional in American films, rather than British films. Our idea to use the ending of the film at the begginging is also a unique selling point, creating a sense of mystery around the actions that occured before and attracts the audience to watch the film right to the end to see why these events occured.

Our audience feedback came back mostly positive. The key element the audience liked and responded well to, was the various camera angles used to present the running sequence. When viewing our rough cut, our audience did not respond well to the silence of the opening and the name of the film. Therefore we have rectified these issues.

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Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our film is mainly middle aged white British males between the ages of 22-50. As our film is in the genre of crime, I believe that it will attract an older audience as it is for a more mature person as their would be a lot of swearing and violence in the film and wouldn't be for the faint hearted. I believe it will also be more of a film for the working man class, not so much middle class as it is not a the most intellectual film around, however some may still enjoy it and watch it.

I have comprised a fictional person, and have put together a selection of pictures of things that would relate to his life. 

This is George Hanson, he is your average working class man. He works as a builder, doesn't like his job, but it pays the bills. He supports Chelsea and goes to watch them every home game. He enjoys a drink with his mates down the pub every Saturday night. Also likes to go to the cinema with his wife on the rare occasion.

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



Our production company is Kings Langley Productions, and we specialise in crime films. Relapse is a middle age crime film – we have incorporated our knowledge of crime films and the middle age men media consumption to create this niche British film. A similar British production company is Coffee Films. They produce feature and short films. . Coffee Films shoot on film, with a low budget. Like Coffee Films, we are aiming to reach fans of the crime genre, at the same sort of age.

Our film focuses on the lives of men resorting to crime because they cannot get the money- their lives have not been the happiest, and the action is fast paced. Therefore I think our film could attract a Hollywood company used to distributing crime films, because their target audiences, or audiences that recognise their brand name, are similar to ours .

MGM distributed Another Thin Man, The Beast of the City and other crime films. Their target audience is mostly middle aged men. MGM is experienced in distributing to this audience group, rather than teenagers and older women.

On the other hand, Contender Films (distributing both films in cinemas and on DVD)  is a British distribution company which has released similar films to ours. This means that they have experience targeting our audience. Also, as they have recently been acquired by Entertainment One, they have funding available and are linked to other companies which would help them to distribute to a larger audience. 


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How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

After doing research on the crime genre and looking at the films Goodfella's, The Dark Knight and Pulp Fiction, I can see that our film breaks away from these conventions because one of the films has no video footage and all the titles, and the other two have a short bit of footage at the start or in the middle whereas our opening title sequence has the titles mixed in with the footage. The structure of our sequence also breaks away from conventions in the placing of the title, this is shown through the fact that in the opening sequence of The Dark Knight the title is placed at the beginning of the footage, in Goodfellas the title is placed in the middle of the footage and in Pulp Fiction, the title of the film is placed again in the middle whereas in our opening sequence the title is placed at the end of the film. This means that looking at our footage we can see that the structure of our opening sequence clearly breaks away from the conventions.

After looking at how the style of the font and credits is shown in other crime film opening sequences I can see that our film does not break away from the coventions in some ways. In all of the opening sequences Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas and The Dark Knight they all have the titles on black backgrounds, as you can see our opening sequence also does exactly this. Looking at the font in the three opening sequences I can see that they all use an almost smart and clear font, for example Times New Roman, comparing this font to my groups opening sequence I can see that we have stuck to this convention of using a smart font. The colour of the font in our opening sequence is the same as the colour of the font in Goodfella's, the white, which contrasts to the black background however in other crime films including Pulp Fiction and The Dark Knight we can see that they have used bright colours like the bright blue and the bright yellow.

Looking at websites like http://www.filmsite.org/genres.html we can see that crime films are developed around the sinister actions of others, this also happens in our opening sequence as the film revolves around drug dealing and both characters are holding guns as props. When looking at the amount of dialogue in the crime genre I can see that in Goodfella's there is a scene in the middle of the titles with a lot of dialogue, also there is a couple of lines of dialogue at the start of Pulp Fiction and no dialogue in The Dark Knight, from what I can see and what I have read I think that the crrime genre use very little dialogue in their title sequences, this means that as the audience we get more action and less introduction to the characters.

In our title sequence we used a majority of different camera angles as from our research we found that this was done quite a lot in chase sequences. One of the shots we wanted to use was the tracking shot which we found very difficult to use due to limited resources and the fact we had to use a skateboard. We initially wanted to use the tracking shot as it would stick to the conventions of the crime genre, shown in the opening title sequence of Trainspotting. Looking at the narrative enigma in our title sequence at the end we have a slight which character will be shot but by the end of the whole film this will be solved.

The style of our presentation was shot in 4:3 whereas it should have conventionally be shot in 16:9 this was an error on our behalf and if we had more time would have been done properly. In all other crime films I have researched they have all got up beat music with a bit of non-digetic sound underneath. In all the crime films I have researched including Goodfella's, The Dark Knight and Pulp Fiction there is no special effects and the editing is quite fast paced. The conventions of the mise en scene is seen to be quite smart, this is shown in the crime film, Resovoir Dogs where they are all wearing smart suits, we have stuck to this convention as both of our characters are shot in suits.

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Audience Feedback on Rough Cut
After looking at the Rough cut, the audience said they liked the suspense at the end of the title sequence, and finding out "who killed who" and the fact that the end of the film was the title sequence, the audience didn't like the shaky camera angles of the tracking shot and felt the opening sequence could have given off a much clear effect if the camera was smooth. Overall the audience felt that the idea was very inventive and would defianetly capture the audience however if we had better resources the idea could have been more of a success. Here is a video clip with feedback on our rough cut of our title sequence:

Questionnaire

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Post-production

To start off the editing we had to set up a new Adobe Premiere Pro Project and log all of our raw footage, then as a group we set up a word document to log our rushes, we presented this piece of work as a table which consisted of the INT and OUT code, the scene and shot numbers and how many takes this took us with a last column showing which scenes would be used. Underneath is our groups logging rushes table:

Next we had to batch capture, only the footage that we wanted, and create a rough cut of our film before we showed it to the focus group, this meant that the group had to cut the shots so they would fit together and run smothely, this included the continuity issues of the feet because in our project it consists of a lot of running and we needed to make sure the continuity ran smoothly. After a rough cut had been put together and played back to make sure it flowed correctly, we then had to find a soundtrack to play above the music, as a group it took us a reasonably long time to do, because as a group we all had different ideas as to what sort of music we wanted, after spending a lot more time than we originally wanted to picking music, we found a track called Ghostocolypse from an uncopywrite internet site called incomputech.com, which fitted our piece really well. Initially we were going to cut out all the background noise and just have the music and sound affects, but after watching the piece through we felt that we needed to keep some non digetic, because otherwise the piece sounded in some ways 'artificial'. 



As a group we then played the rough draft back through, to make sure it flowed correctly and where the shots had been cut together, the sound matched up to a certain extent. Once this had been completed and the clips had been put together, we then started to edit the sound, making sure all background noise was a lot quieter in contrast to the soundtrack and the sound wasnt too varied. To do this we used markers to highlight the noise that we wanted and putting these at the start and end of the highlighted piece of sound and moving the pitch up and down to the level we needed, we then played the clip we wanted back from a bit early on to make sure the sound flowed, we the carried this on throughout the whole piece.

After we had finished the editng so the opening sequence flowed, we then had to add in the titles, which included the actors names, our production company, the schools production company to show the collaboration, as well as the director, writer etc. After this we gathered a focus group together to view our title sequence and give our group feedback which we needed to act upon for our final opening title sequence.

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Production Report

The filming process took a total of nearly 2 hours, and consisted of the group collecting the equipment, walking down to the location, filming all the scenes and then returning the equipment back to the teacher with the tape we recorded on. The filming process was reasonably easy and quick due to the fact that we practiced how to do the tracking shot and bought all pre production work to the location with us including the shot list to help us remember all the shots we had to shoot and in which order so we didn't miss anything out, however as a group we didn't stick to the shot list because we found perfect opportunities to add in our own shots and we felt the more shots we had in our project the easier it would be when coming to edit, because this way we wouldn't need to re-shoot. However as a group we did also have minor problems as there was a lot of traffic near the end of the school day from parents picking up their children from the primary and secondary school which did mean it was hard to shoot some scenes in the road as we had to let the cars pass. Also we did start shooting quite late due to the fact that we found it difficult to schedule the shooting when both teachers and all of our group were free and when working this out before shooting we didn't take into consideration that one of the teachers was on duty at lunch and couldn't come down to the location on time.


The group, throughout the task have worked well effectively and worked together as a team, during the post production we handled the tasks by splitting the tasks neading to be done and then coming together as a group and improving them to make them better, we started off aiming to do this routine in the production stage and originally set tasks for each other to complete but when coming to the production stage we felt that these tasks weren't suited for that person and we ended up switching roles so our strengths would be shown in the production. 


Once we had looked at the raw unedited footage we had filmed we were pleased with what we had done, however some of the tracking shots started off well but near the end turned to an angle, this was due to the lack of equipment we were given, so as a group we decided that as an alternative the best option was for one of the crew to sit on a skateboard with the camera and two of the other crew members to push and pull him with a piece of rope, before actually filming the piece we practiced this and at the time seemed the best option, but as a group the outcome of the shot wasn't great but was the best option, without the right equipment.


Overall i think the production was a success due to careful planning and learning from our previous mistakes in the preliminary task, this also helped because we had changed groups from the preliminary task we all had different mistakes from the last time, giving us more to be aware of for this product.

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Synopsis of the Whole Film

The film follows Nick, starring James Lyons, through an emotional journey in which he attempts to save the life of his dying daughter, starring Kelly Brown, by funding a lifesaving operation. He is a successful businessman and this financial goal is easily achievable for him, until he allows the stress of his daughter’s illness to interfere with the quality of his work and he is fired from his role in the company.

From this, his life begins to spiral out of control as he uses the controversial drug trade and other illegal methods to fund his daughters operation but after becoming addicted to the substances he formerly sold, he was incapable of prioritizing his savings. His daughter ultimately passes away which results in a prolonged battle with schizophrenia and eventually the dramatic ending.

Synopsis of the Title Sequence

The main character, Nick, starring James Lyons, will be shown running in various locations. He will also be shown panicking over the voices that he can hear whilst he’s running. As Nick is running, there will be scenes which reveal the titles and will be superimposed in the editing process. At the end of the title sequence, Nick is shown contemplating shooting himself as Raoul enters the shot, and the audience feel obliged to watch the whole film to discover which character dies. At this moment, the screen will black out and the title of the film will appear on a black screen.  

Timeline

Shot List

Storyboard & technical detail

Risk Assessment
It’s important to perform a risk assessment so that we are prepared for the filming stage and making sure everyone is safe. Listing all potential hazards also ensures that everyone is aware of the dangers and also what can be done to prevent these.

Mise-en-scene plans

This is the mise-en-scene plans for our project:

 

Crew List
We also decided to create a crew list describing the roles of each member of the project for each scene, and any additional props or equipment that is needed.

Locational and Technical Reece

In order to prepare for the filming process we photographed the locations which we were going to use as our set and later analyzed various aspects of that location and the effects that it could have on the film. This is the conclusions that we made:

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Focus Group Meeting

As a group we decided to pitch the basic idea of our film, and record their opinion specifically on the title sequence that we had generated. We targeted both genders and various ages to ensure that the film would appeal to the largest possible audience.

From this meeting, our group have decided to make some adjustments to our title sequences, particularly the ending as it became apparent during this meeting that our target audience unanimously felt that revealing the suicide at the end would deter them from watching the film as they already knew the ending. Based on this opinion, our group have decided to end the title sequences with Nick still holding a gun and the screen cutting out at the sound of a gun shot, but incorporate another character, Raoul, into the title sequence so that the audience don't know whether Nick shot himself or Raoul. 

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Crime Genre Research

In order to create a successful and authentic crime film, I conducted some research into the crime genre. The key aspects that were needed to focus on were the conventions of a crime film, common symbols, motifs and themes and the history of crime films. By researching these areas of the crime genre, I will gain a good understanding of what components I will need to create a good crime film.

Mob Films

•     Subgenre of crime films, dealing with organized crime, often the Mafia
•     Commonly overlapped with film noir
•     Focus on the rise to power of an organized gang, sometimes focusing on the gangs leader, as well as their fall. The message is almost always crime doesn’t pay though sometimes it focuses on their humanity making it more about a means to an end
•     Widely regarded as the best crime films
•     Developed around the sinister actions of criminals or gangsters, particularly bank robbers, underworld figures or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life.
•     First introduced in 1932 with ‘Scarface’ starring Paul Muni and George Raft
•     In the later thirties, the mob movies were tamer and focused on how crime never pays. An example is ‘Angels with dirty faces’. They always lead to a tragic ending for the main mobster through a fatal mistake with the police using it to their advantage
•     In the forties and fifties the genre died down and was replaced by film noir
• ·        In the seventies there was a revival of mob films, notably with ‘The Godfather’ by Mario Puzo. It was purposefully shot with hard lighting to give it a grim feel. What made it different was their portrayal as humans
• ·        Most famous examples are from the late 1970’s-1990 including ‘Scarface’, ‘Goodfellas’, ‘Goodfellas’, ‘The Godfather’, ‘Carlito’s way’, ‘Once upon a time in America’ and ‘Casino’. Many of these films are considered timeless classics, showing the popularity and critical acclaim of the genre at one time.
• ·        The tradition mob film has died out with the latest 2007 release ‘The Deported’ showing a less grim and realistic portrayal of the mob
• ·        Gangster films are often categorised as film noir or mystery films, or they are related to detective films-because of underlying similarities between these cinematic forms.

Themes

·         Rivalry, usually with other criminals. Often regarding money, pride or loyalty

·         Morality, as religion is used as a key aspect, usually used as dramatic irony or to highlight their lack of morals

·         Betrayal, huge theme of giving up information to crime families or police. Can be to do with frustration or most commonly, will go to prison otherwise

·         Fierce ambition, protagonist is usually full of desire, sometimes resulting in his death or attaining ultimate power

·         Materialism, most focus on material aspects, for example cars represent ultimate fantasyof rags to riches

·         Self destruction, obtain everything they desire but they become complacent and bored, leading to a big downfall

·         Evil, the protagonist can appear evil, clinical and sinister as death is portrayed as a business with no care or doubt

·         Loyalty, undying loyalty between the mob, shown with how they consider them to be ‘family’

Symbols

·         Money, epitomizes materialism and a crime films ultimate desire.

·         Guns, represents violence and most prevalent weapon used in a crime film

·         Police, represent the law which is everything the mob hates and fights against, epitomize the ultimate enemy

·         Grimy Locations, highlights unglamorous aspect of crime and can be used to represent that crime doesn’t pay

·         Jail, representation of the notion crime doesn’t pay, but can also be a symbol of disloyalty.

The history

Most popular genres have a history. The crime film has none—or rather, it has so many that it is impossible to give a straightforward account of the genre's evolution without getting lost in innumerable byways as different crime formulas arise, evolve, compete, mutate, and cross-pollinate. Crime films arise from a radical ambivalence toward the romance of crime. That romance gave heroic detectives like Sherlock Holmes—burlesqued onscreen as early as 1900 or 1903 (the exact date is uncertain), in the thirty-second Sherlock Holmes Baffled —a matchless opportunity to make the life of the mind melodramatic and glamorous, and it made silent criminals like Fantômas ( Fantômas and four sequels, France, 1913–1914) and Bull Weed ( Underworld , 1927) both villain and hero. The arrival of synchronized sound in 1927 and the Great Depression in 1929 created an enormous appetite for escapist entertainment and a form of mass entertainment, the talkies, capable of reaching even the most unsophisticated audiences, including the millions of lower-class immigrants who had flocked to America. The great gangster films of the 1930s and the long series of detective films that flourished alongside them, their detectives now increasingly ethnic ( Charlie Chan Carries On , 1931, and forty-one sequels; Think Fast, Mr. Moto , 1937, and seven sequels; Mr. Wong, Detective , 1938, and four sequels), were nominally based on novels. But crime films did not seek anything like the literary cachet of establishment culture until the rise of film noir —atmospheric tales of heroes most often doomed by passion—named and analyzed by French journalists but produced in America throughout the decade beginning in 1944.

Postwar crime films, whatever formula they adopted, were shaped in America by cultural anxiety about the nuclear bomb ( Kiss Me Deadly , 1955) and the nuclear family ( The Desperate Hours , 1955). The decline of film noir after Touch of Evil (1958) was offset by a notable series of crime comedies at England's Ealing Studios (such as The Lavender Hill Mob , 1951) and a masterly series of psychological thrillers directed by Alfred Hitchcock ( Strangers on a Train , 1951; Rear Window , 1954; Vertigo , 1958; North by Northwest , 1959; Psycho , 1960). The 1960s was the decade of the international spy hero James Bond, who headlined history's most lucrative movie franchise in a long series beginning with Dr. No (1962). But it was left to a quartet of ironic valentines to retro genres, Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974), and Chinatown (1974), to reinvent the crime film for a hip young audience. The replacement of the 1930 Production Code by the 1969 ratings system allowed niche films to be successfully marketed even if they were as graphically violent as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990) or as bleak in their view of American politics as The Parallax View (1974) or JFK (1991). The closing years of the century, marked by a heightened public fear of crime, a fascination with the public-justice system, and a deep ambivalence toward lawyers, allowed a thousand poisoned flowers to bloom around the globe, from the sociological sweep of the British television miniseries Traffik (1989), remade and softened for American audiences as Traffic (2000), to the ritualistic Hong Kong crime films of John Woo ( Die xue shuang xiong [The Killer], 1989) and Johnny To ( Dung fong saam hap [The Heroic Trio], 1993) and their American progeny ( Pulp Fiction , 1994), to the steamy eroticism of the all-American Basic Instinct (1992) and its direct-to-video cousins. Perhaps the most distinctive new strain in the genre has been the deadpan crime comedy of Joel (b. 1954) and Ethan (b. 1957) Coen, whose films, from Blood Simple (1985) to The Ladykillers (2004), left some viewers laughing and others bewildered or disgusted.

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