Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Our finished media product
Larceny 1 from Tim Langton on Vimeo.
This is our finished version of the opening two minutes of Larceny.
Evaluation Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression to full product?"
When doing the preliminary task it was the first time that I had used a video camera and done editing. I didn't know that sometimes you need to take more than one shot so that you could use more than one cut to prevents long cuts and this keeps the film fast paced. I used a lot more cuts that were a lot shorter in the opening two minutes of Larceny so that it kept the film fast paced and therefore less boring.
Since making the preliminary task I have become a lot more efficient at editing and also I am able to edit camera cuts such as match on actions better so that the effect of the cut after editing is a lot more fluent which means that the film looks and flows better.
In the preliminary task we had to change the setting during the conversation between Jason and Tim as the classroom that we used previously was in use when we tried to film in there again. This meant that there was an obvious continuity error in our film that was very noticeable. This made me realise the importance of using the same location when filming and not just trying to get away with using a different place / setting.
Obviously I have learnt all of the things that I have mentioned in the previous question (Question 6) such as how to use a camera, how to edit effectively and how to use software such as Coral Editing Stupid and Stop Motion Pro.
Other things that I learnt about whilst making Larceny was how to use different camera angles such as cut ins, establishing shots, close ups and long shots. By knowing these shots it helped during making the film as I used a range of shots to make things more interesting and so that I could focus the audience on a certain thing.
The one hundred and eighty degree rule was another thing I learnt about, this is where in a scene, two characters keep to the same left/right relationship. Breaking the 180 degree rule can be done but it needs to be done on purpose to cause disorientation.
Match on action is something else that I learnt about, this is where you use two or more shots using a different shot type and edit it together to make one fluent action in a film. The reason for doing this is it keeps the cuts short and the film fast paced.
When doing the preliminary task it was the first time that I had used a video camera and done editing. I didn't know that sometimes you need to take more than one shot so that you could use more than one cut to prevents long cuts and this keeps the film fast paced. I used a lot more cuts that were a lot shorter in the opening two minutes of Larceny so that it kept the film fast paced and therefore less boring.
Since making the preliminary task I have become a lot more efficient at editing and also I am able to edit camera cuts such as match on actions better so that the effect of the cut after editing is a lot more fluent which means that the film looks and flows better.
In the preliminary task we had to change the setting during the conversation between Jason and Tim as the classroom that we used previously was in use when we tried to film in there again. This meant that there was an obvious continuity error in our film that was very noticeable. This made me realise the importance of using the same location when filming and not just trying to get away with using a different place / setting.
Obviously I have learnt all of the things that I have mentioned in the previous question (Question 6) such as how to use a camera, how to edit effectively and how to use software such as Coral Editing Stupid and Stop Motion Pro.
Other things that I learnt about whilst making Larceny was how to use different camera angles such as cut ins, establishing shots, close ups and long shots. By knowing these shots it helped during making the film as I used a range of shots to make things more interesting and so that I could focus the audience on a certain thing.
The one hundred and eighty degree rule was another thing I learnt about, this is where in a scene, two characters keep to the same left/right relationship. Breaking the 180 degree rule can be done but it needs to be done on purpose to cause disorientation.
Match on action is something else that I learnt about, this is where you use two or more shots using a different shot type and edit it together to make one fluent action in a film. The reason for doing this is it keeps the cuts short and the film fast paced.
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Evaluation Question 6
"What have you learnt about technologies from the process of making this product?"
Before making our peliminary task I knew literally nothing about making a film but since then I have learnt how to confidently use a camera to capture footage. Also since making the peliminary task I have learnt how to edit and how to add titles to a film (as you can see on the right).
Now when I am using a camera I feel more comfortable than before, i know how to fully operate the camera on my own whereas before I would have had to ask somebody what to do. I now also know a range of different camera shots and when to use them to a good effect, this helped when making my film as I learnt to use many cuts and merge the cuts using match on action to make the film look like one fluent movement.
Now when I am editing I can do it better than I would have been able to do so previously as I have had some practise now using Corel Video Studio. I have learnt how to split the audio from the footage so that if there was a noise that shouldnt have been there then i could simply remove it so that the film sounded better. Another thing that I have learnt is how to add music, we added music over the character still shots such as the one above or to the left which we edited using the sepia effect.
Another thing that I learnt was how to use Stop Motion Pro as I used this when making the video the film synopsis that is on my blog, to begin with i didnt understand the software but after a quick demonstration from a class mate it was easy to use.
Now when I am using a camera I feel more comfortable than before, i know how to fully operate the camera on my own whereas before I would have had to ask somebody what to do. I now also know a range of different camera shots and when to use them to a good effect, this helped when making my film as I learnt to use many cuts and merge the cuts using match on action to make the film look like one fluent movement.
Now when I am editing I can do it better than I would have been able to do so previously as I have had some practise now using Corel Video Studio. I have learnt how to split the audio from the footage so that if there was a noise that shouldnt have been there then i could simply remove it so that the film sounded better. Another thing that I have learnt is how to add music, we added music over the character still shots such as the one above or to the left which we edited using the sepia effect. Another thing that I learnt was how to use Stop Motion Pro as I used this when making the video the film synopsis that is on my blog, to begin with i didnt understand the software but after a quick demonstration from a class mate it was easy to use.
Evaluation Question 4 & 5
"Who would be the audience for your media product?" and
"What elements of your text would attract the target audience?"
When we were making our film we determined that it was teenage boys and young men that would be our main target, this was because of some of the scenes that would have been shown in our movie. Males are more interested in violence and fighting and there would be some of this shown in our film, especially in the bank robbery scene. Another reason why we decided that teenage boys and younger males would be our main target audience is because of the use of technology. We thought this made our target audience more towards men as there would be some gadgets used in the film and this would appeal more to men than women.
Men also like cars, men are competitive when it comes to cars and seeing cars driving fast or erratically appeals to our target audience of males between the ages of 15-27, this is why cars are featured heavily throughout the film and in the first two minutes to get the attention of our audience.
Originally we wanted a woman to play the place of either Matthew Benton or Chris Jennings but obviously we would have used a different character name. The reason why we wanted a woman is because this would have appealed to our target audience more as men love to see women with guns and it can be seen as a sex symbol.
Another audience for our media product would be older males. When we were making the film it wasn't our primary goal to attract this audience however like all heist films, ours was going to have a series of complicated and complex plot twists that make the viewer question who is good and who is bad. This is what would attract the older audience as they would be interested in the deep story line and plot twists which creates a large sense of suspense which makes you want to keep watching the film.
Older males would also be part of our target audience as they would be interested in seeing justice brought to the criminals but also they would like the insight into how criminals live as all of us aspire to have more.
Socio-economic groups are another way of breaking down target audience. Our media product attracts many of the socio-economic groups ranging from E up to B. The reason that our film will attract people that are in the lower groups such as E, D and C2 is because these people will look at the lifestyles that the characters in the film live with their expensive properties, fast cars and large amounts of money and aspire to have more, its like a guilty pleasure that people want to live that style life no matter what they have to do to get there. The reason why people in the higher groups such as A and B might enjoy the film is because they will be able to relate to some of the featured scenes such as eating in an expensive restaurant etc. This means that they will be able to make a comparison between their own lives and the film and it might mean that the film is more realistic to that individual so they will enjoy it more.
"What elements of your text would attract the target audience?"
When we were making our film we determined that it was teenage boys and young men that would be our main target, this was because of some of the scenes that would have been shown in our movie. Males are more interested in violence and fighting and there would be some of this shown in our film, especially in the bank robbery scene. Another reason why we decided that teenage boys and younger males would be our main target audience is because of the use of technology. We thought this made our target audience more towards men as there would be some gadgets used in the film and this would appeal more to men than women.
Men also like cars, men are competitive when it comes to cars and seeing cars driving fast or erratically appeals to our target audience of males between the ages of 15-27, this is why cars are featured heavily throughout the film and in the first two minutes to get the attention of our audience.
Originally we wanted a woman to play the place of either Matthew Benton or Chris Jennings but obviously we would have used a different character name. The reason why we wanted a woman is because this would have appealed to our target audience more as men love to see women with guns and it can be seen as a sex symbol.
Another audience for our media product would be older males. When we were making the film it wasn't our primary goal to attract this audience however like all heist films, ours was going to have a series of complicated and complex plot twists that make the viewer question who is good and who is bad. This is what would attract the older audience as they would be interested in the deep story line and plot twists which creates a large sense of suspense which makes you want to keep watching the film.
Older males would also be part of our target audience as they would be interested in seeing justice brought to the criminals but also they would like the insight into how criminals live as all of us aspire to have more.
Socio-economic groups are another way of breaking down target audience. Our media product attracts many of the socio-economic groups ranging from E up to B. The reason that our film will attract people that are in the lower groups such as E, D and C2 is because these people will look at the lifestyles that the characters in the film live with their expensive properties, fast cars and large amounts of money and aspire to have more, its like a guilty pleasure that people want to live that style life no matter what they have to do to get there. The reason why people in the higher groups such as A and B might enjoy the film is because they will be able to relate to some of the featured scenes such as eating in an expensive restaurant etc. This means that they will be able to make a comparison between their own lives and the film and it might mean that the film is more realistic to that individual so they will enjoy it more.
Evaluation Question 3
"What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?"
Although in the "Audience research" part of the blog I said that Universal Pictures might distribute my media product because they have distributed films of a similar genre before such as Public enemies, I now think that "Miramax Films" would be more appropriate as they distributed Reservoir Dogs which is a film that is very similar to my own. My film is very similar as Reservoir Dogs and my own text as in both there is an intricate plot, fast pace editing, and in the first 2 mins of this film there is a meet of all the character to discuss the future and this is the same in my media text. Also my film is similar to Reservoir Dogs as during the robbery in both films a character gets shot, however after this part of the film they are different as in Reservoir Dogs the remainder of the film is in a warehouse where the man who has been shot is waiting for the criminal gang doctor to arrive so he can be seen to then the police arrive and things get worse. In my film they dump the man who has been shot at the hospital and carry on with the police pursuit.I have kept within the regulatory rules for this type of text as i have kept within the guidelines of the issues such as language, discrimination, violence, sex and drugs.
There will be limited amounts of swearing in the film and there will not be the strongest of swear words such as C**t. The swearing will be limited to words such as "Shit" and will only be used in the context such as a character being shot or if the police arrive.
There will be no discrimination in our film however there will be violence, this will include some blood such as when characters are punched or shot. There will not be violence in every scene, in fact most of the violence will occur during the bank robbery when they use guns to threaten the public whilst stealing money.
There will be seduction used in our film as there will be villains used to try and steal the money from Matthew and Chris as they make their get-a-way after dropping Jacob off in the hospital however there will be no sex scenes in the film so this will keep our film within the 15 age group.
There will be no glamorisation of drugs in the film however there might be drugs shown as the crew enter different settings and also there is to be some drug references during conversations throughout the film. As we have not broken any of the guidelines above it ensures that our film is a 15, this is good as this means that our target audience will legally be allowed to view our film in the cinema and on DVD.
Although in the "Audience research" part of the blog I said that Universal Pictures might distribute my media product because they have distributed films of a similar genre before such as Public enemies, I now think that "Miramax Films" would be more appropriate as they distributed Reservoir Dogs which is a film that is very similar to my own. My film is very similar as Reservoir Dogs and my own text as in both there is an intricate plot, fast pace editing, and in the first 2 mins of this film there is a meet of all the character to discuss the future and this is the same in my media text. Also my film is similar to Reservoir Dogs as during the robbery in both films a character gets shot, however after this part of the film they are different as in Reservoir Dogs the remainder of the film is in a warehouse where the man who has been shot is waiting for the criminal gang doctor to arrive so he can be seen to then the police arrive and things get worse. In my film they dump the man who has been shot at the hospital and carry on with the police pursuit.There will be limited amounts of swearing in the film and there will not be the strongest of swear words such as C**t. The swearing will be limited to words such as "Shit" and will only be used in the context such as a character being shot or if the police arrive.
There will be no discrimination in our film however there will be violence, this will include some blood such as when characters are punched or shot. There will not be violence in every scene, in fact most of the violence will occur during the bank robbery when they use guns to threaten the public whilst stealing money.
There will be seduction used in our film as there will be villains used to try and steal the money from Matthew and Chris as they make their get-a-way after dropping Jacob off in the hospital however there will be no sex scenes in the film so this will keep our film within the 15 age group.
There will be no glamorisation of drugs in the film however there might be drugs shown as the crew enter different settings and also there is to be some drug references during conversations throughout the film. As we have not broken any of the guidelines above it ensures that our film is a 15, this is good as this means that our target audience will legally be allowed to view our film in the cinema and on DVD.
Evaluation Question 2
"How does your media product represent different social groups?"
The people that are in our text are criminal business men that are in their twenties and early thirties. They are not typical people of this age group as they rob banks, carry guns and kill people whereas things that people usually do in their twenties is attend university and spend a lot of time on their social lives doing such things as seeing friends and going out drinking.
You can see that the people in our film are not typical people of their age as Jacob, Matthew and Chris are wearing expensive designer suits and waving guns around in the street without a care in the world. From their behaviour in the opening two minutes you can tell that nothing bothers the characters. When Jacob meets Matthew and Chris they are stood on the pavement with their hands in the pockets of their expensive suits which show they have money, but with the combination of there cocky attitudes and obvious illegal activities the money they have has been obtained through criminal activities.
On the still shots in the movie when the titles of the characters are on screen there is a different genres of music which represent the different characters, for Jacob, Chris and Matthew the music is a higher tempo that Don Capallos as they are the people that do the action in the movie whereas Don is more of a background character so his music is of a lower tempo and more serious as he is is superior compared to the other characters.
Jacob Green is an aggressive driver, he speeds away causing type screaching from wheel spins, this is how the stereotypical yournger male driver drives so this shows that the crew are not as different as the usual twenty something year olds as they have some of the same traits as people who do not live the criminal life.
The people that are in our text are criminal business men that are in their twenties and early thirties. They are not typical people of this age group as they rob banks, carry guns and kill people whereas things that people usually do in their twenties is attend university and spend a lot of time on their social lives doing such things as seeing friends and going out drinking.
You can see that the people in our film are not typical people of their age as Jacob, Matthew and Chris are wearing expensive designer suits and waving guns around in the street without a care in the world. From their behaviour in the opening two minutes you can tell that nothing bothers the characters. When Jacob meets Matthew and Chris they are stood on the pavement with their hands in the pockets of their expensive suits which show they have money, but with the combination of there cocky attitudes and obvious illegal activities the money they have has been obtained through criminal activities.
On the still shots in the movie when the titles of the characters are on screen there is a different genres of music which represent the different characters, for Jacob, Chris and Matthew the music is a higher tempo that Don Capallos as they are the people that do the action in the movie whereas Don is more of a background character so his music is of a lower tempo and more serious as he is is superior compared to the other characters.
Jacob Green is an aggressive driver, he speeds away causing type screaching from wheel spins, this is how the stereotypical yournger male driver drives so this shows that the crew are not as different as the usual twenty something year olds as they have some of the same traits as people who do not live the criminal life.
Friday, 6 January 2012
Evaluation Question 1
"In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products?"
Our media product follows typical heist / gangster film conventions.
The first way in which we followed the conventions was that during the film there is to be a robbery of a bank, this follows the conventions of the genre as heist films are based around the robbery or theft of something using an intricate plot.
Although you do not see it in the opening two minutes, our film does follow the "three-act" plot. This is where there is a build up to the robbery, this includes planning the robbery and learning about different scenarios that could possibly happen. In the opening two minutes we are building up to the first stage of the three act plot as the three gang members are meeting Ronnie to get the blue prints to the bank so they can start getting prepared. As you can see from the short video on the blog called "Film Synopsis" in the middle section of the film is the bank robbery which is the second part in the three-act plot so this clearly follows the conventions of the genre. Also you will be able to see in the film synopsis video that at the end of the film is the twist, the two robbers that get caught by the police give the police information to get Don Capallo arrested which results in them getting a shortened sentence. This is the final part of the three-act plot.
An "All-Star team of criminals" is also one of the conventions of the genre, the three main characters in the film who carry out the robbery all have specific skills. Jacob is the highly skilled get-a-way driver who has been of service to some of the major criminals in the county. Matthew Benton is the genius safe cracker that can get into almost every vault in the world if you gave him the time and the other member of the crew is Chris Jennings who is the precision shooter, a gun wilding mad man who isn't afraid to kill. Last but not least is Don Capallo or also knows as "The Don". He is the "boos" and he doesn't like to get his hands dirty in his criminal operations.
In the film it features Don Capallo's "one last job". He is aiming to have this one last big robbery so that he can leave the life of crime and live the normal married life with his wife. This is common in heist films and usually shows something going wrong (like in our films case as they don't get as much money as they had planned and Jacob gets shot) then the story follows the survivor(s) and their side of the story which is exactly what our film does.
In thw opening two minutes of our film we use a lot of cut in camera shots, this is common in heist films as the camera shots can draw attention to certain characters and props such as guns.
Another convention that we followed was the use of fast paced editing. An example of this in our film is when Jacob first gets into the car, starts the engine, puts the car in gear and puts his foot on the pedal. This happens in a lot of heist films as the films are fast paced with many shots.
Our media product follows typical heist / gangster film conventions.
The first way in which we followed the conventions was that during the film there is to be a robbery of a bank, this follows the conventions of the genre as heist films are based around the robbery or theft of something using an intricate plot.
Although you do not see it in the opening two minutes, our film does follow the "three-act" plot. This is where there is a build up to the robbery, this includes planning the robbery and learning about different scenarios that could possibly happen. In the opening two minutes we are building up to the first stage of the three act plot as the three gang members are meeting Ronnie to get the blue prints to the bank so they can start getting prepared. As you can see from the short video on the blog called "Film Synopsis" in the middle section of the film is the bank robbery which is the second part in the three-act plot so this clearly follows the conventions of the genre. Also you will be able to see in the film synopsis video that at the end of the film is the twist, the two robbers that get caught by the police give the police information to get Don Capallo arrested which results in them getting a shortened sentence. This is the final part of the three-act plot.
An "All-Star team of criminals" is also one of the conventions of the genre, the three main characters in the film who carry out the robbery all have specific skills. Jacob is the highly skilled get-a-way driver who has been of service to some of the major criminals in the county. Matthew Benton is the genius safe cracker that can get into almost every vault in the world if you gave him the time and the other member of the crew is Chris Jennings who is the precision shooter, a gun wilding mad man who isn't afraid to kill. Last but not least is Don Capallo or also knows as "The Don". He is the "boos" and he doesn't like to get his hands dirty in his criminal operations.
In the film it features Don Capallo's "one last job". He is aiming to have this one last big robbery so that he can leave the life of crime and live the normal married life with his wife. This is common in heist films and usually shows something going wrong (like in our films case as they don't get as much money as they had planned and Jacob gets shot) then the story follows the survivor(s) and their side of the story which is exactly what our film does.
In thw opening two minutes of our film we use a lot of cut in camera shots, this is common in heist films as the camera shots can draw attention to certain characters and props such as guns.
Another convention that we followed was the use of fast paced editing. An example of this in our film is when Jacob first gets into the car, starts the engine, puts the car in gear and puts his foot on the pedal. This happens in a lot of heist films as the films are fast paced with many shots.
Costume
As we were trying to imitate a criminal gang in our film we thought it would be a good idea to have all of our characters dressed in suits, this is because it gives the characters a smart and sophisticated look and also because our actors were between the ages of 16 and 18 we needed them to look older than they actually were. This was made possible with a suit as it takes away the childish appearance and makes the characters look more like adults.
The reason why Jacob was wearing a different colour is because he is the main character and we did this so that the focus is centred on him. The other reason why we did this is so that you can tell at a quick glance which character is who.
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