Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When we were first given the task to produce the preliminary task we hadn't quite understood the brief as we were excited to go ahead and film anything we could and we hadn't thought or properly planned out how to produce it. Since then our knowledge has been broadened and when it cam to creating our film we made sure to take extra time on the planning phase. We feel that our general knowledge in terms of editing has improved extremely in terms of snipping and adding audio to clips. Our overall knowledge when using the Mac has improved as before very few people within our group knew how to use the programmes effectively and now we all know how it should be used. For example, putting white or black fade transitions and slowing down the clip so the picture is delayed. We have also adapted our analytic skills when it comes to media products as we can know pick up on the smallest of details. Finally, as we all got a chance to film using the camera we have all developed skills when working with camera angels and understanding the importance of mise-en scene. Overall, we have learnt many different things from the preliminary task, however, the most important is the effectiveness of close ups which we used several times when filming our opening sequence. The close up was used very often because it was crucial to show emotion through facial expressions as we did not have any dialect in our opening so the facial expression told the story.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

• This was one of the most important tools i used throughout this whole project as it was used primarily to research before we actually went and filmed anything.

• We used Watsapp as a way to contact and communicate with different members of the group and also as a way to keep everyone up to date on their roles and confirm the days we would film and the days we should blog.

• We used imovie on the apple mac as a place to store all of our footage and edit it using different tools within the programme.

• Blogger was used as a place to document everything which happened throughout the duration of our project it worked very much like a field diary and we were able to blog as we go along as not to forget any idea of change to the film. It also worked as a reference which members of the team could refer back to if they were unsure of what their roles were and what props they would have to bring on what day depending on the schedule.

• We used YouTube for a couple things, firstly we used it to research movie trailer which are linked to our in some way for research. Secondly we used YouTube as an easy and quick way to post and blog our videos quickly as they are both connected.

• The combination of the camera and tripod were used to record our footage. We used the tripod to balance our camera and try to minimize the shakiness of the image in all of the right places.

• Several outdoor shots were taken on my phones and also most of the location shots. It was also used to communicate with the rest of the members and to make blog posts on the go.

• Finally, we used the apple mac. Using the apple mac was the best way to construct our project as it contained all of the tools to edit, store and produce the final product

A range of technology was used in order to produce our final product and this use of technology meant that the final product looked professional and clean cut.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Because of the type of movie our film would be our target audience would be Males in their late teens, they would most likely get their clothes in Zara, TK Maxx and Next.

He would watch TV programmes such Eastenders, Top Gear, Britain’s Got talent and Misfits and Younger’s with actors that have a similar age to their self.

He would listen to wide range of music but mainly Pop, Rn B, Rock and Hip Hop

Their favorite food would probably be take-away e.g. Chinese and KFC.

He normally enjoys using his phone regularly and watching films at this age goes to the cinema quite often, but his taste in films has matured and....

With our knowledge on what male teenagers like and do, we created a set of basic questions and answers that summaries our target age group. From our research we feel that they would enjoy watching our media product because we have a mature story line with a lot of tension, also our actors are young and in a similar age group to our audience. By looking at the types of TV programmes they watch it was easy to decide what elements would appeal to them as it is a Thriller film and they enjoy watching action programmes and crime thrillers.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We chose to compare our protagonist Mohammed to the character of Shifty in Shifty as each character has decided to move away from their bad pasts. We also feel that both characters can succumb to peer pressure.Shifty and Mohammed are both influenced by something which makes them realise that they no longer want to live their lives the way they do. Mohammed represents youths and the struggle of being in gang culture and the difficulties of escaping it.

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Real Media Products

Our Media Product

1. (Title) Our title sequence is inspired by the title sequence in Narc. It starts with a blank screen and the credits appear and fade on the screen. In Narc they credits are slightly delayed which creates the feeling of importance as the audience and forced to focus on the screen. We used the same technique in our media product "Never Forget" as we though that the suspense of the names makes the first image that is shown more important.

2. (Location) This shot a torture scene in the game of GTA 5 shows a character being tortured in a dark, dingy basement.This shot allows the audience to see the person being interrogated looking vulnerable as the surroundings are quite claustrophobic. For our own media product we tried to incorporate the same claustrophobic feeling in our interrogation scene. We selected an area which had twisting spikes above and was fairly closed in with dirty brick walls.  

3.(Camera work & Editing) This camera effects are almost identical in their impact on the audience. This shot is taken from Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York when the character of Bill (the butcher) is introduced. The shot plays around with the expectations of the audience and has quiet a disturbing effect. We wanted to create the same disturbing effect for our protagonist's flashback so we recreated the shot to show the location where something horrific occurred.

4.(Costume and Props) The real media product "Good fellas" shows two the characters wearing suits. By wearing all black suits we thought that it would suit the conventions of typical gangsta films such as Goodfellas. Also as the colour black is associated with death and sorrow it is mainly associated with funerals. The suits make the characters look more menacing as stereo-typically some gangstas are known for wanting to look presentable and dressing in suits. Good fellas follows the convention of a classic gangsta film so we were inspire by that.

5.(Story & narrative) The narrative of an urban-thriller/gangsta film such as ours is the story of a character trying to forget and move away from their past. Although the real media product "The Butterfly Effect" does not contain the genre of a urban-gangsta film, it en captures the perfect thriller. It also tackles the same internal conflicts as our protagonist as they are both trying to forget their bad pasts but are failing to do so as the memory gives them recurring flashbacks.

6.(Introduction to characters) We also took the introduction of Narc main character to introduce our main character. The main character is the first person that is show to the audience which helps them identify who's story they are going to be following. A close up shot is used to show that the audience is trying to get into the main characters head. The shot tells the audience that something bad has happened. However, the other characters are introduced through flashbacks. The music used in the flashback is used again when the other characters enter the room to show a unsettling connection between the protagonist and the other characters.

7.(Title, Font, Style) The cracked font in the real media product "Narc" makes the audience feel uneasy and foreshadows that what they are about to watch will contain unsettling scene and make them feel uncomfortable. Like Narc we used the a similar font and colour scheme of white on black.The white font against the black screen also follows the convention of gangsta films.

8.(Special Effects) In the real media product "The Butterfly Effect" before the protagonist has a flashback all the colours are pulled into the center which makes the audience feel as though they they are being pulled into the story aswell. We would have loved to use the same effect, however, that option was not available for us as we did not have the software or the knowledge. Instead of that transition we used the white fade instead.

Final Opening Sequence

Here is the final product from all of the work we have done collectively over the past few months. Our film is called "Never Forget". The idea of the title came to me when we watched the whole film top to bottom and the name came like a flash of lightening. We also thought about "DON'T LOOK BACK" but it seemed a little boring. 

We used a combination of a handheld camera and a tripod in order to capture the footage. At times we held the camera without a tripod to obtain a shaky image so that the audience is confused and the image is distorted, like a reflection of the protagonists own internal conflicts.

Editing Opening sequence

 Flashbacks:

• Here we saturated the colour and made the shot look more dirty and grainy. The colour represents how the main character feels about these people as they are seen as dark and dangerous figure. Through this edit the viewer can see the inner workings of the characters mind.

• In this edit of the spikes hanging from the roof we completely played around with different colours to create this kind of vivid, dream-like image. This interesting mix of colours produced a great effect. We also slowed down the footage so the movement of the spikes would look more threatening and dangerous.

• In this clip we sped up the footage and exaggerated the dark colours so that the audience could see the connection between the other characters and the main protagonist.

Transitions

• Fade to black:

The first black transition shows that time has past. The final one stays on the screen for around five seconds in order to build up suspense and engrave the idea the what is about to appear it important as it is worth waiting for, this fade is used to introduce the title "Never Forget".

• White Fade:

The flashbacks are introduced with white fades. As the colours until the flashbacks are dull and grey the striking contrast of the bright white. The juxtaposition of the two tones sends a shock to the system as the white is too bright and almost blinding. This gives an insight to the audience that this blinding effect is how the protagonist continuously feels.

Audio for Film Opening

We detached the audio from the whole video as the outside factors of building work was very distracting. We took a long piece of audio off one of the clips and kept the sound continuously throughout the rest of the shots. The fact that the audience doesn't notice that this is being done allows the audience to be drawn into the film straight away. Although the audio was taken from previous clips we slowed the sound down the sound to extenuate an audio reflection of what is happening inside the main characters mind.

Screen Grabs of editing

We managed to partly edit the opening sequence. Firstly we put in order of how we want it to be trimmed. We actually saturated the colour in the flashback to show the difference and distortion between his past and present.

Keeping The Actor Happy

Its important when filming to have absolute continuity. An issue arose with our main actor Mohammed, as he wanted to get a haircut half way through filming. There would have been a continuity mishap had he have actually had the haircut as he had thick bushy hair at the beginning of filming. Keeping him content and happy was key so that he would continue being a part of our film. So, we simply bargained with him to postpone the haircut until we finished filming.

Extra Prop

We kept all of the same props as before but, we just simply added one more prop:

Mobile Phone

With the mobile phone our main character gets a message from Jovan that he wants to meet up with him to discuss something important. As Mohammed does not want to be around Jovan or David anymore, the phone is important as we are able to capture Mohammed's reaction to seeing a text from Jovan.