Evaluation

In what way does your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media production?

Se7en Titles

Canted Angle of captive room

Our Title

Our two minute film/opening sequence is called ‘Ebony’ it is a mystery thriller and we have incorporated many generic conventions; music, cinematography, mise-en scene and editing to develop the genre of a thriller.  Throughout we use a variety of angles and shots including; Canted angles used to create a suspicious atmosphere, as if something is wrong (also to create the sub-genre mystery), Low angles to highlight dominance in a character and High angles to suggest innocence. We chose to make our main captive room look realistic through using an old dark abandoned boiler room. Throughout the titles we use short, snappy clips of film to create suspense and mystery through revealing bits of the film without giving away the storyline; our film develops the norm of thriller/mystery films from doing this. As well as developing the norms of a thriller film (in the titles), it challenges it also through following the everyday life of three college girls throughout the rest of the film. Our two minute film is highly influence by the titles from se7en; they both use short, fast pace clips; never revealing any identity, throughout the first two minutes introduces main characters  and from using flickering/distorted titles and bits of film. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Nicole

Our film is based on three college students and their life experiences leading up to where they are now in their lives. We have particularly concentrated on our three characters and the different ways to portray them depending on what happens to them within the film. To present realistically what it is like in college we have tried to stick to stereotypical personalities. 

Lily

For example we have presented Lily as a new innocent college girl, we have done this through having her dress in floaty dresses, wearing a minimal amount of makeup also through her body language throughout. In comparison to Nicole who is portrayed as the popular girl in the group; we made the girl look very high-maintenance through an excessive amount of make-up, hair extensions and girly clothing. We used these representations so our target audience of 15-25year old girls perhaps boys would be able to relate to the story line. Our use of camera shots develop of representations further, for example; Ebony is supposed to be the ‘outcast’ of the group, we have portrayed this through the difference in shots we use when ebony is on camera such as the close up of her eyes to suggest her ‘weird’ character. 

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

Optimum Releasing Logo

We decided that our film would be best distributed by a British film company because the film creates a message for both teenagers and parents; optimum releasing was an ideal institution to release our film because it has released films similar such as ‘this is England’ which was popular with the audience we have targeted our film to. Just like ‘this is England’ our film would have a niche market, meaning it would be more appropriate to be produced with a small budget and distributed to independent cinemas across the UK. If the film was successful in takings at cinemas it would be suitable to be shown on Film4 or Channel 4 after a certain time with the film being for over 15’s because of the drama aspect to it; making the film more accessible to people around to country and potentially widening our market. The film isn’t the type to provide any sort of franchises or merchandise. We linked our production company logo with the British film institution through calling ourselves ‘Regal Pictures’ relating to the monarchy which is specific to Britain.  
(http://www.optimumreleasing.com/)

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our film is produced to appeal to females aged 15 – 25, but it could also appeal to girls in that age range. We thought that our target market would relate to the storyline of our film, because its focuses on the lives of three teenage girls and their relationships; mainly how they can change due to bullying and bad upbringing. Our target audience are mainly in education I would have encountered some sort of bullying or similar situation, which would create an emotional connection between them and the characters in the film. We created a questionnaire and asked our fellow student to answer, both boys and girls which came into the age range for our film; from this we found that our target audience really enjoy thriller films and would watch one in cinema, we found that jumpy parts and intense music is the making of a thriller film. We took all this into consideration when making our film therefore making the film into something they would really enjoy. We look on the bbfc website to help us decide what classification to give our film; we thought that the certificate 15 was suitable for the film because it has imitative behaviour within it, without dwelling on any danger or pain and it could also involve frequent use of strong language.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Zoom into Lilys eyes.

We chose the specific age group 15-15’s because the film will particularly appeal to them as the storyline they will be able to connect with. At the beginning of the 2 minute sequence is a 14 second clip informing the audience of the main three characters, this was an intention to get the audience intrigued.  Throughout the 2 minute film we have incorporated camerawork to address our audience; we have shot the film in a way in which draws the audience into the film, such as the zoom into lily’s eyes. 

Lily's Point of view Shot.

We have put in certain shots which puts the audience in the characters shoes, such as the extreme close ups of ebony’s eyes, when we see that ebony is staring at lily in an uncomfortable manner and the high angle shot of Lily to show her vulnerability. Having the audience feel the same way the characters do creates empathy for the characters from the audience.

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

HDV1000 Camera

At the beginning of the course we started off with handheld cameras, as we started this project we upgraded to the big DV1000 HD cameras. The camera has an amazing amount of features which all enhance the look of the film; it has provided us with a clear image for our video (although the quality of the photo isn’t as good now uploaded onto YouTube). 

Final Cut Express

One major problem we had with the big camera is we found it didn’t zoom as far as we wanted it to when zooming from Ebony’s eye out to Nicole’s legs as we storyboarded it; we compromised a little with the zoom, and just stuck with zooming into the two eyes rather than just the one. We didn’t have any other problems with the camera equipment, everything ran smoothly and we picked up on how to use the camera really quickly, this was good because it allowed us to film quicker.I have learnt how to use the editing software Final Cut Express and it has been a delight to work with, it has never failed for us, and we haven’t encountered any problems. I have learnt how to put on transactions between clips for continuity, how to distort pieces of film/titles, how to overlap video with audio and make certain bits of film louder than others. 
  

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

Preliminary Task

Looking back to our preliminary task and the difference between that and our full product is clearly evident, these were the first ever things we did after we had a few lessons on cinematography, therefore we weren’t at all experienced enough to create something spectacular. The pre production stage was crucial for us to make a film to our full potential; storyboarding, shot listing and practice shots were the only main reasons that made the filming of our full product easier, we didn’t do any of this for our preliminary task.  When doing our final 2 minute film, we had much more experience with the camera, and the different shots therefore we felt more confident to do it on ourselves without having to ask for a second opinion, or having to ask for help on how to use the camera. 

2 Minute Film

In our full film we have a much wider range of shot types such as establishing shots, point of view shots and shot reverse shots indifferent to our preliminary task, where we just used over the shoulder shot reverse shots. Overall, I feel that our film has fulfilled the task brief as we have made our storyline evident in the 2 minute film without giving away any specific details. We have incorporated particular generic conventions to identify the genre of thriller and have done this to our full potential, we had pushed ourselves with the amount of work we had to do to make this the best project we had done so far and I feel that we have good job of it and I would like to believe that it would appeal to our specific target audience.

Film Review Videos.

we asked a few of our fellow media students to watch and review our 2 minute film, we asked them: 

1. How effective did you find our title sequence? why did/didn't you like it?
2. How effective and authentic did you think our locations looked? 
3. What did you think the genre of our film was? 
4. What did you particularly like about our film? 
5. What did you particularly dislike about our film? 
6. Does our film remind you of any other films?  
7. What do you think of the charcter? is it clear who is the bad character? why?
   
   

reviewed by: kieren lawless, liam fountain and nathan denman


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reviewed by: oliver mitchell and joseph jones.


These reviews tell us that we achieved an overall effective visual impact as our title sequences and locations we're reviewed well. We also managed to represent the characters effectively and clearly as the characters were easily identifiable as good or bad, and so this created a sense of tension and foreboding, giving our sequence its thrilling element. These reviews also tell us that although our title sequence and locations were effective, they are also misleading as the general opinion on genre was that it was a horror when we intended for it to be thriller, meaning that we could've toned down the dark elements of our opening sequence to make it more mysterious rather than grungy and dark.  

Film Analysis: Black Swan

I decided that i wanted to analyse a film that i hadn't yet scene therefore i would be more observant, rather than being bias and missing important part out because they're never meant anything any other time i've watched it. i wanted to analyse a film that i was intreged in, and one that was a similar sort of genre to our film. i chose to analyse black swan because its dark, mysterious and it is the sort of film that will target the same audience as our film 'ebony'. i am going to analyse the first 15 minutes of the film whilst taking into concideration the sound, editing, cinematography and mise-en-scene used throughout.

Scene 1

Black swan’s titles is introduced with the diagetic music ‘swan lake’ with a hint of dark laughing in the background to give the music a darker feel making the genre of thriller apparent above the more obvious genre of ballet dance. The beginning of the film introduces the main character of the film who is a ballet dancer. The lack of lighting creates a darker feel alongside using a spot light emphasises the fact that this is the main character. Throughout the first 4 minutes of the film the diagestic music gets louder and deeper to develop a harsher effect upon its audience. Another character appears behind the darkness, a man in a black cloak; at this point in the film it is not obvious who this man is, whether he is a relevant character or not. 

The variety of shots throughout this section of the film range from long shots to establish the scene to closes ups of the main characters feet to highlight the importance of the character. The darkness and harshness of the first 4 minutes of the film creates suspense and interreges the audience making them want to watch further. 4 minutes in and there is a blackout. 

Scene 2

In the next section of the film there is a complete change in mise-en-scene. The beginning sequence turned out to be a dream of the ballet dancer; she was dancing the black swan with different choreography. This dream could be a really big emphasis on foreshadowing Nina getting the main role of the Ballet Performance. The non-diagetic music is soothing and soft which creates the sense of the girl still coming around from waking up. Another close up of her feet is shown the repetition of showing her feet could be foreshadowing something important. In contrast with the first scene, this scene is very bright and airy which might be a suggestion to the main characters way of life. During this scene we are introduced to the main characters mum, or what is presented as being her mum. A series of shot reverse shots are used when the two of them are speaking. They speak eloquently suggesting that the main character has had a really good upbringing and has got the rest of her life set up for her as a ballet performer.  

Nina’s mother dresses her in her jacket and there is an eye line match used and then a close up of her shoulder where there seems to have been some sort of scaring, the use of the eye line match and close up of this is used to emphasise what is shown to highlight that it might be revelent in the rest of the film. The scene ends with an over the shoulder shot where Nina and her mum are hugging and there is a close up of Nina’s mum’s concerned eyes. 

Scene 3

Scene 3 starts off with a really intense high pitched train sound where there is an over the shoulder shot, with a close up of Nina’s reflection in a train window. There is a clear change in mood/mise-en-scene. The way the beginning bit of the scene is filmed looks like Nina is a little bit unstable and shaken up, the camera seems to be hand held, to make the audience feel the way Nina is feeling. The harsh sound in the background develops a dark tone making the audience feel part of the scene and eger to know what is going to happen next. 
There is a cut to next carriage of the train showing what appears to be a women, my first thoughts was that it was the same person; the way that they're both wearing similar things, there hair are put up in the same way and they both sort their hair out at the same time made me think this. the camera follows the woman off the train with a pan. this character could be really important throughout the film, at this stage of the film it isn't obvious; but they wouldn't be a lot of emphasis on the character if she wasn't relevent.
When the woman is out of shot there is a quick cut to the back of nina's head, then a cut to the front of her head, then again to the back and a jump cut to another shot of the back of her head; the use of the short cut and the jump cut really emphasises that Nina is rushing to get to her dance studio.  

This scene ends with an over the shoulder long shot of posters of a performance that is going to be put on, i am lead to think that this is the performance Nina is hopeing to star in, this shot is around 2/3 seconds long, to stress its importance within the film. 

Scene  4

Scene 4 starts with a variety of shots that show a great deal of 
mise-en-scene to bring attention to where the main character to is, and her surroundings, developing a better insight to Nina's character.The lighting in this scene is starts of bright, the brightness could suggest Nina's bright future in the business or her bright character, representing her 'white swan'. In the beginning bit of this scene we are introduced to two new characters. we see closes ups of the two characters to highlight what the other ballet dancers look like and show us what girls Nina is up against in getting the main character in the ballet performance. 
During this scene, we are shown a series of shot reverse shots between Nina and another character, the shots are really pacey which emphasises the way Nina is feeling, we are shown her reactions and she seems to become more and more anxious everytime we are shown her. Further into the scene, the lighting becomes a bit darker and we are introduces to the women who Nina first saw on the train, she walks through the door and there is a high angle shot of Nina suggestion that the new character is dominant over her and Nina feels overpowered; represented further through her facial expression. The scene ends with non-diagestic minor music playing following through into scene 5. 

Scene 5

Following on from scene 4, the minor music plays throughout the beginning part of this scene. We are shown 13 jump cut close up shots of Nina's Ballet shoes, showing her preperations take a long time. There is a cut then to a close up of a long line of ballet dancers feet, to show there technique and skill. There is a lot of emphasis on the amount of people in the ballet company, to stress that Nina is up againt a lot of competition to get the lead from of the Black/White Swan.

In this scene we are obviously in a Ballet studio, where the dancers are in rehersals; the lighting is normal and there is diagestic piano music which the ballet dancers would usually practice to. There is a variety of shot put into this scene ranging from close ups of faces for reactions and dialogue to long shots to establish the scene. We are shown a high angle shot of the whole studio from behind a silhoutte of a man; this suggests that the man is the dominant, most powerful character throughout; This character is the owner of the ballet company.
This is very stereotypical of a man is the owner of a ballet company, and women are the dancers, there is a few men dancers featuring in the scene also, though. There is a lot of close ups on this character to highlight the importance of his character, and to draw the audience in while he tells the story of the Black Swan to them and the dancers.  
There is 4 close ups and extreme close ups of the mans fingers tapping the shoulders of certain dancers, this is emphasised because is it important; those that got tapped wont be getting the role of the Black swan, they were told to go to normal rehersals, those who didn't get tapped were being concidered. Whilst the man is speaking to the dancers, keeping in the 180 degree rule lines; it is obvious that all the dancers respect him, because they're all stood with great posture and giving eye contact to him; In return he isn't that respectful to them, as he doesn't make contact with them all, this would be a normal thing for him to do, because if he was friendly, he wouldn't be the most dominant/powerful character in this scene. 
During this scene there is a really powerful shot, a shot of the man through a mirror, this mirror has a split down the middle, therefore shows two of his face, this is very important because it suggest the two alters of the swan that he is talking about at the time, these two alters of the swan are the black swan and the white swan, the person that gets the main role in the 'swan lake' performance they're putting on will play both of these characters. When the man reveals that those who wasn't tapped were being concidered for the main role in the production, it is clear who are the main ones up against eachother to get the role because we are shown a close up of their reactions. 
The scene finishes with these reactions, this is a great way for the scene to end, to leave the audience with an idea of whats to come.

Scene 6

 This scene is a really powerful scene, although not very long; i feel that it represents the character of Nina. It starts off very cool, layed back and elligant; then there is a breakdown and things start to go wrong, the whole personality of Nina will change. The scene is introduced with a long shot of Nina to establish where she is, it seems she is in a corridor of the ballet studio, collecting her thoughts. There is some really soft minor non-diagetic music; to create the mood of fantasy, it is as if Nina is in her own little world.

After this shot there is a close up of Nina's face to show her expression of content, this is emphasised because after a few seconds her mood is interupted through a loud smash of breaking glass.
Their is a 4/5 second build up of the slamming of a door, this is built up through a really high pitched non-diagetic sound and a variety of shots to show the reaction of Nina and what is going on in the room where someone is obviously distressed and angry. The anger of the woman is further stressed when we are shown medium shot of the woman shouting at Nina for standing and looking. After we are shown a long shot of an empty corridor stressing that the woman has now gone. There is a gradual entrance of a really intence low pitched sound suggesting that someone is going to do something that they should, Nina walks into the room to investigate. The contrast in lighting in this room from the corridor is highlighted; the room Nina is in now is the dancers 'Beth.M'.  

The mise-en-scene shows a lot of pretty girly/pinky things with make-up, mirrors, lights and flowers, this could be representative of Ninas present character or emphasising the fact that Beth.M was a really top class Ballet Dancer who was given a lot, and the fact she was smashing her room up could be because she has lost that respect and has given up on ballet dancing. We are shown an over the shoulder mirror shot of Nina; this is relevent because it could mean that Nina is going to take the place of Beth in that room and in Ballet dancing as a whole. In this section of the scene we here really smoothly child-like jewellery box type music; this is important because it could inturperate that this is what Nina has always wanted to happen, since she was a little girl. We are shown a close up of Nina picking up some lipstick,when she picks the lipstick up we hear really low pitched breathing from Nina. Nina puts the lipstick in her pocket; we are shown a extreme close up of this to stress that Nina has metaphorically stolen Beth's place in dancing. The scene ends with another bang of the dressing room door, when Nina exits the room slowly. 

Scene 7

The final scene of my analysis and we are in the 'principals room' where the dancers are giving their interpritation of the white and black swan; in this room is the dancers chosen, wall sized mirrors and a piano. Nina is first, and we are shown her routine through the camera following her in circles, this is much more effective than just showing us a longshot, because it puts the audience in Nina's shoes. The music in this scene is the diagestic piano music playing the very ligh song that may feature in the white swan section of 'swan lake' performance. After we are shown 5/6 seconds of Nina's routine we are then back to the low angle close up of the owner, who is observing Nina's routine also. We can still see Nina in the mirror but we are shown this shot, to see his reaction of her routine and also to re-establish the fact that he is the dominant character and no matter how good Nina is; he is still the one picking the part of the principal character.

We are shown a variety of shots to show Nina's complexity of dancing, when Nina's 'white swan' routine is finished, the owner talks down to Nina telling her that she would get the part if she was only to play the white swan, then we are shown another routine; her 'black swan'. The music for the black swan isn't as light/minor as the white swan; in this section of the routine, Nina isn't as floaty and elligant is in the white swan, instead she is much more bang on and hard, we are shown a close of her feet, showing her steps are hard and fast. We are then quickly put into the eyes of Nina as we are shown a personal view of Nina, whilst spinning on her toes, we see what she is seeing rather than what she's doing. this is good because it makes us feel dizzy before Nina is interupted again by someone coming in the studio late. which makes us feel just like the way Nina must feel. We are shown a medium shot to be formally introduced to the woman featured in scene 3 and 4. She is called lily, and is clear competition for Nina; this shot is shown to also establish who has broken Nina stride in getting the role of principal character. 
Nina's emotions stressed through non-diagetic minor music playing, this is playing because the owner of the company has told her he doesn't want to see anymore; If lily didn't walk through the door when she did, maybe this would have been a totally different situation. we are shown a close up of Nina to see her reaction, and the scene ends with a track shot, following Nina out of the studio.