Corruption - Opening Sequence

Evaluation Part Seven - Jamie Wiltshire

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

Doing the Preliminary task gave our group an opportunity to explore new camera shots and getting used to the editing software. It was important to get used to this because it was the first time I had used them as I didn’t do Media at GCSE.

Our task in the Preliminary task was to have someone walking into a room and having a conversation, using the shot reverse shot technique. We used over the shoulder shots to film each person when they spoke. It was a group decision to film the conversation between the two characters a couple of times rather than having more than one camera at once. This was because it allowed us to get better angles on the shots as the cameras wouldn’t be in the way of the other one, it also made the clip flow a lot better as the cameras mirrored each other which made it easier to watch. We successful used the technique although there wasn’t a lot of dialogue included.

I learnt the different camera shots which we used in the opening sequence. For example the shot of the feet as someone is walking along, this was used in the preliminary task when the drug dealer was walking through the corridors and was used in the opening sequence as the school boy is walking through the ally. Another example was the matching of the door as someone walks through it; this technique was used in both the preliminary task and our final production.

When it came to the preliminary task we wrote a script for the actors to practice and use although they didn’t completely follow it. There wasn’t a lot of speech in our clip so we mainly focused on creating interesting angles and shots for the camera that we could transfer into our final sequence.

The weaknesses of our preliminary task was the sound, this is because we did separately film the dialogue which meant that when we edited it the audience can’t really hear what is said, on top of that the actor we chose mumbles when he speaks which makes it even harder for the audience to understand what is being said. We made sure this didn’t happen in our final sequence by filming any audio separately, although when we came to edit we removed the audio from the clips and added our own sound effects, this is because there was still a lot of background noise due to the wind.

Because of us filming the preliminary task in school, we didn't take the mis-en-scene into much consideration, although we did make sure our actors were wearing the same thing for every time we went filming for continuity. This contrasts to the thought that went into our final clip, this can be seen through the choice of settings and props we used. We thought hard about the costumes for the main characters which provide connotations to the sorts of people they are and also their role within the clip. For example, the ordinary clothes for the school boy showing that he is a mainstreamer and fits in with everyone else and dark colours for the spy to show mystery.

The essentials for creating a good final piece:

Doing lots of research, looking into different camera shots and editing techniques to make which will give you a wider range and make the video flow better and look more professional.

Organisation, this will ensure that you have all the footage in a safe place to prevent it being lost and also mean that you are on top of the workload and know exactly what you’ve done and still need to do.

Good teamwork, this will lead to the group being more effective as everyone is contributing and will also mean that it is equally shared to avoid more people having to do more work.

Planning, this will help you keep track of time so everything isn’t left until right at the end and will also make you more efficient as you will be able to go out knowing what you need to achieve.

Overall, from the preliminary task I have learned that the final outcome will not be the same as what you first planned due new ideas which improve the clips and you sometimes have to compromise for example the settings may not be available. This happened in our final sequence because at the time we were filming, the ally was busy with people returning home from school which meant we had to keep stopping and starting. Also, throughout the preliminary task I found that it’s important to make sure the audience aren’t aware of all the transitions between shots, this is because if they do, the film doesn’t flow well.

Evaluation Part Six - Jamie Wiltshire

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

The digital camera we used to film is very useful to travel around as they are small and light. Another feature of the camera was a screen which enabled us to view our footage to decide whether we liked it. The camera had a USB connection which made it really quick to import everything on to final cut ready to start editing with. The other camera we used was an SLR, this wasn’t as convenient as it was a lot bigger, although the quality of its footage was better. An issue we came across with the camera was the focus. We learnt that the focus on this camera wasn’t as good as the digital camera as it took longer to focus. Therefore, for the scenes with a lot of movement we used the digital camera. We also got a tripod which made the camera shots steady and not shaking around. The digital cameras we used provided HD quality shots which improved our filming because they picked up the finer details like someone’s facial expression; it also gave our opening sequence a more professional appearance. 

We used Live Type to create the title ‘Corruption’ which was displayed right at the end of the opening sequence. I used the code type effect on the text because it linked in well to the story of our sequence. Final Cut was quite easy to use which was really helpful as I previously never used it; it also had a massive range of texts and backgrounds to use. The only thing I found difficult with it was changing the colour of the font although I think that was due to my lack of experience with the software.

To edit our film we used the software Final Cut Express.  Not only can you make the opening sequence brilliant but there are also tools to control the sound for example either making the sound quieter and then making the soundtrack louder. Final cut was good as it was easy to use which helped a lot as most of the group had never used it before. Also, it allowed us to produce the video in the highest quality and resolution possible and also use transitions between shots that you cannot make in any other video editing program. An issue we came across with the software was that it kept crashing; this made it important that we saved it regularly to prevent us loosing work. Professionals or even just a person might use this because it lets them produce really good quality work with a wide range of effects without much confusion as it’s so easy to use.

We used the website Blogger to display our research and preparation for our film. Blogger made the research more interesting as it allowed us to use multimedia such as embedded clips from ‘Youtube’ and presentations from ‘Prezi’. Blogger also let us personalise the blog so that we could have it just how we wanted it, this includes the font and the background. An issue with using this was that it was in American which meant that some words were spelt differently but this was easily avoidable by checking through the spelling after finishing the post

Evaluation Part Five - Ali Mbow

How did you attract/address your audience?

After looking over the results from the questionnaire that we had created for our audience members we discovered ways that we could entice and engage our audience more by using their ideas and thoughts on the original plan for our opening sequence which they wrote down and explained to us in the questionnaires that we gave them. Lots of the comments made about the plot for the opening sequence was to add more violence action. We tried to do as much as we could to tailor our film to the majority of the target audience however in some instances in the process of creating our opening sequence it was not possible as the addition of violence and/or more action would have led to the narrative enigma in some scenes to be ruined and would cut the building of tension and suspense that had been built from the beginning of the clip.

With the use of different camera angles/shots and tense music playing in the background we have developed our opening sequence so it resembles a stereotypical action/thriller film, and hopefully at points the content of our media product made the audience feel uncomfortable not knowing what will happen next and why the events that are occurring are significant etc. We used genre signifiers throughout the sequence to depict a believable and accurate representation of a action/thriller genre. 

We frequently involved different camera shots which showed the unsuspecting, innocent, lifeless character of the protagonist this i because in every different angle and position the camera captured these same robotic and repetitive shots of the protagonist going about his daily routine, however the audience are aware from the use of these shots and the tense music that there must be something wrong and that there will be a climax that will reveal as to why all of the opening sequence so far has contained the footage that it has. The amount of effort put into creating the apprehension and uncertainty in a scene is common among other films within this genre.

From information we gathered from our class members who watched our opening sequence we found out that they thought it was quite a successful piece and that it was quite tense at points due to the extensive use of narrative enigma as many of them were enticed from the first few scenes because they wanted to find out what happened to the protagonist and how the quite simple and ordinary scenes at the start had any relevance. They also said that because they were of the same age as the protagonist in the opening sequence and because he was performing activities that they would in their daily lives as well and in the same manor that they could relate to him. Therefore making the scenes fell more realistic and increasing intensity as the music and footage forebode something to happen to the protagonist.

Evaluation Part Four - Ali Mbow

Who would be the audience for your media product?

From research into our target audience and into all different ages, genders and film interests we discovered that the audience for our media product is mostly males within the age range of 15-35 years and that their favorite film genre's included thriller, crime and action/adventure.

Earlier on in this project we created questionnaires to get audience members of different ages, classes, genders and film interests to fill out. The results from these questionnaires were varied and gave us a better insight into what the audiences views on the plot of opening sequence were. Some of the questionnaires included the audiences age, opinions on the opening sequence idea and if there were any possible improvements. The age helped us decide if the audience members response corresponded with their response. From this we concluded that the age of the audience didn't really affect their opinion but instead the audience's opinions on what improvements could be made showed a correspondence that the younger the audience members were the more action and violence they wanted to be included in the opening sequence, the audience members that were demanding more action and violence were all male teens and middle aged  males. We were pleased with the results from our questionnaires as they clearly showed us what our target audience was and what we could do to interest a wider target audience.

(One of the completed questionnaires)

We have decided that the social demographics of our audience does not majorly affect who are audience members are except in some cases when it means that they do not have the money to spend on leisurely activities such as watching a film, therefore this could take away some of our potential audience, however the issue wouldn't be a big issue.

In our opening sequence we used slow and strange music that creates a lot of suspense along with large amount of narrative enigma at the beginning of the opening sequence, this has some stereotypical features of a action/thriller film. We believe that building suspense is key to shocking the audience and engaging them even more, this is because no matter how horrific or frightening a scene in a film is it won't be as effective compared to if you had used certain music, dark lighting and slow paced scenes to build up the tension and the suspense of that moment which increases the effect of the climax on the audience. Due to this and the stereotypical features of thriller/action films that is used in our opening sequence i think that fans of these two genres would be very interested in watching our opening sequence and would enjoy the manipulation of sound and camera/editing techniques to heighten the climax of the opening sequence.

I think that our opening sequence will appeal to and attract mainly male audience members as there are only male characters in our opening sequence and the themes of violence, action and corruption are stereo typically linked to men as men are almost always the gender involved in fighting and wars and being the top of the hierarchy in business and governments which is what links it to the theme and title of our opening sequence 'Corruption'. 

Evaluation Part Three - Ali Mbow

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

Good distribution of a film is one of the key elements to the films success. Simply because if the film is not distributed to the right places and promoted in the most effective ways than no one will be interested in going to see the film or people just won't of heard enough information about the film to know that it has been released. 

The distributors of the film decide where the film will be screened and at what cinemas/theaters it will be screened at, they also decide how long the film will be allowed to be shown at theaters. After this phase when the film is taken out of the cinemas and theaters it is made available on DVD and Blu ray, the distributors will then decide when it should be released and at what stores they will sell copies to, they will also set the original price of the DVD or Blu ray. Making a film takes a lot of time, money and hard work and there would be almost no point of doing this unless you had the right distributors to help you in getting the recognition that the films deserves and therefore making profits from ticket sales and DVD sales etc. This is why it is so important to have distributors who know what they are doing and know how to promote and distribute your product successfully.

I have researched two different that i think are suitable to distribute our media product. The first distribution company that i have researched is 'The Kennedy/Marshall Company', they have created hit films such as 'The Bourne' series including 'The Bourne Identity' released in 2002 which made $214,034,224 in the box office from a budget of $60 million. As you can see 'The Bourne' was very successful over its span of 10 years with all of its films making similar profits to the first. I have mentioned these films as they are quite similar to our opening sequence in a way as they both have the same crime/thriller genre and both include themes of danger, action and adventure. We would be happy to have The Kennedy Marshall company as a possible distributors as they have proven themselves to be a very successful film-production company in the mainstream film industry.

                         

                    
The second film company that i thought would be suitable to distribute our media product is  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), they are also a very successful mainstream film creator and distributor. They have proven how good their distribution techniques and methods are through the successful distribution of blockbuster film 'Casino Royale' which made extremely lucrative profits of $599,045,960 after its release in 2006. Without the distribution carried out by MGM it could have been a completely different story as the distribution is what informed and alerted fans of the James Bond series across the world that there was to be an addition to the series and giving them the date of release and subsequently to the release of the film in cinemas MGM promoted the release of the DVD and Blu ray versions which they also set the original price for. Without this extensive marketing and distribution the could of possibly failed in making such large profits as they did.

The reason that i mentioned 'Casino Royale' as an example is because the film is also quite similar to our opening sequence and has a similar story line related to spies, conflict and corruption within governments and organisations. We would use MGM to create and distribute the trailer and to gain multiple TV spots and extensive coverage of the opening premiere of the film etc. to further promote the product and attract more people, this marketing would be key to the films success.

Evaluation Part Two - Ben Chapman