Wednesday, 25 March 2009

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

The audience are able to identify typical forms and conventions in most of the opening sequences of films. This may include the introduction of characters and their relationships with each other, the introduction of some narrative, the film company logo, an establishing shot of the setting and possible captions allowing the audience to see names of actors e.t.c. It is also very common for films to have a title sequence in the opening. These are the main general forms and conventions of film openings. However, depending on the genre of film; these conventions can vary.

The genre we decided to go with for our project was crime. This involved some urban representations such as gangs & wealth. After we had decided what genre we were going to go for, we begun further research into the crime genre. Watching films such as the Itallian Job and Oceans 11/12, we were able to understand ideas surrounding the type of film and were able to plan more effectively.

I think that our final product successfully followed the main forms and conventions of the crime genre. The characters and their personalities are portrayed throughout the film similarily to other types of films involving crime. We decided to include the character of a boss and his right hand man, and also a female character who we decided would accompany the others. We agreed on giving the female character a secretary look. Choosing to include a female character contributing to the crime; I think could challenge some of the forms and conventions of crime genre films, because often the audience will expect the genre to be male dominated. I think this challenges that stereotype.

We were able to distinguish the difference in class between the characters for the audience. Costumes for the Boss such as suits, enable the audience to be able to tell that he is superior, where as his accompanying workers may be less important. This was achieved by camerawork especially but also by the mise-en-scéne (e.g. settings, costumes). We used shots such as shot reverse shot for conversations and to show relationships between characters and long/establishing shots to set the scene and show a location. George and I came up with the idea of having a young character sprinting down the road to open our film. Chris starred in this scene and also thought of having a point of view shot to add extra impact to the scene. This worked very well as it helped to follow the forms and conventions of the crime genre. The audience are able to tell there is something going on from the beginning, without having to include any narrative. We used up-beat urban music in this scene which really had an impact on the scene.

We used fast pace cutting at the end of our opening sequence. It was a more interesting way to end, but also showed the planning of the heist that would take place. I think this created more excitement and suspense for the audience. It also helped to emphasise the activities being done.

We tried to use typical conventions of the crime genre after researching and watching various other films that my relate to our project. I think we challenged certain conventions by involving female characters in the gang.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I have learnt about many different aspects in the progression from it to the full media product. This includes camerawork, editing, teamwork and time management. I think that huge improvement has been made on these things since the preliminary task.

Previously, our group found it difficult to focus when we were filming particular shots. This made it very difficult to complete set tasks and targets, which eventually resulted in us falling behind and being unable to manage our time efficiently. However, when working on our full media product, we had learned to be significantly more foucused and made sure we planned our time in the best way we could. This enabled us to complete our tasks well and on time. Despite this, at the beginning of this unit we took slightly longer to plan our opening sequence than other groups. Initially, this slowed us down as a group because in effect we actually started filming later than everyone else. I have now learned that we also need to manage our time well when planning, not just filming. This means there will be less pressure to catch up on any filming or other work we may not have done.

Thinking about managing our time for each of our tasks, meant our group had to frequently communicate with each other. Successful teamwork was essential in order for us to move forward with our work and be able to agree on any decisions made by members of our group. It was also very important that everyone in our group could have an idea or opinion, that would be acknowledged by others. If we were unable to work unsucessfully as a team, it would have been very difficult to complete our full media product, and would have slowed down our working progress.

I think the quality of the work was much improved compared to our preliminary task. We learned from completing the preliminary; what camerawork and editing worked well with what we were trying to capture. The editing in our full media product is a lot more precise and on time and also really emphasises certain representations to the audience. I feel that the camerawork in our preliminary task was also a lot more amateur in comparison to our final product. I have learned how to use camerawork in a way that suits what we are filming; and more about the types of shots that should and could be used. I have also learned that editing makes a huge impact on the film and the different techniques that can be used.

Overall I feel that there has been a lot of positive progression from our preliminary task to our full media product. I have learned about working together well as a team, successful time management and camerawork & editing.