Evaluation 5

Annotation refer to genre conventions, use of music, similarities and other movies and what you have identified as the Unique Selling Point(USP)of our opening two minutes and imaginary film.

Evaluation 6

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




We used many different tools and technologies and other media products/kit to help construct our final media product.



We used:



School/Home computers - To edit and upload/update new features onto our blogs.



School supplied camera and tape - We used these film and record our opening two minutes aswell as filming audience feedback and directors commentary.



Microphone - Extension microphone used for our opening two minutes allowing us to get a good quality of sound from the character outdoors.



Tripod - We relied on the tripod for many steady shots to enhance a better quality of filming.



Car - To travel to each different location safely and comftably. (It was freezing)



Ipod - This was used as a prop in our scene of William being mugged, to help illustrate wealth.



Wallet & Keys - This was used as a prop in our shot of expressing the materialistic goods in Williams house as he goes to pick up both items. (match on action)



Phone - This prop was used when William is first introduced showing the audience the contrast on how William has up to date technology at his finger tips.



Fruity Loops 8 Home Studio - This was used at home to construct a suitable soundtrack for our opening sequence.



Adobe - We used Adobe Premiere 8 to edit and construct our opening two minutes aswell as using Adobe photoshop to help put together our screen grabs and complete presentation.



Memory Stick - Using memory sticks as a back up was a good idea incase of any computer errors we all had a copy of our progress, fortunately we didn't have any computing saving errors. This was also useful from travelling information from home to school.



Blogger - We used blogspot blogging to present our research, planning, evaluation and final media product.



Youtube - Finally one of the most useful websites, youtube - we found that it was very helpful when constructing our research and if we needed to see how other openings were presented in a paticular fashion. It was also used for research and easy viewable videos to then evaluate for our research and planning, helping us finalise our genre and target audience.

Below are some pictures of me and some equipment we used:

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?




I believe the typical audience member for our media product would be anyone inbetween the age of 15-24 who likes getting involved with deep storylines which relate to an urban reality of a the diversity between lifestyles of teenagers.

This is Toby, he is 17 and is into graffiti art and bmxing he is most likely to shop at unique outlets such as 'Mash Clothing' in London, who support the youth of today and sell urban styled clothing brands, keeping up with what's new and fresh on the street. Toby is most likely to be found listening to the new form of drum and bass - dubstep, distinguished by it's two-step rhythm, fast beats and kicks are exactly what Toby lives for. Toby's favourite sort of TV programmes are going to be orientated around music such as; MTV and TMF channels, although he is likely to watch relating teenage series such as 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Skins'.



From this i am able to understand tobys likes and use them positively to help our film stand out to him. As Toby is keen on Music we could involve him and his social group with soundtracks to our film as did 'Adulthood' using Pathe institution when distributing their film they; used music as it has a huge influence on the target urban 16-24 year old audience. Their strategy was then to leverage this passion for music and tap in to the viral nature of social media to build credibility for the film, and generate early hype among a new 16-24 audience.



The film had to feel niche, real and about them so the challenge was to talk to them on their level by infiltrating their worlds to give the film credibility.

Evaluation 3

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

Pathe has a major presence in the UK film industry, operating as a fully integrated studio. It is involved in all aspects of film-making, from production and development all the way through to international sales and distribution. Pathe is one of the leading distrubutors and producers of films in both the UK and France.

I believe Pathe would be an ideal media institution to distribute our media product because..


Directors Commentary

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent paticular social groups?

Above is a screengrab of Jack's friend (deprived), as we have only three main characters who all play a major part in the opening i decided to pick Jack's friend, to help illustrate and represent the deprivation of certain characters and their social groups within urban, drama films, for an example i have screen grabbed an image of actor Adam Deacon playing Jay in Adulthood.

Both characters represent the lower class citizen - stereotypically known for involving theft, violence and drug abuse into their day to day lifestyles, helping them to get by and cope with the struggle and strife they go through.

Both Jay and Jack's friend have a similar dress code of jeans and hoody a typical teenage 'yobby' look about them, with a lack of self respect likewise representing themselves as 'whatever guy'. The style in which they are dressed is easily recognised by the audience helping them apply specific information into how they should generalise the character. Also easily recognisable is body language, most audience members will pick up on body language sub-consiously being able to identify or judge characters accordingly. In this case - Jay has a slouched body posture, with arms swung wide, as though to appear bigger than normal, head held high with a facial expression, appearing cocky and confident to over-compensate for his size. Whereas Jack's friend has a similar attitude with broadened shoulders to over-compensate for his size, with his hood up covering him from being identified and related to a crime scene.

Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)


-Select 9 distinct frames(screengrab)

-Post and evaluate

-Aspects to consider - Title, Location, Props, Editing, Title Font/Style, Story set up, Genre -how suggested), introduction of characters, special effects.



These are my nine screen grabs of our final piece that I have chosen to evaluate and write about how they are typical or not of opening sequences of the same genre.



Frame 1 - The title of the film: Our title of the film is set on a black screen, like the majority of urban films i have evaluated, i believe starting on a black screen allows the audience to be drawn in and want to see how the film starts without giving it away to early, i believe this technique builds tension towards the actual film and allows the audience to focus on the title of the film, in our case helping them to understand the storyline, without giving away anything interesting persuading them to keep on watching. The red styling of the '2' gives the sense of blood, fright and danger between both brothers.



Frame 2 - Setting/Location: Our screenshot is of 'Williams house' to help illustrate the wealth of his lifestyle this long shot of the house establishes the paralell editing of two very different, diverse lifestyles allowing the audience to identify with the setting. Establishing shots are very popular when setting scenes and locations especially in drama genres helping the audience to identify with the story.



Frame 3 - Costumes and Props: This screengrab is of an 'ipod' an easily identifiable object worldwide to show wealth which plays a major role in our opening linking the two brothers and illustrating the differences between their diverse lifestyles of wealth. This prop is highlighted as a major object.



Frame 4 - Camera Work and Editing: This shot is of William dipping his shoulder as to enter the room, the editing of this was carefully done, to enhance the 'match on action' as William's shoulder dips into the room immediately as it is picked up. When doing this we had to mark out how big the steps taken were going to be and which foot and shoulder (left or right) would enter first. By constructing a smooth match on action, by this adds to the proffessional finish of the film. In this shot we used the tripod to enhance the stability aswell as using hand held due to the awkward positioning in the entered room, i believe we have tweaked this shot to the best of our ability and used the camera positioning and transaction editing to the best we could.



Frame 5 - Title Font and Style: I believe this screen shot identifys the title font and styling in which we decided to use to help illustrate the genre film, incorperating a bold basic font, commonly used in drama films then adding a glowing shaded effect around the words to emphasise the unaccompanied production company, highlighted with the black background to be clear, simple but an effective use of title styling to stand out to the audience.



Frame 6 - Story and how the opening sets it up: This screen grab in which i chose; i believe represents the story and how the opening sets up best contrasting two types of characters, one deprived and one wealthy, unfortunately there is no scene in the opening two minutes in which both brothers meet, although i think this is the shot that best illustrates the story - The deprived boy steals the wealthy boys ipod this outlines the main story, of the contrasts of lives, almost as though the deprived boy steals off the rich boy to stay alive, by buying food and drink, at which point the wealthy boy doesn't realise how he is supporting his long lost brothers' life starting to link the brothers in the opening two minutes. Now leading on with the rest of the film, to show both brothers growing up in completely diverse lifestyles and how they come across each others paths positively and negatively.



Frame 7- Genre and how the opening suggests it: The screenshot which i chose best identifys a contrast in lifestyles as this is the second two-shot of both characters.

I believe this helps illustrate an urban, drama style film, relating to reality and the ups and downs of life it self. Mise en scene also helps suggest the genre by using costume i.e. Wealthy boy - smart/casual clothing, Deprived boy - Scruffy hoody and jeans. Both with very different body language, a polite, well postured walk from the wealthy boy, suggesting his wealth and upper class lifestyle, whereas the body language given off from the deprived brother is almost opposite; bad postured walk, head down, hood up, rough expression. By incorperating a prop (the ipod) this helps to give the audience an even clearer understanding of who's who. As an ipod is not a necessity but a luxury only the wealthy character would have one, suggesting a life of luxury.



Frame 8- How characters are introduced: I have chosen the screen grab of Jack in the shop, putting a chocolate in his pocket, i believe this best identifies his introduction into a deprived lifestyle, illustrating theft as a way to get by. Immediately identifying one lifestyle, therefore soon to come will be an introduction of a different lifestyle, able to help the audience contrast and compare the differences applying positives and negatives and the obstacles in which the long lost brothers have to deal with, crossing the paths of one and other, dealing with life in their different ways. An introduction of paralell editing is often used in urban, drama films to clearly identify the differences between up to several characters.



Frame 9- Special Effects: The screen grab i chose which i believe best shows our effects is after the wealthy boy (William) gets mugged for his ipod, left against a fence shook up and bloody, the blood we used was fake fortunately as i didn't fancy getting beaten up, whilst playing the character. As a low budget film, very little 'special effects' were used, consequently i found it hard to find a suitable screen grab. The effect of blood, is commonly used in films, to illustrate empathy or shock to the audience, suitably as the average audience member may be drawn into the attachment of characters and fight scenes suggesting social hierachy of the characters commonly used in urban, drama films.



In our opening two minutes, media product, i believe we have used many tools and techniques to help support and clearly suggest the urban, drama genre.

Script

Jack's friend: Jack wake up, look what i got!



Jack: Where dya get this?



Jack's friend: Yeah i nicked it from posh kid init.



Jack: C'mon let's go now and sell it.



Jack's friend: Standard

Finished Product

This Also contains a commentary, using youtube annotations.

Video.

We are struggling to upload the video onto Youtube at the moment. As the file is so big it is taking too long to upload, therefore we need a faster computer in which we can upload the video. We plan on putting the video onto a memory stick and then taking it home to upload it.

Unfortunately i am unable find the format in which i can upload the music file onto blogger, however fortunately i can open the file through the computer, allowing it to run on Adobe. For evidence i have taken a print screen of the process of making the music clip on Fruity Loops Home Studio 8.

Official Soundtrack

After debating over the previous soundtracks we found inspirational, we understand that we are more likely to get better marks once introducing either - non copywright music, or homemade soundtracks, for example, i play around on 'FruityLoops8' quite alot, which is a music making program, i think we have decided to sit down and construct our own soundtrack similar to the last inspirational music 'Skrein - Reach (instrumental).

Inspirational Music

This is my favourite possible soundtrack so far, i believe the intro lasts long enough to introduce the characters then as soon as the faster pace drum beat comes in we could be showing the 'Deprived brother' living his more urban lifestyle.

Inspirational Music

This song would possibly fit well, i feel the piano beat builds up tension, for example the wealthy boy being robbed in our opening two minutes, this could then drop into a faster paced beat, keeping the audience on edge, within the opening two minutes.

Inspirational Music

This seems as though it could be an ideal soundtrack as it is quite a grimey instrumental, i believe the piano sound is effective when contrasting to lifestyles, the piano representing the wealthy brothers lifestyle and the drum beats representing the deprived brothers lifestyle.

OCR Media Studies G322 - Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)


Aspects that must be considered:- (9 distinct frames, screengrabbed, anatate, typical opening sequence?



Title of the film:

Brother 2 Another



Setting/Location:

Lower Ashtead Parade,

Ashtead Railway Alley,

Skinners Lane



Costumes and Props:

Ipod Classic & Headphones

Blue Sleeping Bag

Scruffy Clothing (Deprived brother and friend)

-Hoody and Track suit bottoms

Upper class clothing (Wealthy brother)

-New Trainers, New Jeans, Smart Coat, Polo Shirt, Wallet, Keys.



Camerawork and Editing:

Hand held, Adobe Premiere, Contrasts of lives.



Title font and style:

Times New Roman, glowing white, 2 = red.



Story and how the opening sets it up:

Contrasts of lives, poor steals from rich, Brothers split at birth.

nice lifestyle, rough lifestyle.



Genre and how the opening suggests it:

Music - urban

Stealing - grimey

Sleeping rough - homeless

Nice house - Blatent contrast



How characters are introduced:

How they live their lives,

Wealthy boy, comfy house gets up and goes out, dressed casually smart.

Deprived boys, under a railway crossing/alley way.



Special Effects:

No special effects.

Budget - Nothing

Editing - Time Management

We are currently editing the opening 2 minutes of our film on Adobe Premiere 8, unfortunately the computers we are working on them, are fairly old, consequently finding it hard to process the program, so progress is slow but steady!
At first we were worried we wouldn't have enough footage, although once all the filming had uploaded we had 5 minutes extra. This was a relief in that we didn't have to go and film anymore, although a sigh of the long process of cutting back.

After a lot of hard work editing we have finely cut down the film, trimming bits, now having DEAD ON 2 minutes, such a relief. Although having to ensure we didn't go over 2 minutes, we had to cut some shots out, leaving us with a slightly altered opening two minutes to our original film treatment. We are all very happy with our film at the moment, and believe that it is easily understandable and still follows the guideline of our film treatment sufficiently.

Filming

We went out filming today not really knowing what to expect, so we thought we would play things safe and generally film as much as possible, worrying we wouldn't have enough. 9am - 5pm


First obstacle - Lots of moving, parked cars. We overcame this obstacle by waiting around for temporarily parked cars to move, although generally taking the risk that we wouldn't have to re film certain bits, we made sure that whenever possible we didnt get any vehicles or pedestrians in the shots.



Second obstacle - In our storyline the deprived brother steals a chocolate from a newsagent, we weren't necessarily sure on wether the shop owner would let us film in her shop, although after a bit of persuasion she let us film, whilst there were no customers.



Third obstacle - Typically there was a recording error whilst filming in the newsagent, unfortunately we only realised this when we had got back to my house, luckily just up the road, after the embaressment we came back to the shop to re-film, luckily everything ran smoothly second time round.



Fourth obstacle - The video camera we were using ran out of battery, stopped by Daves house to warm up and let the camera charge.



Final obstacle - The change in weather, luckily the sleet came gradually and slowly, fortunately not effecting any of our shots paticularly. Although it was freezing cold and became hard to focus, although we all managed to survive.





We came across five obstacles all together, however i think we coped well and thought logically, allowing us to move on and carry on filming consitently.

Evaluation - Changes made from our original plan

When we filmed we aimed to stick to our original story board as much as possible, also we filmed a extra few scenes to have if possible incase our filiming didn't last two minutes. However once we uploaded our final

Current Progress

We are making steady progress as our editing of our beginning two minutes for our film is near completion, soon i will be able to make a personal evaluation of the work we have achieved. We attempted to resemble our storyline as much as possible in our opening two minutes and follow the storyline as closely as we could, however because of time lengths requirements this wasn't always possible. Two ensure our video was 2 minutes longs some shots had to be cut out, consequently slightly altering the main outcome of two minute clip.