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

The most important thing I have learnt is that when filming anything, always take lots of shots and vary the angles and positioning the camera to capture this shot.  In our preliminary task, we did not take many repeated shots, but it was only a short piece of footage, so we didn't necessarily need many shots.  However, when we started filming our film opening, we felt that we took enough shots and would not need anymore.  When we came to edit the footage, some of the shots were shaky or too repetitive and we actually did not have enough to work with to create a 3 minute long production, so we had to film more shots of footsteps.  The second time round, we learnt from our mistakes and took lots of shots from different angles.  This made editing the footage more enjoyable and easier as there were varied angles, allowing us to develop the opening's plot.

I have also learnt of the importance of mise-en-scene.  One of the criticism of our preliminary task was that Alex's face was obscured when I took off my hat, so we made particularly sure that none of the characters were obstructed in our main production.  Setting our film in the 1930s, we also had to learn to be careful not to include anything that may make it obvious we are in the 21st century.  We did this by not including things like cars or modern technology and keeping background simplistic (e.g. against brick work or a plain wall).

Looking back on our preliminary exercise, the dialogue was nothing special and it was clear it was unpracticed in parts.  Therefore, when it came to dialogue, we took lots of shots of us saying the lines as well as re-recording the voices so we could adjust the dialogue if it sounded unprofessional.

An integral part to producing any form of media is the pre-production and planning.  I have found that our storyboard has been most crucial in allowing the production process to flow easier.  In the preliminary task, we stuck to our storyboard and knew what we were aiming for.  In our main project, although we created a storyboard, we tended to vary from it and digressed in different directions.  However, we found this created more hassle and hindered the production process so decided to look back to our inital idea and stick as closely to it as possible.

Finally, the most important skill I have learnt in this process is working as a group.  During the preliminary exercise, it was just me and Shaun and we just split the tasks that needed to be done and get on with them independently.  When it came to the main production, Chelsea and George joined our group so we had to share the workload.  This was better as it meant less work for everyone and relieved the pressure of having people dependent on each other to get certain things done.

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

Before I started this media course, I had never used anymore form of video editing software and or experienced ameteur filming, so the whole production process was new to me.

The inital hurdle was getting use to different cameras and knowing what techniques would make the shots look best.  We used the school cameras for our preliminary exercise, but the quality of the picture was not as good as Shaun's camera so we decided to use his, alongside the fact that we could then use it whenever we needed to and not have to 'book' the cameras.  Also, I learnt how the positioning of the camera can create a different type of impact or have a subconcious implication for the audience making viewing more of an enjoyable experience.  When filming the outdoor scenes, we took shots following footsteps.  Due to the technological restrictions, we had to tape the camera to George's skateboard alongside the footsteps which made the shots shaky and the camera would often come loose.  I have learnt that money helps means more expensive technology can be bought making the overall production look more professional.

When coming to edit the footage, I initally found it very tricky using Adobe Premier Pro.  It was crucial to cut the shots at specific times to flow onto the next shot and enhance the continuity of the film.  However, we decided to use Shaun's own programme on his computer, Nero.  I eventually got use to this and was able to help to Shaun (who edited most of the footage) and help indicate where to cut certain shots.  A positive thing that I have learnt from modern editing software is that it is less time consuming than what they used to do in the past (physically cutting film footage) however I learnt that it does still take time and patience and buffering the footage can take a long time and the software can be tempermental as it often crashed.  Also, Adobe After Effects allowed us to edit the image and extract partiular colour (e.g. the red of the shoes) and this was a new skill to me although I had done picture editing before.

I also learnt how technology can improve the image of the film.  I wanted to make our opening with a film-noir feel as it looks more artistic and creative on screen, so was very active in the lighting of our production.  We used different lamps and different techniques like putting a filter over the light to create different atmospheres in the interior shots.  However, when looking through the camera's perspective, the lighting would often look different so we would have someone looking at the camera whilst someone rearranged the lighting to create the desired atmosphere.  Adobe After Effects allowed us to play with the lighting further by adjusting the contrast and highlighting certain aspects of the footage to deepen the film-noir feel to the film.

The sound was an aspect of the use of technology that became increasingly frustrating.  Using the school camera, sound was not picked up using the microphone and the internal microphone on the camera was poor quality and made the voices slightly muffled and picked up background noise.  However, this w also the case with Shaun's camera so we recorded most of the dialogue separately and enhanced the voices on the Audacity programme to make them sound more sinister.  Layering sound onto our footage was also tricky as the voices did not always fit the lip movement so we had to learn to rearrange what we had and cut some parts of the sound and film to make sure they fitted together.  This also applied to the two different types of background music we used as we used different pieces of music before and after the gun shot to create a different atmosphere.  However, because of the sound effect of the gun shot, the sound had poor continuity and was broken in parts.

I have also learnt about the impact internet has on distributing a film.  Social networking allows viral advertising and gave us a way of communicating to our audience to recieve feedback.  Before creating this product, I hadn't uploaded films onto YouTube before either and was surprised at how long it took for video to upload.

(5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Initially, I thought that the blog would be a good tool for allowing our potential audience to view our progression and follow the production of the film.  However, relating to films myself, I rarely go out of my way to find something to do with a film and would rather see the end production in a place that's easily accessible.  Therefore, social networking was the clear choice to use as communicating to the audience.

During production, we kept people intrigued by word of mouth and giving them a rough idea of what we were planning or what shot we were taking.  This created a lot of curiosity so we uploaded our rough cuts onto YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucJ1D25CIhs] to allow members of viewers to comment on the video.  However, we did not get any comments or respone from the video this way.  Instead, we physically showed people our rough cut and noted the response they gave us.  Most people were impressed with the diversity of the shots with comments like "it was really creative, extremely impressed".

Once we had finished our opening, we posted the link on Facebook and Twitter and that's where we got our biggest response.  Many of our friends commented on the link and most were to do with the effects we used with lots of people asking "how did you do that?!" or "that looks really cool, what software did you use?".

(4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

When we were planning our production, we knew we wanted to do a mainstream gangster film therefore looked into massive, iconic gangster films like The Godfather and Goodfellas.  As these are well-known films, they a renowned around the world and attract a wide audience, so we settled on a large target audience of frequent cinema-goers and aimed to appeal to the masses.  However, after discussing our production with peers, we realised we were receiving more of a response from the men so we changed our target audience to male film lovers who are attracted by anything that has the potential to be the 'next big thing'.

After looking into conventions of male films, we decided there was three vital ingredients to attract them: cars, women and action.  As we were doing a gangster film set in the 1930s, we would not be able to include cars in our production (a Ford Focus would like extremely out of place) although if we had the budget, would have included this.  We included the women by showing the red shoes and legs of the main character (described more in depth in the previous post about representations).  As for the action, we included a crime (the murder of one of the characters) and an explosion at the end.

(3) What kind of media instution might distribute your media product and why?

Due to the fact we are a small, independent production, we did not have a big budget for our film's production therefore would attract big distributors either.  Despite the fact we are a British production, I doubt our film would attract a small, independent British distributor as they would target more towards a British audience and a film like ours is more associated with the American culture.  However, if we were able to get an American distributor, I feel that they would invest predominantly in getting our film into cinemas as the film has more of a focus on the visual aspects and would best viewed this way.

If money was not an issue, or we were able to more financiers, we could produce more of a professional production therefore bigger distributors would be attracted to our film.  The Weinstein Company, or more specifically, Dimension Films, distributed big blockbusters such as Sin City and The King's Speech.  Both of the said films are renown for their use of cinematography and appeals to many people for the use of graphics and imagery.  I feel that our feel fits this a similar category and, as Dimension Filmshas worked with similar films before, they would know what appeals this type of audience and be able to advertise both the film and the DVD in a way that attract a mass audience and in turn more profit.  Also, Warner Bros have produced films such as Slumdog Millionaire and Batman but also seem keen to distribute films for their independet, creative aspect so I feel, considering they are also a big international company, they would be able to successfully distribute our film.

(2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation of criminals:

• The black clothes of the shooter represents the darkness of his character as criminals often have sinister agendas.  Criminals also aim to be hidden, hence the blackness of the clothes against the blackness of the night
• The night-time setting is typical of criminal characters in films as this is when most crime happens therefore the time setting of the opening suggests the characters to be criminalistic
• Location of the opening suggests a seedy, intimidating area - typical hang out for criminals
• Operatic music is often associated with gangsters so the background music for our opening influences the audience to believe the character is going to be a gangster
• The fact the character carries a gun is also a clear sign of him being a criminal

Representation of women:

• High heels signifies the sex the appeal of women through lengthening the legs - one of the most attractive parts of a woman
• Bare legs have a similar effect as the heels as it draws attention to the woman's legs and the bareness of them creates a sexual appeal
• Red (on the heels) resembles the passion and boldness of the woman and makes the character stand out which again makes her a point of focus in the opening.

(1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?

How we used form and conventions:

• Like all film openings, we put the production company titles first and let the very beginning of our footage flow from the last title.  This is done through fading from black and sound continuing from the black between the transition.
• We used the conventions of a gangster film by including codes such as guns, cigars, whiskey, dark city setting, a seedy indoor setting
• We created a film noir appearance of the film, typical of gangster/crime films, by putting a black and white filter over the footage and heavily contrasting the light.

How we developed form and conventions:

• We created an enigma but kept diaglogue to a minimum so that we did not give away the context of what is to come in the film
• Like film openings, we did not give much away about the characters but we did introduce the main ones.  The victim is the only who the audience mainly associates with but the main, sinister figures (the woman and the shooter) are not to be understood as that is what the film aims to explain.  We therefore tried not to include much of their faces to keep this detachment from the audience.

How we challenged form and conventions:

• Most gangster films we looked at had more dialogue in the beginning, whether it be a voice over or a conversation between characters, but we felt it would create more of a suspense if we did not have much dialogue.  Also, it means the audience can focus more of the visual aspect of the opening rather than focusing on what is being said.
• When a major event happens (like the exlposion in our opening), it usually leads onto the next scene or the main titles; we chose to continue to plot and film by showing the two character's feet in the same shot as we felt it put it more into context to help the audience understand the purpose of the characters and their relationship between one another.