Film Opening - Final

Our final submission for our film "Guardian Angel"

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

There was a big difference between the preliminary task and to our full product regarding our approach from either project. Because the preliminary task required less work as we only needed to mkake a 40 second coninuity piece, we didn't put in much effort. We put in minimal amount of research as the continuity piece focused on how good the video flowed rather than the content of the video. However, for our full product it was a lot different. We spent 2 weeks researching for our film and was required us working a lot off our schedules as research was vital to our project. We learned that research is more important as we expected because from our preliminary task we only did research to get inspiration, but in our full product we had to know what our audience wanted which required a lot of work.

Filming was very easy for our preliminary task as we only dedicated one single day because this was all we needed to get all of our footage. What we got from this experience is complancency as we thought filming for our full product would've been as easy. This was not the case as for our full product we needed to film on several different pages. In the end we ended up with almost 3 hours of footage wchich only resulted in 3 minutes of film in the end. What we lernt from this experience is that handling actors, carry around equipment, which is necesary for a full film, is difficult and is not like what we did in the preliminary task.

Despite all of these differences, there was one aspect of making our full product which was similar to the preliminary task, editing. Editing our continuity piece was quite stressful as allowing it to flow was laborious. We had to make sure every single segment was trimmed out perfectly which required precision timing. We had check back at our back hundreds of times just to make it perfect. What we learnt from this experience is that editing can be fun to do but is difficult to master and requires a lot of time and effort if you want a good end product. We carried these thoughts into the diting stage for our full project. With this in mind, we were already prepared for what editing will take and knew what we were expected to do. This motivated us to edit a lengthy piece of footage and finished with a good full product.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of constructing our film, we have learned a huge amount about technologies. We used various different technologies in synergy to produce our film and gave us a good end product.

 

   
One way we used technology to construct this product is to communicate through two forms of social media. WhatsApp, a instant messaging service helped us to make our film because this mobile app allowed us to communicate to each other whereever and whenever. It allows us to send video links, pictures and discuss topics about our film. This benefitted us as we both of us had our own assignments so if we needed help, it can easily come to us.

Another form of communication technology we used was Twitter, another form of social media. We used this to send big media files such as segments of the film to analyse and edit and examples from other movies. This benefitted us as without this service we'd have to work together in the same room which was not always available to use as we had to leave school by 5pm every day. Twitter helped us with work at home.

We used handheld HD cameras to record our film in high quality. The camera had several features such as zooming in and out, playback, taking still images and even more. Also, exporting our footage to iMovie was simples as there was a USB port. However, one problem we encountered wioth the camera was the shaking on screen and did not look good when playing the footage back. We decided to use the tripod to prevent the camera shaking and keep the video on screen still.

 

We used an Apple iMac to access thre internet. We researched films on imdb, watched examples on Youtube and edited our footage on iMovie. This is an example of synergy as on the iMac we could take notes, edit movies, go on the internet and communicate as well as other features which brings lots of technologies into one. We learnt that technologies with synergy such as the iMac helped us as all these different accessable features on one device helped us as it saved on time, effort and money as we'd have to buy indivudal devices for each function. 

 

 

We used websites such as YouTube and Blogger through the internet. We had to use YouTube to upload our film ti. What we learnt from this is that YouTube is a great virtual platform to get your product out to the public. This is because tags used on your video can be searched by anyone across the world which means your video can be seen by anyone. This helped us because we did get some positive feedback from people. We used Blogger to create our blog and post entries about our experience about making our film.



Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

During our research process for our film opening, we conducted a survey and was completed by 25 random people aged between 18-34 from the general public. The results were:

• Most common favourite genre was action/thriller
• People like to watch movies with big-name actors
• People want to see a lot of action and violence

After analysing our data we decided to keep the film a thriller/murder-mystery film as this is mostly what our target audience wanted. To attract the audience we had to include its conventions. We made 3 status characters in our film which were a victim, a bully and someone who serves the justice. This is key as most stories in thriller films revolve around crime and serving justice. By following this, we are attracting audiences as they are familiar with how thriller/murder films progress within its story.

We also included other editing techniques, sound effects and costume to attract audience. We used lowkey lighting throughout the film and used it in conjuction with greyscale saturation throughout most of the film. This is too add a mysterious and gritty feel to our film which has worked in the past with films such as Shifty. The audience will be attarcted to this as it helps to add suspense to our film. We used different sound effects such as gloomy ambient tones to create a suspense atmosphere to inform the viewers that the characters in the film were uneased and something was wrong. The audeicne will also be attracted through the use of mise-en-scene. We carefully chose the costume for each of our characters which portrayed the story such as the guardian angel covering his identity with a mask and wielding a baseball bat to show he will serve justce and punish the prosecutor.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Primary Audience

Our primary audience may look like this

• Males aged between 18-34
• Enjoy watching thrillers, dramas, murder-mystery films
• Still in education or employed so they can understand social issues in working environments
• Play video games, specifically action and violence
• Enjoy up beat music and up-to-date with technology

The reason why this would be our  primary target audience for our film is because most of these people would visit the cinema for escapism. Although them being in education or employed and being familiar with social issues such as bullying, they are most likely grown up and have moved on from this so watching a thriller/murder-mystery would attract their attention.

Secondary Audience

Our secondary audience may look like this

• Males aged between 12-18
• In education, possibly attend schools in urban areas
• Care-free personality, slightly confrontational and rebellious
• Enjoy action and heavily influenced by society
• Often go outside and socialise with friends

The reason why this would be our secondary target audience for our film is because most of these people our school teenagers who get involved with a lot of social activities. Because these teenagers are commonly found to be causing trouble and being rebellious, they would likely be watching our film as it covers themes of bullying, solving problems and violence which may encourage these children. Also they would want to watch a film which they are familiar with such as a film set in a school environment.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

An independent distributor might distribute our film. Our film was virtually cost nothing to make and is shown through our film as there is a slightly edgy look which is found in independent films. To be distributed by big distributors our film needed to be a big-budget blockbuster because these films will gain a lot of attention from the public and has a good chance of making huge profits. On the other hand these big distributors would not take the risk in distributing our film as our audience is limited and some people may be put off by it being a low budget film. However, on past occasions, some independent films have turned out to be a success such as Shifty. Because our film and Shifty both share a similar gritty storyline, the same types of independent institution would distribute our film as clever manipulation of marketing would aim our film at different audiences.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Before creating our film, we researched about different social groups used in thriller/murder-mystery films. A common stereotypical character found in most of these films was a bully, which in almost every film were black males. A common stereotype with black individuals is that they are exotic and criminalistic. We used our media product to represent this by allowing Ben to play the bully as he is a black male.

Stereotypical bully

Bully used in our film

One of the other characters included in our film was a victim. This character gets his phone stolen which could be seen as bullying. In most films we had researched, most victims to bullying were scrawny white teenagers who were involved with 'geeky' activities such as reading or playing the piano. With this in mind, we decided to allow Mortada to play the victim as he was fulfilled these requirements and is also the reason why he was playing the piano to allow the viewers to identify he is a geek/victim. We represented geeks as being vulnerable and not being able to stick up for themselves as in our film the victim relied on his guardian angel to solve his problems. However, this supports stereotypes found in society about geeks as they are seen as being defenceless and rely on a greater power to help them.

 

Stereotypical victim to bullying

Our victim to bullying