Foundation Portfolio evaluation

Our project does reflect and conform to conventions of real media projects.The most obvious example of this is the credit and title text. The text is squared off and it is simple white writing on black background, this is classic Jason borne - cliche action thriller text and we decided to include it to give the viewer an obvious indication of what the rest of the film will be like. As You can see from the comparison the two texts look very similar and this was purposeful, yet our text is more squared off and we did this to continue the theme of cold, confusing and institutional feel in our piece.

We also conformed to conventions of media products by using framed shots to give the film a more art-house feel. The film that we did textual analysis of this is In Bruges

The comparison between the two shots is an example of the type of framing that we used, the benches are a coincidence. Both shots are not centralized on the main character in shot, the main difference being that you can see the character’s face in ‘In Bruges’, but not in our shot. The shots are used for different storytelling purposes, but the inspiration came from ‘In Bruges’ e.g e.g. the assassination shot

As you can see both assassination scenes are rather unusual and unconventional, and these shots are used to shock the audience and to portray the brutality of the action. We used this shot as a storytelling device and also to convey the ‘harshness’ of assassinations.

Jerome Cant

We also used ‘The jacket’ as textual analysis and we used the non linear plot from the film as a way of creating the thriller. The non linear plot is used to crate the psychological side of our thriller. The non linear plot is a conventional storytelling technique in thriller films. Yet because we used it in conjunction with an action thriller it is a rather unconventional use of the non linear plot, and therefor is challenging the convention of real media products as normally the Thriller films have one sub-genre associated with the film, but we have tried to create a psychological action thriller, and there are not many films of this kind that have succeeded.

Our piece does not directly include any main stream social groups as it did not seem to fit the piece’s feeling. The only social group that could be construed as being represented is agents working for the “firm” (MI5+6) and they are represented as being dangerous, unafraid of death and vulnerable. They are also portrayed as being mysterious. All this is done through the main character and the victim. The agent does not speak in the piece creating the mystery, but his unfeeling expression and the coolness that he displays during the assassination demonstrates the professionalism of Agents. The professionalism of agents is a main theme in the Jason Bourne films as Jason is an incredible agent that even the firm that created him is having trouble in tracking him down. The costumes that we used also represent agents as they are plain clothed most of the time. Meaning non memorable cloths often a black coat and so on. Yet we break a stereotype when the character is captured he is week and unable to defend himself, if it were James bond he would have had a fight scene with the doctor and dressed himself in here cloths and escaped, ready for another escapade, but our character is overcome and injected.

But the main costume stereotype is the victim the victim is dressed in a cliche of shady agents, with the black belted coat with the collar up and a nondescript briefcase. We chose to do this to make the viewer assume that the character is an agent or a shady character delivering some information in the briefcase. This is using stereotypes to force the viewers to make an assumption about the character.

Jerome Cant

In the same way we used a stereotype of an ‘evil’ doctor to make the viewers assume that a character is an antagonist we dressed the doctor in a white lab coat, a black belt, black tights and black heels to giver her a sense of hostility and unfeeling which automatically gives the character an enigma. We purposely framed the shots so that the face of the character is not included which deepens the enigma of the character.

Our media project would be classified as British/art-house film. This is because it is a serious noncommercial independently made film with British actors, British funding and a British setting. The Film would be displayed in multiplex cinemas as we have chosen to appeal to a wide audience and with the success of films like ‘Minority Report’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ we hope to bring in a large audience. The film would then be released on Blu-Ray and DVD as we filmed in 1080i it would be ridiculous to not release it on Blu-Ray, also action films will sell better on Blu-Ray as people see the need for the HD and uncompressed 7.1 audio compared to a Comedy where it is unnecessary. A Distribution company would be needed to distribute our film because we are aiming at a wide audience they will be able to get the film available in more shops and media outlets that we could. Also they could take charge for the advertising and marketing of the film as they will have more experience and it could lead to the film being a success instead of a flop. Even thought this is the same route that the AAA blockbusters take I believe that if the film was made professionally then it could succeed.

The audience for our media product is males aged 15-30. We chose this audience because it is the typical audience that an action thriller will cater for. We chose males, as they are generally interested in action films and 15-30 is the primary audience associated with thriller films. The audience influenced our production decisions in a number of ways. We decided to not show the actual assassination shots to keep the age rating down, and we also decided to incorporate psychological thriller fans into the film by using a non linear plot to create mild horror later on in the film. We chose to have close links to other famous films like ‘the bourne ultimatum’ and ‘minority report’ to encourage more viewers to watch the film and not just the diehard thriller fans. To get the wider audience we also decided to make the opening 2 minutes plot driven and captivating. We believe that if some people that haven’t seen a thriller before watch the firs 2 minutes they will be captivated by the film and want to unravel the enigma surrounding the doctor, discover why the doctor is holding the agent, discover why the assassination took place and they will want to find out who the victim is.

Jerome Cant

We attracted the audience by incorporating what our group believed to be the best features of the 4 successful films that we used for textual analysis we incorporated these elements to bring the audience back to watch this film as it is of the same genre, and by crossing the sub genres we have appealed to a relatively wide audience. When people watch the opening of a film they form an idea of what the film will be like and that firs impression is very important as new viewers to the genre will decide weather they will watch the rest of the film in those first dew minutes and so we decided to make the first few minutes as captivating and mysterious as possible, the storyline is not revealed but the foundations are Laid. In an informal questionnaire we asked all our friends that are fans of thriller films and they all said that they would prefer a plot based opening than a character introduction or clever credit sequence, and we have tailored to this. The credits were purposefully designed to appeal to the audience as it is the squared off letters and white on black text associated with the thriller / action genre.

I have learnt that HD cameras can cause a lot of problems. We had problems digitalizing the footage in the right format as the camera was left on a different setting, so we learnt to always check the settings on the camera before going out to film. We also leant that a small amount more or less lighting can have a huge effect on the camera and can make or break a shot.

I did all the editing for the group so I learnt a lot about final cut express. I learnt that it can make life much easier using different tracks on the story line but that it can create problems when trying to edit the sound levels. I also learnt that using to many transition effects makes the scene look tacky and unprofessional. I also leant that cutting up clips is much easier after doing it a few times, for example the dream sequence uses only a few shots, but many transitions between them. I also leant that whilst making a cut, instinct is often correct. The first time you pause where you think a cut is needed is often the correct place, and after 10 minutes deliberation it often comes out top. I learnt that editing is very fun, but it is also time consuming, I spent roughly 4 hours editing the dream sequence and finalizing the transition lengths, saturation color correction.... I also learnt how long it takes to convert 2 minutes HD footage into quicktime format - about 40 minutes - this was surprising and also rather irritating. The final thing that I learnt about Final cut is that whilst superimposing Livetype text is all well and good trying to move it around in the film is infuriating as you have to wait 45 agonizing seconds just to see if the slight adjustment in timing is what you want.

James and I did the music for the piece using Garage Band which I think is an excellent program we used pre created loops to create the DVD menu music, the opening music and whilst James was away for one of the lessons Bobbi and I created the music for when the agent is in the holding cell we used the synthesizer

Jerome Cant

presets and the drum line to create ominous music with an underlying heartbeat. This was easy to do and was a joy to work with as we could control almost every element of the music including the pitch and tempo for the dream sequence James found a track on a royalty free music website that we had access to and Mr Wellington reversed the track after it had played through once in MIDI which I find baffling as I personally use logic 8.

Live type was ok to work with, it is irritating that to preview the text has to be rendered, but we managed to cope with it. One very irritating thing was that there was no way of knowing weather the text was properly centralized and also if there was to much text that you wanted the program would render It, but not change the font size to fit it on screen fortunately I managed to navigate around the problems and the end result was exactly what we had planned.

I hate iDVD. The fact that you cannot create your own template stirs up incredible amounts of frustration within me as I want things to look my way with my style Imprinted on it and I found that iDVD was too simple and too ‘mac’ like in its presets. The menu looks fine, but it is an (ironic) compromise. We had huge problems trying to get the menu music to play but eventually manage to overcome it.

I think that I coped well with the technology used, but I have an advantage as I use a mac as my personal computer, so I know how it works and how to resolve a problem from experience. Whereas for new Mac users it would have been more difficult as they do not know all the useful Mac ‘tricks’ that make life so much easier.

I had never used a blog before and found that an interesting format to present my work in, but not being able to arrange the blog posts retrospectively is an annoyance, but it allows you to show videos and documents with ease. Issuu was the program that I signed up for and use to present documents online. This is an excellent program that converts PDF’s into online readable books with a pleasing aesthetic. YouTube was used to out the video's online, but M.r Van Straten put up the videos as he had the compression programs necessary to put them online.

Looking back at the preliminary task I have learnt much about film making. I learnt that planning is very important and lots of time should be spent on it. Planning can make or break a film. I planned my continuity on the fly whilst filming, but with some planing the film could have been more experimental and interesting. I have also learnt a lot since using final cut for the first time. The preliminary task was eye opening to how correct editing can make two completely different locations look connected yet the final piece was the result of that revelation. The preliminary task put into context the ‘line’ that cannot be crossed, and after one attempt at editing which made it look like James had a matrix like power to jump through space I learnt my lesson. I learnt how continuity in editing is important, for example getting

Jerome Cant

the footsteps right, and the position of a hand reaching for the door in the same place in two different shots, one it is correct it looks natural, but if it is slightly off it looks horrific and you notice the bad camera jump and editing.

In the transition to the final product I have leant an incredible amount. Special effects is something that our group played around with, we changed the saturation and colors in some of the shots to give the institution and holding cell a more institutional feel, yet in the preliminary task I had no idea how you could go abut doing this yet during the final piece we learnt how to do it, which I believe is another level of progression with the editing software. This resulted in the final piece looking far more professional (comparatively). I think that overall all my skills have been tested and improved during the project.

I believe that if we could do the task again I think that we should have planned more realistically and also we should have done more work on our potential audience, through doing surveys and presenting the data, then incorporating the opinions into our piece.

In conclusion I am happy with the project and I have enjoyed the trials and tribulations that have appeared. I think that we have accurately targeted the target audience, challenged and developed media forms, learnt about new technologies and I have learnt and improved my film making skills.

Jerome Cant