AS Media 2012/13 Evaluation

Questions 1 and 2Brian Modi

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Just like the opening scene of The Italian Job, we used a shot of a skyline as establishing shot. We wanted to show that our film was taking place in a city, so we filmed the London skyline from a rooftop. Unlike many heist films, we wanted to show the grittiness of London.

Establishing shot from The Italian Job opening sequence

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

Many heist films have a big budget and use glitzy locations and props, we did not do this because we did not want to glamorise crime. We wanted to show our audience that our characters were just normal people in despair, so we dressed them up in jeans and trainers and we used sounds of the city like traffic and emergency services sirens.

Snapshot from Ocean’s Eleven 2001. The use of high-profile A-List actors like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts makes crime look glamorous.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

We decided to create tension by using tense music, fast-paced editing and cinematic techniques like dolly zooming. The use of tense music deviates from the opening scenes of the films we researched like Snatch and Ocean’s Eleven. The opening sequences of both of those films are slightly humorous, for example, the contrast of the costumes worn in Snatch and their actions is funny because it surprises the audience. We wanted to focus more on the frosty relationship between the father and son in our product so we thought humour would have been inappropriate.

We wanted to create tension through many different ways including facial expressions.

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

The son was the only teenager. We represented teenagers as inquisitive people. For example, when he was speaking to his dad, he asked many questions even though he knew that he was asking about a sensitive subject. However, it is very understandable that Luke would ask questions because he had just found out some shocking things about his father. This different from how young people are represented in the media. TV dramas like Skins and Hollyoaks have young people who are not curious because they feel apathetic towards life.

Controversial teen TV drams, Skins.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The father was the only middle-aged person in the film. We wanted him to be a calm, controlled and wise person because he has experienced a lot of things in life because of his age. We thought this was an appropriate way to represent middle-aged people because it shows them in a positive light and it is similar to how Daniel Ocean of Ocean’s Eleven is represented in the opening sequence.

Opening scene of Ocean’s Eleven where we see a middle-aged Daniel Ocean being clever, calm and collected.