By Shawnean Milton

EVALUATION

In our media product we stuck to the genre of spy espionage and kept the same idea of having a spy and a villain. We also kept the same concept of the spy being and English

and, the villain being of a different race e.g. Asian or of exotic nationality.

We thought it best to keep the characters as stereotypically accurate as possible, so

they are easily identifiable to the audience. When thinking of ‘spy’ most people

straight away think of characters such as James Bond (or Austin Powers- if you’re

more into comedy) Both of which are English men/males, who woo beautiful

women.

When creating the character of the villain, people straight away think of ‘terrorists’ or

someone with an exotic background.

 IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS? 

When choosing our villain, we had to choose which type of nationality of person we were

going for.

It had to be easily identifiable to the audience and suit the role of a villain.

We looked at different types of villains, mainly ones that are associated with using bombs. I researched different movies, looking at the

villains, I found characters like ‘Bomb voyage’ from the movie ‘The Incredibles’ and one of

the assassins in ‘Team America’.

We thought the assassin best suited the character of the villain due to its background nationality. This choice of character is what

most people think of when they think of ‘Terrorists’ so our decision was based on what we thought the audience could easily identify.

We asked Benoit to be our villain, he accepted and got into his role by wearing black and a

balaclava to cover most of his face.

When choosing the spy/good guy, the decision

was pretty straight forward.

We knew that a spy, is usually associated with

James Bond and all/most James bond characters were English, male, gentlemen.

The only thing we had to consider was whether he’d

be slick and calm, like James Bond or adventurous

and gets his hands dirty, like Aaron cross in ‘The

Bourne legacy’

Our media product represents the genre of spy espionage well because we stuck to the stereotypes that most people/audiences think of/ relate to, when

watching a spy movie.

We kept the spy as a white male who wears dark clothing and the villain as a person with a different

nationality (Stereotypically Asian) who also wears dark clothing. We included a balaclava as villains don’t

always tend to reveal their identity and it makes them seem more of a threat because they’re hiding

something.

The dark clothing works well as we thought it created a sense of mystery o both the spy and he villain.

Black could also connote darkness, creating a sense of evil for the villain.

It could also connote power, as black is quite sleek and professional, so the spy becomes more in control and shows he knows what he’s doing. (Another idea would have been to have the spy in a suit, as a man in a suit,

shows he knows what he is doing, that h is in control of whatever life throws at him. So when using costume

we used clothing as professional and as close to a suit (without actually wearing a suit) as possible.

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS? 

Eon Productions- a British film production company known for producing the James

Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United

Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Danjaq LLC, the holding company responsible for the copyright and trademarks to the Bond

characters and elements on screen.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment- the home video distribution arm of the 20th

Century Fox film studio. It was established in 1976 as Magnetic Video Corporation, and was

also known as 20th Century Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video and Fox Video, Inc. The

company also is best known for distributing the two highest-grossing films of all time,

Titanic and Avatar.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment- the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures

Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation.

Those are 3 company’s in which produced movies such as, and including, 007 (James Bond)

so I would say these are the ideal production company’s in which I think, would produce our

type of movie.

The main company I think would focus on the genre of our movie would be Eon productions as they are the production company who produced the James Bond series, so they have experience

in the spy espionage genre.

For my media product the target audience would mainly be aimed at teens and young adults.

We came to this conclusion mainly on the fact that in spy movies the violence/action and

storylines tend to appeal mainly to a younger/middle generation. The idea of being a spy tends to appeal mainly to the male gender

and they maybe almost idolise them, whether it be the fighting/weapon skills, the fast cars or the

beautiful women. The women tend to focus on whether the spy/main character is desirable, so

casting directors usually have the task of picking a suitable male to play the role, therefor also

making the movie appealing to women.

Because the target audience is quite a wide range (estimated 15-27 years old) the movie

should get plenty of viewers, so the more successful the movie, the bigger the audience,

this is why I think targeting a younger audience makes a movie more successful as they can get

more views.

 WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT? 

To attract our audience, we made sure that it was suitable for the age range and stuck to the genre.

We used an interesting soundtrack that was appealing to the audience and suited the Media

product.

The setting and costume was set in modern day so it seems more realistic to the audience, rather than

using futuristic settings. Yes futuristic settings can make a movie more appealing: flying cars, lazer

guns, highly developed technology, but unfortunately we couldn’t get our hands on any

hologram computers or hovering cars.

We addressed out audience by using young characters to play the roles of a spy and a bad guy.

Our product was fast paced so I was exciting for the audience to watch.

We also asked people what they like to see in movies and what they thought of our piece and developed

it, to fit the audiences needs.

A survey was made to help us in our development, in a more, ordered and quick way for everyone.

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT / ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

The constructing of the project helped me develop and learn new skills, one of these skills involves blogging.

I learned how to upload images and type around them and also include videos and links.

Although I did not do the editing, or know how, I did observe as Alex and Jordan did so. I watched as they

cropped, joined, placed/rearranged and synced each clip and choosing music for the background (removing the

original sound from he clips that were recorded)by getting music from youtube or downloading a track (from a phone or a website, onto a computer) and putting it all

together to make a successful sequence.

I learnt about different filming angles and shots, figuring out which ones worked best for our product and ones that

don’t work so well, so we know to improve them, or not include them at all.

I leant that ‘tracking shot’ was the hardest shot to master and that if you don’t have an extremely steady hand, swift movement and proper equipment, then there’s no point in

attempting to film or include the shot in your product.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

Jordan and Alex began to edit the audio with the footage, they found it easy

because they felt that, creatively they are very similar and both of them have the same/similar ideas and they can work together to

develop each others ideas. They both have experience using premiere pro, so this made the task easier. However sometimes they did get stuck on how to do certain things, so they had to ask for help, or do

their own research to find how to do these tasks.

Looking at everything from the start I feel as if I have learnt quite a bit.

First off, I know that communication plays a big part in working in a group. Without communication, there is no real team work, some ideas don’t get heard

or involved, ideas in which could impact the group and the project.

Although our communication skills were not as compatible as it should be, we all managed to include our ideas, thoughts and plans. Though I recon if we

communicated a bit more and actually listened to one another, we may have all have been fully satisfied with the total outcome of the product.

So I think that, as a group, communication was our biggest downfall, and it let us down in the long run.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU-HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT? 

For filming we had to re-shoot certain shots for our

short film due to small errors, such as Alex's hand being different in one shot when it is suppose to be in the same position as the previous shot. In these

scenes Alex was running too slow, so we had to

reshoot them so he ran faster, not only that he had to jump higher. This looked much better once we had re-shot it all. However the camera ran out of battery as we were doing the last

scene, so we had to wait till the next day to continue

filming. So we learnt that each detail is vital,

especially a placement of a hand. Also, making sure

the equipment is properly prepared (for example,

make sure the camera is charged) before you go off to do what you need to do, this is so you can actually get work done, instead of

being delayed due to a faulty tripod or a dead

camera.

The next day we finished filming the

last few scenes where Benoit is giving Alex the bag that contains the bomb (due to last

time Alex's hands positioned differently to the previous shot).

On this day we struggled a bit due to

the lighting in the training room

appearing too dark, so we had to film in a

different part of the room in order for the

lighting to be effective. So we learnt that good lighting is a

necessity when filming.

From the start we had an idea

to do our filming in London, but we faced facts

that not all of us could make it

and it would be difficult with few people to carry

around the equipment

(Camera, tripod) and to keep it

safe, and because of that,

no work was being done. We

decided to relocate to a destination

where we were all available and can get to easily:

the school. Because of this we learnt that

choosing a more ideal location, can get work

done quicker and it makes it easier

for everyone.

This is the location/building for where we will shoot our final video. It is inside our school so is convenient for us to shoot in and also we will all be available to shoot together when we can. We will also be able to keep the continuity for each time we shoot because there wont be many people in the shot.This is a view of the inside of the

building, on the ground level of where we are going to shoot. This also persuaded us to shoot in this location because it is a very big building with lots of space to try and get different shots and give us the best opportunity to get a good mark.

This is an example shot of what our film what look like on the upper levels of the building. Again there is a lot of space to film and we also felt like it would make for some really cool shots that we could incorporate into our two minute opening.

Our

music

ideas had changed from the start. At

the beginning we had a small

choice of options to

choose from.

Carrying on we changed

our ideas and chose the

same genre of music but

none of which from the list we made at

the start

This is the final song that we then decided to use in our title sequence. We decided to use this song over the others previously mentioned because it has that espionage secret spy feel to it that the others just simply do not have. It also contains an edginess to the song which also relates to how the film will play out and what is shown in the opening two minutes that we have made.

Finally, we decided to change the music for the running sequence

because we felt that it just did not fit the theme of espionage and

also did not fit with how the sequence played out. It was originally

the instrumental for ghetto Kyoto which Jordan decided to

choose but then we all agreed that this was not going to work.

Alex then spent my time looking at what would fit with what we

wanted and then he stumbled across the Kendrick Lamar song

Backseat Freestyle (instrumental). This was the perfect sound to use for our video because it had that effect of attracting the audience to watch the film while also having a suspenseful and thrilling side to it.

After Alex found this we put it into our video and he cut it down so that it fit just with the running sequence and nothing else within the video. We made sure that the opening of the track was repeated until the title popped up and then after this it would cut to the main instrumental with a heavy drum beat to it. After this we realised that we needed to

have a background track to the dialogue scene. This is because

it would add to the atmosphere of the dialogue and gives an indication

that this is a very tense moment for the protagonist. It also establishes

that this is a very shady place and the person that the protagonist is talking

to is very mysterious. The track that I used was Crush by El Huervo. Along

with these soundtracks the Muse music will also be added to the title sequence

at the end. Overall this music is vital to the project as it really adds to the detail

and atmosphere of the opening sequence. We all were happy with the choice of

music and thought it suited the genre of spy espionage