Evaluation Question 1

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

• The following are our 9 favourite shots from the opening sequence. I am going to explain how we looked to develop use and challenge the conventions of real media products.

Shot 1

• Shot one we looked to challenge the stereotypical Polish action theme. As you can see in the background the computers shown are very modern macs, however in the films we studied before production such as 'Zemska', they tended to use much more old fashioned technologies such as phones and computers.

Shot 2

• In this shot we looked to embrace the conventions of Polish film. As you can see the picture is in black and white and the lighting is very dark and gloomy. This was inspired by the opening of one of the films we studied, 'Kieslowski- thou shalt not kill'. As you can see in the shot bellow, the main character is in the centre of the close up shot, just like Poscig. Also the lighting creates shadow across the actors face, just like Poscig.

• The lighting was something we noticed in all the films we looked at and studied, not just in Polish cinema, but foreign cinema as a whole, there was a lot of dark moving images that created tension within the opening scenes of the action films.

Shot 3

• This shot is actually one of my favourite shots from the sequence. It is the first time we get to see the actor moving in the film after he is pictured as an image in the previous shot. This looked to challenge conventional polish media, at is not often that full, clear, bright light is present in many of the films we studied.

Shot 4

• Shot 4 is the start of the action, it pictures the pursuers in the foreground and the target deep within the shot. This challenges conventional media as not many Polish or world cinema productions are action packed. The reason we tried to this was so that we could reach a much wider audience that can all be entertained for the full length of the feature.

Shot 5

• Shot 5 ironically was actually inspired from a scene in the world famous Jaws movie. In that particular film 'jaws' the shark can be seen chasing in the background, with the main character in the foreground. This shows the two shot technique and depth of field. As you can see in our shot we have tried to develop and use this with the car replacing the shark, and the actor on the bike replacing the swimmer.

Shot 6

• This was another personal favourite shot for the group. It really puts into perspective the pace of the scene and how quickly the chase unfolds. This also relates back to my previous point about how we challenged conventional media by making an action style production.

Shot 7

• Out of all the shots this was probably the most satisfying to film, due to the shear number of takes it took to get it right. However we were very pleased when it came out so clearly. In all the films we studied not one tracking shot was used at all, so this really did put a spin on our competition and previous Polish media.

Shot 8

• Shot 8 we looked to relate back to Polish media and moved back to the location of the dark 'Headquarters' room. It allowed us to still connect to the world cinema roots of the film. Many Polish films were very dark and used little or no assisted lighting. We feel we created the perfectly lit environment for this scene. As it gave the camera enough light so you can clearly see the actor and his actions, yet still looked similar to Polish films that we will be compared too, such as 'Thou shalt not kill'.

Shot 9

• Finally shot 9, the closing end of our opening sequence, uses Polish media simply due the fact speech is used within the scene. Subtitled in English of course, so we can appeal to that much wider audience that we desired to attract. However it still challenges many forms of media, as the speech is shouted and has a very harsh angry tone to it, which we did not encounter in any of the films we researched.