Evalaution of the Main Task

Q1. In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The opening sequence of my movie that I made was attempted to follow the codes and conventions of a crime film. In any crrime movie there is always a antagonist and protagonist. Extraordinary events happens to ordinary people, this means a audience can relate the movie to themselves because criminal activity is part of our society. Themes of crime movies are based around societys current fears such as isolation, murder, kidnapping or terrorism. My movie confirms the theme of this genre as the name of my movie "KIDNAP" compliments the theme "kidnapping". Opening sequence of crime movies leaves audience in suspense that a bad event will happen in future to grab there attention. My film some how builds the same scenario as a boy is being dragged who is the protagonist by three other boys who are antagonist. The first few shots easily grabs the attention of the audience as they get curious to know why is the boy being dragged ? Crime films often contain lots of close up shots for suspense e.g. Se7en. Often there is a lot of camera movement to increase intensity of the plot to the audience. Tracking shots and panning to follow main characters and give importance. Camera angles and shots have sudden changes to build suspense and pace. I have used the same technique as my movie contains tracking and pan shot to follow the kidnappers. Plus few shots are hand held to create camera movements to increase intensity of the plot.The sound used confirms to the crime genre because it goes with the situation as it builds up suspense. Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My opening sequence doesn't intentionally focus on particular social groups, however through the actors that I have used certain social groups could be represented. The actors which I have used (Sabeer Dar, Zunair Darr, Zain Abbas and Ramzan Habbib) are young people (16-20) therefore due to the fact that they are in my short opening sequence they are being represented in different ways. For example the protagonist (Sabeer Dar ), is represented as helpless and unable to prevent his kidnapping. He is clearly identifiable as a young person due to his clothing, this could possibly signify that young people are helpless and are in constant danger. However due to the fact that I have used young people as actors there are many different interpretations about their roles in the movie. The antagonists also played by young boys could be representing a social group (young

people), as violent and malicious. This is a classic stereotype of young people, which could be a possible interpretation. Moreover my media product also represents class difference as the protagonist appearances reflect higher class as he is dressed up properly while the kidnappers are the boys of his age but they belong to a lower or poor class of the society as their clothes appears to be untidy and they seem to have bad sense of dressing and hair styling. Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? A institution is a company that distributes a media product for audience consumption. Typically a film would go to cinemas this could be either nationally or abroad, after being at the cinema for a period of time it would be distributed in the form of dvd's, downloads etc. A film company like The BBC, The UK Film Council, Vertigo Films and Film Four could be contacted before the film was made and the idea could have been shown to them. Then a % figure would have been agreed so that the institution would gain a profit. I hope that my film would attract the UK audience so that my film would gather high publicity. Q4.Who would be the audience for your media product? My AS media film was aimed at 15-30 year olds, but I knew there may be older or younger people who would enjoy my film as it is universal for crime films to be loved by all family members, although I still feel that the content of my opening sequence is better suited for the 15-30 age of people. This was all planed within the story board as I would of had to take steps to ensure the rating of the film was the one I wanted. I feel that the content of my opening sequence was aimed at crime fans this could be backed up by the wooden stick as weapon carried by one of the kidnappers within the scene and blood stained clothes of the hostage as blood is a big symbol of crime films. The main antogonist within my film is quite a young adult which would help attract young adults as they could relate to there everyday life's. Q5. How did you attract/address your audience? The first thing I will do to attract my target audience is the making of a trailer or teaser of my movie. This will be made ON-AIR to some renowned Entertainment channels and hence it will attract the target plus non-target audience aswell. Then I will look for sponsors that if they like my film they can sponsor it which will give them publicity of their product and I would also get benefit of the advertisements. Moreover as soon the film is played the very first shots of the first sceen are good enough to attract the audience and keep them attentive because they can see a boy is being dragged along the empty road and he is filled with blood. This will create curiosity among the viewers to know why is he being dragged.

Q6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? During the course of the year i have learned a few different products for example, the camera that I used was a Sony H-D handycam to record my film Kidnap. Different Technologies That I had planned to use to help me make my product are as follows: Sony H-D handycam (To record the video) Tripod (To help record) Adobe Premiere (To edit the video) Blogger.com (Portfolio) freesound.org (Sound FX) Vimeo.com (Upload final video) Scribd.com (uploading document files) Convertlite ( video convertor to all formats)

Adobe Premiere Adobe Premiere is an excellent and professional software for editing purpose. It allowed me to edit my video by dragging the clips to the time-line, then unlinking video from audio, cutting and attaching different clips to maintain continuity, adding sound effects and background sound, creating titles and sub-titles. All of this could not have been possible without having expertise in this great software. Blogger Blogger has helped me keep all my work organised weather that be research, planning or the production of my product, this has been a useful tool also as it has allowed other peers to look at my work and give me feedback to help me improve my content. Freesound.org This is a copyright free sound FX website which allows anyone to join and downloads thousands of free sound FX, this was very helpful as it allowed me to be able to go through and pick out certain sound FX which i needed for my video for example a sound effect to represent flash back, that i used within my video. Vimeo.com This is another amazing website which allows users to upload and watch videos, this helped a lot with the planning side of the video as it allowed me to go watch what other people had made within there spare time, this also allowed me to upload my video and

make it active on my blogger site. Scribd.com This is another amazing website which allows users to upload and downlaod files of any document. This helped me a lot with pre-production of the video as it allowed me to upload my script, story board and even this evaluation. Convertlite I downloaded and used this converter to convert my video files into mpeg 4 format. The video footage and the final video was converted to the mpeg 4 format. All of these above mentioned list of softwares and websites helpled in my proccess of constructing this product. It enhanced my skill level especially in using the expert software adobe premiere and in researching things over the internet. Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Looking back at our preliminary task I feel that I have came a long way as I now know more things for example more shots and sticking to rules such as the 180 degree rule. The rule states that the camera should remain the same side of an imaginary line. The line is drawn perpendicular to the cameras viewpoint in the establishing shot of the scene. I used this rule as it enforces continuity of the sequence. An example of using the 180-degree rule is a conversation between two people of which the camera can only stay one side of the two characters. Also during this task my aim was to create a sequence that had a 'match on action shot', 'shot reverse shot' and to follow the 180 degree rule. Match on action is an editing technique, which allows your sequence to show continuity in the sequence in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This creates a sense of continuity as the action carrying through creates a visual bridge. For example, the first shot would be the establishing shot, which then cuts to the characters hand on a door handle to show he/she is leaving and then it will cut to him/her coming out of the other side of the door. Similarly the shot reverse shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations with characters. It is a shot showing what the character is looking at (usually being a point of view shot or an over the shoulder shot) which is then followed a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it, or of the other character looking back at them. Shot reverse shot often is linked with the 180degree rule as they both maintain continuity by not distorting the audiences sense of location of the characters in the scene. From doing the preliminary task I have learnt that location/setting,props/costumes and angles/shots is a key aspect to making a good film.The location sets the scene can sometimes give the audience a hint as to what the film will be about. Costumes/props can be very connotative, in our preliminary I didnt consider props/costumes I just filmed. However, for our film opening sequence I had to discuss what each character would wear, the protagonists clothing suggests that he is an every day young person. Whereas the kidnappers are wearing untidy clothes . Certain angles/shots allow the audience to experience/feel different things, for example the tracking shot of the two kidnappers dragging the boy allowed the audience to feel that the third kidnapper is following them, as it was a POV of the third kidnapper.

The quality of holding a shot steady In our preliminary task was not so good, we used a tripod but not effectively enough because we did not stand it up on its legs. This meant that our shots were unsteady and a bit shaky. However, we used a tripod in our film which meant that our film was carried out more successfully and professionally. Additionally, from looking at my preliminary task, I can see that I have learnt that you should take your time with filming and even film extra shots. If you take your time with filming then you are more likely to think through what you are filming, and think about how your shots will go together when edited. This is something that I didnt do when I filmed the opening sequence the first time round, I didnt think through the shots I was taking properly and this resulted in them not flowing properly when I edited them together. When I filmed my preliminary task, I didnt have to think about this as much as the clip was only short and and just consisted of a small conversation. Therefore, I had learnt to take more time when re-filming parts of my opening sequence, and after I did this, I was much happier with the outcome. Another thing that I learnt in the progression to my final product was how to use "Adobe Premiere CS5 Pro" and how to develop my editing skills. When editing the preliminary task, I didnt learn a lot about the program, therefore I only learnt how to put shots together and cut them. When I edited the opening sequence I developed my editing skills so that I could add sound and further effects that changed the footage into final product. This made the opening sequence look a lot more effective than the basic preliminary task. Finally, I believe that the most important thing I have learnt about film-making during this process is that you do need to have patience, especially during more ambitious scenes and that you will never get every single shot right in the first couple of takes.