Evaluation Questions

1.In What Ways Does Your Media Project Use, Develop or Challenge Forms Of Real Media Projects?

To make our project as realistic as possible we went all out right from the start trying to make everything not just great but perfect; props, location, character's and just trying to make the feel of the movie authentic. In our fight scene we used a hand held camera effect to make the audience feel like they are part of our movie. We also spent alot of time testing out different gun shots, punch sounds and music. To make our film more like that of its genre we took a sample of some music from the bourne films. We also used the official passes of that at the office and we also used an air rifle with a real sniper scope to add to its authenticity. The handgun we used was also made of metal and looked very authentic. Finally we spent alot of time and money deciding on Luis' costume and the image of the guards. In a attempt to symbolise ranking between the guards we made the costumes of each person different. Danny with shirt and tie making him the smart front desk guard, Chris have the plain Shirt showing he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, and Dan in the blazer to show he is the head guard.

The images with a red boarder are screen shots from our own production to show the similarity between that of the hollywood style movies and our own 'gritty' british film.

2. How Does Your Media Project Represent Certain Social Groups?

In our film we have an all male cast. The introduction of a female may happen later but the stars are all males with the ability to take on situation that occur in our genre. This is stereotypical of the action genre, allowing us to add to the authenticity. The males in our film our represented as stereotypically as possible. The guards not taking any prisoners with a 'kill on contact' state of mind, shown by the fact they draw their guns at the first sign of any trouble and are not afraid to shoot at intruders. Luis has the stereotypical build and style of someone who would break into a goverment building, also dressed in the way that allows more authenticity. We dressed alex in black with the headset to make him look like the geek in our project, also the clip of the security footage of Dan finding a knocked out Danny adds to the audiences point of seeing the nerd has hacked into the goverment cameras, adding authenticity again. Last, Oli's role as sniper is a very stereotypical, hidden identity, character. All the males in the project our represented as stereotypically to the characters as possible.

3. What Kind Of Media Institution Would Distribute Your Media Project? Why?

Our film is based as a low budget british film, so it would be aimed at Channel 4, E4, ITV and the BBC. Sky Movies would not be suitable as they show mostly big budget hollywood movies. Therefore our film is more suited to the smaller less film specified channels. Other films produced by these companies are the likes of academy award winning Slumdog millionaire, Looking for Eric (produced by E4) and the comedy 'The Men who stare at goats' starring George Clooney produced by the BBC

4. Who Is The Target Audience For Your Media Project?

Our project was aimed at teenagers with a rating of 12. This is because most films in our genre have the same rating due to the Blood and moderate violence used. Thinking about these properties of a film we had to incorporate fighting into our storyboard, although in moderation to keep the project a 12 and not an 15.

The BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification, in association with the Human Rights Act, the Licensing Act and the Video Recordings Act) classifies films under certain guidelines, the general ones are listed below:

- The film is not allowed to conflict the law or have been created by commiting a criminal offence
- The film is not allowed to cause harm to the viewer, either to their behaviour or morally, such as encouraging anti-social attitudes or distorting the viewers sense of right and wrong.
- Whether the content is acceptable for the particular age group in terms of things like bad language.


5.How Did You Attract/Adress Your Audience?

After making our video we showed a variety of people asking them all for their opinions and thoughts. We also spread the word to lots of people in the build up to making the video and advertised it between our friends which spread out to a big group of people our age interested in watching the video. We could also put a short clip on Youtube advertising the project or post it on one of our Facebook (a social networking site) pages.

6.What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Project?

Whilst producing our video i used many different types of filming and editing equipment.

The camera is one of the greatest pieces of equipment made with the ability to shoot almost any angle or shot. The tripod is a piece of equipment that was really helpful, allowing us to keep a steady shot and be able to leave the camera in a certain angle whilst filming another angle with another camera. The editing software we used was also very advanced. I learnt how to trim clips down, fade them into each other, add different effects to the clip, add sounds and music, add titles and credits and also render a finished project. The last piece of technology i learnt about was how to use blogger to keep a record of what i have been doing experimenting with the different fonts and colours.



7. Looking Back At The Preliminary Task, How Do You Feel You Have Progressed In The Transition From Creating That To Creating The Final Project?

In the preliminary task we used basic skills, shots and angles. In our actual project we used a range of different skills such as the ability to maintain continuity between our shots, being able to use any one of the very wide range of shots and angles and being confident in knowing the action genre inside out. I feel i have progressed in terms of directing a film now being able to control the set, also in post-production i feel i understand alot more about what occurs in the editing process. Finally i feel my general knowledge of the film industry has increased by taking a first hand attempt at making an opening sequence.

Audience Feedback

Now having shot our Film and have a draft make we showed a few people to see what they're opinions were and we recorded their feedback in terms of critism and praise.

Christopher Morris:-

Good:Good range of angles and a good plot, utilised the location well.
Bad:The sniper shot at ending is not clear enough.

Jamie Waller:-

Good:Well edited, good use of location and variety of shots and angels
Bad:Shaky camera in places.

Josh Thorpe:-

Good: The storyline was excellent, with a good pace and wide variety of shots
Bad:One or two shots could use better lighting.

We showed a group of 12 people our video and asked them to fill out a short questionnaire, we put the feedback into these graphs:-

These results and feedback allowed us to go back and try and make more improvements on our project.

Loction Report

Before we could do much else we needed to find where to film our media project and on arrival at this location we instantly new it was the perfect place. It contained all the facillities and had everything we imagined for our sequence. The building, Fleet house, is a two story office building symetrical on both sides, it is a very large building with very large grounds and a huge car park. The building has a lift near the top of the stairs which we decided to incorporate into our fight scene and there was a fire exit with a spiralling stair case that gave luis an oppurtunity to make a jump down. Now having seen our location we could incorporate it into our storyboard

Shots, angles & the 180 degree rules.

To help us when it came to storyboarding we looked back into our research on the different shots and angles used:-



-Mid-shot: Shows the actors upper body.

-Wide/Long-shot: Shows the whole actor/ess or a group of people.

-Close-up: A close shot of the face mainly to show emotions or on objects to show detail.

-Over-the-shoulder-shot: A shot from over the shoulder to show part of the character and what they see.

-POV-shot: The point of view of the actor.

-Birds-eye view: Shot from directly above.

-High-angle: Shot looking down onto the scene.

-Low-angle: Looking up at the scene.

The 180 Degree Rule.

The 180 degree rule stops/allows us to do the following things:-

1. The camera must not cross the imaginary axis line to keep a constant left to right relationship between the two people opposite each other


2. This can be tricky to keep hold of when wanting to pan unless you show the camera moving directly across the line but it must return back.

Research into different genres

There are several different types of Genre for film:-

Horror

• Horror films that can have lots of violence and bloods and guts or just have a suspense story line with lots of jumps and knee shakers.
• They always have a killer or Evil presence.
• There is generally a main character who will watch his friends and familly die as he tries to fight the evil.

Comedy

• Comedy films are full of lots of jokes and laughter, they mostly have a bright and cheerful back plot.
• They can sometimes portray a serious message which is easy to get across through laughter.
• Alot of exagerration is involved to make the smallest situations into a brilliant moment.

Drama

• Usually carry a serious or mysterious plot, with characters that have a real life background.
• Can be based on true stories, making them as realistic of seeing the situation.
• Using less technological media effects the actors get a chance to shine through and portray a sense of emotion not seen in many other dramas.

Adventure

• These have bright fantasy storylines, to help the audience get lost in the adventure.
• They use alot of imagination to make the impossible possible.
• Exoctic and unreal locations with different searches for different expiditions and dangers.

Film Documentary

• This is purely real life, showing everything as it happens.
• They always portray a serious message.
• Their are no fancy effects what so ever and sometimes no real acting.

Storyboard

After having established location and character profiles we had to get to work on our storyboard shown bellow in stages:-

This scene opens with luis (the protagonist) breaking into the goverment building, taking out the first guard played by danny goodman. He comes from behind danny knocking him unconscious by snapping his neck. On the front desk there was also a CCTV monitor which allowed us to show luis running across the car park to break in. We chose this opening to add suspense and tension in the opening seconds.

Having disposed of Danny, Luis puts in his earpiece and asks for directions from his I.T. geek played by Alex Dimmock. Alex is located at a seperate location to Luis but does not hesitate when Luis needs help. We shall use a series of different cuts and putting audio over clips to make it flow. Alex and Luis also use physical props such as the bluetooth earpice and headset.

Luis is now directed to the office by Alex to find the computer that has the file they are trying to steal from the building. Luis has to break down one door to get to this, which we added to show the strength of Luis and the lengths he will go to, to obtain the file.

Now inside the office Luis can hack into the government computer with Alex's assistance. We shall use a range of different shots that we researched to help keep the audiences attention and zone in on details.

Meanwhile Dan, the boss of the government agents, discovers Danny knocked out in his chair, calling for back. Alex see's this through the CCTV he has hacked into, warning Luis to get out before they catch him. Not much dialogue is saud after this point so we increase the volume of the music and make all the actions more crisp to add tension with every clip.

With the file secured Luis can attempt to make his escape from the building. Taking out his earpiece to cut off Alex, he is confronted by both Dan and Chris, the armed agents. Having Luis outnumbered allows to make the audience think about what Luis could possibly do to get past this. We shall either going to film this from Luis' point-of-view or over his shoulder to keep the audience on Luis' side.

Luis runs towards Dan and Chris taking them on, sliding underneith and through the middle of the two he procedes to the lift. The lift isn't exactly the most practical escape method but with Chris covering the stairs Luis has no other choice. This once again makes the viewer think what is going to happen to our 'hero'.

Knowing Luis is ascending in the lift Chris sprints back up the stairs, gun in hand, ready and waiting for his enemy to show through the lift doors. Clearly our main character cannot be killed so easily, Luis comes out of the lift ready for anything ducking under Chris gun before disarming him skillfully to keep hold of the gun himself before turning Chris around, kneeing him in the face and kicking him into the lift. We took the camera off the tripod for this scene to add a shaky effect like they use in the bourne film to make the audience feel like they are involved in the fight. Quick cuts and changes in angles are crucial to make this scene effective.

With Chris now knocked out on the floor of the lift Luis quickly takes the pass card and sends Chris down. Luis moves towards the west wing opening the door with the pass card before running towards the fire escape to be on the outside of the building at last. There is a set of spiral staircase leading to the ground from the fire escape but our protaganist never does things the easy way.

Jumping from the top of the stairs, Luis lands and rolls on the ground. This is a much more dramatic way of escaping than to just run down some stairs. We used this as it was a great oppurtunity to fit in the free running skills Luis has.

Luis runs round to the front of the building almost away from danger, but an old friend re-appears, Dan runs and shoots Luis in the back, Luis falls to the floor in pain and temporarilly paralyzed, the screen fading out. We shall use realistic gun shots/sound effects in post production/editing.

The screen fades back to show Luis' point of view, crawling forwards in a desperate attempt to escape Dan. Luis suddenly gets kicked onto his back to show Dan pointing the gun straight at Luis' face ready to finish the job. When filming this scene we shall use Luis' heavy breathing onto the cameras microphone to give the audience a real acknowledment that he is injured. Luis' vision goes blurry again before fading out to a black screen again.

With the audience thinking what could possibly happen to our hero so early on, we add a final twist. With the black screen up we hear a gun shot (different to that heard early). Less than a second after the gun shot the screen appears showing Dan standing with the gun and a spot of blood on his forehead where he has been hit. Dan slips out of Luis' view and we shall cut to Oli, our sniper, in a room with his identity hidden to keep more mystery. He puts his hand to his earpiece announcing "target down". The title of our film then appears and that concludes our opening sequence.

Character profiles

Luis had the role of the main charater in our film. He is the free running, fighting Jason Bourne of our film, with the ability to disarm and take on any foe that crosses his path and the agility and stamina to outrun any enemy he is the star in our opening sequence. We chose Luis as he naturally does parkour (free running) and has the natural traits.

Dan is the lead enemy although his journey in the film is short lived. He is the bulky goverment agent who is bread to stop and kill as a security guard elite. He was picked as he is built more than the rest of us and looks more suited to the role. His costume was decided as he has not got a fight scene the jacket and tie would seem appropriate, helping him look smarter and more official.

Alex Dimmock plays the role of our I.T geek helping luis through all the passwords and guiding luis through the building. We helped Alex look more official with a lot of thought into his costume, the hat covering his massive amount of hair and the xbox live headset sprayed black to look like a wireless bluetooth head set. We also made him sit in a dark room with just the light of the laptop to shine on his face to keep a slight sense of mystery about his character.



My role in the film is as a security who is to come into contact with luis and have a fight before luis takes care of me then attempts to make his escape. The reason i was chosen for this role is i have the second best agility after luis and had practiced martial arts for a few years before hence knowing how to take a hit in a fight scene. My costume, the plain white shirt and black trousers allowed me to move freely in the fight scene.

Danny Goodman appears in our sequence as the security guard who is put on the front desk. He wears a white shirt and tie to help him be able to move about a bit more than if he had a jacket on allowing him to get taken out by luis early on. Also as he is small it looked more realistic that he gets taken out easier.

Oliver Gregory plays the smallest but possibly most significant part in our opening sequence. Dressed in black with a balaclava he is the sniper who saves luis' life in the dying seconds of our sequence. we chose him for the role as he has an average build so fits into the character of a sniper well.