Evaluation

Evaluation

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

How does your sequence develop or challenge these conventions?

- The first scene features Jim O’Reily wearing a pair of Converse All-stars instead of the stereotypical smart shoes to go with the suit he is wearing. This isn’t completely impossible because even though film noir is based in the fifties, the shoes were still around then so people could have worn them like I did. Another thing that we used to challenge the genre is by using an iPhone to show us in a call. In the fifties there were no mobile phones. We did this because we wanted to make it slightly more modern to widen the range of audience.

- Discuss the ways in which your film noir/horror incorporates generic conventions, identify specific scenes

- Our film is in the style of film noir it incorporates several conventions of this genre. The mise en scene of our film including the costumes of the two lead characters Jim O’Reiley and Chief McTavish featured several conventions; Fedora hat, suits, trench looking like coat. Chief McTavish spoke with a stereotypical film noir voice.

- Does the use of conventions indicate what subgenre or hybrid your sequence is?

- We didn’t really have another genre except for making it slightly more modern, so the conventions could have made it a modern noir. There is a bit of comedy in it too except that was unintentional and the conventions don’t show it in any way.

- Does your use of conventions indicate what other film noir/horrors have influenced your work? If so, then be specific with examples.

- The films Seven and LA Confidential both showed us how detectives and police dressed in the fifties and they spoke. This is why Chief McTavish wore a hat and trench coat and Jim O’Reily had a suit on. They didn’t really influence our work; they just helped us with our wardrobe needs.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

What are the social groups in terms of age, race, class, gender etc?

The character types are quite easy to spot. Chief McTavish is the typical LA police chief; he dresses with a trench coat with a fedora hat and speaks with serious tone most of the time. He doesn’t take jokes very well considering he didn’t appreciate the joke by Jim in the second scene. He seems like he is wiser and a lot older than Jim and he is still a professional at his job whereas Jim seems to be still learning the ropes. Jim is a young Irish person who is still inexperienced at his job and he doesn’t have the same respect to the dress code as his boss, Chief McTavish. He is a bit immature because he didn’t take the case overview seriously in the second scene and decided to make a joke when he was told that someone had been killed.

Is gender represented in a stereotypical way? For example men dominant and women passive?

There were only men shown in the sequence, although in the first scene we had trouble getting a little girl out of the view of the camera (she just wouldn’t go away). This doesn’t exactly show sexism as there are only two characters and it is still a short sequence, especially because it only showed a disserted street and then a private office. The men do seem to be in charge though, considering the chief a man

How does this link to target audience?

I don’t think many women would be interested in this film because it isn’t a stereotypical film for women and I don’t think many women are very interested in detectives. I think that men would be more suited for it to be aimed at, especially because it is about a drug baron. The target audience is a 15+ because it does have a bit of swearing featured by Jim.

3. What kind of media

institutionmight distribute your

media product and why?

Would it be an arthouse movie?

No as this would lead to not making a lot of money. This would result in a lack of money to film the sequels and prequel. This means we would have to leave the story unfinished or just ruin it.

- Link your conclusions to a discussion of mise en scene (visual style) or your film noir/horror.

- Or film noir features two detectives whom where the appropriate film noir clothing. Chief McTavish wears a trench type coat and a hat in the style of a fedora. Jim O’Reily wears a suit which makes him look professional although he is wearing inappropriate shoes which shows his age.

Would this be something which could be produced by a Hollywood studio? If yes then why and is it similar to existing products?

Yes it could be produced by Hollywood studio like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, this would allow us to have large budget. There is currently a gap in the market for a film of this genre.

Would it be a TV movie?

No it will not be a TV movie as doing

this would mot be profitable because

our film had a large budget and we

intend to franchise the series with

three sequels and a prequel, so

in order to do that this film needs

a wide distribution.

Would it be an internet only release?

No. We will only use the Internet to

advertise and post teaser trailers to

keep audiences interested.

Why would it be released?

Does it offer opportunities

for franchises or merchandise?

Selling the clothing style, lollypops,

bobble-head pens with our faces on,

Toys and video games, iPhone app

for the hilarious quotes by Jim, old

style ring-tone.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Consider the age and gender of your target audience. Link this to narrative and style of your film.

Our film has been rated at 15+, so

our target audience age is men over

15 because I don’t think many

women would be interested in

film noir because it isn’t a genre

they are usually interested in

What other films are

similar to yours

and who do they

appeal to?

There isn’t really

anything

similar to it that I have

seen but it will

probably end up being

like a typical

noir so it will apply t

o the same

audience that liked

Seven and

LA Confidential.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Link this to your audience profile

(i.e what age, gender they are)

Other film noirs including Seven and LA confidential were both rated at a 15 or over so fans of those films will still be able to ours. The age rating of our film means that anyone under that age will be unable to watch it. Due to the content of our I would advise that people with heart problems not to watch

Are there particular points in your

film that would appeal or if horror,

terrify your specific target audience?

If yes explain them in detail.

Yes our film noir includes stereotypical film noir characters, which will appeal to our target audience. We also use other film noir conventions such as shots using mirrors and typical film noir clothing. The key theme of our film is another film noir convention crime this main storyline is a classic pot device and shall keep fans of film noir interested.

- Who is the audience asked to put themselves in the position of, what are they being allowed to witness?

During our opening sequence the

audience are with the police, making

them more familiar with both characters.

What impact does that have?

Our aim was to make the audience on

the side of the police so that they

would believe what they believed and

dislike the villain.

Link this back to generic conventions and the creation of suspense.

By showing only the good guys and hiding the villains face we created an enigma, thereby making them interested by this sequence and excited to watch the rest of the film.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Strengths and weaknesses of the camera equipment

We found that the camera equipment worked well however it did struggle to keep picture quality when zooming in.

Talk about the filming process, are there any problems you faced, how did you resolve these issues?

The first time we filmed our footage suffered continuity errors because of the changing light conditions so we had to re-film. When we re-filmed we did it earlier and were quicker so that the light did not change.

To keep our shots steady and for continuity we used a tripod

Did you get to use new equipment to enhance your film? For example the TV studio, track and jib etc.

- Editing software – what have you learnt about editing, were there particular effects that you found useful for creating your overall mise en scene?

The footage was edited using Final Cut Express HD this allowed us to add in transitions so that the footage fitted together better, we used fades and other effects which helped the movie to have a more realistic feel

Garageband – was it a useful programme for creating your soundtrack? What challenges did you face during this process?

Garageband was a useful program it allowed us select useful music and sound effects for our film. However it some sounds could be changed such as their pitch and other couldn’t this was a problem as some music sounded well but its pitch did not reflect the tone of our film.

7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Has your use of specific shot types improved? For example, your use of match on action, shot reverse shot etc.

We re-filmed some of our footage so that we could improve it for our final cut. We change the location as we had previously filmed in collage and we relocated to an actual office so that our film was more believable, and added a wider verity of shot types

- Discuss the planning stage, the research into the genre, storyboarding, creating the animatic, and explain how this detailed planning helped you produce your film. For example you knew which shots you needed to capture and what order to edit it in, This helps the process to be smoother.

We looked at successful film noir and the conventions of the genre, so that we knew what to include. We looked at box office results and which film noir title had performed well, this would help us to understand what appealed to our target audience