G321 Foundation Portfolio

G321 Foundation Portfolio

An Evalution and explanation behind Shadow Of a Doubt.

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

Adam, Nathan and myself think that our product doesn’t really develop or challenge the conventions of the film noir genre; instead we feel that it uses the conventions of the film noir genre. This is because our film intro doesn’t change any of the conventions or archetypes; instead it follows them, using the conventions instead of challenging them.

For example the detective that is seen in the intro to our film is male, this is because we are using the typical conventions of film noir, whereas, if we were challenging them we would have the detective possibly as a female, this would challenge the gender stereotype as well as the conventions of the characters in noir.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In the sequence our characters are both male, and are white-British. One of them represents the typical male within a film noir (tough, dominant), the other takes on a more, passive role within the scene. Usually in Noir, two men would be more likely to start a brawl in the street rather than one of the two shooting the other. This places the victim in a more submissive role when compared to the other more masculine male.

We lacked the textbook femme fatale in our opening scene, which could be the reason why we had a more submissive male, to compensate for this missing stereotype.

We would assume that if we were to make our scene into a proper movie, we would be sure to include stereotypes such as the male dominance and the femme fatale.

What Kind of film institution would distribute our media production of a Film Noir opening?

Adam, Robert and I feel that our film opening if made into a full film would be distributed by a British company. We think this as our opening is of low budget and there are many British institutions out there that produce low budget films for TV. The institute that we would want to produce our opening would be Film4.

We want Film4 to produce our opening as they have there own production line named Film4 productions and they have produced a few low budget films. Films they have produce include Borat, Bruno, Four Weddings and a Funeral, This is England, Train spotting and two well known films, The last King of Scotland and Slumdog Millionaire.

We think that a Hollywood production company wouldn’t be best for our opening. This is because they produce big budget films and the films they produce are always widely released in cinemas and with our opening being an independent film and low budget we believe that it wouldn’t give out a big profit if mass released.

So if Film4 Produce our film opening it would be released to a select few cinemas in the UK, from this point if the film was received well and we made a profit from the release it would be massed released by the production company. If no profit were made by the release then the production company would pull the film from the cinemas and would then either be released on DVD or shown on the production company’s TV channel Film4.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We intend our film noir opening to be fit for viewing for the ages of 15 and above meaning that anyone below the ages of 15 should not see this if it was a real Noir as the content in it may be unsuitable for them and they try to imitate the film. We think this because if it were to be a full film it would have all of the conventions of a classic film noir, which usually

appeal to older audiences. Such conventions are; Drug references, violence, drinking, smoking and sexual references.

How did you attract/address your audience?

During our scene we tried to create an experience that would appeal to adults (25 to 35) mainly males who enjoy a complex and intricate narrative. We achieved this by creating an enigma at the beginning of the film to intrigue the audience and make them want to watch more. The well-rounded characters will maintain the interest throughout the film, the characters, Detective Blake and James, will have specific parts that will influence the actual flow of the storyline.

The story will have a twist towards the end of the film that will take all the audiences first suspicions and make them rethink their whole logic. This will aim to divert the audience away from the normal linear storyline and make them see something else. We would also have the main character (the Detective) actually cross paths with the murderer (James) at certain points in the film (unbeknownst to either of them).

We would try to keep the enigma that we created at the beginning of the film constant until the very end of the film (where the twist comes into play). As the story begins to be summarized we would show flashbacks to the Detective and James crossing paths and try to show the audience all the little things that caused all the events present within the film.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

During the process of creating and constructing our media product, (A film noir opening), the group and myself learnt of how easy it could be to actually film your own media product and edit it into its final stage. We found it to be easy as it isn’t that hard to get a hold of a camera and there are programs out there that are easy to get and are very simple to use for beginners but have technical aspects to them as well to make you media product all the more better. The two main programs that we used to make our product were Garageband and iMovie. (Picture of iMovie and Garageband appear onscreen).

To get sound effects for our film noir opening we had to go to the internet and search through websites for appropriate sound effects. Once we had found them we would then download them and insert them into our film using iMovie. The cameras that were given to us were simple to use, being light they were easy to carry around and this allowed us to get a variety of shots when filming. There was little problem in attaching the camera to the tripod; it also wasn’t difficult to use the tripod. As for the settings of the camera it was easy to adjust the playback settings, for example playing in black and white, for example in this clip playing now we filmed it in lack and white. Overall the camera was easy to pick up and use without any instruction being given to me, so just about anyone could use it.

We used Garageband to make the music for our media product, (Our film noir opening), it was easy to use at it had the different genres of music and it had the correct genres that would fit our media product. Also Garageband wasn’t all the technical and so we didn’t really need any specific knowledge of how to use it, we could just get on with making the sound straight away, making it so much more helpful towards finishing our product. We used iMovie to edit our film and put it together, it was rather easy to use as the placement of the tracks only involved dragging them onto a certain area on the screen.

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

We have shown significant improvement from the prelim task to the full product. In the prelim task we had to show match on action, 180-degree rule and shot reverse shot. The preliminary wasn’t thought out it was all improvised and therefore it wasn’t planned and couldn’t reach it’s full potential and therefore means we didn’t manage to complete any of the criteria. In the prelim we worked in one place, which had very low lighting. We never included any elements that we were actually supposed to include do to it all being improvised. Due to the film being so dark the quality of the video is called into question, we did use effects to try and brighten the movie up, but it further reduced the quality of the video.

When we compare this to the coursework task we managed to meet all of the tasks that were set (holding a shot steady where appropriate, 180 degree rule, tracking shot, pans, tilts, over the shoulder). We were extremely well organized when it came to planning out main task. Our group decided to split the various tasks between ourselves to ensure we met the deadline. After the unsuccessful prelim task we decided to go off campus to film our coursework task. We combined the Mise en scene (costume e.g. jackets and hats, lighting e.g. natural light, props e.g. gun, hat, trench coat, setting e.g. back alley setting) to create the perfect 50’s feel for our genre. The only problem with Mise en scene was the cars as they weren’t from that era but that couldn’t be helped. However one problem with the location and the time of year was that it got dark very quick. We did eventually use this to our advantage and used it to show progression of time, which combined with the black and white, was a very good natural effect. We used effects on the video (i.e. making it black and white), to set it appropriately to the time (50’s). The editing style (straight cuts, match on action, 180 degree rule) and camera work (canted angle over the shoulder shot) were done to show techniques from original noirs, however in the prelim we didn’t use a lot of horror conventions and so our prelim was hard to distinguish as a horror film. Overall we feel that we have shown significant improvement from our preliminary task to our coursework task and have met the criteria set.

Camera shots we used.

ROUGH CUT

Final Cut

This is a low angle, we used to give a POV shot without actually using a POV shot. We tried to give a perspective from the victim looking up at the attacker, whilst also keeping the identity of the attacker a secret.

This is a tracking shot. We used it to follow the action as it unfolded during the chase scene. We wanted to give the audience the feel that they were following the victim and the attacker during the chase.

This is a extreme close up we used, this was to try and set a pace during the chase scene. For example how fast the two were running.We used the close up of the feet due to the fact that it seems to be a convention of the chase scene.

This is a canted angle which is a basic convention of film noir and is often used in chase scene like the above screenshot.

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