Questions relating to evaluation- first ideas

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
At the moment, our media product both uses and challenges forms and conventions of real media products:
Sound: is fairly upbeat, however we may change the song to create more tension, in addition to this more diagetic sound is needed to build narrative.
Editing:Could be drastically improved, at the moment the quality is poor, when we are finished it will use the forms and conventions of a real thriller, as the pace will gradually build up- very slowly.
Camera: We have used and developed forms and conventions so far, this is because we begin, after the establishing shot with a close up of the protagonsists feet, then build up slowly until his identity is revealed.
Mise en Scene: Uses the forms and conventions as both the characters are dressed in dark colours- suits. Furthermore, the setting re-enforces the narrative- in a well-off high street, with props being typical of an action thriller eg. briefcase.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product, because of setting and character represents young seemingly wealthy males (agents). No particular social group is being re-presented.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Maybe Columbia, this is because they already distribute films such as James Bond which is similar in narrative to our thriller genre action/thriller.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Seeing as our thriller is rated 15, the audience would be 15 and over. Anyone under 15 may not understand our thriller or find it upsetting.

How did you attract/address your audience?
Through the quick pace and narrative, mise en scene, character and setting.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
How to use apple macs.
Premier Pro.
Camera.
Sound- uploading.
How media firms re-present their ideas/ opinions.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
How to use Premier Pro to a higher standard, how camera angles can tell a story, how to use mise en scene, sound and editing to a higher standard also. Furthermore is have learnt that communication and organisation are key whilst working in a group.

update

During today's lesson we are going to be planning how to improve our opening by making a timetable. This way we will be more organized, overcoming any problems that may occur and get our opening done to a high standard. In addition to this, we also need to film the two other shots we need to improve our grade.

I am improving my skills, both within camera and editing, this is usefull because they are skills i will need in A2 and perhaps in the future.

19/3/09 more alterations needed

Today, as groups we watched over our opening wiht our teacher in order to recieve feedback as how to improve our footage. These are the pointers we recieved:

1. The titles are too big- they need to be more subtle.
2. An establishing shot is needed, with the cafe in view, a slow pan would also help to build tension.
3. Get rid of the mid shot/close up of sehb, instead just get the brief case and torso in shot.
4. Hold the shot of sehb sitting down- tension.
5. Slow the pace down.
6. Do not cut before the character leaves the screen- hold the shot.
7. Cut straight into Andy at the fence watching Sehb escape- editing.
8. More emotional reactions.
9. Instead of loads use just one good shot of Andy running off screen- cut to Sehb walking through the entrance of the train station.
10. Finish with Sehb on the train, get a shot of Andys reaction, last shot will be the train pulling away.

In addition, we also watched thriller openings as a class and were shown how to effectively build tension and suspence through slow pace of editing, close ups and music matching the narrative. I found this usefull as i was shown exactly how to improve the coursework.

Final Rough Cut Class Evaluation

Today we watched everyones final rough cuts as a class. In turn, each opening was shown and each group recieved feedback from both our teacher and each other, furthermore we ranked the openings in order from best to worse, my order went as follows:
1. Money
2.Next/Reflections
3.Disturbance
4.Tracker

We have 2 weeks to improve our openings and start evaluating, to improve our grade we have to make sure our characters show more emotion, match sound to on screen action and use better editing skills.

Progress update

All filming has been completed, now editing just needs to be done to a high standard in order to get the best grade possible. Communication as a group has improved also. Soon another class evaluation will be done to get feedback for how the opening could be improved and critisisms.

I hope that within our next piece of editing i will get alot more involved and improve my knowledge and skill.

Next Scheduled Filming

The next scheduled filming is on the 11th March, again in Gerrards Cross. We will shoot many more shots that we need and therefore improving our 2 minute opening. Tomorrow i will blog how the film shoot went and the improvements we made. 

Filming 4th March in Gerrards Cross

On the 4th March the filming in Gerrards Cross went well. The director was present so i feel that more could be done, however only 3 out of the 4 group members were present. The actors performed well and we took our media teachers pointers into account whilst filming to make it the best that we possibly can. In an hour and a half we got a quarter of filming needed, we will arrange to do more filming soon.

Today, on the 5th March Charlotte will upload the footage, and start editing.

Progress made- 3rd March & first rough cut clip

We edited and showed our filming so far to our media teacher. In addition to this, we need much more filming (we only have a minute at the moment). Also, the establishing shot needs to be longer to introduce the setting properly, the main character needs a stronger sense of narrative whilst receiving the phone call telling him to run, more sounds dialogue is needed, a more subtle introduction of the other character (the 'tracker'), we need to show more obviously that time has passed to increase the sense of realism, the camera needs to tell more of a story, we need to make the editing less jumpy, the location needs to be slightly altered, reduce jumping back and forth between characters, show andy perhaps making a call, have a stronger sense of dual narrative and most importantly camera work needs to be vastly improved.

Furthermore, we have set a date for further filming- 4th March. Three of our group members will be present and the two actors, we are going to be working on improving these points and our coursework.

I have found the order in which the opening titles will be shown and have taken them into account with the other group members, at a later date we will attend an after school class to improve our knowledge of photoshop and other programmes to make our titles on.

First rough cut clip: