Matt Johnston AS Evaluation

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

I think that for the most part we did indeed follow the conventions of the action thriller genre. We had a villain who was clearly the antagonist, a trademark of all action thriller films especially such films as James bond

We had a chase scene, again like in the opening few minutes of most James Bond films.

One convention that we did not take from the action thriller genre was actually the use of polarised stills, which was in fact a convention that we took from the ‘Spooks’ series on BBC. This convention I felt was appropriate as it was taken from the spy genre, a genre that our film is still connected to. The freezes we felt were necessary as it was telling the audience what was important In the film. To show this we had three freezes. The first was of the briefcase that was being carried.

This shows that the case has something of vital importance to the film in it, the second was of the villain, which would show that he is going to be a recurring character in the plot and that he would prove to be a constant thorn in the side of the protagonist. The third was the point where the protagonist looks like he is about to

stab the antagonist, this is important as we need the audience to remember that image before we can twist it on its head later and have it the other way around.

There were also several other conventions that we followed, a good example being the sepia effect that we used. In the Bourne films there are several flashbacks done and in order to make it clear that they are flashbacks they used a stylised method of black and white filming. In order to replicate this sort of effect we decided to go for a sepia colour, like old photographs that have lost their colour somewhat. We decided in the end that all of the first 2 minutes of our film should be a flashback, so we applied the sepia effect to the entire piece. In retrospect perhaps this was a mistake as our entire piece now looks a little desaturated and lifeless, this being said in the overall context of the entire film it makes sense and fits to the plot, so I would say that perhaps it was a good idea. In this I would say that we have developed a convention of spy films by going for sepia instead of the black and white that is normally used.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Working title films may decide to distribute our film, as it is British and made in Britain. There is the general assumption however that it will not be good enough to make it to the stage where it would be produced and made into a actual film worthy of distribution. If this were the case we would have to find a smaller distribution company and release our film straight onto DVD. If we were lucky enough to be in a position where we could get it put into cinemas the chances are that it would have to be a very limited release. In this case we would want to release it in London if at all possible, as it is the capital it can be assumed that more people would be around to see it in London.

How did you attract/address your audience?

After our questionnaire we found that more people who preferred action films preferred the Bourne series to the bond series, where the characters are intelligent and believable rather than caricatures. In order to reflect this we had our first scene shot using knives as our weapon of choice rather than guns, this reflected upon the Bourne series, which was famed for its incredibly fast knife fights. We felt that this would appeal to a British audience more, as guns are not permitted in Britain.

In order to attract audience we also engaged in a small-scale campaign over the Internet, encouraging friends and family to view the product over Youtube. It was this in my opinion that made the viewing rating go up on out piece.

The script and storyboard we decided to keep British by keeping the narration with a British accent and had the traditional ‘villains’ of the British spy genre, the Russians, as the antagonists of the story. In this way we felt that it would be easier for the audience to understand and allow the audience to enjoy the story more by keeping the definitions of who was the villain and who was the hero very clear. This breaks somewhat with the conventions of Bourne where everyone seems to be in a ‘grey zone’ of morality, but with the time and resources that we had at our disposal creating something so complex was simply impractical.

The fast paced entrance of the film was also a device that we used to give the overall film a context. By having the film in flashback we found that we could have a fast paced beginning, which is what our questionnaire said people liked to a spy film, coupled with giving the film a backdrop that we could use to give the film an interesting context that would draw the audience in. In this way we found that we could proverbially take out two birds with one stone, as we could give the audience the fast paced entrance that they wanted, whilst coupling it with an intriguing story that we knew would be vital in order to create a film with out access to a high special effects budget.

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I would say that there are two parts to answering this question, the practical and the applied side. In other words what I learned about filming technologies and what I learned about editing programmes. The first aspect that I will focus on is the filming aspect.

In order to film we needed a camera and a tripod. During the filming process I learned a great deal about how to correctly use a camera. I also learned that different types of tripod were good for different things. Because we filmed on different days we were issued with different tripods for different days. The first time we were issued with a tripod that was incredibly small and portable. Upon first inspection we thought that this would be ideal, as it was small and easy to carry. Later on, once we realised that it could not elevate the camera higher than our waists and was so spindly that the camera shook because of its own weight when the tripod was on full extension we found that this was probably not the best tripod that we could be using. The second day of filming found us with a much larger tripod that was much more useful at getting the camera where we wanted it. the only difficulty with this was that the tripod did become unwieldy at times, and moving it from place to place became more difficult than on the first day.

On the editing side we used a program called final cut express in order to edit the film. Over the cause of the editing process I got to know the editing software very well. Overall it was a very effective editing software, and once I had familiarised myself with the program it was very easy to use. The programme allowed you to place different media tracks together and cut between them as I desired, making choosing what cuts to put in incredibly easy. The main difficulty with it was that whenever I placed a new track onto the programme I had to render the whole thing over again.

Overall I would say that I learned a great deal about technologies used in the construction of my media product. Learning how to use a Mac also had great advantaged in my photography AS level when I used them later on in the year as well.

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

One of the most important things that I feel that I learned about the filming process was the attention to detail required when filming on different days. I mention this because we can show a direct learning curve between the two projects. In the preliminary we had to film on two different days as we ran out of time in the lesson to finish filming the entire thing. In the preliminary task we had a small issue of one of our group changing their hairstyle, and when looking closer a car suddenly materialises over one of our members shoulders. Learning from these mistakes allowed us to keep the continuity of the piece going, as once again we had to film on different days when filming blueprint.

Another thing that I felt that I learned over the filming was how to use final cut express more accurately. In the preliminary the film’s soundtrack is slightly out of sync with the visual, meaning that we hear people say thing a small amount of time before we see them mouth the words. Fixing problems like this requires more attention to detail than I put in at the time of the preliminary, as I did not really understand how much of an impact such as seemingly small amount of time would make.

Another crucial thing that we learned over the course of the two films was how to act for a camera. One of the members of my group does drama as an AS level. This was reflected in the over the top ‘MORNING’ given in the preliminary. By the time that we got to filming blueprint we were able to correct our acting to more reflect that we did not need to make our expressions as painstakingly obvious as when we are on stage.