Media Evaluation

By Benjamin Briscoe

The Group

• Ben, Ben and Carl

Introduction

• Ben Briscoe, Ben Livsey and Carl Rawcliffe decided to form a group to undertake the filming task. We threw a few ideas around about what genre of film we should make. Eventually we decided on a social-realist, action thriller and our target audience would be the mid to late teens.

• My main contributions first came in the ideas and development stages. Basically ‘spit-balling’, trying to figure out what we could do that would look good with the time and budget (or lack of) that we had at our disposal. Then came Story Boarding. Basically drawing up the scenes which would feature in our opening sequence. I'm not much of an artist, but I did have some good ideas which went into these initial process. Then came the actual filming itself. I was appointed the actor playing the ‘chaser’ in the film. Carl player the ‘runner’ and Livsey was chief cinematographer. When it came to deciding which shots to try, it was down to group discussion. We all input our ideas and came to a decision as a group. In the editing room too, we made group decisions, discussing in detail what we all thought about each individual shot. Where best to cut from, which shots looked right where, which track would sound best in the background etc…

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

real media products?• As stated previously, our opening sequence was modelled in the social realism /

action thriller type genre. Therefore, we decided we had to include certain conventions of these types of films to make it look more authentic, more edgy. The fast paced music we chose, worked well with the action taking place in the shots. We started with an establishing shot of a quite tranquil backdrop, then the fast rock music kicks in and the action begins. We see the feet of some one running, possibly being chased. This is the first enigma that was set up during the sequence. Then you get a shot of the car wheel, its rev counter, a gear change etc. Another enigma. Who is in the car, why is he chasing the other character? Then you get a wide shot of the steps, the main protagonist running down, closely perused by the guy in the car, who pulls up bottom right of the shot. The chase scene through the park down the steps that lead to a dead end is also a familiar convention of this particular genre. It should hopefully make the audience feel sympathetic toward the protagonist being chased, as they can see his end is near. The fact that our protagonist seemingly dies in the opening minutes of the film is quite a nice twist we added. A lot of films of this genre are focused on telling the protagonists life story, how things were going well for them, but the get dragged down and by the end of the film they are probably dead. Ours is different because he dies very quickly, making the viewer need to carry on watching to find out what actually happens. Can you say plot twist!

How does your media product represent

particular social groups? • Our sequence is basically trying to represent the

youth culture of today. The trials and tribulations that real young people are facing right now, out there in society. We realised that with all the gun, knife and gang related violence going on in Britain's cities right now, someone needed to make a product that all those people could relate to. Not only that, we thought that by making the type of film we did, we could get the problems of gun and knife crime out there to the masses, try and open peoples eyes to the kind of things that are going on right on there doorstep. In order to do this right, we had to try and make our set, costume, mis en scene and actions as realistic and authentic as possible. We studied other films and TV dramas similar to what we wanted to do in order to get the set, costume etc just right, and overall I think we did a pretty good job. For the costumes, we decided to go for the stero-typical good V evil. Good being normal everyday clothes, and Evil being the bad guy dressed all in black, hoody etc. The set/ location for all the filming was typical city back alleys, the inside of the bad guys car, and of course, the park where the shooting took place. We scouted around the area looking for ideal locations for filming certain scenes, and again, I think the outcome was very good.

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

• We didn't have to look far to find just the right media company that could potentially distribute our product. Our film is a gritty, social realistic thriller, and so we needed a label who had already produced similar things. So in the end we decided on Vertigo Films. A British film producer who is renowned for making great British films including the likes of ‘Football Factory’ , ‘It’s all gone Pete Tong’ , ‘Outpost’ and ‘Outlaw’.

Who would be the audience for your media

product? • It was very important for us that we made the

film for the right kind of audience. Our view was that we should target specifically the mid to late teen market, probably more for the males than females. We vaguely based ourselves around the ‘kidulthood’ movie, which targets young teenagers, and talks about their views, and struggles as they go through life. We say its more male oriented because it involves things like car chases, gun fights, drugs sex and rock and roll. That’s not to say a lot of female viewers wouldn’t like our film, on the contrary, but we decided that men would probably get into it a bit more. The teenage market is ideal for targeting with things like films as it is the teems of this age that have the disposable income to pay to go out to the cinema, to buy and/or rent DVDs and so on. Not to mention all the free time they have on their hands?! When we showed our opening sequence to an audience, the majority really were keen to carry on and watch the full film, so many questions were left unanswered from the brief 2min extract.

How did you attract/ address you audience?

• Before we actually started the filming process, we as a group, needed to be sure that there was an active, willing audience, ready to sit down and watch our proposed film. In order to gauge the reactions to our idea, we produced a questionnaire, which we gave to several teenagers of varying age and sex. The reaction we got was basically as expected. Through our questionnaire, we discovered that the majority of 15-19 year old lads would enjoy a new British thriller. Once we’d discovered that we were going in the right direction, we got to planning, storyboarding, scouting for possible locations, than filming and editing.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product?• From beginning to end, we have used a

range of technology. On the first day of research, we watched DVDs and browsed ‘youtube’ in order to find film opening that we liked the look of and that we thought we could try and replicate. We then used the apple macs to create questioners for people to fill in so we could gauge if there was a ready made audience for our product. For the prelim task, we first had a tutorial on how to use the editing software and basic skills for operating the video camera. We got the basics down, so that when it came to the task proper, we’d be ready. We probably learnt most from the editing process of the final product. You really wouldn’t know how much work actually goes into chopping, cutting, sticking, merging, fading a clip ready to be seen on the big screen. Its tremendous. We took weeks editing a 2min long clip, so to even try and comprehend how much work must go on for a full length blockbuster is just insane.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product?

• Looking back, I can see that we have progressed ten fold from our prelim task. When we first did the prelim, we had barley even held a camera, and hadn't a clue how to properly work the editing software. We were coming up with good, original ideas, but struggled to get them onto the big screen as it were. I also think, that as a group, we didn’t really take the prelim that seriously, we just thought it was a bit of fun, which indeed it was! When the proper practical task came around, I think we got into it a lot more, took it way more seriously, and overall came out with a much better product. So in a way, the prelim task really helped us to understand the basics, so that when it came to doing the real thing, we had a better idea of what to do, how to do it. The amount of different shots and camera angles is huge from the prelim to the final product. The finished article is much more interesting to watch. I think the time helped us as well. For the prelim, we had a couple of hours maximum to complete a 20second clip. For the real thing, we had weeks, so we could spend full lessons out on set, filming away, perfecting little things like angles, continuity etc. The most important lesson I think we learned is that to produce a product that lots of people will like, you have to include conventions that they are already used to. Yes, put in your own original ideas, that makes the film unique, but if you add in things that viewers of that genre are already familiar with, they’ll feel at ease watching your film. They know what they like, and if they don’t see it In your movie, they’ll feel cheated.

Screen Grabs

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