Video and Evaluation of my media product (Shadows Present)

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I analysed other film noir openings for inspiration and ideas for my media product I think that our product is quite close to a film noir opening, because it keeps the audience on edge and keeps them thinking who the main character is. Our film noir was inspired by Detour, we choose this particular film noir because in the beginning it shows a man who is running away from something and it goes into a flashback, and in a way our opening is like this, but more updated. We looked closely at the different types of shots they tried to use, such as putting the venation blind effect on the main character and we have done this too but the only difference is our frame is just black and the main character is the only thing we lit up. We used the venation blind effect a lot of the time in the interior setting to give the effect of a dark hotel room in a run-downed city. But the only different thing that we did was that we did not use any diegetic sound instead we used some non-diegetic sound and a few non-sync sounds. For example when the main character unzips his coat. We did this to emphasis how he is alone in the room. But when it came to the dialogue we had no non-diegetic sound so it would be easier to hear the actors. For editing, we tried to use a lot of cutaways of the gun, notepad etc. to make it clearer to the audience of what is happening and how Chris has been set up. I think that we have developed film noir, by using it’s lighting and narrative. But also I think at the same time we tried to challenge it by changing it’s characters, for instance we have no femme fatale and also the music we used.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I think that our main character does represent many male characters from film noirs, for instance the way that they are average men and then they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and there whole life gets turned upside down, because they have a lot of guilt on their mind. The only difference we have done is that the costumes that the characters wear are modern and not formal. When in most film noir’s like Detour the man is always wearing a suit to show successful they are. We tried to make our main character look depressed most of the time, and how we made the room dark in a way was try and portray how he is feeling so much guilt inside. We used some hard light on both characters to try and bring the shadows in. For instance how we used hard light on Josh’s feet to emphasis his steps while he was walking near Chris, we did this to make it seem how tense Chris was when Josh got closer. In our film noir we were trying to represent Chris as a normal nineteen year old, that get’s into trouble, this is a stereotypical teenager in my opinion because they think they can do whatever they want without getting into trouble. But our character is different to most film noir’s as normally the character is in their late thirty’s and is successful.

What kind of media distribute might distribute your media product and why?
I think that our media product would be distributed by an independent film distributor, such as Optimum Releasing, because our media product us an independent film and may not sell in big multiplexes, but somewhere like an independent cinema like an art house. Also it might be shown at film festivals such as Rain Dance and Sun dance. I think that once it has come out of the cinema it would be consumed by DVD and then eventually go on to television. I think that small company’s like Channel four would show it, because they are normally interested in independent films such as This is England. But it would be shown late at night slot at about 10, because it would be rated a 15.

Who would b the audience for your media product?
I think that our media product would be viewed by and appeal to a teenage audience especially boys because in the opening it includes a lot of action. I think that our media product would be viewed by an active audience as the audience need to interact with the character to feel his emotions. I think that our product would be rated a 15 by the BBFC this is because it includes violent scenes that would not be appropriate for a 12 year old I do not think, because the concept of people killing other people young children might get the wrong idea. Also I think that we might use strong language just to show how stressed the main character is. Also if we put it a 15 we open our media product to a larger cinema audience than if we put it a 12. We did mainly primary research before we started filming, we did things like a questionnaire and asking our friends and our family so we could get a different age range. We asked questions such as Do you like crime films? etc. this was to see what kind of people would be interested to see our film noir opening.

How did you attract/address you audience?
We attracted the audience by keeping them hooked in to the story, by keeping the audience wondering who the shadow is who is stalking him,an enigma. I think that we attracted our audience by using Visceral pleasures, we did this by the music how it is upbeat and changes its tone by getting fast and then slow, Also as the music is slow, it makes the audience tense as what is happening on the screen is not relaxing it keeps the viewer wondering that something bad is going to happen if the music is that slow. Also I think that it would give the audience emotional pleasures, as the film makes the audience interact with the character there fore they feel the character’s guilt. . Also I think that the interior shooting makes the audience hook in because it is just a dark room and we were trying to achieve it look like a hotel room but this way it looks more mysterious and confusing. I think that the prop we used which was the knife in the exterior shoots, keeps the audience in because you are wondering who the man is. At first we used loud music but our media teacher commented that it seemed like a trailer for the audience to go watch it.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have been using YouTube a lot to research how other film noir openings are like, for instance I watch D.O.A but that did not intrigue me to watch the rest of the film which is not what I was looking for. Also at the very beginning of this project I used Wikipedia in order to find characteristics of film noirs and also to see what keeps the audience hooked in. During this project I have been keeping a blog to show my understanding of this media product. But also during that I would compare my own blog with people in my class to see how interesting their story is. Also I compared it with people in my group to see if I understood the narrative right because we had a lot of brainstorming lessons and sometimes I did not understand the full narrative but after reading the blogs I do know. During filming we used a lot of technical equipment such as a Canon HV30 DV camcorder, Yoga shotgun microphone, boom pole, IPod headphones and a Velbon DV-7000 tri-pod. Also in the interior shooting we used a 300W light and a gobo for the venetian blind effect. During the editing we used software called Adobe Premiere Pro and using the software we managed to compress the film down to a Windows Media Player file therefore being able to burn and watch it as a DVD.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel from my preliminary exercise I have improved shots that I have done. I have not always been the director but I have learned things. Now I think that the framing of our piece is better than it was. Also I fully understand the rule of thirds and the 180 degree line rules before in my other two exercises I never really understood, but now I think that our media product shows that I fully understand.
I think that we had a long time to plan that’s way it went so smoothly. We had every detail planned that way we wouldn’t waste our time when it came to shooting. I think I have improved from my last two exercise because we had less time to shoot and edit it was harder to get things right because we were trying to rush things to get them done. Also because we had set jobs it made it easier because we new what we had to do in order to achieve the shoot, but in the last two exercises everyone in the group was doing everything which meant that it wasted their time when they could of done something else that would have been more useful. Also now I understand how to keep the audience on edge with a film and I am quite aware of the film noir characteristcs.Such as the Venetian blind effect for lighting.