Alex's AS Media

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

Before making our film I researched into the exact codes and conventions of our genre of title sequence. The title sequence we have produced used the forms and conventions of real media product in regards to our genre of a war/spy/thriller. We did this by telling a story through our title sequence; our title sequence shows a man chasing, killing and taking an object from another man, then giving it to his boss. This suits the conventions because this prologue would help to start the movie with the audience already knowing this event has happened. The way in which our title sequence has been shot portrays our genre of film, by how we used archive footage at the beginning of it, informing the audience of the time period when our sequence is set. When making our title sequence we wanted the audience to be “glued to the screen”, meaning we wanted to put title credits in, but wanted the audience to focus more on the action on screen. We achieved this by filming many camera shots and with quick editing we would be able to keep the audience in suspense. I was particularly pleased with the music we used in our title sequence, because when we started looking for what music we should use, we wanted something that would build suspense, like the titles of ‘Seven’ which I studied and was inspired by, in the sense of music use. The typography we used when making our title sequence matches the genre of our film because it blurs in and out, signifying a mystery and the typography showing Russia and American font shows the two sides in the film (good and evil).

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The title sequence we have produced represents particular social groups and those who we targeted our film at in a non-bias way. When we were thinking about what we wanted our sequence to show we wanted to make a sequence which would show a balanced opinion, in that we did not want to be seen as supporting one side of the Americans or Russians in the Cold War (50’s/60’s). We decided to do this because it allowed us to put an enigma in the audience’s head as to which we are more in supportive of and adds a sense of mystery to our title sequence. The social groups we were intending to target our title sequence at were predominantly male and give them a story they could get their teeth into and would challenge their opinions on the matters of the cold war.

What kind of media institution might distribute you media produce and why? 

When researching as to what institution might distribute our film, we referred back to the group activities we had completed in previous lessons, when we researched many differing film institutions and looked into the depths of what type of films they tend to produce in terms of budgets and how much profit they would expect to make from a film. In terms of genre as to who would distribute our film we looked initially at Paramount Vantage and although they would give their name to our film because of the needed budget we would need, and star performer in Leonardo Dicaprio it would not be in their greatest business interests if they distributed our film. We then discussed and researched into what studios would have the capital to fund our film; our findings came up with ‘Lionsgate’, famous for the SAW movies. But although they would have the money to fund our movie, the genre type would not suit there company as out genre was spy/thriller and they are best known for horror movies. After research we then realised that realistically there were only two distribution companies, which would have the funding to allow us to make our film as we wanted to. These were Warner Bros and Universal Studios, although Warner Bros has the capital to make our film, we feel our films gender would be much more suited to the vast range of films which Universal Studios produce and we felt that with this label in the pitch for out film we would be able to attract the directors we needed in Tomas Alfredson, after his work on the ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’, a film which genre can be compared to the genre of film we wanted to make. We would also be able to attract the big name stars we want in our film and the distribution that Universal would give us in terms of advertising would be perfect, because they are a well-respected company.

Who would the audience be for your media product?

Our film would target a range of audiences; predominantly the film would be aimed at males ranging from the ages of 15-35. It would be aimed at this age group because of the content of the film and genre of the film as a spy/thriller, as well as their being some graphic and violent scenes in our title sequence, which involves a man being shot by another. It would not be acceptable for an audience lower than the age of 15 to see this legally; hence we have given our film a rating of 15+. As well as a specific age group being our predominant demographic, as we have the ‘STAR’ power of Leonardo Dicaprio, which would attract subsidiary audiences, such as, dedicated and passionate Leonardo Dicaprio fans that would willingly pay and see any film he has been part of.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our title sequence attracts our audience by the enigmas it produces and the questions it puts in their heads when watching it. They are thinking who are these people, why was there achieve footage at the beginning, who is the man in room and most importantly what happens next. We have done this with a range of different types of cinematography with the changing camera angles of high to low, etc. Also with the props and locations we have used, could easily be judged as being set in the time era of when the film is set. I also feel with have addressed the audience by the sound track and the quick cut shots intensifying the action on the screen. The music I feel matched the mood we want the audience to be in of insecurity because they do not know what is going to happen next.

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

During this project I have learnt many new thing about the construction and what it takes to make a film and title sequence. From pitching the idea to storyboarding to editing I have learnt allot. As the cameraman of the group in this sequence I have learnt how to get the best out of the footage we were shooting, by experimenting with different camera angles to use and filming techniques. Also even though it was not my role in the group to edit, I helped in the editing process and know how to use ‘Final Cut Pro’; the software we used to edit our title sequence. As a result of this project I now know how to cut and edit a piece of footage as well as adding effects and titles to make it look professional. In addition to this this project has been the first time I have used blogger instead of a notebook to make all my notes and findings on. This was at first challenging, being a new application to use, but eventually I learnt how to use it, this was a particularly effective way to store notes on because it could be edited easily and had the functions to allow videos, pictures and graphs added to it easily. I have learnt a great deal about technologies and process of constructing title sequence.

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

I feel that the preliminary task was vital in making our title sequence as what we wanted it to be because we made some errors and did not judge the time we had in our preliminary continuity task in this project. When I look back at how the preliminary task panned out I am to be honest not happy with it because we had some continuity error because we did not get enough footage, but during the filming of our title sequence because we learnt from our past mistakes, although tedious at times we got two takes of every shot we needed. When looking back at our preliminary task we did not finish it as well as we would have liked, although we included all of the necessary elements we needed in our film, it does not in terms of editing look very good because we simply ran put of time. Through our preliminary task we realised the magnitude of what needed to be done and with the help of our Google calendar we managed our time and easily met the deadlines when they occurred. The final lesson I feel we learnt and most importantly learnt is to be able to work as a team. During the planning process for our preliminary task their was a conflict between the group and we were unhappy with working together and ended up not doing our best in this task but after this we had a group meeting put our differenced aside and focused on the greater good for the group and we worked I feel fantastically on the project where we delegated roles and set deadlines and every member of the group met them without fail. In conclusion I feel since the preliminary task as a group we have learnt allot and this can be shown in our final product, which I am very satisfied with.

The feedback we received as a whole was mainly positive with fellow students and teacher complimenting is on the idea and concept of our title sequence which included the archive footage which set the time period of our title sequence. The typography we used in our sequence of showing both American and Russian titles being shown at the same time which connotates the two sides of the conflict and the story. We also received allot of positive feedback for our cinematography and how we filmed this sequence to make it believable that it was set in the 1960;s with props and timeless locations such as the church.

However even though the majority of the feedback we received was positive, we also received negative feedback. The most obvious negative feedback we were bound and expected to receive was the fact that we had some editing errors, which were picked up by our fellow students. Another negative aspect was that our title sequence was to long but we received suggestions on how we could shorten it by removing the ‘Universal Studios’ distribution logo at the begging of our title sequence

Overall as a group we are very pleased with the feedback we received, albeit some minor editing errors and length of the title sequence all feedback was positive and we feel we have made the title sequence which we wanted to make and are very happy with our final sequence. We were also appreciative of the negative feedback because it now allows us to spend the final week of editing making our title sequence better.