Evaluation task 7

Since the start of As media studies when I filmed the preliminary task I believe that I have learnt a lot when it comes to filming. At the start of the year I did not completely understand continuity in filming, now I feel I have learnt a lot about it. One thing I have learnt a lot about is shot reverse shot. In my preliminary task we used shot reverse shot. This was when I asked Alex a question, then it went to Alex answering the question. Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other. We also used this technique in our opening two minutes. This is when one of the antagonists is pointing a gun at the protagonist and the protagonist looks back in his direction. Since the preliminary task my understanding on how to use shot reverse shot has improved massively. 

Another technique I have learnt to understand more is match on action. This was used in my preliminary task when I walked through the door. There was a shot of me walking through the door, then there was a shot of me walking through the other side. With the knowledge I gained from using this technique in the preliminary task I then used it in my opening two minutes. There was a mid shot of me holding a gun and then the next shot was a close up of the gun. In this scene I believe that the shots flowed pretty smoothly and it showed continuity. 

Since the Preliminary task I have learnt a lot about camera work and shot types. In our opening two minutes one of our aims was to use as many different shots as possible. We tried to just use mid shots, and two shots. Some of the shots we used were: Close up, mid shot, long shot, extreme long shot and over shoulder shot. With using a range of different shots I believe that it made the opening two minutes much better to watch. So overall from being taught about continuity techniques,shot types and camera work I was able to put some of that knowledge into practice when making my opening two minutes.

Evaluation task 6

When making our opening two minutes of a film there was a lot of of things we used to help us make it. One thing we used was a tripod, this is shown in the picture on the right. The tripod helped us in all of our shots. The tripod enabled the camera to stay still. Having the camera still is very important as we wanted to make the film look as professional as possible. Also there is a something on the tripod which meant we could move the camera left or right while it was still. We used this when filming the power slide scene. Also we had a camera which enabled us to film all of the film. The picture on the left shows the software we used to edit our film. We used adobe software for this. This is where we put all our footage on then edited it to make it as good as possible, we also added our sound onto this software. Also YouTube helped when filming the film, this is because I searched up things like the 180 degree rule and match on action and we tried to put this into practice in the film.                                  

Evaluation task 3

This is the directors commentary which explains some of the key features of our opening.

Evaluation task 8

Over the past year doing media studies i have learnt a lot. Next year there is some things i would do differently when making the trailer. One thing i will change is the genre of the film i make. This year i made an opening two minutes of an action film, so next year i will use a different genre. When filming our opening two minutes this year we used Guns, although they were fake and we didn't use them in a bad way, they could potentially get us in trouble. So to stay out of trouble i think it is a good idea not do an action film.

Looking back at how i filmed the opening two minutes i would change a lot of things. One thing i would change is filming each shot from different angles, this would mean that when editing the film we would be able to pick from a range of shots, therefore improving the quality of the film. Also i will try and film all in one day. When filming for the opening two minutes we filmed on seperate days, this would mean that the weather may of been a bit different so it would be more unrealistic. If the filming is done in one day the film would seem more real.

When filming for the trailer next year i want to try and make the mis-en-scene as good as it can be. Before we film for the trailer i would want things like clothing to fit the characters as good as possible. Having the right costumes are very important in a film. This year when we filmed our opening two minutes the costumes were fairly good, but I feel next year it can be better. This year the villains were all in black and one of the antagonists was wearing a mask to make himself seem more intimidating. I believe the sound that we used this year fit in well with the film, also the sound was made and not taken of the internet, I believe this is a good thing. As a target for next year when editing, I want to make sure all of the shots flow nicely, I can do this by spending more time editing and also use continuity techniques more frequently.

evaluation task 4

This picture shows 3 people from my target audience. This shows Glen on the left, Charlie in the middle and Kieran on the right. All 3 people are male teenagers which is the main target audience for our film. Our film is an action film, action films target audience are almost always men. This is because of the violence and danger most action films show. A lot of men stereo typically enjoy danger scenes as they like to put themselves in that situation, this makes them more interested and entertained by the film. All 3 people in the picture enjoy action films. Glens favourite film is The Expendables, Charlies is The Dark Night Rises and Kieran's is James Bond Casino Royale.          

 All 3 people shop in the same sort of shops. The shops include: Burton, Topman, River island etc. They shop in very normal places and none of the places they shop in are extraordinary. Also these 3 enjoy listening to a lot of music. They all have been to music festivals such as V-festival and Reading festival. One artist that they like is Calvin Harris. Another thing Glen,Charlie and Kieran have in common is that they all watch the TV-Programme 'The Walking Dead'. This again is very normal as it is a very popular show. All 3 of the boys are very sporty, they all play for their local football team 'Ashtead Fc'.                                                                                                       

 Out of all the 3 Kieran is the person who enjoys watching films the most. He goes to the cinema 3 times a week and he said that 70% of the films he watches are Action. The person who watches the least amount of films is Charlie. He watches about 2 films a month. The genres he enjoys are Comedy and action. Glen watches quite a lot of films and along with Charlie he enjoys Comedy and Action films.                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                       

So overall this picture shows our main target audience- young males. The target audience for our film do not necessarily have any obscure interests they are just fairly normal. Males will always be associated with Action films just as Females will be associated with Romance films. This is due to Action films are usually seen as more masculine, for example the main character is mostly always Male. The audience will want to relate to the main character and with that mostly being a male, men will find it easier to relate to the character.                                                                      

Evaluation task 2

This picture shows our main character on the left 'Agent Sinclair', on the right it shows James Bond. There are some ways in which these two characters compare with each other. One similarity is that they are both wearing black suits. Suits are a common theme for many 'secret agents'. The suit shows the audience that they are serious and that they are very professional. Also these two pictures show that both characters are holding a gun. If a character is holding a gun there is a sense of danger. Secret agents stereotypically are involved in a lot of danger. James bond is known for being strong and very smart. In our film Agent Sinclair is shown to be smart as he is able to get himself out of  a bad situation when he escapes from the villains.He is shown to be strong when he fights of the villains in the scene outside. So both of these characters are shown to be courageous, strong minded and brave. Another similarity is their body gestures. Both characters are shown to be very confident and sophisticated.

Story board animatic

Evaluation task 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GTL8h1EhxI

This above is a link to our annotated opening two minutes on YouTube. It shows our film links with some films in the same genre. We tried to use some ideas from other films when making the opening two minutes, but we added our own unique twist to that idea. We got Ideas from successful films as we knew them ideas were liked by their target audience. The target audience of the films we got our ideas from is very similar to ours.

Evaluation Targets

You've done so well this year Jack - so let's push ourself in the final stretch to really show our ability to reflect on our progress. Comment in detail on your findings from audience feedback. Revisit your recent posts and see if there are any more opportunities to use specialist terminolgy to explore mise-en-scene, ediiting and camera composition and comment on the way you intended to appeal to your target audience even more - there's so much to comment on to show how reflective you can be. Get working with your group tro complete director's commentaries and comment more on what you have learnt from others.

Audience reaction

Overall the reaction was positive, but there was also some things that we could improve on. One positive was that someone said the location of the interrogation scene was good as it was cramped and confined. Also someone said the mis en scene showed the genre. One thing a few people said we could improve on is to speed up the pace of the music to match the action. Also someone said that it was clear to see who the protagonist and antagonists were, but they said it was hard to see their relationships. It was fairly hard to show their relationships in just two minutes, but I fully understand their point. So overall the feedback was good and the things that they said we could improve on will help us when making a trailer next year.

Evaluation 1

This is the establishing shot of the opening two minutes of the film 'Alliance'. This picture shows the main character Agent Sinclair. This shot is part of the interrogation scene where he is held hostage. This shows that he is being held at gun point by one of the villains, this gives the audience the impression that he is in danger. The type of shot is a high angle shot which makes the audience feel in control and to make him seem more vulnerable.  The font of the writing shows that it is very serious which relates to the character. Also the text is in capitals and it is white, the is a convention of action films.                                                                    

This is a shot from the interrogation scene. This character is seen as an accomplice to Agent Sinclair in the flashback scene but it turns out that he is working behind his back by working with the villains. This shot is taken from Agent Sinclair's point of view. This close up shot makes the audience feel that he is looking at them. It makes him seem a lot more intimidating. This is an example of shot reverse shot. The character shown is seen to be looking in the direction in which Agent Sinclair is sitting, therefore shot reverse shot is present.

This shot is of a villain leading Agent Sinclair on. He is on the phone to Agent Sinclair asking him to meet him in a location that is out of the way. For the phone call we used match on action to film the conversation. This shot was fairly difficult to film. This is because we wanted to have the car park in the background of the shot, we had to stop a few times as there was cars driving in the background. At this point in the opening two minutes the audience will believe that he is working with Agent Sinclair, but that is not the outcome as he eventually teams up with the antagonists and go's against Agent Sinclair.          

This shot is part of our fast paced scenes. This is a long shot, we tried to do a lot of shots in the fast paced scene from many different angles. We wanted to have a fast paced scene as it is a common convention of an action film. This shot was quite hard to film as we couldn't really use the tripod properly as the ground was not flat so it was hard to have the camera completely still. We had to go back on a different day and film the fast paced scene again as we saw when in the editing process the camera was not steady. Having the camera still is very important.

This is the scene where Agent Sinclair finds out that his so called 'accomplice' is working against him. This shot was hard to film as there was a lot of cars were driving past in the background. The audience would think that there is tension as Agent Sinclair is being held at gunpoint. Agent Sinclair drove to this car park on his moped and was expecting to see this character with the intel he had asked for, but instead he found out that this man had been working behind his back and he was subsequently held at gunpoint.

 

This is the last scene of our opening two minutes. This is the scene where Agent Sinclair escapes from the villains. He escapes by pushing one of the villains to the floor. This shot was quite hard to film as this place was very cramped. This scene comes after the flashback scene. Their is a fade to black transition to show the change of scene. This leaves the film on a bit of a cliff hanger as it will leave the audience wondering what will happen next. This will keep the audience intrigued  as they will want to know what happens at the end of the film.                                                                                                                                                         

This shot shows Agent Sinclair hiding from the villains, Sinclair was running away as he had just pushed one of the villains to the ground and was getting chased. In this shot Sinclair is calling his office telling them that he put the intel underneath the bin. This is the shot which includes the most dialogue. We had to film this shot quite a lot of times. This was because the character had to speak a lot and he also had to speak fairly quickly as he was shown to be in a hurry. The character kept jumbling his words up so we had to film until he got them right.                                                                                                                                                              

This shot shows the power slide. We wanted to include a power slide as it can be seen as a stunt which is a convention of an action film. We had to film this shot a number of times, this is because it is a fairly hard thing to do. Also we had to move the camera when the Moped slid along the surface, this was fairly easy to do as we had the tripod with us. Secret agents stereo typically power slide their vehicle. Also when we were filming this scene there were cars driving past, so we had to wait until the road was clear to film the shot. If we had filmed the shot with cars in the background it would make the location seem less discrete and hidden. We were trying to make the location seem fairly hidden as it was the meeting point for a secret agent.

This is the last shot of the filming outside. The shot shows one of the villains creeping up behind Agent Sinclair and smashing his head against the bin. After this shot there is a fade to black transition which shows the change of location when moving back to the interrogation scene. In this scene Agent Sinclair had just finished telling his associates where he had left the 'intel' after knocking one of the villains to the ground. This shot shows violence which is conventional of an action film. This shot is a high angle shot as it shows Agent Sinclair looking vulnerable. This was quite hard to film as we tried to make the smash of the head as realistic as possible.

Alliance- OUR FILM

Music

This picture shows Alex with a guitar. For our non-diagetic music we recorded 3 different pieces of music. So all the non diagetic music in our film was made from scratch. I believe all of the pieces of music fit in well with our film as it makes it flow nicely and it doesn't sound out of place.