Evaluation #5

Evaluation #5

How did you address/attract your audience?

In order to make our opening title sequence as interesting to an audience as possible we constantly consulted them during the making process of our OTS-


Evaluation 4

Evaluation 4

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

My media product is a thriller genre but however we have decided to combine it with action as our film is an action-thriller, but when we first drafted the clips together we realised that the music we used made the film feel too much like an action film so we had to pick something that added more tension to the OTS rather than having up tempo action music.
This means that our OTS is a hybrid of action-thriller, we did this as we believe that it would have a wider audience range and would hopefully be more popular and receive positive feed back.

In our work we tried to follow the conventions of existing thriller films as much as we could:
 This mood board shows some of the main conventions of thriller films and in our OTS you can see some of these how these have been reflected into it. For example it contains two heroes that are hunting down a powerful villain, we also have many themes such as crime and assassination with main villain being a infamous assassin being hunted for various murders. We have also kept to conventions with the props we used by using things that are associated typically with a thriller film like guns and cars, the fast paced editing is also typical of thriller films as it builds tension especially when coupled with music that builds up. We also had the detectives searching a house in a suburban area which is where thriller films are most commonly set.

However my aims where to break conventions as much as possible, as in my opinion most big Hollywood films have become very repetitive and I wanted to create something that would stand out from the crowd. I did this by changing the order of titles that appeared on screen, from the list of the traditional order for most opening title sequences. The most noticeable of these is having the title of the film "Vindicate" appearing at the very end. Unfortunately I soon realised that it was useless to try and challenge conventions, therefore I ended up developing conventions, which was much easier as we had taken inspiration from many other films (such as Die Hard and The Dark Rises) because of this the conventions from those films may reflect in our final work.

Evaluation #3

Evaluation #3

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

Looking back at my preliminary task the quality of my media products I produced have increased dramatically, the most noticeable thing is the improvement in camera work as in the preliminary task we broke the 180 degree rule multiple times. However while filming our opening title sequence we kept within the rules and also incorporated different angles which we shot the scene at.

 We also made sure that we worked on solving problems that were highlighted in the preliminary task while filming the final opening title sequence.

The main issue pointed out to us was the space left at the sides of many shots, this was especially an issue on the close up shots as the space left meant that the audience had more than the characters facial expressions and feelings to focus on. So when we filmed our final OTS we took into consideration the shots that we used, also we took many different shots so we had a variety of angles to work with when editing in order to make our OTS as high quality as possible. 

                         

Evaluation #2

Evaluation #2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We found it hard to represent social groups as we had a very limited cast of 3 characters who were only seen for two minutes however analysing our OTS in further depth we realised that we realised that we represent more than we realised.



Evaluation #2 - slideshows

Evaluation #1

Evaluation #1

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

Our opening title sequence uses conventions and forms frequently, I can see this as we use dramatic music that builds towards a certain point emphasising the thriller genre. We also followed conventions by including the titles of the main people involved in creating the film e.g. the director, producer and main cast. However we have the title of the film appearing at the end of the OTS which defies the normal order of showing the name first. We did this to make our product stand out from the others as people will get bored if products seem to repeat themselves.

Interview with Mike Harrows

Interview with Mike Harrows

In order to help us with our opening title sequences it was arranged for us to talk to BAFTA nominated movie editor Mike Harrows. He gave us loads of helpful advice about our OTS's and when we asked him questions that we prepared.

These questions we asked where along this line-

Why did you get into the editing industry?

What is the most effective editing technique to use in a thriller film?

What is the most difficult thing that you have edited and why?

What editing techniques would you advise us to use in our opening title sequence?






Camera Tests with the 700D

Camera Tests with the 700D

We have tested a range of shots using the Canon 700D camera that we will be using to film our final opening title sequence and these shots are going to be used in our OTS. It is important to also understand how the camera works, as this will be key to ensuring we can film certain aspects of the opening title sequence without any issues. Furthermore, by completing this test, we will be able to learn how to zoom in and out with the camera, which will be important in our opening title sequence to film shots in the way that we would want to.

Pre-production: Shotlist

Pre-production: Shot list

 

This is the shot list that was created for the pre-production of our opening title sequence. It outline all the shots that we may construct on the filming day. There where 39 shots all together and we had to say what the shot entailed for example, whether it was a close up, medium or long shot and what happened and can be seen in the shot. We also had to state how long each shot was-

Pre-Production: Props

Pre-Production: Props

My other responsibility for the pre-production was get the props that we would need for filming.

My first priority was to secure weapons for the two police officers, I though that hand guns would be preferable and fortunately I owned two BB guns that we could use. However the hand guns where originally blue so I had to spray paint them black in order to make them look realistic and not ruin the illusion of the film. Once painted the guns looked good but I added a silver finish to a small section on the barrel where the firing chamber would be exposed when fired, making the guns as realistic as possible. 

 The other gun that I needed was a sniper rifle for the assassin to use when shooting, I was firstly unsure how I was going to get hold of this and if we would then be able to film it in a public space. Fortunately I persuaded a friend to let use his air rifle for the filming although he had to be present while we had it in the open and we changed the location to my house which is a more secluded to avoid any scares where people called the police about young adult brandishing weapons.

I also needed a shell casing from a round that had already been fired from a weapon but unfortunately I couldn't get hold of one so had to use an empty shotgun casing that I had at home.

We also needed a rifle for the assassin to use, fortunately I knew someone who owned and was licensed to use an air rifle and I managed to persuade him to let us use his rifle for filming but he had to be present during the time we had it in public view.

 

To make the set look realistic we printed of out many pictures of men how would be targets of the assassin taking refuge in the house and some images of dead previous targets, news reports and police stations in order to hint at the assassins recent work.

Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback

After we had created our opening title sequence we showed it to a group of people that were in our target audience to see what their views were on it and whether we could make any improvements to our work from their feed back. We also asked someone older than our target audience and female so we could get a varied response and see if our film would appeal to people outside our target audience. 

Foley

Foley

In our opening title sequence we used foley as we where unhappy with the quality of the speech audio and because we had a lot of background noise in the scenes, such as wind and constant noise of traffic. 

By doing this it would improve the quality of our final product and get us extra marks for the 'construction' section of our coursework. 

The foley was recorded in a studio in our schools music department. We recorded the lines of the two characters again using a compressor mic which allowed us to get a much more crisp recording and improving the audio quality on our opening title sequence even further. Once recorded we then saved it into GarageBand where we either saved the recordings or added effects such as distortions (for the police radio announcement). 

These saved files where then added to our OTS in Adobe After effects and lip synced with original clips to give it a realistic finish. 

Unfortunately when uploaded to youtube the audio became out of sync with the picture and so the speech sometimes does not link with the movement of the characters lips.

Here is the finished version(top) and the first draft(bottom) to compare with and without the addition of foley: 

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

In order to ensure that the area that we filmed in was a safe environment for everyone on set we had to complete a risk assessment. To do this we first had to decide on the locations we filmed at and proceed from there creating the risk assessment specific for these areas.  

Risk assessment

What hazards have been identified?	What are the potential injuries or damage?	What measures have been taken to prevent injury or damage?	Number of people at risk	Who is responsible for this action?
Electrical equipment	Tripping or falling camera	Make sure the camera is tightened to the tripod	4	Harry, Fateh, Jeremy
Scaffolding	Falling off the scaffolding	Ensure extra precaution is taken	2	Harry, Fateh
Ladder	Slipping on the ladder	Ensure to grip firmly whilst climbing the ladder	2	Harry, Fateh
Slippery surfaces	Slipping leading to injuries	Ensuring that the surfaces are dry	3	Harry, Fateh, Jeremy
Gun Props	Dropping the props can lead to potential injuries	make sure you are holding the gun safely and securely	3	Harry, Fateh, Jeremy

 By doing this assessment it allowed use to identify the hazards that we could possible face when filming, this then let us decide what measures we would have to take to reduce those risks to a minimum and allocate people to be in charge of controlling these actions.



How My Opening Title Sequence Will Be Graded

How My Opening Title Sequence Will Be Graded

http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/81037-specification.pdf

 

 

Video

Level 1: 0–23 marks

 

The work for the main task is possibly incomplete. There is minimal evidence in the work of the creative use of any relevant technical skills such as:

• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;

• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;

• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

• shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;

• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 2: 24–35 marks

 

There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical skills:

• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;

• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;

• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

• shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;

• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Level 3: 36–47 marks

 

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:

• Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;

• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;

• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

• shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;

• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

62 © OCR 2013 GCE Media Studies – v6 June 2013

Level 4: 48–60 marks

There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

• material appropriate for the target audience and task;

• using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;

• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

• shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;

• using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Opening Title Sequence

Opening Title Sequence

 

This is the final version of our opening title sequence, It was filmed on a Cannon EOS 700D and edited using the editing software Adobe After Effects.

My Contribution to Pre-Production and Construction

My Contribution to Pre-Production and Construction

 

When planning our opening title sequence we assigned different roles to each member of the group in order to split up the work load and hopefully improve the quality of our final work. I was set the task of securing props and costumes. I believe that I fulfilled the task well as I managed to get costumes that suited the needed characters and genre of the film and the only props needed where guns which I could easily get hold of from friends.



I was an actor in our OTS playing the part of the agent who is killed at the end, however I also believe that I took the role of director as I came up with the main bulk of the script and plot, my ideas and interpretations of each scene are most dominant. Working as a team we always discussed our separate ideas before shooting a scene which occasionally lead to tensions and I believe that I took control of situation like these and made us decide on how we would film a scene or take multiple takes using everyone idea to see which is best and giving us a wider variety to choose from when editing, this is another one of the reasons I was listed as Director in the credits of our opening title sequence.

The OTS was also filmed at my house, after I offered as it was a secluded area where we would not need to get permission to carry the gun props around. Finding a location was meant to be one persons responsibility but ended up being a group effort with all of us looking at locations that could be possible filming spots and we eventually agreed that filming at my house would be easier after I discovered that we would have to provide the police with exact times and dates which we would be filming at if we did it in a public place (which we where unsure of).

I also contributed to the editing process of our work creating most of the final opening title sequence you see using Adobe After Effects. I defiantly cannot take all the credit though as the entire first draft which acted as a base for the final product was made by Fateh Khaled two days after we filmed and a lot of the lip syncing with our foley was done by Harry Denn.

This our Final AS Media Opening Title Sequence 'Vindicate'-





Pre-production: Treatment

Pre-production: Treatment

'A police officer seeks revenge for the death of his partner, who was murdered by an infamous as

At the start of the film, two agents are sent to investigate a local abandoned house, after being told that there is the possibility that a major criminal could be using it as a headquarters to hold their captured colleague. The captured agent is thought to of been captured because he was investigating the groups previous crimes, and was on a close lead to arresting the group. However the group logged on to the fact that he was doing this, and has kept him hostage for the last month previous to the 2 agents being sent to investigate the house. The criminal believed to being holding their colleague hostage is known to be part of a gang that has had many wrong doings such as money laundering, drug dealing and assassination attempts, which they have carried out in the past. The group have been previously convicted of ruthless crimes like these, but have managed to evade the police every time, and thereby naming themselves the ‘Get Away Group’. The group is composed of 4 members, each of which are highly trained and have crucial links to other major criminals located around the city. On the other hand the two agents are at a complete contrast with one another. The lead agent has spent many years in the job, and is highly advanced in knowing what to expect when, approaching dangerous scenarios such as these. His colleague on the other hand is in his first year, and has been assigned to be the apprentice of his far more experienced colleague.  

Just as the two agents arrive and reach the entrance to the building, they feel at risk that someone is watching them, little do they know, that someone is indeed watching them at a high vantage point at the top of scaffolding. The lead agent then tells his young counterpart that he should 'not do anything stupid' stay behind him at all times, regardless of the situation. Just as the lead agent enters the house, he barges in, announcing his presence in the house. A few moments later, they reach the house, and start to investigate around the actual inside of the house. Later on, the two agents meet again in the kitchen and discuss where their colleague could be. The young counterpart fatally decides to suggest the his boss 'should check outside'.

It is at this point in which the assassin on the scaffolding is able to get a sight on the lead officer, and after tracking the officer walking into a shed outside, the assassin begins to put his finger on the trigger and get a clearer line of sight on the agent. A few minutes later the assassin sees the agent discover a vital piece of evidence that he had hidden from everyone to see. In an act of controlled desperation, he decides to assassinate the officer at the exact moment that the officer looks up and sees him up in his vantage location.

After hearing the his boss fall to the floor with a bullet hole in his chest, he called for more units to arrive and take down the assassin from his unknown location. When the police officers arrive, they instantly receive information that the house is home to the assassin of the 'Get Away Group', and thereby proceed with caution. The police bring 8 units to the scene, vastly out numbering the mysterious assassin in an unknwown location to them. They proceed into the building from every entrance, surrounding the criminals. Each police officer is armed with a normal pistol and bullet proof vest in case things get out of hand. The assassin realizes what is happening long before they arrive, he tries to make a desperate lunge for freedom, by climbing down the scaffolding, and jumping to the ground. It came to no avail however, as when he landed on the ground, he attracted attention to himself and was followed by police helicopter all the way back to his gangs headquarters.

A few hours later, the police surround the headquarters, in a abandoned, run down room in the top floor of building in the heart of a local village a few miles away.  They then set up four snipers looking directly at the four gang members, and on demand, they shot all four members with bullets that knocked them out, allowing the agents to break in and arrest the criminals. This therefore gave the officers an easy task of simply carrying the criminals into the police van when they left their location, where they were taken to the station, where they were arrested, and put on trial, and found guilty, thereby facing life behind bars.

As for the family of the young agent who was assassinated, he was flown back home to his family in his home town, where the entire town turned up for the funeral, for what they described as a ‘heroic, agent, who put his life at risk to save everyone else. The film then ends with a scene of everyone sowing their respects to the agent, and then cutting to a final scene of the criminal gang being put behind bars. - written by Harry Denn

Pre-Production: Storyboard

Pre-Production: Storyboard

 

This storyboard gave us a rough guide to follow when creating our final opening title sequence, it shows the main scenes that we will film and sequences the order in which they will be filmed in-
Created by Jacob Osman

Pre-Production: Risk Assessment

Pre-Production: Risk Assessment

 

 



This is my groups risk assessment, the purpose of the risk assessment is to outline all the possible potential risks and how to solve them if we do ever come across them. Within our risk assessment one of the main outlined risk was the fact that as our project consists of the use of weaponry, this was a huge concern especially to the neighbourhood because if we were spotted with weapons (even though they were model guns) the neighbours wouldn't be able to distinguish the difference between the two, furthermore this could have resulted into police matters; which is why we informed the neighbours in advance prior to the production day in the next couple of weeks. When creating the risk assessment, I thought of all possible hazardous risks and put them together with a solution, so when it comes to filming we make minimal mistakes and are extra precautious. -Fateh Khaled

Pre-production: Location

Pre-production: Location

This is the research that was done into finding the location for filming:  



Pre Production - Location - Fateh Khaled from Fateh Khaled



This is an example of a place that we considered filming at until we learned of the legal difficulties of using realistic gun props in public. (filmed by Harry Denn)

These are images of the set that we used before we changed certain aspects and move things around in order to get the right effete for the filming-

Preproduction: Costume

Preproduction: Costume



I was tasked with deciding and acquiring costumes which we would need in our opening title sequence.


To do this I looked at other police themed film/tv shows to get inspiration, such as Hawaii 5-0, NCIS and Hot Fuzz. I found that I took the most inspiration from the costumes of Hawaii 5-0, as I thought that the shirt and tie with a protective vest over the top suited the 'detective' characters I had to create. However as our film would be set in England I decided to look at an British biased police film, I looked at the character on the left as his costumed fitted the profile extremely well but the fact that hot fuzz is a comedy and the fact that this character seems overloaded with weapons seem too over the top and adds a comical effect to the scene (something that I did not want to recreate in my own work).

 From this picture you can see the costumes that we used in our final OTS, I decided that the superior agent (right) should be the one with the gear like a hip holster and tactical vest was it reflects his increased experience. But mainly this was down to lack of resources and only being able to secure one vest for when we where shooting, however I added dialogue to the script where the superior agent asks his partner why he is not wearing his vest in order to avoid any confusion for the audience. The other agent wore a black suit showing that he was official and black is an excellent colour for urban camouflage, black also connotes death and provides a subtle foreshadow to the fate of his partner.

Tactical vest worn by superior agent (borrowed from a friend)

Over all I think that the costumes worked very well as they where realistic enough to make the film believable and not ruin the atmosphere and people where easily able to identify that they where some form of law enforcement by looking at their clothing.

Hip holster (bought from army surplus shop)

Hip holster worn by superior agent