Good research and planning.  Excellent film obeying all the necessary conventions.  Evaluation is good, but unfinished.

Planning 15/20 Production 50/60 Evaluation 5/20 70/100  A

Evaluation

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

My project clip shows a clear use of such media concepts as the 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot, and match on action. Each of these appear at least once in my clip, showing a good understanding of each. I have also shown understanding of the different types of shot, for example mid shot during convosation (as it shows both the character and the setting equilly, also aloowing view of his arm and top body gestures), and an establishing shot (to show the room and where people are in it) when character 1 enters the room. Also i have shown use of a camera movement, when i pan round as he comes down the stairs and goes towards the door. My use of keeping the camera in the same position whilst the character says all his lines rather then going from one shot to the next is an advanced method of the shot reverse shot, which allows the film to seem more professional as the camera appears in the same place each shot reverse shot.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents



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

As my project was merely a very short clip, there would be little institutions to distribute my work (other then examples of shot reverse shot, match on action etc). However, if from this clip i was to develop it into a comedy tv program about the two characters, then possible distributers of it could range from a variety of institutions, such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc. I think the most appropriate of these would probably be Channel 4, or there E4 channel, which often distributes comedy series, such as Skins or certain american sit-coms, such as Friends or My Name Is Earl.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
How did you attract/address your audience?

The audience for this particualr clip obveously is first and foremost Mr. Winn, who will be marking the project, and this effected my project as i had to follow certain rules, and had to show knowledge of certain aspects of filming (for example the 180 degree rule). However my clip directly is based around the genre of orf comedy, which therefore as mentioned in the target audince, has an audinece of people who wish to be amused by some fasion of comedy, for example slap-stick or whitty dialogue. My clip shows elements of comedy within the dialogue, and also the idea that the person gets completely distracted by th television at the end of the clip, making his entire arguement and search for a tie pointless.


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

Finished Clip

Here is the final clip of my project:

Making

I started making my small clip by finding two people to play the characters in my story. After doing this i had to find a location for the clip. I chose my house as the setting for my clip, as it supplies all the camera angles and shots that i need.

I then got access to a video camera and tripod to hold it steady, and began to film. I filmed each clip as shown in my story board, redoing clips which weren't completely successful. When filming the convosation part of the clip, and applying the shot reverse shot, rather than filming a shot of one talking, then moving to the other, i kept the camera in the same position, and filmed all the clips of all the lines of that character without moving the camera, and then did this with the other character. Thsi was so that the camera appeared in the same place during shot reverse shot, giving my a more professional feel.

After filming i then imported the clips on to I Movie, so that i can edit the footage i had taken.

I imported the movie via the camera, with this button . This allowed me to import all of my clips onto the program, seperated so i could choose which one to use, like so:

After this i looked though the clips and deleted the clips which were incorrect or the ones which i didnt want to use. I would then drag the clips i would want to use, in order into the timeline.

Once all the clips werte in order, i then cut them so that they go together well using the split tool.

I then decided to add a sound effect to my clip with I Movie, which was "Squeeky door". This is to emphasis the door opening, making it obveous for the audience.

Next I edited the volumes of the clips, as i found that in certain areas, some bits were louder then others, so to balance this out i adjusted the volume of the clip.

Then, for the final clip i added a transition, to pass across the concept that time had past between the last clip. I did this with fade out and fade in, which we as an audience relate with time passing.

To finalize the clip, i then added a title sequence to the beginning and end of the project. This is so the name of the clip can give an inital idea for the audience of what the clip is about, and also so that they know when it ends.

Planning

Here is my story board plan for my clip :


As you can see, my plan shows examples of 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot, and match on action, all things that have to been in the film project. Also i have a pan shot, to show a more advanced understanding of filming. I will now film my clip and then edit it.

Target Audience

A variety of areas must be considered when choosing a target audience, the most important being the genre of the clip. We know that there is a variety of genres, for example Horror or Sci-Fi, however genre's can be mixed, such as Romance and Comedy (Rom-Com).

Each genre has a specific target audience it is aimed at, for example Action is aimed at those who enjoy large exsplosions and car chases, fights and adreniline pumping scenes, aimed to thrill an audience with a wide age range, from 15 - 40.

There is no completely specific audience for any one genre, as people's moods can manipulate which genre of movie they wish to see. For example a person who normally most enjoys watching comedys might one night be in the mood for a thriller, and a lot of people dont have a specific genre which they stick to, and enjoy watching a variety of movies equilly. However what is important for my project is that the genre which i choose shows such elements as ideaology, and style of filming to appeal to the target audience of that genre.

The genre i have chosen for my project is comedy. The target audience for my scene will be people who wish to be amused by comical dialogue or actions. This effects the way that i am going to be filming my project, for example the editing and the dialogue.

As it is a comedy, to satisfy my target audience i am going to need to fullfill the expectations of a comedy. The clip is going to bea short sketch. Location is not particularly important, as the comedy will e supplied more from the dialogue or actions of the actors. Lighting should be normal, not to dark, otherwise suggesting a horror, but not too bright, so it is not visible. The genre of comedy doesnt have many conventional props or settings, as it is more to do with the style of acting that attracts to the audience. To find out what type of comedy i am going to be doing, i shall ask people, create a tally, then display this in graph form.

Codes and Conventions

To understand the project at hand better, i'm going to examine 3 scenes simular to the brief of this project and look for codes and conventions in each of them.

Example 1

The first example i have chosen to research is a scene from the movie "Heat", where Robert Di Niro is having a convosation with Al Pacino in a diner. To view this clip on youtube.com, CLICK HERE. In this scene there is no opening of a door, however it is a very good example of a standard conversation between two people in a film. Here they are sitting down having a convosation, and the camera shots give great examples of the 180 degree rule. Below is a diagram of the 180 degree rule:

As you can se in the scene, Al Pacino is always on the right, and Di Niro is always on the left. This is so not to phycologically confuse the audience. Another very clever camera technique used in this clip, is as the convosation becomes more intense, the camera slow progresses into a closer and colse shot, until what starts as a mid shot of both characters, eventully progresses into a close up shot of the two characters faces. This gives the audience the impression that things are getting more and more intense in the scene, something i may want to consider for my scene.

Example 2

My second example is a scene from the movie "The Matrix". To see this scene, CLICK HERE. In this scene, Neo is taken to meet Morphious. This scene is a good example as it begins with Neo and Trinity opening double doors in a full shot, to exstablish both the characters and the set. There is then an example of match on action, as Morphious begins turning to face Neo, the camera cuts to a close up of his face, and he continues turning. As match on action is an element that has to be applied to my clip, this is very helpful, as it has shown me a different style in which it can be applied. The convosation between the two characters is again in mid shot, and shows another good example of the 180 degree rule, with Neo on the right and Morphious on the left. Also the camera occasionally does a close up of Neo's face to capture the emotion of his character. There is also a shot of both characters sitting down from the side, to establish there positions. Lighting is very dim in this scene, to capture and portray the tension of the situation. There is no sounds so that the dialogue is clearly heard.

Example 3

My final example comes from a scene in the movie "Pulp Fiction". CLICK HERE to view this scene. In this scene Samuel L. Jackson is negotiating with a robber of a resturant. I chose to study this scene, as it uses a range of different shots, and although a fair ammount of action is happening with movement etc, the scene still sticks to the 180 degree rule, with Samuel L. Jackson on the right, and the robber on the left. The scene uses full shots and long shots at certain points to show the audience where the scene is taking place. it also uses 3's and 4's shots to establish all the main characters in the scene. This might be relevant if i chose to have more then 2 characters in my scene. Below is an example of a 4 shot it uses.

As you can see here, this shot is layout out carefully to establish where the 4 characters are in the scene, in a diamond type shape so that all are visible.