EVALUATION - ZAHEDUL KHAN

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product uses camera, editing, mise en scene and sound to create a thrilling title sequence. Transporter 2 is a real thriller directed by Louis Letterier and uses the same conventions to create a thrilling opening sequence. Both films use these conventions but use them in different ways. I have opted to compare Transporter 2 against my own film to show how they both use the media conventions. I have chosen a film which I find to have a powerful opening of which I have chosen to go with the opening sequence of Transporter 2. I haven’t talked about this movie on my blog before where I had talked about Collateral, Arlington Road and 300 all of which are thrillers. The reason for a different film other than the ones I researched earlier is because I wanted to get a more of an understanding into how different opening sequences are made. The opening sequence of 300 is animated whereas Transporter 2 had a slight thrilling start to its opening.

Our film used various editing techniques to create the thrilling experience. It had various match cuts, fast cuts, jump cuts and fast movement editing. This helped to keep tension running and to keep up the pace of the film. The lengths of most shots were quite short to help keep up pace. They ranged from two to 10 second shots. This helped to keep the atmosphere energetic. The film is targeted towards young modern people so keeping it energetic would be in favour of these people as this is what they usually like. Our film used continuity editing so a younger audience are able to follow easily on the storyline. This helped to make it easier to understand what it happening in the opening without the use of confusing audiences using flashbacks. Our film used match cut techniques which we learned from our Preliminary exercise. One scene which the match cut was used was when one character was walking up the stairs. We filmed him walking up the stairs in front of him and then filmed him from behind walking up the stairs. We also filmed him reaching the top of the stairs from both in front of him and behind him. We edited all those scenes to create the match cut.

Transporter 2 has its opening sequence in a moderately set speed. It panoramically moves around the car park at a regularly gentle speed. It isn’t slow neither is it really fast. The effect this gives is that the audience are warmed to the speed of how the film is moving and as the camera moves across the audience can relate to this motion. The paces of both films are different. This sequence is slower compared to the pace in our film. The opening sequence does use match cutting. One scene where this type of edit is used is in the scene when a woman comes knocking on the characters car window. You are shown her knocking and then shown from inside the car the man looking at the window and at her. You can compare this type of match cut to what we use in our film. Both match cuts can be said to be similar.

In our film we used many camera shots. We used a range of close-ups, medium and long shots, tracking and panning shots. Shot one is a medium shot from one angle to show the character coming up the stairs from the tube station to the platform. In shot two we used a panning shot going from bottom to top to show the character’s body. This gives the audience a good view of the character. In shot three we used a long shot to film the character crossing the road from the tube station. We filmed from the other side of the road and had him walk up the road towards the camera. Shot four is a long shot from an angle showing two characters walking past each other. Shot five is a medium shot showing the character following the other character. Shot six is a close up of the USB which is in the envelope. The shot only shows his hand with the item in his hand. Shot seven is an extreme wide shot using tracking to show the location the character is in. This effect gave the audience an understanding of where the character is. In shot eight we used a low angle medium shot of the character coming down the stairs to meet the other character. The last shot shows the title of the film ‘Tainted Evidence’. Visually we used many shots with different angles and put them round together.

In Transporter 2 the first shot shows Production Company of the film. Shot two shows a long shot of the car park and the car with the credit of the actor ‘Jason Stratham’. In shot three they use a medium shot of the car from behind and have the credit ‘Kate Nauta’. Shot four consists of a close up shot of the car from the back and has an actor’s name. In shot five we are shown the title of the film and have the effect of being plastered on the car. Shot six has a close up shot of the character in the car. Shot seven is a close up shot of the character using the car. In shot eight we have a medium shot showing the character using his car. You are only shown the top half of his body. In shot nine we have an extreme close up of the characters face. This shows a close eye on his emotion. You can see many similarities and differences between both sets of shots from both films. Both films use different number of shots in similar styles. They use long shots to show the location of where the opening sequence is and they both use medium shots to show the characters at a closer view.

In our film the sound is very upbeat with a lot of drums and bass. The music changes regularly and interacts with the film itself. The music starts in a mellow mood and soon becomes up beat. It then becomes mellow and then rises to being upbeat again. It ends with a mellow state. This affects the audience highly into griping them at their seats as the music pumps to a faster beat. Furthermore the calm mellow sounds at the beginning help to introduce and set the audience for the opening of the film. There are particular points when the music switches.

The image here shows when the drums first start. The scene shows the man starting to walk up to the other character. This particular scene interacts with the music to show a sign of something bad about to happen. Another scene where the music also interacts with the film is the scene when the man smacks an envelope at the characters chest as shown in this picture. As he smacks the envelope on the characters chest the music cuts with a slight smack. This has an effect on giving the audience a jump in there seat. The music is mostly non-diegetic. There are some parts which are overlaid with the non-diegetic music such as in the dialogue. The dialogue was mostly dubbed over after during the editing. The noises and effects are all non-diegetic.

In Transporter 2 the music is kept the same. The music is very daunting and is the type which an audience would recognise that something is about to happen. Various sounds are added as the opening sequence commences. When it reaches the scene after showing a close up of the car the music begins to rise. When you are shown the character using his car the music is faded out and dialogue is then used. The music is all non-diegetic. The effects and noises are also non-diegetic as they could have been added in after. Both opening sequences use non-diegetic music mostly with a little set of diegetic noises. The non-diegetic music effects how the opening sequence is set towards the audience. Both films use different types of music. Transporter 2 is more calm and mellow whereas in our film it has them elements mixed with a club trance beat. The music sets the mood for the audience.

The credits of both films are placed in the opening sequence. In our film it starts with the name of the Studio which is ‘CandiStudios’. The next credit it the Production Company which is ‘Crescent Moon Productions’. This title is placed right at the start when the film fades in to show the character walking up the stairs. The next title shows who the film is made by and we used the name ‘Sam Marshall’. This credit is placed when we use a panning shot of the character. When the character starts to cross the road the next title is shown showing who it was written by. We used the name ‘Mark. J Samuels’. When there is a tracking shot of both characters in the same scene the next credit is introduced. The credit ‘Produced by Keith Connelly and Helen Reid’ is shown in the left bottom corner. In the right bottom corner after a few seconds another credit is shown with the title ‘Directed of photography Lucy Griffiths’. The next credit comes in line with the character about to open the envelope. The title ‘Edited by Nathan Moore’ is shown in the centre at the bottom. As the character starts to walk another credit is brought up in the right bottom corner. The title says ‘Casting by Kate Courtney Lake’. In the bottom centre of the screen after a couple of seconds the credit ‘Production design by Harry Ford’ is given. When the character starts to walk faster the credit is shown in the right bottom corner saying ‘Music by James Elliot’. An actor’s ‘Jack Earnest’ is shown soon after in the bottom right corner. Followed by another actor ‘Mehmet Tarhan’ is shown on the opposite side. Another actor’s name is shown in the same corner with the title ‘Mike Dillion’. The sequence ends with the title of the film put up in the middle of the screen in big. The font of the credits was very small and bold in a white plain colour. The credits were placed either in the left bottom, right bottom or bottom centre of the screen. This was very good because it didn’t interrupt with whatever was happening in the scenes. The name of the film was placed in bigger writing to suggest that this is the title of the film and to make it clear. It also stood out from all of the other titles. We had gone for a simple plain look for the film on the credits. Our main emphasis was the scenes and we didn’t want the credits to be the main part of the focus.

In Transporter 2 there are less credits used than in our film. It starts with the distribution Company with the title ‘Twentieth Century Fox’ in a black background in the middle. The next titles are also on a black background saying the titles ‘A europacorp production’ and ‘in corporation with TF1 films production’. ‘In association with Current Entertainment’ is then shown as the next title. The camera pans to a scene of the car park and the actor’s name ‘Jason Stratham’ is shown on top in big. The camera pans across another pillar to show the title of another actor ‘Alessandro Gassman’. The title ‘Amber Valletta’ fades over the previous title. After the camera pans pass another pillar the title ‘And Kate Nauta’ is shown. When this title fades the next title is shown straight away saying ‘with Matthew Modine’ followed by the title ‘Jason Flemyng’. The title of the film ‘Transporter 2’ is then shown in the middle of the screen in a big font placed over the car. There are no more titles shown after this. The titles used in this film are plain white and are written in bold capital letters. They are mainly placed on the top left corner. The title of the film is placed ova the car and gives the effect of it being plastered onto the car itself. The fonts from both films have similarities. They are both plain and simple with a white colour being used. The fonts are also quite similar. The size however the main difference with the titles is that in Transporter 2 it is bigger. There are fewer titles used in Transporter 2 than our film. Our film mentions the producer, director, casting design and a few others whereas Transporter 2 titles do not.

The mise-en-scene includes the location, props, lighting and costumes. In our film we filmed at Barbican Tube station and around the Barbican area. We chose this area to go a place which was in the city but was quiet. We filmed around the area near the tube station in a quiet area near a block of flats. This benefited us into giving a peaceful atmosphere for us film in. The tube station was used for our opening scene to show the character entering the scene. The costumes used for the characters were smartly dressed. One character was dressed in a tie, shirt, jumper, jeans and trainers to go for a casual smart look. The other character was fully dressed smart with black shirt, black coat, black trouser, black tie and black shoes. The black colour shows his authority and that he is evil. As he is the one giving instructions over the phone he is shown to be more superior. The manner of being dressed smart interacts with them being in the city and they blend in with the people around them who may also be dressed smart. The charter who is fully dressed smart can be disguised as undercover as no one would really be able to identify him to being doing something bad. Other props we used were an envelope, a USB and phones. These items are mainly found in thriller genre films. We used the USB as an item which needs to be delivered and the envelope as the packaging. The lighting for our film was quite bright at first when in the scenes outside the tube station. It becomes darker during the scenes inside the tunnel and then becomes bright again when the character is outside. In the final scenes between the two characters the lighting is quite dark as one side is bright light whereas the other side is dark. The lighting blended in to give a warm mixed dark effect.

In Transporter 2 the location is set in an abandoned car park. There is only one car which belongs to the character. The car park seems very quiet and peaceful. It looks very dirty like a normal car park would. The character is dressed very smartly in a black suit, white shirt, black tie and black trousers. This dress of manner shows he has business to do. Props used are his car which a Black Audi showing that it is a very expensive car and electronic gadgets in his car are also used as props and you are given a glimpse of him using it. The lighting is dark as they are deep inside a car park. There are similarities between both sequences on the mise-en-scene. The characters are all dressed in a smart manner and all have some sort of business. The lighting is different as in our film is it natural bright light from outside. In Transporter 2 the lighting is inside from a car park and is dark with less light. The props are different as in our film there isn’t a car used or high technology gadgets as used in Transporter 2.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product has two main characters both are dressed in a similar way but represent different people. They are both male and are moderately dressed smart with one character being dressed more smartly then the other by wearing a tie, shirt, trousers and shoes. The age of both characters is young males but they behave in opposite manners.

The film Collateral inspired us on how the characters in our film should be dressed. The picture above shows the two characters in the opening of Collateral. On the left you can see the character dressed in a grey suit with white shirt, black glasses and grey tie. The character on the right is dressed in black suit and white shirt. What can be interpreted is that the character on the left is hiding his identity from other people and this is why he may be wearing glasses. The character on the right is actually the deliverer of an item to the other character so he is more secretive and his is dressed to blend in with everyday normal day life like a business man.

The characters in our film represent similarities and differences to these characters. One character dresses in full black which represents he is part of darkness or for the thriller film it can be interpreted as him being the bad guy or dubbed the villain. The other character is dressed in white and blue suggesting an opposition to the other character as to him being good. He doesn’t wear a suit which puts him in less authority then the villain and puts the villain in full control on screen.

The character dressed in black in our film and the character dressed in a black suit in Collateral share some similarities such as acting calmly saying very few little words. They are dressed in a smart manner wearing black suggesting a sense of authority. Our film represents young people as young people are acting in the film. It would represent young males of a teenage age. Collateral represents a much older representation of males between the ages of 20-35 and American and British.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media and why?

Our movie is a low budget film so it won’t be able to attract big distribution companies such as Universal and Paramount. However there are low budget distribution companies around the United Kingdom which distribute films like ours to a niche audience around the country. An example of a film that made it to box office through low budget distribution is Shaun of the Dead. Our film could either be distributed through smaller distribution companies such as Artificial Eye. To get our film to be distributed we would have to attract their attention and this can be done in many ways. The plan I would take to have this film distributed is by uploading the movie onto a popular video sharing website such as YouTube. Promote the movie across the internet for a few months to create a buzz on the internet. The more views you receive for a film the bigger the chance there is of having it noticed by a film distributor. Hopefully a film distributor should get hands of seeing the movie and get in contact with me. There is also the other approach where I go and get in contact with various distributors and persuade to distribute my film. Getting hold of a distributor takes time but when you do have one you will be able to promote your film more globally with more promotion and backing from more people.

One main way to attract different ages would be uploading the movie onto YouTube. This would garner many different audiences of different ages. Making a YouTube account and uploading the movie through this would also help to communicate with various viewers and bring back feedback on improvements and other things such as where to go next with the movie. The website would join other movies created by students and independent film makers all doing the same thing which is promoting their movie for distribution. Publicising my movie is explained in question 4 and one way would be through YouTube. However there are other websites which could broaden to my targeted niche audience by distributing the movie over websites aimed at students. One website is ukstudentfilms.co.uk. This website would be particularly aimed at students of my age and the movie would join other movies of similar style of which all are independent. This can make the audience more aware then on YouTube as YouTube broadcasts to the whole world whereas this website is only targeted at a niche audience.

Question 4: How will you attract/address your audience?

The internet is a big help in boosting the chances of finding a distribution company as there are many websites which could enable us to broadcast our film across the country. Websites such as YouTube and Google Video would help bring in viewers and give back feedback from audiences off all ages. Social networking sites add to broadcasting our movie because you can simultaneously upload and have people on different websites like Facebook and Bebo view your movie and give potential feedback. As more people watch it the more views, hits and media attention you would gain. From YouTube it can be shown on many different websites and then at one point can be put into a film distributors hands into gaining a distributor.

Publicising over television would gain viewers such as people who do not search via the internet. Adverts could be places around crucial viewing slots where there would be a big mass of viewers watching a program such as football or drama show. Newspapers will encourage people to create a buzz as most people of an older age read newspapers and would the increase of more newspapers being handed out around the capital of London, there is a big chance of having our film attracted to viewers. Advertising around schools and colleges would help promote the film throughout the city and to a younger audience as they would be in close contact more than they would on television or on the internet. Billboards, posters and fliers would be a sufficient idea as it is could be a cheaper method of advertising and gaining attention across the city. Printing of fliers and posters don’t cost much and can be gathered around shops, buildings and cinemas all of which many people would go to.

Question 5: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media product would be teenagers and young adults. The main targeted audience would males as they are more interested in action thriller. The age boundary would be 16-25. College and University students are a more precise aspect of this age group.

A perfect person part of this audience would be a male between the age of 16-25, who loves action and violence, goes either college or university, is a outspoken person.

Question 6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

For the past couple of months we have been introduced to various pieces of technology of which we have used to create our film. We were introduced to various software programmes which included Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack and Livetype. We were shown how to use Macintosh’s and how to access and post blogs on the website www.blogger.com. We were however first introduced to the cameras and other equipment such as the SD card, hard drive and tripod.

To film our movie we used the camera to which we learned many things. We learned how to film accurately, how to use focussing, how to turn on and off the camera and how to use the microphone. These skills all came to good use to create a cinematic thriller. We were also advised about health and safety of the camera. During our intro to the camera we learnt about the different buttons on the camera itself and its uses. We learnt how to record, pause and replay a quick clip of the recorded clip. This helped us record the ideal scene to use for editing before we moved on to filming other scenes.

Other equipment we learnt how to use were how to put in and take out a SD card, how to open and dismantle a tripod and how to put in and take out a battery. At first these things were quite hard to follow with but after many tries we had gotten used to the idea of how everything worked.

The hard drives were used to store our data and footage. We were able to transfer footage we had recorded off the camera through the SD card onto the Mac and store on the hard drive for safe storage. We learnt how we should connect and disconnect the hard drives safely without the issue of losing important work as ejecting inappropriately would have led to this issue.

The website www.blogger.com was used to post our blogs for this coursework. We were shown how to use the website and how to post blogs. Over the months we were able to effectively update our blogs with more and more posts about our film. We learnt the use of adding videos, links and images to our posts to make our posts more creative and visual.

We used three main software programs to edit our film. Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack and Livetype. Final Cut pro was used to edit our film. We learnt how to drag clips into a library to store, how to cut clips, how to rearrange clips, the use of the timeline and how to add effects to them. We learnt many different skills randomly through trial and improvement over the months by using the software more and more. This helped us gain more understanding to help our group create a professional type thriller.

Soundtrack was used to create our music for the film. We learnt how to drag sound clips from the library into the timeline and how cut and paste to create a thrilling beat. Playing around with the software helped to create different sounds using the effects given. Through trial and improvement we were able to use different elements which we weren’t shown in our film. We opted to create an upbeat sound so we had to focus on the drums, bass and futuristic effects. We also learnt how to save our final sound sequence and place into our edited project in Final Cut Pro.

We used Livetype to create the credits. We were shown how to make a basic credit learning how to use the text manipulation and the effects. Colours were also a big factor and for this we mainly fiddled around changing colours to see which would suit best. We learnt how to export the final credits to Final Cut Pro to place over our edited film.

We have recorded short videos to show the software and equipment and how they are used. These videos can be found on the post Question 6: Software Videos and Question 6: Camera Video.

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

From the preliminary task we did earlier in the year, i believe we have progressed a lot and have taken more awareness into camera shots and angles for our final film. The shots above show a great difference. The first shot is from the preliminary exercise whereas the second one is from our final film. The main difference is what is actually shown on screen. The first shot has some of the character’s head cut off whereas the second shot doesn’t as the whole face is shown clearly with the camera cutting off just at the tip of the characters hair. The correct way of filming is shown in the second shot. We had addressed this problem as one of our big concerns and we took extra care when filming footage for our final film.

These two shots are meant to show a close up of an item being given. The first picture is from our preliminary exercise and we didn’t use a close up. The second picture is from our final movie and is a close up the USB being given. We learned that we had to film a lot of close ups even if we weren’t going to use them all. In our final film we had used 4 close ups for different things whereas in the preliminary we had only used one.

Here are two pictures of tracking shots that were used for our preliminary and for our final movie. In the top picture you can see the angle of the way it has been filmed is bent and not straight. The second picture shows a normal tracking shot which went very effectively. We had trouble with the tripod during our preliminary exercise and we had addressed this issue along with the others for our final movie. We learnt how to use the tripod and how to set it up properly. We also had checked that what we were filming were in a straight angle.

You can refer to the post 'Question 7: Preliminary & Final Film' to see our preliminary and final films.

Question 8: Audience feedback and comment

Using www.wordle.net we created this image of a list of words which describe the feedback we received for our film. Most people had said it was aimed at a young audience and also had said it was action packed and upbeat.

Another way of feedback was a question and answer.
1) Choose one aspect of film language that has been used especially well in this movie an say why?
The variety of camera shots used e.g. close ups and the longs shots were effective as it lets the audience see the surroundings of where they are also the close ups show their facial expression letting us know how the character is feeling.

2) Choose one aspect of film language that could be improved in this movie and explain how?
The dialogue spoken between the males should have been louder

3) Can you recognise any stereotypes in this movie?
The males in the film had a bigger role to play as they were seen more throughout the film also the only the males had dialogue

4) Can you think of any intertextual references with any other movies when you watch this movie? Explain.
In the film collateral with the scene with the bag swap

5) Who do you think would be the audience for this movie?
The audience for this film will be between the ages of 17-23 as it is quites action packed

6) Write down 5 words which would describe this film
Action –packed, thrilling , interesting , suspenseful and

7) What sort of institution do you think would release this movie?
Youtube – as a trailer