Our main exercise - opening sequence to 'Watch Your Back' - uses forms and conventions of real media products as we have tried to make our opening sequence realistic and conforming to conventions of opening sequences to films of the same genre which we researched before we planned our own. Our film represents particular social groups in a similar way that our preliminary exercise did. Again, we used a male in a hooded jacket to form a stereotypical young 'chav' as the antagonist, chasing and killing the female victim, another stereotype for horror/thriller films. The male in the hooded top represents a common stereotype that youths in hoodies are violent and anti social, and the female as the victim in the scenario is very typical as women are typically portrayed as being weak and helpless in horror films as they usually are the victims. We used these stereotypes after researching the genre and discovering common codes and conventions of horror/thriller films. Pathetic fallacy is used in our piece to add to the mis-en-scene, representing the gloomy and sinister atmosphere with dark, drizzly weather. The non-diegetic music in our opening sequence represents modern youth culture with drum n bass music. This links to the dress code of the male character in the opening sequence. We also feature flashbacks in our opening sequence to help the audience understand more about the situation; why the male is chasing the girl down the subway at night. We have highlighted these flashbacks in grey so as not to confuse the audience and to make it clearer that they are in the past and are hazy, quick flashbacks of the male and female fighting and arguing.
A media institution such as Film4, EM Media or the UK film Council would be likely to finance and produce a film like ours as it is a British take on a horror/thriller like 'Harry Brown', 'Eden Lake' or 'The Hole'. Potential distributors for a film like 'Watch Your Back' would be a company like Pathe who have distributed British films like 'Adulthood', 'Severance' and 'The Hole' which include similar themes of youth crime and violence with an edgy genre of either horror or crime.
The audience for our media product would be young people aged 18-25 who would be mostly targeted by the film because they are the general target audience for horror films. The characters being young would allow the audience to relate to them, and the film's contents would not be suitable for people under the age of 18. The audience would be attracted and addressed by the contents of the film and British films of the same genre or style have proved to be very popular in recent years among 18-25 year olds, for example; 'Harry Brown', 'Kidulthood' and 'Adulthood'. We addressed our audience by researching the target audience of the films we researched before our planning and found the general demographic for horror/thriller films as older people are generally not attracted to the violence and gore in horror films.
I have learnt about camera work by filming our product, and I learnt how to use the camera as in the Preliminary exercise I didn't use the camera. This gave me a more hands-on approach to making our film which I enjoyed more as it allowed me to get more involved. The editing process was also interesting and I got an insight into that so I have learnt a bit about editing films with Windows Movie Maker and Adobe Premiere although I wasn't the main person in the group editing the film.
I feel like I have learnt a lot in the progression from the Preliminary Task to the Main Exercise as planning, preparing, filming and editing 'Watch Your Back' have been a lot harder and a lengthier process compared to 'The Meeting'. Our group has had to understand that preparation is vitally important whereas last time our preparation and organisation was weak. I feel like I have become better at communicating with the group and taking my role in the group more seriously and I have learnt more about organising and planning the film with storyboards, scripts and location recces being extremely important to the success of our final product. We have still had problems with the groups communication and on the day of filming there were a few problems an changes of plan which were overcome to produce hopefully a good final film. I think this time round I have tried to take a bit more control in our group than I did last time to organise things and make sure everything that is needed as proof of planning has been completed to make sure we get a good mark as a group. By doing that I think my confidence in my ability and the groups ability has increased and I have learnt more about how I like to approach working in situations like this.
The filming process itself was much more enjoyable and a better experience in itself to help me understand and learn more about producing a real media product. It was a very interesting and fulfilling experience when we finally finished the editing process as you look at the work you did to achieve our very own real media production - the first for everyone in my group. It was exciting filming as we had so much more freedom and independance in planning and creating our production and I think we did a good job as a group in the filming process, especially with the problems of the weather and one person in our group not making it to the filming. We tried to use common shot types like over the shoulder shots, establishing shots, close-ups, long-shots and pans in our production to make it look more professional and we also tried to apply to the rule of thirds in shots as well as the 180 degree rule. For example, the establishing shot sets the scene and there is a pan of the seafront, then moving left and slightly downwards to show the mouth of the subway. An over-the-shoulder shot was used when the hooded male is watching the girl enter the subway, and we used this to also keep the character mysterious and unseen for a bit longer until he comes fully into view in the subway. Lighting was a slight issue although the subway was lit, the shots outside were not very well lit but I think that they worked well by representing the dark and sinister theme of the film and the weather worked well as a pathetic fallacy, despite it being a quite a problem when filming I think that it paid off.
I have found the process of planning, filming and editing the main exercise much more challenging and far lengthier than doing the preliminary task and it has allowed me to understand more about producing a real media. It has opened my eyes to how much effort and organization producing a film takes and it has been a very interesting and enjoyable experience. Researching genres and films with the same genre to the film we were going to make was very important in helping us develop our ideas and plan our opening sequence. Understanding common codes and conventions of horror/thriller films, especially British takes like The Hole or Harry Brown, also helps strongly in the organisation of our opening sequence. Using common ideologies or stereotypes (dominant discourse) let the audience relate to what they are watching, for example us using a female as the victim in our film and a hooded male youth playing a violent character. The location itself also adds to the mis-en-scene of the film as the walls of the underground subway are covered in graffiti which represents youth crime and vandalism. The dress codes and the music are also key in adding to the mis-en-scene and support our genre with modern British stereotypes and youth culture.
Overall, I am happy with our final edit for our Main exercise, opening sequence to 'Watch Your Back', and it has been a very interesting and fulfilling experience that has helped me improve my skills for film making and editing. There are only a few things I would change if we could film again as one shot of the girl in the subway, there is quite a quick zoom to a closer shot which is a mild problem in the camera work, and at the end of the film there is a buzzing where the music cuts off but we couldn't seem to get rid of that noise. Other than that, i am extremely happy with our final result. My confidence in my ability has also boosted as I feel like I have learnt a lot about the process of creating a media product and I am happy with the group's outcome. I think we have reached our target audience for the film and have taken aspects of common ideologies and stereotypes from society and represented them using character dress codes, location, music and behaviour/actions. I think that the group has strongly improved their skills and abilities and it is obvious when considering the improvement from our preliminary task to the main exercise, which shows that the coursework has been extremely beneficial by improving our individual skills as well as our communication and team skills which are extremely important when working with others creating a media product.
Here is the final edit for the opening sequence to Watch Your Back, posted on Youtube:
Copyright Information for Music in Productions:
Any use of music in the films embedded on this blog complies with 'Fair Dealing' under the 1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act (UK), Sections 6(i) and 6(ii); Fair dealing is a term used to describe some limited activities that are allowed without infringing copyright.
Briefly these are as follows:
Section 6
i). Research and private study
Copying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or of a typographical arrangement of a published edition for the purpose of research or private study is allowed under the following conditions:· The copy is made for the purposes of research or private study.· The copy is made for non-commercial purposes.· The source of the material is acknowledged.· The person making the copy does not make copies of the material available for a number of people.
ii) Instruction or examination
Copying parts of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or a sound recording, film or broadcast for the purpose of instruction or examination is allowed under the following conditions:· The copying is done by the student or the person giving instruction.· The copying is not done via a reprographic process.· The source of the material is acknowledged.· The instruction is for a non-commercial purpose.
Copyright information for the music in our opening sequence to 'Watch Your Back'.
COMPANY: Music House
CD: Pirate Broadcast: Sounds from the Underground
CD CODE: MH15
TRACK NAME: Thugged Out
TRACK NUMBER: 6
SECONDS USED: 56.02 seconds
