Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Directors comments
This is the directors commentary talking through why we used certain camera shots and editing skills.
The Cast
Cast is important especially if you are trying to get a message across in you're film and this needs to be shown thorough expression and emotion which will be portreyed by the actor/actress.
Derrick Afriyie was our main and only member of cast as the film is based around him. the reason we chose to put him as the star is because we each thought we would play a crtain role and stick to our strongest abilities, and seen as Derrick is a strong actor and likes to be the centre of attention we based the film around him.
Three Main Location Shots
These are our three main locations and we had to think very carefully about all three of these as when we went to look at the locations we ecountered a few problems. The first location was set in an office and because one of our parents is a teacher we did not have a problem with accessing this location as the times were very negociable but the problem occured with the second and third location. The second location was set in town and this location was difficult as it was hard to find a quiet spot to film in where we were not going to be asked to moved by people passing by and shop owners but eventually we managed to find a spot near the river and some back streets which helped a great deal as not may cars came donw the street and the stairs leading up to the river were pratically empty. The third location was the hardest as it was on a bike path located in Burnage and this bike path is very popular so people were riding bikes up and down all the time and also walking their dogs and jogging. we also struggled to get good lighting on the bike path as the bridge was in an akward place and so the sun reflected too strongly on to the camera. However, with good co-operation and preperation we managed to time out sunset accurately and managed to film when people were not there as much.
Interview
Here we interviewed some pupils from loreto college and asked them there oppinions on the video and this was so that we could gain honest opinions on our work and see if we have targeted our target audience and been successful in doing so. we also did this because we wanted to see if we had given off the right vibe that we wanted to. we also made sure that we included someone that had not watched the video before and so we could get an honest opinion from someone that did not know us at all. Over all we feel that we was successful, as we gain posative feed back and generally everyone liked the video and all round we gained good comments . This also helped us see who else our target audience was, as when we were trying to pinpoint and choose our target audeince we were not too sure if it would definitly appeal to those perticular people as we tried to not be stereotypical and individual and we were not too sure if we would be able to pull this off but the outcome was good as many students found it highly interesting.
StoryBoard
Final Location: this is the final location which was on the bikepath underneath the bridge which is the final scene when Derrick is running.
Fourth Location: this is the fourth location where Derrick is walking up the stairs onto the bridge.
Third Location: This is the third location where Derrick is walking thourhg the back streets of town leading up the stairs.
Second Location: this is the second location where Derrick is walking through the coridoor near the office
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470009512951738754" /> First Location: This is the first location where the camera pans across the empty office.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Evaluation
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When we were initially planning our media project we looked for influential films that we could potentially See in order to create out piece. During this period of timing where we were researching into films we started to pick up that films in the UK to particularly well when they are based around realistic issues of today. Due to the budget of a film that is made in the UK it is hard to provide money for things such as special effects and so as a result we based our film around the typical society that a black youth would live in. this is because there are many negative connotations surrounding black youths and even just youths of today. Young males are stereotyped as being aggressive, rule-breaking and rebellious. They are acknowledged mostly by the tracksuit bottoms and hoodies that they wear and for causing trouble within the neighbourhoods such as seen in Adulthood. We actually went against the “typical” image of a black youth by putting our main character in a suit which is unusual to see as many young males struggle to find jobs and so this added towards our piece of footage being more creative and unique. what we have focused on doing is breaking the stereotype of the typical black male. whilst watching him in the film most people will notice that he is of a higher intelligence and because of the way he is walking around calmly we assume that he is a person that has broken the stereotypical view of a black male and is instead getting further in life than most people of that ethnicity and working class background do. when he begins to run around manically we are trying to portray that he has something wrong with him either mentally or some one or something is physically chasing him. this once again breaks away from the typical image of a black man as he is not involved in drugs or gangs and this is what is expected seen as our influential films were films such as adulthood and kidulthood. we believe that by breaking away from the stereotypical image of the young black man we are also encouraging other people to do well as when other black youths watch this clip they will feel as if Derrick is setting a good example and is leading them in the right direction. despite the fact that he finds himself in a bad situation, people are still judged by their physical appearance and for this reason we have succeeded in breaking the stereotype and surrounding him with positive connotations rather than negative connotations which is what most youths experience nowadays. His physical appearance is what is seen first and so, for this reason he seen as having a higher intelligence.
What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?
after having a look on IMDb we have concluded that distributors such as Pathe distribution would distribute our film as they distributed Adulthood and this is a significant film that contributed towards our work. we think that as Pathe Distribution is a UK distributor it is also more realistic as our film would be strictly a UK film as it only appeals to the British public and this is once again the same as Adulthood. Our film is a drama and this is because the storyline falls within the genre of a drama. we used four company names. Formidable pictures, Teardrop studio's, Platinum Productions and VDHS film. the reason we used these four company names because of the positive connotations that surrounded them. for example the word formidable has positive connotations and potrays the work to be at a high standard and this is something that we wanted to come through in our work. we wanted our work to relate back to our company names as the whole piece of work has one whole feeling to it and so we did not want something that had no relation to what was going on in the film. as our film is aimed at a british audience we think that Pathe distribution would be an appropriate distributor as they are UK distributors. We used the company name Teardrop Studio's because we think that this relates once again back to what i shappening in the film. even though Derrick is potrayerd to have his life under control we gain this sense of sadness and this comes through the slow motion bits, the distressed look on his face and also the slow piano music towards the ending of the film.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our project is aimed at a niche audience as our film would not appeal to everyone in terms of the storyline due to the fact that elderly people may not believe that this is their type of film as it is aimed at youths. Also people that are possibly of a higher class may not like the film as this sort of storyline normally occurs within working class areas and within a working class society. Therefore our target audience is aimed at 15year old's to 24year old's of more of a working class who can associate themselves and relate to the storyline. The story is about Derrick and how he is trying not to be a typical teenager but finds himself caught up in a situation that he is struggling to get out of and this is due to his working class background and poor society that he lives in. for this reason we believe that our film would only appeal to a niche audience as we want people to be able to relate to the film especially teenagers and so many adults would not be likely to watch this film. We also think that because of the ethnicity of our main character that also narrows down the audience as there is a lot of prejudice and stereotyping of the black male and because of this only certain would be able to relate to the film as we believe many black youths will be able to relate to the situation but not many adults. we also believe that black youths will be able to not only relate but also look up to this film as our main character comes from a working class background and an African background. Due to this in terms of living conditions he is at the same level as people that will be watching the film but the difference is that he will be looked upon as somebody that has broken the stereotype and succeeded. The mise en scene is very important to us in terms of the clothes because it is a natural instinct to categorise and judge people by their clothes, and in terms of our character he has broken the stereotype. when we thought this through we also considered the fact that certain people may feel as if we did not actually break the stereotype but fantasied as they may feel that a black working class youth would not be able to achieve what our character has and also look the way he does because he is wearing a suit as many people believe that a white man would normally play this role and have this steady lifestyle and higher intellectual look to them but nevertheless we stuck to our idea and concentrated breaking the stereotype as we believe it would encourage more people than let down.
How did you attract/ address your audience?
In order to attract our audience we have chosen a soundtrack that will fit with the events that are taking place. We also played the piano over the soundtrack so that we could make it more original. We have used a range of locations such as the bike-path, the river, and an office. By using these three very different locations, the audience will be curious as to why the locations are so different and what the significance of each one is. We had an advantage in our group as our main character looks older than he is, and so by putting him in a suit we managed to avoid the typical look of a teenager in a tracksuit. We used establishing shots to show a few of the locations before we went into the action of what is happening at the location. We also used close ups so that the audience could see the emotion in the main characters face and to make the audience feel what the main character is feeling. Whilst editing we used mostly fade-in’s and fade-out’s to represent time passing and the event changing. All these aspects contributed towards targeting our target audience as before making these decisions we looked at the films we were influenced by and tried to use similar editing and camera skills hence the close ups and constant fade outs.
At the start of the film we used a heartbeat sound and then the music came in, we used this same sound at the end and stopped the music slightly early as we wanted the audience to focus on our main characters face and to gain the constant fast pace throughout the film and so this heartbeat conveyed the feeling of time speeding up as the heartbeat got faster. In terms of ethnicity and class we have targeted our audience by using a black male as the main person rather than using a white male or an Asian male. by doing this we are targeting our niche audience and are focusing on real life issues instead of make believe even though our film is a dream like film which could relate to the film Memento.The reason we used this film is because our film had a dream like film to it because you cannot tell weather the events are actually happening or if they are just parts of his memory or parts of his imagination. This is left up to the audience to decide as the film goes on as they will get to see what type of person Derrick is and look at life from his perception and view. Memento and Adulthood together were two very influential films as they both made up the mystery behind our film. we did not want to completely pull away from the stereotypical view of a black youth and this is why Derrick finds himself in an awkward situation but we did not want to make him look like a typical black man and this is why we dressed him the way we did and used the smart locations that we did. we picked locations that also fitted his character which is smart and intelligent hence why we used the office and the stairs where town looks very clean and isolated. the location that clashes with his character is the last location which is the bike path and we have done this to show that something is not right and this either is really happening or is part of his imagination.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We have learnt how to use the camera correctly but at the start we were already familiar with how to use the camera. We had to learn how to use the editing software as we had never used Final Cut Pro before but we went on to YouTube and managed to find many tutorials on how to do each thing and so eventually we had confidence in how to use it and managed to edit the work smoothly and much better than how we
Edited it in the preliminary task. The tutorials contributes towards this a great deal as it taught us how to do absolutely everything and we also found tutorials on how to use garage band. even though members of our group knew were already familiar with music soft wares, garage band was different as it was not as straight forward, and so we went onto YouTube again and found another tutorial based around garage band. When we first started using the camera we knew how to use it but did not the different skills needed such as filming more than we needed in order to edit smoothly. You can see how much better our film is from our preliminary task and this is due to our practicing and the help of YouTube as it showed us most things we need to know about filming and editing and using Soft wares. we also had to keep the 180 degree rule in mind as we broke the rule in the preliminary task and did not fully understand how we broke it and so before we started filming we did a test film in which we ended up breaking the 180 degree unintentionally and were then able to see and understand how the rule was broken and how not to do it. this helped us whilst filming as it actually made things easier because it made the story make more sense and did not confuse the person watching it.
Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?
Our work is much more successful that the preliminary task as when we first did the preliminary task we did not understand the different techniques of filming for example the 180 degree rule and also other things like what position to put the camera in when filming. In the preliminary task we made the mistake of filming someone coming through the doors and you could see the camera in the reflection in our man task we used a mirror as well but because we had already learnt from the preliminary task, we did not make the mistake of sowing the reflection but instead filmed it accurately. in the preliminary task, many of the times the camera was slanted but because it looked straight at the time, we couldn't tell until afterwards that it was slanted. during our main film we were careful to not film slanted and this saved us from having to re-film lots of bits. we also learnt about filming more than we need so that the editing can be done smoothly and not look jumpy in places. this is something we learnt whilst doing the preliminary task and we then applied this rule to our main project. this was also made easier as we learnt the different techniques needed to film and edit. we used YouTube to learn how to use Final Cut Pro as we had no experience in using it and eventually we grasped the hang of it and were able to use it properly without struggling as much. we also learnt how important mise en scene is in terms of sound as in the preliminary task our sound did not match our footage but in this task we watched many pieces of films where the choreography is well filmed and the sound fits in with the actions. This added to the suspense in our film and added to the drama of it as it made our film feel more alive and made the audience feel more involved as the music makes them feel suspense and excitement when trying ti understand what is actually going on. we also improved on the acting as the acting was poor in the preliminary task and we believe this was due to the the storyline. when we put Derrick in a suit he felt like more of an actor because he was wearing a costume and this made the footage better as he out more effort into the performance. The reason our footage was not as good whilst he was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie was because he was in everyday clothes that he wears to college and so because of this he did not film like he was acting but just felt as if he was being filmed. Putting him in a suit was definitely the right thing to do as it changed our storyline and message that we were trying to get across and what we were trying to portray dramatically.
When we were initially planning our media project we looked for influential films that we could potentially See in order to create out piece. During this period of timing where we were researching into films we started to pick up that films in the UK to particularly well when they are based around realistic issues of today. Due to the budget of a film that is made in the UK it is hard to provide money for things such as special effects and so as a result we based our film around the typical society that a black youth would live in. this is because there are many negative connotations surrounding black youths and even just youths of today. Young males are stereotyped as being aggressive, rule-breaking and rebellious. They are acknowledged mostly by the tracksuit bottoms and hoodies that they wear and for causing trouble within the neighbourhoods such as seen in Adulthood. We actually went against the “typical” image of a black youth by putting our main character in a suit which is unusual to see as many young males struggle to find jobs and so this added towards our piece of footage being more creative and unique. what we have focused on doing is breaking the stereotype of the typical black male. whilst watching him in the film most people will notice that he is of a higher intelligence and because of the way he is walking around calmly we assume that he is a person that has broken the stereotypical view of a black male and is instead getting further in life than most people of that ethnicity and working class background do. when he begins to run around manically we are trying to portray that he has something wrong with him either mentally or some one or something is physically chasing him. this once again breaks away from the typical image of a black man as he is not involved in drugs or gangs and this is what is expected seen as our influential films were films such as adulthood and kidulthood. we believe that by breaking away from the stereotypical image of the young black man we are also encouraging other people to do well as when other black youths watch this clip they will feel as if Derrick is setting a good example and is leading them in the right direction. despite the fact that he finds himself in a bad situation, people are still judged by their physical appearance and for this reason we have succeeded in breaking the stereotype and surrounding him with positive connotations rather than negative connotations which is what most youths experience nowadays. His physical appearance is what is seen first and so, for this reason he seen as having a higher intelligence.
What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?
after having a look on IMDb we have concluded that distributors such as Pathe distribution would distribute our film as they distributed Adulthood and this is a significant film that contributed towards our work. we think that as Pathe Distribution is a UK distributor it is also more realistic as our film would be strictly a UK film as it only appeals to the British public and this is once again the same as Adulthood. Our film is a drama and this is because the storyline falls within the genre of a drama. we used four company names. Formidable pictures, Teardrop studio's, Platinum Productions and VDHS film. the reason we used these four company names because of the positive connotations that surrounded them. for example the word formidable has positive connotations and potrays the work to be at a high standard and this is something that we wanted to come through in our work. we wanted our work to relate back to our company names as the whole piece of work has one whole feeling to it and so we did not want something that had no relation to what was going on in the film. as our film is aimed at a british audience we think that Pathe distribution would be an appropriate distributor as they are UK distributors. We used the company name Teardrop Studio's because we think that this relates once again back to what i shappening in the film. even though Derrick is potrayerd to have his life under control we gain this sense of sadness and this comes through the slow motion bits, the distressed look on his face and also the slow piano music towards the ending of the film.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our project is aimed at a niche audience as our film would not appeal to everyone in terms of the storyline due to the fact that elderly people may not believe that this is their type of film as it is aimed at youths. Also people that are possibly of a higher class may not like the film as this sort of storyline normally occurs within working class areas and within a working class society. Therefore our target audience is aimed at 15year old's to 24year old's of more of a working class who can associate themselves and relate to the storyline. The story is about Derrick and how he is trying not to be a typical teenager but finds himself caught up in a situation that he is struggling to get out of and this is due to his working class background and poor society that he lives in. for this reason we believe that our film would only appeal to a niche audience as we want people to be able to relate to the film especially teenagers and so many adults would not be likely to watch this film. We also think that because of the ethnicity of our main character that also narrows down the audience as there is a lot of prejudice and stereotyping of the black male and because of this only certain would be able to relate to the film as we believe many black youths will be able to relate to the situation but not many adults. we also believe that black youths will be able to not only relate but also look up to this film as our main character comes from a working class background and an African background. Due to this in terms of living conditions he is at the same level as people that will be watching the film but the difference is that he will be looked upon as somebody that has broken the stereotype and succeeded. The mise en scene is very important to us in terms of the clothes because it is a natural instinct to categorise and judge people by their clothes, and in terms of our character he has broken the stereotype. when we thought this through we also considered the fact that certain people may feel as if we did not actually break the stereotype but fantasied as they may feel that a black working class youth would not be able to achieve what our character has and also look the way he does because he is wearing a suit as many people believe that a white man would normally play this role and have this steady lifestyle and higher intellectual look to them but nevertheless we stuck to our idea and concentrated breaking the stereotype as we believe it would encourage more people than let down.
How did you attract/ address your audience?
In order to attract our audience we have chosen a soundtrack that will fit with the events that are taking place. We also played the piano over the soundtrack so that we could make it more original. We have used a range of locations such as the bike-path, the river, and an office. By using these three very different locations, the audience will be curious as to why the locations are so different and what the significance of each one is. We had an advantage in our group as our main character looks older than he is, and so by putting him in a suit we managed to avoid the typical look of a teenager in a tracksuit. We used establishing shots to show a few of the locations before we went into the action of what is happening at the location. We also used close ups so that the audience could see the emotion in the main characters face and to make the audience feel what the main character is feeling. Whilst editing we used mostly fade-in’s and fade-out’s to represent time passing and the event changing. All these aspects contributed towards targeting our target audience as before making these decisions we looked at the films we were influenced by and tried to use similar editing and camera skills hence the close ups and constant fade outs.
At the start of the film we used a heartbeat sound and then the music came in, we used this same sound at the end and stopped the music slightly early as we wanted the audience to focus on our main characters face and to gain the constant fast pace throughout the film and so this heartbeat conveyed the feeling of time speeding up as the heartbeat got faster. In terms of ethnicity and class we have targeted our audience by using a black male as the main person rather than using a white male or an Asian male. by doing this we are targeting our niche audience and are focusing on real life issues instead of make believe even though our film is a dream like film which could relate to the film Memento.The reason we used this film is because our film had a dream like film to it because you cannot tell weather the events are actually happening or if they are just parts of his memory or parts of his imagination. This is left up to the audience to decide as the film goes on as they will get to see what type of person Derrick is and look at life from his perception and view. Memento and Adulthood together were two very influential films as they both made up the mystery behind our film. we did not want to completely pull away from the stereotypical view of a black youth and this is why Derrick finds himself in an awkward situation but we did not want to make him look like a typical black man and this is why we dressed him the way we did and used the smart locations that we did. we picked locations that also fitted his character which is smart and intelligent hence why we used the office and the stairs where town looks very clean and isolated. the location that clashes with his character is the last location which is the bike path and we have done this to show that something is not right and this either is really happening or is part of his imagination.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We have learnt how to use the camera correctly but at the start we were already familiar with how to use the camera. We had to learn how to use the editing software as we had never used Final Cut Pro before but we went on to YouTube and managed to find many tutorials on how to do each thing and so eventually we had confidence in how to use it and managed to edit the work smoothly and much better than how we
Edited it in the preliminary task. The tutorials contributes towards this a great deal as it taught us how to do absolutely everything and we also found tutorials on how to use garage band. even though members of our group knew were already familiar with music soft wares, garage band was different as it was not as straight forward, and so we went onto YouTube again and found another tutorial based around garage band. When we first started using the camera we knew how to use it but did not the different skills needed such as filming more than we needed in order to edit smoothly. You can see how much better our film is from our preliminary task and this is due to our practicing and the help of YouTube as it showed us most things we need to know about filming and editing and using Soft wares. we also had to keep the 180 degree rule in mind as we broke the rule in the preliminary task and did not fully understand how we broke it and so before we started filming we did a test film in which we ended up breaking the 180 degree unintentionally and were then able to see and understand how the rule was broken and how not to do it. this helped us whilst filming as it actually made things easier because it made the story make more sense and did not confuse the person watching it.
Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?
Our work is much more successful that the preliminary task as when we first did the preliminary task we did not understand the different techniques of filming for example the 180 degree rule and also other things like what position to put the camera in when filming. In the preliminary task we made the mistake of filming someone coming through the doors and you could see the camera in the reflection in our man task we used a mirror as well but because we had already learnt from the preliminary task, we did not make the mistake of sowing the reflection but instead filmed it accurately. in the preliminary task, many of the times the camera was slanted but because it looked straight at the time, we couldn't tell until afterwards that it was slanted. during our main film we were careful to not film slanted and this saved us from having to re-film lots of bits. we also learnt about filming more than we need so that the editing can be done smoothly and not look jumpy in places. this is something we learnt whilst doing the preliminary task and we then applied this rule to our main project. this was also made easier as we learnt the different techniques needed to film and edit. we used YouTube to learn how to use Final Cut Pro as we had no experience in using it and eventually we grasped the hang of it and were able to use it properly without struggling as much. we also learnt how important mise en scene is in terms of sound as in the preliminary task our sound did not match our footage but in this task we watched many pieces of films where the choreography is well filmed and the sound fits in with the actions. This added to the suspense in our film and added to the drama of it as it made our film feel more alive and made the audience feel more involved as the music makes them feel suspense and excitement when trying ti understand what is actually going on. we also improved on the acting as the acting was poor in the preliminary task and we believe this was due to the the storyline. when we put Derrick in a suit he felt like more of an actor because he was wearing a costume and this made the footage better as he out more effort into the performance. The reason our footage was not as good whilst he was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie was because he was in everyday clothes that he wears to college and so because of this he did not film like he was acting but just felt as if he was being filmed. Putting him in a suit was definitely the right thing to do as it changed our storyline and message that we were trying to get across and what we were trying to portray dramatically.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
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