Evaluation question 1

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

Here is my answer to evaluation question 1. I have recorded my response through the use of soundcloud, a website dedicated to sharing sounds from across many locations.

Evaluation question 2

How did you attract and address your audience?

To attract our audience, we used a wide range of devices and techniques to gain the largest amount of views that we could possible achieve.




Questionnaire
Our group also conducted a questionnaire in order to gain feedback from our opening title sequence. Below are some images of the completed questionnaires out audiences had filled in after watching the pre-cut of our title sequence. We felt it was important to show our target audience our opening title sequence as we could get their perspective on what was successful and what didn't quite work as well as intended. After gaining some feedback from our target audience, we took into account their feeling, consequently, changing some aspects of the sequence itself.

Evaluation Question 3

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Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?


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Evaluation Question 5

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

Introduction

Movie distributors are profiting companies which are in charge of distributing the media text to the audience and its viewers. It is the branch of the film industry where the finished film is supplied to to be shown to its mass viewings. Distributors are accountable for everything other than the movie itself may that be the marketing the product to ensure that it reaches it maximum profitable potential to making audiences aware of its existence. Many of the most dominant and successful distributing companies are situated in Los Angeles and Hollywood due to its stardom status and the prestigious events (movie based) which take place there every year.

Our Opening Title Sequence

As our production is a low-budget sequence with only a small private viewing audience, it would be hard to attract the large, multi-million pound investors which work with some of the most elite productions in the world, but if we had the opportunity I would choose Sony Productions. Sony productions are one of the leading distributors in the world and have a 12% stake in the whole of movie distribution industry. Sony pictures are a world class company and only distribute the highest of quality of films, more recently thrillers such as Skyfall and The girl with the dragon tattoo, both of which shared high quality success amongst audiences.

 

A production company would also find funding for the products that they produce. We have created our own ident for the production of our opening title sequence which we labelled BCES productions, which reflects and displays our own private company in which funding would have to be granted before the release of the production.

Evaluation question 6

Here is my response to evaluation question 6, What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructed this production

Evaluation Question 7

Looking at the prelim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have used exam time to illustrate my response to this question.



by james_ellis44

Ultimatum: Storyboard

Here is the storyboard of our production 'Ultimatum' The storyboard was written by Daniel and was Illustrated by myself. My passion for art shone through when drawing the images needed. We used the storyboard to remind us of the order of the scenes and to checklist off the scenes that we needed to film.

Ultimatum: Final cut

Here is the final cut to our opening title sequence 'Ultimatum'. After weeks of filming and production work, we have finally produced an opening title sequence that filled the requirements and that us as a group are very proud of, enjoy.


Here is another version of our opening title sequence featuring music in which was copyright labeled. As a result, have we of had the funding to gain the legal rights to this sound, this is what it would be our improved opening title sequence.

Ultimatum: My contribution

My Contribution to the construction of our opening title sequence: Ultimatum

Acting
My primary role in our opening title sequence was to be one of two of the title sequences main actors casted. I myself had put myself forward to be one of the actors in the production with previous experience in the industry as well as featuring as an actor in other tasks such as the prelim task in which can be found in the posts on my blog. In this role, I was tasked to portray a character in which would sufficiently represent that of the character the leading director, Daniel, had visioned and attempted to portray. I enhanced this role and begin to work on my ways in which could improve the standard of my acting as it is a profession in which I had taken interest in and would potentially consider adapting as a future career occupation. As clear in many scenes, I used my knowledge and understanding of the treatment of our opening title sequence to familiarize myself with the character and devise an high-quality level of production. I believe that my dedication to successfully portray the character suited has been reflected by the standard of our production overall, as well as being credited by others for my debut movie role.

Risk Assessment Manager
Throughout the production, I took great pride in the efficiency and dedication that our team had all individually and as a group had shown in the production of the title sequence Ultimatum. In order to do this, it was utterly important that the number one priority was the safety of our group. As a result, I created a risk assessment, which can be found on my blog, in order to identify any possible threats which could affect negatively the production of our title sequence. Being a thriller genre production, it was inevitable that we would be using such props as knives and guns, therefore, I took the initiative to devise some simple procedure in which would eliminate the possibility of and harm caused to all that are involved. These included proper handling of the equipment when in use and using protective covers for such sharp object like the knives when they were not being used.

Lighting Director
Another role I played in the production of ultimatum was to be in charge of the positioning and safety of the artificial lighting used to enhance the caption of shots in our sequence. I was responsible for setting up the lights and distorting the levels of brightness to give the desired effect which can be scene in the image below of the antagonist in our film portrayed by one of the members in our group. This gave the gloomy effect and let the audience know from the shot that the character was a villain figure and a common connotation of a antagonist, darkness and the dark red tint which you can see from the picture below. As I also stated in my risk assessment, another health and safety issue was the heat that the lights gave off when being on for long periods of time, in order to solve this, i used an oven glove in order to take the bulb out safely and reduce the risk as any injuries such as burning of the skin which can lead to blisters which could potentially inflicted damage to the cast and crew.

Illustrator
One of roles I took up was the illustrator of the storyboard, in which the information was written by Director Daniel. My passion and love for art made me a clear candidate for the role of illustrator of the images on our story board in which was used to keep us on track of the shots and re-buff the memory of those of our group of the shots that we had done and which needed to be completed. Although this role may appear small, It was one I took very seriously as it allowed me to showcase my drawing skills and express my thoughts and feeling in the drawing in which we used frequently. The full description of the storyboard can be seen on my blog and information about how the storyboard was used in greater detail.

Editing
My contribution to editing was small but still notable in the production of ultimatum. The majority of the editing was done by the main Editor Connor, but each member of the group done a bit of editing whilst in the assistance of Connor who devotes a large majority of his time to editing and is familiar with the software used as he took GCSE media, along with the other members of my group and as being the first year rook in our production I felt it was important to contribute to every part of the production of Ultimatum even if it was minimal to showcase that I am serious about the subject and would like to educate myself further on the subject and its benefits to me in the future after leaving school.

Preliminary task

Preliminary task

In groups of no more then four, its a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character with whom he or she exchanged a couple of lines of dialogue. This task must demonstrate match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

 

 

For our preliminary task we devised an opening title sequence as seen in the picture above. You can see two males in a vehicle one of which is driving, whilst the other appears to be radioing in via a communicational devise. We decided to create a scene in which two police men are heading back to the station after being informed that there is a wanted man ready to be interrogated in custody.

I found the preliminary task relatively easy as I had a good production team behind me as well as the high-tech equipment available at the time of production. In the future I will use the same team as I used in the prelim task as we worked together both quickly and efficiently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17EbPT-D9hA

 

 

 

Ultimatum: Q&A

Here is some feedback from our target audience on there thoughts and feeling on our media production 'Ultimatum'.

 

Feedback from Teacher

Here you can see some feedback that I have been given by my teacher. As you can see, she informs me that the standard of my work is generally good but there is some catching up to do. The time of this feedback is January 3 2014, as a result there as some areas of my work that are yet to be completed but I can reassure that I had taken this into account and re-constructed my work to be up to date in the required period of time.

I found that this feedback was both useful and driving in my attempt to receive the grade I believe that I am capable of achieving. There are 4 tasks that were given as you can see in the top of the image which were required to be completed and thus have been completed since the message reached me. I would once again like to thank my teacher in informing me on how to extend my blog and obtain a successful grade.

Marketing of Captain Phillips

Here is a presentation that I have produced showing how the box office hit movie 'Captain Phillips' marketed hit campaign to get the movie recognized by millions of views around the world. I have used slide share to embed this presentation onto my blog.

Targets

Following skills learnt in the process, set yourself 5 SMART targets:

Mise-en-scene: This was a factor that our group took importantly into account whilst in production of our media texts. Due to the short given time period, it came apparent that on a number of occasions we would have to film and edit out production of our opening title sequence on the same day. Furthermore, we had limited props for our production so setting was an important feature which we strived on. I believe that we could have improved on the Mise-en-scene of our production to make it look as realistic as possible and demonstrate a both professional and engaging title sequence.

Sound: I believe that the overall sound of our production was very good but i believe that it could have enhanced further. Although we did use the art of foley, I believe that we could have used more of it to improve sound quality and make the production very well managed sound wise. For many of the scenes, we used the voicing used with the filming on the scene and it becomes apparent at times that the natural sound effect distort the sound of the production, which could have been improved if we had used more foley.

Production Planning: Planning is one of the most crucial areas that I believe that we were not as successful in. The planning of our production although sounding good at first, we encountered many flaws on the way and without back-up ideas, some of the scenes did not match the pictured design as we did not have the props or equipment available. In in hindsight, feel that it would have been more effective if we brainstormed ideas on a mind-map at the start of the production so we all were on page as to what we wanted.

Suspense: Suspense I feel lacked in the production of our title sequence as it was supposed to be a thriller genre sequence. It would have been effective if we included some suspense to make the audience feel on edge throughout the production and pose questions at the end about certain situations. There are a lot of mysterious parts in our production which diverse an enigma but the greater use of suspense would have greatly enhanced this.

Research- Another very effective target that myself and my group can follow and gain the potential results we believe we can achieve. We have recently started watching trailers and opening sequences for both new and old thrillers and discussed them as a group, however i feel that perhaps mind maps could be made to point out what makes a great opening title sequence great. If this target is met than we will be even clearer on what we need to incorporate in to our opening title sequence.

Ultimatum: Prop List

Coffee Mug - The coffee mug is a prop that we felt would be useful to signify the father-son relationship. The mug will be clearly positioned in the scene when the father is at work to show that he is constantly thinking about his son and his love for him is both deep and true. The mug could also be used in the scene when the father is at home with his son, therefore again showing the relationship between the two. The mug could also be used as a possible title shower, by that i mean for example, as the father picks up the mug to take a sip of a beverage, a title could appear out of the mug which would be attractive to the audience.

Children's toys - Children's toys is a prop we felt could be included in the production. We could have a scene when the child is playing with some toys such as a truck or teddy and as the father comes in from work, he could happily greet the son and then begin to interact with the child, again re-enforcing the strong relationship theme that runs throughout the title sequence.

Mobile phone - A mobile phone we felt would be necessity in the production, as in the title sequence, there is a scene when the father of the son receives a phone call from unknown number, informing him of the 'ultimatum' he is proposing. For this we felt that a disposable phone would be the most suitable, as in many thriller films, disposable phones are used as we see after a phone call a character would remove the sim card and dispose of it, therefore making them untraceable.

Knives - This again was a prop that would most defiantly be used in the production as it shows the severity of the job having to be completed. Knives signify danger and violence, another theme that is strongly signified in our production. We feel that there will be more than one knife used in our production to show strong connotations of danger and the harm that will happen to the fathers son if he does not follow the mysterious callers orders.

Briefcase - A briefcase is a possible prop that would be used in our production. We feel that it would be used to put the weaponry that the father needs to carry out the job in. Some props that could feature in the briefcase could include guns and knives. A briefcase shows professionalism, and re-enforces the idea how the father used to be a retired assassin and this could potentially be the case he used when he was still in employment.

Guns - Guns are another strong possible prop to be used in our production. The audience automatically associates guns with danger and we believe that this should be a seriously taken job and should reflect on the attitude of the audience. Therefore, guns will be used to show how the characters have a strong mentality on getting this job done as well as using some of the old equipment that the retired assassin is very familiar with.

Ultimatum: Risk assesment

For our production task we will be out of the traditional school location, as a result there will be some safety procedures that we will have to address in order to be certain that the production is conducted in a safe and sustainable way.

The locations for our production will include: Langley hill, Kings Langley common, Jack Stockman (actor) house and Daniel Bruce (actor) house.

Risks that we need to look out for whilst on production include:

Langley hill, as addressed in the name, is positioned on a large hill as a result suitable footwear would be needed at all time to reduce the chance of any slips or injuries occurring whilst on set which could potentially harm our chances of creating a production which is to our full capability.

Kings Langley Common includes a woods which is a vital part to our production. There are many risks which can occur whilst in a woods, most notably, the large amount of tree debris situated around the environment so carefulness is vital to the production. To reduce the chance or any injuries we will produce a clear path, which will be easily used by the actors without the risk of injury.

For our production we will be using props in enhance the professionalism of the production. Some of these include knifes which can be a highly dangerous positioned in the wrong hands. We believe that we are highly trustworthy to be with these props but as a safety procedure we will be using fake knifes which are made out of plastic to completely avoid the risk of any injuries.

In our production we will be using an actor of younger age of us who shall be positioned on a swing at one of the local parks near Kings Langley common, as a result there are some risks that come with being positioned in a park. To reduce the risk of falling off this piece of equipment, we shall be using crash mats to insure that if the worse happens, the actor will be safe and unharmed.

Another risk is another use of props. We shall be using a cap gun which fires out a smoke after fire, much like that of a real gun, for the professional effect. These can be dangerous, as a result we shall be using the gun as a safe distance away from the eyes and face which could be effected if not used appropriately.

One risk that we will be encountering is that of pedestrians and others in the local community. To ensue that everyone involve stays safe and can conduct the production successfully, we shall be filming when there are no pedestrians present. There may be others in the background that may appear to be people in the local community, but we can ensure that these are highly trained actors which are positioned for nothing but effect in the production.

Another prop used is that of a glass mug. Glass can be a very hazardous material if broken or chipped. To prevent any injures, we shall take extra care in case of breakage. If broken we shall have a trained first adder on hand to eliminate any threats that could become apparent in case of breakage or chips.

Ultimatum: Pre-Cut of Our Final Opening Sequence

After several weeks of filming, we have final produced the pre-cut to our opening title sequence 'Ultimatum'. This is only our pre-cut meaning this is the production before the final cut is issued. We shall address an audience to ask for feedback on our pre-cut and using their feedback, try to rectify any issues that they felt were wrong with the pre-cut and then change this to suit the audiences needs when it comes to the final cut.

Ultimatum: Treatment

The log-line used to describe our opening title sequence was: "A retired assassin and single dad settles down with his son, but when his past catches up with him, he must take up his old line of work to protect the thing he loves most." We felt this was most suitable to the ideology's which we intended to represent in our opening title sequence.

After thoroughly discussing what the opening shot of our title sequence would be, we devised some ideas in which we thought would work well with portraying the right ideas in the mind of the audience. Firstly, we thought of having an a young parent sitting on the sofa with his son, establishing their relationship so the audience clearly reads and interprets the stable relationship in which the two posses. We then pictured the two sitting in a coffee shop together or a public location when there is a sudden ringing of the fathers phone with a darkness falling over the contact from an unknown number. The group then decided to incorporate the words 'When money is the measure of success' and then as the father answers the phone 'What lengths would you go to' to clearly signify a basis in which the film is trying to portray. Furthermore, the scene then cuts to a shot of the man walking home at night where the  words 'to give your son the best things in life', then the opening of a box full of deadly weaponry, 'but another mans life is the cost'.

We agreed that the first few seconds of the opening title sequence should device a sense of a chilling thriller amongst the audience, with the inclusion of lots of darkness and violence related imagery to rally set the scene and let the audience know what they're in for without giving too much information away. We thought that when it comes to editing, we could use lots of effects including using purely black an white colour to give an old school thriller feel about the film as well as imagery of dark hallways and flickering lights which were available with the shooting production in Daniels garage. Then when it came to introducing characters to the audience, we would have a long-shot of the featured adult and his good friend, known as adult 2 for treatment purposes, engaging in a friendly hand-shake establishing the relationship between them. Adult 2 would then withdraw either pictures or a map of the location of the target they are after in order to give his son a better life, with the inclusion of a chilling soundtrack which will begin to play on the emergence of the target required to kill.

The title sequence should then show the producers and companies of who we are going to be featured in the following production of the film which will follow after. An example of this would be, whilst all of the action is going on in the background of the production, Sony Pictures appears in a steady, bold font underlining the genre of the title, swiftly followed by the introduction of antagonist adults 3 and 4 who will be shown in a shadowed light showing there darkness in comparison to the other characters, potentially doing something on a computer with high values of money to show that they are both serious and meaning business. The plot will generally be about showing the relationship between adult 1 and his son, this will be conducted at a park scene perhaps with the son playing on a swing with the father pushing him. The film will also centre about adult despising his current job with signs of stress and insomnia, with adult 2, his best friend meeting with adult 1 discussing how they have been after a long-time-no-see frenzy. Fashbacks with show how the pair used to be trained assassins and showing the clear bond that the two possess together. Then suddenly, adult 1 will receive a phone call from an unknown number asking to come out of retirement to complete one last job for the record, worth millions of pounds to give his son, the greatest life possible and should the adult refuse, this unknown character will kidnap character 1's child. The phone call comes to an abrupt end, with the mysterious number leaving adult 1 an 'ultimatum' and time to think about what needs to be done, with the inclusion of flashbacks with adult 1 with his wife, who died in a car crash after the son was born, and the child.

Adult 1 will then phone his best friend, adult 2, to inform him on the situation and ask for his help in taking down the unknown villain and giving his son the best life possible. Once the two are paired, they set out to complete the final job, kill character 3, in order to save his son. Fully equipped and ready for action, this is one thriller you won't want to miss.

Ultimatum: Editing

Here you can see see the complexity in the production of our title sequence 'Ultimatum' Our primary editor Connor Crosby helped with the assistance of every member in our group to help develop an opening title sequence we felt reflected the effort and hard work that we had all put in. Below you can see an image of the amount of layers that features in our production and consequently, the work that had to be put in to make this the excellent sequence it is.

Ultimatum: Location

Here is the location recce designed by a member of our group, Jack Stockman, in which the pictures were taken from our film sequence.

For our film we needed to use many different locations.

 This picture is from Daniel's house where I would walk in after leaving the office 

This is taken from the edge of the woods where a part of our chase scene is set, this makes our opening title sequence look more professional as there are many different locations

This shot was taken within our school, as we needed a desk we thought that it would be prefect to use an already set up location, the fact that there are folders and cups shows its more authentic.

This is again within our school, we used this to show the reaction of my face when i get told about the person who I have to kill and about my son. The fact that it was raining helped to give our film more of a thriller feel about it.

This shot is to show the transaction when I enter the house to when i get the information about the person who i have to kill. 

This picture is taken in a near by field which was easy to get to, we used this to show the distance between the protagonist and the antagonist before the final scene.

We chose to use this barn as it gives our opening title sequence more of a thriller film as it looks dark and mysterious as these our conventions of thriller films.

We used the woods to create a chase scene as we thought that it would be the best way to create a fast pace scene.

Ultimatum: Costume and Make-up

I would like to credit Daniel Bruce, a member of our group, for this outstanding effort in devising the Costume and make-up fundamentals of our production of 'Ultimatum' 


When designing the costume and makeup for a thriller film you have to consider the structure and context of the opening title sequence. The portrayal of certain characters through how they dress and the make up they have on can completely change their position in the film, in many cases the miss-en-scene element of the film can make or break the reputation of a film.

The first scene will picture the father played by Jack Stockman and the son played by Connor's younger brother. The first shot has to establish a father son relationship the son could be dressed in his school clothes or something that connotes youth. Whereas the father needs to be dressed in more formal clothing maybe his shirt and tie after a long and tireless day at work. The picture on the right hand side is the actors from the first Harry Potter film, you can clearly notify their young age through the way they are dressed and the make up added to make them look younger, for example Harry's glasses show youth and that fact that he may like to read, his hair style is also simple connoting that youngsters aren't bothered by how they appear.
The next scenario is the father in an everyday environment like an office or cafe, in this case the father will have to be in a suit showing the audience that perhaps he is on his break, and has a well payed profession such as a salesman. The picture to the right hand side of this paragraph is a screenshot from the blockbusting thriller 'Shutter Island'. 
Both characters are portrayed as police officers from the 1950's, a good profession which should be connoted as professional and well presented showing their authority to the audience, i myself would like this to be the representation of the adult in the scene. Also the character which i play should also represented in this way as myself and Jack have similar professions in the current scene.
A character that is often hard to show in the thriller genre is the villain, and in our opening sequence we effectively have two. The first so called villain who is played by James is a target assigned to Jack by a mysterious caller, we felt that the target should wear dark shades adding a sense of mystery in the thriller film creating a question in the audiences mind, in our preliminary task where we replicated reservoir dogs, sunglasses aesthetically improved the look of our production adding a sense of professionalism. In terms of the overall costume James could also be wearing a suit, with a black tie and jacket or coat, the colour often represents evil and a sense of death which is about to follow.
 The final characters that have to be represented are the assassins which are myself and Jack. A change has to be made from everyday office workers to highly trained assassins who are in search of a big pay off. Assassins have to be shown to the audience as serious, dark characters, perhaps dressed in all black suits with added extras such as dirty faces or balaclavas or even hoods covering the face. It is extremely vital that the two assassins are portrayed correctly, matching the thriller genre perfectly.

All of the following things must be considered in the making of our opening title sequence, and i feel that if the costumes are effective then our overall sequence will be aesthetically pleasing and appear professional to the audience. A big issue when making a Thriller film  brought up by Jake Hume and Simon Frame is how the film effects the audience, and so if they are focused on the plot rather than choice of clothing this means we chose the correct miss-en-scene elements in the pre-production stage.

Ultimatum: Lighting

In order to make the opening title sequence look as professional as possible, we thought it would be important to use artificial lighting in order to enhance the picture quality of our product as well as the overall judgement. For one of the scenes in our production, we had to have one of the actors, in this case Connor, appear to be on a mobile devise in near dimmed lighting for a more tense, mysterious effect. As a result, for this to happen we had to use artificial lighting in which myself positioned to generate the effect desired. We found the lighting relatively easy to distribute and work with but also gave a more professional affect appose to natural lighting such as sunlight for instance. The dark lighting symbolized the evil effect and it makes it clear to the audience that the character sitting in the chair on the mobile devise was an villain in the production and was set to be someone not to be reckon with.

Here is some images taken to show our experience with the lighting