7. Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?

In the preliminary task we learned how to, achieve the 180 degree rule, and how to stay on one side of the line with out crossing it and it looking all weird and mismatching, it was rather challenging especially when one person is taller than the other because it was hard to capture the right shots, when Anoop and mark have an argument. We had to learn how to edit correctly and get used to all the buttons on the final cut pro keyboard, in the preliminary we got help of the teachers on how to do it but for the final piece we had to do it on our own.

it was rather challenging because we had to do everything including coming up with the story, where as in preliminary we was told what to do and so. so now looking back at what we started, it is very impressive the work we have produced. even though at the start we had a lots of argument on how to shoot or deciding who's going to do what n silly arguments like that. we had to change our films at least about 3 or 4 times before we even had a clear mind of what the film was going to be about... our plan started of from a scary/thriller which we thought was going to be rather easy but when it actually came to shooting the movie we planed it was very difficult and hard and we didn't have the rights places to shoots or get the access for it. by then we was running out of time as well so we decided on doing like comedy/documentary style film, it was an inspiration from the series 'come fly with me' and the character Taaj.

in the end after all the struggle and effort we went through, we did manage to pull it through and produce a rather good opening of the film how we wanted it as well. but we still could've made it a lot better but due to the time limit we had it was very hard to do

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

Using the camera and other equipment we was provided, we have learned a lot such as how to take a variety of shots, at different locations. we have also learned the difficulties you face with with these equipment and as its not as easy as it looks. when watching movie at the cinemas or at home you're faced with situation such how hard is it to get even a tiny simple details right. even though the equipment we was given with wasn't anything fancy, but we was able to utilize it to its full potential by moving the surrounding and adjusting the settings to suit what we needed.

The editing software used was final cut pro, which was great software for our purpose as it ad all the functions that we needed. it was able to add effects, crop the clips down so were only using the parts that we wanted, you can add music, sound effects and even pictures. it was a vital part in producing the work we have now. we was able to able to edit our clips from hours long to just under 2 minutes, we was able to add effects such as fade and dissolve so the film flowed through out the sequence, we did voice over and added music to make it interesting and in overall with out this software or technology we could've never completed this work and we have learned so much making this film as well, including how to operate final cut pro.

on the picture above you can khadisha who was in charge of filming and camera work shooting Anoop who is the main character of the film. as you can see above this is only a simple medium shot of anoop

on the picture above you can see khadisha filming with the equipment we was given whihc was a normal camera with a tripod.

this picture is showing Siobhan who is the director and the editor of the film using final cut pro to edit the all the shots we shot, into clips that can be used in the opening sequence of the film

these few of the pictures of us, using the equipment and getting the hang of using them.

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

In the opening sequence we have used flashbacks, of anoop talking in a comical way about his time spent with mark and Siobhan, the protagonists relate to the audience because it makes them feel that if they were in there shoes of the character and they wouldn't like to be treated the way they treat anoop, but then they realize he is no different from them, we have used the camera work to take mid shots of anoop in the interview, we used this shot because its close enough to see his emotions towards whats happened, and to get the audience interested in how his life has been before hand. we also did research on a film called 'Anita and Me' which is very similar to ours, we looked at attendance at the first showing of the film and thought it did really well, so we went with this idea because it will attract a lot of people.

the film would also attract a lot of attention from people as it would be a unique film, most the films out now a days is based on romance, thriller and mostly things that usually doesn't happen in real life where as our film will be based what actually happens and based on real events which is happening throughout the world, as well as making a good film we also aim to remind the peopled tell the audience how some people are still being treated differently because of their ethnic background or because of the culture they was bought up in.

the film it self would attract a lot of audience as it will leave the audience on the edge of their seat as they are going though the steps he takes in his life and how he manages to overcome it and try and fit in with the new culture that he's dealt with in his life. we have made the opening sequence of the film very interesting by adding effects so it flows through out as well as the first few minutes of the film should be the most important as well as it'll decide if the audience is hooked in or not. we have created a film that is interesting and unique and should attract a lot of audience as well

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Because our film genre is comedy our main audience is teenagers and young adults, although people of other ages would enjoy the film. The film would probably be rated as 12 or 12A, which is different to the film to which we got inspiration from; Trainspotting, which is rated 18. We wanted our film to have universal appeal and so that more people would be able to watch it. In terms of gender this film isn’t really aimed at one specific gender because the films protagonists are both male and female. The majority of movie watchers tend to go for comedies. We extracted our themes from comedy sketches such as the BBC spoof Documentry 'Come Fly With Me' We loosely based Anoop's character around Taaj. The show comically enforces ill-informed prejudices of the ethnic culture.

3. What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

I reviewed Anita and me again and noticed that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) produced the film; they produced the film because they were interested and keen on getting the whole stereotypical debate over with. They would be the perfect choice to distribute our film. The BBC distributed the very popular Bend it like Beckham. The film Bend it like Beckham challenges the typical stereotype of a typical Orthodox Sikh family. The man character rebels against the traditions of her religion. In our film we too want to challenge the stereotypes of not only teenagers but of ethnic minority. In our film we explored these stereotypes and then challenged them with reality. We made this film to show people what people of an ethnic minority go through on a daily basis sometimes and to show that not everyone are the same. These kinds of films seem to be distributed quite a lot by the BBC so this would make them a prime choice to be a distributor of our film.

2. How does your media product represent particular social group

Our film is all about the representation of ethnic minorities within working class communities, mainly in Manchester. The protagonist in our film, Anoop is a working class, Indian teenager living on a Manchester council estate. Our film addresses the racial stereotypes surrounding the ethnic minorities and brings to light the still present racial prejudices inside Britain. Anoop himself recognizes the social differences within the film by mentioning names he has been called in the past.

The film is an exaggeration of real life but this is what brings in the comedic elements. For example ‘Bhaji Boy’ is not a name Anoop has ever been called however it is an exaggerated stereotypical insult which presents the injustice by making a mockery of it. This is meant to alienate an audience of people who have perhaps made these ill informed judgments in the past, by making them see the stupidity of certain stereotypes.

As well as this the social group represented in our film is one, which people don’t know much about. The purpose of the film is to abolish the stereotypical view of “ all Indians eat curry” and look into the life of a real Indian and see the day to day activities he undertakes, to show audiences that they are not all that different and make Anoop and easily relatable character to both Indians and other racial groups .

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

When creating our film we had to concentrate on a certain genre to focus our planning and development. We reviewed many films, and sitcoms and used elements from them to stimulate our ideas. Films such as ‘Borat’ use some similar conventional elements, such as the narration of the protagonist, in some ways Borat is like Anoop, as he is telling the audience about his own life and narrating the events. The comedic documentary style is a rare theme but has been explored in some media products. We tried to make our film have theme of 'social realism', meaning we want the audience to feel sympathy for Anoop and the challenges he faces, but also feel pride in his ambitions to become a film maker. Sitcoms such as ‘come fly with me’ helped us to model our characters and we used elements of the style and structure, such as the voice over introductions, to aid our production and help to develop our film with similar conventions to real media products.

We also reviewed lower budget films such as ‘Anita and me’ (with a budget of £3million) to take elements of the cost cutting production and insert them into our own film, as we wanted to make our film have a low budget, debut film feel. We did this in our titling, where we used titles such as “India productions” which showed that this is possibly a lower budget production, with an unknown production company which is not a part of any big conglomerate companies. We wanted the ethnic theme to seem as though it was a film produced to raise awareness about different ethnic minorities and challenge racial stereotypes by mocking them, which shadows real media products such as the film 'four lions'.

Anita and Me

We drew some inspiration from Anita and me. Initially we thought about naming our film : Mark and me. The film centres on a teenage girl trying to fit in in England with her friends. This is very similar to our film. Although in our film we wanted to give the film a more of a documentary feel

TREATMENT FOR MAIN TASK

THE OPENING OF A FILM: our film is called 'Mark and me' its about Anoop the main character who is an Indian teenager living in Moss side. The genre of the film is Comedy.

DURATION: 2 MINUTES approx.

AUDIENCE: The audience we are aiming to attract is an audience around 13- 30.

RESUME: In the opening sequence, we are hoping to achieve a brief introduction of our protagonists. As the voice over will be introducing the plot in a documentarian style, we want the action to be relevant to the script. Therefore, as the start of the film has Anoop the protagonist playing with his friends on the park, the voice over will be introducing Anoop and his friends to the audience.

SUGGESTED ELEMENTS: performance, we had two boys and a girl playing in a park, Costumes was just everyday clothing, we didn’t use any props, and our key location was St Mary’s park.

RECORDING DAYS: we will spend 3 days filming, and 6 hours of production time, for post-production we will have 4 weeks, to do all our editing, insertions, transitions, sound and the overall polishing the final piece. When we was filming we worked within our lesson times, and not in any free time because our lessons overlapped.

Shot List

Worms eye view looking up at Siobhan, Anoop and Mark on the climbing frame

Mid shot of Anoop on the play park

Mid shot of Siobhan on the climbing frame

Mid shot of Mark on the climbing frame

Long/mid shot of Mark chasing Anoop

Close up shot of Anoop’s feet as he begins to run

Long/mid shot of Anoop running

Tracking shot of Siobhan, Anoop and Mark

Web Address

http://loretoasmedia2011.blogspot.com/

Se7en

This image shows the opening sequence of se7en, as the book is being opened and writen in.

The establishing shot in this opening sequence is a mshot of a book and the pages being turned, there is a tint to this shot with harsh lighting creating shadows and we can see a hand blurred turning the pages in the background. The way that the opening credits appear is interesting and they look quite similar to that of the typical horror/thriller genre, with an almost ghostly feel to them. The opening credits are quite an important part of the beginning of films, and this particular style is something our group will take into careful consideration when we are editing our opening sequence. there was approxiamtely 30+ different shots of various different events happening all creating the illusion that something bad has happened, all the shot types are close up for the opening, the use of sound creates tension troughout the opening, with the scary music, the lighting they used was a red source creating suspense and blood? also the props were pen and paper to sugest writing a investigation letter maybe, the titles were used very effectively because they all fited it with the scene, the continuity of the opening was acheived because all the scenes followed each other correctly, the elements we could achieve is the different close ups as the images wouldnt be that hard to congure up together to recreate, the hard elements would be finiding the right music and props to use for the close up views.

The Book of Eli

this shows the opening sequence of the book of eli in the forest with the shadows of the trees with hardly any leaves behind the character.

The Book of Eli.

Before any images actually appear on the screen the film creates a sense of isolation which is very typical of the thriller genre, its a classic thriller convention. The sound of the howling wind can be heard, the howling wind seems to be quite calm and it almost 'prepares' the audience for the upcoming storm. By using only sound in the opening it creates a sense of anticipation for the audience. We are first introduced to images in the film with a forest, the trees seem to be quite bare, they have very little or few branches or leaves, having such minimalistic things present in the opening scene also adds to the isolated feeling that the beginning of the film prevails. The isolation and vulnerability is enhanced by the amount of shadow in the forest. It almost gives the illusion that the audience feels as though there is no where to hide in the empty forest. In an ambiguous way the trees could also resemble bars to make the audience feel as though they shouldn't be there, and also gives a sense of imprisonment. This particular theme along with the element of isolation is something our group will take into consideration when shooting the opening to our film, and a convention that we definitely will consider using.

The silence of the lambs

The film starts with some shots of a woman running through a dark, misty wood. It gradually becomes apparent that she is running an assault course. An F.B.I. man tells her that a Mr. Crawford wants to see her. At this stage it is made clear that she is working for the F.B.I. because we see her making her way through corridors full of guns and agents. She then enters some offices where she finds some newspaper clippings and pictures about a murderer who skins people. The camerawork and editing hint at the plot of the film however it does not give away all the vital information. This is an attribute we would like to carry over into our work because we do not want our film to have a trailer like quality that many of the examples we have seen contain. A film opening should only establish the setting and story rather than sum up the whole contents of the film. The Silence of the lambs opening contains many features that would be useful to take influence from if we were to do a thriller.

Preliminary task Shot List

1. Long shot(establishing) person entering room
2. Medium shot person sitting down
3. Tilt up medium shot establish other character
4. Shot reverse shot Conversation
5. Cutaway of persons hand gestures
6. Medium shot Person standing up
7. Close up of person sitting downs facial expressions
8. Close up of angry person
9. Long shot of person running out the room
10. Close up of the angry person's reaction when they run out of the room.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

On the whole i think the preliminary task was a success, as it was our first try at camera work and editing. However we do have a lot to learn from our preliminary task as we did make some unprofessional mistakes. For example; our editing wasn't completely continuous and it was noticable from time to time, which could have possibly affected the overall quality of the preliminary task. In our main task this will be an area of great focus so that we achieve the highest possible marks for our editing work. On the other hand, there were a lot of strong attributes to our work. For example; we successfully implimented the 180 degree rule. This was shown in the shot reverse shot of Mark and Anoop, where the cameraperson made sure that the shots did not cross the 'line', which made sure the shot was conceivable to the audience. As well as this, our camera work was consistently good and all the shots were framed properly with the use of a tripod, so no action was cut out of shot, such as peoples faces ect. However the quality of the shot was a bit shaky and we will concentrate on steadying the camera in the real task to ensure the maximum possible marks for the beginning of our film.