Evaluation - Michael Higgins

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


Influential Film:

1) The first frame in my influential sequence is of the company that distributed the film, in this case it is Universal, this is a convention of film openings as most movies start by showing the logos of the distribution company. The logo plays in its entirety and has the films main theme soundtrack playing over it instead of the default sound for the logo.

2) Then we see the logo for another distribution company, this time it is Marv Films. Again the main theme music for the film continues to play but begins to fade; we see the full length of the logo with no editing other than the replaced audio.

3) No more logos are shown and we then start to see the opening credits for the film. The first title we see is of the two distribution companies names followed by the word "Presents" which is another convention of film openings. The font style is bold and has a heavy drop shadow to it which almost makes it look 3D, the titles fade in and out of the screen and there is no movement to them. I used this as the influential film for our main task because i wanted to use the style and layout of the logos and titles in our film.

4) While the same establishing shot is playing in the background another title using the same style fades in, this time the title is for the producer/production company of the film. The title only lasts for two seconds just like the first title and it fades in and out with no movement to the titles. These titles are conventional for a super hero film because of their comic book style and the bold powerful text resembles the qualities of a super hero.

5) After a short scene between the two main characters we see the films logo on its own on a black screen and it cuts in with no transition. Music starts very loudly and suddenly it transitions out as a new clip fades in and the title disappears into the side of a school bus as they are the same colour. Again there is no movement of the title it sits stationary in the middle of the screen for four seconds until it transitions of screen. A voice over from the main character starts to play as the level of the music drops to a much lower, but audible, level and this plays through most of the opening with some dialogue in places.

6) The next set of titles that appear are the titles for all the main actors and actresses in the film, they are on screen for around two seconds just like the titles for the companies that are involved with the film. They use the same font and style as the other titles and again they fade in and out when they are on screen. However, this time they are near the bottom of the screen, usually trying to stay out of the way of the actors if that is at all possible.

7) As the opening continues more and more titles show of people involved with the film, the first to show however that is relevant to the main roles which we had as a group for our product is the editor. The name appears below their role in making the film and their name is in a much larger font size than their role is, any letters after their name such as "A.C.E." appear in a much smaller font size too. Again they fade in and out as they are on screen but they only last for around one and a half seconds while they are on screen, so they are much shorter than any other the other credits.

8) After the editor title appears, the directory of photography (cinematographer) is shown and then the producers names are shown, there were multiple sets of producers as there are associate, executive and just normal producers to credit so they had a much longer screen time. But each title only had a screen time again of around one and a half seconds. They continued to follow the conventions and style of the genre, never changing throughout the opening; the titles only ever changed position on screen to avoid blocking out the actor's performances. Voice over from the main character is still playing through out alongside the main soundtrack of the film.

9) The opening sequence ends with the title for the director which again has the same style and conventions as the other titles. This time the title is in the middle of the bottom of the screen as it is much more important than the other roles that appeared. The title is on screen for much longer this time as well, for around 3 seconds, again it fades in and out at the same speed but it is last and stays on screen longer because it is a more important role. Having the titles in this order is a convention of film openings and having the director last is used in nearly all movies.

Our Film

1) The opening to our film starts by showing the logo of the production company, this is different to my influential film in that it is not a distribution company that is show.  Also, it differs from our influential film because the normal audio from the logo plays and not the film's main soundtrack, like it does for the opening of Kick-Ass 2.

2) Instead of using a second logo for a distribution company we started the opening to the film, which is not how my influential film started. However, the opening to Kick-Ass 2 does start by saying the name of the distribution company with the word "Presents" after it and that's exactly what I did to our opening to make it like our influential film. There is no establishing shot behind the text but the titles were the main influence for our film alongside the sound. The titles fade in and out just like our influential film and have a similar style to them, although the font is slightly different but is similar.

3) Then, I added the title for the production company which again is nearly identical to that in my influential film, the title is not in the centre of the screen because otherwise it would have blocked the acting as there was no establishing shot used. The titles stay on screen for a couple of seconds and just like Kick-Ass 2 the main soundtrack is very feintly playing in the background. At this point the actor in the clip starts to talk which is used a voice over also, which again is similar to my influential film, however, the voice over starts much earlier in our film due to time length limitations. 

4) The first set of people to be introduced that were a part of the making of the opening are the actors, this again is identical to how my influential film's titles are laid out; apart from the fact that the main title does not appear after the companies names but instead right at the very end of the opening. The titles for the actors again follow the same style and fade in and out patterns as the rest of the titles and are only onscreen for around one and a half seconds, just like in Kick-Ass 2. The actor's names also appear in order of most screen time, which again is just like my influential film, I wanted to make the titles relate to my influential film as much as possible without copying them completely.

5) I started off by putting my name first in the list of filmmakers involved in the opening as I was the editor of the opening and in my influential film, the editor of the film is the first to appear out of all the other roles that are present in my influential film's opening sequence. I made sure that the role title had a much smaller font that the name did and that the name was underneath the role with no punctuation after the role title. I also continued to use that same font and style as the rest of the opening so that again it matched the titles in the opening from Kick-Ass 2.

6) The next name I added was the cinematographer as he was the next role that was in the opening of my influential film after the editor. I used the same style of title and made sure the on screen time was still only around 1 to 2 seconds for each title and that the titles did not block any acting that was appearing behind the text graphics.

7) Then I did the same for the producer as he was the second to last name to appear in my influential film opening just before the director, I only added the main roles that we had in the opening as titles because there was not enough room to get the effect with the opening that I wanted and to put all the titles for the minor roles and have all the roles in the exact order as my influential film.

8) The last name to appear in the titles is the director, again the titles stay out of the way of the acting and follow the same style as the rest of the titles and have a similar style to the titles from my influential film. The director came last in the Kick-Ass 2 opening credits sequence so I made sure to follow the order of all of the roles that were in both openings exactly so that they had a very similar timeline. The director's name is on screen for slightly longer just like it was in Kick-Ass 2 in order to make sure I followed the conventions of a movie opening.

9) The titles to our opening end with the main title, this is different from Kick-Ass 2 as it was much earlier on in that opening, however, I did still follow a lot of the other conventions when adding in the title such as having it on a black screen and putting the text in the middle of the screen. The title cuts in with the main soundtrack playing much louder once the title appears and the title last for around four seconds before transitioning out just like the main title does in Kick-Ass 2. There is one last clip after the last title before the opening ends, this is also different from my influential film as the end of the opening is marked by the last title.

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

The social group that our film represents is teenagers from ages 15-18 that are in education, I say this because our main character, Joey, is a 16 year old boy who lives a very normal school and social life and does not seem extraordinary at all; his hobby is skateboarding and this will appeal to skateboarders. This means that both our character and the group we are trying to represent have things in common and it can be clear to see that our character is a re-presentation of this group. However, the physical appearance of our character and his surroundings would suggest that he represents another social group and the posters in the background show that his is also part of a social group that is interested in a certain genre of music; this difference in appearance places him in multiple social groups and represents a wider range of teenagers. The main social group we are representing is older teenagers that are in education, we have many smaller social groups that are represented in our characters hobbies and interests such as skateboarders and those who listen to rock music.The idea behind representing this social group when making our film is that it is relatable by the majority of the fantasy genre's viewing audience and so this would create much more audience appeal for the film as it allows viewers to be drawn into this new reality much easier if they see themselves as the main character.

Question: 3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A commentated video presentation explaining which institutions from both the US and UK would fund, produce and distribute my media product with references to my influential film: https://youtu.be/BvUYNGnQBLY

Question: 4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Name: Jesse Mautner 

Age: 17 

Interests: Jesse enjoys hanging out with friends, whether that be at the cinema or at a sports game or at home watching a DVD or playing video games. Jesse enjoys action and fantasy films and regularly watches films on demand when he can't see his friends.

Interest in cinema: Jesse loves to watch films and go to the cinema as he loves to get into the storyline and taken out of his reality so he can focus on the films reality as if he was there. He also loves talking about and discussing the film afterwards with his friends and telling other people about the films he has seen.

Why is he a good person to go see our film?: Jesse would go and see our film as he is very into the fantasy and action genres as most teenagers are, this means that our film fits this genre choice perfectly. This film is also as film he would want to see with his friends so that they can all talk about it after they've seen the film creating a better social bond as they all enjoy the same types of film.

Question: 5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Annotated Version of our film explaining how we attracted/addressed our audience: https://youtu.be/wCp7YTsvl0Y

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

Top, Left: The program I used to edit our main task and preliminary was called Adobe After Effects CC and in order to edit the film I had to learn how to use the program to edit in a way that would make it look like it had been professionally edited as I already had experience in AAE but not editing films.

Top, Middle: The tripod we used was a Hama tripod that we borrowed from our teacher but sometimes I had my own tripod with me. I have some experience with a tripod in other subjects and outside of school so for me there was not much to learn with this piece of equipment.

Top, Right: For the introductions for the production and distribution company I did the animations and 3D work in a program called Cinema 4D, it allows me to sculpt 3D creations and animate them such as the text and moving 2D shapes. I've used this program a lot in the past but it was a while ago so I had to watch tutorials and other videos to relearn how to use the program.

Middle, Left: My USB stick was used to carry files from the camera and school computers where i found music and sound effects and did some editing to my computer at home to do the rest, it meant I could work on the film wherever there was a computer.

Middle, Middle: The canon camera was the camera we used to shoot our film as Toby, a member of our group, owned this camera and so it would have better quality that the school cameras that were available. I got to learn how this camera works and how our cinematographer uses this kind of camera to get different camera shots as it is much different to the cameras that were available as it is a DSLR, which I have lots of experience with but not for videos.

Middle, Right: The monitor was what I used to see what I was editing and in order to be able to get the clips as the tower to the computer needs a monitor of some kind.

Bottom, Left: This podcasting kit was what we used to record the original narration for the rough cut but we ended up scrapping that idea. To use this kit I had to learn how to set it up and how it works with the computer in order to record the audio and dialogue that I am responsible for recording.

Bottom, Middle: Audacity is the program I used in order to record any audio that came through the podcasting kit such as Toby's narration and dialogue and other sound effects that i could not find online so I had to recreate. It was hard trying to learn the correct settings but after some online tutorials I learnt how to get the best quality out of the audio.

Bottom, Right: This is the computer that I used in order to edit the film, create the introductions for the media companies and to find/record any sound effects and music that I needed. I am quite good with computers already as I used them a lot so there was nothing i really need to learn when using this computer.

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

A commentated video of both our preliminary and main task, explaining what I have learnt in the progression of our films and how I applied that knowledge to my roles in the group: https://youtu.be/-Z8TbiwI08E