Evaluation Activity 7.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Doing the preliminary task has helped me to learn and use the camera and Mac. It allowed me to use the camera properly as I've learnt how to use it the tri-pod which helps to make the camera view a better quality. It also has allowed me to feel confident using the cameras and the Mac, and this would help me for the future reference.

The preliminiary task helped us prevent mistakes by planning our film carefully (using storyboards, shotlists, prop lists, scripts, biography and more). These planning set prevented us from making mistakes such as mixture of filming scenes; and irrelevant dialogues.

When we get to the stage of main task which is filming, I will use different kind of cameraworks such as Shot reverse shot, maction action, low angle and more. Because of the preliminary task, I will be able to film our movie into a much more better quality using different cameraworks.

In the editing stage, we set out plans on what type of music we are going to put into our film. We firstly researched this by handing out questionnaires which led us to finding out what other people want and/or expect to see in a spy/thriller films. The results came out as fast-phase music which creates tension and suspense to the audience.

We have also identified which sounds are suitable as a music background or as a scene sounds.  These are called Diegetic and Non-diegetic sound; diegetic sound is a sound which is a part of the film world we are watching. This can be the dialogues, sound effects or music that is coming from an actual source within the film world; within our film, we added diegetic sounds and these are the dialogues and sound effects we did by ourselves. Non-diegetic sound is a sound which we do not recognise as part of the film world, such as voice-over or background music; we also non-diegetic sound in our film and these are the background music which was used to create tension.

We used specifics camera work and these were:

Match On Action - It is a cut from one shot to another view that matches the action and face of the first shot. A visual 'bridge' is created which acts to disguise the cut from one to the other.We used this in our film quite a lot as it gives our film more professionality and emphasizes the fast-phase music background.

Shot Reverse Shot - It is a film technique wherein one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. We used this in our film to show that we have the knowledge to present conversations effectively to our audiences.

 180 degree rule - It is a basic guideline in film making that states that 2 character (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. We also used this as it creates professionality and more effective way of showing the relationship of the characters. Without this, the scenes wouldn't be much effective as it would be messy to look at.

Overall, I think that our film went very well; I am very pleased with our stages (research & planning, preliminary, main task and editing task) we have developed countless skills that could help us in the future. Especially with me hoping to get in a university as an animator student.

Evaluation Activity 6.

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

Throughout this project, I have learnt to use different kind of modern technology to make this film. I have use many softwares on a computer which is a Mac made by the Apple company. 

To film my movie, I have used a Camera and a Tri-pod. Before using I learnt how to properly use them and what are the basics of cameraworks.

I have used Imovie HD to edit all my clips that have been taken using the camera. Imovie HD, I think is very beneficial to us as without this, we wouldn't have portrayed many scenes very effectively. We also wouldn't be able to add the desired effects to make it suit the right genre. 

I also have used Garageband to edit all my background music and effects. This has aided me throughout my project because instead of using an actual song from a well-known artist, a sense of originality wouldn't come to us right now. We spent hours just to find the right track and instrument to perfectly suit the scenes of our film. We used Itunes to publish our music in so we can easily put the music into our film. In the end, we are very pleased of the outcomes and some audiences have praised them. 

Blogger has been a very helpful website for us as it helped us keep track and be organized with our project. We blogged about important stuff such as the locations of the scenes; the script we used for our film; and many more.

I also used Youtube, a video service community that allows you to view videos freely without charge. I used Youtube to watch different kind of trailers my film would be relevant to. This has helped me identify and progressed and more improved my film into a better quality.

Evaluation Activity 5.

How did you attract your audience?

When guns are shown in a film, I quickly get the feeling of hard action films like James Bond probably because of the effect of one of its openings. This is really effective as it emphasizes our film genre.

Our film would attract audiences because of our film has most of the connotations of a spy-thriller film, such as the use of weapons like guns and gadgets which perfectly fits the Spy Thriller genre. In this clip/scene, the character is shown pulling out a gun to intimidate the antagonist to make her feel dominative and higher class which therefore the antagonist should give up to.

I also chose this scene as it shows the protagonist's daily lives which is a normal college girl but in this scene a much tenser event has occured which triggered Faith's real identity. In this scene, we can see conotations of normal lives because of the books, classroom, and how people are dressed. A fast-phase music starts here which triggers the audience to the edge of their seats as the protagonist sets off to chase her intention and desire which is to capture the antagonist.

Evaluation Activity 4.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Andrew would be a part of our target audience. He is around the age of 15-24, who enjoys spending time with friends. He likes to shop at Topman, River Island and Primark. He listens to R&B and varieties of Rock. Andrew enjoys watching the James Bond series and other action films out there; he also likes comedy like White Chicks who are about two black guys goes undercover as two white females. His favourite film is Kick-Ass 

because he loves combat action, and he loves protagonists who goes undercover to defeat the antagonist.

Our film, 'Chase' would enter here. Andrew would love our film as combat-action is presented, undercover spies and dramatic storyline are sure to attract Andrew. Suspense and thrilling features are also presented which gives out the real potential to the film and therefore gives Andrew a film that he hasn't seen like any other.

Our film has use the connotation of weapons and bloods during fights between characters would set our film in a category of 15.

Evaluation Activity 3.

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

 Our film is a Spy-Thriller genre which interests a lot of audiences around the world. Spy genre have been presented widely to the globe through the James Bond films. Many films have been produced because of James Bond's inspirational feature, and one of them is Johnny English who adapted the James Bond's qualities and experimented and added the genre of Comedy.

Many people enjoy watching hard action thriller as it gives them the thriller of watching Heroes beating up bad guys. Our local cinema which is Odeon have been widely popular amongst different kind of age varieties, it has been distributing popular films such as Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows, The Tourist and more new films. Odeon would be the best cinema to distribute our film as it is widely known not only in the UK but also in other countries. With that number of people going to cinema everyday, our film would attract lots of audience and therefore will help build it up to make a hit through people. Our film will then on be shown through television such as BBC1, ITV and Sky Movies. 

Evaluation Activity 2.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Carmen Cortez in Spy Kids Series and Anna Alvarez as Faith

The characteristics of Faith is similar to Carmen Cortez from the Spy Kids Series. They both have enough courage to be the Protagonist of the story; they are both brave and strong-willed and family oriented. Carmen Cortez cares for her family, and if one is in trouble, they would be there for that person. Faith, in the other hand, have lost her own family, but was adopted by a General Policeman and considered him as her own father; throughout the story, she shows care and sense of gratitude to his now father. Faith's parents died in front of her when she was around the age of 3, and her older sister was taken from her by an evil man. From then on, she swore to herself that she will find her sister therefore taking the path of being a spy to gain more knowledge and easily track her sister.

In physical view, Carmen Cortez is a normal school girl at first until she finds out about her parent's occupancy. She is also good at combats and with gadgets which makes her a really good spy. On the other hand, Faith is not a school girl but a college girl, and is secretly hiding her identity behind people around her except for the people that knows her real identity. She is really dedicated to capture Oscura to prove that all her efforts were not wasted. The difference between them two is Carmen Cortez having someone to accompany her through her journey since the start which is her own brother whereas Faith started as a lonely girl and pursued her passion on finding her older sibling, but later throughout the story, she finds to realize that she has someone who are there for her like B.O.B. for example.

Overall, this comparison of the two are really effective as the positivies similarites are shown and differences between the two makes our character more original and dramatic.

Evaluation Activity 1.

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

Frame 1 (The title of the film) - Our film title is called 'Chase' and is presented right after the 'dream scene' as the antagonist shoots the gun. The title acted as the bullet therefore it is shakey and jumpy which creates tension as presented to the audience.

Frame 2 (Font style) - The font style used in this opening scene are vital as it also links and represent the genre of the film. The font style we used is called Impact; we used this type of font because it is the most relevant to the genre due to its san-serif font style, and modern look like the font of 'James Bond' films which looks really modern and has a spy-thriller feel to it.

Frame 3 (Genre and how openning suggests it) - As our genre is Spy-Thriller we needed to progress our film into making it obvious as a spy-thriller. We suceeded this by showing a character in a 'secret base' who guides the protagonist using gadget devices. This informs the audience that without this guidance, the protagonist wouldn't be succesful with her quests.

Frame 4 (Setting/Location) - Our setting and location are at college (inside a class), secret base, isolated roof building and local neighbourhood. We decided these places to be our film location because Faith (Anna) is a college student so we wanted to show her daily life; isolated roof area of the building because our genre is a spy/thriller, we wanted to present the secrecy of the antagonist and how great of an assasin she is. Secret Base is one of the vital locations in the film as it is the place where the secret spy organisation resides. We also added a scene in a local neighbourhood because we wanted to show the audience that even if it is a local naighbourhood where there can be people; no one can stop the two.

Frame 5 (Camerawork and Editing) - We used a variety of camerawork such as Close Ups (CU), Medium Shot (MS), Long Shot (LS), Match-on-action, Shot Reverse Shot, 180° rule, and we also did a lot of editing to suit the genre of the film. We added a contrast and brightness to make the scenes more clear to watch, and we made sure each scene starts at the right time so when scenes are put together, it would have a nice balanced flow.

Frame 6 (Special Effects) - We added special effects to maximize the suitability of the film to its genre; we added ghost trails on the running scene to make it look more fast phase and thus would create tension. For music, we used Garageband to make our music for the film; we mixed different fast phase beats to show that the running scenes are fast phase and creates uneasiness to the audience.

Frame 7 (How characters are introduced) - Faith which is Anna; she is introduced as the girl dreaming. She is presented right after the title scene when she slowly wakes up from the dream. Her friend which is Andrew was presented when he made sure that Anna was ok. I was B.O.B. who was the person in the secret base where I guide Anna through her journey; I was presented when I contacted Anna through a special device, she was in the classroom whilst I was in a secret place. and finally, Oscura which is Jasmine was presented on the very first part of the opening but she was anonymous and wasn't properly presented until Faith saw her.

Frame 8 (Story and how the opening sets it up) - As the title is 'Chase' we made our opening a chase scene to show the audience that the title and the film are relevant. Faith looks like a normal college girl at first but as the opening progress, her true identity is revealed which is a secret spy agent working for the police in desire of capturing the antagonist, Oscura.

Frame 9 (Costumes and props) - Every character dress to suit their identities, for example Faith is dressed as a normal college girl but equipped with hidden gadgets such as the "earphone" which she used to communicate with B.O.B. The way she dressed suits her identity very well as she looks like a normal college girl but she is working as a spy for the police. Oscura dressed in full black clothes;black top; black skirt; and black boots. She is presented as an assasin who works for criminals and the way she dressed shows this quite effectively like 'Black Widow'; a character from Iron Man 2 films where she was first presented as an antagonist and then introduced as the leading lady in the film later on. B.O.B. is the cheeky and the joker of the film, he assists Faith with her spy activities and helps her find Oscura. He dresses quite 'nerdy' looking which gives the impression that he is intellectual. His character is like Bob Ho from the film 'The Spy Next Door' which is a comedy-spy genre.