Note

The rest of my evaluation tasks, plus these questions and answers, can be found on my main blog, called 'Matthew's Blog'.

Evaluation Questions

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

In Evasion, many typical thriller conventions are portrayed. As our sequence was a crime/man-on-the-run thriller, one convention which would be expected and was incorporated into our sequence, is a chase scene. Our chase scene through the streets is similar to many chase scenes in past movies, and captures the audience from the start. The use of a gun as a prop when the henchman is pursuing the man on the run, also showed a generic convention of a crime/action thriller. 
  

One aspect which may be considered to challenge the conventions is the fact that the man on the run was identified from the very beginning of the movie, setting up the rest of the movie for probably a pursuit in that particular area or neighbourhood rather than a whole country, and over the course of hours or days rather than weeks, as the man has already come close to being captured and clearly after the opening sequence would only have a matter of time before his pursuers find him again. Another way that Evasion challenges conventions is that the people chasing the man on the run were not police chasing a vigilante, as is often the case, but seemed to be a small group of young criminals chasing another young man. This adds mystery to the plot and suggests that the pursuers are criminals wanting to capture the man for other reasons than to uphold the law, but probably something more along the lines of interrogation or revenge for a past regretted incident.

All of the aforementioned factors show the conventions of a crime/action/man-on-the-run thriller. This is in a way a hybrid but is also similar to many movies, which involve factors of all those genres. Although this movie was not a direct influence, we found similarities after shooting with Evasion and The Bourne Trilogy, which follows a man constantly being pursued, while he pursuits the truth. The mise-en-scene of the movie is influenced and similar to Adulthood, a UK crime/drama movie.
  

 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
  

Evasion mostly represents young middle class men of a variety of races. All the characters are young, athletic males and there is evidence to suggest they are middle class, such as their clothing, their car and their phones. Although there is not a variety of genders or ages represented, the races of our characters have a wide range. There are characters of Pakistani, Indian, Jamaican and English descent all featured, however they are all UK citizens, and all speak English. 

The young males are represented in a rather stereotypical manner. This adds to the realism of the sequence, and also reflects society and deals with possible issues surrounding the behaviour of this social group. All the actors are male and the kingpin, shows especially hostile behaviour in his scenes, typical of how young males are portrayed in the UK. The fact that they are also criminals carrying guns, faces head-on many issues over crime amongst young people in the UK in modern society. This can appeal to the target audience as they are also young males, but in the bigger picture it could also educate them about the consequences of such behaviour, should they have experienced or are taking part in criminal activity.
  

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

This movie is the kind which you would expect to see produced by an independent film company in the UK, or by a popular terrestrial television broadcasting company such as the BBC, ITV or Channel 4. The movie is similar to Kidulthood which was a BBC production, and used many actors associated with the BBC such as Noel Clarke. Channel 4 have been invovled with such UK movies as This Is England which is similar in terms of setting.
  

The production values on our movie are also obviously low, so it would not be associated with a major studio, especially an American one such as a Hollywood studio. The sequence does not follow the usual format of a television movie, as the opening sequence is rather fast paced and comes across like a movie. Usually in a television movie the opening sequence would be short, simple and finish with the title. Evasion could definitely be an arthouse film, as it appeals to a small audience rather than a wide one, with Evasion mostly appealing to the particular urban sub-culture which so many young males in the UK are a part of. 
  

The movie could be an internet only release as the target audience are generally enthusiastic users of the internet and technology. Another option would be a straight to DVD release as the movie does not have high production values meaning a cinema screening would be unlikely, and unnecessary with the target audience being such a minority in the world spectrum. A company such as the BBC may benefit from releasing our movie as although it portrays crime, in the full script there would be moral conclusions, to put into perspective the aggressive culture of many young people in modern society.
  

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

The main target audience for our movie would be a rather small group. Evasion would be aimed at young males in the UK who are part of the urban sub-culture. This movie would appeal to them as the characters share the same appearance, attitude and lifestyle. Our movie has a rather fast-paced action style and contains scenes which indicate violence, such as chasing a man down with a gun. This narrative is stereotypically what young males enjoy to see in a movie. Other movies which share this target audience include Kidulthood, Adulthood, Green Street and Snatch. 
  

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
  

Evasion included many conventions to attract the desired target audience. The main point when trying to attract a particular audience, is to make references that only their sub-culture, rather than wider society, can relate to. This makes small groups of people with a strong identity feel understood, and they are usually very enthusiastic about the rare movies that express their attitudes and way of life. The easiest way to make specific references to small sub-cultures is through the mise-en-scene and the language. We used some slang in the script of Evasion such as the line "My man won't know what hit him" but did not take this idea too far as this could be considered unprofessional because it may repel more people than it attracts, especially people such as film critics, whom are unlikely to be part of the target audience and therefore may become uninterested if there are lines which they do not understand. 
  

The whole cast are young males in the UK which would make this audience feel greatly represented and understanded, and of course two sides are shown, the pursuers; who were the more evil people in the script, and in contrast; the supposedly innocent man-on-the-run. Other aspects that the target audience can relate to are the appearance of the characters, which include popular fashions among young men in the UK who follow the urban sub-culture, and the setting which of course portrays a typical neighbourhood on the outskirts of London, which would look similar to where many of these people have grown up or lived for a large portion of their lives. 
  

Some scenes such as the one where the kingpin is speaking in a hostile manner to the henchman over the phone, may appear quite shocking to older generations who in some cases hold manners and a polite tone in high regard in terms of their values. The portrayal of a gun in the movie also may appear shocking to these people as most UK residents have never seen a gun on the streets, which is of course an idea incorporated in our movie. 
  

The audience sees the storyline from the perspective of the henchmen if anyone. The only point of view shot used is one of the henchman watching the man on the run crossing a road. The viewer, following the henchmen's characters would develop an opinion, and hope for the man on the run to escape, as they can see the henchmen's and kingpin's aggressive attitudes and violent intentions, which would put them off the character. This idea of the audience developing a preference of a certain character, and siding with them, would make them more intrigued by the movie, and create more suspense when their favourite character is in danger of being captured or killed.
  

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

The process of constructing the product was a completely new experience and the production was a great education in the practical work of the modern media world. The camera was a Canon HD which produced great footage and was especially effective when used for close ups of character's faces. When filming our rough cut, we originally had the kingpin's scene in a very dark room with minimal lighting, however the camera did not capture the setting very well, and the shots were quite grainy, which forced us to film in a normally-lighted room in our final version. One problem faced when filming out on the streets was that the dolly did not travel smoothly on the pavement and therefore caused very unsteady shots, forcing us to use a handheld shot instead when the henchman is walking towards the car. The dolly was successful however in the kingpin's scene where the camera rotated around him slowly and smoothly. A problem with the camera was the low battery life. In preparation for our final shoot we charged the camera to full battery, unlike for the previous shoot, however we were still pushed for time towards the end, in our final shots, as the battery was running low. 

During editing there were very few problems. Final Cut Express was very useful and the effects we used most commonly were the fade effect on the video, and the titles over our shots, which had an added shadow effect for a clearer outline and more professional appearance. These titles also fitted the mise-en-scene as the titles were simple to fit the simple street location, and no-nonsense approach of the characters in the movie. Garageband was also useful as it allowed us to take Ashgo's track produced in FL Studio 8, and edit the track, and add tracks. We added two tracks and used the keyboard to record our short instrumental sequences such as the bell sounds in the intro, and the cymbals which build suspense towards the end of the chase sequence.

  

7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When we planned our preliminary task we failed to think about all the loose ends of the storylines and the continuity of many shots. We did not research our genre or create an effective plan. This all changed when we planned our thriller opening sequence. Ideas were discussed for around a week and a half before all the group decided on one storyline. All of the group members had similar ideas, and we incorporated aspects of each person's ideas and used them in our script. The genre did not require extra research as all of us are fans of thriller movies and are no strangers to the man-on-the-run, action or crime sub-genres. 
  

After deciding on a storyline, we began work on our script, which in terms of dialogue, just included the short exchange between the kingpin and the henchman over the phone. Then came work on the storyboard. This required a lot more thinking as we had to decide how to introduce characters, how to finish the sequence with an effective shot, and what streets to use for our setting. The storyboard took around two hours to complete together, as we had to work out many factors, but we were eventually successful.

On our first shoot we all came with knowledge and lessons learned from the weaknesses in our preliminary task videos. The main problem in the continuity task most recently done before this, was continuity. This is something our group combated head on and considered throughout. In our opening sequence we also used a wide range of shots compared to our respective preliminary tasks, which consisted of mostly midshots and point of view shots. The point of view shot used in our opening sequence was more appropriate than when this shot was used in the preliminary task and was more relevant. The many camera shots we used included pan shots, a tracking shot, an establishing shot, longshots, midshots, a point of view shot, close ups, an extreme close up and a high angle shot from a rooftop.

The equipment, especially the editing tool of Final Cut Express, was used much more confidently when piecing together our opening sequence. We discovered many new effects which we did not know about and discovered many techniques such as overlapping audio, editing audio levels, using fade effects, and adding titles. Our chopping skills also improved as there was appropriate hangtime for all our shots in our final cut.

Overall I feel that this was a refreshing and enriching experience, and we fulfilled the main task very successfully. I can say with pride and confidence that our group produced a good quality, well planned, and very hard worked on opening sequence for a thriller movie which was a great first time effort, and portrayed our media skills and knowledge of thriller conventions to a high standard.

Cast Interviews

I made a video to give people an insight into our project and what it was like for all the individuals taking part. This video was also a way to exploit my new found skills in final cut. The theme tune for the movie 'Rusteeq' by Ashgo is playing in the background to add to the theme of the video. There are some funny questions and some serious ones and hopefully the video is a good watch. I used many tools in this video such as overlapping video audio, editing audio levels, adding overlapping text, cutting scenes and re-using different parts of sequences. Unfortunately to upload here, we had to export to a lower quality. During our interviews we used some good English vocabulary but also some young people UK slang in order to get in touch with the under-exploited teenage audience a bit more.

Props

This is some of the possible props for use in our filming tomorrow.

This picture, and a couple from our group's storyboard can also be found on the 'Yfrog' photosharing website, as seen here http://yfrog.com/16wy50j

Inspirations And Why

Although this movie was not an inspiration as I had never seen the movie, the plot which most closely matches the one of our story, is 'The Bourne Trilogy'.

The movie uses a 12A certificate as it is an complex political storyline however there is no extreme violence or nudity. This is similar to our movie however the storyline is more psychological than political and the idea for later parts of the movie involve stronger violence so the certificate of our movie should probably be a 15.

'The Bourne Trilogy' also uses many tracking shots and street chases, similar to our opening sequence, and from research we gathered that the movie used some unique handheld camera shots which we are likely to also use.

Inspiration for the psychological aspect is 'Donnie Darko' as the movie has some dark scenes and they lead to tricks being played on the viewer.

Questionnaire For Audience Research

1. What gender are you?  Male  Female
2. What age are you?  Under 16    17-26    27-36   37-46    47-56   57-66   66+
3. Which of these movie genres is your favourite? Comedy    Thriller    Musical   Romance    Drama   
     Sci-Fi   Other
4. Which of these movies do you most enjoy?  Harold And Kumar    The Bourne Identity    High School Musical    Pride And Prejudice   Othello   Terminator   I haven't seen any    I don't like any    I like them all  
5. What do you consider to be the conventions of a Thriller movie?
6. Which of these settings entices you the most?   Park    Street    Nightclub   Office    House   
    Police Station   Abandoned Warehouse
7. Which of these characters is most iconic? Terminator (Terminator Movies)  
Batman (Batman Movies)     Jigsaw (Saw Movies)    Jason Bourne (Bourne Trilogy)     None        Other
8. Which is your favourite movie from the following? Ocean's Eleven   Ocean's Twelve   Ocean's Thirteen

Comparing Two Opening Sequences

Kidulthood

Sound: The non-diagetic music used in the opening sequence of 'Kidulthood' is a steady beat, which fits in well with the theme of the movie and lasts throughout the sequence. The diagetic sound includes a drill being used by Trevor to construct a gun and general conversations in the playground.
Mise-en-scene: The characters are all dressed to fit in with the theme. The opening scene is in a high school so everyone is wearing the uniform. The high school setting means it is filled with many people.
Narrative: The main character, Trevor is constructing and hiding a gun, meanwhile Sam is being hostile to people in the playground and asking questions and finally, some random white guy is handing out invitations to a party.
Camera shots: The sequence uses extreme close ups when Trevor is constructing the gun and also close ups are used to show the concentrated look in his eye. An establishing, high angle shot is used in the playground to show its size and all the people.
Aim: The aim of the opening sequence is to establish the theme of the movie. The opening scene hints that the movie will involve violence with the gun being constructed and Sam behaving in an aggressive manner. The scene also establishes the fact that the characters will be mostly high school students. There is some enigma because the viewer is not made aware of why Sam is being aggressive and why Trevor is constructing a gun and whether the two actions are linked.

Silence of the Lambs


Sound: The non-diagetic sound is slow background music which helps build tension. The diagetic sound includes the woman's footsteps as she runs.
Mise-en-scene: The woman is wearing a casual/sport sweatshirt which shows that the situation is nothing special at first sight. The setting is a dull, forrest filled with obstacles.
Narrative: A woman is running through a forrest in a fast tempo fashion and an FBI officer is there and provides her with some information.
Camera shots: A longshot is used at first which shows the forrest and then the shot pans down. A low angled shot is used as the woman moves towards the shot. A tracking shot is then used as the woman continues to run. As she goes through obstacles the camera pans around her. When she meets the FBI officer a close up is used to show his facial expression as the camera zooms on him. The camera zooms in on the woman at the end before gory images are shown.
Aim: The aim of the sequence is to produce some enigma as the viewer does not initially know why the woman is running and tension is also built by the slow music to intrigue the viewer, and make them want to watch the rest of the movie.