'Fightnight'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1mmsjlpcdg

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

Since the time I shot my preliminary task back in September, I honestly think that my media "skills" have improved substantially. If you look back at my preliminary task You will notice the terrible standard of which my 'movie' was.

The first thing which I have realised and learned since September is that I have to be organised with what I do to succeed and more specifically, planning before I set out for a video shoot. Without creating a storyboard prior to collecting your footage You will always forget something, like what angle or zoom level a certain shot should be at, or forget the shot altogether. It is also important because if you have to spend time planning your shots at the location there are many things which can go wrong, like the weather changing spontaneously, or your camera running out of battery. Also since this was a group task, I had to not only keep myself organised, but make sure that everyone else is available on the same day so we can record together. 

The understanding of different film genres is something which I think comes with experience as a spectator. I used to watch on average 3 films a week which I believe is a normal amount for someone my age. Since the start of my AS Media course I became a lot more passionate about films and I now watch about 5 every week, which I believe gives me a great advantage when learning about genres. I now know that different genres have different codes and conventions which need to be followed for the film to be considered a part of that genre. To list all the differences between genres would take me too long for this evaluation as there are so many different variations of genres as they link with each other to make a new type, like the sports-drama genre for example.

As far as my camera skills go, I remember being completely clueless when recording my preliminary task. I knew that this was my weakest area, however since then I have become the main camera man for our group. The quality of my shots has improved a great amount, I learnt that the tripod is a crucial part of a good shot as keeping your hand still for longer periods of time is almost impossible and a shaking shot is probably the most unprofessional thing out there. I have already talked about this more in-depth in one of the other questions where I talk about manual zoom etc. 

I was always really good at using technology and different computer programs to my advantage. Final cut X was a completely new program for me, and during the preliminary task editing period, because of my zero experience I was having a hard time using it. I didn't even realise that the program saves everything automatically for you, so I sat there trying to figure out how to save your project manually, not knowing that this option doesn't exist. As the year went on, I learnt new tricks and ways to edit using the Final cut X program, like how to cut audio and video into smaller pieces aswell as adding sound effects and visual effects to your film. 

The importance of a soundtrack in a movie can't be stressed enough, if the soundtrack isn't right then your shots will look/be received completely different. My preliminary task didn't feature a soundtrack I believe, however back then I did not realise how important it is to have one. In one of my media lessons I remember watching the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan", when the US troops infiltrate the beach controlled by the Germans. The scene was played two times, once with the original soundtrack and once with the soundtrack cut out. The difference was astounding. The soundtrack brings out emotions in people when paired with what's on the screen, it is just as important as the shot itself when it comes to the way in which you want your audience to interpret your movie.

As far as understanding Journalism (what I wish to study later on and do in life), I don't believe that this AS course helped me all that much. I learnt a great amount about Movie making and things like Synergy which I will benefit from as it is linked to all different aspects of Media, Journalism included. 

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

The title used for our film is unique and one that I personally have never seen before. In my opinion these are perfect for our film because as well as illustrating the name of our production, because of the transparent font we are able to see deep into David's eyes. In a drama film, the audience are meant to connect with the characters emotionally and feel different ways towards them, which is why there is usually some sort of a tragedy/misfortune happening to the tragic hero as sympathy is one of the strongest feelings. The music which we have used in our film has little to do with the drama aspect of our film, and somewhat nothing to do with the sport genre. What the non-diagetic, trap beat is there for is so that the audience can realise what kind of place the film is set in. The Trap music genre is never seen as positive or one which has a positive influence on people. This kind of music brings out aggression in people which is why I think it matches our opening scene perfectly, even if it doesn't really follow the conventions of a sports drama. There is little dialogue, The tank calls David's brother over in an aggressive, commanding manner by using imperative verbs like "come". The headbutt sound effect is there to make the film seem more professional and believable. The way I edited our film was to match the action happening on screen, for example during the action, fight and gym scene the shots are quicker, whereas during the rest of the scene the shots are of a slower pace since there is no action happening. The high angle shot of the tank is to illustrate the power he has over David's brother. The close up which zooms into an extreme close up of David's eyes captures the fear for his brother's well being.

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As far as social class goes, the two represented in our film are working and middle class. The working class is represented in the form of "The Tank" who is a 'hood-boy', and of course the antagonist for our story. This might be seen as a rather negative representation of this social class, and this point can be backed up with the use of the fight scene where The tank starts all the trouble. When he spits on ME at the end in the fight scene, it is a visual representation of the lack of respect he has for the other social groups, not just ME. Part of the reason he hates David, and therefore assaults his brother is due to his jealousy towards him. This jealousy originated back when the two met in the U-16 boxing championships in which David humiliated The Tank due to his parents being able to afford professional coaching, whereas The Tank had to do with his one punching bag, a pair of gloves and a skipping rope. David's family are the middle class people in our film, they own the nice house and can afford luxuries. The middle class is represented in a positive light, the shot where David gives his mum a kiss suggests that there is love in the family and David has his family's support when it comes to his passion (boxing). In contrast, we don't see anyone supporting the Tank in the same way. Also, the reason The Tank beats up David's brother is to damage him mentally before their fight. This is a really shallow, unsporting move, casting a dark shadow over the lower class and making the audience feel commiserate towards the middle class. The Black-British race is represented by our lower class character, the tank. The stereotype which goes on in South London of teenage black boys being difficult and corrupt in society is one of the reason we decided to have Terrel Laing play this character, as we wanted the Antagonist to be a Black male due to the region action takes place in. The White-British is the other race represented in our film. David's family are all of this race, meaning that they are middle class and therefore the White-British are represented positively. You could say that we represented the youth in a negative manner because of the violence in the fight scene, however since both the antagonist and the protagonist are part of the same age group we can't give a clear representation. The only woman in our opening scene is David's mother. Stereotypically, She is seen doing the washing up when David is in the kitchen, to symbolise that she is a housewife, supporting her family by taking care of their home instead of working which is just as important. This is also because She simply doesn't have to work because the father of the family earns more than enough money to look after them financially on his own. Males are represented in a very masculine manner, the main characters being boxers which is known to be a very manly sport. However not every male in the film is represented in this way as David's brother is defenceless when the tank beats him up. This make's him seem as a weak person, not very masculine and quiet tragic actually. As far as sexuality goes in the opening scene, it is simply absent. When David's brother leaves his girlfriend's house, there is a possibility that something sexual went on, however this is not on camera and completely up to the interpretation of the audience.

Who is your target Audience? How did you attract and address them?

http://prezi.com/bhswzwjlp_7d/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

All film genres have a particular audience targeted, so when I decided my film was going to be of the sport-drama genre I had to remember that the codes and conventions which follow this genre will only appeal to that target audience.

An effective way of finding out our target audience was through the use of questionnaires. The highly successful method of primary research was great help to us when finding out what kind of people will watch our film and what they wanted to see from this genre. Our questionnaire contained 10 carefully selected questions, and the goal of these questions was to find out target audience. Once the results have been collected from 10 different individuals, we realised that our genre will appeal to younger, male viewers, in general.

For us to be able to attract this type of audience, we had to use the relevant codes and conventions of the sports-drama genre, including an emotional journey in which the character comes to some resolution at the end but still using dramatic and entertaining was of portraying regular people with regular lifestyles that the audience will be able to relate to.

 Being able to relate to the characters and setting was another vital aspect of attracting and holding the audiences attention. Our target audience of younger male viewers are likely to relate to the main character, depending on the social class that they are a part of. The lower to middle class viewers can relate to the setting, a typical residential area. Stereotypically, all boys should relate to the passion he has for sport.

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

During the pre production and research section of the project I used Google for almost everything. It is the best search engine out there and the web 2.0 website searches for any keyword you type in. To be honest I haven't learnt anything new about it other than the fact it is a web 2.0 website. YouTube is another website is used a lot. I have used this website so much before that I knew it inside out and I used it to it's fullest to aid me in the research process. Every trailer I watched of existing products was on youtube, also any videos which are posted on my blog have been embed from YouTube. That last bit is what i have learnt about this specific bit of technology. Embeding videos can be very useful as a blogger/journalist. Blogger was a completely new piece of technology to me, i have never come across this website before and it took me a while to get used to. The linking of different media to this blog is useful skill which i will now use when writing my personal blog. Adobe Photoshop is the programme I used to create the poster seen in one of our scenes. I have really good editing skills already due to all the times I used this programme in years 9,10 and 11, during my ICT diploma course. I didn't learn much, but it refreshed all the knowledge i had about this programme from before. I collected all my footage using a digital SLR Camera with A large lens. The camera had an automatic focus option however for better results I usually stuck with using the Manual focus. I learnt that the without the tripod the shots would be of a poor and unprofessional standard which is why every shot i ever recorded (other than the floor, punching shot) was with the use of a tripod. I discovered that to record with this specific SLR camera you need to pull down the red button and then press it. One of the problems which reoccurred throughout was the low battery life of the camera which is why wee always tried to have both batteries charged at the same time so we can replace them when necessary. As far as as the other features of the camera go, I didn't feel the need to learn about the in depth since automatic settings were good enough and using the flash was not necessary. Royalty free, copyright free and license free websites were crucial to us as we had to pick a soundtrack for the film which we were free to use without any legal boundries, and luckily for us one of our friends produces his own music which meant that we didn't have to look for both our songs on these websites. I found that the websites which contain free music have so much choice and variation that it is hard to decide which song to use.