Evaluation Task 4

Throughout the production and creation of Conor's and My media products we have used several media technologies and equipment. We have varied our equipment depending on the task, we have both become able and competent in the use of this equipment. The majority of the products we used weren't to a professional standard but suited our level of production perfectly. The following products are the ones that Conor and I used for our media texts:

• DV1 Camera
• Canon SLR
• Tripod
• Premiere Elements
• Action FX
• IPad
• Photoshop
• Blogger
• Google
• You Tube

Research and Planning:

For our research and planning we had to look at existing trailers so we would gather an understanding as to what makes a successful movie trailer. Without the planning section we wouldn't have achieved such a successful final product. We used You Tube to look at existing action movie trailers to learn the techniques and approaches we needed to make it adhere to the conventions of an action film.

Filming:
For the filming of our trailer we used three different media technologies, they were DV1 camera, tripod, action FX and a IPad. The camera first of all was very suitable for our usage as we were only producing a low quality piece of footage so quality of the image wasn't an issue for us. The camera is a great all rounder as it includes the built in mic which many of the top of the range camera's might not, this meant great portability when moving between filming locations.  To keep the camera steady without any body movement from the camera man we used a tripod. This was arguable one of the most helpful tools out of all of our products as it kept our work to the highest quality possible as there wasn't any scenes where the camera was shaking due to the camera man. It also helped keep our crew down as Conor and I were able to film a scene with both of us in it without the trouble of trying to find a temporary crew member to get us both in the shot. None of us really struggled with the camera we both had experience from last years film and we could use the camera and tripod from the offset with out any troubles. We have learnt more from the equipment as we have become more creative and have decided to explore lots of different angles.

Myself with the camera and tripod at one of our filming location.

Conor with camera and tripod at one of our filming locations.

The App in work.

We filmed the majority of the film on the camera but we did film the car crash between the police car and the 4X4 on the IPad using an application called Action FX. The App worked very effectively and added a nice effect to our trailer, it was one of the most creative aspects to our trailer and we are glad we included it. I already had a lot of experience in using the app as I had used it many times for home projects so it was easy for myself to instruct Conor in using the app and the technology.

Ipad.
For the picture on our front cover we used my Canon SLR camera which provided us with high quality pictures for our ancillary texts. The choice was easy as Conor and I had decided that we wanted a high quality product so the use of this equipment would guarantee that, we had it already so it would be a waste not to use the equipment. I take photographs in my spare time so I had already built up a fair bit of knowledge which I was able to pass onto Conor, therefore we didn't have any issues. We just transferred the images across to the computer ready for post production.

Example of my camera.

Post Production:

After all was filmed and all photographs were taken, we then had to edit them all together to make our final pieces. Conor and I first decided to compose the film, we used the program Adobe Premiere Elements to make our trailer. The software is professional and if used properly can deliver high quality products. New comers would struggle with the software as it is quite hard to use straight away, luckily Conor and I had spent the last year using so we were able to go straight into it without any worries. We wouldn't call ourselves experts at the program, but we knew where the majority of the main tools were. Anything we struggled on we would refer to You Tube for some tutorials. We were happy using the program and any issues we had with it we were able to resolve our selves and learn from our mistakes.

Adobe Premiere Elements.

I would say it was a similar situation when we were producing our poster and front cover, we used Adobe Photoshop for the production of our ancillary texts. It was a very similar situation with the trailer as it was with out other media texts as we both knew the basics of it. we once again referred to You Tube for any queries or worries. Both Premiere Elements and Photoshop are professional programs and both had the tools necessary to produce a professional looking piece of work and I'm not sure I would have used another program to produce my final media texts.

Photoshop in Use.

Evaulation Task 3

This is our evaluation activity 3 which includes our audience feedback, we asked the group questions about our production. the questions asked were:

1. How have they adhered to conventions of the genre?
2. What did you think was effective about camera composition and what could have been improved on?
3. What do you think was effective about the editing and use of titles and what could have been improved on?
4. What do you think about the narrative structure of the trailer?
5. Do you think this trailer was conventional?

The feedback we received from the group was mostly positive with very little flaws pointed out to us, they all believed that the fight scenes were good. Conor and I were very pleased with the groups reactions which they only had good things to say. I believe that this audience feedback is essential as it will help us with the evaluation tasks and it will also help us to speak about our production for our exam in June. It is good to receive this feedback as people will view the film differently if it is produced by someone else, there were points that we hadn't thought of whilst assessing our own work. This audience feedback was useful and will help us towards our work.

Front Cover Inspiration

As well as Gaining a lot of inspiration for our movie poster we also drew quite a lot on one particular Empire magazine front cover for some of our inspiration in the production of it. There are already a few similarities to the eye as soon as viewers see it, there is the main character in the centre of the cover they are both the main focus pull of the cover. The colour scheme is not too dissimilar as they both use grey, red and white. We have used also similar titles for the headings and contents of the magazines. Another feature  I particularly liked from the Empire front cover was the smoke from the bottom left corner of the page, i thought this feature was very effective as it represents the gun smoke. As I am holding a weapon i thought it might be a excellent feature to bring across to our cover. I believe my magazine is very effective and very similar to the style of the Empire magazine front covers, and we have achieved this effect very well.

Poster Inspiration

Our film has taken Lot's of inspiration from the James Bond series with many added features courtesy of the films. Our poster has also drawn some inspiration from the most recent film, Skyfall. There are many similarities between these two posters the main one being is the colour of both of the posters, they are both black and white which could be symbolising dark times for London or England or even the characters. They  both also have a focus pull of the main character in a suit yielding a firearm, these posters are both very similar in many ways. Another similar feature of these pair of posters is that there is a big representation of London in the big features in the tower bridge and Big Ben which are both universally recognised features of the city London and England. These both have the credits at the base of the poster underneath the film title, this is a common feature of all magazine front covers. These are both very similar posters and I believe they both work very effectively at serving their purpose.

Evauluation Task 2

This is Conor and my directors commentary to our film trailer, the commentary is out of place as we had technical issues with Adobe Premiere Elements but it's all there.

I think that the three texts compliment each other as they will all appear to an action fan as it adheres to the conventions of an action film. The poster is very suiting of the film especially when advertising as it has a very dark and mysterious feel as the identity of the man holding the pistol is unknown as it has been silhouetted. The fact that the poster is also in black and white suggests bad times for London or for the main character, this is the effect that Conor and myself wanted to achieve. I think the tag line also compliments the movie as the character is always running and always checking who is coming behind him. The film front cover shows the main character dressed as he is in the film, wearing a suit, he is also carrying a weapon which again he does a lot in the film. The colour scheme of the front cover again suits the film as it is Grey, White and a dark red. Both the front cover and poster shows the character wearing a suit and holding a weapon which is what people who enjoy that genre want to see, this is proved with the poster and front cover for Skyfall which compose both of the same elements that Conor and myself have included.

Overall I think that our main product and it's ancillary texts compliment each other very well an we have said that there is not much that we would change to our trailer and other texts.

Evaluation Task 1

These following scenes are the ones that I believe to be the most distinct and defining of the film trailer, the following have analysed as top how they conform to the genre of our film:

Shot 1:

Running through a puddle shot Conor and Myself set out to achieve

This is the first shot I have selected, the reason it was selected is because it is part of a chase scene in which the protagonist is being chased as who we believe to be the villain. the shot type is widely used in many films and really helps to add tension to the chase as the audience know somebody is being chased and they realise that the chaser is not far behind. The run up to this shot there is the tranquillity of the puddle with the still water, the water is then broken and the tranquillity is disrupted perhaps symbolising that the chase between these two characters will disrupt the peace where ever they go. This close up high angle shot is exactly the effect that myself and Conor wanted t achieve with the powerful step exploding the water around it. the location of this shot isn't really made clear to it's audience as there is very little that they can take away from this scene as the shot only includes the puddle and none of it's surroundings. The only location hint that the audience could perhaps gather from this scene is the fact that it's a puddle and there is light reflecting of it tells that the shot is outside. The costume of the character in this clip is jeans and trainers, throughout the trailer the protagonist is in different costumes in different scenes. Conor and I felt that we could use different costumes for different scenes as the continuity of the trailer was not as vital as it was in our AS production where it was a vital aspect. I think that it is made clear to the audience that it is an action film as there are the two characters running adding the fast pace which many action films will consist of. This shot is faded into as many of the other shots are, Conor and Myself edited it so that the shots would fade to black and then jump to the following scene. This shot doesn't have a filter on it as we decided that the natural light of the production provided the right effect for the movie.

Shot 2:

Source Code poster which uses similar font to our film titles.

This is the title of the film and it is shown as the penultimate clip in the trailer. This is a demonstration of the titles we have used throughout the trailer, the font is called agency. This font very much so conforms to the conventions of an action film as it has very bold and block type letters. Conor and I did some font research and finally came to the conclusion that this was the font for us as it was very similar to the fonts of other action films. When looking at film posters such as Source Code, you can compare the font that they use to the film titles of our trailer. The font is basic and I think that it suits the needs of our audience as they are unlikely to want to see the title of an action film in a font with swirls as it simply wouldn't match the genre of our film. The white font on the black background makes the title of the film really stand out to the audience, they instantly recognise the title. The name of our film I think really suits our film as the film is about money and crime, the name bankroll signifies money and tells any potential audience that the film will be about money. The title is short and punchy and doesn't leave the audience trying to memorise a long winded film title. Ours gets straight to the point and will hopefully remain ingrained in the audiences mind.
Shot 3:

This scene we have our protagonist covering his corners and entering a room with his gun, the shot  is filled with tension as the audience aren't quite aware as to what is around the corner. This filming technique is not to dissimilar to the scene on Goodfellas when the camera follows Henry and his female partner. The camera follows the couple as they move behind the scenes of the restaurant to when they finally find their seats at their table. This technique worked extremely well in the movie so Conor and myself thought it might be effective for us to include it within our trailer. The process used in the film would be through the use of a Steadicam, this is an expensive piece of equipment as it keeps the camera perfectly still despite the cameraman's movements. we decided not to use the Steadicam due to financial restrictions. Conor and I are happy about the result of this scene as it work well as you enter the room in the foot steps of our protagonist, the scene makes the audience feel connected with the main character as they will feel that they are entering the room with him. The shot is slightly different to the one in Goodfellas as our version is more over the shoulder, whereas the films version is much more central and further back from the focus of the shot. The location of this shot is in a building as there are rooms, from the trailer the audience are never quite aware as to where the main character is and what the building is. This adheres to the conventions of trailers as usually there is very little revealed about where the characters location is at any given point. The Mise-en-scene gives the genre away to the audience as the character is yielding a firearm which fulfils the conventions of an action adventure film very well. Audiences like to see these conventions when viewing an action adventure film. The main character is also dressed smartly which again suggests that the film is an action film as in films such as James Bond the characters are usually dressed smartly.
Shot 4:

This scene shows our protagonist looking over the distance from a high up position. The shot is quite drab and dark, we filmed in natural light and the darkness of the shot suits the trailer as the mood of the character is similar as he is being chased by the villain. The location of the shot is also quite representative of the character as there is scaffolding over a block of flats, the flats are very uniformed and consist of dark plain colours. The shot is an over the shoulder shot showing the audience what the character is seeing from his perspective. The audience feel connected to the character as they see things from his perspective and they feel that they have to level with the character. Again the character is in a different costume as the previous shot had, the character is in more casual clothing which is similar to the first shot to the character running through the puddle. The identity of the character is still unknown to the audience as this is the first shot and face of the character is unknown. This could be considered as suspenseful for the audiences. There is narration over the top of this scene which gives away some kind of indication as to what the film is about, it immediately lets the audience know about the fact the main character is a con artist. The fact that there is narration over the clip and there is a character on screen the audience will just assume that the voice is that of the character on show. The previous shot consists of a panning camera of the area in which our character is scouting, it pans then fades into this shot which works quite well as we originally had the camera pan all the way round to meet the figure. This technique effectively cut out the middle section of the shot as it faded half way through the pan.
Shot 5:

This is a shot of our character turning the handle of a door in which the audience don't really know the location of. The shot is a close up of the character turning the knob, we used a macro setting for our camera.  We attempted match on action for this shot but it didn't quite work as effectively as we had planned, we didn't quite achieve perfection with the shot as we had planned and we found the technique hard on this occasion. The audience are left wondering as to what is behind the door and why the character is entering it, this shot hopefully leaves them asking lots of questions and feeling suspenseful. This shot conforms to Barthes enigma code as there are lots of questions asked about the door, it leaves an enigma for the audience to want to go and see the film and find the contents of the door. This shot is short and effective as it's mystery will leave the audience tempted to see the result.
Shot 6:

This is the first scene when the audience sees the villain and protagonist lock horns, there is a previous encounter but this is the first fight scene between them. The good and bad guy fighting is a prominent feature of action films and almost every film will display this kind of scene with the henchman and good guy having a battle, the good guy will always be the outright winner of the fight. Usually resulting in the villains death. This is a prime example of Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposition when there are two clear opposition forces doing battle.this is clear in our film as there is the villain demanding his money back or death, there is also the "good guy" who has stolen the person money. We are force to level with the con artist as we follow his footsteps as he fights for his freedom. neither of the characters in this film are fighting for a good cause as one steals peoples money, whilst the other has a lot of illegal money but like mentioned above, we as an audience level with the main character. The Mise-en-scene again give the genre of  the film away to it's audiences as like in James Bond our character is dressed smartly and is yielding a firearm. The shot is filmed on a staircase which adds suspense and fear to the audience as stairs are a dangerous place to do battle as there will be serious injuries if any of the characters were to fall. The fast pace dramatic music will also add suspense to the clip as the audiences hearts are racing due to the big drums and quick soundtrack. The high angle shot ensures that the audience don't miss a single part of the fight as there are all areas covered by the lens of the camera. This high angle shot also helps the audience to quickly identify the characters by their clothes, as by now the protagonist is already recognised to be wearing smart shirts and smart trousers and shoes. This scene is shot on a stair case in a wide open hall suggesting that the characters might be fighting in a commercial environment.

James Bond Fighting a Villain.
Shot 7:

This is the first scene when you see the villain and good guy come together for the first time, this is when the story is explained a little further and the audience come to the realisation of what the good guy has done. The villain threatens the character with a gun and demands his stolen money back within a short timescale. The short time scale adds suspense to the audience's viewing as they wonder is the time enough and will the character return the money to the villain. The villain surprises our main character by popping up out of the back of his car and holding him down. The fact that our villain is wearing gloves is a symbol that he wants his identity to the authoritative forces to remain unknown as his fingerprints are therefore untraceable. The main character shows that he has signs of vulnerability as he is left shocked and he has no way of fighting of the villain whom is threatening him. We relate to him as we feel for him as he has to achieve a task on a tight deadline set by the bad guy. Conor's clothing is very dark which represents his personality as he is a tough man and he has a dark and mysterious personality. The location of the shot is in a car with the good guy in the driving seat insinuating that perhaps the good guy is already trying to get away from something, or the bad guy already.
Shot 8:

James Bond and the Resurrected DB5.

The shot above we have the main character jumping out of a vehicle and ducking for cover behind his door, he is later seen also firing off some rounds himself. The main character hides behind the door of his car telling the audience that perhaps he is stuck in a fire fight. We were able to edit in muzzle flashes to our trailer by using the Luma Key effect on Premiere Elements. The flash adds a sense of realism to the trailer as it shows that there are gun fights in the film which are a prominent feature of action films. Cars and car chases are also  make an appearance in action films as men a traditionally known to be able to drive cars fast and dangerously. This feature adheres to the conventions of an action film as many popular films such as James Bond features a car. Every James Bond will feature a brand new fast car, the well known car which made a reappearance in Skyfall is the Aston Martin DB5 which is a recognisable brand of the Bond franchise. Conor and I both thought to include a car in our trailer would definitely be a winner for us as an action film almost requires one to be whole. We witness the character moving between other cars whilst keeping cover. This scene is one of the longest from our trailer, we had it this was as it gives the audience a real grasp as to what the genre of the film is and it conforms to the conventions of action films. You almost instantly recognise the main character as he is wearing his trademark suit and yielding the weapon you so often see him use.
Shot 9:

James Bond Shooting at the camera.

This is the final shot of the trailer and it is a powerful one, the audience remember the main character pointing a gun at them. This is the first time in the trailer that the audience no longer feel as connected to the main character as they usually do. The reason for this is because the audience feel as if the good guy is shooting at them rather than shooting for them. The audience will assume that he is shooting at the villain therefore the audience are made to feel as if they are stepping into the shoes of the villain as they see from his perspective the good guy shooting at him. Once again we have drawn inspiration from James Bond, much of our trailer is of a similar style, we have followed in the footsteps of the bond films with the protagonist aiming and shooting at the camera. At the start of Bond movies the audience witnesses Bond turn and take aim at the camera which we have very much drawn on. The character is once again holding his trademark weapon and wearing the suit the audience would have come to have recognise him in. We are again shown somewhere which has wide corridors again suggesting that this might be happening in a commercial area. The fact that our character is wearing a watch is also typical of our genre as many action film characters will dress smartly and wear a big rugged watch in which our main character is seen wearing in this scene.

Genre Analysis

The genre of my production is action, the film is about a scam artist who gets in trouble with the wrong people. I would recognise this as an action film instantly as the trailer includes the conventions of an action film such as fight scenes and car crashes. The film conforms to the genre of action films as it follows in the footsteps other actions films such as the James Bond film series and other action films which also follow the action film genre. Bankroll adheres to the action film genre as the film has fast cuts and dramatic fast paced music which builds up the tension for the viewers and leaves them intrigued and wondering about the film as to who the villain is and whether the protaganist escapes unscathed. Bankroll esthablished the genre by simply adering to the action film conventions, it happens in the trailer when are fast cutting fight scenes throughout the duration of the trailer. The Mise-en-scene of the trailer supports the genre of the film. The way in which our characters are dressed suits the genre with our protagonist wearing smart shirts and suits which follows many other action films with the main character looking dressed to impress. The props include a gun which also would adhere to the conventions of an action film, there are a huge number of films where there is a weapon included. Almost every action film will include the use of a fire arm, the film is instantly recognised as an action film due to the use of a fire arm. All of these elements will appeal to out audience as they are keen to see the conventions to fufill their needs of the action film they are going to watch. If an audience is going to view an action movie they will always want to see fights, guns and car crashes, Bankroll fufills all of those needs for our target audience.