Evaluation - Barney Flood

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

Here I have analysed 9 frames from the well known film "The Notebook". It is a very similar product to what we have produced for our main task. I have analysed key aspects of the opening from The Notebook and have then compared them to how we have done in our main task with another 9 frame analysis of our own film. Because The Notebook was such an influential film for us in our creation of The Ripple Effect, we tried to replicate some of the key aspects in our film and here you can see what we have done in comparison. (The order of frames starts a the top left being frame 1, then it goes from left to right with the bottom right frame being frame 9)

FRAME ONE

In the first frame you can see the title of the main actress in the film "Rachel McAdams" who plays Ally in The Notebook. The typeface used is a font called Georgia. As you can see from the font, it is a crisp and easy to read typeface and it is white also which stands out from the image which it is placed in. Having this plain looking yet bold and visible text shows the films genre. It isn't massive and bold like you may see in an action type film. However it is simple yet a relatively sophisticated looking text which reveals the genre of the film to be more serious and romantic perhaps.

FRAME TWO

In frame two again you can see the title in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. The conventions they have included in the opening of The Notebook are quite simple. It begins by introducing the main 4 characters of the film with their own name with their own frame. It then appears with the title of the film "The Notebook". After this it goes through further characters included in the film with three names per frame after this. Once the important characters had been credited it came into the director and the music composer and the other creators of the film.

FRAME THREE
In Frame three we can see the rower, rowing in the lake quite clearly within the frame. This is a key part of mise on scene within The Notebook's opening. The rower represents the country and out doors type of lifestyle. This represents Noah as he also rows later on in the film so therefore creates an enigma of who this character is meant to be.

FRAME FOUR
The location is key as seen beautifully in frame four. The lake is very big and also shows the environment to be natural and hints that this film may be set in the past time (which it is) and also that it includes the countryside within the film - which it also does. The orange coloured sky reflecting off of the water also shows the time of day it is. It is in the evening and the orange colour reveals what the genre might be of the film. Because it is such a beautiful scene and a pure orange colour this suggests that the film is going to be about a romance with passion and purity involved.

FRAME FIVE
In this frame you can clearly see the editing involved within the film's opening. There is continuity throughout as it is all the rower rowing so far and there is no misguided scenes within this opening where the viewer may be confused. Also there are simple unnoticeable transitions between each scene. They fade into one another slowly which presents this peaceful transition which is barely noticeably and this all adds into the continuity of keeping the genre being a romantic type film.

FRAME SIX
Because of the image created in frame six, it is a good place to mention the camerawork used throughout the film's opening. This camera technique in frame six is an establishing shot which is used frequently throughout the opening of this film. It is used so often to show off the beautiful scenery involved - which all adds in to the genre of the romance. As well as this there are pans used in the opening as well as frequent slow motion. These techniques all have a peaceful effect when used in this opening which further gives off the feel of how the film will unfold.

FRAME SEVEN
In frame seven it is a good frame to mention the sound throughout the opening of The Notebook - as the frame shows the composer to be Aaron Zigman. The piece of music is called "Main Title" and it is played throughout the opening from the start to the finish. There is no dialogue included in the opening of the Notebook as the music is so peaceful and moving itself, that the dialogue may have ruined the effect given by the music. There are slight ambient sounds throughout such as the water rippling from the rower however they are barely noticeable and just add to the continuity of the editing.

FRAME EIGHT
In frame eight you can mention the fact that there are no real characters properly included within the opening. This is possibly made purposely to create a bit of enigma or to focus the viewer onto the music and the location used, to get drawn into the film straight away and to get prepared for the emotional side of the film conveyed throughout.

FRAME NINE

In frame nine it is a good chance to sum up the overall genre portrayed throughout the opening. In almost every aspect from the music to the camera angles/techniques and even to the mise on scene and location - the genre of a romance is conveyed throughout the opening and this is key for a film to get across it's genre immediately when the viewer begins to watch the film itself at the beginning.




FRAME ONE
This is a good frame to represent the camera angles and techniques we have used in our film. Although we have not used an establishing shot throughout our opening, this is due to filming under trees and in our location it was difficult to get an effective establishing shot suitable for our film. However we did use some shot of the nature and trees as you can see in this frame, with some effective placements of the camera revealing the beautiful nature reserve we filmed in. I believe this gave our film opening a peaceful and romantic feel which is what we wanted to convey with our camerawork.


FRAME TWO
In this frame of our film you can see a title we have used in our opening. We have used the same font used in The Notebook, as we are going for the same sort of impression with the typeface of our titles. We want to give the simplistic look which will represent the passion and romantic base to our whole film.


FRAME THREE
In this frame you can see an action shot of our main characters running in our opening. Although in The Notebook there are no characters introduced properly, we decided to introduce our characters as it gave us an opportunity to show our knowledge of representation as well as show more skills with involving characters in our task. I researched the characters involved in The Notebook as well as watching the film several times to develop an understanding of the characters and their relationship, as well as how their relationship is represented in that film. We then tried to introduce our characters in an effective way by showing their relationship with one another - In this frame they are running together holding hands showing their close, loved up relationship with one another.


FRAME FOUR
I think this frame is a good place to mention the sound we used in our film. We decided to use the majority of our film with a piece of music throughout like The Notebook has. So I believe the peace of music we used was very effective and gave the feeling of a romance with passion involved like done in The Notebook. However, unlike in The Notebook where no dialogue was used throughout the opening of the film, we decided to include a small piece of dialogue in the hope that it would reflect the fact that we can use different pieces of equipment and incorporate dialogue into our film effectively.Even though we hoped to broadcast our skills by using a voiceover as dialogue, the voiceover did mess up slightly and this maybe didn't work in our favour.


FRAME FIVE
Here is a good example to mention our editing of our film. In this frame, the transition before this ends with the characters exiting the scene in the centre of the frame, then the scene fades into this frame with the two characters entering also in the centre of the frame. This shows my continuity in editing as I made the two clips merge together effectively and smoothly. As well as this I tried to incorporate simple fade transitions that flowed into one another to give a smooth effect which linked with the genre of our film also.


FRAME SIX
Our conventions of titles used within our film are mainly based on those used in The Notebook. We went through the main 4 characters at the beginning of the opening and then mentioned the less important characters in groups of 3. The only thing we changed from The Notebook's conventions is that we put the name of our film at the end of our opening instead of near the beginning. We did this as we wanted to leave the opening with the title being one of the last things mentioned and we thought it suited being put in the end better than anywhere else in the opening.


FRAME SEVEN
In this frame it may be useful to mention the characters representation. In this frame there is the third character introduced. As you can see he is dressed in all black - which represents his character in the film. When this character is introduced he is a sign of badness and a danger to the relationship of Elizabeth and Tyler (our main two characters). His black clothing represents the danger he brings with him.


FRAME EIGHT
The location we have used is one of our strong points for our film. Like The Notebook we have decided to use a countryside type location, so we used a nature reserve. It is very peaceful and scenic which suits our film perfectly. It also gives our film a sense of being a bit old fashioned which is also something we went for when constructing ideas.


FRAME NINE
The last thing to mention is the genre we went fr with our film and as you take all the aspects into consideration I believe that we executed our genre quite effectively with what we've produced. With the representations of characters and the location used we gave off the impression of a romance with drama. Also the music we have used along with the titles we've incorporated, I believe, that like The Notebook we have conveyed the genre of a romance very effectively.



2) How does you media product represent particular social groups?

The main male character in our film, 'The Ripple Effect' is Tyler - played by Zak Jakubowski. We based our film on 'The Notebook' - therefore the character of Tyler is partly based on the character Noah from the Notebook. Here you can see that they way Noah is dressed - he is wearing an old cap and less fortunate clothing like a country boy. I believe that our character of Tyler represents the character Noah quite well and Tyler is well suited in our film. Also the relationship between the two characters (Noah and Ally from the Notebook) is a close and love based relationship. I also feel that our two characters reflect the same relationship as the two from the Notebook. The main downfall here in the representation is Lucy's character. Although we aimed for a distinct difference in background of Lucy's character compared to Zak's character in our film (as presented between the two characters in the Notebook) I think that Lucy's character - Elizabeth - looks too modernised for the film. She is wearing a modern coat as well as fashionable leggings which doesn't reflect the style of our film. The last few things to mention are the environment we set our film in. Because we have no real access to any old fashioned sets that we could film in - we decided to use a nature reserve to create this country/old fashioned location to film in - hopefully to fulfill the genre and style of our film. Which was to be set in slightly olden time as well as representing Tyler to be a country boy.

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

For our institutions we have created for our media, we have "Dreadfall Productions" which is a short animation for our production company, as well as our company "2 swag 4 media". These two institutions may distribute our film as it is a British film and they are a British company. Because our film is British and has a classic British countryside environment in which it is set - it could be a big success due to its locations used as well as the film itself. There have been so many other successful British romances such as About a Boy (2002), Pride and Prejudice (1995) Love Actually (2003) and Notting Hill (1999) which all made profit at the box office. Therefore because this film may be another promising love story - these institutions may be tempted to distribute our film. Also it may be worth distributing as there is a slight difference in the age in our film than most other romances, so the younger actors may attract a wider audience making it a possible promising film to distribute.

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

Age - 17
Gender - Female
Ethnicity - White British
Education - A-levels
Religion - Atheist
Economic status - Middle class
Employment - Part time
Sexual Orientation - Interested in men
Family Background - British
Marital Status - Not married
Interests and hobbies - Socialising, healthy living.
Group membership - Social person
Personality - Enthusiastic, emotional.


An average and stereotypical audience member for our film would be around the age of 17 and female. Because our film involves two white British actors who fall in love, our audience member is more likely to be the same, therefore they can relate to the characters a bit better. Because the age of our characters in the film are mature teenagers - the typical audience member would be of the same so would be likely to be studying A-levels. They may be atheist and of a middle class background. Again due to the age of the characters in the film, a typical teenager may be in part time work outside of their school life. The main aspect of a typical audience member would be their personality and interests. They would like to socialise a lot with their friends and go out shopping and enjoying spending time amongst their family and friends. They would be enthusiastic and a caring type of person, with an emotional side too. They would be drawn to watch our film as they are in touch with their emotions so would enjoy the romance/drama genre that our film fits.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Here I have created a video with annotations on YouTube of how the film has attracted our audience and how it has kept them engaged to want to watch more of what our film has to offer.

6) What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this media product?

Here is a picture I created showing 10 different pieces of technology that we used in the whole of our coursework. These are the most important pieces of equipment that we used and that we couldn't have completed our coursework without. I have given a brief explanation of how they helped us in our progress.

7) Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the main product.

Here is a short video highlighting 3 of the things which we have made progress on from our Preliminary task to our main task. (the volume is quite low due to the video not uploading as expected on YouTube so you may need to use earphones to hear the audio properly).

"Definitley Maybe" - Research into similar products

Planning - Shot Schedule

Group roles

Elijah Potter - For this post I created the shot schedule, talking over with Zachary and Barney about what we want each character to do for each scene, leaving me to give a brief explanation. Since we were filming in one place, there was no need to record on separate days, this made things easier for me as I only needed to list one date. I was responsible for converting the file into a jpeg, this allowed me to upload it onto the blog.

Barney Flood - For this task, I had little to do. My role was basically to offer support and help if Elijah was unsure on what to add in to the shot schedule. This post and work is mostly credited to Elijah, with me and Zak helping out when necessary.

Zachary Jakubowski - For this scene my role was to act as a reminder for Elijah with Barney to basically help him if he got stuck with a camera angle, location or any aspect of the shot schedule he needed help with. Apart from that the post was mainly Elijah.

Research Into Audience - Film Feedback

Group roles

Elijah Potter - I was responsible for recording the feedback that was given to us, I also uploaded the videos onto YouTube in order to get it onto the blog, at first I had trouble doing this, but after resizing the video and waiting a little while, I was able to upload them easily.

Zachary Jakubowski - My contribution to this task was to help my group answer any question thrown our way from the feedback along with Barney while Elijah videoed.

Barney Flood - For this task, my role is clearly shown in the video - I was answering the majority of the questions and explaining our ideas also. When either Mr Lewis or anyone in the class had a question about ideas we included, I did my best to explain our intentions with the film opening.

Planning - Costumes and Props

The characters in our film need to be appropriately dressed so we intended to fit particular clothes for each character. There are 3 characters which appear in our film opening (Tyler, Elizabeth and One of Elizabeth's father's henchman).

Elizabeth - Due to Elizabeth being upper class and quite wealthy, we decided to giver her nice clothing as that fits her person. We had intended for Elizabeth to be wearing just a white silk material top as well as black leggings, however due to the cold weather it was necessary that our actor Lucy needed to wear a coat, not to get too cold. The character of Elizabeth also wore a watch, which also links to her character being wealthy and the nice looking watch represents her class in society. Especially in contrast to Tyler's character.

Tyler - Because Tyler is a lower class boy with little money to his name, he was to wear country style clothing which is also cheap. We fitted our actor Zak with an old cap as well as him wearing blue tatty jeans and a checkered shirt over a vest. We believe that this represented him as being the character we intended him to be - a poor country boy.

Father's Henchman (Bernard) - This man is working for a wealthy man therefore he is going to look also upper class and formal. Therefore I intended to wear all black, including a formal black coat, dark black jeans and black smart shoes as well ass a black scarf. This was also intended to represent myself as being dark and that suggests that I am almost the enemy to Tyler and Elizabeth. However due to unfortunate circumstances I was unable to wear the dark black smart shoes, which seemed to have caused a bit of confusion for this character, however we hoped that his character was still relatively clear and that his intentions in the film were clear.

Group roles

Barney Flood - For this post, my role was to summarise our groups ideas of what the characters will look like and why they might look like this. From my initial ideas of the characters, we then discussed and expressed each ones opinion. Once, as a group, we had decided on costumes for our characters, I then typed up each of the three character's outfits above.

Elijah Potter - Since Barney was responsible for the film idea, we had to go according to the way he had interpreted the characters the look like. Going by this, I was responsible for deciding which clothing would work for each character. However, due to the weather being considerably cold, we had to cut back on our original clothing.

Zachary Jakubowski - For this task I was at Barneys aid to just jog his memory if he ever got stuck in the plot of the film or if he forgot what the characters had to wear, other than this it was Barneys post.

Evaluation- Zak Jakubowski

Question 3:

what kind of media institution may distribute your media product and why?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8qmJU7ipwA

Question 7:
looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in this progression from it to the main product?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz-W3zc8Ifs

Question 5:

how did you attract/address your audience?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxSKvhGe-ss

Question 2:

how does your media product represent certain social groups?

my media:

The character in my media is Tyler one of the main characters in "The Ripple Effect" along with Elizabeth. That actor is me Zachary Jakubowski and I am dressing in a very poor fashion to accomplish two things; for one I am giving the audience a sense of what time the film is set in which would be around the early 1900's when flat caps were fashionable. The second thing that the audience can draw from the characters dress code would be how wealthy he is, which by the chequered shirt, white vest and thin gold chain looks very poor which was the aim. That was the aim because Elizabeth is conveyed in very wealthy and posh clothing of the same era and this is to show a contrast between the two backgrounds of the characters.

mainstream media:

The mainstream media character that I have chosen to show representation of social groups is Ryan Gosling who stars in the same film which our main task film's titles and conventions were based off of, "The Note Book". This is why his appearance stands so closely to our own wit the flat cap and tatty buttoned shirt, this dress code again is clearly designed to give the audience a sense of which era the film is set in which again is the early 1900's and the sort of background in which the character has; and from his clothes we can draw that he is not a very wealthy man, if he were to be a wealthy man then maybe he would be in a fitted suit with a top hat but this is not the case so that assumption would be silly to make.

Question 1:

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

9 frame analysis of "Pride & Prejudice"

The opening frame of Pride and Prejudice fades slowly from black to an Establishing shot of a dreary field with tall trees in the distance. The title "Universal pictures presents" is centered to the shot in an easily legible Golden font. The same font is used for every title and each title is on screen for five seconds, one after the other with slow fade in and fade outs to set a calm mood. The next two titles are "In association with Studiocanal" and "A working title production". While theses titles are in motion the dreary wood is gradually becoming enlightened and warm from the glow of the sun rising from behind the trees. Once the sun has rose completely above the trees the film title fades in with bigger bolder more prominent font. This first frame lasts 48 seconds. From 00:00-00:48 there are feint violins which grow in sound while as the frame goes on, this creates a peaceful effect on the scene which ties in very nicely with the font, scenery and sun to give the audience a taste of the films genre (romance).

The next frame is a tracking shot with the camera angle at shoulder height in front of the actor (medium close-up) "Keera Nightly" as she walks forwards the camera tracks backwards while facing her. Inside the shot the character is reading a book while walking, maybe to show the characters clever nature, the character also has sun beams on in the background which fall on her back as she walks. The audience also see's some of the background which is a healthy green with the sunlight hitting it, all of this warm imagery is again present to show the genre and set the mood. This scene lasts for 10 seconds (00:48-00:58). an average paced piano is added when the frame changes and the pace of the piano mirrors the pace of the actor walking, also it shares a similar mood.

This frame is an over the shoulder shot while the actor is still walking, the camera is focusing at the book of which the actor is reading. The audience cannot see the words but they do see the actor close the book with care and stroke the cover as if it is deer to her as an object. In this shot the consistency of the nice imagery is not lost because the glow of the sun is hitting the pages of the book and lighting up the bright green grass in the actors path. The piano lowers its tune as the book is shut maybe to put emphasis on it and show it is important. This frame is timed at 00:58-01:03.

In this frame the camera shot is a long shot from a side angle. This shot could have been used to show the actors relationship with her surroundings due to the fact in this frame you see her crossing a bridge over a stream with ducks in, this could show the actors respect for nature. The camera doesn't pan with her so this could be because the director wants the audience to pick up on the fact there are ducks in the stream she is crossing over. The nice scenery is still present with the sun bouncing off both the stream and the bright white washing on the line to dry. The piano is still mirroring her walking pace at this time and the frame lasts 11 seconds (01:03-01:14).

The next frame is a close up with the actor walking through the clean white sheets left on the line to dry, the camera angle starts off pretty much in front of the actor while tracking back with her the camera veers of to a side view tracking shot of the actor and continues to track with her walking through the sheets until the camera comes to a soft stop and she walks out of shot. The pleasant scenery is replaced by bright white sheets which at times in this frame hide the actor as she walks through them. The violins from the first frame return and add to the graceful tune as she walks, this frames time is 01:14-01:33.

This frame is a gradual push in to a person playing a piano which just happens to be the person playing the tune in the previous frames. Along the route of the push in it travels past the bottom of a stair well which has two young girls running in a hurry down the stairs and almost crash into another girl with the desire to walk up the stairs. Then the girls run past the piano out of shot and a cheerful dog walks past the camera while we have the view of the pianist's back while she plays. The room has glimpses of bright subtle light in it and the house looks of  a high standard. The piano is now free of the violins in this frame probably to make it more prominent in order to show the audience that she is the piano they hear. The timings for this frame is 01:33-01:51.

In this frame the camera arcs to come away from the pianist and over look the rooms detail and show off its beauty and culture as you see a farmers hat and high quality varnished furniture. This arc is very slow deliberately to ensure that the audience pay attention to detail and absorb the surroundings of the actors set. The violins also return in this scene to mirror the piano's song. The peaceful mood is still not lost at this point ion the opening. This frame lasts 15 seconds (01:51-02:06).

This next frame pushes out of the door once arced and you see the actor "Keera Nightly" walking towards the camera a fair distance away, the camera pans to follow her as she walks up the stairs and comes very close to it then stops to look at people in a window, (at this moment the camera is in an over the shoulder shot but it is level as if in her perspective so the audience see's her looking at the people in the window). The tune in the background with the piano and violins are still present as well as the nice scenery with a warm glow of sunlight hanging on the wall of which the actor is looking at. This frames timing is 02:06-02:28.

The final frame in this analysis contains the camera pushing out as the actor walks through a door proceeding the stairs she once came. As she walks through the doorway the camera pans as if through a wall and comes out the other side to see her inside the building, Then she looks both ways as if to check she is alone and then proceeds into the room she was once staring at from the top of some stairs. This is all very smooth slow camera movement which sets the mood excellently paired with the soft background music. This frame lasts 9 seconds (02:28-02:37) As a viewer I would deem this opening f a romance very good as it is clear from the beginning of its genre and never loses this effect on the audience through out the whole 9 frames.

9 frame analysis "The Ripple Effect"

The first frame is bright and full of wildlife it seems, to set a peaceful nature thus setting a mood for the film. There is no music just ambient sound of wind that can be heard as if the audience is inside the scene, the sole purpose of this frame is to convey a genre of romance but what becomes apparent later in the film is that the same camera shot is used later, although it wont be an establishing shot like in this frame because it will have people running through it making it a wide shot.

The next frame is very similar to the first in the sense that it is an establishing shot of scenery designed to provide a relaxing undertone feeling throughout the audience along with the ambient sound of the wind and wildlife present in the scene which is not seen but can be heard. It includes a muddy path surrounded by green and shrubbery wilderness.

The camera in the third frame is now pointed at the sky where only blue is captured, The title "New Line Cinema" is in Black bold font centred to the frame to make it important to the viewer. The music begins to play as soon as this frame is up and it is a nice calm melody to it, also setting a mood or romance. The camera tilts down from the sky to view a muddy path with a bushy archway, the next title "Dread-fall Productions" presents itself at the bottom of the frame. Then the two main characters Tyler and Elizabeth enter the scene as if they ran out of the camera but they ran past it until far away from the camera down the path, stretching the camera shot from a close up to a wide two shot.

Then next frame is a shot of the wilderness which has Tyler and Elizabeth enter the scene from the right while running to the left, the camera steadily pans with them to the left until they are out of sight in the woodland too deep, the music is still present and the characters are in a contrast of clothing. Elizabeth is in a regal white dress and black trousers which seem quite fashionable and show off wealth where as Tyler is dressed in denim jeans, farmer boots and a flat cap, quite poor garments which also give the viewer a sense of the era in which the film is based which is the early 1900's.

This frame is one of the first frames which now has Elizabeth and Tyler running through it again right to left to keep the audiences perspective right for the run away. The two characters stop and Tyler has a look back which should indicate to the audience that they are running away from something or someone, this is enigma for the audience and will excite the target audience of 13-19.The characters are again in a two shot.

In frame 6 the camera is positioned to again show a two shot of Elizabeth and Tyler but this time they are running towards the camera spanning the angle from a wide shot to a big close up as if they run through the frame. The title appears in the bottom left corner at the start of the frame to say "Barney Flood" establishing someone involved in the film, the title fades out as the characters run close to the camera and become main focus. But while the title is present it is a professional black in order not to draw too much attention away from the actors and to convey a romance, as opposed to an action where titles could be flying in all over the place with explosions.

Frame 7 begins with the camera positioned behind many branches which makes it difficult to see Elizabeth and Tyler running but they are still easy to identify as the camera pans with them, again in a two shot running while holding hands. This would tell the audience the relationship between the two main characters and that they are very close if not lovers, the music should distinguish that they are in fact in love due to the soft harmonies.

After, frame 8 is the same camera angle as frame 4 with the character running from right to left in a woodland area and the camera pans with him until out of shot. Although this time it is Bernard the character who was betrothed to Elizabeth until she ran away with her true love regardless of wealth (Bernard is also in dressy smart clothing to show wealth much like Elizabeth to show a relationship there) During this frame the singer has paused and the underlying tone of the music is all that is present to show that Bernard is trouble.

Finally frame 9 is the same camera shot as frame 7 yet again it has Bernard running instead of Tyler and Elizabeth and this has skipped a few scenes which Tyler and Elizabeth had ran through to show he is catching up to them. At this point some worry is planted into the audiences minds whether Tyler and Elizabeth will get away From Bernard, this is perfect for the target audience of such a young age where they wont be lost like too young audience but at the same time not as snooty as the elder ones who would possibly pick holes in the storyline feeling like they have seen it all before.

comparison in conventions between the 9 frames

The conventions in the Pride and Prejudice were a lot smoother than the Ripple effects but this was purely down to the lack of quality in the ripple effects equipment due to cheap cameras and programmes to edit with. Aside from this the titles were similar in the fact that they appear on screen before a gorgeous scenery in a recreational shot, also the titles appear central to the screen at first but as the beginning caries on the titles tend to be in the bottom left or bottom right so they don't take too much attention away from what's actually happening.


Question 4:
who would be the audience of your media product?

The audience profile



The Audience profile our film "The Ripple Effect" is more intended for the female population; this would be due to the more emotional side to our film, it is designed to make people feel sympathy and heartfelt emotions for the characters on screen and their tragedy. Females are well known to be more in touch with their emotions than males and for that reason they have been targeted as the audience for our film. The audience can vary from 1 to 100 (universal) this is because there would be no violence or in appropriate language used, and it would be enjoyable for woman in their elder or younger years, no-one is too old for a romance, although the age which is probably more focused upon is the teen years (13-19) This is because the actors are of a similar age on the film so the viewers can relate and possibly form a stronger bond with them as the film goes on, maybe seeing a little of themselves in either Elizabeth or Tyler.


Question 6
what have you learned about the technologies from constructing this product?

Planning - Script

Group roles

Zachary Jakubowski - For this post I had to watch the film through a multiple of times. Every time I watched the video through I stopped it after each transition to comment on the camera angle, sound, dialogue (if any) the titles that were erected, the scenery and every aspects significance with the genre and storyline of the film as a whole. I also was constantly visiting my teachers blog to see how a script would correctly be structured with title separate in asterisks (*) and also whenever the characters name was mentioned it had to be in capitals. All of this was very this was very time consuming due to the unfamiliar structure and due to the fact our film is quite long. Although this was made easier with the help of my group Elijah Potter and Barney Flood to give me little advice on wording and ideas to mention when typing up the script.

Elijah Potter - Although being a very tedious task, I helped Zachary by helping him with wording to make the script a little more effective, discussing with both Zachary and Barney about ideas and where they would be effective in the script. I reminded him to take a look at our teacher's blog to get some extra tips. Zachary was responsible for this post and managed to keep quality up to standard, despite it being a time consuming task. 

Barney Flood - For the script, we all contributed on the intial ideas of dialogue, transitions and altogether the ideas behind the script were massively a collective contribution from each group member. However Zak took on the task of writing all of the script up and analysing our film when finished to see if both the film and the script reflect each other and make sense with one another. Thererfore in the construction of the script, I contributed quite a lot, however almost all credit goes to Zak for this post as he spent a lot of time typing it all into this post

Main Task - The Ripple Effect

Group roles

Barney Flood - In regard to the construction of the film, I was the director when the filming took place. I explained how we was going to film when we first got to our location and I set Elijah up with the camera for our first take along with explaining what Lucy and Zak needed to do in the first take. As it was being filmed I would tell Elijah when to stop the take and where the characters needed to stop. (I was able to talk whilst were videoing most scenes as I was going to take out the sound when editing so it was fine). After this I then instructed everyone in where we had to go and how each scene was going to be shot. In some cases I had to act out Lucy's role for her, before filming, to give her an idea of what I had expected of her to do. Once all the filming was complete I then took the clips and loaded them onto my memory stick for them to be brought in to school for editing. I then took on the role of editing the entire film which took me about 5 weeks in total - due to a lot of difficulties with the computer we were using. However I was able to get a lot of different editing techniques into the film and this was our first end product of The Ripple Effect.

Zak Jakubowski- For the main task my main role was to be the actor Tyler in the film, I would have to know the characters background and dress appropriately to look out of place In todays standards due to that fact the film is based in the past. I also had a great idea for one of the camera angle so I discussed it with Barney Flood (director) and he agreed so we went a long with I and it was to merge a shot where Barney ran past the camera, it panned to me and Lucy and the zoomed as we hugged, I felt it was a success, then I also chose the casting for the film. Lastly I did little snippets here and there where the editor (Barney Flood) would ask me if the title font looked okay or if it was the right size, just some advice, apart from that he edited the whole film.

Elijah Potter- My role for the main task was to be the cameraman. I was responsible for recording the film, taking multiple shots and using the techniques we planned to use and suggesting different ones that would be beneficial. I was to take orders from Barney and get in the right position for each individual scene, and when to start filming and when to stop. I made sure that nothing interfered with the shots (such as pedestrians) and that each shot was satisfactory with the director. Some shots were difficult, at one point I had to ask Barney to assist me as using his camera was a little confusing. However I managed and with a little experience, I managed to work well with it.

Research into audience - Animatic feedback

Group roles

Elijah Potter - My role was to answer any questions that were asked, making it clear what our intentions were and taking in any suggestions that were made in order to produce a better film

Zak Jakubowski - My only contribution for this task was to simply help answer any question which the audience had and to take in what they had to say, regarding improvements and things that went well.

Barney Flood - My role for this task was to answer and explain our ideas from our animatic when questions were asked. As well as this I uploaded the video onto the computer, converted the file to a smaller size then uploaded it to our blog in this post.

Evaluation

In what ways does media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products (Film Openings)?

The opening frame of Titanic starts off with a black screen. Music is heard which creates an upsetting atmosphere, as a fade transition is used to bring in the opening scene, which is an establishing shot. Here a special effect is used, this effect is sepia. This creates the illusion that the image that is being portrayed is outdated and worn, showing that the scene was recorded a long time ago.  A tilt up is used as the camera tilts to focus upon the Titanic; this creates the illusion that the ship is huge as it takes a short while to get the ship into the frame.   

In this frame, Mise en Scène plays an important part, as everything is significant. Apart from the camera effect, the actors are dressed in sophisticated clothing. The flat caps, an obvious trend in the early 1900’s, definitely sets the feeling that we’re in the past. The outdated camera used to record the titanic’s legendary departure also signifies the old setting.

The next frame follows with a fade transition, creating continuity as it nicely flows together, the music slowly becomes louder as the sepia effect is still intact, showing that the footage is meant to be actual footage that was recorded back in 1912. It is a long shot with a title shown, ‘Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox Present’, all in capitals, although the ‘and’ and ‘present’ are shown in smaller font sizes, this is to attract the viewer’s attention onto the company names. The font is in bold and white, making it simple but effective. The camera is still tilting upward, showing the size of the ship.

This frame also follows with a fade transition, into an establishing shot once more. With the same camera effect of sepia, the camera movement is now crabbing which still creates the feeling that the Titanic is big. A title with the same font style, ‘A Lightstorm entertainment production’ comes into the frame with no transition; the font size differs, making the company text bigger. The shot still contains continuity, as you still feel that the footage shown is still actual footage as the actors do not actually seem like actors, they seem like ordinary people prepared to venture.

This frame fades in slowly, this creates the illusion that this moment in time is long lasting and forever going to remain in history. The people waving in slow-motion signify how slow and painful it may be for the people watching the film, this event happened a long time ago, slowing down the shot prolongs it, making us feel like we’re on the ship with them.

This frame loses its sepia effect, as the continuity of the fade transition continues, making the shot feel soft and sensitive, as the image changes to the view of the sea. This makes the viewer feel that the footage shown was thought to be lost forever at the influence of the sea, as everyone knows that the Titanic sunk. The title ‘Titanic’ is in a bigger font size than previous titles used, this implies that this is the title of the film, and therefore, the most significant title.

This time, the frame follows with a dissolve transition, which breaks the continuity. This could imply that the time setting is now in the present, as there is an enigma created by the blue hue which echoes out within the sea. The sound of being underwater is heard over the saddening music, breaking the atmosphere, becoming louder is the enigma is broken, exposing the view of the submarine submerging deeper into the depths of the sea.  

The lighting of this shot is completely coming from the lighting of the submarines. There are multiple lights which stream deep into the depths of the ocean, which implies that, the people within the submarines are searching for something. The lights give off a natural blue hue which softly invades the blackness of the deep ocean, this signifies that the people are venturing into the depths of the unknown. The colour blue creates a cooling feeling, it’s gentle and soft, which is significant throughout the film, as there are many romantic scenes. 

In this shot, a wide shot is used to show the sheer size of not just one submarine, but two, which is set behind the other one. This camera technique is used to show the location, yet also present the submarines. The camera is set in place while the submarines move into the frame. 

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

  

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We intended to aim for the female population with our film 'The Ripple effect' simply because of the genre. It's a Romantic film which aims to show the development of the two character's relationship, and how they progress together in order to make their love stronger. Because of all the emotional content that the film would have, the audience is going to feel sympathetic and would only want them to have a happy ending. It is considered very feminine to be in touch with your emotions, which is why this film is aimed at them, as they can easily bond with the characters and be pulled in because of that. Although it being an universal film (from the age 12+), we specifically aimed for female views at the ages between 13 and 18, although it could also be aimed at young female adults - from the ages of 18 and 25- simply because around this age, love seems to be important, allowing them to relate to the film as they may want the love that the main characters are trying to achieve themselves. 

An example would be a Young Woman who attends university. She is employed in a part time job and is originally British. She is atheist and comes from a middle-class background, she's interested in men but is not married. In her free time she enjoys going to the gym to keep herself fit, but also goes on dating websites to find love.

A woman like this may want to see this film and would undoubtedly feel attached to the characters and she could relate to them in a variety of ways.


In what ways does media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products (Film Openings)?

1. Camera-work

The first frame shows a wide shot. We used this to convey the setting that the scene was taking place. A peaceful meadow which had leaves falling and the wind blowing gently, allowing a cliché setting for a romantic genre. We chose to do a wide shot because we wanted the audience to get a clear view of the character's surroundings, this set the scene and allowed the characters to run through the shot without having to cut.  

  2. Mise en Scene

Looking at this frame we can see the two main characters, Elizabeth and Tyler. Their outfits were very important as they were vital in showing the differences in their classes. Being from a working class, Tyler is dressed in a flat cap, boots, worn out jeans, a plain white vest and a chequered jacket. This outfit implies that he's from a working class background, using boots to deal with labour and the flat cap could imply that he's a farmer. While Elizabeth is in a high end coat, leggings, high quality shoes and a white shirt, all come together to show her wealth and access to the finer life. Later on we see Barnaby, the antagonist, is dressed in dark clothing, grey jeans, a black coat and grey shoes all show the character's evil intentions.

   3. Titles

The titles are consistent throughout, having simple and clear fonts allow them to stand out and yet not disrupt the scene. They're not too big, avoids the problem of having the view paying more attention to the title than the scene itself. Minor changes are seen to the titles, this includes a change of colour. This was done because sometimes the black font would be too hard to see with the background, so changing the colour to white would erase such a problem. The main title was also considerably different. It was grey and big enough to fill the most of the screen, allowing the audience to direct their attention to the name of the film. 

  4. Music

In this frame, the music used throughout the production really fits in well, simply because it is used to express the bond that they have for each other. The use of the piano creates a touching melody as the lyrics of the song connects with the characters, thus allowing the audience to create a bond with them too as they feel inclined to feel happy for them. The music helps set the situation as their love is all they want, and as love is such an important theme throughout the film, the song choice is effective in showing that.

  5. Dialogue

In this frame, the main characters finally earn sometime to themselves. The dialogue here is significant as it enables them to display their feelings to each other and make it clear for the audience to follow along and to figure out that they're lovers. When Tyler states that "We have to. If we want to stay together...We have to keep running." Not only does it express how their love is being tested, but also opens up the story as it gives a sense that there is more to come. This prepares the audience for more content as things are bound to worsen over the course of the film.

  6. Genre

Here we can see the two main characters expressing their love for each other as they hold hands while looking towards the distance. It is particularly important to display such a thing in a romantic genre film, as it's vital to expose the bond between the two lovers with a fulfilling setting that makes the views wish that they had something as special too. It allows the audience to relate upon times when they have felt such strong feelings, but to also strive to achieve such a relationship. 

  7. Location

Aiming for an amazing view to show to match the loving bond that the two main characters share, we wanted a location which was filled with the beauty of nature. With it being winter, we found trees having leaves falling from them, while the wind caused them to float. We found this particularly effective for a romantic film as it added a pleasurable effect as it made the scenery look romantic. The view over the trees and the horizon added to this, pulling the audience in as the view takes them away.

  8. Editing

The film has consistent involvement of simple cuts, creating continuity as there are no over the top transitions and fancy camera effects. This was a usual trend we found in romantic themed films, this allowed the film to be easy to follow and thus making it easier for the audience to keep track of. The same transitions were added to the titles as the changed, a simple fade in and out. This allows the audience to watch the film without feeling distracted by the titles. 

  9. Narrative

In this frame, we can see a simple narrative technique. A title which sets-up the next scene. This technique effectively tells the audience what the time period is, the direction of which the film is heading and draws them in as they're prepared to learn more of each individual character. We chose to use this simple technique because we didn't want to bore the audience with a prolonged narrative device, nor did we want to ruin the music with the voice of a narrator telling the story. Doing this technique leaves the opening of the film in a mystery, as the audience are unsure what the main characters are running from and what their attentions are, leaving it under speculation. This narrative technique doesn't give too much of the story away and keeps the interest of the audience.   

  How did you attract/address your audience?

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

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the main product?

http://youtu.be/eEBQJHU5oQU

  How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

My Media: Looking closely at our character Elizabeth, we can see that she is dressed significantly differently to the other main character, Tyler. This is essential because we wanted to represent the class difference that they have, having Elizabeth dress in a high end coat and sophisticated clothing meant that we could express that. We wanted to show it a little more relating to the time setting that we were going for, ideally having Elizabeth in a dress and perhaps other props that were considered to be 'flashy' in those times, such as a parasol. 

Mainstream Media: Based off my institutional film 'Titanic', the main character Rose (Played by Kate Winslett) is also dressed in high end clothing. She is a upper class character shown by her sophisticated clothing and expensive jewellery, this expresses her class as she is shown to not only be wealthy, but also attractive. We took this into account by trying to recreate that with our casting, matching these qualities.   

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCXpYztmc9E

Planning - Action plan update

Action plan update

Initial ideas - Elijah (Done)

Pitch - Zak and Barney (Done)

Pitch feedback video - Elijah (Done)

Definitely maybe analysis - Elijah and Zak (Done)

Institutional research -  Barney (Done)

Animatic Storyboard - Barney (Done)

Shot list - Zak (Done)

Shot schedule -  Elijah (not Done)

Script - Zak (not Done)

Equipment list - Zak (Done)

Location shots - Elijah (Done)

Call sheet - Zak (Done)

Budget - Barney (Done) - We have no budget for our film

Risk assessment - Zak (Done)

Music - Barney (Done)

Group roles

Zachary Jakubowski - I updated the action plan, typed everything up with the help of Elijah and Barney helping me work out who is doing what because some roles had to be changed due to difficulties with the editing of the film.

Elijah Potter -In this action plan, I provided assistance with deciding what still had to be done and who was responsible for completing them.

Barney Flood - For this action plan, I contributed with Zak and Elijah in deciding what still needed to be done and who would be assigned to do these things.

Planning - Titles for The Ripple Effect

For our film we wanted to include titles which were relevant for our film genre and that fitted the sequence of the film opening. From our research we wanted to use similar titles from the film 'The Notebook', as it is our most influential film in making 'The Ripple Effect'. The titles used in The Notebook are very simple looking, and don't stand out emphatically. They enter the frame in a fade which is very smooth and hardly noticeable, and last about 3 seconds for each title which appears. The length of the fade and in which the title appears creates a peaceful and soft mood for the opening which is what we want to incorporate into our film opening. The colour of the titles are white in each frame in The Notebook, which is what we wanted to use in our film. However because our location is quite bright and colourful, it would've been difficult to include white titles as they wouldn't have been easy to read. Because of our environment in our film we have decided to use black titles as that is still a very basic and crisp colour, and it will be much easier to read than white would be in our film. The size of the titles is also relevant for us, and we've decided that the titles will be relatively small however still clearly visible to be able to read.

Another key element of the titles we want to include is the position they are put in for each frame. For some scenes we tried to incorporate a place where the titles would go when filming - for example we made sure you could see the path in some scenes so that the title could appear there quite smoothly. However for the scenes where we didn't incorporate a place for the titles we've decided to put them at the corners of the frame in the best place they suited. This means that the titles are not the main focus of the opening however they are still clearly visible which is key. Lastly we wanted to use an effective font. The font needed to be very simplistic, formal, and easy to read. That's why we've decided to use the font (Georgia) for our titles as it fits the idea we were looking for in a font. We have focused a fair amount on the appearance of our titles for our film and we hope that they come across as effective as we intend them to be.

For our titles used in our film, The Ripple Effect, we followed the conventions used in our influential film, The Notebook. In The Notebook, it initially begins with the actors names early on and uses 3 different people per title for the less important characters, and one name is on one title for the most important actors. Therefore we used the same convention and included it within our film. Further more our first initial title was 'New Line Cinema Presents', which is also the first title in our influential film.

As well as this, the titles including the 'director of photography' and the 'casting by' titles came at the end of the opening for The Notebook and we again followed that convention and reflected the same in our film. I believe that our conventions are very similar to that of The Notebook's, however we did change little things that we believed suited our film more as we didn't want to copy it exactly.


Group Roles

Barney Flood - For this post I basically summed up the idea of the titles that I came up with when editing our film. I followed ideas given in the opening for 'The Notebook' and used them in creating this post. I checked with other members of the group to see what they thought of the titles and they both agreed that they suited our film and overall we are pretty happy with the result of the titles we have invorporated in 'The Ripple Effect'.

Zak Jakubowski - My only contribution to this post was to simply aid Barney in any way possible, this could range from reminding what a title was or even helping with some of the wording but apart from that this was Barneys post.

Elijah Potter - My role for this was to contribute my ideas for the title of our film. I suggested that our title should be 'The Ripple Effect'. With this suggestion, the rest of the group were happy with this suggestion and overall happy with the result of our title.