Media final

For our main task we decided that the genre which we wanted to use was Crime. This is because when we listed a list of genres and there pros, cons and characteristics we thought that crime would be the best genre to use as it has distinct features, such as, lots of tense music, small number of characters and lots sound effects.

When looking further into this genre as a group we found that genre is hard to get correct, the correct amount of tension presented, as well as getting the correct balance between mystery and a clear story line .

We made a list of features that we wanted to include in out filming this was: - A dark set with limited lighting - Tension created through music - A small amount of characters - Unsuspecting victim

Our media product challenges the usual codes and conventions of crime films mainly by the way that our victim is a teenage girl who is not involved in anything to do with crime or gangs. This is what we found when we researched other crime products. For example the film ‘Kidult hood’ is an and violence. example of where young actors are used in a crime and violent film, however all of the victims were involved with gangs, drugs, weapons. We wanted to step away from this convention and make the audience see that violence can happen to anyone.

The way that we have presented the young girl visually makes her look very venerable in her appearance to anyone looking on to her, this can be seen by the first view of her. This is done by her stumbling, drunk, holding her shoes and dressed in a going-out clothes.

Our media film represents the youth culture. We decided to represent this culture because it is a culture that we are involved with and know what is likely to effect them and also what actions and speech someone of our age would use in a situations like the one seen in the film. The main shots and characteristics we have used in the film to represent this age group are trying to make the characters look venerable and lonely, because when our group were talking about teenagers feelings we decided these were apparent in a large number of these age groups, we have decided to represent this so we can get the best effects from the film that are possible. We felt that making our main character drunk, will make a greater effect on the audience, making them aware of what the youth culture is up to.

We have used a mobile phone in the film to use up-to-date technology to keep the target audience interested and keep the same social group represented by using things that are associated with the youth culture. Having a young criminal with a hood up also represents this age group. This is because the majority of young boys are seen as ‘thugs and ‘hoodies’ if the walk the streets with their hoods up, these are the people who the majority of the public think create violence. We have decided to keep this stereo type to aid the story of the film as we thought it could confuse the audience if a normal man or boy was in place of this character as it could just be a passer by. However having a young girl as the victim who is not involved in violence goes represents the youth culture as vulnerable and that this experience could happen to anyone if they are not careful.

As a group we have decided that ITV is the television institution that we think is most recommended for broadcasting out film. We have decided this by first looking at the television listings and noting what channels crime and thriller films and programs were on. As a result we found that the vast majority of these programmes were published on ITV. We then decided to look further into ITVs streaming line and found that the movies on this channel, either ITV1 or ITV2 were high budget films and based for an elder target audience. This suits our film as the target audience is broad and therefore this institution is appropriate to show our film.

As a group we all had different ideas on what the target audience for a crime film is and therefore we all unsure what ours should be. We wanted a low age as the lower age of the bracket because of the use of young actors and the film was based on youth crime. At the same time however we wanted to include a age in the target audiences were the higher end of the bracket could be parents and be effected by watching things that could happen to their children. This is likely to have a big impact on parents as well as the impact on the child themselves. However once we had decided on the 16-45 targeted audience we had realised that it was very broad. We decided not to change this however because of the reasons it is this wide is to suit the content of the film and the issues that it addresses within its content.

As a group we decided to use several different ways to address our target audience. This being 16 – 45 year olds. This age group is very wide and because of that we decided that we will have to make the issues addressed in the film broad so that all of the audience brand will be interested in the film. To do this we decided to create action and death to a young girl who has been out walking home on her own. This is a situation that many young girls, and even boys, will be able to relate to. This will hopefully make the lower range in the age bracket engaged in the film and take into account that this is not safe. However the higher side of the age bracket can also be just as effected by this film as they are quite likely to have children of around this age. This means that it will raise their awareness of what can happen to teenagers walking home late at night. As a group we hope that the film will make a general huge effect on all of the target audience for the duration of the film.

Another way that we attracted the target audience is trying to make the film as realistic as possible. We have done this by using real lighting and a real scene. We are hoping that the audience will be very interested in the film if they can relate to it and get the message that this could happen to anyone.

By creating this film I have learn a lot about the bets techniques to use in filming to create the best possible results. Firstly I have learnt that using a hand held camera adds a lot of effectiveness and realism to the filming if it is used in the correct way and for a limited use of time. If this technique is over used it becomes confusing and the story line is lost. Another cameral difficulty that we found when producing out film id shakiness when turning the camera on the tripod. This made the filming look very unprofessional and cheaply produced. One of our group members tried a lot of different ways to overcome this problem and as a final result there is no shakiness when the camera changes position on the tripod. have also learnt that filming in limited light/ dark is sticky to do as the filming becomes dark and hard to watch and take in all of the on going action. To over come this however our group changed the filming location to somewhere where we would still get the same effect but had a light source, in this case it was streetlights.

When editing out real film I found a lot more technologies and techniques that I never know how to use before and as a result it made the quality of our film a lot better. These are things such as adding sound effects and music, cutting and spreading transactions and adding text in top of the filming.

One of the problems that we faced when finishing off out film is that we wanted the text to flash up one letter at a time. This was not an option on the program that we were using so had to think of a way to over come this problem. We did this by creating lots of different shots, adding one more letter of the title at a time. The finished result looks very good and we successfully reached the effect that we wanted. From all of the different things that I have learned whilst making this film has made the final product the best that it can be. If I have to ever make a film similar to this again I will carry my new skills and create another quality project.

Comparing my preliminary task to my final film there is a lot of difference between their quality of filming and the outcome of effects and the effect that is left on the audience. This is down to the different techniques that we used and the greater knowledge that we had on filming techniques and shot types. This means that we could make advances in the shots making the film more interesting and. technically better quality.

Another thing in what I think I have learnt is that using different sound effects and experimenting with music can make a film sound a lot better and add more tension than real diagetic sounds can. After we had filmed all of our shots we muted all of the clips and decided to use all second source sounds. The effects is a lot better than the sound than in the preliminary task. For example the muted footsteps in the main task add a lot more suspicion than the footsteps sounds that we used in the preliminary task.

Others things that I learnt in the progression of filming is that when filming we should leave lots of time before and after the action is shot to leave form for editing later on. This is so that shots can be cut down but the action still be clear and not have to cut any wanted action away. We took this information fro the preliminary task so it benefited us a lot in the main task as all the shots are the correct length and all of the action that wanted to for together well.