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Evaluation Question Seven (The FINAL Question)

The final evaluation question is;
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In the making of my final product I have developed skills and learnt how to produce better quality videos using cinematography, miss-en-scene, editing and sound.

Evaluation Question Six

The sixth evaluation question is;
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

Evaluation question Five

My fifth evaluation question is:
How did you attract/address your audience? 

Evaluation Question Four

The fourth evaluation question is:
Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question Three

My third evaluation question is :
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 



Due to the success of the up and coming films Film Four and Studio Canal have distributed I believe that they would be very good Media institutions to distribute our media product.

Evaluation Question Two

The second evaluation question is:
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Question One

The first evaluation question is:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Plan of Evaluation Questions

Media Showcase Response: Take Two

As well as video feedback we have also received mini-questionnaire feedback in response to watching our two minute film opening from our audience. Our audience consisted of Parents, Teachers and Students. The four questions on the questionnaire are as follows:

1. What did you understand about the narrative?
2. Did the chosen genre fit its conventions?
3. How did the "ending" make you feel?
4. Any suggested improvements for if we were to shoot the whole thing again?

A questionnaire was left on the chair of each audience member and Miss Foster asked the audience to fill them out as each film opening went on, now as you can imagine not everyone filled in a questionnaire and not all those who did answered every question. Despite this I was still able to pile together a summary table of the feedback responses and have inserted a copy below:

As you can see the responses from Question One are a pretty accurate response of what we were trying to portray. Most of the audience were able to pick up the main gist of the film quite quickly, and a few participants created there on "ending" with the suggestion that the male character is dead which is an interpretation we as group haven't considered/encountered.

Additionally I am quite pleased with the response from Question Two where 81% of participants who answered the question believed that our chosen genre fitted the conventions. I believe the explanations I have included in the table above are very accurate and cover what we were actually trying to achieve in the making of this two minute film opening. The remaining 19% of participants were on the fence a few mainly due to the fact that they were under the impression that our chosen genre was thriller or mystery which comes as a surprise to me as watching the opening I cannot see where they came to this conclusion. But all in all it is something to think about when answering my evaluation questions.

The response to Question Three is a prime example of what we were trying to achieve in the film opening. We wanted the audience to be left with mixed emotions wanting to know what happens next and this is exactly how most of them felt.

Finally, the response to Question Four is what I believed was the most crucial question we asked our audience and there feedback was interesting to say the least. Most people commented on the sound which I anticipated, however, a lot of them didn't like the classical music and suggested we changed it because it was too "jarring" for some audience members. However, I firmly believe we received this response as not all participants understood the concept of juxtaposition that we were trying to achieve. Also a few participants picked up on the shaky camera work, however, not all of these participants understood that it was intentional and there for effect. To end on a positive quite a few people said they would make any changes.

So on that note I think its safe to say that this media showcase was very benefical in understanding how different audiences interpret our final product.

Media Showcase Response: Take One

Below is some footage of our video responses, however some of the people we spoke to didn't wish to be in the video while giving feedback so we have respected their wishes and have not included their footage in the video.

Media Showcase Preperation

In preparation for our Showcase on Monday George has written a baseline for the speech he will give to the audience briefly outlining what our two minute film opening is about. I have included George's baseline speech below:

Hello. Me, Serine, Mya and Ellie have worked hard on creating our 2-minute film, called ‘Made In The Estate’, opening based around a drug deal gone wrong. 

We felt a UK crime drama would be engaging for a target audience for people from 16-24. In the opening we see a young boy, played by me, encounter trouble as he becomes involved in the drug business. 

We tried to contrast the stereotype by having a female drug dealer, as male characters often play them as they are perceived as tougher and more dangerous.

If we finished making the rest of the film we would show the boys attempt at escaping from the trouble he gets himself into or possibly how he plans to get revenge.'

Film Synopsis

After much deliberation on what the content of our film opening should be we decided that we wanted to base the film on an estate and reflect the lives of real people. Now we had our base and we worked from there, our film has changed quite a few times due to unforeseen circumstances but we feel as though the problems we faced helped us to produce what we have now. The main gist of our film opening is a drug deal gone wrong, because of this we feel as though our film fits into the UK Crime Drama genre of film. Throughout our film opening we subvert many stereotypes the main one being instead of using a stereotypical male drug dealer calling all the shots, instead we casted a female to be the drug dealer and main character. If we made our film opening into a full feature length film the audience would be introduced to the rest of the gang (mainly females) and learn why the character played by Ellie turns on Isaac (played by George).  Overall, as a group we are thrilled about how our film turned out and I believe the others would agree that this idea was a whole much better than our original film idea being that a girl just gets followed through a tunnel into the woods.  

Film Analysis: Three

Attack the Block (2011)

British science fiction comedy horror film, both written and directed by Joe Cornish
The four production companies of Attack the Block are:

Due to the film being a British independent horizontal integration was used in the making of this film.

Budget. $13 million
Current Box Office. $6.5 million

The internet was used as its main source of marketing, through the use of:

• YouTube
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AttackTheBlock/)
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/attacktheblock?lang=en)
• Film Website (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9q_RrnD4ECf1cnsdgb_zKw)
• Films Online Magazine

Exemplar Responses: Evaluations

I have struggled for a while trying to answer my evaluation questions creatively, so I had a look at Miss Fosters Blog where a found numerous examples of evaluation responses from previous students.   This is where I stumbled across a blog by Alice Winter, her evaluation responses surprised me because they were quite short but got straight to the point I think I may take inspiration from how she has produced her responses. 

Film Analysis: Two

My second film analysis is on "Anuvahood". This film is very similar to the films in the Hood trilogy in narrative and in terms of media ownership and consumption.

Anuvahood (2011)

• Anuvahood is a 2011 British urban comedy film directed by Adam Deacon, who also plays the film's lead character.
• Kenneth realizes he is just another wannabe bad boy and decides to become a respected gangster or cry trying.

Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Adam Deacon, Daniel Toland Najama Dahir ,S.Aminu
Produced by	Nick Taussig Paul Van Carter Daniel Toland Terry Stone
Written by	Michael Vu Adam Deacon
Music by	Chad Hobson
Cinematography	Felix Wiedemann
Edited by	Seth Bergstrom
Production company	Gunslinger
Distributed by	Revolver Entertainment
Release date	18 March 2011 (2011-03-18)
Running time	89 Minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$1 million (estimated)
Box office	£2,207,877

Age Certificate

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/ DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.

The current BBFC system is:
UC (Universal Children) Suitable for all, but especially for children under 4. Used for video only. Retired in 2009.
U (Universal) Suitable for all. (The board states that while they cannot predict what might upset a particular child, a "U" film should be suitable for audiences aged 4 and older).
PG (Parental Guidance) General viewing but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. (It is the board's policy that movies rated "PG" should not disturb a child of about 8 years of age or older; however, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset young or more sensitive children).
12A (12 Accompanied/Advisory) Recommended for 12 years and older. People under 12 years must be accompanied by an adult.
12 Recommended for 12 years and older. Anybody under 12 may see it, as long as a parent or guardian says they can. Nobody younger than 12 may rent or buy a "12" rated video.
15 Suitable only for 15 years and older. Nobody younger than 15 may see a "15" film in a cinema. Nobody younger than 15 may rent or buy a "15" rated video.
18 Suitable only for adults. Nobody younger than 18 may see an "18" film in a cinema. Nobody younger than 18 may rent or buy an "18" rated video These films may contain extreme gore/violence and/or sexually explicit content.
R18 (Restricted 18) To be shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sex shops, and to adults that are older than 18 years old. These films contain sexually explicit, pornographic content.

After watching our final film opening and also bearing in mind the ideas for the full length feature film we had in mind, I wanted to give it an age certificate based on the guidelines (above) set out by the BBFC. So with research done I have decided that the appropriate age certificate for our film would be a 15. Below I have included the detailed description used to classify a film that is to be rated a 15.

With this in mind I also did some research into the age certificates of films similar in genre and that I've already compared from before. So the films that are also rated 15 and in the same genre as our film are:

• Kidulthood (2006)
• Adulthood (2008)
• Bullet Boy (2004)
• Attack the Block (2011)
• Sket (2011)

This information confirms to me that my decision to rate the film a 15 was an accurate one.  

Film Analysis: One

To help in the assistance of evaluating my final product I have decided to do some research into similar films which fall into the same genre that we have placed our film in. I feel as though these film analysis' will particularly help in answer evaluation questions 2, 3 and 4.

So with all that said my first film analysis is one the HOOD trilogy. I have included the key information I have found for each film and also highlighted areas which I believe will be particularly useful in answering my evaluation questions.

Kidulthood (2006)

• British drama film about the life of several teenagers in Ladbroke Grove and Latimer Road area of inner west London. Most the characters in the film generally behave in a violent and lawless manner, engaging in crime, sex, and recreational drug taking.

Directed by	Menhaj Huda
Produced by	Menhaj Huda Amir Madani George Isaac Damian Jones
Written by	Noel Clarke
Music by	The Angel
Cinematography	Brian Tufano
Edited by	Victoria Boydell
Distributed by	Revolver Entertainment
Release date	3 March 2006 (2006-03-03)
Running time	91 minutes
Budget	£600,000
Box office	£1,530,876
Genres	Crime | Drama | Romance

 

Adulthood (2008)

• Six years after KiDULTHOOD, Sam Peel is released from jail for killing Trife, he realizes that life is no easier on the outside than it was on the inside and he's forced to confront the people he hurt the most. Some have moved on, others are stuck with the repercussions of his actions that night, but one thing's for certain - everyone has been forced to grow up. Through his journey, Sam struggles to deal with his sorrow and guilt and something else he didn't expect - those seeking revenge. As he's pursued by a new generation of bad boys, Sam sets about trying to get the message across to his pursuers that they should stop the violence, much like Trife tried to tell him all those years ago.

Directed by	Noel Clarke
Produced by	Amir Madani
Written by	Noel Clarke
Music by	Chad Hobson
Cinematography	Brian Tufano
Edited by	Tom Hemmings
Production company	Cipher Films Limelight
Distributed by	Pathé Pictures International
Release date	20 June 2008 (UK)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	£3,347,811

Brotherhood (2016)

• Ten years on after the events of AdULTHOOD, Sam has now settled down. He has a partner (Kayla) and two kids (one from a previous relationship with Lexi who has died). He is on much better terms with his mother and brother Royston and has also befriended Alissa, who now has a teenage daughter from her relationship with the late Trevor 'Trife' Hector (who was killed by Sam in Kidulthood) He works four jobs and he works out at a local gym.

Directed by	Noel Clarke
Produced by	Noel Clarke Jason Maza
Written by	Noel Clarke
Music by	Tom Linden
Cinematography	Aaron Reid
Edited by	Tommy Boulding
Production company	Unstoppable Entertainment
Distributed by	Lionsgate (UK)
Release date	29 August 2016  (UK)       2 September 2016 (US)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Our Final Two Minute Film Opening

I am very proud to present Mac 2's two minute film opening of "Made In The Estate". We filmed using a Panasonic SD90 and edited using iMovie9, both provided by our Sixth Form. The total length of our film opening is 1minute and 58seconds. Our production companies last for approx. six seconds making the remainder of our film opening 1 Minute 52 Seconds.

Film Title Editing Justification

Today at lunch we decided to get together and try and finish our two minute film opening as there was only one point of concern that we wanted to clear up before we were finished with our opening.

So we began where we left off yesterday, now after talking to some of our class mate we found that quite a few of them felt as though our title should show for longer after the type writer effect, and as a group we like this idea because it allows us to play with on of our previous ideas. So having decided we were going to make a still of our title we decided we wanted some kind of effect to make the title more prominent. We feel as though the best way to do this was for the title to kind of jump out to the audience before the it remains still. Once we edited it to look like this we unanimously agreed that we liked it and felt that it even made the transition between film title and our first scene softer even though it remains a straight cut.

Showing this to our class mates sitting next to us and Miss Foster they all agreed that they like it so much better and almost changes the mood (positively) for the beginning of the film.

Overall we are very pleased with this outcome as it affected our audience in exactly the way we wanted it to. Therefore we feel as though our decision to make the title jump after its initial effect is justified and works really well to our advantage.

Audience Reaction: Take Three

In the first part of today's media lesson as a group we spent some time incorporating our production companies into our two minute film opening.

Also we wanted to get some advice and a reaction from Miss Foster and see if she could see any improvements that we could make in terms of editing. She made two comments of how we could possibly further our work. The first was that the transition between our title was too sharp and we should play around with that. The second suggestion she made was that not all our titles follow conventional opening sequences. So with this in mind we began to make some changes.

We started with the second suggestion as we thought it was the most simple. Together we looked at the titles and found that one of them stood out as it looked slightly odd. This title said " Starring George Wilson as Isaac". Now I believe this is the title she was talking about because you never see the name of the actor and who they are playing in the film in the opening sequence. With this in mind we have changed the title to "Starring George Wilson" and we feel as though this is a much more professional title.

After this we worked on what she said about the transition between our title and our first scene. We started by trying different types of transitions because we felt this might make it softer as currently we have used a straight cut. However, we couldn't find one that was just right, for example we tried a fade but we feel this just takes away the attention from the title of our film. Another example is that we tried a screen swipe left as if the car was changing the screen but this was even worse and didn't feel appropriate for our film type at all. So having tried all the options on iMovie9 and searching for downloadable transitions we decided that maybe there was something else we could do, however, as none of us could think of anything at that moment in time we suggested that we "sleep on it" and talk about it tomorrow or Friday.

Final Decision: Production Companies

We have come to the agreement of what Production Companies we want to use in for our film opening. See below for the clip of the final versions.

Both images used were taken by me using my iPhone 7 Plus, this means we don't breach any copyright issues as all content was produced ourselves.

Possible Production Companies

As a group we felt as though our original production company "DAB Productions" wasn't professional enough. Even though we aren't assessed on our production company we want it to look as professional as possible, so below is two ideas of types of Production companies we are now interested in using for our two minute film opening.

Adding Other Sounds

Although as a group we pretty much decided that we only wanted the non diegetic sound to play throughout the whole film opening to put emphasis on the action, we have been open to new ideas. In our class feedback our peer Lucy suggested that maybe we have a couple of diegetic sounds throughout the opening to add more of a dramatic effect on those scenes. With this in mind we have added the diegetic sound of the car pulling up to the estate, which fades out just before George walks out of the estate which is the point that our non diegetic music fades in.

We did loads of research into finding just the right car sound to foley onto our film opening. We listened to loads of cars driving off effects where most of which sounded like planes taking off. So instead I suggested that we listen to one of the truck sound effects to see if they were any better, and to our surprise the truck sound effect sounded more like a car than any of the other car sound effects we tried. So for this reason the sound effect that we have foleyed on to accompany our car is the sound effect of a truck driving.

Final Decision: Title Font and Colour

After many group discussions and the advice from our peers we have found a font that compliments both the genre of our film and our actual footage. We have decided to use STENCIL STD in WHITE, we will use the same font for both the film title and opening credits. The only difference for the openings credits is that there will be a black outline, we feel as though this will help the titles stand out but not take too much attention away from the actual content of the film opening.

Below is the StencilStd character map which should give you an idea of what our titles will look like.

Removing Establishing Shots

As a group we have been contemplating whether or not establishing shots go with the Film Opening we have created, so to our advantage a couple of our peers picked that point up in our audience feedback. In the discussion they came to the conclusion that they preferred it when the opening just started with George walking out of the estate.

So with that in mind we have decided that after the title shot we will only have the one shot of the car driving into the estate. This means that we will no longer have our opening credits incorporated into our establishing shots but instead have them incorporated into our opening scene.

Below are some of the raw (unedited) establishing shots that we are no longer going to use.

Audience Reaction: Take Two

So yesterday as a group we showed our media class what we have so far of our two minute film opening. Overall we got pretty positive reactions which we found very supportive and also we received a lot of constructive criticism which is super helpful as this is the whole reason why we wanted to show them. They pointed out things that we hadn't even thought of, so all in all audience reaction has been very beneficial, below is the video of them giving their feedback. Also we hope to be having another audience reaction video in a couple of weeks with our finished product.  

Film Title at the Beggining of the Title Sequence?

After trying multiple ideas as a group we have decided that we want the Title of our film to come before the rest of the opening credits/title sequence, we feel like this is appropriate for our film because of the fluidity of the sequence we aspire to have.

To make sure this decision will reflect real life films I have done some research into the films that have the title before the rest of the remaining credits. I have found quite a few films with this feature, as shown below.

Enter the Void (2009)



Lord of the Rings (1978)




Juno(2007)

The Shinning (1980)

101 Dalmatians (1961)

As you can tell these movies pretty much have nothing in common, their Genres vary along with the Media Ownership. This is good information for me because it means that it is acceptable for our film opening to have the Title of our film before the opening credits but of course after the production companies.

However, despite this I think it is best that we have a second opinion so when we show our media class what we have of our 2 minute film opening we will include this decision in the discussion to see what their opinions are.

Film Title and Font: Final

Above is the QuickTime Keynote video of the title and its effect for our film. At the moment we are slightly unsure about the appropriateness of the font but we still feel as though it is justifiable.

Reaserch Into Font Colour

Although as a group we really like the idea of having white titles I thought it would still be a good idea to do some research into it to see if it would go along wit traditional film title conventions.

Therefore a looked at the titles of some of the films under the Urban Crime Drama genre as this is the genre we believe suits our film the most. I have included some of the films (past and recent)that have used white as their font colour for their film title below.

Kidulthood (2006)

Adulthood(2008)

Brotherhood (2016)

Top Boy

Bullet Boy(2004)

Attack the Block(2011)

Title Colour

As well as having an appropriate font for our film title and opening credits I believe its just as important to have an appropriate font colour.

With this in mind I have looked at the mise-en-scene of our film opening and noticed that we have a lot of black. For example the main character (played by George) is wearing a full black tracksuit, the car is also black, the other two characters that you are also introduced to are partly wearing black. Based on this I think it would be a wonderful contrast if our film title and opening credits had a white font colour.

Lighting Justification

I would like to us this post to clarify the difference in lighting in two parts of the 2 minute film opening. The beginning is very brightly lit, however, as the main character is followed from the estate to the car it gradually becomes darker and from the shot in the car it is quite dark(I have included a few images to show this below). So I want to justify the reason why we decided for there to be different lighting points. We did this because we felt as though it would be great for pathetic fallacy and add to the intense atmosphere and build up we want for the following scenes. However, I understand that it may not seem that way from an audience point of view so for that reason as a group we will be showing the rest of our media class what we have of our film opening so far to get their reactions and opinions.  

More Research on Fonts

As a group we have been continuously talking about what font we want to use for the title sequence in our film opening. We have looked at each others research and the different fonts we have found and tried to find the best one to fit in with our film and its genre.

I really like one of the fonts George has found, I think its really simple yet effective and I feel as though it fits in with our title sequence. The typeface George researched was used in the title sequence for the UK Crime Drama "The Intent", the typeface they used was Din Condensed. I also like a few of the other Din fonts, so I have inserted a few of the Din typeface variations below.

Research on Fonts

For a title sequence, you of course need titles and for you titles to have the biggest impact they need to be carefully thought through. Now to avoid losing marks for a simplistic and basic title sequence we have decided not to use the basic default fonts for any of our titles.

As a group we are struggling to all agree on one font that suits the opening sequence. So I have decided to do some more detailed research of the different styles of font that we could possible use for the title sequence.

Due to the fact that we have drawn inspiration from the film "Anuvahood" previously I chose to start with that. The typeface for the title "Anuvahood" is Gill Kayo, and for the rest of the title sequence the typeface Futura is used. Both of the fonts are shown below.

Next I looked at "The Streets of San Francisco". Even though it's a TV Drama and doesn't link to our genre the titles look like they could fit in with our title sequence. They have used the same typeface for both the title of the show and the rest of the title sequence, the typeface they used was Advertisers Gothic, which is shown below.

The third piece of research I looked at was the recent(ish) Channel 5 two-part documentary “Gangland”. I feel that there is a strong link between “Gangland” and my groups two-minute film opening despite the obvious dissimilarities. The typeface they have used for the title “Gangland” is Gotham Bold.