1) In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

As a group, we made informed decisions on our use of conventions within genre, narrative structure  form and style, which I will explain below.

Our film is about a woman called Leora who creates a time-travel device for a company called Synergy, but she realises that they intend to use it for immoral purposes. This prompts her to flee, which causes Synergy to send the Henchman after her. This is where the film starts.

Genre
Our film is predominantly a sci-fi film, with the sub-genre of adventure, due to having both time-travel and chase and fight scenes within the film.

Conventions of genres in our opening:

• it begins with running scene, which is a convention of action films, as chase scenes add excitement to the film. An example of a chase scene similar to ours is the forest chase from Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, which is a fantasy and adventure film, which are similar genres to our film.
• our opening has time travel in it, which conforms to the sci-fi genre, as this is a common motif in sci-fi or fantasy films - our character Leora has created a time device, and uses at the end of the opening. An example of a film that also focuses on time travel in particular is Looper, and the film also opens with a character jumping back in time.
• the grading of our opening fits the convention of being more blue, like other sci-fi films, as the blue connotes technology and is commonly associated with sci-fi films. An example of a film with similar colouring to ours is Alien, which is graded to be more blue and more contrasting, which we tried to achieve in our opening.
                             
• our opening, however, does break the conventions of most action films by having a female protagonist (Leora). This is uncommon in action films, although our character is similar to other female leads from action films that also break this convention, like  Lara Croft from Tombraider.

Narrative Structure
In deciding our narrative structure, we used an number of relevant theories for reference:

• Todorov's theory: having an equilibrium - disruption - hero's journey - new equilibrium. However, we decided to change this slightly, and start with a disruption - Leora being chased by the Henchman/Synergy. 
       
  
• Propp's theory: the 8 character roles (villan, hero, donor, helper, princess, father, dispatcher, flase hero).
  In our film, we incorporated some of Propp's character roles; the villain(s) - Synergy and the Henchman, the hero - Leora, the princess - Adam
  
  

  

  Leora - hero Henchman - villan

     
• Levi-Strauss' theory: binary opposites.
  In our film we have the contrast between good and evil (Leora and Synergy), past and present (2014 and 2071), known and unknown (Leora's present and when she jumps back)

Form

We decided to conform to the usual form of film openings, as this ensured our audience would understand our film opening.

As shown below, we made sure to introduce institutions, such as the production companies, as well as introducing characters and settings, before introducing the disruption of the film. This made sure that the audience knew exactly what was happening.

A diagram to show how our opening is similar to films of the same genre; in this case, Looper.

Style

For our opening, we referenced multiple films to decide on what look we wanted to achieve for our film.

Grading

We decided to make our film more blue, cold and contrasting, as this is a convention of the sci-fi genre. We drew inspiration from other sci-fi films, such as Blade Runner, Star Trek and The World's End.

We decided that in order to show the difference between 2071 and 2014 (so the audience could distinguish between them) we graded each differently - the future is more blue and 2014 is much pinker and warmer, which also connotes Leora's apparent safety.



Titles
Our titles are in a simple, white font, which is similar to other sci-fi films that we referenced, such as Looper, or Attack The Block. 

We also drew inspiration from Zombieland, as we wanted to replicate the interactive nature of the titles:

Editing, Sound And Camera
We decided to have fast paced editing for the chase scenes, as this reflected the frantic atmosphere of the chase. This also mirrored the editing of films of a similar genre, such as Point Break, which was a main source of inspiration:

We also drew inspiration from this chase scene in terms of shot types; for example, when the camera follows behind the characters, or characters running towards the camera.

Our soundtrack is also inspired by chase scenes from films of a similar genre - it is fast paced to match the action, as well tension building during the confrontation between Leora and the Henchman. This causes the audience to feel as panicked as Leora.

2) How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Our media product represents men and women through our use of characters, as shown below:

We feel that our film breaks stereotypes about female characters in action and sci-fi films, yet can still appeal to both male and female sci-fi and action fans as both genders are represented positively by some aspects of our film.

3) What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

We decided that our film would be a co-production, between our British production company - HK Productions - and Moving Picture Company and Warner Brothers.

We decided to do co-production, as many popular British franchises have also had co-production between a British production company and a larger studio - Harry Potter, for example, was produced by HeyDay and Moving Picture Company, and presented by Warner Bros. 

Warner Bros. are experienced in distributing films of similar genres, meaning our film is more likely to reach the target audience, as well as being marketed to a broader audience.

As our film is a studio production, there would be a large budget available for marketing and distribution. This means that above- and below-the-line marketing can be used, and mainstream cinema chains would distribute our film.

Examples of some of the online marketing for Gravity

For our film specifically, we would market to the UK in a number of ways:

• have a poster campaign, with posters shown in the Underground and on the sides of buses
• have the stars of the franchise appear for interviews on popular chat shows, such as Graham Norton and Chatty Man, which appear on mainstream television channels (BBC1, for example). Interviews in daily newspapers, such as The Metro, will also reach commuters and raise awareness about the film.
• TV trailers will be shown before popular television shows, such as The X Factor (a popular reality show which targets our core audience - 16-25 year olds) which is on ITV1, a mainstream channel.
• The theatrical trailer will be shown before films of a similar genre, or those with a similar core audience
• An official website not only reaches UK audiences, but international audiences too. This will have many features, such as behind the scenes pictures, stills from the film, videos (such as the trailers), or a game, for example, to make it more interactive and appealing to more tech-savvy audiences
• Social networking sites reach UK audiences and international audiences - a Twitter page will update fans on any news or competitions, for example, and a Facebook page will also provide behind the scenes images, sneak peaks and updates

The film would be released in August, as this is when our core audience will have summer holidays, and therefore time and incentive to see the film. This is also similar to Gravity, which was released on August 19th 2013. 

The film will be in all cinema chains, such as Vue or Cineworld, for 2 months to start with, which can be extended if the film does well in the box office. If the film does well in the UK, it can then be released internationally, for the same period of time in the cinema chains worldwide.

4) Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Core Audience

Secondary Audiences

Overall our audience is quite broad as the film has universal themes, which are easy to relate to globally. We thought it was more realistic to have a broad audience, as this is a studio production, so the film would be expected to have as wide a reach as possible.

All audiences would be targeted using traditional and online methods, with both above- and below-the-line marketing. Broader audiences would be reached with poster campaigns, for example.

The online marketing would specifically target the core audience, as they are tech-savvy, and regularly use the internet and social networks. The online marketing would also reach global audiences, as it is available world wide.

5) How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

We attracted our audience by using the Uses & Gratification theory:

• INFORMING THE AUDIENCE - we hoped to show to our core audience (young women) that women can be strong and intelligent yet still desirable. We hoped to do this by having Leora as the inventor of the time device, and having a female protagonist in an action film, breaking the convention of having male heroes that save the 'damsel in distress'
• ENTERTAINING THE AUDIENCE - in our opening, we tried to entertain the audience using a variety of action film conventions. For example, we started the opening with a chase scene, instantly throwing the audience into the action. We also added the punch to not only show Leora as a strong character, but to further entertain the audience, as fight scenes are common in action films. Lastly, we added the time travelling at the end of our opening, not only giving the audience a chance to see the device working, but to add an enigma, as the audience don't know where Leora has jumped to, or what will happen next.  

• ESCAPISM - our film provides an escape from normal life, as it involves fictitious elements, such as time travel. By starting with the chase scene, the audience are instantly immersed in the action and can lose themselves in the tension of the scene.
• PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS - the audience can talk about the film to their friends, fulfilling the need for companionship as well as having the chance to form new relationships with fellow sci-fi and action fans
• PERSONAL IDENTITY - the audience, particularly female audience members, can relate to the characters and see themselves in the film. For example, Leora presents women as strong and intelligent.

  

  Leora connoting strength by successfully punching the Henchman

I interviewed two women, one from the core audience (16-24 year olds) and one from the secondary audience (women who enjoy watching well-represented female characters), about our film opening. I also interviewed another secondary audience member (a male British sci-fi fan).

What is the film title?

Grace identified the name of the film easily

What genre do you think the film is, and why?

She also easily stated what the genre was and why, such as the chase scenes connoting action

What kind of cinema would you expect to see this film in - multiplex (like Cineworld) or independent cinemas?

She also identified that the film was a studio production, so it would be more likely to be exhibited in multiplexes such as Cineworld

Who do you think the intended audience of this film was? (age, gender, tastes?)

Grace also thought that the audience was what we had intended, such as women being well represented so it appeals to female audiences

Could you describe what happens in the opening?

She understood the opening, but pointed out that the time travel was not that clear, which could be an area of improvement

What do you think the rest of the film is about?

Grace's guess as to what the rest of the film would be was quite close to what we had planned, such as a confrontation resulting in fight

Do you think the opening works in terms of introducing settings, characters and themes?

Grace said we introduced characters and themes well, but she was unclear as to where the film was set, and what time era, which could also be improved - for example, the London skyline was not that clear

What is your favourite part of the sequence?

Grace thought that Leora punching the Henchman was the best part, because it was "quite funny', and also because it showed women to be strong and powerful

What do you think could be improved?

Obviously making the setting more clear, but she thought the technical side was ok from an inexperienced person's point of view

Would you want to watch the rest of the film? Why/why not?
She would because she was interested by the opening, and she wanted to know what would happen to Leora if or when the Henchman caught up with her

What is your favourite genre of film?
Comedy, as she is not a huge fan of drawn out fight scenes.

What is the film title?

Lorraine identified the name of the film easily

What genre do you think the film is, and why?

She also easily stated what the genre was and why, such as the mask of the Henchman

What kind of cinema would you expect to see this film in - multiplex (like Cineworld) or independent cinemas?

Lorraine didn't identify that it was a studio production, instead saying that it was independent

Who do you think the intended audience of this film was? (age, gender, tastes?)

She did get what our core audience was, as well as our secondary audience due to the female representation

Could you describe what happens in the opening?

She understood the opening very well, but thought that Leora was trying to contact something rather than a time device

What do you think the rest of the film is about?

Lorraine's guess as to what the rest of the film would be was also close to what we had planned

Do you think the opening works in terms of introducing settings, characters and themes?

Lorraine thought it was effective as she wanted to find out what happened, and she also knew what the characters were meant to be like, as well as noticing the futuristic skyline

What is your favourite part of the sequence?

Her favourite part was when Leora jumped in time as she wasn't expecting it

What do you think could be improved?

She couldn't think of anything to improve, and thought it was well-polished

Would you want to watch the rest of the film? Why/why not?
She would because she was interested by the opening, and she wanted to know what would happen to Leora if or when the Henchman caught up with her, and why he was chasing her

What is your favourite genre of film?
Thrillers, dramas, realistic films, as well as sci-fi films such as Blade Runner, and independent films like Pan's Labyrinth, and light comedies

6) What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

We learnt about and used a variety of different technologies to create our final product, including:

HARDWARE
CANON HV30
This camera enabled us to get multiple shots that would have been more difficult with a larger camera, as this camera is both lightweight and not bulky. For example, it would have been difficult for us to get this shot with a larger, bulkier camera, as we needed to run around trees.

Whilst I personally didn't film due to acting in every scene, I did learn how to make it easier for those using the camera, such as staying in the same position when the shot has been framed.

TRIPOD
We had to use the tripod in a number of ways in order to get the shots that we wanted. I learnt that using the tripod as a counter balance for running shots would reduce the shakiness of shots.


We also used it to keep the camera stable when shooting a high angle over-the-shoulder shot, which needed to be high in order to get the correct framing.








SOFTWARE
PREMIERE PRO CS5
We used Premiere Pro to edit our footage, learning how to use the various tools available to us, for editing and grading.

We learnt how to use Proc Amp and Three-Way Colour Corrector, which we used to grade our opening. I found this knowledge particularly useful as it meant we were able to achieve the look that we wanted for our film. I spent a good amount of time perfecting the grading to a standard we all wanted, which I enjoyed as it meant I got to experiment with the colouring and contrast of our shots. 

ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS CS5
We used After Effects to achieve the look we wanted for our titles, as well as some special effects needed in some shots. This was particularly interesting for me to learn about, as I personally enjoy editing.

We learnt how to use the pen tool, and the masks created:

This method allowed us to create this shot:

By learning this technique, it meant we were able to achieve more interesting and exciting things in our opening, which only required a little hard work!

We also used After Effects to put a futuristic skyline in the background, by pasting pictures on top of the current skyline, adjusting the size, then lowering opacity, to get the final look, as well as adding in space ships that move across the sky. I transferred my skills from Photoshop to achieve this look, which was interesting for me to see if I was able to use these skills in a different programme.

After Effects was also useful for imposing an image onto the device, to make it more believable.

We created the image in Adobe Photoshop as a gif so it moved on the screen.







WEB 2.0
FACEBOOK

We used Facebook to organise and communicate as a group, posting work needed to be done on a group page.

















I found Facebook to be useful for sharing work and images with other members of my group, but we found the app Whatsapp to be more useful for communication, as it is an instant messaging app, so we could quickly and easily contact one another.


YOUTUBE
We used YouTube to research clips from films, which helped us in our decision making. We also used YouTube to share our final piece. Whilst this was useful for our research, we did find that sometimes it was difficult to find specific scenes from films that we wanted to show as an example.

For example, we researched forest chase scenes, such as the one in Harry Potter

FREESCOREMUSIC.COM
We used this site to find royalty free music for our soundtrack, which ensured that we didn't breach any copyright laws. I found this site useful, but time consuming to use, as the searches weren't that specific, so we spent a great deal of time having to listen to each piece of music separately until we found the track that we all liked - Darkness Falls

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

For the preliminary exercise, we were set this brief:
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180° rule.

In our opening, we used a number of skills practised in the preliminary task, such as:

• Pre-Production - Planning - we were much more meticulous in our planning for the opening, as we faced some continuity issues when editing the prelim. We avoided this with our main shoot by being more detailed when making the shoot board.
  
  

  

  We described what was happening in each shot, as well as having an image of the storyboarded shot

  We also had to pitch our ideas in order to find and fix any problems with our ideas; we made handouts for both pitches, as shown below. Research for these pitches included character inspiration, institutions, similar films and film openings, as well as making decisions on characters, costumes, locations, actors, our core and secondary audiences, the style of the film, the film plot and the narrative of the film opening.
  
  
                     
We also produced a storyboard, drawing out each shot on colour coded post-its, which we arranged and refined on sugar paper. From this we produced the shoot board (pictured above).



• Pre-Production and Production - Location Choice - whilst we found that filming inside was practical, we decided as a group that we wanted to film outside for our film opening, meaning we faced more obstacles such as getting the equipment to the location, as well as weather issues (for example the mud from the rain shown below). However, it paid off as we are all happy with our final outcome, which would not have worked as well if we hadn't have used a forest for the chase scene.





This is an example of some of the mud we had to walk through to get to one location - the hill for the skyline shots.



• Production - Match On Action - this ensures that the movement of characters appears seamless between shots, which maintains continuity. For example, in our preliminary task, we had a character walk through a door:
  
  
  
     
  
  In our film opening, we had the Henchman stumble back as Leora punched him, which helped to make the punch seem more realistic: 

• Production - Over-The-Shoulder Shots - this helps to make the conversation between characters appear more natural, as well as showing our use of shot-reverse-shot. We learnt how to frame these types of shots from the prelim:
  
       
• Production - 180° Rule - we ensured that the camera only moved within 180° of one spot, remaining on one side of the characters (for example, Leora's right). This is to ensure that the sequence has continuity, and the audience are not disoriented.
• Production - Master Shots - we made sure to have a master shot of each scene, so that we could refer back to it whilst editing, and to make sure the setting is established for the audience.
• Post-Production - Organising the sequence in Premiere Pro - we found editing much smoother and easier when we named each individual shot for our prelim, so we did the same thing for our opening, meaning we could easily find which shot and take we wanted.

We also learnt from the test shoot:

• Pre-Production - Be more detailed on the shoot board - again, we added more detail after the test shoot, as there were shots where we didn't quite understand our story board drawings, which meant we wasted time on the shoot trying to remember what it meant. On the actual shoot we worked  much quicker and more smoothly as we knew exactly what was needed for each shot.
• Production - Take shots from more than one angle and distance - this is useful when editing, because it gives a larger choice of shot - if one angle doesn't work, another can be used. It also helped when filming the chase scenes, as it made the characters appear and the pace of the film itself faster.

  

  For example, we moved from a high angle shot to bird's eye view in order to make the character appear faster, as well as making it more interesting for the audience.

• Post-Production - Be prepared to remove or change shots - when we got to our location, we found that some shots were not possible in the way that we had planned them, but we compromised in order to ensure we got all the shots we needed for the final product. We compromised when editing too, deciding that if a shot didn't fit we wouldn't use it, even if it was one we all liked and wanted to use.

As a group, we each decided which member would do what for each stage of our production; for example, we organised which film each member would research in pre-production, then who had what role during production, and what was needed to be done after ever editing session in post-production.

Overall, we worked well as a group, and managed to overcome any problems we faced together, as well as working closely with one another to produce an opening to a standard we were all happy with.

In Hindsight

If I could redo the project, I would: 

• make sure to plan more thoroughly so problems could be avoided during the shoot, such as when we almost didn't have an essential part of a costume
• I would have liked to have filmed rather than acted on the shoot, so I would get better actors to be in our production so I could have a chance to film and direct
• I would ensure that all the shots are to the standard we needed for special effects, as we wasted huge amounts of time trying to fix problems due to certain shots not being exactly how we needed them - for example, the mask shots, as the camera moved meaning we couldn't do the effect we wanted

Overall

I really enjoyed working on this project, as whilst our idea was challenging to carry out, it was also fun and informative, and we ended up making an opening we were all proud of! 

I learnt a number of useful skills for editing, especially using After Effects as I had never used it before this project. Although I personally didn't learn much about filming as I wasn't able to film, I did learn some things from other group members, such as reducing shakiness in shots by using the tripod as a counter balance.

I also found that I am capable of leading and organising a group in order to finish to deadlines, which I think will be useful in future projects, whether in Media or other subjects.

In future projects I would like to film more to improve my cinematography skills, and learn more editing skills, such as using After Effects more in order to improve my knowledge of the programme.