Evaluation: PART EIGHT - What I have learnt from the preliminary task up until my full product

My preliminary task was a continuity video exercise where I had gotten one character to go up to another character and ask for a pair of concert tickets. This task included a set of continuous methods such as match on action and eyeline match. The point of this task was to learn how to make a continuous sequence so that I can incorporate it future projects, such as my BSR opening sequence task. The preliminary task can be seen here:

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY:

STRENGTHS -

The use of digital technology in this opening sequence was quite necessary as we were filming a project that needed to be recorded via a camera and edited via a computing device. During this production there were a few strengths that we found in terms of digital technology. One thing that we were relatively good on was the camera techniques. Here we found that the camera, especially through the hand held shots, was particularly static and was not as rough as expected. This was a good thing as the viewers were able to see the framing quite easily as opposed to having to go through a rough shot. As seen at 0:12, the character in the short sleeve black shirt (character A) is walking whilst the camera follows him. This did not take very long to shoot as it worked out with quite a bit of ease. However, although this may be a strength for this project, the camera work was the opposite for the BSR project.

With the scene at 1:14 where Zakir is walking in the park and is looking at various objects there, the camera work was quite rough. The point of the roughness was supposed to make the intensity levels rise, but I feel like it was too rough, which resulted in the project looking slightly cheap. However a reason as to why it was particularly more difficult to get the scene to be as static as the preliminary task is because of the fast paced connotation that the BSR sequence aimed to present. The preliminary task was supposed to be much calmer than the BSR one, so it was much easier to film the slower paced movement whereas the fast paced one needed to be fast and accurate. However, I do feel that I have improved in terms of my camera work as during the part where we do see Zakir's face we see it quite clearly.

Another strength that I have found in terms of digital technology is the continuity. There are many scenes in the preliminary task where continuous movement is apparent, such as the use of eyeline match. At 0:20, character A is looking at someone and then the following shot denotes  that it was character B that was being looked at. This is a great strength as it is clear what character A is looking at. This was also successfully incorporated in the BSR project at various points such as 1:18 where Zakir is shown looking down and the following shot shows that it was a bench that he is looking at. It is clear that it was the bench as his eyes are in direct proportion to the object throughout both shots. This was particularly useful as it allowed the viewers to understand his confused state of mind; as he is looking at random objects in the park, it can exemplify how desperate he is to get away from his current lifestyle. I believe that the way that I improved on this is by focusing on the meaning behind the shots. In the preliminary task, the eyeline match is very basic as it involved a typical eyeline with two eyes. In the BSR sequence I have incorporated more creativity as I have not only used an object but also added meaning behind the use of the object.

A final strength is that I found the editing on iMovie to be quite easy to do. As I was not used to this newer version of the software, I thought that it was quite difficult to get to grips with, but I had found my way in the end. I learned how to trim clips, make the sound precise, add in continuity etc. and it ended up being quite a good project. The use of iMovie during my preliminary task enabled me to have a greater understanding when working on my opening sequence. This allowed to have a head start on the editing as I did not have to worry about learning the basics of the software. As I went straight into it, editing was done quite quickly. Although I found out that I had to re-shoot and trim a lot of the shots that I had obtained, there were no big limitations created by the software.

WEAKNESSES -

As well as a few strengths, digital technology did not arrive without leaving behind a few weaknesses. One of these was that I had to find a suitable stand to hold the camera on during certain shots. For example, if I wanted to move the camera, I either had to turn the tripod bar sidewards or have a handheld shot. At this point of my preliminary task I was unaware of the use of a monopod so I did not know that we could incorporate it in our shots. If this was possible, we could have heightened the stability of my shots and made it look much more professional. This had helped me to create more clear shots during my opening sequence as seen at 1:15 where the pathway is shown. If I had the monopod like I did here, then maybe the shot would of had been even clearer and still in my preliminary task as a monopod is much easier to take control over than a handheld shot.

Another weakness faced because of digital technology was getting to grips with the newer version of iMovie. There was a great difference between the two pieces of work and I had to make sure that I learnt as soon as possible so that I could get on with my opening sequence task. In my preliminary I was guided through the basic steps of it and had found my way in the end. I feel that because of this preliminary task I had learned how to do it correctly enough so that my opening sequence project was not brought down because of it. When I first began editing on iMovie for my BSR task, I was pretty familiar with most of the things that I wanted to do as I had gone through the struggle of learning during the preliminary. This was very useful as it saved me a lot of time for the more important part of the course.

Next year, as I am very confident with iMovie I may not need to go through another task to gain any experience. However, I do not know everything there is to know about this software, so I aim to make the most of it before I have to actually make my final project. Also, another aim that i have for next year would be to look at all of the available options before rushing to complete a task. No matter how insignificant a task may seem, going through it thoroughly can result in better solutions as I would be much closer to gaining the best possible outcome of it.

CREATIVITY:

STRENGTHS - 

Creativity is something that is very key in the film industry. In order to make people fond of my production, I had to find a bit of creativity in it. This was something I enjoyed as I find myself to be quite a creative person. I believe that one strength of my preliminary task was the creativity in terms of the camera work, in particular, the match-on-action. One moment that I was quite fond of was the part at 0:04 as it was not a typical kind of match-on-action. I believe that a typical use of this technique is when the camera shows the point of view the audience whereas I incorporated a point of view shot of the actor as well as showing it in third person. This enabled the audience to see the way that the shot was working from both character A's point of view as well as understanding how it looked from someone else's. I included use this in my BSR sequence as I felt that it would be quite useful to understand Zakir's state of mind. This can be seen at 1:21 where the character is shown looking at the tree through both the audience's point of view and his own. This was something that I felt I improved on as in my sequence the use of it actually had a meaning whereas in the preliminary task it seems as if it was put there for the purpose of just being incorporated.

Something else that I found I did well in with creativity was when I played around with the shots. At 0:09 there is a shot of character A's shoes. This shot can connote to the audience the wealth of this character as they are a designer brand. This use of creativity allowed me to look at the connotations that I could get from particular shots. I used this when thinking about my opening sequence task as I had wanted to emphasise on Zakir's wealth as well. I did this at 0:33 where Zakir's laptop is shown running out of charge. This can be a denotation of how he may not be able to afford much electricity as home due to his family not being able to pay the bills as easily. This small use of mise-en-scene had a connotation that some viewers may have noticed, thus adding to their opinion of him by making him seem like he has greater hardships than expressed through the obvious.

WEAKNESSES - 

In terms of creativity, there were a fair share of weaknesses that I experienced throughout my project. One of these was the use of a typical eyeline match at 0:24. Although it denoted to the audience who character A was talking to, it was not very creative as it is something that most people would think of doing when thinking of an eyeline match technique. I believe that in the BSR task, I had incorporated a greater use of creativity with this continuity technique as there is much more reasoning and uniqueness behind my choice. At 1:22 Zakir is looking at a tree and it actually has a great meaning behind it. This choice was incorporated so that it could be hinted to the audience that he was looking for an escape and was so desperate that he looked at even the items that would help him the least. 

Also, during the preliminary task I aimed to have a creative use of transitioning through my camera technique and framing. At 0:16 character A walks towards the camera and the next shot denotes the exact opposite. This was intentionally a creative use of camera work as I wanted to make it look quite artistic. This was not the case, unfortunately, as it ended up looking quite cheap and pointless due to the flow not being apparent and there being no visible meaning behind the choice. I aimed to make the transitioning flow better during my opening sequence as when I felt that there was no better way of making the shots flow, I added in a set of credits between the shots, as seen at 0:54 where Zakir is walking and then after the credits are shown, he is running. This allowed the scene to seem fast paced so that the tension could build without having to ruin the continuity. 

In terms of creativity, I plan on creating better shots that will actually look good on camera as oppose to just paper. This will help me to create a good project that would lead to viewers being quite fond of it (something that I aimed to do for this). Another aim for next year would be to have a true purpose behind every shot as opposed to having it there for the sake of it being there. This will allow me to have a more meaningful project that more people will like. Although I have met these aims in my BSR work, I aim to continue this for next year as it has worked out quite well for me already.

POST PRODUCTION -

STRENGTHS:

One thing that I found a strength in was the use of sound. As I wanted to denote a use of continuity in my work in my preliminary task, I got the sound of one clip (0:20), had it play with the visual work smoothly and then have it run over to the next scene as if character A were saying it at the same time that character B was speaking. This allowed the audience to feel as though both shots were shot at the exact same time when in reality it was not. I did not incorporate this use of sound in my BSR task as there was only one moment where speech was apparent and that was with only one character. However, I made it quite obvious that the voiceover from 0:17 to 0:43 included was Zakir's thoughts at that exact point as the voice was quite angry, as were his facial expressions. With the two put together, it was quite obvious that Zakir was thinking those angry thoughts as they both were correspondent of each other.

Another strength that I found in post production was that editing the scenes were particularly easy to do in the BSR task. With the preliminary one I felt that I did struggle quite a bit at the beginning of it but found my way in the end. This worked out in my favour in the long run as due to my struggle, I learnt a lot and was able to begin the work for my BSR task very quickly. This not only saved time, but allowed me to show off my newly found schools in a working environment. Also, due to me being knowledgeable of how to use iMovie, I found time to play around with the affects so that I could create a better production. For example, with the logos from 0:00 to 0:08 of my BSR work, once they were originally imported, they had a "Ken Burns" zooming effect. I did not want this as it was not very typical of a BSR film. After playing around a little bit I found out how I could remove this effect so that my film could portray the correct conventions of its particular genre.

WEAKNESSES:

One weakness faced in post production was the creation of the music. My preliminary task did not include any music at all as I felt that it was not necessary. Although I did not earn any creativity points here I do still stand by the choice as music may have changed the atmosphere (something I did not want). However, I did increase the use of music in my BSR task as we created an original piece of music for the street scene which starts at 0:46. As my partner and I were not very familiar with the Logic program on a Mac, we had to get help from a Music Technology AS student, Maninder Tack. He guided us through the available choices and helped us to understand what would go well with what. Although it ended up working in our favour, we did find that it was quite troublesome to get to that place. This enabled us to learn how to use the software properly and how difficult it actually is to create a piece of music using software like this.

Also, I found that editing the clips so that they were precise was quite a difficult thing during my preliminary task. I would make quite a mess of the work as I would either edit it too much or too little which would then result in disturbing the continuity. As at the time I was quite new to this version of iMovie, I found it quite difficult to make up for my changes. A moment in particular that was quite difficult was the transitioning at 0:16 where character A walks towards the camera. As this was not a very good idea in the first place, I suffered when it came to post production. I tried my best by adding in a fade to/in from white at the beginning and end of the shots so that there was some form of flowing in it, but this still did not work out as well. When it came to my BSR work, I was much more experienced in terms of continuity editing. I knew how to trim or extend clips as well as going back to what I needed to go back to. For example, the library scene from 0:17 to 0:43 had to fit the audio, so when I made the clips too long, I shortened them and vice versa. This knowledge on how to edit the clips allowed me to make the editing much more precise, thus creating a particularly continuous and flowing piece of work, something I intended to create.

PLANNING & RESEARCH -

STRENGTHS:

With the planning for my preliminary task I felt that one strength was my group; all three of us were fairly motivated and hard working so we all planned our individual sections according to what we were all doing. This worked out well as the entire project looks as though it was planned by one person. You can tell that this is the case as there are many bits of evidence where the planner changed but the continuity level did not, such as 0:10. This was the moment where my storyboarding came into play after one of my partners had just finished. Here character A is denoted walking and then we see an over the shoulder shot of him doing the exact same thing. This worked out in my favour as it presented the project in a particularly continuous way, which is exactly what I wanted to obtain. I believe that this had worked much better in my BSR task as I had chosen to work with one of the people from my preliminary. As we were already familiar with each other's work ethic, we got a long pretty well. We both planned the shots together and had made sure that the continuity of it all was very apparent as we did not want any errors. This was exemplified through many times, one of them being 0:54 where Zakir is walking and through the two shots it looks as though they were both shot at the same time.

Another strength that I found was that we had done quite a bit of research for my preliminary task in terms of what previous candidates have done. We noticed in other's work that certain rules were not followed and there was a lack of continuity. We took this in mind and made certain that we did not fall for the same trap. We improved on this in our BSR work as we had, again, looked at previous candidates' work (and here) to find out what worked well with people's productions and what did not. We found that lighting was a key issue in certain people's work as the light outside had gone from light to dark really quickly. We avoided this by making certain that we recorded everything within a certain time. We can tell that our work did not cross the lighting boundaries as we can tell from shots such as the ones from 0:17 to 0:43 and 0:46 until the end, the lighting did not change one bit.

WEAKNESSES:

One weakness faced in this section was that I did not spend enough time planning the shots. It is evidential that not enough thought was put into them as the one at 0:15 did not looked nice at all. If I had thought about this shot before I had went and filmed it, it may have turned out much better than expected. Unfortunately this was not the case. However, in my BSR task I believe that I did improve as my partner and I had sat down to think about what we were going to incorporate before we actually went and filmed. We also changed our minds about some shots as we believed that they did not work as well as we had hoped. One piece of evidence of this are the credits. We planned to make the credits enter in a typing formation to fit the blog convention, but we felt that in order to maintain an intense scene, having slow graphics would be very counter productive. This ended up not being incorporated as it was quite useless in terms of our representation. Also, we planned on using a shot of Zakir's word beings typed (a screen recording) but we found that it was too difficult to record, type and move the recording rectangle at the same time as it did not function that way. We ended up getting rid of that idea and replacing it with shots of Zakir's face instead as that was much easier to complete and still stuck to the themes and conventions we aimed to include.

When it came to researching for our preliminary task, I believe that in order to gain the best possible outcome, looking at a professional piece of work would of had given me the right sort of idea as the professional(s) would know more. I did not do this and it resulted in my work not looking as professional as it could have been. I also did not improve this very well when it came to my BSR work. Although I looked at many real BSR films, particularly Film 4 productions, I believe that I did not look at the right kinds of films. Although I looked at "Submarine" I feel as though  I had analysed others such as "Kidulthood" in much greater detail. Nonetheless, both films are of the same genre and I have looked at many more such as "Looking For Eric" (something that focuses on mental behavior, like my film) etc. I have gained an understanding of what my film should be like, but if I were to redo it, I would look at films that are more specifically relevant to my own.

For next year, I plan on looking at more relevant examples as that is what can gain me greater understanding for specific pieces of work due to it targeting similar issues. Also, I would think more about the shots that I plan as it can save time if I think before I produce as I do not have to go through the trial and error hassle.

Evaluation: PART SEVEN - What I have learnt about technology from this process

I have created a PowerPoint slide listing all of the different uses of technology that I have encountered throughout the entirety of this project. I have spoken about the successes and the downfalls as well as how I learnt from them. Some of the things I have used did not develop my skills due to me either already being familiar with them or the software not needing much knowledge. Other ones did the complete opposite as they taught my quite a lot about that particular use of technology.

Evaluation: PART SIX - How I attracted/addressed my audience

This video exemplifies and explains how we completed our audience related goals. We explain  details from what shots we used to  locations and dialogue. Below is the YouTube embedded link to the video:

Evaluation: PART FIVE - How the media product represents particular social groups [Working Class]

The production "Hit List" is a story about a young teen who faces loneliness and deems revenge on those around him. Being a person that is sick of others around him being successful whilst he isn't, he tends to be frustrated quite often. The opening sequence depicts him typing up a blog entry of his thoughts in which transforms into him aggressively about to meet up with someone in a park. 

In order to maintain the social group of working class, my partner and I had to focus on several different aspects. With all of these in mind, we were able to portray our chosen views much more successfully as it enabled the viewers to get a better idea of who our characters are. However, in terms of our opening sequence, there was only one character being represented with another one only being on screen for three seconds, in which we only saw his back. With this being said, this evaluation will mainly be about the main character, Zakir, played by Muhammad Rahman.

In terms of either contesting or following the stereotype of working class people, we aimed to do both throughout different scenes. During the more calm moments in the film, we aimed to contest the stereotype, whereas during the rougher scenes we followed through. This enabled us to make the character represent a teenager in Britain as many teenagers do not live the same side of life every moment they are alive.

CAMERA - Camera language is quite an important part of the filming process as it can depict someone's current mood. The camera techniques that were incorporated into my production were aspects such as close ups, mid shots, mono-pods, hand held, static movement and low angles.

Shots: The use of a close up was particularly apparent in both scenes, which was for similar reasons. In the first scene where the audience are just introduced to the entire production, they would have no clue who this character is or what he is feeling. As this is the case, we chose to incorporate a range of close ups, over the shoulder shots and mid shots so that both the facial and body expressions were connoted to the audience. With the close ups, they enabled the audience to get an understanding of what Zakir was thinking. With the furrowed brow (anger) and tilted head (upset), his emotions are represented through a range of camera shots. The social group represented here, frustrated teenage boys, is symbolized through the emotions shown from close up views.

So that we could present a form of secrecy, we made this character uncomfortably move around whilst typing. This was presented through the use of mid shots as these enabled both Zakir's thoughts as well as his actions to be represented. As it is quite clear that he is typing things out (as denoted through the wildcat and mise-en-scene) this type of shot helps connote a little more than that. This type of shot depicts the movement of his head and arms quite well, thus allowing this connotation to be noticed. I believe that this added to the enigmatic view that we aimed to create for the sequence as it exemplifies how he may have a secret. His social group is represented through the movements of his head and body.

Movement: In order to allow a rough lifestyle to be presented, my partner and I had to figure out ways to incorporate camera work so that this representation can be shown. We chose to use a mono-pod as well as hand held camera work whilst Zakir was moving. This enabled the fast paced action to be connoted as the movement was quite rough. From this the character can be presented as living quite a broken lifestyle as the rigidness of the shot connotes exactly that.

Something that the two of us wanted to represent in our film was the different atmospheres between either scene. The first scene, although it has connotations of anger in it, contains a more calming outlook to it. This is where the boy is sat down in a public building, plotting something without the knowledge of anyone around him as they all have no clue. This is represented through the static movement in terms of camera language. The next scene has a much different atmosphere; here the camera language is much more fast paced and rigid, with short shots, enabling the scene to take a much more angrier and hectic approach. This presents the representation of teenage boys as being extremely angry as the calm atmosphere is dominated by the less calmer approach displayed in the following scene.

Angles: Angles are very important in terms of representing the dominance of a character. My partner and I had taken this into great consideration during our production and, again, both scenes differ greatly from each other. The library scene contains straight on angles throughout, and one shot towards the end is slightly tilted down to hint at the dominance that will occur. Nonetheless, this scene is pretty much full of straight-on shots, connoting how at that current point he is not dominant nor is he weak, he is just an average person like everybody else... except with a dark secret.

In the next scene, again, there are shots where the camera is straight-on, but also other shots where the camera is at a low angle. This is used for the representation of dominance. As it is a moment where the character is supposed to portray anger that will make him seem powerful to the audience, having angles that are at either equal or lower levels than him leave the audience in a more vulnerable position, thus understanding  his newly found dominance. This enables them to also understand the social group of teenagers being quite aggressive and superior people as they are able to be portrayed in such a manner via the use of camera angles.

EDITING - In order to allow things like continuity and graphics to be apparent, editing comes in quite handily.

Continuity: The majority of my production requires the use of continuity as it is something that BSR films in general tend to need. This requirement is there because the films under this particular genre rely on portraying believeable issues so if continuity is not apparent then the verisimilitude may not work out very well. I incorporated continuity through places such as the moment in the park where Zakir is looking at the objects i.e. bench, tree and playground. As we wanted to connote this frustrated character desperately attempting to find a route of escape, we made him look at these objects and let the audience know that he was looking at them through the use of eyeline match. This was a very apt representation of his social group as it enabled him to become this weak character, thus exemplifying more sides to him other than the previously dominant one we saw.

Graphics: As the film would of had included a range of different people that helped to create it, we had to include a list of different roles at various different times. For example, we included the director, producer, musicians etc. From a range of the top to those that are paid less, there were many people incorporated. This was because typically, many BSR films like to incorporate many different people during their credits, i.e. the opening of "This Is England" has a lot of these graphics included. As our film is a very typical one of the BSR genre, following the steps of other BSR films was very essential as it was a guideline into what to do. Including these graphics in the beginning was quite useful as it allowed the people who worked in the production to have their name known, just like other films, as well as following the typical BSR conventions.

SOUND - A very important part of a film is the sound. In order to get an understanding of what is happening, the audience may require dialogue or if a particular atmosphere is needed, then a soundtrack may be utilized.

Dialogue: Although we did not incorporate any speech between two people, we did have dialogue. This was through a voiceover. We decided to use a voiceover as we wanted to establish the loneliness of our character and his personal frustration. The dialogue came in great use as it enabled us to exemplify this to our audience very well. As our character was particularly lonely, having this aspect allowed the character to exemplify his situation to the audience, which also allowed the narrative to be told with more ease.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack was also quite a useful tool as it allowed the atmosphere of both scenes to be portrayed correctly and compared quite strongly. By "comparison", this means that as the first scene only has a voiceover and a wildcat soundtrack, the scene can be portrayed as much calmer than the following scene.

MIS-EN-SCENE - Having a good use of this aspect enables the correct conntations of a particular genre to be exemplified. For the BSR genre, we needed to focus on costume, and location as these all had their own individual affects on the production as a whole.

Costume: In order to enable the character of Zakir to look like the working class teenager that was in the frustrated position that he was in, we chose to give him a very cheap, affordable and rough outlook. This enabled his social group of class and age to be represented as living exactly how they appear to be (rough lifestyle) as the costume in this scene is typically seen in those kinds of representations. This is seen in the BSR film "Fish Tank" with the character Mia who wears tracksuit bottoms, a hoodie and a cheap t shirt. This convention allowed her to be represented in the rough way that she was aimed to be in. With this being found out, we chose to incorporate these aspects in our own work so that the same connotation can be seen.

Location: In terms of location, we knew that we needed to incorporate a place that looks quite unkempt and common. We decided to choose a road that was quiet but not very posh as this would allow us to record without disruption and to emphasise on the loneliness of Zakir. The location was also able to connote the social group of class as it made the character to be seen as quite working class as the location was not particularly rich or sophisticated (it was more unkempt and common in a BSR society). This enabled the class representation to be connoted very successfully as we wanted the character to be presented as living quite a rough lifestyle, so focusing on including the conventions that make his class to be represented in this way (i.e. common location etc.) made the outlook come out exactly how we wanted. We obtained an idea for our location choices from Film 4 films such as "Nowhere Boy" as the streets were also quite common, quiet and unkempt, representing the same social group that we were representing. 

EXPRESSIONISM - As a method of connoting the correct atmosphere, expressionism can help out a lot. With aspects such as lighting and use of colour, it can be quite clear (or maybe enigmatic) to the audience what the atmosphere is meant to be.

Lighting: Lighting was used to a particular extent in this piece of work as we wanted to portray a typical representation of a British society. We thought about using a darker set of lighting to portray the mundane lifestyle of these working class citizens, but we felt that in order to showcase how typical their life is within the British culture, we should make use of the natural lighting as this did exactly that. The days that we filmed on were particularly average in terms of British weather, meaning that the weather was not too dull or too bright. This was what we wanted as it enabled filming to run smoothly as we did not have to worry about getting equipment wet, and it also allowed the production to be connoted as very typical, something we aimed to achieve over the entirety of the project. Also, as seen in the screenshot on the right, shadows were also incorporated to foreshadow the dark times that would occur in the film as it was a dark use of expressionism.

Colour: Colour was not a very important aspect of our production but it did help out in terms of connoting a particular theme to the audience. Again, as we wanted to make the film appear as particularly conventional, i.e. an average day in everyone's life, we chose to keep the colours neutral. This allowed the aspect of normality to be highlighted as the colours were not too bright or too dull. In terms of costume, the choices made all balanced out each other as there were things from a light coloured hoodie to a dark coloured pair of tracksuits. 

This normality created by both uses of expressionism highlights how typical the social group of working class is in a British society. Those that are within this class type are seen throughout a lot of Britain.

ICONOGRAPHY - This was a great way to emphasise on just how stereotypical the character Zakir was of his working class background. With a few iconic pieces of clothing such as glasses and a hoody, iconography has been incorporated into the production.

Glasses: In order to make Zakir look quite intelligent and harmless so that his thoughts would come across as quite shocking and powerful, we included this iconic piece of jewellery that is particularly referenced with smart people. This also allowed his working class background to have more than one side to it; usually when people are working class, they are stereotyped to be quite unintelligent. However, we decided to include his glasses in it so that his social group would not follow the stereotype throughout the entirety of the film.

Hoody: This piece of costume was very useful as we wanted to make the working class background of the character follow the stereotype of being a part of a rough lifestyle. Throughout the film, this piece of costume is only used during the scenes where the characters are in rough situations or where they are exemplifying their cheap lifestyle.


ANCHORAGE - As a film that aimed to connote the message of how violence is never a positive thing to get involved into, we incorporated a few things that we aimed to include throughout the entirety of the film. However, within our opening sequence, we needed to include some form of anchorage that connoted our themes of violence and poverty, so we incorporated it into our production.

Violence: This was a very important theme that we wanted to incorporate into our production as it is something that can be seen throughout the entirety of it. The way that this was anchored into our opening sequence was through the voiceover in the library and the angry facial expressions in the park. The voiceover hinted at violence where the character said that "...no matter what anyone says [...] I'm doing something about it". Although the audience are not spoonfed what this actually means, it is really there to enigmatically hint at the theme of violence. This allowed his representation of working class to be seen as quite mysterious as nobody was quite sure as to what he meant by this quote as they are only left with their imagination. With the facial expressions, these are also quite enigmatic as well as hinting at violence. Again, they also allow this class to be seen as quite mysterious as the audience are left with their imagination to wonder what the character is going to do.

Poverty: This is a theme that is seen in a lot of BSR films, as well as ours. This is also something that is stereotypically referred to those of a working class background. We anchored this theme lightly throughout our opening sequence as it was not a very big theme in our production so we did not want it to be the sole theme within our project. The way that it was incorporated was through the library scene where the laptop shows the percentage charge of the laptop. This was purposefully incorporated as it can express how Zakir lives a lifestyle where he may have limited access to electricity. As he is in a public place with a laptop that is almost out of battery, the audience can possible understand how his household may not be able to afford the bills, so therefore representing his class as not exactly being the richest in the world.

Overall, I would like to say that my partner and I have incorporated the representation of the working class background in two different lights; both following the stereotype that they have a negative lifestyle and contesting it by connoting how their lifestyle is not as bad as some make it out to be. This is done through all of the methods mentioned such as anchorage, mise-en-scene, iconography, sound and many more. This enables the work to be very unique as it shows more than one side of a typical British social realist lifestyle.

Evaluation: PART FOUR - The ways in which my media production uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products

My partner and I have created a video discussing the way that we incorporated typical BSR aspects in our work and how we either went against or with them. Below is the YouTube link to our annotated video.

[NOTE: PLEASE PAUSE WHEN NECESSARY IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THE BEST READING EXPERIENCE + VIEWING ON THE BLOG CUTS DOWN THE ANNOTATIONS SO VIEW IT ON YOUTUBE FOR BEST RESULTS]:

Overall, I would say that we went against and with the conventions of BSR films for certain reasons. We went against it in the first scene (library) so that the character's mindset can reach the audience in a particular way; this was to exemplify loneliness and to add to the impact of the following scene (a calm atmosphere compared to a rougher one). We then went with the typical conventions of BSR films as we aimed to allow the audience to understand how frustrated this character was. With the use typical costumes, disheveled camera work and short takes, this aggression was easily denoted as the character could be seen to be angry.

Evaluation: PART THREE - What impact did Film 4 have on each production stage and why?

This part of the evaluation is based around what impact Film 4 had on my production and why this impact was apparent. By displaying an exploration of pre-production, production and distribution, I have denoted exactly this. This Powerpoint can be seen below:

Evaluation: PART TWO - Whothe audience would be for my product

This is a video diary that my partner and I had filmed, written and edited together in order to depict who our audience are, why we chose them and how we reached their wants. The video can be seen below through an embedded YouTube link:

Evaluation PART ONE - The Brief

The image above is the brief that I was working towards. There were a few key points that I had to follow which were:

• The target audience were British 16 - 24 year olds
• I had to create the first two minutes of the film to show the graphical, editing and musical style of it
• Must conform to the conventions of the BSR genre
• Must meet all of the audience expectations for this film type
• All audio and visual material incorporated must be original

TITLE CONNTATIONS

The title of my production is called "Hit List". We decided to choose this title as a "hit list" is a list of people or things that are to be attacked or opposed, connoting that the film will present the theme of violence a lot. In the film, the main character Zakir results in getting involved in a couple of fights so that he can make sure that others are feeling the pain that he is feeling. He goes after a list of people, thus being a "hit list". As my research stated that they wanted to include violence, my title connotes exactly that due to it being about attacks on another person. I  also believe that my narrative would fit this title as it depicts how Zakir does exactly what I just stated; he gets involved in fight after fight in order to gain redemption.

Other than the violence theme, some may think that "Hit List" is about music. As a "hit" is referred to as a successful song in the music industry, the title could connote that an artist is producing a "list" of "hit" songs. As it is a BSR film, it may lead to some unfortunate things such as poverty. For example, the artist could be really successful and then he loses it and must live like a typical British person in the working class background. This may fit my narrative as my narrative depicts how Zakir goes through a rough patch due to the way that he is previously treated. This previous treatment may be his loss of success, thus resulting in him wanting everyone else around him to be of the same low success that he is in. The music storyline can be explained later on in the film where he speaks to Jenna, someone that becomes close to him.

Another connotation of our chosen title is that the "hit list" can be seen as a form of gambling. Someone may be putting their life on the line (a "hit") as they gamble against a "list" of different people. This can make the audience feel that the film may be quite intense as gambling is quite an intense thing to do. I believe that this would fit my narrative as again, he lives quite an upsetting life. The reason for his distraught feelings may be because he gambled and wants to make sure that everybody else feels his pain as well.

HOW I MET THE THEMES OF BSR

Poverty - I believe that I did meet the themes of British Social Realism as my opening sequence connotes a few of the themes that we see in a typical film of this genre. One example of my film using the BSR conventions is through the costume that Zakir is wearing at 1:22. This mise-en-scene convention meets the theme of poverty as it is quite a cheap product that can be bought somewhere like a market place. This connotes to the audience that this character is not the wealthiest person and it can meet their needs due to it presenting the themes that they would typically be interested in with a BSR film.

Violence - Another time where I feel we met the themes of a BSR film is when we connoted violence during Zakir's voiceover at 0:37. We felt that a way to increase suspension but still meet the theme of violence would be to have someone hint about it in a sly manner. We did not want him to immediately say that he would get involved into a lot of fights as this would feel as if the film was moving too fast. By him speaking about it instead, a sense of enigma was created, thus engaging the audience through keeping them thinking.

Loneliness - We also incorporated the theme of loneliness as at 0:42 Zakir was speaking about how he is "making the most of [life] no matter who [he brings] down". Here he hints at how he does not exactly have many people to rely on and how no matter what happens he will not feel bad about hurting those around him, because there is nobody around him. The audience would be quite fond of this as it is meeting a theme of BSR quite well due to it connoting it so soon during the production.

HOW IT SETS UP THE REST OF THE FILM

My opening sequence sets up the rest of the film through various aspects. One of these aspects is the big impact that the second scene holds on the sequence as a whole. From the calm atmosphere demonstrated through the library scene, a very intense piece of music starts to play at 0:46, which is when the more fast paced street scene occurs. This sets up the rest of the film to be quite an intense production as the shift in atmosphere is quite impactful, thus being particularly important in terms of representing the film as a whole. The audience can get an understanding of how the film in general is quite tense due to this one scene in the opening to be so big in terms of its entrance. 

This fast paced usage is also apparent in the film "Trainspotting". Here it denotes a man running from danger so that the tenseness of the entire film can be created. This film does have some very intense moments in it and it is anchored through its opening sequence. As this sequence creates the same atmosphere, it makes the audience members watching it understand how the rest of the film is bound to pan out. I have used this in my production for the same reason; I have incorporated a tense start so that the rest of the film can be depicted in the same manner.

The rest of the film is also set up by my opening sequence through the loneliness expressed from 0:18 to 0:42 where Zakir talks about how his "life sucks" and how he wants to get away from his current lifestyle. This theme of loneliness exemplifies just how the rest of the film will run; Zakir is alone and he wants to do something about it. He aims to make sure that others feel the way he does, but it ends up turning into him gaining new company. I believe that this sets it up quite well as the theme of loneliness is exemplified through more than just the sound. The mise-en-scene exemplifies it as there is nobody around him that he associates himself with, and he is typing on a laptop in a public area, something that he could do at his home, but that place may make him feel worse. 

This typing and hurtful representation is also incorporated in "Submarine" where Lloyd speaks about his parents and the girl that he likes. This showcases to the audience how lonely he feels and I believe that as his loneliness is depicted at the start of the film, the audience remember it throughout the entirety of the production. This is exactly why I included it in my opening sequence; as I wanted the lonely aspect to be remembered throughout the entire film, having it as one of the first things that my audience sees allows them to remember it more as it's the first introduction to the character that they get.

Overall, it is clear that the opening sequence theory has been identified so that the audience members can understand the intensity and loneliness that will be incorporated throughout the entire film. Also, the themes have been incorporated so early in the production so that the audience can have a general outline of what will happen.

Final Opening Sequence of "Hit List"

After weeks of clicking, moving, re-arranging and stress, my partner and I finally finished working on our final production of the opening sequence for "Hit List".  We took in the feedback from others and had incorporated it within our work. We were quite proud of our end result and look forward to presenting it to the class in the future.

Production Log NINE

This week was the final week in terms of production. With the deadline of the opening sequence approaching, it was quite a strenuous week in terms of packing in any last minute changes.

The first day consisted of my partner and I planning our week ahead. Once the planning was complete, we had resulted in making changes to our clips (lengths and different clips) and adding in a new voice over as we felt that the previous one did not express the anger of the character's current state well enough.

After the lesson was over, my partner and I had gone to Goodmayes Library after school and had re-shot the entire library scene from a range of different angles. When we had gone to the place, the area that we wanted was taken, so we decided to go to the brighter area next to the window. Due to it being so bright, I had to edit the brightness settings on the camera so that we could see the character more. This choice helped us get over the sight issue and allowed us to record the character in a better manner. I placed the camera in various places around the actor so that the audience could see different views of him and also because I wanted to include a range of shots. From side views to point of views, we aimed to get as many as possible. This enabled editing to flow with greater ease as we had a lot of choices to make if the designated shots did not work, which, was not an issue.


The name of the main character, Ben, was also changed this week. As the name did not suit the look of the character, we decided to name him Zakir as this is a name that is typically associated with the same ethnicity of the actor playing him.


We also decided to edit the order of the two scenes. We switched them both around as we felt that by having the library scene first it would be easier to denote the story to the audience. This also enabled the second scene to have a greater impact on the audience as it was much more clear as to what was happening due to it being explained previously. We also got to keep in the enigma as it is still unclear as to what the main character is actually doing, but the audience are aware that there is something suspicious.

The next few days consisted of my partner and I editing the credits and the production logos. A big problem we faced was the production company logo. As we did not save the PSD file, but only the JPG one, we could not edit the "S" out of "Concrete Corporations", so we had to find a similar font and work around that. This worked in our favour but it did not look as good as the other one did, as said by ourselves and other people. This taught us to always save work no matter how necessary the file is, as we may always need it in the coming future.

Another issue was that we realised that the typing format of the credits was not as impactful as it would of had been if it had quickly faded in and then faded out afterwards. With this in mind, we did not use the LiveType words, we decided to use the iMovie texts as it fitted in with the current scene much more.

After Thursday, our deadline, was over, we were then faced with watching other people's productions. During the hour and ten minutes, we only had time to watch a few pieces of work, but we realised that a lot of people had done quite a good job. We took notice of the special aspects that many of them used, such as dramatic moments, makeup and more and were quite impressed with the quality of our year group. We took in account what we could of had done and what would not have been suited with us and realised that we were quite pleased that we had minimal regrets. There were a few editing aspects and shots that we felt could of had been quite good such as the graphic match technique, but other than those we were quite happy with everyone's end result.