Wednesday 31 March 2010
Monday 29 March 2010
Evaluation.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film noir uses the forms and conventions of published film noir because of the characters we have within our story. Within our film noir we have a femme fatale and a detective. These are the characters that complete a traditional film noir. The scene in our film noir where the questioning is taking place, in the interview room, we see the detectives and the femme fatale. We did not use a canted frame in our film noir as we thought it would not work well in our film.
Our film noir uses the convention of a real film noir as our storyline involves a mysterious killing taking place and a police/detective questioning in order to unfold the truth. There is a scene present where the detectives find the body. The two are dresses in smart clothes. The female dressed in a long smart coat, the male dressed in a shirt and tie. By using these methods of mise-en-scene it helps our film to agree with the conventions of a film noir product.
Our film noir does follow many of the conventions and terms of a professional film noir however in certain ways we do challenge them. We have a female detective which back in the days of film noir’s, women did not have such an important role. This is a way of us expressing our film noir as more modern, appealing to a new generation. It was very unlikely that a man and a woman would work together to uncover a mystery however our film noir shows a good working relationship between our female and male detective.
Our opening scene shows a man walking through a park and at the time rain is falling heavy. Rain can be seen as a conventional aspect of a film noir. Also we included flashbacks in order to create more depth to the story, bring more emotion to it and explain to the audience events from the past so the story can be understood more clearly, a technique taken from professional standard film noirs.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents different social groups in several specific ways.
The first character you are introduced to in our film is a man. The man is portrayed in a professional light. The man is holding a briefcase and is smartly dressed; this helps to give the audience the impression that the man has a good professional job. The same man also comes into the film having an argument with his wife in their family home. The man is portrayed to be dominant over his wife, as he is standing tall over her while she is sat almost quivering on the couch. The man is also using intimidating behavior such as pointing and shouting at his wife.
Another character in the film is a woman, arguing with her husband. The woman is portrayed to be scared and intimidated by her husband, this is shown by her shaking and obvious dislike to arguing and standing up to her husband. The woman explains how she cooked for her husband and cleaned the house previously that day , this helps to portray her to the audience as a typical old fashioned house wife. She also explains how her husband beat her, this is shown in the clip of the argument, and again portrays her as weak and inferior to her husband as she is a victim of domestic violence. This woman character helps to portray the old fashioned image from when the film was set that women stayed at home and cared for their husbands while they went off to work.
The police in our media product are portrayed in the film as smartly dressed, calm and confident. This helps to show to the audience that they are the ones in control and are used to dealing with such murder cases as they have no shocked expression to the mans death. By having the police smartly dressed this helps to portray that the police are in charge and intend to solve the murder as quickly as possible, emphasizing on their professionalism and dedication to their job.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our media product could be distributed by a range of media institutions.
Our film could be released in the cinema. This could be because there are not many film noirs that are released in the present day, by releasing ours into a cinema this would help to attract the range of film noir fans. Also by releasing it in the cinema this would help to attract a wide audience too by using good marketing attracting attention and fans to the film.
Other modern film noirs such as L.A Confidential were released by Warner brothers. Warner brothers could also choose to produce our film as the company has a record of being involved in film noirs and other films which are not as popular with all fans.
Who would be the audience of your media product?
We have aimed for the audience of our media product to be aged 15 years and above. This is because our film noir involves the concept of violence. Also within film noirs within the story line there is normally a mass amount of violence throughout and therefore even though our opening sequence may not seem that directed at 15 years of age and above, the rest of the film to follow no doubtable would only be appropriate for that specific age and above.
We took inspiration from the film noirs se7en and L.A Confidential however these both have the certificate 18. Therefore we edited the contents included within the film noir so that we could lower the age certificate down so our film could appeal to a larger audience in the end and hopefully if produced would make more money. Within a 15 we may still have swearing and violence can be involved but what must not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.
How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted the audience by using classic Film Noir things, using younger actors, and younger clothing. It is a similar storyline to other Film Noirs, and trying to attract new audiences by using modern actors and pushing Film Noir normality’s. With the main characters usually men, females never played an important role whereas in our Film Noir we are challenging that by having a female detective. Using a female detective also broadened our audience as back in the day, women may not have been particularly interested in watching film noirs however with a female as a main character, females would now most likely enjoy the story line a lot more.
We gave the film a mysterious feel to it so the audience could keep hooked and interested as they tried to unfold what had happened in their minds as well as the detectives solving the problems of the events occurring. We tried our best to use music that would build suspense for the audience and also slow music that would express emotion. These are two of the most important things a film should bring across in order for it to be a success, especially suspense for a film noir.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
Whilst constructing this product we have learnt to use the technologies a lot better. Our I Movie skills in order to construct and piece together the film have improved dramatically. Also we have developed our skills when using Garage Band to create the music that makes our film soundtrack. Also we have improved our skills when using the camera when situating it to capture certain shots. During the process of our coursework we had to use photoshop in order to create a logo and a mind map of ideas.
When piecing the film together, we realized the camera had been on a wide screen setting therefore when we up loaded the film we found that a border appears around the edge, minimizing the size of the footage present. In future we shall learn to be more careful when choosing settings that will effect our final product.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From our preliminary task to producing our full product for examination we have developed our camera shot skills, as we know now how to take a variety of shots fitting them all together. Also we have had more practice working on IMOVIE and now can successfully piece together various clips of footage in order to create a free –flowing film for an audience to successfully follow and understand. Also we have moved on to make our own music, tracks and sound effects, rather than select from the basic choices available within IMOVIE.
