Evaluation Essay – AS Media Studies
For my piece of coursework,
I based it entirely on a moving image: a crime film trailer to be precise. For
my pre-production task I worked alone, creating an animatic storyboard made up
of my own drawings, editing them together with some small voiceovers from other
members of the class. For my actual production task, I worked alongside my
classmate Stefan Okopskyj. Together we both played an even part in creating the
production piece, me being in charge of the camera work and lighting, Stefan
being in charge of editing and both of us working together for the
mise-en-scene and props.
Before beginning my pre-production
task I did some research into the film industry, how trailers are constructed,
similar trailers to our chosen genre and audience research. By carrying out
research beforehand it gave me a better idea of the codes and conventions in
products of a similar genre and what is expected of a typical crime film
trailer.
The main area of research I
carried out was for the target audience. The target audience for our crime film
trailer is from the age of a young adult 16 – 25, aimed more towards a male
target audience. This was chosen because of the concept of violence used to
create our heist scene and also because of the effect that the use of weaponry has
towards the audience. We also found our audience research revealed that films
and trailers in the same genre as ours usually appeal most to a male audience
usually around the young adult mark. To attract our target audience we included
aspects that were commonly displayed in crime film trailers, this including
character roles such as the villain (in our case the evil loan shark and the
characters carrying out the heist) and the innocent civilians (played by extras
for the bank scenes). By following what is typical of products of this genre we
were able to create ‘comfortable reassurance’ meaning that we are giving our
target audience something that they are used to (similar to existing trailers),
along with something new.
With this I also carried
out research on some existing film trailers. Firstly I studied the film trailer
of "Oceans Twelve" this fitting with a similar target audience to
ours, appealing most to male adults. The film also included a similar plot and
some edit features of which we plan to include in our production piece. From
this I also did research into a film trailer of completely different genre, the
Disney animation "Big Hero 6". The content and language used in a
film like this is a lot friendlier than a film like "Oceans Twelve".
Not only is the genre and language different, both trailers are aimed towards different
target audiences. "Oceans Twelve" targets the audience of young
adult, most commonly male; whereas "Big Hero 6" targets a more family
friendly audience, targeting younger children, from both genders.
For the planning of my
original moving image pre-production task I created various different sketches
for my scenes that will make up my final storyboard. Overall I created 16
different images, which I then scanned into iMovie and edited them together to
create a mock-up production piece. For the planning of our production task we
created various different lists and ideas of what we can include in it. One
thing that we found useful was to create a list for the props and mise-en-scene.
This helped to give us an overall idea of everything that we have planned to
include, and also give us an idea of the types of props we will need to buy or
make for the production task.
For the production task we
tried to address our chosen target audience by focusing on the interests they
have. From this we looked closely at existing/current products of which had
similarities of what we plan to achieve. One example of this is by focusing on
the storyline, for our production we planned to make the storyline interesting
so that it would appeal to our target audience. We created this concept by
taking the storylines from both of our film trailers that we used in the pre-production
mock up, merging them together throughout the trailer to create one final
storyline.
For the production task I
was able to take into consideration the codes and conventions which help the
product to create meaning for the audience. Both symbolic and technical codes
were focused on in detail. From this I was able to follow the codes and conventions
through the use of symbolic codes; these were used to show in depth everything
that we see (language, costume and verbal communication). One example of this
is in the production we focused on how the characters reacted (e.g. becoming
upset when they were fired, or lose in the poker game), the emotion and expressions
that were shown in these scenes and their overall actions. We also focused on
the characters costumes (smart/casual for the poker game and work, suits and
balaclavas were used for the actual bank scene to create drama and suspense);
lastly the language used in the production was also formal to help show the
seriousness of the scene. One main way we showed the importance of the costumes
was in some of the beginning scenes. One of the character roles that we used in
our production was a “Loan shark”. This type of character commonly appears in
films in this genre. To show the importance of that particular character we
used a different costume to other characters in that scene. We dressed our
character in a completely black suit, this showing the connotations of
importance and mystery. We also dressed the character in a trilby hat, this
also showing mystery but also creating the effect of the character having
something to hide.
From this I was also able
to follow the codes and conventions through the technical codes (the shots,
different angles and the overall lighting). For the production I filmed from an
array of different angles to create significance and meaning to some/most of
the scenes; For example, for the poker scene I used a bird’s eye view to help
set the scene, from then I used some close up shots to focus on certain actions
and props and used medium and point of view shots to set the scene of the poker
players. For the lighting in the production, all of the light used was
completely natural. From this I focused on the angling of each of the shots, so
that everything could be clearly shown. For most of the scenes the natural
lighting wasn’t used to create meaning, but it was used in that way for the
beginning poker scenes. For part of the poker scenes some of the shots are
quite dark, this is so that these scenes can help to create suspense and
importance of the shots.
For our production task,
the main way that it would be distributed / consumed would be before similar
films in a cinema. It would be most suited to be shown in this environment as
our production task is a crime film trailer, fitting in well with our target
audience before a film is shown. The content of our film/trailer would have to
be taken into consideration with the film that it will be shown before. This is
so that it is targeted to the appropriate age range, and those of a particular
interest. I also focused the representations of people and places. We looked
into the way in which characters are typically portrayed in genres of this kind
and how we can introduce them into our own piece. We focused on the typical
“bad guys”, someone who has lost their job (family man), a gambler and a loan
shark. Each of these characters commonly appear on films, trailers, or just
products involved with this genre, so this is why we have included these into
our piece to reinforce how thing are commonly done.
Overall for our production
piece, I made many improvements from my original pre-production task. Some ways
in which I had made these improvements include: The use of professional HD camcorders
instead of using just hand drawn images to create each of the pre-production
scenes, using a tripod to get a balanced shot, and a location to set the scene.
Whilst filming the production
task I became more aware of the codes and conventions, helping to create
meaning to each of the scenes. As I had been placed in charge of the camerawork
and lighting, with an equal involvement with the mise-en-scene, I was able to
take into consideration both the technical and symbolic codes in detail. For
the shooting of our production I used a different camera for the poker scene
than I did for the rest of the filming. I found that for the poker scenes the
camera quality wasn’t as clear as I had originally expected it to. From
this production work I have learned a lot more about technology, especially
camerawork and setting the scene. For the camerawork and editing we took into
consideration how certain shots and editing techniques can help to create an effect.
From this we used the camera shots to create spatial awareness, whilst also
using editing techniques to create the passing of time and the pace build up. I
also learned in detail the importance of the angles, shots, lighting and being
able to capture the meaning through facial expressions and emotion, this
overall helping to appeal to and attract the audience.
The outcome of our
production work was very pleasing. We used the camera angles to reflect the
real filmmaking world, as we considered the effect they would have on the
audience. For example, the film starts with an establishing shot, this allows
the audience to see where the scene is set. Furthermore, as the narrative
unfolds, the camerawork uses various close up shots and mid shots with the purpose
to focus on the emotion or the detail of the characters facial expressions.
Along with this we used editing transitions and techniques to speed up the pace
of the action, allowing the films to tension to increase.
Looking back at this
project with reference to my chosen real moving image films, only the quality
of the camerawork and some aspects of editing differed to my chosen existing
products. Overall I am very happy with the outcome of the content in comparison
to our trailer “High Stakes”, turning out reasonably similar to an existing
moving image film “Ocean’s Twelve”. Another film trailer in which I researched
into was the Disney animation “Big Hero 6”. In comparison to our final product
I followed similar codes and conventions, the main aspect of this being the
pace. In the trailer for “Big Hero 6” the tension and pace of the film
continued to grow throughout the film, especially in chase and battle scenes.
In our trailer we interpreted this into the pace of the editing along with the
background music, the scene building increasing the trailers intensity.
