Media Evaluation- Daniel Sutton
Introduction
Our project is a gangster/ crime film set in the 1950s.
I worked with two other people from my media class they were Daniel Whigham and Luke Pissochet. We worked well as a group together and produced a good product as a result of this. We each contributed equally towards the project me and Daniel Whigham acted whilst Luke Pissochet controlled the camera although we all discussed where the best camera shot would be in between shots using the 180 degree rule.
The genre of our film is a gangster/ crime in our questionnaire for audience feedback we asked “What kind of genre was our opening sequence and how do you think it was established?” 90% of the people that we asked said it was a gangster or crime genre film. The different conventions that we used to establish this are the two men are wearing suits that are plain black with a plain black ties the connotations that the colour black brings are death darkness and the thought that these two men aren’t pure and good men. We also used a roll of money passed between the men, again this is something that shows they are doing something that isn’t legal. The use of an old revolver gun is shown towards the end of the sequence again showing the conventions of a gangster film.
Two of the major conventions that we have used are that all our filming was done in a dark room with minimum lighting and the soundtrack throughout the film was typical of the gangster/ crime genre. We decided to put the whole opening sequence in black and white as this is something different from the usual colour images in film it also added more mystery to the film and set up more enigmas this is why I think this particular innovation was successful. We asked in our questionnaire for audience feedback “Did you think the film suited black and white?” 100% of the people surveyed said that the black and white was suited to the film and it wouldn’t be as effective if it was in black and white. This was a very successful innovation as everybody in the audience liked it.
We used dark lighting only using one lamp for the lighting in the whole room we asked the audience “Was the lighting in our scene effective?” and 90% of the audience said that it was effective and created suspense I believe this is a good choice that we have used dark lighting. Another thing that we used was smoke in between the scenes to break up the opening sequence and giving us the space to place the names of the director, actors, producer etc. This is another thing that is not usually used in a gangster/ crime genre film. We asked the audience in our questionnaire “What effect did the smoke have?” the feedback that we were given again was very good 100% of the people liked the smoke and said that it created mystery, fear, enigmas and separated the scenes well.
So again this was a good choice for us as it worked well In our film. Our sequence fulfils the requirement of an opening sequence because it sets up many enigmas and makes the viewer want to carry on watching the film. It also fulfils the requirements of the genre we were representing by using all the different micro elements, to create a sequence that people would recognise as a gangster film. The mise en scene was suits, guns
and a roll of money. The lighting was dark and minimal. We edited the sequence with short scenes and in black and white. The cinematography used close ups and extreme close ups.
All of these different elements blended together to fulfil all the requirements of a gangster genre and of an opening sequence.
Our media product represents the particular social group of organised criminals; we have constructed this image by using many different features these are: Costume, Appearance, Actions/ Activities, Settings and use of lighting and sound in their portrayal. The costumes we used to portray the social group of organised criminals are plain black suits with black tie this is the stereotypical view of organised criminals so we decided to use this normal convention of black suits and black ties to make it easy for the viewer to understand that they are organised criminals.
The appearance of our two men in the scene is hidden except for the eyes that we showed at the beginning of the sequence. This represents the group of organised criminals because it keeps the identity hidden and this creates enigmas and the viewers know that they aren’t doing something that is legal.
The actions and the activities that are in the scene clearly show that they are organised criminals as first they pass money to each other and we ask our audience “What do you think was happening in the sequence?” and 90% of the audience said it was a deal between mafia or gangsters, so this particular activity was picked up by the audience to show they were gangsters which is successful as this is what we wanted to show. The next activity is of one of the men pulling a gun out and shooting the man this most definitely shows that they are criminal or at least one of them is. This makes reassures the audience of the thought that they are organised criminals.
The setting that we used was a small dark room with a table in the middle of the room. This is again showing that the two men are organised criminals as the deal is in the small dark room this is what the audience would imagine the “stereotypical” organised criminal would do.
The use of lighting and sound in their portrayal is another good point to represent the social group of organised criminal, the lighting that we used was dark and mysterious this makes the audience think that these are criminals and not nice people because of the lighting in the room. We used a soundtrack that sounds mysterious and suggests that’s there will be violence, action and conflict in the sequence and throughout the film.
Overall I think that our group has represented organised criminals in a realistic and a way that shows they are bad people, we have represented them in this way because most people will imagine them in this way and it is giving the audience what they want and I think the audience have responded well to it.
I would be looking for a british production company and a Hollywood distribution company (making in a indiewood film) The main production company that I would want to back our film is Film4 as they back the best independent films and they have backed similar films like trainspotting and dead mans shoes which both have crime involved. The Hollywood distribution company that I would like to use is paramount as they have a reputation for big gangster films like the Godfather. I believe these two companies would be good to represent my film as they have the good reputation for these types of films.
The target audience for our media product is mainly going to be males between the ages of 16- 25 years old we have made it appeal to this age group because this is the main age group that go to the cinema. The main audiences that would go to watch this film would be from the United States and the United Kingdom. They would be middle class people and may also have special interests of gangster films/ books.
This audience would be a good audience to target as the age group that we are aiming for go to the cinema the most and males would much rather see this film than females.
This audience is good for us financially because they are appealing to middle class people who have the disposable income to go to the cinema and watch the film or buy the dvd.
The audience feedback that we were given was mainly positive our last question in the survey was “What would you rate our sequence out of ten?” I have made an average out of the score and the average score was 7. 75 which I believe is a good result and enough for more people to go an watch it.
I think that our preliminary task was very basic and I can tell that our main project is much better and more advanced than the preliminary task all of our group skills have become much better and we all understand the process in making a film much more than we did at the start of the year.
Introduction
Our project is a gangster/ crime film set in the 1950s.
I worked with two other people from my media class they were Daniel Whigham and Luke Pissochet. We worked well as a group together and produced a good product as a result of this. We each contributed equally towards the project me and Daniel Whigham acted whilst Luke Pissochet controlled the camera although we all discussed where the best camera shot would be in between shots using the 180 degree rule.The genre of our film is a gangster/ crime in our questionnaire for audience feedback we asked “What kind of genre was our opening sequence and how do you think it was established?” 90% of the people that we asked said it was a gangster or crime genre film. The different conventions that we used to establish this are the two men are wearing suits that are plain black with a plain black ties the connotations that the colour black brings are death darkness and the thought that these two men aren’t pure and good men. We also used a roll of money passed between the men, again this is something that shows they are doing something that isn’t legal. The use of an old revolver gun is shown towards the end of the sequence again showing the conventions of a gangster film.
Two of the major conventions that we have used are that all our filming was done in a dark room with minimum lighting and the soundtrack throughout the film was typical of the gangster/ crime genre. We decided to put the whole opening sequence in black and white as this is something different from the usual colour images in film it also added more mystery to the film and set up more enigmas this is why I think this particular innovation was successful. We asked in our questionnaire for audience feedback “Did you think the film suited black and white?” 100% of the people surveyed said that the black and white was suited to the film and it wouldn’t be as effective if it was in black and white. This was a very successful innovation as everybody in the audience liked it.
We used dark lighting only using one lamp for the lighting in the whole room we asked the audience “Was the lighting in our scene effective?” and 90% of the audience said that it was effective and created suspense I believe this is a good choice that we have used dark lighting. Another thing that we used was smoke in between the scenes to break up the opening sequence and giving us the space to place the names of the director, actors, producer etc. This is another thing that is not usually used in a gangster/ crime genre film. We asked the audience in our questionnaire “What effect did the smoke have?” the feedback that we were given again was very good 100% of the people liked the smoke and said that it created mystery, fear, enigmas and separated the scenes well.
So again this was a good choice for us as it worked well In our film. Our sequence fulfils the requirement of an opening sequence because it sets up many enigmas and makes the viewer want to carry on watching the film. It also fulfils the requirements of the genre we were representing by using all the different micro elements, to create a sequence that people would recognise as a gangster film. The mise en scene was suits, guns
and a roll of money. The lighting was dark and minimal. We edited the sequence with short scenes and in black and white. The cinematography used close ups and extreme close ups.
All of these different elements blended together to fulfil all the requirements of a gangster genre and of an opening sequence.Our media product represents the particular social group of organised criminals; we have constructed this image by using many different features these are: Costume, Appearance, Actions/ Activities, Settings and use of lighting and sound in their portrayal. The costumes we used to portray the social group of organised criminals are plain black suits with black tie this is the stereotypical view of organised criminals so we decided to use this normal convention of black suits and black ties to make it easy for the viewer to understand that they are organised criminals.
The appearance of our two men in the scene is hidden except for the eyes that we showed at the beginning of the sequence. This represents the group of organised criminals because it keeps the identity hidden and this creates enigmas and the viewers know that they aren’t doing something that is legal.
The actions and the activities that are in the scene clearly show that they are organised criminals as first they pass money to each other and we ask our audience “What do you think was happening in the sequence?” and 90% of the audience said it was a deal between mafia or gangsters, so this particular activity was picked up by the audience to show they were gangsters which is successful as this is what we wanted to show. The next activity is of one of the men pulling a gun out and shooting the man this most definitely shows that they are criminal or at least one of them is. This makes reassures the audience of the thought that they are organised criminals.
The setting that we used was a small dark room with a table in the middle of the room. This is again showing that the two men are organised criminals as the deal is in the small dark room this is what the audience would imagine the “stereotypical” organised criminal would do.
The use of lighting and sound in their portrayal is another good point to represent the social group of organised criminal, the lighting that we used was dark and mysterious this makes the audience think that these are criminals and not nice people because of the lighting in the room. We used a soundtrack that sounds mysterious and suggests that’s there will be violence, action and conflict in the sequence and throughout the film.
Overall I think that our group has represented organised criminals in a realistic and a way that shows they are bad people, we have represented them in this way because most people will imagine them in this way and it is giving the audience what they want and I think the audience have responded well to it.
I would be looking for a british production company and a Hollywood distribution company (making in a indiewood film) The main production company that I would want to back our film is Film4 as they back the best independent films and they have backed similar films like trainspotting and dead mans shoes which both have crime involved. The Hollywood distribution company that I would like to use is paramount as they have a reputation for big gangster films like the Godfather. I believe these two companies would be good to represent my film as they have the good reputation for these types of films.
The target audience for our media product is mainly going to be males between the ages of 16- 25 years old we have made it appeal to this age group because this is the main age group that go to the cinema. The main audiences that would go to watch this film would be from the United States and the United Kingdom. They would be middle class people and may also have special interests of gangster films/ books.
This audience would be a good audience to target as the age group that we are aiming for go to the cinema the most and males would much rather see this film than females.
This audience is good for us financially because they are appealing to middle class people who have the disposable income to go to the cinema and watch the film or buy the dvd.
The audience feedback that we were given was mainly positive our last question in the survey was “What would you rate our sequence out of ten?” I have made an average out of the score and the average score was 7. 75 which I believe is a good result and enough for more people to go an watch it.
I think that our preliminary task was very basic and I can tell that our main project is much better and more advanced than the preliminary task all of our group skills have become much better and we all understand the process in making a film much more than we did at the start of the year.
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