Our film undoubtedly incorporates generic conventions based around Gangster films. Iconography such as guns, gambling, cars and vast amounts of money, all reflect similarities typical to this genre; for instance Guy Ritchie’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’ or Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Snatch’. Other similar aspects such as the narrative voiceover (similar to that in Goodfellas), the identifiable urban environment, and the distinctive character profiles (i.e. clothing, body language and verbal language) are all recognised uses of conventions within this genre. Our film developed and challenged these conventions by reintroducing the black and white video, and allowing the main character to address the camera/audience directly, techniques which have long been outdated, and additionally by introducing unique and original ideas into it by using a non-linear narrative and having an omniscient main character.
Our use of conventions indicates what other films have influenced our work. For instance, we have adapted opening title character images and used small amounts of dialogue, similar to Snatch, as well as utilizing connotative introduction music and clothing from reservoir dogs.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represented males, primarily around 17-20 years of age. I feel this does not necessarily represent that particular group in a stereotypical way. For instance, they possess guns; they’re formally dressed and are involved with large amounts of money and obvious violence/crime. I think the video portrays an obvious hierarchy of dominance, allowing particular characters included in the screening to have supremacy over the other characters, which is certainly a typical feature from this genre. I feel this links to our target audience as the characters involved in the production are of similar age to our target audience, are all male, and (which may seem slightly stereotypical…), could perhaps relate to the alcohol, cars and card games that are included.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Based upon our distributor research, we have very clear prospects of what would be the ideal media institution would be best suited to distribute our product. Our treatment and research suggest that our budget for the film would be incredibly low; consider the urban-thriller ‘Shifty’ by Eran Creevy. It was produced, and then distributed by Metrodome Distribution for only £100,000. Metrodome Distribution specialises in low budget films, and favours new and upcoming British directors and producers.
(click here to be taken to Metrodome Distribution's website)
Due to the popularity of this growing genre, we feel that our movie (if produced fully) would be best suited in a Cinema to maximise awareness and profitability. Films that have been released in this genre (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels for instance) have had enormous success whilst at the cinema, and it is certainly possible for a low budget film like ours (As Metrodome Distribution put Shifty onto the big screen!) Again, due to our broad range of target audience, there are infinite ways in which the film can be promoted and marketed, some of which were researched involved Men’s Magazines (Maxim/FHM), Men’s Websites (Askmen.com, Maximonline.com… utilizing interviews, trailers, advertisements…), and more obscure yet adventurous methods such as Casinos/Men’s TV, as we would share similar target audiences.
Due to the stereotypical attraction that our target audience may have to props that we included in our film, franchising and merchandising may certainly be an option.
(click here for prop list), for example marketing and promoting our own playing cards, poker chips, sunglasses and formal suits
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Considering the age and gender of our target audience, it is easy to associate the narrative and the style of the film with them. Whilst the narrative of our production has been softened for the introduction (obviously due to exam regulations), it is obvious that, considering our target audience, they would be able to relate to the language used and how it was delivered via the film. The style of the film would (and does), include references to crime, violence, money and drugs, which is certainly characteristic of this film genre (take for instance films such as Goodfellas, Casino and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels who all share it).
I feel the early development of the questionnaires allowed us to thoroughly and properly develop our project to better suit our audience. We found that a high majority (of 50 people), admire this genre of film, and films such as the ones listed above. They rated our particular genre of film very generously, and around 96% said they would watch a film based upon our pitch (click here for pitch). Most importantly, around 11/12’ths of the people that took the survey said they did not mind strong language, violence or drugs and a large majority said they would watch the film in the cinema (based upon the pitch)
Click links to see: questionnaire, results, analysis
Upon completing the questionnaire, we were able to develop and expand our ideas even more. We chose films such as Bronson and Rock ‘n’ Rolla, and briefly analysed the techniques used throughout the films compared that to their film certificate. After careful research into film classification (Through websites such as the bbfc.co.uk), we opted for a film certification of 18 (Must be 18 years of age or older to view), which was due to the strict regulations of how films were categorized with regards to certificates. Whilst we were not attempting to glamorise crime and gambling to produce imitable behaviour (although this isn’t necessarily reflected in our initial 2 minutes), we found that 18(s) contained strong language, drugs, violence and possible sexual references
(click here for the BBFC website)
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
There are several methods in which we tried to attract and address our audience. Taking into consideration our target audience, we each came up with innovative techniques we could possibly consider to intercept out audiences attention. Initially we decided upon exporting the video in black and white to show originality and boldness, followed by a strong idea for easily distinguishable character introductory images, which would be completely different and saturated with colour. We decided to incorporate unusual editing techniques that our audience may find intriguing, such as switching from scene to scene to show different characters (whilst based upon the same timeframe), and regulated continuity as precisely as possible
We also used innovative techniques, which involved careful camerawork; containing point of view shots to involve the audience much more (We noticed due to the analysis of film introductions, that these were unusual, seen here, here and here) and used an omniscient narrator to allow the audience member to feel like they know what is happening. Additionally, we allowed the characters to point the guns directly at the camera, and have the protagonist speak directly to the audience, which creates an unfamiliar and unique atmosphere. Finally, we used techniques such as contrasting indoors/outdoors, and white shirts/black shirts to differentiate the ‘good’ characters from the ‘bad’ ones, allowing the user to understand the early introduction of 8 (in 2 minutes), more easily. We also used generic conventions to attain the customer’s attention, which involved having subtle background music, different locations and plenty of iconography typical of this genre to create a sense of familiarity.
6. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
I feel that I have learned an incalculable amount about the technology used whilst constructing this product. Unlike our preliminary task, we used more technical hardware and software. An HDV-1000 was used to film the entire production, which had superb video quality, incredible features (adjust exposure/brightness/colours… whilst filming) and a high-quality tripod, which meant smooth tilts and pans (to name a few strengths). However, one problem we found was a problem with recording sound from a distance (More our novice knowledge, rather than the camera fault). This enabled us to use a ‘Zoom Recorder’, which was an independent sound recorder separate to the video, which enabled us to record high quality sound without the need to talk excessively loud so the voice could be heard. A larger, more expensive camera, allowed us to film better quality/sharper shots, and larger tripods allowed more stability for panning and tilting of the camera whilst filming to enhance and maximise our footage
Admittedly, during the filming process we did encounter an error, which we were able to resolve. The third scene (in the garage), gave us problems as we attempted to get a closeup of cards moving closer to the lens in a closeup shot. This made it difficult to record the shot that we wanted to how we would have liked, but was easily fixed (once we found out), as we changed the focus from auto-focus to manual. Once we had imported our footage onto the system, we noticed that our film was slightly under-contrasted (This was fortunate, as we would eventually increase the contrast settings anyway)
The editing software that we used was Final Cut Pro HD, which our College provided, as opposed to iMovie that was used for our preliminary task. We quickly realised that Final Cut Pro HD had tons of features, and was extremely advanced software; we were effortlessly able to convert to black and white, and adjust the contrast. More advanced software also meant that we learned more about the editing process; it is important to name your clips and organise them properly (Considering we imported around 100 individual clips) and doing a rough cut before fine tuning anything is essential! Final Cut Pro HD was also very efficient at importing, for instance importing our Photoshop PNG’s that had been made for the character profiles, and an MP3 that would be out movie sound track. Once imported, we were easily able to adjust the media, which included recolouring and resizing, and adjusting the volumes/fade-ins/outs of our soundtrack.
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
As we found out from our preliminary task, considerate planning was essential to providing as little complications for our coursework as possible. Right from the very start, we have carefully prepared every step of the way, adding posts to our blog such as gangster crime research, which allowed us to identify the history of gangster crime, films involved with this genre and typical storylines and attributes of a good gangster crime film. Later on we included shot lists and storyboards, which was to keep confusion to a minimum on the day of filming, creating a stress-free filming process as we know what we needed to do, and in what order. Additionally, we had posts such as film ideas, expanded ideas, film introduction research, questionnaires, film classifications, filming locations and treatments (to name a few). The most important post in my opinion, which was the key ingredient to our planning, was the analysis of the film introductions (I chose Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) as it allowed us to identify common techniques once all three members of our production team had compared them
We attempted more elaborate and courageous camera shots throughout our film. We had the traditional shots such as static medium shots, medium long shots and match on actions, however as our confidence grew with testing the camera (before we did the shot list), we decided to be a little more adventurous with them, including shots such as point of view, subtle zooming and high-angle close-ups. This has developed my confidence with the camera equipment greatly, I feel much more self-assured about my abilities to use the recording and editing equipment and think it has been reflected in the quality of our work.
Looking at the final product, I am extremely satisfied with the end product, a result of months of planning and countless hours of work. Upon completing the video, we submitted it to social networking sites such as Facebook and Youtube, showed our peers and teachers, and gave it to friends and family to review and rate. Overall, the results were incredible.
People were delighted and excited that we had produced something that looked so professional and skilled, and assured us that producing the whole film would be a good idea (we laughed!), for instance “WOW, thats pretty awesome guys, well done :D” and “THATS MINT !!!!! WELL DONE BOYS”. Some of the constructive points that were made from peers from our AS Media class, involved positively commenting on things such as…
- The black and white editing
- The stylistic character images that were in red
- Continuity of the entire scene
- Genre identifiable by costumes, props and music
- The omniscient narrative
- The interesting shots that were captured
- The actual storyline and ‘ending’
