Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Evaluation P1: Reworking the Familiar

In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
1. We had decided beforehand to analyse other real media products, like films, with a dramatic interrogation scene. My group and I discussed about the interrogation scene in the film Mission Impossible III with Award Winning Actor, Tom Cruise, as we believe it has regarded the several thriller conventions through the use of music [copyrighted/signed - non-diegetic], SFX [artificial sounds to increase the drama and realism of the scene - non-diegetic] and dialogue [diegetic/non-diegetic - helps the audience understand the storyline with the different characters/personalities/accents].  And with this specific scene in mind, we could imitate these conventions [dark, shadowed and derelict location].
2. Secondly, our group wanted the scene to be as realistic as possible, and even though we did not have any real weapons as such, we tried to use the second most lethal and doable weapon at our disposition, our fists.  At first we were improvising to acquire the feeling and the correct relationship with the victim [co-director and chief editor, Oliver Rossetti]. Therefore, this scene was repeated several times before a script was written.  I believe we challenge the usual production stages in a high budget film, where a script is written and given to the actors before the filming stage.  The fist fighting was thought of during the idea-making stages of the sequence, as well as, during the time on the set.  We developed this thriller convention by shooting it from different shot angles [low/high/tilt] and we stuck to the one we thought suited the situation and location best [mise-en-scene and cinematograpy analysis].
3. Finally, as a group we agreed on inserting the most dramatic scene in front of the relaxed one in the morning. This was done for two reasons: Reversed continuity and audience attention; we wanted to attract the audience, by pulling them into the storyline with a brief, yet startling start of sequence.  In the editing process, we turned the interrogation scene to black and white [B&W] as it demonstrates that it has happened in the future [therefore making the audience want to know how this man got to this stage] and it also creates a thrilling, suspensful and effective start to a film in the thriller genre.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? 
1. I have learnt several things since the beginning of my AS media studies course, but since my first attempt with a video camera; filming our preliminary task, the element I have used the most, was the numerous camera shots and angles; the use of these can affect the way the audience's thoughts' on the story.  For example, a close-up of a person's face can indicate what they are about to do; we know this through their facial expressions [or body language, if the frame has focused on another part of their body].

2. Secondly, the continuity. The lack of continuity can affect the film greatly, if edited inaccurately the storyline would not match with the rest of the film, therefore not making much sense for the audience.

 Are there any 'intertextual' moments where you hint a reference to another film? 
Although trying to make our sequence look professional and amateur-like, we did try to create a script with a dramatic edge, with this in mind, I had analysed several scenes in Award Winning thrillers with a similar storyline; but we thought that if we wrote our script from scratch, the originality factor would have made our two minute sequence preferable to our target audience.

What kinds of audience pleasure are you tying to provide and how confident are you to have delivered on this promise? 
Our target audience are teenagers from the age of 13 to older adults [13-4x age bracket].  We believe that with the intriguing storyline, the target audience would enjoy the thrills created by amateur actors. In my own opinion, I think we have done well to deliver this feeling to them through previous experience.  

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