Evaluation Q&A

Q1: In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My Media product, opening title sequence, conforms to the codes, conventions and expectations that a movie title sequence should hold. It gives the viewer a brief incite into the coming film, it sets the mood and atmosphere. A well constructed title sequence can give the viewer an instant understanding of the genre, character and a geneneral nature of the film. Ours sets the scene (london buisness district) by showing scenes of the london cityscape, introduces the main character, although in ours we do not directly introduce the character yet the audience knows whom is the center point of the sequence.

Q2: How does my media product represent particular social groups?
Canary is about a man within a higher social class whom then falls into a poorer social group. The whole film is about class and the divides. Within the title itself the character is presented in a wealthy social class, we represent this with the costume he is in, suit, briefcase all things that we associate with a wealthy buisnessman type group. We also show the wealthy part of london with the whole Canary Wharf building and neighbouring buildings, we show the clean shining high class side of london. But ever so often showing shots of inside shopping facilities, showing the consumption and expendable income of such people. If the film was to be made when the change of class appears the setting will change dramatically.

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why?
Canary would most likley be distrbuted by an english film company, as it's main theme is british culture and class it would be understood better by an english audience most proberly not fit for Hollywood consumption. Yet saying this any international audiences interested in the British social class status and english culture then this may be the film. But i would still like it to be disributed by a British company.

Q4: Who would be the media audience for my media product?
Canary is a current film tackleing very current issues. Anyone interested in the representation of the credit crunch or anyone afftected by the economic downturn would be a good audience for this film. A good age would be late teens and above as the sequence (described in a crit but a peer) is very "adult" so a younger viewer may not be either interested in the crisis or unable to understand the film.

Q5: How did I attract/address my audience?
With the intergration of current affairs into our product people are automatically addressed by the sequence. It's something affecting a large majority of the Uk at the moment and when we screened the film people could relate and seemed engaged by the sequence. Also alot of the audience are from the london area so within the sequence they can recognise places and have an understanding witht he film more than say if it was set in alaska. London people can relate to.

Q6: What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
I had previously already had quite good knowledge and an understanding with the editing side of things but every time i work with Final Cut Pro I learn more and find new and interesting thigns to do. I had the oppourtunity to learn alot more abit creating music as I worked on music for the first time with my brother (whom is very experienced in programs amnd techniques) I can hppefully now intergrate my own music into future pieces I make.

Q7: Looking back at my preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task I feel i have developed my ideas greatly when working towards the full product. Alot of things have changed during the initial ideas which i was expecting as i understood that for a good title sequence to work it must develop and become larger than original intentions. I have learnt a great deal on the development process as that was most possibly the biggest challenge and struggle, although everything went well from what i was expecting. I have also learnt how essential music and sound can play into a piece, it sets the mood atmosphere and can literally make a piece, atleast it was vital within ours.

"Ch-ch-changes"

After the class crit we noticed a small lack of continuity within our sequence. This was easilly fixed, here is the Re-Edit on youtube. Unfortunatly though YouTube completely brought down the qaulity of the piece. I belive we have now smoothed over any minor imperfections on the piece and it requires no real further work.

Quick Re-edit

During the class crit once pointed out on the big screen we noticed a minor break in the continuity of the stair scene. It appeared that i had left my bag in the corner of the stairway, in the nesxt shot, bag gone. I took straight to final cut and managed to zoom in to the clip far enough to cut the bag off the side of the fram, then cropped the top and bottom of the frame to widescreen and good as new! I was worried that i may reduce the qaulity of the shot by enlarging it so much, but it ended up making no real visible difference.




(Click image to enlarge)

Audience

So now we've made it, whos going to watch it!


(Image: A nice Cliche of the cinematic experience)
It is important for us to know our Target Audience and who potnetially we would sell our film to. I need to find out the age range of my audience, what other films they enjoy of the similair genre and what not.
On monday the class performed a group crit of our Opening shorts and production process so far. There was lots of good feedback and posotive, constructive criticism being givin to everyones title sequences. I believe that our opening went down well as we recieved some great comments, some of which will help with my investigationof audience. One student said that the opening was very "adult", which i was rather pleased about as the film, in its intentions, was to be a quite sad and moving drama targeted at more of a mature audience whom would have the ability to understand and relate with the characters and situations better. But this does'nt mean that we don't want our film to appeal to a much wider audience.
As the film deals with issues of class and wealth we want the film to be relevant in the time of an economic crisis, i believe we have met this intention.

Title Sequence Completion

Job done, fully edited our Title Sequence is "finito"!
We decided to call the film "Canary" one because a central location is the Canary Wharf Building and two because we have an opening shot where builds fly in, also possibly symbolising the flight of our character and as he falls from the top will have to learn to "fly" gaining his family back and trying to regain happiness and love and such. It's abit of a play on words.

Sorry for the poor qaulity upload, for some reason the music crackles (which is due to the export not the original file).

Editing in Motion

We are well into the editing process after the progress made yesterday. After creating the soundtrack editing the video seemed alot smoother and easier, it seemed that it was so much more effective editing the Footage to fit the music than trying to create a piece of music to fit the images we had. Change of shot at a crash or using calmer shots for the more tranquil parts fo music, they fit in togther nicely. I am now well acquainted with Final Cut Pro and editing our footage seems a really pleasurable task.
Here is a screen shot taken whilst in the edited process:


(Click to enlarge)

Title Soundtrack

So here it is. The soundtrack to the title sequence, i wanted to build abit of pace and the music gets abit louder and increases in pace until at the foot of our destination/opening scene. I tried to communicate my intentions best to my brother and after we worked abit on it am happy that it achieves the feel and sets the scene for our sequence.
When the violins come in with the piano i think the use of long held notes work well, i did'nt want something too dramatic or that is particulary happy or sad. Just general atmosphere building music with held tones over a soft piano part. It was inspired by the work of "Ludovido Einaudi" who did wrote the music to "This is England" Dir. Shane Meadows where there is often a piano playing with bleak violin tones.