Question 7:

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product?

When we were given the objective of filming the preliminary task, we were asked to film a walking scene which leads to a conversation in the restricted area of our school (Norwich City School). The planning was really quite simple. We had to create a floorplan which involved each the positioning of the camera in order to get the right camera angles and also to write a short script for the two characters. Then after filming we had to edit all the scenes (Cut the scenes) and put them together to create a continuous short clip. We also had to keep in mind not to break the 180-degree rule when filming the conversation and that concludes the preliminary task. 

Floorplan 1

Floorplan 2

Whereas when we were filming 'Kremlin' our thriller opening we had to research and prepare thoroughly. First, we had to come up with some kind of a story subsequently, and most critically,  we needed to decide what we wanted to establish in our opening. Genre, characters, plot, theme , tone/mood or location. Therefore, we needed to conduct a great deal of research of different real media clips to see how they had established and how they achieved the result. We then had to come up with character background information and think of the mise en scene and props and different camera techniques in order to properly establish our characters. Furthermore, we decided that we needed to establish the location that would ensure the audience believed this was a British gangster film. This resulted in us needing to visit and select from various locations to ensure we had the best chance of success. Choosing the right floor plan was a 'must' because we needed to know where we would position our camera in order to establish a certain something either the character or the transaction of the plot devices. When thinking of camera angles and positioning we had to keep in mind where and when we would place our titles, and in order to accomplish this we had to research a few films and note down at what time of the sequence and how they had placed their titles. After successfully filming the scene. We need to choose the correct font that would connote and establish the gritty violent genre of our opening.

Shot reverse shot

Overall I have learned various camera techniques such as shot reverse shot when filming a conversation this technique created the smooth continuity between two people talking. Also the 180 degree rule was something I have never heard of before, but when learning about it I realised the significance of the camera positioning and how important it is when trying to film a conversation. When breaking this rule the scene instantly starts to look disoriented and not just not right, the position of the characters change when breaking it and in order to create a sense of understanding of the position of the characters in set 180 is highly important. I also clearly understood that when filming a scene the critical importance of using a variety of shots , as it creates a totally different meaning depending on what type of shots and angles you may use. For example, lower angle shot of a person instantly creates a sense of power and authority or perhaps how close-up make the scene seems much more intense. The variety of shots and how you present them by itself can establish the tone, pace, and narrative of a film.

180 degree rule

Furthermore, it made me understand how important team work and detailed preparation are, especially when working with a group because then you need to bring maximum efficiency to the table and when time is limited that is exactly what you need. A good example would be when Conner and I were editing the final cutI we gave each other precise objectives with deadlines;

for example, he would take care of the titles whereas I would edit the sound. We gave ourselves specific jobs to do which meant that we both knew exactly what we had to do and it saved us a lot of time. However, there are also disadvantages when working with a group because then you have to rely on your team mates and if somebody for whatever reason forgets something or is late the whole process and production can be put on hold and of course in a professional production 'lost time= lost money'!.

TEAMWORK IS KEY!

Question 6:

Question 5:

There has been some kind of an error when uploading my word document onto "Issuu" and it has failed to display the two shots that I have chosen from my real media examples. These are supposed to be on my evaluation.

Pulp Fiction - Suitcase (Macguffin) 

Inception - "Totem" (Cliff hanger)

Question 4:

Who would be the audience for your media product?

In order to discover the audience for Kremlin, I had to check the rating and reviews of similar films with either a gritty violent gangster theme to it or a political thriller subsequently the marketing could target these 'groups' resulting in higher exposure/sales revenue. My research reached the conclusion that primarily men aged 18-26 may enjoy the Kremlin because of the gritty violence in the movie along with the conflict between British gangsters and the Russian corrupt government and its involvement with the head of Russian mafia. Which will give them the thrill that they may be seeking. However, it may also be very popular with a much older male audience. This is due to the history of the cold war and an almost obsessive interest many have in any film that includes the 'mysteries' of espionage particularly conducted by the  CIA , KGB or MI5 . However even though the film will heavily relate more to the male audience females may want to enjoy the film because of the love affair between Chantelle and her boyfriend who is a member of the British mob. 

In order to predict the audience for Kremlin, I had to search for very similar films and look at the ratings and reviews. For example 'The Constant Gardener' is a perfect example as it has a similar theme to Kremlin. Summary of the film is "A widower is determined to get to the bottom of a potentially explosive secret involving his wife's murder, big business and corporate corruption" it is put under the genre of 'Political thriller' which is part of the overall theme of Kremlin and plus with the love story in the background.

As you can see the majority of the audience are males 73,535 our of 92,870 votes on IMDb rating report. The dominant age group is 30-44 of 48,924 votes which is to be expected because the political side of the story is more favourable to the older group. However because it is a thriller and a number of the audience may also enjoy the political theme from the ages 18-29 also enjoyed the film and are the second highest age group with 29,398 votes out of 92,870. This can tell us that Kremlin may favour the males in general and perhaps favour the older males ages 30-44, due to it being a political thriller. 

M/F/A Ratings The Constant Gardener

However because Kremlin also has British and Russian mobs involved the audience will most likely defer to 'The Constant Gardener'. Another film which is similar to Kremlin in a few aspects is 'The Godfather' because it is solely about Gangsters and Mobs which is a big part of the theme in Kremlin. Summary - The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son. I chose this film because I want to find out the likely audience for a film involving 'Gangsters and Mobs' and therefore, because 'The Godfather' is the greatest film which surrounds the topic it would also be a perfect choice to analyse the audience ratings and statistics.  

A majority of the audience are male 798,274 out of 912,180 clearly dominating the number of females in vote ratings on IMDb. The males also enjoyed the film more average ratings of 9.2 as opposed to females with  the average of 8.9. The film appealed more to the age group of 18-29 with 428,848 number of votes, however not by much as ages from 30-44 who also voted a high percentage with a total of 365,022 votes. This gives us further confidence that Kremlin will appeal heavily towards the male audience, but the age group will be quite extensive as Kremlin's theme involves both politics and the criminal world of gangsters and mobs. On the basis of this I see that the audience's age group will most likely be males aged 18-44. 

M/F/A Ratings The Godfather

Mark - Age 22

Mark is a 22-year-old that loves films involving the mafia or gangs. He enjoys them because he knows that the criminal world is indeed out there and these type of films can show the life of a British gangster that live among him. He also enjoys them because absolutely anything can happen, the plots are usually very interesting and great, he also never knows what to expect as every day may be the last for the characters.The stories from the underground/criminal society are almost unlimited. The violence, the twist and plots give him the thrill that he wants. When watching a gangster film he usually gets to know the character very well and for mark it is almost as though he is place in their position and he has the opportunity to experience the hellish end or the survival of it, from the characters point of view. 

Peter - Age 44

Peter was fortunate to be brought up in an area of London where he has easy access to some 4cinemas. Additionally going to the cinema each week had been part of his normal family life for as long as he could remember. But his real interest, which almost developed his hobbym in any films with an espionage related flavour especially those linked to Russia. this started with a student exchange when he was 17 and his school played host to student of the same age from a school in West Berlin. Peter spent many hours listening to stories of how people escaped either under or over the Berlin Wall. Later with the fall of the wall in 1989 he visited both East and West Berlin and met up with the same students. The addiotional 'fuel for this hobby' was that he was intrigued by the assignation in the heart of London of the Bulgarian dissedent by the KGB with a poisoned umbrella tip and more recently the murder, again by the FSB (old KGB), of Alexander Litvinenco plus, over the coming years there were some 12 James Bond films released that became a 'must see' films. 

Peter was also an avid reader and a fan of Len Deighton's books based on the MI6 agent Harry Palmer played by Michael Caine in The Ipcress File, Billion Dollar Brain and Funeral in Berlin. All of this plus his admiration for the gritty and violent crime thriller 'Get Carter' which also stated Michael Caine makes Peter and many other males of his generation an ideal target audience

Question 3:

Thriller Opening Final Cut

Question 2:

Question 1:

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Lighting and Sound

In our media product the lighting played a huge part in creating a dark and enigmatic atmosphere. The colour pallet is very bleak which adds to the city's dark and almost depressing culture almost as though criminality is an inherent part of normal city life. In the film "Essex Boys" the director Terry Winsor creates the same 'British gangster' effect as he also used very bleak and deep colours emphasising the depressing nature of the city. Through the utilisation of chiaroscuro lighting and key lighting throughout the tunnel scenes we also created a noir atmosphere. Furthermore the shadows and silhouette emphasise the hidden identity behind the characters and bystanders creating an evil within the characters and overall setting of the location. In the noir film "The Third Man" chiaroscuro lighting is also extensively used to connote the darkness and corrupt nature of the characters. The use of shadows creates a sense of distortion and entrapment which also goes well with our dark underground location with walls covered in shadows. All of this adds to the confusion and connotes a trapped location which is significant as it is necessary to show that Chantel, who is anxious almost paranoid to grab the money and flee, has nowhere to run.

Essex Boys - Colour Palette

Kremlin - Colour Palette

In tangent with the lighting the sound used in our opening thriller was minimal specifically no use of sirens and traffic noise as then it would feel as though the city is ‘alive and well’. We wanted to create the opposite like that of almost a ghost town where, because few people leave their homes, shady and perhaps even criminal activities can be conducted in the open without any fear. To enhance this ‘ghost town’ feeling we added the sound of a not so distant train passing through, further creating an image to the audience of the location being a derelict place where trains have no need to stop and nobody goes in or out of the city. We also used the sound of a heartbeat which emphasises the importance of the transaction and later on the suspense of Anton's character being the victim of a cunning trick.

At the end of the clip, when Anton picks up the phone to call his ‘henchman’ to do the dirty job for him, we added an electronic sound to further emphasise the dominance in his command as though he is controlling a computer and his henchman is programmed to obey his orders without question. This idea came from the film "The Matrix" which uses an almost identical sound extensively throughout the film when characters are either being teleported into the virtual reality or when the character is communicating by telephone.

Camerawork

Throughout our opening thriller we used a variety of camera angles and shots to emphasise the character and the location and thus the potential immorality of both. Our entry shot is a mid shot of Anton so by hiding his face we hide his identity which implies that Anton is no ordinary person but is a shadowy character. The film ‘Sin City’ successfully utilises this approach when the lady in the red dress walks into the shot with her back towards the camera thus introducing an individual of a yet unknown character however the sophisticated red dress does in fact give an indication of her overall persona. Similarly with our introduction of Anton with the help of his costume, pace of movement and props the audience can already start to make assumptions that Anton is a person of power, authority and importance. 

Opening Shot.

A clear shot of Anton slowly walking from the light into the dark under path filled with shadows emphasises the transition from good to evil and it coincides with when Anton's face is revealed and therefore that he is a corrupt or even dangerous character . The title of the film is also in the shot creating the emphasis that it is just the beginning of a steep slope into an intense and ‘dark thriller’.

We used a conventional technique in thriller films of having a few close-up shots of the characters legs and feet as we saw this is a great way to develop a character starting from small details such as the shoes and how the person is walking. The shot of the feet is seen in many other thrillers such as the ‘Peaky Blinders’ and ‘Kill Bill’ where both use an intense walking scene so we felt this would have the same value in our walking scene.

Anton

Kill Bill

The comparison between Anton and Kill Bill shots is that they both add to the characters personality and perhaps their race and ethnicity

Peaky Blinders

Chantel

Whereas Chantel and Peaky Blinders are both similar due to the following sequence of shots, first it is the shoes and then slowly you work your way up through the props and costumes and eventually to the character’s faces.

In "Pulp Fiction" most of the movie is based around the suitcase which acts as a magufin, the audience never actually finds out what is inside the suitcase however it plays a massive role in the film. We see the suitcase again and again but it has no physical meaning. In Kremlin we also use a suitcase in a similar way, the audience knows it is important but in the opening they never find out what’s actually meant to be inside. It is important because whatever it is inside is highly valuable to Anton as he is prepared to hand over a large amount of money for it,  even more so to pay it to some British thug who probably does not deserve it and hypothetically who will use the money for further criminal activities whether drugs or guns. However Anton does not care, he just wants to reclaim the unidentified objects inside the suitcase and is willing to do anything for it as quick as possible. The essence of success to Anton is not just to obtain the suitcase but also the speed of the transaction.  This is the reason why he does not waste time to murder or rob the female thug on sight; as in the film "Collateral" directed by Michael Mann, even though later on we see that he has the power to do so. Because we established that the suitcase is of real importance we used close-up shots of the suitcase throughout the opening of "Kremlin".

Close-ups are important in order to establish characters as it shows details of the person that the audience may not spot or realise that they are there which can be important in order to fully understand the character. Most and formost obviouse one is the facial expression. In Kremlin, Chantel's facial expression revieles that she is slightly worried and perhaps paronoid as she keeps looking left and right in order to observe her surrounding and so that everything goes smoothly and nothing will interfere with her rendenzvou with Anton, this further connots the feeling of entrapment and is almost as though she is searching for escape incase something should decidevely go wrong. Whereas Anton is a confident character he is not worried he is taking his time and is staring straight at the camera, his boldness of looking straight into the camere is as though he is trying to intimidate the audience with his powerful pitch black eyes. He does not need to look left or righ he feels totally safe almost like he is unstoppable - with the simple attitude that when goes to a meeting he always get's there and achieves his objective. Quentin Tarantino director of 'Kill Bill' uses the same technique when the Japanese Boss walks around the corner.

Fonts
Our idea for the fonts came from the film "Se7en" Directed by David Fincher, in his opening sequence his font is very scratched and psychotic like giving the idea of a psycopath which is exactly what the movie involves around. We wanted to use the scratched font in a similar way. Not in order to connote a violent psychopath but to connote the mystery in the film and emphasise the secrecy of the object inside the case and the characters and its almost as though the director wanted to scratch the titles away aswell so that nobody finds out.
However the actual title of the film which is Kremlin is very bold and is written with Russian lookalike letters which fits perfectly with the Russian Themed Title. Anton is in the title shot which instantly connotes that he is Russian and perhaps is working or is involved with the Russian government which also further develops his identity.