What have you learnt about technologies from this process of constructing this product?

In summary;

-The lights helped me create a good atmosphere.
Adobe premiere, obviously, helped immensley when it came down to editing and adding effects - ghosting etc...

-I do think that anyone with the knowledge of how to use the equipment can create a semiproffessional looking piece of work.

-Blogging helped me keep track of what i had done yes, but I had already learnt a fair bit, it was only through trial and error on adobe premiere that I was able to find out what things did.

-I personally thought that blogging itself is a bit annoying, i'd much rather write essay's. However, it was a welcome change.

-Youtube and other websites helped immensly I was able to research plenty of films and clips that would have been hard to come by had youtube not been around.

Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

I think that my intended audience on the whole enjoyed the film, i attracted them with the;

Realistice bits
The opening credits, the build up
Editing
The lighting effects
The music
Dubbing

Not such a fan of the unrealistic bits :/

Those who werent my target had different view of course;

Tended to appreciate despite it not really being their thing
Didnt like the sepia tone
Didnt like the gross knee breaking sound effect
A little bit too dark

They liked the editing
Soundeffects
The fighting - though that was from a male point-of-view

These points show that age and gender play a big part in how the audience will react to the text. What I did within the film was appropriate for my audience, males, aged between 15 and 24, because that's just the kind of things they like, style, action, comedy. However, the slight comedic aspect may have reached to other ages and genders, as some of my unintended audience enjoyed it as well.

I then thought it would be best to do a test screening to see how a range of different people reacted, thse are the results;

Media evaluation audience

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These are twenty three of the 40 odd different coments that I got. Most people took a prefered reading to it and just went along with what I had done, accepting the style. Some others took an oppositional reading, where they either dont like the colour, or understand how it's supposed to be a little bit corny - it's near enough impossible to be so!

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

In summary:

Juxtaposition - Smiley face to mood of characters, like the cat was in juxtasposition in the film 'Way of the Dragon' to Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.

Active/handheld camera - Like in Kill Bill, specifically the fight between the bride and Vernita Green

The non diegetic music - Generic of most 70's and 80' kung fu classics and even some films from this day and age. Kung Fu Hustle (stringed instruments), all the Bruce Lee films, Mortal Kombat (the gong)

Sound effects - the effects used for punching and fighting are in many different kung fu films, Way of the Dragon, Fearless Hyena, Drunken Master etc...

Noir - The noir style hasnt really been used together with the Kung Fu genre but I felt it was a good stlye to use and that it went well.

ECU - The extreme close up of Pauls eye was inspired by the work of Tarantino and the same fight in Kill Bill mentioned earlier, right before the fight in my film begins.

Ghosting - The ghosting effect isnt normally issued in Kung Fu films, more in the action genre say after a bomb has just gone off, but i thought it was appropriate to show how effective that final strike was.

Narrative - In terms of narrative this film is similiar to many Kung Fu films, where the bad guy kills somebody which leads to a reaction from the main protaganist. This happens in the Fearless Hyena. It also holds quite a Todorovian plot, where, the protaganist is Ok at the start, learns about the death of his brother (paul) and then goes out to seek revenge. This narrrative is regurgitated over and over again in Kung Fu cinema.

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

I think that the most important thing that I've come to learn is how important planning is.

It took a couple of hours to film the Mootrix despite it being shorter than Equality which took about an hour and a half to film.

Saying that, the Destined, which was the practice video, took about three hours to film, however, for that very little planning was done.

For Equality I did loads of storyboarding, in fact i storyboarded the whole thing! Meaning that i knew every single shot and was able to film it in good time.

You'll see in both the mootrix and Equality that i tracking shot was used. You'll notice that the shot in the Mootrix is a bit wobbly and unprofessional looking. This is because we simply used a chair with wheels on it and pulled the chair along.



In Equality however, in the tracking shot there, i was sat in a wheel chair and was being pushed. This way I had complete control of the camera and ended up with a better result and a smoother motion.




In the Mootrix you'll notice at the end, that i unintentionally broke the 180 degree rule, as the bad guy picks up the pill. I wanted to make sure that i didn't do this again. So with the tracking shot, mentioned earlier, i was able to make a good transition that broke no rules.




In Equality I was also more in control of the mise-en-scene. When filming the Mootrix i was sort of restricted as to how much I move and take out because I was filming within college.

In the Destined I just made the mistake of filming in the wrong place, as there was drum kits in the background, and a laptop. When in reality i could have had more control.



When it came down to Equality I had learned that to make a good film anything that was irrelevant needed to be taken down. The room was filled with ballet posters and decorations that were hanging from the ceiling. However I did decide to keep up the picture of the smiling man as it kind of acted as a juxtaposition to the mood of the characters.



Lighting was also a big factor. In the Mootrix and the Destined everything was lit up a bit too much and there was no real style. In the Mootrix the lighting even changed from one cut to the next!




So for Equality I decided to bring in some lights, to make it seem darker and gave it a more film noir look. This in the end proved to be more stylish than the previous films as i had worked on a film noir before in film studies and I knew how to make it look good.

Shell - Directed by Me :)


I also feel that I had greater consideration for my audience, as in the Mootrix i was just playing around and trying to give it a funny script as opposed to trying to find out what my audience wanted.

In the Destined i tried to make it too serious and as 'Hollywood' as possible and in the end it looked funny anyway. I think I got the mix just right in Equality as i think it is impossible not to get a laugh from the audience when employing film techniques used in old martial arts film from the 70's.

A lot more closeups were used in Equality too, making it all seem more intense, as opposed to the Destined which just all seemed to be one mid shot after the other. The cuts and edits were a lot faster in equality and the camera was also a lot more active, following the moves of the actors and creating even more effect than the fighting alone would create.




In the time from my preliminary task to my final film i have learnt a lot a good few things that helped me in creating my final film. I learnt about atmosphere and about how to be more in control of the mise-en-scene. I also got good practice in the more dialogue heavy parts of the film and my whole approach to cinematography was a lot better than in the preliminary and practice film.

All in all i feel that i had learnt a lot and i really helped when making Equality.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media project?

Originally i thought that it would be best for New Line Cinema to produce and distribute the film, as they were responsible for films such as Mortal Kombat and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

However, that was when i wanted a more Hollywood like action film, which in the end proved to be impossible and now i feel it probably would have been more appropriate if the company Golden Harvest also had a hand in things, as they are responsible for many martial arts and kung fu films both in and out of Hollywood.

Being that this would probably be more of an independent film the best way to distribute would be on the internet. An idea that i thought of was to have it advertised on certain websites as banners, with links to trailers or an official website, just like Driftwood is being advertised on shocktillyoudrop.com (above). Equality would need to be advertised on a generic specific website.

How does your media product represent particular social groups

Media Coursework - Representation

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