I have chosen six frames from my final piece which I will evaluate thoroughly, discussing how they use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a typical opening sequence of a movie from the crime thriller genre. The aspects I tried to consider when choosing the nine frames to evaluate for this question were:
The titles in the film
The setting/location in the film
Costumes and props in the film
Camerawork and editing in the film
How characters are introduced
The titles we chose for our film were from Final Cut Pro X using a type called '*insert type*'. Personally, I find the titles to fade in a similar fashion to curtains closing, appearing swiftly and exiting swiftly too. We did this in order to set the tone and pace for the rest of the movie, hopefully what would be a thrilling edge-of-your-seat movie. The blocked capitals of the titles that introduce each character place emphasis on their names, as they are the protagonists and need to be introduced with more importance than perhaps 'executive producer', as that is what the audience is interested in.
The setting and location in our film takes place in a nearby area to where each of our actors live, which was handy as we could all get there easily. The first scene takes place in each of the four actors' houses, getting dressed and ready for work, which corresponds with the actual title of the movie 'Takin care of business'. The next scene takes place in an area nearby the school we attend, a sit in restaurant where the men discussed plans, and other things.
Costumes in our film consisted of suits for the three more experienced protagonists and a track suit for the lesser experienced protagonist, 'Justin' who I played the role of myself. We chose suits as they are a common item of clothing used in crime thriller movies such as Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs etc. They are a symbol of class and wealth and so we felt it necessary to have our protagonists wearing suits. The track suit worn by Justin was used to emphasize his inexperience in the field of 'business', placing him in casual attire rather than a sharp suit presented this effectively. The main prop used in the opening sequence were brown paper bags, used to beg the question from the audience as to what is inside them(drugs, guns, money). This follows the codes and conventions of a crime thriller movie as crime is the main topic of the movie, we felt it appropriate to mask the items with paper lunch bags, to make the men look ordinary people and not criminals, which is usually a common attribute of a crime thriller movie.
Characters were introduced immediately, but not thoroughly introduced, rather mysteriously instead. They were introduced in four windows in a split screen, getting dressed and ready for business. As they leave and meet up together at the cafe, this is when they are properly introduced by aid of a voice over from protagonist Teddy, giving a brief description of each character as well as himself. We felt the introduction to each character was warming and made them likable, as well as mysterious which adds to the crime aspect of the movie.How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We tried to embody our main character Teddy as a leader in the group, with comparisons to the man on the right from movie Pulp Fiction. The costumes are similar, black suit white shirt, and personality within the movie is also correspondent.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product would be predominantly male, at age 16+. This is due to the nature and genre of the movie, as the crime thriller genre of movie will appeal to most men of all ages, and with the foreseeable violence to come in the movie, as well as drug dealing and other themes the audience would typically be males. The film contains many stereotypical manly elements, such as suited men getting down to do business. As well as the above, the four main characters in the film are male, so men who watch the movie can relate to them in a way. Due to the themes in the movie, we feel the film would not appeal to the younger audiences of age below 14, but could perhaps appeal to a 16 year old with an inner businessman inside, he could watch the movie, sit back and divulge in the fictional world of glamorous gangsterism. The audience for our media product also corresponds with audiences of other movies in the crime thriller genre. We also feel that some females may be interested in the film, as well as the older generation of men, who watched films like The Godfather and Scarface. Takin Care Of Business may appeal to them as it is the same genre of film.
How did you attract your audience?
In our piece, the main attractions are the voiceover, the framing technique, the costumes and the paper bag props. We attracted the audience by use of the voiceover which gave an exploration into the mind of the main character, Teddy.This included his personal thoughts on his career and a brief analysis on each of the characters in the movie, including himself. The voiceover also contained a hint of comedy to attract the audience. The framing technique that we used was to have the four protagonists on screen getting ready at once. This technique was pleasantly overwhelming and eye-catching as we could see the personal lives of each four characters. This attracted the audience with information on the characters. The costumes were fancy and included suits and a tracksuit, which was slightly humorous for the audience to display one members inexperience in the field, where as the suits are interesting and the audience will see the men as upper class gangsters, who know what they are doing. The paper bag prop used in the opening sequence attracted the audience as it begged the question as to what is inside the bags, and would entice the audience to continue viewing the film.
Other elements and themes of the movie that would attract the audience would be the soundtrack and the dialogue which at times was hilarious and quirky. As a fan of crime thriller movies myself it was simple to determine what things would attract a fellow fan when watching a movie and we presented many attractive themes in our movie.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
As a group we have learned a lot about digital cameras, as well as using software such as FinalCut Pro X, Garage Band and Audacity. Using the cameras we were able to capture a variety of shots and transport them from the device to the computer, to begin the process of editing. Our choice of software was Final Cut Pro X, which we slowly mastered and utilised to perform many advanced features including framing, voiceover, soundtrack etc. Using Final Cut allowed us to scrap shots that we didn't like, perfect timing so that everything ran smoothly, and add special effects. Final Cut was very useful when it came to choosing titles as the software contains packs of choosable titles which you can edit into your movie. Final Cut was very helpful in the construction of our movie due to the simplicity of the software. You can perform extremely advanced features with the click of a button including framing and freeze framing.
What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to the main task?
Above is our preliminary task, which upon creation we felt was very good and advanced. When looking back at it now that we have completed our main task, we feel we have learnt a lot in progression. We believe we have progressed in terms of editing and camera work especially. At times in the preliminary video, our camera work was shaky and didn't run very smoothly. In terms of editing there was not much advanced features used. When compared to our new product, the camera work is almost perfect and we used a range of advanced features whilst editing such as freeze framing and included a voiceover. Although the shot reverse shot used in the preliminary was still quite good, it could have been improved and we used this knowledge to then improve our main piece. One good aspect of the preliminary was that we followed to 180 degree rule. In comparison to our new product the preliminary was seen as a learning procedure, and we have used our knowledge of flaws in the preliminary to implement effective techniques in the main video. Here is our final piece, as you can see, there are vast improvements. Candidate Number 7119
