OCR AS Media Studies Evaluation

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

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.

As our film involved a minute long scene of four characters getting dressed for work, we had to include a variety of shots and edit these into four separate windows onscreen, so it appears they all get dressed at once, which I believe to be a key process of the editing involved in the movie. The camera shots we used in the second scene are simple, over the shoulder shots, and long shots. In other crime thriller movies we analysed we saw the shots were kept simple whenever conversation was taking place. Another key element of editing in our movie was the voice-over by Ryan, which takes place during scene two. Inspiring crime thriller movies such as ****** have used this convention and we believe we used it effectively. A loop of a track was also edited to appear in the movie as a soundtrack.

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.

The picture on the left is taken from our media project, and shown in comparison with the characters from Reservoir Dogs. We believe they appear similar and look like men going to work, but at the same time masking the criminal aspects of their personas. We attempted to represent this group with similar attire and personalities, which we have done effectively as we have 'the nice guy', 'the angry guy', 'the cool guy', all three suited and booted and 'the inexperienced clumsy guy' who happens to be wearing a tracksuit. These are common attributes of 'gangs' in crime thriller movies and the four main characters blend together excellently.

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

Props for our movie

This prop(cigar) is from Goodfellas. The cigar is an object to emphasise class and can be sinister.

Brown paper bags are commonly associated with drug money, gun money etc. The protagonists will all carry a brown paper 'lunch' bag with the gun money located inside.

Take away coffee cups will be used in scene 2 of the movie, when the men are having breakfast.

Coffee mugs and cutlery will both be used in scene 1 of our film which will take place in kitchens etc.

 

A wad of cash will be used in scene 3, they will be inside the paper bags.

A briefcase will also be used in scene 3 to put the paper bag money into.

Setting for our movie

Examples of setting in other crime thriller movies:

This example of setting is a warehouse in Reservoir Dogs in which a shoot out occurs.

This is another example of setting in Pulp Fiction, which takes place in an apartment. This influences our own decision to make the 3rd scene of our film take place in a house/apartment.

This is the scene in Reservoir Dogs in which the protagonists walk down the main road, which also inspired a scene in our own film, of the main characters walking to the character 'Robe''s house. This is the type of setting we will have in our final piece.







The setting in our movie will at first take place at three of the four main characters own homes, and one character who has slept over at a female acquaintance's house. This will be the setting of scene 1. They will then walk down the street to meet at a restaurant for lunch/coffee. THis is the setting of scene 2. After lunch the protagonists will then walk down another street to get to Robe's house, which will be the setting of scene 3.

Over-arching plot of whole movie, characters, setting etc
What are you going to show to get viewer interested?
ENIGMA
Establishment of character, plot and setting.
How do your titles enhance this music?

Plot
Draft
Script
Storyboard
Redrafts
Shot list
Shooting Script
Final Script
Animatic

Crime Thriller Movie Analysis Introduction

The genre of film i will be analysing is Crime Thriller, which is the genre we have picked for our movie. I will be analysing different aspects of the movies such as titles, mise en scene, shot types, sound, language etc, to help pick up ideas and inspiration for my own groups movie. The five films I have chose to analyse are Reservoir Dogs, No Country For Old Men, The Usual Suspects, True Romance and The Departed. These five films are films which are similiar to what we would like to create as our final piece, so from analysing and comparing them I can help give feedback to the group on what ideas I can put in.
 

TRUE ROMANCE
Directed by Tony Scott, Written by Quentin Tarantino, Distributed by Warner Bros.

Titles- The titles are swift blue which change quickly, which defines the pace of the movie and the high action intensity. The titles interchange over derelict run down areas of Detroit in the background, a city notorious for crime which also tells the viewer what to expect upon viewing this movie. The titles could give us ideas if we were to create a swift high action crime thriller, with a run down area of our own city in the background. The idea of swift changing titles to give the viewer an impression of high intensity correctly follows the codes and conventions of a crime thriller movie.

SHOT TYPES
When conversation takes place in True Romance, the shots are simple over the shoulder, shot reverse shot, close up or two shot, which is fairly normal but when action takes place the pace of the shots change, they switch quickly to different shots of gunfire and action. There are also long shots of shabby areas of Detroit present to reflect the crime life of the movie. This clearly reflects the codes and conventions of a crime thriller movie.

SOUND
The music present in True Romance are upbeat songs which dictate the action present in the movie, such as 80s glam rock like Aerosmith, or Billy Idol. Songs from True Romance include:
Aerosmith- The Other Side
Hans Zimmer- You're So Cool
Billy Idol- White Wedding
The voiceover and narration of the movie is one of deep topic which explores the main themes in the movie, such as crime, life in Detroit, drugs and gangs. This provided an idea for our group in which we could possibly have a voiceover which gives the viewer an insight on the themes of our own crime thriller movie, as well as a high intensity song played, like Aerosmith.



Mise En Scene- The setting of the movie is in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is a city known for crime and gang warfare, which represents the main themes of the movie, drugs, violence and crime. The clothing involved is cheap fashion as the characters are not well off, which could also act as inspiration for our own storyline, involving a lower class character involved in crime. Props involved are obviously guns, cigarettes, alcohol  and drugs. The mise en scene from the movie clearly follows the codes and conventions of a crime thriller.

Language- The language present in True Romance involve topics such as crime, violence, romance and drugs, the main themes of the movie, as expected from a crime thriller movie, which follows the codes and conventions accurately. The deep emotive language provide an insight to the characters and let the viewer become in touch with the characters, empathise with them and relate to them in a way. There are subtle hints of comedy in the movie, to take away from the tension which is an intelligent idea that our group could possibly use.

Target Audience- The target audience for True Romance is ultimately fans of crime thriller movies, late teens early twenties, and beyond. The film is not suitable to younger audiences due to the themes involved, but the movie does a fine job in presenting the movie to the desired target audience, a crime thriller movie would not be aimed at children, so obviously follows the codes and conventions.

RESERVOIR DOGS
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, distributed by Mirimax Films

Language-  The language in Reservoir Dogs features two main themes in the movie, crime and violence. There is also a lot of talk about the failed diamond heist, with much profanity used to stress the tension an the angst atmosphere of the movie, this follows the codes and conventions of a crime thriller movie. There is often comedic references in the film to lighten the mood, and the smart dialogue and language used in reservoir dogs could inspire our own video.

Storyline-  The movie depicts the events before and after (not during) a failed diamond hesit. There are 8 characters who only know each other by a colour eg. Mr White, Mr Pink etc, but not each others names. The characters begin to suspect one of them is a police informant.

Shot types- The shot types of Reservoir Dogs whenever conversation takes place are nothing unusual and nothing specifically intended to emphasise the genre of the film, such as shot reverse shot, over the shouler shot, close up, two shot, steadicam etc. Whenever action is taking place, however, there are long shots during gun battles, two shots during fight scenes, with rapid changes between shots to emphaisse the high intensity of a certain scene. At one point of the movie, during a car chase, there is a camera positioned in the corner of the car and allows the viewer to see everything in the car, a slowly dying man in the back and a driver going insanely fast to avoid being arrested, which is a very smart camera shot and a possible idea for our own groups video. I believe the shot types in Reservoir Dogs accurately follow the codes and conventions for a crime thriller movie. Whats special about Reservoir Dogs is that there aren’t many shots, the film kept it simple and prevailed.

Mise en scene- The setting of the movie takes place in Los Angeles, which is a city often assosiated with crime. Most of the film, however, takes place in a run own warehouse, where the characters planned to rendezvous after the heist. This setting provides inspiration towards our own groups piece as we wish to have a smiliar area. The clothing involved is upper class, the characters are suited and booted and the props involved are guns, weapons, and lots of blood. The mise en scene in Reservoir Dogs follows the codes and conventions for the crime thriller genre.

Sound- The songs used in Reservoir Dogs are songs from the 60s to 80s, an uptempo variety of songs which dictate the pace of the movie. Songs involoved include: 

Stuck In The Middle With You- Steelers Wheel

Hooked On A Feeling- Blue Swede.
In this particular scene, the contrast of a happy song is clashed with the gruesome reality of the movie.

Titles- The titles of Reservoir Dogs are sharp and very quick, and there are only a few, this gives the viewer a preview of the swift and intense nature of the film, and it is clear it is a crime thriller movie before watching.

Target Audience- The target audience of Reservoir Dogs are older males, alike most crime thriller movies. The profanity and violence involved in the movie proves the film is not suitable for younger audiences.

THE DEPARTED

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Distributed by Warner Bros.

Titles- Once again, the titles of The Departed are swift, just like the other crime thriller films analysed. They are blue blocked capitals with a voiceover of life in Boston in the background, which gives the impression the film is about crime in Boston, which it in fact is, so this successfully follows the codes and conventions of a crime thriller movie. 

Language- The language in The Departed is at times profane to reflect the seriousness and tension from the movie. The topics of dialogue are when the 'good' people are involved, drugs, violence, gangs, rivalry, and whenever the 'bad' people are involved, the topic is the police.

Target Audience- The target audience of The Departed is the older audience, as it is not suitable to children due to the violence and unsuitable language at times. The target audience varies from males ages 18-50, and with Jack Nicholson involved as an actor in the movie, the older audience could watch.

Storyline- Two undercover men from opposite sides are hired to carry out investigations on each other, one the police, and the other a Boston gang. Both men attempt to discover each others real identity before there cover is blown.

Sound- The songs involved in The Departed are uptempo songs, ranging from genres such as hip hop, rock, punk rock and pop. These uptempo songs reflect the nature of the movie during shoot outs, but as the movie is a slow burner, slow songs are also involved in the film, to build tension. 

This song involves topics such as crime and thieving, key elements of the movie.

Shot Types- When action takes place in The Departed, the shot types involved are long shots, and in the final face off a long shot to fit all of the characters in, and swift camera shot changes to emphasise the speed of the scene. During conversation the camera shots are simple, with shot reverse shot, over the shoulder shot, close up and two shot all present.

Mise En Scene- The setting of the film is in Boston, a city associated with gang violence, a main element of the movie. This follows the codes and conventions of a crime thriller movie as you can not place a crime thriller movie in a peaceful country village. The clothing involved in The Departed involves police-wear, and in the gangs case, scraggy clothes and bandanas etc. Props include weapons, drugs etc.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Directed by Bryan Singer, Distributed by Spelling Films International

Music Consumption Essay

In the 21st century, purchasing music has simply became an option, due to the rise of technological advancements. For instance, software such as BitTorrent allow online users to download music, video, games and lots of other incredible things to their hearts content, all you need is connection to the Internet. It is true, however, that iTunes, Amazon etc allow you to do the same thing, the only difference is the money. A user of BitTorrent can simple go onto their computer, open up the software, and download an album, and most of the time, even get the album a week earlier to the official release. A user of iTunes will have to wait, most of the time for a midnight release of an album, and also in American time format, that's waiting until 6am to download the same album the BitTorrent user has just downloaded a week prior to official release, and with no cost. Once looked upon like that, it seems the advantages of illegally pirating music are just too good to be true.

Around ten years ago, Metallica, attempted to shut down online phenomenon 'Napster' for breaching copyright terms, and distributing songs by Metallica and many other musical artists work illegally. This was worldwide news at the time and sparked a debate upon wether or not people should be allowed to perform such acts. Personally, I think Metallica had a rght to make a stand, as it is illegal and causes a lot of money that could be made to simply disappear. Realistically, online piracy will always happen. All you need is one person to buy an album, share it on the Internet and within minutes millions of people will now have the album in their computer. Give it another week and by then that figure will be small in comparison. This proves it is simply impossible to stop online piracy of music, and most musicians tolerate this fact and accept it. In 2007 radiohead released the album in rainbows as a download via a pay what you want model. Many artists have also then released their albums in this way, this just goes to show that online piracy has been accepted by some musicians.

Lets just say that for instance my favourite musician is lil Wayne. I would pay for convert tickets buy merchandise and listen to his music every day, however all of this music has been pirated. I do not condone this behaviour, but for some reason I continue to do it. Every day. In an ideal world were money rains from the sky, then yes I would purchase music. But everybody on the planet has at one point or another downloaded music illegally. It just costs too much. 8.99 for an album with twelve tracks is just not worth it, unless it is a masterpiece, which bring me to my next point. I won few Physichal copies of musicians work but the few I do own are in my opinion classic. The albums I have deemed worthy to purchase as I appreciate it that much, for example Illmatic by Nas, Ready To Die by Notorious BIG etc. sadly for some music artists who don't receive this flattering compliment from myself and billions of others, it can be tough.

Imagine a not very well known musicin, dj Dillon Francis perhaps. He has just released a new album costing the usual retailed price of around ten pounds. Do I go onto iTunes and spend hard Ernest money on an album I know little about...I think the answe I am getting at is rather obvious. An is what 99 percent of the world do. I would go on BitTorrent, download the album and personally review it. If deemed worthy enough, I will then put it on my iPhone and appreciate the music, if not...recycle bin, you know the drill.

In some circumstances, such as vinyl copies, they can be very prestigious and provide a much more beautiful sound than in comparison to listening to the music digitally or on a cd. I will acknowledge that you will never be able to digitally download an album with as beauiful a sound as a vinyl , so in that case money well spent. And paying for concerts to enjoy your favourite musicians live can be some of the most enjoyable moments of your life. This also proves that money spent on music can go somewhere.

To conclude this argument, I am definitely guilty of pirating music and have no problem in doing so, but do udersgand that if put in a musicians shoes and witnessing my hard work being distributed so carelessly, I would be annoyed. I can take comfort in the fact that I a small decimal of the overall percentage of people who illegally download music, I still have morals and apreciate the music, I just don't find it worth the money and effort, and in suing that I believe I am speaking on behalf of billions of people in this world today. We are all guilty

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