Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at the Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Here, my group and I have edited our opening sequence on Youtube to add annotation, breaking it down and talking about the technologies used.

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Question 4 (2): Who would be the target audience for my product?

Evaluation Question 4 (1): Who would be the target audience for my product?

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation question 3 from EdwardParadise

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In this blog I am going to be writing about the way gender is represented within my thriller:

My thriller focuses on all of the technical areas, these include Mise-En-Scene, sound, editing and camera. In this paragraph I am going to talk about the Mise-En-Scene aspect of the sequences. First of all when the two characters come into the container we see one is behind the other. This shows that one of the characters would have more dominance in the sequence and and that would be a stereotype of the gender aspect as the character standing behind, and therefore lower than the male character in front, is a female in the sequence. Another part of the sequence which shows a stereotype between the two genders is when the female character puts down the two duffel bags and the male character is the one who does the work throughout the sequence emptying the money and filling the bags, splitting the earnings. Finally there is a point in the sequence which shows a subversion of the stereotype which is how the male character would be the one who would come out on top by showing his dominance but in this part of the sequence the female character shows how dominant she could be by shooting the male character to walk away with all of the money.

A second technical area which my thriller opening sequence focuses on is the camera angles. We start off the sequence showing the two characters having the same amount of power because due to them both having their balaclava’s on we cannot tell who is what gender. Once the man takes off his balaclava we have a shot of the camera looking up at him showing that he will have more dominance and power in the sequence. However, we also look up to the other character in the sequence, who is the female character which is also a subversion of the stereotype that woman would be looked down upon compared to the man. Further in the sequence we see the female character straight on, at the same level, and when she sits down on the chair she looks up at the male character, who is stereotypically doing the work. This shot of the female character looking at the male character who is above her shows a stereotype that the female would take orders and be of a lower status that the man. We then cut to an over the shoulder shot of the female character sitting down looking up at the man and the man looking down at the woman this is, again, a stereotype. We then go to a shot of the gun being put onto the table which shows how the male character, stereotypically, would be the one who would become aggressive and frustrated. The hand held shot of the male character getting angry shows how he is, conventionally, going to be unstable and on edge. As the man picks up his gun the woman shoots up and kills the male character. This is a countertype because the woman stereotypically would be the one who is weak and never in charge and the opposite is shown in this sequence as she is the one who takes charge by shooting the man, also we have a shot of the camera looking up at the female character and being the one who would be in control.

The third technical area that my thriller opening sequence focuses on is sound. First of all, when the characters all into the container and put the bags on the table there is non-diegetic sound of sirens and ambient noises which set the seen that they are in a rural area with many crimes. As they get into the container the character put the bags on the table and there is pleonastic sound of the male character taking off his balaclava and diegetic sound of his heavily breathing whilst the female character is not out of breath at all,, this shows that the male character is the one who has done most of the work in this job of theirs, this is a stereotype of the man as he would be the character who would have done all of the work as the woman wouldn’t. There is more pleonastic sound where the male character puts all of the money on the table and the rustling of the money when  he is sorting out the cut of money for each, this is effective because it shows how much work the male character has done. There is more diegetic sound of the male character repetitively trying to get an answer out of the female character who doesn't reply. this is a countertype as the woman would stereotypically answer the man on demand. There is then pleonastic and diegetic sound of the male character getting angry by swearing, for example he uses the word “fuck!” to show his frustration, conveying the stereotype that men will be more aggressive compared to woman. However, the pleonastic sound of the woman shooting the gun which shows a countertype that the woman wouldn't do any damage and that they would be innocent.

The final technical area which my thriller focuses on is editing. First of all there seems to be large amounts of time between each shot, to show how there isn't much anger or frustration but as soon as the male character takes off his balaclava and puts the money on the table the are suddenly very quick cuts/transitions to connote a stereotype that men will be angrier and more frustrated, whereas the woman seems to stay calm throughout the speed shown in the sequence, this represents the woman to be counter typical in the way that she isn't showing any emotion as that is something that the male would do. There is then more speed in the sequence when the male character get annoyed with the woman when she doesn't answer/obey the male. There is then a moment of pause when the man takes a breath before he reaches for his gun to shoot the woman, this is a stereotype that conveys males of being the aggressive gender. The female reacts quickly and shoots (backstabs) the male character, which is a countertype that portrays away from the idea that female would be slower and less dominant/powerful compared to the male.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Question 1 from EdwardParadise

Post Production - Editing

Editing is the art, technique and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. 

My group and I expected ourselves to have done half of the picture cut by the time our school half term was upon issue we could talk about what was going to happen next over messages and calls.

During my editing process my group and I used Adobe Premiere Pro to order and to edit the lighting in the sequence as when we filmed some shots we accidentally left the container door open which affected our lighting along with cropping our clips for our final, two minute, sequences. We also used Adobe Audition to edit the audio to make additional sounds sound as if they would be in the metal container where we shot the sequence. For example we added the gunshot to make that part of the sequence extremely important as it would be the main part of out piece. Also, there would be sirens added to make it seem as if the characters have just done the heist, just then as it sound like it would be outside of the container and going past and then when the container doors open the sound changes to act as if the viewer is still inside the container listening to the noise. We finally used Adobe After Effects to track the mist of the gunshot so that it would be realistic to the loud bang that we added in to the audio.

We knew that it was going to be hard to be able to have all of us, the group, to be able to work in the editing suit (outside of lesson times) and we would only be certainly in a whole group in our media lessons throughout the week, once a day. However, some of our lessons we weren't even working in the editing suit as we would be working on our Unit 1 for our end of year exam which left us with less time as a full group. I went in whenever I could as I have one free period everyday where I could use the help of the staff to guide me in my editing process. My group mate, Callum Henderson, also has a free period where he would occasionally go in. We would occasionally book a time, which suits us all, for our group to all go in together to go through the editing process. We would have to book because we were sharing our group computer with two other groups who would also be in the same situation as us, wanting to go into editing suit and edit their two minute sequence. My main contribution to the group was with doing the sound, using Adobe After Effects, as in one whole week I went into the editing suit on my own, with the help of the staff in there, through all of my free periods so that I could get it all done. This was extremely helpful for the whole group and the editing process because due to me doing this we could focus on the additional visual effects as a group. We had already decided what needed to be done audio wise so I was able to go in with an aim.

In the first editing lesson that my group and I had we were introduced to the computer and the editing software we would be using throughout the process and this, again, was Adobe Premiere Pro (PR). When being introduced to PR we were shown where we could find all of the clips and shots that we took on our shooting day. We were told to start to look through all of the shots and add them onto something called a timeline. A timeline is where all of the editing would be done, for example, cropping the shots to make them match and putting the shots in the right order. After we had put them onto the timeline and in order from start to finish we called that tab our “log”. This meaning that it would contain all of the clips we were planning on possibly using.

On our first editing session we were introduced to the editing tools available to us inside of Adobe PR, for example, the blade which help cut different clip at a very precise point. There were various different letters which you could click to perform different tasks on the software. These included “A”, “SHIFT+A”, “C” and “V”. “A” and “SHIFT+A” were used to select everything to one side of the curser so that we could bring a selection of clips forwards or backwards. “C” was the blade tool which I have already stated the purpose of its use. “V” is used to come back to the primary curser which is able to drag the different clips around editing our sequence.

Continuity was one of the hardest challenges that my group and I had to tackle. First of all, there were some shots that we took on the day that we were oblivious to the fact that there was something wrong with the shots. For example, as there was another group shooting near our area of filming they did occasionally, slightly, get in the way of our shot meaning that it was going to be unable to be used in our final piece. This meant that we had to change the order of our sequence as at the start of the sequence we were going to have the two characters leaving a minivan and entering the containers while closing the door behind them, however, there was an issue with a tripod left behind from the other group which disabled my group and I to use this at the start of my sequence. This left me to come up an idea to fill this gap, in my free time, whilst my other two group mates weren't in school to help me edit. In this new gap I added different titles for the directors and producers for the sequence. My group and I mastered continuity by almost taking three different shots on each clip on the day of filming. This made it very easy for the editing process to worry about continuity as most of the time there would be a spare, left over, shot which would also be used. However, there were also implications to our continuity in the sequence the characters sometimes do different movements, therefore, it became very difficult to find a way around this problem. 

From this editing process I have learned some very important lessons for editing and for film making. First of all I have learned a lesson in film making, which is to always film at least three shots of the same clip because it allows the editing process (post production) to find another clip if there is something wrong with the first one/two. I have learnt that editing is very time consuming yet an enjoyable task which requires a lot to patience to learn all of the different skills and trick you can do with the different softwares to make the product of any type the best it can be. I am very happy with the outcome of my product so far as it is exactly what we wanted at the start plus or minus a few aspects. 

What happened on our day (5)

Our filming inside the shipping container went really well, but there were some tricky parts which we had to deal with, including the money from the plastic bags. The money, after most attempts of the shot, came out of the elastic bands leaving us to fix it after different shots. This could lead to an issue with continuity in our final, edited, sequence.