Post production

Post production was one of the best aspects of the project as we were able to do most of it on the MacBooks with digital technology. As we increased the shadow of the font for the credits to 67% and this to be at the angle of 50.7 degrees to make it clearer to read against the different backgrounds of the scenes because depending on the light of the setting it was difficult to read. Not only did we edit the door by putting a sound found from the internet to make it louder, we added Non diegetic score to create suspense. This score wasn't allowed to have copyright therefore it took quite a while to find.

We made sure that the pace was fairly slow throughout so that suspense was created and the audience could follow the narrative easily. This is because this is what thrillers are like and it lets the audience settle and concentrate before any real action occurs. Close-ups were used to reinforce this so that the audience could see detail of body language and facial expressions. We also used point of view shots so the audience could foresee that the Russian male protagonist was going to change sides by the end of the film to our side.

However, unfortunately our evaluation and survey at the end of the project was not as effective. This is because we didn't do enough planning as our evaluation would have been much easier if we had kept a log of the stages as we would have remembered what we had planned. Moreover, if we had surveyed people of different ages we would have had a clearer target market to promote our ideas to.

Using conventions from real media texts

However, I liked the way we combined Salt and Nikita, but we only realized that this connection was evident when evaluating the piece. Also Salt is more of an action than a thriller so if we took conventions from this medium the audience wouldn't have the sense to familiarity they were looking for. Furthermore, Nikita is a Television series and we wanted to create a film, and although it is a hybrid of an Action Thriller Adventure we should have analysed the beginning of an episode to combine and transfer our ideas together.

We also wanted to use the representation of ethnicity by portraying a stereotypical Russian man. However, I feel we put too much emphasis on this in the end with the wrong placement of mise-en-scene such as props. For example the Russian vodka was placed directly in front of our male protagonist slap bang in the center of the frame. We realized that there is a difference between guiding the audience through the narrative with variations and treating the audience like they are stupid with repetition as the audience enjoys the tension created. 

The main real media text that did influence our creativity of our product was Salt as we copied the fact that the female protagonist wore a female Russian hat and then the Russians drunk some vodka. Thus we did develop this by transferring the ideas as we placed these mise-en-scene in our medium and changing it slightly. This is because we had a male protagonist instead of female as we wanted to convey a masculine male to create the target audience of males from 18+ as males of this age were designed to be prevalent throughout the  throughout the extract of the two minute opening "The Brief".

To ensure we understood the representation of ethnicity we should have analysed real media texts that illustrated this representation. Thus in A2 I will analyse a range of texts to understand the requirements of familiarity for the audience both with representation and genre. i.e. if we had analysed an action thriller sub-genre film we would have had more knowledge of the conventions of this type of movie.

Research and Planning

I agree with the teachers' feedback that they think planning and research is the key to making a product. Therefore, I feel if we related our research to our to the production and creativity more the first time we would be able to plan our final idea with more detail by making an animatic. Thus we could have seen a real vision of what the end medium was going to be.

Our planning and research should have been in more depth because we did analyse Salt but we just didn't blog about it and it is the recording of our research that really makes us remember to use and understand the conventions - the main part of the project was the research by creating a survey to reveal who our target market was and the planning before the filming so that filming would run smoothly. Thus, unfortunately without using codes of real media texts in our first idea at all we were unable to really plan our second idea with an animatic so were not well planned, hence the filming did not run that smoothly so we had to re-shoot more than other groups. 

Fortunately, we designed a story board on paper to plan which we cut up took photos of and rearranged in Microsoft power point as it was quicker than using premier pro because we weren't that confident with using that on our own. However, we wrote the amount of seconds on each frame with arrows show which direction the protagonist was going and which way the camera would be. Thus, we had a rough idea what we were going to do when we got to the location of our set. However we had not thought about transitions until we knew the options on the software, but we knew most of them were going to be cross dissolve for the titles.

Furthermore, we should have created a shooting schedule and stuck to it in order to be more organised and find another actor that could do the times we could. Also, not the whole production team had to be there as we all knew the shot list and shots we needed to re-shoot so it was hopeless trying to get everyone we wanted all in the same place. Hence I would say our re-shoot lists were the most organised part of the process as it was filmed in the correct order needed and we could refer back to the storyboard if it was required.

Additionally, we didn't plan a costume but decided that if the male protagonist was a spy he would try and fit into the area he was living in. However, we still didn't blog about it and our teachers even said we were supposed to blog every day so now I understand that the blog is like a diary of what we have planned and the whole process of getting to the point of filming.  The plan also can help to make decisions find ideas keep some and reject other and also provide for discussion within the group to generate better ideas. This is because we have to plan what we have construct, to evaluate what we planned to construct and compare that to what we had constructed.

Creativity

I feel that our idea was quite rushed and verging on cliché.  I found it really difficult to find a balance of creativity and cliché, as our first idea followed no conventions from our research and our final idea was quite closely linked to other media. Nevertheless, I would say I am more creative on the film set because I can see what we have at the location e.g. CCTV cameras in the final product.

However, we did make sure that we used only a few codes and conventions to make it more original. (If that's possible, as in my last media lesson we learnt that the post-modernism view is that everything is a remix thus nothing is original). Therefore, we wanted to make it more creative instead of "original", (for lack of a better word). Nevertheless, if we had developed this small amount of conventions by stretching them it would have been more creative.

To enhance our creativity of the piece we used the representation of a stereotypical Russian Spy to copy (Salt's Vodka and hat) combine (with Nikita's gun) and transfered these to our product. To ensure we understood the representation of ethnicity we should have analysed real media texts that illustrated this representation. Thus in A2 I will analyse a range of texts to understand the requirements of familiarity for the audience both with representation and genre. i.e. if we had analysed an action thriller sub-genre film we would have had more knowledge of the conventions of this type of movie.

Digital Technology

HD camera

macbook

 Vocaroo Voice Message

tri-pod

premier pro

AS-A2

Overall 

Having finish year 12 I cannot say I am best pleased with my performance in the AS course-work but nevertheless I need to reflect on it to improve. I will do this by evaluating my  blog sothe address is :http://victorialouisesfoundationportfolio.blogspot.co.uk/ I have upload our 2 minute opening of a thriller called the brief below:




We designed the medium above by using the following five key areas:
Digital technology
Creativity
Research and Planning
Post production
Using conventions from real media texts

Therefore, I would hope to improve  on the research and planning as I feel that if we had organised our research properly then we would have been able to identify the conventions and be able to be more creative with our ideas. As the social evolution is obtained with copy, transform and combine. Thus, if we copy ideas develop them and combine that with other media it would have created familiarity for the audience because usually the conventions have to follow the pattern of the genre in order for the viewers to be entertained.

Teachers feedback

Planning = 13/20
Construction = 31/60
Evaluation = 12/20

If we had planned more concisely we would have been able to construct our  two minute opening thriller and develop the planned ideas so that the evaluation would have been better as the evaluation was basically a textual analysis of the medium.

Self analysis 

In total this is 56/100 which is unfortunately roughly equivalent to a D. This explains why I am not pleased with the final cut. Hence I agree with the teachers constructive criticism and will take their advice into account while completing A2.