Evaluation

Our project was to produce the opening sequence of a British Film that is in the gangster genre. Our film ‘D-Tour’ has a beginning that is designed to create many enigmas for the audience. The beginning lasts about 2 minutes and in this time a gun trade occurs, an unseen shooting and the unmasking of the criminal. The product ‘D-Tour would have a young target audience hence, why we used youthful attire and realistic youth sets, a good example is the deal scene were the set is a bright graffiti shaded back alley.

I worked with Sarah and Karl who both made big contributions to the film. Sarah acted in it and posted many blogs and Karl did all the editing and filming to allow Sarah and I time to blog. I think the group worked well together and this is shown in the quality of our film. I posted blogs and did most of the acting, also my house and area is used in some of the film, which was an exciting fresh set (as the area we filmed was quite smart and affluent, which challenges stereotype) that worked well with the gangster genre. Collectively, the jobs were separated at the start, which caused minimal conflict; also all ideas were put forward to the group before making any changes.

The genre we used was a realistic gangster type film about the youth culture in Britain. In this filming we used many conventions in order to propose the genre of the film to the audience without confusion. I think that the most obvious conventions we used were both the costumes and dialog. The costumes were usual youthful wear however in the murderer’s case it was more sporting and easy. The dialog in particular the narrating gives away many answers to the genre and direction of the film, with his cocky accent and his references to ‘the business’ adds the desired gangster feel. In many ways this opening sequence was perfect because even with answering many questions and making the films direction obvious, we were still able to raise many vital enigmas.

We believed that by using some typical conventions in the film (storyline of murder) it will be easy to watch for the audience and not to confuse them completely. We did vary the film slightly in places to the classic British approach (the cockney voice-over is quite typical of this genre). The main difference is the fact that the murderer was female which challenges the stereotype of women. This is a massive change in a usual film of this genre and will hopefully both surprise and intrigue audiences. This section is vital to the film, as it doesn’t leave the audience to feel in control (e.g. know were it is going, expecting things to happen) and allows them to be lead into stereotypes but be tricked, and therefore stimulate interest in the film. Overall I was pleased with the success of our opening sequence as it wasn’t just the same as every other film of that genre but wasn’t so different it ended up being a completely different genre.

Our media product is very much based on making representations of social groups. We aimed solely at youth culture and their representations. I believe that we did follow recent youth stereotypes that all youth are dangerous and all follow this supposed ‘ASBO culture’. The scary reality in our film is that the female is able to purchase and handle fire arm with relative ease which should shock most audiences. Also the fact that the dealer is just an average teenager, and he is dealing weapons is also a gritty realism to people. Although this stereotype is emphasised in this sequence, it does confirm many views that people have of the youth culture.

The costume, appearance and actions of the characters also fit into the stereotype. The dealer seems edgy (when he looks behind himself a few times) but cocky at the same time which make people believe that he is a typical cheeky teen, however his aggressive side is shown (holding the arm of the killer) and his ability to handle a weapon will both shock and surprise the audience. The murderers costume again is typical however is quite sporty which gives a view that the murderer is an active woman. The way the murderer moves in the chase scene is aggressive (dark lightning and free hand shaken camera), this again adds to the cocky hostile teen image.

I feel that the Channel 4 Film Company would be a realistic target to distribute our film. Channel 4 have previously released films, which are of a similar genre to ours, for example ‘This is England’ a film that is based on Youth Culture and movements. Another film that follows the British murder idea is ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’, as this also is coarse and dark. Our film, like a Shane Meadows film, is gritty and realistic with similar vocabulary and shot types.

Another similarity can be between this and ‘Eden Lake’ a recently released film which focuses on the violent youth culture in the UK. This film is the first from the Rollercoaster film company based in the UK and they may wish to follow this adolescent crime genre.

I feel that its language and violence will appeal to Channel Four Films, as they are keen on violent British films.

I think that the audience we have aimed this at is the young (15-25) culture, as they will enjoy a film about their own people. Its violence and realism will attract younger people as they like cool action films. I feel that this age group is the best to aim at as they are the most regular group to attend the cinema. However I also believe that some elder people may like this film also as to give them an interesting insight into the youth of today. I don’t think that a person will have to have a special interest in this genre in order to watch it as it an action-driven escapism entertainment and nothing that requires no previous knowledge of events. I believe that this film will appeal mostly to the English however if another nationality were to watch it, this would be based truly on intrigue into British society and culture.

I felt the best way we addressed and informed the audience was via the voice over. It quickly and freely informed the audience of the reasons why the person was killed, the character who killed him/her and some background information into the people she is linked to. I believe that the narrator was extremely useful as it influenced the audience and informed them into what was happening. This was the best way to unify the direction of the shots without confusing the audience.

I have learnt a lot about technology whilst doing this product. I helped edit with the I Macs which helped me learn how to edit lighting and cutting of the film, I enjoyed learning this. I feel that we used the Mac to the best of our ability as we constantly changed lighting balance in order to make the scene darker. I also used the camera often and advised shot angles, which helped me, learn how to film a movie. Lots of these technologies were used for the first time for me so it obviously helped me learn from it.

We also used ITunes to add the non-digetic music a programme have used in the past and I used this knowledge to select and edit the best possible composition to the scene.

In think that we have improved massively since filming our first product. We took more time in writing the script, which did help improve the direction of the film and made it easier for us to edit. I believe our changing of lighting and sets were our biggest improvement as this made the film a lot more authentic.

Also we took more time in using different shot angles as in the preliminary task we used to main shot angles however in the end product we used multiple different angles for single scenes.

Questionnaire Results

1) What is the genre?

Crime/ action x5, Unknown, Gangster x4,

2) What is the storyline?

Revenge on a respected person x4, Just Revenge x4, Respect x2, Chain of murder

3) Who is the main character?

Hooded girl x8, Narrator x2

4) How does the music create atmosphere?

Creates tension x3, Pace x7

5) Does the music work well with the sequence?

Yes x10

6) Does the scene have pace?

Yes x9, No

7) What are the enigmas?

Why was the person killed? x4 Who she killed? The girl being the killer? x2 What happens after the murder?

8) Was the sequence clear?

Yes x10

9) What would make people want to watch this?

Enigmas x8, Girl lead, Being British

10) Would you watch this?

Yes x10

Pros of the film

I feel that our film had more positives than negatives for example the main influence of the film, editing/ shot types, were extremely strong and helped the scenes flow freely and were extremely affective. The voice over was another of the main attractions of the film as it was accurate and enormously helpful and making the scenes more clear. Another good feature was the time notices in different parts in the film, which again makes the opening simple to understand. The enigma’s we aim to achieve are clearly well thought out and do challenge the audience. I was also a massive fan of the shots changes of scenery when the killer fires at the victim, it just seems to fit in well and give the film more mystery.

Cons of the film

The very start of the film is quite poor in my opinion. I don’t like the movements or image of the killer as I feel that she looks quite weak which is not the image we wanted to achieve. I also no longer prefer the musical score as much as it is not the hip-hop beat we were aiming for.

Rob Maclean