Sarahs Evaluation

In our group, we decided to make a film about a killing that created many enigmas called “D Tour”. For this project, I worked with Karl Buckel and Rob Maclean. In our group, I was in charge of casting and production, also costumes and I helped when editing telling Karl which angles worked best when putting the transitions together as someone looking upon the film as if I was a fresh eye.
Our genre for the film is British drama and the sub-genre of teenage gun crime. The conventions of the genre we used are gun, shady characters, murder as these are associated with a teen, gun drama. It was vital to use typical elements that associate these conventions to a drama such as this so the audience know exactly what they are watching so they wouldn’t get confused. It is also necessary to add something new to the genre to keep the audience hooked so films that are similar to this genre have their own elements to make their film different from others. These ideas we thought would be successful as we have created enigmas into the opening sequence which hook the audience in from the start. The audience liked our ideas as we added our own twist onto the drama. Again, we wanted to make our film different from others to add our own character on it. For example the ending where it turns out that the girl is the killer. Because the characters face wasn’t shown till the end the audience was convinced that the killer was a man, and the close ups made the scene more intense and more exciting.
For our film, we have represented teenagers who think it is right to get back at someone by murdering them or harming them in any way. This is a dominant representation of teenagers as they are known as trouble makers. The costumes were pretty simple, being that the main character wore tracksuit bottoms and a zip up hooded jacket to hide their appearance. In every scene that the killer was shown, he/she wore the hooded jacket to show that it was the same person. The appearance of the killer was not shown until the end but the man giving the gun to the killer looks intense and looks like he means business. All the lighting is natural, but we have darkened the scene by adding an effect to make the time of day look as similar as it can be and also to show how shady the character is. I think that all this has worked well as the audience have said that the effects have worked well. We have represented teenagers here to be violent and aggressive as they are stereotyped to be like this everyday in the newspaper just because two teenagers have been involves, they automatically think that all teenagers are the same way. The editing was quite simple. Each scene flows into one another so you cannot tell we have filmed little bits at once, this is the invisible editing.
As it is a gangster/ action film, one setting we have used to film our production was down a back alley in Blackburn. It was quite dark and dirty and had graffiti, so it set the right vibe and it looked right when filming.
I think that a British production company would think about backing our film as for one it is a pure British film. Another reason is that our film is all about action, and it starts that way from the beginning. It creates enigmas that will hook the audience in so they would want to watch the film till the end to find out the questions that are asked all the way through so you can find out all the answers. Enigmas are questions created that are usually answered during the course of the film or created at the end to then make another film leading on from it.

Film 4 company would be a very good example of someone to distribute our film as they would be a realistic target as they are well known and have released films such a “this is England”, which is what we initially researched to make our British film.
The audience that we though would want to watch our film would be the ages between 12-16 although our film would be a 15 as the violence and language incorporated in the film would not be suitable for 12 year olds. We also thought 16-25 year olds would be interested in our film also as these ages like watching violent and action films which our film is. I think the British public would be the group that would be interested in our film, but not only white British people, all people would be invited to watch our film if that is the genre of film that they have an interest in. This is a good target audience because young males like to watch this sort of film and find action thrillers a good genre to watch. They all are a very large market so it appeals to the whole range of British males, even females when they realise that the female is a killer as women are stereotyped to be soft, gentle and kind so they wouldn’t expect the ending to our opening sequence so this is an alternative representation of women.
Our opening sequence is in order and we created a sense of time by adding the times when the scenes are meant to take place. We have created many enigmas in the opening sequence, these are:
· Who is the person in the hood?
· Why have they swapped over a package?
· What the package is?
· Who has been killed?
· Why have they been killed?
This means the audience would be glued to the screen to find out the answers to the questions. We used a voiceover to create atmosphere, it sets the scene and shows the social standing of these people, it is of the young maybe lower class people. We have built up tension and suspense by adding music to our film as it is beaty and a sort of garage music and creates atmosphere and you can associate with youth and the pace of the film.
I have learnt that you don’t always have to use your past experiences of films to know everything about them, using the internet to look up certain films can help you recall it and maybe make a certain bit clearer for you. By using the blog on the website, we have shown everyone reading it why and how certain decisions were made. This is better than verbal communication as all of our work is I there so no questions would need to be asked.
From the preliminary task we did, I learnt that it took many times to film a scene to get different angles, different points of view in the scene. This made it easier for our final project as we new what angles worked well and close up showed a sense of the place and what is happening, especially with facial expressions. The transitions we used on the new project ran much smoothly than the old one, with not much speech involved, it hides who the characters are, which also adds more enigmas.
Audience Testing
We created a questionnaire for the audience to fill out after they had watched our film. Their response was vital as we needed to know how clear our sequence was and if it was right for the kind of audience we were hoping to aim it at. The questions we asked and the responses given back to us.
Question 1) What is the genre of the opening sequence?
The audience we tested on had said our film was a gangster, thriller, action, crime, although only one person didn’t no which genre the film was. Nine out of ten of our audience understood which genre our film was so it must have been clear.
Question 2) What do you think of the story line of the opening sequence?
The audience’s response was that it was about a killing, revenge, wanting respect, Again this response was perfect and was obviously clear to the audience.
Question 3) Who is the main character? And what is their function?
The audience’s response was that someone (girl, only revealed at the end) was sorting out some business by shooting someone.
Question 4) How does the music create atmosphere?
The audiences response was that it adds pace, builds tension, matches with the pace of the film, upbeat and matches the genre, tense gritty feeling.
The audience feel that the music works well with the film and that we have chosen well.
Question 5) Does the music work well with the sequence?
The audiences response was that yes, because it was fast paced.
Question 6) Was there much pace In the scenes?
The audiences response was that it had varied pace when the film needed it e.g. when the running occurred in the film, there was a lot of pace.
Question 7) What do you think of the enigmas created?
The audience’s response was that there was enough enigmas created although some were solved at the end of the clip.
Question 8) Was the sequence clear?
The audience’s response was that yes the sequence was clear and the narration added to how the clear it was.
Question 9) What would make people want to watch the film?
The audience’s response was that the upbeat action tempo, the female lead character, the popular British theme, if the film was left on a cliff hanger, the enigma of who the killer was and what was going to happen and the action created would make the audience want to watch our film. This is a lot to go on, so all of the audience would watch our film.
Question 10) Would you watch the film?
The audience’s response was 100% that they all would want to watch our film.
My overall thought of my media product was really surprising as I didn’t think it would have turned out so well.
Its key strengths were camera angles and the voiceover. I think its weaknesses were that a few more close ups could have been added such as the close up of the gun being swapped over or the grab of the arm before the killer walks away with the gun. I have learnt a lot about the technology whilst making them film. The Apple Mac computers had the programmes we needed to make our film a success. It also helped to make our film look more authentic and making the editing invisible. It also helped us to edit the lighting and balance the scenes to make them look as real looking as they possible could. We also used I-Tunes to find which music to add to our film, this was the non diegetic music you hear from start to finish.
As the opening scene was two minutes, I think the pace of the film turned out quite well, better than I expected. When I watch films, I look and think I wouldn’t be able to do that, but with a little experience, you learn how they do things and it becomes quite easy. In my opinion, our film turned out well, and after audience evaluation, they think it is easy to understand and they know what it is all about.

Sarah Fowler