Monday 4 April 2016

Evaluation part 8- What do you feel you have learnt in the progression to your full product?

Overall I feel there were several aspects about our final product that were successful. I feel the cinematography was successful as we managed to achieve our aim of making the sequence look conventional but also incorporating different camera shots and angles to make it more visually entertaining. All of the shots were also quite clear and there were no blurry ones. I also feel the editing was successful as it upheld a sense of continuity throughout whilst also using different transitions and techniques to keep the audience enthralled. I also feel that the time-lapse idea was very original as not many others thought of it.
However, I feel like the least successful aspect to our final sequence was a slight lack in research into other title sequences in our genre. We were actually limited to an extent on the amount of sequences we could research and analyse as there aren't many big budget and conventional spy films outside of the James Bond and Bourne franchises. We instead decided to mix the two together in order to come up with our own concept, however we lacked the certain knowledge of what spy film title sequences really looked like. Perhaps some research into older James Bond films and perhaps some more action films would have aided us in the creation of our sequence and most certainly the codes and conventions we should incorporate in our own. We also for a while struggled with the typography and soundtrack, as we were indecisive over what would suit our sequence.


In order to improve on these areas we relentlessly researched typography and soundtracks whilst also experimenting with them in our own sequence to see whether they suited or not. Eventually we found a font and soundtrack we liked and our teachers agreed that they suited the genre as a whole better and made the sequence more conventional.

Evaluation part 7- What have you learnt about technologies in the process?

Throughout the creation of our sequence we used many different methods in terms of capturing out footage and compiling and editing it all together. Firstly, we used the Go-Pro to capture some of the investigation wall shots. This was the first time any of us had used one so it was a good way of experimenting with different ways of filming. We used the head strap as a way of holding the Go-Pro as well as a Steady-cam and a tripod. However, we eventually decided to scrap the shots from the Go-Pro as we felt it gave a shaky effect that we didn't want in our sequence.


I also felt I learnt a bit about how to use the cameras supplied to us by the media department. Although I didn't actually do any of the cinematography I felt I learnt how to use the tripod to good effect and how to film from different shots and angles. Throughout our sequence we assigned roles to everyone in the group, although we were still free to help out each other regardless. Ghanshaym and Adam were our main cinematographers whilst Ghanshyam also was our main editor with myself as an assistant. Again I felt I learnt a lot from watching Ghanshyam and experimenting with different techniques such as filters, transitions and text. We felt the technical roles we assigned were suitable as Ghanshyam has had previous experience with both editing and using cameras and Adam also had experience with using the cameras to film.

Evaluation part 6- How did you attract and address your target audience?



Evaluation part 5- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation part 4- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our title sequence has aimed to use the typical codes and conventions of the spy sub-genre in order to be instantly recognisable and clear when audiences watch it. We attempted to achieve this by using conventional locations, sound, costumes and props.

The props used were picked because of their conventional value. We created a number of our own props such as the investigation wall and newspaper articles. We thought the wall was an extremely useful prop as it was very conventional of the genre. As a group we all put our ideas for conventional props together and it was predominantly my role to make the final choice of the props used, although the others still had input.



The soundtrack used was a very action like piece of music. Myself and Ghanshyam from our group were predominantly involved in the choice and research of this soundtrack and eventually we found one on YouTube, which was copyright free (as mentioned in the spec). We ultimately decided on this soundtrack as we felt it was suitable for our piece in terms of structure and the way it progressed and flowed. We also felt it suited the genre and conformed to the conventions our chosen genre. However, we did originally pick a different soundtrack. However our class feedback suggested it made our piece seem like a comedy and didn't suit the genre well. Therefore we decided to research more into a new soundtrack and this ultimately led us to the one we chose.

The setting of the majority of our shots were London. We chose London because of its heritage and iconic landmarks such as Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. It is also where the MI6 building is situated and this is where the main narrative of our film revolves around.


The typography used we felt was conventional. We picked the "neuropol" font as we felt it looked very conventional and much like a typical spy film. Our initial research of fonts came up with a few results:



However, we felt that the Neuropol font was the best and most conventional of them all. Our teachers also felt this and a lot of our feedback from the class also reflected the view that the first font on our rough edit wasn't conventional and didn't suit the genre as a whole. 

Evaluation part 3- What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?


Evaluation part 2- Who would be the target audience and why?

Evaluation part 1- Brief

The brief that I had to follow (as part of a group or on my own) was to create a title sequence of film from a genre of our choice. I chose to work in a group which consisted of Ghanshyam, Thomas and Adam. We had to use our own footage and non-copyright sound including soundtracks and sound effects. We had to film and edit the whole sequence on our own from scratch. Our sequence took on quite a conventional style as our genre was spy. We felt that this was a very conventional genre and as a result of this we used quite iconic scenery of London and conventions of a spy film to create our sequence. The spy genre is in fact a sub-genre of the action genre. The conventions can be seen in almost all spy films including gun fights, action scene, explosions, love interests and chase scenes. We tried to incorporate some of these conventions in our sequence and this can be seen by the gun in the desk scene, the chase scene right at the end (which is the beginning of our opening scene) and the character that Daisy Ridley plays.