Our Final Film

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the full product

There are many differences between our preliminary task and our final film that we made, one difference is that in our preliminary task there are no institutional logos shown in the opening but our final film has two institutional logos in at the very start of the final film, showing that we have learnt when and where to put the institutional logos in a film opening. Another difference is that in our preliminary task we both filmed and starred in our own film opening but when it came to the final film we were able to be more organised by getting other people in to act in our film other than ourselves. In our final film we included more shots including a drone shot and we added more vairety than in our preliminary task becasue we wanted our final to look as good as possible. 

Our detailed planning included setting up a group chat so we could communicate about our film and decide things like when to bring props in for our film and what day we should film the opening on. Our group also kept up to date with the blog work so this helped the planning run smoothly as we did not have to rush any of our planning because we spent our time in lessons usefully by always doing something whether that be group/individual blogs, planning for the film or sorting out what we were going to do. This detailed planning helped us produce our film because we knew what shots we were going to and what order they would be in, so this meant that on the day, the filming went smoothly as we had organised it very well.

We do now feel more confident with the equipment we were using such as the cameras and the apple mac because during our preliminary task, it was the first time we had ever used one so we didnt really know what to do but when we came to making our final film it was easier because we had had a past experience using the macs and the camera so we had some knowledge on how to use them.

Our end product is successful because it demonstrates most things you would see in a film opening such as the titles and the director being at the end, the institutional logos being at the start and the characters being introduced into the film.

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

The strengths of this Nikon D4 camera were that it was high quality so we could get a great picture for the film  and the drone we used for the drone shot provided a good picture which was not too shaky. There were some problems faced in filming like the wind that day because when we turned up to the field, it was very windy because we had no cover from the trees and so we resolved this by putting on a fuzzy on top of the camera (see fuzzy circled in red), we also resolved this issue by having someone occasionally stand in front of the mic for close shots so we could hear the audio clearly and have no loud wind noises in the background. Another issue we had is that we could not do the drone shot on the day of filming because it was too windy for the drone to fly so we had to wait a few days for the wind to calm down so we could get a good drone shot for our film opening. In our film opening I did not get to use the equipment that we needed for our film because I was coordinating stunts and telling the actors where to go and standing in places they needed to run to for some shots and helping the actors off screen by telling them when to do something like tripping up the other guy on that shot of all four running behind the presenter.


Our group found it easier to edit our films on the mac this time round because we had previous experience on it, unlike in the preliminary task where it was all new to us. This time round we found ways of coping with problems because if some of the shots of our film were to bright, we could use the apple macs to lower the overall brightness of all these shots by using the dimming tool. The only real problems we faced during editing was learning how to use the editing software iMovie even better than the last time we used it and by the end of editing our film opening we knew a lot more about how to edit and different things to do on iMovie than we did before.

I think that are group worked very well together because we divided up the responsibilities when doing all of the blog posts that were required and we would happily swap posts with other group members if we preferred to do a certain blog posts and that other members would do someone else's blog post if they were busy. We also set up a group chat on Messenger so we could organise the dates for our filming and talk about other work including getting the correct equipment ready and helping other people in our group with blog posts if they needed it, this helped us because it meant we could talk about our work outside of the school. The day we went filming, the filming went very smoothly because when we arrived we all knew as a group what shots we wanted to do, so all we had to do was set up the cameras we needed and then just started recording our shots

Using blogger to log my work was very helpful because I could access it when I was at home and at school as well. If I needed help with some work I could go to one of my blog posts on that topic and it would help me by giving me key information on the topic. Using blogger to log our group blog was helpful because if one of us couldn't get on a computer at home to do some work, someone else in the group could come and do that blog post if this was after school hours.

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

In this video clip I have answered evaluation question 4 which is, Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institute might distribute your media product and why?

First of all what a production company does is that it helps to create a film by providing a budget which would help the film get their technology that they need to make the film and to also get in a list actors if they are a mainstream production company. A production company is also responsible for how they distribute and market their media product.

The idea of a distributor is to send your film out, so lots of different audiences can see it in various places. The production company that would distribute our film would be Film 4 Productions because as we are a small independent British company we would like them to distribute our film because they are known for backing films that have been made in the United Kingdom. The funding for our film would come from the British Film Institute because they use National Lottery funds to help and support small independent British filmmakers like us. The company that would distribute our film would be Vertigo Films because they are a small independent film distribution company and we are an independent British film. They would distribute our film mainly to independent UK cinemas including BFI Southbank because these cinemas specialise in showing independent, classic and non English language films.













The titles named in our film titles are the two institutional logos first and then they are followed by the five actors who play the characters who are then followed by the stunt coordinator and then the cinematography and then the producer and the last film title is the director after this is shown, the real names of the characters in the film are shown when they are doing interviews. We put the titles in this order because generally in most films the Institutional logos are usually the first titles that are shown on the film screen followed by the actors and these actors and actresses are in order of how well known they are. The directors name was shown last because it is the most important role. After the directors names we added in the names of the characters because we thought it would be useful to introduce the characters to the audience watching the film.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups

Our media product shows a representation of gender through are male and female characters because are male characters are stereopyical because they are shown as strong and powerful by working in the army and carrying guns that they can use, the character shown to the left follows the stereotype by speaking assertively and acting confidently.

Our media product shows that women are represented non stereotpically because we show them in the army acting powerful and dominant and these are media stereotypes that you would associate with masculinity and not femininity. Also in our film the women is the corporal and the leader of this small group which is non stereotypical because it would usually be the man who would be leading.


The representation of age is shown in our film opening because it starts following some young soldiers showing both there maturity and there immaturity. This is shown in the film opening through some of their answers to the questions that the interviwer is giving. Our story is told from this small groups perspective and throughout the film it is narrated by the character following this small group called David Attenbro.

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways do your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Our film incorporates the generic conventions of our genre which is mockumentary because there are mockumentary generic conventions such as the dialogue being used which is adding comedy into the scene, another generic convention of mockumentary is that the viewer will know that this a comedic documentary when they first see the opening of the film. There will be interviews in the film that are light hearted and comedic. We have used these generic conventions of mockumentaries in our film because in the image to the left we used the transition fade in and out to show everyone laughing already showing that this is not going to be a serious documentary because it is a mockumentary. We have also used another generic convention of mockumentaries and that is to have an interview during the film opening and this is where we introduce the four characters who are in this squad and we show this during the last part of our film where the characters are answering some questions.

Our film titles are quite different to what most other film opening titles would be like because in our film our director comes halfway through the title sequence after the names of the characters and the rest of the staff are introduce but after the name of the director is shown, the actual names of the characters and their rank are shown on the screen.  




Most mockumentaries start with some small text like the two examples shown which are What We Do In The Shadows and Tropic Thunder but are film opening is different because at the start of our film opening we show each of our characters through the use of the transition called fade in and out.

My own institutional logo for our production company

My own institutional logo for our production company

This my own institutional logo I created for our production company, it is a suit and a tie with the name the of the production company suit and tie productions around the top of it.

Research on institutional logos

Research on institutional logos

With a mainstream institutional logo you expect to see the logo moving around the screen with a world famous name but with an independent institutional logo you would expect to see a logo just appear on the screen and then disappear again because mainstream institutions like Universal have more money than independent institutions such as Warp Films.

The difference between the two institutional logos is that the mainstream logo is moving around the screen and the independent logo is just staying still in the middle of the screen. The independent logo is just white text on a black screen whereas the mainstream logo has the whole world on it.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it shows me what independent and mainstream institutional logos look like and what are one will have to be like.

Our production company

Our production company

In our group we decided to be an independent company because as we are making a mockumentary of past events to do with the war this would only be made for a small specific audience who find mockumentaries about past events satirical.

This will help when it comes to making our own film opening because it shows that we are aiming this at quite a small audience.

Films that have influenced me

Films that have influenced me

Charlie Brookers 2016 wipe and Dads Army influenced me and my group to make a mockumentary film opening.

A film that has influenced me and taught me important life lessons is Finding Nemo. A few important life lessons it taught was that you should always listen to your parents because they want to keep you safe at all times and that your parents will not give on up on you as shown in Finding Nemo. This will help me when it comes to my own film opening because it shows me what kind of film influenced me.

Extra research on my genre and audience

Extra research on my genre and audience

Some mockumentary TV series are very successful for example the mockumentary TV series Parks and Recreation was once the number one TV series of the year and a another mockumentary called Modern Family has won 18 primetime emmy awards.

The genre mockumentary that we are doing in our film is a subgenre of comedy. Mockumentaries can also be known as docucomedies. The term mockumentary originated in the 1960s but in the 1980s it become more popular because of the film This Is Spinal Tap and its director Rob Reiner who used the word mockumentary to describe his own film in a radio interview.



This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it gives me extra knowledge on our chosen genre.

A timeline of titles from a film in my chosen genre

A timeline of titles from a film in my chosen genre

For my timeline of titles from my chosen genre which is mockumentary I chose to do the film The Flying Scissors.


This will help me when it comes to making my own mockumentary because it shows me what type of music I should play to fit a mockumentary and how to put the titles in that way.

An analysis of a film opening in my chosen genre

An analysis of a film opening in my chosen genre

The first shot of the movie is an establishing shot which sets the scene up for us because it shows helicopters and dense forest showing that their may be a lot of fighting going on in this area of dense forest.




Within the first two seconds of the film we already know what a main part of the film is going to be because of what this text says which is that they are going on a secret mission to Vietnam and this doesn't make the audience confused over the plot.


The titles in this film perfectly match the colours of the film and whats happening because the titles look like they are from a typewriter which were used during the Vietnam war.

In the opening scene of this film it only shows stuff to do with war like helicopters, infantryman, guns and bombs which could tell us that this film is mainly about war.

The voice of the man at the start reading whats on the screen has a voice just like an army sergeant linking again to how the film could mainly feature war in it.

The atmosphere in this movie is mainly of fear because they are constantly being attacked by the enemy.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because I am analysing a film that will be quite similar to the film opening that we are doing which will help me a lot.

Our chosen genre and research

Our chosen genre and research

The genre we chose to use in our film was mockumentary. A mockumentary is a film or even a television programme that takes events that have happened in the past and makes it satirical.

Examples of mockumentary TV programmes and films

• Parks and Recreation
• The Office
• Charlie Brooker's 2016 wipe
• Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
• This Is Spinal Tap
• Bruno

Charlie Brooker's 2016 wipe is an example of a mockumentary TV programme because in this show he does every year, he takes a satirical look at the year including all the events that have happened in the past year and makes them all funny.

What We Do in the Shadows is a horror mockumentary where a team is allowed to film a documentary about four vampires living in a house together.

The similarities between these two mockumentaries Borat and What We Do in the Shadows is that in both of these movies, the main character is showing around a camera crew who are filming what it is going on for a documentary. At the start of each one they both show you around their area and tell you whats what.

The difference between these two mockumentaries are that in Borat the main character is wearing a suit and tie which is what you usually see in mockumentaries whereas in What We Do in the Shadows the main character is wearing capes and the other two are wearing a t-shirt and a waistcoat.

The mockumentary generic conventions we have used from these examples are that we used a camera group to follow a small group of chavs in the army in our film, we also used another generic conventions which was a on screen narrator telling us about this chav squadron, we also included comedic interviews with each character to make our film opening not serious and like a mockumentary.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it shows me what mockumentaries put in their films to make them satirical.

Our Opening re-make

Our Opening re-make

My group decided to remake a film because we wanted to see what a film opening consists of and then we could put all of this knowledge into making our own film opening.

Remaking a film will help us when it comes to making our own film opening because in this remake we will see where titles should go and how long they should be on their for and what a film opening should be. As we are remaking a film this will give us the chance to use all the equipment again so we all know how to use it as it will be fresh in our minds.

Difference between mainstream and independent films

Difference between mainstream and independent films

• Big star names such as Daniel Craig
• Popular songs and music used in the films opening sequence 
• The genre they use is a safe genre
• The film will have high production values
• They will be able to use better technology
• Font and titling are key

• Independent genres are specific, they are not afraid to do risky genres
• Low Budget
• Not as good technology as mainstream
• Gritty
• Independent film opening use less titles because there is less personnel
• Less distribution compared to mainstream films

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it shows me what the difference is between mainstream and independent.

Film Openings and Audiences

Film Openings and Audiences

Film openings could attract audiences by using two theories, the first theory is the hypodermic needle theory which is where the media has a direct and very powerful effect on its audiences.



A famous example of the hypodermic needle theory is when Orson Wells was reading the War Of The Worlds and he was interrupted by a news bulletin claiming that Earth was being attacked by martians and that their landing point was Grover's Mill, New Jersey and this caused mass hysteria.

Film openings could also attract audiences by using the second theory which is the uses and gratification theory and this is different to the hypodermic needle theory because it assumes that the audience are not passive and that they take an active role in putting media into their own lives.



For example people may watch the Indiana Jones franchise because they want to escape what is going on in their life and join in the Indiana Jones world and enjoy it.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it shows me the two main audience theories I could use in my film opening.

Making a film opening with jelly babies

Making a film opening with jelly babies

In class we were told to make a film opening using only post it notes and jelly babies.

The reason we did this was to plan a film and to also put all of the film titles in the correct order and to also see what other people in our class made.

This will help me when it comes to my own film opening because it showed me what I could do for my film and where all the titles in a film opening should appear

Generic Conventions in Film Openings

Generic Conventions in Film Openings 

In films different genres show different generic conventions, for example comedies have light hearted music and horrors have lots of death shown. This means that at the start of the film the audience will already know what the genre is and will not be confused because they will see all these typical generic conventions. 

Toy Story - Generic Giveaways - Animation/Family

• Happy upbeat music       
• The name "toy story"
• The titles are all in lower case
• Animation
• Non diegetic sound - Song is about friendship 

The Shining - Generic Giveaways - Psychological thriller

• Non diegetic sound - music is dramatic and frightening
• Not much of the film shown
• Not a lot given away, audience have to watch it to understand it

Superbad - Generic Giveaways - Comedy

• Music is light hearted and upbeat
• Comical Dancing
• The colours in the film opening are all bright and vibrant

Dawn of the Dead - Generic Giveaways - Horror

• Lots of death is shown
• Music was ironically upbeat
• Close up shot of zombies
• Smeary blood writing used for the titles
• Diegetic sound - Screams and the news reporter 

Drive - Generic Giveaways - Thriller/Crime

• Dark Background
• Not much given away in the film opening
• A lot of low key lighting is used in the opening

The Vow - Generic Giveaways - Romantic

• The title of the film "the vow"
• The man singing I could do anything for love
• Quite a slow pace

This will help me when it comes to making my film because these all tell me what to include if I was to do that certain genre.

The Impact of Certification

The Impact of Certification

The reason films need certification in the UK is because it is a law. The law is the video recordings act of 1984 which is where all video recordings that are for sale or hire in the United Kingdom must have a certification that has been set by the BBFC ( British Board of Film Classification ). The reason they do this is to stop young children from seeing gruesome images and strong language in films they would watch.

 For example Pineapple Express which was made in 2008 had a section of its film cut because it included a bit where schoolboys were were sold drugs by someone and this made the rating a 15 instead of an 18.
 Another clip that had its clip cut and its certification lowered was Welcome To The Jungle and they cut scenes that had a lot of violent action and the glamorisation of weapons. These scenes were cut and the rating went from a 15 to a 12A.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it tells me the scenes that would get cut and what to put in each age range so your film does not get cut.

Certification in films

Certification in films

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it tells me what I need to do to get each specific certification.

The first certificate used is a U which means universal. A film that has a rating of a U is available for everyone including very young kids to see because these films are always upbeat, reassuring and positive. Two examples of a U rated film are Chicken Run and Finding Nemo.

The second certificate used in films is the PG rating which means parental guidance. If a film has a rating of PG it means that everyone is allowed to see it but children under the age of eight have to be with a parent while they watch the film. Examples of PG rated films are Short Circuit and Grease.

The third certificate used when judging films is the 12A. A film that gets a rating of 12A only applies to the cinema because this means that no one under the age of twelve are allowed to go to cinemas and watch 12A films. Examples of 12A films are Meet the Parents and the Bourne Identity.

The fourth certificate used when determining an age certification for a film is 12. If a film gets a certification of 12 this means that no one under the age of twelve is allowed to watch it anywhere including on a DVD or at a cinema. Examples of a 12 rated film  are Step Up 3D and Fast and Furious .

The fifth certificate in filming is the 15 certification. Films that get a rating of 15 mean that no one under the age of fifteen may see the film because these 15 rated films often contain a lot of strong language and violence. Examples of a 15 rated film are Hot Fuzz and Rush.

The sixth and final film certification in film is the 18 certification. If a film gets an 18 certification it means that only people over the age of 18 are allowed to see these films because these 18 rated films usually have a lot of strong violence, gore and frequent bad language used. Examples of 18 rated films are Trainspotting and Sin City.

Film Opening Timelines

Film Opening Timelines

Watchmen

For my first film I chose to do the film Watchmen, this film will help me when I make my own film opening because this film shows me where I should put the institutional logos and what order each person should go in during the opening sequence.



The Shining

For my second film opening timeline I decided to do the film called The Shining because this offers a different way on how to introduce everyone who has worked on the film and this film opening would help me when I come to making my own film opening because it shows me a different way on how to open a film and a set a scene.


Superbad





















For my third film opening timeline I decided to go with the film Superbad because this shows me a completely different way to open a film and will help me when it comes to making my film opening because it shows that their are many ways to open a film and set a scene.

Student Film Opening Detailed Analysis

Student Film Opening Detailed Analysis

In this scene here which occurs at the start we can see that the titles of this film link with whats happening which is effective because if the titles did not match what was going on in the film, this would make it confusing for thew audience because they would not know what is going on or what genre it could be.

From this scene to the right it could tell the audience that this is an action movie because there is already a fight sequence involved in the film opening and this could also tell us what is about to come in the film and this could just be his first of many fights in the duration of this film.

During the fight scene of this clip there is good use of non diegetic sound because each punch sounds like it was happening their when in fact they edited after they had finished filming their own film opening. Another good use of non diegetic sound is the use of the background music in this film opening because the music helps to build up tension and anticipation while also linking with what is happening in the film.

The use of fast paced editing in this clip is effective because it shows the audience all the chaos that is going on because hes had to start fighting someone.

The atmosphere in this film opening is one of tension because you have the main character sneaking around hunting down an enemy and this ends up with a fight and then you wonder what happens next after he walks away from the place.

The themes you would associate with this film opening would be fast paced, violence and full of guns which are some of the usual themes you would associate with the action genre.

This will help me when it comes to making my own student film opening because this gives me an idea of what other people at our school have done and how their titles come up on the opening.

What makes a good student film

What makes a good student film 

One of the things that makes a good student film is that the filmmakers make sure their titles fit the genre and opening of their movies because if they don't fit the opening sequence of the movie the viewer will become confused because the titles make the film look like a different genre. In this student film opening the titles match the opening sequence which enables the viewer to know what genre it is straight away.

Another point that makes a good student film is that the camera must be steady at all time unless you are using a handheld camera and you want to have that effect of shakiness on the people watching your film. In this shot the camera needs to be steady so you can pick up all that is happening in the scene and in this shot there is hardly any shaking.




Another thing that makes a good student film is that the audience understands what the film is about in the opening two minutes because if they don't know whats going on it could become confusing for them as they would not know whats happening or what could possibly happen. In this shot you can clearly see what the film is about because of the body in a bag, a policeman and also a detective.

Also using a variety of good effective shots in your film would make it a good student film because it would keep the audience interested with all the cuts happening while the film opening is going. They used a variety of shots including the establishing shot and the extreme close up.




To make a good student film you need to be able to get your titles in the right order. In this film opening they get their titles correct by putting their institutional logos at the start followed by their actors and then at the very end they put the most important person that is involved which is the director.

As we can see from the clip above, what you also need to have in a good film opening is that you need good quality dialogue if you use any during your film opening because bad dialogue would make the film sound worse than it is.

Also from the clip above there is good use of non diegetic sound which is the music that has been edited in and helps to add tension to the start of a film and this would make a student film good if the filmmakers wanted to use it.



Another point that makes a good student film is that their is good use of non diegetic sound and in this film opening there is good use of the non diegetic sound because it fits whats happening in the film opening.

One major thing you need to get right when making a student film is that you need to have edited your film well because if you don't edit well your film will not look good. In this student film opening they have edited well because all the cuts are clean and effective.

A good thing to do while making your student film opening is to entice the viewer into the film, so they have to watch it to find what happens next. This student film opening does that because you wonder what could happen next in the film, so you have to continue watching it if you could.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it shows me what other years have done and shows me different ideas.

Independent Research on Film Openings

Independent Research on Film Openings

For my independent research on film openings I have to decided to find out why Deadpool did its opening credits the way it did

Deadpools credits are unusual because instead of writing the actual persons name with each job they did, they decided to write something that they thought described the job they were doing. For example for the people who wrote the film they put "The Real Heroes Here" as shown in the image to the left.


The reason why Deadpool did their credits the way they did was because each title including "a British villain" and "A CGI Character" all perfectly fit their place on the film opening and so the director of the film who was Tim Miller showed it to the writers and producers and they all decided to stick with it because they thought it would be hilarious.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because it gives an alternate way to introduce all the people involved in the film.

In Depth Analysis of Casino Royale

In Depth Analysis of Casino Royale

As seen in the image to the right, at the start of the film the screen covers in red which could be used to represent blood being split, showing that during the film there could be blood and danger as the colour red usually represents danger and bloodshed in a film. This could also suggest that throughout the the whole film their will be the use of guns to stop the enemies getting what they want.

As seen in the image to the left, when the opening sequence introduces the name of the film all four suits of a card deck are all shown four times which could mean that the whole film could take place in and around a casino somewhere and also this part of the opening sequence could suggest that betting could be involved in the film.

During the film opening their is a lot of gun use in the film which could suggest that there will a lot of violence because of all this gun use. Also the use of these guns could suggest that the genre of this film is the action genre because of all the gun shooting. There could also be another genre included into this which is the thriller genre because you dont know what is going to happen and who is going to get shot or not

                                                                                                                                                                   
In the opening sequence their is a lot of fighting going on which could mean that James Bond may have to fight a whole criminal organisation and because some of them explode in to cards when they die this could mean that bond may have to fight them on a poker table. The fighting that goes on adds more to the genre of action.

 As seen in the image to the right there is a lot of poker tables shown in the film opening which could suggest that a poker game will almost definitely be played and this poker game will have huge influences on the film because a man is also being shot in the same scene as all the poker tables meaning that this poker game could be off huge importance.

This will help me when it comes to making my own film opening because this film opening tells me what order to put my titles in and for how long as well.