Evaluation question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation question 2 : How does your media product represent particular social groups?

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

by michael_rhodes97

Evaluation question 1: In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In our created media product "Animus," we were able to include many forms and conventions of real media products which overall helped to attain a healthy and strong piece of media text.


Mcguffin

This was the mcguffin of our media product based on the fact that this envelope worked as the main source to drive the storyline and create action and thus allowing it to occur throughout our film opening. This was effective because our audience were focused on the action based on the movement and location of our media product in our film.

Relation to real films

Psycho

Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) uses an envelope as a mcguffin which shows how our media product correlates with real films. I also believe that through this decision of using an envelope as a mcguffin, it helped the strength of our media product because it is a very effective mcguffin used in world known greats such as Psycho. 

Suspense

The opening of our media product exposes the audience to tension and suspense with the first shot of a man strapped to a chair, bloody and in an abandoned scrap yard. This is effective and suspenseful because the audience develop a feeling of not being in control and are instantaneously fearful and worried for the man in the chair as it appears that he is a bad place. Furthermore, the high angle shot corresponded with the frantic heartbeat creates the idea that the man in the chair is oppressed and smothered by negativity and doom.

Relation to real films

Casino Royale

In Casino Royale, James Bond is strapped to a chair and is being tortured by the villain. This shows that our media product is inspired by specific features of real films such as Casino Royale. My group believed this to be very effective as being trapped in a chair shows a clear distinction between power and status within the media text and thus the audience can clearly identify these factors which can induce empathy into them as a result.

Setting

This setting of Canary wharf is typical of the thriller genre with it's Urban and modernised structure. It is effective as the look of the building is overwhelming and enveloping to the audience. The audience place various factors together such as the juxtaposition of the suit one man is wearing and the big coat and casual clothes the other is wearing and with the tall business like buildings in the background, the audience get a sense of the white collar with a twang of blue colllar crime as features of the film.

Relation to real films

This is a source of real media text that captures the same stylised setting that we have in our media product. The background in this sequence is dominated by the prescence of a huge and modernised building making the audience understand that the action is taking place in an up to date and modernised enviroment. Also, the low angle structure of the image makes the audience feel oppressed and overwhelmed by the setting.

Black & White/ Low Key Lighting

When the so called villain, Alex is talking to his boss, we used a blacked out setting with low key lighting to create the mysterious and serious atmosphere which reflects the content of their discussion. This is effective as the audience can understand instantaneously that this character is not of good nature in will be the source of problems for our hero to overcome throughout the film.

Relation to real films

Casino Royale

In Casino Royale, the opening sequence is held in a office using low key lighting and the discussion the two men are having is formal and secret like the conversation in our media product. Both this sequence and the sequence from our media product use low key lighting to aid the idea of mystery and secretism in what the characters in the scene are conversating about. This demonstrates the elements from our product that relates strongly to the features of real media products.

Rough cut

Analysis and Justification of film title

Within our group, there was debate about the appropiate name for our film. Originally, we had planned to call the film Pursuit; this is because the remainder of our film is based on Trevor's (the character who died in our opening) brother being in "pursuit" of the people that did this to his twin brother. Therefore, this would be an effective and clear title and relates well to the content of our film.

However, in the process of filming and developing our production, the idea that Trevor's brther John would be extremely angered and not feel remorse towards his brothers killers made us as though our title should be dedicated to his characters feelings instead of his actions. Therefore, we began to search around for words that could demonstrate feelings of hatred towards a group of people yet still have the same amount of appeal to our audience and the thriller genre.

Primarily, we established two titles Revenge & game of hate. We believed these to be effective titles based on the fact that John is clearly out for revenge of the people that did this to his brother and game of hate symbolises John's attempt to find these killers relating to the word game and hate lies in the idea that John hates these people as his motives are to hunt them down and ultimately take their lives. However, we believed these titles to be rather simplistic after discussion and felt that we could improve the complexity and increase curiosity within our audience with titles that they might not have come across before. Also, we realised that these titles as well as Pursuit did not relate to the feelings of our main character John.

This is when we began to debate the titles Rancour and Animus. We were understanding that people may not have heard of these words before and thus would increase intruge within our audience where they can research the words and then relate the meaning to the content of the film. Having the similar meanings of, "A feeling of ill will arousing active hostility," both words are relevant to the content of our film where John feels ill will towards his brother's killers and arousing active hostility is a reflection of his actions.  We concluded that both these titles were strong and effective in relation to our media production.

We then conducted a group vote and 2 of us out of 3 prefered Animus to Rancour based the pronounciation of the word and how it sounds and thus we proceeded and named our film Animus.

Overall, I believe this to be a very effective title and believe it justifies the content and storyline of our media product.

Analysis of Sound effects chosen

Sound for our ident and title sequence

                                                    

The sound chosen for our ident and beginning titles was a source of ambient music. It was effective in the sense that it related well to the graphics of our ident image with the sequence of slowly moving clouds in the background as the peaceful yet mysterious music plays over the top. These factors correlate well with each other through the way the clouds manoeuvre in the image. This music continues to play over the beginning titles of our media product which is helpful in the sense that the typewriter format of our titles reflect that of the music.

 

Sound for our opening image

 

 

The sound playing over the top of this shot was effective as it is a fast and booming heartbeat which mirrors the mise en scene in the shot which shows desolation and a lack of control which is normally the case when there is a pacing heartbeat. Furthermore, the heartbeat relates to the character tied to the chair as they would be panicked and confused in the state that they're in. This demonstrates how the use of the heartbeat was effective. In addition, the companionship within the high angle shot type and the heart beat suggests something closing down onto the character in the chair which would explain the increase in the heart beat.

 

In contrary, I think there are other sound effects that could have made this sequence even more impacting such as a series of cinematic booms in correspondence with multiple shots of the character in the chair. Also, as well as just a heartbeat, we could have used music that would add to the menacing aspects of the situation Trevor is in and thus causing creater anxiety and tension within the audience.

 







 

At this part of our film, there are visuals of Alex and Trevor interacting near canary wharf and it clearly shows Alex handing the "package" to Trevor. Based on factors such as the wind and external sounds, we decided to mute the audio recorded on our camera and instead played suspenseful music over the action which helps it move along quickly to save time in our production and avoids dodgy diegetic audio of the two characters speaking.

 



 



 

 

Throughout this sequence of our film, the suspenseful music picked up the pace and became more impacting which correlated with the pace of the editing increasing. This was effective as it creates the idea that the action is building up to something and a greater event is on the horizon and about to take place.

 

 



This final segment of our film is very effective as the suspenseful music previously playing declines very rapidly and as there is a cross fade between Trevor walking and future Trevor tied up in the chair. The diegetic sound of Trevor breathing frantically and being panicked companioned with the return of the pacing heartbeat makes the audience feel anxious and uneasy and mirror these frantic feelings of Trevor, especially with the sight of the gun held to his head. As the screen then turns black, and the sound of a gunshot is abruptly heard, the audience can infer what has happened to Trevor.

 

 

 



 

 

Making our ident





Making our Ident

 

Preliminary

 

 



 

Following our decision of "Black Cloud Media" as the title for our production company, we began by searching on YouTube for sequences of clouds to be the bulk of our ident as the image and visuals of the sequence. At first we came across this motion picture sequence that we believed would be effective in relation to our company name.

 



The dark style and layout of the clouds in this video background relates well to the name of our production company and therefore we believed that we would proceed with this as the background to our ident. However, after a few more searches, we came across another sequence which we believed after editing would be even more effective and impacting if used as our ident.



However, we believed that the light ratio in this motion picture would be better if the clouds appeared darker which would more strongly relate to the name of our ident.This is when we found the moving image in our used ident as a Giff which we downloaded into Photoshop and edited in with our production company name text. We decided that this was efficient and sensible as the clouds in the motion picture were black and therefore mirrored the title. Furthermore, there was a gap in between the clouds where the text in our ident could eventually rise to from the bottom so that our audience have the chance to view it clearly before our main film actually begins.