Evaluation Part 8

In this part of my evaluation, I will be looking back at my preliminary task, The Encounter and discussing how i have progressed from doing that to my final product. I feel as though, from the start of Media A level when we did the encounter, my knowledge was basic but i feel as though, back when we did that task, our creativity to make it was succesful as we used the correct shots at the right times and the shots were filmed well. Also our editing skills when we were doing this were basic, but were were still able to put match on action in there but when i look back from when we used match on action in our final production, it is easily visible to see a huge difference in the flow and consistency of the match on action and you can see how the skill has improved a lot. Also our preliminary task wasn't very original whereas in our final production, we kept to the brief but made sure our narrative was original and unique. In our preliminary task, we made sure that we didnt use pointless transitions and made sure it had a good flow and i think that was a success as we had that mind set from then and in our final production, i kept that in mind when we were editing and as our project was a BSR, we had to make sure it was as real to life as possible so using transitions wouldn't have done this and wouldve ruined our production. One thing that we didnt do there that was a good improvement this time round was we didn't change the speed of the production then but it didnt really make a differennce but we couldv'e used it and made it faster so that it creates more tension on the stare off scene. In our current project, speeding up some scenes woould create a more tenser atmosphere and for this genre, to show the grittiness hard lifestyle, this was an essential to the BSR genre.
In our preliminary task, we tried to do match on action with Kieran walking through the door to the canteen at  00:10 and after looking back over it i can see a real difference with our match on action used in our "CLASS A" production, where at 1:23, we used a match on action with money being thrown on the table and it flows a lot better and it goes well and it is easily visible to see the comparison of how jumpy our preliminary exercise match on action was to our "CLASS A".

This is from our preliminary exercise at 00:10 where we do the match on action but it doesn't seem to flow well.

This is from our final production at 1:23 where we do the match on action and it flows better and looks a lot cleaner.

If i was to improve this next year, i would like to try working more on match on action to make it flow better with a range of different shots and not just for a film production, but i would like to try it in the music video we are making next year as i would've had a better knowledge on match on action and i would have clearer ideas on where to use it effectively.



Here below is my Preliminary task, The Encounter.

Evaluation Part 7

Evaluation Part 6

Evaluation Part 5

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Through our media product, we were able to represent particular social groups.
Camera, Angle, Shot Movement and Position
For example, at the start we used a 360 pan to show the whole conversation and show the reaction from each character about the topic of speech. We are shown the three characters having a conversation about a drug deal and are shown that one of the character is subverting from the typical stereotype of a drug dealer and wanting to get out of that life. This representation of him to to show the audience that there are two choices that can be made and the consequences of both. Also shown, is the reaction of the two other characters who are also drug dealers and we see how they react to this individual and his choices. Also this then is the comparison as conforming to the typical drug dealer who only worries about himself and this representation shows how young adults are and what money can be like but also what the consequences to it are.
Also another example is the use of a high angle shot of the drug boss talking to the drug dealer. This was used to show the superiority of a drug boss and to show his authority over the others. This representation of the drug boss is shown the create an atmosphere of suspense for what will happen to Chas, The main character. He is there to show to the audience what a drug boss is like in reality and how serious he can take things.
Editing
An example for editing was near to the end of our production and we had the final shooting scene, the editing pace picked up towards the end where we cut down the clips to make them short but to keep the flow fast and consistent. This is to show the struggle of a drug dealer and for people to relate to it and then be able to talk about it with friends and family. Also we kept all the transitions to fades as this kept it more serious than using all the other animated effects which would take away the true realism of a BSR.
Also another example is that we had used the precision editor to do alot of match on action on the shots as this also speeds up the scenes to make it faster flowing and this keeps the realism there to show the grittiness and also the show the life for the drug dealer that wants to get out of that life style and is subverting from the typical stereotype of a drug dealer who wants to stay in the lifestyle.
Sound
The music that we used was copyright free and we also found that it went well with our production. As you can see at the start we had used the music in the background but kept it quiet so that it wasn't the main focus of the production and then we also used different music towards the end. We had to try make  sure that the music was all upbeat and grimy as that would represent the youths nowadays as that is usually how they socialise over. Also a good song for a production will make it easier to memorise and then it is associated with the production being a success. This can therefore represent a particular social group of youths in East London as they all generally enjoy listening to grime music so this would represent them as the youth nowadays.
Also another example of sound is the dialogue used in the conversations. In the 360 pan, we are heard talking about a "ting" and in a way, the dialogue used downgrades women and this is not how the society should be portrayed as women, but in the production we have represented them from the eyes of how young urban males think about women and what they are to them.
Mise-en-scene
An example of this is that, as we see Kieran the main drug boss hands out cocaine to the other drug dealers and the use of this prop is to show the typical stereotype of youth nowadays and what they get up to and it also represents the youth as the trouble who do all the drugs which creates a negative look on all youth when that is not true.
Also another example is clothing where we see a contrast in how Kieran the drug boss is clothed compared to the other drug dealers. As we see in some close ups, The main drug boss is shown with expensive clothing and items that make him stand out from the rest and compares the lifestyle he lives with the money he earns in comparison to the drug dealers and represents the youths as people of their own who can choose their own path in life and don't have to conform to a stereotype.
Expressionism
An example of the expressionism in this is that we have used natural light instead of adding any other types of artificial light and this was throughout the whole production and this was to truly portray the social realism to the target audience. This represents the social groups of youth in East London nowadays and how they think but this is to show the negative consequences of their actions so in a way, the characters are conforming to the stereotype and then one that subverts and shows the reality and difficulty of trying to escape.
Typography
An example of the typography is our job roles is plain, white and bold. This is to keep the seriousness about the genre and to not make it too animated. Also the use of having white text suits the theme of the film, which is cocaine so we use it for the target audience to understand what the theme is and this would be more easily spotted by the youth as they are familiar with cocaine as they have grown into a society which is built around drugs and crimes everywhere.
Also as you see the title "CLASS A" is plain white and the font for it is broken down gives it that effect of cocaine powder and the use of it being plain colours, represents the seriousness and how some people use it and it ruins lives. This is denoted in the title with crack lines and represents the youth in East London that use or have taken drugs to show them the aftermath of using.
Iconography
A distinct example of iconography is the use of the close up objects in between each of the conversations. We see an expensive watch, an LV belt and a cigarette burn to show the authority and status of this guy in comparison to everyone else. It is also easier to identify this as being the authoritative figure and shows his power over everyone else. Also these items show the target audience what drug money can get you when you are high up which would intrigue the audience and this represents what alot of youth in gangs want to become and these items are to anchor.

Evaluation Part 4

In this part of our evaluation we were to annotate our production and show in what ways our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products and we did this by considering the narrative, genre sound, camera angles and other aspects which we discussed in our annotations.

Evaluation Part 3

Evaluation Part 2

Evaluation Part 1

Brief
Our brief that we were set states that we were to produce a British social realist film for a target audience of 16-24 year old and I feel we met this as the actors that were in the production were all young adults between 16 and 17 years of age. Also our brief stated that we were to "to produce the first two minutes of the film, providing a clear sense of the graphical, editing and musical style your film will use. To protect Film 4’s reputation as a leader in British cinema the film" and make it "aimed at British 16-24 year old". We kept to our brief, as you can see at 00:25, we have a 360 track which shows our characters conversing about drugs and money and we believe that this followed the brief as being aimed for 16-24 year old as the actors are all aged around 16-17 and the topic of conversation is relatable to a lot of young adults as they seem to have similar interests, for example money. Also at 1:01, we see a close up of an iconic item, being the LV belt which signifies wealth and power. the reason for how this meets the brief is that people in the target audience in this modern day and age like wearing expensive designer brands to show off and to see this on a drug boss shows how much money the lifestyle brings to you but it also shows the other side, where reality kicks in and shows the gritty hard life behind the drug dealers and consequences of wanting to give up that life.
Our production was given the name "CLASS A" which has multiple meanings. One is that the title connotes top quality drugs, of the highest standard so it is clear to the audience that is is based around the theme of drug experimentation and will show the positive and negative consequences of dealing with drugs. Also another meaning is that it denotes drugs, as the title clearly shows class a being the highest and most illegal drugs. Another connotation is that it represents top class drug dealers and it shows their lifestyle in comparison to the smaller drug time dealers and how much harder their lifestyle is. this relates to our narrative as in our opening minute, we show a drug deal that is going on between the drug dealers and the drug boss and through looking at the clothing and appearance, we see a clear contrast as the drug boss who lives the better lifestyle is wearing an LV belt and a Hugo boss watch which connotes wealth and power.
In our opening two minutes, we show a drug deal going on between the drug boss and the the drug dealers but one of the three drug dealers didn't sell any drugs and wants to get out of that lifestyle so when the psychotic drug boss comes, the two characters give the money and receive more drugs to sell but when it comes to Chas's turn, he has no drugs so he panics and runs away and then we hear a gunshot and the screen goes black and then we follow it up with a coda of the main character going to meet a friend which causes confusion and creates enigma for the audience with a red herring. Also just through our opening sequence, it sets up the rest of the movies with opening conventions such as a smash mouth opening where it goes straight into the action and doesn't bore the audience. Also this was used to create the enigma for the rest of the movie and what is to follow and i feel as thought his was a success as we got feedback from an individual saying they wanted to watch the rest of the film which shows that it created that enigma and was a success. We have shown our themes of violence, corruption of youth and drugs throughout our production. We showed our theme of violence at 1:50 where we show a scene of our drug dealer pointing a gun and firing it which represents youth of the modern day as thuggish and creates a bad spotlight on this social group. We show our theme of corruption of youth at 00:08 where we show our characters having a conversation about drugs and talking about money being made and this is an incorrect representation of youth as not every young adult sells or uses drugs but this representation misguides the audiences opinions. Our smash mouth opening can be compared to Adulthood where it opens with a flashback from the previous movie, but then at 00:43, we are shown a typical example of a smash mouth opening and it seems to be a success as it creates enigma and entices the audience. Also another example which contrast to our production is in Adulthood, at 00:50 and throughout the opening clip, there is music running throughout the scene and this is used to keep the tension and to focus on the realism of the situation and we did the same in our production and I feel as though it also worked well in our piece of work and we were able to keep the realism and tension there.

Production Log: Week 18

Overall after finishing the product, I feel as though it went quite well and the end product was better than i had expected. We started off with a clear plan until re filming came and then, in all honesty I didn't want to film but then I thought of the groups grade, pulled my self together and re filmed and edited it and we were quite happy how it turned out.
I think I contributed towards my work. I may not have done as much as others, but I put my full effort in, contributing with ideas, and helping put it all together.
As a group, I think we functioned well, but due to my work I was not always able to film and sometimes, others wouldn't be able to wake up early enough or I would never get a text or a call to film so was not sure on what my group wanted for me to do but in the end, we were able to finish it as a group.
I think our key strengths in the process was our knowledge in different fields, We had Niraj with the camera shots, Kieren with editing and me with sounds and other ideas we can contribute to come together as a group and work well.
If I was able to improve in any certain areas, I would probably take more time in filming shots and maybe shooting them in other angles so we would've had more time to edit and we would've been able to mange our time more efficiently.

Production Log: Week 17

With our sound editing there were no real problems as we knew how we wanted the sound to play when and where but our only minor problem was that on the programme we were using, imovie, we were unable to change the volume of the track in between shots so we had to keep the volume low throughout until the last headphone scene where a member of our group, Kieren was able to make the sounds overlap to make it sound like he was really putting headphones in which added realism it apart from that small error, there were no other issues with the sounds.

Production Log: Week 16

During our editing time, we were out refiling as we had thought of many ways in which we could better our final media product so we were left on deadline day to edit everything which we were able to do as we took our time and thought about how we should put everything together and this worked well. All improvements were to do with our shot types and having one less actor so we resolved this when filming by finding another classmate who was happy to help and to use a range of shots and see which ones worked and we used this and it helped us finish.

Production Log: Week 15

This week we have mainly been focusing on editing our production and finalising the main editing to see if it flows and we have come across a problem where we have realised that a couple of our shots don't flow well so we seem to find it harder to edit our work so we thought we would go back and re film the necessary shots-but then we realised small changes, like the sunlight, clothing and hair and beard styles would make a huge difference and we realised that we wouldn't be able to just re film them shots and were stuck between choosing weather we would keep what we had and make it do or just re film the whole thing one day after school and came to the conclusion that we would just re film the whole thing as it would be easier in the long run for the production to flow and be a success and therefore we decided a date for when we could film and are now ready for that.

Production Log: Week 13/14

During the Christmas holidays, we were to film our production and in my group, we started filming in the first week of the holiday as we needed for our time management skills to work and we had to adapt around everyone's schedule as some individuals were busy some days and others were not so we had to find days which were convenient to all of us and as we found it, we would film on these specific dates. Some problems that occurred is that after filming the shots, we felt it didn't flow, so what we did is we filmed extra shots of the same ones, but in different shot types and angles and it seemed to flow better afterwards so this made a difference. Another problem that we seemed to face as a group was that if we needed to re film a couple of shots on another day, we needed for the daylight to be the same as in the production it was all ambient light so we needed to make sure it was the same or it wouldn't flow well. We saw this problem and came up with a resolution that as we needed to re film quite a couple of shots, we should just re film the whole thing as there were other minor little problems, like clothing, hair length and beard shaping that were small but would make a difference to the production as a whole so we should just re film the whole thing in one day and make sure all the shots are good on the day and that was our resolution to our other problem. Also another problem was that the tracking shot towards the end were really unclear and unsteady as it was raining a lot and there were a lot bumps on the pavement so when we chose to film again, we could try filming on the road as it is a lot smother and will work better.

Production Log: Week 12

The decisions we had to make about our graphics this week was if our typography was relevant to the BSR genre and if it was relevant to our production. Our film was based on drugs and we needed to find a text type to use for our typography and came to the conclusion that using a simple bold text would be most effective as it is bold so represents seriousness of our production and shows a little about our production and hat it may be based on. We got this information from watching our BSR films that were based around Drugs and violence and saw that the typography in these films had one thing in common and that was the simplicity of the text. For example, In trainspotting, the text used in the opening sequence in the film is bold, white and stands out as plain and simple, but the film was based on drugs mainly so this helped us narrow down our choices for typography in our production.
Also another decision we had to make was weather we would have super imposed graphics or not and we researched this by watching other BR films that were base doing drugs and seeing how the titles would appear and they were all mainly superimposed graphics. An example of this was in Adulthood, where in the opening sequence, the typography was a superimposed graphics behind the cars in traffic and this looked really effective so we chose to put it into our production.