Evaluation task 2

Evaluation task 2: how does your product represent particular social groups?

My thriller called 'The Bearing' has many social groups. There is seven main characters that are relevant in the opening title sequence and then there are two who are less relevant in the piece.

1. Maxim Baldry. Maxim is the character in the hoodie who looks shifty at the beginning of the piece and this stereotypically gives the audience the idea that he is not in a high social class and this also stereotypically gives of the idea that he is up to no good. You can also tell that he is being shifty by the way he is looking around and not in a certain place because he is worried that someone might see him, doing something that he shouldn't be doing.

2. Adam Grant. Adam is the character who drives the nice car, and wears the hat. He puts the hat on and covers his face with his hand to try and hide his identity. This shows that he is also doing something wrong as well as the fact that he is looking around vigorously to make sure that there is no one unexpected lurking around. By Adams costume you can automatically assume that he is in a higher social class with his 'country' hat especially.  This makes the audience start to ask themselves questions like why does he look so nervous? why is he covering his face up? etc.

3. Theo Baht. Theo is revealed when Adam leaves the cafe and you see that he is wearing a black beanie (hat) and dark clothes. This gives a negative representation of him because you can tell that he is up to no good with his dark clothes on. I think that Theo looks like he is higher class and he doesn't want to be seen in this operation so he wears dark clothes to try and disguise himself.

4. Kitty Birks. Kitty is only shown in the sequence for a second or two. She is a beautiful lady holding a baby who the audience would think is hers which shows a lovely motherly character. She is not dressed in dark clothes and does not look shifty. She looks happy with her baby. Because of all of this the audience would assume that she may play an important role in the film in some way. It is tricky to tell if she is involved in the plot or if she is in a higher class that the others, but the fact that she is shown in a restaurant with her child shows that she may well be in a higher class than the others.

5. Paul chesterfield. Paul is one of the men who passes around the package. Paul is wearing a hoodie too which again, automatically tells the audience that he is up to no good. He shakes hands with the chef while they do a sly pass over to show that they are doing this together and that they know each other which then tells the audience that this is definitely organised and that there is some kind of plan to this passing of the package. It is difficult to put Paul into a class category because you don't see much of him but because he seems to know the chef and had communication with him it questions to whether he is the one who has been organising this shift passing around. So therefore I would say he is middle to high class.

6. Habeib Fasai. Habeib is a chef from an African ethnicity working in a restaurant in the UK. This helps to put him in a stereotype and it tells the audience that he could easily be part of this plan as he looks powerful, large and in control. This may automatically make the audience scared of him. This scary and powerful stereotype puts the audience in their place and makes them understand that in the film he would not be the man to cross.

7. Hendrik Speelmans. Hendrik is the waiter in the sequence who takes the food out the restaurant. He is not part of the plot he just works there. He is a tall, and smart middle - upper class boy working so i doubt that he knows by serving the food to the man that he has got himself tied up in this scandal to try to poison someone. Hendrik is given a positive representation in the opening sequence because he comes across as just an innocent person doing his job.



 Alot of the characters dont show their face, you just see their back, or if you do see their face ti is only for a couple of seconds because they dont want to be recognised because they are doing something that they shouldnt be doing.

Task 1

Task 1: in what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge form and conventions of real media products? 

"In what ways does our film follow the rules of real thrillers...or not!"
Our media product is very similar so some of the films that we have researched leading up to the events of filming the opening sequence. 

The Bearing:
In the first image above (top left) you see a man in a hoodie who has just put a package in someones letter box. This man is wearing a hoodie to try and cover and disguise himself, also the only part of his face that is being shown are his eyes because they are looking around to show that he is doing something wrong.

In the second image you see a mysterious looking man sitting at a cafe where you see that he has just collected the package from the letter box. Then you see him leave it on the cafe table and he drives off. The man is wearing a hat and his hand is covering his face to try and hide his identity. In the third image there is a kitchen where someone is slicing some meat to represent the gore,danger and thrill of the film. There is also another pass over on the wheel of a car. In the fourth image you see someone pick up the package from the wheel of the car and someone walking into a restaurant kitchen. This shows two different locations to show that we had a variert of places where we shot to make it more professional. In the fifth and sixth image you are in the kitchen and you see the pass over of the package from a man to the chef which then tells you that this has all been planned out and people are being paid to pass this package around, which makes you think that it is definitely illegal. The final scene is the chef putting some pills from out of the package into someones food, there is a close up of the chefs face so you can catch his identity. Then in the eith and nineth image you see the pill being crushed and put into the soup and stirred around and served. There is a close up on the soup to show you the pills inside it and to create the feeling that the pills are not going to be something good.
This is the end of the opening title sequence and it reveals what was being passed arond all of the time.  

This is all a very stereotypical thriller opening where you dont see what is going to happen but it builds the pace and atmosphere of the film to get the audience excited and stuck to the film.

Our opening title sequence is a very quick and fast pace sequence with all the boxes moving across the page. It makes it mysterious and different. We originally looked at ‘Miami Vice’ which is where we got the idea of the passing something around because in Miami Vice they pass around a USB stick with important information on it. And then we looked at The Tourist because we wanted it to have an action side to it too. It is similar to The Tourist because they both show a selection of locations,you can see some dodgy looking characters in my opening sequence and in The Tourists. There is also a passing in The Tourist. You see someone pass a brief case which links to the passing of the package in ours. Because our thriller is action based and about a package being passed around we needed to find a film that is similar is some sort of way. We looked at a high concept film called ‘The Tourist.’

This film is an action packed film about mafias, bad guys, spy's etc which our film is also vaguely about. So if i had to say what film our opening sequence could be similar too i would say the tourist. ’The Tourist’:  

This is a break up of the film the tourist. It shows its story line and its relevance to our film. It shows spy’s, guns, love, action, ‘bad guys’ etc to show the stereotypical action film. 

You can pick up the story line that two people (Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp) are on a train making a plan about something. It shows you them kissing so it makes you think that they may have fallen in love, but you can tell that someone is watching them by the font of the picture and how it has been edited so show that you are looking through a camera watching them kiss.Therefore you know that these two people are 'wanted.' Then you have a mysterious brief case that is being passed from one hand to another, then the dodgy looking ‘gangsta’ character walking out of his plane. Then you see some spys of MI5 or MI6 people who are obviously searching for the people Johnny Depp is playing or Angelina Jolie. Then you have a scene with a gun, and then the Name and title of the film.

A thriller/action film always has to have a villain. However out thriller challenges the conventions of real media products. In many high concept movies where there is a villain he is well dressed and looks like he would have lots of money-like in the tourist:

But as for us in our thriller/action film we wanted to have a low key villain. For us it was not about what they wore etc because we are making a low concept film and we wanted our character to be mysterious and under cover and it isn't really relevant to the opening of the film because what is important is what is being passed around, not what the villain is wearing.
Our Villain: 














Another rule of a good thriller/action film is having a pretty woman in the film. We decided to follow this rule and we had a pretty, elegant and female touch to the sequence. 
Our pretty woman:

We used the tourist as one of our main focal points of research. It connects with our story board really well with the passing of the brief case and the similar characters, and the action packed film is what we would expect the rest of our film to be like. 

 
Normally in an action film there is something sneaky going on, that shouldn't be happening. In our sequence we had the passing of the package and in the tourist they have the passing of a brief case. By emphasising the thing being passed and just having that in the shot it makes it more of a centre of focus and more interesting. It makes you want to know what is in it and it draws the watcher in. I think it is impotant to emphasise important things to show that they are the focal point. 
Overall I would say that The Bearing and The Tourist are quite similar in their format, their stereotype and how they are created. We took lots of inspiration from it because it creates the same vibe as we wanted ours to create in our thriller/action film.

who would be the audience for your media product?

This would be the Twitter page of someone who loves going to the cinema and films. I made this twitter page based on our target audience. 

Music for opening sequence

At the begining we wanted to have an up-beat tempo type of msic. We wanted an up-beat genre of music to create excitement and tension because of what is being passed around. We found an upbeat type of music that we could use, and we put it with the sequence but it just didn’t feel right and we didn’t like it. We felt that it made our piece look tacky and it didn’t look professional.Because it looked low budget and unprofessional we decided to change the whole genre and go with something that is completley different. After a lot of research we ended up finding a sound track that was similar to indian/hippie style music. We liked the specific instruments in it because they seemed to increase the suspiciousness and mystery about the package. The beat of the song changes at specific moments in time which links with the passovers, empahsising how important that specific moment is. 

The only issue I think that we have with this type of music is that is it not a typical style of music that would be used in an opening title sequence. Because of this, it tends to give a vibe of some kind of TV show style music. 

However overall we agreed to go with it and gives on emphasise certain things in the thriller that we want to be key parts.

How to do the boxing technique

To start of,crop a box onto the specific clip that you want and then you clock on the following:
1.EFFECTS
2.VIDEO FILTERS
3.MATTE
4.MASK SHAPE




Once  you have decided what the general shape of the box is, you can then crop it so  that it is different widths of parallel or horizontal boxes. Also you can move around the box so you can decide where you want it.

Then you select the movement of the box. Such as being cropped from left to right, or swiping across the screen from top to bottom. This is done by pressing a small 'diamond' button. You then play the clip until you want the movement to stop and for it to move on. Then click the 'diamond' button again, then render the clip press in 'apple' 'R', the clip should then move the way you've selected it. There are green lines that show the duration of the clip, and where the movement starts and ends. The speed of the movement can be changed by either inclining(making steeper) or declining (making flatter) the green line. This will adjust the pace of the clip movement.

EDITING

Our editing style has changed, and we are using black boxes to show some style and make it less stereotypical. It makes the piece flow better. The boxes are different sizes, they fly in and out the screens to show continuity and only part of the image is shown in the box, you cant see the whole thing. This shows and makes the piece more mysterious and makes it have a quicker pace. 

 Chessie has naturally stepped forward in our group and is the strongest editor. This means that my group can all focus on different aspects of the final product. 

Editing our opening sequence

In our media lesson today my group and I went up to the editing room to do some more work on our thriller. When we edit we use the programme 'Final Cut Pro’ which I find quite difficult to use but I guess practice makes perfect! The editing so far is looking good and it is coming along quicker than we expected it too.  


Today we altered our storyboard slightly but it makes the thriller look better because there is more tension building in it. Instead of jumping from the spy getting to the restaurant and from the cook preparing and making the soup, we did it so we cut between one of the passovers getting to the restaurant and the food being prepared. I think that it makes the opening sequence more exciting and it adds more tension to the piece which i think we were originally lacking in. We also watched the gopro footage that we took on the day and we added in relevant bits to show the journey of the poison and how it is getting transported which is very interesting and gives the piece more structure. 

We have also experimented with clips blurring out to give it a passing time effect and i think it worked really well and it looks really effective.
So far i am loving editing and it is going really well!