Scripted Evaluation

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Caroline:
Most film noirs are, after filming, edited to create a black and white movie. This is a generic convention and we feel we have incorporated this well into our opening sequence.
The characters within our film noir both reflect and challenge the forms of convention for the chosen genre. We have the traditional hard-boiled detective, damsel in distress and a femme fatale character. The way in which we challenge the convention is that one of the characters, the crime scene detective, is a woman. In the 1950’s there were a minority of woman workers because they didn’t have as many rights as male workers overall, in our film noir we show her as someone low down in the authority chain. We also reflect film noir conventions by having our chief detective as our murderer. This is similar in the well-known film noir, L.A Confidential, whereby the murderer is revealed at the end of the film. This altogether, creates an opening sequence for a film noir that is equal to that of a traditional film noir with no subgenres.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Christopher:
We feel our product doesn’t necessarily represent a particular social group due to it being well suited to any audience ranging from the age of fifteen to fifty+. The only type of social group that is shown in our opening sequence is the male superiority and the inferiority of females. This is stereotypical of both film noir and of the opinion of most audiences, for example, we show our detective in a high angled shot and the crime scene detective, the female, in a low angled shot, showing through camera angles the hierarchy.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Ashleigh:
We feel that the institution most likely to distribute our film would be TCM. Our product, in our opinion, would also possibly be produced by Hollywood due to the American background and some other film noirs such as L.A Confidential are Hollywood made. The reason the film would be produced in the first place is because we feel it could be a big money maker, this is because it challenges the forms of film noir and there isn’t many directors making them so it would be a welcome change to blowing stuff up. The mise en scene of our film noir is appropriate to the times we have set, 1950, and wouldn’t have a big costume budget. We show this through the use of suits for the males and the sub genre female. And dresses for the typical females of the time.

Who is and how did you attract your target audience?
Christopher:
Our target audience, as mentioned earlier, ranges from fifteen to over fifty depending on the tastes of the person. We think we could attract such a wide audience due to the wide range of characters and scenarios. The sequence is set in the 1950’s appealing to the older generation and has the violence and romance to appeal to a younger audience also. We show this through the use of a chase scene.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
Ashleigh:
We learnt how to properly use a video camera and tripod to get the best effects we could from our shots before editing. After, we gained knowledge of how to use the editing programmes we were equipped with. This was accomplished through experimentation, seeing what went and what didn’t within the editing of our opening sequence. We learnt how to use I-Movie with the preliminary task, using transitions, titles and effect, Blogger, in which we learnt how to upload things to use for our exam, Photoshop, we learnt how to use this to edit images and create the news papers for our film, and finally Flash Mic, in which we used this to add in sound affects that we had missed, such as the scream when the woman gets shot and the soundtrack used throughout the sequence.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Josephine:
We feel that in our preliminary task we were just getting comfortable with using a camera and editing, learning the basics and editing it. In our film we feel we have developed not only in working with the technology but in understanding also. To create a successful opening sequence you need to understand the genre and plot of what you are creating because when a producer and directors understand it, it is easier for the audience relate, we did this through research. For our preliminary we didn’t do any research. We thought of a story and filmed it, as X-Factor was at it’s peak, there was nothing but story planning, where as with our opening sequence we did a lot research and there was a lot of planning to do.