Evaluation
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The document provides an evaluation of a student media project that aims to recreate the conventions of film noir. It summarizes the ways the project uses conventions like black and white filming, inclusion of a femme fatale character, smoking and drinking. It also discusses how the project represents social groups through gender stereotypes. The target audience is identified as students and film noir fans. The document reflects on what was learned about equipment, software and the progression from the preliminary task to the full project.
Evaluation
- 1. EvaluationHannah GodfreyLiam GrievesJames Fitzsimons
- 2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products?
- 3. Film Noir ConventionsIn our Film Noir, we use the traditional conventions of Black and White throughout the entire film, something evident in every classic Film Noir.We also used the convention of a Femme Fatale, our main character being the Femme Fatale, this is because of the mystery surrounding her, as all traditional Femme Fatales have a very mysterious background. We used smoking and drinking. All of our characters in our film were meant to smoke/drink in the film. The smoking was something that was considered glamorous in the 50’s, and the drinking was something every character would do, so we could show that no one was perfect. We also used the idea of a dark, unknown city that appeared hostile and evil to the audience, to do this we filmed in alleyways and rundown parts of town, as the cities in Film Noirs were often unnamed or somewhere that had a reputation for being full of crime and very seedy.
- 4. Other ConventionsOur film is mainly Film Noir with a little bit of Thriller incorporated into the film. We incorporated this through tension we constantly created in our film through the use of camera shots and music as well as the paranoia our character displayed in certain moments of the film. We also used conventions from films that weren’t typical of all Film Noirs, for example we used the signature, low angle medium close up shot from Requiem for a Dream, where the camera is attached to the persons chest to create a surreal shot type. Another convention we used that is not typical of Film Noir is surrealism, where every now and then we flashed shots of the train going past the camera.
- 5. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
- 6. Social Groups and GendersThe main social groups in our film are white males and females. We represent these groups throughout our film as strong minded and strong willed individuals. Despite these similarities, there is almost an invisible barrier between these two groups, as they both have different aims in life.The genders are very stereotypical of classic Noirs, as in the males are dominant and the females are submissive in the storyline of our film. You can tell this by the way the female in our film looks fearful and weak in comparison to the dominative, strong males in the film, one scene in particular would be when Liam sits down next to Hannah at a table, Hannah looks fearful and Liam looks calm and collected.
- 7. Connecting with the audience I think this could connect to some of the audience if they find this genre interesting. I think the audience could also connect if they relate to the characters, as in they find similarities in personalities or in what they do.The film could also interest and connect with people who have been in a similar situation.
- 8. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
- 9. What type of film would it be?Our film would be an arthouse movie that would have a limited release and a very limited budget as well as a niche audience, because the film has a relatively slow plot and it doesn’t contain the fast paced action a Hollywood blockbuster would contain. It is more artistic and unconventionally shot than the average mainstream blockbuster.
- 10. Why would it be released and does it do anything for the franchise?It would be released because there is a market for limited budget films and there is a market for artistic and avant-garde films. The film could start a new interest in the Film Noir genre, as there are many new media products such as the video game “L.A. Noire”, which could spark a revival in the genre.
- 11. Who would be the audience for your media product?
- 12. Target AudienceThe film wouldn’t appeal to any genders specifically, but it may be slightly more appealing to a female audience, due to the main character being a strong, individual female. The ages that would be likely to watch this film would most likely be students and any age of Noir fans. Noir fans would find this film appealing as it has so many Noir conventions. Students may find this film appealing because it is an arthouse film and they are often screening at cinemas with a student discount, which will encourage them to go see it. Another factor which may effect our audience is the certificate it will be given, which is most likely to be an 18 rating due to strong language and hard drug use. This will limit people in school and some students out from the audience
- 13. Films our film relates to Films that are similar to ours include:“The Man Who Wasn’t There”, because it is a throw back to classic black and white Film Noir era.“Vivre Sa Vie”, because of the strong female character dealing with her troubles and tribulations by herself, and more superficially, her appearance, especially the haircut, was inspired by Anna Karina in this film.
- 14. How did you attract/address your audience?
- 15. References to other FilmsIn our we made intertextual references in our film to other films that the audience could have seen and could relate to. One film we have referenced “Requiem for a Dream” was made in 2000, so there is a good chance they could have seen that, as our audience is similar to that.
- 16. Effects and impacts on our audienceThe audience is being asked to see the film from the point of view from the main female character and they are also being asked to witness the film from her point of view so they only know what she knows.The impact of this is that the audience only know what she knows so there is much more suspense and mystery in the films plot.The suspense made is similar to classic Noir which was normally in the point of view of a detective, and the audience only knows what he knows.The feedback our audience gave was mainly positive, a lot of people saying they liked the camera shots and they thought they made some very nice effects, but a lot of people said that they were unsure of the plot.
- 17. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
- 18. EquipmentThe camera we used was very versatile, as in we could use it in a number of different ways and different shots, because the camera was very small so it was portable and easy to take with us wherever we went. One flaw with the camera was that it had a rechargeable battery, normally this wouldn’t be a flaw but seeing as we didn’t have a charger we had limited battery life to film with. We had problems with pedestrians walking in front of our camera when we were in the middle of filming, so we had to reshoot some scene and hope no one would walk in front of the camera again. We also had trouble the first time we went to Newcastle to film as we had a faulty camera that had lost all charge on the battery and wouldn’t charge.Our equipment was very portable, so we had no trouble bringing it around Newcastle with us.
- 19. SoftwareWe used colour corrector on Final Cut Pro in order to make our piece black and white. We also used Final Cut to trim bits off of our film that we didn’t need, take off the sound when someone was talking and to just generally tidy it up.Garageband was very helpful when we were making our soundtrack as it provided us with plenty of music to play around with so we could choose music which would show the correct emotion or create suspense. There were very little challenges when we were making our soundtrack, as the program was very easy to use.
- 20. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
- 21. Prelim – Final CutThe storyboard for our prelim wasn’t very detailed, as we were doing an incredibly short film and we didn’t really have much happening, but for our actual film we made an incredibly detailed storyboard, planning almost every scene and shot in advance so that we could do our recording as quickly as possible. Our group didn’t need to do much research into Film Noir, as we all did Film Studies at college and we were studying Film Noir at that point. To make our editing easier, we filmed the film in chronological order, as in we filmed scene one first, scene two second etc. Our use of shot types has improved, as we made more detailed shot in our film then in our prelim, and we also used shots from our prelim, except we made them much better. We do feel more confident with the equipment, jus after we used it in the prelim, we got very familiar with it very quickly which was useful for when we actually filmed our piece.