Our final piece

Evaluation task 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learn't in the progression from it to your final product

Evaluation Task 6 - What have you learn't about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Task 5 - How did you attract / address you audience?

Evaluation Task 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

This infographic I made shows you the stereotypical audience member for our piece. This is shown with four main elements, music, video games, clothes and desires. 

All the elements within the infographic point towards the mainstream as our target audience. The majority of people I interviewed for my primary data of who the target audience would be for my media product where very interested and would want to watch more. 

What this means is that our media product would be a mainstream product, as it would be mostly an entertainment piece, rather then a thought provoking piece. So a stereotype of our target audience would play video games as they would seek that escape you get from films, therefore they would listen to music as well due to them being involved in all sorts of media. However the majority of the music they would listen too would be radio music, as they would listen to easy listening music.The clothing and desire illustrates how our target audience are clear consumers and consume and want more, with the seek of instant gratification and happiness.

Overall, from my investigation I can conclude that my target audience is going to be the mainstream, and therefore we would have to market it too those mainstreams, which would be a very expensive process, well lets be thankful this isn't a real product.

Evaluation Task 3 - What type of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Due to the nature of our film idea changing so drastically along the way, something that I had began thought would have been distributed by an independent production company like Warp Films, who aim to produce/distribute 'distinctive, amusing and thought-provoking content’, now I believe it has gone in the complete opposite direction. Due to the action nature theme of our media product, it would need a larger budget then anticipated. As well this would open it up to the mass markets, rather than a ‘thought-provoking’ piece about a boy who is wrongly proscribed an antidepressant, turned mass killer. However, Snatch a large influence to our thriller opening title sequence was created on the budget of $10 million. Which means that just because our product has a lot of action involved in it doesn’t necessarily mean it needs a ludicrous budget of hundreds of millions of pounds.

So why is distribution important and why is it necessary to find the right distributor for our media product? Film distribution is the process of making a movie available for viewing by an audience. This is such an important process of any production as this were the products marketing strategy is determined and the methods in which it would be exhibited. This is important for any film production company trying to get there film out to an audience. So why can’t just anyone do this? It is important that no any distributor distributes your product. Each distributer usually works with a certain type/genre of film as they can perfect there style marketing and exhibition. Therefore if you had an action/thriller product as my group does and then we had a distributer that only works in children’s animations, then our product would not be target to the right audience and subsequently most likely not to be successful.

Heat is a 1995 American crime film written, produced and directed by Michael Mann, and starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, two of the most anticipated actors to be seen in a film together since the Godfather. The film was released in the US, in 1995. This film is about a group of professional bank robbers who start to feel the heat from police when they unknowingly leave a clue at their latest heist. Making a box office of $187.4 million.

Distributed by Warner Bros.


The Town is a 2010 American crime drama film, directed, co-written by and starring Ben Affleck, adapted from Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves. The film is about a longtime thief who tries to balance his feelings for a bank manager connected to one of his earlier heists, as well as the FBI agent looking to bring him and his crew down. Making a box office of $154 million.

Distributed by Warner Bros.


From these two examples, which are both very similar to the type of media product my group and I have produced, you can see that Warner Bro’s was obviously very successful at distributing these products due to both making well over $100 million in the box office. However would Warner Bro’s fit for our product? Of course. With decades of experience Warner Bros. is one of the biggest names in the film production industry. With a catalog of hundreds of thousands of films, Warner Bros. is no new kid to the block. With Warner Bro’s behind us we would not only have a mass market, but as well a lot of experience. An institute like Warner Bro’s would be likely to distribute our product due to it being similar to there previous products and it being a familiar, formulaic piece of entertainment.

Evaluation Task 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The media product created by my group and myself represents the ever growing social diversity within our society. We mixed up the stereotypical hollywood formula, not only to illustrate the way forward for our society but to empower our female character. However all are characters are surrounded by one body crime and we use different techniques from mise-en-scene to camera, editing and sound emphasise this.

Zell, our main female character, is the media pieces pivotal character, subverting social roles. Zell is on the job with three other guys, however not a regular job for a girl, she is not only supporting but leading what appears to be some sort of robbery. While the mise-en-scene of the character we had her have, side plats, a navy boiler suit, white trainers and a gorilla mask. Plats gives the character somewhat of an innocence, however they are swell very practical to getting hair out the way of the face, but not the most practical way such as a bun, which would keep all the hair our of her face. What plats do is give space for her hair to swing comforting the character to the female stereotype of long hair as well making the character appear somewhat innocent like a young girl. While this look makes our character appear as if following a girly stereotype, we subvert the stereotype with her attire and the use of naturalistic makeup. A female character would usually have very saturated and vibrant lips, which would give the character sex appeal, however we didn't want this. We wanted her to appear as boyish as possible, to emphasis her strength and power as a women, we wanted to show her pure side, with ought having to mask her with attraction. This subverts the stereotype, but as well may confuse audiences and make her fall into a different stereotype of a crazy women, which we were going for but not at the same time, because we wanted her to appear elegant with her plats but brutal with ought the make up. We had her attire match the rest of the robbery crew, with the boiler suit, trainers and gorilla mask, this illustrated them as a group or a unit. This was important as we wanted to conform to the stereotype of being bank robbers, and we used guerrilla masks for this to instigate the idea of them being animalistic. Zell was the youngest of the group, this was an important feature, as while the youngest she appears to be the boss. Her youth gives her the fiery characteristics, conforming to the teenage stereotype, however she subverts her youth stereotype as she appears to be running the show. Throughout the piece she is the only character apart from Dave, that is shown with ought a gun. This supports the female stereotype of her not getting her hands dirty, however the she reaches for the gun in the last scene it subverts this stereotype and empowers her the most as she is shown to be the only one who will get her hands dirty and get the job done. Although at the end of the piece she is stopped from shooting James, the mafia character, showing that with her youth she still has a lot to learn, this moment highlights her naivety, conforming to the youth stereotype, as conforming to the female stereotype as she is being suppressed as a women, which is not so relevant in our society today but is still unfortunately a stereotype today.

Now Adam, our second most important character within the van scene. He illustrates a lot of characteristics of being a man, with his dominant persona and his assertive tone, he follow the stereotype of man mainly through out the piece. However, the conflict between Zell and him could be seen as subverting to the male stereotype, due to his authority being question, however on the other hand this could be strengthen the male stereotype as he is standing his ground and using his dominance to argue other wise. His attire is the same as the rest in the van, conforming to the bank robber stereotype, and making them all appear as one, as all have the same characteristic of greed, which is an animalistic behaviour, which is why they are all given guns except Zell. Guns show power, and from the outset Adam has a big gun, emphasising his power, conforming to the mail stereotype of power. However through out the sequence he does not once use the gun, showing that he has control again strengthening the stereotype. His head is shaven and his beard is bristle to give him a skinhead look, to justify his grimy behaviour and make him appear more aggressive, which the stereotype of a skinhead would suggest he has a lack on money, strengthening the behaviour of robbing something from someone, conforming to the stereotype. He is one of the oldest within the van, which subverts him from the stereotype of authority as he is dominated by Zell, however his power is exacerbated with the low angle projected up at him making him seem powerful and dominant conforming to his masculine stereotype. 

Mike is one of the quieter characters. He has not much camera time throughout the sequence, however when he does he is seen as a warm hearted person. His attire is the same as the rest of the characters in the van illustrating that he as well is one of the team, conforming to the stereotype of the bank robber. However, his pure empathy and his urge to help Dave subverts him from the psychopathic stereotype, making him more humane and relatable. Due to the audience identifying with this, it gives him a sense of power conforming him to the stereotype of a human. His gentle behaviour is ironically metaphorical as it is juxtaposed by his gorilla mask, which is seen as an aggressive animalistic behaviour, but when he takes it off he is another person. Even though he gets little camera time through out the sequence he is there to keep things slightly lighter, due to the conflict between Adam and Zell being very intense. He appears to be in his early thirties making him closer to Adam’s age then Zell’s, giving him the same wisdom and maturity as dave, conforming to the stereotype. While he appears young he knows what he is doing in the stressful situation subverting him from the youth stereotype. When it comes to the final scene, Mike finally conforms to his masculine stereotype and uses his force to stop something bad from happening, displaying his dominance and assertiveness, suggesting he is not just a shy puppy.

Dave has little to say but shows a lot about his character throughout the scene. He is part of the robbery crew as well with his costume design reflecting the others conforming him to that stereotype of being a unit. His ability to direct Mike while in great pain highlights his male stereotypical behaviour. However, he is squirming about and is in a lot of pain which can be seen as weak therefore subverting from the masculine stereotype. His age shows him to be in his early fifties, which could be one of the reasons he got shot, due to him not being so quick on his feet no more, conforming to the stereotype of him being old. As well due to his ability to know what to do comes from experience which as well conforms to the stereotypical role of him being a elderly character.

James the final piece to the puzzle. Well not really, but his dominate and assertive behaviour illustrates his male stereotype which he conforms too. He is not wearing the same customs as the characters in the van showing he has more authority, which conforms to the stereotype of him being elderly as well him being a man of business. The camera shots of his hard gaze at the characters within the van shows his dominance and and subtle confidence, as he does not flinch, conforming to this masculine stereotype. His old age shows his experience as a character, which is supported by Adam and Mike stopping Zell from shooting him as they now that will just cause bigger issues. 

Overall, our media product shows many different types of stereotypes in our society, but as well subverts from many of the female generalisations and makes an example of how a women can be powerful rather then someone that needs to be saved or seen as a sex symbol. While the male characters mostly conform to there stereotype, representing the male social group, and the different characteristics within that social group.

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

Evaluation task 1 from Ashen Page

Getting Voice Overs

After our shoot, we didn't get the initial entrance for our thriller that we expected.
I had planned that we would film the characters running in... or something like that.
But due to our tight schedules and persuasion from group members we decided not to do it.

So, we had the idea during the editing process, which you probably had read about earlier, to have a black screen for the titles to come up on white text and have voice overs of what is going on.

Here is a video that one of my group members (Alen) made.
Here you can see us capturing the voice over from two of our actors, the other actors we didn't film, as we wanted them to feel more comfortable.

Editing [SESSION_5]

I look like I am having fun on the outside,
but on the inside I am crying 

So our deadline was creeping and is was time to get everything done. Pretty much we had a lot of problems and the only way to solve these problems where to go into it with pure immersion. I had a lot to do. First I began by completing the van sequence, this needed to be super choppy and fast paced pulling the audience in and the only way to accomplish this was making it super frantic.  Once I completed editing the van, I had to move onto the final bit with James. However, no matter what I did is was not fitting. I wanted there to be ups and downs throughout the piece as I was taking the audience on a journey, however the final bit just kind of bored me, as well made it a complete piece.  My solution. How was I gonna turn this into an opening title sequence, rather than a short film. What I had to do was tell the audience less, so I would cut as the doors opened, so the audience know something bad is going to happen but they don't know what. Here is 50 gigabytes of screen recordings sped up into a 5 minute clip. In the clip it shows from start to finish what I did in the editing process of mine and my groups thriller.


Now I was cutting it close. The deadline was close, all I had to do was put in the final tweaks. The walkie-talkie voice overs and the colour grade. While the colour grade wasn't essential it was important to get that cinematic look and feel you see in hollywood blockbusters

In the last hour of editing I chose to cut Jame's part out, and then it was all over.
It was finished.

Editing [SESSION_4]

Last night I spent hours trying to work on the final piece of the sequence JAME’S_CUT_1. I wanted to conquer it so the group could move on with the VAN_CUT_1. I had been spending hours on this piece, scrubbing through back and forth… it still looked rubbish. What could I do. I had a shot of Jame’s when the van doors open, a reaction shot from the characters in the van, then him walking to the van, as he is walking to the van one of the characters grab the gun and aim it at him, which she is quickly stopped from shooting, then he gets to the van gives them eye contact, get a reaction shot from them, then he takes the briefcase and walks away. It looked crap. So after spending a few hours starring my soul intro the piece, it clicked. And this is what editing is… problem solving. After years of not properly editing, it came to me, this is why I loved it so much, because you problem solve.

What I would have now is the shot of Jame’s when the van doors open, a reaction shot from the characters in the van, then him walking to the van and then he reaches for the briefcase, Zell grabs the gun and aims it at him, which she is quickly stopped from shooting, then he stars at them and he then continues by walking off with the briefcase. Taking away that one extra reaction shot changed everything. It suddenly worked. It was all falling into place.

In the session today with the group, I decided rather than just Alen and I edit the project, while Haydon and Dasha peer behind us, they could be writing the script for the beginning black screen and the voiceover for the freeze frames. So I delegated the tasks out. While Alen and I continued on refining the cut. I asked him if he could finish off the van scene for a kind of rough cut, which I would help him complete in our next session together and I would finish Jame’s scene. We have a lot more work to go, even though I had a break through with that scene earlier we are far from done and as the deadline creeps closer and closer, we really need to get our act together.

Editing [SESSION_3]

Our third session we split up our piece. We had two different sequences, one for the VAN_CUT_1 and then another for JAME'S_CUT_1. Matt the dude suggested that we do this so we could complete one cut with ought everything getting overwhelming. As well he suggested we do this so we can finish the final bit with Jame's (our mafia dude), so we know how long to edit the van scene. Do to the splitting of the scenes this means we are going to have to speed up our editing process, so we can get both cuts looking pretty sick.

As we are editing this piece the more apparent it is becoming that my group are not clear on what the end product should look like. Alen and I are editing the piece, which Alen even though with previous experience is finding it difficult to cut it due the colours being so off between shots, that he doesn't find it right piecing them together. As well while cutting the van scene the audio is so hectic it has been difficult to cut it while trying to ignore the music. However now we have kinda found a flow. But we still haven't done much and my group is quite far behind. But don't worry I have my half term to make an art piece out of this.

Over half term, I began cutting it at 10 and finished at 4pm. I knew I was gonna blow my group away with what I had made of it. Saved it. Logged off and went to sleep. The product was finished. Go on the editing suites Monday with my group playback my piece and it looked... terrible. I don't know how this could of happened. It just looked like I stuck my log together, it was terrible. I couldn't do this project. I didn't know how to make something of it. I had failed as an editor.

Editing [SESSION_2]

After running the play-head through the log a couple of hundreds times more, I needed to find a solution for our group. Right so we have action scene here, I am not going to slap some cheap text over the top to show the credits as the action plays out. Oh no. What I suggested to the group is at the beginning of the sequence if we just have black and over this we have the screaming and the shouting from the actors leading up to the bit the character Dave (the nerdy Indian dude) gets shot. Not only establishing what the hell is going on but now throwing the audience straight away into the action, I thought it just didn't feel right. Right but what about our title/credits. So the titles would come on the screen on the black back ground, this will make it easier to place the credits. And our final title would still be at the end when the door style. The kind of text style I would want for this would be from the TV show justified. Rubbish show aside, the titles have this cool jittery movement effect to them, with the font for individual text characters changing.


We began copying and pasting clips that we thought would work into place. We did this in a new sequence called the rough cut. We came across a continuity problem with our actor Zell, who takes off her mask with her left hand and in another clip we were trying to chop together she used her right hand to take of her mask, rendering the clip worthless. Substituting one of the clips for the other. We had to do a lot of this through the editing process rendering a lot of our clips worthless.

Seeing this issue I had to come up with another solution for the problem. Initially we wanted our idea to have that snatch text effect for the credits but I thought why not have narration over that. This would give our sequence length but as well introduce the characters. After discussing this with the group we all thought it was cool but we would only add it if we had the time. I was okay with that. So it was time to get started.

Editing [SESSION_1]

Finally we were in the editing suites. After weeks of pondering on what our footage was gonna look like, it was time. Time to see the most magnificent piece of not only coursework but art. We open the project. The footage is loading. We scroll through the clips. Wait... hang on. Everything looks rubbish.

The camera quality was of the quality of an iPhone 4S, while the cinematography was of the quality of a GoPro being strapped to a pineapple. I had mucked up. It was horrible, everything just looked rubbish.

Right. How am I going to fix this. After we had a quick tutorial on how to use Premiere Pro CC from Matt the dude, it was time to strap it. First of all we scrolled through every clip pulling in all the best parts of each clip into the time line. While pulling these clips into the timeline we put them into sections, if what was going e.g. for the doors opening in the van we would pull all the best clips of that into one section within the timeline, then the next scene into another area of the timeline. Once we dropped in all the clips we liked into the time line, we began pulling the play-head over and over the clips we had. This was our log. I tried to keep my cool within the group, but I was lost. How was going to complete this project. The cinematography was all wrong. Now it was time for the editor to come save the day.

Research into actual order of titles in opening title sequences

So what is a title sequence? The title sequence is the method in which titles are presented at the very beginning of a  film, tv, or any other media format. It introduces the key members to the making of the film, for example the production company, director and actors.

Since we are creating a thriller opening title sequence, I am going to have to learn and deconstruct how it has been done by many pro's before me. I am not going to be talking about the history or who is arguable the greatest at creating title sequences (Saul Bass) but instead be analyzing how its done.

For our media piece I was inspired a lot by Guy Ritches Snatch. It was credit by two sick graphic designers calleds STUART HILTON and IAN CROSS, who ripped off there style from old boxing posters. This is prevalent in the freeze framing they did. 

Right. So when creating a title sequence, you have to make sure that it all comes in at the right order. For example it wouldn't begin with the assistant directors name, it would begin with the production company as we can see from the example of snatch.

While I would of loved to go on all creative on this project, and have the boxing stylized effect on the freeze frame our piece was gonna be a more modern piece instead of a recreation of snatch from the 90's.
Here is the order in which the titles pursue...

The biggest financial contributor to the film is

 shown first, this is usually the production

 company behind the film.

Both production companies are shown in big

bold lettering, so everyone knows who they are.

The rest of the titles go in order of importance.

The producer is shown once and the beginning

and once at the end so no one forgets.

This is the same for the director, who is shown 

last to make the greatest impact.

Then finally the most important part... the title

of the film.

the shoot day

Watch the video above of me talking about the actual shoot day.


Here is screenshot of the shot list we went by through out the day.

It kept our group much more organised then I thought it would and it made the group more motivated for the next part to shoot.

This is the character mindset I read out to each actor to get them into the zone.

Here are just other photos from the day....

photos taken by Dasha.

And here is a final highlight video of the day I made.

Emails confirming our cast list

Here are some screenshots of confirmation emails from our actors. The rest we confirmed in person. But not all of them could make the times we wanted so we had to make a schedule for there availability.

Cast availability table

TIME	Gustavo	Zell	Kenneth	Dave	Mike	Adam	James
09:30-10:30
10:30-11:30
11:30-12:30
12:30-13:30
13:30-14:30
14:30-15:30
15:30-16:30

Green: Available

Red: Unavailable

Casting Session

Today we had a casting session with a possible cast member. We where still deciding for our ethnically asian character to be either Indian appearing or Chinease looking.
So we did some casting with an actor called Kenith, to see if he had what it took.
After our casting session was done we had definitely decided he wasn't right for us.

Cast List

Taken from Dash's blog

	Name: Zell Oxenham Age: 17/18 Character: Main robber Contact Number: 07936697832
	Name: Adam Grant Age: 39 Character: Robber 2 Contact Number: 07832455121
	Name: Mike Age: 30 Character: Robber 3 Contact Number: 07770823936

Name: Dave Fonseka Age: 50 Character: Wounded robber Contact Number: 07880439123

Name: James Hartman Age: 43 Character: Assasin Contact Number: 07950482712

RESEARCH TASK - Character guidelines

Post from Dasha's blog

Female Character Guideline:
Young woman that has a strong personality,dark hair, inherits a leader personality.

Robber 1:
Around a 35-43 year old man with a Liverpool accent, very short hair (possibly bald) and has a harsh personality and cares for his fellow correspondents

Robber 2:
A guy that is in his mid thirties, looks a bit different to all the other robbers. We are looking for him to have a quiet personality that helps out purely because he needs the cash from the mission.

Robber 3:
The last robber is an actual doctor in real life that has specialist skills and helps out with the technology and downloading part of the mission. He is in his mid forties and is non-white.

Mafia Man:
This man is very important and is ruthless. You mess with him, you have the whole mafia after you. White male around 30-40 to show experience and strength. Needs to have style.

Agreed costumes

Costume Research

For the robbers we decided on boiler costumes as in most movies they portray 'thriller' like feelings and often in many thrillers the robbers wear these. We decided to have the costume in dark tones as most people would associate robbers with dark colours. These suits are very common and therefore it would be difficult to identify the person underneath it. It is very important that all of the robbers look pretty much identical, but we thought that each one should have something small that differs from the rest. The boiler suit is very plain and it fits with an amateur robbery. Some of our might have difficulties getting into the costume, therefore, we thought that if it didn't fit in the from part then they could just wear a jumper and tie top of of the boiler suit to their waste. Also, plain white shirts underneath the boiler suite in order to make it all look very sleek.

In order to disguise the robbers I found a couple of different types of masks that could potentially cover their identity and make the sequence stand out a bit more. There are three options. Option one is of different types of animals, option two is plain theatrical masks and the third option is a storm trooper mask from Star Wars. Below are some of examples of these. It is important that we stick to the same mask for everyone, meaning that if we had 5 pig masks, each of the robbers would wear the same one.
They are going to wear plain black trainers.