Harrison Smith Coursework Questions

· In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of our media product is British gangster so it uses conventions from the genre. First the setting used in our scene is a pool room and an alleyway, These are both familiar settings scene in British gangster movies. Our story also follows the conventions of British gangster because it is follows a small time Hitman (Jason) who works for a criminal that is very respected and feared (Mickey). Mickey gives Jason a job which involves killing another well respected criminal (Vinny T), so Jason has to kill anyone who stands in his way to work his way to the top. This story displays conventions such as money, weapons and drugs that our familiar with the British gangster genre. Our dialogue also uses the conventions of British gangster as they talk to each other in a harsh manner using cockney accents. Our mise-en-scene uses conventions of British gangster as the two crime lords are dressed in smart suits. It also challenges the conventions because the low life Hitman is dressed quite smartly whereas they usually look scruffy. We did this because we wanted to show that Jason was serious about his work. Our cinematography used a wide range of shots seen in gangster films such as close ups, long shots, establishing shots, tracking shots and over the shoulder shots. Also our sound uses conventions of British gangster because we used the song black and white town by the doves which are a British band which sing in alternative rock. Our opening sequence uses conventions of British gangster because it is set in a big mansion, in the pool room. Our characters in the opening scene are also dressed in suits which is a convention used in many gangster films.

· How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents the backstreets of London and the gangsters that control them. Our product is stereotypical because the gangsters are ruthless killers that desire power, respect and money. The gangsters in our movie are men which represent them as being more powerful than women and also more cold blooded. Our product represents young people badly because the gangsters are young actors. Lastly it represents wealthy class as being rich and powerful because they are the boss's, and the poorer class are pushed around such as Jason is.

· What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A British institution such as Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group would distribute our product because it is a British film about the backstreets of London so it would appeal to the United Kingdom, and they have also distributed films such as Snatch which is British gangster.

· Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience would be young adults living in the UK as it is a British film not suitable for children because it contains violence. I think it would be popular with young male adults because the actors are mainly male and the genre is preferred by males.

· How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted the audience by setting the scene in the opening shot. The scene we showed was the opening scene which introduced the main characters and story. In the scene we see the plan of the assassination so it promises the audience that it will happen later on. The scene hints on violence and crime lords which is what the audience want to see in a British gangster film. We also attracted the audience by rolling the credits in the opening scene this showed them who the main characters were and what their names are. Lastly we used alternative rock music in our scene which promises action, this drags the audience in so that they want to see more.

· What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We first learnt how to use the camera to record the images we wanted. We then learnt how to record the scene and store it onto the tape and then load it onto imovie on the mac. We also learnt how to cut what we have recorded so we can edit any mistakes. This was really useful because it allowed us to cut as much as we wanted to get the scene to run as smoothly as we could. We learnt how to edit the shots so we could watch it all at the same time, this helped see what worked and what didn't. By watching our scene on imovie we learnt how useful the tripod is because it’s very hard to keep the camera steady without it. We also learnt how to import music into our scene so that we can play it at the same time we watch it. We also learnt that you can fade the music in and fade it out as well as adjusting the volume, we used this to our advantage so that we could hear the voices over the music. Lastly we learnt how to cut the soundtrack so that we could repeat a part of it as many times as we wanted, this helped because we cut the beginning of the song and played it over in the beginning of our scene, to add a build up effect.

· Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The preliminary task helped a lot with the final task because it was a guide to help us produce our product. It showed us how important the planning was, because we could use the storyboard and script while we was filming so that we didn’t forget anything and we already knew what to do. It also helped us pick a location because the different shots required a certain atmosphere. We have also learnt how to use the camera a tripod to its full potential to produce well structured shots. From doing the preliminary task we also learnt a lot more about editing. We learnt how to cut our clips down and then fit them in together which helped us a lot in our final product. It was important that our clips fitted together and that there were no mistakes so that the final product flowed very well. We also learnt how to use credits in our product, this was useful because we used them to introduce our characters and who was playing the part of that character. Although we didn’t use music in the preliminary task we used them in our final product. The soundtrack was very important as it drags the audience in. We choose a song that really works well with the setting, it was a hard job editing the soundtrack to fit in with the shots but we did it in the end and it all works very well together creating a well produced media product.