Main task for AS Media Studies (finished)

 Main task AS Media Studies


Deciding groups for my media main task was easy we stayed in the same groups we were in for the preliminary. We decided to stay in these groups because we found that we worked very well together and wanted to recreate and improve on the success we achieved during the preliminary task. My group for the preliminary task consisted of myself, Peter Mepham and Jake Bosworth. Not long after starting the main task Jake Bosworth  unfortunately decided to leave the 6th form so the group is now just me and peter. 

We decided we wanted to create a video that was based around a murder mystery. We thought that a murder mystery idea was fun interesting and original so we immediately leaped upon the chance to do something like that. Something original is always key when it comes to a piece of media, the whole point of media products is to make money and perpetuate capitalism and the creator of the piece of media. Entertainment of an audience hangs upon the piece of media that they are consuming is fun and interesting, to make something fun and interesting it needs to be relate able or the audience needs to to feel empathy for the main character or the protagonist.  

Because of our murder mystery theme i wanted to deconstruct film openings that belonged to a murder mystery this way i could not only analyse and better understand how a film opening works but also how a murder mystery film works. It is important to research the opening of other films not just so i can understand how they achieve their objective but also to get inspiration and ideas from them.

Film opening deconstruction 

The opening begins buy showing what looks like a cracked white wash canvas, the audience still not knowing what is happening until what looks like blood drips onto the canvas and an image appears in the blood of a priest praying with a cross and prayer beads In his hands. The blood and the religious man put together may symbolise to the audience that peace is about to meet destruction and terra. The next significant picture that appears is that of two lovers kissing as blood trickles down the women’s shoulder, this looks to me like love is being ripped apart by murder or death symbolised by the blood. Murder is a common sight in the opening of the Borgias but something I noticed was that when ever anyone does get murdered they are always wearing expensive Jewellery or clothes. Also the murderer’s faces are always hidden. This gives the impression that all the murders being committed are done stealthily and secretly. This idea ties in with my observation of those being murdered it seems to me that some people want to kill rich powerful people quietly. All the while in the background the ever increasing volume of chanting monks begins to envelope to audience creating high atmosphere of suspense adding to the stealthy nature of the murders being committed on the screen.     

The two most significant moments

Moment 1: The opening

The first shot that the audience see is a shot of blood dripping onto a blank canvas and in that blood appears what seems to be a clergy man standing and prying whilst holding a cross. This sends a clear message that the film is to do with the church and power. I make the assumption that it is do with power because the church in the medieval times had a lot of influence and power of the people of almost every nation in the Christian world. The priest in the first shot has appeared in blood the tells the audience that there is something sinister about what is happening and what will happen will not be pleasant. 

This film opening is a good example of the hypodermic theory, by which an audience member will believe what is said or is happening on the screen. The hypodermic needle theory is used here to convince the audience that it is not a safe place to be in the way of the Borgia’s intentions or goals. The use of creepy music and blood dripping onto a blank canvas to form paint conveys that the Borgia’s are people to be wary of; the hypodermic theory is achieved in the beginning of this film using these conventions.

Moment 2: The Kissing lovers

In this shot it is clear to the audience that two lovers are kissing but what happens really has a profound affect on the audience. A small trickle of blood slides down the women’s shoulder. This to me symbolises the Borgia family slowly worming their way into power. The blood also represents how love will be ripped apart in the wake of the Borgia’s reign.

Because love is so universal it is easily relatable for the audience, the idea of loosing a loved one is terrifying, the director has capitalised on this and has made the audience feel empathy and genuine concern for the bond between the two lovers. 

This again is a continuation of the hypodermic needle theory usage. The blood is the smallest simplest way to make the audience feel an emotion you want them to feel also accompanied by the creepy music it is almost guarantied that the audience will passively take in this command to feel the emotion intended by the director.

When the Story board above is viewed it can be seen that as the opening progresses the level and frequency of chaos and murder begins to increase, symbolizing the Borgia’s slow rise to power. 

Film opening second deconstruction

The opening of this film takes the audience through a series of guessing games. At first the audience is introduced to a man laying in bed being bitten by a mosquito a creature that sucks blood. The audience see’s this mosquito a blood sucking creature and makes the assumption that the insect is the evil or bad one in the shot when in fact it’s the one it is feeding off that is evil. Once the man smacks the insect dead he becomes the evil one as the blood spot appears on his arm.

The title appears on what seems to be a dirty piece of metal in blood by now the audience is starting to suspect that this man may not be as nice as it may seem.  It looks slightly like the blood has fallen on a dirty knife this implies that the murders in this film are untoward and sinister. All through out the opening the face if the man remains hidden until the end, the fact his face stays hidden makes it seem like he is a murderer that’s identity is yet unknown.

In the over the shoulder shot when the face is blurred out supports the idea of the unidentified murderer. The over the shoulder shot gives the audience an insight as to what the murders life is like. The theme of this man making breakfast seems to humanise him and makes it so we as an audience can empathise with him. Although the theme dose make the audience empathise with him he is still doing normal things in a sinister Manor.

As he starts shaving the camera focuses on his neck as the razor glides over it. The extreme close up provides the audience with a sense of worry and trepidation, the continuation of this theme is carried out through the opening.

Three significant moments:

1. Shaving

This part of the opening was the first example of this unrecognisable man acting in a suspicious way. When he starts shaving a trickle of blood drips down his throat and there is an extreme close up on this giving the audience an easy feeling.

2. The orange

As the man begins to slowly cut through the orange the audience continues to feel uncomfortable. The orange being used as a metaphor for a human body part as its insides begin to leak. In this shot we see the continuation of the extreme close up, this shot is used through out the scene it helps create tension in the audience and makes the audience feel uncomfortable.

3. The Floss

In this shot the metaphor for killing is continued as the man raps dental floss round his fingers. This is similar to the act of rapping piano wire around ones hands as they are just about to strangle another.

The metaphor for killing is continued through the scene with the use of extreme close ups help create a specific atmosphere. An atmosphere that helps familiarise the audience with the man who is suggested to be a killer, but still keeps a sense of fear.  The director may have wanted to achieve this because it would make the audience sympathise with the murderer but still not like him.    

How i am going to use this research

This information that i have collected will help me structure my film opening better and it will give the the ability to see the connotations behind so of the things we can put in the film. With the help of this research i can better understand what kind of conventions make up an effective piece of media and an effective murder mystery film .Such as:

• Subtle and secretive shots
• metaphors on screen for other things that appear in the film
• Hidden connotations behind the action on screen
• Subtitles to add realism when a person speaking their language 

Making The Questionnaire 

In my group we decided it would be important to make sure that we completely understand our target audience and really get an idea of how our demographic thinks. We drew up a draft questionnaire on paper with a few questions we thought would help the audience be more understood. A Questionnaire that we must make needs to be able to tell us how our audience thinks and who our audience is. It must tell us who we are trying to pitch this film to, we need to know how many women are going to be watching and how many men we need to know their opinions and what they like to see in a film. It is important to understand your audience because your audience are the ones who consume your product so it is important for us to know what they want to make sure they are happy and would want our products in the future.  We needed questions that detailed things about our audience that would give us a feel for how the people who will see this film will feel about it and whether or not it will be liked. 


With out proper audience research  it is possible that a film could be made that is extremely unpopular and not make any money, which would loose anyone trying to make these films a lot of money. No big film production company would make a film with out doing audience research as there is a risk it wouldn't make money and that is the ultimate goal of any piece of media.  To create this questionnaire we had to go through the process of demography which out lines the audience's social status, age, gender, race and their location.  

This is the questionnaire we came up with. 

Murder Mystery Questionnaire

1. Are you Male or female?

a.    Male

b.    Female

2.    What is you age?

a.    10-13

b.    14-16

c.     17-21

d.    22-30

e.    30+

3.    Are you Straight, Gay, Bi?

a.    Straight

b.    Gay

c.     Bi

4.    Do you prefer…

a.    The opening of the film to we sweet and simple

b.    Long and Detailed

c.     Other (please Specific)

5.    Do you prefer the titles to be;

a.    On top of actions

b.    Freeze frames of action

c.     None

6.    In a murder mystery film what colour scheme do you prefer;

a.    Red

b.    Black

c.     White

d.    Other (specify)

7.    In a murder Mystery do you prefer it to be?

a.    Bloody

b.    Subtle

8.    What kind of music do you prefer playing in the background?

a.    Creepy

b.    Up Beat

c.     Slow

d.    Other (specify)

9.    What sort of font do you prefer on the opening titles:

a.    Fancy

b.    Bold

c.     BLOCKED CAPITALS

10. Where do you prefer to watch murder mysteries

a.      Cinema

b.      Home

c.      Friends house

d.      Other (specify)

11.  What sort of murder Mystery do you prefer?

a.      Sherlock Holmes

b.      Scooby Doo

c.      Dexter

d.      NCSI

12.  Why do you/ would you watch a Murder Mystery?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

13.  Which of the following would you rather watch?

a.      Comedy

b.      Horror

c.      Murder Mystery

d.      Action

14.  Do you feel that playing a soundtrack in the background of the opening sequence that it adds to the overall atmosphere?

a.      Yes

b.      No

15.  Why do you choose to watch a murder mystery?

a.      To follow a story line

b.      To try and guess who the killer is

c.      For the excitement

16.  Where is it best to set a murder mystery?

a.      Past

b.      Present

c.      Future

17.  Do you prefer to watch an intense opening or subtle?

a.      Subtle

b.      Intense

18.  What sort of quality of filming would you prefer?

a.      Mobile (Low Quality)

b.      Camera (Medium Quality)

c.      HD Camera (High Quality)

19. Do you like loads of action in the opening sequence?

a.      Yes

b.      No

20.  How do you want to feel, after the opening sequence?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 All these questions are designed to help us better understand our audience and of the responses that we got back i think that we were able to collect enough information to successfully create a piece of media that would entertain.   

The feed back we received from these questionnaires have been very good so far. We have collected a lot of information that will help us understand our target audience and increase our ability to create an entertaining and pleasing piece of media. The information we have collected will be looked over carefully all through the planning stage and whilst the filming is in progress to make sure that we are working to what the target audience wants. 

These are the results from our questionnaire. We picked a few of the questions we thought were the most important and made the results into graphs that are displayed below. 


Audience theory is something that needs to be taken into account here. It is possible to take the results of the questionaire and find out what the dominant ideology is in the school where the parcipants of the questionaire are from.  For example if there is a high population of homosexuals it would be important not to be offensive or stereotypical towards them which could isolate them from them from the rest of the audience. We know from Bulmer and Katz theory that people use media and consume it for differnt puposes and in different ways. There are those who use media as a 'diverson' from everyday stresses and the mundanity of everyday life. To cateer for the diversionary audience i need a story line that  excites and is as far from everday life as possible.'Personal relationships' is when the audience whats to feel empythy for people on screen. For example when in the murder mystery someone dies the audience needs to feel sypathetic towards them, so the characters will need to be relateable and should have priciples that corrolates with dominant ideology in the audience.  Also the sudience might want to relate to the film so it is important that they might see a little of them selves in the film mabey the style of clothing that the actors wear is similar to what the audience is wearing so close attention must be paid to whats popular in fashion.

Question 3

This question was one that i had great concerns about as i wasn't sure if people would answer it truthfully or even at all. Unexpectedly many people did respond to this and it really helped us understand what all sorts of different people will think to our murder mystery. This question to many seemed a little pointless but this particular question helped us understand the views of people from all sort of different backgrounds. We now know that the views of homosexuals and straight people of the same target audience is the near enough the same.

Question 4

This question shows us what kind of opening we need to make in order to satisfy what the audience want. This research shows us that the majority of people would rather see something extraordinary and not the same as what is not normal. The only film opening that i could think of that wasn't short and sweet and wasn't long and detailed was the James Bond openings. The opening that we will write will be based on the style of the James Bond film casino royal.

Question 5

This question really helped determine what kind of film we will be making, for the success of the film it is important that the film has the right feel to it.  What the audience perceive to be the perfect film is really important to us so the preferred time zone must be achieved if the audience is to enjoy our film.

Question 1



It is important to know the gender of your audience because if the audience is overwhelming  female then the film that is to be created has to be appealing to them. It would have to be un misogynistic and have a plot that relates to women. Since this is not the case and the audience is majoritively male then a story line can be more james bond like and we can write a story line that relates more to the male population.

 Question 2



This question relates to the age of the audience using these findings we know how to write the story line so it relates to the teenage population since they are the majority. We must also think about how the older viewers will see and interpreter it. Age of an audience must be looked at to determine the style of the film you are going to make. If the age of our audience is on a wide spectrum we must find something all ages will like. Steven Spielberg has inspired me with an idea for the film, because he makes film that manage to appeal to such a wide range of people i want to use some of his techniques.



From the data i have collected i can see what and who my audience is i can make assumptions on what they are going to like by seeing what they like in their films.



Story Boarding And Writing!

Thinking about all the audience research and all the research on other films my group now must begin to write our film and start to get some kind of story board drawn up. We had to think about our intention when it comes to the film and what we want the audience to see. First we had to come up with some kind of idea for the film. Me and peter went through a few ideas which were:

• A robbery
• A dinner party thrown by a lord
• A Political cue
• An illegal business deal

We thought carefully about our subject because we want it to relate to the audience and we want people to understand what it is about. Both me and peter do geography at A-Level so we thought about something to do with peak oil, because its topical and it means something to people all around the world. We also wanted something to do with politics so by merging the two we came up with the story line below.

Story Line

Back Story

It is 2020 and the world has reached peak oil and the world’s infrastructure is collapsing. The government of the United Kingdom has discovered a huge reserve of oil in the Orkney islands. Knowing that other governments would be prepared to attack the UK in order to obtain the oil the UK go to great lengths to protect the secret and their oil. 

Opening scene

A Women in business wear is walking down into what appears to be a deserted London underground station carrying a brief case. She finds down there a man dressed in a suit. The man speaks to the British women in Russian, the audience now realising that it has to do with politics. All through the opening scene credits are appearing on walls and in other places. the women and the Russian man have a convocation and she begins to run from him. He catches up then shoots her (the director credit appears in the blood of the women) the Russian man kneels next to her body looks in the brief case. The man then takes a radio out of his pocket and says in Russian "I've got it".





You can see here our story board that we drew up in order to document what our ideas were. In the first box you can see the women walking down into the underground station (the hole opening in black and white) we want the opening in black and white because as I was looking at the openings of films for my research I noticed that their openings were themed to suit the style of the film. Because our film is about spy’s and about politics I thought that the opening being in black and white gives a sense of danger and it shows that the world is in chaos and things like colour is a luxury, luxuries’ are often made with oil so the lack of oil is represented by the black and white. We talked for a while about what we might call our film we went through a few ideas such as: Peak oil the peaking the peak the peaking problem We decided to choose the peaking  because it has a double meaning. it does mean peak oil and that is of course a problem but also it represents the countries trying to get a peak at where Britain is finding all its oil and that is a problem for the government. The title we have chosen is subtle and is almost riddle like and that is what the audience we have asked seem to like they wanted subtle shots and things that will keep them guessing. I thought about the possibilty of having the women playing the british person wearing the standard fashionable clothing of todays young along with the russian soldier, alittle odd i know but it links to the hypodermic theory in the way that if the audience see someone they admire they might want to go and buy what they wear. Im not trying to advertise clothing but it is intresting to see what kind of affect we can have on people.



This is a photograph of the corridor where we plan to have the British woman running away. We chose this corridor because it is long symbolizes the futility of her running away as she has a long way to go. It is also a good place to have an over the shoulder shot of the killer and match on action can be achieved here easily because the long corridor allows for a large space and cameras hidden easily.

This is the floor of the corridor in the previous image this is where we have chosen for the women to be shot and killed. It’s tiled and not carpet so fake blood can be used and cleaned up easily.

This is the corridor we have chosen to be our location for the underground station. We have chosen this location because it is small and has no windows it gives the impression if being under ground, it also is connected to our three locations so the scene can run smoothly with out a great deal of moving around.

This is the lighting system of the corridor in the previous image.  This is another reason why we chose this corridor, because its lights (strip lighting) resemble the lights of those in the London underground or the old ones that haven't or don't get maintained. We want the station to seem like an underground station that doesn't get visited very much and inst cleaned or maintained.

This image has been edited to give an example of how we are going to adapt our location to suit the scene more. We are going to print off an underground map and sign to put on the walls of these corridors to make the scene look more like an actual underground station.

This location is to be used because of the lack of windows and the low light levels which suggest that it is going under ground, i.e the entrance to an underground station. This also represents going down into the ground to retrieve oil.

Reasons for using an underground station and connotations behind the story.

The reason we want an underground station is because it seems more scary because it is underground and it seems like there is no escape. The underground is also famous as a British transport system in London this shows the audience how far the Russians have gone to obtain this British secret. The Underground is a transport system so obviously the oil secret is on its way somewhere and the Russians are intercepting it, this makes it more thrilling for the audience because they are hoping for the women to escape in time. The hypodermic theory is used a lot  in our film, the hypodermic theory is used when the audience see this women begin chased we want her to escape. Our film goes against dominant ideology because it is a women who stereotypical should be weaker than a man. The woman running from the man represents the weaker country (the UK) running from the stronger country i.e the man (Russia) . 

Filming plan

Before the filming begins it is probably a good idea to write a filming plan involving all that will be done once to the filming has began. I will look at what kind of shots might be needed what kind of camera angles will be needed and the distances at which the camera will be placed. 

For the first shot it i want the camera to see the women begin to go down the stairs into the underground station. To achieve the shot  i want to have a shot of the empty stair way and allow the women to walk into shot and down the stairs. This here is an example of a medium shot, notice how only half of the women is visible at one time. 

 Once the women has reached the bottom of the stairs a simple medium shot of her walking out into the corridor but then she stops abruptly. A close up on her face as she sees the man at the end of the corridor. Then an over the shoulder shot over the mans shoulder as a speaks his first line this will add tension not begin able to see the mans face. Shot reverse shot is used as they have a conversation. Here is an example. 

When the women runs to escape the mans gun there is an over the should shot with the man and when he misses a close up on his face. As the women try's to run away from the man a simple one shot will be used to keep her into shot as she runs into the corridor which is the final scene. 


Match on action will be used when the women as she has to fall, we don't want to injure our actor.  Match on action involves her starting the action in one shot and finishing it in another.  


We would like to use a girl for the part of the British person however the person we were going to use is unable to come and be filmed because of her time table so one of us will have to stand in for her. we originally wanted a women because it demonstrated dominant ideology in the way that the women is being manipulated by the man.   

Editing plan

We have discussed a few ideas for the type of editing we want to use and the effects we want to put in to the film opening. I decided to use the Dexter (see deconstruction) as an example, by having the titles over the action as it happens. Myself and peter wanted to set the scene so we decided to have slides before hand to tell the story these slides will have little titles explaining the story. We want them to tell the audience a date the situation and location. The date will be the 23/1/3034 this makes it far enough into the future that the story would be believable, the story is that the 'new soviet Russia' is about to invade Britain unless the UK hands over the location of the oil wells and the location is in the London underground where the British agent has been intercepted by the Russian.


The gun that we have got ready for the film will need sound effects playing over it to make it sound more realistic. When peter is walking down the stars and over the slides at the beginning a train noise will play, this will have an effect on the audience that will pull them into the story and sightly unnerve them, it will also set the scene as now they know its in a train station. i would like, if possible, the footage to be all in black and white this makes it seem like even though its in the future technology hasn't advanced, its got worse, with the lack of oil.

The software that we want to use is iMovie on the Mac Book Pro this has a good running speed and will be able to give us more options than widows software will as it is more user friendly and easier to use.






Changes that were made


Due to our inability to get a female actor we had to make to with a man playing the british womens role, it dosent make much of a difference but i was hoping that the women would help reach out to the female audience and get more people to watch our film.


 Audience feed back


The parts in brackets are my anotations they are not part of the questionnaire seen by the audience. The numbers you see show how many people out of 13 ticked that response box.


Audience feed back questionnaire


1. Did you feel as though you in the action, did the camera angles pull you into the story
(This question gave me an insight into how the audience felt and to see if my filming worked)
Yes..10...    No...3..


2.Where you intregued at the begining, did you feel you wanted to know more
(The begining is very important, this question will let me know if the hypodermic needle theory worked)
Yes.13....    No.....


3. At any point did you feel alienated
(This is possibley the most important question as it will let me know how focused and intrested the audience were and if not then i know my techinques i used are unaffective)


Yes.....   No..13...


4.Did you like the look of the film?
(I asked this simply to find out if the methods of atraction i was using worked)
Yes..11...   No.2....


5.Could you find anything wrong with what you saw in the film if so please specify
(This question was to gage how the audience felt about it as a whole)




...........................................................................................................................
...........................................................................................................................


6. Did you like the character andf the story line, if so what about them did you like?
(this is more to do with the writing and also the style of how it was presented)


................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................


7. Since this was just the opening of the film, after seeing it did you feel you would want to see more?
(this is desinged to see if the audience were at all intrested by the film, this is important to know because that could be show to a media distributor and that could possibly get you DVD's made or a film company help you with the second film)
Yes12..... No..1...




The feedback i recived was very positive, i showed my questionnaire to 13 people and of those people it was the ones outside of my target audience that didnt like it. I showeda couple of my teachers and they said that the film reminded them of issuses that worried them and the dark spin i put on it made them feel bad. I am glad of both of these statements they had still been affected in some way by this film, they said they felt empathy which is what i was hoping for because of the bulmer and katz theory.


As for those inside the target audience they all seemed really intrested and found themselves wanting to know more aboput these problems which is exactly what i wanted to achive. My audience walked away from thsi experience having learnt somthing and they wanted to do something about the enviroment which is what i wanted to achive.

Evaluation

My conventions that we have used relate to other pieces of media that are being used today. shot reverse shot for example is a basic shot type used in all types of film, subtle shots like those tat give the impression that the audience is a 'fly on the wall' have been used in our piece, for example when it moves to a CCTV camera shot it makes the audience feel as though they're watching real footage. In our video we didn't want to reveal the face of the Russian to early so we challenged conventional shot reverse shot and remained  with an over the shoulder shot of the Russian while he was speaking to the English person, we wanted to do this because it adds a sense of suspense to the film. I wanted people to watch it and realize the problems that face the worldd with oil and hopefully make them change their ways, all while being entertained.


The piece of media i have created is targeted towards young people maybe in school around the 6th form age. Because of previous generations polluting the atmosphere it is my generation that is left with the task of trying to clean up the problem. Because of this people of my age and generation can relate to it because they will see this and see how if the problem gets out of control what might happen so it may appeal to those people who are worried about the health of the planet. Recently it has become the dominant ideology that using big gas guzzling cars is wrong, this film supports that idea in the way that it shows the chaos that has consumed the world because of the over use if oil.


A campaigning company looking for a piece of media to endorse what they are campaigning about may want to use our film to create more of an impact when it comes to getting their message across. Some one like the green party may like this film and what to help produce if they see it as something that may help them get votes or even just change peoples attitudes to climate change. If the film does well enough and is seen to be a product that can potentially make money it a film company may want to take it and distribute it.


The audience i would most like to see watching my film would be young people in school who sson will be driving and making their own way in life. These people are the ones that need to be reached out to and the ones who have the power to mabey do something about the way the world is going. I want people using cleaner fuels so hopefully my film can start changing dominant ideology with more people seeing using fossil fuels as unacceptable.


To attract my audience i made the title associated with an enviromental problem, this way the audience i want to come see the film might be intrested. With a title like the peaking people may be confused as to what it is about they then look close and find out so people who dont know what peak oil is will be intrigued by the film because it is clever and subtle. The fact that the film is a murder mystery helps, because those that like murder mystery films will go to see it but then also learn somthing when there and perhaps be persauded to see that the use of fossil fuels is a problem. The used the hypodermic needle theory to attract my audience in the way that i made the film look mysterious with black and white colours and given it a dark look. By calling it Peaking with it being a murder mystery sparks of intrigue in the mind of the audience.




During this proscess i have been found out about how exactly the process of editing works, also the process of filming. Particularly how to insert effects and soundsd into films, by importing them into files in the software. I found a few tricks on how to manipulate the camera to show differnt things to the audience and create differnt effects. The part of the film when it shows CCTV footage was when new skills were used, by angling the camera downwards and editing in effects and words such as 'CCTV' i was able to give a realistic CCTV veiw.

These are the six main parts of the film that is key to the story and the the film as a whole. Below i have covered each of these in detail. As a whole the film speaks about the careless use of fuels and the destruction of the environment. I will outline how this film is made to get that message across tho those who watch it.

This is the very first thing that is seen by the audience it is dark mysterious and should hopefully keep the audience guessing. Over this plays the sound of a train which sets the scene and makes it so the audience can relate to it, most people have travled on train and so know what it is like. This is the first thing the audience see so it has to be stimulating an has to keep the audience wanting to watch. This first shot also give an impression as to what the theme for the film is and what it is about. The title of the film being mysterious suits the genre and theme of the film, it also makes the audience curious as to what i means, for those who have heard of peak oil they may be able to work out what it means but it would still keep the, guessing.

This is the first glimpse of any actor or any live action, it is in black and white giving a sense of mystery and darkness and mabey even fear. The actor walks round the wall and disappears down stairs the sound of the train with the black and white should begin to make the audience worry about the character as he descends. This is inkeeping with Bulmer and Katz's theory of the audience wanting to feel relation and to for the characters. The setting you see here is here because of its resemblance to an underground station, its dark look mixed with the brick work and the stair case going down completes the illusion to make it seem like an underground station. 

This here is when we first see the murderer and he is speaking Russian. An over the shoulder shot is used here to make sure his face is not show to build suspense and i made sure that his face was only show briefly throughout. The clothes that these two where make it easier for the audience of the 21st century to be empathetic with them, after reading about the user and gratification theory we decided that it might be good idea, if we want our audience to enjoy this film that they should be empathetic with the characters.The costumes used here worked well as they were designed to make the audience feel empathy for them and make it so the audience can relate to them this drew the audience in and kept them interested.

This is where i decided to have the CCTV, i made sure that one side of the camera was close to the wall and in the rest of the shot you can see a wide area. to complete the effect i used a green tinge and added in the date and CCTV. this affect i hope makes the audience feel like a fly on the wall watching the live action and feeling fear of this mysterious man who is in the room with them.

This shot shows an over the shoulder shot and a long shot this shows a long hall way and the futility of the British spy running away as he could never out run the gun. The black and white of this shot describes the how bleak the situation is and also how bleak the world is. All the footage you see of the great depression during the nineteen thirties is in black and white so i wanted to recreate that sort of feel to my film. 

This is the last thing the audience see in the opening, once again the Russians face is hidden from the camera creating a sense of fear and suspense. This opens the film so needs to be compelling and hooking for the audience. This shot is designed to introduce the characters and the story line because now the audience are aware that the Russians are beating the British in the conflict, they also know that this Russian is going round killing people.


In this clip i have put a link to is captions illustrating how i wanted to attract the audience.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjDMfRrvSjE this is the link that will take you to the original footage.














Target Audience

Since i wanted young people to watch this and take away with them some meaning and to understand the crisis that the world is in, i thought that it was important that the target audience be your typical teenager. I tried to find out what the favorite fashion for youths by observing my class mates and what they are wearing. The majority of people wear designer clothes such as Hollister and jack wills but i also found that there were those who were apposed to these 'main stream' clothes. Because i didn't want to alienate those who didn't wear these types of clothes we had another character dressed in clothes they would prefer, like things from Primark or Weird Fish. The drawing of target audience i have uploaded depicts a typical teenager. With Colour schemes that are favorites of myself and many other teenagers to. The reason i want the character to seem like everyday people is because of the research i did that stated that the audience would be more interested  in the film if they could relate to the characters. Although it seems strange that special agents of the future are wearing fashions of today, it does represent the fact that our generation has inherited the global fuel crisis and climate change and it shows that the generation that my target audience belongs to is the one that has to do something about it, this also make the audience more related to the story as they my think about how they will cope in the future with the fuel crisis. It was also important to find out what kind of music our target audience would listen to. Most people of the age between 14-21 listen to music thats in the charts e.g artists like Jessie J, Ed Sheeran and Adelle. Of course not everyone has the same interests in music. Some people prefer the kinds of music found in kerrang magazine so it was best for one character to represent one group of people and the other character represents the other group of people, that would make sure that no one feels isolated and everyone is apart f the story.  

Character comparison

This is one character of my Film he represents the type person who doesn't wear main stream clothing like Hollister or jack wills and doesn't listen to chart music. As he meant to be a spy his character is at the moment undercover making sure not to be spotted by the Russian spy that is chasing him and of course the Russian is undercover as well. This character doesn't want to be spotted by any one and be recognized as a spy so he is wearing clothes that any one would wear, much like James Bond does in the film 'Die Another day'.

Here is bond wearing casual attire much like my character above, he is wearing this to blend into the crowd as he executes his mission. These two characters are similar in the way the wear clothes that keep them from being spotted and aren't the classic stereotypical spy who wear, black spy gear or a tuxedo everywhere.  The main difference between them is Bond often survives anything that comes his way, if he is ever shot he will always survive whereas my films character does not.

Distribution and who would distribute it?
As lots of films have voice overs as extras to their DVDs me and peter decided to create a voice over our selves thats describes how it would be distributed.  

Voiceover Script:

Andy – What does a Production company do? A production company provide the funds for the film to be produced as well as them buying the licensing for the film it self. The production company may be directly responsible for fundraising for the production or may accomplish this through a parent company or partner and maybe a private investor. It handles budgeting, scheduling, scripting, the supply with actors and resources, and marketing. Production companies are often either owned or under contract with a, film studio or entertainment company, who act as the production companies parent company. They can also be mainstream independent like Lucasfilms or completely independent company like Lionsgate.

Peter - Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet or directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses the physical distribution of media, such as paper or DVDs. Online distributing is mainly used by big companies or small independent companies. An online service for distribution is an application of software that is usually called an application store or app store like in apple use. Content distributed online may be streamed or downloaded. Streaming involves downloading and using content "on-demand" as it is needed. Meanwhile, fully downloading the content to a hard drive or other form of storage media allows for quick access in the future when ever you want to look at the form of media.

Andy – Independent companies will use a small budget or out of there own pockets to fund the production of a film, they might also get loans from bigger companies or banks. However if they are bigger main stream media companies they would be able to dig in to there profits from a previous film that was a success. They could also get funding from private investors who are millionaires who want to make a profit or who just want to take part and have a say in the film it self.

Peter – We have a few titles and headings that come up across the opening sequence through out the performance. We have mentioned the companies that we have created to fund our opening sequence this is done to get the name of the company out there so that they get free advertisement and then are recognised and people are more likely to watch a film that is made by a well known company where as a independent company that is still small, will not have the reorganisation that a main stream company would have.  

 Use of the technology 

This is me using the mac book pro, i am using the editing software on it called i movie. At this point i was about a third of the way into the editing. the computers behind the mac that you can see are the windows ones that were used for sites like Blogger, Slide share which i would have used but for some reason would never work on my account.  We  also used these computers for programs such as Hotmail and you tube.

This here is me demonstrating the use of a video camera that we used. with the display screen turned round so the actors can see themselves when acting. We used this camera with the mac for editing and with a tripod for filming.

Looking back at the preliminary task

When i look back to the preliminary task i feel i have learnt a lot more on how to work the camera and i also feel i have used and tried more types of shots. Experience in different types of shot can often determine how the film looks, with more inventive shots used this time i have learnt what looks good and what does not.

Working the editing software is easier now than it was, this is proably down to practise and knowing and planning what shots i want before uploading them.


Now that i have completed this film i feel i have a much better understanding of the 180 degree rule and how i can use it to my advantage to create affective shots. I know more about how to fill the three thirds of the screen with people and other things to create an affective shot.


Match on action was definitely difficult when trying to use it with a fall but with this experience it has made it much more understandable and easier to do.  


I am glad i was able to finish the preliminary task and find out about all the camera shots that are needed to create and affective piece of media. With out the mac then the editing process would have been a lot worse as the editing software was very sophisticated.