Sean Farrell Evaluation

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

This is a clip from the urban thriller Adulthood, we see here that two males are facing off. This is a side shot where we can see both characters disputing with one another whilst face to face. This shot is effective as it shows just how tense the moment is. One character is aggressive whilst the other appears to be more passive. I would say that this is a medium shot as you can only see the upper torso and heads of the two men. One of the conventions being used is suspense which is caused by the behavior of the two characters in this scene.  

Our scene is rather similar to this as it involves two characters facing off however in our scene it appears that it is more one sided, which could mean that it is a mugging. Ours is slightly more of a long shot as you can see most of the bodies of the characters. The costumes are similar as one of the characters has more urban clothing whilst the other has a slightly more mature style of clothing. 

This is an ordinary credit to a thriller film, this has actually been taken from the film se7en, the conventions that have been used are the suspicion of threat and the mystery that could possibly unravel in front of the audiences eyes. 

Development is key within a thriller,  with this shot we have taken an ordinary snap and edited it by adding a fisheye effect to add to the mystery we did this by using the simple software, Final Cut Express. as well as this we have blended to shots together this adds affect as it mixes up two shots, which is how a thriller should work as it will confuse the audience and make them think about what could happen and what may unfold. 

This is a shot from Harry brown, we have taken interest in this particular shot as it helps us to express the fact that we have filmed this crime in an area that is not a setting that is typical of gang violence.

Our thriller starts in a rural area that is not typical of violence and gang activity whereas in the harry brown shot we can see it is quite urban and we can see there is a large amount of graffiti.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our 1^st social group is represented through a middle class man in his 40’s. He is represented as an average man who is just minding his own business and getting on with his life. He is made to be the sort of guy you wouldn’t expect to just go out and cause trouble and making a nuisance of himself.

The 2^nd social group is represented through a group of youths (chavs). They are dressed in the stereotypical tracksuit and hoodie with trainers. They are in the typical stance you would expect (hunched over with facer hidden by their hood).

These are played on with the typical stereotype that most people assume, the troublesome youths who are just out to cause trouble, picking on the innocent for no apparent reason (in this case a middle class man on his way home from the shop) the general tone the first half of the opening scene is meant to suggest that something is going to happen, but until you see the group of youths it becomes apparent that whatever is going to happen isn’t going to be good.

3. what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

http://poseidonnfgs.wikispaces.com/what+kind+of+media+institution+might+distribute+your+media+product+and+why%3F


This is a link to the wiki of this question, where we have explained our views and opinions.

4. Who would be the audience for you media product?

name- John
age- late 20's early 30's
gender- male
location- middle class area of essex
hobbies- hunting, golf, going down the pub to see the football with friends
books- Chris Ryan, Andy Mcnab (Newspapers: Sun, Daily Express, Daily Star)
pass times- TV, newspaper, running
interests- golf, cricket, F1
what they spend their money on- CD's of late 1900's songs, classic car maintenance, tickets to cricket and golf matches, hunting rifle maintenance
beliefs- Right wing, supports UKIP, atheist
Values- National identity, Patriotism, capitalism, Independancy

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

this is the link to our finished product with annotations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsInXE4n0Vg

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

This is a screenshot of final-cut express, as i am a regular user of youtube and i have my own account and as a result of which i have some experience of making music videos. Although i had never used final cut before i have had extensive use of windows movie makes so it didn't take long for me to get the hang of it as final cut is only a bit more complex. (in the end i did most oft the editing as i was the most experienced in our group

this website is called "free play" it is a royalty free music site specifically made for use in media products.  this is the site we used for our music and i plan to use it in the future. 

this is an apple mac. as i use a windows PC at home it took me a while to get used to at (although i still get stuck on certain parts) i was able to grasp how to use final cut as i have previous experience in editing.

this is a camera together with a tripod. before media studies i hadn't done any sort of filming on this scale with this type of equipment. In our group i was more on the editing side of things with the other two doing more of the camera work (although i filmed the final scene)

this photo is of our blog on the website blogger, before starting media i hadnt even heard of blogger, but since ive started using it, it has proven to be a very flexible and easy to use piece of software that i plan to use in the future.

This is obviously youtube. since i was already a youtuber before the course began there wasnt anything new for me to learn, but i was able to use my skills to help our group in the editing process.

this is a picture of photoshop. In the end i didnt use photoshop as much as i had planned and i wasnt that skilled with it so in the end i changed most of the images using the Collour Corrector on Finalcut (out of all of us i would say Tom was the best at uisng this program)

This is a screen shot of windows movie maker. While not being as detailed or equiped as final cut, I find it easier to use and i have used it to make all of my videos to date. In media i am using it to put the final touches to our film opening.

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

This is our preliminary task with the annotations on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv6fN6LgepE

Evaluation (tom)

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

This is a clip from the urban thriller Adulthood, we see here that two males are facing off. This is a side shot where we can see both characters disputing with one another whilst face to face. This shot is effective as it shows just how tense the moment is. One character is aggressive whilst the other appears to be more passive. I would say that this is a medium shot as you can only see the upper torso and heads of the two men. One of the conventions being used is suspense which is caused by the behavior of the two characters in this scene.

Our scene is rather similar to this as it involves two characters facing off however in our scene it appears that it is more one sided, which could mean that it is a mugging. Ours is slightly more of a long shot as you can see most of the bodies of the characters. The costumes are similar as one of the characters has more urban clothing whilst the other has a slightly more mature style of clothing. 

This is an ordinary credit to a thriller film, this has actually been taken from the film se7en, the conventions that have been used are the suspicion of threat and the mystery that could possibly unravel in front of the audiences eyes. 

 

 

Development is key within a thriller,  with this shot we have taken an ordinary snap and edited it by adding a fisheye effect to add to the mystery we did this by using the simple software, Final Cut Express. as well as this we have blended to shots together this adds affect as it mixes up two shots, which is how a thriller should work as it will confuse the audience and make them think about what could happen and what may unfold. 

 

 

This is a shot from Harry brown, we have taken interest in this particular shot as it helps us to express the fact that we have filmed this crime in an area that is not a setting that is typical of gang violence.

 

Our thriller starts in a rural area that is not typical of violence and gang activity whereas in the harry brown shot we can see it is quite urban and we can see there is a large amount of graffiti.

2 How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

The first of our social groups is a middle aged man who I would consider to be middle classed, this is represented through the way he dresses. He is seen going about his day to day business and doing his shopping. You wouldn't expect him to cause any trouble or to be involved in any trouble however he does appear to be an easy victim for thugs to pick on.

The second of the social groups is a group of youngsters that are looking for trouble, this is quite the opposite of the previous social group in the middle aged man. Similarly to the previous case the social group are represented by what they are wearing, they are wearing typical clothing. They are wearing a tracksuit with a jacket and they have their hoods up, which can be seen as a form of intimidation.

The stereotype of youths looking for trouble by picking on harmless and innocent people is shown in our piece, we see that they decide to harass the man for no apparent reason, this shows that the group are out for trouble an they have decided to pick on the first person they see. The world we live in is a very stereotypical one, we see that people judge people by how they look. But I think that this is caused by the separation between groups.   

what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

http://poseidonnfgs.wikispaces.com/what+kind+of+media+institution+might+distribute+your+media+product+and+why%3F

This is a link to the wiki of this question, where we have explained our views and opinions. 

 

 

Typical Audience member

His name is Ian and he is a graphic designer, he is 35 years old and a graphic designer. He has 2 children a boy aged 11 and a girl aged 6. He is an Arsenal fan and watches his son play football on a Sunday morning. He lives in a new build house in a rural area. He drinks regularly at his local pub, he is a well known figure down the pub. He drinks Fosters on tap and regularly buys other people a drink as he is reasonably well off. He is a film fanatic and owns a large quantity of DVD's and he also is quite keen on technology as he needs a good computer for his job. He is quite single minded when it comes to his political beliefs as he supports BNP. He doesn't believe that he is racist however he very patriotic. 

 

 

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

this is the link to our finished product with annotations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsInXE4n0Vg 

 

 

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

 

This post is aimed to show what skilles i have devgeloped during my time producing this piece.

There were many skills that I picked up during my time producing the piece, I would have to say that the main one would have to be learning how to use a Mac. I had not really used a mac before so this was a new thing for me. However I feel that I adapted well to using this piece of equipment as did my group. As Mike has a Mac at home he was a great help to me and sean as he could help us when we became stuck. 

 

 

This is the camera and tripod that we used in our production. I had used a video camera before at home with family events and other domestic events. But i had always used it handheld so it was not up to a great standard whereas we needed our piece to be of a good quality and I honestly didnt realise how much of a difference a basic tripod made. It makes it more comfortable to use and not only this but it makes the shots so much more steady and improved the overall quality of the filming. I believe that I did not really improve my skills using the camera however I feel that I improved my understanding of these cameras, which did help massively. I also think that getting a chance to use these cameras helped all of us to understand some of the theory behind cameras which will help us in our exams as well. 

 

 We opened a facebook account in the first stages of planning as we felt that we needed to gain some input from people our own age. However as a group we did not feel that the facebook page helped us out much as we did not really gain much feedback. I feel that we could have done with advertising our facebook page a bit more as then we would possibly got more people looking at the page and possibly leaving comments on our wall. We could have benefitted from this as market research is always useful in any kind of new production. 

This is a screenshot of the program Adobe Photoshop, I had used photoshop many times before as I took Graphics for GCSE. My main aim in the first couple of lessons was to ensure that the rest of the group knew how to use the program. Once everyone was familiar with the software we made a logo. I did not find that I improved tremendously on photoshop however I found that teaching others actually allowed me to notice where I was making my mistakes and by the end of the task Mike was actually teaching me things. 

 

 

 

As you can see this is a shot of Youtube, I found this website was very helpful throughout the task. Over the length of time i managed to improve my understanding of the website and I would also find what I wanted to see a lot quicker. I found that making your search more precised actually brought in more accurate results. Youtube was helpful from the beginning as it allowed my group to watch tutorials on how to use Final cut which we would end up using more than any other piece of software during the task. 

 

 

This is a picture of the piece of software called garage band which allows you to make simple pieces of music on the computer. I did not really use this software much but I did improve my basic understanding of the program as I now know my way around garage band and I would be able to show somebody else how to make a pice and upload it.

 

 

This is a website called Free play music where you can play and download non-copyright music, this was very helpful as it allowed us to find exactly what we wanted to use. I will definately use this website in the future fo similar tasks. 

 

 

This is a shot of the main website that we used over the task that we were given as coursework. It is called blogger and is a very easy and proffesional blog website, it is ued to keep an updated blog for people to view and follow. I was very impressed by the website as with a few clicks you can add a detailed background and alter the layout. Another feature that I liked about blogger was how easy it is to upload photos links and videos. You can also edit the HTML which is quite handy. There is a range of fonts available on this site as well which means that you can make the blog look more proffessional by adding a modern and formal font. Labels are also easily added to the blogs which allows viewers to find exactly what they want. I have increased my understanding of the website and would now consider myself a skilled user of the site.  

 

 

Finally this is a shot of Final Cut with my group editing our piece. Before this task I had never used this software before, I found it reasonably easy to pick up, the basic controls are fairly simple. The layout of the software is well done. The skills that I have picked up whilst using Final Cut are the ability to add effects to the clip, cut and move the clips and as well how to colour correct the different shots. I found that once i knew how to use each tool I did not struggle with the program. I hope that my improved skills within this software will motivate me to use this software in the near future.  

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

This is our preliminary task with the annotations on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv6fN6LgepE 

 

 

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

This post is aimed to show what skilles i have devgeloped during my time producing this piece.

 There were many skills that I picked up during my time producing the piece, I would have to say that the main one would have to be learning how to use a Mac. I had not really used a mac before so this was a new thing for me. However I feel that I adapted well to using this piece of equipment as did my group. As Mike has a Mac at home he was a great help to me and sean as he could help us when we became stuck. 

This is the camera and tripod that we used in our production. I had used a video camera before at home with family events and other domestic events. But i had always used it handheld so it was not up to a great standard whereas we needed our piece to be of a good quality and I honestly didnt realise how much of a difference a basic tripod made. It makes it more comfortable to use and not only this but it makes the shots so much more steady and improved the overall quality of the filming. I believe that I did not really improve my skills using the camera however I feel that I improved my understanding of these cameras, which did help massively. I also think that getting a chance to use these cameras helped all of us to understand some of the theory behind cameras which will help us in our exams as well. 

 We opened a facebook account in the first stages of planning as we felt that we needed to gain some input from people our own age. However as a group we did not feel that the facebook page helped us out much as we did not really gain much feedback. I feel that we could have done with advertising our facebook page a bit more as then we would possibly got more people looking at the page and possibly leaving comments on our wall. We could have benefitted from this as market research is always useful in any kind of new production. 

This is a screenshot of the program Adobe Photoshop, I had used photoshop many times before as I took Graphics for GCSE. My main aim in the first couple of lessons was to ensure that the rest of the group knew how to use the program. Once everyone was familiar with the software we made a logo. I did not find that I improved tremendously on photoshop however I found that teaching others actually allowed me to notice where I was making my mistakes and by the end of the task Mike was actually teaching me things. 

As you can see this is a shot of Youtube, I found this website was very helpful throughout the task. Over the length of time i managed to improve my understanding of the website and I would also find what I wanted to see a lot quicker. I found that making your search more precised actually brought in more accurate results. Youtube was helpful from the beginning as it allowed my group to watch tutorials on how to use Final cut which we would end up using more than any other piece of software during the task. 

This is a picture of the piece of software called garage band which allows you to make simple pieces of music on the computer. I did not really use this software much but I did improve my basic understanding of the program as I now know my way around garage band and I would be able to show somebody else how to make a pice and upload it.

 

This is a website called Free play music where you can play and download non-copyright music, this was very helpful as it allowed us to find exactly what we wanted to use. I will definately use this website in the future fo similar tasks. 

This is a shot of the main website that we used over the task that we were given as coursework. It is called blogger and is a very easy and proffesional blog website, it is ued to keep an updated blog for people to view and follow. I was very impressed by the website as with a few clicks you can add a detailed background and alter the layout. Another feature that I liked about blogger was how easy it is to upload photos links and videos. You can also edit the HTML which is quite handy. There is a range of fonts available on this site as well which means that you can make the blog look more proffessional by adding a modern and formal font. Labels are also easily added to the blogs which allows viewers to find exactly what they want. I have increased my understanding of the website and would now consider myself a skilled user of the site.

Finally this is a shot of Final Cut with my group editing our piece. Before this task I had never used this software before, I found it reasonably easy to pick up, the basic controls are fairly simple. The layout of the software is well done. The skills that I have picked up whilst using Final Cut are the ability to add effects to the clip, cut and move the clips and as well how to colour correct the different shots. I found that once i knew how to use each tool I did not struggle with the program. I hope that my improved skills within this software will motivate me to use this software in the near future.

 

Evaluation

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

This is a clip from the urban thriller Adulthood, we see here that two males are facing off. This is a side shot where we can see both characters disputing with one another whilst face to face. This shot is effective as it shows just how tense the moment is. One character is aggressive whilst the other appears to be more passive. I would say that this is a medium shot as you can only see the upper torso and heads of the two men. One of the conventions being used is suspense which is caused by the behavior of the two characters in this scene.  

Our scene is rather similar to this as it involves two characters facing off however in our scene it appears that it is more one sided, which could mean that it is a mugging. Ours is slightly more of a long shot as you can see most of the bodies of the characters. The costumes are similar as one of the characters has more urban clothing whilst the other has a slightly more mature style of clothing. 

This is an ordinary credit to a thriller film, this has actually been taken from the film se7en, the conventions that have been used are the suspicion of threat and the mystery that could possibly unravel in front of the audiences eyes. 

Development is key within a thriller,  with this shot we have taken an ordinary snap and edited it by adding a fisheye effect to add to the mystery we did this by using the simple software, Final Cut Express. as well as this we have blended to shots together this adds affect as it mixes up two shots, which is how a thriller should work as it will confuse the audience and make them think about what could happen and what may unfold. 

This is a shot from Harry brown, we have taken interest in this particular shot as it helps us to express the fact that we have filmed this crime in an area that is not a setting that is typical of gang violence.

Our thriller starts in a rural area that is not typical of violence and gang activity whereas in the harry brown shot we can see it is quite urban and we can see there is a large amount of graffiti.

Individual part- We used cameras in an okay manner to begin with but once we start to think of the right shots to make our piece to build more suspense we started to develop our camera angles. We challenged it by putting in lots of different angle and hoping they would work together instead of sticking to basics. With Mise- en scene we didn't really change much throughout our piece we didn't do much to the locations that we picked to film certain bits of the our work we just really left them how they were as they were fine. We could have improved upon that by maybe adding more graffiti and making it look like a much more unwelcoming place where the man gets attacked. To begin with our editing skills were poor. We developed them by watching tutorials and paying around a lot. We learnt quite a bit more when Sean was moved into our group as he is pretty good at editing and could teach us certain techniques which were very hard to do. We challenged the editing but in our last scene putting a fish eye lens effect on the information about the youths which were all around the wall. To further this we started to layer picture upon picture going across the screen giving off a spooky effect. Our sound was hard to make as we tried many times and failed so we used a website called free play music where your allowed to preview and download pieces of music for free but its not copyright as the website is set up and designed for things like what were doing. We didn't really challenge it as we just ended up importing a song that fitted very well with our work. But all in all I think our media product came out very well obviously if we had more time  etc etc we could have improved it slightly but i think all in all we did the best job we could and I'm very pleased with what our group has achieved.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Average everyday man, middle class guy, around the age of 40. He's just a nice guy living in a small village minding his own business.

A few chavs, around the age of 16/17, probably lower class boys out just trying to cause trouble and harm others that have done northing wrong.

The 40 year old man was presented in a positive way as he is just walking home whilst having a cigarette causing no harm to anyone until he runs into the group of chavs.

The chavs are presented in a negative way as there acting in a bad manner, they assault the old man which implies to the audience that they are horrible youths just out because there bored and trying to make trouble.

The social groups are represented in a stereotypical way as when seeing a man at the age of 40 years old you wouldn't expect him to go out and cause trouble which he doesn't in our opening scene but at the end of the scene there is an element of suspicion because of all the documents on the wall about the youths that assaulted him. The chavs are represented in an even more stereotypical way as all chavs you see are normally not very nice people, always out to cause trouble and harm the innocent just because they are bored. Our opening scene shows this happening exactly.

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

http://poseidonnfgs.wikispaces.com/what+kind+of+media+institution+might+distribute+your+media+product+and+why%3F

This is a link to the wiki of this question, where we have explained our views and opinions.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? 

Create a profile of your ideal audience member – considering:

Age: 28

Class: Upper Middle

Gender: Male

Job: Estate Agent

Location: Born and brought up in Romford. He has a slightly rough up bringing but has slowly moved up in the world to now live in the town Bishops Stortford.

Hobbies, Interest and Pastimes: He goes to the gym every now and again to keep in shape, Likes to spend time and playing football with his 4 year old son. He loves going to the pub on a Friday or Saturday night for a good drink with the lads, He also likes to watch top gear as he is into cars a fair amount and drives a Honda civic type r.  He’s a pretty average bloke who was brought up in a slightly rougher background than others but has worked his way up. This is how he can relate to this film as he can see it from the youths point of view it was just a bit of fun.

Beliefs and Values: He treats people how he wants to be treated; He believes in fairness and is finds people who are snobby and think the world of themselves very annoying and dislikes them as he things they don’t realise what some people go through. Values of his are to believe in God and law as those two things make the society a nice and peaceful place to live in and live life to the full as you only get one shot at it. 

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

this is the link to our finished product with annotations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsInXE4n0Vg

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

Here is a picture of Final Cut Express open with me working at editing our piece. There have been many skills i have learnt on final cut express just by doing this task. Firstly i have learnt how to import and export videos, Cutting clips down so we don't have pointless and unnecessary footage, How to colour correct scenes, How to add effects into our work, How to add in opening credit and place them in the style, colour, size and where ever we want them in our clip. This task has booster my final cut skills in every direction and I'm sure once we have made our music for the clip that will increase my skills to an even further level. 

This is a shot of a website called free play music where your allowed to preview and download pieces of music for free but its not copyright as the website is set up and designed for things like what were doing. I had never even heard of this site before so by doing this task it has improved my skills to look for website and i will definitely use this website again in my next media task. 

This is just a clear shot of a Mac, mouse and keyboard unfortunately this would have been lots of peoples main area where they have improved there skills. But as i use a Mac myself this task hasn't really improved my skills a lot apart from using Final Cut Express and Photoshop that are 2 programs that run on Mac's which i don't use at home. So this allowed me to help Sean and Tom whenever they came stuck on a Mac as I know my way around them fairly well.

Here we have a camera on a tripod. I hadn't really done much filming like this before I started this task so I've improve my filming and setting up skills as i never really knew how much of a difference a tripod made as i always thought sometimes you could get away with doing half handheld if you had a steady hand but a tripod just does it all perfectly. By doing this task if I was now asked to go and film another groups work for them i would know exactly how to set it all up, which shots would look best and how to film it in a professional manner.

This is a photo of another website 'Blogger' that I hadn't even heard of but was introduced to when starting this task. It is a very good, quick and fairly easy site to use to keep an up to date blog which we need to do for part of our coursework. I had never really used any site like this before but after using this one if I ever want to keep another blog I will definitely use blogger as it is a very good but also professional site to use. The skills I have learnt from using blogger is how to post, label, alter posts, and give a blog a professional layout and design.

This is clearly a shot of youtube. From this task it has made you more aware on how to use youtube and find the clips you are looking for much quicker than you would have before starting this task. As when doing this task you need to find many youtube clips, openings and scenes of films therefore when looking for these all the time you become quicker at searching what you are really looking for and finding it. This skill will stay with me forever as everyone one uses youtube now and again.

Here we have a photo of garageband. We haven't actually finished our piece of music and added it to our work as of yet but when creating many different beats and pieces of music we have used garageband a lot of the time. Therefore I have improved my music developing skills because before we I started this task i had never really made more than 3 songs on garageband so it was nice to improve my skills and get advice from sean as he also has a bit of an idea how to use this program. 

Here the picture is quite faint but it is a photo of photoshop. Before starting this task i had no idea how to use photoshop. When creating our logo Tom who is a bit of a master in this department helped me out and showed me how to do most things on it. Now I understand it much better and can do things on it which I could never do before like layering pictures on top off one and other and editing the colour of them so it looks like a more professional standard. I improved my skills in other areas on photoshop like export at a certain size but the main one was layers and editing the picture.

This is our Facebook page when we just started out with John in our group who left and has recently been replaced by Sean. We didn't really use a lot of facebook when researching, planning and creating our work as we didn't find it as useful as other groups. Most things are on facebook but we just didn't find it that beneficial when trying to promote our company and gain feedback. We found it easier to use other source like websites to research rather than facebook.

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

This is our preliminary task with the annotations on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv6fN6LgepE