Evaluation.

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

Our film "McCheese and Callaghan" is a comedy action based movie, similar to that of Rush Hour, Men in Black and Bad boys.
First of all the name "McCheese and Callaghan" Sounds like two stereotypical american policeman names, such as Starsky and hutch, its catchy and rolls off the tongue.
In the heart of our opening McCheese and Callaghan our walking along talking about random things, only to be interrupted by one of the henchman, which is quickly defeated, like nothing happened, and the conversation continues as per usual. This could relate very closely to a scene from Rush Hour 2, where they're walking on the boat. In the beginning we are shown McCheese throwing a shoe at a henchman, this random opening brings enigma into the film, like that of most action comedies, where either like in Rush Hour where there is a random robbery, or kidnapping, or a random fight scene, and our film shows that covention of typical comedy action openings.
Another way our film develops conventions is the "Damsel in distress" idea, in our film we have a museum owner, who has had a emerald stolen from her, and as per usual the protagonists go and take up the offer of getting it back. This again is another convention of action comedy, as in most comedy action movies there is always a woman who needs help, one way or another. Aside from that, there wasnt anymore conventions we added to our film, it ran smoothly, lots of witty dialogue, and action, just how it should be, keeping close to the conventions, and themes of Action comedy.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film, the mise en scene shows a typical action comedy setting, and casual clothing that any one varying from a teenager to an adult could wear. For example McCheese wears jeans, a t-shirt and trainers, thus showing him to be a laid back, casual and cool looking guy. And Callaghan, is shown as the more nerdy, uptight type, as he is wearing glasses, a v-neck shirt and has a slight comb over. These two characters, seem to be quite stereotypical in terms of the comedy side of action comedy, as there always seems to be a cool laid back guy, and a nerdy guy that is alwyas in a fuss. Overall, our film focuses on two particular social groups, Cool - Jock like, and nerdy, but even though Callaghan is sometimes portrayed as nerdy, he seems quite confident at times, making him part of a cooler social group at times, rather than nerdy.

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

Earlier in our research, we had to research figures made from our genre of film, and what institution would best fit our genre, and my conclusion was to use the institution known as "Columbia". I made this choice because it seemed to be the main distributor of the action comedy genre, and after previously watching these films for myself, such as men in black, and bad boys, the company seems to be highly successful in terms of comedy action. Our film has alot in common with that of badboys, the vigilante scene, the mission, the woman and the bad one liners, this is why I believe Columbia would be a good choice, because they produce similar films to that of what we created, so choosing them would be a perfect fit for our film, as they manage to pull off comedy action films so well everytime.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The social groups conveyed in the film, reflect the kind of audience that would watch it, and also the mise en scene of the film would affect the kind of audience also.
The social groups as previously explained are jocks, cool kids, and nerds. Which makes it seem like the audience for the film may be centered around a young adult, teenage group. But then when it comes down to the mise-en-scene, and witty dialogue, it seems to widen the barrier of age a large amount, then varying from teenager, to middle-aged adult. This is because, the clothes worn in the film are typical everyday clothes that you see people wearing, clothes, t-shirts, shirts with logos, and trainers. Also the witty comedy, and action is something that not only teenagers, but adults would enjoy also. This is because it is something everyone can familiarise with, its not like a teenage comedy, where only teenagers can really relate, its a film that most age groups can relate too. And also the clothes worn, are clothes worn by anyone, of any age group, yet again showing the wide range of groups involved. So because of such a wide spread theme, and mise-en-scene, I believe the audience for the film would be anyone varying from young teenager, to middle aged adult.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience in several ways, one of the ways was by using a setting that would be seen to fit the genre of action comedy. Our setting was a typical evil mastermind/ evil genius compound, which was being infiltrated, and instantly, the audience gets a feel for this, knowing what genre there is, and knowing what to expect. Secondly would be the enigma, like all action comedys, or just action, in the beginning there is an action scene, with random occurences, no briefing on where they are, whats happening, who they are, or what they're doing, and this gives the film enigma. This is a key aspect to any action comedy, as audiences love and hate this at the same time, they want answers, having to watch more and more to finally found out the answer, but keeping them on the edge of their seats at all times, trying to figure it out for themselves, and this was another way we attracted our audience. Also as previously mentioned, the humor and casual clothing is something that any audience can relate to, they have it, they use it, so seeing it in a film, is something they can relate to, the random jokes, the bad jokes, the sarcasm, the dress code, its all there, bringing in the audiences attention, as they feel connected, and can relate to a number of things in the film.
In conclusion, all these key things are what we used to attract the audience, and as it spreads out to such a wide range of interests, and social groups, we were successful in applying them to attract an audience.

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

I have learnt alot about technologies from this process, alot more from our preliminary task, and I feel more experienced in terms of technology.
As I acted through out the whole production of this film, I feel like I have learnt alot about how the camera works, the angles, the positioning panning, as I helped set up and position at times, and it was crucial that we got the levels right, rather than us messing up and randomly flailing around with a camera. I feel more confident handling a camera, as I have learnt alot in terms of positioning, zooming,panning, and fitting bits in to make it run smoothly.
For our film, we needed an opening title sequence, and because everyone else didnt feel up to the job, I decided that I would take up the job of making a poster/title for the film. I used photoshop, and before this, my experiences with photoshop were lacking a bit, I was confused with the interface, and tools, and had no clue what to do. But after doing research, and discussing with my group, I soon got into the swing of things, experimenting with different, fonts, effects and layers.
In the end I came up with the idea, of taking both mine, and Nathans faces, and putting them side by side, but with one side of their faces cut off, creating a new face, I believe doing this made it quite symbolic, giving it a hidden meaning of comign together, and being team, in a corny kind of way. And in the background were flames, which I made by using a brush tool to draw random lines, then the smudge, sponge and burn to make it look like they were flickering and more aesthetically pleasing. And at the top the font is a kind of military font I had found and messed around with, to stress the genre of action, thus bringing out the comedy side of the film within the title, through irony.
In the end I learnt alot, and was able to make an aesthetically pleasing front title. I have learnt how to use Photoshop to a better standard, and how to create certain effects, which may be really useful for future projects.

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

In our preliminary task, I believe we didnt have enough experience, we were newcomers in terms of film making, and because of that it gave us a disadvantage, but it also gave us a chance to learn from it. In our preliminary task, we were given specific guidelines, we couldnt expand, but it gave us a chance to learn, and to gain knew knowledge to use in the future. And that is where this new piece of film came in, when we were given the new task, we had the experience, even if it wasnt alot, from the preliminary task, and the research and work done before hand to prepare us for this bigger task.
In the full product, we were free to do more of what we felt was interesting and right, the guidelines werent as narrowed down, but we still had to use the 180 degree rule etc. But from progression from the preliminary task, I learnt alot in terms of conventions, and stereotypes, and the interests of the audience. This was good, because we could pick a genre, and instantly know the conventions that went along with it, so when we chose action comedy, we as a group knew what to do right from the start, but only because we had learnt all of the information and techniques from the preliminary, up until then. Which was great, because it helped so much in the production of our full product. So conventions was a big thing we learnt, and how we could encorporate them into the actual film making itself, to follow the chosen genre. finally was the mise-en-scene, in our preliminary task we had just started learning about mise-en-scene, but as we came along to our full product, we learnt more about it, learning how to adapt it into our films, thus giving us new knowledge, and ideas. Which we instantly used when drawing up our storyboards. Locations, props, dress code etc.
So another term learnt helped put things into proportion, and most importantly, into action.
Because of all the new terms being learned, and watching clips from all different genres, and researching, i learnt much more from my preliminary task, I also learnt about the different use of camera angles to portray stereotypes and conventions, which is another thing we used in our full product, the prime example being the start, a low angle shot to show the power of the two vigilantes. All these terms, and techniques have all been developed and used, and I believe that I have learnt alot more since the preliminary, encorporation of terms, and camera angles, all of which we didnt know in the preliminary, thus giving us more knowledge and experience to really let us go wild, and produce a more interested, fun, and creative piece that uses the correct technical features that are needed, the same conventions, and the same mise-en-scene.