Evaluation Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

The convention to a movie is used by the director as a form of hooking the audiences attention straight away. The beginning also allows the movie to express its genre and the audience will realize the theme of the movie. During the convention to a movie you are likely to see the protagonist or antagonist. Therefore the audience will be following the main character from the start in a normal movie; however some movies vary from beginning. Duration of movie beginning are around 2, but Hollywood blockbusters are more likely to have extended beginnings of 5 minutes or more. Conventions also credits ; production and distribution companies, directors , and main actor names.

Differences
Our movie still have some strict conventions, however are main difference is that our movie title is shown after 2 minutes after the movie begins instead of having the title shown straight away or straight after the beginning credits. Shank shows all of its credits and title at the beginning with no shots in the background. While in our movie actors and extras are credited whilst there is action on the screen.

Convention to Shank

  

Convention of Jacked

Similarities

• Both movies show distribution and production companies in order.
• The director in Shank and Jacked are last to be credited. 
• Both movies begin with a main actor running to create tension. 

Evaluation Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media produce and why?

We created our Distribution and Production company logos through Motion on the apple macs, This software allowed us to animate certain motions to create a little ident at the beginning of the film. This was a useful software to use as it had already templates that were easy to add text to. We chose to make our movies independent as our movie has similarities to movies such as SHANK and Bullet Boy. The urban independent movie has become a form of genre and has always been better known by coming from Independent companies. It is very unlikely to see companies such as Paramount or Universal doing a movie about black youths.

       (using makeaGIF.com)

Mural Films: Mural films was used because the name was inspired by the Hackney Peace mural. Therefore this production company is heavily influenced by the urban London vibes. This is the reason we chose to have Mural Films as our Production Company because it relates to the story. We also decided that Mural Films would fit as a production company for movies like Shank and Bullet Boy because they have similar themes. Mural Films was also created as an independent production company because it allows for the our movie to have more of a chance to reach its target audience. For example people will relate urban movies to Mural Films Productions, therefore when looking for a good urban independent movie they will see if the movie is made by Mural Productions.    

Fun House: Fun House distributions was also created as an independent company. Fun house was inspired by its ident. However the name still fits because teen movies sometimes include a little comedy, However the name fits because Fun House is intended to be a distribution company that works with movies that focus on certain type of people. In this movie it is focusing on youths of London, although in other movies the distribution company can focus on business men or other stereotypical genre of people. As the Distribution company is independent it does not have huge budget to own its own theaters, instead Fun House would distribute the movies through DVD's and Blu-Rays. This way people looking to watch a movie with a certain genre of people will be able to look up Fun House DVDs. 

Evaluation Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Teen movies are mainly targeted to the age range of 13 to 19, Teen movies has become its own genre as its audience is such a wide variety of people who all have the ability to relate to stereotypical characters in these movies. A teen movie is most likely related to coming of age; they explore elements such as bullying, high-school and relationships. The most obvious factor that makes a teen movie is that the actors are mainly the same/similar age as their target audience.

Target Audience
Although most of the characters are of similar age, I think this movie can also relate to older people around their 20's. This is because the movie touches on some complex ideas through the plot. And the movie plot also includes lawyers and court scenes which older people will find more interesting.
Therefore although most teens would enjoy the running scene and being able to relate to what the teens are going through, some 20 somethings will also be able to understand what is going on. And they are likely to enjoy the action/fun side to the movie because it would remind them of the misbehavior they would also do when they were teens.

People who would enjoy this movie are also likely to enjoy other movies such as:

Urban Movies

Evaluation Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

We decided that our audience will be teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19. However we intend to make the plot more complex as the film later develops into a law genre. Therefore some 20+ year old's may also be interested in watching our movie; as they can find the more complex drama interesting and then the teenagers would find the action interesting. However 20 year old's will also be interested in the misbehavior that the teenagers get up to as they can relate to them later. 

                                                       
                                                                    Locations

 All of the locations seen on the screen are part of a real estate as we filmed at Rojal's home. We believed that the locations will interest our target audience as they are able to relate to the estates, playground, and bus stops. We preferred to use darker colours as London is sometimes stereotyped as being gray, This also relates to our story-line as it develops into a very dark drama.We made Ismail run around all of the estate; because this is a good way of establishing the location. The bus stop was used as cinematography, we also found out that teenagers enjoy finding out fun facts about the movies they watch. Therefore instead of having Ismail running pass the bus stop with no one there. We asked Ashley to wait at the bus stop and used her as a cameo.

   Music

We used this song as we were inspired by the Slow reggae from La Haine. However we needed to find a fast pace beat as the slow reggae didn't suit the situation of the movie. This means that we had to use an in-between soundtrack so there was a mix of fast and slow pace when they meet at the house. This is also a good soundtrack because the the content of the song includes themes of drugs. Therefore this also relates to teenagers. Its also a stereotype. As soon as all 3 teenagers are shown in one shot the song mentions weed. So this influences the audience to think that these teenagers are also involved with drugs. Which the majority of teens and 20 year olds can relate to.

  Title 

The title of the movie developed from Sheeps Riots to Jacked. We used street slang so the audience can relate to the movie. But they will also find it interesting because they will know what Jacked translates to. So they will know that the movie is for them because of the title of the movie. Jacked is also a catchier name then Sheeps Riots. We also changed it because the first 2 minutes of the movie you see Ismail stealing "Jacking" the laptop, so the audience will instantly know that the movie has a theme of crime. We also had the BBC sounds as they the majority of 20 year olds and some teenagers will be able to recognize the music. This will also appeal to some target audience as they will be interested in whether the movie is real or not as the BBC soundtrack is a real news report.


 We interviewed our target audience and asked them what they like most about your movie
            Feedback

Evaluation Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

                                                               Presentation continues

Jacked: Film Completed!

Film Completed!

Here you can see Cristian writing on the groups check list to signify that we have finished our teen film opening. As a group we watched it several times to make make sure that all the shots were in the right order,  making sure that we had the right sounds at the right time of the action happening and credits were correct and in the right order in which you'll see in a professional film. We also asked our teachers to watch it before we said that we were finished so we could get their opinion as to how it looks and to see if there was any improvements that we could have done to make it more effective for the viewers. 

The whole experience has been really interesting to go through all the stages of what film makers have to go through to get the end product whether it be a low budget film that expresses a directors views or a Holly blockbuster, that has everyone talking about it. During the time there was problems and situations that we had to resolve about the film so that it could be as strong as we wanted it to be, also to make sure that what we had reflected our story line, not only for the opening but the whole film is we were to make it. 

Jacked: Changes Made

As we went on to editing there were a few changes made to make it better and what we thought was right.

1. Starting with the title. It wasn't until the last day of filming where  we decided to change the name due to the narrowing down of the 2 minute opening. After brainstorming names which included Conviction, Non Conviction, Stop and Stolen we came up Jacked. After the last scene we needed a powerful word but was youthful so someone suggested Jacked.

2. Another thing we changed was the way the the opening ends. When we was looking at the rough cut we felt that there was too much action happening in it, it felt as it was the first scene after the opening. We changed the plot of the opening by having a bag in Raheem's (Rojal)) room full of stolen goods but he wasn't aware of it, Noah (Ismail) bring the laptop to show Raheem and Vince (Cristian). Vince is pleased with Noah and places the laptop in the bag. Noah and Vince then decide to go back out to do more looting but Raheem is against it and stays at home. Just as they are about to leave Vince decides to leave the bag in one of the cupboards, as he is stuffing it in that where the film ends. 

3. We also decided to change the music that we was going to do, instead of using mellow reggae we decided to use a drum and bass reggae beat as it was more up tempo with the pace of the editing and the running. As we was editing we felt that we needed to create more suspense and one way of doing that was with music, for this we found a copyright free track of sound cloud that gradually picked up in pace to show the tension of leaving the bag in the cupboard. 

4. The shots we decided to use as well changed to make it more engaging for example, we decided to use more close ups of the Ismail pressing the buttons continuously to get it, and of Rojal shaking his head in disappointment as Cristian and Ismail are about to go back out to loot.

Jacked: Editing The Final Cut

Jacked: Editing the final cut

Jacked: Editing

Once we had put our rough cut together, we then began with our final cut. This was a long process that we had to do and we had to make sure that we done all these things:

• Shorten the clips from the rough copy so that the were the right match cuts, continuity and to make sure that we had various different shots types.
• Add the Production and Distribution motions at the beginning of the opening to as that is key for making a film so that they get recognition for the funding that they have given. (although the production and distribution companies are made up it shows how we're following the order of credits).
• Made sure that the credits were in the right order. 
• Had the right sounds in the right places, as well as making sure that the background music was at the right pace to go with the pace of the running and the action. 

As we was editing we got advice from our peers and our teachers to get their opinion on how they felt the editing was going, there was positives and negatives feedback, but we use the negative to make our film more successful in what we're trying to achieve. 

Jacked: Making Of The Production and Distribution Companies

(Picture Taken Via Instagram)

Originally we thought we could use other professional distribution and production companies for our 2 minute film opening however it turns out we had to do our own ones, therefore we used a software called 'Motion 4' which allowed us to create a production and distribution company from scratch.

When doing our companies we had to be very patient and vigilant as the slightest mistake could mean we have to restart. We first had a tutorial on how to use the software as this was the first time we had ever tried or known about the software however it became easy as we had a few goes around it.

When we understood how to use the software it became quite natural. We first started with our production company. As soon as we started we had a bit of an argument with what the background and name would be as it needs to reflect the film. Each one of us had a unique but different ideas. Starting with the name, suggestions include ; 'Myers Productions', 'Studio 41', 'Insight/Inside Films' however when we all though about it realistically we came up with 'Mural Films' because when we were shooting in hackney we went to the mural wall which was our inspiration for the way the film would be constructed. First we had to check that the company wasn't already taken due to copyright. Fortunately it wasn't which means we went ahead with designing the background.

To choose the background wasn't hard there were templates already installed into the system and we previewed nearly all of them to see which background would suite the purpose. Then one stood out for us. It was a ribbon going around, making its way to a house where we then inserted 'Mural films' as if it was a sun rise. We were happy with the final result as it was everything we wanted and more; the feel, colours, background and the animation itself.

(Images Taken Via Instagram)

The next step was our distribution company. This was easier to complete because we had played around with the software and we were now experienced. We were drawn to a template which looked like a circus theme which lead us to the name "Fun House". It consists of the colours light orange and white and then spins till you see the name (Which is isn't long). It spins quite a few times before it stops. There was an idea that we would make it in 3D which we knew how to do however because of the final product- the way it looked. We decided it was best if we left it the way it originally was. 

Jacked: Rough Cut & Feedback

       (Rough Cut)

After our teacher looked over our rough cut we had a series of feedback including :

WHAT WENT WELL...

1. Good use of a variety of camera shots such as wide shot, close up and behind the shoulder shots.

IMPROVE... 

1. We need to shoot some scenes again due to mis-en-scene as their was a scene where we could see rojals and cristians reflection
2. Our scenes were to quick; we need to slow our shots down 
3. Remember to focus every shot

Changes To Be Made In Response To The Rough Cut 

1. Going to shoot some scenes again to make sure its at the best standard
2. when it comes to finalizing our editing we will slow down the shots so it doesn't look too rapid
3. When going out to shoot this time make sure that all is good including mis-en-scene and focus every shot. 

Jacked: Composing The Rough Cut

Rough Cut

(Cristian and Ismail discussing the progress of the rough cut so far)

When starting editing, We first done a rough cut of the opening to put the all the clips with the various shot types  in order this gave us the opportunity to see how our work is coming together and reflect on it to see if there's any shots that needed to be redone so that there's a sense of continuity and that it makes sense to the audience.

Here you can see  Rojal editing the rough cut so that we have a understanding of how we want the final piece to come out. Whilst doing our rough copy we established a few things that will make our opening more engaging for the audience.