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

When we first began the process of brainstorming ideas for our film opening we looked at multiple different genres, we chose the gangster genre because we all felt that it would be a fun yet challenging opening to create. In our planning process we all wanted to try and steer away from typical American gangster films and go more with a British twist. We decided on to try and create a film that did not use all of the obvious conventions as a typical film from this genre in order to create an interesting and original piece that differed from other films already on the market; promoting RAMM productions as a brand that produces things that aren’t typical or already made by the various already established production brands. However in order to make sure that our film is clear of the genre we still wanted to use a few of the expected conventions. We began by recognising the conventions that are typical of this genre and the conventions we found were;

• The gangster is usually an immigrant who hasn’t done well going to honest route (i.e been to school and got a good job) so has turned to crime in order to get a higher status
•  The story usually takes place in the big city-with seedy alley ways and busy streets
•  The only loyalty the gangster feels is to his own immigrant roots
• Success of the gangster is measured by material goods-flashy cars, expensive clothes etc..
• The gangsters antagonist is society and the enforcers of the law i.e - The police, the FBI etc..
• The end justifies a means

To begin with we began to think about what kind of characters we wanted our film to feature, to do this we thought about what age group we wanted our film to be aimed at. Most typical gangster films are aimed at older audiences therefore feature the more typical ‘old school’ gangsters however we thought we would create one that was aimed at people who are of younger generations. To do this we planned for our film to feature characters in which the audience could relate to; therefore we chose to have our film featuring young gang members as the gangsters as opposed to typical Al Capone style gangsters, wearing tracksuits and hoodies as opposed to typical suits and cigars. Our main character (Jay) further challenges the typical stereotype that gangsters only turn to crime as a last resort to achieve a higher status because he has opportunities – goes to a good school, with a strong family, he just is lead astray by his friends and takes the wrong decisions which causes him to end up in the position he is.

By choosing to do a film about young gang members not only does it challenge the typical character conventions of the genre but it enabled us to also challenge the typical inner city location that is usually expected of the genre. By using young gang members we thought it would look more appropriate to use a more urban setting. Being located on the outskirts of London it would have been easy for us to choose a very busy location within the city to create the typical gangster film setting however we decided to use a more urban location based on the idea that young youths who live in many estates around Britain are perceived by many as the modern day gangster; therefore we would try to find somewhere that looked like a place where these ‘youths’ can be found.

We also decided to challenge typical convention of the success of a gangster being shown by material items because in our film, the youths shown clearly are not of huge wealth and do not have flashy items, instead they are fighting for territory and their success is shown by their territory.

Even though our film challenges some aspects of typical conventions is also does use some. The antagonists featured in the film (TAGS) are the enforcers of the law and they are trying to stop the gang warfare on the streets, which is similar to in typical gangster films where gangsters are always shown against police. Also, The only loyalty that the gang members feel that are shown within the film is to their fellow gang members and they fight for their own which is conforming to the typical convention of gangsters loyalty to their own immigrant roots.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents one particular social group in particular; young gang members, otherwise known to many people as ‘youths’. In our film we depict young stereotypical gang members. Gang culture and crime is currently a very hot subject in the media. In London there have been 169 separate gangs identified; with more than a quarter said to have been involved in murders. Gangs are responsible for more than a fifth of youth crime in London, according to the Metropolitan Police report seen by BBC London and the unpublished report found that nearly half of London gangs had been involved in serious assault.

Due to this many people in today’s society people have a very set view of what many people are like or act like just by where they come from/what they look like, they stereotype many youngsters with the same negative label just because of the behaviour they see some individuals doing. We have played on this stereotype of gang members by using characters which talk using incorrect grammar, wear tracksuits, bandannas, live in a particular urban area, fight, don’t work and whom generally live up to this bad label. We chose to represent this particular social group because we feel that the audience will be able to relate more to people like this because this it’s a very common social group found in today’s society rather than the stereotypical older aged, suited and wealthy gangsters found in many American gangster films. Also by choosing to use this particular stereotype it is incorporating a very much debated and problematic modern day issue of gang warfare and crime-maybe even sending a message to people who are part of young gangs who watch the film, making them realise that it can have devastating consequences as well as attracting a wider audience of people who have heard about it in the media and are intrigued or who are just generally interested by the culture itself.

In the introduction of our film we also play on the stereotype of this particular social group further by creating our film title in graffiti. Graffiti is a typical thing expected of gang members nowadays whether they be marking territorial boundaries, warning rival gangs or simply to glorify their own gang, therefore we chose to incorporate it so reflect that the social group we are depicting is fighting for territory.

However we do not only depict a negative stereotype of gangs, we also depict a police type force within society (TAGS). These are a group of people who are trying to stop the gang culture within the streets. This is a stereotypical image of ‘do-gooders’ within society who are trying to make it a safer and better place. The TAGS force that we represent are all suited and respectably dressed, well spoken and generally live up to the people that you see within society who are seen as doing well for themselves and whom people look up to. It’s ironic that within our media product we have depicted both positive and negative stereotyped groups in both extremes, however I think that this will appeal to the audience much more because it makes for the typical ‘good vs bad’ storyline that you expect to find in a film from this genre.  

BELOW IS OUR MAIN CHARACTER JAY;

A STEREOTYPICAL GANG;



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

In order to make our film a success I think that it would need to be distributed by one of the more successful and already established media institutions. To see what kind of media institution would be best suited to distribute our film I have looked into other British films in the gangster genre. I have looked at British film production companies because I think that this is most appropriate for our film seeing as we are taking a very British twist to the typical Al Capone/The godfather type film. From my research into other films I found a film called 1 day; it is also a British twist to a gangster film. Like ours, it is a gang warfare movie set in an urban area. It depicts Birmingham's black gang community, with aggressive hip-hop figuring as a kind of chorus commenting on the action and raising the emotional ante. It tells the familiar story of a drug dealer threatened with death if he doesn't repay within three hours the £500,000 he's been holding for a fellow criminal just released from jail. From reading what the film was about and having looked at the trailer for it I thought that it looked like the kind of we would hope to create and I also think that it is aimed at the same target audience as Blud Trigger. Therefore I looked into which media institution was behind the film and found it was a British production company called vertigo films.

Vertigo films are a UK media company founded in 2002 to create and distribute commercially driven independent cinema. They have created many films within the past 10 years, many of which have been major successes including; street dance 3D and monsters which  have both won baftas & street dance 2, The business, the football factory,  shrooms and point blank. I feel that Vertigo productions would be best suited to produce our film because from looking at 1 day I can see that they are able to effectively capture gang culture also from their extensive portfolio of previous successes I think they are in a strong position to market our film well and make it a success.

                                                              1 day film trailer

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Typically, films within the gangster genre are aimed at older audiences-usually male. Gangster films are usually aimed at older generations as they typically involve strong violence, drugs, sex and crime. Having looked at other famous gangster films that fall typically into the American gangster genre such as Gangs of new York, lock stock and two smoking barrels and the godfather I found that they all had an 18+ age rating, meaning that their films audience is mainly older generations. However due to our film not complying with traditional gangster conventions, featuring young characters that do have opportunities, being set in a more urban location and by the success of the gangster not being shown by material wealth, I think that our audience will be younger generations and our film should have the 15+ age rating. I think that younger generations would enjoy our film more because not only may they be able to relate more to the themes involved within the film but it involves more modern day crime, and crime that we hear about frequently in the media nowadays therefore I think it would appeal more to the younger generations. By being in the 15+ age rating our film must comply with the following rules;

• The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behavior.
• Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.
• Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualized.
• Dangerous behavior (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) can be allowed provided the detail of such is low so that it cannot create too much of an impression of the viewer. Abuse of weapons which are easily obtained will not be tolerated.
• Frequent use of strong language can be permitted, although very strong language needs to be restricted and would have to be seen as reasonable in the context.
• Nudity in a sexual content must be restricted however nudity in a non-sexual content does not.
• Sexual activity without strong detail would most likely to be allowed. Some strong sexual references may be allowed to, but very strong ones may not, unless used within reason.
• As long as the film is appropriate for 15 year olds, no certain themes are prohibited
• Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. The same applies to references. Any sexual violence should be discreet and be strongly justified.

Having looked at the guidelines for films with a 15+ certificate I think that our film is suitable to comply with this age certificate. Not only will having a lower age certificate mean that our film is more accessible to a younger audience but it means that it widens our audience. Also, I think that our film will not just be aimed at a male audience because our film does not involve as much violence and has more of a moral meaning that would appeal to both a male and female audience.  

How did you attract/address your audience?

To begin our film making process we presented a film pitch to a group of people who are representative of our target audience. We carried out this film pitch in order to ensure that our idea would appeal to our target audience and to build on our ideas further. Our film pitch was very helpful because we received lots of helpful constructive critism at the end from our audience which brought up many things that we had not yet thought about as a group. Some of the questions asked were whether the viewer is going to see that Jays Father has been shot, or not, how were we going to make it look futuristic and how do you know where Jay is running to. All of the audience’s questions prompted us to think further into the aspects of the opening and I think enabled us to make our opening much more effective. We decided to not reveal that it was Jays father who he had shot and instead foreshadow the events to come, include a cctv shot which revealed the futuristic date and to show Jay with his gang and then receive a text saying "We're ready", which is where the journey begins. I hope that by adding in these aspects to the film it will make more sense to the audience what is happening as well as adding to the openings tension, and this will therefore gain more of the audience’s attention.

We also attracted our audience through the use of music. We have incorporated Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryders song ‘Man dem’ into our film opening. We decided to choose this song because we thought that not only did the fast pace fit with Jay’s running, but it gives it the grimey atmosphere that we wanted to create.  Also, by using a mainstream song by established artists Chipmunk and Tinchy Stryder, we are enabling the film to break into a mainstream audience and attract the fans of these artists to watch the film. Also, I think that by using two British artists, chipmunk a British rapper and song writer  from Tottenham, London and Tinchy Stryder a Ghanaian British musician who grew up in Bow, East London it is appropriate for our film because we are doing a British twist on the gangster genre.

Lastly, in order to engage our audience and engage them into the film we wanted our characters to fit the stereotype of young Black gang members and to attract audiences who are familiar with other British gangster films in which these stereotyped characters are familiar. To do this we had to choose our costume and props very carefully. We decided to dress our main character Jay In a hoodie, with the hood up and wearing a bandanna and also wanted his fellow gang members to be wearing hoodies with their hoods up. We did this to indicate to the audience immediately that the film is based on gang culture. Also, the bandanna incorporates the feeling of crime, because its an obvious way of trying to hide your identity. We are showing a very negative stereotype of gangs however I think that this will benefit us because it means that the film becomes more of a reality to the audience as we are depicting a familiar figure to the public that is shown frequently in the media about gang crime and street culture, especially having had riots not very long ago that which was a worldwide topic of conversation. Therefore I think by doing this we are attracting an even wider audience.

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

The process of creating our opening was a very lengthily process, one that was much more complex that I had first expected. I think that overall the thing that took the most time which I had not expected was  the filming itself, in order to get the correct shots and angles it took a long time and multiple different shot takes; that added with the editing made for many hours of film making. From the process of having made the opening to the film I now look at the Film industry very differently, and have realized that the process is not simple and appreciate the aspects that go into a film much more. The main technologies that i learnt about in making our product were Imac and Imovie. Before having joined a level media I had never had a chance to use an Imac before, when I first began to use it I was clueless and did not even know how to turn it on.  However, I learned quite quickly with the help of peers how to use it, and when we began to use Imovie it realized I had much more to learn. On I movie I learnt how to do multiple things. Firstly, the tool in which I found most useful was the clip trimmer tool. This tool enabled continuity of clips, it allowed shots to flow from one to another much more easily. The shots in which this tool was particularly helpful was the stairs scene and the scene of Jay running down the alley. By using the clip trimmer tool we were able to cut quickly back and forth from shots which sped up the pace of the opening, increasing the tension which we would not have been able to create as effectively without clip trimmer. Another very useful technique I learnt to use on Imovie was the ability to put music over the top of film clips. At first I had no idea how to do this and had expected that it would be quite complicated to do but I soon discovered that the process of getting music onto iTunes and then over the top of whatever clips I needed was very easy.  We used this technique in our anematic, blood testing video and our final opening, so it ended up being very useful. I also learnt how to speed up and slow down the speed of shots, this again came in very handy when editing all of the videos that our group made. I learnt that slowing down shots (for example the shot where Jay drops his gun) can effectively add tension, and speeding up shots could effectively used to speed up the pace. Using Imovie we were also able to create an Anematic from our final storyboared, this acted as a great help when filming because it allowed us to film the exact shots that we needed, below is the anematic we created using Imac with the actual shots we filmed over the top, I thought of creating this because i thought it would be a good way of seeing how useful our anematic actually was during the filming process;

Another piece of technology that I learnt to use in the process of creating our product was the video cameras. I had never used a video camera in the past, but they were also very simple to operate once we had been shown how. I did not ever understand fully the difference between HD cameras and normal cameras before, not knowing how much the quality of the two differed our group used a non-HD camera for our first filming session because a HD camera had not been available and we were eager to begin the filming process; however when we uploaded our footage onto the Imac we discovered that it was of very poor quality.  We had dimmed our shots to add to the grimey vibe of the opening however we found that this made the quality even worse and the image because very grainy.  It then became apparent that we would have to use a HD camera to re-film the footage. This had a great impact on our filming because it meant that we had lost a weeks’ worth of filming, it set us back greatly. Once we had a HD camera we re-filmed the stairs scene, and the original footage we had filmed worked as a test shot source and we were able to film the scene much more effectively adding in shots that differed from ones we had originally filmed to make it look more effective. We successfully re-filmed the footage, improving it with new shot angles, however when we again tried to dim the shots we found that the image began to get grainy again therefore decided to stick with the natural light and not use a dimmer. 


The video below demonstrates some of the difficulties we faced during filming;

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

Below is our preliminary task;

(write up to what is said within the video)

Filming our Preliminary task was a huge help in getting us familiar with how to use the video cameras and editing techniques. Having looked back at our Preliminary task I think that our group has learnt a huge amount and we have all gained a lot of ability since then, which has enabled us to create the opening that we have. I think that the main thing that filming our Preliminary task has taught me is that organization is needed in order for filming to go smoothly and to make sure that valuable filming time is not wasted. When we were filming our preliminary task we did not work together very well as a group in order to make sure that we had all of the props l equipment needed for filming to go smoothly and consequently I do not think that our final film was as good as it could have been. However when it came to creating our film opening we were much more organized, we all took on our own roles within the group and having a filming schedule made it much easier to organize when certain props (i.e. the gun) were needed to be brought to filming. Another thing that I think I have learnt from the progression from it to the full product is that great attention needs to be paid to continuity when filming. When we filmed our Preliminary task there were faults with continuity which were very noticeable, for example from where Reece walked into the room to where it skips to him looking at Melissa does not flow fluently and it is a very apparent mistake, however whilst filming our final opening we all made a great effort to make sure that there were no continuity errors. One fault we did find when we were editing our filmed shots together was that we did not create an effective match on action shot when Jay enters the TAGS leaders office, however due to us having a filming schedule we were able to shift around some things and make time to re-film him entering the room in order to add in a match on action. I also feel that from the preliminary task I learnt a lot about camera angles. Within our preliminary task we did not use a variety of camera angles or shots and stuck with very simple shot which I think caused it to be a bit boring to watch and it lacked the tension needed. However in our final piece we made sure that we filmed using lots of different angles (low/high angles, close ups, point of view shots etc...) and therefore were able to make our opening more entertaining, whilst also creating a fast pace through the use of editing the different angles and shots together. A key example of this is when Jay is running up the stairs and we have edited together a variety of different shot types to create a fast pace.

We also created a storyboard when creating our film opening which we did not use when doing our Preliminary task. I think that from having a storyboard to refer back to when filming it made the process flow much more smoothly. I had never used the process of a storyboard before as a base to film from, however it enabled us to make sure that our shot types differed and did not become too monotonous for the viewer. Even though we did not stick to our storyboard exactly it gave us a good base to work from, below is our storyboard;