Evaluation

By Shaun O’Connor and Matthew

Wilson
Information
Analysis
Filming
 Shaun filmed most the scenes.
 Matthew helped suggest some ideas of how the shots could
be filmed.
 Filming on trains needed the permission which included
phoning up.
 There were certain things we couldn’t do such as film on
platforms.
 We were not sure whether filming MI6 could get us into
trouble but everything ran smoothly
 We had to film in an office but we had problems with the days
and people getting back to us, as Verulam point did not reply
to my email and the Council was cancelled cause our actor
couldn’t make the day in the end we used a school room.
Editing
 Both input from Matthew and Shaun was involved in this.
 Very few problems were encountered except downloading
our song “On Call” due to the schools ban on storage use.
 We also had a problem with the titling, some of it needed to
be removed and wasn’t successfully so when exported it was
still there so we had to export it twice.
 A positive response from our piece in reference to editing
was the transitions from one scene to the next and how they
flowed well.
 An effective idea we had was to reverse the clips to show the
character going back into the house. It was effective the
sound created did not get a good review
Location recce
 House Scene, we chose this location because it offered a
nice simplistic feel to it.
 It had its ups and downs such as the distance to travel was
difficult.
 It suited its purpose though which is what we wanted.
 Train scene, Initially Shaun’s idea because of the significant
to high officials who left stuff on the train.
 There were pros and cons to this too.
 Such as the fuss of getting permission to film on trains.
 Of course though having this scene is vital so we needed to
have it no matter what.
Continued
 London scene, we planned to film at the Embankment as this
is where MI6 is placed.
 We had a few problems such as, travelling to London with the
peak times and area restrictions.
 Also we were not sure about filming in some parts of London
but when we did no one stopped us or asked us what we
were doing.
 We found the busy London streets perfect for our piece as
we wanted it to look business like.
 We also benefitted from it being filmed in the holidays as it
was after midday it still looked like rush hour because of all
the tourists.
Sound
 We had a mixture of non-diagetic and diagetic sound.
 This included the normal day to day street sounds (diagetic) and music
in the background (non-diagetic).
 We found using SFX in our previous pieces was not successful so we
learned from the experience and reverted to not using it again.
 In some of the scenes we had to balance out the levels so the diagetic
sound and non diagetic sound was even.
 We had a problem with peaking with some of the sound such as the
music.
 The plus though was that the music was really significant to the piece
which Shaun suggested and I thought would be very successful.
 Some people did not feel some of the background sound was really
effective.
 I thought that the background sounded added atmosphere to the
scene.
Genre
 We chose to do an action comedy genre.
 This is one of the most difficult genres because everyone’s
humour varies.
 The idea originated from officials such as members of
parliament accidentally leaking private information.
 Therefore the issue like most comic bases is something that
people relate to and will find funny.
 We concentrated on two film in particular film Johnny English
and the Last Action Hero.
 Johnny English was our Main Basis where we got the foolish
Agent persona from.
 The input from the Last Action Hero specially its parody
nature was a real help.
Audience reaction- Questionnaires
How old are you?
Are you male, or female?
Did you enjoy the opening sequence?
Do you agree that the film was action comedy? Why
or why not?
After seeing this opening sequence, do you want to
see the rest of the film?
What did you like about the opening sequence?
1)13
2)Female
3)I did
4)i thought it was a good comedy with elements of
action :)
5)Yeahh, i liked the way it zoomed into the clock :D
6)As i said the zooming into the clock and the bit
that goes backwards :)
I hope this helps and you get a good mark :)
 The Video received a positive
response.
 There were a few comments
on improvement such as
people did not like the sound
of the film rewinding in a clip.
 The scene where you flash
back to the bag was well
received.
 The incident with the Pyjamas
was felt to be done for the
sake of it.
 People did like the scene with
the phone clock they felt that
worked very well.
Conclusion
 From this we have learned that organisation and communication is vital.
 We have really benefitted from having the equipment we did and would
defiantly choose to do in future.
 Travelling we found a problem so to overcome this we must be more
careful and double check to make sure we are in no breech of sectors or
times.
 Permission, we were not as prepared as we could have been because we
did not realise how much permission we would need to film on trains and
platforms so on so forth.
 Sound levels were very basic and worked well enough but if we had more
time we would have cut and changed bits within the tempo and bass to
effect how.
 This would have made the diagetic sound and non-diagetic more
differentiated.
Questions
In what does your media project use developed
or challenged forms and conventions of real
media products?
Basing our piece on a film, being Johnny
English, which shared a similar genre of film
made it more realistic as a media product. Using
text such as titling created made it seem like a
real movie format. We used real locations
instead of something like green screen to
suggest professionalism on our behalf. The
Camera equipment used was professional and
was high quality this suggested a more realistic
conventional media film.
 How does your media product
represent such social groups?
This being a fictional piece which includes secret
agents and MI6 will be limited to social groups.
We focus on the main character who is a foolish
young man from the outskirts of London travelling
to London for work. Therefore from that we
already have two social groups one representing
the youth of today meaning 20+ rather than teens
which are seen to be fool hardy and ambitious.
Then the other being London businessmen who
actually live outside London and train it in, the
ones you see as you travel around in rush hour in
the morning.
 What kind of Media institution would
distribute your piece and Why?
Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures, this is because
both companies are known for making comedy action films
and their input would benefit us most out of most distribution
companies. Such films include “The Last Action Hero”
(Columbia Pictures) whose world wide profit of 50 million
dollars. “Johnny English” (Universal Pictures) profit of 120
million dollars. Being an action comedy our market would
best sell in the states as that type audience like those type of
films and both Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures are
located in the states. With Vivendi supporting us from
Universal Pictures we will have more than DVD sales to rely
on but future showings on TV.
Who Would be your audience?
First we need to think of rating which probably be
15 which may cut some of our audience out as we
would like to aim for teenagers and young adults.
Unlike Shane Meadows’ “This is England” which
was rated 18 and cut out a lot more of his
audience. If we aimed for a male audience we
may also cut out 51% of cinema viewers so we
have to appeal to a female audience well which is
partly why it is a comedy film as humour is real
appeal for the other gender.
 How did you attract/address your
audience?
Our main audience were young males. Typically a young
male audience will be attracted to films with violence in them
which is why we chose an action genre. The appeal of the
fast moving, quick paced and smooth transitional scenes will
defiantly entice a Youth audience. We do not want to forget
the other audience members and limit our viewers such as
Shane Meadows is known to do. So we have a comedy
genre as well as action to attract a female audience and even
if parodied we could have scenes of romance as you might
do in a real action film where the hero gets his girl for an
older more traditional like audience.
What have you learnt about technologies from
the construction of our product?
I have learnt how to handle them in use and when not in use.
I have learnt how to edit videos quite comfortably since the
last two films which before I had not a clue how to do so. I
developed knowledge of how to use a camera over this
period of filming and editing whether it be the camera we
practiced with or the one we used in our final piece. Using the
Macs I gained a lot of knowledge about other editing devices
you can use as alternatives. One problem with technology we
had to overcome and was a learning experince was the
downloading and uploading of material onto the Mac not only
filming but music for it etc.
What do you feel you have learnt from
preliminary to full product?
In the Preliminary our consistency was poor. In our full
product we made sure that every detail was authentic
and consistently worked. We found in the Preliminary
sounds added in for us were ineffective and were
more of a hindrance than a help. In the actually task
we only used music which was non-diegetic which was
beneficially cause I could provided an emphasis on the
meaning to our piece. In Preliminary we learnt that the
steadiness of our camera needed to be improved so
with the use of a better Tripod in our actually task we
improved movement and stability.
How did you manage the group
dynamics, equipment and
resources, interim deadlines and
the necessarily collaborative
nature of film-making
Are filming equipment was made up simply of a
basic Camera and stand set up provided by
members of the group. By creating a schedule it was
possible to see what happens when and stick to
deadlines.
What health and safety
logistical problems did
you solve
Problems like passers by who we had to
take care of while filming were
acknowledged. The equipment was
treated with care which lowered the
chances of an incident happening.
 How did you organise
your human resources-the
people involved in the
production?
Everyone involved was asked in person to
take part. Majority of informing members
when they may be of need was done via
the internet or mobile phones which was
the main resource used.
 How did you manage actors,
locations, costumes and props?
Remember that deciding not to use
a particular strategy (e.g. not to use
any props) is also a creative
decision
Communication was virtual, often locations we filmed had to
have the permission of the person who owned or was in charge
of. Therefore communication was need whether through internet
or phones to see when people were available. Costume
belonged to the actor therefore he was responsible for it. The
only prop we had was the bag which was owned by Shaun
therefore he was responsible for it.
How did storyboarding and creating
a shooting script work in practice?
Did you make creative decisions to
depart from the original plan? For
what reasons and with what
outcomes
Making the story board helped with working out how
much time our film may take as it needed to be as
close to 2 minutes as possible. The shooting script
assisted in giving a clue of how to filming techniques
and technicalities. In the end we did more filming
than expected with an extra 50 seconds.
Although time management may
seem a less exciting aspect of
creative media practice, it is
possibly the most important-how
did you manage your time, and
with what success?
Creating a schedule seemed a good time
management scheme but it was difficult to
stick to it because some people could not
make the days because something had
just come up.
How did digital technology enable
you to develop creatively and are
there examples of the technology
obstructing or preventing your
creative flow
Obviously we needed to use technology such as a
camera to record and a computer editing system to put it
film together but there were draw backs too, such as
understanding the equipment, this turned out to be an
learning experiences because I now know how to use
editing equipment for example with more confidence.
 How did you respond
to the initial brief with
the audience in mind
I was very optimistic about it the idea was based on
an audience who found parodies one of the best
forms of comedy. Specially how it was related to a
political issue at the time of private documents being
left in places or unintentional shown to the public.
 How did your analysis and
research into the type of film
you selected impact on the
creative process in pre-
production
The research done into these types of films effected
the character and his persona. This was because a
film that I analysed in-depth was Johnny English and
of his characteristics benefited the genre and we
thought that this could work with our piece too.
 In filming and editing, how did you ensure
that the meaning would be apparent to the
audience? What creative decisions did you
make in planning, rehearsing, filming and
editing that were influenced by your sense of
the audience and possible layers of
interpretation?

Costume was a significant factor in the piece to

indicate a comic genre. There was a scene where
the character walks out in his pyjamas which was
done for an element of comedy but was not
originally planned but an idea formed as we were
filming.
How did the audience respond when
you trialled aspects of your film? Are
there a variety of different possible
interpretations of your opening
sequence that will depend on the
cultural situation of the viewer?
There was a very encouraging response, a few
differed on some issues most commented on the
scene where the previous scene rewinds. Saying
either that it was successful or that it could have
been improved.
 Who and What (people,
places, themes, ideas, time
periods) have you
represented and how in your
film?
The Secret Service and Agents was a major theme and
idea and most Secret Agent films film in capitols if not
London then Paris, Cairo, Moscow, etc. Therefore we did
to. In parodying Spy films we filmed in similar locations
with chacters who are dressed if inadequetly because of
the humour similar too.
Who is included and
excluded by the text
you have created?
Obviously we have a protagonist
that’s a secret spy but there is a lack
of “baddies” typical antagonists that
you would see in a Spy Film.
 What form of
“realism” have you
constructed, and why?
From his clothing to his bag to filming outside MI6 we
have tried to make this as realistic as possible using
material value because then that what will make this piece
funny the audience will see the character and see what he
does and will find it funnier if they know there is an
element of realism behind it instead of totally abstract.
 What role do the mise en scene,
action, dialogue, music and style of
camera work (micro elements) play
in the construction of verisimilitude
(the macro level of the textual
world)?
There is little dialogue which allows the piece to
speak for its self. The music is relevant to the piece
from the title of the piece to the lyrics of the song.
The Camera work was extremely fluid it flowed from
one scene to the next keeping the audience
engaged and in a piece like this that is important.
Shots