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

The above photos show several screenshots from our prelimenary task and our opening two minutes of our film. Since shooting our first prelimenary task me and Oli have learned alot more about the use of editing and camerawork and camera shots. In our first task we used basic camerashots such as over the shoulder, high angle and medium shots. We thought at the time that these type of shots looked very effective but as we got more comfortable with the camera we realised we could produce better looking shots for our opening two minutes. In our first task we used the basic three filming rules, the 180 degree angle rule, which is shown in the pictures above, match on action, which is shown when Oli opens the door and then is seen closing it and shot/reverse shot which is also shown in the pictures above where we are seen having a conversation.

In our final film we used a big variety of camerashots and angles. The first shot we used which is shown in one of the pictures above, was a zooming out shot. This was hard to pull off as we had to keep the tripod steady and be careful not to zoom out at a fast pace. We also used a panning shot for showing the car going past at speed. By this time in our filming, we felt confident enough to be able to pull this off without it looking unprofessional. One of the hardest camera shots to pull off was the shot showing the car zooming down the road, we had the boot open with the car driving past and one of us was lying down in the boot filming. This was a hard shot to film because we knew we had to keep the camera steady to get the effect that we wanted. We also used a high angle shot at the end which we used in our first task back at the start of the year. We thought the high angle shot looked effective in our first task so we wanted to include a high angle shot in our opening two minutes. The high angle shot is shown above in our CCTV effect shot. We also used a low angle shot which we hadn't done before for our opening two minutes and this is shown in one of the photos above. This is possibly one of the most effective shots that we had actually done.

We have also learnt a lot more about editing since our first task earlier in the year. When we filmed our first task and we loaded it up onto adobe, we didnt really do much with the editing, we werent very familar with the software so we didnt do very much experimenting. With our final film, we knew we had to put in after effects, such as titles, music and other effects such as the CCTV shot shown in the picture above. We improved on cutting up the scenes alot with our opening two minutes, everything seemed to flow well and in order. We found in our first task that we had quite a jumpy film and this was down to our lack of experience in adobe, but everything seemed to flow well and look good when we came round to editing our opening two minutes. There is a good use on match on action during our opening two minutes, where we see the driver of the car put the key in the ignition and then it cuts to the dashboard where it lights up. We thought this looked very effective and it flowed very well.

We also made progress in editing by adding in music over the top, we had never really done this sort of thing before and we expected it to be quite hard. It took me and Oli quite a long time to find the correct music for our opening two minutes but we eventually found something which we thought sounded and fitted in well and we added this music over the top of our film.

Titles were also something that we hadn't worked with before and when it came to adding them in over the top, it took quite a long time. We added in the title of the film, which is shown in one of the photos above, the credits for the actors and the producers and directors. We kept the same font and colour to make it look exactly the same and keep the continuity throughout.

The only real thing that we edited was the final shot where i am seen approaching the house and knock on the front door. We wanted to have a CCTV effect for this so we changed the colour of the shot to black and white and then added text over the top to make the shot look more realistic. We were very pleased with the outcome and we thought the CCTV shot looked very effective.

Overall, we believe that we had learnt alot more about camerashots/work and editing since filming our first task back in 2010. We have become a lot more comfortable with the camera, either using it handheld or by tripod, we have experimented different types of shots which we may not have had the confidence to do earlier on in the year and we certainly have learnt a lot more about the whole editing side. When we firsted used Adobe, we were a little lost with the whole software, but we have become familar with the program and put in some effective editing which has contributed to a successful opening two minutes of film.

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

This is a picture of us holding all of the equipment that we used in Scotland to film. We are standing at the front door which was used for the final shot. Between us we are holding the camera, tripod, suitcase and umbrella! These were all vital parts of our filming, especially the tripod with some of the long zooms that we got, it would have been incredibly difficult to perform these handheld.

We have used a large amount of technology throughout creating this film opening, including YouTube, Blogger, Adobe Premiere Elements and Hotmail. These have all helped in producing our film.
YouTube gave us the opportunity to research some same genre film openings such as Casino Royale and The Bourne Supremacy. Seeing these gave us some ideas about what we wanted to do. YouTube also gave us the option to upload our preliminary task and final film so that people could view it and give us some feedback.
Adobe Premiere Elements was the main use of technology which helped us put together our film opening. The editing was the most important part to make sure that it all fitted together in the right way. This particular technology was difficult to get the hang of but our preliminary task helped us with this, also doing new things such as titles and sound was difficult.
We have used Blogger to keep up to fdate with all of the work that we have done by posting it, we also did all of our research and planning on here, including the shot lists and storyboards, so blogger was very important for our organization. 
Hotmail helped us in the way that we emailed our storyboard and location pictures to ourselves and then inserted them into as post. This was an easy way to do it by just sending across an email, rather than uploading them on to the computer via a memory stick or disk.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience for our film 'Despatched' is mainly a teenage audience. We didn't pick a specific gender for our film but we did think that it would mainly be a male audience as the genre of the film is action. Stereotypically you see a more male audience at the cinema when it comes to blockbuster films which have explosions, car chases, weapon scenes and heroic actors and this is the type of film that we were trying to get across. We feel that the type of film ours is will attract a teenage audience because it has a very exciting feel to it and it also makes the audience want to watch on. In the first two minutes of the film, we have a secretive and mysterious feel, we don't give much away and we try to keep the audience on the edge of their seats by building up the suspense and tension.
A stereotypical person who would enjoy our film would be a teenage boy, who would maybe shop in topman, they would probably listen to hip hop music or rock, music that is upbeat and fast and exciting. TV programmes that they would be into would consist of things like 24, Lost and Prison Break. The film we made is similar to these type of shows because they have an exciting and suspense building type of theme.

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

We made up our Production Company whilst creating our film. We called it OCA Productions, as the O stands for Oli and then the CA for Davids last two initials of Christian Andrews. We put this in front of a background of an eclipse which made it effective. We decided to make our own one as we struggled to download the Working Title opening, but we are happy with ours, and think it shows a good amount of creativity. A production company would help to organise everything such as the lighting, location and crew. This means that they would have to be chosen carefully to make sure they select the right people, but as our production company was ourselves, we would have full responsibility!
The distributor would help fund a movie, with advertising also a main point of a distributor. As we looked so closely into the James Bond movies and wanted to make ours similar, the distributor may be the same one that looks to take over the rights, as MGM went bankrupt after the last movie.
In our titles we have "Featuring Oli Shapley" "Directed by Oli Shapley and "Starring David Andrews". We worked in a small group so could not have the usual five or six credits that appear on screen. We chose starring for David as he is the main character, whereas I only "Feature" once. I directed it mainly whilst David was acting so we chose my name for that. The titles went in the order that I described earlier, as they appeared when we both individually came up on screen. Featuring Oli Shapley came up first as I was the first one to be on screen. David was the last coming at about twenty seconds in, so when he got in the car we put starring David Andrews.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The key character that we chose from our opening is David. We compared him to Daniel Craig from James Bond. This is because they wear similar costumes and both feature in films of the action genre. 

The role in the films is pretty similar as they both play the "hero" role as oppose to the "villain" role.
We shaped the costumes on someone like the figure of James Bond as we think that the suit looks smart and was a factor in many action films. As you can see both of these picture show suits being worn, however David does not have a tie, which makes Daniel Craig look more like a businessman. Although we like the suits, there is some doubt about being able to rush around in suits and chase people, so with our film being mainly David in a car from the shots that he is in makes it slightly more realistic.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (ie of film openings)

)

1.  The top photo shows the start of our film with the title being shown. We used a bold black font for our title as we thought it was an effective way to grab the audince's attention. We needed a big bold title to get the audience interested and to get them to watch on. We used an effect on the title so that it didn't just appear on screen, we got it to appear letter by letter. We thought this looked effective because it gave the film a more realistic feel. The title being in black also gave it a good effect, having it in black gave it a feel of importance and had a smart presentation just how things are like in real action films.

2. The top photo can also be analysed for the setting of our film. The screenshot shows where most of the film takes place. We filmed in the highlands up in Scotland in half term and we thought the surroundings were very helpful in building tension and suspense. Having a mysterious sort of location, keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. We used the location to full potential, the windy roads around the loch proved perfect for one of the shots we were going for and also having little traffic and other vehicles around gave it a slightly mysterious sort of feel.

3. Costumes were very important in our film and we thought that they played an effective role in creating an action styled film. You see in your everyday sort of action films that the key characters are dressed up smartly, such as Daniel Craig in James Bond or Will Smith in Men in Black. We wanted to have this kind of film, so we thought that dressing up in smart clothing would give the film a more realistic feel and would also look as if the characters have authority aswell. The costumes for the characters can be seen in the second photo from the top. We had little props for our film, but we used an old briefcase and we also used a mobile phone. These two props are usually associated with action films, and they both play a key part in the opening two minutes of our film. The photo showing the mobile above, also shows the caller to be 'unknown'. This is also a stereotypical sort of thing that happens in action films. Often people come across mysterious callers in action films.

5. The title of our film is called 'Despatched' as shown in the top photo above.We thought that this title was appropriate as it links in with the actual storyline. It gives the film an exciting feel to it, as the name suggests something that has to be taken somewhere. We thought this was an effective title for our action film as it backs up what the story is about and also gives it an attention grabbing effect, so the audience want to watch to see what is going to happen.

6. The story of the film is introduced right from the beginning, the location is the first thing that the audience can see as the camera zooms out, we see the car in the first shot aswell and this gives a hint to the audience that maybe the it will play a part in the film. Me and Oli tried to keep the opening two minutes as secretive and mysterious as we possibly could as we didn't want to give much away about what would happen later on in the film. I thought that we left the film on a good cliffhanger at the end of our two minutes, as the camera stopped shooting just after i had knocked on the door. Me and Oli actually hadn't planned what would happen after our opening two minutes so we don't really know where it would lead to, we just concentrated on our opening.

7. The  genre of our film was an action film and Me and Oli believe that the opening two minutes show the audience quite clearly. The first camera shot when it zooms out and reveals the car gives the audience a hint about what type of film it will actually be, and when the characters are introduced wearing smart clothing this also gives a clear idea about the genre of the film. The type of storyline also backs up the genre that we were going for, from quite a early stage in the two minutes you realise that there is something important being transported and this all adds up and gives clear indication about the genre of the film. The camera shots also contribute to the genre of the film, we have fast cut shots nearer the end, and there are multiple shots of a car speeding past which is stereotypically seen in an action film. There are also stereotypical props used in the film aswell such as the mobile phone with 'unknown' on screen, shown in one of the photos up at the top and also a black briefcase.

8. The characters are introduced very early in the first two minutes of the film. Both of the characters are seen in the second shot of the film and it is clear that they are in an action film, shown through the costumes and props. This is the only shot that the two characters are shown at the same time and we thought it would be effective for the characters to be revealed early on in the film so the audience can familiarize themselves with the characters.