Evaluation-

In this document I will be evaluating the media task I have produced and discuss the process and the experience in accompanying the final production. In this section of the course I was assigned to create a 3 minutes film production. The film production, set by the BBFC was an Art-House film. 

My film production is called 'The Hunting Season'. It follows the story-line of a teenager, named Hakim, steals money of a notorious boss. The boss then sets two Hench men to catch Hakim. It follows the typical genre of action and drama.

I completed the film production with a group of four people. Which was of;  Lele Obetto, John Gurang and Darnell Lucien. In this group amongst each other we came up with several of film plans and we later concluded on one film idea. After concluding on a final idea, we as a group divided the print out tasks, this way we all were able to contribute to the group. For example; I covered the shot list sector; where I typed up all the shots we plan to film.

We created a film production mainly based on teenagers and it’s like a montage of a typical teenager’s life from the hoods. Gang life is not a choice; it is a lifestyle to survive. Survive the hunting season, where predator and prey meet. 

The existing art-house film ‘Kidulthood’ by Noel Clarke , which is of a group of troubled 15-year-olds growing up in west London, who get into trouble with drug lords. ‘Kidulthood’ was based in London streets and was later surprisingly successful. This film influenced our final film production because we had as similar story-line and the unique filming techiniques they employed was very intriguing. What we really liked from the 'Kidulthood' was the use of the short montages to explain a past story and that helped us to make our story-line more understandable and fit perfectly to our chosen genre.

Another art house film which influenced us was 'Reservoir Dogs' by Quentin Tarantino. This film utilizes very unique filming techniques which draw in their target audience. For example; when the main protagonist is trying cut someone's ear off the camera pans, so the audience don't see. This influenced us because we were able to apply that idea in our film production. For example; when the main  protagonist Hakim is getting tortured, the camera pans.

The main target audience for our film production is of the age group (15 – 25); this is because it includes violence and inappropriate language. The target audience percentage of women and men are W-40% and M-60%, this is because this film has lots of violence, which is mainly associated with Male. This is supported by the fact that there are only teenage boys in our entire film production and no females. The demographic target audience of ‘The Hunting Season’ is ABC1, mainly towards those in education and working class. The psychographics target audience group for ‘The Hunting Season’ is Mainstreams. Mainstreamers tend to seek security and be domestic and many people are Mainstreamers. The Hunting Season also targets Reformers, this is because reformers are people who seek for enlightenment, people who like to be free and enjoy life and this film production would fit perfectly with this target audience.

In our chosen target audience we have discovered few advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, our target audience fits well with our story-line. Our film production intrigues many teenagers; this is because our film is based around London streets and so therefore this is something they can relate to. Furthermore, our film production story line includes street violence and this is something most black teenagers are accused of in London.

Our film production ‘The Hunting Season’ follows the typical genre of Action and Drama. This is evident in our film production. There are specific action scenes in our film production and this makes the drama scenes more interesting. For example; towards the end of our production Hakim, former gang member, is caught by the two Hench men and put in a dark room. In this scene you see the main actor, Hakim, getting punished for his actions. Our film production has lots of drama to intrigue our target audience group. For example; Hakim steals the main boss’s money and is on the run.

The most interesting scene in our film production is the opening scene, which instantly intrigues the viewers. The opening scene is of the main boss, sitting down and his two Hench men creating a threatening message to their victim, Hakim. In the opening scene all the actors are dressed in black and the two Hench men are wearing Rat masks. The colour black is mainly associated with power and makes them seem more frightening.

The use of the clothing colours have been employed perfectly to illustrate each individual. Furthermore, the two Hench men are wearing Rat masks; firstly the rat masks are mainly utilized in order for them to hide their identity on camera. Also, the rat masks seem very frightening and it helps to give link to Art-House films.

The opening scene uses low key lighting and there’s a little bit of light coming from the corner, which hits their face. It is set in a dark room; this creates mystery and brings fear upon Hakim when he finally plays the message later on. The opening scene is of a medium shot, in this shot you can see everyone but the camera slowly zooms in. One of the Hench men start to speak and the scene then jumps on to a new shot, with the audio of the Henchmen still speaking in the background. The new shot is of Hakim walking down a stairs and playing the message. The camera starts of as a long shot to show Hakim walking from a distance. Then it the camera pans and tracks Hakim, as he’s holding a phone listening to message. The camera zooms into his face to show his facial expressions and then the camera zooms out, showing Hakim put the phone away and put on a cap to hide his face and jogs off.

The opening scene is really good because it’s interesting and instantly intrigues the audience, as they would want to know what happens after the warning is given. This creates enigma codes such as; does he obey? Does he continue running? Does he get caught? However, the only downfall to this scene is that it takes up lots of time, that scene alone is 1 minute, so we had to cut out lots of particular scenes.

In my print work I created 3 pages, which consist of front cover, double analysis and contents page. The front cover is of the main boss standing holding a black bag, with the colour scheme of black and white. The colour black is associated with black and so therefore makes him seem more powerful and dangerous. I chose this colour scheme so the viewer’s instantly acknowledge that he is important and has perhaps plays a big part in the film production. The double page spread is of the two Hench men standing on the sides and the boss in the middle, all looking straight at the camera. The colour scheme for that wasn’t black and white but clear with touch of purple and blue. Finally, the contents page is plain white with bold black text. Also, in the left corner there is a split image, with an image of the main protagonist and one with the boss. My strength was that I made the brochures eye-catching. However, the only issue I had was that I never kept a consistent colour scheme throughout.

         

There are many different representations of the people present in the 3 minute film production, typical of an action and drama genre. Applying Props theory we can see that the main protagonist is Hakim, this is because the film is mainly based around him and all his actions. In this extract there’s no clear hero because all consistently do wrong. The boss is seen as the villain in this extract, as he sets people on missions to kill. Also, the Henchmen are portrayed as typical sidekicks. In addition, applying Todorov’s theory, the equilibrium is that everything was free and unharmed. The disequilibrium to this film production is when the boss sends the Henchmen and the main protagonist gets captured. These key events within the production help enforce Todorov’s theory. Applying Barthes theory there many enigma codes within this extract. For example; at the beginning of the extract; will Hakim get caught? What happens when Hakim does get caught? How will Hakim survive?

With a third brief online blog it would support to promote and bring about the film production. On my film website, alongside all the film information, I would put the blog. This is because when people view the website they would also see the blog. The blog would give them regular updates on information. I would make the colour scheme very much similar to the brochures, this way it would be more intriguing and eye-catching. I would add all the songs played in the song and perhaps give steps on how to we created this film and ways to create it. For example; Plan B’s film page, where he wrote the British film ‘Ill Manors’. In his webpage he uploaded the films playlist as well as giving tips to younger audience wanting to become like him.

For my Media task, I with a group together created a film production, which was 3 minutes long. Also I produced a film brochure, which consisted of 3 pages. I personally believe that we met the target for our brief set by AQA. My strengths within the process of creating the film production was that my film idea that I brought to surface was successful and fits perfectly to our anticipated genre group of action and drama.