Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our media product might be distributed by an independent distributor. Several factors contribute to this. Our film, although being inspired by films such as Rounders and the Cincinnati Kid, has an edgy look to it which is dissimilar to the mainstream films that are pumped out by big Hollywood companies. Reasons for our film taking the independent approach is because if it did attempt to become a Hollywood blockbuster it most likely wouldn’t fare too well due to heavy media saturation and the same mainstream films being pumped out by companies such as Warner Bros. Films such as Shifty, set in urban areas have turned over a profit in the independent market due to extensive audience research and planning to enable the largest audience to be reeled in. This is why I think our film could be distributed in the independent market because of its gritty storyline, edgy look and feel and its similarities with films such as Shifty.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

During the creation of our media product we had researched the most common stereotypes associated with specific social groups. A well-known stereotype with black individuals is that they are exotic and criminal. This is why as a group we decided the killer/thief should be myself (Sharmarke) as I’m the only black person in our group. This would hopefully show that we do possess the knowledge and understanding of the most of obvious stereotypes.

We also used our media product to represent another social group. A known stereotype of white people is that they are rich individuals. This was supported by our film as the people participating in the underground poker game were rich which meant having a white character to feature would be a smart thing to do. This is how our decision to ask our friend Luke to be the victim came about as we thought that conforming to another stereotype will further show our understanding of how particular social groups are represented.

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

Our media product uses several conventions of a thriller/action/mystery from many real media products, such as the extremely low key lighting, camera angle and overall themes. Our media product however takes heqavy inspiration from the movie Rounders and how they used poker. Rounder focuses on the overall idea of poker and the actual mechanics and techniques of the game, and as such would focus a lot more scenes of the games and what cards each player holds. Our project on the other hand takes a lot more focus on the mystery involed after the game, and rather use poker as the catalyst for our overall plot, and as such we have far more less scenes on poker. With this we enhance the Mystery aspect of our film, making the audience ask what the purpose of the poker game was and how it all relates to the plot.

Rounders uses several high angle close ups on the and close ups on the cards in order to give focus to the game to the audience

We on the other hand use minimal amount of shots on the cardgame, with more focus on the result, and money instead, showing that the match is 'high risk high reward'. although we agree a high angle close up like those used in rounders is the best choice overall for the shot

Rounders has a very causal clothing and a rundown styled area with moody lighting, however we decided to use professional suites for our project, with complete pitch black background. We rather used this technique to make isolation and build a more serious mood, to fulfill the conventions of a thriller and mystery which can be seen in many real media project. While Rounders indeed filled the conventions of a thriller, with the unprofessional look reading into a more unnoficial gamble, the suites would creat a much more serious and mysterious tone. Although the medium close up shot of characters we decided to use as it brings clear focus to the characters

The medium close up brings out the focus onto the characters expression, however the background and lighting gives a more casual feeling

The shirt and tie sugest professionalism, in the unlikliests of places to bring out mystery and the several straight lines on his shirt further connotes his proffesionalism, and his neatness., again attributes not seen in thrillers or underground poker games. The completely black background further spurs on tension and connoting death or misfortune to the scene

Feedback for final film opening

After putting our completed product up on Facebook seeking potential feedback from our target audience, I received feedback shortly after. This is what was said:

- Sharmarke.

Feedback

After showing our first copy of the film opening to our teacher Mr. McManus, he made a couple of suggestions to our group with regards to how it could be improved. He suggested we take out a few extra shots that were not particularly necessary. Also, our film opening featured a point-of-view shot from the gambler's perspective however that wasn't needed as the gambler wasn't the most important character. We decided to take his advice to go back and do the changes suggested to us. Also, we still needed to do something about the sound.

Film Opening - First Upload

This is what our film opening will look like. At the moment it is without sound additions or alterations.

Sound choices

Our decision for sound on our project was a tough one. Instead of playing a whole soundtrack above the project we decided to just add some sound here and there. We chose to do this because
we felt that our film would seem real to the audience if we kept the majority of the film strictly diegetic and soundless, in terms of sound we could have potentially add in. This was in the hopes that it would have built up tension in the audience as it would be a very thought provoking thing, which is a very strong convention for thrillers.

Addition of Dialouge

Dialogue was something that was suggested that we keep to a minimum due to the lack of professional skill. However, as our film was to be a thriller and we needed a few bits of speech here and there to help the audience understand what is happening in our film opening as, without it, the plot would have been harder to follow. Phrases such as "place your final bets" and "all in" were used to create a dramatic effect among the audience, perhaps suggesting that they are keeping talking to a minimal due to professionalism. Also, whilst Sharmarke is in the mask we considered the option of putting a voice-over suggesting to the audience that his voice has been disguised however we struck that out because it sounded unnatural and it would have been confusing as to why there was a vocal disguise when the mask is a basic and rubbery mask.

- Kausar.

Editing Software - iMovie Vs Sony Vegas Pro

We used iMovie for the editing of our film. The reason for this was that Sony's Vegas Pro (our other choice of editing software) was a bit too complicated for our liking. It had many features we were unsure of and we thought learning to use it during the post-production process wasn't a smart thing to do. This is why we had chosen to use iMovie; it had a simpler, cleaner look to it that made things clear and we have in fact already used iMovie in the past which meant we were very familiar with it. Ultimately, it meant we could creative our film as effective as we could.

An example of the Sony Vegas Pro interface.

Our film opening being edited on iMovie.

- Sharmarke.

Completion of shoot

The filming by the end of it all, took us just under 2 weeks to film, including the days we were unable to film. Now we had to start the editing process. The car scene took no longer than 3 hours for us to film with everything we could have needed. The flat scene took 4 days for us to film because we went back to re-shoot some footage. The poker scene in the school took the remaining days for us to film.