Media Evaluation...

This is my media evaluation for mine and Jenni's final OTS.

Evaluation of Film Noir OTS (opening title sequence) on Prezi

Analysing our questionnaire ..

This is a copy of the questions that we asked a range of people.

1. When do you watch TV?

Less than an hour a day  

2-3 hours a day  

3-4 hours a day  

4-5 hours a day  

5+ hours a day  

2. When do you go to the cinema?

Once a month  

2-3 times a month  

3-4 times a month  

4-5 times a month  

5+ time a month  

3. What kind of genre of film do you prefer to watch?

                     

Please state   __________________

4. When going to the cinema, do you normally…

Go by yourself  

Go with your family  

Go with your friend’s  

Go with your boyfriend/girlfriend  

5. What programmes do you normally watch?

Soaps  

Period Drama  

Youth Drama  

Crime Drama  

Medical Drama  

For the first question, after reviewing the whole questionnaire, we found out that the most number of hours that the people in the questionnaire watched was 3 to 4 hours a day. Seeing as our target market are teenagers aged between 16-19, this shows that some of the time is spent watching television but not too much seeing as this age group are in the middle of some vital and important studies or they are at work.

The second question, which is about going to the cinema, was shown that our target market went to the cinema 2-3 times a month. This could be because that particular age group is studying for some important exams or just because they don't have the money to go because most of their finances are going towards necessities such as books and equipment.

Third question showed, after reviewing the questionnaire, that our target market preferred Romantic Comedies and Thrillers than any other type of genre. This could be because the girls are more interested in Romantic Comedies just because they have romance in them and they can connect with the storyline a lot better and the boys might prefer thrillers because they seem to be more of a person that likes to watch scary movies than movies which are based on romance. Although, it's fair to say that, not only boys would like thrillers. This genre could entice the female audience as well because the girls might like having something to work out or something to be scared about.

After reviewing the fourth question, we found out that, our target market liked to visit the cinema with friends and boyfriends/girlfriends. This could be because it could be seen as uncool to go to the cinema with family or because they just prefer to watch it with friends because they might enjoy it a lot more. Our target market would probably prefer going to the cinema with their boyfriends/girlfriends because they want to see the movie with their loved one which, in today’s society, is very common to do that.

The last question, which is about what type of programme you normally watch, our target market seemed to prefer watching youth dramas. This is not a surprise seeing as our target market is based at 16-19 year olds. Although, some of the people that we asked in our questionnaire seemed to like period dramas and soaps. Soaps would be seen as an interesting thing to watch because it reflects real life situations. Period dramas would also be seen as an interesting thing to watch because it helps people escape from their normal, hectic lives.

Next steps ..

So, we have finished our filming for our OTS last week! which is brilliant considering that our deadline is on the 28th of February.

Now, all we have to do is the editing. We have done most of this but there are still some finishing touches that have to be done to make our OTS better! What we need to do is get some sound effects for the beginning of our OTS and add it to the OTS. We have looked at lots of different sounds and we have decided that the sound effect/music that we are going to use is a heartbeat effect because it has that mysterious element to it and that is what we want to capture in our OTS.

So, by the end of the week we should have finished our editing and then the only thing we have to do is do finishing touches on our blogs to get the highest possible grade that we can achieve and are capable of.

Textual Deconstruction - Film Noir ..

Neo-Noir is a film noir which is new and made in the modern times. This derives from the Greek word (Neo) meaning new and the French word (Noir) meaning black. Neo-Noir clearly utilizes elements from film noir productions but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in film noirs in the 1940's and 1950's. Examples of movies and programmes which have elements of neo-noir are The Spirit, Public Enemies, Pulp Fiction and many more. The neo-noirs that we have looked at are Red Riding, Blade Runner and Mulholland Drive. We deconstructed it so that we could get some ideas for when me and Jenni edit our OTS. Below, are some of the headings that we looked at when deconstructing our OTS.

Narrative

• Seduction
• Tragedy
• Crime
• Violence
• Melodramatic

Characters

• Femme Fatale
• Antagonist
• Protagonist - Law Enforcement

Mise-en-Scene

• Chiarascuro - Contrast between dark and light
• Monochrome - Different shades of one colour

Costumes

• Seductive
• Period Costumes/Historic
• Suits

Location

• Urban
• Bars
• Casinos

Sound

• Orchestral
• Classical
• Jazzy
• Heightened sound effects

Editing

• Generally simple
• Sense of realism
• Verisimilitude
• Generally slow pace
• Atmospheric

Camera

• Paning shots
• Establishing shots

Semiotics ..

Semiotics which is loosely defined by 'the study of signs' or 'the theory of signs'. Semiotics is usually divided into three different branches. These include: Semantics, Pragmatics and Syntactics. Semantics is the relation between the signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata or meaning. Denotata is another way of saying meaning. Pragmatics is the relation between the signs and the effects they have on the people who use them. Syntactics is the relations among signs in formal structures.

In our OTS, we are not using this because we don't have any signifiers or signs that show any importance to the story line. Therefore, semiotics have not been used in the production of our OTS.

Continuity Errors ..

When we're looking at our filming for our OTS, we have realised that there are a few continuity errors. There is a scene when the femme fatale is on the floor after she has just commited the murder. Then we see the clumsy detective giving her a small bottle of brandy. As the femme fatale takes the bottle and starts to take a sip, in the background it is clear to see that there is a person with dogs in the background. This is a continuity error as we have not continued to set the atmosphere very well because there is someone who is obviously from the modern times in the background. Even though there isn't much of them in the background, it still ruins the atmosphere.

Second error is that we haven't used a hip flask. Instead we have used a small bottle. This is a continuity error because we haven't used suitable props and therefore we have ruined the shot by not using suitable props.

Targets for the next 3 weeks ..

Myself and Jenni have been thinking about our targets for the next 3 weeks. We have thought about it quite precisely and now I'm going to add it to this post!

Our targets for the next 3 weeks are:

• Film scene 3 as soon as possible.
• Edit all of the filming as soon as possible.
• Finish off our blogs as soon as possible.
• Burn the filming to disc and evaluate our OTS.
• Talk about continuity errors, if there are any.

These targets are all Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Related. I think that these targets are all of the things mentioned because we have to get it finished within the 3 weeks and we haven't got that much filming to do. Therefore, editing and the filming of our last scene will be done as soon as our dates are confirmed and actors are available.