Personal Response To Project

Personally, if I were to be watching this film in the cinema, I would enjoy the ideas behind the piece (mixing the angel and devil into the mix). However, I would improve upon the lighting and the lighting consistency (lighting for depth).

I like the different camera angels, especially in the close ups of Dave. And love the wardrobe for the poker players.

Audience Feedback

Nice framing, great music choice.

Like the feel of the thing, would love to see more

well done y'all

you should feel 'flushed' with success

Dodgycam

[Film Maker, Poker Player, Upper Target Age Boundary]

---

It was fabulous. I really liked the soundtrack and the like different camera angles and everything. It all looked really good. I liked all of the close ups of like you guys and the table and everything. It was all great.

[Film Lover, Lower Target Age Boundary]

---

It's really good Jem, it looks so professional!!!!

the lighting is awesome and the acting is great. I think the way you've put in all the opening production credits works really well. :D

[Film Lover, Lower Target Age Boundry]

---

This was amazing!

Karl thought it was amazing I really liked it

The color and b/w contrasts are super, your script proves that you can really tell a story in 2 minutes

camera cool, set cool, clothes and make up coolio!

Here' the one comment from both of us

This refers to "Michael Caine on acting" - try find his video or look it up...

if you want to be great DON'T BLINK - especially in the close up

if you watch Meryl and the rest of them they hold still even 'till the tears come

it's far more powerful and commanding

again just a comment and observation!

["I" - Amateur Film Maker, Film Lover, Middle Target Age Boundary]

["Karl" - Camera Man, Film Lover, Upper Target Age Boundary]

---

I love it! I wish my media was as good as this. The music fits really well. And I like the idea of a high stakes poker game that is literally life or death. It took me a while to understand the title though! I don't like the guy in the aviators, is that deliberate?

[Media Student, Upper Lower Target Age Boundary]

---

I really liked it. I think there are too many production companies at the beginning though. Otherwise, all good! :)

[Media Student, Lower Target Audience Age Boundary]

---

It's pretty good. I like it, especially the stylistic use of the camera going all 'light dancy' when they all walk in. It's really cool. I like the angel and devil thing near the end; i was asking loads of questions. So I'd definitely wanna watch the rest of it. I didn't really get the name, and I didn't like the guy's cowboy hat. I don't play poker, but I'm almost sure you don't wear a cowboy hat when doing so.

[Film Lover, Lower Target Age Boundary]

---

I really liked the video. I wish it could be created as a full length movie because the small clip was great. It did have a brilliant look and feel to it but I think that the blurry bit at the beginning when they all go to the table could have been improved. However I think without the effect the scene wouldn't have looked right. Also, I think the order of the angel and devil bit is wrong - the angel should have come on first so the guy could then see the devil and go with the devil. But overall the video was awesome.

[Film Lover, (Indirect) Under the Target Age Boundary]

Evaluation Overview

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?

Our prelim task contained one major problem; we failed to adhere to ‘The Line’ or the ‘180 degree Rule’. In this project we made sure to understand fully and adhere to this rule. I have also learnt the importance of a schedule and how difficult it is to make a schedule work properly with only short windows to shoot in. This time we made a special effort to frame and light shots, and therefore we learnt how to do it. I wish to develop the skills in lighting and lighting continuity as these would possibly our weakest area. We also developed our use of titles as we had them over the picture instead of simply over black. Overall I feel I have honed all the skills I learnt in the Preliminary Task, from framing shots, to telling a story coherently.

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

I have learnt a lot about technologies over the process of making ‘Poker’s Advocate’ as we had access to equipment this time round that we did not have whilst making our Preliminary project. Firstly I learnt the importance of planning, music and the length of the filming process.

Practically, I learnt how to light a shot to give it depth, and that using shadows can be highly effective to create an interesting picture. I learn not to touch the redhead bulbs as the oils on your hand would cause the lights to burst. Never touch the barn doors when the light is on or directly after it has been switched off. And finally don’t turn the lights on if anyone is looking at them.

I also learnt about the shutter speed on a camera as well as gain and white balance. And how ‘shooting for edit’ makes for easy editing.

Sound wise, point the tip of the boom microphone at the speaker for better sound quality. And there are hand held recording devices available. I learnt how to work and download off of one of the hand held recording devices.

Editorially, I learnt how to manipulate and loop music, as well as how to use various editing techniques such as the ghosting effects. I also learnt how to use Final Cut Pro (even though we did not get to use it).

I also found the music website ‘grooveshark’ which allows you to listen to music for free (a great tool to preview potential songs to use in a film).

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

In the opening sequence we attracted our target audience through their interests. We used poker terminology and real probability statistics (found in the ‘Dangerous Book for Boys’) which instils that the film is a serious poker film. The setting also indicated that the film is about poker.

The music is also a way we attracted our audience. By using legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath and The Prodigy, most men of the target audience would know of them either through popular music, their parents, or through personal experience. The tracks used are also famous tracks with effective beats that would draw anyone with a musical interest in. The choice to use popular music instead of composed music could also attract the fans of these bands and the type of music.

The topics and themes of the whole piece would attract the audience with an interest in drama and medical drama.

To attract the film students and film amateurs, the range of shots, angles (such as the angles in the close ups of Dave showing his decreasing mental state), effects (such as the grading, peephole effect, and ghost trail) and storyline would attract them.

If the film were to be made and advertised, we could advertise it as a debut piece to attract the film amateurs, whereas the story should attract the target audience. Using the popular music within the adverts would attract the music lovers.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

At the beginning of the media project we set out to make a poker film aimed at young people in their twenties who had an interest in poker and drama. At the end of the project, with a more elaborate plot, we have found that that target audience of our media project are young Caucasian males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five with an interest in poker, drama and medical drama. The lower age boundry also indirectly appeals to sixteen year olds and up as films aimed at a certain age range are normally also watched by the age group just below the stated age. Although it is unlikely that there is a gambling medical student who aspires to be a dramatist , any of these genres may appeal to the other as it is a spin on each genre that hasn’t been done widely before.

Another audience would be media students and amateur film makers as the film was produced by these sorts of people. This project would appeal to amateurs and students as those with an interest in film making would probably take interest in the behind the scenes work and thus us, the students who made the film and thus the film.

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

I think The Sundance Film Festival would distribute our product as we are independent film makers and the Festival is in celebration of our kind of people. If we found funding, Columbia Pictures might distribute our product as they distributed the film ‘21’ which had a heavy influence on our piece. Miramax Pictures might distribute our product as they distributed ‘Rounders’ which is of roughly the same genre as it deals with Poker. Finally, Universal Pictures may distribute our product as they distributed ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ which follows the same kind of themes as our product as it is about abstract happenings. As the last three production houses in this list are a part of Sony Entertainment, we should approach this company for our best chance of mass production of our piece.

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

Within the opening of ‘Poker’s Advocate’, various different social groups are represented. Holly, the only female represents both her gender and her upper class society through her gender, wardrobe (being of a classy dress, high heels, a shawl, and pearl jewellery). Through her leaving the game when it became stupid to stay in, it shows that she has the intelligence to save her overwhelming abundance of money. It also shows that she is more mature in gambling. Her leaving also shows that the higher class aren’t particularly the main social group that are to be portrayed in the film.

Gary represented the more wealthy Caucasian male, possibly single with a lot of girls following him around. We based his character around the stereotypical high stakes poker player at a Vegas casino through his cowboy hat and black leather jacket. His language throughout the piece is provoking and against the underdog which should make the audience not like him very much. He should be in his late twenties to mid thirties.

Dave represents the most average of players who don’t have much money and are playing to earn, not for fun. This is shown through his fleece jacket and nonspecific t-shirt. He would be about the same age as Gary. His continuation in playing the game says that he is stupid and doesn’t have much logic. Or possibly he is desperate for the money. Dave also has a brain tumour which represents these people as desperate as well as having action controlling hallucinations in the form of an angel and devil.

The angel and devil themselves represent the good and bad through their hair colour, skin tone, colour scheme and facial expressions. The good being innocent and paler. The bad being evil and dark.

This piece does not represent other ethnicities other than Caucasian except in the case of the devil. This could be seen as a view that Asians are evil (which was not the intention so casting could have been better thought out; maybe played by the same person, or even by the same actor as Dave and using split screens).

We chose to have a range of people from different social backgrounds within the game to show the variety of people playing these games. We also noticed how, in the real poker games in ‘High Stakes Poker’ there was a variety of people within one game. The majority of people playing are males, which was chosen as stereotypically, poker is a man’s sport/hobby. Dave was chosen to be the main character (being a male) as a woman would be less likely to turn to gambling to sort her money problems.

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

The first convention used in real films are the production logos. Originally we wanted these in order to have a sound bridge from something other than blackness. Then, whilst making the logos, we decided to use them to represent the kinds of production companies that might produce our product. ‘B Productions’ is stylish, ‘Bullseye Productions’ could be linked to the poker side of the story and ‘Spark Studios’ could be a studio that made explosive films.

We also placed producer credits at the very beginning of the piece, followed by the actor credits (following the presentation style of ‘Trainspotting’), and then production team credits over the title sequence.

In most films made for the big screen title sequences aren’t used in the way we used them for this is a more TV style of presentation. However, we chose to do this as it mimicked the opening sequences of real life poker shows such as ‘High Stakes Poker’ which I see having a high influence on the style of the piece if it were to go on to a full length film.

The pre-title sequence is a rarity in most films, however was used in films such as ‘Lucky You’. We felt we needed this to set the atmosphere and to use dramatic irony (as used in the film ‘21’).

The abstract sense of the piece is never really used in poker films. Our abstract sense was created through the completely black background and the angel and devil element of the piece. However, conventions surrounding the abnormal were followed such as having a ghost trail around the angel and devil, and allowing the white of the angel’s shirt bleed (which would normally be stopped with different lighting or an off-white shirt instead of the stark white shirt).

Regarding representation of players, a lot of our players followed the slick ideal of poker players that is often used in films surrounding the game. There is often a cocky player (here being Gary) and the main character is often downtrodden and the underdog. These stereotypes are used possibly to gain the viewers sympathy as people tend to support the underdog, and are used widely in films such as ‘21’ and ‘rounders’. However, we did challenge the conventions slightly by adding the character Holly, a rich ‘daddy’s girl’ to the table to add variety, something you don’t normally see.

Editorially, we desaturated the picture which is a commonly used technique to take away the ‘peachy-ness’ of the skin colour. We also used the music to various effects. As in most film media projects, music and background noise levels decrease when important dialogue is being said. We followed these conventions as it was the most logical thing to do.

We also used a convention found in ‘21’ whereby we used a lot of Extreme Tight Close Ups of the players which contained small gestures that flawed the players’ ‘poker face’.

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

Catch Them All

The Basic Facts:

Genre: Satire/Sketch (Although it first appears to be Action)

Distributer: A sketch show might buy our film as it is a satire. Manga production houses might distribute our film as it features a manga legend; Pikachu. The Pokémon franchise might distribute our film as it features one of their main characters - publicity for them. Youtube is one of the main distributors of amateur films at the moment. Although it gives no return, it is free publicity for you and your work so therefore youtube.com might distribute our film. If none of the above, then a school or media studies division of a school might distribute our film in a showcase or as exemplar material for their new students- the small mistakes and the large mistakes would be a good test to see the detail their students look into the film. It might also be shown at independent film showings or parties; although no return financially, the publicity is priceless.

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

As this has been the first film production I have been a part of so far, I have learnt a lot.

During Planning:

Plain and simple, there is a lot of planning. Dialogue in a script my seem too long but it's shorter than you think! There is a lot of planning (further, more detailed planning could have been done as the slight mistakes in continuity prove).

During Production:

Unless the proper equipment is available, tracking shots are not the easiest thing to do. We tried skateboards, but found it is rare for them to go in straight lines and then there is the problem of the noise from the wheels. We tried running along side the subject but soon found it was hard to frame and if you're attention was placed on the framing, it is easy to run into walls. Try not to do extreme physical scenes such as running around on a hot summer's afternoon as the actor soon becomes grouchy...

Know where the camera needs to be so as to not make continuity mistakes. Don't trip over the tripod (which I learnt to use during this project; for the corridor long shot). People not involved in the production (people wondering around) don't like to be asked to move...

The Camera:

I learnt how to use a hand held video camera during this project. I filmed some of the scenes with the victim and it is tricky to get to grips with the equipment at first but it soon becomes familiar. There are many clips of me accidentally pressing the record button when trying to find playback.

Post Production:

Editing: iMovie:

Editing is a long process and saving is important. I have never edited anything before and found the software hard to use at first, but after four hours it soon becomes familiar.

Uploading the footage was exhausting as we had used a digital recorded as well as the tape recorder to shoot our film. This made the process of uploading the footage harder.

A big problem we came across during filming was the sudden loss of sound. This lead to re-uploading bits of footage. We soon learnt to upload everything to a separate folder on the computer so as to avoid re-uploading continuous.

iMovie is easy to use and understand when you put your mind to it. And editing is really fun after a while; the best bit!

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our more sophisticated audience by making everything slick. This also reflects a part of the genre of our film as well as the style we were using in story. The title are in a simple font with with on black. Every fading dissolve was into black and the agents were dressed in black and white. This simple colour scheme for the main points of focus kept the piece unified as well as creates a sense of sophistication and seriousness (Pikachu is the only change to this colour scheme with his yellow head as at the point of film the genre turns from assassination/action to comic; together creating our overall genre of satire).

The identification with the victim also drew our audience as he was the only character the audience could realistically identify with (with his casual clothes as the connection). The cast consisted of sixteen to seventeen year olds which could appeal to the target audience age as they could identify with the cast (and maybe aspire to be like them as the age similarity implies there's a possibility of becoming like the agents at that audience?)

We also drew the manga loving audience firstly threw the title of our piece. A few people thought of Pokémon upon hearing the title but not the film. All members of the audience that watched Pokémon at a point was able to make the connection between 'Catch Them All' and THE BOSS.

The relatively quick paced editing attracted the audience members that love action films as, with the cutaways, the editing reflected this genre.

Our film was primarily shown to Media Studies students who, presumably, enjoy film. We aimed to make our piece as professional as possible which would hopefully attract them.

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

Shot-Reverse-Shot

As part of the Prelim criteria we had to include a shot-reverse-shot. In Catch Them All we used this film convention in the classic place; during the dialogue in the corridor scene. This convention is used in order to show the audience who is speaking as well as each character's reactions to what is being said.

180-degree rule

This, again, was part of the criteria and so had to be used. It was automatically used during our shot-reverse-shot sequence in the corridor dialogue. However, only after we completed editing did we notice that the 180-degree rule was broken at one point (during the line AGENT 2: Really? Does that really happen?!). The camera accidentally crosses the line to over AGENT 1's right shoulder. This is something we could improve on in our next piece. This mistake was made due to confusion as to which side of AGENT 1 the camera should be in relation to this convention.

Match On Action

The final rule that was specified in the criteria was match on action, specifically as a character walks through a door. Our match on action sequence is as AGENT 1 and AGENT 2 walk into THE BOSS' office. The editing of this sequence is really fast which some audience members said was out of key with the speed of the film. We had originally planned to have a non-diagetic gun shot as the handle was pushed down, however we made the decision not to include this feature as we felt it might cause confusion as to what was happening.

Correct Framing

We tried to use the rule of thirds all the time in order to create a better picture, however some of the shots might not have been as precise as they should have been. This will be something to think about more during the filming of our next piece.

In post production, however, we noticed there was a slight problem with continuity. As the Agents walk around the corner in the corridor we cut to them walking up to THE BOSS' office. During post-production we noticed that the Agents walked around the corner going from left to right. However, after the cut they walk into the frame from right to left. This was a mistake that wasn't noticed easily and is a point to improve. To eliminate mistakes with framing and continuity like this in the future would be to plan each shot not only with the mise-en-scene, but also the position of the camera. Having made the mistake, we are now aware of this being a problem when previous to the creation of Catch Them All we had not been fully aware that this kind of framing would be a problem.

Camera Angles and Shots

We tried to use a range of camera angles in Catch Them All. Most of the variety came from the victim cutaways. During these shots we tried hard not to show the victims face which limited the shots we could use. Here we used:

• Point of View (to add a personal touch and put the audience in the victims place)
• Tracking (to open the film dramatically and establish that the victim in the flashback is running)
• Wide Effect shot (to show the objects the victim has to overcome; to show he is moving and not just running the same piece of ground)
• Low wide shot (add drama)

Most of these shots were of the victim's feet in order to give the character anonymity.

During the rest of our piece we used:

• Long shot (to establish the corridor)
• Tracking with Close Ups (to close up on the agents and their conversation)
• Close up
• Mid-shot
• Extreme close up

The last three were used in conventional ways to show emotion and draw attention to speakers.

4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

Gender: Males and Females (however it could be bias to males as the film is about assassins and men generally are interested in the more violent topics. To countract this bias we made the agents female; giving this gender more power in the film.)

Age range: 15-19

Interests: Assassinations. Anime programmes; specifically Pokémon. Action.

Character/spirit: Humourous. Quick witted.

Of course, with this being a A level media product we were mainly aiming it at other media students and the examiners.

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

Catch Them All features assassins and victims. The main characters are assassins however, with the victim not being developed. In our film, we have two different types of assassin: the newbie on her first job, and the more experienced, laid back assassin.

We first showed this through costume:

Agent 1:

Agent 1 was the more experienced character. With an overall more laid back appearance with loose hair. There was also a lot more 'flare' than Agent 2. She wears bracelets and a studded belt as well as Converse trainers. These imply she isn't as nervous as Agent 2.

Agent 2:

Agent 2 was more up tight as she is still finding her feet as an assassin. She is in a single colour palet with high heels and a generally more office/formal like appearence. She has no 'flares' like Agent 1.

Both Agents are dressed in black and white which maintains they are at work and are still serious about their work.

The differences between the two agents show that the assassins can be of varying ability. The fact the two are paired together gives the impression that, although the elder has a more immature appearence, there is a student teacher relationship. This type of relationship is reinforced by Agent 1 comforting Agent 2.

Their actions again reflect their personalities.

Our film represents the assassins as powerful, almost feared people. This is shown through the one extra moving out of the way of the younger assassin when they walk down the corridor. This gives the assassins a short of power over the office staff. Maybe the office staff are afraid of the assassins as they kill people?

The victim's ordinary clothing shows him as an ordinary person. This could reflect the agency of assassins as dangerous people who are able to kill normal folk - maybe they are contracted out to people with grudges? Maybe the members of the audience could be on the hit list?