Final Film - By Josh Nutt, Andrew Robinson, Connor Asquith and Kirsten Barman

Final Evaluation - By Kirsten Barman

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Our media product is true to its genre traits. We tried to keep the characters similar to those of other films such as The Godfather and Scarface. When we decided to do a mafia gangster style film we felt that an original Italian-American would be best because they have easily recognisable traits, interesting plots and create a sense of escapism within its audience as they are transported back in time. Traits such as thick Italian accents, violent fight scenes, drinking and gambling can all be found in “Omerta”. The central character of Alessandro Messina can be compared to the central character of Vito Corleone in The Godfather of which I analysed very deeply .










How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Its common knowledge that action and violence films mainly appeal to male audiences, and a film such as “Omerta” will definitely attract a mainly male audience as the film is mostly male dominated. But in contrast to previous Italian-American gangster films, a woman takes on a major role. Lucianna Messina is more involved in the mafia lifestyle than any woman in films like The Godfather, but is the stereotypical Female Fatale character, sweet and innocent on first impressions but deadly to deal with! Hopefully the addition of Lucianna will draw in some female viewers, but may also bring in some younger male viewers too.

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

This film would be produced by a major Hollywood studio because it has the potential to be a blockbuster. The mafia genre has not been revived for some time now and as proved with Disney’s Pirates Of The Caribbean, revival of a long dead genre can prove financially beneficial! The film needs a large budget to include some of the stunts and scenes that are in it and could benefit from big name actors or directors. Paramount, now owned by Sony distributed The Godfather Trillogy, and I think that they would be perfect to produce and distribute out film. I don’t think “Omerta” has the potential for franchises or merchandising that some films gain. General things like posters are fine, but things like action figures are unsuitable for the film.

Who would be the audience of your media product?
As found from our audience research, it was mostly males around our age (17-19) that have seen old-style mafia films and thoroughly enjoyed them, with the odd occasion of females watching them and commenting there were no characters they could relate to. This partly influenced our decision to give Lucianna Messina a more involved role. Other targets of our audience were older men around 40-70 who were around to see the release of films like The Godfather I and II, Scarface, Pulp fiction and Reservoir Dogs.
The classification for the whole of the film would probbably be either a 15 or 18, we plan to build in alot of violence into the storyline and this would involve bad langauge and of course abit of blood!

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/recent/films

How did you attract/address you audience?
Again, as we found from the audience research our main target audience is males aged 15- 30, but the film will attract and older audience also. Females can also be targeted through the characters of both Lucianna Messina, as she can be relatable, and the younger male such as Marco Ramone, or even Alessandro Messina characters may also attract a female audience as they may be labelled as “Eye candy”. The violence in the story will attract the male audience, but as we are aiming for the film to be a Certificate 15, it cannot be too bloody or graphic.

The story is mainly told from the point of view of Marco Ramone, but the opening of the film is told from the point of view of Joe Messina. This develops a bond between the character and the audience. But seeing the impact of certain events between both parties in the story gives the audience a feel of being caught up in the middle of the events and the feud. The audience will know what will happen to the characters before they do, which will create some tension as they will empathise with them.











What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
This is the first time I have used any camera equipment of this standard, the quality of the picture was brilliant and definitely better than any standard video camera. Really the size of the camera was unsuitable for the size of the room in which we filmed the poker scene, we could not really get the camera into the confined spaces and this spoiled our plans for the shots, so we had to do the best we could.

The filming process for our group was quite easy, we had a detailed plan of the shots, script and characters, we had sorted the setting out and everything was ready to go. Filing went very smoothly and there were no real issues in editing. When it came to filming the 3rd scene, all the elements were against us. The weather was bad and the camera could not handle the rain. Our actors had to be somewhere else and the sound equipment would not work. But, in editing we had discussed that the clip would not fit in the film anyway. So it was not a huge loss that we could not film anyway. So the 3rd scene was scrapped, and the two scenes rearranged so they followed on.

When editing the film together we used Final Cut Express, a software package I am not all too familiar with. Andrew was great at using this package and knew lots of shortcuts and quicker techniques to produce the end result. We loved the way we could use a freeze frame to bring up character names and actor names and change the stills to black and white. We did use some colour correction to make the film look older, which gave a better effect.

Andrew also created some of the soundtrack to the film. The first part was made using Fruity Loops, the second part used from some open source music, we looped a small part of the track that we liked the best for the second scene on the film.











Looking back to your preliminary task what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back our preliminary task and comparing it to our final task I think we have all developed our planning skills a lot further. For our preliminary task we didn’t plan at all and just made something up on the spot where as the final task had to be thought through in so much detail and the script wrote, and then re-wrote again to suit the actors more or the shots. We all enjoyed doing this project and it was great to get some of our other friends involved in the whole thing. We all decided that we needed to do something different rather than a horror/thriller movie and we thought a old mafia film would be a great challenge, and it really was!
I think looking back the shot planning was a little basic, we could have done a little better by having a practise with the camera first and walking through the scenes. But every one of us would now be able to pick up the Sony HDV 1000 camera and be confident how to set it up and in how to work it. Recording separate sound was also a challenge too; Josh and I had some knowledge on how to work these types of recorders, but had never used them for this purpose. So in this respect is was pretty helpful that we had some idea how to work them.

Obviously when we had finished our film, we were all very proud of the work we had created, alot of our friends outside of our media group wanted to see it too so we posted it to Facebook and Youtube for everyone to see. Most people on our Facebook accounts would be the correct target audience and we thought this a good way to see if they were really interested we also filmed some audience feedback, here are some of the comments;

Laura Bentley: Wow. Thats Brill!!!
Jack Wordsworth: Good Characters. You All Seem Extremely Shady!
Lisa Copley: Its Fantastic. Joe Is Very Scary!
Andrew Kerr: "I Like The Production Logo, It Was Really Good And I Like The Dog. The Costumes Fit The Genre Really Well Too."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4y2iDInTyA Audience Feedback By James, Daniel and Andrew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPDyPV0exrM Audience Feedback By Jonathan

I think that our final product fulfils the task brilliantly; it is suited to its audience and includes all the conventions of a normal Mafia film, but ads in some unique features and characteristics. The story is thrilling and enticing and leaves the story open ended for the audience to be interested and want to watch the rest of the film.

Evaluation - By Andrew Robinson

1. In what way does your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions of media products?

We chose the genre of our film to be a gangster/mafia film, I analysed the opening to another well-known mafia film called 'GoodFellas', it was great to watch because I realised a lot of our film will be similar to it, including costumes, in our poker scene we have well dressed women, well suited men. Another convention would be the accent, we have incorporated an italian-american accent into our film, Jordan Sims (Alessandro) practiced this a lot to make the film more recognizable, without it, it wouldn't be a good mafia film.

We have also developed forms and conventions in our media product, we have done this by including a woman who is actually important and has a role in the first few minutes of the film, Kirsten Barman (Luciana) plays Joe and Alessandro’s sister, usually in mafia films the woman plays a house wife or a mother who does what was expected in the days of the mafia, we have tipped this convention on its head by giving Kirsten an important role, she is after all the one who poisons Joshua Nutt (Leo).

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

Our media product represents one main particular social group, males. The mafia film genre has always attracted a large male audience and does represent a vast amount of male people in the days when these films were made, the typical male would be out working and “bringing the bread home” whilst the woman sits at home cleaning and doing other housework and looking after the children. In our film the

male is out “winning the bread” but in a different way, in the mafia way, The mafia film genre has always attracted a large male audience and does represent a vast amount of male people in the days when these films were made, the typical male would be out working and “bringing the bread home” whilst the woman sits at home cleaning and doing other housework and looking after the children. In our film the male is out “winning the bread” but in a different way, in the mafia way, this links into the target audience because most of the target audience is male, which some will relate quite well to the part about men going to work.

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

If our 2 minute opening was to become a full film, I’d expect the film to be distributed as a TV movie, I believe there are too many mafia genre classics (such as the Godfather, GoodFellas) to even compete with even with today’s technology, and in my opinion our main story line is typical of all mafia films, someone dies and someone avenges their death, still it has some of its differences and hence why people would watch it especially people who did like the classics and fancied another for their collection, but still it is very similar to classic mafia films, I believe it would revive the genre as not many mafia films have been released recently.

I also believe it has opportunities for merchandising definitely, with lots of thing in the film being easily replicable and could definitely be sold as a collectable if the film got a big enough audience, such as the cane that Joe Copley used in Scene 2, this would be of definite interest for people who love the genre, also the obvious merchandise would be posters and soundtracks, this would be for an interested audience but not necessarily for the fanatic.

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

Audience wise I believe the main audience for our film would be men aged from around 40 – 50, I say this because they would have been young when the Godfather was released, so they will be very familiar with the genre, also it’s a manly genre, lots of violence, guns and crime in general is a typical man film.

I believe another audience we will have, all be it not as big as the one above, is women who want to watch the film, not for the story line but to see a leading role go to a women and also to see the eye candy of young men in suits.

I think the classification I would give to the OPENING of our film would be a 12A, no strong language is used and the worst thing in it is probably the gambling, where as if I were to give a classification to the whole film it would definitely be an 18, it would contain strong violence and language which would not be suitable for viewers of a younger age.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/recent/films

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I think when we created the film, we wanted the audience to be an audience, an on-looker to the entire film, this is why in both scenes the camera is

set up as a third person, apart from in the poker scene where we establish the characters, the audience (as an on-looker) will be witnessing everything, which will create suspense because they feel like they are part of the film, the impact from this would give the au

dience (hopefully) the feeling that they had just witnessed a full on mafia crime film, without any of the real life drawbacks, it would probably terrify people of a younger age and depending on the person, females as well.

Some parts of the film would definitely appeal to our main audience of males from 40-50, the gambling scene would be a good thrill for them and they would probably enjoy it before getting down to the nitty-gritty parts where people get hurt and crimes are committed.

When we finished our film we showed a preview to our target audience, to see if we had chosen the correct people, we put it up on Facebook and YouTube to broaden how many people watch it and give feedback.

Jack Wordsworth: "Good characters there. You all seem extremely shady lol."

Ian Greasby: "brill very good quality film"

Daniel Stammers: "Overall really good, it fit the genre really well."

Andrew Kerr: "I like the Production Logo, it was really good and I like the dog... The costumes fit the genre really well with the white shirt and black tie combination."

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

We learnt how to use the Sony HDV 1000 camera, which was great because it would be the same equipment they use for real TV shows in the media industry, which gave us experience for if we want to enter that form of work, a weakness to this equipment was definitely the lack of good quality sounds, we tried to use a boom-recorder but the directional microphone just didn’t want to work so we had to stick to the HDV 1000’s sound, which picked up the littlest of things, and didn’t really pick It up at a loud volume, such as in the poker scene where Joe is speaking, the sound is quite quiet if you don’t listen to it in a quiet room.

As for the filming process I think it went pretty well, it only took 2 days to do all of the filming required, minus the time cleaning up the set, and we only had a few little snags on the way, some of our framing was out of place but that was easily cleaned up using Final Cut Express which we used to crop our shots, not over doing it so the quality of video still remained crisp, another problem was when we left a tripod in shot but that again was easily rectified.

Software side we used Final Cut Express to edit the film together, which was quite easy once you got used to it, especially if you have had experience in editing film before, it allowed us to crop shots to fit the right framing, do nice freeze-frames that let us tell the audience who played who, I also used some software at home such as After-

Effects from Adobe and Fruityloops Studio, After-Effects I had used before so I was able to create a decent title scene for our film, and Fruityloops was a new piece of kit to me, but in the end I got an alright soundtrack for our first scene, some challenge I faced for this was finding some good copy-right free samples to use in the track.

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

I think when we got told the task, we knew straight away we were going to do something different, not a thriller/horror or even try a comedy, mafia was it, the planning stage wasn’t the best in my opinion we could have planned more about the camera angles and where it would sit in each scene, but that wasn’t a major flaw.

Researching the mafia genre was great, allowing us to view classics such as the Godfather and Pulp Fiction, and we knew it was a good genre to do, especially with costume designing and planning out the way the film would be edited and put together really excited us, we couldn’t wait to get filming, I think our planning was more than sufficient for our film and I believe it was the concrete base to our final outcome (which I think is terrific), and yes I believe our use of specific shot type have improved, we thought about them a lot during filming and tried to perfect the technique.

I was quite confident at the beginning, especially for editing, I was a little wary of the camera at first but it soon grew on me, and I believe our final product is definitely fulfilling the task, it leave a very open-ended story to unfold for the audience.

1479 words without questions included.

Evaluation - By Josh Nutt

1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?

Our film is in the style of mafia. After looking at a similar film in 'Reservoir Dogs' i realised that a similar convention in mafia films is suits. We incorporated this into our film, as it is a generic thing to include in mafia films. As you can see from the picture below, the 4 poker players wore quite stylish costumes which was good as it resembled 'Reservoir Dogs' which is a similar mafia film. One thing i noticed when analysing 'Reservoir Dogs' was that the majority of the characters wore smart clothing, yet were slightly informal about it, having they're top buttons undone and having they're shirt untucked. This was integrated into our film as you can see from the picture below.

As you can see from the picture above, with regards to costumes;

• Walt Dixon (far left), is wearing a smart costume, yet he has his top button undone
• Leo Ramone (second from left), again is wearing something smart, but has his top button undone
• Joe Messina (second from right) is wearing smart uniform, but has his shirt slightly untucked and top button undone.
• William King (far right) is the only smart one who has his top button done up and his shirt tucked in.

Another similar convention that is used in mafia films is poker/gambling scenes. Our first scene, was a gambling scene in which Leo Ramone ended up dying from a poisoned drink. We changed a particular convention of the gambling by having someone

2. How does your media product represent social groups?

In our film, male dominance is a real presence. Yet it is a female that deals the fatal blow, along with the help of a few males. This is compared to Reservoir Dogs where no women are involved and it is entirely male, yet in Omerta, there is the character 'Miele' who is the strong female.

Two characters that I think our similar within the films; Reservoir Dogs and Omerta.

I believe that these two characters are the same, as they both represent lies and deceit. In Reservoir Dogs, Mr Orange is the undercover cop, that ends up betraying all others who are taking part in the jewelry store robbery. This is linked to the character of Luciana Messina who betrays her family to spare her own life, because of the death of Marco Ramone's father. Also, both have disguised names in 'Miele' and 'Mr Orange'. The difference between them is that Mr Orange is being deceitful to try and expose criminals, where as 'Miele' is doing it to spare her life.

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

As previously posted, in one of our blogs, i discussed the possibility of which Institutions may be interested in distributing our film.

• Warner Bros.
• Paramount
• 20th Century Fox
• Universal
• Columbia

Since i analysed the film Reservoir Dogs, which was distributed Universal, i would like Universal to distribute Omerta. Our film would be released in the cinema, this way it can catch be viewed in the best possible quality and be a good experience for those watching it.

I can't see our film offering a lot of oppurtunities, yet it would have the obvious merchandise of posters. Also, a soundtrack to our film would be available to buy on CD.

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

The audience for our media product would be targeted at the male generation. We would be hoping to catch the eye of the younger generation of 16-21, yet it may also appeal to older age ranges from 21-50. I believe that the poker scene in the first 2 minutes would provide a bigger appeal as this is where people would work out that this is a mafia film. Our narrative is non-linear so it may require the older generation to be able to follow it.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

In both of our scenes, the audience is being put into the position of witnessing the entire thing, of something that nobody else would see. This gives the audience a sense of knowing what's going on, when in fact, nobody apart from who was there, knew what was being said. The setting for both scenes, show that it is dingy and that nobody would think to look for the mafia there, and it acts as a stage-house. This adds suspension to the actual scene, as it seems secretive.

These our screenshots from our actual film.

Our first shot establishes the poker scene, this would appeal to the target audience of those interested in mafia films, as it is a popular convention. It establishes all the character in the scene.

The second shot, is from the point of view Walt Dixon who was sat at the table at the time. This gives the audience the impression that they are there and can see what is going on, adding to suspension.

The third shot, is almost a point of view shot but not quite, this shot is to establish Joe Messina who is talking at the time. It also establishes that Leo Ramone has died on the table.

The fourth shot, gives the audience the impression that they are there watching the entire thing. The location of character on the screen, symbolises power. Luciano Messina is the tallest in the shot as he is the strongest. Second, is Alessandro Messina, the Don, but not as powerful. And then Joe Messina, who is lower than the Don.

The fifth shot, is an over the shoulder shot of Don Messina, establishing Joe Messina. Again, the more powerful of the characters takes up the most room on the shot.

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

With equipment, we used a HDV1000 camera. This was a major strength for our film, because it made our film look more professional and was better quality. We also used a high quality

tripod which was better for us as it allowed more control over the big camera. One weakness about this camera is that the sound quality was a bit low, as if we were filming a shot which was far away, the sound quality would be low, because the microphone is attached to the actual camera.

When it came to filming, everything went smoothly apart from a few things. In one of the close ups of the poker players, we left the tripod in shot, so we had to crop it so that it was not there. Yet it still looks good, so it wasn't a major problem. Another minor problem was that h

alfway through a particular shot we realised that somebody was wearing bright green headphones around there neck. But thankfully, we realised this and was able to re-film this shot, so again not a major problem.

The HDV camera was something that we had never used before, and also final cut express, both of these helped us make the film look a lot better and more professional.

The editing software we used was final cut express, some particular effects that we used thanks to final cut express. This helped us when it came to editing, as we were able to crop certain shots, and make them look better for the final film. We were also able to do freeze frames and add text to certain shots to establish who the character was.

We did not use garageband, however we did use 'Fruitloops' to make the music on the first scene as mise en scene. We used copyright free music on the second scene.

7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you

have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at the preliminary task, our research into Mafia films was gambling and guns. We decided to scrap the convention of guns but keep the gambling. To keep the guns would have been hard and may have degraded the film. When it came to planning the shot list, we planned and shooted a lot more shots, yet 2 minutes was not long enough to incorporated all these shots in. When filming, we had the script and the shot-list taped to the wall, out of shot. This helped us when filming as we could refer to it whenever we were troubled.

These our shots from our original preliminary task. As you can see in our preliminary task, there is a lot shot-reverse-shot as it was just a normal conversation. It's harder to incorporate these shots into an actual film, yet we had a good go.

From our audience feedback, we received the following comments;

• 'Liked the music within the film'
• 'Liked the props used, such as the poker chips'
• 'The setting complimented the film'
• 'The costumes were also good'
• 'All the above, fit the genre perfectly'

Here is the videos of our audience feedback;

I feel that overall, on our entire project, all of our group are happy with what we produced and are looking forward to next year. We feel we will progress even more next year and already have come up with ideas for a five minute film.