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.
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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;
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