Evaluation: Albert Marealle Evaluation

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

The crime thriller, Ruthless Russians has used conventions from existing media.

For instance, the narrative containing the Russian Mafia (Bogdan, Viktor and Niko) was been within the inspiration of the movie Eastern Promises in which it is also a Crime thriller movie involving the Russian Mafia. The motifs between the two movies are similar as they both feature chase scenes, career criminals and so on. In addition to that, the fact that Nikolai Luzhin (played by Viggo Mortensen) has had an undercut, it would’ve been suitable for the characters Viktor & Bogdan to have similar haircuts in which they had done so.

From my research of the crime thriller, The Godfather; especially with the conversation at the opening scene between Don Vito Corleone and Amerigo Bonasera, I have decided to incorporate this into the film by having the boss sitting at his office and having a conversation with one of his assistants. I have challenged this slightly with the fact that instead of having a face to face conversation, it ended up being a phone call instead. Moreover, the theme song from the Godfather was added into the conversation between Bogdan & Viktor as I thought it would add some intensity in that particular scene.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

There are many different ways that the movie Ruthless Russians represents social groups.

Firstly, the location of the movie. This movie was located at an urban environment where you can find graffiti, isolated alleyways and residential homes. This may represent people who come from the London region. This is because London is a predominately urban area and clear examples would be Brick Lane and the Camden Market.

Another way would be the ethnicities of the characters within the movie. Three out of the four characters are Russian. This was evidently shown by their accents, to an extent; the clothes that they were wearing & the background music. In addition to that, the names of the three characters were distinctive in comparison to the name Emmanuel (the fourth character). The three characters were Niko, Viktor and Bogdan. This aspect of the movie may represent the Eastern European (in particular Russian) social groups. The reason for this is due to the behaviours and characteristics of the three actors. However, Emmanuel was a Black British and even though he may have been negatively stereotyped as the person who stole the bag filled with money, he does represent ethnic minority groups (in particular black people). On the other hand, there are other aspects within Emmanuel which shows representation of the ethnic minorities. Examples would include the clothes that he was wearing, the accent that he had & the black people could relate to the behaviour of Emmanuel which makes them firstly want to watch the movie & shows representation of them.

Finally, another way that Ruthless Russians may represent particular social groups would be through age. This is because the characters of the movie represent young adults/ teenagers as firstly, the characters (especially Emmanuel) are in their youth so therefore, it means that they’re viewed as troublemakers, violent whilst being inexperienced, clever but powerless.

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

The type of media institution that may distribute my media product would obviously be a movie company. However, the movie company that I would like to distribute the movie Ruthless Russians to the mass audience would be Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures is an American film studio, television production company and is ranked 6th in the Big Six film studios of Hollywood.

The reason that Paramount Pictures may distribute the movie Ruthless Russians because they are known for distributing thrillers such as The Godfather series, The Gambler, The Mission Impossible series & Rear Window. These types of movies in particular Crime thrillers appeal to the young teenaged audience as they are amused by thrillers and like to see robberies, chase scenes & shootouts in which they are the key motifs within Crime thrillers. Furthermore, they are movies that focuses on the antagonists rather than the protagonists.

By having Ruthless Russians distributed by Paramount pictures, it will be a success to the film industry as they are an experienced movie company being found in 1914 (1912 as Famous Players film company). In addition to that, Paramount had a really successful time period in which they distributed Titanic (1997); their highest grossing film at the time and was nominated for fourteen awards.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be young European teenaged males. The reason they are the target audience for my media product is due to the fact that there are key elements within the opening scene of Ruthless Russians that appeal to the audience. One of the elements would be the fact that the actors in the movie are young teenaged males. This means that the audience could associate their behaviours & themselves with the characters of the movie. This is also supported by the type of music played, the clothing worn by the characters & the urban environment that the movie was located at. Another element within Ruthless Russians that appeal to the audience would be the Eastern European accents (in particular Russian) which was portrayed by the characters Bogdan, Viktor & Niko. This element could appeal to the European audience who may necessarily come from countries such as Lithuania, Russia, Latvia, Ukraine and many more Eastern European countries. This is because the audiences from these countries can relate themselves to the characters of the movie. This was put forward Lacan in the Ideal I theory and this would make them want to watch the movie more. Even those who are not from Eastern Europe, the disassociation of them to the characters may make it amusing for them so therefore, they would want to carry on and explore their culture.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I firstly posted the video onto YouTube. The reason that I have done this is because YouTube is well known website for videos meaning that they are easily accessible to people. YouTube is used by millions of people all over the world therefore meaning that it would be not as difficult to gain views. In addition, I managed to find a few people & record their reactions whilst they were watching Ruthless Russians.  I further went on to share the video onto Facebook. Facebook is a famous social networking site with a huge amount of people active every day. By posting it onto Facebook, it will make the target audience aware of the fact that the movie has been released & are therefore likely to watch the movie. Additionally, I produced a questionnaire consisting of ten questions. These included what aspects of the movie could be improved, which part they found most favourable, if they would continue watching the movie & so on. After I created the survey, I posted it onto Facebook as teenagers are always on Facebook so therefore, it would be easy to access this survey to collect. Following on from that, I conducted a structured interview with 4 different people (a mixture of boys and girls) and asked them three different questions. These were what they had liked about the movie, what they disliked about the movie & how could the movie be improved. The audiences’ responses gave a clear direction of where the film was heading & what improvements that can be made.

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

I have learnt that there is a lot of technology involved when it came to producing the movie Ruthless Russians. Examples would include equipment such as a modern camcorder, tripod and accessories such as the camera charger and a SD Memory Card. The camcorder clearly records the event that is happening at the time and the tripod supports the camera as it prevents the camera from shaking. Furthermore, I have learnt that the film has to have a 3 second head start before the actor/actress performs and there has to be at least 3 seconds after the scene has been acted out. This is so that when it comes to editing the movie, you can cut out the clips that you do not want. These technologies were just for the filming alone. When it came to the editing of the movie, Adobe Premiere Pro was used. This program allows you to edit your video in order to make it look crisp and clear. Examples of editing using Adobe Premiere Pro would be adding title graphics, selecting video clips in chronological order & cutting out parts of the movie that were not necessarily needed.

 Title graphics are typography that is used at the beginning of the movie. These include the title of the movie, the starring actors/actresses and the movie company. These help the viewers know what the title of the movie was in case they would like to watch it again/ recommend it to their friends. The names of the actors help identify what role they play in the movie & the movie company title graphic help them identify who produced the movie.

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

When I first did my door scene in which it was the preliminary task, I have taken into account that each camera shot has its own purpose and is vital for each scene. For instance, medium shots & close ups are always used for dialogue which was what this door scene consisted of. However the difference between a medium shot and a medium close up would be that medium shot is a camera shot from the waist upwards & a medium close up is a camera shot from the chest upwards. When it came to the movie Ruthless Russians, I had the make sure that each camera was appropriate for each scene. For instance, you would not use a long shot when the main character is walking down the road having a conversation with someone. This is because the viewer would be unable to focus on the character as they will be distracted by the surroundings. The completed movie started off with an extreme long shot, and then it moved onto a long shot and after that, it moved onto a close up of the bag being dropped off. Extreme long shots are used for setting the location meaning that the audience will be able to identify where the movie was set. In this case it was a large field. This is also similar to long shot but the distance is not as far as an extreme long shot. The long shot were of the local shops. Other shots such as a point of view shots were included into the movie so that the viewers could associate themselves with the characters which was put forward by Lacan in the Ideal I theory. Therefore, this shows that there has been a clear progression from the preliminary task to this as the camera shots has improved.

Another thing that I have learnt looking back at my preliminary task would be that continuity is vital to a good movie. This is because by having continuity within a movie, it shows that there is a smooth flow throughout & there is consistency. In Ruthless Russians, this was achieved by filming different perspectives of the same scene by placing the camera at different locations and then editing them out using Adobe premiere pro.  I felt as if the continuity from my preliminary task was good to start off with meaning that there was not really any progression.

However, there was a huge progression when it came to my editing skills. This is because when I first used Adobe Premiere Pro in order to edit my door scene. I had no idea how to use the program let alone edit a video. However, with tutorials and progression of the film, I learnt how to add audio, cut out wasted parts of a scene using the selection tool, how to add effects and transitions such as dip to black & film dissolve. The video transitions allow creating a smooth flow from one scene to another.