Evaluation: Finished Film

This is our finalised opening scene to our movie Ruthless Russians.

Planning: Preliminary Coursework

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.

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

Evaluation: How We Attracted Our Target Audience

Evaluation: Interviews of Target Audience

Here I have conducted an interview of 4 different people asking them three different questions. The questions were what did they like about the movie, what did they dislike about the movie and how could the movie be improved.

Podcast: Evaluation - Albert

Evaluation: Reaching Out to Target Audience

Here, I have posted the movie Ruthless Russians and the movie survey onto Facebook. This is because Facebook is mainly used by teenagers & they are the target audience for this film. By posting these two links onto Facebook, it gives easy access for the target audience to watch Ruthless Russians & this shows evidence of us reaching out to our target audience

Evaluation: Target Audience Research Summary

There are a few things that I have found out from the survey monkey questionnaire about Ruthless Russians & the interviews that I carried out with teh audience.

One of the things that I found out was that the audience liked the character Emmanuel (played by me). This is due to the fact that they were amused when he finds a random bag with litte knowing that it was filled with £50,000 & says "Damn, that's a whole load of money" running off with it after. They also liked how the movie was directed and had good continuity as it ran smoothly. They also found the point of view shots very interesting.

However, the audience were not pleased by acting as they thought that the russian accents were a bit too fake especially from the character Viktor. They also thought that it was the acting let the film down to a tiny scale. In addition, one of the audiences found that the movie Ruthless Russians too comedic rather than being a crime thriller.

One of the things that the audience suggested that my group could do to make the film better would be by improving our acting skills. This is due to the fact that 58% of the 12 respondents voted on that option and one of the audiences from my audience had suggested so. This would mean practicing our lines more & show our facial expressions more. Another thing that would make the film better would be by improving the concept of the thriller. This would involve adjusting the narrative of the movie. Furthermore, there should have been more camera shots and angles.

One of the changes that I would make to the movie if I were to start this process all over again would be to improve my acting skills so I would actually sound surprised and not mono toned. Another thing that would happen would be to improve the russian accents portrayed by Viktor, Niko and Bogdan.

Evaluation: Target Audience research

Here, I have gathered four different people to watch the movie Ruthless Russians. I recorded their reactions by using photo booth. The whole purpose of this was so that I could gather their reactions to the movie and to see whether they liked it or not.

Evaluation - Suvery Monkey Results

For this survey, I have asaked ten questions on things that we could do in order to enhance our movie. These included things such as important aspects of the movie such as Mise-en-scene (props, costumes, location) and the acting of our characters. I asked teenagers as they were the main target audience.

For the first question, I asked people what kind of genre the movie was. This was so that firstly, people would be able to identify what genre the movie was & secondly to see if the motifs of the movie were evident. Ruthless Russians is actually a crime thriller due to the fact that it shows a failed crime as the russians who have escaped with dirty money in a bag have managed to lose it & it featured chases and suspenseful music. What I have found out from this question would be that 67% of the 10 respondents chose Crime Thriller and 33% of respondents chose Action Thriller. Even though crime thrillers have elements of action thrillers, it is clear that the movie is a crime thriller.

For Question 2, I asked people which part of the movie did they find the most favourable. As this was an open ended question, people were free to personally put their opinions across. The response that I received from this question were "Damn, that's a lot of money", When the Russian realised that the bag had gone missing, Albert in general, Albert saying dayummm, Albert, "Dayum, that's a whole lot a money!", When the money was stolen, Dayyyuumm, When albert found the bag and The russian accents were amusing. From this question, it has come to the conclusion that people were really amused when I came across the bag & came up with the famous catchphrase.  This question was asked so we could find the good aspects of the movie & how people would remember the movie by.


For the third Question, I asked if the trarget audience were able to understand the narrative of the movie. The narrative is basically the storyline of the movie. What I have found out was that 70% of the respondents were able to understand the narrative of the story and 30% were not able to. This means that some people were not able to understand the storyline & as a result, one way to improve the film would be to have a clear storyline.



 
 For Question 4, I asked people if they found the clothing that was worn by each individual character were appropriate for the movie. This is part of Mise-en-scene as each individual has their own clothing style and each costume is distinguishable. For instance, the antagonists would be dressed smartly in this case as they are part of a mafia & the protagonist in this film was wearing casual clothing as he is not involve in any crime. I found out that 90% of the respondents said yes and 10% said no. This means that clothing were not a huge issue in the movie.

For question 5, I have asked people what aspects of the movie that could be improved on for the movie Ruthless Russians. What  I found out would be that 60% of respondents voted for our acting skills, 20% voted for continuity & 10 % of respondents voted for characters & camera shots. This therefore means it clearly shows that acting was a huge isssue and this needs to be looked at as a way to improve our film. The next important factor would be the continuity of the film such as making sure that each scene makes sense.





For Question 6, I asked people if the location of the movie was a good place as this was a part of Mise-en-scene. I found out that 50% of the respondents found the location of the movie suitable and the other 50% found the location good. This means that the location of the film was no issue whatsoever.

For Question 7, I asked people if the sports bag that was filled with money seemed to be an appropriate prop or not. This was asked just in case the prop needed changing. What  I have found out was that 90% of the respondents found the bag to be an appropriate. However, 1 person disagreed. "That person stated, I think it should of been in a briefcase, but then I understand that sports bags are modern now so I still understood it." Overall, the bag was not a major issue and people seemed to like it so if we were to improve the movie, the bag would still be there.

 For the eigth question, I asked people if they would want to continue to watch the movie. This was to see if the movie was a success or not. 100% of all the respondents would like to continue suggesting that the movie was a success.





For Question 9, I asked the target audience if the choice of music for the movie was appropriate. This was so that if we were to enhance the movie, some of the songs would have had to be changed. Fortunately, this was not the result as all of the respondents found the music to be appropriate.

For the last question, I asked how the cliffhanger was at the end of the opening scene. This was the close up of Bogdan saying "yes, we will find him". Clearly, the last question had to be an open ended question so we could get a range of opinions from each individual. The responses that I've received were "Banter", It was really good as I wanted to continue watching to see what happened next, Wanted to watch more, was effective, Albert was gonna get killed, Poor, It was average, it could've left a bit more of a suspense, instead of just ditching suspense with a resolution. It was good, made me want to know what would happen to the character who stole the sports bag full of money. It was suitable but perhaps should have included several short snips of what was going to happen next. "??" & It was pretty well designed, and not too suggestive so I think it was good. This suggests that the cliffhanger was good but it could be worked onto a little bit.






                                                                       

Construction: Bloopers

During the process of making this movie, there were a lot of mistakes that have occured. These included the actors getting their lines wrong, people laughing during the scenes and many other things. Firstly, the mistakes that happened occured very often during film every time we would move to a new scene, the actors would mess up. The common mistake would be that the actors would laugh during their lines and if it was not that, then it would have been them saying the wrong lines which tended to be annoying. How we managed to work past the bloopers/mistakes would be by re filming the exact same scene but giving them clear directions & making sure that no one interrupts the actor when they're speaking. Furthermore, there was 3 seconds of silence before the actors could speak in order to edit out any interruptions.

Construction: Editing

Construction: Adding Title Graphics

Adding title graphics from albertmarealle

Construction: Non Diegetic Music

Introduction to the setting

Chase scene




Chase scene 2




Our music is here to create the atmosphere of the opening that we shall be filming and these we have made in accordance to the sound that will be overplayed during the long shots as well as the chase.
The first part is calm and therefore will be musically setting the environment for what is about to come therefore setting the scenes using 2 senses and allowing it to be more obvious as well as relatable to the character.

Construction : Strengths and Weaknesses 3

Construction: Making Use of Theory

Todorov's theory will be incorporated into our movie.

This is the how the movie will start off as. It will be an extreme long shot of a field to show where the movie scene. You can obviously tell that this is part of the equilibrium due to the fact that everything is harmonious and calm.

It will then move closer into the streets using the long shots this time instead of the extreme long shot. This is to give the viewers of the actual place of where the movie is being set. This is still part of the equilibrium because everyone is minding their own business and doing no harm.

However, as we get into the movie, it will be clear that the disruption has occurred. The disruption occurs when Bogdan runs away from the police with the bag that was filled with money & leaves it hanging around in an abandoned area. Emmanuel, who happens to be walking discovers the bag in shock and decides to look inside it. When he finds out how much money is inside that, he takes it and runs off with it. This will be done  that his boss' bag has been stolen. This will be done by using a medium shot to build up the intensity of the situation

The realisation stage of this movie is when Bogdan finds out that his boss' bag has gone missing. He contacts his boss Viktor informing him that the bag filled with money has been stolen. The movie will cut off the disruption/realisation stage in order to make the viewers find out what actually happens next.  a mystery call from someone at the end where the movie cuts off. This shot will be a close up shot in order to show the intensity of the situation.

Construction: Todorov Theory of Narrative

Tzvetan Todorov, a Russian theorist came up with the theory of Narrative. This theory simply states the idea of there are 5 different phases within a narrative. A narrative is a type of way that events join together and shown to the audience. The 5 different types of phases of a narrative would be the Equilibrium, disruption, realization, attempt to repair the damage and restoration of the equilibrium.

1. Equilibrium

Equilibrium is a state where the opposed influences/ forces This stage is always at the very beginning of a narrative whether it is a movie or a music video. This is where everyone is calm, happy and is getting on with their lives. There is no drama whatsoever.

An example of this can be found in Disney's movie Toy Story. The movie starts of with Andy peacefully playing with his toys including Woody, Mr Potato Head and Slinky Dog.






2. Disruption

This is the state where a problem occurs where a problem occurs which therefore disrupts the equilibrium. In all cases, this is where the narrative begins to get intensifying.

In Toy story, the disruption firstly occurs when Andy recieved Buzz Lightyear as a birthday present and Woody became envious. Whilst Andy was preparing for a birthday meal at Pizza Planet, the two toys fought other over who's Andy's favourite & they both end up meeting each other at Pizza Planet. The real disruption occurs when they both enter the skill game machine & found out that it was Sid, Andy's menacing neighbour that was operating the machine. They both get collected and are taken to his house.

3. Realization

This where the characters in the narrative start to realize that the disruption has occurred and everything starts to get chaotic.


This  occurs in Toy Story after Woody and Buzz enter Sid's house. They see Sid's mistreated and his terrifying dog.  Following on that, Buzz attempted to fly in order to escape from Sid's house but ended up injuring himself & therefore lost belief.




4.  Attempt to repair the damage

This is the phase where the characters (usually the protagonists) aim to restore any problem caused by the disruption. Many examples would involve the protagonist having a battle with the antagonist in order to restore order.

This applies to Toy Story after Buzz and Woody spent the night at Sid's house. They escape onto a moving truck using Andy's remote control car.
 







5. Restoration of the equilibrium

This is the last stage of Todorov's narrative theory. The restoration of the equilibrium normally happens at the end of the narrative where the problem has been solved and everything  is back to its balanced state. This is where the happy endings occurrs as everyone is joyful and harmonious.

This happens at the end of Toy Story whilst Andy and his family were opening their christmas presents. All of the toys now get along with each other and there is no drama between them.

Podcast: Planning - Prefilming and Organisation

Planning: Initial Ideas

This is a podcast introducing to the viewers the initial ideas that we have planned for the movie that we are making. This will include the type of thriller it is going to be, why we chose this thriller and so forth.