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

looking back to our preliminary task I have learnt lots of new techniques and gained new skills such as


 The 180 degree angle which is where two characters in the same scene should have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line.

Match on action which is editing a shot so that the audience can continually see what is going on. 




The skills that i have learnt during my time since the preliminary task are how to edit film using iMovie. Camera work i have a better understanding of how to film efffectively.
I have also found out how to screen grab on the Mac's.

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

For my media task i have used various different types of technology. I have used Apple MAC computers but more specifically i have used iMovie on the macs which allowed me and my group to produce our edited opening sequence to a film.
The tripod was another thing that i used. I had never previously used a tripod while filming so I learnt quite a lot about it and how it allowed us to film different camera shots and angles.
The camera itself was an experience for me as I haven't used a hand-held video camera except on my mobile phone. I learnt how to use that particular model of camera as at first I couldn't even find out how to turn it on.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

I attracted and addressed my audience by using a techno screech sort of sound which unsettles the audience and allows their imagination to wonder and picture what the film could involve. We have gone for the hooded criminal look as one of our conventions for our kidnapper as this is one of the most popular stereo-types around today. also we went for a girl to be kidnapped because women in films are portrayed as being stupid in films so we played off that.
Our film is also similar to the film TAKEN which has the same sort of storyline as our film and he is the cop in this case looking to find his daughter and seeking revenge on whoever took his daughter. Also the conventions are the same as the kidnapper who takes the girl in TAKEN is wearing a hooded top wearing casual clothes.
According to our class we were successful in addressing our audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience member is a single middle aged man who lacks ambition and seeks it through television and films he watches. The tastes he might have; The clothes he would wear are ones that would be respectable plain clothes depending on his job possibly clothes that are too young or too small for him that he has kept over the years. he would shop at places such as M&S and Superdry. The sort of music he would listen to would be classic rock or bands such as kaiser chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and U2. His favourite TV programme would be - top gear the gadget show and would be guilty of watching cookery programmes so he could add it to the list of his hobbies (to cook). He would drive a second hand Audi or BMW.

He would watch my film because of the thrill and suspense of finding out who the kidnapper is and why they kidnapped the girl.  

The certificate we were aiming at for our film was an 18.

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

I think that a media institution such as a film festival may show my media product. I think this because they have a reputation for showing up and coming film producers products and I feel that my media product would fit in to that scene.

 The genre of my media product is crime thriller this is a very popular genre in the cinemas with films such as taken and the crime genre and conventions of Max Payne

relistically i think my film would be placed as a B movie and would not make it to the cinema but would maybe come out on DVD at a cheap price or shown on a TV channel such as 5*.

How does your media product represent particular social groups.

The similarities between these two different characters are that they both look evil in their appearance even before you see what the character is actually like in the film. They are both hooded characters that means that they have something to hide be it their face or their emotions that they may be showing underneath the the hood. their costume is ver similar, they both wear dark colours and a hood. also their role in the film is quite a big one as the character in our opening scene is the one who has taken the girl and the lord of the rings character is trying to capture something using force and aggression.
So I feel in particular that these characters represent the stereotypical hooded thug social group in the way that they are destructive and are very narrow minded when it comes to doing what they do best which is cause havoc.

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

The title of the film is called " GONE WITHOUT A SIGHT" we choose this name after we came up with the storyline because it seemed to fit what happened in our opening sequence, as the girl got kidnapped without anyone seeing it happen. Also the word 'GONE' is a rather chilling word which sends a shiver down your spine.


The setting and location of our opening sequence is made to look like a prison we wanted to do this because it created mystery and make people ask why is he there? what did he do? our setting and location did this very well because of how we made look like a genuine police station mug shot setting.

Costumes and props, for our costumes we looked at stereo typical views of what someone who would commit a crime would wear we decided that the hoody best represented the thug look especially with our actor wearing the hood up which partially covers his face to make him look scarier as it made him look emotionless which creates fear. Our prop, the mug shot board was key to making the mug shot work. Without it as an audience we would not know what he was doing there so the audience would not be so inquisitive to as why he is there.

Camera work and editing, this part of the task was the most vital part of the process it alowed us to turn an ordinary shot in to something else with how we changed the lighting effect put sound in and also removed some background sounds. We could also change the order of when we filmed the shot as we filmed the scene that was closest to us meaning that if the location for the ending were to be closer we would film that first. In our camera work we used a variety of shots such as "over the shoulder" which speaks for its self and also "floating camera" which is where you hold the camera yourself which is makes the audience feel like they are in that persons shoes. We edited in music to create mood for our scenes we had to choose carefully because it can influence how the audience perceive something.

Title font and style, The title font is a very smart font that fits with the crime thriller genre as the black backdrop fits in with the gone without a sight title as black is a colour of uncertainty and disaperance. As a group we spent a long time searching through all the possible fonts on iMovie which is a film editing programme on the Apple MAC computers.

Story and how the opening sets it up, The opening of our film is where we have a phone which shows that a detective is ringing it. this is effective because a Detective is a important person so why would a detective be ringing somebodys phone without there being a problem.

Genre and how the opening suggests it,  our opening suggests the genre in many different ways however i chose to discuss the scene with the kidnapper and the kidnappe in the same room because it is dark with an dark outline of the kidnappers body which may suggest to the audience that he is a bad person.

How characters are introduced,the characters in our opening scene all get introduced as how they are perceived to the audience, we first see the kidnapper when he comes around the corner wearing his stereo typical costume with the lighting being dark, he is immediately introduced as a threat to life.


special effects, The special effects used are the lighting effects  these were used effectively while filming the close up of the kidnapped girl, we made the girl look like she had been kidnapped for a number of days by turning the picture into black and white, this made the make up under her eyes stand out to make her look beaten and unclean while maintaining the feeling of being in a dark cold place.