1. EVALUATION
QUESTION 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products.
2. The name is reflecting the races that will happen in the film such as in the
first part of our film opening, and so is reflective of the narrative.
I used illustrator to design the title and decided to use a black background
and white text so that it would stand out more.
TITLES
We chose the name ‘First to fifth’ because the film is about racing and
they are aiming to be first and when the car is in fifth gear it is going fast
and is generally the top gear in many cars and would be used in race cars
in a race.
3. The font we chose for the title is what we thought was conventional
of car film as they usually have slanted writing to connote speed.
For example “Need for Speed’, ‘Fast and Furious’ and ‘Rush’ have
slanted writing and in these films there are car races in the
narrative which is reflected in the font of the titles.
The title in our film opening appears in a cross dissolve towards
the end of the sound of the crash after the tension has been
relieved and it would allow the audience to focus on the title.
4. CREDITS AND IDENT
The idents for film companies are either
animated or a static picture. We decided to
look at idents that were animated as we
wanted to do an animated one for our film
opening as we thought it would look more
professional. We looked at Paramont
Pictures, Warner Brothers and 20th Century
Fox for ideas on how we could animate our
ident.
We liked the idea of Paramount Pictuers
using stars to create a circle. We used this
idea to create a triangle made up of smaller
triangles and we created it using powerpoint.
We included the name of our production
company as the ones we looked at for
research all included the names rather than
having just a logo.
5. The conventions of credits in the
opening of films is to have the
names in order of importance. I
have looked at the opening credits
of one of the fast and furious films
to see how they have ordered it.
Name of the
production
company
Co production
company name
Main actors
Name of person that
cast the actors
Name of person that
sourced the music
6. We used the name of our production company decided to
make it a different colour to the rest of the credits. We
chose red and white for the name of the production
company as it was filmed at silverstone track and their
colour scheme includes red as a main colour. We also
changed the colour as this is an important credit and we
wanted it to stand out.
The rest of the credits we chose to do in white but we
kept the same font to keep it consistent.
We used a different font for the credits as to separate
them form the title of the film. We made the writing
slanted to keep the connotation of speed for the
audience, like other motorsport films have done such as
fast and furious.
We decided to to have the production companies before
the scene with the car building up to the crash and no
credits whilst the car was on the scree so that the
audience could focus on the narrative.
7. CHARACTERS
We only had one character in our film
opening so that the audiences’ focus would
be on that one character who is the
protagonist, and if the film was to be made,
would be the main character. The focus is
on this character and we do not show his
face until the end so that the audience is
interested and wants to find out who this
person is.
The beginning of the film builds up to the
crash and this is important as it establishes
what the film is about. The crash is the
main point of the film because the narrative
is about his son and how he is carrying on
with racing and doing what his father once
did.
8. SETTINGS AND LOCATIONS
The conventional settings for a motorsport film is a race track
and stands. For example in the film ‘Days of Thunder’ the
opening of the film is made up of many establishing shots of the
track and the stands. We also used some shots of the stands
and track to set the scene and support the conventions of a
motorsport film.
9. We originally planned to film the
car scene on the race track but
we later were told that we did not
have access to this. We had
access to the paddock only and
this meant that it did not look like
the car was on a track. Also on
the filming day we only had
twenty minutes with the car to get
all the footage we needed and we
did not get enough that was able
to be used in post production. If
we had longer we would have
been able to get more useable
footage.
10. We also planned to film the scene when the boy is getting ready in the
pits to make it more conventional. For example in Days of Thunder’s
opening credits there are shots of the cars in the pits which follows
conventions of motorsport films.
We did not have access to the pits and had to film that scene in the
changing rooms at school. We had to do more close up shots so that
we did not have the lockers in the background in any of the shots. This
meant that we could follow the typical conventions of motorsport films.
If I was to do this again I would have
found another track location that would
have allowed us to use the race track
and the pits so that we could follow the
typical conventions of motorsport films.
11. COSTUME
The conventional costume in a
motorsport film is a race suit and
a helmet, and ‘Rush’ and ‘Days
of Thunder’ include these
conventions.
In these ‘Rush’ the protagonist
and the antagonist are both
wearing race gear and so it fits
the conventional characters. We
wanted to follow this convention
of the race suit and helmet and
so we sourced that costume.
12. We wanted to follow the typical conventions of motorsport films with our
costume. We sourced a race suit, gloves and helmet for our actor to get
dressed in and we wanted a blue suit to stereotype the male gender.
13. CAMERA WORK
In film openings at the beginning there are usually a few establishing
shots to set the scene. In ‘Rush’, ‘Days of thunder’, and ‘Need for Speed’
there are one or two establishing shots of the conventional locations for a
motorsport film. We have also included establishing shots of the track and
the stands to set the scene
14. In the scene where the boy is getting ready we used close up shots to
show the audience what he was doing and to construct questions for
the audience about who this boy is. We also did not show the boy’s
face until the end to create intrigue the audience and make them
interested about this person is.
We used match on action to show the boy getting the gloves out of the
bag to again create questions for the audience such as what is in the
bag and then it is revealed when he pulls out the gloves. This
sequence of shots also draws the attention of the audience to what he
is doing.
15. We also used close up shots to
show what the driver what the driver
was doing in the car. We did this so
that it would be more interesting for
the audience rather than just shots
of the car going past.
In ‘Fast and Furious’ they also used
interior close up shots of the car .
16. EDITING
To show that time had passed from the crash to when the boy is getting
ready for his race we used a darker filter on the first scene with the car
to show that that happened in the past. This is later confirmed when
the commentators talk about the crash. Editing was used to piece
together the narrative and we used mostly used cuts and cross
dissolves to do this. The crash was at the beginning followed by the
black screen which we had to have so that we could portray that there
had been a crash without actually showing it as this would have been
very difficult to film with the locations and props we had access to.
The second
screen shot is
brighter
17. In the film ‘Fast and Furious’ the opening begins with
a car chase and they have used editing to put
together a sequence of shots and have used a fast
pace of editing.
They have done this to build up tension and
suspense in the narrative and also to imply that there
is energy and action happening.
We used this idea to create the feeling of energy and
suspense for our audience.
The speed of editing for the film is quite quick
as to build up tension and to emphasize the
speed of the car. It is also fast in the scene
when the boy is getting ready because it
creates suspense and intrigues the audience.
