Evaluation question 1

1. EVALUATION
QUESTION 1
“IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?”

2. MISE EN SCENE – LOCATION &
LIGHTING
The opening begins located within a house. However, after the “2 years later” message, the
location moves to a wooded area. Wooded areas are easy to film in because they’re usually
near enough empty from other people so can be free from disturbance.
Wooded locations are commonly found in post apocalyptic
films. We took the inspiration for this type of location from The
Book Of Eli, a film in which the very first scene is in a forest.
The woods in The Book of Eli are much more eerie and dark
than the ones we used, however we didn’t have the capability
or money to modify the local woods we went to, so instead we
removed colour from our location during the editing process, to
attempt to mimic the depressing feel of the woods in The Book
Of Eli.
In The Road, locations resembling a desolate wasteland
are used in order to create an empty feeling to the
opening. As a way of recreating the empty setting, we
used a back garden and made it look neglected. For
example, we broke tree branches, let the grass grow
and even added rubbish to the garden so as to make it
look like a wasteland that has been long abandoned.

3. MISE EN SCENE-PROPS
To create an item of significance we took the Idea from
the mise-en-scene in The Road, where the characters
walk over diamonds and money. Just as the Road
showed that money is no longer needed, we used a
purse full of money to throw on the ground to give our
film the same feeling. This shows just how much the
world has changed because the once most wanted
possession, is now thrown away like it’s worthless.
In The Book of Eli, Eli carries his belongings in a
rucksack. We took, a rucksack and put dirt and mud on it
to make it look old and torn, as though the characters
have been out in the wild for years, just like in The Book
of Eli.
In 28 days later a newspaper is used as a
main prop because it hints at the so far untold
narrative. By taking this concept, we used
editing software to create our own newspaper
with the headline “Human meat scandal”, to
give hints to the narrative of our own fil
opening.

4. COSTUME AND
MAKEUP
With regards to make up,
we took the idea of a dead
person from The Book of
Eli. Using wax and fake
blood, we created a bullet
hole to show that the
reason the person died was
because they either shot
themselves or were shot.
The main theme of our
costume for all characters
in our film opening was
dark clothes alongside
camouflage. The idea for
the dark clothes came from
I Am Legend. To replicate
the look in that film, we
had our main character
wear cargo trousers. In
addition to this, we also
had the other character in
our film wear boots, similar
again to the boots in I am
Legend. These costumes
give the look of a tough
character as opposed to a
character that is barely
coping (for example: the
characters in The Road).
The bandit in our film, wore a
facemask. We hoped the
mask would make the
character look more
mysterious. Furthermore, the
bandit wore a dark black
coat. As black has
connotations of danger, the
idea was that alongside the
face mask, it would make the
character look dangerous.
The idea of the face mask
came from the bandits in The
Book of Eli, where some of
the bikers have their face
covered.

5. NARRATIVE
The narrative for our opening is that third world countries
coped with their overpopulation problem by slaughtering
humans under the disguise of beef and selling it. People
became infected if they ate human, so as more people
unknowingly ate it, humanity collapsed. After watching 28
days later, we decided to take inspiration from the biological
disaster that caused the apocalypse in that film. Instead of
being infected by rage like in 28 days later, the “mad” people
in our film have been infected by human meat.
In 28 days later, the opening begins with the main
character walking around and unaware that there
has been an apocalypse because he's been in a
coma. In our film opening, we start with the main
character walking to his mums house because he
doesn’t know about the human eat scandal. The
man in 28 days later walks around an empty London
and obviously we cannot do this, so our character
walks round empty streets of Alfreton. The main
reason why we took this idea was because we
thought it added more of an introduction and
narrative to the film.

6. CHARACTERS
Luke, the main character in our film opening, was inspired by the main character
from 28 Days Later. In that film, the character begins by being oblivious to the
apocalypse which is similar to our character. Furthermore, the character in that film
is an ordinary man as opposed to characters in films such as The Book Of Eli where
he has the hero complex. Our group thought the hero stock character was too cliché
and so decided that the main character should be more ordinary.
In addition, we decided to have another main character in our film because we
noticed that in all the post apocalyptic films we have watched ( The Book Of Eli, 28
Days Later, The Road, Hunger Games, I am Legend) that there is always a second
important character at some point in the film. Madeline, our second character was
inspired by Selena in 28 Days later because she's a strong, female character that is
equal to her male counterparts.

7. TITLE SEQUENCE AND DESIGN
OF TEXT
Looking at title sequences of both post apocalyptic films ( Hunger games-Catching
fire) and other genres ( Skyfall and Shrek), we noticed that the general trend of order
starts with production company, actors, then director, followed by the rest of the
crew. Therefore this is the order in which we followed for Mans Greed.
The font of the titles in Hunger Games
catching fire is century gothic and black
gothic which are both block, capitalised
fonts. This is part of the reason we
chose to go for a similar look to our
titles. In mans Greed the text is white
and capitalised. However, the font in our
film opening is slightly different based
on the fact that the gothic fonts were not
available in Premier Pro. Therefore we
used a similar font that had the same
look to it.

8. MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS
All the sound effects that were hard to
capture ourselves, we took from copy right
free websites. Mostly we used Sound Bible,
however, some sounds we had to take from
other free websites. One main sound effect
used was the sound of wind. Making the
wind loud implied that all noises creating by
human such as talking, car engines,
construction etc., have stopped because
humans are no longer in control. The sound
of wind is particular relevant and effective in
The Road, which is where we took the idea.
The reason it’s so effective in The Road is
because it shows how quiet the world has
become and gives the opening an eerie
feeling. Furthermore, it makes the opening to
The Road sad and depressing which is a
mood commonly associated with post
apocalyptic films and therefore something
we wanted to recreate.
In The Road, the protagonist does a voice over as he walks to explain some of the narrative. In
Mans Greed, we did the same thing because we thought it was an effective way of adding context
to the opening. In addition, using a monotone voice adds a depressing feeling to the film and can
help to give more of a personality to the main character.

9. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, all aspects of our opening were inspired in
some way by a post apocalyptic film, weather the
inspiration major or minor, they all helped us to recreate a
post apocalyptic look and feel in some manor. Things such
as costume and setting are essential for creating a post-
apocalyptic feel and therefore by analysing these openings,
we can ensure our fil keeps of the right track of a
conventional post apocalyptic film.
Of course, there were elements that we didn't include in
ours for reasons varying from lack of money and time to not
being overly keen on a factor.
By taking inspiration from various different films, we were
able to keep the look of our film authentic in some way and
not a cheep replica of a successful blockbuster.

10. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, all aspects of our opening were inspired in
some way by a post apocalyptic film, weather the
inspiration major or minor, they all helped us to recreate a
post apocalyptic look and feel in some manor. Things such
as costume and setting are essential for creating a post-
apocalyptic feel and therefore by analysing these openings,
we can ensure our fil keeps of the right track of a
conventional post apocalyptic film.
Of course, there were elements that we didn't include in
ours for reasons varying from lack of money and time to not
being overly keen on a factor.
By taking inspiration from various different films, we were
able to keep the look of our film authentic in some way and
not a cheep replica of a successful blockbuster.