The document summarizes research done on the action genre for a student media production. It analyzed action film trailers like Taken and The Transporter to identify codes and conventions to incorporate. The students' action film opening used techniques like shots over the shoulder and close-ups seen in the reference films. It was rated 15 due to violence and received positive feedback, though improvements like additional casting and weapons were noted.

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2. Summarizing Genre Research
The genre we used for our media production was action. We chose this genre because we thought we’d change from
doing horror films like people mainly do. We watched various action trailers to help[ us find the correct
storyline, codes and conventions for our action film.
Codes and conventions:
• they have clear binary opposites
• settings
• Props
• Weapons
• Costumes
• using mainly close up shots
The trailers we looked at for our media production include:
• The transporter (2002) http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0293662/?ref_=sr_1
The trailer to the transporter- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0poXFSvX0_4
• Taken (2008) http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
The trailer to taken https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCbDUREBwUg
As you can see from the films we have not copied the stereotype. We have got a man kidnapped by a women's
organization, whereas in a usual kidnapping action film like taken or the transporter the female gets kidnapped
These trailers helped us a lot when it came down to recording. We used a lot of the props, settings and camera shots in
our production as used in the films above.

3. As you can see in the pictures from taken and the transporter and taken they have guns pointed towards
people. We have tried to do the same thing in our production as you can see by the picture below.
Taken (2008)) Transporter (2002)
We also wanted to use a ‘pistol whip’ in our film. This is used in many action films and we wanted thought it
would make our film more
Our film

4. Techniques and camera angles used
We used a range of different+ shots in our film opening such as: medium close up, close up, over
the shoulder etc...
Over the shoulder shot Medium close up Used a long shot over here to see the
victims surrounding just before he
gets kidnapped
Just before Liam Neesons daughter gets kidnapped in taken, a
,medium close up is used to show her surroundings. We tried to
do the same in our production to show that the victim is in an
abandoned alley way. You can see the broken cars at the back.
This sets the scene of a perfect kidnapping, (no where to run). As
we saw that taken was a successful film we decided to use some

5. Stereotypes
There are two different types of stereotypes: negative and positive.
We kept our stereotypes simple for the opening. There was a typical person the villain hires to
kidnap the victim and there were to male kidnappers. This is what usually happens in films
you don't see females kidnapping people. However, it is usually the female who gets
kidnapped but we have subverted from the typical genre and had the male kidnapped by a
female gang leaders goons. The theory for outlining the villains and main characters is props
theory.
The negative stereo type was based on the female boss because this subverted the villain to the
female woman instead of the two goons sitting in the car. This makes the audience want to
watch the rest of the film because they do not know who the real villains are and why they
are kidnapping someone? We have made it in such a way that leave people like on a cliff
hanger wanting to know if there's more
We have mainly looked at props theory of, heroes, villains and victims in our film because that's
what is mainly outlined in the opening

6. When it came to producing and editing our film money on my block we used a simple hand held
camera that was a quality HD cannon brand. We used this along with a tripod. This was
obviously pretty basic due to our colleges budget.
However, luckily we where given apple Mac computers to help us with editing. The software on
there is a watered down version to what the professionals use. This shows how easy it is to
make a film to a certain level. It was called Final Cut. It is pretty difficult to use to be honest
but once we got use to it, it was not that bad
We have to thank the school a lot for purchasing expensive equipment we were able to use
Equipment and software's
Final cut icon

7. Audience research
The age rating on our film was rated a fifteen, this was because of the violence used in
there, also it would not be very good if a film with mobsters shooting and fighting
wouldn’t be suitable for anyone under the age of 15. If it wasn’t just the opening
of the film there would have been foul language and probably blood.
Nowadays there is a high demand for action gangster films so people the age of 15 and
over would enjoy watching a film like this. For example, Taken film made a
worldwide gross profit of $226,830,568.
We used BBFC at the start of our film to show a well known company for the film and
mostly when people go to the cinemas they would see the film is rated by this
company.
Myself along with, Raqib and Jordan who created this opening film are all at that age
where we enjoy films with a certain amount of action/ scenes that you have to be
over the age of 15 to see. Since there was going to be weapons and violence used
in this film we decided to rate it a 15.
However, as I have said this opening shows nothing that could be harmful to people
under the ages of 12 but throughout the rest of the film there was going to be
much more scenes that would not be tolerated in a 12A film.

8. Institution Research
The institution that we actually ended up using in the end
though was Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). We chose this
for our final choice because it is a well known institution
for when you see the roaring lion
Film 4 is a film institution with a small budget and a small audience. We
decided to do our research on this as this is the closest institution for our
budget and equipment. The film we viewed before filming our production
was Attack the block (2011). This was because it has various different racial
background of actors, there is a black person, white person, and a mix of
Asians in there as well. There is also violence in this film like there was in
ours.
Film 4 is known for making many successful British films
such as slum dog millionaire and east is east. As we have
made our film in England using a small budget and basic
equipment, this is what we compare ourselves to- a film4
production.

9. When talking about social groups, there are 5 different characters shown in the opening. These
are, the victim, the main boss, the victims partner and the 2 goons.
The victims partner looks
like a mature teen about
18-19 years old.
The female boss is much
older than the rest of the
characters'
The victim and the villains worker
are around the same age about
17 years of age.
As you can see there are around 2 different types of ages in our ages are late teens in there 18
years and a woman who is much older than the rest of the cast. This shows that mainly there is a
group of late teens and early adults involved and a mature woman as well. This shows that most of
the cast is based on people who are in collage where there is an exception of a woman who is the
head boss.
We have tried to use actors our age so it doesn't change into other social groups. We wanted to
keep the genre and who it was aimed at all at one level because then we had to adjust our film and
add other shots/scenes to match

10. Improvement
When we sat down after we received feedback, one of the man points people told us was that
we should have had more casting. For example, instead of having 2 people kidnapping the
victim we could have had a group of people in tracksuit bottoms and balaclavas like we
suggested in our mood board.
However, overall we got a lot of good feedback saying our camera shots used where good and so
was the setting along with the storyline. Cameras could have been slightly less shaky and the
sound could sync in a bit more. We also could have used a range of different weapons.
We wanted to portray a scene
from the film sket by having a
group of girls with weapons
fighting
We should have used more
knives, guns or other sorts of
rough weapons