Ella, Jo and Tegan: March 2012

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

I understand the importance of a Thriller production to include specific conventions to be a successful piece. The characters will be suggested as a threat and a victim to distribute the stylized contrast between them through mise en scene. Often these characteristics are portrayed through a protagonist alongside an antagonist. I have noticed their relationship varies, i.e some films introduce them with brief knowing of each other with the antagonist releasing threat upon the protagonist who is oblivious to their actions. On the other hand there are also films that just acknowledge a previous relationship between the characters and let the audience decide upon it. Exciting films I am aware that incorporate these relationship issues are: 'The Disappearance of Alice Creed', '44 inch Chest' and 'Abduction'. The location's and settings are also a vital section of thriller conventions as they reflect the character's place of mind and the restrictions of their actions.

These are 9 shots from my film opening to establish the conventions that apply in showing the audience the characters oppositions. They are viewed around the protagonist's workplace. We decided on this initial set to let our audience relate to, as it is an environment anyone can enter. The direct note the protagonist encounters is to raise questions from the protagonist and audience: Who? What? When? Why? How?

I believe the non diegetic soundtrack i created to play on top of my film opening has a repetitive beat that increases in volume and sources at a particular stage in the film to demonstrate the suspense being built where emotions have been altered. The sound becomes earry when the credits appear to reduce the vicious tones when the suspense was being built, but still playing the repetitive beat that has now reduced in volume.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

There are only two characters introduced in my thriller introduction. Initialy, they shared a previous loving relationship. This is not addressed in the film as i wanted to let the audience question their relationship, as they do not approach eachother atall in the introduction. Whilst one character has moved on into the future, the other is staying put of where they stand now in the relationship as they attempt to ruin this for their ex by inflicting pain based on their jelous emotions.

I know this particular social aspect can relate to members of my audience as relationships are a big area in humanities lives. TV drama also approaches this aspect a lot in popular soap's such as 'EastEnders', 'Hollyoaks' and 'Emmerdale'. Even though these titles do not come under the Thriller genre, they also want to relate to members of their audience.

As it is a mixed gender representation in our thriller, it is not necessary for the character's to associate with their stereotyped roles. This gender representation logo I created has been altered as it represents my characters. Between just the two of them, my female character is most powerful,whereas in society male roles are considered most important with higher status.

      How I have represented social groups:
      Through Conventions

The antagonist is the female character in frame who I have tried put in view from a low angle shot throughout my film to be recognized as the character with higher status and releasing threat. Referring back to when, as a group, we brainstormed idea's for characteristics, we have always wanted our antagonist to look physically relaxed and calm but is rather still mentally attached to the previous relationship and now plan's to plot revenge.

The male character is the protagonist who is filmed with no initial shot angle to metaphorically suggest his lack of control as he is not aware of our antagonist's presence, especially in his place of work.

I didn't think it would be easy to steer away from the characters looking their actual age, but dressed in the appropriate clothing, I think it worked successfully! The female character is dressed in bland colours but addresses feminine connotations which are provoked by high heels and a low cut sweater. Her posture in body language was also important as it shows her pride in appearance and knows of her beauty.
My male character on the other hand is formally dressed for the occasion to show he is in his place of work. He is dressed in a classic black suit which has been roughed-up abit by the top button's left un-done and the collar out to show he has finished for the day and is now in his comfort zone.

3. what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

To secure a placement of my film, I believe I would choose to distribute with "Quad Cinema 4 Wall Select Programme" for Indie film self-distribution that i discovered when researching independent film distribution companies. They are based in New York and help control booking theatres around the world. They say "The filmmaker will retain and control all the rights to exhibit, self- distribute the film and control all the DVD, online and streaming programmes.
When considering film exhibition, I would release my UK Thriller in independent Art House cinema's to maintain a low key film launch. I will market my film on a Wednesday as this is when low budget films are often released, rather than releasing it on a Friday where I have alot of competition with successful distributors such as The Warner Brothers and Universal Studios. An audience I have discovered that are particularly interested in Art house cinema releases is Brighton, UK. It is the home of more young people which I feel is the age of my target audience. The stereotype term of 'Indie' within Quad Cinema relates to alot of young people found in Brighton as it is short for individual.

To receive a larger audience for my film I will need to accompany with advertisement. The young people of Brighton take a big interest in their appearance and do this by purchasing 'hip' items a part of companies that also aim at this particular demographic. I am familiar with popular items for the young market and feel advertising with Ray-Ban will heighten my audience.

Ray-Ban are a classic glasses company that date back to the early 19th century and are still popular to this day. The younger generation have always been interested in owning an item of Ray-Ban whether it is for personal prescribed glasses or adding to their 'hip' appearance during sunny weather. To sustain extra advertisement I would reveal one of my characters in my film to be wearing an item of Ray-Ban's when the full version of the film is released. But for more commercial advertisement i will hope to appear in Ray-Ban's sales advertisement appearing in magazines particularly aimed for the younger audiences and bill boards and posters (on my behalf hopefully making an appearance around Brighton). What makes it even more promising on my behalf is that Ray-Ban is a world wide attraction, and even celebrities are modelling their items.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I would say the gender of my target audience is a mix of both genders as it is a balance of both genders in my film. If I were to target at one particular sex then it would mainly be aimed towards women as of the mysterious characteristics of the main female character and her approach on males. I don't think the male audience would like how i represent my male character from how oblivious he is to her actions and his low self esteem. As i have covered before, I aim at the younger generation, in the ranking of 15-30 year olds as they can relate to the characters.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080803145236AAOZW9d

The link above includes peoples comments of what films they feel is suitable for 15 year olds and above. They have specifically reviewed Thriller, and Horror films, and such films as "The Matrix" and "Wanted" they feel most suit this target audience.

The Matrix

I have briefly watched The Matrix before to review for Thriller conventions but it is more action packed and fictional compared to my film introduction which can be seen in a non-fictional way for my audience to relate to. But, I do agree with the person that mentioned The matrix as it does suit the targetted age.

Wanted

I havn't watched "Wanted" before but it is similiar to "The Matrix" in the sense of being action based, but the female character played by Angelina Jolie has similiar characterestics to my female character who is sophisticated and knows of her beauty, but Angerlina Jolie is on a spy mission whereas Tegan (who plays my female character) is on a mission to take revengence on her ex-partner.

Classification

Even Though my target audience is from the age of 15, I also raited my film to be suitable for 15 years and older because if I were to complete the whole film I believe I would have refferences of frequent use of strong language, sex and violence. These categories are prohibited to approach in films under this certification.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I addressed my target audience through my personal social networking site to recieve helpful feedback from my contacts who are convinietly aged between 15 and 30.

The comments I recieved are positive and motivating, and point out specific area's that I apperently succeeded in. Particular aspects of my short film that my audience seem to be engaged in are the title credits at the end of the sequence and the soundtrack playing throughout the film. I foccussed on these areas especially when bringing everything together in my final film to express a 'funky' edge to my production that I have the freedom in designing. The title sequence was inspired by Saul Bass who created the credit sequence in ‘The Man with The Golden Arm’. The way the words are transitioned into the frame look very amateur but seem to have an iconic feel which is presented in a retro combination of black and white.

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

These are some photograph's taken during the process of us using the technology to help us complete our film's. They have been previously uploaded onto the blog. They cover screen-grab's of:

Using Final Cut Pro to edit footage
Establishing continuting editing between different shots
Using extra lighting to the frame when filming
Using the regular film camera to capture the anomatic assisted by a 'dolly'
Using the hand-held voice recorder to explain our storyboard

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel I have progressed mostly in technical skills used since out taking our preliminary task. Considering we used the regular film camera in both tasks, from filming the preliminary task I have learnt how important it is to film shots several times to have a variety in shot distances and angles.

Above is another 9 shot sequence including screen grabs of both my preliminary task and Thriller intro.

Here we have a screen grab of a shot from the matrix. This caught our attention as it is taken from a low angle looking up at the building that the following scene is taken in. this could essentially be taken from a low angle as a view point of a character looking up at the building their about to enter. We feel this is effective as it is a technique many films use to set the scene. By looking at this building the viewer instantly knows this building takes place in the following scene or it is relevant to the film and could perhaps be a plot point.

Batman returns uses a very similar shot during the beginning robbery scene.Unlike the the previous screen grab, taken from the matrix, the shot is of a landscape of buildings, we can see it is in the middle of a city, this gives the viewer a larger incite into the setting. Following this shot the camera tracks in towards the specific building that they want to audience to focus on, consequently telling the audience something significant is about to happen in this building. We aim to do something similar as we will our film takes place in a block of offices.