Question 7 of Evaluation

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

-          Our brief for the preliminary task was all about continuity. This involved “filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue”. The task had to demonstrate exhibit match on action, 180-degree rule and shot/reverse shot.

-          This was quite a different task to our main one (the two minute opening). With our main task we had to film the opening of a new fiction film that was a maximum of two minutes long and it had to include titles.

-          When looking at these two tasks, there are definitely elements of match-on-action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. Also, due to our preliminary exercise we were able to identify and use different shots in our two minute opening sequence. For example we used high angle shots, close ups, medium close up shots, long shots and many others. We used these different methods because of the many different aspects of filming we learnt about before, during and after our preliminary exercise.

-          I believe we have greatly improved since our preliminary exercise. For example, our match-on-action sequences are smoother and we used shot-reverse-shot slightly differently than in our preliminary exercise. 

Question 6 of Evaluation

Question 5 of Evaluation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pHJlbjyyus0KBxE_wfjyxWaQ21niGGzPD8YWHalFQJE/edit?usp=sharing

Question 4 of Evaluation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VF8bOnQXDQBv5o_hNp4s017gdXU0F19mqJMFOzgXEQc/edit?usp=sharing

Question 3 of Evaluation

Our film deals with some sensitive topics, like drug use and its effects, so that means that we may be slightly limited as to who would be willing to distribute our film. Despite this there are still a fair amount of mainstream and independent distributors who may be willing to distribute our film.

For example, in terms of independent distributors, Metrodome would be a good option. This is because they distributed the film Shifty. The synopsis: “Shifty, a young crack cocaine dealer in London, sees his life quickly spiral out of control when his best friend returns home. Stalked by a customer desperate to score at all costs, and with his family about to turn their back on him for good, Shifty must out-run and out-smart a rival drug dealer, intent on setting him up for a big fall. As his long-time friend Chris confronts the dark past he left behind him, Shifty is forced to face up to the violent future he's hurtling towards” – by Anonymous on IMDB.

Our film also deals with the issue of drugs; in a different way to Shifty but nevertheless there are some similarities.

In terms of possible mainstream distributors, New Line Cinema may be a good option for our film. This is because they have released films such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Se7en”. Though these films are very different from ours, they aren’t something that every film distributor would jump to release. This shows that New Line Cinema would be a good match as our film is something that pushes the boundaries (slightly; only because of the drug use and psychological aspects). 

Question 2 of Evaluation

Question 1 of Evaluation

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

In the narrative we establish the plot before and after the title sequence which goes against some of the usual conventions where the plot may be established after a title sequence, like in North by Northwest directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

In our two minute opening sequence the plot is established with a significant event before the title sequence and then a complication afterwards – the passing out of the main character is the significant event while the death of the cousin is the complication.

Our film was designed to be linear but with events that would confuse the audience, as our film is a psychological thriller so it needs situations like this to be successful. Flash-backs may have added to the psychological confusion however, like in Shutter Island where Teddy Daniels experiences brief flashbacks to events before the time the main film is set.

With our camera angles, shot movement and positions of the camera we generally stayed with the norm, except in one shot where the camera is positioned far to the left of the character it should be focused on. This is something usually found in horror films, but they can and usually are incorporated into psychological thrillers to add a more tense atmosphere, as the space that is not occupied by another character could be invaded by something at any point, which in turn would cause the audience to jump. However we used it as a device to build the tension in the atmosphere which is something that is found often in the darker genres of film.  

With the continuity and editing, we did an okay job in terms of creating a smooth film – there weren’t many jumps in the final cut. The pacing and rhythm of our two minute opening was quite fast but it wasn’t choppy (at least not until the end, where for some reason our two minute opening didn’t render properly). 

In the background of our two minute opening, in the beginning, the diegetic sound of the opening of Cape Fear can be heard. We did this to try and subliminally translate to the audience that the film was a psychological thriller, like Cape Fear. It adds impact to the opening scene, which was something we wanted to achieve since our full film would have been designed to be fast paced. In the scenes before and after the title sequence, the sound heard is all diegetic. We did this to make the film seem more real in a way, to try and immerse the audience more. However, this could have been achieved more successfully through silence.

The ‘costumes’ used in the two minute film opening were all things that we owned ourselves. We were given different roles to play and we tried to show this through our clothing. The location was one of our group members’ houses, where most of the full film would have been set. This is not usual for a mainstream film – for it to be set in one specific location. Though, it is not completely unusual as films like 127 Hours and Harry Potter is (for the most part) set in one specific location.

The props used were all bought ourselves or they were things that we had on hand at the location.

The font used in the title sequence was bold and was a sans serif font. The size of the font was around 16, while the main title was around 36. We used an effect on Final Cut Express to add an effect to the font that would make it look more rough and distorted. 

In our two minute opening we didn’t have many pieces of iconography due to the fact that it’s difficult to do this with psychological thrillers at the beginning. Psychological thrillers are about building up the psychological aspects slowly, so we only got three pieces of iconography. One of these was the lighting – our film looked very dark and almost like it was shot in black and white even though it wasn’t (this can be linked to mise-en-scene too).

We also filmed a shot where there was a big amount of empty space next to one of the main characters. This is a typical convention seen in most horror and psychological thriller films as the empty space is supposed to make the audience wary of something that may or may not “jump in” or appear on screen.  

section 1

The significance of using Beth’s passout as the start of the opening titles shows the audience how high she is and that she is unconscious, so they can follow the story. The narrative is linear as it follows the present.

The most significant way of showing our film genre in the first minutes was through the opening titles because they are very distort and unnatural, like the film storyline. The title sequences uses very innocent baby music but because of the context doesn’t seem as innocent more like creepy. Other films that have followed this approach in the genre are Inception. As it uses a piano sequence and a violin to add an effect of seriousness and implies that there is something that is not ordinary about the film.

Our main focus for the cinematography was the lighting and double vision shots because they both show the conventions of unusual in them. The dark lighting or grudge looked lighting gives the film an edge of darkness and secrete like in Se7en (fig 2). Also we used double vision to show the condition of Beth and to show there are two meanings to this film.  The editing of this film is fast pace when Beth is in the toilets to show paranoia, this is also used in other films to show the same emotion (fig 3) for example Stir of Echos when Tom is hypnotised. The music and sound in this film is very subtle and quiet. I think that when Beth is in the toilet the light in the bathroom is a humming noise, which sounds like something out of a mental institute because it is very mysterious and gives a paranoid vibe from it. I think that most films use music that plays on the the mind for example in Se7en opening titles it sounds like the man is peeling this skin off when it could be a vegetable. I think my media product develops this because there is no other sign on a mental institute in the film so it is a subliminal message about the state of mind of Beth.

(fig2

(fig 3)

The pace of our film is very jumpy and becomes more and more jumpy towards the end because it shows the thriller genre. Other films that have done this is Party Animal (This film  is a comedy but uses jump cuts the same way). We used the rhyme of the editing to vary so that not shot was the same.

The music we used was very innocent a spookey like Nightmare on Elm ST. this uses the conventions of the genre because it was proven successful with a lot of films. 

The diegetic sound of the opening of Cape Fear can be heard, we used this because the audience know straight away what type of genre the film is. We added impact to the opening scene, by using an awkward dialogue because the audience can see there is no real relationship between cetain characters which will make the film plot more interesting. After the title sequence Beth is heavily breathing because she is panicing. However, this could have been done through silence as well.

<p> a play button <p/>

<iframe src="https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:4CupN3xZfHbcwYSFRqqXtl" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>

Our mise-en scene was used to challenge and developed conventions of thriller films because Lola is very selfish and self centred and shows this with what she wears. This is used in most thriller films with girl groups. However, this is challenged when Lola is hanging out with Chloe who is a nerd.

 

• The costumes and clothing – all the customes belong to the characters, this is because we didn't have a budget for clothing and we needed the charaters to look realistic
• The location- most of our filming is in the house for the two minutes because it is quite normal and it is in the Barnsley area
• The porops- most of the props we done by us. The magazine was just from the Sunday Newspaper and the "joint" was a cigerette from one of the cast memebers

Section 2

Extra information that wouldn't fit in my video

1) In our media product we present young girl in all different views. For example Lola is seen as a girl who would be easily led and Beth would be seen as just an average girl and Chloe would be seen as a nerdy type. This is because in the recent years it has become hard to pin point a label on someone because they may like a type of music but dress completely different. So in a group of girl is it is not very often there is the same type of girl.

2) Our film also has dull lighting because it shows how teenagers and young girls have dark secrets.

3) Typography in our film is used in a black and white style but is then distorted after a while. This is because nothing is every black or white in teenagers life there are always complications.

4) Iconography in our film was using other thriller films in the back ground. This represents girl teenagers because at the age of 16+ they start watching films like this and finding their likes and dislikes.

Section 3

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uqyp9v8UuEzOyKNRf5kfxe2cGQhM1AnATOACJe_2H8g/edit?usp=sharing
To see power point click link above

Section 4 of Evaluation

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1ZOTS2GvUWp6v8qAsqURUZRB548oCZdw1jHpTR1e1huU/edit?usp=sharing

Section 5

How did attract/address your audience?

This shows us that most people thought that this film was a certificate 15. This helped us because that’s what we aimed for in our film.

Using our questionnaire we were able to understand and analyse how an audience will react to our film. This helped us because we could tailor our film to the audience. Also this helped us when finding a distributor as well because we knew how the distributor was going to market our product to our target audience.

We targeted our audience by using youth social group conventions. For example we used a convention of girl groups by having a “girly-girly” character that didn’t care about anyone else. Also we used a very causal laid back girl who was very versatile in the group of friends. To be able to use a geek type of girl we had to use a family relation because in reality this wouldn’t happen. This would attract an audience because they would be able to relate to the social groups.

We found that having a non-conventional storyline helped us be successful because it was proven that most audience could not predict the ending. This means we could use new forms of conventions to make the audience interested in the film.

We needed to change some of the film so that people could understand it. For this we decided to use other films, music and ideas from psychological films. For example we used “Cape Fear” to play in the background to show that our film is a psychological thriller. We also used music like a disturbed innocent themed song.

This table shows some of the result we had on our first questionnaire. For example in the question “What do you think will happen next?” most people didn’t have an answer close to the storyline. This was then solved by the above.


I think that the work could be better by having deadlines set for each piece of work because I feel that we had rushed some of our work and due to stress we didn't focus.

Section 6

Prezi for technology

http://prezi.com/gqdthku1iujh/untitled-prezi/?utm_source=prezi-view&utm_medium=ending-bar&utm_content=Title-link&utm_campaign=ending-bar-tryout

Section 7

In our preliminary exercise we had a brief that was: continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task used match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

The shot reverse shot was used to show the conversation and reaction of each character. In the new media product we have down we used high angle shots when Lola was first introduced because it would represent her power and the representation she carried. We didn't use high angled shots in our preliminary exercise as we didn't have the experience but now we know how to use it, we used it for affect of representation of power.

 

 

 

 

Match on action was used in the preliminary exercise on scenes where the character was walking in and out of the rooms. We used the same in our new media product because we couldn’t change it easily without the knowledge or time to practice. The preliminary task helped us make our match on action shots more clean cut, precise and professional. However, when Beth was under the influence of drugs, we used jump cuts to show how she was feeling inside.

We did use a different shot than before when was the point of view shot because it gave the audience a real impression of being Beth’s eyes and seeing the world as she saw it. For example when Beth was looking around rapidly the audience would see it from her eyes.

 

We used continuity because all of the props, setting, costumes Etc. didn’t change because; it would affect the believability of the media product and the social realism. When we first filmed the 2 minute film, we didn't think it looked very good so we did it again. The problem was that we needed to re-shoot everything due to mise-en-scene continuity. We didn't have this problem in our preliminary exercise because it only took us one session to do it right. I have learnt that if a scene is wrong in the film industry that the production company would match up the continuty as it will cost them more to re-shoot everything.

 

Evaluation question 1

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

 

In the two minute film opening we decided that we were going to establish the plot and have the most important/climatic event (Beth passing out and vomiting) of the film happen right at the beginning before the title sequence and the complicated situation(the death of Chloe and what Lola and Beth will do) unravelling afterwards. This is challenging conventions as typically in a film the title sequence is at the very beginning and the storyline and climatic moment happen afterwards. This is linear and gives our audience an insight to what the film is about.

We decided on the theme of a psychological thriller which meant that we needed to include things that would play with the minds of or audience and get them into the same frame of mind as our characters. To do this we needed to make sure that we got the correct iconography.

The iconography as usually thrillers are gloomy and sinister, therefore we thought that the best lighting for our film would be dark at the beginning when the girls are discussing the drugs, the darkness of this foreshadowed the dark and horrible events that were about to happen. We also took long shots which made the room look very large and like their was a lot of empty space which is often seen in thrillers to create a sense of the character been alone and create dramatic tension as anything or anyone could be hiding somewhere and no-one is around to help them.

 

We used typical camera positions, angles and shot movements that would be seen in psychological thrillers. Usually in this genre of film a few shots are off like showing just parts of a character its focussing on,
 long shots to show everything that is happening around them and close ups to show the characters facial expressions and reactions to what is happening to them. An example of this is as Beth as just been sick and she is washing her face we used a close up of her doing this as from that the audience could see her look of worry and regret. We also had a shot of Lola where she is not quite central but you can see around her that no-one is there but you can see the door frame so someone could appear from the door which creates a sense of unease because no-one knows what could happen.

We used a fast editing pace in the film as it puts the audience on edge and creates tension as people become panicked and shocked, the editing was fairly smooth throughout apart from a slight jump near the ending.

In terms of sound we tried to keep the dialogue minimal as we just used it to make sure that the audience knew who each character was and what the girls were doing. All of the sound in our film is diegetic as right at the beginning of our film as we used another thriller playing in the background to create dramatic tension and the sound was easily recognisable so the audience would have an idea that something bad was going to happen. I think that the use of silence whilst Beth is in the bathroom is very important as the audience have no idea of what is happening outside of the bathroom and to the other girls so that when she opens the door and Lola rushes in panic the audience is shocked as they didn’t anticipate that this would happen.

 

We used a great deal of mise-en-scene throughout the film to create realism

• Costumes and clothing – everything that the characters wore were our own belongings we just put them together to represent each characters personality such as Lola being a girly-girl and wearing minimal clothes and skirts.
• Location – we filmed in only one location which is not typical of a psychological thriller as usually the film starts in one place and then the characters try to escape and flee the eventually end up at home. Whereas in our film we shot it in a group members house to create tension and the feeling of what happens in the house, stays in the house.
• Props – the props we used were also our own or were props that we found in the house such as the magazine was already there and Autumn brought a cigarette with her to use as the drugs.

• Font – the only font that we used was in the title sequence and we used a standard font (non-serif) and we used a small font for the cast and crews names but a much larger font for the film title which is typical in any film, but we added effects to each piece which faded them in, distorted them (to look like an explosion) and faded them out. This was very eye catching and stood out so the audience would remember. We used Final Cut Express to do this.

Evaluation question 2

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

In recent society teenagers often give each other labels based on their appearance, interests, attitudes and lifestyles, so we decided that we would use 3 main characters that each represented a different social group/label.

The character of Chloe is a stereotypical nerd/geek. We have represented this by her very shy and innocent attitude throughout the film, Maddy who played Chloe did this by speaking very quietly  and shyly with a stutter meaning that she didn’t quite know what to say or how to react to the other characters.  Through mise-en-scene when allowed her to look uncomfortable and show a lack of care in her appearance, as she had no make-up on, her hair wasn’t done and she had very baggy clothes on, this represented a nerd as she is hiding her body away and doesn’t want to stand out. Nerds often are bullied therefore we included the fact that she is bullied and peer pressured into taking the drugs and eventually gives into the bullies even though she knew it was the wrong thing to do. The mainly dark lighting on shots of Chloe foreshadowed the fact that something dark and bad was going to happen to her in the scenes to come.

The character of Beth is very laid back and casual. We have represented this by her careless attitude towards the drugs as she is willing to do and try anything.  She spoke confidently and wasn’t afraid to stick up for Chloe when Lola was bullying her.  Through mise-en-scene we showed how laid back she was as she was wearing a slouchy jumper and a pair of jeans as she doesn’t make much effort towards her appearance. The typical older relative as she sticks up for Chloe and has a go at Lola for even suggesting it.

The final character of Lola is a stereotypical girly-girl this can be seen from mise-en-scene as we looked in fashion magazines to see what the latest fashions were at the time of filming which we crop tops and skater skirts. We can also see that she cares about her appearance with her face full of make up and hair done nicely with a lot of her skin showing on her legs and stomach.

Through the use of expressionism - lighting and colour we could show that stereotypically teenagers are seen as dark and dangerous. By turning the lights of and closing the curtain we could create an atmosphere full of tension and create a sense of death. Usually older people seem to think that teenagers spend all their free time sitting around smoking, taking drugs and basically throwing their lives away so by using the lighting and body language we could prove this to be true.

In editing we used different effects such as blurred vision and double vision this allowed us to show people what the real effects of drug use are like and that its not all as exciting as it usually is made out to be on films.

 

We used a plain and simple font for the title sequence as we thought that the effects we used – fade and smudge would make it much more eye catching than using a fancy font and the ideas of our film weren’t happy and energetic so the editing pace was fairly slow and as their natural reactions are slowed down from the drug use.

For the typography of the film we juxtaposed the opposite colours of a black background and white writing – we first got this idea from Alfred Hitchcock’s Pyscho as he used black, white and grey. The black background represents the dark behaviour and secrets, whereas the white explosive writing represents the unexpected events  that the characters did not anticipate.

Evaluation question 3

 

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

Due to the controversy of our key themes and the issues it represents as many people are against drugs won’t want to watch it as they believe it is wrong and that drug use should not be shown on TV or in films as teenagers often idolise characters and copy what they do just to be like them. So I think that we would have a great deal of trouble in finding a mainstream distributor to release our film, another reason for this could be our niche audience. Therefore an independent distributor would be more suitable and beneficial for us.

A good distributor for us would be ‘Metrodome Distribution Group’ this is based on the fact that they are open to the controversial issue in our film and genre.

I know this as from my research we discovered that they were the distributor for the film “Shifty”. “Shifty” was heavily based on the issue of drugs and the effects it has on the users lives and the lives of those close to them – this is pretty much similar to what we have tried to do in our film. Also this group were the distributor for the thriller “The Bride Of Chucky” which is based on psychological torture, murder, violence and horror. This films genre also matches the genre of our film as we have violence, death and both mental and psychological torture in the minds of two of our main characters Lola and Beth.

 

Also Miramax would have been a good potential distributor for us before they joined with Disney.  Disney bought Miramax in 1993 however the operators continued to run the company until they left in 2005. The films they distributed before 2005 were mainly thrillers and independent however you can see a few fairy-tale films such as Ella Enchanted (2004) which were clearly influenced by Disney. However after 2005 the Disney take over is clearly apparent as much tamer films such as Bananas in Pyjamas: The Movie (2008) and The Queen (2006) mainly been documentary films and fantasy. Miramax is also a large mainstream American company whereas our film is mainly aimed at a British audience and we have nationality issue of American teenagers and British teenagers being very different so a British distributor would be much more appropriate, also with them being such a large well-known company they may make changes to our film to suit their usual target audience meaning we would risk changes in the budget, settings and storyline of our film.  Therefore I don’t think that we could use Miramax as a distributor since the full Disney merge.

To conclude I think that ‘Metrodome Distribution Group’ is the most ideal possible distributor for our film. Due to the small budget which  means our film will more than likely not be affected or changed by them and they are more than capable of the job as they are experienced in dealing with the ideas, genre, market and conventions of our film.