What kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why?
There are a large amount of film companys but many are unlikely to take on a small film which has had no promotion and no well known stars in it and so I am going to vest my interest on one of the smaller film companies and I have chosen one which has had a recent history of producing British films like Shaun of the dead and Hot Fuzz, I am going to pitch my product to Rogue Pictures. Rogue pictures is a company under the umbrella of Universal pictures now renamed simply Rogue it has had about 25 films produced since it started in 1997 many of which would not of been taken on by other companies due to the obscurity of their stars or the odd story plots.
Rogue has produced 25 films all of them varying in their genres but a common theme is that most of them are hybrid genres which contain different genres in one for example Shaun of the dead it was a mixture of horror and comedy and Skyline which is a mixture of Sci-fi and thriller. Many of its films are small scale with the exception of Skyline which was produced with a large budget, but others like Hot Fuzz who operated on a budget of only £8 million which is large but with its large return of $80 million it is put into perspective.
Now Rogue would like our product for one simple reason – it is original, the story, the characters and the locations are all new and were created by me. They have specialised in producing original themes and stories ever since they began in 1997 with some notable examples such as Skyline and Orgazmo. Because my story is original and exciting I believe they will take full interest. In what way did your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The task which we were set was to plan and produce an opening for a new thriller film. With a minimum run time of 2 minuets, the opening needed to be suitable for the selected age rating of 15 and in clued multiple elements typically associated with the thriller genre and openings.
Because our thriller is non-linear we had to establish a storyline or the end of that storyline in that short space of time, so in the end we settled on using the story so far techniques used in all of the Star Wars films as it is very useful in establishing an explanation so the audience don’t get confused.
The music which is used is atmospheric in most thrillers and our choice of music reflects this with the music having more impact at specific moments when the action takes place. The lighting in the woods were we shot was all natural because it was a bright sunny day we did not see the need for any extra lighting and it gave the film a natural look like in the film Dogma during the end scene where they only used the natural light. Our camera angles were very diverse as we included close up shots of the man dying like in X-men 2, and wide shot to show the protagonist attacking the antagonist. Also we included a sped up shot of the woods to give the audience a sense of location but also slightly confuse them by showing them that something has already occurred by placing them in a situation that looks like many events have led up to it.
For our production we included a very important convention in the thriller genre, in our mise-en-scene, we set our opening in a wood, this is a very common thriller element, because the area symbolises a lot of which defines key thriller areas, they are quiet, secluded and allow for an unsavoury act to go unnoticed.
Also in our production we have challenged the thriller convention that many victims in these films are women and the heroes are men, but in ours the hero is a women but she can be considered an anti-hero due to her unassuming appearance as a hero mainly due to her attire which gives her the look of a hard core rocker and there has been very few instances of a hard core rocker being the protagonist.
Even though we used the idea of a non-linear storyline, we used a linear opening where the shots were in order of what was transpiring and this was to stop any confusion on what was happening, so this was fairly convention method. Finally in our production the props we used, they were very makeshift and used only what we had at the time due to a missing bag, they do fit into the thriller convention of what thriller props should be, the large branch was fairly intimidating and so it fits in as it creates an air of tension and confusion about what is about to happen.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Well first of all the antagonist was dressed very smartly because we wanted him to seem inconspicuous and unassuming and so we made him dress as a well do to businesses man who would never be suspected. And we made the Protagonist, the woman dress like a hard rocker who would most likely break into a fight if even slightly prompted. The reason we dressed them like this was to blur the lines between who is friend and foe and so we chose to portray the woman as a sort of anti-hero. By presenting her as a sort of anti-hero we managed to avoid the stereotype that all protagonists in thrillers must be men and also we have managed to avoid the stereotype that all women in thrillers are the victims. We did this because many women will be watching our production and so to address growing frustration at the fact that the only leading role women have in thrillers is as the victim or the one in peril, by doing this we broke a very controversial media convention and so by doing that we are adding another layer of uniqueness to my production.
Our killer or villain was never supposed to appear villainous but instead was going to take on the appearance as a well-dressed, intelligent, even man and because the character is a priest we decided that he should be dressed in black as to simulate real life priest robes. By doing this it again blurs the line between who is friend and who is foe.
Also by focusing mainly on the two characters by using a medium shot which allowed them to be freely in the shot, to show how the protagonist assaults the antagonist and this represents social groups because many feel that women are undervalued in a thriller and so to attract the wider female audience we wanted them to see a great convention being broken and showing them the very stereotype that we have broken, interesting them and so we represented their views and opinions on how women should be portrayed.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
As the majority of thrillers are in the 15 age category, we decided it would be more beneficial to make a thriller opening that was a 15 instead of constricting ourselves in making a 12. Also
because the majority of the people who responded to our questionnaire were between the ages
of 15-18 we decided that it would only be right in doing a thriller opening which was that. But a major factor is that the majority of those who responded to the questionnaire were male and so we decided that we did not need to tone down the violence as males are more tolerant of film violence than females normally are. Also to fully create a niche market for our production we have to make it individual and unique and did this by applying non-linear elements into the story just like in Memento, this will attract the film viewers who are enjoy this kind of storyline. Also by observing our market through our questionnaires we were able to fully determine what kind of audience we were dealing with by looking at the results we got and by building our production around them.
of 15-18 we decided that it would only be right in doing a thriller opening which was that. But a major factor is that the majority of those who responded to the questionnaire were male and so we decided that we did not need to tone down the violence as males are more tolerant of film violence than females normally are. Also to fully create a niche market for our production we have to make it individual and unique and did this by applying non-linear elements into the story just like in Memento, this will attract the film viewers who are enjoy this kind of storyline. Also by observing our market through our questionnaires we were able to fully determine what kind of audience we were dealing with by looking at the results we got and by building our production around them.
Our audience also have to be of a subculture who are intrigued by unusual elements inside a film, for example the non-liner opening might be seen as conusing, but to some viewers it might seem very peculiar and appeal to them thereore attracting them to our production.
How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract our audience we included conventions which are often seen in thrillers. A good example of this was during the beginning w had a fast sped up shot of the woods speeding by to give a sense of location but also confusion as the audience does not know what is going on much like the beginning of Memento except instead of reversing the flow we are accelerating it. Another way is that in our questionnaire we found that many like in a thriller is to be shocked and so my group decided we would have an immediate fight after a brief conversation to shock the viewers and then shock them even more by killing off the antagonist at the very beginning, again like in Memento. To attract our audience we had to include ideas that were original to our production for example we decided to do away with the thriller stereotype that all women in thrillers are the helpless victims of the antagonist who is always surely a man and instead with have reversed the roles, as we have the antagonist the man being assaulted and finally killed by the protagonist who is a woman and a strong intimidating woman and so by reversing the roles we have created something completely unique.
From our questionnaire we saw that the many liked the idea of a hybrid thriller, from the results we found that the main genre that many wanted to be merged with a thriller is sci-fi, followed by a pure thriller film, then comedy, war and fantasy. My group decided to merge our thriller with both fantasy and sci-fi elements which was shown in the plot and the way we edited the production. Doing this means we have addressed the views of the viewers and our audience and so we have done all we can to attract our audience.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
My group, we learnt how to use the cameras, Macs, and I-movie. In terms of the camera, we learned about what the different angles show and what effect they have on what is being viewed and the audience. We also learnt more effective use of the tripods. With I-movie we learnt how to split the clips edit, sound, import files, how to add the tittles and effects, this has come in very useful because we during filming we did not get enough footage to make it seem consistent and the shots to at least flow well but because of our skill at using the I-movie we managed to splice the various clips and shots and string them together to form a scene where all of the different angles occurred and camera techniques did not look disjointed. Another thing we learnt is using blogger; using this we posted our research and planning to the internet ready for marking, this allowed us to have all of our work stored digitally which means we can not lose it but also there it is a lot easier to view and to account for we also used YouTube to upload our preliminaries and main tasks to the internet, we used this method because Youtube is a major public site where millions of videos have been posted and because it is free we can very easily store our production The main technical problems were the lack of microphones, this inhibited us because we had to rely on the microphones on the cameras we did not capture some essential diagetic sound and so we had to produce some dialogue to go over the missing parts. Also we have found that the use of garage band is very helpful in producing an adequate soundtrack for our production for the splicing of the given sounds and music to the assembling and then placing the soundtrack onto our product.
Also I have learnt how to properly utilize fireworks to produce my group’s ident, it was difficult at first but I eventually got the hang of it, with the help of my partner we managed to create the dark fire ident which our company name and logo.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In the time between the preliminary and now I feel I have developed considerably. In our preliminary we had a great deal of trouble in shooting the close up of the door handle and the opening of the door. Also I have learnt that in order to have a perfectly straight shot you must not only use the tripod but to also use other level stands or positions that are available at the time the most obvious example is a fallen log in the woods which allows you to place the camera there and film. I have also learnt on how to properly organize the shots and how to film a smooth shot and include all camera angles, which include a side shot of the confrontation, a sped up shot in the beginning and a large shot covering the brief conversation between the two main characters.
In the end I believe that my preliminary gave me confidence in my film making abilities because even though the preliminary was orchestrated by four people, my group’s main production consisted primarily of two and a friend who helped us by acting, and so I believe that to cover all of the bases and criteria needed to produce a quality piece of film is very good and thanks to the multi-tasking I learnt during the making of my preliminary I managed to get things done.
A way I believe I have personally improved upon from my preliminary I the way the props and the costumes are arranged in the scenes. For example in our preliminary one actor had an unscripted and unneeded costume change half way through the production due to shooting occurring on two separate days, and because of that a lot of credibility in the production was lost. But because I managed to choreograph and sync the costumes we were able to produce a continual costume, one that doesn’t change.
Finally I believe that the way I helped edit the film was only possible because of the experience I gained from my preliminary, as I was an integral part of the editing process for the preliminary because I wanted to learn more about how to edit and the various ways to edit. I managed to create a scene at the start of opening where the wood rushes by in fast forward to create not only a sense of location, but also to symbolize the passing of time and to add to our non-linear storyline by making it seem, events have already transpired that are very important to the film.
