Final Product

Q1

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

My media product follows many of the conventions of a thriller opening. It has a contrast in the pace of the scenes similar to many films of the genre. I took a lot of influence from the opening of the James Bond film ‘Casino Royal’ where there is a change in pace between the scene happening in the current time, in which Bond is talking to a double agent, and flashbacks to his first kill, in which he is fighting a man in a public bathroom. These intercutting scenes dramatically contrast in pace adding to suspension and audience excitement.

The film also grasps the negativity of many thrillers in that what is happening in the scene is clearly not a good thing. All thrillers are based around something that, although may end well, is essentially bad. In the case of my product the negativity comes not only from the violence but the tone of the product. The film starts as it means to go on.

Like most thrillers there is a degree of violence to our product. This is often what makes a thriller ‘thrilling’. But above all our product has tension and suspense. Tension and suspense are essential to the thriller genre. And it is arguable that without these attributes a film cannot be a thriller as they create a feeling that makes a product ‘thrilling’. An example of a thriller that successfully uses violence to create suspence is ‘Taken’

The main source of suspense in our product is the knowledge the audience has over the character ‘Sarah’ whose boyfriend has been kidnapped by someone she knows. The first way in which suspense is created is the journey of Sarah towards her home where the audience knows her boyfriend is being savagely beaten and possibly killed. Because of the way the film is cut the audience believes that as she approaches the house she will walk into a violent scene however there is little evidence of the struggle that has occurred. This tension is helped by an increase in volume of the music.

The second source of suspense is the arrival of the antagonist. Suspense is created here using slow ominous music creating a feeling eerier than silence. The suspense is relieved when we see the antagonist (Jonathan) and how Sarah reacts to his presence; she clearly is familiar with him. 

The title and font we used in our film is similar to many other films of this genre. It is simple, classy and not too flashy and in serif format. This is used in the opening to reservoir dogs. This sets the tone of an intelligent thriller that is not trashy and has a degree subtlety.

And the spacing between the letters is similar to that of the film Gattaca. The spacing makes the graphics more interesting and aesthetically pleasing for the viewer.

The location of my product is common in many thrillers. It is in the suburbs of a big city in an area that isn’t too to ‘urban’ but not too high class either. Many thrillers are set primarily in cities. E.g ‘The Town which is set in suburban Boston; however a very run down area in Boston.

The camera work is similar to many thrillers. It is handheld in the car so it shakes slightly somehow giving an eerie ominous feel. There is no fancy camera movement which gives it the subtlety of films of the non action subgenres as they often use helicopter and rolling shots to make the scene seem bigger and more epic.

The costume in the product is mainly dark colours which give a negative mood to the piece. If the colour of the clothing is bright it will stand out and seem cheerful and out of place.

This also applies to much of the lighting. The car is dark which gives the ominous effect and the lighting during the fight is low key and looks cold. This is similar to  the lighting in the film Brick

TS

Q2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group that our media product represents is the middle class. The characters Robert and Sarah are clearly fairly well off as they live in a fairly nice house in a fairly nice area considering there age. Our media product also represents both genders through Sarah who is clearly a young professional and Jonathan and Robert represent males.

The men in our product are shown to be brutish, particularly Jonathan, as he is violently beating Robert. This does not show men in a good light compared to films of the 1990s that show men as clever and resourceful compared to women. In our product it is clear that Sarah is the protagonist and Jonathan is the antagonist. This may be considered to go against social stereotypes. Sarah is shown to be the protagonist as there are scenes of her where she’s not really doing much suggesting she is integral to the story. Men are also shown the be corrupt and in this case treacherous as it is made clear at the end of the sequence that Jonathan and Robert were clearly friends before Jonathan betrayed him.

Our media product does not necessarily create realism as the couple are clearly very young to be living in the house that do. In the real world they would be more likely to be living in an apartment.

Sarah portrays the image of a young professional effectively. She is wearing clothes that one would expect of a young professional and in some ways acts as a young professional would. In the taxi she is clearly stressed and seems relieved to be out of the office and back at home, almost instantly turning the kettle on.

Both Jonathan and Robert portray images of good and evil.  Jonathan wears dark clothes and has dark hair and pale gaunt features. These are often stereotypical features of an antagonist whereas Robert has blond hair and less gaunt features, although he is quite pale. Robert does not have all the qualities that constitute to a stereotypical protagonist but he has the qualities that make him a benevolent character. He also struggles to fight back against Jonathan possibly because he is weaker than him but it could be because he cannot hurt the man he previously considered his friend.

We believe that these social groups will attract our target audience of 15- 25 years olds as they are of similar demographics that may help the audience relate to them.

The Couple in 'Paranormal Activity' are of similar social grouping to the couple in our film as they are young and middle class.

TS

Q3

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



TS/JT

Q4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

For a target audience, there are usually two possible options; family audience and 16 to 24 year olds. The target audience for our film would be people ranging from 15 to 24 years old. The level of violence automatically puts it up to a 15 certificate, meaning that it is unsuitable for families, and so young children won’t be allowed to watch it.


We asked a group of people to fill in a questionaire, to see what they thought of the film and to see whether they thought it was a successful film opening

            The film is a thriller, so people who like the thriller genre will be more inclined to come and see it. The characters in it are of a young age, around the mid 20s, so people of that age will feel they have something in common with the characters. In the rest of the film, there is one particular couple who together avenge the villain, and couples will feel that they will be able to relate to that, working together, which would entice them to see the film. There is a majority of male actors in our film, maybe meaning that a larger proportion of the audience would be male.

            The location is shown to be England by the style of houses and the writing on the shutters of the shops that she passes in the taxi. This means that maybe it would not appeal so much to a foreign audience, but would mean English speaking people will be able to feel at home and be able to relate to the film in that way. The characters speak with English accents, to show the British-ness of the film; another reason people would want to go and see the film. The use of the metropolitan police badge makes people living in London feel like it could be something that’s happening just outside their front door, so thus is another reason they would come. It is also representing the British police force so people who were strong nationalists would hopefully feel patriotic and come and see the film.

            The setting we used was a middle class modern home, with the majority of the action filmed in the kitchen. The kitchen has some extremely nice red colours that really show up well as a sign of danger when the fight scene is happening, and in the same way that people will go and see The American because of the beautiful shots and scenes created by the photographer director, they will come and see ours for wonderful strong colours.

            The violent aspect turns the film into an action thriller, and this is emphasised by the smashing of plates, and I think it is this aspect of the film that means that it will be shown in multiplexes, and so opens up a whole new audience: the action lovers, which one could argue is a mainly male audience.

            It is a film that could be shown in an art house cinema as well as a multiplex, so this opens up the film to both types of cinema goers. This means that the people who like lower budget films that are shown in cinemas such as the ritzy in Brixton would go to see it, as well as Odeon goers, people who are used to mainly watching big blockbusters. 


JT

Q5

How would you attract / address your audience

The main way we would address our audience is through the characters in the product. The characters are fairly young. This means that the majority of our target audience will be there age or thereabouts. This will help the audience relate with our characters. Another factor that may help to address our audience is the fact that mostly our characters are normal people that have been put in certain situations. Sarah is a normal young professional who is forced into violence in order to find and save Robert. Robert is a normal young police officer who is kidnapped and held in captivity. The only one who could be said to be abnormal is Jonathan who is a corrupt and considerably criminally dangerous police officer who kidnaps his colleague and friend. However this is not entirely unrealistic as there are dangerous people in the world. Our characters are easy to relate to in contrast with characters such as spies who, to the majority of the population, are unknown and alien making them difficult to relate to.

We would attract our audience through advertising. We would advertise a lot on public transport as a lot of the people within our target audience would see them there. We would also advertise within cinemas before films of similar genre. This would be effective as the people seeing the film would be likely to be keen on the thriller genre and therefore our film would appeal to them. We would also use the internet to market our product as it is a world wide forum that almost everyone uses particularly those within our target audience. We would consider setting up a website with police case files and reports referring the content of our media product. However we would need to be careful not to give too much away as it would take away the tension from the film. However we would give enough to entice the audience to see more and therefore see the film.

To conclude the addressing and attraction of our audience would be very much tailor mad to our target audience as this is the most effective way of getting people to see a film as it is clear that there is no point in advertising a film for young adults to pensioners nor is there much point in putting trailers on for thrillers before romantic comedies.

TS

Q6

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

When filming, we learnt a lot about the hardware and how it was used and when used differently, what effects that made. The tripod on which we positioned the camera was familiar after having done our pre limb task, but we learnt that in order to do a smooth pan we had to have it at the right firmness otherwise it wouldn’t                             turn quickly enough, or it would be shaky. The camera itself was relatively straightforward to use. We had to make sure that we didn’t rewind the tape then film over the footage that we had already shot, and we had to make sure that the microphone was on; otherwise no sound would be recorded. This, as easy as it may sound, was surprisingly difficult to remember to do whilst concentrating on 

everything else and it was necessary to go back and retake some shots for lack of sound but we ended up with a good set of shots with clear sound. We learnt a lot also about lighting and the difference it makes to the look and feel of a shot. In our film opening, we have used lighting very effectively to create large shadows and also bring out the bright red colour of the wall. In the fight scenes, we used artificial film lighting only, to create the stark effect, but later on, when she returns home, we also used the lighting in the house to create a warmer feel.

 

As my partner and I are both used to using PC computers, at first it was another challenge to use the Mac computers as efficiently, as everything that we were used to is in a different place, but we found that after a short while we were using them with ease.

The editing programme that we used was called ‘Final Cut Express.’ This was something that we had never used before. It was where we chopped and put together all our film footage, then edited it by cutting and tweaking the endings and beginnings of shots. Once everything was in place, we were able to concentrate on the smaller details of visual, like the fade ins and outs of shots and the exact length of the shots (in order to abide by the two minute rule). We then were able to concentrate on the music, for which we imported a track and laid over the sound on the video by adding a new audio track and importing onto there. We used the natural sound from the microphone as well as the music, but turned up the music in the quieter scenes. We were able to dim the sound up and down for smoothness as well as select which track we wanted to play when.

When selecting a sound track for our film opening, we were not allowed to use music that had been copyrighted, so we had to go online and visit a website called ‘freeplaymusic.com’ for non copyrighted music. The download process involved listening to a small extract then downloading the whole track. We would then import it into final cut express to add as a new layer for the sound. We chose 2 tracks to suit different stages in our film and we imported these to final cut.

For our titles, we downloaded a font from a website called ‘dafont.com’ as it was a font that suited our film well. We downloaded it and then we were able to create the titles via final cut, as the font appeared in the list with all the original fonts.

In order to make our ident, we used Adobe Flash and used a pen effect to draw a logo, and used the same pen when writing ‘value productions.’

JT

Q7

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the final product?

Looking back at the preliminary task it is clear that a key thing I have learnt is the importance of planning. Although I created a storyboard for my preliminary task the overall planning was no where near as in depth as the planning for the final product.

For example in the prelim a lot of the speech was almost improvised, by this I mean the lines were thought up just before the shot was taken. However for the final product the lines were prepared further in advance. For our final product almost everything on screen was put there for effect whereas for the preliminary task it was just the movement of the camera movement was planned. We also had more content in the final product that needed to be planned such as music that had to be chosen.

We also learnt the importance of organisation in terms of time, people and people and equipment. We had a limited amount of time to shoot due to demand for the limited filming equipment from the other members of our media class. We also used actors that were at university that meant we had to film within a three week time period. This presented us with the challenge of people management as we had three actors that were busy on different days and intended to go back to university of different days as well as an extra (the taxi driver) who was at work during the day and could only take part after a certain time. This turned out to be problematic and lead to a very last minute decision to change actresses.

I have also learnt more technical skills in the time between my preliminary task and the final product. The most important of which being my development of skills using Mac software and Final Cut Pro video editing software. Without being able to use this software it would have been impossible to create the final product. We used final cut to edit both the audio files of our film and edit and add sound. This was key to creating the effects we wanted to use.

I have also learnt to use equipment that was not used in the making of my preliminary task. The only pieces of equipment used in the preliminary tasks were a tripod and a camera. Since then I have learnt how to use various different lights to create different effects as well as the importance of using an external microphone to capture sound of superior quality.

There is an obvious improvement in the quality in my final product when compared to my preliminary task due to the development of technical, editing and planning skills.

TS

Preliminary Task

Reccee Notes

• The majority of our shots are in the kitchen.
• During the fight scene in the kitchen we will keep the main light at the same angle. If we moved it, it may cause the film to lose some of its grit. We would like the lighting to be cold to make the scene seem more brutal.

• The car seen will be the hardest to film as the image quality may come out grainy due to lack of light however with a light it would be too artificial and bright. To combat this we will have all the lights on in the car as they will not be too bright and will reduce risk of graininess.

• We would like the return scene to light more warmly as it is not meant to be as dark/brutal.

• Our final shot is a pan on to a picture of the killer and the victim. This may be difficult as the light may reflect off the glass in the picture frame. To combat this we will remove the glass and use non shiny paper to print the picture.

• We are aware that it would be hard to do retakes as our actors are all university students from Bristol and leads so we have to film in the holidays. Therefore we are repeating the shots numerous times to make sure nothing has gone wrong.

TS

Storyline

START OF TWO MINUTES

There are two stories running at the same time between which the camera will cut. The main focus will be on the second shot, yet the most action will be included in the first, as this particular scene happens to be a relatively high paced fight scene.

The first scene is the general fracas in which our man is killed

We see the House being trashed, pictures falling off walls, doors banging, crockery smashing and such like, as the main fight will take place in the kitchen. There will be a deliberately wide angle shot that shows the setting in the house/ apartment to which we will go back to later on in the opening to show the same scene, but highlight the differences between the then present, and the now present.

The other scene entails a slow paced journey in the back of a taxi for a woman going home. There is a highlighted lack of dialogue, with all responses to an over chatty cab driver being in facial expressions from woman, her lack of engagement for all to see. One particular shot we wish to use is a mirror shot, where the cabbie looks back whilst/or doing/does a hand gesture of sorts, only for the woman reading a document of some sorts to do with work.

These 2 shots cut to and fro regularly and this can be seen by looking at our storyboard, for we have shown this by way of images.

She has clear dislike for this particular cab, and gets out asap, with all music immediately stopping, and giving way to the eerie sounds of street. She slowly walks up to her front door, noticing that the door is double locked, this surprise shown by her initial instinct of just walking up to the door and opening it with one key. Once she is inside there is no music, just diegetic sound showing what she is doing.  night/day?

She comes home and the house is completely normal but for a fallen plant which she picks up and tidies, thinking little of it. She then proceeds to go into the kitchen and there is a note explaining the absence that was shown by the complications with the lock. The note will say “be back soon” or something equally as vague. The note is positioned next to a general assortment of household nicknacks but there is a mock police badge located here that is clears to the audience. She then turns on the kettle, and proceeds in her normal home life: pottering around, watching television while putting away the dishes.

Suddenly there is a knock on the door and it’s the police, and with reference back to scene 1, We see the cop is the killer. Yet the strange thing is, the woman and him know each other and seem quite close (possibly through the husband’s work) we can see this closeness by the way they great each other.

He tells her there’s been an accident

They go through to the kitchen, her looking and acting emotionally weaker and unstable, and this is where we see same shot as before during the fight, but this time the surroundings being a clean, spotless hallway.

In the hallway, he straightens a picture on which the camera focuses; it is of a wedding or party, in which both killer and victim in the same photo but this time as close friends.

End of 2 minutes.

She finds out that he’s not dead and goes to look for him. She’s then confronted by the bad cop and finds out she’s been betrayed. She finds her husband eventually and he goes after the other police officer with the intention of killing him. When it comes to killing him he cannot. The wife turns up also with a gun. We hear a shot but do not know who killed him. The final scene shows them burying him.

JT

Location

Location

we have chosen to shoot in this house because the kitchen is very open plan. This will allow us to shoot the fight scene as we have plenty of space to put the camera and allow plenty of movement from the actors. The house itself is nice enough to represent our characters as successful middle class young professionals but does not show them to be unrealistically wealthy. there is a long hallway (1) that leads into the kitchen that would allow us to create the first shot of the fighting sequence where the attacker drags the victim into the kitchen. through the kitchen doorway there is a big gap where the victim can be thrown to the floor (2). there is a large space to put the camera when filming the fight scene behind the kitchen counter (3).

 1- Long Hallway

2- Open plan kitchen                                                                            

               

                                                                                3- Large space for victim to be thrown into

The Outside of the house doesn't give the appearance of  a big expensive house again this helps to add to the realism of the set up. In the dark the front garden almost looks ominous which would help to create tension as our character approaches the door. the door also has a frosted glass windows in the front which will give the effect of a silhouette once our character has walked through the door which would be both visually appealing as well as adding to the tension by drawing out the sequence.

4- Ominous front Garden

The taxi scene will be filmed on and around Balham highroad. we have chosen to film here as it is an urban area that has signs of deprivation. This will show that the couple are living in an area that, although relatively inner city is not a rich as other areas, adding to the realism.

4- Balham Highroad

TS

Characters & Actors

Charactors & Actors

Ray Winston has the grit required to play a corrupt police officer and would therefore be a good choice to play the villain of our film. He is recognised as a gritty British actor playing roles in films such as Sexy Beast. He often plays tough guys in gritty British films that are often based around crime for example '44 Inch Chest'


http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0935653/

Clive Owen would also make a convincing corrupt police officer for similar reasons.he has made the journey from small British films to large American ones. He is an actor that sells the film himself; people who see that Clive Owen is in a film will assume that the film is a good one and worth watching.

He regularly performs in action films such as The International and the Bourne Identity, as well as cleverer, less vilolent and action filled films such as Children of Men.

 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0654110/

Gemma Arterton would be good to play the leading role as she has the right look. She also played the main role in ‘the disappearance of Alice creed’ a film of similar genre.She is a very versatile actress who has been involved in Hollywood action films such as Clash of the Titans, and smaller British films. she is very much an up and coming actress and would undoubtedly attract an audience from her large fan base. It may be arguable that her looks would also help to attract a male audience however more importantly, as this is already a fairly male based film, she would also attract a female audience as she is playing the main character in a film of a genre that is mostly dominated by males.
  
 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2605345/

Jamie Bell would be good as the younger no corrupt police officer who is supposedly murdered in the first scene as he looks the part, and has done action films before such as Jumper. He is young enough to play the character we have cast him for. He has blond hair and light features which would make him seem more vulnerable in his role. He is also an up and coming British actor which would help to attract an audience.


http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068260/


TS/JT

Graphics

The graphics used in our film will have to suit the genre. As the film has a strong gritty tone the graphics would have to convey this. We considered using a hand written font in order to match to the hand written note as the title is what is written. However we felt that this would not reflect the tone or genre of the film with the danger of looking comic.

Possible Fonts:

Skin & Bones

Farcry

Rock it

The Title of the film would fade on at the end of the two minute opening in the centre of the screen. The screen would be black and the writing would be grey, as shown above, this gives a gritty nourish feel. We considered using white but decided it would be too bright and would not suit the tone of the film.

The production company, actors and directors would be credited in the opening shots of the film. Again the font would be grey on a black background. These credits will be in the bottom left hand side of the screen and would fade on (quickly). They would move very slightly and slowly to the right. This will make them look more professional and classy as they would not be static. We would include the Film4 logo however we may edit it to suit the colour code of grey and black.

Unedited Film4 logo

Edited Film4 logo

TS

Sound

Music: The arrival- to be used in the first half of the film opening; when the actress is in the cab, but with the volume much lowered for the periods of the fight. It will fade out as she opens the front door, having crescendod to a climax as she is walking up to the front door, to add tension.

            We chose this piece of music because it seems nice and relaxed, while at the same time, when the volume is raised; create an atmosphere of tension with the tempo.

For the second half of the film opening, ‘Separate’ was thought of, but after hearing it along with watching the film; we have changed our mind and will look for another track.

Diegetic sound (only): used briefly when paying for the cab, and when she is alone in the house.

Sound effects: We hope to use sound effects to enhance the audio during the fight, with punch noises etc. added over the top. These might be taken from a sound effect website or alternatively we could record them separately and add them in over the top. A doorbell noise is needed for when Jonathan comes to the door.

JT

                        

Costume

Costume

During the fight scene the bad cop would be wearing mostly black clothes. The costume would show that he is not a good character and may even be thuggish. He would wear a leather jacket and gloves. From this it is clear that he is the bad guy. When he arrives at the house later on the costume will have changed. He would wear a dark suit with a formal shirt but no tie. He would not wear a tie as although he is there on official police business he is also there to console a friend and would therefore not be overly formal. He would also wear a black work to make him seem slightly ominous to the audience.

An example of the sort of work coat the bad cop may wear.

The good cop’s costume would be casual as he is attacked in his home. The costume would consist of jeans, a t-shirt with a jumper on top. This costume makes him seem innocent and non aggressive. The jumper would be a dark colour as a bright one may compromise the grit of the film, as well as the fact that he turns out not be completely benevolent when he gets his revenge later in the film.

An example of the sort of jumper the good cop may wear.

The girlfriend of the good cop would be dressed in semi-formal work clothes as she is returning from work. Again her clothes would make her look fairly innocent without ruining the gritty tone yet they make her look benign enough that it is shocking when she goes after he boyfriend’s kidnapper

Something similar to what the girlfriend may wear.

TS

Production Companies

Production companies

The production company we have chosen is film4 productions. Our film is aimed at the younger generation as the company was only launched in 1998 it is fairly new and relatively fashionable. The production company also operated a TV channel that is paired with channels such as Channel 4, E4, 4music, Kerrang, Q, Kiss and magic. All of these channels are targeted to our target audience. This guarantees that our film will be advertised effectively to the correct audience.

Film4 productions have also been involved in the making of many British films of the same tone and style as ours. This includes ‘This is England’ and ‘Trainspotting’. Film4 productions have a reputation for creating gritty British films successfully.

Film4 would therefore offer us a guaranteed niche audience for indie style films due to there portfolio. Using Film4 would also guarantee us publicity as they often show 'special' previews in the breaks between films which would help us with the marketing of our film. when the film is out of the cinema using Film4 would also guarantee us air time on the Film4 television channel.

TS

Audience Profile

Our target audience would be the 15-26 year old market. As this is a thriller it is possible that the audience would be more male than female. However the protagonist is female so this may open up the market to female audience.

Our niche audience would be British males. There is a cult following to British thrillers such as Football Factory and Layer cake. We hope to break in to this market as our film fits into this genre.

The film is quite violent so it would have to be rated as a 15. To reduce this violence in order to make it a 12A may put the integrity and grit of the film at risk. It’s better to make a good film that is limited in audience by age than to make a film of worse quality that is open to everyone.

JT

Shotlist

JT

Storyboard

We found the storyboards extremely helpful because they were an outlet for our ideas in a literal form, on paper. Here we could discuss together, before putting pen to paper, how our film was going to look, how it was going to be made. It made it possible for us to visualize the final product and therefore work hard to realize this.

We have chosen to set our film in suburban london. The girl is taken home in a Mercedes Taxi, to a nice part of the suburbs and when inside, the house shows wealth through it's luxurious kitchen, and this is to keep in tone with the young professional, unmarried couple; he is a young but high up police officer, while she has an office job, both of which pay for this nice home.
 The red of the walls in the home indicates danger, to go with the mood of violence and betrayal. 


JT/TS