The first 2 minutes of the film we have made is called ‘Quit whilst you’re ahead’ and is in the genre of thriller movies. Several things in the title sequence we have produced indicate its place in this genre such as the narrative which we have told with the use of the nightmare. When researching the genre I found most thrillers use lighting to create drama and we applied this when filming the nightmare. My face in the nightmare is poorly lit showing only half of my body, we have done this so an audience are unsure of the location or identity of the person. I then scream loudly and elongated which indicates an element of terror. When looking at the beginning of another film ‘Tormented’ I found they used silence at the start of the film to emphasise action, we have used this at the beginning of our film before the nightmare scream breaks the silence. We also used conventions found in all genres of film such as continuity editing in the match on action where Harry reaches for his sunglasses. We also included an eye line match where Harry notices the note on the grave stone. The mise en scene tells our audience a lot about the characters. Costume of the characters is well dressed therefore give the impression they are respectable people and the location which is Harry’s house is clean and tidy. There is a lack of continuity in the weather change from leaving the house to arriving at the graveyard. We struggled to get another bright day to film after the anomaly of the first so had to go ahead in the rain but ensured characters were in the same costume to keep as much continuity as possible. In the film I analysed they use a fade to change location which we also used in our film when arriving at the graveyard showing the passage of time.You can see the weather change in the screen shots below, you can also see the continuity in costume.
Our film represents Harry firstly as troubled, we do this by the pan across the room showing him restless in his sleep and also the nightmare we see. When he answers the telephone to the police officer he is angry and hostile. This is shown through the script where he says ‘I don’t care what you advise to be honest’ to someone in authority. This supports the stereotype of young adults being trouble and disrespectful. The police officer Shades is portrayed in the film as a polite adult as she is politely spoken even when Harry loses his temper. Further confirmation of his anger is shown when he slams down his phone and struggles to refrain from crying, we then are introduced to the relationship between him and Olivia as she sits up and comforts him. This tells the audience he has reason to be angry. Although we do not see the officer we know she becomes impatient by the tone of her voice when she says ‘good day’. Despite the phone call portraying Harry as a stereotypical young person the costume and location after this shows something different. Harry and his Girlfriend have a nice home and dress well. When visiting the grave the close up of Harry shows his emotion of grief which tells an audience he is compassionate. Harry and Olivia’s close relationship throughout the complete film remains strong and both their determination never falters again disproving the ideology of lazy young adults.The use of the close up of Harry slamming down the phone represents his anger and care for his missing sister.
An institution such as Warp films might distribute our film due to the gritty realism we have included. Our film focuses mostly on the story therefore containing no elaborate stunts or pyrotechnics throughout the whole film. The focus on the injustice of the legal system is an important issue a company like Warp would like to express. Previous films made by Warp such as ‘This is England’ is a low budget film like ours and focuses on serious issues such as racism, rape and unemployment. Warp films would distribute our film better than a Hollywood company such as Warner Brothers because the content in our film would prevent targeting a family friendly audience. Also as it does not star any well-known actors or directors a large company would struggle to distribute it whereas low budget film companies can target the right audience as they already have a fan base from previous similar films. Our film is unsuitable for young children so no merchandise would be appropriate and as this is a large part of distributing a film in American Studios Warp would be more suitable. Warp can distribute our film the way they distributed This is England by a simple trailer and film poster.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for our film is versatile as many elements will appeal to many groups of people. Firstly the certificate of our film is 15 so immediately eliminates children as some content is unsuitable. The certificate being a 15 can also attract some people who prefer films with more serious elements. The genre will also attract our target audience of thriller fans, people who are familiar with this genre will be attracted to this. In our research questionnaire one person said they would see our film because thrillers are their favourite type of film. The production company we chose was Warp films whom already hold a fan base for hard British drama so fans of their previous films may be attracted to this too. Young people may want to see the film through sex appeal as our main characters, one of each gender, are both young and attractive as someone in our research said “everyone loves a heart throb”. Having main characters of both genders makes the film more attractive to both sexes as an audience. The film is set in today’s time therefore technology and costume is recent which may be another selling point of our film as another response to our film was “both characters are really fashionable which makes it more believable.”Below you can see the certificate of our film and also the costumes the characters wore to make the film modern and "believable."
How did you attract/adress your audience?
I think we addressed our target audience successfully using genre concepts firstly. The lighting during the nightmare lit half of my face creating a sinister mood. I found this common in my research as audience’s associate dim lighting with thriller films. Our film has a 15 certificate and we met expectations here by including sexual references when the characters wake up together, the topic of murder and a frightening nightmare scene. Using members of our own group as the cast we targeted our young adult audience as I found in my research people enjoy watching films about people similar to themselves. By not creating an unbelievable story line with special effects and CGI we have created as someone in our questionnaire said “I like the realism, it’s believable and honest.” Most of our feedback complimented our storyline but negative comments fixated mainly on the continuity problems we had with the weather. Unfortunately rain was on the camera lens for one shot in the grave yard which impaired an audience’s view. This could be improved by filming the entire film on the same day or ensuring a test shot before shooting the real thing so if the lens was impaired it could be wiped to avoid this problem.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have used a number of different technologies to aid our production of the final product. During pre-production I mainly used the internet; search engines like Google provided easy access to websites such as IMDB and film company websites. We also had to load our findings on to Google blogger, a site I was unfamiliar with. Using my common knowledge and some help from my teachers I picked up how to use it quickly. I found Blogger sometimes failed to load or was slow due to the demand of the class but I did not let this slow me down as I saved important information to word documents ready to upload at a later date. Also in pre-production I used the programme Celtx to write our script, I liked this programme as it was simple to use but gave professional results. The script is clear and organised when done on Celtx and again it was the first time I had used it, I found it easy to pick up. I opted to film and direct the film our piece as I wanted to experience filming as I had not used the camera, this was simple and completed sufficiently. In post-production we edited our film in Final Cut editing software. This is the point I most struggled as I had not edited before and I needed a fair amount of help to pick up the skill, although, once shown i edited our film together well and I feel I have gained important skills in new media software.I found the camera easy to use and aim to achieve the shots i wanted like the close up below, which i used to show expression, i found easy to film after practice with the camera.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production
I have progressed greatly since our preliminary task as I decided to challenge myself and take the opposite role. In our first task I acted in the film and drew the story boards but in our 2 minute film I volunteered to film and produce the piece to try my hand at all aspects of media production. In the preliminary task I learned basic rules of filming such as the match on action which we implemented in our title sequence easily and naturally however when I first learned this I found it confusing. As I wasn’t involved in the editing of our preliminary film I had not used the editing software before however i edited the whole thing by myself and I am impressed with the result for a first attempt at using Final Cut. I think I have got better at drawing story boards as I find the frames easy to understand and my knowledge of the different shots I am now confident in so this story board was completed quickly and easily whereas my first one had to be re done several times. I have used other camera angles such as the pan when Harry and Olivia are asleep as I hadn’t used it in the preliminary task and thought it would be a good way to establish the scene as well as Harry’s restlessness. Overall I think I have progressed a little with things I previously did in the first task but a large amount using the software and camera for the first time. The shot below shows my establishing shot which is obviously in a bedroom and also introduces the main characters.It also displays my editing skills where i added the titles. I used white to blend in through the natural day light and i think this had worked effectively.
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