This is the blog I will be sharing all my Media classwork with the world on. Most of the posts that will be put on this website are going to be the analysis of various horrors, thrillers and rom-coms film openings, due to the fact my AS Media coursework is to produce the opening of a film, be it a horror, thriller or rom-com, thought up by myself, lasting between 2 and 3 minutes.
The analysis work I do will be beneficial as I will be able to see what makes a good film opening and will then be able to encorporate this into my coursework, making it a succes. (Fingers-crossed).
Friday, 15 April 2011
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My product follows the conventions of a thriller - gangster film as the characters are all male which is a normal aspect in these types of film as they are a male orientated genre. The music has a very simple beat which gets faster and louder at all the right moments to create tension which is something that thrillers need to give it that ‘thrilling’ aspect so music wise I used a conventional style. I think I broke conventions though when I made my film black and white as with most modern films it doesn’t happen. I used black and white to show a flashback and to make it clear it was the past. However, in breaking conventions by making the film black and white I followed a totally different convention, with having dark and moody lighting in a thriller film which is used to promote the characters mood and also the situation that is arising. Another way in which I followed the conventions of a thriller is that I had a mysterious, moody type character, who does not talk, and we don’t learn a lot about, this is because it is to be built on later in the film.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my film opening there are three characters on show, one protagonist and two antagonists. All three are white males, in their late teens, which is unconventional in a thriller as they rarely are about characters so young. They are all supposed to working class characters, hence the crime aspect; however, they wear suits which could deceive the audience. The wearing of suits is conventional in a thriller though. Another unconventional aspect is that the protagonist is physically the largest character on show, when normally, the antagonists are supposed to be the biggest threat and are supposed to scare the protagonist into doing what they want. This is not something that is normally seen in thrillers as the protagonist, up to a certain point, is supposed to be the vulnerable one in a bad position. Also it suggests that the two bad guys, while not physically scary or opposing have something hidden about them that will be addressed later in the film.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of studio that would distribute my film would be a company like Film4 Productions as it would not be a big budget blockbuster; it would be a smaller independent film. Film companies like the now folded PolyGram Film Entertainment or Gramercy Pictures, which were known for distributing films that had low budgets would be the sort of institutions that would distribute this film. Normally companies like Working Title in the UK or Paramount Pictures in the US will release rom-coms, The Miramax Company are known for releasing lots of horror films and New Line Cinema have distributed a lot of thrillers. However, big companies like this would not be interested in my low budget indie flick and so I would have to bank on the smaller companies banding together and picking up my film. It is quite common that companies like Film4 will work together with other smaller production companies to produce films as they can split the cost of the production.
4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
The target audience of my film would be males, aged 15 and above, of any class or ethnicity or social grade. The reason for this is because that is the general audience for a thriller – gangster film and so I stuck to the conventions. That’s not to say that women would not want to watch the film, but my target audience is the male gender. The rating would be a 15 because the film would contain some violent scenes and also a considerable amount of swearing as they are cockney gangsters. Working class people may enjoy the film more as people from higher classes may not appreciate the explicit content, but it is not solely aimed at the working class. I think I have definitely aimed for the standard audience of a thriller, to be on the safe side, because it would have been even harder for me to attract a new audience type to a well established genre as well as effectively and successfully portraying a thriller film.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I have attracted and addressed my target audience by using standard character archetypes in the cockney gangster style. Also I have attracted the audience by using standard conventions in the swearing and moody lighting etc. that is commonly found in films of this genre. The music is stereotypical and so people will feel comfortable watching this film as it will be somewhat like others they have seen before. In regards to advertising and marketing, I would not show too much of the storyline of f in trailers and adverts because I wouldn’t want people to pre-empt the film. I would however, give just enough for people to be intrigued and want to see more. I would use billboard adds displaying the main characters to bring people in, as they may recognise the people in the film and enjoy their previous work. The trailers I would use would be short and snappy, so that people were roped in and then wished they’d been able to see more making them want to go to the cinema to see the film. I would also show off the actors in the trailers again because people may like their previous work and be interested to see their new film.
I learnt a lot in the process of creating this product. Filming wise I learnt about all the different types of shots and how to pull them off correctly, I had to learn how to use a tripod so that I could have steady shots and also so that I could pan and tilt accordingly. Editing wise I had to learn how to do everything, from getting the clips onto Final Cut pro to adding the soundtrack to my finished piece. I had to learn how to splice clips, add effects like the cross dissolves and also the black and white, de-saturisation of the scene. I had to learn how to lower the volume of the backing track to fit in with the dialogue in the film which took a long time to get right. Again, with the blog, I had to learn from scratch because it was a totally new experience. The general posting is easy after a while, but I had to learn how to add video and images, add captions to those images and also to edit the HTML when adding a video else it wouldn’t work properly. The whole experience was a big learning process, and I think I managed quite well and produced a successful film opening and a well written blog.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In the preliminary task was when I decided to work on the film on my own, not due to any particular reason other than I did not want to be banking on other peoples work, or other people letting me down. I wanted to be totally in charge of what I was doing and how it was done. I wanted full say on everything and also I wanted to use my own ideas, not someone else’s. I knew vaguely how to use a camera but I had to learn all the different shots and techniques that could gain extra credit for inventiveness such as using a match-on-action or shot-reverse-shot. In regards to the match-on-action, I tried to incorporate that technique into my film, it took some time to get the shot to fit but I think it worked quite well and displayed that I had paid attention and been successful in the preliminary task. The 180 degree rule wasn’t something that was tackled in my product because I never had a situation where there was direct conversation between two people on screen; there was just a phone call. However, I am confident that had I chosen to have a section of dialogue between two characters I could have properly obeyed and executed the 180 degree rule. So I used some of the skills I learnt in the preliminary task meaning that I followed the advice given, and I tried to use harder techniques to improve the quality of my product. If I could change one thing it would probably be to include the 180 degree rule to make it even more effective.
My product follows the conventions of a thriller - gangster film as the characters are all male which is a normal aspect in these types of film as they are a male orientated genre. The music has a very simple beat which gets faster and louder at all the right moments to create tension which is something that thrillers need to give it that ‘thrilling’ aspect so music wise I used a conventional style. I think I broke conventions though when I made my film black and white as with most modern films it doesn’t happen. I used black and white to show a flashback and to make it clear it was the past. However, in breaking conventions by making the film black and white I followed a totally different convention, with having dark and moody lighting in a thriller film which is used to promote the characters mood and also the situation that is arising. Another way in which I followed the conventions of a thriller is that I had a mysterious, moody type character, who does not talk, and we don’t learn a lot about, this is because it is to be built on later in the film.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my film opening there are three characters on show, one protagonist and two antagonists. All three are white males, in their late teens, which is unconventional in a thriller as they rarely are about characters so young. They are all supposed to working class characters, hence the crime aspect; however, they wear suits which could deceive the audience. The wearing of suits is conventional in a thriller though. Another unconventional aspect is that the protagonist is physically the largest character on show, when normally, the antagonists are supposed to be the biggest threat and are supposed to scare the protagonist into doing what they want. This is not something that is normally seen in thrillers as the protagonist, up to a certain point, is supposed to be the vulnerable one in a bad position. Also it suggests that the two bad guys, while not physically scary or opposing have something hidden about them that will be addressed later in the film.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of studio that would distribute my film would be a company like Film4 Productions as it would not be a big budget blockbuster; it would be a smaller independent film. Film companies like the now folded PolyGram Film Entertainment or Gramercy Pictures, which were known for distributing films that had low budgets would be the sort of institutions that would distribute this film. Normally companies like Working Title in the UK or Paramount Pictures in the US will release rom-coms, The Miramax Company are known for releasing lots of horror films and New Line Cinema have distributed a lot of thrillers. However, big companies like this would not be interested in my low budget indie flick and so I would have to bank on the smaller companies banding together and picking up my film. It is quite common that companies like Film4 will work together with other smaller production companies to produce films as they can split the cost of the production.
4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
The target audience of my film would be males, aged 15 and above, of any class or ethnicity or social grade. The reason for this is because that is the general audience for a thriller – gangster film and so I stuck to the conventions. That’s not to say that women would not want to watch the film, but my target audience is the male gender. The rating would be a 15 because the film would contain some violent scenes and also a considerable amount of swearing as they are cockney gangsters. Working class people may enjoy the film more as people from higher classes may not appreciate the explicit content, but it is not solely aimed at the working class. I think I have definitely aimed for the standard audience of a thriller, to be on the safe side, because it would have been even harder for me to attract a new audience type to a well established genre as well as effectively and successfully portraying a thriller film.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I have attracted and addressed my target audience by using standard character archetypes in the cockney gangster style. Also I have attracted the audience by using standard conventions in the swearing and moody lighting etc. that is commonly found in films of this genre. The music is stereotypical and so people will feel comfortable watching this film as it will be somewhat like others they have seen before. In regards to advertising and marketing, I would not show too much of the storyline of f in trailers and adverts because I wouldn’t want people to pre-empt the film. I would however, give just enough for people to be intrigued and want to see more. I would use billboard adds displaying the main characters to bring people in, as they may recognise the people in the film and enjoy their previous work. The trailers I would use would be short and snappy, so that people were roped in and then wished they’d been able to see more making them want to go to the cinema to see the film. I would also show off the actors in the trailers again because people may like their previous work and be interested to see their new film.
I learnt a lot in the process of creating this product. Filming wise I learnt about all the different types of shots and how to pull them off correctly, I had to learn how to use a tripod so that I could have steady shots and also so that I could pan and tilt accordingly. Editing wise I had to learn how to do everything, from getting the clips onto Final Cut pro to adding the soundtrack to my finished piece. I had to learn how to splice clips, add effects like the cross dissolves and also the black and white, de-saturisation of the scene. I had to learn how to lower the volume of the backing track to fit in with the dialogue in the film which took a long time to get right. Again, with the blog, I had to learn from scratch because it was a totally new experience. The general posting is easy after a while, but I had to learn how to add video and images, add captions to those images and also to edit the HTML when adding a video else it wouldn’t work properly. The whole experience was a big learning process, and I think I managed quite well and produced a successful film opening and a well written blog.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In the preliminary task was when I decided to work on the film on my own, not due to any particular reason other than I did not want to be banking on other peoples work, or other people letting me down. I wanted to be totally in charge of what I was doing and how it was done. I wanted full say on everything and also I wanted to use my own ideas, not someone else’s. I knew vaguely how to use a camera but I had to learn all the different shots and techniques that could gain extra credit for inventiveness such as using a match-on-action or shot-reverse-shot. In regards to the match-on-action, I tried to incorporate that technique into my film, it took some time to get the shot to fit but I think it worked quite well and displayed that I had paid attention and been successful in the preliminary task. The 180 degree rule wasn’t something that was tackled in my product because I never had a situation where there was direct conversation between two people on screen; there was just a phone call. However, I am confident that had I chosen to have a section of dialogue between two characters I could have properly obeyed and executed the 180 degree rule. So I used some of the skills I learnt in the preliminary task meaning that I followed the advice given, and I tried to use harder techniques to improve the quality of my product. If I could change one thing it would probably be to include the 180 degree rule to make it even more effective.
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