evaluation pt5

how did you address/attract your audience?

here is an annotated version of my film to show how I addressed and attracted my audience



If you have problems with viewing one of the sides on this slideshare presentation I find the way to resolve this is to maximize it and then it should appear.

evaluation pt4

who would be you target audience for your media product?

After looking at one of my previous posts about the bbfc I rated my film at 12 12A,  The reason for this my opening doesn't contain strong language nor drugs or/and sexual explicit scenes, The most explicit scene in the whole of my film if to be made would be the brutal murder scene, However I haven't made the whole film and it only shows the dead body for around 7 seconds in my opening  therefore I have rated it at a 12 12a.

Here is some background information I have gathered from websites such as “google” “bbfc” and some is my own knowledge about the 12 and 12a classification rating so you can see why I have chosen this rating.

What does the 12A symbol mean?

Films categorised 12A contain material that is not  generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless attended by an adult.

What's the difference between 12A and 12?

12 requires an adult accompanied with the child whereas as 12 doesn’t need an adult

Accompanied viewing cannot be enforced in the home, so the 12 certificate remains for DVD/Blu-ray, rather than the 12A.

How important is the tone of a film at 12A or 12?

a film which has a very dark or unsettling tone which could disturb the audience would be less likely to be passed 12A even if the individual issues in the film were considered acceptable under the BBFC Guidelines. Similarly, if a film is particularly positive or reassuring this may stop it being pushed up a category from 12A to 15.

Uses of strong language in a 12A or 12?

The BBFC's Guidelines state that strong language (e.g. 'f***') may be passed at 12 or 12A, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency and any special contextual justification. Aggressive uses of strong language may result in a film or DVD being placed at the 15 category. There is some allowance for puns on strong language at this category.
There may be moderate language (e.g. uses of terms such as ‘bitch’ and ‘twat’ at 12 or 12A).

I also used the method of social networking to gather information and decide on an audience

social networking told me what young people between the ages of 14 - 26 expect in a thriller film I was then able to take this information and add there feedback to my own opening in order to attract that sort of audience/age range.



here are the results of asking  the social media I

have leant from this feedback that I need to make sure I keep the audience in suspense whilst having a good story line I took this feedback and applied it to my opening of our film
I can prove this with the shots I have gathered below that are key moments in my film that create suspense and enigma.

 

 

 

 

evaluation pt3

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

I was going to consider hammer horror to produce my film because they have been responsible for some of the biggest UK thriller/horror films made such as The Dracula franchise; The Frankenstein franchise; more recently The Woman In Black and Let Me In.

The reason I didn't choose to go with hammer is because their film's have fairly big budgets and my film didn't, also hammer have big stars appearing in their films such as Daniel Radcliffe in "The Women In Black" where as Working title focuses on new & upcoming talent on low budget productions so my film would be best suited to be produced by them.






Working Title have produced on a low budget but have been extremely successful such as Billy Elliott 4million & Hot Fuzz 8million



even by first glance at the graphics you can see the difference in budget; each of these films are massively successful films at reasonably low budgets


Billy Elliot" is the flip side of "Girlfight."While the recent American film is about a girl who wants to be a boxer and is opposed by her macho father but supported by her brother, the British film is about a boy who wants to be a ballet dancer but is opposed by his macho father and brother.

Both films feature supportive adults who encourage their dreams, both oppose rigid gender definitions, both end in a big fighter/dancer. "Girlfight" is tougher ;"Billy Elliot" sweeter.

The movie is very awkwardly edited together, and there are big shifts in character traits without much explanation, which shows the lack of budget for the film. The story would have a very niche audience because of the time it was set in, however the film has now become a major production and has been made into a successful musical on the west end.

Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British action crime comedy thriller film co-written by and starring Simon Pegg alongside Nick Frost who are hugely successful British actors, The film is one of 4 film they have both starred in as a duo or double act those being ... Shaun of the Dead, Paul, Worlds End and Hot Fuzz. This film follows two English police officers attempting to solve a series of mysterious deaths in a small English village. The film is a lot more thought about but isn't as success as Billy Elliot but they are still big films.

Both films have English heritage within them both telling stories within and about England which is quite common when you have and English production company funding the production.

evaluation pt2

how does your media product represent particular social groups and gender ?

I tried to represent my characters in a stereotypical way and many of the stereotypes that have influenced them are fairly negative but are not distinctive or obvious when first watching the film.

in film now there is a lack of female lead roles because of stereotypes.
females are seen as the weaker gender and because of this we very rarely see women play and character the diverts a stereotype, when women are playing lead roles they often sexualized.

However we are seeing more female lead role without the sexualisation I have chosen to discuss these two female actresses that both play similar characters in terms of traits but are both represented in different ways.



    lara croft - Angelina Jolie                                   Katniss Everdeen -  Jennifer Lawrence  



Lara Croft is represented as an unconventional heroin in the film 

Women have always had a certain classification in society. now things are changing ever so slightly, especially in the world of films. You would usually expect to see a man saving a woman repeatedly from the hands of an evil monster (antagonist) . Yet nowadays, it's the women who are in control - saving the men from the hands of a antagonist . Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) proves my point. She takes full advantage of the opportunity of being a lead role and she does it well.

Women usually have conventional roles in films. They are portrayed as being beautiful, weak and always in distress - having to be saved by a 'knight in shining armour' e.g (Mary Jane - spiderMAN / Louis lane - superMAN).

However AJ - LC is extremely sexualized in her film such as, When we first see Lara in the fist film, she's wearing a black bikini, which is very sexy and revealing, she also fights in a sexualized way, but these conventions are still changing in film with more women such as Katniss Everdeen lead character in the hunger games, she is every similar to Lara Croft but is not sexualised in any form.
 
With my characters, I wanted to mine to subvert to real stereotypes and still be main characters and control the narrative, The prezi below will show you how I created my characters and what stereotypes I based them off.

evaluation pt1

In what ways does your media product use;develop forms and conventions of a real media product?

In order to achieve a good opening, my film needs to conceal an enigmatic feel, mysterious, difficult to understand and never revealing to much. I wanted leave the audience guessing what's going to happen next, leaving several questions to be answered "why did Chantelle run off?" "what has she uncovered?" I feel that I have covered all, if not most of the codes & conventions of a thriller.

At the start of the film I wanted nothing to be revealed except that the plot is set in the woods, this meant a downwards panning shot was a perfect revealing only the trees from the top to bottom, the setting was chosen very carefully. I picked a day where the weather was fairly dull and the trees looked almost like silhouettes, I also choose to add a crow sound effect indicating death may be involved. Crows are feared by Many people simply because of their black feathers, which often associates them with death "a group of crows is also known as a murder".



















Crows are a common convention within a thriller, In this case they tell us the narrative is set around a crime, such as a murder. The use of a close up's & panning shots really allows us and you as the audience to focus on what the narrative may be about. Although the opening sets our film as being a part of the crime-thriller, it does not expose that the plot, if made, is greatly centred around how the girl is killed; how the girl is found.


The editing in our film is quite slow and eerie from the start. The shot of a phone and the wallet suggests a person may be hurt or in this case killed and instantly strikes a sense of urgency for the audience, the urgency continues when we learn someone is lost, The editing then gets progressively faster, this is to emphasize the tension that is being built as the character is rushing to find her daughter. The story then takes a slow halt when we see the girl. The idea of pursuit (Jade trying to find Chantelle) is a popular theme in this genre, which is exactly why I used it. I then changed footage of the girl "Chantelle" running away into  black & white to let the audience know that its a dream she's having, I was going to soften the edges but it would of took time I didn't have, however I still think what I got works well. I also edited the lighting in the shot of the wallet because the shot was not visible and very hard to see.

I have also selected the title to discuss how our film incorporates generic/common thriller conventions, film title “The Willow”.

The title plays a key role in providing a perfect cliff-hanger 
ending, with the film named "The Willow" I tried having my titles appear over the footage but when being watched feedback told me it was being lost against the visuals, I then decided having it against a plain backdrop would allow the audience to really play attention to the titles and admire there simplicity, I decided to have the rest of the titles appear In the same way, The lettering itself is a white san serif font and it's all in capital letters, this is too enhance it's importance and adds to the sense of enigma that is being built. I got my inspiration for the San serif font from a film called "black swan" Which is another thriller which focuses more on physical and physiological impacts on a young woman, The font I used is simple yet strong, it also shares a resemblance to other films such as “house at the end of the street” and “cabin in the woods”. 

The motion of the text is a simple fade in fade out it’s a common way to display titles against a plain black drop it's effective yet simple.

To introduce my characters, I deliberately centred them in the middle of the frame to show their significance as the main roles and to show who has more prevalence within the narrative. When we see jade she is wearing dark clothing whereas Chantelle is wearing bright red this is to help the audience focus on one character more than the other, this was quite a challenge as usually the antagonist is usually dressed in dark colours, so I had to choose the dialog carefully in order to show jades caring; nurturing side whilst looking for her missing daughter.

My inspired clothing from shindlers list.

I choose to have Chantelle dressed in a bright red costume to make her more visible throughout the film whereas jade much darker clothing was needed due to Chantelle being our main focus, The red coat allows the audience to focus on Chantelle more also red is a very significant colour and the colour of blood allowing the audience to make the assumption about death and Chantelle’s role in the film.

This frame shows the use of special effects we tried to create in my opening sequence. In this frame the young girl “Chantelle” is having a flashback/dream to how she ran away and how she came to be unconscious. The black and white slowed down effect made it more staggered and discordant and supporting it as another part of the narrative as opposed to an event that is happening elsewhere at the same time. 

Discordant effects and sounds are reoccurring within the thriller genre.

The final frame I have chosen to talk about is the last visual where we see a dead body
This frame leaves the audience guessing as to whether it's "Chantelle" who has been murdered or has she found a dead body?
By leaving these questions behind for the audience to answer it allows for a perfect cliff hanger ending and creates tension as well as enigma.

the scene from hollyoaks and my film are very similar in terms of location and mise-en-scene.
mine however you only see for about 10 seconds which is just enough time to give the audience a fright the length of the scene may add


The inspiration for this scene came from British soap "HOLLYOAKS" & the BBC's film network short film called "MUD BOY". 

You might also be able to tell that the picture from "HOLLYOAKS" is surrounding by dead leaves which may be a metaphor for decay or end of life  something has come to an end and so is mine.

TO DO

1) discuss the changes I made to the timeline /ending by camera shot editing sound mise en scene
why was this more successful
2) detail the timing of each credit and why I choose to incorporate them at those times & show how this is similar to other films I have researched

( FINISH EVALUATION )

draft titles (repost)

Here I have created a draft of my changed titles after there was change in my timeline I previously had my title as an overlay over my footage however after some audience feedback I was told they wasn't very clear and I then changed them to appear over a black screen.

(this is a repost as the other post was deleted)