Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develops or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- The form of our opening, I believe is conventional, the techniques we have used for example the montage at the beginning and titles were inspired by ‘28 days later’ directed in 2002, by Danny Boyle. We wanted the font of our titles to be in red just to emphasis the blood and to carry on using horror conventions. The plot is set around a normal 20-year-old male protagonist who works and lives in England. As he gets the train home from work people are starting to mutate into zombies, luckily he hasn’t caught the virus, yet. So he will have to try and get away. I believe that the plot line shows a clear horror film, which follows the conventions.
- We were influenced by a number of zombie’s films and even looked at a video game ‘Call of Duty 4’ which gave us an idea that we have used in our actual opening sequence, which was the blinking technique towards the end. We also wanted the blood that we would use in the film to be vibrant like in zombieland.
- Still 1 and 2 (see powerpoint at the bottom of this post)
- We chose to do a horror film, because our group were all interested in it, and we thought that the characteristics and the conventions would be easier to follow than a thriller or a teen movie, we also thought that it would be easier to create enigma. However we didn’t want to just follow a normal zombie film we wanted to integrate our own unique aspect to the film, we did so by looking around the genre and using different and interesting techniques such as canted angle and the tunnel location.
- We decided to have the character to act normal and dress ordinary so that the audience could relate to the film, to show that the main character is not special he is just like everyone else. We also chose for our protagonist to be a male instead of a female because our target audience will be mostly male from around that age, so we wanted the majority of the audience to also relate with him. We noticed in our research that a lot of horror movies use quite a few hand held shots, so we experimented with it and found that it was very effective and made it feel fast and intense, which looked really good. Some of the other shots look very grainy like film noir, which we had looked at before, which gave a rough element to the clip. The editing creates a fast cutting rate at certain point, which makes it exciting and engages the audience. We looked at a few examples for the typography including ‘Seven directed in 1995 by David Fincher’ we liked how it looked and noticed that handwritten is effective. But we wanted a more conventional font so we found one on a website that we all liked. The titles with the black background anchor the storyline that we wanted to portray. We decided to put the titles on a black background to keep the mood dark and sinister.
- Still 3 and 4
- We had three main locations in this clip, the train, the platform, and the tunnel. The train is iconic in the way that as we see it coming into the platform it is like it is bringing the virus with it. It also tells us about the character that he is middle class and works far away. The tunnel gives a sense of darkness and is very mysterious; the audience will also feel trapped like the protagonist, I think it also corresponds with horror conventions.
- Still 5
- The soundtrack we used was a 'Blackout by Unkle', we were going to use a 'Muse' song but towards the end we decided it did not go with the theme as well as the new song. The song went well with our opening clip as the music is quite strange and repetitive. We changed the volume through out the clip according to what was being shown, which made it more thrilling as it got louder. We also used non-diagetic sound, for example the heart beat effect at the end, which injects pathos into the audience.
- We and most of the audience can only judge our sequence against big blockbusters because that is what the majority of us view, but what you have to consider is this was our first time making a opening clip of a film, our budget was around 10 pounds, we had never used the equipment or software before, and none of our group do drama or acting. Whereas all the big films, have millions of pounds for their budget, professional actors and actresses and trained professional for editing, camera and sound.
- Still 6
Q2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?
- The only social group in our film opening storyline would be young white male. I have mentioned one reason why we chose a male stock character rather than a female. Another reason is due to gender traits, we wanted a male because stereotypically men are stronger, and we wanted a strong character. ‘I am legend directed in 2007 by Francis Lawrence’ is a prime example of a strong male protagonist; we wanted a character that later in the film would fight back instead of surrendering.
- We chose a white ethnic person, as the majority of victims in horror films are white, also of main target audience will be from the same ethic background.
- Our main character is represented positively and makes the audience side with him because they can picture themselves in that position as they are of the same ethnic background. It reinforces social norms, as the protagonist is just a normal guy in an abnormal situation. His costume also reinforces social representations, as it is common.
- The non-verbal language both reinforces and challenges gender stereotypes. The worried expressions on the protagonist face challenges the stereotype because men are suppose to be strong, then the character pushes the mutated person over on the platform which is masculine and reinforces the stereotype.
- Still 7
- Mise en scene, the train and the tunnel are quite normal but with the lighting in the tunnel make it menacing and scary. Also the tunnel and the fences give a sense of the character being trapped.
- Still 8
- Sound the soundtrack goes really well with genre as I have said before. The non-diagetic sound, for example the heavy breathing and heart beat can be see to represent traditional gender position showing the desperation in the protagonist as he takes his last breathes.
- Camera work, i don't think can very easily imitate social groups. They just reflect convectional horror techniques. The point of view shots especially, it also connects the audience as they are seeing what is happening through the actor’s eyes. Plus it reinforces character exposition, helping to get the audience on the protagonist’s side.
Q3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
- When our film is made the production company will have to secure a distribution deal offering a percentage of the box office and DVD sales. The distributors will then invest in designing the marketing, such as the posters, trailers and print copies of the film, and distribute to the chosen cinemas. We will then have to define our target audience, one that we want the distributor to focus on, we believe the target audience to be aged between 16-24 both males and females and a range of people from different ethnic backgrounds. We believe that the film will be especially popular with people in the age group of 16-21, and estimate that the majority of people that go will be in this age group. The target audience will have to be looked at in greater detail but that is the outline at the moment. Then the distributors will need to decide on how much to invest on promoting our film ‘Alteration’ whether we decide to exhibit worldwide, nationally, or to target a mass audience in cinema chains like ‘Odeon’, ‘Showcase Cinemas’ and ‘Apollo Cinemas’. Or to target a niche market showing in small independent screens such as ‘Picture House’ and ‘Trinity’. This could be the one for us, as costs would be lower than exhibiting nationally, and we would be able to focus on the small audience.
- Still 9
- Personally I think our film should target a niche audience and for opening weekend only show the film on 3 or 4 screens, then after we have established our self then we can distribute to bigger cinema chains like ‘Odeon’, they will be more interested and eager to show our film after seeing the opening weekend figures than taking the risk on a film that potentially could lose them money. ‘Monsters’ 2010 directed by Gareth Edwards did a similar thing, and only showed their film to 3 screens over there opening weekend. I think ‘Vertigo Films’ would be an appropriate company to distribute our film, as they are a British company so they will know the audience well. They have won numerous awards such as Audience Award – Gen Art Film Festival – 2005 and Most Promising Newcomer – Evening Standard British Film Awards – 2007. They have been the distributor for ‘The Football Factory’ which made over half a million pounds in the UK.
- Still 10
Q4/5 - Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience? For this question as it is a group question, we will be making a powerpoint to answer the question.
Q6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
- Firstly, we have obtained all of our work, research, and everything we have done in this process collaboratively on this blog. Each member of the group has been assigned tasks through out this course, all of our posts have been commented on by other members to show how well we have communicated and taken ideas onboard.
- Still 11
- Following picking our three locations, the train, platform and tunnel we had to think about the different kinds of shots we would want to include. We made risk assessments each time we had a shoot to reduce potential risks and to make us more aware. We filmed all of our footage on a high definition digital camera that the school provided; they also supplied a tripod, which was very helpful with creating smooth shots, for certain shots for instance the establishing shot. The weather was the main problem for us, as it is unpredictable. If it was raining we could not film and we had to postpone some shoots. We wanted to film at twilight, which limited us to the time we had for each shot. Some of the shots we had to think about the 180-degree rule and not getting the camera, equipment, or shadows in the shot. Most of shots went well, we just wanted to try out different techniques to see which ones were best. I learnt that it’s a very time consuming process and a lot of thought is needed.
- We didn’t have many problems with shooting, only a few minor issues such as getting the right depth of field and composition, particularly allowing space for the titles we wanted to include. Apart from a few other problems everything went well. We exported all of our footage into Premiere, then looked at and picked out the shots we would use in our final piece.
- Still 12
- We carefully edited the footage we had picked out, compressed time, and made the cut rate the speed we wanted.
- We had to have a quick cutting rate for the montage at the start so that some of the shots didnt drag on and set the pace slow at the beginning. The montage anchors the genre by being strange and disjointed.
- Still 13
- The blinking effect at the end, when the zombies are running at the protagonist, looks very effective but is done by a very easy editing technique, we just put a black screen in 3 / 4 intervals on the time line, so it looks like the actor is blinking in a dazed state.
- Still 14
- The final shot really brings in the audience, and they want to watch more of the film as the opening sequence ends.
- After we had done all the editing, we just had the titles to fit in, three of them with our names on them and the other the title of our film ‘Alteration’. We finally did a couple of last minute changes with the soundtrack and editing, and we had our opening sequence.
- Still 15
- The sequence was now done, we then had to export it, and we used external hardware to get the piece from Premiere to the teacher. We have not yet uploaded the clip onto Youtube but we will in the near future.
- Still 16
- Comparing our own production process with a real film production, I think with the resources we had and not a lot of knowledge in this area, I believe we made a successful opening sequence. It followed horror genre conventions and had our own unique influence incorporated into it. Obviously it’s not up to the same standard as a real film, but the people we have showed it to were very impressed with our first effort.
- I have learnt a great deal during the process of making an opening sequence for a film. One of the biggest things that shocked me was the number of shoots that had to be done and the amount of footage that was needed. I thought we would be able to finish the footage in one shot, I was very wrong. We learned a lot about the equipment and the camcorder, things like pull focus that can we done on the camera itself. I have also learnt lots of technical terms that I didn’t know before, for instance, fade, dissolve, depth of field, rule of thirds and saturation.
Q7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? This is another group question, this time will be using a video to answer the question.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhEgtUx6Hg4
Powerpoint of stills
No comments:
Post a Comment