Evaluation 2-7 and 2 minute opening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmGqil2OXf0
My media film URL

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


In my own opinion, I film my film has the potential to be distributed by a media conglomerate due to its naraative. Why I believe this is because there are many other popular films and content out which are similar to mine, this includes filsm such as 'Silence of the lambs' - distributed by Orion Pictures. Independant film typically target more taboo subjects such as drugs, rape and gang crimes which my film doesn't consist of so there my film does not conform to independant stereotypes. Overall, my narrative is fairly simple as we see a man stalking the street of suburbia to knock on a womans door who calls him 'babe' from this we can infer that she is a relationship to him such a  partner. From this we see this phycopathic killer murder his girlfriend in cold blood to leave her there. As we see him leave our protagonist gets revenge leaving a plot twist and a cliff hanger at the end of my short opening. I found this fits into a more typical type of comglomerate as they seem to follow more of a simplistic story line rather than 'go off the rails' with a complex one (Quote from 'Silence of the lambs...')

Where would my media product be shown?

Due to my film subverting stereotypes whithin horror films, personally, I feel this would be a main focal point and selling point of my media product through social media, word of mouth and other various advertising. My film would be shown in a selection of cinemas across the UK and potentially in the USA. My age range for my media product is between 16-30 year olds.

Evaluation 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Ideal viewer/ audience member:

• Non gender specific (Male or Female)
• 16-30 years old
• Enjoys horrors and phycological thrillers

My typical audience member would be aged between 16-30 due to the nature and certificate of my film being 16 as no one under this age should see murder scenes. I chose this age range because my protagonist is of age (18) as a well as my antagonist (20). Looking into the criteria of the BBFC website helped me decide the age range due to the restrictions of the explicity shown to younger viewers. Overall my film may be more for males than females due to the topic of phyco killers and grusome kills but on the other hand may be more for females due to the protagonist being a strong independant female which I think needs to be shown more in filsm today.

Age

The age range for my film varies from 16-30 years old as the antagonist and protagonist of my film fit into this subcategory. (Antagonist being 20 and Portagonist being 18) The crew for filming and editing also fits into this category as an average of 17 years old. This makes my film for accessable for younger viewers.

BBFC Rating

In order to make sure my film was suitable to be rated 16 I required further research in which I collated from the BBFC website in order to see what requirements that age rating. The following features are specified for my age rating of 16:

• Strong violence
• Frequent strong language
• Portrayals of sexual activity
• References to sex
• Sexual nudity
• Brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal reference to sexual abuse
• Discriminatory language or behaviour
• Drug taking

Although my film doesn't contain many of the features it still involves many grusome violence scenes throughout.

Evaluation 5 - How did you adress/attract your audience?

Evalutation:

I constructed my film to meets the needs of the 16 certificate as my film is aimed at 16-30 year olds who enjoy watching horror/thrillers as a male or female. In order to make mt film suitable for my target audeince I did the following things:

• Target audeince research
• Mise-en-scene
• Antagonist
• Name of my film - 'Revenge'
• Target audience research:

Overall, looking at all my studies for my target audience I know what I needs to include to attract my audience. I know who my target audience are 16-30 year olds as I kept checking certificate guide lines. From the survey I conducted I gathered information of the interests of my audience attention. From this I was able to find out what to include and exclude from my media film.

Mise-en-scene:

I decided to dress my protagonist in very non stereotypical womans clothing as she is fitted with ripped jeans, white vest and camo jacket along with black vans. My antagonist showed a casual guy fitted with and Ed Sheeran T-shirt, baseball jacket, jeans and also vans. I used very casual clothing for my male to show the audience that someone who you may think would very do anything like this can. I dressed my protagonist like this because it shows a very non stereotypical female character as I wanted to present her as a very strong female character.

Evaluation 6 - What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The beginning

In the beginning of making my media product I started off using basic technologies such as google to research into topics similar to my media theme and to inspire my media product. I also continued to use google throughout my development of my idea. 

What did I use to construct my work?

The main technolgy I used to create my courseowkr in the first place was Blogger, as I needed to document and construct all of my ideas and record all of my work. As I had never used a programme to document any form of coursework before I found it challenging as I didn't know how to use it!

I've used images, prezi's,slideshare, youtube and final cut pro to finalise all aspects of my coursework.

For planning I used survaeymonkey to ask my audience questions on what type of media product they want to see.

Production whise I used final cut pro on the MAC's and Epidemic sound. Overall I found this difficult and wouldn't choose to touch a camera again due to it not being in an area I enjoy but am, pleased with the result of my work considering consequences.

Production I published my media film onto youtube and on blogger where my audience can see it.

Evaluation 7 - Lookign back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Continuity is extreamly important in any media film as this aspect can make or break a product. In my preliminary task I made a mistake in cutting from walking straight to pulling out a chair in one split second. This made me think about my final two minute opening as I had to make sure that this issue wouldn't arise again. In the making of my two minute film everything has flowed and continuity was achieved.

Whilst making the preliminary task the 180 degree rule was another vital part in making a media product and if you keep switching sides of a character in one scene it can disoriantate an audience. 

Another important aspect within my media product is mise-en-scene as this makes the whole priject believe and links in with continuity as if in one scene your characters hair is up and in the next it is down then you have made a mistake in your continuity and mise-en-scene as a simple mistake has been made.

Overall I am proud of my media product as editing and filming isn't my area. If I had the chance to make another short film or film at all I would kindly decline but have enjoyed the experience.

Evaluation 1 - In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

My media film opening follows Todorov's narrative theory, as we see assume a calm beginning which is soon disrupted by out antagonist as he travels to his victims house. His victim being his very own girlfriend. As we see him murder her he walks away thinking his gotten away with it to his disappointment our protagonist awakens a seeks her revenge restoring order... in her own way. 

The opening of my sequence sets up Todorov's narrative theory as we see our antagonist searching his victims house in the quest for killing and watch our protagonist seek revenge. What we don't see in my film opening is before the murder which would of been a normal everyday life which was disrupted by our frantic mad man. The other part of my opening what we don't see is how our protagonist seeks revenge or in Todorov's theory 'restore order' but we can only guess she made him pay, we also don't see a new equilibrium but this sets up my opening.

I have made use of many of several codes and conventions within my two minute film opening. There codes and conventions consist of:

• How my film looks as a typical opening
• Narrative structure
• Narrative codes
• Genre
• Titles and credits
• Characterisation

How my film looks like a typical opening sequence?

As I conducted research previously before making my film opening even one film not in my genre I discovered that opening sequences should set up the narrative as well as tell the audience what the rest of the film is going to be about. What is should consist of is a introduction to our protagonist and antagonist along with a brief look at their characteristics. A mood and setting should be established immediately as this presents the genre and introduce the agent of change to continue the narrative.

In the first shot of my opening we are immediately introduced to our antagonist as we see a male character stalk the woods and streets in the hunt for his victims house. The next couple of shots we meet our protagonist as she is dragged into her own home to be murdered. Within these shots we find out who our directer is and who our actors is through the use of credits and titles.

Narrative Codes

To research into the horror genre I watch physiological thriller 'Silence of the lambs' where I learnt some key characteristics from the main character and TV series 'American horror story - Hotel' to get a feel for murderous themes. From this film I learnt there are two types of narrative, action and enigma codes. From my research I found out that action codes help moves the narrative and enigma codes forward such as questions like, "Why is he different from the rest of the criminals?" These are used to keep the audience intrigued and engaged as they discover new elements throughout.

Genre

The genre of my film is horror/thriller. To discover more information and conventions of the horror/thriller genre I researched into the film 'Silence of the lambs' in which I found out that killers may look like normal every-day men, as we see the main character clean shaven, very intelligent and well groomed which subverts stereotypes but enforces then at the same time due to the type of killer he is which a physiological one making him stand out from the 'mad and crazy' ones as he is presented as 'insane' due to his appearance and actions. One way in which this film built tension of the main character was that he was the only one standing waiting for the police officer, in which he had a glass segregating him rather than bars like the rest showing us he is a highly dangerous man. A pan was used as it contrasted the other three cells with bars and his glass segregation. One thing I learnt from watching this film was that it can be insane with horrific actions but still has to be realistic so that the equilibrium is believable.

Credits and Titles

The film that I researched into credits and titles was 'Skyfall'. 'Skyfall' used credits which took you away from the actual film footage but entailed and story so that it all came together. The first scene shows us a chase seen which shows Bond fighting a villain. Backing Bond up is Miss Moneypenny as she takes and shot aiming for the villain but end up hitting Bonding resulting in him falling into the water. As he falls into the water non-diagetic sound is used as Adele's 'Skyfall' fades in as he traveling deeper into the ocean then the credits start appearing.

How I decided to integrate my credits into my film was adding them over my footage as we see the actor we see the actors name appear. My film title has been combined into the message in which it is saying on the screen when we see 'She's back and she want REVENGE','Revenge' is the title of my film. Splitting the build up and current day is the company of 'LED productions'.

Characterisation

Characterisation is the way characters are portrayed within a film. It involves:

• The way the character looks
• The way a character acts
• How others act with the character
• How the editing differs with that in-particular character
• What soundtrack the character reviews

Planning - Explanation of choice/ reasoning behind my opening.

Planning

I chose to make a short film based upon revenge as we see an endangered woman murdered by her boyfriend,,, or is she? As we see a plot twist when she awakes just after her attempted murderer has escaped. Inspired by other horror/thrillers I chose to tackle this genre as it is popular with my target audience and coincided with what my audience wanted to see as conducted in my audience research.

Another reason I chose this as my film opening in particular is because we don't see many strong independent females even in 2016. Stereotypically our screens show predominantly male main characters but in this we see a female role take our screens. As our strong female hunts down her attempted killer she fights back in the perfect act to get revenge.

Planning - Actors, Props, Location & Equipment

Planning

Actors:

My short film opening only required a small cast of two people. This stared both gender roles which included a female protagonist and a male antagonist. The Choice of my actors were based upon stereotypes which we see in our daily life. Women are portrayed as the weaker sex and even though we see in the beginning of my opening  a male killer roles reverse as our vengeful protagonist hunts her attempted killer, oh and did I mention she wants revenge? Why I chose to mix up the gender roles and have a independent woman is due to two reason, one being my audience research, as they wanted to see a strong female protagonist and the other reason being I wanted to subvert stereotypes and show my audience how females should be represented in the 21st century.
The reason behind having a male antagonist is because it does conform to stereotypes we see as a modern day audience so it's a a familiar face.

Props:

Props used weren't excessive as the only main prop used was a knife as seen in the very beginning of my opening sequence. Costumes included a casual looking male antagonist dressed in jeans, T-shirt and vans, and a fierce looking female dressed in ripped jeans, distressed top covered in cuts and blood and a camo jacket which embraces how strong and independent she is due to the camouflage representing strength and war.

Location:

Three locations are used within my opening sequence as we see a suburban setting of a town house and the dark woods where our antagonist is traveling to his victims house. Why I used these two settings where simple as I wanted a familiar looking setting of the house and a suburban street so that the audience can get an idea of the setting and the type of person he is going to attempt to kill. The woods was chosen so that we could see the horror and mystery of whats about to happen.

Equipment:

The only equipment used within my two minute clip was a camera and nothing else, all hand held camera shots were used.

Planning - Three 100 word synopsis of film

Ideas for my short film.

Idea 1:

My first idea is going to involve a woman protagonist where she was previously murder by a young man many years ago, after her death she came back bitter and looking for vengeance when she meets her killer he is a 'family man' who has children and a wife when they decide to move into the house of the woman he killed way in the forest. We go on a journey as we follow our protagonist to see if she will get her revenge on her killer as she confronts him what he has done and kills him in the same gruesome way.

Idea 2:

A male protagonist is trapped in a nightmare when he is being stalked by a female antagonist who wants to kill anyone in her path. He tried to hide out in all different places to fight for his life. Nearing the end of this nightmare he finds a safe house where he falls asleep only to wake up to find her waiting in the corner of the room for him to awaken so she can kill him, just as she is about to strike him he suddenly wakes up from this dream and calms down only to find her in his room.

Idea 3:

A doll lives in the family home with a little girl named Holly, every night she sits in the corner of her room and ‘sleeps happily’. Like any other family this household consists of a Mum, Dad and a child where they are very close-knit. One night the mother is tidying her little girls room where she puts the doll in the corner, to only find it has moved to sit up on her bed later on in the evening. Not thinking of anything she puts in back in her daughters room think she had moved it until one night when the doll awakes and plots a vengeful killing.

Planning - 250 word synopsis of film

Full synopsis of film

My Media film will consist of a female protagonist and a male antagonist, the whole 2 minute opening will depict a woman being brutally murdered by a man called James as he leaves the murder scene he doesn’t realise he has unsuccessfully killed the nameless woman. Once she has awoken from the horror, she gets up and shows us a fierce woman who subverts stereotypes as she combats and drags herself to her murderer’s house. Will all of her courage she tries to defeat and destroy her enemy.

Full description of my two minute opening

Immediately, we cut to an intense scene where we see a woman be brutally murder by a man she formally knew, as we hear diagetic sounds of screams and pleads for help we use a tracking shot to follow from her neck -where she is being strangled- to her legs and we see her kicking and screaming to all of a sudden, dramatically stop.

A black scene appear saying 'SHE'S BACK', immediately it cuts to her tying her jacket round her waist. Another black screen cuts and reads 'AND SHE WANTS' cuts to a close up of her feet walking down the street, once again another black screen cuts reading 'REVENGE' then another cut to her standing outside of her victims house. This image starts off as an over the shoulder shot viewing the house then zooms out becoming an establishing shot as we view the surroundings.
As we enter the house we are familiarized with the domestic household realising the unknown woman's killer is a family man. A voice over of a little girls voice, speaks 'Shes here...' half way through the little girl saying it we fade into the scene where the little girl is saying it and is being tucked in bed by the antagonist -her dad-. as the camera creeps up the stairs to the antagonists room it stays low to the ground and then takes a sharp turn as we see the antagonist having a nightmare as he keeps turning over. As the camera hovers above the antagonist, it slowly zooms into his face where his eyes spring open as his breathes deepen and quicken in pace. As he springs up and sits up straight the camera does a very quick 180 degree turn showing a figure lerk in the corner. he soon realise the figure in the corner is our protagonist as she lunges across the room to him the screen blacks out as we hear him shout. The credits role up at the very end.
Minor adjustments might be made whilst filming.

Preliminary Task

Prelim

For my prelim I filmed someone walking through a door, sitting down and holding a short conversation.

Overall, my prelim went well and had minimal mistakes in it. One major problem which occurred within my preliminary is continuity, as I didn't film my actress all the way to the table in which she sat at. As this problem happened when watching my film a jump cut happens as my actress goes from half way to the table to pulling out their chair. In my final 2 minute opening I will make sure that no mistakes like this will occur so that my film is fluent.

Something that went really well within my prelim is the continuity in the beginning of my film as it flowed seamlessly without any mistakes.