Finished

Foundation media production G321 finished

Back to black final cut

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

From the prelim task I learnt about the 180 degrees rule also doing the prelim task helped me with the framing of my shots I found this much easier in my production because I concentrated on this during the prelim task so this improved the shot quality in my final production. This task was done without any planning and helps you realise that planning and research are vital to making your production a success. So when planning as we drawn out storyboards and carried research to this made the whole production process much easier and less time consuming as we knew exactley what shots we were filming and what was in them. So overall doing this task i think helped us gain experience and improved our final cut over all.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The technology I learned most about during my production was imovie as this was the first project in which I used it I had previous experience with the DV cameras we were using as I used them for previous projects and they are very easy to understand and make the filming process much easier. The software has many advantages with extensive ranges of editing equipment, video and sound effects and transitions. In our film we a number of different transitions such as cut and fade. Also we used some video effects we used saturation of the colour during all of our flashback scenes and also used a soundtrack over the whole opening. I found imovie very easy to use after learning how to use it and the filming very easy to view and upload from the camera and the editing was very easy once uploaded using the various tools available. imovie would be my first choice for any of my future productions that I produce.

Who would be the audience for your media product,How did you attract/address your audience?

I believe my film would attract a very large amount of teenagers as the film revolves around the life of a small group of teens. Also the film deals with common issues among the teens such as drug and alcohol abuse, relationships and work and college. So I think it will and attract and appeal to the teenage audience as the audience will be able to relate the characters and situations they go through during the film. The audience will be able conform to the lifestyle the characters that they live such as the emotions they feel through stress and alcohol consumption they can relate this to the emotions they feel whilst in those situations. During the opening of my film there are a number of scenes which will attract to teenage audiences as they confer to everyday life such as sex, relationships and binge drinking culture a number of teenagers have been through so the will be attracted to this as they can almost put themselves in the situations of the characters also i think my film may attract a number of young adults as they have also been through a number of those situations and are able to relate to them. Also teenagers may even use this as an escape from reality and their own problems in life as they can relate to the issues that the charatcers are going through in the film, this links in with the uses and gratifications theory that the audience use the media to get specific gratifications and uses the media fulfill thier various needs which could be things such as filling time, relaxation and emotional release. So my film my achieve this through teenagers being able to escape from their own lives and being able to relate to others that are similar to theres also they may just want to use the film as entertainment and to fill time. Furthermore I think my film will attract large British audiences as they are familiar with the filming locations and the culture shown throughout the production. The age certificate i would give my film is a 15 as my film as i believe the audience around this age would be attracted to this film and similar genre films. Also the film contains alcohol, smoking, explicit language and some mild violence which will bot be suitable for an audience under the age of 15.

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

When considering a production company to use I research a number of different institutions even though we decided to design our own production company I still had a number of different ideas on ones we could have used. As a film is British teen thriller my first thought was Kidulthood and adulthood films which I have previously researched. These films revolve around a small group of teenagers who live normal teenage lives but have had bad experiences through the use of alcohol and drug abuse. So after taking this in to consideration I researched to found out the production company that distributed these films as they proved to be a big success in Britain which was one the first of that sort of kind. The films were distributed revolver entertainment so this would be my first choice as they have achieved a previous high amount of success with the teen thriller films so revolver entertainment would be my first choice I have they obviously have appealed to the British teen audience, when promoting kidulthood and adulthood I researched the different methods they used which included film posters, TV and internet advertisements and soundtrack releases. This may be similar methods I would like to promote my film. Furthermore I choose revolver as I think my film would have a large appeal within Britain but wouldn’t be so popular overseas so I don’t think I will be successful is attracting a large worldwide production company.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents the teenage social group in a very stereotypical ways. Especially in the flashback scene I wanted to show there immaturity and naivety, I achieved this through the use of underage binge drinking. This current issue within the country and is a familiar nationally among all ages of people. However in the present time scenes we showed how young adults follow normal everyday lives through the use of setting this was achieved by using the city centre as this could convey them going to work or college so again will represent there are and contrast to the other social group that is represented in previous times.

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

In my media product we used present time and past time to show this in the flashbacks we used saturated colour to make the scenes much darker and the present time scenes were filmed whilst it was very sunny and bright so this made a contrast of light this is an example of Levi strauss's theory on binary opposites other examples include the settings we used city and countryside and male and female main characters. Also the opening of my film follows todorov's narrative theory of establishing an equilibrium this is when our two main characters are in the centre of town leading their normal happy separate away from each other by doing everyday things such as going to work and college. The disruption occurs when the two main characters the oppositional male and female characters see each other in the centre of town. The character then has flashbacks in their minds of previous bad times that they shared with each other. Furthermore the opening contains mostly non-digetic sound which is a common code of an opening of a thriller film; we used a soundtrack to cover the whole of the opening two minutes. We challenged the usual codes of a thriller film with the usually the typical openings are quite dark and sinister our opening was fairly light hearted and slow paced but as the opening went on the pace increased and there were much darker shots such as a dead body and low angle shots of dark figures which suggest and number of different things like murder, danger and intimidation.

Enigmatic codes

This shot is the male main character he is stressed and shocked this is conveyed through him putting his head in his hands and looking at the floor. Stress and shock are common emotions coveyed in thriller movies.

This is a shot from the flashback scenes as you can see it is fairly dark and is located in a forest which suggest danager through the use of the location and not knowing what is around you within the forest.

This shot conveys intimidation and fear as there are three dark figures from a low angle. They are clearly looking down at something that we cannot see. When being looked down it can make the audience feel uncomortable and anixous.



















This shot of a pale dead body in forest is the most clear enigamtic code of a thriller film and is the most thrilling shot from the opening two minutes. This linked with the other shots from will gives a clear idea of the their being danager in the forest.

Risk assessment sheet

Contributors release form

Storyboards

These are my storyboards since the beginning they have slightly changed, for example I changed the location of the establishing shots.

Photos from filming

These photos from the days of filming our production shows me and my partner Georgia Windsor working together. also when we got to our filming location we had a problem as you can see in the last photo a yellow traffic cone was placed stupidly on the top of the statues head, we needed to remove this cone in order to carry on filming.

Time management- shooting schedule

When it came to shooting our production it was very easy, because me and my partner Georgia Windsor created a shooting schedule. By doing this we managed to get all of the filming done over two days. Although me changed on of the days we kept to the same time so we were able to meet all our deadlines. The shooting schedule was very easy to stick to and obviously was a good idea as we meet all of deadlines on time.

Audience research

What alcohol would you expect to see teenagers drinking in a thriller?

The majority of the teenagers i asked responded that they would most likely be drinking sprits so we chose to use vodka and martini to show how the past time characters are naive and  this links in with the current issue of under age drinking and binge drinking. 




















Would you expect to see violence and swearing during
the opening of a thriller?












we asked this question before we decided to have the opening running with a complete soundtrack so it doesn't have much relevance to our final opening.

Would you expect to hear any digetic or non-digetic sound

during the opening two minutes?

This question probably had the most relevance to our film opening as it helped decided if we has going to have soundtrack over the first full two minutes of our film and the majority of the people i asked did not expect for there to be any digietic sound in opening two minutes.

Costume and props

Female
-For the past time female we wanted her to obviously look younger so we choose a black leather style jacket which can signify danger as leather is usually seen on motor bikes she had combat trousers and trainers as this gave a casual look on the lower half ,which is popular among young females. Also she had straightened hair which again is a very popular among teenage girls.

-For the present day female we wanted an older look so we choose black again but this time it was a long black coat with dark jeans and boots which made her look very smart as well we made sure the style of hair was different so we can see it the same person but just older and gives a more mature look

Male
-The past time male we wanted a similar look to the female to show their youth so we put him in a casual grey sports jacket with a pair of light jeans and trainers which is again very popular among young males.

-We didn’t change the costume a great deal for the present time male we still wanted a casual look and wanted to make sure that his costume hasn’t changed like his character.


Props
We only used a small amount of props which consisted of vodka and martini bottles which we thought was suitable choice of alcohol as young people are naïve when it comes to drinking alcohol and just to binge they will drink anything they can get there hands on, which relate to the current trend among young people of binge drinking.

Choice of Actors
We choose Georgia Hill and Steven widger to play the two main characters in our film this is because they both have previous acting experience through choosing drama as one of their GCSE subjects. Also we are friends with the two actors so this a big advantage as we trust both of them and know they will be able to stick to the shooting schedule as we planned it with them is mind.

Filming locations

After taking some photos and screen tesing them we decided the locations were going use were park street and college green in Bristol city centre and rodway common in mangotsfield.
We used the rodway common for the past time scenes as this shows the age and immaturity of the characters drinking alcohol on a public common.

We chose the city centre as the present time scenes as it’s a built up city area where you would expect to see adults also a built up area with lots of different and beautiful buildings.
Also the contrast in scene location assists with past and present time change in scenes with binary oppositions with city and countryside, light and dark and young and old. This links in with Levi Strauss’s theory of binary opposition.

Textual analysis

The opening 2 minutes of kidulthood

· From the opening 2 minutes we can see an equilibrium is defined which is a normal school day we can see there is everyday things going on such as football being played and playground chat among young girls about boyfriends, smoking and parties.
· The first code I noticed which is common in most films especially thrillers was the Non digetic sound used which is sound that has come from a source that isn’t visible on screen so this could be a soundtrack or a voiceover. In the opening 2 minutes there is a mixture of digetic and non digetic with screaming school kids and small amounts of speech from main characters you can see this from the close ups of this small groups and quite clearly shows that these are the main characters and the story is going to revolve around these characters. Also there is a low angle close up of a young male with heavy duty machinery which creates suspense as we can only see his eyes and small part of the machine.
· The Blurry vision could represent that there is something mysterious or not normal going on. Also the idea of blurred vision could come from the blurred vision occurred when consuming drugs so this could be linking to drug problems with in society especially young people.
· The drum and bass soundtrack could be suggest something
is going to happen and almost sounds like a heartbeat. Also drum and bass music is popular with the young people shown in the clip. The music also makes it sound as if the clip is leading up to something which again creates suspense along with the low angle shots and the fast movement with the clips. The idea of something out of the ordinary happening is the main point of a thriller as the film is meant to thrill the audience so with the opening 2 minutes. Kidulthood is successful in creating a sense of suspense around the rest of the film

The opening 2 minutes of House of wax

· The establishing shot is dark frame with dripping wax which straight away links the film title to an image in the film. The dripping wax in a dark room also suggests something mysterious and sinister going on within the room and including the wax. The camera slowly moves up and the further its gets you can soon see it’s an old style cooker and stove with a boiling saucepan on in an old days kitchen with retro kitchen utensils. Then in a ghostly white font comes up which says 1974 which explains the old style kitchen. After this we then see a high angle shot of the saucepan with a mysterious dark green liquid.
· Also within the first 2 minutes of the film although there is four people in the scene the only face we see is that of a wax mask which is filled with the green liquid that was in the saucepan earlier so could signifies that somebody is wanted 2 hide their face. From a very high angle shot we can see one of these people is an older women as you can see she has long grey tied back hair and a small child in a high chair eating cereal as well there is a low shot of the underneath of the table and you can see the high chair has metal fastenings on it that would trap anyone that was to sit in it so this could mean the child is been kept there against their will. This a shot that gets the audience’s attention as an object that is very much linked to small children suggests something very sinister is going on with it the high chair and small children.
· Towards the end of the 2 minutes a big man storms in the carrying a small child who is kicking and screaming and clearly doesn’t want to be the in mans arms. This the way the scene ends with the struggling child being forced in to another high chair.
· Throughout the opening to minutes there was a soft soundtrack which consisted of soft string instruments which was the opposite to the digetic sound created on screen of the screaming and shouting from the small children and adults
· The opening doesn’t really set up an equilibrium or at least a happy one as pretty much straight away the audience are thrilled and suspense created through the use of the sinister high chairs, wax mask and screaming children.