Here is a commentary on our finished film opening.
Tuesday 10 May 2011
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
Our production represents the people at the lowest level of income in that the main male and female characters are unemployed drug takers. The audience can tell they are unemployed because of the rundown location we have chosen to film suggesting they may be homeless, and the ragged clothing they wear. However, even though the drug dealer we have featured in our production chooses to work in an illegal business, he is clearly wealthier than the other two and may be seen as having management skills and therefore of a higher social class than the other two characters.
QUESTIONNAIRE AND RESULTS
Questionnaire and Results
Key
-Question’s
-Results
1) Age:
Under 16(5) 17-22(3) 23-28(1) 29-34(1) 35-40 Over 40
2) Gender:
Male(6) / Female(4)
3) Do you watch many films per month?
None(1) 1-5(3) 6-10(5) 11-15(1) 16-20 More than 20
4) Do you know what a film noir is?
Yes(7) / No(3)
5) What’s your favourite film genre?
Thriller(2) / Horror(2) / Crime / Romance(2) / Comedy(1) / Drama / Action(3) / Noir / Other…
6) What is the most important thing to you in a film?
Characters(3) Storyline(5) Effects(2) Other…
8) What is the most important thing to you in a film opening?
Create enigma(1) / Opening action / Using characters to attract your attention(2) / Using narrative to attract your attention(2) / Interesting, you want to see more(5)
9) Have you watched a film noir?
Yes(5) / No(5)
10) If yes…did you enjoy it?
Yes(4) / No(1)
THE DEAL EVALUATION
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
As part of pre-production, we watched an example of a film noir, Double Indemnity, and an example of a neo noir, Brick. We took inspiration from both of these as well as many film openings we watched. Our analysis of these films and film openings gave us more of an idea of how to use noir forms of ECMS, narrative, character and iconography.
The narrative of our production is similar to Brick in that a girl is killed due to the pressure caused by drugs. Also, the girl is seemingly pulled into an underworld which challenges the typical film noir theory of a fall guy doing the same, usually caused by a femme fatale. This is how we developed on the typical film noirs and if our whole film were to be made, it would show how our female character lived a happy life before meeting her drug-addicted boyfriend which led to downfall and eventual death.
Another noir characteristic we followed was the use of flashbacks. In Double Indemnity, the whole story is told in one long flashback whereas our film opening featured 3 short flashbacks. These short flashbacks were used to give the audience a feel of what to expect from the film whilst telling part of the story without giving too much away which creates an enigma. From Double Indemnity, we also took the idea of using a voice-over. Voice-overs are quite common in noirs and we used ours to help guide the audience through the narrative and provide a voice from the dead. The voice from the dead adds drama and is also quite common within the thriller genre.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our production represents the people at the lowest level of income in that the main male and female characters are unemployed drug takers. The audience can tell they are unemployed because of the run-down location we have chosen to film suggesting they may be homeless, and the ragged clothing they wear. However, even though the drug dealer we have featured in our production chooses to work in an illegal business, he is clearly wealthier than the other two and may be seen as having management skills and therefore of a higher social class than the other two characters.
All of the characters in our production are white which creates an idea that anyone can be a drug dealer and caught up in the underworld of drugs. In films and the media, drug dealers are usually portrayed as black males so by using a white drug dealer in our production, we have aimed to take these stereotypical views away.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
If our production were to be distributed, it would most likely be a smaller-mid sized distribution company specialising in UK distribution for the UK
A distribution company I would expect to distribute The Deal would be Revolver Entertainment. I believe this because they distribute many urban films such as Kidulthood and Dead Man Running. They also release many thrillers like our production and therefore The Deal is similar to titles Revolver has already distributed. Another good factor is that Revolver has won many awards for marketing and creative initiative. This is because Revolver is known for its promotional stunts that are not expensive but are effective. This would suit us due to the fact we wouldn't have a large budget for advertising so instead use an alternative, effective form of marketing.
Our production would be shown at many film festivals as these are a great place to get our film screened and hopefully gain interest in our film. This may lead to acclaim from critics and even prizes and awards while also picking up and audience and most importantly a distributor. Film festivals that I would expect to see our production screened at include the British Urban Film Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
TV Channels that are likely to screen our production include Channel 4, Film4 and movies4men. This is because The Deal may be seen as too dark channels aimed at the younger audience such as BBC3 and E4. The Deal would most likely be shown after the watershed due to the adult content such as drug use.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The typical audience for any film can be shown by mentioning the demographics, socio economics, VaLS and whether they are a passive or active audience.
Common demographic data associated with The Deal shows that our audience is most likely to be male although many female characters may take interest. This is because men prefer the crime and thriller genres; on the other hand, the female character plays a lead role that women may sympathise with. They are likely to be between late teens and mid 20s due to the fact our characters are older teens and the drug theme may boost the age rating to 15 and over. If our film was classified, we would expect a 15 rating. This would not necessarily restrict younger viewers as we targeted the older teens anyway.
With socio economics in mind, we aimed our film at anyone from people at the lowest level of income to middle class. This is because these are the people that visit the cinema the most and can understand the characters as they are their ages. The values and attitudes an audience hold may affect their choice of films they enjoy. For example, people may see watching a teen thriller a new experience and therefore may appeal to Experiencers. Our audience would be an active audience as we are not influencing others to receive the same message but instead expect them to use our film for their own gratification and satisfaction.
When we screened our production to the rest of the class, they all found the narrative pretty successful. They understood the storyline of the girl starting off as an individual that is happy but abuses drugs which leads to a downward spiral. However, some of the class thought it would be a good idea to show why the male character turns violent and why they are arguing. The class also thought our film had the tone of a noir but felt the narrative was more of a thriller with gritty stylistics.
How did you attract/address your audience?
We tried to attract our audience by use of narrative, characters, themes, messages and ideology.
Our narrative is designed to create an enigma within the first opening minutes. This would make the audience keep watching because they want to know what is going on between the two lead characters and what will happen to the male character after he killed the female. The characters we chose represent troubled teens. We chose them because we felt teenagers aren't shown enough with the real and more serious problems nowadays. This could also attract a new audience of people that know what it's like to go through a drug problem and can sympathise with the characters.
Our themes, messages and ideology that we tried to portray is that while people may see drug addicts and dealers in the media as trouble makers, there is a more serious side and gives their point-of-view. Real life teens are sometimes dragged into a world of drugs and sometimes they realise too late that they are in a dangerous position.
Once we had screened our production to the class, they picked out some good points. These included, the reveal shot with the male character walking around the dead body adds drama and the end shot looked as if the female character was going into the light and out of memory. The first shot, which is shot in the style of a home movie, really works as a better memory and draws the audience into an emotional attachment which makes them upset when she dies. The audience felt that the male character's hoody implies he is trying to withdraw from the world. They also felt the fade of 'The Deal' at the end worked well and that it was interesting to have a double narration which included the voice from the dead.
The weaker elements the class picked out were that they felt there was too much colour effect on the flashbacks and that the titles were a bit bland. Also, they thought there needed to be more shots of the male character such as close-ups which would make the audience feel as if they know what is going on inside his head.
Within ECMS that we used in our production, the class said that as part of editing, the still shots on the male character are slow in comparison with the drug deal which is pacy and creates drama which works well. They also commented on the cinematography saying that the flashbacks around the dead body made them feel uncomfortable. However, they felt that the film could have done with a close-up of the dead body to show the difference between happy and sad. Also, they said there needed to be more action on the fight scene such as a cut to the head banging on the ground.
Within mise-en-scene, the audience felt the scrubland worked as a good run-down location and the costume of the drug dealer showed he was small-time such as street crime because he was not too flashy. Within sound, the voice-over does more work than the soundtrack and the melancholic, dark music provides atmosphere rather than drive what is on the screen along.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From this production, I have learnt about technologies in that I may have used technology I have not come across before or simply expanded my knowledge of other technologies. I used different technologies during the different stages of production.
During pre-production, the technologies I used consisted mostly of web sites and using the internet. These included YouTube, Google and other browsers, Blogger, MSN and email accounts. I used the internet mostly for research as pre-production consisted heavily of paperwork and planning.
During production, I used equipment as this was when we were filming The Deal. It consisted of a Canon HV30 (tape) camera with Velbon tri-pod. We didn't use any extra sound equipment because we were not recording dialogue and therefore felt it unnecessary. We also didn't use any artificial lighting because we were filming outside in natural light and felt that too much light would take away the dark thriller feel.
During post-production, I used Final Cut Pro to edit The Deal. This is the program I used on the preliminary exercise and The Exchange so I was already familiar with it. To make the distribution and production company titles, I used Motion to create graphics which included logos I had made in Photoshop. For the voice-overs, I learnt how to use Logic which recorded the files ready to add to the video. I also used Adobe Sound Booth to rip MP3 files I had downloaded from royalty free music sites to use as the soundtrack.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt many things from the progression of the preliminary task to the noir opening.
Firstly, I have gained confidence when handling the camera, what types of shot work best and I have gained general knowledge in cinematography. I also have improved my knowledge of editing and I am now more comfortable with the editing software. A mistake I learned from was continuity editing. For example, during the preliminary we might have had hands in different places on each shot whereas in the noir opening I knew that we had to make sure everything was the same for each shot.
For the preliminary exercise, we didn't do much planning due to the size of the project so I have learnt since then that planning is an essential part of production. If we didn't plan ahead then time management and organisation would be out. For the preliminary exercise, I took the role of filming a few shots then taking part in editing. However, my role was much more involved for the noir opening. As well as all the extra work, a member of our crew dropped out during pre-production and left 3 of us which gave us each more work to do. Another difference is that I had to do research for the noir opening. When I started the preliminary exercise I had basic media skills. However, for the noir opening I had to do primary research such as analysing other noirs and film openings.
Finally, I have improved my academic skills since the preliminary exercise which has helped my understanding and how to use forms and conventions to create meaning more effectively.
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