Dan's Evaluation - Quetions 2 to 5

Film: Noose (Link here)

Question 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film does not have many characters, and only the protagonist is really relevant to this question. This character is almost entirely defined by his disability - Schizophrenia - however, his age and gender could also have some points to make, and even possibly class and status.


Since the entire story is based around this man having Schizophrenia, we can start there. We did not intend to belittle or insult anyone with this particular illness, however we could not just ignore it and pretend that it would not have an effect on the man's life and choices. This is a tricky balance, and we hope that we accomplished it.


Point of View shots were an excellent way of showing subjective shots. In these shots, we applied filters to exaggerate the whites, creating a bloom effect. We also blurred the shots, and defocused them. These are meant to be times of panic, where the "fight or flight" instinct kicks in. The brain pumps adrenaline through the body and shuts down any kind of function not related to the situation at hand, such as hunger, sleep, and creativity. However, the defocused filter may be slightly inaccurate, as during these episodes, the brain can become hyper alert, causing the human to notice small things extremely quickly.


We also tried to show the illness through make-up. We attempted to make his eyes red, with plenty of bags. This also coincides with the protagonist's drug use, which is never explicitly mentioned.


Did we intend the audience to sympathize with our character? This question is particularly difficult to answer, and we warmed up to the idea that he is an "anti-hero", where, while he is the main character, what he does it not necessarily for "good", whatever that may be. We tried to make the audience have conflicted emotions for him, as nobody wants to see a victim of an illness locked up, but they also don't want said victim to murder innocents. A good example of an anti-hero would be the protagonist from Flight, where the whole premise is the protagonist saves a lot of lives when a plane needs an emergency landing, but was on substances when flying said plane. He continues to abuse said substances even when trying not to.

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Statistically, the most common victims of Schizophrenia are homosexual men. We did not consider sexuality, as it was not relevant to the film, but the gender we chose does line up with facts. This is not meant to be judgmental, nor is it meant for the audience to judge. The opening would have been exactly the same if we cast a woman as the character.


On a personal note, I find it strange how gender becomes such a big deal in films and TV shows where it is not relevant to the story whatsoever. Films such as Hanna and Kill Bill have a reason to cast women, but films like the new Ghostbusters seem to be having women for the sake of diversity, and while it may be a noble goal, it seems odd that the way to promote diversity in films is to take an already existing franchise, replace the characters with the female versions of the originals, and claim that they have created a new character. I'm all for more diverse films, but having a character where the gender becomes the reason why the character exists, be they protagonist or not, seems to push us further away from gender equality.


Our costume for the protagonist implies lack of abundance of wealth, and this could be because acquiring and maintaining a job with such a life-crippling illness would be extremely difficult, especially for a person with a criminal conviction. He should appear to be lower class.


Age was also not a defining factor, but it should speak volumes that this young adult in the prime of his life has already committed a murder and been sent to a mental hospital.


Question 3:

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

The media institution that I predict would distribute our film would be an online streaming site, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime or even YouTube. Having to pay up front for a film made by an unknown company is always a risk, and the possible virality would be excellent marketing.

The best option would be to reduce the amount of costs to us and our consumers, and make a name for ourselves before risking things on larger projects with larger budgets.

Question 4:

Who would be the target audience for your media product?

Using this website, I have determined that our film would be best targeted for "Focus: 15-24". This means it is not targeted at a specific gender, but it is targeted at people in their late teens and early twenties.

Our film is meant to deal with a character's struggle dealing with his mental illness and life choices, not to deal with growing up as an impoverished man in a suburban area without too much wealth, but both can be applied to the film. As such, I believe that any bias towards any gender watching the film is null and void.

When it comes to age, it tends to be that 15-24 year olds watch thriller films, and as such I have allocated it as so.

Question 5:

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our main "selling" point in our film was our main character, and the enigma surrounding him. It is not often that a protagonist has to deal with his mental illness, and murders with guilt. His emotions have to tell the audience what direct narration and dialogue have not, This synergizes well with the theme and issue, as those two are based around the protagonist and his illness - schizophrenia.

Why? Our target audience is around the teenage years, and during these years people tend to be more emotional, due to the increased hormones coming alongside puberty. Having a character that doesn't necessarily connect to the audience by doing the same things (most teenagers do not murder and attempt suicide) but empathize and sympathize well with, is a good way of having a character that people relate to and as such enjoy.

Did it work? During our audience feedback, we got multiple compliments towards our character, and even the actor claiming it was a much better character than the one that he had made with his group for his project.

As for other films similar to ours, Shutter Island was our main inspiration and that film would not have been as well received as it was without an interesting character with a very nice twist during the story. The Jason Bourne series of films also is centered around a character dealing with his mental issues, although in this case in a slightly different circumstance. These films (especially the Bourne ones) are also targeted at the same audience as ours.