Evaluiation - Ross

Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


As a thriller theme there is general generics conventions, this include those such as a protagonist and an antagonist among many more. Our thriller does in actual fact challenge this, especially as shown in our opening you see our main character of who is diagnosed with.          Prior of which is not shown however you see he is most certainly not a protagonist, we chose something like this as we felt that the movie would be simply generic and we wanted something different. This links in well with todorovs theory, we do use some certain conventions however it proved effective by puttin or own spin on the film.

 

We did develop conventions such as the locations used. Should we have had more access to further afield we would have developed our location even more however the places we chose were still effective for us. Sadly generically our locations would have been used elsewhere for example there are certainly films based in the woods/forest and also a mental hospital. However we were successful upon gaining permission which proves organisation. 

Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Due to the nature of our film using a mentally ill main character who has ......... This meant we had to be very careful about how we portrayed him, the last thing we would want is anyone been offended, however we are certain we portrayed him in a way offence would be non  Existent.
Here is an example of someone with this illness.


 

 In terms of racial groups and stereotypes we didn't use these, we specifically chose to stay away from stereotypes due to the generical effect that most thrillers have.

   3. what akind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?      Production companies such as Warner brothers could distribute products such as ours. Warner bros do many genres of film and would be a great way to get your film out to the public. Upon research this would benefit our film due to the target audience of our thriller films. 

We could also have gone with companies such as paramount or lionsgate, these have slightly different target audiences however would be very beneficial as we could promote our film with a large company dragging their audience with them, also going through a company such as them they could provide points of which could benefit or movie and produce an even better product.

 

 Alongside with this we could have used highly used apps such as Netflix, and also YouTube. Millions of people use these everyday and for a newly starting thriller, this could be perfect.  














4.
who would be the audience for your media product?
Our age ratings for noose would be 15, this is due to violence and suicidle reference, this would affect the age rating due to the vulnerability of the younger generation is the current times.  











5. How did you attract/address your audience?
















Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


Equipment-
Digital camera
Tri-pod
Spotlight
Lapel Microphone
Apple MAC (software, final cut pro, Garageband)
       


What have you learnt - cameras?
During the task we have learnt more and more about cameras. White balance is one of the most important things to do as soon as you set up, when we arrived at our location we realised we didn't have anything white, before realising I actually a pure white jumper, we ended up taking the white balance on this and it worked very well. Our shots came out clear and the colours 100% distinguishable.


Depth of field actually plays a large part of our movie. One of our main shots is one of a noose hanging on a tree and our character is looking at this, we managed to achieve in to the extent when you originally cannot quite make out what the noose is and then it focus' this is all depth of field because it is an over the shoulder shot it is focused on him at the beginning.


We also had a problem with the framing in one shot, whilst we panned around someone got caught in the shot and tried to duck out however was caught in the shot, this caused problems in the editing suite, we then had to reframe the shot, we zoomed in and pulled it across, this meant the character was now in a different position to our storyboard however we did manage to use trial and error to get the best out of this bad situation.


We used to tripod for all but one shot, this was because it was a tracking shot whilst he was running. We used the handle for the panning shots and the tripod came to very good use. This also helped with zooming shots. This is because we could control the pan whilst zooming. It proved difficult and we did do a number of takes on the shot of which we used both of these however it did end up as a success.




What have you learnt about image editing?
Prior to this coursework we had basic knowledge of editing and through the preliminary task and also practise we have actually become reasonably experienced in the editing process. We planned all our durations for our shots however as they are hard to stick to it wasn't 100% accurate however we only extended shots we felt would be more effective. We used our title as a transition to the next scene, it feeds us through from the night of the escape to the next day in the woods. This was actually something we planned to bring from our preliminary task, it was an idea we had where the lighting would fade into the title. We also edited it to make it so that if there was a pov/over the shoulder it'd look like what comes through



Question 7


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


For the preliminary task our group was not the same as it is to the current date. For the preliminary task it was Dan and I working alone. This proved a task as we had a lot of work to split 50/50 rather than other groups of which could split 4 ways. However due to the large responsibility we had upon the both of us it meant we learnt a lot about the process. This means in many ways we actually benefited from having just the two of us as we learnt how to do everything needed for the final task. We then merged our group with Sophie and Neve, and now we could bring what we had learnt to the newly formed group.




Moreover, we can analyse the actual production of our preliminary task, we overall had a largely successful setup. We used externally recorded sound, of which we used a lapel microphone to record, this proved a success. Our camerawork in general was good, we had few problems throughout. However whilst saying that we did have a shot of which we later realised was un-usable. This was due to the 180° rule. We originally had visions of the shot being a POV (point of view) shot. We done a first take and watched it over. We almost right away concluded that it was too close for comfort on breaking the rule, so we re-took the shot slight angled differently. We were originally happy with the way the second take came out, it was only however when in the editing suite we really realised the shot still compromised the rule. We then removed the shot completely from the film and archived it. Fortunately for us the shot was not particularly important and without it still worked as it was purely a perspective job. Our general editing was fairly decent, as stated above we did analyse and drop in and out certain shots which all adds to the success. We find the editing rather generic as we both had had some previous experience with different types of editing. During our preliminary task we were limited in some ways, for example we had to remain on the college premises, this meant the location and general mise-en-scene was limited in many ways. This in terms on limitations did not hold us back, it also meant finding actors was actually very easy as there are always plenty of people with the spare time to film whilst at college. Other than the location being limited we used lighting, props and were generally ambitious with our work, it most certainly taught us a lot going to the main task and as directors we had twice as much confidence, we realised that all we really had to do was to take what we had learnt and enhance it.


The improvements that have been made include general confidence, the editing was most certainly a smoother process the second time around. Also for our preliminary we externally recorded the sounds and inserted them straight on final cut pro, this did work however a much more effective way for producing the sound comes on Garageband. This enhanced our sound production and generally I believe the sound came out much better this time. Moreover, the quality and camera angles we used were more ambitious, we did it in a way of such to show effects of the psychological problems our main character had, this meant for a variety in camera angles.

question 5- Neve

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted/addressed our audience in many ways, One of the ways we did was setting and costume, Our thriller was set outside a mental health hospital and in a woods, we thought the use of the mental health hospital was intriguing and as we are in the age bracket we found it interesting and would want to watch a film similar. It was also set in a woods which is also an appealing place for teenagers as its private and has a dark feel to it which is usually appealing to teenagers.

Our target audience is around the teenage years and at this stage their is usually a lot of emotions and thoughts, Some may be similar to our main characters, This was another way of attracting our audience in the hope that they may feel they can or could relate to our thriller.
Many people find mental health interesting, Personally i do and as did the rest of my group therefore we thought it would be appropriate to incorporate mental health at a younger age. Our thriller was influenced by shutter island, who has also attracted its audience through the incorporation of mental health. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130884/plotsummary

Mental health patient shutter island

Our narrative was made to be confusing, We did this through not placing all parts in chronological order, This attracts the audience because they have to pay attention to whats going on. The night to day change could confuse people because it suggests the place took a long time to get to and who runs away in the morning? 

question 4-Neve

4. who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our media product is 15-24 both genders that are interested in thriller films, we have decided to target this audience because this age tend to be interested in thriller films, this audience are likely to be able to relate to the character with his mental health as mental health is most common in younger people however it will come in different forms. the audience is also a similar age to our main character. we choose to target this audience because they are most likely to watch thrillers. This age audience are also. using this website http://business.pearlanddean.com/films_guide
it seems that our film would fit the focus 15-24 (male and female) because the thriller storyline isn't aimed at men or women, it has parts which will interest both genders.

our thriller would be unsuitable for anyone under the age of 15 as it heavily implies that our character has previously done drugs, the mental health aspect may not appeal to younger audience as to understand it fully you may have to of learnt about it or heard about it to fully understand what mental health problem he has, we haven't said he is schizophrenic so it is ideal that the audience have knowledge of mental health.

Age ratings from British board of film classification (BBFC)

Or thriller has aspects that would be considered an age rating of 15 such as drug taking this isn't filmed however it is heavily implied, their is also reference to violence and self harm which could upset some viewers. our thriller also has aspects of a 12a such as drug misuse, dangerous behaviour, anti social behaviour, due to our storyline being about mental illness we decided to make the target audience older than a 12a as it may be upsetting for viewers.

what other films would/do they like? (red is 15-24 focus)

The table of the pearl and dean website suggests that our target audience would be interested in films such as 'bad neighbours 2', 'warcraft:the beginning', 'gods of egypt','jane got a gun' analysing these titles it suggests they are also thriller or action based films which suggests that our thriller is targeted at the right audience. many 15-24 years old liked Jame's bond films, the revenant and similar.

question 3-Neve

3. what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The kind of media institution that would distribute our media product is a low budget company.
here are some examples of low budget institutions in Britain 

Film organisations 

• film 4- are a British TV and film organisation that are low budget and would promote to our audience.

• BBC film network, are a big institution however they have started to distribute low budget films as well, this would be good for out target audience as they are a bigger organisation and are most likely to get more advertising and a bigger audience.
  

Other ways of distributing our media product

• film festivals http://shortfilms.org.uk/       
• http://ukfilmfestival.com/

why would film festivals be a good place to start?

they have a wider audience, lots of people attending them and there could be talent scouts, the audience is likely to be 15+ which is who we would like to target, there are also other audiences that it may appeal to. the good thing with film festivals is people come from all over and come with an open mind to view all sorts of different things, whereas putting it in front of the public that have a certain taste or want to see a certain thing will narrow our audience an example of this would be advertising in a cinema that is showing a Disney film it is the wrong audience who don't want to see low budget films.

Netflix or Love film

 These two distributors are getting more popular each day, Netflix has a range of films, some high budget and some low budget, this would be a really good way to advertise and distribute our media product because our target audience is 15-24 and these people are most likely Netflix fans as it is very popular with teenagers and young adults due to how cheap it is and you can have it on demand in your house. 

Love film is similar to Netflix however its not as popular with our target audience, However as this institution are less popular they are most likely cheaper to distribute with and we will have some of our target audience watching, This would be our second choice out of home viewing films as its not as popular as Netflix and doesn't catch as much of our target audience. however if our film was liked by viewers it may get put onto other institution's like Netflix.

Youtube 

Youtube is a good way for our thriller to get advertised and get a fan base, the fees on Youtube to advertise are cheap and the amount of people from our target audience using Youtube daily is large, this way we will be able to get a fan base and get improvements. however the risk with putting it on Youtube is that it can go unoticed if we don't advertise and have the right amount of viewers.

Overall i think the best place to go first is to film festival that are specifically for our target audience, then expand from there, Second i think would be Netflix, then Youtube and last would be the private companies whilst they would make more money we cannot guarantee they will distribute it and they will be harder to approach as we haven't had much experience in the film industry, I think once we have a fan base and more experience then we should approach bigger companies.

Neve's evaluation-question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?


Gender is one of the  most important social groups we have made apparent in our media product we have incorporated this by the use of characters, mise en scene, mental illness.

• Through my research into mental health i found that women are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness most common being anxiety, however men were statistically proven more likely to commit suicide than women. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/statistics/mental-health-statistics-men-and-women. I found this statistic surprising and was interested in using a male with mental health rather than a women however using males as a mentally ill character is common in most thriller films as it is stereotypically men that are assumed to be more likely to have a mental illness. 
• All the characters in our thriller are males which follows the fact that men commit more crimes than women (murdering the deceased character). Gender has also been  represented through mise en scene.

Class and Status (lower class/mental health patient)

• The schizophrenic character is of lower class this implies he may not be able to afford the help he needs
• Doesn't have a job or had a successful education.
• Unhealthy relationship with the law
• Dirty and old clothes (cant afford new ones)
• Poor morals.

Ability/Disability (Mental health)

• Our main character has schizophrenia, this is portrayed through his body language and actions
• Made poor decisions due to illness
• His mental health controlled his decision kill someone and nearly himself.
• Inability to look after himself
• Not knowing right from wrong.

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.

* * *

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.

Evaluation Question 5-Sophie

Question 5  (need to insert screenshots on different computer)

How did you attract/address your audience?

OUR FINAL FILM: http://foundationportfolio201667.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/our-finished-film-noose.html

In our film we thought really carefully about how we would attract our audience, and what we would have to do in order to appeal to our audience for them to really enjoy our film. We decided to use the use of character and the dialogue to keep our audience animated in watching our film.

Our film we used the parallel sound editing and having very little dialogue in our film to keep the audience interested in our film. We used this to be able to tell the story to the audience without actually giving a narration on what's happening. We chose to use very little dialogue as it is very commonly used in thriller film, to create suspense and enigma. The most affective part of having no dialogue is where our character imagines the dead person that he has previously killed, it means that the audience has to work out what is actually going on and what had previously happened. We used POV shots to show what was going on through the audiences eyes, which we hoped would make the audience feel suspense and mystery.

(screenshots)

We also wanted to attract our audience with using the character, we wanted to make him look like a very obvious mental guy who'd previously been on drugs and had a bad past. We felt like this would make the audience really interested in our character and what he had actually done in his past. For is hair and make-up we used dark red make-up to put beneath his eyes to make him look tired and as if he had done drugs recently. We also made his hair look rather messy, and his costume casual but mess too. His facial expressions were pretty nervous however determined. We did this to make the audience intrigued with our character and what was going to happen in the rest of our film. For our audience feed back, we asked a few people about out film and if they think they would be interested in watching our film, the majority of them said they would however a couple of them said that they wouldn't.

Evaluation Question 4-Sophie

Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Using this website; http://business.pearlanddean.com/films_guide I decided that our target audience would be "Focus 15-24". This means that the audience hasn't got a specific gender range, but it is aimed at people ages 15-24. However, I do think that our film would side slightly with the male population.

Our thriller film is based on a man, with very little wealth, who has a mental illness because of many reasons, one being that he murdered someone. In our film there would be a flashback to that point and therefore may include gore, therefore our film would have to be a 15+. We looked at these films to help decide on the age range appropriate for our film; 

Shutter Island (2010)-rating 8.1/10

Silence of the Lambs (1991)-rating 8.6/10

Evaluation Question 3-Sophie

Question 3

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

Our overall media product is a low budget film, as a group we discussed this and in what ways it could be distributed. This film is with the role independent British Film institution, so we would need to be distributed by, for example; StudioCanal and PictureHouse Entertainment. They are both companies that own cinemas to show low budget films and advertise them. 

There are a wide variety of ways to deliver your film to the platforms and markets where it can be viewed and purchased by the public. Movie theatres, cable television, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs on retailer shelves and now online VOD (Video on Demand) platforms, all provide ways for the audience to pay a fair price for entertainment. 

Another way of sharing our film is through social media, things such as Facebook can advertise the product. Also, publishing our film onto youtube or vimeo is a good way of distributing the final product. With our film, we were our own distributors and shared it on YouTube. This is able to gain more views by different audiences sharing it on other social networking sites. The effect all depends on how the audience react. In some cases, people make money off of websites like YouTube through advertising.

Evaluation Question 2-Sophie

Question 2

Our Completed Film Noose- http://foundationportfolio201667.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/our-finished-film-noose.html

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film, we do not have many characters, however the protagonist is our main character who is most relevant to this question.We portray our character with having Schizophrenia, this therefore makes our character almost completely defined by his mental illness. Although, we could also use his age, gender and maybe even class and status to make points about representing particular social groups.

The first time we see the character, he is presented as quite a lower class male, showing his shabbier clothes as he jumps from gate, this could also show the first clue that he could be mentally deranged. The fact that he clearly doesn't have much wealth implies that this could be difficult for him to get a job, especially with this mental illness.

To enhance our characters mental illness, we used Point of View shots to show how the character was viewing things. In these shots we used filters to enhance certain colours and create a very dazed affect. We also used the defocusing filter to show when our character is slightly confused. Another way we tried to portray his illness was through make-up. We wanted to make his eyes look red with bags underneath to show that he was tired and previously took drugs, which is never mentioned in our film. We used a lot of close-up shots to show that this character's make-up and to show more evidence of his mental illness as this is a usual stereotype for 'psychopaths' to have dark circles or eye bags.

Although age isn't much to do with the representation, it shows that a young adult has been able to commit a murder and already been sent to a mental hospital.

The gender plays a big part in our social representation as we found out that 12.5% of men in the UK were diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Although statistics show that woman are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness, however, statistics also show that men are more likely to commit suicide. Therefore, we made our character a male as they're stereotypically more likely to have a mental illness.