Monday 9 May 2011
Sunday 8 May 2011
1. In what ways 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?
The genre of film that we have made can be categorised as a psychological thriller. The story is focused on the character played by Lewis. We got ideas for our film by researching films such as Butterfly Effect and Se7en which also fall into this genre.
The whole aim of our film opening was to create suspense to the build up of the film itself, if it was to be created. You will see by our first scene that the interogators travelling from the stairs to the investigation room is dragged out in a way that, along with the music creates suspense to what is happening or going to happen next.
Through to the end of the film opening, the story focuses on Lewis's character and what has happened for him to be in the situation he is in.
Both Butterfly Effect and Se7en have an opening with very low key lighting. We decided to keep the scene of the interogators trip brightly lit. Although the length of time taken and the music used is building up suspense, the viewer is given a false sense of security and therefore wouldnt be expecting the next scene. This is where we introduce the low key lighting, as used in Butterfly Effect and Se7en.
At the end of the interogation scene we use a close up of Lewis's characters face. This allows the audience to become more involved with the character.
The genre of film that we have made can be categorised as a psychological thriller. The story is focused on the character played by Lewis. We got ideas for our film by researching films such as Butterfly Effect and Se7en which also fall into this genre.
The whole aim of our film opening was to create suspense to the build up of the film itself, if it was to be created. You will see by our first scene that the interogators travelling from the stairs to the investigation room is dragged out in a way that, along with the music creates suspense to what is happening or going to happen next.
Through to the end of the film opening, the story focuses on Lewis's character and what has happened for him to be in the situation he is in.
Both Butterfly Effect and Se7en have an opening with very low key lighting. We decided to keep the scene of the interogators trip brightly lit. Although the length of time taken and the music used is building up suspense, the viewer is given a false sense of security and therefore wouldnt be expecting the next scene. This is where we introduce the low key lighting, as used in Butterfly Effect and Se7en.
At the end of the interogation scene we use a close up of Lewis's characters face. This allows the audience to become more involved with the character.
Saturday 7 May 2011
2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents a contradiction between the power, physical strength and status of the female characters. The interrogator played by Lucie is seen as a high status woman with power. Her ‘male-like’ costume and attitude shows that she is quite confident in herself. Lucie’s character breaks this stereotype of women being inferior to men, by being represented as bold, powerful woman. Lucie’s character also breaks the traditional policeman/interrogator stereotype. The Hollywood film industry is a very male dominated industry. Therefore in most films and TV programmes, the females are usually seen as victims with an inferior status. Lucie’s character clearly breaks this stereotype. Alcione’s character is also a powerful woman with a high-status job. She expresses her intelligence with a well-spoken manner and she knows how to be successful at her job.
The costumes used in our media product are based on other character's costumes in TV programmes like CSI:New York. The costumes are formal which are important in showing that the characters have status and power.
The female victim shows the stereotypical woman. Innocent, weak and powerless to the attacker. She doesn’t fight back against the attacker and is murdered. Her ‘child- like’ clothes show that she is immature and vulnerable. It is later on proved that she is vulnerable because she is attacked, but doesn’t try to fight back. Her weakness is what people may see as stereotypical in women.
The victim's costume is casual and a bit 'child- like'. The costume shows that she is innocent, crude and vulnerable.
The attacker is represented as the typical criminal, simply because he is male. He is portrayed as a dark, mysterious character. The victim is his ex-partner, currently in a new relationship. He is jealous and seeks revenge.
The image above shows the stereotypical male criminal/ murderer. The dark, mysterious man that always looks suspicious. We tried to make Lewis as mysterious as possible by selecting the right clothing that would suit this stereotype.
The costumes used in our media product are based on other character's costumes in TV programmes like CSI:New York. The costumes are formal which are important in showing that the characters have status and power.
The female victim shows the stereotypical woman. Innocent, weak and powerless to the attacker. She doesn’t fight back against the attacker and is murdered. Her ‘child- like’ clothes show that she is immature and vulnerable. It is later on proved that she is vulnerable because she is attacked, but doesn’t try to fight back. Her weakness is what people may see as stereotypical in women.
The victim's costume is casual and a bit 'child- like'. The costume shows that she is innocent, crude and vulnerable.
The attacker is represented as the typical criminal, simply because he is male. He is portrayed as a dark, mysterious character. The victim is his ex-partner, currently in a new relationship. He is jealous and seeks revenge.
The image above shows the stereotypical male criminal/ murderer. The dark, mysterious man that always looks suspicious. We tried to make Lewis as mysterious as possible by selecting the right clothing that would suit this stereotype.Friday 6 May 2011
3.What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?
The Butterfly Effect and Se7en, the films that we researched for our film opening have to some extent the same themes as our media product. Love, jealous and murder.
The Butterfly Effect was produced by Benderspink, and released by New Line Cinema and Icon Films. Se7en was produced and distributed by New Line Cinema.
New Line Cinema is an American independent distribution company owned by Warner Bros.Entertainment. Being a part of Warner Bros, it is able to distribute big budget films, such as Inkheart (2008) and Hairspray (2007). New Line Cinema is part of big company and may not be interested in distributing our media product.
However, we did some research on smaller distributing companies that would be interested in distributing our media product. Optimum Releasing is a British distribution company which specialises in distributing many foreign films, such as Tokyo! (2008) and Amores Perros (2000). It has also been involved in the distribution of bigger Hollywood films, The Tourist (2010) and Source Code (2011).
Another option could be Icon films. It has distributed several low budget films, such as The Collector (2009), Buried (2010) and Precious (2009). All of this low budget films have done well at the box office despite this low budgets and lack of big Hollywood stars that are considered as ‘stars vechiles’ in films.
Thursday 5 May 2011
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Before our production on Infactuation Complex, we did some reserach on our main target audience would be for our product. Therefore we researched into the typical age range of psychological horrors and the common age certificate is 15 and 18.
Using this evidence we asked people questions based on the age they first started watching horror films and what they assume the correct age range is. Based on a pole of 10 people, 100% stated that they watched their first horror film at the age of 15 or under and the average age range who mainly watch horrors was 16-24 years of age. We carried out some viral research and we found that on average people age 15 or under watch their first horror film, and the average age range who mainly watch horror films are people in their early teenage years, especially males.
With these statistics, we set out aiming our psychological horror film to be filmed within the age range of 16-24. During having a scene in which someone is brutually murdered, we had to bear in mind that we couldn't show violence on screen. Having completed filming and editing, we asked people to view our film opening and give feedback. The following questions were asked:
Question 1. Does this film opening appeal to you?
100% answered yes.
Question 2. What age rating would you likely give this film opening?
90% answered 15 certificate
10% answered 18 certificate.
3. What age range of people will watch our film?
40% answered 15-25
20% answered 15+
20% answered 16+
10% answered 17+
10% answered 18-24
After analysing the feedback from our audience, we decided that our media product would appeal to a young audience within the age range of 15-24, who had an interest in murder mystery genres.
Wednesday 4 May 2011
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The target audience for our media product are young males and thriller fans, so we had to create a dark atmosphere that would appeal to these fans. One of the ways we did this was by using a filter to darken the image and make it seem gritty. Doing this allowed us to have a creepy atmosphere despite having filmed in broad daylight. The theme of the film was also an important factor, due to it being about murder which would appeal to young people.
We wanted to have themes of mystery surrounding the characters, which is a common feature of thriller films. We achieved this in a number of ways such as when Lucie’s character is first introduced, we didn't film her face, we just used a variety of camera angles showing only her feet and back as she walks through the corridor, and into the interview room. When she enters the interview room, the audience learns she is powerful and very blunt. Lucie's character knows what she wants and will make sure she gets what she wants. Lewis’ character is very reversed which makes him mysterious by his looks, his actions and even the way he talks. Alcione's character hasn't got a story to tell, but the audience learns that she is similar to Lucie, but likes to 'play by the rules'. She is controlled and knows how to succeed at her job role. The victim is presented as a young, vulnerable woman. She was clearly in shock when she was attacked, which would explain why she didn't run away. This could say something about who she is as person and that she is a bit naive about bad things in the world.
During the attack scene we used a POV shot to show what it would be like to be the victim and shook the camera to give the effect of her being strangled by the attacker. The attacker's face wasn't shown clearly during this scene. This added to the suspense of what was to come.
When the victim is thrown into the ditch, we used a filter to darken and blur the screen to give the effect that she is dead. The victim is seen as someone who is calm and naive. She takes her time walking through this deserted place, despite being alone and looking quite vulnerable. Different shots are used as she walks along which really emphaise that she is taking her own time.
The soundtrack we used has a dark, mysterious and effective to portray the thriller genre well keeping the audience interested. To achieve this, we chose music with a minor key and low sounding instruments. We also used long sustained notes when the cuts were slow and during action scenes much faster paced music. We used different sounds to highlight key events such as deep rumbles and 'windy' noises increasing the impact of what happens on film.
We wanted to have themes of mystery surrounding the characters, which is a common feature of thriller films. We achieved this in a number of ways such as when Lucie’s character is first introduced, we didn't film her face, we just used a variety of camera angles showing only her feet and back as she walks through the corridor, and into the interview room. When she enters the interview room, the audience learns she is powerful and very blunt. Lucie's character knows what she wants and will make sure she gets what she wants. Lewis’ character is very reversed which makes him mysterious by his looks, his actions and even the way he talks. Alcione's character hasn't got a story to tell, but the audience learns that she is similar to Lucie, but likes to 'play by the rules'. She is controlled and knows how to succeed at her job role. The victim is presented as a young, vulnerable woman. She was clearly in shock when she was attacked, which would explain why she didn't run away. This could say something about who she is as person and that she is a bit naive about bad things in the world.
During the attack scene we used a POV shot to show what it would be like to be the victim and shook the camera to give the effect of her being strangled by the attacker. The attacker's face wasn't shown clearly during this scene. This added to the suspense of what was to come.
When the victim is thrown into the ditch, we used a filter to darken and blur the screen to give the effect that she is dead. The victim is seen as someone who is calm and naive. She takes her time walking through this deserted place, despite being alone and looking quite vulnerable. Different shots are used as she walks along which really emphaise that she is taking her own time.
The soundtrack we used has a dark, mysterious and effective to portray the thriller genre well keeping the audience interested. To achieve this, we chose music with a minor key and low sounding instruments. We also used long sustained notes when the cuts were slow and during action scenes much faster paced music. We used different sounds to highlight key events such as deep rumbles and 'windy' noises increasing the impact of what happens on film.
Tuesday 3 May 2011
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During our project we have learnt a lot about editing films and creating a soundtrack for it.
Two people in our group, had used Final Cut Pro before but we soon we all learned a lot about the process of filming and editing a film. One of the main features we used when editing was the filter, this allowed us to create a dark atmosphere even when we filmed in daylight and allowed us to create a security camera effect.
We did not have that much experience with using a camera but out teacher taught us all the basics we needed. For the preliminary task, we learned about how to use different shots effectively such as using a low angle shot to make a person look bigger therefore more powerful. We used a shot like this during the attack scene with the killer standing over the victim.
The sound of the video camera isn't high in quality and did not pick up dialogue well.
To compensate for this, we used microphones in the recording studio to record the dialogue and then added the dialogue to the video afterwards. This worked well but we didn't have to do this for Lucie's character. The recorded dialogue was perfectly clean with no ambient noise, but it made it unbalanced and un-natural.
So we decided to record some ambient sound behind the recorded dialogue so it seemed much more natural. A method such as this has taught us ways to overcome problems that we encountered during filming and editing.
Logic Pro 9 was used to create the soundtrack and sound effects. David was given the responsibilty to do this, because he has expierence in using this software. He was able to create a score thet fitted well with the genre of our product, despite being near the end of our project deadline. David achieved a great soundtrack that really brought the whole project together, setting the mood perfectly. He also used certain sound effects that highlight key moments in the film.
Two people in our group, had used Final Cut Pro before but we soon we all learned a lot about the process of filming and editing a film. One of the main features we used when editing was the filter, this allowed us to create a dark atmosphere even when we filmed in daylight and allowed us to create a security camera effect.
We did not have that much experience with using a camera but out teacher taught us all the basics we needed. For the preliminary task, we learned about how to use different shots effectively such as using a low angle shot to make a person look bigger therefore more powerful. We used a shot like this during the attack scene with the killer standing over the victim.
The sound of the video camera isn't high in quality and did not pick up dialogue well.
To compensate for this, we used microphones in the recording studio to record the dialogue and then added the dialogue to the video afterwards. This worked well but we didn't have to do this for Lucie's character. The recorded dialogue was perfectly clean with no ambient noise, but it made it unbalanced and un-natural.
So we decided to record some ambient sound behind the recorded dialogue so it seemed much more natural. A method such as this has taught us ways to overcome problems that we encountered during filming and editing.
Logic Pro 9 was used to create the soundtrack and sound effects. David was given the responsibilty to do this, because he has expierence in using this software. He was able to create a score thet fitted well with the genre of our product, despite being near the end of our project deadline. David achieved a great soundtrack that really brought the whole project together, setting the mood perfectly. He also used certain sound effects that highlight key moments in the film.
Monday 2 May 2011
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From creating our preliminary task, this allowed us to learn that we needed to plan out our film opening in order for it to flow in the way we wanted to with no missing parts and bits that didnt link in or make sense to the story as it was improvised.
We decided on the genre of film that we were going to create and this allowed us to discuss ideas of locations, props and mis en scene.
Deciding on the genre first meant that we were able to find suitable locations for our opening. The research we did into films of similar genres showed that we would need to find locations with an eerie atmosphere. We chose Castlefield in Manchester as the location for the attack scene. Because of the location that we were using, we had to film during the day and therefore, the effects of darkness and the haziness to show memory had to be done during editing.
The location that we chose was quite a distance from our college and meant that we would not be able to complete the filming in lesson times as there was not enough time for travelling and then getting the work done. This meant that we had to organise a time that was suitable for the group to meet at the location so that filming could take place. This required a lot of communication between the four members.
Our preliminary task and main task has aspects of similarity and dfference. Both had the mood of anger involved. The preliminary task, from all three characters and the main task, from the character conducting the investigation.
Both tasks used a non-diagetic backing track underneath the dialogue. These sound tracks were created by using software called Logic Pro 9. This allowed up to make and mix different sounds together to match the mood and atmosphere of our film.
We decided on the genre of film that we were going to create and this allowed us to discuss ideas of locations, props and mis en scene.
Deciding on the genre first meant that we were able to find suitable locations for our opening. The research we did into films of similar genres showed that we would need to find locations with an eerie atmosphere. We chose Castlefield in Manchester as the location for the attack scene. Because of the location that we were using, we had to film during the day and therefore, the effects of darkness and the haziness to show memory had to be done during editing.
The location that we chose was quite a distance from our college and meant that we would not be able to complete the filming in lesson times as there was not enough time for travelling and then getting the work done. This meant that we had to organise a time that was suitable for the group to meet at the location so that filming could take place. This required a lot of communication between the four members.
Our preliminary task and main task has aspects of similarity and dfference. Both had the mood of anger involved. The preliminary task, from all three characters and the main task, from the character conducting the investigation.
Both tasks used a non-diagetic backing track underneath the dialogue. These sound tracks were created by using software called Logic Pro 9. This allowed up to make and mix different sounds together to match the mood and atmosphere of our film.
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