The genre of film we have made is a thriller with a lighthearted approach of delivering a moral. The moral following along the lines of the saying 'what comes around goes around' if our film was continued on it would show Rosy's flashback's into school life and being the victim however as the opening shows Rosy finds her own justice by murdering Beth from the inbetween.
We found our main inspiration from films such as Jennifer’s Body because of the structure and camerawork.
We deeply analysed the scene where Jennifer has been stabbed in the heart and then rises from the water. Our group didnt have a Hollywood budget so we decided to keep a realism to our mise en scene. We have based and related our film opening to this scene by having one character laying in the bath as eerie music plays at this time another character is walking through the graveyard. The camera then cuts to an over head shot of Beth in the bath as blood pours from her chest turning the surrounding water red. This shot is symbolic of Beth's vulnerability as Rosy's character turns the victim tables. Our Film opening is quite original because it is unusual to use a female as the protagonist. This gives quite an eerie effect to the whole scene as the ghost who has previously been bullied has come back to haunt the bully.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
As our film is a thriller which features teenagers it is mainly directed at the youth audience. Thrillers such as Scream, Hannibal Lecter and Halloween mainly have male dominance with the protagonist generally being male however we followed the idea of John Fawcett's Canadian movie Ginger Snaps and also the 2003 hit Monster starring Charlize Therom. Normally the female is represented as the victim, either waiting for prince charming to save her or for the male mass murderer to kill her however our film turns this connotation on its head as the female is the serial killer.However what makes it even more original is that films such as Jennifers Body which are obviously demonstrating Women's Rights/ Girl Power the girl is always the Protagonist killing all the male antagonists however our movie completly changes this as the female is both the protagonist and the antagonist.
What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?
The movie which is most similar to our main task in Jennifers Body which used production companies - Fox Atomic, Dune Entertainment, Hard C. The main distributor of Jennifers Body was 20th Century Fox. The media institution which would be best suited for distributing our film project is BBC Films. This institution works with low budget films similar to our project. BBC Films have been involved with films such as Shifty.
BBC Films co-produces up to 8 films a year and is one of the main British Independent Filmmaking companies. The company works with big international and UK distributors, they aim to make great British films which are seen by people all over the world. They are always intrested in including new talent to star in their films and also up and coming writers and directors. Another possible distrubitor of our film could be sites such as Youtube and Vimeo. These internet based distribution outlets are an easier way for people with low budget films to get thier films viewed. This would probably be the best method to distibute our film as it doesnt cost anything to get it viewed.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our film is aiming to gain a mass audience, as a lighthearted thriller its age rating could be suggested to be 12a. It hopes to attract both the male and female audience, the targeted gender is generalised as the girl protagonist is a female therefore going against the stereotype of the 'damsel in distress' this would attract the female audience. However because of the female dominated cast, this could also attract the male audience as well. As our film incorporates the playground bitchiness of teenage girls and would be soundtracked with modern music using up and coming artists it would be targeted at the youth market.
Also the two characters playing the roles of Beth and Rose display different ethnic backgrounds. This is good as it allows our film to appeal to a wider range of audience. To attract an audience we would need to catch their attention in some way or other to increase their knowledge of it. To attract attention we would need to develop an advertising poster in which would illustrate the different ideas and concepts of the film.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The technologies we have learnt about are programs such as final cut pro and garage band. In Final Cut Pro we learnt how to log and capture film from the camera. Once we had the clips in Final Cut Pro we were able to cut and edit each clip so that all of the clips flowed correctly according to the storyboard. This allows the continuity of the opening to work effectively. We learnt how to use transition effects such as fades and dissolves. We altered the lighting of the clips to give it an eerie look. This is an image of final cut pro:
Another program we have learnt to use is garage band. In our film opening we had natural diagetic sound captured from several things. One being from the tap running. However we added non-diagetic sound using Garageband. By converting music from Garage Band to iTunes, we were able to import the sounds onto our film. This was good as it allowed us to build up the suspense of the killing.
We also used technologies such as the internet, using the website youtube. By going
on youtube we were able to research film openings and gather ideas for our film opening. During the process in which we constructed our clip, we came to the understanding of how complex technologies contribute into creating highly respectable pieces of media. As a group of amateurs who mainly used a 
trial and error sytem we have become alot more grateful for the great technology which we are surrounded by. After thorough use of the final cut pro software Patrick especially who took charge of the editing was able to work to his best ability and enforce the groups creativeness into the project which we hoped would shine through to our clip and blog. Although Media products offer ultimate convenience there are some downsides to technology. It seems you begin to rely on technology more and more and at times it does break and disapoint for example when we once went out to film the graveyard scene the camera became unfunctional as it only enabled us to view the recorded clips yet wouldnt allow us to film anymore this was slightly annoying as we wasnt able to complete what we wanted to do that day and knocked us off track. Therefore making us resent technology for a day or so. However if we was to conclude on technology we would say it is a positive thing as it brings more convenience to life.
Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?
Our group took a basic approach to the main task as we were definatly lacking any knowledge of what shots worked and which did not making some choices we made unsuccesful. In the Preliminary task the first technique being the 180 degree rule. This rule is simply to ensure that the audience and viewers do not confused, as braking the rule can switch characters placements from right and left side of the screens. We ensured the rule was not broken by ensuring we kept the camera on the same side of a character throughout a scene and checking that we did not break the rule.
We then learned continuity, this is a simple concept in media that means characters, mise en scene, editing and sound fit the scene throughout all the shots. This ensures that the scenes flow in a continuous motion and attempts to prevent confusion in the audience. In our main task the continuity was affected because of the lighting- we came across this issue when we shot over two days therefore the weather was different affecting the amount of light in the camera.
In our preliminary task we only used one piece of music in which we found on garageband aswell as the sound that was recorded on the scene with the camera as we still hadn’t learned the full extent of the editing software we use (Finalcut Pro 9). Whereas in the main task we used a variety of different sounds in which we ensured had relevence to the Genre of the main task. We used diagetic sounds in the preliminary task for example the sound of the slap we heightend we adapted this technique to our main task an example being the sound of the tap running in which we also heightend this gave a sense of suspense to the audience.
In addition to this we are using much more transitions, particularly cross disolves which are used to symbolise the ghost, we researched the portrayed movements of ghosts in other films and noticed how they are shown to 'float' and give it a more ghostly feeling. For example when the scene of the ghost walking in the graveyard would cut cross to the bath scene and would cut cross to give a sense of suspicion by cut crossing to each scene and keeps the audience thinking about whats gonna happen in the bath scene. Our group also learnt the importance of high and low key lighting in the production protest as our film was partially filmed outdoors.
No comments:
Post a Comment