AS Media Studies Foundation Production

Audience Testing  We asked four members of our target audience to give us feedback on our film opening. The main criticism that  we had recived was that the opening titles were too long. Also we should try and reduce the amount of blank (black) screen time. As a creative decision, I looked into the opening to the film Seven and decided to create a montage opening sequence to engage the audience further.  On the other hand to some criticism we also had a variety of positive feedback from our selected viewing audience. One particular example would be from Rossi as he saw our film opening to have been shot and laid out as if it was a real, professional level film opening due to the narrative structure, clean cinematography and fitting genre conventions. Also another positive example is from Tom. Toms example of something he found affective in our film was the shots between myself and Sabil towards the end. The specific example was the use of match on action ...

Risk Assessment for the film 

Day/Date D/N Int/Ext Time Set location/Synopsis   Character Day 1- 25/01/17 DAY INT. 11:00 AM Media class (green screen) Joey is a news anchor Jonathan Child s Day 2- 29/01/17 DAY INT. 12:00 AM Dirty house, The home of the protaganist John Wayne Day 2- 29/01/17 NIGHT INT/EXT. 5:00 PM Martha has her scene which trainsitions from grave yard to Wheatley Hall Girl Day 2- 29/01/17 NIGHT INT/EXT. 7:30 PM John wayne arravies at the crime scene  at Wheatley Hall John Wayne Day 2- 29/01/17 NIGHT INT. 8:00 PM John Wayne is confronted by his boss John Wayne and Commissioner Day 2- 29/01/17 NIGHT INT. 8:30 PM John Wayne confronts the forensic   John Wayne and forensic

Props List  Police Tape: This prop is significant to our film as it creates a sense of realism. It is also a common prop found in multiple crime investigation TV shows as it provides clarity to the situation suggesting that a crime has taken place. Cigarette: Throughout the film we have the reoccurring theme of death, as john is character that is trying to prevent the deaths of many. The fact that he smokes further shows the disregard he has for himself. Also, this is another common feature found in noir style films. Alcohol: Alcohol is used to represent John Wayne's moral & and mid-life crisis. As it is a common stereotypical feature displayed in many films of a similar genre. This suggests that John is a disturbed character and might not be able to him the most reliable especially in the job that he has. This creates unease with the audience as they cannot distinguish whether he is a good person. Red Candle: The red...

As our film fell under the genre of thriller/horror we had to find a location that could emulate this sense of terror and an unease to the audience, this can also be assisted in colours within the set. Which couldn't be too bright as it would lose its thriller like qualities. A good example of this could be found in my research of the film opening to sky fall - James walks toward the camera, and then pulls focus as he arrives. The set itself is very dark a misty and creates a sense of enigma and subconsciously suggests what kind of person he is to the audience, which was the effect that I tried to achieve in my opening. The use of heavy shadows and saturated colour create a foreboding sense of uncertainty. Through this look I researched a local hotel by the name of Whately Hall which  provided use with the old rustic look with orange tones.The ominous colours conform to the conventions of the thriller genre as it predominantly has low-key lighting. As we had a friend who...

Planning : BBFC Audience  Here are the Psychographic tables that Sabil was referring to in the vlog.  We used these in order to rank our film according to BBFC standard.  

Audience age rating: The audience rating of our film has been heavily discuss within our group and with others to decide on the right and appropriate age rating for the production. After discussion we decided to rate our film 15+. This means the legal viewing age for our production; especially if taken to full production, is 15 years old as a minimal, without an age cap. To ensure this age rating whilst keeping to our genre conventions we just limited the graphic content that can be seen onscreen to furthermore keep the production appropriate for even a 15 year old.  We still have a variety of violence and themes of a graphic nature in certain scenes and this could negatively affect any viewers under our recommended viewing age. In addition this our cutting edge narrative is more so of an adult onscreen age and the characters may project some explicit language will again will be inappropriate for young viewers.  

This was the process that I used throughout the production of the film, in order to achieve maximum organisation for all cast and crew.  

^ Change caption about sexuality Forensics  Aged between 17- 25  Any ethnicity, any sexual preference  must have dark hair to reflect possible evil qualities.  No Acting Experience Required        Police Captain      Aged between 17- 25  Any ethnicity, any sexual preference  must have dark skin to subvert the stereotype  No Acting Experience Required                

Location recce pictures For our location we initially had a vast amount of complicated sets and locations including hotels and moving cars but we steeled with a simplistic, stylistically specific thriller location setting for our scenes. Firstly, above I have added a picture of a large white house that we used as the home of John Wayne and we filmed our opening scene inside here. We selected this location for this particular scene as it was easily available to use and also it visually fits the genre well as it has a large mysterious location presence. Also inside the high ceiling design assisted in us taking some interesting cinematic shots as we were not limited by space. The next picture I have added above is of a small road with a singular pathway to the left. I selected this as we use this location to have an establishing shot of John walking to the crime scene in the opening. As well as this, the area is covered by trees on the side which add shadows to the road l...

Narrative : 3:15  "There have been a number of murders in my small town over the last 2 weeks." The police say there is a man that breaks in to people's houses between 3:15-3:45am, murders them then feasts on the remains. The protagonist sets up surveillance cameras around his house for safety and after a week he checks the security tapes. He doesn't see much but he did notice that every night around 3:15am, he would leave his house.  Our narrative follows a non linear plot line starting at the beginning with a montage of fast paced moving images, to disorientate the audience and make them feel as uncomfortable as if they were the  victim. The overarching narrative structure is not Todorovian, as we start with disequilibrium to disrupt the audience's stream of consciousness and make the atmosphere more tense. This sense of disorder is reflected in our main protagonist. We decided to create a dual narrative that links the Protagonist to our Antagonist. ...

The genre of the film is  Crime Drama, Thriller . Throughout the opening of the film we will strategically have odd camera shots from all different angles and lengths, to make the audience feel uncomfortable. In editing we will incorporate montages with relevant sound to create dramatic effect and tension as it builds to a climax. In the scenes lighting will be dim and not bright, we want the lighting to reflect the mains character mind that is unstable.We want the audience not knowing who killed the victim but we will leave certain clues for the audience to make a judgement further adding to the thriller genre.  

Justification of genre Justification of genre - Thriller. The genre we have selected for our film opening is the Thriller genre. We selected thriller as our narrative is of a hanging murder mystery with aspects of both horror and action implemented to create some interesting cinematography throughout the duration of the film opening. For our two minute opening we base the narrative on a typical thriller/horror cannibal story line, similar to 'Hannibal Lecter' but then on the other hand it will be filmed within the still of 'Drive' to add a modern thriller affect on the the classic film narrative style. This particular genre style is aimed towards males but we plan to make it appealing to both male and female views as if taken to full production we would cast a visually pleasing and attractive male in the character of the protagonist to further more create a binary opposite male gaze theory, attractive females to watch due to this particular cast members of scre...

Target audience How old are they? For our two minute film opening we have given a 15 years old minimum age rating for viewing and we are initial plan to target to all above ages to this but our specific target audience age range is from 18-35. We have decided to target towards this age rating as after research online I discovered it is statistically higher for people of this age range to watch thriller films in a similar style to ours. Where do they live? The location of the target audience is an important factor especially for promotional videos as it is key to make targeted views aware of all information of the film to maximise view and overall interest in the production. Also in addition to this point knowing the location of the target audience is important as we can therefore add specific aspects that we may think certain niche audiences from different specific areas may find attractive in our production or film promotion. Gender? The gender of the target audience ...

AS Media Presentation - Evaluation  Today I will be evaluating my presentation of Kanye west famous. This is because the marketing scheme behind it was one of the best use of media to date. As I explained social media is the biggest platform in the world and has the widest reach. I discussed people could feel involved with the beef by sharing it around. This was effective because it was a unique perspective on modern media and reflected how sometimes most things you see on the news are fake or even calculated.  The first slide was based on a popular term in pop culture, which is the word ‘beef’ this is a euphemism for the word controversy meaning; prolonged public disagreement or heated discussion. The relevance of this is that this created a lot of buzz around the issue. It all began in 2009, at MTV's Video Music Awards. Taylor was just a 19-year-old singer. She won the Best Female Video award for "You Belong With Me," and took to the stage to thank country music. H...

Mindmap Pre Mood Board Prior to starting our mood board we had to create a mind map to put down our ideas.

Moodboard with pictures taken by myself and our production group  To further develop my mood board and initial ideas I have added three pictures I myself or in our production group have photographed. Below on the left is a picture of myself wearing a suit in the location of our crime scene house. I have added this to highlight the costume we have selected for my character and also to show my character on set. In the centre of the three pictures is a photo of myself with half my face covered by a shadow. The use of the shadow creates a sense of mystery to my character in the photo and also in addition to this we painted my face to make my character look beaten up to again develop on the rough edge of the character. Then on the right is a photo of a bottle of whiskey, three cigarettes and a lighter and I knave photographed and added thinks a they are key props in our production; excluding the lighter, and also fit our genre conventions.

Mood Board. (Ideas) OUR film in under modern noir/gothic, derived from the film DRIVE and the FOLLOWING.  The colours are generally vibrant reflected by cinematography in contrast with the costume.  Triller with horror elements. 

Mood board pictures I have created a mood board consisting of a variety of picture fitting the narrative and initial ideas of my film as well as being specific towards our thriller genre conventions. Above I have added 8 different pictures I have researched for and found online that fit well into what we want to visually achieve within our film opening. In the top left there is a picture of whiskey next to a cigarette and this particular photo gives us many ideas of shots we can create with these kind of props to further develop the characterisation of our protagonist as they will give connotations of his rough side if he is seen using and placing these types of things. To the right of this photo is a picture of Ice Cube. I selected this picture for my mood board as I view his look and persona as a character will fit perfectly in our character of the Chief Inspector due to his relaxed costume choice not wearing official police uniform and also the angry and interesting faci...

Storyboard

( We've decided to choose the 3:15 as our final idea for our film opening, as we live in a small town which would fit our mine en scene. Also as our main character is a detective which is a common stereotype found in noir films. We could replicate this through the choice of costume by undoing the top button and making the uniform untidy to suggest a midlife crisis which is a common convention is that genre. )

This further deliberation was used in order to expand our idea.