Finished film opening - Desperation

This is our finished film opening, Desperation. I'm very happy with the acting, the camera work and the audio. My only real concern was some of the audio was below standard, however this was fixed in post production. I had a great time making the film and I hope people enjoy it   

Evaluation question 7:Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product

During the preliminary task we were taught basic camera work such as shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. I feel the 180 degree rule had the most effect on our film opening as camera posistioning was extremely important. For example when filming in the woods we had to have the camera angled so it wasn't blocked by foilage and could also get a clear shot of the actors.

I feel the preliminary task was important as it gave us experience working with the technology we would use while working on our film opening such as digital cameras and premier pro. Working on the preliminary task also gave me ideas on what genre of film I'd like to make and also what shots to use for the two minute opening.

The hardest part of the preliminary task for me was editing. I had no experience working with the technology we were using, however I grew more confident working with cameras after each take and was happy with my rushes when we finished filming. Editing however was something I really struggled with at first, I knew what I wanted and had to rebuild the task a few times due to continuity errors. Overall I feel once I got use to the precision needed for editing although I still struggled I'm happy with my preliminary task.

Reasearch and planning for our film opening was affected by the preliminary task as it gave us experience of drawing storyboards and gave us an idea of what shots to use when filming the two minute opening.

It influenced construction of the film opening as again the preliminary task gave us experience of the cameras and premier pro. This meant that when we were on location for our film opening we all knew how to set up the equipment, meaning we had more time for filming.

The preliminary task I feel doesn't effect our evaluations for the film opening. Although both projects have evaluations, I feel the preliminary task evaluation is too different from the two minute film opening evaluation to have any bearing on it.

The skills I have developed from working on the two projects are that, I'm now more confident acting in front of a camera, as well as being more confident when working behind it. I also have a better idea of how to construct a film and I'm more confident when editing.

Overall I enjoyed working on both projects and I'm happy with both projects.   

Evaluation question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Thanks to this project I now have a much better understanding of the technologies needed for the media course and media industry as a whole.

The main technical device I used during planning and research was Blogger:

This was because everything I did to do with research was on my blog. Also as part of the reasearch I used YouTube to find and analyse other film openings to see what aspects of film openings we wanted in our film. I also used Wikipedia and Google to find information and pictures to back up my reasearch and make my blog as detailed as possible. Finally I used a digital camera and SlideShare as a way of getting pictures and other documents on to my blog.

During the construction of the film the main technologies were the digital cameras and adobe Premier pro. Other than these we used sound recorders and the school recording studio to film an audio scene for our film. We felt by having an audio scene it added an extra depth to our film and gave it something different. Now because of it we have an interesting film and a better understanding of the sound recording equipment.

For my evaluations it was the same technologies for my research:Blogger,Google and YouTube.

As well as Premier Pro so I could have screen shots of the film on my blog. I used YouTube in my evaluations so I could use the videos I used during my reasearch as part of my evaluation answers. The Opening of Se7en for example.

Overall I feel that using the technologies got easier as we became more experienced with using them. I enjoyed using the equipment as I hadn't used Blogger or the cameras before. There were some problems. Sometimes the camera was tempermental when finding focus or in the recording studio, finding the right distance between the actor and the microphone was an issue. However I feel the biggest problem was that often the school internet filter system blocked websites such as YouTube and Wikipedia. This was an issue as it slowed reasearch or meant that the reasearch or my blog wasn't as detailed as it could have been.

In regards to the techincal aspects of production I feel our biggest issue with them was recording sound, in both the studio and on location with the boom pole. We did have to re-shoot some scenes due to poor sound quality because of positioning of the equipment or the actors. The main issue with editing was what we wanted and where did we want it. As for the lighting we felt natural light added a gritty feel to it but also helped the scary vibe we wanted, especially in the night scene. Our soundtrack also added to this.

I feel what I've learnt making this film will help me on the remainder of the media course and possibly in the media and performance industry.  

  

Evaluation question 5: How did you attract/address your audience

During our planning stages to. get a better feel for our target audience we interviewed members of our target audience and see what they liked or disliked about our genre.

Other than this whilst in production the class watched the film then gave us feedback. In which they said that our story line works. However they said the titles were to quick and their were too many. It was also suggested we should have the credits over the action, but when we tried this it made the shots go fuzzy. Instead we changed the titles so we would have a shot of action followed by titles then repeat till the credits had finished. I feel this worked as it shows we can adapt our film to make it more appealing but without affecting the quality.  












Other than that the class also said the victim's age wasn't convincing and more time should be spent on the murder scene.

  Finally we edited the transitions of the piece and changed the soundtrack.

So we could intrigue our audience one of the key things about the film was enigma. We used this by having the murder scene in a built up estate. I feel this was a good choice of location because it was secluded enough to be realistic but also built up enough to make the audience think, did anyone see the murder. Also to add to the enigma we had the killer wear a mask. This makes the audience think who is he and why is he doing this.

  To excite our audience we used camera shots to really grab their attention, for example our first shot was an extreme close up of our victim falling in to shot. This was followed by close ups of the killer and the body been dragged away. They were fast tempo shots at first but then pace became slightly methodical so the audience could follow but still be interested.

  









To promote our film we considered our target audience and discussed where members of the target audience are most likely to see any advertisements. We decided that advertising on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogger would be a good idea. As well as having posters outside cinemas and bus shelters.




         












Overall I feel we addressed our target audience well and made the film appeal to them, but also make it enjoyable to anyone outside the target audience as well. 

Evaluation question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product

0When deciding what our target audience would be we considered several things. One of which was the certificates of other films in our chosen genre. we felt a film rated 18 would have been too extreme. An example of a detective film rated 18 is  Se7en.

Although we thought an 18 was too extreme, we liked the freedom a higher certificate gave us as it means we were less censored. This I feel is the main reason we gave Desperation a 15 certificate. Because we thought a certificate of 12 was too censored and wouldn't allow us to create the feel we wanted.

  

Other example of detective films rated 15 are:

Lethal Weapon 4

And Shutter Island

Other than the censorship reasons we felt that we would get the best product by making it appeal to our generation. This was to avoid stereotypes of what an older audience would like for example. What also influenced our decision was what we found on the BBFC website.

   

When we were on the website we found lists of various genres and which audience they are most popular with. However there wasn't a specific chart for the detective genre, so we had to use the closest genre, crime/thriller. The BBFC graph told us that the crime/thriller films were most popular with women aged 35 and over. This influenced are certificate as it showed that aspects of our film would appeal to others as well as our chosen audience. Also as there was no specific data for our genre we felt a 15 certificate was the best fit.

                                         

I feel our film is more likely to be shown in a multiplex do to our choice of distributor and also the growing popularity of the detective genre thanks to the success of films like Sherlock Holmes and The Dark Knight.

Because of this I feel our audience would be more mainstream, with this in mind we had influences from mainstream films for our characters, but we wanted a grittier feel to the film so it's shot like an independent niche film. I feel this will help the film appeal to the niche detective genre.

What also helped us decide our target audience was we interviewed a member of our chosen target audience:

Name: Will Davidson

Age: 16

Favourite film genres: Sci-Fi and War.

Favourite film: Star Wars.

In the survey Will said he is a fan of the detective genre because he likes the action and the mystery.

When we asked him what makes a good detective film he said that the film needs action and a good balance of fast tempo scenes and slow scenes. However when we asked if we were marketing to the right audience he said that it would we better if we aim the film at a target audience of people aged 25+ instead of 15+.

Other than that Will said in a detective films he likes, enigma and cliff hangers. He also said that for our film opening we shouldn't over complicate with too much action or dialogue.

Overall I feel that Desperation appeals to our target audience and that our research in to our target audience helped us make a better film.     

    

   

Evaluation question 3:What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why

A film distributor is: A company responsible for releasing films into the public via cinemas or DVD"s etc.

Examples of  major film distributors are:

Warner brothers





 Paramount





And Universal



I feel are film would be best suited to an independent film distributor:

Examples of independent film Distributors Are:


Pathe




And LucasFilm




If I had the choice I would like top use the independent film distributor Lionsgate to distribute our film.




I chose Lionsgate because they have a reputation for making money from small budget, gritty, independent films.I also chose Lionsgate because they have experience with the detective genre. Most notably Harry Brown.








Another reason for using Lionsgate as the distributor is they have experience of having huge success by appealing to one section of the market. For example they made a lot of money with the Saw films by making it appeal to hardcore fans of the horror genre.

I feel because of this distributor our film would be shown in a multiplex chain such as Odeon. As the cinema owners would feel confident using Lionsgate due to their reputation of making a profit on small independent films. Also using a mainstream cinema chain will allow us to appeal to a larger portion of the market, as when writing the film I wanted it to appeal to everyone over the age of 15. Not just a niche market, fans of the detective genre more specifically.I also feel the 15 certificate gave us more freedom when writing the script as we were less censored and I feel gave us a better end product.

For marketing I would want to make sure as many people from the target audience saw the film being advertised. Our target audience is anyone over the age of 15. We came to this decision after talking about what we wanted in the film and how that would effect an audience. We also consulted the BBFC website to see what kind of an audience enjoys our genre. However there wasn't a specific area for detective genre target audience so we decided to keep our original certificate.

This affects marketing as it then gave us an idea of where we would advertise the film. Our target audience our heavily involved in social media, so one way of advertising is by setting up Facebook and Twitter pages. Other than this we can post trailers on YouTube and have posters and billboards where the target audience can see them, at cinemas and outside bus shelters for example.

           

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups

Our production I feel does play to certain social stereotypes. For example the film is set in rural England so it is unlikely to see a vast number of people from a different ethnic background. Therefore everyone in the film is from a white British background.

In regards to gender, The film has an all male cast. I feel this is more due to conventions of the detective genre as  stereotypically, the detective partnerships consist of two men.      

       

Examples of other films using a male partnership for detectives are

Bad boys

and Sherlock Holmes

                                                                         

The characters themselves are stereotypical men of action. My character is aggressive, loud and passionate. James' character is the stereotypical older detective, acting as the guiding hand for his younger, less experienced partner. Again for this I took inspiration from Lethal Weapon. As in that Riggs is the younger, more reckless one of the duo. Whereas Murtagh is the calmer father figure to Riggs. We wanted a similar feel with our detectives.

In our film there aren't any female co-stars. This is again due to the convention of male partnerships. This provides stereotypical male dominance. examples of portraying females as weaker is Bad boys.

 this is an example of a stereotype as it shows a woman struggling in a fight and being scared.

As for physical ability I feel we went against the stereotype. Stereotypically the disabled aren't used as detectives. They are portrayed as victims or in the case of  Unbreakable, the villain.

  

We went against the stereotype as we cast a disabled person as the protagonist. It shows how despite any physical handicap I can play any part as well as or better than any able bodied actors playing a detective e.g Edward Norton in Red Dragon. 

Our film  (Desperation)

Red Dragon.

Another example of a disabled protagonist in a detective film is Denzel Washington in The Bone Collector. Overall I feel having a disabled protagonist portrays disabled people in a very positive light, showing how any handicap doesn't need to influence the character or casting the actor in the first place. 

Age is another stereotype we played to. Our detectives are mid twenties to late thirties. This due to continuity because of the level the detectives are at it would have taken years of work to get there. Examples of older detectives are Bob Hoskins in Who framed Roger Rabbit.

Our victim was scripted as being in his forties. This is I feel slightly stereotypical as the older person is the victim.However there are examples of having an older person as the hero rather than the victim. Michael Caine in Harry Brown for example:

   

In regards to Sexuality, all are Characters and actors are hedro-sexual. In detective films there are few gay people as the protagonist. Often things are implied such as the relationship between Holmes and Watson in the TV version of Sherlock Holmes: Sherlock

 

Other than that either gay characters or gay actors are used as comic relief such as Stephen Fry in Sherlock Holmes 2 : A game of Shadows. I feel not including gay people isn't discrimination all it meant is having a gay character would not have suited the film.

  

Overall I feel no one has been discriminated against in our picture and any social group excluded have been excluded for good reasons on our part or reasons beyond our control