Our Final Production - 2 Minute Opening

This is our final Production/2 Minute Opening. This is it after all of the Editing, Filming, Sound and Post Production. Produced by WKL Productions.

Post Production

After we finished our 2 Minute Film Opening, we then went into Post Production. During this time, we fine tuned our production to make it as good as possible. Some things we edited during Post Production were enhancing the sound of the footsteps (This made the audience more involved), and changing all of the titles/credits to look the same and give a more professional look. We completed Post Production over 3 days, between 21st February 2012 and 24th February 2012.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

After doing research and work I have done in class, here are some conventions used in film openings:

• Company Logo
• An introduction to the main characters (Protagonist/Antagonist) 
• Opening titles/credits
• Enigma - Leaving a question unanswered for the audience
• Music - Used to create different moods depending on the genre
• An establishing shot, introducing the audience to the current location
• Give the audience time and date of the film (Using denotations)

Different conventions are used depending on the type of genre the film is. For example the conventions of a Comedy film opening would be different to the conventions of a Murder Mystery film opening. Here is a list of the conventions usually found in our type of genre (Murder Mystery):

• The editing is generally fast-paced, to keep the audience along with the action
• The opening leaves enigma
• The murders generally takes place at night
• The identity of the murderers are kept until later on in the film
• The detectives are intelligent, and always take charge

In terms of using, developing or challenging the genre conventions, we have mainly used them. Our reasoning for doing this was if we used the conventions from professional films, ours will look more realistic and believable. We also wanted to give the typical Murder/Mystery audience what they want and expect from this type of genre. We have integrated the titles/credits into the opening, we have done this for fluency and to cause minimum disruption. We also filmed our opening at night, which keeps to the conventions of most films of our genre. However we did challenge the conventions of the murder actually shown at night. The audience doesn't see the murder, only the targets and the hearing of the gunshots.  

Editing

Again, with the conventions of a Murder Mystery film, the editing is fast paced, generally with an atmospheric music to create suspense and enigma. For example the TV Drama Sherlock Holmes - BBC1 has fast paced editing and music during important chases/action.

This video applies for both Editing and Sound

In the above video, very fast cuts/editing have been used, as well as a background music to create enigma. However in our 2 Minute Opening, we challenged this convention and used slower editing. I believe that with slower editing and slower cuts/fades, it creates a lot more suspense and enigma.


Sound
In Sherlock Holmes, orchestral music is used to create suspense relating to the mood. We have also used music to try and create the same effect, using the convention.


Props
In our 2 Minute Film Opening, the prominent prop used was the sniper rifle. The idea of the sniper rifle came from the film 'Shooter'. The conventions in 'Shooter' show the person holding the sniper rifle, whilst an establishing shot is being used. We used this convention to make our video as realistic as possible.

Shooter

In our 2 Minute Film Opening

Characters
During our 2 Munite Opening, the main character that is seen is the Antagonisht - The sniper. This is using the conventions of real media products by introducting the main characters within the first 2 minutes.


Costume
As our genre is Murder/Mystery, we took the idea of clothing from the BBC 1 Drama - Sherlock Holmes. As seen, in the Drama, Sherlock is wearing a long, dark coat, making him secretive and mysterious. We also wanted to achieve this by giving the 2 mysterious people dark clothing.

Sherlock Holmes - BBC 1

Our 2 Minute Opening

However we also got clothing ideas from the film Inception (2010), and Action/Mystery. The clothing in Inception is smart dress, like you would see at a formal dinner. We developed this convention by making our actors slightly less formal.

Inception (2010)

Pink Panther (2006) is a Adventure/Comedy/Crime/Mystery. In Pink Panther, they are also smartly dressed, showing the convention is being used in many different films of this genre.

Pink Panther (2006)

Location
Still going along with the Sherlock Holmes idea, we set our location on a street and filmed it at night. The murder actually happens at night, using the conventions of a Murder/Mystery. It also help to add suspence and enigma.

Mise-en-Scene

Costume - Long shady/dark clothing, this keeps the characters identity and doesn't reveal much about the characters. This crates enigma.
Lighting - Low-key lighting is used, natural light whislt filming at night. Dark lighting reveals as little as possible.
Actors - The actors do not speak much so we didn't have any mishaps with wording. The only dialogue was the (Chief of Police) at the beginning to tell the viewer what has happened.
Make-up - No make-up was used in our 2 Minute Opening. This is to give a natural feel to the film opening. It would not make alot of difference because the majority was filmed at nigh.
Props - We used a immitation L96A1 Sniper Rifle as the main prop. This confirms that there will be a murder within the first 2 minutes.
Setting - The setting is a dark back ally with little lighting and a dark warehouse. This is to give the viewer a feeling of becoming tense.

In conclusion, we mainly used conventions of this genre, this was to make our 2 Minute Opening realistic and believable. However we did develop and challenge some conventions because we thought it went better with our ideas and to make it original. For example we challenged the convention of fast editing, we used slower editing because we thought it created more suspense. We also developed the convention of the formal dress in Inception, by making the clothing in our film a little less formal. 

Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film represented particular social groups by:

Gender

All of the characters in our film are male, the only female seen is where she is in the audience for the Chief of Police briefing about the murders. The main reason why we had all of the characters male was because stereo-typically we thought the male gender fitted more with the violence taking place, and stereo-typically that males are more likely to be seen as head positions (Chief of Police) within a job. We also looked into big detective films and used the conventions, and any female actors within the film are not seen to be the main character, the detectives are mainly male (Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson).

Age

Within our film there is a variety of age portrayed between the characters. For the Chief of Police we purposely chose an older male (50+), this connotes that he has experience in his field, and he is a respected member within his society. The killer is seen to be alot younger (16-18), fitting with the stereotype that youngsters are 'youths' and are always up to no good, looking at violence to solve the situation. The two mysterious people who met and exchanged the package are seen as mid-males (25+), giving a big age difference between the characters.

                           

Physical Ability 

In terms of Physical Ability, we didn't have any actors within our film who are shown to have any physical disorder. We did not believe that it fitted in with our genre and we didn't think someone with a physical disability needed to be in our film.

Sexuality

All of that actors within our film are portrayed as heterosexual. Stereo-typically, we didn't think that someone with a homosexual nature would fit in with our genre and the violence committed within our film.

Ethnicity

All of the characters/actors in our production are While-British. We didn't base any of the characters on a certain ethnicity, which made it alot easier to find actors, which are all White-British. Due to all of the characters in the film being White-British, it tell the audience that or film is a British Production and takes place in in the UK. 

                              

Evaluation - Question 3

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

What is a Film Distributor?

A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing. Formats that a film distributor may be responsible for could include DVD/Blu-Ray, Downloading (iTunes, Zune), Video-On-Demand (BBC iPlayer, 4oD)

There are 2 different types of Film Distributors: Major Distributors and Independent Distributors.

• Major Distributors - Very big, well know companies (E.g. Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount)
• Independent Distributors - Much smaller, less well-known companies (E.g. Pathe, Lionsgate)

I think that our film would benefit more from an Independent Distributor. Major Distributors only really concentrate on big budget films, however Independent Distributors are very good at distributing low budget films and receiving very high profits.  

An example of a low budget film which were distributed by an Independent Distributor (Lionsgate) would be Saw (2003). Budgeted at £1,200,000 and gone onto having gross profits of £103,000,000 and continuing on to produce 6 sequels. 

If Lionsgate were to distribute our film, we would expect it to be available to mass audiences, featuring in multiplex cinemas like Odeon and Parkway, and being made on DVD's and Blu-Rays. 

Marketing

In terms of how we would market our film, I would recommend mainly online, websites like Facebook and YouTube, where masses of people can see it. Also places like Television, newspapers, film magazines and various other forms of media.

Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?




For help on looking what our audience would actually be for our film, we looked on the UK Film Council website. Here we found the out genre of film (Murder/Mystery) is most appealing to both females and males over the age of 35. (See below)

Graph showing our audience would be Middle class (C2) male and female, 35+ 

However, after getting these statistics, we still wanted our target audience to be both younger males and females (15+), any class and any ethnicity. Our reasoning for this is as a group, we feel we would be able to relate more to the younger market to satisfy the wants of our target audience.

In terms of the classification of our film, we did research looking at the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). We compared our film to other films that share the same genre such as Sherlock Holmes (Rated 12), The Fugitive (Rated 12), Dial M for Murder (Rated 15) and Mystic River (Rated 15).

We looked into why these films were the classification they are. It is all based on the level of offensive language, nudity, violence, horror, gore and influential characters/acts etc. featured in the film. Comparing our film to the guidelines of the BBFC, we came to the conclusion that our film will be Rated 12. Our film doesn't graphically show any of the above, not showing the intensity of the action or violence.  

Our film rating

In terns of where I think our film should be released, I believe that big multiplex cinema's would be ideal. If we find a good film distributor that specialise in distributing low budget films, then our film can be very successful, making a big profit. This targets a mainstream audience in masses, which would be more ideal than a smaller, more specific niche market. 

Target Audience Member Profile:

Name: Jordan Chilvers

Age: 17

Class: C2

Ethnicity: White - British

Occupation: At De-Aston Academy studying for A-Levels (Not doing Media Studies)

Interests: Sports, Socialising, Gaming.

Reaction to our 2 Minute Opening: After Jordan watched our opening, he wanted to see more of the film. He especially liked the action/mystery, and thought the editing was very good, creating enigma and suspense. For us, this is what we wanted to hear from our target audience sample. It tells us that our production is favoured by our target market, and we have been successful on doing this.

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

My group attracted/addressed our audience by various different forms. The very first thing we did was look at the statics on the UK Film Council, giving us a rough idea what social groups/ages would be more attracted to our chosen genre.

After studing the UK Film Council's research, our target market for our film should be teenage males and middle-aged females.

After knowing this, we went out and asked questions to a sample from our target market. We interviewed both a teenage male (Jordan Chilvers) and a middle-aged female (School English Teacher).

The questions we asked included:

1. What is your favourite genre of film? (This gave us an idea of what types of films they enjoy)
2. How old are you? (Telling us whether different ages prefered different Genres)
3. What gender were they? (Seeing if certin genders liked different Genres)
4.  Would you like to see a film involving: Action, Mystery and Implied Violence? (Seeing if the audience would be attracted to our film)

The results from the interviews gave some interesting answers. The middle-aged female we interviewed didn't really like the concept of our film. Asking why, she stated that she doesn't like to see violence in films, and she prefers the genre Comedy to an Action/Mystery. However, the male teenager we interviewed really took to our genre and plot for our film. After showing him the 2 Minute Opening, his reaction signified he enjoyed it, and he wanted to see more of the film.

In terms of promoting our film, we faced many different option of how we could do it, the main ways we though of advertising/promoting our film would be:

• Producing a trailor of the film for public viewing before the film is released in the cinema
• Advertiment through the internet, using popular sites such as Facebook and YouTube, and various other sites.
• Poster/Billboards (On the side of buses for the public to see)
• Articles in magazenes (Mainly film and media magazines)

I personally think the best way to advertise/promote our film would be through the Internet. As the population becomes more viral, more and more people are using the Internet on a day-to-day basis, using massive websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. If we were to advrtise our film on the internet, it would be available for masses of the public to whitness.    

Currently, there are over 750 million active users on Facebook alone!