Evaluation Question 2

 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As a group we decided it was very important for us to create a sequence that looked very real- like it could actually happen. By including CUs of people at the busstop at the beginning we were trying to make it look like a social commentary on how much the youth of today text and communicate non-verbally, playing on the idea of overexposure to technology, a trait associated with the 'generation Y' demographic.  

Source: Brand Mercenaries

We cast ethnically and racially diverse extras to replicate the multiculturalism seen everyday on the streets of London. We wanted to ensure a fair and realistic representation using people from different backgrounds, with different styles and tastes to show that this inability to speak is something that affects EVERYONE equally, subjugating their autonomy and blanketing them under this one idea of lost verbal communication. This makes the characters in the film almost robotic which further connotes Sci-Fi themes.  The real signifier which reveals the film as a dystopia is when the middle aged mum uses an iPad to communicate with her daughter, showing that EVERYONE in this world uses technology, regardless of age and creates a pretty eerie effect.

   

 Challenging Gender Stereotypes

"Out of Total Film’s list of the 100 Greatest Female Characters in movies, ‘38 are a character in someone else’s story. 25 of those are primarily a love interest. Approximately 1/5 do not survive their film."

We wanted to break these outdated conventions by featuring a headstrong female character, a bit sassy and edgy but not too much of a tomboy. We tried to reflect this in costume with Doc Martens to show a bit of toughness but softened by her long blonde hair and feminine features to make her a bit more vulnerable and relatable. 

We wanted to portray a fairly conventional family unit so we saw the characters interact with eachother with traditional relationships concerning mother/daughter conflict and the reserved and distracted younger brother.

Evaluation Question 3

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We created the fictitious institution Binary Studios as an independent British production company specialising in cutting edge Brit-Grit dramas. Dystopian films are often very controversial (A Clockwork Orange, 1984) so we needed a corporate identity which could pull off the issues in our film successfully. Mute’s action and Sci-Fi elements would require a pretty high budget so would potentially be a co-production financed by foreign investors (hence our distributor Phoenix INTERNATIONAL Pictures).  Often British production companies are not traditionally known for making action films, and are associated with emotive dramatic films from directors such as Mike Leigh or typically ‘British humour’ comedies from the likes of Richard Curtis.
 

Our film could break into an untapped market and could potentially create a large revenue in doing so. We best decided as a group that our films rights for distribution could be sold at a film festival e.g Sundance, SXSW so it is up to them to use their knowledge and expertise to distribute and exhibit the film as they best see fit. It could potentially have a worldwide release due to the universal themes, young, hot cast and topical issues. American audiences may enjoy the ‘happy’ending, but the last twist could engage audiences that like to be left thinking about the film long after the credits are over and paves the way for sequels also which will appeal financially to potential distributors. The distributor may chose to market the film with a viral campaign- popular with a young audience and particularly relevant since it is a film about advances in technology, spawned by the Web 2.0, Generation Y demographic. In addition to this there could be a variety of short form content such as iPod/iPhone apps, a YouTube channelsshowing clips from the film in anticipation of its release and a Twitter and Facebook page to target specific niche audience groups from our core demographic of 16-24 year olds.

A real life comparison- Pathé UK

Unlike Phoenix International, Pathé UK is a fully integrated studio involved in all aspects of filmmaking, from production and development through to international sales and distribution and is the longest established film company in the world. Previous releases range from  Chicken Run (Lord & Park 2000) to Slumdog Millionaire (Boyle 2008) and the company is continental Europe's leading cinema exhibitor and one of the leading distributors in the UK and France. Pathé is part owned by Vivendi so has the financial infrastructure of a huge media conglomerate behind it, meaning that if entered into a co-production with Binary Studios, they could supply a fairly high budget for a film like Mute in return for the distribution rights. Pathé would be an ideal distributor for our film as the universal themes mean it can target a broad reach across Europe and have a mass release in cinemas. However it would be beneficial to intitially release it at film festivals to perhaps gain critical acclaim and buzz before a cinematic release.

Evaluation Question 4

 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?


Our film rating is 15+ so we aimed to target the most proliferate film going audience of 16-24 year olds. We decided to rate our film this certificate due to the complex themes and darkness of the plot-it does not exactly make for light hearted viewing. However, after undertaking research by compiling focus groups we noticed that we also had a secondary market of older adults, intrigued by the sophisticated storyline and political/social/technological conflicts raised by the film.

Though predominantly aimed at a young British urban audience, due to its location and style, the universal themes of language and love makes it appealing globally. As a hybrid genre film, it has a wide reach and appeals to both genders. 

The Sci-Fi elements help appeal to a male audience as does the supporting male characters and good looking female star but the fact she is a strong independent woman helps to draw in a female audience as does the sub plot of a love story.

All these elements combine to create a film more targeted at a niche market than mainstream audience attracted by formulaic Hollywood blockbusters. The young cast makes it hip and current and the ideas behind the story are very topical. Some viewers may not enjoy a film without dialogue- in our audience feedback a few people wrote that they would find it difficult to watch a film without speaking in and the novelty of it would soon wear off. This posed us to question if we were to make the whole film perhaps including a voice over to make it slightly more accessible. Constantly having to the screen to understand what each character is saying may put off some people that perhaps do not enjoy watching foreign language films due to having to read subtitles.

Typical Audience Member Profile:

Name: Clare Alridge
Age: 22
Nationality: British (originally from Manchester)
Occupation: Student (Receieved AAB at A-level is now studying English Literature at Sussex Uni) Has been on a gap year travelling across Australia and Asia
Enjoys: Going out with friends, going to clubs/gigs, shopping (favourites include Topshop, H&M and Zara), watching television, listening to music, reading, topical contemporary documentaries e.g My Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and drama's like Misfits, film interests vary on mood but enjoys a hard hitting thrilling watch as much as a easily palatable rom com
Media Consumption: Uses Facebook and Twitter occasionally, keeps up to date with news via BBC and celebrity gossip sites like Perez Hilton, attends the cinema maybe once or twice a month (usually on Orange Wednesdays due to student income!), Owns a Blackberry Smartphone

Evaluation Question 5

 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

 To draw in a young adult audience, we used a range of actors from this age group and chose a Drum & Bass song, the genre being very popular with students and young people who frequently go to clubs. To ensure we had a fair representation of modern Britain, we used extras from different ethnicities and different backgrounds to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in the story by creating as normal a setting as possible, making it all the more shocking when we find out noone can speak.  We have a good looking and talented cast of young actors and we could include an actor with critical acclaim such as an ‘Orange Rising Star’ award to give the film more credibility and generate publicity.

• The issues tackled in the plot and overall feel of the film lends itself quite well to a viral marketing campaign- particularly popular with the young Web 2.0 generation.
•  We decided that a film predominantly without dialogue may be a bit too dull and difficult to understand so we thought that the rest of the film could have Ava’s voiceover so the audience can empathise and relate to her more easily. However we chose not to include this in the opening sequence to generate lots of enigma and make viewers want to continue watching.
• As previously mentioned, the inclusion of a female protagonist helps give the film more female appeal.

Action films are an incredibly popular genre but Drama is not traditionally favoured by a young audience that generally enjoys ‘having a laugh’. However, we have seen through highly popular TV series Skins, and hard hitting dramatic films such as Kidulthood (Clarke 2006), Trainspotting (Boyle 1996) and This Is England (Meadows 2006) that there is definitely a market for drama, all these films cited most popular with males aged 17-29 (source: IMDB Pro).

To publicise our film sequence, we held a screening in school creating a Facebook event and sticking posters up around the areas most frequently visited by older students and sixth formers. We kept the description very minimal, just outlining important information, playing on our audience curiousity so they would be hooked in to see it, just as we want them to the real film. 

Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications Theory

Our film and opening sequence harnesses this theory in order to appeal to our intended audience:

 The strange idea, what if we lived in a world without voices? is a strong talking point and arouses discussion between friends, family and film fans alike satisfying curiousity, establishing personal relationships and particularly appealing to a young audience as it concerns a contemporary topical issue: the proliferation of technology and how it is leading people to communicate less and less face to face. Our film is very escapist, as it is a dystopia, so the audience is able to fully immerse themself in the films narrative enriching their experience of the film. 

We were succesful in appealing to our audience as our feedback from our screening was overwhelmingly positive, with ratings of 6-10 and a median of 8 with a majority saying they would see the film if it came out because of its original and unusual idea.

Mute - Filled In Questionnaires

A selection of feedback questionaires

Evaluation Question 6

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Hardware used: Camera, Tripod, Pag Light, Microphone, Headphones
Software used: Adobe Premiere Pro, LiveType, Adobe After Effects

I have certainly got a lot more comfortable using professional software and equipment.  Though I was already familiar with non-linear editing on Adobe Premier Pro for my GCSE project, studying Media at AS-Level is a lot more indepth and there is more time devoted to it so I felt like I really learnt a lot since I had a lot more time to experiment and learn from experience the way to do things properly. We spent a significant amount of time colour grading using ProCamp and the Three-Way Colour Corrector tool and undertook a lot of research to achieve the ‘film look’ to a professional standard.

Though our sequence didn’t contain dialogue, there was still a lot of audio editing to be done such as equalising the volume levels of each clip, applying a high-pass filter when Ava removes her headphones and removing the camera buzz from the interior shots. We completely changed our original idea of Ava dropping her purse at a busstop to the ‘isolation scene’ on the stairs as we felt the scene was a bit random and irrelevant and didnt help to propell the narrative forward.













We filmed this new short sequence 2 weeks after the original footage had been shot and on the camera we thought it looked fine but when we came to edit, the lighting was very low and grainy, teaching us the importance of using PAG lights in low light settings, regardless of what it looks like on the camera. We had to use the Degrainer tool in Adobe After Effects to make it less ‘noisy’ which we had never used before so we also familiarised ourselves with that software package. We also used LiveType to create the titles.

Using the manual settings on the camera allowed us to be very creative and more advanced with our shots  and cinematography, using focus pulls and deliberately out of focus shots to create mystery and a unique visual style.

As with many films lots of shots we planned never made the final sequence but filming them regardless only helped to further our skills and ease with the equipment. In hindsight there are a lot of things I would have done differently e.g lighting in the interior shots and using a tripod for every single shot as we did not intend a handheld shaky effect.

 

Evaluation Question 7

Preliminary Task Brief:
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. The task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree-rule.


Main Task Brief:
The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.




7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Although the Prelim task was a short, simple sequence displaying what we had learnt about continuity, it was still very difficult to ensure everything was created in such a way that the narrative ran seamlessly. The most valuable thing I learnt from the Prelim however was the importance of good planning! As a group we devised sheets and sheets of possible shot types, a main story board and 'optional cool shot' storyboard, as well as an alternative storyboard after we changed the original sequence.

 Prelim planning

 Final opening sequence planning

We had organised actor contracts, location reccies, props etc in advance so our first shoot day went flawlessly and we finished on schedule. A firm believer in spontaneity, I was a bit concerned rigorous planning and constantly referring to shot lists would stifle our creativity when in actual fact it enhanced it- because we knew exactly what we had to do and the time we had to do it in, we were left with scope to experiment with different shots, many of which became our favourites.


 In the Prelim task we deliberately shot the S/RS from two distances, MCU OTS and CU for variety. Although we did not end up using the latter, it taught me the importance of filming MORE THAN NECESSARY. In our final sequence, we captured over 100 shots in total even though a majority did not make the final cut. As in the Prelim, one of the members of our group featured in the sequence so we delegated jobs equally, playing to our individual strengths and by logging all the shots taking care not to let one person do too much filming/directing etc.

Group Paperwork

Establishing or master shots were very important to set the scene and edit to close ups from. In our sequence we go from an ELS to an MS to an ECU, the continuity rules of not jumping shot types learnt from the Prelim.
In the Prelim task we did a walkthrough of the sequence on Lewis iPod. Similarly, we did the walkthrough of the stair scene in the music block and from this realised exactly what shots we needed and drew up a detailed shot list and storyboarded from it.





From the Prelim we learnt the MOA and used this throughout our sequence when Ava enters the house, takes out her earphones, looks at her phone etc. Before learning about it for the Prelim I was not aware of the 180 degree rule which was very valuable when filming our sequence in order to make the narrative flow and suspend our audiences disbelief. Using knowledge gained from the prelim task, we made sure to stick to continuity rules although there were a few errors as between shoots the phone we were originally using for Ava's broke and the screen cracked and we lost the case we had used to cover the apple logo. We had to use an iPod touch and frame the new shots so it was not noticeable and fortunately noone raised the issue at the screening.

I knew our team would work well together since we are all very close friends and easy going when it comes to ideas with a why not? approach to our filmmaking. This was really great as it made the project even more enjoyable since we were all so enthusiastic about it and willing to sacrifice our time for the rest of the team to produce something we were all proud of. As we shared jobs equally, we each felt a special involvement to the sequence and I really enjoyed seeing the process through from planning to post.

Individual Initial Idea

After our first group meeting we decided upon the genre of a pschological thriller. I came up with the idea for 'Deep' starring a teenage female protagonist haunted by flashbacks of her kidnapping. Taken inspiration from Memento (Nolan, 2000), our main character, Sara, has to piece bits of her memory together in order to uncover the identity of the kidnappers and the reason for her capture which is hinted as something to do with her wealthy father. The opening sequence would start in a luxurious house with an outdoor swimming pool. There would be lots of girls having fun at a pool party; music blaring, drinks flowing and lots of chatter and laughter. Our protagonist is dropped off at the house by her Mum which we think is odd since Sara seems old enough (around 18 or 19) to look after herself. Her mum tells her to 'be safe' and to give her a ring later. She leaves the car and approaches the house and knocks on the door. The girl whose party it is opens the doors and looks surprised to see her. "Oh my gosh! Hi! Are you...? I didn't think you were going to come?" to which Sara replies "Well, can't hide forever". The hostess ushers her through to the garden passing people looking concerned and whispering about her. One of Sara's close friend Roxy beckons her over to the pool and she approaches nervously. She dips one toe in the water but is startled by another friend yelling her name. She turns to the side and is greeted by a camera flash but the scene cuts quickly to a flashback of Sara by a river on a rundown estate, tie up and bruised with a heavy floodlight shining on her face, an interrogative set up. We see a man in a hooded figure asking her if she knows her fathers whereabouts to which she says no. He gets angry and drags her by her hair across the ground and into the river where the splash cuts abruptly transporting us to the present day as Sara watches a girl bomb into the pool. She snatches her foot away from the water and wraps a towel over her and walks towards the girls on the patio.




Although the sequence is doable (I have access to the locations necessary and a willing actress in my friend Imogen) it is a lot to organise and quite complex for a 2 minute sequence. Our teacher advised us to stick to one location and have a chronological sequence as opposed to flashbacks etc as these are complicated and difficult to illustrate in a short amount of time.


We are a very tight knit group and have had brainstorming sessions, bouncing ideas off of eachother so we have decided to come up with an idea as a group and formulate this into a proposal for our next lesson.