'Mirage' Final Product

Evaluation Questions 6 & 7

Evaluation Questions 6&7 
 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the main task?


 

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

 

 

Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for you media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our media audience would most likely be the age demographic of 15 years and over due to the mature subject matter that surrounds the film. People who are under the age of 15 may not understand or be interested in the film due to their lack of understanding and interest in the British government and politics. Although our film is entirely fiction and human testing is almost certainly not being used by the government, there is still a deep-lying political consciousness surrounding the film, so we feel that this will intrigue the minds of people aged over 15.

 

Although our film is aimed at all people over the ages of 15, I feel like the supernatural element may alienate older audience who are not interested in films like ours. This is due to the completely fictional aspect of our film with the combination of human testing and the supernatural element of the entity that our protagonist sees. The slight horror element due to the mystery surrounding the supernatural character may categorise our film as a “horror-thriller”, again alienating the older audiences who do not get as much of a thrill from being scared. I feel like an older audience may be more interested in films that have a chance of being plausible, however I feel ours passes this boundary. For this reason I would state that our key demographic would be the age range of 15-45.

 

Finally, I feel like the slight action element to the film may disinterest female viewers and would appeal more to the male audience. I do not feel like there would be a huge gender split, but feel like their would be slightly more males interested in our films. I also feel like the graphic nature may also scare off the female viewers due to the gore scenes which may occur. This is a rather stereotypical view that women are more squeamish than men when it comes to gore and may not like watching films of that nature, but I do feel that it may stop some more female viewers than male viewers watching our film.

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

I think that 'Studio Canal UK' may distribute our film due to their prior collaborations with 'Warp Films'. They distributed the films ''71' as well as 'Four Lions' and 'Dead Man's Shoes', which were created by 'Warp Films'. This shows that the company has prior experience with distributing independent films so would understand the market. The fact that they also distributed 'Dead Man's Shoes' and 'Four Lions' shows that the company are willing to take risks with films, as long as they like the content that they have seen, due to the graphic nature of 'Dead Man's Shoes' and the controversial terrorism satire used in 'Four Lions'. This means that if there were to be any gore or violence in our film, then they would most likely still go ahead and distribute our product. I do not think that 'Studio Canal' are as fixated on profit as a huge conglomerate like 'Warner Bros.' are either. The evidence in this is that 'Dead Man's Shoes' had a budget of £723,000 yet only grossed £101,186, yet they decided to distribute further projects of 'Warp Films' after this film. I think that this shows that 'Studio Canal' are more focused on the quality of a film and the accolades it receives than the intake in profits that they receive. 'Warner Bros.' may not be the best choice for our film as they would be more driven on making as much money as possible so some aspects of our film may need to be changed in order to appeal to a wider audience, such as our actor being changed from Matt Wells to an American actor.

I feel like 'Studio Canal' may be interested in our film due to the independence it has and the specific market that it may interest. The psychological aspect of our film may interest 'Studio Canal' due to the niche market that it would appeal to, and due to the fact that a fairly similar film in 'Donnie Darko' not only received positive reviews, but also made profit. This is a similar film to ours, however our film still is very different to this film and has it's own unique ideas, so I feel like this may interest them. 'Studio Canal UK' are also obviously a British film production company so we would have greater chance with getting them to distribute our film than a huge American conglomerate, as 'Studio Canal' would enjoy seeing British films being made so would have no problems with sticking to a British setting and cast, and would possibly prefer this.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

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

 

Work on production company titling

We have made minor changes to our production company logo, and we have changed the font of the title "Zenith Productions". Adding the Crooked Spire to our logo is a work in progress, as we are trying to find a subtle way to add it to the logo.

Bad weather; no filming

Our group had planned to film on the weekend of 31st January, however due to the snowy conditions, the school was closed on Thursday the 29th January and Friday the 30th January. This meant that we were unable to collect any of our equipment and were therefore unable to film. We have rescheduled for Saturday and Sunday the 7th and 8th of February.

Production Logo

We were have been working on the logo for our production company, and we decided that we needed to make the designs dark and mysterious to suit the thriller aspect of our company. We settled with the name "Zenith Productions", as the term zenith means the highest point or most powerful and successful. We thought that this would be a  suitable name for a company, as it shows the desire and ambition of our company. The name relates to our target audience, as it is aimed at people 15 years or older, as younger people would not understand the term "zenith".

We created a draft for our logo in which we decided to use a silhouette of the Crooked Spire. We thought this would work well as our film is thriller aimed and needs to set a dark and mysterious atmosphere, which I think the logo does. We also designed the so that the "Zenith" is vertical, and the "Productions" is horizontal, with the letter "I" in the words creating a connection between the two. We did this because it links with the name of "Zenith" and visually shows the viewer the height symbolism.

Here is the first draft of the logo:

Here is the updated draft with a change in the font:

Thriller final Title and Plot

Title

We were unsure of what to name our thriller at the time, due to lack of creativity, so we used an online thesaurus and typed in two key words which our thriller was based on. These key words were "political illusion" which got changed to "Constitutional Mirage". The name seemed too long for a title, and may have confused a potential audience for our film, so we changed the title to our film to simply "Mirage". We felt that this suited the film really well, as our protagonist is unsure whether the figure he is seeing a real or a hallucination.

Plot

The film focuses upon a young man who has took a job for the government, which he is ecstatic about because it is a high paying job. The job isn't all that he thinks, as it turns out he has been transferred to a human testing division, before getting tested on himself. He manages to escape but starts suffering from several hallucinations, which he is unsure whether they are real or not. He also suffers from flash-backs during his escape, which lets the audience establish what he has been through, and where he has escaped from. The escape and the flashbacks will be the opening two minutes of our thriller.

Thriller Storyboard

We created a storyboard so that the plan of our thriller is clear and laid out for us, and not only shows others what our thriller is going to be about, but also makes it much easier for us to plan what is going to happen on the day. The use of describing which camera angles to use and drawing a picture of what we expect is to look like makes it a lot easier for us to envisage what we want the shots to look like.

Below is our storyboard:

Thriller Pitch

For our thriller we had the task of pitching our thriller to our teachers we were acting as a potential production company who were interested in producing our film. We had the task of informing them about our film, and trying to persuade them to produce it.

This pitch featured key information such as plot summary, target audience, tagline, and audience appeal amongst other key areas of our film.

Below is the key information for out pitch:

I was absent for the pitch of our thriller, so was unable to participate, therefore our film was fully presented by my partner for our project. Below is the footage of the pitch:

Taglines

For this lesson, we were focusing on the tagline aspect of our thriller film. Taglines are advertising and marketing tools which creates a thought within the viewer, which is used for dramatic effect. This gives the viewer a brief idea into what the film is about, and entices them into going and viewing the film. It often sums up what happens in the film without spoiling any of the plot.


Some examples of some famous taglines are:

The Bourne Identity
"He never asked to be Bourne"
"He was the perfect weapon until he became the target"

Inception
"Your mind is the scene of the crime"
"The dream is real"


We have thought of a couple of taglines for our film which are:
"What if those who swore to protect you broke their promise?"
"When living in fear is the only option"
We chose these because we think that it entices the viewer into wanting to watch our film, but also gives them a brief idea about what our thriller is about.

BBFC Age Ratings


The BBFC age regulations are age restrictions set by the 'British Board of Film Classification', which is non-government organisation. Their purpose is to censor films, deciding what is and isn't allowed to be shown in British cinema, DVDs and even video games, making them suitable for the target audience. Examples of their restriction logos are:

Our film would most likely be a 15, due to the nature of our film as it involves complex material which only a mature audience would understand. The key theme is the government and psychological testing which is being exhibited, so wouldn't be suitable or would appeal to a younger demographic. 15 is around the age in which teenagers start taking an interest and finding out about the government, so I feel that this would appeal to most of them, but would also appeal to a lot of adults who enjoy thriller films.

An age restriction of 18 would limit the viewers seeing the film, and their also wouldn't be excess  nudity or violence in our film, as it is more psychological and thought-provoking, and it isn't a horror film so wouldn't warrant an 18 rating. There would most likely be adult language involved in the film, so the 12/12A rating would also be ruled out, therefore the 15 rating is suitable for our film.

Distribution Companies


Distribution companies are companies which is responsible for the marketing of a film, and organising when it is going to be released They are also responsible for the marketing of the film, so will create film trailers, and organise when and where the film will be advertised such as the internet or on television. Film distribution companies spend between $3.5 billion - $4 billion a year in the United States advertising films, in order to attract viewers into their film and therefore earn more money from it. They also decide on the format which the film will be released, deciding which cinemas it will be distributed to, any which countries it will be played. It will also decide whether the film is worth the risk to be aired in cinemas, or whether it will be a straight-to-DVD film. The distributor will determine which platforms the film will be released on, such as DVD Blu-ray or Netflix. In some cases, film distribution companies will also be responsible for the subtitling or "dubbing" of a film, if it is to be shown in a foreign country.

Ingredients of a Thriller


The "thriller" genre is a specific type of film which uses the key components of suspense and tension to excite the viewer. They are typically films which involve issues which are not normal in everyday life, such as 'Taken', which deals with the problems a father does as he tries to hunt down his daughters kidnapping. The suspense comes from the many intense gun fights in the film, and the ordeal the father goes through, with the audience wondering whether he is ever going to see his daughter again. This type of film is exciting to the viewer, as it is something that almost everybody watching the film has never gone through and will most likely never go through, therefore creates excitement for the viewer.


Another very famous example is the film 'Memento', which deals with a man who has amnesia and is trying to find out how his wife died. The suspense comes from the strange order of the film, which starts at the films climax, before making the sequence of events beforehand become clear to the viewer. This is a very famous and critically acclaimed film, due to the change in narrative of the film.




Thriller films typically use very suspenseful music, such as string instruments, to create a very high-pitched, uneasy tone for the viewer. This creates suspense as the viewer starts to anticipate that something very bad within the plot is going to happen. The music used is crucial in creating a successful thriller film, as music is a key theme in creating feeling within a film, and can set the tone of the scene.


Thriller films usually range from the age ranges of 12, 15 and 18, as the audience is generally a mature audience who will understand what is happening, and due to the sometimes gruesome or complex plots, which children will not like or will struggle to understand.

Planning our Thriller

We started off the lesson by deciding to plan the title of our film, and then start the storyboard plot for our film. For our title we decided to use the simple terms "political illusion", and then decided to spice it up using 'thesaurus.com'. We ended up with the brilliantly named "Constitutional Mirage". We chose this because it sums up the point of our thriller, whilst also sounding good as well.

We started to get to work on our storyboard, and started writing out what was going to happen in a couple of our scenes, as well as describing which shot types we would use. Unfortunately we came to the conclusion that we are unsure on which camera shots we will be able to shoot at our location, so will scout it out before adding anymore to our storyboard, so we can establish which shots we will use.

'Orange Is The New Black' Case Study

Utopia Series 2 Episode 6 Opening

The opening scene to Utopia is effective because it immediately sets the scene for what the rest of the episode is going to be like. It creates a shock to the reader by making the assassin discuss cutting a child’s throat to a random stranger he has just encountered. This makes the audience feel shocked by the content of the programme, but also sets up the episode for what is probably about to come, without actually using any violence what-so-ever. The use of the zoom on the assassin’s face makes the scene even more un-nerving, as it enables the audience to see the serious and fixed expression on the assassin’s face. This adds to the shock value of the opening, as it creates quite a hostile feeling to the character, and makes the audience feel uneasy. The fact that he is speaking in a public place also adds to the atmosphere, as he doesn’t care that there might be witnesses to what he is saying.

The fact that the character brushes off talking about slicing a child’s throat open as ‘chatting’ suggest to the audience that this man probably isn’t a nice person. This makes the opening sequence an effective one, because if somebody thinks that this is equivalent to a random chat, then he is pretty twisted, and will probably play a key part later in the episode. The audience can then see what the character’s personality is like, and make assumptions about him based off of this.

The music in the background is possibly the most important aspect to the atmosphere of the opening sequence. The music creates tension during the assassin’s monologue, which then makes the audience wonder what is going to happen to the woman and child, as ‘Utopia’ is a programme which features an excess of violent content. The music then abruptly stops when he pulls out his bus ticket and leaves, which immediately eases all tension. This is effective as it creates a dark and sinister atmosphere, which is what the writers were aiming for. As the music is progressing throughout it creates an uneasy feeling for the audience and adds suspense as the character progresses through his monologue.

The use of colour is also interesting in this scene, as the colours behind the defenceless woman are very bright and vivid, and the colours behind the assassin are very dark and dull. This is used to influence the audience about the feeling of the characters. The dark colours are used for the assassin as it makes him look dangerous and threatening. This adds to the emphasis of the feeling towards the character. Subtle things like this often go unnoticed and are key in creating a successful atmosphere and feeling towards characters, which may often be subconscious. They also put bright, vivid colours behind the female character to show that she doesn’t pose any threat, and is a harmful character.

The low angled shot used when he walks away makes the assassin seem threatening. This is very important, as it quickly establishes that this character is evil, and doesn’t have the best intentions at heart. This is needed quickly so that the audience are aware of the threat and danger that he possesses, so that not a lot of build-up is involved to add unnecessary length to the episode.

There is also a quite big reference to the zeitgeist in the opening sequence, as the main reason the assassin tells the woman that she should kill her child is because he will use up a lot of Carbon, which is a resource that we are using too much of. He explains this to her in the programme, and then says to kill the child so we have more Carbon. The fact that the man is relating a child’s life to a resource will make the audience feel like he has no emotions or feeling, and is an evil character. The fact that they refer to Carbon use, which is something that in the real world we are constantly reminded in the real world, gives the programme a more “real” feeling to it, so would possibly make it strike a few nerves with particular watchers, as the reference to the real world makes it more believable. This makes the opening sequence really effective, as it helps the audience to relate, and adds a touch of reality.