Gracious R Tapa- Question 4 : Who would be the audience for your media product?

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Gracious R Tapa- Question 3 : What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

                                              

Through our audience research we found out that our target's audience's favorite movies such as ;

- The unborn - Universal

- Death Sentence - 20th Century Fox

and also our personal preference were more mainstream rather than independant and they are more likely to watch movies made by institutions they knew. As our film is mainstream in order to appeal to a wider audience and it explores universal issues, i feel that film institutions such as the ones above are more likely to distribute our film rather than independant institutions. Although our film could work as an independant i feel as the stereotypes and thriller conventions used are more likely to fit mainstream. Our thriller has a conventional narrative/plot rather than being character driven and also an accessible subject matter which makes our film successful in appearing as a mainstream product.  

Gracious R Tapa- Question 2 : How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gracious R Tapa- Evaluation Question 1 : In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

The Title of the film :

 

- For our Title 'Bound To-get-her'  , we chose to conform to the media thriller title conventions as we are appealing to a more mainstream audience. After conducting our product research, we discovered that red and black are colours mostly used in thrillers as they contain strong symbolism behind them.We chose to have a black background as it is a powerful colour which evokes strong emotions and a feel of emptiness. Black is the colour most commonly associated with secrets, power, violence, evil and the end,which is why we thought it would work well within our thiller opening. We then used red as although red is commonly used to represent blood and death, we figured we could use it for the other meaning behind it which is passion,infatuation and fire.

 

Setting /Location

 

- Our opening was shot in 2 main locations, those being the toilets and a drama room. We overall wanted to create a feel of emptiness and isolation, and those 2 locations enabled us to achieve that ambience. We were able to manipulate the lighting in both locations to create the conventional dark lighting seen in thrillers. The gory suspenseful thriller 'Saw' had quite alot of dark lighting and is normaly set in 1 claustrophobic location which we thought we could echoe. We managed to  achieve the dark lighting by using black cloths and the built in lighting in the drama room. 

 

Props

 

 - As directors we chose to keep the props/mise en scene and the use of dialogue to a minimum in order to avoid complications and also focus of the acting and camera work. As our opening  is set in a school, we had to make sure that the constumes and the mise en scen communicated that. We had the female protagonist in her school uniform indicating her role and age, we also then had the janitor in a janitor's costume to correspond with his role as well as a trolly. The most important prop we used in the opening was the set of keys, which are also used in thrillers such as 'The Skeleton Key' . Keys represent power and allow you freedom but can also be used to lock and unlock secrets that you want to keep hidden, and we incoorperated them to portray that the female protagonist might be the Janitor's secret he wants to keep away from the world around him until he's ready to give her the keys for her to be able to unlock her future and fulfil her purpose.

 

Camera work and editing

 -The conventional camera shots and movement used in thrillers are
              
               
- Close ups for example in Hitchcock's psycho







- Pov shots for example in kill bill


 

- By using our Storyboards to plan a variation of shots, we were able to use camera movements and angles such as tilts, pans, close ups and canted angles to keep the movement in our opening constant to ensure that it didnt become too repetitive and kept the audience engaged.

-Inspired by thrillers such as Shutter Island, Psycho and Seven we realised that we should not use too many long shots but instead to vary our shots and correspond them with the pace of the action. In post Production we found we had many long shots so we had to chose the best parts and cut them down, aswell as incude smooth transitions such as dissolve to make it more fluid.

 

Title Font and Style

 

- After doing some title research on the fonts and style for titles we decided to use a shattered and distorted font to represent the relationship between the characters. The font idea was similar to 'The Grudge' font which we altered and made our own. we did alot of research on the type of font and style we wanted and tried to insert complex and higly appealing animations to the font however we ran out of time and we still had not managed to perfect our skills on after effects. Therefore we went for a much more simpler font, style and animation.

 

Story and how the opening sets it up

 

our storyline is about a girl who gets bullied and a janitor kidnaps her in order to mentor her to get revenge on those who hurt her but at the end you can see the stockholm syndrome taking place. Our opening sets it up by :

- establishing the characters

- introducing us to the set and location the movie is going to be shot in

- and giving the audience an insight into the storyline through symbolism, and signs but in an ambiguous way therefore the audience can piece the pieces together.

 

Genre and how the opening suggests it

 

Our opening suggests the thriller Genre as elements such as these resemble those of a thriller :

- The dark, distorted music suggests that of a thriller as it foreshadows the trouble ahead. This is seen in thrillers such as Seven

- The dark and contrasting lighting, creating mystery and creating a dark atmosphere, suggesting the dark path ahead

- and the isolated , confined locations which represent abandonment and loss of hope aswell as help

 

How Characters are introduced

 

- in the beginning of the opening, the camera pans and finds a distraught small girl looking in the mirror. This hints to the audience that the story will centre around her, the flashbacks are then used so the audience get an insight on what she's been through and the abuse she's suffered. We then see a tracking shot of a man walking away from the camera but his face is not revealed until he looks in on the little girl in the bathroom. The fact that this man looks into a little girl suggests his psychologically disturbed nature and tells the audience that a relationship between these two characters is going to be formed.

 

 

Media Evaluation VII - Anissa Daud

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

I feel that since the beginning up until now, I have managed to learn quite a lot.

For one thing, I have most definitely learnt the importance of teamwork and how it is crucial that all members of the group are not only focussed, but also that they are able to co-ordinate well with each other. I feel that, on the whole, we've managed to work well and co-operate with each other.

From the technological point of view, I feel that I have learnt a variety of invaluable new skills regarding software such as iMovie, Adobe After Effects, etc. and that these will help me in future endeavours.

One of the most important things that I feel we have managed to grasp as a group is time management - we learnt the importance of prioritising different aspects of the project and, although we ran out of time for some things, we feel that overall we've done a good job.

Another thing is that we have learnt how there are a lot of things that need to be almost-perfect in order to make a scene look the best that it can - mise-en-scene was thankfully not too big a problem, however, we did find slight troubles with framing things as accurately as possible. Additionally, we learnt how to properly utilise all of the filming equipment, which had previously been an issue during the Preliminary Task.

Overall, I am satisfied with the output and I feel that there have been a lot of lessons and skills learnt between the initial Preliminary Task and the Final Piece.

Media Evaluation VI - Anissa Daud

Media Evaluation V - Anissa Daud

Question V: How did you attract/address your Audience?

The fact that the protagonist is a teenager already helped to attract the audience, due to the fact that the target audience is also around the same age range as Sophie. Additionally, we've tried to tackle issues that would undoubtedly allow our audience to relate - although the kidnapping element of the film is one that is slightly unrealistic, the theme of bullying is an issue which is quite prominent within our clip and this helps our Target Audience relate considering the fact that they will have come across this issue during some point of their teenage years.

To further attract our audience, we have carefully selected the location to be on school grounds - this again ensures that our audience is able relate to the Opening.

Media Evaluation IV - Anissa Daud

Question IV: Who Would be the Audience?

We had two methods of carrying out our Audience Research:

• A Vox Pop
• Questionnaires 

Through both of these methods, we were given an outline of who we wanted to target the Opening at and also, it gave us a bit of an inkling as to what sort of issues and topics should be addressed within the Opening. 

Results from the Audience Research showed that the majority age range was that between 16-25. This then meant that we were addressing young, mature adults and so there could be slightly more explicit content shown and more violent/mature themes that we were able to address within the Opening. 

There are quite a few points within the Opening where we have tried to incorporate some of the Audience Responses. For example, most of the respondents had stated that what attracted them most to a Thriller film was the dark, mysterious lighting. We therefore ensured that we had some scenes which had been filmed in dark lighting, such as the scene where the protagonist has been kidnapped and locked away.

Media Evaluation Question 3 - Anissa Daud

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

The feedback from our Audience Research showed that our target audience was a lot more familiar with more mainstream Directors and films. Consequently, we decided that our film would be best suited for Mainstream audiences, due to the fact that we include a lot of stereotypes that the more mainstream film industry also include within their films.

An independent film, such as David Lynch's Eraserhead, breaks the regular 'mould' of traditional stereotypes and although we subvert some representations, we do not think that our film would be suitable for a more niche audience.

In terms of the company that may distribute our film, we feel that a company such as 20th Century Fox or Universal would be good options as they are some of the leading mainstream distributors, on a global scale.

 

 

Media Evaluation Question 2 - Anissa Daud

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

Considering that our target audience was aged  15-20, we thought that they would be able to relate to some extent with our protagonist, who is a young school girl.
In our Final Piece, we have adhered to some stereotypical representations of one or two social groups, we have also tried to challenge some of these representations within our Project.


1. The Kidnapper:

Conventionally, kidnappers are seen to be the most elusive and ostracised member of society. They often choose their victims spontaneously and follow them for quite a period of time before actually abducting them.

We have tried to portray the Janitor in a similar manner, through introducing him only partially and never revealing his entire face, until the end of the opening. We have also challenged this representation, as this character is not wholly "bad" - he is a shaded character, which we feel would be something a little unexpected for our audience to witness.

 

 

2. Students & Teenagers:

 

Typically, when teenagers are presented in the "victim" role, they tend to be portrayed as weak, vulnerable and small. We have adhered to this representation by casting someone who fits this description reasonably well. This representation would also enable our audience to feel sympathetic towards her as these events take place.

 

In these two shots, the vulnerability and innocence of the young girl is emphasised.

 

 

3. The Janitor

 

Conventionally, Janitors are quite underrated within films. The only "breakthrough" roles of a Janitor can be seen in The Breakfast Club, where the other characters and the audience realise that he knows a lot more than he lets on.

 

'I look through your letters, I look through your lockers...I listen to your conversations, you don't know that but I do...I am the eyes and ears of this institution my friends.'  - These lines are quite fitting to our character as well, because although he does not say much, he does, in fact, know everything that goes on within the school.

This kind of a representation would be surprising for audience, as such characters are not shown that often in films.

 

The Janitor in The Breakfast Club

 

4. The Bullies | The Victims

 

Teenage bullies typically represent the "bad" side of teenagers; i.e. the violent, cruel, harsh and rebellious kind. Our bully fits in well into this representation, as she is tormenting Sophie for no valid reason. What little of her clothing can be seen shows that, unlike Sophie, she is not wearing the correct uniform, with a leather jacket.  

                    



The look of our bully takes inspiration from this character, from Waterloo Road

 

 

The role of the victim is stereotypically that of them being meek, easily intimidated & as having a much smaller frame & physique as compared to the bully. We have adhered to these representations, as our protagonist is quite small and looks quite fragile. Additionally, the fact that she is wearing glasses adds to her image of "innocence".

 

We feel that these representations are something that our mostly-teenage audience would relate, or sympathise with.