Our final film

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?

Our preliminary task and final product are undoubtedly worlds apart.

One of the main contributing factors to this is the timeframes in which we completed them both; our preliminary task was completed inside of a few days whilst our final product has taken us months.

During this time we have gone from picking the first idea suggested and just going out and shooting it completely spontaneously to spending time researching genres, planning out characters, and storyboarding different ideas.

This really helped us to refine our final product whereas we simply did not have time for this with our preliminary task.

Fortunately we didn’t have any continuity errors in either our preliminary task or final product as both were filmed on single days with no major events happening during the filming of each.

Thanks to the time we had for preparation we had managed to create various things, such as a storyboard, script, shotlist and such, which aided us in completing the filming of our final product swiftly; the absence of this was not an issue with our preliminary task thankfully as we needed far less footage and almost everything was improv.

When filming our preliminary task we couldn’t really film extra shots as there wasn’t many that we were sure that we wanted, however when filming our final product we ensured that we filmed way too much and often kept the camera on in-between shots (which actually led to the piggyback shot).

Our preliminary task was also my first experience in directing, and so I feel my confidence was somewhat unmotivating, however by the time we had completed this and our Resevoir Dogs opening re-make I feel that I had adapted to the role well and I can only hope that this is reflected in our final product.

Unfortunately we had to use quite an old camera for our prelimary task with an inbuilt mic and so the image and audio quality left some to be desired. However, with our final product we used a rather lovely Nikon DSLR with a Rode mic, and so image and audio quality was much improved.

Editing was another stage in which we greatly improved; with our preliminary task we only spent a maximum of 2 hours editing, however our final product has had a ton of time put into it editing, with a great deal of refinements and changes being implemented along the way.

Whilst editing our preliminary task none of us had used iMovie before, and so we were learning on the fly; however with our final product we’d had a lot more experience.

Overall I’m extremely happy with the progress I’ve made from our preliminary task to final product and that I have learnt a great deal; the overall quality is far better, the planning was far more meticulous and thought out, the ideas were refined.

I’ve now had the pleasure of directing 3 film openings and helping to edit all three, with which I feel that I have learnt a great deal about film and video production.

Evaluation question 6

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

I certainly learnt a lot about the technologies we were using whilst making this opening. I'll admit I've never done much more video editing in the past than using Windows Movie Maker (fun fact: that hasn't been updated since 2012 and you can't actually download it anymore!) and this project took me from never touching proper editing software to feeling very confident with using it. We used iMovie, which whilst certainly not as advanced as other software such as FinalCut, it was enough to do what we wanted. Being the main editor (with help from Courtney) I feel that I really learnt a lot from the software and found that by the end of post-production I was comfortable enough with it that I had started to colour grade shots, equalise audio, and other little things which help to refine the look and feel of our opening.

When we were filming I did not operate the camera much as I was directing, however I do not feel that this negatively impacted my experience overall as I'm an avid photographer (currently doing a GCSE in it alongside my A-levels), and in fact the camera we were using (Nikon D4s), is essentially the bigger, better, and much more expensive version of my current camera (Nikon D3300); and so the use of the two is identical.

I certainly learnt a lot about directing, however, as this is the first time in which I have directed a project. The main thing I took from it was that even if you're not confident yourself, you need to act as if you are and the whole thing goes by much smoother. I also learnt that some of the best ideas come up during filming, and that it's important to get those few extra shots as it could make or break the final product. For tips and advice on directing I turned back to a YouTube channel which I used to watch a lot, DSLRguide, and hearing everything from someone who's doing what I was about to do felt very reassuring.

Evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

As we had elected to have our soldier characters be stereotypical chavs, we had already addressed our target audience of 15-25 year old males and females. This was useful as it diminished the risk of having to add others which may have made the audience to simply think of them as 'token characters'. This helps our audience's engagements to the characters due to their similar ages, and would help them to relate to them throughout the film.

As an independent company we wanted to show our views on gender equality (something which has become more shown in film, such as in The Hunger Games series (2012-15)) through our film. This improves our engagement with our predominantly younger target audience (of which equality is a rapidly improving and talked about subject) and should aid both public opinion of our film as well as our production company itself.

Due to the inclusion of an opening speech in our film opening, it is clear from the start that our film will have a structure and presents to our audience clearly who they will be following and gives a brief overview of the current situation. The father-like figure of our presenter aids us here as it gives our audience someone to look up to and listen to, whilst also being able to view them as a source of humour.

Due to the military focus of our film we are more likely to attract a predominantly male audience; to counter this we ensured that we had more female characters (with one leading chav squad) to attract more females. This helps to attract a wider audience and thus we would in turn gain more profits from the film. The exclusion of the male gaze theory in our film also reduces the risk of patronising female audiences and making their counterparts in our film feel more genuine and equal to the male characters. Later in the whole film there will also be a significant 'top brass' officer, who could be a male or female; male would be more stereotypical however female would help in attracting a female audience and hopefully improving public opinion of our film.

Evaluation question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience for our film is 15-25 males and females. This is because our film revolves around teenagers within this age group, and so this audience will either be in this age group, or slightly older but still have the associated memories and such fresh in their minds.

As I found in my audience research previously -which was comprised of people almost entirely within this target audience- our target audience is mostly in favour of mockumentaries (although not often able to name many, however it is a relatively rare genre, and so this is not a concern), and many like independent films (more so than I had anticipated actually). This is reassuring as it shows from first-hand data that our target audience likes and is aware of our genre.

With the lower end of our target audience being 15 we were initially concerned about our film being unsuitable for this age range due to the military focus. However, as we developed the storyline and characters we came to the conclusion that this would not be an issue as there is little actual fighting (mostly training, covert ops, or at HQ/barracks) and that any fighting is presented in an extremely lighthearted and humouous way. The fact that our film not taking itself seriously is also useful here as it both contributes to the comedic factor of our film whilst detracting from the potentially negative effects of showing military content to younger people (thanks to this we doubt that the hypodermic needle theory would come into effect).

Evaluation question 3

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

To distribute our film we would use the internet, instead of traditional TV and Cinema. This is because it helps us reach a wider audience (as our film is aimed at a niche audience this is important as it is more important that we reach as many people as possible), is much cheaper than traditional media (as we are only an independent company we need to save money wherever possible and don't have a big budget to spend on a massive distribution company such as Universal, one of the Big 6). We also wouldn't need to have any ties to traditional media sources, and thus being a new small company won't negatively impact us. This method of distribution would also allow us to easily access our target audience -teenagers, as they are the social group known for sitting on the internet all day and so they are the most likely to be the ones to come across our film when we advertise it on social media (our planned method of advertising).

An example of a film which has been heavily distributed is A Field In England (2013), which was made available on various internet-based on-demand video services, such as Amazon video and Netflix.

Our film would be available ideally through as many internet-based on-demand video services available. The most important of these being Netflix and YouTube Movies; Netflix would attract a wider audience who are willing to watch a film however YouTube movies would earn us more money overall (fewer views but much more money per view). These are two of the top internet-based on-demand video services available internationally, and would allow us to reach our target audience.

If we had the funds available we could also create our own website with a built in player, which would allow for our audience to watch the film at the standard price for SD quality, or pay more for a full HD (1080p) video stream, or to download.

Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation question 1

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

My own institutional logo for our production company

This is the institutional logo I designed for our production company. I chose to keep it simple; only incorporating the key elements from the name into the visual side of it with a minimalist approach.

Research on institutional logos

Mainstream film companies usually have animated/moving logos. An example of this is MGM, which has featured Leo the lion in it's logo since 1924. Another example is Universal, which has had it's name orbiting earth since 1923 (when it was first pulled by a biplane!). The use of movement in these logos makes them more memorable to the audience and allows for the company to show off that they have bigger budgets with the use of CGI or in MGM's case, lions (6 to date).

 Independent film companies, however, tend to go for more simplistic and static logos. This reflects their lower budget quality over quantity approach to film-making by giving more of an understated and minimalist look. As they do not have larger budgets things such as CGI is more difficult for them to fund, and so these logos are also more economical financially for the company; allowing them to spend what little budget they have on the film itself. I chose Film4 and Lionsgate as some examples of this; Film4 being especially simple, with a minimalist two-tone look which I'm a great fan of personally.

This will help me as it outlines the key ways in which Mainstream and Independent institutions make their logos differently; giving me a clear, simple view on how I can design an institutional logo for my own company which reflects the type of institution it is more suitably.

Our production company

We will be an independent film company as our genre is very niche, and independent films target niche audiences specifically, whilst mainstream ones are much broader and thus larger. Another reason for being independent is that it will reflect the production value of our film better; we cannot afford to have big CGI sequences shot in 8K like mainstream films, but the lower resolution and simpler technologies used in independent films is perfectly suited.

This will help us as it securely fixes which type of company we will be, which will reflect different aspects of our film, such as production value and genre.

Films that have influenced me

These are some films which have influenced me. This will help me as it lets me explore some films (most of which I first saw many, many years ago) and look into why they influenced me and how this could translate to a wider audience.

Valkyrie (2008)

This film is about the final years Claus Von Stauffenberg (played by Tom Cruise); the Nazi who tried to kill Hitler. This film influenced me as it is the first which I came across which represented the stereotypical baddies as the good guys; this was a refreshing take on the conflict which I found very interesting as it was a big risk for MGM which I personally think resulted in a very good film (however critic's reviews are mixed). Although receiving relatively poor reviews, it grossed $200 million, making it the fifth highest grossing WW2 film to date.

The Wind Rises (2013)

This film is a biography of Jiro Horikoshi; a Japanese aircraft designer during WW2 and portrays his journey through design, his hatred and fear of war and his love (and eventual loss) of his wife. This film influenced me as it is a topic which has been an interest of mine for some years and it was amazing to see such a film created by the lovely Hayao Miyazaki (known most notably for My neighbour Totoro (1988)) as his final film with Studio Ghibli before his retirement. The film received great reviews and was a hit among Ghibli fans.

The Matrix (1999)

This film is a fictional depiction of a future where humans live through a computer system known as the Matrix, and follows him through his journey of escaping and putting an awful lot of trust in some people he's never met. This film influenced me as it is arguably one of (if not the) most iconic sci-fi film of all time and acted as my introduction to the genre.

Short Circuit (1986)

This film is about Johnny 5; the fifth robot in a group of experimental artificial intelligence research robots who gets electrocuted and escapes. This film has influenced me as it was one of the first films I saw which applied a great comedic value to what could be viewed as a very dark subject matter; later this led into a personal interest in satirical comedy and being naturally very sarcastic.

The most hated family in America (2007)

This film is arguably the most iconic and career-defining documentary by Louis Theroux; where he looks into the infamous WBC. This film influenced me as it was my first encounter with LGBT topics in my later childhood/early teenage years which not only helped me in realising my own personal identity but also introduced me into the world of ignorance, guided by the reassuring, loyal, and no-nonsense Louis Theroux. Despite being based on such a controversial topic it received great reviews; most probably stemming from Theroux's attitude to said topic.

A timeline of titles from a film in my chosen genre

This is a timeline of the titles from Borat (2006), It is set to the music of the Kazakhstan national anthem, which is fitting to the style of the film and puts the audience into an appropriate emotional state for the film. This will help me as it is a unique style of presenting credits, which I could use in my own film as it has proven to be effective in a well-known mockumentary.

Analysis of a film opening in our chosen genre

Tropic Thunder (2008)


Genre
Tropic thunder is a satirical action comedy/mockumentary centred around the war in Vietnam and a group of prima donna actors. The satirical side of the film is extremely prevelent, however, largely through the overdramatic scenes where one soldier is shot and another charged with a bayonet. The action and comedy sides also come across clearly through the subject matter of the film and the satirical nature of how it is presented.
Narrative
The mockumentary part of the film does not become obvious in this section of the film, however, as the film is instead set up to make the audience believe that what they are watching is the film itself, before the camera later pans around to show a crew; unveiling that this is in fact a film in a film. I like this style as it immerses the audience before and then shatters what they think is real, making them questin what is real and what is not for the rest of the film (in a similar style to Inception).
Character
The first major and most significant character (played by Ben Stiller) shown in the opening is introduced through an extremely overdramatic and laughably unrealistic escape from the enemy whist being shot with machine gun fire. This character also appears to be a parody of John Rambo, from the famous Rambo series, which debuted with Rambo: First Blood in 1982. This parody is most notable through the red bandana and inhuman resistance to bullets.
Atmosphere
The opening has a strong war/battlefield atmosphere, highlighted by soldiers, the aforementioned napalm and military vehicles, as well as diegetic gunfire and explosive sounds. However, despite his, I feel that it retains a satirical comedy style through how things such as one of the characters being shot being very intentionally overdone and unrealistic; this is clearly mocking the stern and professional style and delivery of stereotypical war films.
Setting
The film is set in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. This is very clearly shown throughout the opening, with period military uniforms, weapons and helicopters, jungle foliage, and infamous napalm; which is synonymous with the Vietnam war.
Sound

Our chosen genre and research

Mockumentaries are a form of satirical documentary, like a comedy mixed with a documentary. The earliest popular example is the 1957 BBC 'Swiss Spaghetti Harvest'. Some of their generic conventions include:

• Presenter/Voice-over narrator
• Fictional events are presented in a documentary style to create a parody
• Honest and natural nature; characters and situations are often very relatable to the target audience
• Often include 'real' footage of events and are presented to the audience as if they are real
• Often include interviews throughout like in a documentary

Mockumentary is a lesser-done yet popular genre. I know this as arguably the most well known and popular Mockumentary, Borat (2006) received good reviews and has become somewhat of an icon of the genre.

Comedies are an extremely popular genre, with such films as Deadpool (2016) and Airplane (1980) being two prominent works. These are popular as their aim is to amuse the audience, and so are usually positive in nature.

War films have been popular ever since the Second World War (where the war itself was first shown in film as it was ongoing), and the release of early popular films such as Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Saving Private Ryan (1998) sparked off the more modern Hollywood blockbuster War films.

Action has always been extremely popular film genre, with earlier films such as The Terminator (1984) sparking an entire series of films, with the latest instalment Terminator Genisys being released in 2015; proving that the series and genre is still well-known and appreciated.

Our opening re-make

This is our re-make of the opening to Resevoir Dogs. We did this as it allowed us to practise making a film opening without needing to do research, and making decisions on things such as the film genre, characters, plot etc. This meant that we could practise the main production aspects (filming, editing etc) of making a film opening in a shorter period of time; so we know which areas we are more or less confident and may need to improve on.

Differences between mainstream and independent films

This is a comparison between the key things found in Mainstream and Independent films. This will help me as it gives me a simple list of the differences between the two which I can use during the creation of my film to ensure that it fits the correct type of production company.

Mainstream

• High production value
• More/more complex technologies (such as green screens or CGI)
• Higher image quality
• Often in 3D or IMAX
• Large, broad audience
• Common, large genre
• Obvious genre
• Large, expensive marketing schemes using cross media convergence
• Broad distribution (available on DVD, Blu-ray, online, multiplex cinemas etc)
• International distribution

Independent

• Niche audience (very specific target audience)
• Specific, often ususual genre
• Genre unclear
• Gritty
• Either have a very small marketing scheme or none whatsoever (recent independent films, such as Ex_Machina (2015), have utilised social media as it is widespread and free)
• Low budget/production value
• Limited distribution (often solely on DVD, online, or in independent cinemas)
• Local or national distribution

Film openings and audiences

These are the results from a questionnaire to find out about audiences in general, as well as a few questions targeted at our chosen genre. This is useful as it tells me both a little about my audience, as well as the prevalence that our chosen genre has within this area. I surveyed 20 people, most of which were my peers, however some were older (family members, older friends etc). The youngest person I surveyed was 12, and the oldest 51, and so I had a good range of ages. The average age was somewhere around 17 (so late teenage years), and the gender ratio was fairly equal, with two more men than women.

These results tell me that most of the people I asked like films (namely comedies), most know of and like mockumentaries, however most could not name one. Most also disliked documentaries and preferred mainstream to independent films.

Making a film opening with Jelly Babies

Using Jelly Babies as our characters and post-it notes for titles we created a storyboard for the opening of a (non-existent) film. Our film was to be a supernatural thriller aimed at teenagers; to fit this we set our plotline as a group of 4 friends (one of which is disabled, hence the missing arm) at school who found a basement in one of their classrooms, which in it has all of their past teachers in zombie form.

We did this activity so that it would give us more experience in making a more detailed storyboard. It also allowed us to focus our film onto a specific target audience and make us think on the spot. These things will increase our experience and knowledge in these fields, which we can use in turn when it comes to making our own film.

Generic conventions in film openings

This is a list of common film genres and the generic conventions found in them. This will help me as it gives me a clear list of generic conventions for different genres, as well as an example of a film opening for each.

• Action 
• Fight scenes
• Weaponry
• Car chases 
• Animation
• CGI
• Usually tied in with another genre (such as family)
• Often unrealistic (inanimate objects are often given personalities) 

• Comedy
• Humour
• Light-hearted or satirical
• Sarcasm 
• Family
• U/PG rating
• Happy ending
• Information is not withheld 
• Horror
• Gore
• Violence
• Fear
• More realistic than Thriller 
• Romance 
• Love
• Usually have a happy ending
• Emotional
• War
• Military
• Weaponry
• Violence
• Often historical
• Adventure
• Journey
• Mystery
• Overcoming obstacles 
• Crime
• Detectives
• Police
• Mystery
• Illegal activity 
• Drama
• Controversy/conflict
• Real life situations
• Audience can realate to characters 
• Mystery
• Unknown
• Little information given out
• Questioning 
• Historical
• Portrays a historical event/period
• Serious or satirical (Such as a mockumentary)
• Usually as accurate as possible, within political limitations (unless satirical) 
• Sc-Fi
• Advanced tech
• Future
• Cultural change 
• Thriller
• Violence
• Gore
• Fear
• More unrealistic than Horror