Final Film

Final Film

Cameron Eade

Evaluation: Question 7

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Ryan Moore

Evaluation: Question 6

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

Camera- Due to me already having lots of experience in video filming and editing we decided to use my camera equipment as we felt the quality we could get from it could be better. I taught Cameron and Ryan many things such as their way around the camera and how to use it etc.

Editing - Due to me already having editing experience I played a key role in this process. I did a majority of the editing as it is hard telling somewhere where to click and when etc.. Ryan and Cameron watched over me so they could pick up skills for when they did some of the editing. Overall we all learned skills in the Final Cut Pro program.

As a group we all used 'YouTube' many times when creating our film opening. When we were researching film openings as a group within in similar genres and titles research we used YouTube. The group also used YouTube when we uploaded our first rough cut of our film opening and the final draft

'Blogger' was the most used technology used by the group when creating our film opening.We used it for both out group blogs as well as our own personal blogs. It allowed us to create posts quickly and easily due to its simpleness.

Overall as a group we used many different types of technology. To create the final draft of 'Decorum' all of these programmes and software had to be used to help the film opening come together. 

Tom Free

Evaluation - Question 4&5

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I feel that the ideal age for our target audience would be between the ages of 15+. This is due to the fact it is a futuristic film and they will want a hindsight of what we have predicted will happen in the future. 15 is a good age as at this age you should be able to have a better understanding of the narrative. The gender target would be boys and girls. It will slightly be slanted towards the boy side due to the non-stereotypical aspect of a girl performing a crime. Boys often like to watch films related to crime and having a good looking girl character may also attract them to watching the film. The reason girls would go and watch it, is due to the fact it is a girl as the main character and may feel they can relate to them.

A current film that is available which is similar to ours I would suggest is Children Of Men. I say this because it is also based in the future and has relation to government laws etc. The film was based in 2027 in a chaotic world. Women are seen to become somehow fertile and a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea. Although very different narratives, the theme of the film and relation to government is the reason why I suggested this film.

From audience planning an research, they also agreed that a 15+ would be a good age range for our film. They also said that the narrative and genre of our film in very rateable and is something that the would happily pay to go and watch. 

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

For our audience to be attracted to come and watch our film, we would have to make sure that we would advertise for this film which would be relate able for our target audience. We thought that a good way to advertise would be through social media. This is a cheap and easy way to advertise our film. There are millions of people at the age range of 15+ who are on social media and spend over three hours a day looking at it. A reason the audience would be attracted is due to our main Character being a girl. Girls will feel they can relate you her scenario she is in and feels that this world is going downhill and we spend to much time on social media. A big thing that may appeal to the older age range is the government side of the film. Being have many political views on how the government is run and watching this film may cause them to express their opinion on how the feel about government actions. Overall, both genders would want to watch the film of a younger age as social media is the next big thing and everyone feels that it has an impact on them. This film may change minds on how the feel about it which is another narrative we are trying to put across. 

To make our character to look dominant for our audience, we made sure we had a lot of close up shots and tried to make sure she was included in every frame whether it be walking or sitting down. We want the audience to put themselves in the position of our main character and think how the would feel in that current situation. We would want them to ask themselves if they would listen to government laws or rebel like our character. A big statement that comes from this film is that it is a girl that is committing an offence be rebelling against government law. It is not common that a girl would do this and is more related to boys doing so. A generic convention of crime thriller would be a dominant male. In our scenario we have a dominant female. We wanted to do this to attract the female audience and give them a sense of power and importance. 

Ryan Moore 

Evaluation: Question 3

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

Our film would be distributed solely on the Internet as a digital download.

Our film would be sold through media market giants such as the Apple iTunes Platform as well as the Amazon Prime Instant Video Platform. You may question why it is not being distributed on sites such as Netflix etc. this is because they do not have a paid movies section. All the movies available through Netflix come with the monthly fee paid. However, iTunes have no monthly fee but the moves are either rented or owned, and amazon have a monthly fee to watch Amazon Prime content but you have to pay an additional fee to watch the movie.

We chose this path of distribution for multiple reasons. The first being that financially we cannot afford to distribute our movie to a cinema or picture house. our film may not appeal to as many people as we believe and therefore it will not get the returns. This again would put us in financial difficulty. and secondly, our film is targeted at 15-35 year olds as many of them would use social media so advertising is key. They would also much rather watch a film online than go out to a cinema as it is instant and they can watch it whenever they want. Usually people go to the cinema with others and overall it works out more then buying/renting the film from an online service such as iTunes or Amazon Prime.

Tom Free

Evaluation: Question 2

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film, we portray girls to look rebellious, this is slightly non stereotypical as usually girls are meant to well behaved and do as they are asked. However in our film, the female character is disobeying or attempting to disobey government laws. We have chosen to do this as it shows a different side and wanted to go against the stereotype. Our film is predominantly from a female’s point of view throughout the film, however we didn't want to show only females, so to contrast we decided to use a male to play our news reporter just to split up gender. Therefore we represented gender in both a stereotypical and non-stereotypical way as we had the male character dressed in a suit and looking professional which is what is expected.

Gender is shown in our clip through the use of different characters. For example, we use both a male and female character within our film. This was done to create contrast. We used the female character for our role of the rule breaker as we felt we were able to show women in a different way, as they usually aren't seen breaking the rules. The clothing we used for our male character are also stereotypical as men are often dressed smart or in suits, this worked well for us because it made our character look professional and appropriate for his role within the film.

The News reporter in our film connotes professionalism. He is seen to be wearing clothes that are associated with those in the same profession as him. This shows that are character is correctly dressed for the role he has in our film. When filming our news report we used a medium shot of our character producing a news report in the centre of town, we chose to do our news report there as we felt it would be more effective to show people in the background, especially as the news report was about the government placing a new law in which people could only socialise through social media.

Age is shown non stereotypically in our film, this is because the people that we have used for our film are both 17. However the male character we have used we have tried to portray him to look older as his role with in the film requires him to be a little bit older than he is. We have done that by making sure that he is dressed smart which we believed makes him look older than he actually is. When casting for this job role one of the things we were looking for was facial hair as again that would make them look older and be able to play an adult role better.
The main character in our film was a female and we showed her point of view whenever she was in the was in the scene. The use of the over the shoulder shot we did when the girl was watching the television showed that it was from her point of view.

I feel that our film links quite nicely to our target audience, our film is aimed at teenagers between 12 - 18. It is accurate for our target audience because our main character is a teen and they are able to relate to our film much more than if our main character was aged 30. I would say as our film is from a females point of view it may be more specifically aimed at female teenagers as it could appeal to them more, however I would say that because of our government law storyline it also appeals to the male teenage audience.

Cameron Eade

Evaluation: Question 1

Question 1

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

Annotated Video

Annotations that are in the video

Before filming our final piece, it was important for us to do some research on the generic conventions that are used in sci-fi/crime/thriller films. We did this because it was a necessary or us to include those conventions within our film otherwise we wouldn't have been able to access high marks. Another reason why we did some research was so that we were able to get more knowledge on the genre and so that we were able to get some ideas for our film.

Titles

When deciding on what titles to have it was important that we researched title sequences before we actually started looking at different titles to use. This was because we needed to ensure that they were fit for purpose and went with our genre. It was also necessary for us to research the way in which the titles came in and the order in which they came on screen. For this we watched several different title sequences in order to work out the order for us to use when doing our titles. When looking at title sequences it was important for us to look at both mainstream and independent in order for us to look at both and the differences between them so that when it came to doing our titles we were able to show a difference between institutions. We also looked at the designs of institutional logos so that when it came to doing ours we had some ideas and again so we could make one fit for our institution (Independent). When doing our fonts for our titles we looked at Inception as the films genre is fairly similar.

The Product

Our media product uses the forms of generic conventions of real media products as it follows similar traits of real media products such as generic conventions in our chosen genre. For example we tried our best to find non diegetic sound that was similar to a sci-fi film opening such as Inception. We also looked at different camera shots with in our genre and used some of them in our film opening, such as the establishing shot like in Ant Man. Most film openings begin with an establishing shot and it is done to set the scene and inform the audience of the location of the film. One of our main aims for our film was to really bring across the futuristic aspect of our film as one of the genres we looked at was sci-fi. Our way of doing so, was to change the way in which people are able to communicate which would potentially upset a lot of people. From our protagonists point of view we were able to show that and bring across to the audience how the government law would affect people. A common generic convention for a thriller was to include close ups and therefore in our film opening we chose to use a close up as we felt that the audience would really be able to feel how the protagonist was feeling at that moment in time.

Challenge Conventions and forms of real Media Products

When creating our film opening we tried to ensure that we kept to the typical conventions and forms of other media products in order to make sure that our film delivered what it is supposed to and shows a genre and narrative that is easy enough to follow.

Influences from other films

I believe that the research we have done on film openings meant that we were in a good position to create our own film opening and use what we had learnt/research to make a product of good quality. By doing research on different topic areas within film opening it has helped us to really focus on what makes a good film opening  and then we were able to use some of these ideas and conventions in order to create our own media product. For example, by looking at the title sequence of Inception we were then able to use a font which we felt showed the genre well and looked professional and fit for purpose. Also with the title it meant we were able to position them appropriately and ensure that they were in the correct order to create something that followed the film opening guidelines. We made our own story line up and chose our own shots for our film so I feel that the only real influences from other films was for the titles within in our film opening.

Cameron Eade 

Rough Cut 1 - Feedback

Rough Cut 1 - Feedback

Feedback
Please put rough cut one onto your group blog (embed it) and add the following feedback underneath:

What worked well:
* News report is good and believable
*Film title font looks brilliant
*The scrolling through the phone and likes is excellent - lovely shot
* Good non-diegetic sound (is it non-copyright?)

Even Better If:
* You use your own footage throughout the film opening
* Make the narrative clearer - you don;t need the section at the beginning with Ryan
* You need titles in there
* You show the narrative clearly to your audience



Please act on this advice ready for your rough cut 2 and final film

Cameron Eade

Notes On Who Our Target Audience Is And Reasons Why?

Our Target Audience

We would like our target audience to ask themselves questions during our film. This to ask themselves if the can relate to the film and really think if this could be the future of our generation. We need to be able to give the right effect on the audience through enigma for them to enjoy and understand our storyline. We also want to be able to put message into the audience head so they are cannot resit to keep watching the film. This can be done by text shown during the film and for them to take their on interpretation of the message we are trying to put across.   



Audience Theories Used For The Reason Behind Our Target Audience

The Uses and Gratifications Model

The Uses and Gratifications Model is where the audience is active and the audience uses the text rather than being used by it. The audience uses the text for their own gratification and pleasure. In this theory, power is in the audience hands rather than the producers. This theory is also know to emphasise what audiences do with media texts regarding how and why they use them. Far from being fed by the media, the audience is free to reject, use or play with media meanings as they see fit.

The Enigma Code 

Enigma codes allow the audience to question certain aspects of a film. Within film, the use of the enigma is much more common in the horror and drama genres. These are films that rely strongly on suspense to generate the right effect on the audience, and enigma codes help to enhance this.

The Hypodermic Model

The Hypodermic Model is where messages in media texts are injected into the audience by the powerful, syringe-like, media. This means that the audience is powerless to resist. Therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is drugged, addicted and doped.

Ryan Moore

Rough Film Title Order

Rough Film Title Order

This will be completed when rough cut 2 has been uploaded.

Cheetah Productions Presents
Decorum
Grace Emmet
Conor Boughen
Tom Free
Cameron Eade
Ryan Moore

Cameron Eade

Costumes

Costumes

We only have 2 main characters in our film.

Conor ( News reporter) will be wearing a suit. This is because he needs to look professional and older to suit his role of being a news reporter.

Due to all of Grace's scenes being inside, she needs to look as if she is relaxing at home. She therefore will be wearing lounging clothes such as tracksuit bottoms and a jumper.

Tom Free

Timeline from chosen genre

Timeline of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

5 - Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwin-Mayer Pictures Present

9 - A Scott Rudin / Yellow Bird Production

11 - A David Fincher Film

15 - Daniel Craig

18 - Rooney Mara

20 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

25 - Christopher Plummer 

28 - Stellan Skarsgard

33 - Steven Berkoff

36 - Robin Wright

39 - Yorick Van Wageningen

43 - Joely Richardson

50 - Geraldine James

1.02 - Goran Visnic

1.05 - Donald Sumpter

1.08 - Ulf Friberg

1.13 - Casting by Laray Mayfield

1.18 - Costume Designer Trish Summerville

1.21 - Co-Producers Berna Levin / Eli Bush

1.24 - Sound Design by Ren Klyce

1.27 - Music by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

1.30 - Editors Kirk Baxter A.C.E / Angus Wall A.C.E

1.33 - Production Designer Donald Graham Burt

1.38 - Directors of Photography Jeff Cronenweth A.S.C

1.46 - Executive Producer / Steven Zaillian / Mikael Wallen / Anni Faurbye Fernandez 

1.49 - Produced by / Scott Rudin / Ole Sondberg / Soren Starmose / Cean Chaffin

1.53 - Based on the book by Stieg Lasson / Originally published by Norstedts

2.08 - Screenplay by Steven Zaillian

2.20 - Directed by David Fincher

Consent Forms

Consent Forms

Cameron Eade

Props

Props

The props that we are using for our film are a mobile phone and a mic. We felt that by using less props it would be easier for us and we wanted to show our film through acting more so than through props, as if there were too many props involved then it could easily distract the eye of the audience. The two props we used were both very important and beneficial for us to use. Firstly, we used the microphone when creating our very own news report. We felt that by using the mic we would be able to make the news report much more believable and professional which was our immediate aim. We were lucky that a member of our group had the necessary equipment required for this an that we were able to use this prop as I feel it adds to our film. The other prop we used for our film was the mobile phone and this was an essential item for us as our whole idea and story is based around a phone and technology, so this was something that had to be included.

Cameron Eade

Casting & Audition Ideas

Casting & Audition Ideas

When casting our actors we were already aware of what we were looking for, this was an advantage for us as we knew what we were after and had our idea of the ideal actor in our heads. When doing the auditions we auditioned 3 boys and 3 girls for the two roles that we had. We had a role for a news reporter which we wanted a male to play and our other role was for a rebellious female, in which we had the 3 females to audition for. Once we held our auditions, the three of us went away and discussed who were believed would be best for the roles we had. As we knew the 6 people the casting made things a little bit easier as we were able to judge them on what we see of them in day to day life. When making our final decision it came down to, how the people auditioning had dressed, someone who would be able to cope with acting in front of us and whether they would be able to co-operate to the best of their ability.

In the end we chose Conor Boughen and Melissa Cindil, which we believed was the best decision for our film.

Cameron Eade

Characters in our film & why we selected them

Characters in our film & why we selected them

Conor Boughen
Conor is an extremely well spoken young man. He has the ability to present himself in a very superior way as well as carrying some sort of natural acting skill with him. We have selected him on multiple small things as well such as the amount of facial hair he has. This implies that he is older and therefore he suits the roll of this news presenter very well. He also had perks such as the ability to wear a suit in a professional way once again increasing our likelihood of selecting him due to it being one of the key pieces of clothing wear a news presenter would wear.







Grace Emmet
Grace is an extremely smiley young lady. She has the ability to act brilliantly and even though there is no narrative from her in our film the looks she gives and the ways she acts are perfect. She suits our target character brilliantly due to her age and looks. Even though she didn't have a lot of acting experience she performed brilliantly in her audition and therefore is our selected actor for the main character.














Tom Free

Initial Shot List

Initial Shot List

Cameron Eade