Evaluation - Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We decided to stick to certain conventions of thrillers and appeal to what the audience knows and will therefore enjoy. It is also a genre that is popular with our target audience; therefore this will also gain their attention. However we also challenged and changed some conventions in order to create further interest and curiosity among the viewers. We also drew on people’s likes, fears and real life experiences.

As our opening sequence is a thriller, we mainly tried to create suspense to interest the audience. We built it up to the moment in the sequence where we intended for the audience to be shocked. We also tried to achieve suspension of disbelief and get the audience into the world of the film. We wanted them to see it as realistic as possible.

We then wanted to build up the audience’s anticipation as the protagonist leaves the house. The audience is now aware that he is the villain, but become anxious as to what’s he going to do and who’s it going to happen to.

We also wanted the audience to ask questions and therefore to create and build up enigma in order to interest the people into watching the rest of the film. This was successful as many of our audience at the screening commented that they would be interested in watching the rest of the film. Also many wanted to know why he was carrying out these murders, which would be revealed later on in the movie.

Everyone fears a serial killer. Our main character is killing innocent people for a decision that wasn’t made lightly and was out of their control (deserting him during a battle.) There is this notion of realism that it is actually possible for this to happen to someone and for them to be so deeply affected by a certain experience that it changes them forever. It is also ironic that he joined the army to prevent further upset and worked as a team with these people who he is now killing for revenge.

In the market, there have been a lot of films released relating to war such as Apocalypse Now (1979) and Saving Private Ryan (1998) and we therefore thought we’d use this theme but add a twist to it. I thought this interesting take on it and overall film image would appeal to people.

As the main storyline involves actions that have taken place as part of a recent issue; the war, we thought it would relate to people who have had real life experiences in the war and understand how that may affect people and cause them to do things that they normally wouldn’t do.

We also drew on what the audience knew and therefore made the setting of our opening sequence familiar and realistic. It is in an ordinary suburban house which many people will be able to relate to.

Overall I think we successfully addressed our audience and attracted them to watch our film.

Evaluation - Question 4

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

The primary target audience that we have aimed our media product at is:

• People of ages 17-30.
• Both genders – we originally thought it would appeal to males more as it is stereotypically a ‘male genre.’ However after we conducted our audience screening, the feedback that we received was positive from both gender and the majority of males and females said they would watch the rest of the films.
• Of all ethnicities, but mainly British audiences as it is more familiar to them.

We chose this range because we believe the film will appeal to a younger audience as they can relate to the main character and the themes and topics of the film as they are recent and modern (Iraq War.)

From audience research, we discovered that younger generations of people tended to like psychological thrillers and intriguing plots, and we therefore decided to base our age around this similarity in interests and therefore draw on what they know. This was also proven in our audience screening of 15-17 year olds where the majority were interested in the film.

At the start we believed the audience may have been slightly older, however as our plot progressed and we began to make changes, such as making the protagonist an ex soldier, we changed it as we think it will appeal to this core audience more which was proven in the feedback at the audience screening.

Our secondary audience is:

• Both genders aged 16-35.
• We chose this wider audience as we believe anyone with interests in the theme of our film would be interested at these ages and of any gender – people interested in war-themed films, but this is with a twist (attracting niche audience). Also people that have actually participated in the war (majority men.)
• We also believe our film could appeal to families as it has an interesting storyline and all generations of people would understand it.

Evaluation - Question 3

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

As our film is a low budget student production it would struggle to achieve a place for viewings in large chain cinemas. It is not really blockbuster material as it doesn’t have that image normally associated with blockbuster movies. It is therefore likely to be distributed on a much smaller scale. Without much exposure, it would struggle to gain a cult status (where the film is low budget but successful), however there is a possibility of this being achieved.

The type of media institution that would consider distributing our film would be a distributor such as Dogwoof. It’s a UK based film distributor and “is renowned for supporting independent film in non-traditional ways.”http://www.dogwoof.com/

They have set up Dogwoof Indie http://www.dogwoof.com/indie/ “to support independent filmmakers and promote fresh talent in the film industry.” They launched it after the success of a film and now aim for Hybrid Distribution (cinema, DVD and internet VOD).
They help filmmakers by giving them direct access to professional film distribution services and offer “a choice of the services they need, whilst letting them retain the rights to their film, controlling costs, and actually having the chance of seeing revenues and profits.”

Another example of a potential distributor is Guerilla Films http://www.guerilla-films.com They have continued to support British and Irish films through distribution and intend to increase their output over the next few years. They are happy to consider any completed film looking for UK distribution, especially British or Irish ones.

The distributor plays a really important role in the film industry. It offers exposure for films and gains larger audiences to improve how successful it is. Once the film is delivered, the distributor determines the release strategy and release date. The distributor then presents the film to exhibitors and negotiates agreements to have the film shown in cinemas. They then develop a marketing campaign to interest the target audience and then launches the film. Our film could be shown at independent cinemas, such as the Phoenix cinema in East Finchley. It offers regular events, festivals and one-off screenings which would be ideal for distributing our film as we could have a one night screening at a student film festival for example. This would be most likely to attract other students, scouts for young filmmakers, people interested in the genre (thriller) and generally local people attracted to watch the film. From this, it would help generate further interest, and if successful, there could be additional screenings more regularly for an extra few days.

However it could also be at a film festival such as Exposures, the UK’s largest festival of student image work, which takes place every year in Manchester. Another example is Screentest, a UK’s National Student Film Festival that helps promote student films and film-makers throughout the UK. Every year they host a three-day film festival in Bristol, with celebrity speakers, screenings, workshops and an awards ceremony. This would probably be the easiest way to screen our film; however the distributor may be able to gain interest from old, independent cinema such as Phoenix Cinema which is likely to appeal to a wider audience.

Another method that could be used to distribute our film would be the internet. This method is a lot cheaper and can achieve popularity quickly through word of mouth. The internet is also a cheap way to market our film and get more people attending the viewings. An example is http://www.undergroundfilm.com/ who concentrates on independent film distribution through the internet. They intend to “create a digital film library with the widest breadth of content possible and broaden exposure by making hard-to-find works available through Internet distribution.

Our Production Company – Unplugged Productions
would make mostly independent films on a low budget, similar to ours. There it is most likely trying to reach people locally and possibly nationally. However as it is an independent British film it would not make sense to try and distribute it on an international scale.

Evaluation - Question 2

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

Our media product focuses on a few certain social groups. This includes young males and soldiers currently in the war, over-protective mothers and news reporters.

Characters commonly associated with the thriller genre would be the male villain and killer. An example is Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), a young male psychological affected and killing people dressed as his dead mother. The main character in our opening sequence is:

• White, British male
• Young, aged 24 years old
• Occupation – recent ex soldier in the Iraq War
• Still obsessed with the war – get the sense that he hasn’t left his experience behind and has affected him irreversibly. This is shown in the fact that he still dresses in army clothes, has photos related to it and refers to the war during phone conversation.
• He appears normal, but is mentally unstable
• We are made aware from the opening sequence that this man was originally a hero in the eyes of society as he had recently taken part in the Iraq war and received a war medal. However, the audience soon find out later on in the film that his fellow soldiers let him down by deserting him during a battle and leaving him to die. This experience has made him revengeful and now this hero has a twisted mind and it’s his participation and experience in the war that has turned him into this villain. This is therefore breaking conventions and exposing the darker side of the war and its negative effects that can effect one’s mental health

Other social groups that are represented are the stereotypical, over-protective mothers. This is shown in the protagonist’s responses in the phone conversation. We are made aware that the mother is anxious about her son’s safety due to the recent killings and the pattern forming from this of war soldiers being murdered. Her anxiety and concern is a complete contrast to the killers as she is unaware that it is in fact her own son committing these crimes.

During our search for someone to do the voice over for the news report on the television, we had to take a lot of factors into consideration. The person had to represent and be similar to real news reporters. We made a decision to use a man’s voice as we wanted the story to sound as serious, intense and powerful as possible. In order for the person to be suitable for the role, they had to be able to speak as clearly and as comprehensible as possible, with no comical effect.

Setting:
We chose to place our main character in an ordinary house in the suburbs of London. It’s not overly-furnished and appears completely average to reinforce the image of a single, middle-class man that lives alone and therefore adds to the realism.

Overall I think our film opening sequence represents particular social groups effectively and therefore appeals to people, especially those who belong to these social groups.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

Our film opening sequence follows the forms and conventions of real opening sequences, but it also challenges and develops some of these conventions. ‘Remembrance’ is based around the genre of a psychological thriller; however it has aspects of horror due to the murders that will be committed. We therefore constructed an opening sequence using some conventions of these genres to make it familiar and recognisable for the audience. However, we wanted to keep the genre fairly unknown to the audience until the end, when they get a shock.

Our opening sequence follows the same form of most openings by:

• Introducing the main character
• Introducing the narrative
• Indicating the themes
• Including titles throughout
• Incorporating music
• Having a visual reference to the film title.

Despite the fact that our opening sequence follows the conventions of the forms of opening sequences, it has its own style. Throughout our opening sequence there are several hints as to the themes of our film which are similar to many themes of other thriller/horror films.

Typical themes include:
Murder
Revenge
Mental illness
Jealousy
Obsession
Fear

Our film follows many of these conventions with some illustrated in our opening sequence. Common themes include murder, revenge and mental illness. Ours is a combination of these, with murder being extremely obvious in our opening sequence. It is shown in the newspaper articles, telephone conversation and the news broadcasting on the television. This is used as the solution to revenge which is also hinted at and will become much more obvious later on in the film. This is common in other psychological thrillers such as Memento (2000) where the film centres on this theme. Mental illness is also a large part of our film as our protagonist has been affected mentally by his experiences and this has caused his to commit these murders. This theme is also common in Psycho (1960) with Norman Bates who is psychologically affected.

The other major theme that the audience is likely to notice is that of war and battle, which isn’t that common in thrillers or horrors and therefore challenges conventions. This starts immediately from the beginning where we hear non-diegetic sound of gun shots, bombs and screaming. This theme is continued throughout with the characters costume; green shirt over white top, camouflaged trousers in wardrobe, dog tags. We were inspired from films such as Jarhead (2005) for the stereotypical image of a war soldier. There are also the newspaper articles and images concerning the modern issues of the Iraq War. This is also shown in the close-up pan across the shelf where there is a photo of the main character in military uniform, a war medal (to suggest a hero) and a photo of his battalion with some faces circled in red and others crossed out (to signify death and murder). This is when the audience may realise that he is the murderer and out for revenge but are again made confused when the main character has a conversation on the phone with his mother who is unaware.

Our film challenges the conventions of typical thriller movies with regards to characterisation. The main character plays a hero and villain. In the eyes of society and everyone around him, even his mother, he has done a heroic deed by participating in the Iraq War. We make the audience feel sympathy for him at the start while he is having his nightmare. The audience believe the war, his experiences and what he has seen has affected him deeply, made him unsettled and disrupted his life. However, as he goes about his daily routine, the audience soon seem to notice that his heroic gesture has had an even worse effect on him and has twisted his mind, affecting him mentally. This is seen when he grins at the news broadcasting of a murdered soldier nearby. This could be an example of the ‘false hero’ character role, as identified by Propp with regards to narrative theory. Thriller movies conventionally have a hero and a villain. We have incorporated these characteristics into one person making him more deceptive and sinister as the audience will see two different sides to him, demonstrated in two contrasting scenes in the opening sequence where he has a seemingly genuine conversation with his mother, but then picks up the knife and poppy. This is similar to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000) where he appears normal sometimes (during the day) but then becomes a killer. The visuals generate questions and this creates enigma as the audience are intrigued as to what will happen next. When the people in the film discover that he is really the killer, they will be shocked. This is similar to Dr. Hannibal Lecter (the cannibal) in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002). He was a brilliant renowned psychiatrist but turned infamous psychopathic serial killer. Hannibal Rising (2007) is a film that portrays Hannibal Lecter’s journey and how he became this serial killer. He was driven to madness and was now out for revenge. In the start we see that he too was affected by the war (WW2) which is a common factor that affected both Hannibal Lecter and the killer in our film, Remembrance.

We also challenge conventions of typical victims in thriller/horror films. They are not innocent looking, vulnerable, young females such as Marion in Psycho (1960). In Remembrance, they are male, ex-soldiers who are stereotypically seen as strong, tough characters.

The soundtrack is quite sinister, dark and depressing and resembles marching in some parts. This tone of music is conventional of the thriller genre and is used to keep the audience on edge and build up the suspense. In our opening sequence, it leads up to when the main character opens the drawer and the audience see a knife and 5 poppies.

We also challenge a lot of the conventions usually associated with a thriller to create interest among audiences. A main part is lighting as we filmed in daylight, we do not get that eerie atmosphere that the audience would get if it was filmed using darker lighting. Also as the main character is in a normal suburban house, there aren’t any props or typical iconography to suggest it’s a thriller until the audience sees the photo of the battalion with crossed out faces and the knife at the end. The camera movement is also quite slow paced in order to build up the tension to the point of the opening of the draw.

Our opening sequence follows a classic narrative pattern, showing the character waking up, getting ready and preparing for his evil actions that will follow in the rest of the film. The sequence shows normality and equilibrium, set in a normal suburban house. However, throughout our sequence there are indicators of disruption, such as the nightmare, the news broadcasting and the grin at it, the newspaper articles and images. Despite the fact that the character is doing everyday ordinary things, it is edited in a way to make the audience feel insecure. This was common in thriller movies, where they turned everyday circumstances into a frightening situation, putting the audience on edge. At the end of the film, order is restored but it is not the same as the beginning as events have taken place and people have died along the way.

As our opening sequence follows a classic narrative pattern and is a linear sequence, similar to other real film openings, we tried to create a seamless effect with continuity. Various narrative techniques were used in order to achieve this as effectively as possible such as transitions of fades and dissolves during the nightmare to convey a slight passing of time. We also shot the nightmare from varied angles and distances so that we could edit this together and communicate the idea of disorientation and make it quite jumpy for the viewer. Also the technique of eyeline matching where the character looks out of frame. This was done where the character turns on the television. We then used a shot-reverse-shot in order to show his reaction to the news and literally place the audience in the action. Before he enters the living room to turn on the TV, we used a match on action when he opens the door, in order to continue the flow of the scene. We used an ellipses of when the main character has got up, looked in his wardrobe and is about to get ready to move the sequence forward. These ‘gaps’ in the sequence were filled with images to signify the passing of time and therefore not to disrupt the viewing of the audience.

Summary Of Our Film

• Film Title: Remembrance

• Film Genre: Psychological Thriller/Horror
• Production Company: Unplugged Productions
• Film Company: Mindset
• Location: House in Southgate, North London
• Edited at: The Latymer School
• Start/Finsh Dates: 10th November 08 - 13th January 09
• Crew (camera, lighting, sound): Tanya Kenan, Selina Mir and Ben Tucker
• Cast: Ben Tucker

Summary of our Opening Sequence:
Our film opening sequence begins with a man having a nightmare and you can really see that he's disturbed by it. He wakes up from the nightmare breathing heavily but gets up normally to prepare for the day ahead. He gets dressed, goes downstairs and turns on the TV to find news headlines, which report that another dead ex soldier has been found, which is suspected to be linked to the recent ‘Poppy Killings’. The man grins at this, then goes into the kitchen and makes himself a cup of tea. The phone rings, the man answers it and as he picks it up we see a photo of him in a soldier’s uniform, a medal and a picture of a battalion, with some faces ringed and crossed out. The soldier is revealed to be speaking to his mother and he returns to the kitchen. After a brief conversation with his mother who is concerned for his safety due to the recent murders, he explains that he needs to go out. Just as he says goodbye, he opens a drawer, revealing a knife and 5 uniformly spaced poppies. It becomes clear that he is the 'Poppy killer' mentioned on the news broadcast. He pockets the knife, takes a poppy and leaves the house…

Summary of our Film:
Remembrance is a film about revenge and betrayal. The protagonist has returned from a tour of duty in Iraq after being betrayed and left for dead by members of his Battalion. Upon returning home he begins to kill those who let him down, one by one. We join the storyline after he has claimed 4 victims and it is shown he is about to kill again. However will he manage to kill the 5 remaining? and what might stop him?

Reflections on Audience Screening

I am really pleased with the feedback we received and the majority of people seemed to enjoy watching it.

Music, plot and title of the film were amongst the favourite aspects of the opening sequence. I agree with these points as I think the title really ties in with the plot and the music really fits the tone of the film. The plot is also something new and therefore offers something different to the audience.

Out of the 34 respondents, only 3 wouldn’t have liked to watch the film, but this was generally down to those specific people not liking this genre of film. Features that were suggested to be improved on included the location, building more tension, the nightmare sequence not realistic enough and the knife in the back pocket made it slightly comical (people suggested he should have put it in his coat pocket.) I agree with these points; however we wanted to make the house seem as normal as possible to reflect the main characters initial fake persona of being normal. Therefore we chose a house that would be realistic and believable for a young male living home alone.

The genre of the film was easily picked up on as most people classified it as a horror or thriller. Overall I am really happy with the feedback and with the majority of ratings between an 8 or a 9 out of ten it makes me feel more confident about our project.

Audience Screening and Feedback

Today we had our audience screening which was really useful and gave us some good feedback on how our opening film sequence was received. A total of 34 people responded to our questionnaire; giving us a very useful insight into audience tastes and reactions.

The group of people ranged from 15-17 years of age; this was helpful because they were a mixture of our core and secondary audiences.We split the data into two categories, based on gender. We then divided this up further, looking at the different ages in each specific gender. Here is what we found:

FEMALES:

15 years old (4 participated):

• The average rating given was 8/10
• 3 classified it as Thriller, 1 as Horror
• Majority commented on good music, plot, character and title
• They all understood the sequence and picked up the name of the film
• Main areas for improvement were location & building tension throughout the scene
• 3/4 wanted to watch the rest of the film, saying they were interested to find out what happens next

16 years old (11 participated):

• Average score of 8.5/10
• All classified it as either Horror or Thriller (some even put both)
• Again, they most liked the music, plot and also liked the news broadcast
• 10 wanted to watch the rest of the film because "it would be interesting to see the plot develop", "it's creepy" and it "holds in the viewer". The other 1 person didn't want to watch the rest of the film because they are simply "not a big fan of Horror/Thriller"

17 years old (9 participated):

• Average rating of 8/10
• 1 girl didn't understand the significance of the poppy, the rest did
• Again, it was classified as either a Thriller or a Horror
• Music, plot and title were amongst the favourite things in the sequence
• Several commented on the knife in the back pocket; saying it was a little comical and could've been placed inside a jacket pocket instead. Also someone mentioned that the music could have been a bit scarier, and that the pace of the sequence could've been faster, to create more suspense
• 8 of the girls said they would be interested in watching the rest of the film, because of its enigmatic qualities, with an "interesting and intriguing plot". The other girl did not want to watch the rest of the film because she said that she is not interested in the particular genre.

MALES:

16 years old (4 participated)

• Average score 9/10
• 3 classified it as a Thriller, 1 as a Horror
• They mainly like the music and plot
• They would all like to watch the rest of the film
• One area of improvement - acting in the nightmare sequence (not realistic enough)

17 years old (5 participated)

• Rated 9/10
• 4 classified as Thriller, 1 as Horror
• Liked music, character, title and plot
• All 5 want to watch the rest of the film
• Lighting and location are amongst the things to be improved.

Questionnaire for Audience Screening

Age:
Gender:

Please list your 3 favourite films:
1.
2.
3.
What is your favourite genre of film?

Did the sequence make sense? YES / NO If ‘No’ what didn’t make sense? Why?

What was the title of this film?

Which genre would you classify this film as?
Comedy / Horror / Rom-com / Thriller / Action / Adventure / Sci-Fi

What did you like about the film?
Music / Character / Title / Plot / Location / Other (Please specify) __________

Does it remind you of any other films you have watched?

What do you think we can improve on?

Would you be interested in watching the rest of this film? YES / NO Please specify your reason(s):

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the sequence? (Please circle):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Editing Continued…

Today was our final day of editing and despite the fact that we have a few tiny things to change/add in tomorrow, I am really happy with the sequence. It has all come together well and from the feedback that we received from other students and the teachers; it is more or less finished. Feedback from teachers included changing minor things such as slowing down a shot (where he opens the drawer), removing the first shot from the nightmare sequence (framing wasn’t good) and using the close-up instead, and improving some of the newspaper, photos and headlines shots (pace was too fast etc.) We also had some problems with our Production Company name and logo, it went slightly blurry when played, however we improved this as much as possible and it still works well.

Tomorrow is our final deadline and after a few small tweaks and a test screening tomorrow to receive more feedback, the sequence will be completely finished! I am really happy with how it has turned out.

Editing

It’s the second week back from our break and we’ve been extremely busy with editing. Last week we spent most of our time editing after we captured the footage we took in the holidays. Now we’re on our last few days of editing and the sequence has finally come together. We have edited all shots together, now we just have minor bits and pieces to add and edit in.

Last week we were really busy trying to edit in the shots that we retook on the Friday in the Holidays. These thankfully worked and we had no problems with them. I think the sequence now looks a lot better with these shots. We reshot the whole of the nightmare sequence, the news broadcast on television, the character’s reaction to this and the kitchen shots to get the dialogue right. We also re-recorded the dialogue of Ben whilst we were at school last week. This was put in the shots where he first answers the phone but we don’t see him.

Today we recorded the dialogue of Mr Michael to use as the speech for the news report on the television. This worked much better than expected when we matched it to the news broadcasting. Today we have also been working especially on sound and trying to get our credits to look right. I think the font that we have chosen for our title works really effectively and we have had good feedback about this. We are using the same font for the credits, how these were said to look quite flat so we are going to add an outline around it to improve it.

Last week and today, we have also been working really hard on the newspaper shots, photos and headlines. We have two points in the sequence where these shots fade in. We have finished the first ones where they fade into the sequence, which I think looks really good, but we are struggling a little with the second one. Therefore we have to work really hard tomorrow to finish it. We also have the credits to finish, but these are all in the sequence, so it’s just a matter of making them look good. Finally we have to improve sound by testing out different volumes, speeds etc.

So far I am really happy with the project and hopefully the final piece will be finished by tomorrow.

News Report Script

Below is the script for the dialogue that will take place when the main character turns on the TV to the news. We will use a teacher in our school who we believe will fit the role perfectly as his voice resembles many news reporters.

The body of another ex-soldier was discovered this morning in North London.

The victim, identified as James Palmer, recently served in the Iraq War as part of the 5th Infantry Battalion.

Police believe the murder to be linked to the recent ‘Poppy Killing’ across the area.

Final Shoot

During the two week Christmas holiday, we had a final re-shoot to film a few shots that didn’t work in our sequence due to problems such as lighting, continuity and general mise-en-scene.

Re-shoot List:
-Nightmare Sequence (problem with bed covers, need white plain ones)
-Conversation in the kitchen (problem with sound)
-News broadcast on TV (problem with colour before)
-Reaction shots to the TV
-The stairs shot (we changed the shot)

We managed to shoot all the footage in one filming session so it didn’t take as long as we thought it would. Now we have solved those problems with new shots, we can start capturing and editing these shots in order to make the sequence better.

Things we have to do after we have captured the footage:
-Choose the shots we like and edit these in.
-Add in all the credits with our chosen font.
-Finish all the newspaper shots and photos to help people understand the storyline more.
-Record the newsreaders voice to play over the news broadcasting on TV.
-Work on sound, dialogue etc.
-Finish name and logo for Production Company.
-Put in title of the film.