Target Audience/ Focus Group Feedback

We did a focus group with 5 individuals between the ages of 15-24 (our target audience) to get their views on our sequence. They were each given a questionnaire with 5 questions.


The first question was structured as follows:

The genre for the sequence you just saw is ‘Thriller’. Did the sequence look like a ‘Thriller’?
Yes No Not Sure


3 people ticked the 'yes' box while one person said 'no' and the other person was not sure.

The responses suggest that most of the respondents thought that the sequence looked like a thriller. Since not every respondent responded 'yes' this tells us that we may have needed to do slightly more to the sequence to perhaps make it look more like a thriller.


The second question was structured as follows:

As someone between the age of 15-24, do you think that the sequence appeals to 15-24 yr olds?
Yes No Not Sure


3 people ticked the 'yes' box while one person said 'no' and the other person was not sure.

Most of the respondents believed that the sequence appealed to 15-24 yr olds. Since not every respondent responded 'yes' it suggests that we may have needed to do more to the sequence to make it appeal more to that age bracket (15-24).



The third question was structured as follows:

What did you think of the storyline?
Obvious Interesting Complicated Boring
Not Sure

2 people thought it was interesting, while 2 people thought that it was complicated. Only one person thought that it was obvious.

Since two people thought that the sequence was interesting and two people thought that the sequence was complicated it says to us as a group that our sequence performed well. This is because we wanted our sequence to be interesting and as a thriller slightly complicated.



The fourth question was as follows:


Did the sequence look professional to you?
Yes No Not Sure

One person ticked 'yes' while three ticked 'no'. Only one person ticked 'not sure'

Since only one respondent responded 'yes' it shows us that we should have done more (in terms of the editing) to the sequence to make it look more professional than it is now.

The fifth question was as follows:


How would you rate the sequence?
1 2 3 4 5

Three people rated the sequence as 3 while one person rated it a 1. Only one person rated it as a 4.


Although the results suggest that the sequence was good overall in the eyes of the target audience, it also tells us that we should have done more to the sequence for a higher overall impression. The reason why we are not entirely pleased with the overall result is that it was mainly a '3' whereas we would have preferred an overall '4'.

Director's Commentary

We have now sorted out the 'log and capture' problems we had with our video camera and the iMac.

Some of the scenes in our commentary have been slowed down because they were too fast for the commentary (audio) so we had to make sure that they were synchronised with the commentary (audio).

Storyboard Animatic

Here is the animatic version of our storyboard.

The Other Opening Sequence Analysis

Another opening sequence we studied (outside class and before the production of our main task) was that of the film Munich (2005, Steven Spielberg).
In the opening sequence of Munich the mise en scene is dominated with a mixture of low lit lighting and the darkness of the night - this combination of light and dark connotes a sense of normality but is perphaps foreshadowing a dramtic event. In the background we can hear non-diegetic drumming as if something is approaching or about to happen - in our sequence we used an altered version of this technique (through the Mystery Man character), instead of the drumming we used loud footsteps to portray the same sense of an impending circumstance (by the Mystery Man in our sequence) portrayed in Munich. The mise en scene also shows us a group of individuals trying to climb over a fence suggesting that they maybe trying to escape from something. After the individuals arrive at outisde their destination a hand-held medium, tracking shot shows the individuals in a hurry to get inside a building. Their urgency is demonstrated by the 'shaking' of the shot/camera as it tracks them. With our sequence we implemented a similar version of the hand-held/'shaking' tracking shot through the shots of the Mystery Man's journey to the interrogation room.
The Munich opening sequence was an important source of inspiration for our own opening sequence as it influenced some of the scenes in our sequence (such as the shots/footsteps of the Mystery Man making his way to/approaching the interrogation room).


















Theatrical Poster for 'Munich'
Trailer - http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2929131801/

Ratings

The rating for our film sequence would be 12A. We are aware of the fact that our target audience is those in the 15-24 age boundary but the reason why we believe the rating for for our film sequence would be a 12A rather than a 15 is because of the content of the sequence.
As of 2009 the BBFC rating system is based on the number of issues shown in the film. There are 9 main issues/categories that the BBFC awards a film a 12A rating on but out of those 9 only 1 issue is present in our opening sequence (which is 'Violence').
For a 12A rating the BBFC states that:

"Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on
detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood,
but occasional gory moments may be permitted if
justified by the context.
Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and
discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual
justification."

The violence in our film sequence is moderate as there are no violent scenes which are dewelled on for too long nor is there any emphasis on blood though there is some emphasis on the victim-character's unspecified-injuries.
Even though we believe that our sequence should be awarded a 12A certificate we also believe that we have the correct target audience (15-24). The reason for our belief in the target audience of 15-24 is based on the context and narrative(s) of our sequence. Our film sequence has multiple narratives which interchange between each other quite quickly meaning that it can be to some extent difficult to keep up with the narratives and decipher the events as they happen. We feel that younger children may be faced with this problem as younger children are not as cognitively developed as adults/adolescents (15-24) in terms of being able to handle fairly complicated narratives.

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?

What have you learnt about technologies from constructing this product?

For us, operating the camera was a simple and mainly easy process. Although the camera was easy to operate we did suffer a few problems in terms of how we filmed our footage. During the filming of our footage we didn't observe some of the basic rules of filming. For example, in some of our footage a few members of our group can be heard talking in the background of a scene that's being filmed. We weren't aware of how sensitive the microphone on the camera was and because of the unwanted diegetic dialogue/sounds (from the public, cars, birds and as well as from some of our own group members) there were a couple of moments were we had to disregard some footage (e.g. in one interrogation scene the camera picked up the sound of glass breaking from outside the room we where filming in). Although there were a couple of moments were we had to disregard some footage which was ruined by background noises there were some other moments where we able to get rid of those unwanted sounds. Getting rid of those sounds was due to Final Cut Pro's ability to be able to intricately edit the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds of a scene. For example, in one scene where the Mystery Man was walking, the cameraman could be heard saying "Slow down, you're walking too fast" and then during the editing sessions we were able to use the 'Pen' tool to mute the dialogue completely and then use the Pen tool again to increase the sound level of the non-diegetic footsteps that we had added by importing them from Garageband.
With Final Cut Pro we were also able to figure out how to use other tools, most of which we were able to find and operate easily due to what the icons for those tools depicted. For example, with the 'Bladetool' it was easy to figure out that it's use was for cutting video and audio footage whereas the tool - 'Snapper' (which was represented by a bold right-facing arrow) took more time to understand what it's use was (we eventually found out that it can used to get rid of small gaps between video footage in the Timeline). Final Cut Pro made the editing process of our sequence a fairly pleasant experience as it was easy to use (after getting used to it) and if there was something we didn't know how to do there was plenty of online tutorials for us to read/watch.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The dictionary defines the term 'thriller' as "an exciting, suspenseful play or story, esp. a mystery story" and during the production of our thriller influenced opening sequence we made sure that we kept to that definition by using a number of techniques with the aid of the equipment and editing capabilities available. One example of this technique was how we deliberately withheld the facial identity of the character in the suit (known to our group as the 'Mystery Man'). We purposely withheld the Mystery Man's facial identity throughout the whole sequence by using the camera and the objects around us. With the camera we filmed parts (such as his shoes - [we used a high angle shot for this] and chest) of the Mystery Man's body but we were careful to reveal his face. Using this technique allowed us to introduce the character to the sequence but it also allowed us not to show his full identity which meant that we kept in line with the definition of the thriller genre as it was suspenseful and exciting since the audience would be trying to figure out as to who that character was. Also, the Mystery Man appears in the first 1o seconds of the sequence beginning, meaning that the character's secrecy would attract the audience's attention. Another thing we did to develop the character's secrecy was to add footsteps as he made his way to the interrogation room. As the Mystery Man was advancing (we presented his journey through a series of short clips as there was more than one narrative - this was parallel editing) to the interrogation room, we added dramatic, loud and urgent non-diegetic footsteps to show that he was in a hurry to get to the interrogation room - this would have made the audience question his urgency thus stimulating their curiosity.

Through our editing we were able to deliver the conventions of the thriller genre by using an effect called 'blur'. Blur is an effect that causes scenes to become blurred. With blur we used it to blur out two pivotal scenes of our sequence. In the first scene (which was a point of view shot) blur was used to convey the character's disorientated feelings and as well as to disguise the character's location (to add a sense of mystery). However, in the second scene (a two shot) we used blur for the sole purpose of concealing the identities and actions of the two characters. The mise en scene created by the effect of blur was needed for our sequence because in order to keep in line with the conventions of the thriller genre we had to develop a few layers of mystery throughout to keep provoking and increasing the audience's interest.

As mentioned before we used parallel editing in the sequence. The main reason we introduced more than one narrative to our sequence was so that the audience wouldn't express discontent towards to the sequence. If we had not used parallel editing (e.g. in the sequence there's more than one narrative occurring) then it's likely that our audience would have lost interest due to the lack of narrative action i.e. having just one story would have made the sequence stale. The way we implemented parallel editing was through: the scenes in the interrogation room, the suspicious-looking character waiting by the woodlands, flashbacks/references to the victim-character's situation and the Mystery Man making his way to the interrogation room. The use of parallel editing was how we addressed our target audience of 15-25 yr olds (15-25 yr olds like complicated/active narratives and are able to keep up with them whereas older and younger audiences may have trouble keeping up with the events in the sequence).

Who would be the audience for your media project?

This poster of Bullet Boy features actors who are black while one of them is seen holding a gun which illustrates the niche elements of the film's target audience of teenage black males.

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

The kind of media institution which would distribute our product is likely to be a British institution such as Metrodome Distribution. The reason why we believe a British institution rather than the distribution arm of Transnational Corporation (such as NBC Universal) is most likely to pick our product is influenced by 2 factors. The first factor is that our product has been independently produced by a small British production company. Global distribution companies such as Warner Bros. tend to stay away from independent British productions because if they are to invest money into the distribution of a British film then it's unlikely that they may not be able to get a full return on their investment (or it may not be financially worthwhile) due to the overwhelming popularity of Hollywood blockbusters (they are able to get bigger revenues from the global distribution/release of Hollywood films compared to the revenues of limited distribution/release of most British films).

Metrodome Distribution is a British distribution company that might be interested in picking up our product and distributing it. We chose Metrodome Distribution because it is a distribution company that is willing to distribute British productions (it also distributes foreign language films into the UK). For example, Metrodome Distribution has distributed a number of British productions (with the same genre as our media product) such as The Last Seven (featuring Danny Dyer) and Fifty Dead Men Walking (featuring Ben Kingsley). After researching Metrodome Distribution we felt that it might be one of the few British distribution institutions that might offer to distribute our product. We think Metrodome Distribution would offer to do so because it's one of the few media institutions that is able and willing to distribute independent British productions seeing as it has done so in the past e.g. they released the film Shifty featuring Nitin Ganatra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LsDPRfDROk - Film trailer for 'The Last Seven'

A poster for 'The Last Seven' from the official website of the film

Screen Grabs Analysis

THAT WEDNESDAY















We used an over the shoulder shot for this scene, this is to show the interaction between the interrogator and the character, you can see the facial expression the character gives to the interrogator.
















Straight flash back :it is a previous video of an unknown individual standing beside the unknown female victim while she‘s laying on the ground.
There is a blur effect applied to this scene, this is the idea of hidden identity, this is to give it a dramatic feeling and it adds a direct interaction from the audience to the scene.




















This scene you can see the interrogator is angry of the character denying anything to do with the whole situation. An overhead shot and an eye line match has been used in this scene, this is from the third character who is experiencing the interrogation of this character.

















As the scene goes on a clip is show with a shot including the character (anatagonist/protagonist) and the victim, this raises doubts, whether the character is lying or trying to protect someone else who knows about the crime. The frame shot that includes mise-en-scene of the black fence and the character on the right suggests the danger that is closing in on the victim- character.


















As the scenario goes on the character makes an approach to attack the interrogator, we can now see he is starting to take the situation serious as of that moment he notices there is a lot of consequences. The framing shot distinguishes him from the other character as he can see his anger through his actions.

This medium shot of this character raises questions of who he is and why has he been placed the scenario, could the character be lying for him? If not then there must be a link between him and the characters.

This character keeps appearing in the sequence, this is to make people wonder why he keeps interrupting the sequence, and the close-up shot of the feet has hidden his identity, another element to make the audience doubt the characters.

This scene also has the same emotion of frustration, the only difference is the type of shot use to express it which is a medium shot. The character put his hands on his face to show his frustration.

In this scene there is a character waiting at the door, this scene is done with a framing shot with an eye line match of the other characters looking at the door.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our sequence made representations of certain social groups through ethnicity and gender. One of the most evident representations in the sequence is how black people are mainly portrayed in unfortunate circumstances. For example, our main character (Carter) is a black male who is shown as a thug and an individual who is linked to trouble. The is representative of real life because the media sometimes represents black males (particularly teenagers) as troublemakers and we have portrayed this element of social realism in our sequence as Carter is seen as a troublemaker. In the sequence the only person who displays the most dominance is a white male - the interrogator (an authoritative figure who is tall and has a deep voice). We felt that it was appropriate to portray a white male character with power because in society the majority of those with dominant roles are usually white while the majority of ethnic minorities have less dominant roles. Although, it's true that the most dominant character is white, there is another character who is an ethnic minority and displays some form of dominance - this character is the individual who restraints Carter as he lashes out at the interrogator. This individual displays his form of dominance through his ability (e.g. he is able to push Carter straight back down to his seat with relative ease) to prevent Carter attacking the interrogator.



As for the gender aspect of the representation we decided to use the female gender. Our reason for this decision was that it was stereotypically easier to do so. In society females are often seen as weak and inferior to men. We portrayed this element of society through the victim character of our sequence. This character is shown as battered and almost lifeless. Although the audience is never able to get a good look at her, her weakness and injuries are shown through her actions. For example, we see her staggering and we also see her reaching out her hand for help.

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

The genre for our film sequence was the Thriller genre. When it comes to comparing our work to other films of this genre, in terms of....

Camerawork: Our sequence utilises close ups on the characters in tense situations to portray the emotion(s) of those character(s). For example, in the sequence there's a particular close up on a character who is agitated - this was done to emphasise the individual's anger and anxiety on the situation they had found themselves in. We were right in doing this because the conventions of the thriller genre includes putting an emphasis on certain characters or items (e.g. an inset shot of a murder weapon).

Sound: As for the sound (unlike 'The Usual Suspects') we decided to use a slightly overwhelming mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. One example of the diegetic sounds we used was the dialogue. We thought that the dialogue was needed because in certain scenes (e.g. the character being interrogated shouts at the interrogator) we wanted to bring out vocal emotion such as in the previously mentioned scene. An example of a non-diegetic sound we used was the 'footsteps' effect when the mystery man was walking. The reason for this was that we were not able to produce the sound of footsteps during the actual filming so we had to use a sound effect (from Garageband).

Mise En Scene: For our mise en scene, a third of it was dominated by the interrogation scenes and in those interrogation scenes we used a small room with one chair and a table. This was because a typical interrogation is usually a small room with minimal furniture (as in 'The Usual Suspects') - to emphasise the 'on-their-own' element of the individual being interrogated. So we decided to use a small room to portray this element in our own sequence. In the sequence there was also some scenes where woodland was featured. The intention for this was because woodlands often have connotations of mystery and an aspect of danger and this was appropriate for our sequence as those connotations are linked to the thriller genre.

Editing: In some of the thriller genre films we researched (such as 'Munich') they used some effects such as 'slow motion' on some of their scenes. In our sequence we used the same effect on certain scenes. For example, there was one scene in which a character was approaching an injured victim, the slow motion effect we used on this scene made the actions in the scene seem more dramatic daunting as the audience isn't sure of what the approaching character is going to do to the victim. It also gave the approaching character power. In this scene we also added another effect - blur. The reason for this effect was to convey mystery and deliberately withhold information. The withdrawal of this information was to tease the audience and draw in their attention further.

Structure: For the structure, our sequence mainly had a linear plot. During the planning stage of the sequence we considered the idea of making the plot non-linear instead of a linear plot. In the end we disregarded this idea because our plot was becoming too complicated for us to make sense of so we made the plot linear.

Production Name and Logo

For our film sequence we decided to make our own fictional production company and a logo for it. The reason for this decision was that we wanted to be original rather than use another existing company's logo and name in our sequence. The name for our fictional production company is 'A GERC Productions'. The 'GERC' part of the name is a mnemonic for: Gabriel, Eugene, Rita and Constantine - the people in our group.

We decided to make our own logo for our fictional film production company. At first the logo was going to be stationery but we then decided to give it a kinetic element to make it seem more professional and frankly because it looked better. The logo was then introduced to the film sequence at the beginning along with the film credits.

Below is the stationary image of the logo. We would have uploaded the final result of the logo (the one with movement) but the blog isn't capable of showing the image due to format issues.

Final Edit

On 30/4/10 we had our final editing session. In this session we mainly focused on the audio because when we added the extra footage on 29/04/10 we had to re-adjust the existing scenes in our film sequence to make space for the extra footage/scenes so this meant that the sounds connected to the existing scenes was displaced and therefore synchronisation was lost. One of the ways we adjusted the audio was by getting rid of all the custom made soundtrack and adding it again. We then adjusted it according to the new sequence e.g. we reduced the sound level when one of the characters was having a flashback. Another way we adjusted the audio was by tracking the out of sync sounds and re-connecting them with their original clips. The last thing we did for the editing was to add non-diegetic sound effects (such as the wind howling) to certain scenes.

The Day Before The Deadline

On 29/04/10 we incorporated our extra footage into our current film sequence to increase the running time of the sequence. The extra footage was taken by Constantine during the Easter holidays as he anticipated that the current footage we had might not be enough - he was right. The footage we added was about an individual who is connected to Carter (main character) and it showed the individual clearly agitated and waiting for something. We added the footage at certain intervals of the current sequence e.g. every time after the mystery man appeared.
During the addition of the footage we did a number of editorial things to the footage such as taking off unwanted parts using the razor blade tool and we were also careful to make sure that the extra footage was in chronological order and that the scenes of the footage complimented each other e.g. when there was a close up shot of the new character turning around to look at something we made sure that the next shot would be a point of view shot of what the character was looking at. This editing session took us until 17:45.