Evaluation of Finished Production - Question 3

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

After some research, I have found several different film companies and institutions that could potentially distribute our film. I have researched into companies that have produced psychological thrillers in the past, and also companies that distribute a wide variety of films.

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation would be an obvious choice. They are probably the most well-known film company in the world, and produce many hit films every year. Their success is mind-blowing, and any film produced by them is at an immediate advantage. Some of the films distributed by the company include: 'Avatar', 'The Simpsons Movie' and the classic 'Sound of Music'. The company's success appears set to continue as films such as 'X-Men: First Class' and 'Titanic 3-D' are scheduled for release in the coming years.
A problem with this company, however, is that few low-budget films are produced by them. Many of the films released by Twentieth Century Fox are high-budgeted, visually spectacular blockbusters. As our film would have a low budget, and no Special FX, it would be extremely difficult for us to sell our film to the company. Therefore, Twentieth Century Fox is not the best option for our film.

Universal Studios is another well-known company that could possibly distribute our film. The company has produced many notable films including: 'Dracula', 'Frankenstein', in 1931, and more recently 'Drag Me To Hell' and 'The Fourth Kind'. Moreover, Universal Studios are set to release other thriller movies, which include the tongue-in-cheek 'The Cabin in the Woods', and -thriller-sci-fi-action-romance film "The Adjustment Bureau. This company would be a great choice, as the films they produce span a wide range of budgets and visual effects. However, there would be stiff competition for funding from the company.

Dimension Films are another company that could distribute our film. After being founded in 1992, the company has set upon distributing a number of movie franchises, which include the latter 'Halloween' films, 'Scream' and the horror spoof 'Scary Movie'. If the movie were to be produced with this company, there is a high possibility of a sequel, and 'Lost Signal' could potentially become a franchise, much like the films stated before. Dimension Films work closely with Miramax Films, which means that our film may be backed by two companies, rather than one.

Miramax Films works a lot with Dimension Films. Working with either company would be a great option. However, prior to 2010, the company had not produced a film for five year. Only four films have been released since December 2005, all of those coming in the latter half of 2010. Moreover, only two films have been scheduled for release in 2011. This means that if our film is released by the company, the institution's full attention will be on our movie. On the contrary, though, the lack of releases could indicate a downwards spiral of the company.

Hammer Film Productions is a company that is known for its collection of horror films that dominated the genre from the mid-1950s through to the 1970s. The company was in hibernation from the 80s onwards, but was recently purchased by John De Mol. The company have since made films such as 'Let Me In' and 'The Resident' which is in post-production stages.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a possible option. The company boast films such as the 'Saw' series, 'Dogma' and 'Fahrenheit 9/11'. The company seem to produce a lot of movies, which would indicate that there would be a lot of competition to get our film distributed by them.

Another method of distribution would be using the internet. Hammer Film Productions recently released 'Beyond the Rave'. The film was released in twenty sections, with each section lasting four minutes. The videos were released onto the then popular Myspace, and gain a great deal of attention. This is one possible route we could go down if we were going to create and distribute the entire film.

The same idea could be carried out on other websites too, such as: Youtube, Blogger, Wordpress, Facebook and many other regularly visited sites.

Below are two advertisements for television shows aimed at the same audience our thriller is directed towards. The first video is the 'Skins' trailer for the fifth series, and the second video is for the Christmas Edition of 'Misfits'. Both of these are effective means of propaganda.
The first video is an introduction to the newest series of 'Skins'. This means that the video has to be vague, yet interesting. This is something we could potentially place in our advertising. The second video is just for one episode, so it is slightly more detailed, yet it doesn't provide the audience with any major plot twists. The second video could be used as a guide if we decided to release our film in separate sections, like 'Beyond the Rave'. These trailers could appear both on the internet, or on television or even both. e4 is known to show one trailer on their television channel, and several on their website. This gets the audience to almost research the show, and find out as much as possible about it. This hooks the audience, and creates a fan base - something which is fundamental.

Other forms of propaganda include those that appear on public transport. This is an ideal way of sending a message to large numbers of people. When commuting, the public spends a long time waiting for the arrival of their vehicle. When waiting, the people have nothing to do besides reading the advertisements printed over the walls, on the sides of buses and even in airports. Moreover, even when on their particular mode of transport, the passengers cannot help but look at the large amounts of advertisements printed on the inside of their train, or on the numerous billboards they pass. This form of advertising is very effective, but also very costly, as many companies wish to advertise there.

Below is an example of a poster I made for our film.

Evaluation of Finished Production - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller opening only contains a limited number of characters - three female and one male. As the male appears to dominate the three females, the females could be perceived as weak and vulnerable. Moreover, the male could be seen as strong and more powerful than the women. Feminists would believe that this is a negative view of women, as they are subsidiary to men.
This was a deliberate choice as we wanted to use three females who were vulnerable We felt that this would make the thriller appear more realistic and believable; thus bringing it closer to the the Hollywood standard. Furthermore, a strong and mentally unstable male would enhance the realism within the film. Due to last minute changes, however, our male character was played by a female. Plus, our original female cast was changed dramatically. As a result, our ideas had to be altered slightly, meaning that the characters would be perceived in a different way than we originally thought.

Original Cast

New Cast

Unfortunately, we did not use any ethnic minorities in our thriller. Three of characters were white, whilst the other was mixed race. We do not feel as though our cast is the most diverse we could have chosen, but due to the limited amount of people who wanted to take part, and the unreliability of the original cast, we settled on choosing our close friends, as we knew they would be comfortable around us. We would have liked to include some actors/actresses from a more ethnic background, and would certainly consider it if we were to do the project again.

Sexuality was not explored in our thriller, as we did not feels it was necessary. The antagonist's obsession was not supposed to be sexual in anyway; the obsession was based around the character of Jed Parry from the book 'Enduring Love'. Parry's obsession was about love, but not about the sexual side of the feeling. We wanted to take this aspect of the book, and instill it into our thriller. We feel this was effective, as the obsession seemed more of a darker topic. Also, the lack of a sexual element in the thriller thus far would allow the audience to feel comfortable with the subject matter.

The class structure is explored, but only on a really shallow level. We show the female characters as a higher class to the male character. The females are well-dressed, and equipped with the items they need for the camping trip. The male character is dressed shabbily, indicating a low income. Also, the room in which he is situated in the opening scenes highlights the poor living conditions the character has.

Overall, I think that young people are shown in both a positive and negative light. The contrast between the protagonist and antagonist highlights the innocence and the deeper side of teenage life. Both the extremities are shown in our thriller, so the audience can identify the good and bad points of young people.

We tried to avoid stereotypes in our thriller, as they can make the film seem rather amateurish. However, when creating the antagonist, we needed to use conventions of the stereotypical 'hoodie'. We decided to dress our character in a hooded sweater, as we wanted his identity to remain hidden. Our character differs from the stereotype through his obsession. A typical 'hoodie' would not have an obsession, and would most definitely not stalk someone to the extent that our character did. Also, a stereotypical 'hoodie' would carry a weapon such as a knife, or baseball bat. Our character's weapon is just a piece of rope.

By using the 'hoodie' stereotype, we are immediately classifying are character as negative. The lack of a weapon makes him appear less threatening, but the dramatic irony (the audience knows of the antagonist's obsession, and know that he is chasing the females, whilst the girls are unaware) reinforces the nasty and vindictive nature of the character.

Our 'hoodie'

A Stereotypical 'hoodie'

Evaluation of Finished Production - Question 1

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

Finishing and Uploading

Today we completed our thriller. I added the music to the film, whilst Ashleigh and Sarah added the music to the ident, which we later placed into the film. We showed a few of our class mates, and then uploaded our video to Youtube. After watching the video on Youtube, we noticed a small glitch in our video. We hope this error occurred when converting/uploading, however we will double check during our lesson tomorrow.
As our thriller is complete, I can now start my final evaluation of the project.

Ident with Music

Below is our final ident along with the music Sarah created. We are very happy with the outcome, and feel as though the ident sets the standard for the rest of the thriller.

Titles and Editing

During my free lesson, I created a set of titles based around the Facebook status used in the thriller.

When I placed a few of the titles into our thriller, but they didn't seem to go well. Each time, the tension began to build, and then the title would destroy the tension. As a result, the thriller didn't flow. I then changed the titles, to a simple, yet scary font, with an ominous effect from LiveType. As the background was black, I faded the title from the previous clip. The thriller seemed to flow better after I did this, and the dark and mysterious titles seemed rather professional.

During our Media lesson today, Sarah put the last few clips into place. This enabled us to spend our after school session adding the effects, and placing all the titles into the film. Below is an example of a graphic match we created.

Editing

Today we managed to piece together the majority of our thriller. We haven't added any effects or music yet, as we are waiting until all the clips were pieced together.
Tomorrow, we will complete putting the clips in order, and then hopefully add the titles.