Q4 & Q5 Draft/Planning

We are hoping to appeal to a wide target audience , with a great range of ages. Our 15+ certificate obviously limits us to older than 15 year olds , but we feel we could target this audience effectively. We think most of our audience will be made up of young males.

We hope to target a simliar target audience to such films as : Pulp Fiction ( 1994 , Directed by Quentin Tarantino) and Lock , stock & two smoking barrels ( 1998 , Directed by Guy Ritchie )

We also aim to target an audience interested in similar niche type films such as : Kickass ( 2010, Directed by Matthew Vaughn) ( Right ). We feel this is an example of how mild violence can be intergrated with humor to create an amusing yet thrilling movie.

Evaluation - TB

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

After completion our film would need our production company to obtain the film a distribution deal, with distributors willing to invest into and distribute our film. It would be up to them to distribute our film in a way that reaches our target audience effectively and successfully. Distributors control the advertising, such as posters and trailers in return we give them a percentage cut of our sales from our product. Our film would be a 15 + certificate, allowing them to reach a wide audience of everybody above the age of 15. I feel this is a good certificate since it allows a wide target audience, but also means we wouldn’t have to restrict the content that is necessary to make our film.

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After the deal is finished with the distribution company we would look to invest some money in promotion and exhibition of the film, preferably we would to exhibit worldwide but perhaps using the UK as a base for launch would be wise, since we don’t want to dedicate money nationally until we know our film is successful, which I'm confident it would be. We think the film has mainstream qualities and would do better as a mainstream film, targeting the main public rather than a niche audience.

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Saying this, I feel our film would best be exhibited in large multiplex cinemas, suited to large audience attendances. I personally would choose a distribution company such as warner bros. since they are used to distributing thriller movies of our similar genre. They recently have distributed thrillers such as The Dark Knight (2008) and Inception (2010), both of which were very successful films.

Evaluation - TB

How our media product represents particular social groups?

In our film opening all the characters shown are young, white, middleclass males with the exception of a young, white, middleclass female. Our piece does not feature any representatives of a different ethnic background, e.g. black, Asian, Caribbean. Nor does it show any representatives of lower class or upper class. This would suggest our piece does not fully represent different social groups and people from different ethnic backgrounds.

Our main protagonist, along with the other gang member and hostage, are all represented positively, while individually they are all represented with different positions of power, for example, the hostage (me) is a young white middle class male. The gang leader is also a young white middle class male, showing an equal depiction of group stature and how we have not used a minority to depict the person in need of help. This could be seen as either racist or sexist (depending on who we used to depict the theoretical hostage). However, with this said the young female has the phone hung up on her in our opening, and is slightly marginalised in terms of exposition. This could be seen as gender stereotyping, with the males being shown in the main role with females used as side characters, being objectified to the males. This would mean our opening piece is re-enforcing current popular gender stereotypes, however there are no residual ideologies being suggested as any gender groups are not represented in a residual way, only conforming to current ideologies.

Mise en Scene doesn’t play a huge role in our representation of young, white, middle-class males. We are all wearing our own chosen clothing; therefore our clothes are simply down to individual choice. I would personally say this is positive, because the individuality shows variety in youth clothing, and we haven’t negatively stereotyped our clothing to that associated with youths nowadays e.g. hoodies and tracksuits.

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Non-verbal Language- It would be fair to say our acting is quite poor, therefore we cannot sufficiently judge our non-verbal language to make statements about the social group we have represented. If anything, we have all played ourselves, not taking on any roles. This is again, I feel, positive because self-character and individuality are being portrayed through young people, a social group often so negatively portrayed in modern society.

Camera Work – We have given camera precedence to the males in our opening, due to the obvious reason that they are the main characters. The lack of other social group representatives being shot on camera may suggest that we have re-enforced popular conventions of thriller, a white male protagonist centred on side characters. The fact a young female is presented to the audience as being nothing more than a girlfriend may be seen as negative, and again enforcing conventions of popular thriller.

Sound - Our sound plays a very little role in representing different social groups , its main use being a mood changer that is in sync with images being shown to help convey changes in pace or emotions.

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Macro Issues

The slightly gangster nature of this opening could be seen as re-enforcing traditional traits of masculinity. The social norm for a male is to be seen as very masculine, a willingness to be aggressive and generally part of a high standing social group. In our opening the mere fact they are part of a gang would suggest they exhibit all those stereotypical male traits, conforming to social norms and ideologies. The gang member is shown to have a girlfriend, suggesting another male trait should be that of a female partner. Also, the lack of female gang members is conforming to social norms that females cannot exhibit masculine traits if they want to perceive as feminine by society. Our opening can also be seen as re-enforcing popular conventions of thriller movies, our main characters are both male. An example of this can be seen in the successful thriller movie Seven (1995), both protagonists are male, with the antagonist also being male.

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Evaluation - TB

Forms and Conventions

Our opening piece definitely uses popular forms and conventions of real media products, helping to create the enigma and construct character exposition. This is evident in the way that our protagonist is slightly mysterious and illusive, conforming to conventions of protagonists in thriller genre type films. Enigma is created in the way that they are young adults in this horrible crime filled world and yet the picture painted in one of a desirable lifestyle. The inner morale conflict expressed in the protagonist furthers this enigma since the conflict expressed changes the audience’s view of him as the storyline unfolds.

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One way our piece does challenge forms and conventions is the fact our piece is labelled a thriller, however has a very cheeky/humorous feel to the opening. This is very unusual for a thriller genre and would be seen as challenging popular stereotypes that thriller can’t be amusing in order to excite, thrill, the watching audience. One of the ways this humour is expressed is through the dialogue and body language of our characters. The acting was on purposely done in this way to help create this effect. Our upbeat soundtrack also conveys a positive mood throughout the piece, and is almost used as a way of making the audience feel good about certain actions, for example, when the hostage tries to escape in the opening scene the soundtrack is used to make the getaway seem more humorous.


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Iconography, Props and Location also played an important role in establishing the genre of our film. Iconography such as bound hands of the hostage and a bag over their head are popular conventions to convey a kidnapping. The props we used were basic but effective, with the bag over the head demonstrating he was not in the position of power. Our location, under the school stage, proved very effective. The low lit dusty location resembled that of a gang hide out, perfect for our use as somewhere a hostage may be held.

When it came to applying research to our actual film piece I feel the most obvious way we did that is with the POV shot we did. Our inspiration came from 2 main sources. I personally had researched Jaws (1975) and the opening sequence for Lord of War (2005). Both which open with a POV shot. In Jaw’s it is of the shark, swimming through the ocean stalking a girl swimming, while in Lord of War it is of the life of a bullet being packaged, processed and distributed around the world. This inspiration was tried and tested on our recce to wilderness woods, with the results thought to be successful, but could be improved. The final application of this shot was very successful, being used to get an insight into the hostage’s perspective as he tries to escape the gang. Due to the fact both films mentioned are thriller genre type movies , it would be fair to say that the application of the POV shot does indeed show how we used popular forms and conventions , in this case camera techniques , in our opening piece.

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With colour and visual techniques, we pretty much stayed with what the camera had shot, as we felt happy with the lighting and effect the early evening sun had given us. However, we were very pleased with the font we had chosen and felt it helped re-enforce our thriller / crime /drama conventions. We used the font ‘Trashco’ off www.dafont.com , applying the title at the end of the opening when the car boot was shut on the hostage (another POV shot from inside the car). I feel this is our most successful shot and visually looks fantastic.

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To conclude , I would definitely say we stuck to forms and conventions shown throughout real thriller style movies.The only exception being our slightly unconventional application of humour throughout the piece , however , I feel this humour was still successful.

JC - Evaluation question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

Although - as we have previously stated - our film has drawn inspiration from the large blockbuster/mainstream films that we studied in the process of gathering ideas, I feel that, for a number of reasons, our film would be more successful if it were distributed via the /British Film Institute/lottery funding, rather than a large media conglomerate such as Warner Bros.

Our story prides itself on its' high quality, original narrative. The British Film Institute (formerly UK film council) often invests in projects which have strong story lines and films which are likely to be successful (such as The Kings Speech), whilst also supporting emerging talent (such as Adulthood).  If our project were to be approved by the BFI, our belief that we have a strong storyline would be reinforced, and because we would be using soft money from the institution to produce our film, every element of our script/plans etc. would be retained, whereas if we were to use hard money from a foreign investor such as Warner Bros., elements of our script would be adapted to suit both a global audience and the investors' wants.

Furthermore, the promising young actors who appear in our opening would most likely not secure those roles in our film, which would instead go to bankable stars who would be likely to draw big crowds, should we opt for funding for a media conglomerate. I believe this would be detrimental to our piece, as we want it to be a predominantly english based storyline, whilst also promoting british talent, and without government funding which allows for the film to be made as we would wish, we would not to be able to fulfil our promotion of british talent.

In addition, our film does not require a large amount of investment to be produced - we have no special effects, with the majority of the cost of our production revolving around the need for camera and sound recording equipment etc. This reduces the need for hard money from a large institution, whilst it would enhance our chance of securing cash from the BFI, as they would have to provide less to us than other potential projects.

I feel that even if our film were to be distributed by the BFI, we could still aim for a mainstream release, through multiplex's such as Odeon and smaller independent, perhaps arthouse cinemas - due to the film's unique and high-quality storyline - in the same way that great British films such as the Kings' Speech have reached mass audiences. I would give our film a 12 certificate, as despite the 'gangster' connotations, the film actual revolves around Renwick's struggle with his morality, and therefore the few dark moments that would occur in the rest of the story would be when he has a particularly low point. Giving the film a 12 certificate would allow us to target a much wider audience, enticing both young and old to come to watch the film. I feel that the ideal target audience for our film would probably be 25-40 Male category, as they are likely to understand the storyline more than younger audiences, whilst also being more engaged by the storyline than females simply because it is a male-dominant world.

JC - Evaluation question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film stars young, white characters of both sexes, whilst there is a class and regional variation on our piece. This suggests that our opening is not representative of society, as there are a number of social groups (ethnicity, disability, sexuality and age) missing from our piece.

Because the film stars young actors, we can say that youth is represented progressively, as there is full and predominant representation in the piece, whereas most films tend to revolve around adults, with young adults and children playing a lesser role. However, this representation is negative and perhaps stereotypical, because it shows them to be involved in illegal processes and therefore perhaps to be rebelling against society, a view which many people hold of teenagers. This can be seen when the protagonist enters the lair, removing a bag from the hostage's head, immediately revealing his status, whilst the accomplis also reveals that he has "picked up" the hostage - and therefore participated in an illegal process - for a sum of money. His non-verbal language may also conform to many views held about teenagers today, as he shows little empathy towards his victim, suggesting that teenagers do not care about their acts and their potential consequences.

 The regional variation and difference in class is clear through the speech  of the main protagonist and his companion, who has a cockney accent, and from this (as well as the ensuing storyline) we associate that he is working class, showing two potential social deficiencies. However, there is instead positive and progressive representation of the working class and regions, as the character is both the focus of the storyline, and is also in the same job as his middle classed, well spoken counterpart. This is shown through the amount of screen time they both receive (the protagonist has more screen time), as well as the low angle shot of the protagonist, which connotes his greater importance in the narrative than his companion, who can be seen sitting down and at an eyeline level.

Our piece also shows heteronormative discourse, as there is both higher male representation, as well as greater role and screentime for the male characters. We know this as the male characters are present throughout the sequence, whilst the female character is only present in one shot. Furthermore, she has only one line in the piece, before her audio is cut off, whilst the size of her box once she appears in the piece is significantly smaller than that of her male counterpart, who talks to her abruptly before cutting her off. This connotes that she is of less significance than her male equivalents.

JC - Evaluation question 1: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As nice as it was to have a break, the real work has to start again!

Our film opening, Murder Inc., was an original thriller idea that took little inspiration from other films, and therefore the actual construction of the narrative had very little influence - if any - from the films we studied prior to our production. However, having spent the first month and a half of the project studying film openings, we picked up valuable skills that were mirrored and used in our piece, such as the style and form of our opening.

One of my first posts on the blog was to research the main conventions of the thriller genre, and looking back at them, the following are applicable when comparing our opening to typical thriller openings (some require a feature-length film in order for them to be discovered):

• Suburban/city locations
• Heroes are often normal citizens
• The identity of the archetypal villain is known throughout

In this evaluation, I will look at these characteristics individually, to see if our product complies with them. I will also (primarily) take a broad look at our opening and see if it follows the same form and style of a thriller film. Finally, I will conclude as to what extent our film uses, develops or challenges both generic conventions and those films which we have studied.

Our opening is conventional, as it follows a linear pattern. Furthermore, in keeping with both traditional and contemporary thriller media products, it involves both character exposition - as we see the main characters, Jack Renwick and Simon Daglass, appear in the opening sequence - and locational exposition - as we are introduced to the location at which much of the rest of the story continues at. In terms of plot and mise-en-scene, the opening sequence conforms to more recent films in that there is a sense of mystery following our protagonist (Renwick), as the opening wake-up sequence gives little away about his character.

Our opening is also continuity edited, though unlike most other films of this type, there are some jump cuts; this was done to both cut down soome of our footage but still retain the same narrative, whilst also retaining some of the comedic feel about the opening, created by the non-verbal language and tone of speech of our characters. The inspiration from this (on my part) came from the TV series 'Garth Marenghi's Darkplace', although myself and Simon were told that we were naturally humorous, despite our best efforts of 'serious acting'.

I also feel that our use of Timo (our hostage) as, in effect, a prop, also conforms to generic conventions, as in many films there is use of a hostage, who seems weak and vulnerable. This is connoted through camerawork, as we have a low angle shot looking out of the boot when he has been re-captured, as well as through mise-en-scene, as his body is slumped when we first see him.

One way in which our piece most definitely breaks with convention is through the use of sound; our soundtrack involves mainly dialogue, with only two pieces of music played through the whole piece. We felt this was one way in which we could break with convention, as with most thriller films, tense and dramatic music is used to anchor the images on screen, whilst also setting the scene and mood for the film. We felt that by using mostly dialogue, but interspersing upbeat major-key guitar riffs, we could create a contrast between the feel of the opening and the overall mood of the film.

One problem that we did encounter when we came to pitch our piece was the suitability of our locations; whilst we felt that given the majority of our piece would be based in a warehouse, and therefore the other locations would not be of as much significance, Miss Fernandez raised the issues that our setting in Sevenoaks may not be in keeping with other thrillers, such as the Dark Knight, where one of the first shots of the sequence is of a sky-scraper. Whilst this would be a way in which we could break convention, we felt that actually we wanted to retain the high-rise/close-wall feel of our piece, and therefore in order to combat this, we used two main techniques; as Renwick locks the front up and the victim escapes, we used quick motion pans to keep focus on the characters, instead of the location; when we switch to the victim running away, we felt that a POV shot would be best as it would capture the emotion and adrenaline to an extent, whilst also narrowing the shot and the walls and buildings around it to a close proximity.  The diegetic sound in the shot directly afterwards, when the victim is caught, also helps to connote an industrial feel, as the viewer can hear a large fan-like sound, coming from the Stag theatre which was releasing air, as well as the look of the shot, as it appears as though the shot is filmed in a narrow alleyway in between two industrial buildings. We feel that although the suburban feel is definitely present for some time in our shots, the piece is overall in keep with the generic conventions which suggest that the narrative should take place in an urban location.

Although our story does not have a hero, the protagonist with whom the audience are likely to show sympathy is an average, every day normal citizen; he likes a lie-in, as connoted by the time on the clock, whilst there is no strutt as he walks; he talks in perhaps a common way, and also wears normal clothes (apart from the bright green trainers), which suggest there is nothing supernatural about the character. In this way our story therefore conforms with convention, as the same thing can be seen in films such as Spiderman, where Peter Parker is a normal citizen with a normal job.

In our opening, there is no archetypal villain; the identity of the characters therefore, is perhaps the most significant way in which our film opening breaks with convention, as we have no designated hero or villain in our piece. In conclusion, therefore, given the evidence which I have provided I would say that on the whole, our film has effectively drawn inspiration from the pieces we have studied, yet allowing us to create a completely unique and original take on the thriller genre.

Group - Murder Inc. finished piece

Here is the opening sequence for our film Murder Inc.

Group - Daily Update: The Finale

Today, at 12:17PM, we completed the final cut of our coursework, Murder Inc. Having had a difficult start to the production process, we as a group are thrilled to have met the deadline, particularly with the piece we have ultimately produced, as we feel it is a strong piece, and that it reflects the hard work that we have put into the piece. Here are our views:

Timo Burbidge

I have throughly enjoyed this project , especially watching it come together in the final few days. Watching it back today has given me a sense of acomplishment , and cannot wait for other people to view it.

Simon Tucker

I haven't had many regrets in my life, this is one of them.
Of course I'm joking, the final product has reached and in some cases exceeded my own very high expectations, at times it has beeen a great hassle, but now to see the final it is not only a relief it is an achievement.

Jack Cozens

Looking at our work at the start of the week, I found it difficult to see how we would reach the deadline, as we had little idea of the sound we wanted to use (ironically, apart from a piece that we didn' end up using), our video was two and a half minutes long and we hadn't started with our transitions. However, I think that the fact that we did manage to reach the deadline - in the end quite comfortably - to the sound of welcoming comments, is a testament to both the brilliant idea for our opening from Simon, and our determination to finish the piece. Whilst we have all expressed relief in a light hearted manner, we have all been overcome with a genuine sense of pride and achievement, and therefore the only thing left for me to say, in the words of Mark Webber, YES, YES YES YES YES!

TB - Audio

Today is our deadline and I think its important to highlight the importance audio now plays in our final piece. Jack and Simon researched specific guitar acoustics to try and fit our opening ,and they have successfully found some good music.

The music seems to capture the mood surrounding our piece , with a mild crime/gangster theme , but also exagerating the humor in some parts.

I am very proud of our final piece , and have enjoyed watching it come together , the audio was our final stepping stone and we have now successfully applied it to our footage.

TB - Effective Use of the Jump Cut

Recently we have decided to impose a few jump cut shots into our final piece , brought about by the fact that some shots seemed to long for the audience to watch without much happening on screen. The applied jump shots have really helped our opening gain speed , adding to the feeling of efficient changing through scenes. Before these jump cuts were applied , some shots didn't work as well as we had hoped and , as I mentioned , some continuous shots were too long for the audience to be staring at. This was because they would start to look at objects within the frame that weren't necessarily of key importance in the plot.

In my next post I will try to upload some stills of where in our piece we used some jump cutting.

ST - Sound-a-Matique

With only days left it seems wildly overambitious, but with the musical expertise of Jack Cozens, who has keenly been awaiting introducing music into the film, a well thought out soundtrack will no doubt bring a new experience to the piece.

 Not as rag-tag as it may first seem, the music has been thought of throughout the planning and preparation of the film. Thousands of music tracks from freesound.org has been listened to by Jack and then the best of the best, shared with the rest of the group.

We've gone with a sombre, slow tempo guitar riff, on a loop, it insinuates a morbid tone in the character who is on screen while it is being played. As well as this during the point of view running shot, a more uplifting chords and quicker tempo, still using a guitar to give some consistancy to the music. This is used as an almost cheeky effect, to show how the characters, despite being immoral killers are still able to have well rounded banter. This is shown even more in the fianl dialouge.

JC - Production: How we made our split screen

As will be the focus for the rest of our lessons' this term, today we edited our piece. Having made some decent progress during the lesson, myself and Timo stayed behind afterschool. It was here where our project took most development, as we made sure our editing was in keeping with the comical style that has become apparent in our piece. This was done by placing jump-cuts through scenes, so that our narrative is still linear, however the process of time progression has been sped-up without having to speed up our edit. This has allowed us to cut the amount of footage we have significantly, and in the next few days we should find it much easier to edit down our final footage.

The next change to our sequence was a technique that we wanted to use as soon as we started to develop our idea. Simon wished to use a split-screen to show the brief conversation between himself and Sarah. As usual, we were puzzled about how we would develop such an idea, and so called on the assistance of Mr Fiveash. He showed us the steps that we would need to take to turn this idea into a visual effect, which I have outlined below (visuals will appear shortly):

• To begin with, the two (or more) videos that are to be used need to be stacked in the two different video rows
• One portion of footage should primarily be selected. From here we then go to the edit section, and select the crop effect
• Decide how much you wish the clip to be cropped, by using the drag buttons
• Decide on the size of the shot (ie. 100%), by using the drag buttons
• Reposition the image to a favoured position, by using the motion control button
• Repeat the process for as many clips you wish to use in your split screen

JC - Daily update: editing our footage

As I have three frees today, I decided I would start our editing process so that we are closer to the other groups when we come to our lesson later today. Having just checked out our camera and uploaded our footage onto the system (click here to see how we do so), the shots that we did in school appear at first glance to be a lot more refined and successful, and whilst our decision to film most shots from three angles meant that our shoot was time-consuming, this seems to have paid off, as the piece should fit and flow as one much better than before, as well as giving us more choice as to what angles we wish to show/alter the number of cuts and shots we have.

Today our main aim will be to edit as much as we possibly can, whilst also updating the blog with any additional information we can add to make our blog more technically advanced and show the skills that we hope will be demonstrated in our footage, in order for us to achieve a level four in each stage of our coursework.

Group - Analysis of shoot

Continuing from where we left off yesterday failed to hinder us in our progress through the shoot. After working through each shot chronologically this time, we feel that we have enough shots to make up the time. Although we missed out a couple of shots of the hostsage being taken away from the scene, we feel that this was actually something we can cut out and save some time on, whilst also allowing us to include our transitions where our titles will appear. We will look through the footage on monday, however from looking at our it initially, and the fact that we filmed the majority of it from three different angles has suggested to me that we will still be on course to meet the coursework deadline and that our footage is sufficient in terms of both quality and quantity.

ST - New Shoot, New Location, New Inspirations

Following the unsucessful first shoot, judging by the footage, countless negative reviews and comments, we've found a new location and a fresh outlook on our project.

The daytime shoot ensured the complete attention and best acting ability from the entourage, excitement for the final outcome was heavy in the air. The shoot started slower then expected, due to the need to find new camera positions in such a cramped space.

The change in location meant that some of the orignal camera shots couldn't be used, and alternatives had to be thought of on set. This meant some entirely new shots were thought of, as well as the scrapping of some other shots.

Overall this shoot has improved the imagery of our piece and is a much better location, look and adds much needed authenticity.

JC - Daily update: plan for action

Following yesterday's successful shoot, there are still some shots on our checklist that we need to finish preferably by today, in order to spend the whole of next week editing our work. Whilst we accept that we may be further behind in the production proccess than most groups (certainly all of those in our class), we still feel that we will be able to complete the necessary tasks ahead of next Thursday's lesson.

Our plan for today is primarily to complete all of the footage that we want to change, and hopefully if we have enough time review this, before posting an analysis of how our shoot progressed, what we feel went well/badly if we can still use the footage etc. We will also talk about any changes that we have made during this process, adding screenshots to explain these changes.