Below shows my answer to the first evaluation question. I am currently having problems uploading my word document onto YuDu but for the time being I have the word document on here.
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS & CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
Our film production, A Question Of Identity is a
smooth-running, rapid paced & enticing film with a lot of suspense &
crisis. The genre is an action/thriller, which audiences of 18 years of age &
above both female & male. We believe this age group will be most interested
in this product as they are our target audience. Furthermore, it can compete
with the current & continuing audience fascination of high productions
because we have critically assessed these films' criteria & our film has
fast paced action, strong storylines & dominant female characters. During
the process of making the film, I learnt that many films base their stories on
current affairs, which we have achieved throughout our storyline.
Below shows my research on film trailers. I used Piktochart again to
establish what the definitions of film trailers are & I wanted to present
my research in a more fundamental aspect. I decided to research trailers
because I wanted to understand the conventions of a trailer & what my film
trailer would be leading up to.
I have come to terms that film trailers show very short snippets of the
scenes in the revered film without containing potential spoilers to heighten
the hype for the audience & create a peak of excitement. However, in some
cases, I have seen trailers containing hints of spoilers, such as certain
characters that were swept under the rug from dirt sheets until the trailer was
shown. For example, I noticed when watching the trailer Taken, from the get go, we can have a visual idea as to what the
outcome will be, however, as we are watching the trailer, we are gripped with
action.
To answer this question I am going to put annotations for my film
trailer on YouTube.
THE
TITLE: A QUESTION OF IDENTITY
The title of the film "A
Question Of Identity" leaves hints for the audience to help explain
what the film is all about. A Question Of
Identity gives off the vibe of enigma & suspense, & this sets the
genre of the film & it also links in the main storyline of the film. This
is a common theme in the film industry & this technique is especially used
for action/thriller films.
Setting the scene for the genre of the film was the production company ident
in the trailer, where My friend Demi came up with the idea of the ident to be
BLACKLIGHT PRODUCTIONS & the color black emphasizes the mood of the film &
we usually associate the color black with mystery & suspense. This is a
common convention used in film trailers.
(A
Question Of Identity sends off vibes of
enigma & suspense & it is the main guide throughout the storyline. The
main slogan for the film How far would
you go for someone you love? Questions the audience about what they would
do in a situation that Aaron is in. This is used to interact with the audience
for them to show sympathy & empathize with the main character. This inter
title is shown between the more action packed scenes.)
LOCATION:
Location is vital for setting the scene for
action films & we came up with some great locations for us to film in. We
chose to have a scene in the graveyard because scenes such as these, pin point
the purpose for the actions of the main characters. In our films case, the
graveyard scene shows the protagonist kneeling at his sister's grave, causing
drama & creates a negative event occurring.
This scene shows how vulnerable &
victimized the protagonist is at this point & then in the next few snippets
from the trailer, it shows the protagonists' diligence to avenge his sisters
death by using brute force, causing the atmosphere to be tense & fast
paced, which is what we learnt when watching action packed trailers, such as
" Die Hard". The suspense that we are casting within the trailer will
make the audience glue their eyes to the screen because of potential
cliffhangers.
(We chose to have a
scene in the graveyard because the protagonist is depicted in distress &
causes the chain of events that occurs in the later scenes. This scene causes
drama & connotes a negative event occurring, as is shows Aaron kneeling at
his sisters’ grave with the camera angle showing his distress &
vulnerability, which then leads to the consumer diving into the juicy narrative
of the film, in other words, this scene is the turning point of the film.)
(We also did a
custody scene, where Aaron, the protagonist is held as he is being suspected to
be the killer of Sydney, his sister. We found a perfect location in our school-mansion
as it looks to be isolated & has the visuals of a convincing custody room.
We have a shot looking through a surveillance camera, emphasizing the genre of
the film & focuses of the focal point of a confrontation between two
characters. This scene shows that Aaron has been accused of a crime, which he
has not committed & it shows Aaron justifying himself & discussing the
scene before the disappearance of Sydney from the ground up.
There is a sound bridge
within this scene, where Aaron says that his sister is “acting suspicious”.
There is a cut to the scene showing Sydney looking through a shop window. The
sound bridge acts like a commentary of Sydney’s actions and through the
dialogue it carries the narrative leading up to the demise of Sydney. )
Most trailers, such as "Taken"
will open the trailer with a very harmony filled scene with a vibrant
atmosphere, which is identified as the equilibrium of the trailer, a theory
devised by Todorov. There is an immediate snippet of a horrific scene, which is
the disruption of the equilibrium & then when the trailer reaches to the
end, it restores the unbalanced equilibrium. This has been implied within our
film trailer. As the opening scene shows a bright establishing shot of London, &
Aaron & Sydney together, although arguing, shows brotherly concern for his
sister. However, after this scene, the entire complexion of the film changes
dramatically with a distresses Aaron looking over the grave of his dead sister.
& this is the pivot of the storyline, which gets carried through by
dialogue & flashback of disturbing incidences.
(Much like the film
trailer Taken, Our opening trailer
scene shows an establishing shot of London with a vibrant looking atmosphere &
this is the equilibrium of the trailer, as the scene shown conveys a neutral
mood. As the Blacklight productions logo
emerges, it disrupts the equilibrium as the actions within the trailer become
more violent & forceful, which conveys to the audience that a disruption of
equilibrium has taken place.)
WARP FILMS:
(My group & I
decided to have Warp Films to be our
main UK production company because they provide “A distinctive window on the world” Our film trailer reflects some
of the real life stories concerning migrants & their pursuit of happiness &
a better lifestyle. Our film reflects the problems that occur.)
MISE EN SCENE:
We used many props for our film in relation
to a typical action/thriller. We had close ups of the weapon that the ghost is
wielding, this is a typical convention of an action film as most action films
contain guns & weaponry. This also sets the genre of the film in stone,
with the ghost cocking the gun back, as if he is about to go into action.
In terms of our characters, we used a
twenty year old looking male to lead the film alongside a 17 year old looking
female main character, which is very unusual for a action/thriller. In major
action films such as "Mission Impossible"
the protagonist is a typical 30-40 year old
lead character. We decided to go for a younger cast because it has been done
before, such as the film "Kidulthood" where the majority of the
characters are teenagers. We feel as a group this was the right choice, as it
would attract a wider audience as well as our target audience, which are mostly
teenagers.
(The mise-en-scene is
displayed also by the diegetic sounds of the crow in the background. The crow
is considered to be a spirit bird and holds many forms of symbolism. To an
extent it is considered to be the totem of the Ghost and Aaron, Due to the fact
that the moment he visits the graveyard, it makes Aaron undergo a personal
transformation. His actions throughout the rest of the trailer become fearless
and audacious.)
(However, for the Ghost,
the crow is his totem for his trickster instincts, manipulation to Sydney and
his mischevious intentions.
Most of the mise-en-scene
contains the low-key lighting within the trailer. For example, the scene with
the female migrant and her husband are with Sydney, concerning the illegal
exchanges of illegal passports. The low-key lighting shows a very low contrast)
COLOR:
The various colors
influence the mood within the trailer. Our production company ident that my
group made set the colors for the film trailer, the ghastly while color looks
very ghostly which creates the emotional effect.
(There is a lot of blazing
colors in the opening establishing shot of the trailer. The bright light is
averted from the main theme for the trailer. This is a very similar approach to
the film trailer Taken where the mood
was shown to be upbeat and happy. But then the tides turn when the production
company appears. The colors drastically change from white to black, which are
polar-opposite colors.)
MOOD AND STYLE:
·
The mood
presented within the trailer conveys the emotional cast of Aaron and there are
many styles, which depicts the esthetic approach to the actions portrayed.
·
There is a
lot of expressionism. Aaron conveys
his strong feelings as his life’s mission to put the real culprit in prison.
·
With this
particular scene, Low-key lighting was used and the color saturation was made
naturally within the trailer showing shadows appearing on Aaron’s face which
the makes the contrast on his face convey the action to be more fist full.
DIEGETIC SOUND:
There is very important diegetic sound that
pin-points key elements within the trailer. Key sentences such as “Someone’s
trying to set me up”
There are sounds that are made by objects
within the trailer such as cocking back the gun. This suggests danger and the
events are going to change for the worse.
Other sounds that are made by objects
towards the end of the trailer is when Aaron slams his hands on the table, this
conveys Aaron’s anger for the fact that he “Will not rest until that murderer
is locked up”.
“You want your passports don’t you?” whilst
this has been said by Sydney, the non-diegetic sound of the piano increases,
heightening the tension and intensifying the overall tone.
“I’m not a charity case, is said by the
Ghost, whilst the dialogue carries through, the piano playing is stale and very
monotone, this is a juxtaposition of the visuals and the sound connoting to the
audience the uneasy atmosphere.
NON-DIEGETIC SOUND
·
There was some of Aaron’s
commentary running over the top of the scene with Sydney looking through the
shop window.
POSTER:
I went for an idea that was similar to the Taken poster, with the color scheme
being black, red & white. I created the stances of the characters & I
got a vague idea from the movie poster "Scream". I felt that this set
the tone for our film genre & did this justice. Although Scream is a horror film, it gave me an
idea that I thought would work for my film poster.
When looking at the codes & conventions
of action film posters, I understood that these film posters have the main
protagonist in the center of the poster, adopting a Hero pose. This is so that the audience can get a feel for the
genre of the film & this is what I tried to achieve with my poster. I did
an analysis of The Dark Knight where
I spoke about Batman being positioned
in the center of the poster, which connotes the sense of authority & power
just by a single image. Comparing to my film poster, I positioned the main
protagonist being myself in the center of the poster & I had Sydney on the
left h& side of the frame & the female migrant on the right h&
side.
Before I started making the film poster, I got my group members together
and took some group photos at different angles and I also played around with
lighting with a dark background to make the characters stand out. I made my
character stand in a hero pose, as he is the protagonist of the film and
positioned in the center of the frame. Below shows all of my photos that
I took for the film poster.
FONT:
I decided to make the font different for the title and the inter title.
I made there the title font large and in block capitals with a white color to
make it stand out and take up most of the space. And I made the inter title
smaller because it introduces a question to the audience hinting at what the
film is going to be about.
Then I considered the names of the actors and the text underneath. I
made of this text on the right the same font but different size and I
highlighted the production companies and the director in red as this is a theme
that I found with some professional posters.
This is the finished version of my movie poster. I took a screenshot in
edit mode showing the image in high definition. During the final touches of
this movie poster, I placed the title of the film right at the top in the
center followed by the inter title placed below and in smaller size. I
highlighted the word love to put emphasis on why the protagonist is seeking for
vengeance for his loved one.
The main image is placed in the center of the poster showing three of
the main characters in the film followed by the names of the actors and the
date of the film. Right at the bottom shows the different social media networks,
which contain pages that we have created for our movie.
MAGAZINE COVER:
I decided for my film magazine to follow the
codes & conventions for an action/thriller magazine cover. I stuck with the
same color scheme of the film poster. The characters have a visual code address
& I used a QR CODE along with the main slogan for our film, as well as an
exclusive content page address at the bottom left h& corner as well as the
right h& corner.
Above shows some of the images that I considered using fro my magazine
cover. As we chose the image for our magazine I began to resize and add to the
image so that it would fit on the background. I also used the paintbrush tool
on Photoshop to carefully skim around the actors with a black color so that the
color blends in to the magazine background and looks suited to the image. I
leant that the main image is the most important feature. With the image and the
background, this connotes the idea of the unknown and danger in the film and
this also is connoted by the title of the film " A Question Of
Identity".
Our characters shown follow the convention of strong female leads as the
girl to the right is the center piece for the story and the girl on the right
is a important character in the story. I believe we have followed the steps of
Carol J. Clover who developed the "final girl" theory which as a
result changed the conception of gender in films and Pam Cook a she was a
pioneer of the feminist film theory.
Next I decided to work on the text of the magazine cover. I firstly
focused on the masthead of the cover. I looked at various examples to get an
idea of how professional magazine covers are layered out so I could do the
same.
I went for a simple but effective looking main title and added some
depth by adding a blood red to the text to catch the audiences eye straight
away and it would stand out to other magazines because it is different and
original.
Underneath the title it shows the main image of the characters in the film.
This is the most important part of the magazine as they are the selling point
for the film.
For the main cover line we have taken the film title for the poster and
keep the style consistent across the platform. I also wanted the title of the
film to stand out and that the white font would be successful in doing so. I
brightened the colors so that it was clear to see with all of the text as
before enhancement, the text wasn't very clear.
Underneath the main title of the film, I added the slogan for the film
and a strap line with small detail about what the main article is about. I used
a buzz word such as "exclusive" which will hopefully entice consumers
as this article is specified for this magazine and this will be the only chance
people will have in reading it as it will not be found anywhere else. Statements
such as "the new release of 2016" is used to promote the film.
Inserts are something I considered for my magazine as it is a reward for
the reader for buying the magazine. It has become really popular because it has
fast readability and has a great storage capacity compared to standard
barcodes. It has also become common in advertising and it converts you on your
smartphone in my case to exclusive content on our twitter page and it is much
faster doing this strategy than punching in a URL online. This also increases
the conversion rate, which means that contact with he advertisement of our film
will result for the magazine to be sold.
Psychologist Richard Wiseman was one of the first authors to include
which allowed viewers to access his research in making his book
"Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There"
Another bonus for the consumer is that they are able to get exclusive
content from the comfort of their homes.
Levi Strauss said that all representations have ideologies because for
the representation to be meaningful there needs to be a shared recognition of
people and interest and certain padagrims are encoded into texts.
