MY FILM WEBSITE FOR A QUESTION OF IDENTITY

I have devised a film website for my film trailer A Question Of Identity. I made a brief website displaying the cast biographies and behind the scenes photos, and it includes the film trailer itself. Please feel free to check the website down below:


http://marcuscoulingbdm.wix.com/a-question-of-ident

EVALUATION QUESTION 3: FEEDBACK

EVALUATION QUESTION 3: FEEDBACK

TO SEE MY FULLY ANSWERED QUESTION: PLEASE SEE MY TOOLBAR AT THE TOP OF MY BLOG AND CLICK ON EVALUATION QUESTION 3. 

·      For my evaluation question, feedback is a necessity for film Posters and trailers and this is crucial for me to receive feedback

So I can then assess and act upon the feedback given.

·      So far I have received feedback for my film poster, where I received praise and constructive criticism. This would allow me to make improvements, but now I need to get feedback for our film trailer.

·      During the process of my group and I making the film, we documented and carefully looked at the feedback that was given to us, so that we could make changes as we want our film trailer to be as compelling as humanly possible.

·      The really important and helpful concept behind receiving feedback is because it is really important to get an honest opinion from somebody who is from our target audience. We are addressing the film trailer to the selected target audience and getting another opinion from that selected target audience is very important to see whether we have drawn the target audience into our product successfully and whether we have fully addressed the codes and conventions of the film trailer.

·      I know that feedback will greatly benefit my group and I’s film trailer because I used feedback for my film poster, as mentioned in my previous point, where I was able to make my poster as authentic and effective as humanly possible.

POSITIVE FEEDBACK:

We were praised for the custody scene, as it looked very convincing. After this shot, it shows a black and white grainy quality, which is viewed from the perspective of a surveillance camera. The camera also displayed the date and time. These effects were praised because of our sharp editing use and this was one of many scenes where we were praised for good editing.

We were praised for the very fast paced hard cuts. Along with this compliment, we created a sense of enigma. This shot for example shows the main protagonist pursuing the Ghost unseen wielding a camera, taking photos of him. We also created suspense with the custody scene, zooming into documents where it really creates suspense for the audience.

My group received positive feedback from the beginning sequence showing the high angle establishing shot of London and the main positive feedback my group got was how authentically real it looked. My group and I were also praised for the text. The text anchored the meaning of the visuals and it carefully explained the scenarios addressed in the film.

Praised for editing: Inter titles: How far would you go- 2^nd person plural= addressing the audience, questioning them.

Praised for sound: Sound bridge- ‘She was acting suspicious’

Significant dialogue- ‘Someone’s trying to set me up’

-       Key info only- good trailer establishes genre.

I now need to get the required photos from the trailer in order to write a fully sentenced articulate reflection of our film trailer.

(More photos needed)

My group was praised for the very significant sound bridge that was made during the custody scene. For instance, as Aaron is digging through the roots of the situation regarding Sydney’s actions, he says “she was acting suspicious” the sound bridge is played over the scene where Sydney is peering through shop windows. The short snippets connote key information to the audience.

EVALUATION QUESTION 1: GENRE CONVENTIONS:

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.