Piers Harrop: 1030 Centre:64680

Dear Examiner, this is my media project for G322. Below is my film and the planning and processes that were involved in creating my final product. I created my film with George Thornton and Karen Tsang.  I hope you enjoy my finished product.

MY FILM

Below is my finished G322 film opening:

PRELIMINARY

Our preliminary task was to create a short sequence which includes a short reverse shot combination. In order to gather ideas my group brainstormed these in a powerpoint and this is our final decision.

To film our short sequence we used an Iphone 4 to show that we can use many different media devices to film footage including phones. Many phones these days have similar or even possibly better picture quality than standard film cameras. 

Below is our video:

Below are screen shots of us editing the footage, cutting and ordering the footage into our desired sequence.

The screenshot below shows how we managed to increase the picture frame size of our footage in order to enlarge the footage and make it larger.

Research on film titles

Before my group and I create or film tile, we had a look at different films to see how they made use of font, texture, background and space. Here are some examples.

Through researching other title sequences we noticed that other film sequence fonts were often kept simple, bold, in contrast with the background and often shaped into the landscape.

Research on fonts

                                       

We went on Dafont to look for the suitable font for our title. They all belong to different categories, for example like handwriting, modern, destroy, horror and gothic.

However my group and I chose to focus on the handwriting genre as we thought it suits our film the best.

ART OF THE TITLE

We visited www.artofthetitle.com to see how other films in our genre organised their title sequence.

Below are some of the examples we looked at:


PANIC ROOM-

THE NEGOTIATOR-

SHERLOCK HOLMES-

SWEENEY TODD-

Through researching other title sequences we noticed that other film sequence fonts were often kept simple, bold, in contrast with the background and often shaped into the landscape. As a result we have kept our font simple, and shaped it into our scenery for example a wall. The titles also appear to be posed in different positions and often animated. Although we have placed our titles in different positions on the screen, we have decided not to animate our titles as we want to create a feel of realism to help make our film opening as realistic as possible without being a drama. This will help create suspense and familiarity and emotion within our audiences.

Our title sequence

   The titles in our film are often introduced at significant points of the film. The titles themselves are simple, bold and are a contrasting colour compared to the background. We have chosen to use font, not dissimilar to handwriting to give the illusion that the words are the writings of the suicidal boy before he jumps. This makes the titles clear and the names stand out amongst the picture. The titles will be placed in different angles and heights creating tension.

My film title

My group and I have chosen to keep our main titler rather simplistic although imposing.

      The title itself is simple, bold and are a contrasting colour compared to the background. We have chosen to use font, not dissimilar to handwriting to give the illusion that the words are the writings of the suicidal boy before he jumps.....or does he?. This makes the titles clear and the names stand out amongst the picture. The titles will be placed in different angles and heights creating tension.

PRODUCTION IDENT

Here is our finished production ident :

We have created our production ident to have a bold and universal appearance. This is so that it can be used worldwide and share a universal approach to production idents. The font itself is bold so that it attracts the audiences' attention as well as having a very versatile nature as this ident can be used in a wide range of film genres.The ident itself is rather mysterious, relevent for a film in the thriller genre. The title at first appears to be shattered pieces of metal(shrapnal) which then combine to form the name of our production company 'THT productions'.

Faded (half finished version)

This is the half finished version of my media project :L there still needs to be some titles added and the audio could do with an update... But otherwise you get an idea of our film opening.

Further evidence to why we chose to film swans

A poem by famous poet William Yeats-

The Wild Swans At Coole
THE trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty Swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?


This poem showing that Swans are loved and are seen by many as beutiful creatures and a symbol of love and romance. We used swans to create a symbolism of the characters' strong love especially to emphasise the loving close relationship during the date flashback.

WHY WE USED SWANS IN OUR FILMING IN KINGSTON

We purposely filmed Swans in our flashback scene when the main characters of our film are on a date. They are walkign along the side of a river having fun and laughing. We purposely waited for a group of swans to swim by. We lured them in using bread. Swans traditionally been used to convey romance for example swan pedal boat rides.

FEEDBACK FROM A SCHOOL OPEN DAY VIEWING

We had a very sucessful viewing and gained extremly positive feedback from a group viewing of about 35 people. These people espcially enjoyed and were stunned with the climax of the boy leaning and jumping over the edge of the tall building. We heard audible intake of breaths and comments such as 'I hope the boy isn’t dead'. This is very reasuring and provides evidence of the feeling and emotions I wanted to create when audiences view my movie. They also felt that the location was extremly realistic and made the situation of the boy even more shocking.


The viewing audience of our film included the targeted age group of 18-40+  with a mixture of genders. Both genders as appealed as the other. We also had younger age groups which were very intrigued and grabbed by our film opening. This suggests that our film may appeal to an even wider audience than previously thought and so the chances of our film becoming a sucess is extremly postive.

Production Ident for 'THT Productions'

Before we start to create the ident of our movie Faded, me and my group went on to video copilot and looked at the Aftereffects tutorials.

This is the effect we want to create for our ident- smoky and textural.

The first step was to create the texture of the text 'FADED'.

We picked a rusty iron background, and applied it on the text, so this is how it looks like:

We will add in the animation and the smoky effect next lesson

THRILLER AS GENRE

I have made a prezi in order to present information on the 'Thriller' genre:

MY PREZI ON THE THRILLER GENRE

Another day of filming

Yesterday, my group and I filmed another major section of our film opening. This was one of our flashback scenes which required us to film in our chosen location Kingston at sunset and in a river location as this would help make our scene more romantic and happy (The mood and emotions we want to create in this sequence).

OUR DISTRIBUTION

We have started started working on our website as a means of distribution. We are planning to put our trailer, photographs, and interactive games on it. We picked a scene from our footage and made it as the background of our website which we will simarily use in our poster and the profile picture of our Facebook page. We have also started to design a poster.

This poster will share a similar image, showing date of release, distributor, title, directors, editors, screenplay etc. We have also added quotes from major Newspapers and magazines including mass newspapers such as the Guardian and media magazines such as Empire. Through these mass magazines our product should become world know. These extremely positive quotes for example nominations and extremly favourable comments will be used to entice viewers and act as pull lines.

Rich Mix- In London for a TV drama study day!!

On 6th of March we travelled to London's Brick Lane to listen to a lecture from our chief examiner Pete Fraser. Here we recieved helpful suggestions and what we were expected to do in our exam. We also listened and watched some work from a real programme editor, Charlie Phillips which has edited major television programmes such as the current Sherlock Holmes series, Pschoville and Munro.

He explained how editing was a very important element in telling a story. This event took a close look at how the key elements of camerawork, editing, mise-en-scène and soundtrack construct representations of different social groups.

FDA (film distributors association) research

http://www.launchingfilms.tv/acquisition.php?video=1&autostart=1

In order to understand what distributors do and why they are so important to make a film a sucess I visited the Film distributors association website. Here i was able to read information and research on what is the job of a distributor and the ways in which they try to distribute and promote films sucessfully, either through print, television or social media.


I watched several video which were very helpful and provided me with alot of useful information.



On how a distributor (Sara Frain) approaches a marketing plan:

Play clip >

http://www.launchingfilms.tv/marketing.php?video=2&autostart=1

Word of mouth
Social recommendation is key - a personal recommendation from a friend, colleague or relative can be the most powerful trigger for a cinema visit. Pre-requisite for favourable 'word of mouth' are high levels of awareness and strong interest. Negative word of mouth is extremely difficult to overcome. Post-release, hopefully, a combination of good word of mouth and further advertising will combine to give the film 'legs'.

Poster

The main image distilling the appeal of the film - its stars, theme/genre, credits and often a tagline to whet audiences' appetites. With sometimes a dozen or more different posters on display in a cinema foyer at any one time, distributors and their designers must work hard to make each one stand out.

Online and Mobile

Fizzing with networks of film fans, the internet plays a pivotal role in shaping many cinemagoers' perceptions of new releases. Most films have an official website (examples below) or perhaps a UK site hosted by a partner company, offering trailers, production information, galleries of stills and behind-thescenes footage, and more.

The internet helps distributors to start building awareness of a new film at a very early stage. Even before principal photography begins, they may release news snippets or teaser images online, seeding interest among fans. During shooting, they may gradually accelerate the dripfeed with video diaries and blogs posted from the set, aiming to engage the core audience more fully.

Media advertising

The cost of advertising placed on broadcast channels, outdoor sites and in the press is usually the largest expenditure item in a P&A budget.

Media costs rise and fall according to market conditions during the year. Terrestrial television is traditionally the most effective visual means of reaching a mass audience. But the cost of TV advertising, running into many hundreds of thousands of pounds or more for a package of spots in all regions, is prohibitive for most film releases given their potential returns. Event films/blockbusters with top stars need heavyweight advertising to support their wide releases.

UK film distributors invest around £170m a year in media advertising alone to launch and sustain their releases. Television and outdoor, taken together, typically account for 70% of expenditure. Entertainment companies as a whole spend more than half a billion pounds on advertising each year.

Shifty (2008)

Our group looked at Shifty. A smaller budget film distributed by UK based Metrodome plc distribution.


SHIFTY 2008

Director: Eran Creevy Writer: Eran CreevyStars:Riz Ahmed, Daniel Mays and Jason Flemyng


imbd.com:


Shifty, a young crack cocaine dealer in London, sees his life quickly spiral out of control when his best friend returns home. Stalked by a customer desperate to score at all costs, and with his family about to turn their back on him for good, Shifty must out-run and out-smart a rival drug dealer, intent on setting him up for a big fall. As his long time friend Chris, confronts the dark past he left behind him, Shifty is forced to face up to the violent future he's hurtling towards.


www.cinemablend.com shows how sucessful the dirstribution company was in promoting this extremely low budget film and making a national sucess story:


Four years ago, British writer/director Eran Creevy made a name for himself with his debut film Shifty. The independently made, gritty crime drama marked the arrival of an important new presence on the U.K. film scene. The feature even ended up being nominated, despite its insanely low budget, for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer at the BAFTAs. Unfortunately, the young talent went up against Duncan Jones' Moon, so Creevy ended up empty handed

DISTRIBUTION OF FADED

As a group, we have decided to use Metrodome Distribution ( features films and home entertainment in the UK). The distributed films like The Secret in Their Eyes, The Scar Cow, In Darkness and Shifty. They don't distribute big Hollywood movies Spiderman or 2012 but they mainly distribute small scale British films, so Metrodome would be a suitable distributor for Faded.


They believe that good films don't have to be big Hollywood blockbusters, don't have to be about high-flying culture but instead, can be set in places we live in, and the people can be the kind of characters that we know. Just like our film, nothing fancy, not many special effects, just a simple but thrilling story that attracts the audiences and might even make them think about their lives. This distributor is perfect for our film as ours is a low budget film as well our film being ratehr realistic unlike films set in an alien world which uses lots of special effects.

Metrodome has a facebook page:

www.TheDrum.co.uk

Metrodome Distribution to drive social media buzz for film titles

Metrodome Distribution to drive social media buzz for film titles

Film distributor Metrodome Distribution is set to implement social media campaigns to grow awareness of its releases, following the appointment of White Hat Media.
The agency has been handed the task of driving online awareness of its films through extensive campaigns for each release.


The first media campaign will focus on its new DVD label Epic Asia’s first film, a martial arts picture called Legend of the Fist.


Jezz Vernon, head of distribution at Metrodome explained that the company had used social media in the past, but now wished to bring experts on board to improve its online results.
Metrodome has also recently begun a co-production project with Age of Heroes, starring Sean Bean and Danny Dyer, and also Age of Dragons, starring Vinnie Jones and Danny Glover. Both are due to be released in 2011 with White Hat Media tasked with creating a social media buzz around both titles.

FILM DISTRIBUTION

Today we consider what kind of media institution might distribute your Thriller film, and why (evaluation question 3).

Prep- explain the function of distribution. Decide on a distributor and justify your choice, referring to other films that they have handled.

Start work on question 5: how u adress ur audience. screenshot a current film website then creat a webpage for your film. u also screenshot a facebook page for a different film. for Monday 5th March.

22/02/12 FILMING FLASHBACK-Cafe

This lesson we travelled to Esher highstreet, in order to film at our chosen location, 'Costa Coffee'. We filmed one of our several flashback moments here. The suicidal boy is on a date with the girl we see mysteriously in hospital.

After filming here we looked for other locations to film such as a graveyard, shops etc. We thought the graveyard could be a possibility as graveyards are associated with death and would be perfect in enhancing the depressed and mysterious mood of our film. In order to compare possible locations we took a photo using a mobile phone so that we can compare the setting of the Graveyard in Esher to other destinations that we visit.

YouTube. It starts with you: Karmin

'Unknown musical duo Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan began sharing YouTube videos of their cover songs in early 2011. One year later, they signed a deal with Epic Records, have two hit singles and are the musical guests on the February 11th, 2012 episode of Saturday Night Live. '

This video shows how distibution through free social media such as Youtube can promote and advertise a product for free without having to spend millions on distribution through companies such as momentum, Lionsgate etc in order to make a product a sucess.

The Seven Evaluation Questions:

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 

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

Who would the audience be for your media product?


How did you attract/address your audience?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Look back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

SOUND RECORDING

This lesson, we recorded Karen screaming into a microphone. We then edited it to enhance the sound. We added effects to increase echo and create the eerie scream we want.

Here is our edited clip:

RISK ASSESMENT

This lesson we created a risk assesment sheet. In doing this out group are able to asses and overcome risks of our various film locations. By following this, our group is able to be safer considering some of our scenes are quite hazardous for example a tall builing, water etc.

Social networking and video distribution

In today's lesson, we created a Facebook page for our thriller- Faded.

We can make use of this page to get the audience's attention and get feedback, so as to improve our thriller. Also we created an Youtube account so we can upload our footages and experimental videos to get feedbacks through comments and likes.

 

Other than that, we went on to www.dafont.com and looked at different fonts we can make use of for the title sequence.

Audience feedback

This lesson we started editing our new raw footage for the start of our sequence. After editing part of our film we showed it to our target audience in order to receive feedback. We received extremely positive feedback in the effect and reaction from the audience we wanted to achieve. They thought that the footage and the scenario is very realistic and similitude.

Mindmap showing conventions of thriller media

In order to better understand the genre- thriller. We worked as a group and identified some key characteristics of thriller films and created this mindmap.

Sky Movies Crime & Thriller UK - IDENT 2011

SKY MEDIA- TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

This lesson we investigated television audiences for channels such as "Sky Media". In doing this my group and I should be able to gage and identify our type of Viewer and our target market. Sky, a brand with many channels such as sky sports, sky movies, sky boxoffice, etc. My film is a psychological thriller and som my group and I was interested in what sought of audience would watch Sky's thriller channels such as Sky's,  "Crime and Thriller" channel.

Sky has described this channel and its film features as "gritty noirs and gangster sagas, this channel is all about edge-of- the-seat plot twists and gripping tales of the underworld. Full of mystery, murder and tension, it's always worth investigating."

Information we found interesting and useful in how they identified their viewer audience.