3) What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Our film would not be played on TV on channels such as Film 4 or on the BBC as it is not well known like it would need to be, to be played and have enough people watch it as the other films shown on those channels. 

The London Film Festival screens up and coming new films which have been professionally made using a full production team. This does not include us as we used an SLR camera and simple tripod with 3 people in our creative team to film and edit the opening sequence. For 2/3 of us it was also our first time creating an opening sequence for a film so we are not as experience as the other film creators who have their work shown at the London film festival.
Link to the London Film Festival: http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff

My local cinema is the Odeon in Guildford. As this is part of a chain of cinemas it only shows major new films that are shown all around the UK. For example, they are currently showing

Home Alone,

Life of Pi, 

Nativity 2,

Pitch Perfect, 

Rise of the Guardians, 

Seven Psychopaths, 

Skyfall,

The Hobbit,

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2,

The Wedding Video, 

Tinker Bell And The Secret Of The Wings

which are all well known, new films. Our film would be an amateur, low budget film targeted at people who enjoy watching films of the Psychological Thriller genre and would go and watch films alike ours often. For these reasons, our film would not be suitable to be played in my local cinema.

As psychological thriller films are not as common as comedies or rom-coms this makes it more difficult for them to be successful, therefore I don’t personally believe Bitter Youth would be appropriate to be targeted to show in local cinemas as the competition would be too strong for it to be successful. I believe that film festivals would be a common place for psychological thriller films to be shown as they will be viewed by many film critiques who will give honest and useful feedback on it.

I think that Bitter Youth would be shown at the British International Amateur Film Festival as it specialises in the type of film we have made (amateur). We would join the South Eat region of the organisation as that is where we are based but also near to London where there is a greater population that various other regions available. This film festival also would showcase our work to many people in the industry inside and outside the UK which would increase the amount of people who view our film.

Link to the British International Amateur Film Festival: http://www.theiac.org.uk/index.html

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our film certificate is age 15 so I asked a member of our target audience a few questions to find out whether I thought they would watch our film or not.

Name: Sophie Warren

Age: 17

About me: I am in sixth form studying PE, psychology and media studies. I enjoy going to the theatre but I also like to watch new and independent films that other people may not even take notice of. I love series dramas on TV. Sherlock was one of my favourites as it follows how his mind works through solving things. I personally love any music as I don’t like to confine myself to one genre or artist.

Preferred genre of film: Psychological Thriller/Thriller/Horror

Where would you go to see an amateur psychological thriller film? I would go to a film festival most likely as I would then be able to see various new films. This would allow me to find out if there were any particular films that I would not otherwise have seen if I was only to watch those which are out in the cinema. I like watching films other people may have not seen or that may not be as well-known because they are no expectations for them so I can have my own opinion without it being abused.

Sophie Warren would watch our film as it is one of her preferred genres of film. We would target our film to be shown at film festivals which is where she would go to watch a film alike ours. She also fits into our target audience so she would be a perfect viewer for our film.

The age rating film certificate we gave to this film is age 15. " Nobody younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15-rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game, or watch a film in the cinema with this rating. Films under this category can contain adult themes, hard drugs, frequent strong language and limited use of very strong language, strong violence and strong sex references, and nudity without graphic detail. Sexual activity may be portrayed but without any strong detail. Sexual violence may be shown if discreet and justified by context." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Film_Classification
This allows us to have content which may not be appropriate for those below 15 years of age but is not too violent or offputting that we have to give it an aged 18 certificate. We wanted our film to be viewable to people as young as possible without having to let the film suffer as it didnt have the content it 'should' due to it being innapropriate therefore we set our film rating at age 15.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

We addressed our audience by researching what age range we would want to target our film at and created out plot according to them. We used characters in our target age range to make it relatable to them as our stalker was aged 16 but played the age of an 19 year old. This was the same for Sammie as they were in the same year at school. Both of these ages are within our chosen age range as we have targeted our film at people aged 15-30. We used research from our target audience to decide what we wanted our storyline to be. We asked questions such as: 

What is the best Psycho-Thriller you have seen? so that we could use some of the conventions that they had used in our sequence so that our film would appeal to our target audience. 

What do you look for in a good film? So that we could decide which areas to focus on most as opposed to choosing for ourselves what we liked in our film. This allowed us to create an opening sequence for a film in our genre which would appeal to our entire target market.

What is your favourite genre? We asked this question after we chose our genre so that we could add elements from other genre's into our Psychological Thriller genre so that it would not only appeal to people who enjoy watching films in our chosen genre but also bring in viewers from other genres.

We uploaded our opening sequence to youtube so that we could get feedback from people in our target market. We wanted to know what people in our target market thought so we posted the link to our social networking sites and here are the responses we had:

"Love this! I want to see the rest of it... The camera angles are so artistic. There are some really dark and emotional shots. The editing was done very well too." - Eilidh Gill, aged 16
"Wow, very dark and interestingly shot. Great work :)" - Iman Osman
"This is fab! You have the iconography to a t with the grave yard and church settings. Especially liked the point of view shots and the choice of props ; the photo's of the girl, think your narrative and genre are easy to identify, great job!" - Madeline Philpott, aged 15

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

 

We used a Cannon 500D camera to film our opening sequence. We also used a tripod and apple mac computer. The camera we used was of a high resolution which meant that our footage was clear and left the final product looking more professional. I learnt how to use the camera when I was taking trail shots on location. For example, we took numerous shots outside the church of Sammie walking past in an attempt to find the most aesthetically pleasing angle we could. We chose to use a large amount of handheld camera work which meant that we had to ensure that we would not keep the camera still as we wanted it to resemble the eye view of the stalker. We had difficulty in finding a happy-medium between a shot that looked like it was from the eye view of a person and having it too shaky. We worked around this by ensuring that the footage was clear when we looked back at it.

We used iMovie on an apple mac to edit our opening sequence. We also used garage band to edit the sound we used. We had various problems when we were trying to edit and overcame them by watching YouTube videos to learn how to use iMovie more smoothly. For example, we found that any piece of film had to be the same length of time or more as the transition after it in order for it to work.

7) Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

When creating the continuity task I found difficulty in working with the camera as I had not used one professionally before, therefore I acted in the sequence instead. I also found difficult editing as my work was not up to the standard that I wanted it to be. We used a variety of shots in the continuity task to prepare us for the full product of an opening sequence including shot reverse shot to feature both characters featured in the scene, two shot, over the shoulders shots, medium long shot and moving subject walking into space. This allowed me to see how each shot would look when it was put into practice in a scene. We used the 180 degree rule in this shot as Stephanie and I were sat at a table but ensured that the camera only revealed the half of the room we were in. When editing I found difficulty in accurately cropping the pieces of film that we needed to add to the sequence. I edited some of the sequence together but found that the pieces of film were a couple of seconds out of accuracy or delayed in what we really wanted. I learnt from this in progression to our final product. When editing our opening sequence I found that I had learnt from my mistakes and was able to edit clips of film to a high quality to ensure the continuity was smooth. An example of this was when I edited the walked of the stalker into a room in his basement, he walked in from the doorway and the camera switched to showing another angle of him walking into the room however the sequence continued from where it left off in the last shot. We used the 180 degree rule in this shot as we only revealed everything the camera could see from through the doorway and nothing behind the doorway or the doorway itself. When filming our sequence Stephanie took control of the final filming however I was able to try out shots we could use on location as then we could decide as a group what we thought.
We originally wanted to film in the Guildford Cathedral as the setting would have worked well for our genre as a Psychological Thriller as we thought that it would create an eerie feel however due to technical reasons we were unable to do this. Instead we filmed in St Pius church in Merrow and found that the intimate church and graveyard worked in our favour. The intimacy between the stalker and Sammy without them being in direct contact left the viewers on the edge of their seats and question what their relationship would be like as the film progressed. This linked to the genre of Psychological Thriller as it makes the audience think about what is happening and developed their confusion.
As we didn't use any music in our preliminary task and only used diagetic sound from the filming we did, the first time we had to work with sound was in our final product. I think that our greatest difficulty in this was trying to find music that would fit with the genre and the sequence that it had to go with. We settled on using three different sounds for our opening sequences, two of which were diagetic. The non-diagetic music used created a creepy feeling for the viewer as it is incredibly un-easing.

Over the shoulder shot from final product opening sequence compared with over the shoulder shot in preliminary task.

Long shot from final product opening sequence compared with medium long shot from preliminary task.



This showed how we used the skills we used from our preliminary task to our final product. The quality of the shots are also better which acts as a perfect example of how our filming quality developed as we filmed our opening sequence.

Researching your chosen genre - Psychological Thriller

 The Unusual Suspects

     The opening sequence of The Unusual Suspects consists of mainly panning and tilting the camera to set the opening scene of the film for the viewers. The initial shot is an extreme close up of a large amount of matches being lit. This connotes danger as once fire is created it is often difficult to control. The shot then switches to a medium close up of a man resting on a wooden box attempting to light a cigarette on another set of matches. This connotes deception as not everything is as simple as when you first see it, you have to wait for the bigger picture to arrive. The camera often tilts up and down to show the streaming of water, oil or fire and how it is spreading. This connotes how everything can surround you and the use of natural substances spreading where they would not normally be suggests that something disastrous is about to happen.

The sound used in the opening sequence is mainly diegetic. The first shot used features the sound of a match being struck and the flame inflating and then deflating again. This would be a familiar sound to the majority of the viewers. This then fades out and a light stream of water running down something is heard. This connotes purity and continuity as water is a natural substance and it is flowing. The burning matches are then dropped and they catch fire to a stream of oil running down what looks like a boat. There is a sound of flames travelling and ‘gushing’ which adds to the soothing sound of the water. The fire gets stronger and begins to crackle which also adds to the idea that ‘nothing is what it originally seems’. Non-diegetic dramatic music begins to play in the background softly. It is made up of what sounds like several faint violins being played. The sound of a man walking down metal steps breaks the soft sounds and brings the viewer back into the harsh genre. Two men then have a conversation. They speak softly and quietly however they both have relatively gravely voices. This adds to the soothing setting they appear to be in but also adds to the fire which is growing around them. Towards the end of the opening sequence a gunshot sounds from a distance followed by an increase in the non-diegetic music. This connotes mystery as tension is being built within the sequence.

The mise-en-scene consists of a boat filled with what looks like cargo. There are several wooden crates along with ropes. The use of a boat as opposed to opening with a setting on land adds vulnerability to the two characters who are introduced and how they are surrounded by endless amounts of water.

The editing is fluent and the transitions between each shot are smooth however some cuts are sudden to suggest that uncertainty and a fast paced storyline lies ahead. The lighting is dark however the use of some brightly lit elements such as the matchsticks before they have been lit suggests that this has been created during the editing process. The non-diegetic music was added to increase the tension as the volume varies throughout the two minutes. For example, towards the end the music becomes louder as the gunshot is fired. This suggests that the storyline is to only become more dramatic after this point.

Task 3 – Analysis of Momento

Momento is about a man who is determined to find justice after his wife was brutally raped and murdered, however his memory is somewhat hazy. However, to make this situation worse, he was beaten by the same man who killed his wife and now suffers from short-term memory loss so he cannot retain any new information therefore has to constantly take notes and refer to Polaroid photos. Although he has memory loss he is convinced the murderer is still walking the streets un-phased by what they have done. The husband is determined to find this man and getting revenge on him for the destruction he has caused on his life. He is helped by a sympathetic barmaid and his friend is suspected to be untrustworthy.

The main characters are Leonard Shelby who is played by Guy Pearce. Brad Pitt was the initial choice of actor for the role however he passed it due to scheduling issues. After this, Christopher Nolan decided to cast Guy due to his ‘lack of celebrity’ to make the film low budget with a cheaper actor. The character of Leonard was the wife of Catherine Shelby who was murdered by a burglar. Leonard wants to get justice for his wife however he suffers from short-term memory loss as he was also attacked by the same man.

The character of Natalie was played by Carrie-Anne Moss. She plays a waitress who is involved with Leonards hunt for revenge on the murderer of his wife. She was chosen for the role after she was seen playing ‘Trinity’ in the 1999 science fiction film, The Matrix as “She added an enormous amount to the role of Natalie that wasn't on the page".

The character of Teddy is played by Joe Pantoliano. He played Leonards friend who tries to help him find the murderer of his wife. Carrie-Anne Moss suggested Joe for the role after she had worked with him in The Matrix as the original choice of Denis Leary was unavailable to play the role. There were concerns that he would be too villainous for the role however these concerns were overcome once filming had began.

Almost the entirety of the film was shot in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley which is a popular place to shoot films as there is a large amount of film studios located there. The setting is dirty and damp. The motel used suggests that the plot will be of low profile. This is typical of the thriller genre as it is a mysterious setting and has a connotation of danger.