How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?
As our piece is targeting youths living in urban areas, we took into account some of the things that they would like to see and, what they can relate to. We considered things such as the soundtrack, mise en scene and stereotypes.

Firstly, if we were going to create a realistic urban film, we needed each character to be dressed appropriately to fit the environment. Characters dressing too formal or too flashy wouldn’t have suited this scene in the film. This would have decreased the audiences interest because, it wouldn’t have been realistic to the traditional stereotypes of urban street wear. We chose to dress in clothes that represented our stereotypes to capture the general vibe that our film opening gives. To answer the question, we attracted the audience by wearing clothes that had traditional ‘gangster’ representations to them.

Secondly, we needed to find a soundtrack that not only suited the intensity of the film but, had an urban sound such as a music style called ‘Grime’. The soundtrack was made by Jermaine on a programme called Reason 3. A good soundtrack is essential to attracting an audience in my opinion. I feel that our soundtrack grabs attention as soon as we press play so, I think we have completed our objective in this department.

Tertiary, the stereotypes that are usually implied in urban films are, black people are the do-ers of crime, although in the black person in this the victim of crime, and the white person is the perpetrator. The black person is dressed in the typical attire for a youth in these areas as so is the white person, this could imply that skin colour is not an issue in these areas, it may your personality, also the white character in our film looks generally feeble and plays with your conceptions of antagonist as he is surprising.

The setting we chose generally said a lot about our characters, it is a very urban and forgotten about estate, this could connote that society has forgotten about the people of the estate and focuses purely on themselves, also it could imply that the people in this are very rough and urban as the estate it very old rugged and untidy similar to the stereotypes of youths in these areas.

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task ?

Looking back at the preliminary task, In my opinion, I’d say there has been a large improvement from this right up to the main task. We learnt various skills whilst producing the preliminary task and then we applied them to our final piece. We did make some mistakes in the preliminary but, it was better to make the mistakes then, than to make the same mistakes in the final piece.

Firstly, the main mistake we made in the preliminary task was, crossing the invisible line. This is where a character is on the left on the previous shot then, appears to be on the opposite side in the next shot. This happened when Jordan and I were speaking about the mobile phone. We didn’t really take this into account when doing our final piece because, as we had for the majority of the piece, the one person, we didn’t see how we could cross the line.Secondly, during the preliminary, we removed the camera from the tripod. Not that this was a mistake, however, this created an unsteady camera view when we watched it back. Even though we knew the risks of filming without a tripod, we decided that for our main task, we would proceed to do so. The reason for this is that, having an unsteady camera creates a sense of urgency that suits our piece immensely.

There were various skills that we interpreted from the preliminary task, despite the mistakes we made. We decided to take some of the various shots we learnt and interpret them into our final piece. We used a number of different shots and decided that no shot would last longer than six seconds. The reason for this was, the shots changing quickly would keep up the pace of the film opening. Referring back to the preliminary, we only had one long shot of Jermaine walking through the main doors. We identified that having more long shots would ‘space-out’ our piece and tidy it up in a sense that, not all the shots were as close together.

The main factor that I learnt how to do in this course was, editing. To edit our piece we used the program Final Cut Pro. In our preliminary there was a shot were I(Jermaine) walked through the canteen doors, however, we filmed the shot from one side of the door then, filmed from inside the canteen. When we came to edit this, we realised that it is really difficult to make the shots match because, I had opened the door in a different way the second time. Moreover, we had to film the shot of me walking through the door a couple of times because the window at the side revealed people walking past. When thinking of ideas for our main task we decided to film in an alley because, we wouldn’t be distracted by other people. This meant all our shots would match because, everything would still be in place from previous shots.

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

media is an institution that involves many areas such as filming, production, creation, advertising and many other areas. the area of media we choose to focus on is distribution and production, such as universal, warner bros and touchstone.
Due to research on the imdb data base we have found that it would be beneficial if one of the production companies behind urban triumphs kidulthood & adulthood were involved, particularly cipher films. This team would be one of many as we would like to have a team of companies in order for our film to be a success. Also we would include stealth films, this is a very successful company and would add some much needed experience to our film. Our main production company would be relativity media, as this company is involved with hundreds of films we believe it is very prestigious as they are experienced and very talented. Also gateway films as they are affiliated with films such as ours and would be a good asset to our production.To distribute our film we would choose revolver entertainment, although they would only be distributing our film in the uk, this company has distributed many films in the uk and are very successful. In the u.s we chose to use Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment, this is a highly succsessfull company and would give us strong financial backing.

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

In this project we have used a range of different technological devices to create our final piece. We used these technological devices to record the piece, to edit and to make the soundtrack. By trial and error, we were able to master the uses of each of the devices used in order to come up with a respectable final piece.
Firstly, we used a Mini DV camera to record our piece. This was suitable to use because it meant that we could carry the camera easily whilst still producing a high definition piece. We also learnt how to do different shots with the camera such as close ups, high angles, panning and tracking etc. This ensured that we could do a variety of shots which kept the speed of the opening at a quick pace.

To make the soundtrack, I used a program called reason 3 to create it. I thought this would be more suitable for me because I have been making instrumentals on this program for 3 years now.

Final Cut Pro is what we edited the final piece on. We used Cross and dissolve a lot in our film because we didn’t need to use a lot of effects in this, this helped our continuity as it help our piece flow. We chose not to use a great deal of effects because we wanted to have a flawless and more realistic piece.

Who would be the audience for your Media Product ?

When making this ‘urban’ film opening, we were curious about what kind of audience we were going to attract. As a kind of market research, before we started filming, we asked five people if they liked urban films and drama’s. As we were in a commercial area at the time, the people we asked were mainly students. Four out of the five people we asked said, they do like urban and English gangster films and that media institutions should distribute these kind of productions more often, just to expose the negativity of our own surroundings. Moreover, one of the four people that liked urban films said “we are constantly overshadowed by American gangster typed films, media institutions in England need to show that the stuff happens over here”. One out of the five people we asked said “I’m more into adventurous films such as the ‘Davinci Code’. However, I do think that young children living in the urban areas are intrigued by these urban films because, not only can they relate to it, they have probably experienced some of the happenings in the film.

Judging by the audience films such as Adulthood, Kidulthood and One Day attracted, we automatically knew that our film would attract the exact same audience, this is because we have the same genre. Answering the main question, we believe that our main audience is teenagers aged 13-18. It could also appeal to young adults aged 21 – 24 but, as we have a young cast, we believe that other young people will be enticed by this.In addition to this, not all young people will be drawn into this type of film, this is because a lot of people would see this as having ‘chav’ representations. Even though we, ourselves, don’t think of ourselves as the sort, we have realised that we can’t change the representations that people have of us in this film.

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

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

The genre of our film is a mix of urban and thriller, we chose to use the urban theme as we as teenagers living in these areas can relate to it, we feel that we are ignored in the film industry and when we are given a film we are stereotyped for crime and violence. We decided to mix urban with thriller as there are no real thriller set in an urban back ground as they are stereotypically set in cities and such places, we believe the mixture of urban and thriller would a be a clinical mixture and would achieve well in the film industry as most people who visit cinemas are aged 14-21. Other urban films such as adulthood & kidulthood have achieved well, although these are the only 2 films, set in Britain, which have been successful as the producers took a gamble on them. We believe that there is a huge niche in urban films as most teenagers feel ignored and therefore rebel against mainstream films. Thrillers however have mass markets, hundreds of millions of people go to the cinemas to watch thrillers every year. We have structured our film half way through, as we start with our main character tied to a fence, he then proceeds through a strange estate and then chased by another mysterious character. Our main character is then punched in the face, this is when our flashback to the beginning of the day begins. This is a huge contrast to kidulthood and adulthood as they are straight forward, starts at the beginning of the day and finishes at the end of the day. We believe starting our film like this would relate to the “thrilling” side of our film, this would keep our audience guessing and therefore entice them to continue viewing. Our camera work is fairly straight forward, it consists of medium shots, low angle shots, high angle shots, close ups, over the shoulder shots, 1st person shots, panning and zooming and also long shots. We believe this vast mixture would give our film a sense of reality, also to add to the reality of our piece we filmed the whole film free hand, we knew this was a risk although we also knew we would benefit of this as it would add a sense of urgency in an intense chase scene. Our sound is a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, we have a soundtrack that goes throughout, which we created on reason 3, this was a daunting task as we were fairly new at this software but we kept on trying and came up with a suitable soundtrack, the other sounds we included are heavy breathing, twigs being snapped, doors being kicked and screams, we believe these sound would keep the adrenaline pumping in our viewers and keep them on the edge of their seat. The mise on scene of our film, this includes setting, costume, props and lighting. We set our film on an urban estate, this is so the viewers get a sense of reality and make our film believable, the reason we filmed it in an alley was to show that our person was trying to hide and to imply the area was strange to him, the costume’s we used were the stereotypical teenagers clothe, a hooded top, tracksuit bottoms and trainers, we decided to dress our character in black this was to link him to a life of crime but then again it could just mean he was trying to blend in with his surroundings. The props we used included a hat, our character only wear the hat once in our film as it is a symbol of security to our character, ironically he puts it on at the end where he inevitably gets caught. We decided to film our whole film in the day, this contrasts with general thrillers as they are normally filmed at night, we filmed it in the day so viewers know there is something wrong from the start. we edited our raw footage on final cut pro, this was strange as we wasn’t used to it, but we soon came familiar with the software and got a good sense of continuity throughout our piece, although some part had to include cross fades to add to our continuity.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our project, young males from urban backgrounds are represented negatively as our project has moderate violence. This is just a lenient situation as to what happens in certain areas in Manchester every day. Young males around the age of 15 – 19 living in these areas, whether they are black or white, tend to get themselves into a lot of trouble for different reasons. We’ve incorporated this into our project as we don’t know why the main character is tied up. Stereotypically, groups of more than 3 males from these areas are known as a gang, however, we’ve defeated this object by having only 2 people featuring in our piece, showing that not only ‘gangs’ are the reason why areas, as such, have these representations.

Ethnic groups are usually one of the main focuses when people look at crime rates. Unfortunately, young black males are known for being involved in a lot of organised crime. As a slight relevance, I have done some research and I found out that almost 61% of young males in prison are black. Referring back to our project, we saw this figure, and we decided that having Jermaine as the aggressor in the situation could use negative representations against black people. So we decided to use Kieran as the aggressor even though he is very much less intimidating than Jermaine. This could also add humour to our piece because it brings on questions such as, how come Jermaine is so scared of him? Or, how come Jermaine just doesn’t fight back? This also leaves mystery behind what kind of reputation Kieran has.

Some projects also represent particular groups such as the mentally ill or the homeless. In this project, we haven’t really thought about any characters being mentally ill or homeless for that matter however, people who act out of the ordinary, for example Kieran, usually have parents that are mentally ill, alcohol abusers or broken homes etc. We could say that Kieran feels the need to do these type of things because he has experienced the same or even worse. Moreover, figures show that 5 out of 8 young males in these areas don’t have male figures at home. More shockingly, 2 out of the 8 have never had any contact with their biological fathers. We also opted against Jermaine as the aggressor as we wanted to play with our stereotypes, black people are commonly tied up in crime, although in this, ironically the black person is tied up but not committing the crime.

Soundtrack Update ! ! !

We are pleased to say we have made, and successfully edited our very own soundtrack. we beleive we have captured the urban scene and the dramatic sense of thrilling soundtracks. we have edited out soundtracks so it drops on certain parts and picks up as our main charecter begins to run and build anticipation. we beleive our soundtrack suits our peice as it is exiting, exillerating and breathtaking.

Rating

Our film hints at violence, thus instantly ruling out anything below 15 so we are decidiing between 15 & 18. Although there is no sexual violence or murder in our film we do have drugs, guns and moderate violence. this gives us reason for both sides but i think it would be better to rate it 15 as our target audience is 15-24 year olds who and commonly ignored in the movie world as they are nor seen as bread winners.

Costume & Props

We have decided to choose a traditional urban outfit for our character, a hooded top, this is to send the impression to our viewer that our charecter may not be all he seems, even though he is tied up, you do not know why.



Black pants was also essential to give our character a discreet appearence, and also an intimidating appearence to our viewers

Soundtrack!!!!

At the moment we are mixing and matching a lot of beats and different types of music hoping to get the perfect match, we hope to mix the fundemental traits of urban music and the basic value of thriller music. we want our soundtrack to have some of the attributes the following has but not quite like it



This beat is similar to what we have decided to choose for our fiolm opening as it is exiting and also mysterious as you dont know where the beat will go next, similar to our chase scene as you dont know where he will run next

Minus the guns and the bike, this is something like our chase scene. Things we have in common are that there are two people (one chasing another), it is set in a rural area and instead of using a tripod, we used the camera handheld. The handheld camera helped during the characters 'point of view' shot whilst he was running.

Update

we have currently finished all of our filming and are currently editing it on the time line this will give us more then enough time to complete our film and our blog. we have taken into consideration of how high the standards of work are and are currently looking to climax our efforts

Insight

our film opening, is more of a urban chase scene, we were inspired by such films as kidulthood, adulthood & shank. these film appeal to us more as we encounter prediciments like these on a daily basis. although we have havent featured any violence, to avoid any discomfort, we definatly hint towards it.

shooting shedule

we have decided to film our film opening over a number of days, this will give us time to review our work and see what we need to do differently next time. we have also decided that we will do it over the 2 week easter holidays as weather forecasts show us the weather will be similat throughout

Our setting

we have found a suitable area for our film. this is a series of alleys and gardens which will give us a very mysterious setting. we have also decided to do our chase scene in the day as most chases occur in the night, this will compell our viewers to keep watching as they will wonder what is happening - pictures to follow

Treatment

We have currently decided to do a chase scene. This will be different to other chase scenes because we will be filming in an urban setting instead of rural. Moreover, the camera is prodominantly on one person.
Our character, jermaine wakes up in a strange alley tied to a fence, he then breaks free and cautiously runs down an alley. he then crosses a street and hides on a corner. whilst he does this the person who tied him returns the place where jermaine was tied up and quickly realises he escaped. he then trails our main charecter. this results in out charecter hiding in a mysterious garden. he then flees the garden and thinks he has escaped, untill our mystery charecters appears.