My media product, Your Last Call, uses forms and conventions of real media products in many ways. We used a typical villain and chose an actor whose physical traits are stocky, tough, roughened and violent to create a more realistic thriller as this is very typical of thriller films. We also used a stereotypically normal person as the hero, as viewers can relate to him. He is just a normal male and wears jogging bottoms, giving viewers the impression that he is perhaps poor, which we later realise in the film he is.
The opening to our product is typical to many thrillers. It appears ordinary but has a twist which is common in other media products. It is full of action and fast camera work. We used loud, powerful, fast music to make our product memorable. We used a lot of fast editing. Many people in the film industry make music one of the main points as it can make or break your opening sequence (and the whole film). We did not give to much of our plot away in order to let the audience guess what was happening, which is very typical of other similar products.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product shows the hero dressed in scruffy, "chavvy" clothes, to give the film more realism and grittiness. The protagonist looks like a typical person, which will make it easy for many people to relate to him. We used males in our product to suggest that men are more dominant. The villain in our film is an older man, which is very typical since the villain is usually older and male in most films, which represents the villain stereotypically.
We used an exaggerated stereotype of the villain. We chose a stocky actor and dressed him in black, a colour which represents danger and power, and which gave him an evil look. We made all the characters in our film working-class, as it is shown in the media that they cause trouble and this makes the film more dramatic and realistic. Our product is set in a typical common British council estate. Many people can relate to this, as it is very realistic and common.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of media institution that would distribute our product would be one that specialises in action thrillers. To make the full film it would require a large budget as there are lots of special effects needed, and professional camerawork with fast moves. However it's not set in an expensive location, and there are no explosions, so money could be saved. Companies that would be ideal for distribution of our film include Entertainment Film Distributors, Icon Movies, Lionsgate, Momentum Pictures, Revolver Entertainment, and Palisades Tartan.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our film is aimed mostly at teens and adults who enjoy watching thrillers, specifically people aged 15 - 30 as the film has younger and older people in it. It can relate to an older and younger audience. It is quite scary so would not be appropriate for people under 15, as it contains gore and violence. We asked many 16 - 19 year-olds what kind of films they enjoy and the majority said horror / action thrillers, so we chose to do ours as that genre of thriller; targeted at that age range. I have covered a range of ages within my target audience, mainly ages 16 - 19, as we gave the questionnaires to people at college. My results are probably going to be biased in favour of the lower end of my target audience’s age range - it would be mainly aimed at the younger audience as the main character is young and many young people can relate to him. People would be made aware of this as we used realistic people and realistic settings.
5. How did you attract / address your audience?
We decided to name our film Your Last Call after asking many people which title they liked best out of a possible seven choices. Your Last Call was the most popular and the name went very well with the film, and boosted the thriller / action theme. We opened our film with a young man running through the woods. The audience can relate to our characters because things like this could happen to them as the character is just as normal as they are. We took all the advice from our pie charts and used them in our film. The majority of people said they would like to watch a film in the cinema; this gave us inspiration to use clear, bold shots that would look spectacular on a big screen. Most people said that they paid most attention to character types in a film, so the story was based around our characters. Nearly everybody preferred shock value in a thriller film, so we decided to add a surprise in the opening to create shock value. We used the shot where the protagonist gets knocked out as it was unexpected. We also added loud, upbeat music as it fit in perfectly and that’s what most people wanted to see since this type of music would attract a younger audience.
6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt how to properly produce a film and use a variety of shots / angles to establish where a story takes place. I also learnt more about using technical equipment such as tripods to make the product look more professional. I have also learnt how to make storyboards and the importance of storyboards in the filmmaking process. It is essential to have a good, solid plan before you start to shoot your film and that everybody has a general idea of what they are doing such as acting, filming, editing etc.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
Before we started to create our thriller film, we had to complete a preliminary task; a short film of someone tying their shoelaces. This gained us an insight of what it was like to work with the camera equipment, and to use different camera angles and shots. Once we had done this, we edited it on the computer. This helped us a lot and we learned how to properly edit our films, cutting out all the un-important footage for a polished result.
I have learned a lot from the start of this task in creating a thriller film. I learned more about cinematography and using a variety of shots such as panning, tracking, and high / low angles. I learned how to make the film flow a lot better in editing. I learned all about different films and genres, and how to create one of my own using different codes and conventions to fit in with the film.
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