1. In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media production conveys many forms and conventions of real media products as well as challenges the traditional characteristics. When suggesting ideas for our production we looked at films of different genres to help influence our decision. We initially wanted to create a horror opening so we researched into this area and liked the idea of making the opening very suspicious and scary. To help decide whether this genre was what we wanted to do we did further research, we looked at a horror, thriller and sci-fi British film studio; Hammer Films, who have created these genre of films since 1934 and we liked the films that they produced especially ‘Dracula’; it is a classic horror film with many techniques that illustrate its genre. Although we liked the horror genre we decided to go against this as the option was very popular and we felt we our production had more to offer as it would not be similar to most horror films that are about murder or bloodcurdling fiction characters. Therefore by doing a thriller film we could explore our storyline and not have to use the traditional conventions that a horror has to.
Blindside Productions is our studio logo, the meaning behind the logo is what you can’t see hence the word ‘blind’ in the title. As it is a thriller film we wanted our studio logo to demonstrate this, so if we continued to produce films they would be of the thriller genre so that our logo always relates to the to the film. This logo uses the convention of what most studio film companies use; it has the bold text in front of the text or below the image, we chose to place the text in the eye implying the eye could not see the text again relating to our meaning of the title. We did not want to challenge the convention as it would not look professional and one of our main aims was to ensure the media product was a high standard. Therefore by keeping the layout similar to Paramount, DreamWorks and Columbia pictures we felt we could make it look like an established studio logo.
The title of our production is called ‘The Book of Leviticus’. We were influenced by the film ‘The Book of Eli’; both films are religious in a way but have an entirely different storyline. In our media product the sins that the film is based on is from the Leviticus section in the bible, so we tried to mind map ideas and came up with the film title. In my opinion I think the title is very effective as it is not too short or long it fits right with the storyline and the sins that are committed throughout the book. Above is the image of the book title that is displayed at the end of the opening of the film, we took the image ourselves of one of our group members, Daniel, and used our school facilities to take the picture. The text font is Bell MT and to make the title more effective we used a cross as the ‘T’, we got the image from Google however it had a white background so we tried many technical ways to dispose of this, although it was challenging we successfully did this using the Fireworks software, we imported the image and made it fit the text.
Most thriller films use the colour scheme of grey, black and white and maybe a little of red to emphasise death or murder we have stayed with this format as we did not want to imply our film was another genre. The actor’s names, studio logo, and text such as “One Day Earlier” on the screen are coloured in white, we have not given a set colour as it is not implying anything, and white suited the background the most as it stood out. The main title however is in black to make the cross image fit and to make it bolder than the other text.
Another way we used the typical convention was with our locations, the thriller/ horror films ‘The Last House on the Left’ and ‘The Village’ is similar in settings. Both are set in a tranquil household environment and then change to a forest where the action takes place. ‘The Book of Leviticus’ also does this with the happy and calm environment then changes scene to the chilling death scene. Intially with our first story idea the openinf was set outside of a church then changes to the same forest area. One of the reasons we changed our storyline was because the location was not avaliable, we had many issues with filming here as the Priests did not want their church to be associated with a film like oursa therefore we had to amend our locations as well as our storyline to ensure the setting fit the plot.
We developed conventions in our film by having the protagonist as a female and the suspicious antagonist as the male. Thriller films mainly have a victim as a female as they are seen as vulnerable and quiet so we used this convention to illustrate that. When she dies there are more victims whom continue to be female again to emphasise that the male antagonist is empowered.
We developed conventions in our film by having the protagonist as a female and the suspicious antagonist as the male. Thriller films mainly have a victim as a female as they are seen as vulnerable and quiet so we used this convention to illustrate that. When she dies there are more victims whom continue to be female again to emphasise that the male antagonist is empowered.
We have a female dominated cast; two young girls, an older mother, one young adult, and only two males; the suspicious male and the customer. This is going against the usual concept as generally there is more of a mix of genders in thriller films. As the film continues more males do appear such as the inspectors. We have done this to illustrate that the males are more obvious to kill the young female adult and hint it to our audience. Children tend not to be a part of thriller films as viewers may find it disturbing or inappropriate however we used two children so in a way we did challenge the usual format, however we got the inspiration from ‘Red Dragon’ as they used children as part of their thriller film, showing it is not rare and it is done in some films therefore it is could be seen that we are developing the conventions and forms of real media products. In our piece we don’t use children in the wrong manner, they acted as happy children would do and they were not used in any explicit or perilous way.
Whilst editing we chose to amend the colour/ background effects, changing the settings such as the opacity so that titles could be placed on the moving shot, we changed the brightness and contrast and used image control to make the shot of different colour variances . We made the starting colour of the shot contrast lighter as we wanted to portray it was in the future, we then showed the past shots using the lighting effects on the software this meant the sides were darkened and we positioned the light on the window that is zoomed into. This helped to differentiate that these shots were in the past and the murder morning scenes were present day. The image to the left is one of our titles that were used in the production and portraying the effects, it is the future day so the colour difference shows it is not present or a flashback. The image is fuzzy as it illustrates to the audience that they cannot see clearly as people do not know their future.
Challenging forms and conventions was slightly hard to complete as we did not want to portray the film as something other than a Thriller. Therefore we did not challenge real media products too much. We used a sound-bridge at the start of our production, after the titles, the audio affect was of the two young children speaking about general topics including their father. This is different to most Thriller films such as ‘Halloween’ as it starts with a scary scene of a suspicious follow unlike our production with the family opening. However the actors titles appear on the screen whilst a jogger is running and notifies a body a scream then occurs, although it has the titles on the shot it is still slightly developing the traditional forms and conventions.
Music was downloaded from a website called Incompetech which allows people to have royalty free music, these different sounds were used a couple of times in the production mainly incidental. Atmospheric and peculiar music was used to compliment the few scenes such as when the titles appeared overlaying the running video, soft incidental music was played at a slow pace implying that the production opening was suspicious and perhaps a little chilling. This is using the forms and conventions of real media products as it has music to start to get the viewers intrigued, films such as ‘The Dark Knight’ also does this as it creates atmosphere to the opening scene. The music used for the Christopher Nolan film was a ticking sound and suspicious quiet banging to show an event is going to happen; which it does, the bank robbery occurs. Ambient sounds were also used when the main character was walking and nature was heard including the shuffling of trees and birds. Incidental music was used for the studio logo so when the image and title appeared there was a ‘ping’ sound that fit well. Most studio logos such as Columbia and Paramount have incidental music playing when their logos appear, increasing brand recognition and makes the product look professional. Dialogue was another sound type used; this is frequent to have in the opening scene as it sets the location and storyline. We included dialogue as without this our audience would be confused with what is happening. Diegetic music was used for the ambulance siren whilst the film dissolve of the dead body was displayed; this sound shows the start of the investigation as well as illustrates the services we used.
Moreover even though our product genre was not horror, we followed the Christen Metz theory of genre, namely the deconstructive format. We used this aspect as we had taken some elements of horror and inserted it into our thriller; they included the over the shoulder shot of the stalking and murder. This was effective as it had traits of both genres making it a sub genre.
Music was downloaded from a website called Incompetech which allows people to have royalty free music, these different sounds were used a couple of times in the production mainly incidental. Atmospheric and peculiar music was used to compliment the few scenes such as when the titles appeared overlaying the running video, soft incidental music was played at a slow pace implying that the production opening was suspicious and perhaps a little chilling. This is using the forms and conventions of real media products as it has music to start to get the viewers intrigued, films such as ‘The Dark Knight’ also does this as it creates atmosphere to the opening scene. The music used for the Christopher Nolan film was a ticking sound and suspicious quiet banging to show an event is going to happen; which it does, the bank robbery occurs. Ambient sounds were also used when the main character was walking and nature was heard including the shuffling of trees and birds. Incidental music was used for the studio logo so when the image and title appeared there was a ‘ping’ sound that fit well. Most studio logos such as Columbia and Paramount have incidental music playing when their logos appear, increasing brand recognition and makes the product look professional. Dialogue was another sound type used; this is frequent to have in the opening scene as it sets the location and storyline. We included dialogue as without this our audience would be confused with what is happening. Diegetic music was used for the ambulance siren whilst the film dissolve of the dead body was displayed; this sound shows the start of the investigation as well as illustrates the services we used.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The opening production does not convey many social groups. However, we have included a family of Caucasian Christians, whom believe anybody who does not obey God’s rules must face punishment. They are the protagonist in the film as the daughter commits the ninth Leviticus sin “If a priest’s daughter becomes a prostitute, she disgrace her father; she shall be burnt to death” coincidently she is killed by a mysterious figure. The two other characters are also Caucasian and there is one Asian character; me. This non diverse ethnicity bond does not affect the film as it is based on religious people and sins people have committed against Leviticus therefore as people from some other ethnicities do not believe in the Christian God, they have less relevance. I, the Asian character play the role of the runner who identifies the body. We did this as we wanted to show we could experiment with different people although the film was mainly Caucasian actors. Furthermore we could not find anybody else to do the minor role so I decided to be involved although I do not have the skills the others had, it would have helped me to develop my talent. We experimented with having a Goth character who is the suspicious killer as it suits more people of a wider social group instead of sticking to the traditional older generation of a target audience. Moreover we have characters of different ages, this shows that we have made an effort to find our cast and it makes the production more realistic as well as uses the conventional format of having the actors of different ages that all other films do of any genre.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Before suggesting ideas for our film we did market research to see what the most popular genre was out of Horror, Thriller and Romantic- Comedy, many questions within these sub groups were asked such as what is associated with the genre chosen and why they prefer the genre over the other options. Most of the responses were answered from citizens aged in the range of 16-27 years old; this shows that our estimate of setting the age film rating at 15 was correct. The audience of this age group is the most suitable as they is reference to sexual activity and violence which would therefore not be appropriate for younger than 15. According to BBFC the rules for 15 aged old films when being classified is they usually contain strong words, sexual reference, strong violence and illegal substances. ‘The Book of Leviticus’ is classified this age because when the film continues there are sexual references due to Addison (Charlotte Batey) being a lady of the night, there is more strong violence as the mysterious character murders many others but more violently. Therefore this would be like most thriller films that are certified as a fifteen film such as 'Blood Diamond' and 'The Lives of Others'.
Both female and males can watch the media product as it suited for both, it does not have the typical female or male characteristics of a film. As well as this it is suited for any ethnicity and social class as it does not discriminate people in general. However with ethnicity; Christians may not enjoy the product as they may believe it is going against what they believe and offending them so excluding this ethnicity group others may like the film.
5. How did you attract/ address your audience?
The opening of the film has attracted our audience through its storyline and modern script. Many young girls are being killed due to not obeying the religious rules therefore the storyline is very modern yet religious this may be seen as if it wouldn’t connect with our younger target audience as they may find it boring compared to their usual Romantic or Comedy genres. However according to our early research; the questionnaire, many of the responses were from young teenagers this suggest that they perhaps found the religious killings quite interesting. In my opinion I liked the idea of the film and I am a young teenager, therefore it depends on the individuals preferences of films. It also attracted the audience through the characters and titles; it has done so by having a range of characters; different ages, genders and one ethnic difference. This attracts the audience as people don’t like to watch a film of everyone being the same, they would want difference to suit them and their age, gender and ethnicity.
The titles are simple and quick to read this would benefit the audience as they are of a younger age and would not want to be sat watching titles for a long time; therefore this attracts them a lot. The music in the opening does not necessarily attract the viewers as it is not modern pop music, it is instrumental soft music that is used to compliment the scene and make it creepy to watch. Therefore it attracts fans of thrillers and horror films because they will be familiar, and like, this convention.
If we were a real film company we would carry out many advertising techniques to attract customers and advertise at the cinema. Viral marketing is when the internet is used as a medium to promote a film; this would be a good strategy as it gets the message spread like a virus and for ‘The Book of Leviticus’ this could create a good fan base. This would work successfully as other films such as Cloverfield have used this method of marketing and they have generated $170,764,026(Wiki) from Box Office thus it is proven as a success. Another way of doing this is by having dedicated webpage’s to promote; ‘Sherlock Holmes 2: Game of Shadows’ did this by having an iTunes and Warner Bros personal webpage about the film; this would include videos, interviews, images and descriptions.
Moreover billboards and chat shows could be used to show the premier image, allow the characters to talk about the film and input their opinions. With our media product this would be good as our actors and actresses are new to the film scene and it could help to build up their portfolio. As we wouldn’t have the resources to do expensive and mass audience advertising we decided to do a smaller scale with the resources available. We created a dedicated Facebook and twitter page to keep the viewers interested, doing this means we are able to update regularly and create a fan base. We realised this would be the best source of advertising as there are millions of people whom are on these social sites and they are always intrigued with new things. A way of traditional marketing is by creating a smaller sized poster/ billboard and posting these around the hometown. The image would look like a poster/ DVD cover to build up the recognition of the film. These two methods are cheaper way of advertising as opposed to mass marketing such as on televisions and it would increase our brand image of Blind Side Productions as well as the individual film. The image above and to the left is an example of one of the posters; the others include screen grabs with the bold text saying coming soon and our dedicated Facebook page website as well as the actors names.
Moreover billboards could be used to show the premier image, and using chat shows willl allow the characters to talk about the film and input their opinions. With our media product this would be good as our actors and actresses are new to the film scene and it could help to build up their portfolio. As we wouldn’t have the resources to do expensive and mass audience advertising we decided to do a smaller scale with the resources available. We created a dedicated Facebook and twitter page to keep the viewers interested (images shown to the right), doing this means we are able to update regularly and create a fan base. We realised this would be the best source of advertising as there are millions of people who are on these social sites and they are always intrigued with new things. A way we marketed traditionally is by creating a smaller sized poster/ billboard and posting these around the hometown. The image would look like a poster/ DVD cover to build up way of advertising as opposed to mass marketing such as on televisions and it would increase our brand image of Blind Side Productions as well as the individual film.These two methods are cheaper way of adsvertising as opposed to mass marketing such as on televisions films and it would increase our brand inage of Blind Side productions as well as the individual film. The images shown are examples of the posters used, the others that have been used include screen grabs with bold text such as coming soon and out May 4th 2012.
Moreover billboards and chat shows could be used to show the premier image, allow the characters to talk about the film and input their opinions. With our media product this would be good as our actors and actresses are new to the film scene and it could help to build up their portfolio. As we wouldn’t have the resources to do expensive and mass audience advertising we decided to do a smaller scale with the resources available. We created a dedicated Facebook and twitter page to keep the viewers interested, doing this means we are able to update regularly and create a fan base. We realised this would be the best source of advertising as there are millions of people whom are on these social sites and they are always intrigued with new things. A way of traditional marketing is by creating a smaller sized poster/ billboard and posting these around the hometown. The image would look like a poster/ DVD cover to build up the recognition of the film. These two methods are cheaper way of advertising as opposed to mass marketing such as on televisions and it would increase our brand image of Blind Side Productions as well as the individual film. The image above and to the left is an example of one of the posters; the others include screen grabs with the bold text saying coming soon and our dedicated Facebook page website as well as the actors names.
Moreover billboards could be used to show the premier image, and using chat shows willl allow the characters to talk about the film and input their opinions. With our media product this would be good as our actors and actresses are new to the film scene and it could help to build up their portfolio. As we wouldn’t have the resources to do expensive and mass audience advertising we decided to do a smaller scale with the resources available. We created a dedicated Facebook and twitter page to keep the viewers interested (images shown to the right), doing this means we are able to update regularly and create a fan base. We realised this would be the best source of advertising as there are millions of people who are on these social sites and they are always intrigued with new things. A way we marketed traditionally is by creating a smaller sized poster/ billboard and posting these around the hometown. The image would look like a poster/ DVD cover to build up way of advertising as opposed to mass marketing such as on televisions and it would increase our brand image of Blind Side Productions as well as the individual film.These two methods are cheaper way of adsvertising as opposed to mass marketing such as on televisions films and it would increase our brand inage of Blind Side productions as well as the individual film. The images shown are examples of the posters used, the others that have been used include screen grabs with bold text such as coming soon and out May 4th 2012. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the product making I learned a range of new skills which included using technology associated with films. In order for the production to look like others we had to use a range of camera angles such as point of view, establishing shot and over the shoulder to make the film look interesting instead of using one angle and it looking boring. This was quite simple to do during the production as we had learned this area at the start of the year and had practiced it in our productions such as the preliminary task and college promo.
When filming the other productions we had to ensure we knew how to use a camera so that we would have no problem filming. The camera used was a Sony HD Touch screen, one we practiced shots we all got used to the buttons and how it works; and as I have a similar video camera I found it easy to use. We also used a tripod to steady our shots, we were taught how to open and close them efficiently so that we did not damage it, and before any filming we were taught these main instructions.
For the media production we used Adobe Premier Pro software to edit the shots. This was the first time the software was used by us as the other productions used iMovie software on the Apple Mac PC’s. We were taught how to use the iMovie software and initially I did find it challenging to find certain effects and buttons however when I first used the Adobe software this was twice as hard to understand. It was more technical and advanced however I adapted well to it. We were given a brief introduction however we had to learn in depth on our own with some help, doing this meant I had to use my initiative and try, I benefitted a lot from this as it developed my understanding and skills of new software that I had never used before. We had to learn how to import files, sound mute certain areas and overlay images, text and sound. On the software there were many techniques to amend out shots, they include the video and audio transitions, the lighting effects, distorts, the sound fading options which includes the experimental fade, a film dissolve, the adjust tab and colour corrector. Titles could also be inserted they could have been still or crawl and the font format could be amended.
To report our diaries Blogger.com was used so that we could publish our progress and findings. We had to learn about technologies on this programme as we had to import images, change the font and change its settings. Fortunately I have used this website before so I had plenty of experience of where the settings and other things were located, which gave me a head start with my blog as I did not take a long time amending it to my preferences, it was not time consuming. However the format updated so the layout slightly changed this meant I was slightly confused but I just looked around at home to familiar myself so that I would not be left behind.
This image shows one of the techniques I had learnt about technologies through the process. The image is of one shot overlapping another, the cross dissolve which allows the two shots to flow into one. This makes the changing of scene more effective. This technique was used on the Adobe Premier and we experimented with the tools and discovered this effect, it is very effective in making the shots flow continuously.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In our preliminary task one of our group members did not participate very well and we found it hard to communicate to her as she was not very motivated. We took this issue on board and for the real production I ensured I worked with somebody who would put in 100% effort and participant in ideas. However one class member was not placed in a group, we politely offered a position thinking he would put as much hard work as we would. This unfortunately was not the case; he never attended the filming sessions and was never motivated during the lesson times whilst we were editing. Therefore more of the work was done by me and an other member, we did try to mention this to him on a number of occasions but he still did not contribute.
In the preliminary task the titles were quite basic yet we had to come up with sound and a background for the titles, this helped us to prepare for the film opening as we had some knowledge of titles and I felt I learned how to make the titles more professional by the way the overlapped images and the way they disappeared off the screen. The lengths of both productions were similar so I was happy that we did not have to cut most of the shots or make it extremely long as it would be difficult.
The task was set in school hours; in a two hour lesson which was a big difference from the actual production as it could have been filmed anywhere. I felt I have progressed from it to the full product as we had to think and plan where and when we were going to film rather than going to the lesson and finding somewhere around school. Moreover the preliminary task helped with identifying how many shots we should take, in our production we felt that reshoots were needed if we did not take several shots of each shot, doing this means there would be more of accuracy with shots and it would be less time consuming with reshooting.
As previously mentioned the editing software was completely different so to quickly change and adapt to it was hard however it was simple to use once being familiar with the setting s of certain buttons and tabs.
All the things I had learned from the preliminary task helped developed my knowledge as it was similar techniques but more advanced and in depth. The different software meant that I had to quickly become familiar with the settings and having the angles, titles and camera skills from the task really helped me to ensure my final production was the best quality it could have been.
Below this post, is our finished opening production of ‘The Book of Leviticus’.
