Samuel Pilsworth Media Coursework/AS coursework 2016/12Q: 2016

Below is the script I have written for my evaluation questions from questions 1 to 7.

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

My media product has used many popular and common conventions seen in real media products of film openings (more specifically Thriller movies).

The first convention is the use of titles in film openings. Examples of this can be seen in film openings like Panic Room, Leon the Professional and Shutter Island. These movies’ opening titles contain the name of the film, the director and lead actors. Take for example in Leon the Professional where the main title for the Director "Luc Besson" is first shown after the name of the film companies. This writing is in big white block letters and is centered in the middle of the screen. Then, the name of "Jean Reno" as well as other actors is shown on screen followed by the title of the film "Leon" which is also positioned central screen with big white letters. My product follows this convention by starting with the Director "Samuel Pilsworth" and then the main title “Great Day Today”. Then the titles for the main actors can be seen as well as other roles like cinematography. Leon also includes other names in the opening to credit other people that worked on the film and these titles are often off to the side to allow the events on screen to be seen. My titles are in white block letters that are positioned in the center but lower down to allow the events on screen to be seen. Leon has been an influence here as I have used a combination of its use titles where I use big white block letters that are not positioned in the center of the screen but lower down which is a use of both of Leon's use of titles at the same time. I used slightly smaller font compared to Leon's first texts as the larger text in this opening is shown over establishing shots. Then, when the shots change to the inner city, the text gets smaller which is what I have done to not block out the events of the narrative being shown on screen. Although the order of actors and main titles are swapped when comparing my product and Leon, the use of conventions are very similar and show the way in which I used a past film opening to influence my product.

The second convention is the use of a wide variety of shot types as movie openings like The Dark Knight which uses establishing, medium, wide and close shots (show examples of each). My products also uses establishing, wide and close shots (again, show examples) shown in these examples as a means of representing characters and to show the progression of the narrative in different ways.
Establishing shots act as a technique to set the setting and to allow the audience time to reflect on the shots that they see to get a better understanding and context of the scene that they are watching. Thrillers often use these as their narratives are often set in very similar locations like this approaching establishing shot of this building in The Dark Knight's opening which sets the city setting of Gotham for the audience. It should also be noted that establishing shots are often not character specific. Even though they may have characters present in them, they often do not focus on specific characters in the story.
Wide shots are often used for character's actions that allow a far away enough shot that the fully body of the character can be seen so that the audience can see what the character is doing. Thrillers often use these during more violent scenes to allow the audience to see what is happening in a clear way. This can be seen in the shotgun scene in The Dark Knight's opening.
Medium shots are often used for dialogue or moments where characters are sitting down or our focused. An example of this is in the car scene in The Dark Knight's opening shown on screen. This allows the audience see a more focused shot that allows them to see the face/heads or bodies of the characters as they speak, communicate or act in a smaller way. An example from my product is like looking down at their badge or a newspaper. These are often used in Thrillers during dialogue where characters are still but need focus on the top half of their body as they are speaking.
Close shots are often used to allow the audience to see increased detail or small actions that allow the audience to be focused on that and that alone instead of having a wide shot where their focus can be lost. Thrillers often use these to give hints to character's actions that would not look as important with a wider shot like with this placement of a grenade in a hostage's hand in The Dark Knight's opening bank robbery.

The third convention is the use of lead male roles as seen if film openings like Lord of War with Yuri Orlov (played by Nicolas Cage) in the opening shot that pans up to him and Leon the Professional with Leon's glasses being the first thing the audience see of Leon. In these examples, the main actors who are prominently shown in these opening are male and are represented as powerful through multiple ways like central camera shots as well as the scene cutting when the male character stops speaking which shows that they have control of when a scene begins and ends. The use of direct address in Lord of War is also a technique used to show how Nicolas Cage's character doesn't shy away from speaking to the audience and embraces the attention that he receives. I have matched this convention in my product where my lead role is male and is in a position of power with his profession of police officer and his central positioning in shots that bring power to him. The use of power is also used with sound as the music begins when the officer turns the key of the car which shows how they control the scene.

My product also includes a prominent police element with the 911 call and lead character being a police officer which is generally common in Thrillers like Seven with Detective Somerset and Mills, The Silence of The Lambs with Clairce Starling. Other Thrillers also contain police presences like The Usual Suspects, Reservoir Dogs and The Departed. I have included a police officer mainly by using Mise-en-Scene. This can be seen through his costume which is a tactical vest. The officer also uses props like a firearm and a police badge which establishes that he is a police officer as these are common pieces of equipment that officers are supplied with. Other Thrillers also use police badges and firearms to establish characters as police officers.

Another convention that I have kept to is female secondary characters or extras which can be seen in the opening of The Dark Knight with the female hostage in the bank, The Usual Suspects with Suzy Amis who is Keaton's girlfriend as well as in Memento with Natalie where the female character comes second to the main male character. In my product, I have included a woman character who acts as the police officer's wife. This female character comes second to the main male character as she has very little screen time as well as her not being shown on screen in full as only her neck, hand and legs are shown on screen and never her face or full body. This technique ensures that (like many other Thrillers) the male character remains the main character and the female character stays as a secondary character.

My product does however challenge conventions of real media products in the lack of dialogue (apart from the 911 call) and the use of the song “Great Day Today”. A lot of Thrillers are often quite dialogue driven like in these examples (show The Dark Knight, Leon and Memento). Thrillers also do not often play large songs in their openings but instead will use background music to accompany the events of the narrative instead of the song leading the narrative like in this example of the opening to The Dark Knight where the use of music seconds the actions of the characters in the bank robbery.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my product, the social groups that are represented include: male authority figures e.g. Police officers. Another group is women (specifically housewives) and also children (female).

The authority figure is represented at the very beginning of the opening as powerful as the cop enters the car and has the music of '10 Million Slaves' begins as he turns the key in the car. This shows how the music is controlled by the cop which allows him to decide when the music begins when he chooses to act by turning the key. The officer's positioning in the center of the shot also shows how the camera is focused on him and not distracted by something more important as he is the most important and powerful so he needs to be focused on. This authority figure then makes the mistake of shooting the child which then causes his downfall. Then during this downfall, the cop loses this power and instead becomes weak by turning turning to substance abuse. The cop then turns to physical power in the form of domestic abuse and murder as a means of regaining this power. This is also a representation of males as power hungry and in need of control of situations. The male is also shown to disregard the poor choices that he is making as having long term consequences and instead is more focused on the current moment and his power at that time.

The portrayal of the man is also negative (during his downfall) but not vulnerable (like the woman) and instead very powerful. An example of this can be seen when the man kicks towards the screen which forces the shot to end by plunging it into darkness so that it has to cut to the next shot of the hand around the neck of the woman pushing her against the wall. This shows how the man is controlling the situation with violence to make it appeal to him and using his actions to manipulate the product itself and when it cuts to the next shot..

The female character in this product during these scenes is represented as a housewife. This is evident by her presence in this domesticated setting of a home where; unlike the police officer, she is not drinking or doing drugs and so appears as a housewife in this setting. The treatment of this female character by the officer reinforces the 1960s sexist stereotypes of women as inferior to men which makes it acceptable in the officer's mind to treat this character in such a violent way. The fact that the officer kills his wife also reinforces the stereotype that women are weak and unable to defend themselves (see the legs shaking). Overall, the lack of showing the face of the wife and the way in which she is defenseless as the officer is attacking her represents women in an overall negative way that reinforces many of the negative stereotypes that exist about women being inferior to men.

The representation of children is that they are highly vulnerable as the little girl is killed by the officer by making the fatal mistake of doing such a small action of standing on a stick. The fact that the child is a girl is also a sexist stereotype that is being reinforced where (like with the wife) the female characters are defenseless and unable to protect themselves from danger.

The events of this narrative take place in the United States of America. This product could be argued as representing some Americans as leading destructive lives that force people to become victims of things like domestic abuse and the loss of a child. This negative representation is quite stereotypical (especially of police) of some American lives where their actions result in the needless deaths of many people which could be a result of the ‘trigger happy’ mentality that some American officers are stereotyped as having.
This stereotype can be backed up by real life past events in the USA like the events of March 3rd 1991 concerning Rodney King. King was brutally beaten by four officers after a high speed chase in an attempt to arrest him in Los Angeles (where my product is set). This shows led to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots after the officers were acquitted for their actions as people felt that it was a clear example of police brutality. A more recent case of police brutality was of Michael Brown on August 9th 2014 and caused outrage in Ferguson Missouri as Brown was unarmed at the time of the shooting and had witnesses that claimed that he had his hands up (even though these were later shown to not be credible). These two cases are just a few in the countless number of cases of police brutality that have led to great mistrust of people in the US police department. This is an example where real life events have created this stereotype that I am reinforcing in my product.

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

A smaller company that might distribute my product is Studio Canal. This company was established in 1999. It distributes over 50 films ayear throughout Europe and had a unique reputation for an innovative approach to distributing films. Studio Canal has distributed films such as 2014's '71 which was a low budget film with a budget of about $11.5 dollars or £8.1 million. Studio Canal has also distributed slightly higher budget films like 2014's The Imitation Game where the budget was $14 million. These lower budget films match the low budget element of my product which makes Studio Canal a viable candidate for distributing my product.

A larger company that might distribute my product is Warner Bros. films. They have distributed Thrillers such as: The Negotiator, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Inception, Argo, The Town and Gravity.

This company is highly successful with revenue of US$ 12.526 billion in 2014 with an employee number estimated at 8,000 in the same year. This company would be ideal as their budgets for the Thriller films that they distribute are often somewhere around US$100 million which would be plentiful for this product.

Warner Bros. have distributed films directed by many acclaimed directors and have a reputation for distributing Oscar worthy films. These acclaimed directors include: Christopher Nolan and Ben Affleck who both have Oscar and Golden Globe nominations with Ben Affleck winning many nominations.

The average box office from Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy alone is US$821.4 million which shows how audience members were keen to go to the cinema to watch these films that were distributed by Warner Bros. Because Warner Bros. are a trusted company be audience members, them distributing my product would likely encourage many people to view this product when released in cinema (as well as on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download).
Warner Bros. also distribute British influenced films such as British- American film "Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows" which shows that they will work with and distribute films that have had British influence just like my product. Another film that Warner Bros. have distributed is "V for Vendetta" which is set in England and shows how Warner Bros. is willing to make films that involve international influence.
My product is set in the United States of America and so even though it is British made, it matches the country that Warner Bros. is set in and so doesn't try to neglect the American influence that would take over this film when it is in its distribution process even though Warner Bros. would likely still be open to distributing a British set film.

After looking at both of these distributers, I feel that Warner Bros. would be best to distribute my product as that company seems to be a more suitable distributer for my product.

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

My product is mostly aimed at young males who are aged between 15 and 35 years old. Films that are the genre of Thriller are often aimed at males. This is seen by the many lead male roles in films that are the genre of Thriller as the lead character lead the film and who's actions matter in the narrative. This is why I have a male as the lead character in my product. Another reason that my product is mostly aimed at males is because male audiences can identify with this character as they share their gender with the lead character. This allows the male audience to also understand the power struggle that the lead character feels as a male as they live in today's society where they may have experienced this feeling but on a smaller scale with the increase of power given to women (regardless of whether or not they are accepting of this change). This reason, accompanied by the genre being aimed at males act as suitable reasons to aim my product at males.
The weak portrayal of the woman in this product would mean that female audience members may not 'click' as much as a male would as their gender is being represented in a both negative and vulnerable way.
To support this decision, I have done some research online about the reasoning behind Thrillers being aimed at males. After finding this article on the website "Herold" (http://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/WHY-DO-MEN-LIKE-VIOLENT-MOVIES-/93320.html), I can see that the reasoning that Thrillers (containing violence) are more catered for men is because of our past. The article says that a few thousand years ago "Men were the hunters. Women were more of the gathering type.". Because we are lacking the ability to experience these same "testosterone-heavy, action packed" activities nowadays, we turn to action and violence in films as a way of meeting this desire brought on from actions of the past.
(http://time.com/2921491/hope-solo-women-violence/)
I also found an article potentially arguing my decision of aiming my product at males based on a higher demand for violence. The article speaks about the level of violence with women. "In his 2010 review, Straus concludes that in various studies, men account for 12% to 40% of those injured in heterosexual couple violence. Men also make up about 30% of intimate homicide victims—not counting cases in which women kill in self-defense." This shows how women are not always as victimless as stereotyped and instead do indeed (just like men) have certain people with the tendency to be violent. However, I do not believe that this evidence means that my women in general are likely to be attracted to shows with violence based on the fact that they may be violent in real life. This shows me that my choice of aiming my product at males was a good decision.
The class that my product is aimed at is mostly middle class based on a number of reasons. This is because middle class people often have respect for police.

The age rating of my product would probably be that of a 15 rating which would probably be the equivalent of an R rating in the United States. The reason for this is because the film contains drug taking and violence which fall under the classification of a 15 on the bbfc website (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15). The reason that it is not an 18 rating is because of the lack of sexual nature in the product which is one of the largest contributors to making a film rating increase to an 18 as well as gore and heavy profanity or racist terms used which my product lacks. The main reason that I do not think that my product would be as low as a 12 rating is because past examples of films containing heavy drug use have received a 15 rating. An example of this is the 2012 film “Flight” where William Whitaker is seen snorting cocaine and struggling with an alcohol addiction. The character Nicole Maggen is also struggling with a heroin addiction and is seen on screen injecting herself in many scenes. There is also a considerable amount of cigarettes smoked on screen which combined with the other uses of drug, awards this film a 15 rating. My product contains a cigarette being smoked, alcoholism as well as cocaine being snorted. I feel that because the main actor is only seen on screen drinking and not doing the other drugs, there may be the slight possibility that the rating will be lowered to a 12 rating but this is not as likely as my product being rated a 15.

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

The attractive elements for the audience begins with the inclusion of the 911 call. This is because it makes the audience start to ask questions like “what will be done about this shooting?” and “What happened to the caller" or "why did the phone hang up?”. This involves the reader as they want to find out the answers to these questions.

Then, the reveal of the officer answers the audience about what will be done as they see that he is receiving the call to respond to the 911 call.

Another way the audience is attracted is through the use of the song Great Day Today and the opening to the song 10 Million Slaves. These songs matched the actions of characters in the product where cuts would occur when a lyric changed. This attracts the audience as it is a unique and creative way to use a song and creates some involvement with the audience as they start to sense when each cut will happen.
The audience will also be interested in finding out if the officer redeems himself as the film progresses. This desire to find out what happens to the officer will drive the audience to continue watching as they are left with a cliffhanger in the final shot of a gun which could be inferred in many ways by the audience. Will this man commit suicide, more murder or maybe make a change for the better in his life? Potentially the man will be arrested and the rest of the film shows him making a change and becoming a better person. Any inference can be made by the audience and this act of theorising is a great propellent for keeping the interest of the audience at a consent high as they guess what will happen.

The use of firearms, drugs and domestic abuse may be an attraction for some audience members as they find an interest in viewing a character use and abuse these items and actions as is done in other pieces of media.

As shown earlier with the final shot, some shots require some inference as to their meaning like the shot of the drop of red liquid into a glass. This could be inferenced as blood dropping into a glass of water by the audience. However, this shot does allow further inference in realising that the shot itself is non-existent in the narrative itself. By this, I mean that it is merely symbolic and acts as a metaphor for the downfall that this officer has experienced. This need for inference further involves the audience and attracts them to this product as they feel the need to re-watch the product to have a greater understanding as to the meaning of each shot.

As said earlier, this product is mainly aimed at men. This is based on and supported by research seen by this Herold article done to reach the conclusion that men are most attracted to violence in films based of their roles thousands of years ago that no longer exist to such an extent and so men look for another way to experience this action/violence). Men were addressed in this product through the use of shots where the main character looks in the general direction of the screen. This physical and literal address makes it almost seem as though the character is aiming his attention at the male audience and almost acts as a mirroring technique where the male audience are better able to relate to the character than women are.

A similar technique is used for woman but (as said earlier), in a more negative way with the little girl staring in the general direction and acting as more of a false mirror to address the women as they see that they are not the vulnerable and weak victim that they see before themselves on screen in this product. This technique may coincidently help to attract female audience members even though they are not the target audience.

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

From the process of the construction of this product, I have come into contact with many different types of technologies. These include software like: Pinnacle Studio 14 (for editing), Blogger, Prezi, Slideshare as well as using hardware like camera, tripod and using lighting to film.

In terms of software, the first program that I used was Blogger. I had never previously used this program before but had interest in doing so.The main thing about Blogger that I learnt about was its labelling system. This allowed me to order my blog posts under subject heading like “Research” or “Filming” and allowed me to rate each post with a stage level between 1-3 to indicate how completed the post was.

I also learnt that the date and time can be manipulated on Blogger of when a post is or was uploaded. This allows the posts to be ordered appropriately if I forgot to upload a post after starting a new subject but wanted to keep the post with the other relevant posts of the same subject. I also made use of Blogger’s draft system where I was able to revert posts back if I felt that they needed improvement and should not be present yet on the blog itself until completed. Lastly, I learnt about the way a Prezi or Slideshare document could be embedded into a blog post by changing the post from the “Compose” button on the top left to the “HTML” button next to it. Then I could copy and paste the link to the Prezi or Slideshare document into the HTML of the blog post and the document appears on the blog.

As far as using Pinnacle 14 for editing, I had used the program many times before. However, I did learn for the first time about a collection of effects like the “fade in” effect that I ended up using in my product when the car arrives on the scene and when the way is looking at the newspaper and then a flashback occurs to when he shot the girl. I also utilised the marking system in Pinnacle to indicate when a certain line of audio in the song was spoken so that I knew where to place the corresponding shot. I also found greater use in changing the time scale to found exact moments that I wanted to cut out like this shot of the girl lying dead on the ground where the actress blinked in the original take. I had to change the time scale so that I could see the ¼ second of film where the blink occurred and cut it out. I also become more efficient at cutting shots down and fitting shots together to ensure that they flow properly.

As far as using the camera equipment, I learnt that there were multiple buttons to start recording with the camcorder (one on the camera and one near the display screen) which allowed me to easily start recording without having to lean into awkward positions to reach the button. I also learnt how to efficiently switch between camera and preview mode with a switch on the camera and then how to select the shots using the selector button to view them.

On the tripod, I learnt that there was a levelling scale so that I could ensure that my shots were straight and not canted as I had not planned them to be on my storyboard.

I used many multiple different lights and lighting equipment in this product and learnt about the different effects that each position of light creates as well as its intensity where the more intense light look less realistic. I also learnt about the importance of not having the camera aimed at any non-natural light using the camera as it created a glaring effect. Lastly, I learnt about the effectiveness of natural light and used it in my smoking shots to create the illusion of the progression of time.

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

Although my original preliminary showed a wide use of media skills like a wide variety of shot types and a mixed use of audio between digetic and non-digetic sound, it still had many faults however and my movie opening shows a definite progression of skill based on increased learning and understanding of the conventions of media.

Firstly, in my preliminary I had an issue of location change where the opening was in a domesticated home and then changed to a more ‘school’ setting that was dramatically brighter. This change seemed unrealistic and there was an obvious continuity issue that the door in the background did not match the shot used in the match on action shot.

In my film opening I did not have this issue to such a severe degree as my shots were mostly shot in the same area and at similar times. The three locations used were interior car, exterior house and interior house and did have a sharp change in how they appeared so that there was not such a strong contrast when the opening cut to each different location.

Secondly, my preliminary also had issues with audio as the scenes with the interrogation were eerily quiet when there was a lack of dialogue. There was also an odd jump in terms of audio where the dark brooding music in the beginning quickly went from a rising cresenda to silence which caused an odd feel to the product as I had to cut the music off early to start the next scene.

In my film opening, I limited this problem by using quiet (yet still present) pieces of audio in the background like cars passing when the officer is standing outside his car in the very beginning. Before this, I used fast paced breathing by the person making the 911 call to give the impression of urgency and concern and cover up what would otherwise have been empty silence that would have felt awkward. I also directly used the song Great Day Today and was able to use it to its full effect without feeling limited using this type of audio with time constraints or being unable to match the actions of the characters to the lyrics of the song.

In my preliminary, I used multiple different types of shots with varied versions of wide, medium and close ups. These showed competent understanding and use of media. However, they did have the potential to have a wider variety of uses that I did not utilise in my preliminary.

In my film opening, I used a wider variety of shots also including wide, medium and close ups but different uses of each type of shot that changed in the extremeness of the shot. I also used a mixture of combining shots like with the cigarette shots where it goes from a close up on the cigarette lighter to a tighter close up on the mouth and then back to a looser frame of the smoke leaving the cigarette and then a wider angle.

Samuel Pilsworth Media Coursework/AS coursework 2016/12Q

Friday, 29 January 2016

Welcome to my blog

Wednesday, 27 January 2016

Finished movie opening and evaluation questions response

Friday, 8 January 2016

Script for my evaluation questions

Audience feedback to film opening