Thursday, 10 April 2014
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The opening to our film could relate to the film 'Ills', as they both show a mysterious crime being committed, in which we never identify who the killer actually is, and in both films, the victim is a helpless female, alone in a derelict area, who dies within the opening 5 minutes of the film. We related our film to Ills as we thought it would attract a similar audience, as both openings leave the viewer wanting to find out more and asking questions such as 'Well, where can the film go from here?' and 'Who is the killer and why has he killed them?'. When researching, we found that a lot of films use this method of starting with a disruption leaving the audience guessing, such as 'Face-Off' and 'Sixth Sense', where the disruption occurs within the opening title sequences, like our production. (Below, a link to the opening titles of Face-Off, showing the disruption happening during the opening 5 minutes of the film).
During our production, the cheery sound of 'Neil Diamond-Sweet Caroline' plays whilst two girls sit and drink in a bar. This music could be said to be contrapuntal as we have previously scene the girl in question running for her life down an abandoned rail-way track in the dead of night, and we can hear the panic in her heart beat. We used this contrapuntal music as it juxtaposes the idea of the film, and when the song starts to turn slow and sinister, it notifies the audience that something bad is going to happen. We got this idea from the film 'Face-Off', when the contrapuntal, happy music during the opening scene turns sinister when the boy is shot. We feel like this is the unique selling point of our film as the song which links in with our production's title is edited to sound dangerous and is heard in a way that it wont have previously been heard before. It also foreshadows that a happy atmosphere is about to take a turn for the worst.
When talking about synergy in the media, it means that teamwork will produce an overall better end product, than if each individual person in the group were working towards the same goal individually. Synergy applies to us as we split the work load between us, to achieve a better end product, than if we were to do it all individually.
Media institutions recognise that audiences enjoy using converged technology, and want to consume media in a variety of different ways, for example: trailers, videos, jingles etc. This can be used to promote a companies film and to boost sales to create a profit. If we were wanting to promote our film, we would have to start off small scale, perhaps by creating trailers and posters. In the industry, if a film does well and creates a lot of sales, a company may wish to merchandise. This could be done by creating a game, a range of toys, or something along those lines.For example, Star Wars has created a range of computer games which has increased the films reputation, as shown below.
During our production, the cheery sound of 'Neil Diamond-Sweet Caroline' plays whilst two girls sit and drink in a bar. This music could be said to be contrapuntal as we have previously scene the girl in question running for her life down an abandoned rail-way track in the dead of night, and we can hear the panic in her heart beat. We used this contrapuntal music as it juxtaposes the idea of the film, and when the song starts to turn slow and sinister, it notifies the audience that something bad is going to happen. We got this idea from the film 'Face-Off', when the contrapuntal, happy music during the opening scene turns sinister when the boy is shot. We feel like this is the unique selling point of our film as the song which links in with our production's title is edited to sound dangerous and is heard in a way that it wont have previously been heard before. It also foreshadows that a happy atmosphere is about to take a turn for the worst.
When talking about synergy in the media, it means that teamwork will produce an overall better end product, than if each individual person in the group were working towards the same goal individually. Synergy applies to us as we split the work load between us, to achieve a better end product, than if we were to do it all individually.
Media institutions recognise that audiences enjoy using converged technology, and want to consume media in a variety of different ways, for example: trailers, videos, jingles etc. This can be used to promote a companies film and to boost sales to create a profit. If we were wanting to promote our film, we would have to start off small scale, perhaps by creating trailers and posters. In the industry, if a film does well and creates a lot of sales, a company may wish to merchandise. This could be done by creating a game, a range of toys, or something along those lines.For example, Star Wars has created a range of computer games which has increased the films reputation, as shown below.
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| Star wars DVD cover |
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| Star wars game |
Audience Responses
AUDIENCE RESPONSE FINISHED from Jodie Mountain on Vimeo.
Here is a video of what some of our friends thought of our production. We interviewed them and gave them individual questions to answer.
Q.2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The main girl character, Molly, plays a similar character to that played by Maggie Grace in the 2008 thriller 'Taken'. Both characters/productions are similar as they both start off with a happy equilibrium event i.e. Molly is going for a night out with her friend, similarly Kim is going on holiday with the best friend.
Both girls dress in respectable clothing, are around the same ago and portray happy characters all of which builds up their vulnerable persona. Both characters are naivley preyed upon by a male character and unbenknown to them later are taken advantage of.
They however also have differences, a major difference is the resolution of the situations. Molly does not have anyone to save her in our production and end up being killed by the villain, however in Taken her father is trying to help her throughout and comes to her rescue at the end. Another difference between the two story lines is that Kim was not left on her own in Taken her and her friend got taken together however Molly is left on her own from the beginning which creates more tension from the audience.
Molly fits with the stereotype of a typical damsel in distress. She is a young female character, this portrays her as weak and helpless in the eyes of the viewer. She is an easy prey. We have dressed her is respectable clothing in order to show that this situation could happen to anyone and not just those who look more provocative. Doing this also surprises the viewer and plays against their expectations.
Our male character is similar to that played by Michael Eklund in the 2013 thriller ‘The Call’.
The characters are similar due to the fact the both have similar dress codes, they wear shabby clothing, on our case he is wearing his work clothes and in The Call he is wearing casual clothes. Both men look like they could be ordinary men however inside they are both corrupt. Both men prey on girls that fit the stereotypical vulnerable, damsel in distress stereotype in order to then kill them.
They also differ, in The Call his character preys on a number of different girls in a number of different ways such as sneaking into their house or kidnapping them in a car park however in our production the male character only has one victim and he comes across her by drugging her in a pub. They both dress in similar clothes however the colours of the clothes signify different things, we dress our character in dark clothes to represent the evil character inside however in The Call he is dressed in pale creamy colours to make him look dirty and scruffy. These colours will show when he is sweating or dirty which will revolt the viewer and add to their dislike. He is wearing shabby,dark clothes and is a young male.
We have created him to follow the same patterns of the stereotypical thriller antagonist; a predatory man. We want to make it obvious that he is the villain in the film and that she should be wary. This builds the tension in the bar as the audience can predict what is going to happen before it actually happens. By dressing him in dark clothing it connotes his dark, evil character, using shabby work clothes also helps to create an lack of social standing, this is used in many films to create a motive for some villains.
Both girls dress in respectable clothing, are around the same ago and portray happy characters all of which builds up their vulnerable persona. Both characters are naivley preyed upon by a male character and unbenknown to them later are taken advantage of.
They however also have differences, a major difference is the resolution of the situations. Molly does not have anyone to save her in our production and end up being killed by the villain, however in Taken her father is trying to help her throughout and comes to her rescue at the end. Another difference between the two story lines is that Kim was not left on her own in Taken her and her friend got taken together however Molly is left on her own from the beginning which creates more tension from the audience.
Molly fits with the stereotype of a typical damsel in distress. She is a young female character, this portrays her as weak and helpless in the eyes of the viewer. She is an easy prey. We have dressed her is respectable clothing in order to show that this situation could happen to anyone and not just those who look more provocative. Doing this also surprises the viewer and plays against their expectations.
Our male character is similar to that played by Michael Eklund in the 2013 thriller ‘The Call’.
The characters are similar due to the fact the both have similar dress codes, they wear shabby clothing, on our case he is wearing his work clothes and in The Call he is wearing casual clothes. Both men look like they could be ordinary men however inside they are both corrupt. Both men prey on girls that fit the stereotypical vulnerable, damsel in distress stereotype in order to then kill them.
They also differ, in The Call his character preys on a number of different girls in a number of different ways such as sneaking into their house or kidnapping them in a car park however in our production the male character only has one victim and he comes across her by drugging her in a pub. They both dress in similar clothes however the colours of the clothes signify different things, we dress our character in dark clothes to represent the evil character inside however in The Call he is dressed in pale creamy colours to make him look dirty and scruffy. These colours will show when he is sweating or dirty which will revolt the viewer and add to their dislike. He is wearing shabby,dark clothes and is a young male.
We have created him to follow the same patterns of the stereotypical thriller antagonist; a predatory man. We want to make it obvious that he is the villain in the film and that she should be wary. This builds the tension in the bar as the audience can predict what is going to happen before it actually happens. By dressing him in dark clothing it connotes his dark, evil character, using shabby work clothes also helps to create an lack of social standing, this is used in many films to create a motive for some villains.
Question 1
COMPLETED COMMENTARY from Jodie Mountain on Vimeo.
This is our directors commentry, it states how we have produced certain aspects of our film, and why we chose to do it in that way. Storyline The story line is about a girl going on a night out and getting drugged by a man who is in the same pub as her, this happens in the opening and the rest of the film is about what happened to him afterwards and whether he will get caught. The opening helps set this storyline up as it first explains whats happened and gets the audience involved with the action, it builds up their opinions on the character and then makes them want the male character to be found and punished for his actions. The whole idea of the opening is setting the scene and getting the audience involved with the story line in order to enjoy the film to its full potential. Genre The opening uses a lot of dark, chiaroscuro lighting and sinister background music, this all helps to build the atmosphere and tensions needed to a thriller film. How the characters are introduced The girl is the first to be seen, this is when she is running down the railway. Introducing her like this gets the action within the film started straight away and gets the viewer interested from the very beginning, it also introduces her as an endangered character so the audience knows what to expect from the very beginning. The first time the male character is seen is in the pub at the bar, here he is sat having a pint and is in his work clothes, portraying him like this makes him look like a normal person however the audiences opinion will soon change.
Saturday, 5 April 2014
Title
When picking the name for our production, we thought of many possibilities, and it wasn't until we started putting the music onto our footage and editing the production that we came up with our final decision of 'Sweet Caroline'. We chose this because it juxtaposes the theme and idea of the production, an eerie thriller with a sharp and abrupt ending. Also, as we never find out the name of the main character, the title 'Sweet Caroline' could be describing the damsel in distress as a person, but we will never find out. We thought it necessary to have Neil Diamond's song playing during the bar scene so that the title somehow linked in with the film and it also adds some irony.
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| The edited titles and how they look on our production |
Friday, 4 April 2014
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