Question 5 - Attracting an Audience

This is an interview of one of the media students answering some questions after watching our finished opening sequence. I am the interviewer:

Question 3 - Production and Distribution

There are many ways to distribute our crime film. We could find small, local businesses given that since the businesses are small, we aren't going to get a big theatrical release as if it was a big Hollywood blockbuster but that doesn't necessarily matter. ALTIVEMEDIA is a small, local film distributor which could be a possible distributor for our film. The 'about' page says this:-

"Altive Media is an alternative content distribution company, which acquires and distributes live and pre-recorded events in 2D and 3D into cinemas. 'Alternative Content' is a growing business within the cinema world, which was brought about by the move from film to digital technologies."


Another method of distribution could be online promotion like putting the film or a trailer for the film onto popular video sharing sites like Youtube or Dailymotion. If we wanted to make a profit, it would be best just to put a trailer for the film online, then people could go and see it in a cinema if we were to use distributors like ALTIVEMEDIA, but if we didn't care about the film's profit, we would put the entire film online, most likely Youtube. 

Question 1 - Conventions of Real Media Products

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

Title of the film and Font Style:

This screenshot shows the title of the film, being 'Powder' and this also shows the font style. This font style was also used on other titles throughout this film.







Location/Setting:

 These screenshots show the settings of the film. The top picture shows that it is set in a house for a part of the film and the bottom picture shows the film being set outside, next to a random building which is an old, unused school.

Costume/Props:

The picture depicts the costume and a prop. Costume for Jimmy (as seen on the right, played by me) was just plain, casual clothes likes jeans, a t-shirt and hoody. For the mob boss (as seen on the left, played by Luke M), he wore a leather jacket and jeans. Finally, Big Arth (played by Luke M), wore PJs since the character mostly stayed at home. As for props, the mob boss is holding a pair of scissors as a weapon to threaten Jimmy with.

Lighting/Camera Angles:

This picture depicts the camera angle that is panning from the TV to the sofa that has Luke M lying on it. The lighting is shown from the natural light shining in through the window.







Characterization:

This is the characterisation screenshots which depict me, Haydn and Charlie in the top picture and Luke M in the bottom. These were the only actors in our opening sequence.

POWDER

This is the finished opening sequence:

Schedule/Shot List

This is the schedule/shot list for our opening sequence:


Wednesday 18th January, 13.41pm = Creation of Blog
Thursday 9th February = Updating Blog, started planning ideas for Opening
Monday 20th February (in Media lesson) = Planning characters, story, rough ideas for Mood Board 
Wednesday 22nd February (in Media lesson) = More planning
Friday 24th February (in Media lesson) = Filming of 'Big Arth and Jimmy's House' scene (Luke B and me needed at Luke B's house, pyjamas, can of Coke, comical items)
Monday 27th February - Friday 2nd March = Editing 'Big Arth and Jimmy's House' scene (at Yale)
Monday 5th March (in Media lesson) = Filming of 'Kidnapping' scene (need Luke B, me, Haydn Kidd, Charlie James, guns, leather jackets, filming outside abandoned school)
Tuesday 20th March (after college) = Filming of 'Interrogation' scene (need Luke B and me, light hanging above table, suit, scissors, gun, filming at Yale's Filming Studio)
Wednesday 21st March onwards = Editing all the footage (at Yale)
Monday 16th - Friday 20th April = Final pieces of editing (at Yale)

The Edit

The editing process went alright but our teacher insisted on doing some editing to make it smoother and look more professional, which he did a good job at doing. First we needed to import the film we had shot so we did so. Then we put into the editor and started to cut away at parts we didn't need until we had our film the way we wanted with the dialogue in the right order. The editing done by our teacher made the audio of one shot come in before the shot had changed which made it more professional and smoother. Once we had our basic editing done of just your basic jump cuts, we had to put on the black and white visual effect on the flashback scene then we went down to the film studio to record the voice for the flashback scene. We recorded what we needed in little parts and put it in sync with the video later. Also, transitions between each shot during the flashback scene were just flashes of white. So now we needed to add titles so we added in the names of the actors during the beginning of the opening sequence. At the end we added in the title card, production and other actors like the mob boss goons. As a final edit, we added in background music throughout the film and changed the music at the ending to slightly upbeat, yet silly music which went very well with the ending.
Finally, the entire project was way over 2 minutes so we had to cut a lot of it out. The finished project is now around 2:15 in length instead of its original length of over 3 minutes. We couldn't cut any more out otherwise it wouldn't make sense and it would ruin the entire thing plus also making it a terrible way to open a film.

Production Diary

During the production of the opening sequence for our film, I was supposed to be keeping a diary of production as I went along but I must have forgotten and didn’t do it. I will have to write out as much as I remember.
First off, we had to plan our film out so I wrote out a script later when I got home. We also agreed that we would shoot the majority of it at my house, in the film studio in the college and the rest at the Groves school. We also said we would shoot in a small alley in the college but we didn't need to after all.
Our next lesson, we got the camera, tripod and mic and went to my house to shoot the main part of our film's opening sequence. We had the script printed out so we shot each person saying each thing all at once...by that I mean, the camera would be on Luke M and he'd say ALL his lines then do the same with me. We would put the dialogue in the right order during the editing process. Before hand, Jason shot some cut away shots like recording the clock or the fish tank in my house. The filming was successful and took about an hour to do.
Next lesson, we recorded more at the Groves school which were for the flashback scene. We had Luke M's friend, Charlie in to help, along with Haydn (another media student). They played the mob boss' goons. The majority of what we shot didn't go into the final project but we shot random, on-the-spot shots and cut aways which took us about an hour. The random, on-the-spot shots did slightly follow the script by the way. Finally, we managed to film the torture scene in the film studio which was mostly improvised but it still went along with the script so it would make sense when we edit it. We had to come in on a day we didn't have media since the day we shot the torture scene was the earliest we could book the film studio and that took one hour, also.
Once we had completely finished filming, we went into the editing process which I have put under "The Edit" section on my blog.

Mood Board

 

Story Board

This is my part of the story board that depicts our opening sequence:

This Luke M's part of the storyboard

The Script

Below, was the original script but we had to cut parts out of the final project since it went way over 2 minutes.
NOTE: The asterix* are stage directions.

*Big Arth lying on sofa watching TV and laughing. The TV isn’t on*

*Enter Jimmy and sits on other sofa*

Jimmy: You will not believe the day I’ve had

Big Arth: I don’t really care to be honest Jimmy

Jimmy: Thanks Arth, I appreciate the sympathy and the interest in how crap my day has been

Big Arth: Well I don’t care since all I want is that coke I sent you to get

Jimmy: Oh yeh! Here ya go

*takes coca cola bottle from pocket and hands Arth it*

Big Arth: What’s this?!

Jimmy: The coke you asked for…

Big Arth: I meant coke as in the drug, coke!

Jimmy: oh right that, I’ve got that somewhere, let me find it

*reaches into pockets taking out comical/house hold objects*

Jimmy: errrmm….

Big Arth: What?

Jimmy: Right, so I don’t have the coke

Big Arth: WHAT!?

Jimmy: Hey it wasn’t my fault! It was the dealer! He was dodgey

Big Arth: Ok, so what happened? Why has your day been so terrible?

Jimmy: well….

*Fade to white, into a flashback. Flashback shows Jimmy’s day with Jimmy giving an on-going commentary*

Jimmy: …first off, I went to my usual dealer, but he wasn’t there. Instead some other guy was there and he gave me the coke for free, which was nice. I asked why but he just ran off.

So I went on my way and as I was on my way back here, some goons grabbed me and took me away! I ended up in a dark room, with a light shining on me. Some Boss guy was asking me who gave me the coke and I said, no-one, I bought it from a shop. He got angry then and pulled out a gun and told me my drug dealer’s life depended on me finding the guy who gave me the coke but he eventually got the drugs off me and just left me on the street.

Big Arth: he’s gonna kill our drug dealer?

Jimmy: yeh

Big Arth: Crap! Right so what did this boss guy look like?

Jimmy: He wore a nice suit and had a gun…

Big Arth: Nice suit? There’s only one person in the whole of Wrexham who has a nice suit!

Jimmy: Tell me about it…

Big Arth: I’m surprised he didn’t kill you! That’s Wrexham’s number one drug dealer!

Jimmy: That’s not really something to brag about

Big Arth: Shut Up! And stop being such an idiot! This guy is dangerous! Our drug dealer is in danger! Come on!

Jimmy: Where we goin?

Big Arth: To find that bloke who gave the coke

*Both leave. Fade to black*

The Pitch

We had to pitch our idea for our crime film to the class as a slide show presentation. We received a mixed reaction from our class which were feelings of interest in the idea and plot of the film but also confusion since we didn’t explain the plot all too well. We needed to explain the whole story’s plot if we were going to make into a full feature length film, but the plot for the rest of the film wasn’t very clear since we had only focused on the plot for the opening sequence. Even the name of the film and characters hadn’t been thought of yet, which added to the confusion when the slideshow said, “Working Title”. We did eventually come up with a name for the film which was ‘Powder’ which referred to the state that some drugs are in like cocaine. We also came up with names for the characters which were Jimmy (played by me), Big Arth and Mob Boss (played by Luke M). We chose these names for the fact they sound simple yet smart since Jimmy is just a plain and simple name and Big Arth is the kind of name given to a drug addict, plus we wanted to make the names seem slightly humorous as we wanted the opening sequence to be slightly comical but if we were going to make it a full feature film, we would want it to open comically then turn dramatically very quickly. That was the general idea, much like the film “Click” which was funny as it started then turned slowly depressing, except for ours, we would open ours comically, then have it turn dramatic and criminal. Once the presentation had finished, we received feedback from our peers who told us of their confusion and put forward some suggestions which I have forgotten what those suggestions were to be honest. 

Age Ratings

Age restrictions on films are very important mostly because films like Saw, which are rated at 18, wouldn't want to be shown to 10 year olds. It would be the same the other way round. For example, an 18 year old wouldn't want to see a U rated film so the age restrictions give you an idea of what the film is like and how violent or calm a film is.
Using the guidelines by the BBFC, I would say our crime film would have an age rating of 15. The BBFC website says that a 15 is: "No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work." We say this because there is swearing and drug use throughout the film so it would be inappropriate to show this film to 12 year old or younger.

 "The ‘R18’ category is a special and legally restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults. Films may only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas, and video works may be supplied to adults only in licensed sex shops. ‘R18’ videos may not be supplied by mail order."

"No-one younger than 18 may see an ‘18’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video work."

"No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work."

"Exactly the same criteria are used to classify works at ‘12A’ and ‘12’. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. Works classified at these categories may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them. The ‘12’ category exists only for video works. No one younger than 12 may rent or buy a ‘12’ rated video work"

"The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films. No one younger than 12 may see a ‘12A’ film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, and films classified ‘12A’ are not recommended for a child below 12. An adult may take a younger child if, in their judgement, the film is suitable for that particular child. In such circumstances, responsibility for allowing a child under 12 to view lies with the accompanying adult."

"General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children.
Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. A ‘PG’ film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. However, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children."

"It is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child. But a ‘U’ film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. ‘U’ films should be set within a positive moral framework and should offer reassuring counterbalances to any violence, threat or horror.
If a work is particularly suitable for a pre-school child to view alone, this will be indicated in the Consumer Advice."