Task 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

1. In this first shot, it is clear that our film doesn’t conform to the regularities of title sequences. You would expect to see it on full screen, but instead we use only a section with a shaky shot filmed on a camera phone, which is unusual by today’s standards compared with Hollywood films, which would be shot steadily on a high resolution camera.
2. Introducing yet another screen breaks conventions completely. It asks the audience to take in two different pieces of action at the same time, which is unusual as title sequences are mostly simple credits and a gentle introduction to the film.
3. Adding 2 more screens asks the audience to take in too much at a time in any detail, so the audience picks out the parts which are important to them. This means that the audience start to care about the characters. We chose Film Four as our production company. All title sequences have the Production Company in the titles.
4. The actual titles in the sequence conform to the regular order, introducing our main actor first, but we decided to keep the title font simple in so as not to overwhelm the audience.
5. Introducing the name of the director after the actors is a tradition in title sequences.
6. Continuing with split screens after the credits finish subverts the traditions of title sequences, usually the action would concentrate on one full screen, but continuing on several screens means that the audience doesn’t lose concentration and keeps engaged with the different characters. It also lets the audience focus completely on the action without being distracted by the titles. And gives the audience a chance to realise its one coherent moment filmed from different angles.
7. Adding a fifth screen shocks the audiences, and the tension that is built in the period before the shooters are introduced is released. When the screen is introduced it changes the action so suddenly the audience will be horrified at the realism of the events. This further subverts the normalities of title sequences. Usually it gives you some warning to what’s going to happen, but in our film, the audience is dropped straight into the action.
8. The end of the title sequence both conforms and subverts audience expectations. Though it shocks the audience with its brutal realism and unexpected horror, it brings an end to the title sequence when the two girls are shot at the end, and leaves the audience wanting more, and leaves questions to be answered. the fact that the dead bodies are left on their own screen after they die leaves the audience disgusted and horrified by the realism, yet encourages uncomfortable voyeurism.
9. The last part of the sequence conforms to the tradition of cinema today, by showing the title of the film in the last shot. It leaves the audience asking questions and builds tension and drama regarding the film to come.

Task 2 How does your product represent particular social group

Our film specifically represents 2 social groups. One of them being teenagers. As the teenagers are the victims in our film, we wanted the audience to relate to them, connect with them, and sympathise with them. So rather than represent them in a negative stereotypical way i.e violent, rude and grimy, we decided to focus more on the positive aspects such as fun loving, full of life, young and friendly. For example we showed this through the shot of Suleiman rapping. We directed him to do a freestyle rap for part of the take, with his friends around him cheering and laughing. Another shot of the girls downstairs in gentle conversation about a music festival also shows the positive side of the characters. This dissipates our target audience’s apprehensions of a negative stereotype and starts to make them care about the characters, which is essential if we want an emotional reaction from the audience when they are shot.

If you compare our film to Elephant, another teen based movie that deals with mass killing, we see that teenagers in general are represented in a similar way. They are represented in either a neutral or positive way by the use of their casual playful conversation, most of it improvised, much in the same way our film uses it. Elephant’s director Gus van Sant told the actors in the film to improvise their dialogue during some of the scenes. We also used this technique to make it more naturalistic.

Elephant also represents teenage mass killers. During the murder scene in Elephant, the killers are represented very coldly and negatively but not in an obvious way. They say almost nothing and show no expression, the same way our actors do in our thriller. This distances the audience from the characters and forces them to connect with the action happening, there are no so called hiding places for the audience, they are thrust right into the middle of the theme of the movie.

The representation of teenagers in our film contrasts with that of other media products such as newspaper tabloids. They usually focus on the violence of teenagers, knife crime and mugging etc. We challenge that, and try to show the majority population of decent and positive teenagers, and not focus in on the violent minority like newspapers do. We felt that the newspapers don’t accurately represent teenagers and in essence glamorise gun crime and violence.

Task 3 What kind of Media Institution Might Distribute your media product and why?

The type of film i have produced is ideally suited to being made and distributed by a small independent British film studio such as Warp Studios. Warp Film Studios is a small, well established and respected studio based in Yorkshire. Originally they started off as a record label, and so make their own film soundtracks; they then expanded to start producing such films as This is England and Donkey Punch. The films they tend to produce are low budget British films with new up and coming directors, often dealing with social realism and gritty storylines.
This is the kind of studio i see producing Hollow Point. Warp would most likely be interested in my film as it is low budget, dealing with real life events and social realism. They are experienced in producing these genres of movie and distributing them. For example, when distributing This is England in America, they realised that the film wouldn’t necessarily to American audiences as the film is about British history and culture. Warp studios decided to make the American trailer focus more on the storyline of Shaun, and his rite of passage into adulthood, whereas they stuck with the British culture and history campaign in England.
When producing small films such as Hollow Point, Warp often platform release it. Releasing it slowly in specific cinemas build’s up the hype for the film. Word of mouth advertising is powerful in selling these films as they don’t have the budget for large scale saturation campaigns. Also they focus more on selling the DvD’s as the box office sales may not guarantee a profit.
This understanding of the distribution and production of small movies would help make our product well known to the target audience and make sure our film was produced properly and professionally.

Task 4 Who would be the audience for you meida product

Our film deals with real life events, such as the Columbine Massacre, and centres on a sixth form college. Therefore it makes sense that our film would appeal to younger people still in education, and anyone else who was affected by the horrific events.

The product we have created contains characters mostly within the 15-25 year old age group, and so that mean that an audience of a similar age would be able to connect to the action in the film more easily. And also our film contains action and gun violence, which means that the males in the audience would be more interested in it.

Though our film does contain gun action, it is not done in a way that glamorizes it, like other big budget Hollywood films do, but it deals with it in a realistic way and encourages uncomfortable audience voyeurism. Because of the deeper questions and real life events that it deals with, there is no reason that an older audience would not be interested in this film. Hollow Point is a smaller film, and
so the audience would probably have to read newpapers or other articles similar to broadsheets. This means that the 15-25 year old and older audience is probably, educated and interested in current affairs.

our film has more of an Arthouse film feel to it, because it deals with serious issues. Therefore our secondary audience may be fans of more independent ‘indie’ films such as Elephant. These fans in turn may be university students still in education with lots of disposable income.

Task 5 How did you Attract/Adress your Audience

Task 5: how we Adressed/Attracted our audience

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Task 6 What have you Learnt About Technologies from the Process of Constructing this Product

Task 7 Looking back at our Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product

When comparing my preliminary task to my thriller opening, i realise how much I have learnt in regards to filming and editing and the production of films.

Looking back to our preliminary task, I see how much more detail went into the preparation for our thriller. Our preliminary task was very basic. Planned, shot and edited over the course of a week. It was roughly shot without an accurate storyboard and we had put little or no thought into the arrangement of the shot or lighting.

Our Thriller took much more time to prepare, as we had to decide on a concept and storyline, and produce a planned concept folder which included an accurate storyboard and plans for all the cast and locations. The thriller was much more in depth and every aspect of the shoot day had to be addressed, including finding appropriate cast members and giving them details of when and where they had to be on the shoot day.

In the preliminary task we used a basic selection of wide shots, mid shots and close ups to basically show a story using set dialogue. In our thriller we decided that it would be a much more effective storytelling medium to shoot the same moment from different angles on camera phones. We did this to tell the story from different viewpoints, which is something we didn’t consider when shooting our preliminary.

The editing of our preliminary was incredibly basic compared to the editing of our Thriller. Preliminary editing included logging the rush tape and cutting from one shot to the next. No work was done with sound or after effects.

The editing for our thriller was done in much more detail. We used 4 shots of the same moment which played simultaneously beside each other. They were shots of casual conversation between friends in a college. They are very long shots, which means it gives the opening a gentle yet tense mood, and leaves the audience asking questions. These shots reveal very little about the movie and so the audience start to feel comfortable watching the action, and connecting with the characters. When the fifth screen is introduced with the POV shot of the killer, the action changes very suddenly and so shocks the audience and changes the mood to a more fast paced and chaotic one.
The muzzle flashes were added to the guns using After Effects, which we had never used before, and which gave our thriller and much more professional look. The blurry outlines of the camera phone shots was also done in After Effects, it made the screen more visually pleasing and look more professional, it also gave the opening a flashback like feel.

Sound was also a very important part of our thriller, an aspect we didn’t look at during our preliminary editing. The dialogue of our different shots was faded up and down to subliminally draw the audience’s attention to different shots. We did this slowly to make the audience feel as though the sequence is much longer than it is, because they keep noticing different things. Also the sound of the gun shots was very important. They had to sound aggressive enough to break the calm of the action beforehand. We used the last shot of a machinegun burst and edited the EQ so it sounded more aggressive. Then we turned up the volume and recorded onto a mobile phone. We then put the mobile phone version into the thriller. This enhanced the realism of the scene massively as it sounded just as though it was a real gun. We also took sections of the screaming sounds recorded on the shoot day, and added them in in the sections we felt needed more of a panicked and chaotic feel.

We didn’t really use music in our thriller, apart from a low rumble that gradually gets slightly louder. We made it very quiet so the audience would hardly notice, but so they would feel the tension rising.

In regards to our titles, we researched an appropriate distributor for our film, i.e. Film Four. We followed the traditions of title order, starting with the companies that put up the money, then the stars of the film then ending with the director and the films title. The credits were done in a docu-drama style, aimed more at a younger audience, and to make the story more realistic. We decided to make the credits subtle so we wouldn’t draw attention away from the action on screen. We did this by making them fade in and out slowly and using an OTC font. We used the same font throughout.

Everything we did in our thriller was done to target a specific audience, i.e 15-25 year olds, and a more niche audience who are more interested in Arthouse movies. This was reflected in the pacing of our film, our title sequence, our choices of production and distribution companies and our editing processes.

Costume and Props

Props:
2 realistic/fake Uzi’s and 2 realistic/fake pistols – we chose these because it was unrealistic for two teenagers to be able to get hold of two AK47’s or other guns, or rather, it was more likely that they would come by these guns than any others as they are relatively easy too get hold of
4 ammo cartridges for various guns – again we chose these because they are neseccary and easy to obtain
Chair
School dinner meals
Mobile Phones
Costume:
Shooters:
2 Camouflage trousers we chose - these so the shooters would blend into the background
2 black t shirts – we chose these to reflect the menaceing and dark nature of the shooters
2 hoodies – we chose these because it conforms to the typical teenager stereotype
2 pairs of trainers