1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Our Film is a crime thriller which is set in the present time. It incorporates generic conventions such as hiding the identity of the killer. This is because key to keeping a crime thriller interesting and tense is keeping the identity of the killer anonymous until later on in the film, or even right at the end. Also, these types of film normally have a team of police or a couple of police detectives trying to work out the clues and follow the killer, our film has two police detectives which have a history with the killer in our film.
Our film is similar to that of Crime thriller ‘Se7en’ which was made in 1995. From comparing our opening scene to that of Se7en, it can be seen that the two films give little teasers about the film, but work very hard not to give too much away. For example, ours doesn’t focus on the dead body and the cards too much as this are something that will come into context and be explained later in the film. In Se7en, it features various things which will come into context later in the film; a good example is the crossing out of words in black ink which can be seen below:
These print screens from the 2 minute openings from Se7en and our film show that they both highlight key points that will be important later in the film. It also gives a pretext of what the film may be about and gives the audience an idea. It also follows the con
vention that it keeps the audience tense and guessing about the film later on.
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Our planning stage was particularly helpful when producing our final 2 minute opening scene, this is because we did a lot of research into films that are similar to ours and this gave us an excellent idea in how crime thrillers worked to create audience tension. Also by drawing out storyboards, we were able to follow this clearly and then know the shots we had to make to make the opening sequence look professional and run smoothly. This was good as there was no disagreement between our group in which shot would look best and we could get down and film straight away which saved us plenty of time which we could use later to work on our blog or edit our film.
I feel my use of specific shots have improved considerably as I know have a much more understanding of how shots work in crime thriller, such as match on action and shot-reverse-shot. I also feel a lot more confident using the equipment as I am now used to using a camera of this sort and how to set it up quickly. This links back to the previous point that because I now have a greater understanding of how shots work I am now more confident using a camera. I feel our end product is good at fulfilling our task as we did plenty of research of crime thrillers and our film is now similar to successful films which we have researched, such as Se7en. I felt we also put a lot of effort into making our film. Finally, I think that ‘Chasing the pack’ is of good quality to interest its viewers and create tension but the only film that I would really change if I got chance would be to add a voice-over of one of the main characters which would have added even more effect to the film, although overall I am pleased with the product.
Our Film is a crime thriller which is set in the present time. It incorporates generic conventions such as hiding the identity of the killer. This is because key to keeping a crime thriller interesting and tense is keeping the identity of the killer anonymous until later on in the film, or even right at the end. Also, these types of film normally have a team of police or a couple of police detectives trying to work out the clues and follow the killer, our film has two police detectives which have a history with the killer in our film.
Our film is similar to that of Crime thriller ‘Se7en’ which was made in 1995. From comparing our opening scene to that of Se7en, it can be seen that the two films give little teasers about the film, but work very hard not to give too much away. For example, ours doesn’t focus on the dead body and the cards too much as this are something that will come into context and be explained later in the film. In Se7en, it features various things which will come into context later in the film; a good example is the crossing out of words in black ink which can be seen below:
These print screens from the 2 minute openings from Se7en and our film show that they both highlight key points that will be important later in the film. It also gives a pretext of what the film may be about and gives the audience an idea. It also follows the con
vention that it keeps the audience tense and guessing about the film later on.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our 2 minute opening scene, all of the characters that are seen are males although there are some other social groups that are represented other than gender. A big one is that of inspector Sirius Lee and inspector Shaun Massey, this is because inspector Lee is from a higher social class than inspector Massey. This is shown in the opening two minutes as Inspector Lee is a higher rank than Inspector Massey which is directly linked to Both Lee and Massey’s backgrounds. This then shows Inspector Lee’s dominance as he is from a higher class and now has a higher ranking job. He is also seen as the leader in this investigation. Th
is can be seen as a stereotype of class as the person who has come from a higher class background now has a high ranking and important job, whereas the other has come from quite a poor and rough background and has a job of lower importance and is under the control and guidance of the Inspector Lee.
This still image from our opening scene shows that Inspector Lee in black, is more confident and enthusiastic to get this job done and find the killer, you can see this as he is looking at the evidence first hand and Inspector Massey is behind him watching what he is doing on the case.
This is similar to the characters in ‘Se7en’ as there are two police detective, played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt who are both of different standings and have very different personalities. There is a picture of these two police detectives in Se7en. They are named David Mills and William Somerset:
David Mills, who is portrayed by Brad Pitt, is the one who looks more dominant and is a higher figure in this scene. He is a similar sort of character to Sirius Lee in Chasing the pack as he is short-tempered and is determined to finish this case and find the killer.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media project and why?
‘Momentum pictures’ would be a good candidate to distribute our film as this institute has history in distributing and creating successful films that are similar to ours; a good example of this is ‘Saw’. We also want our film to be shown in the cinemas first and then going on release for home viewing later on. We want our film to be released as a tense, thriller film which would probably receive the best viewing quality in a cinema, although it has been proven in the past that films which have gone to cinema viewing and then home release using momentum pictures have been very successful. This is because they are a massive independent distributor within the UK.
‘Momentum pictures’ also have a very modern, up-to-date website which has plenty of features to help promote and advertise the film. This is because the momentum pictures website has various things on the website such as downloads and a link to buy tickets online which can boost sales and produce more money and sales from the film. This type of website also has the ability to advertise the film throughout The UK and further.
It also has a dedicated link to trailers for upcoming films, and current films that are easy for viewers of the site to look at, this again, can act as a good type of advertising. It also gives links for viewers to buy ‘momentum pictures’ films on DVD and blu-ray, which makes a massive difference to sales of the film on DVD as they are now not relying on DVD sales in shops alone. The website also offers opportunities for merchandising of our film, which is also a massive part to our film’s success as we want to make the most of every aspect, and merchandise sales is a big aspect, not only for sales and making money, but it acts as a type of advertising and getting the films out there as people will be using things, or wearing clothes which have the films’ name on. They would also give us plenty of financial backing.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The Audience would be generally people 15 years old and above in both male and female groups. This is because this type of film and certain aspects might be considered not suitable for people under this age. This is because it features things like murder, blood and gore. Other films that are similar to ours are ‘saw’ and ‘se7en’ as they are crime thrillers and feature gore. This film could especially attract people who are interested in crime, gore and horror.
Also, from our research from ‘saw’ shows that this is a film which contains a high amount of gore and this could attract a niche group which want to see these sorts of films. In our film, we plan to ‘capture’ these viewers, as well as gaining a wider viewing range across the UK to people who just generally want to see a thriller or crime film.
This is the link to the site which shows guidelines to what certificate to give films:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15/
We can see from these guidelines that it would be suitable to give our film a ‘15’ certificate as it features quite a high amount of horror, gore, swearing and violence which would not be suitable for people under 15 years of age.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience by focusing heavy on the dead body, which shows clearly that straight away that the film is a crime thriller. This would then appeal to the audience as a particular group would like this type of film and want to get into watching our film. The use of camerawork in one section shows how much we use the dead body to create a particular scene to the opening 2 minutes. Below is a still of this particular scene:
This still shows that the dead body of the male can be clearly seen by the audience and therefore they know it is an important part of the film and may be a key point later on. The body is also directly up to the camera making the body impossible to miss for the audience. The camera is also placed to show it from an almost point of view shot for the body. Giving the audience that extra feel of the area in this scene. A shot like this creates suspension in the audience and that is what we need to keep the audience interested and tense.
6. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
The Camera we used was the HD100, which overall was easy to use and get used to. It has some strength and weaknesses, the main strength being that it is stable, good camera quality and sound quality. Although its main weakness is that it is quite heavy and bulky, this sometimes makes it difficult to transport between filming locations. Also, when used on bumpy or slanted ground (such as a hill) it was difficult to get the camera stable, this made one of ou
r shorts particularly difficult to film as we were using a hill. This then made some of our shots shaky which made us take several shots of the same scene, which was time-consuming. To the right is a picture of the camera we used.
I also learnt a fair deal about editing, as it was the first time we had used Final cut express. This significantly en
hanced our film because it gave us the opportunity to add various effects such as earthquake shaking text and adds slow non-digetic music which made the film tense and makes it feel more like a thriller film. It also makes our film seem more like a Hollywood blockbuster and professional, as it helped u piece together our film and make it run smoothly.
In our 2 minute opening scene, all of the characters that are seen are males although there are some other social groups that are represented other than gender. A big one is that of inspector Sirius Lee and inspector Shaun Massey, this is because inspector Lee is from a higher social class than inspector Massey. This is shown in the opening two minutes as Inspector Lee is a higher rank than Inspector Massey which is directly linked to Both Lee and Massey’s backgrounds. This then shows Inspector Lee’s dominance as he is from a higher class and now has a higher ranking job. He is also seen as the leader in this investigation. Th
is can be seen as a stereotype of class as the person who has come from a higher class background now has a high ranking and important job, whereas the other has come from quite a poor and rough background and has a job of lower importance and is under the control and guidance of the Inspector Lee.This still image from our opening scene shows that Inspector Lee in black, is more confident and enthusiastic to get this job done and find the killer, you can see this as he is looking at the evidence first hand and Inspector Massey is behind him watching what he is doing on the case.
This is similar to the characters in ‘Se7en’ as there are two police detective, played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt who are both of different standings and have very different personalities. There is a picture of these two police detectives in Se7en. They are named David Mills and William Somerset:
David Mills, who is portrayed by Brad Pitt, is the one who looks more dominant and is a higher figure in this scene. He is a similar sort of character to Sirius Lee in Chasing the pack as he is short-tempered and is determined to finish this case and find the killer.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media project and why?
‘Momentum pictures’ would be a good candidate to distribute our film as this institute has history in distributing and creating successful films that are similar to ours; a good example of this is ‘Saw’. We also want our film to be shown in the cinemas first and then going on release for home viewing later on. We want our film to be released as a tense, thriller film which would probably receive the best viewing quality in a cinema, although it has been proven in the past that films which have gone to cinema viewing and then home release using momentum pictures have been very successful. This is because they are a massive independent distributor within the UK.
‘Momentum pictures’ also have a very modern, up-to-date website which has plenty of features to help promote and advertise the film. This is because the momentum pictures website has various things on the website such as downloads and a link to buy tickets online which can boost sales and produce more money and sales from the film. This type of website also has the ability to advertise the film throughout The UK and further.
It also has a dedicated link to trailers for upcoming films, and current films that are easy for viewers of the site to look at, this again, can act as a good type of advertising. It also gives links for viewers to buy ‘momentum pictures’ films on DVD and blu-ray, which makes a massive difference to sales of the film on DVD as they are now not relying on DVD sales in shops alone. The website also offers opportunities for merchandising of our film, which is also a massive part to our film’s success as we want to make the most of every aspect, and merchandise sales is a big aspect, not only for sales and making money, but it acts as a type of advertising and getting the films out there as people will be using things, or wearing clothes which have the films’ name on. They would also give us plenty of financial backing.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The Audience would be generally people 15 years old and above in both male and female groups. This is because this type of film and certain aspects might be considered not suitable for people under this age. This is because it features things like murder, blood and gore. Other films that are similar to ours are ‘saw’ and ‘se7en’ as they are crime thrillers and feature gore. This film could especially attract people who are interested in crime, gore and horror.
Also, from our research from ‘saw’ shows that this is a film which contains a high amount of gore and this could attract a niche group which want to see these sorts of films. In our film, we plan to ‘capture’ these viewers, as well as gaining a wider viewing range across the UK to people who just generally want to see a thriller or crime film.
This is the link to the site which shows guidelines to what certificate to give films:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15/
We can see from these guidelines that it would be suitable to give our film a ‘15’ certificate as it features quite a high amount of horror, gore, swearing and violence which would not be suitable for people under 15 years of age.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience by focusing heavy on the dead body, which shows clearly that straight away that the film is a crime thriller. This would then appeal to the audience as a particular group would like this type of film and want to get into watching our film. The use of camerawork in one section shows how much we use the dead body to create a particular scene to the opening 2 minutes. Below is a still of this particular scene:
This still shows that the dead body of the male can be clearly seen by the audience and therefore they know it is an important part of the film and may be a key point later on. The body is also directly up to the camera making the body impossible to miss for the audience. The camera is also placed to show it from an almost point of view shot for the body. Giving the audience that extra feel of the area in this scene. A shot like this creates suspension in the audience and that is what we need to keep the audience interested and tense.
6. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
The Camera we used was the HD100, which overall was easy to use and get used to. It has some strength and weaknesses, the main strength being that it is stable, good camera quality and sound quality. Although its main weakness is that it is quite heavy and bulky, this sometimes makes it difficult to transport between filming locations. Also, when used on bumpy or slanted ground (such as a hill) it was difficult to get the camera stable, this made one of ou
r shorts particularly difficult to film as we were using a hill. This then made some of our shots shaky which made us take several shots of the same scene, which was time-consuming. To the right is a picture of the camera we used.I also learnt a fair deal about editing, as it was the first time we had used Final cut express. This significantly en
hanced our film because it gave us the opportunity to add various effects such as earthquake shaking text and adds slow non-digetic music which made the film tense and makes it feel more like a thriller film. It also makes our film seem more like a Hollywood blockbuster and professional, as it helped u piece together our film and make it run smoothly.7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Our planning stage was particularly helpful when producing our final 2 minute opening scene, this is because we did a lot of research into films that are similar to ours and this gave us an excellent idea in how crime thrillers worked to create audience tension. Also by drawing out storyboards, we were able to follow this clearly and then know the shots we had to make to make the opening sequence look professional and run smoothly. This was good as there was no disagreement between our group in which shot would look best and we could get down and film straight away which saved us plenty of time which we could use later to work on our blog or edit our film.
I feel my use of specific shots have improved considerably as I know have a much more understanding of how shots work in crime thriller, such as match on action and shot-reverse-shot. I also feel a lot more confident using the equipment as I am now used to using a camera of this sort and how to set it up quickly. This links back to the previous point that because I now have a greater understanding of how shots work I am now more confident using a camera. I feel our end product is good at fulfilling our task as we did plenty of research of crime thrillers and our film is now similar to successful films which we have researched, such as Se7en. I felt we also put a lot of effort into making our film. Finally, I think that ‘Chasing the pack’ is of good quality to interest its viewers and create tension but the only film that I would really change if I got chance would be to add a voice-over of one of the main characters which would have added even more effect to the film, although overall I am pleased with the product.
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