2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our film opening uses the idea of the main character experiencing psychological conflict within her mind, a main feature of a psychological thriller which is what our film is. This is portrayed through the flashback played throughout our opening, followed by main character ‘Leyla’ waking up in a forest, having no idea how she ended up there. In psychological thrillers, fast paced editing is also often shown to reflect chaos and the dysfunctional ideas contained in the film. They also tend to choose unfamiliar settings for the audience to imagine themselves in, for instance ours has parts filmed in a forest, this could disturb the audience slightly as its not a setting they are familiar with. We have challenged real media products as our opening is filmed in light scenes, unlike most psychological thrillers which are filmed at night to make it eerie to the audience. The voice over idea is also different as usually it is tensional music played in the background creating an atmosphere. We have also challenged real media products with our storyline, it is often represented to be a male character that is found to be the culprit of a crime such as kidnapping a young girl. We portray it as if somebody Leyla’s own age had committed the crime (girl in the phone box) but as the story unfolds it is revealed that Leyla’s mother is the offender.
3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our opening represents young teenage girls as being vulnerable and exposed to danger, this portrays how society may actually feel so it is a good representation of this particular social group. “Leyla” in particular can be identified as vulnerable through the mise-en-scene in our opening, her ripped tights portray she has been in some sort of mishap or trouble. Her clothing is also how a rebellious teenage girl may dress. In our film opening, there is a young person shown who is the implied villian throughout the film. This is done through mise en scene, such as the dark clothing the young girl is wearing, representing she is hiding something. She is also wearing no makeup, this is a binary opposition (Claude Levi-Strauss) to “Leyla” who is shown putting on her makeup in our opening. This challenges the ideology people have of villains as they often assume men are the main culprits, but the girl in the phonebox is portrayed as the villain throughout until the audience discover otherwise at the end. Binary oppositions
4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? New Line may be likely to distribute our film because it is a well known distributer, and distributes both non and independent films. “Se7en” was produced by New Line Cinema which is similar to our film in the thriller genre. Websites such as www.play.com and www.amazon.com may distribute because they are specialist in selling films, games, etc meaning it would sell. Cinemas in the UK might show our film depending on its success, this could also include perhaps the Odeon and cineworld. It could also go to Europe if it was a success. Retail shops such as HMV, WH Smith and various other stores with a big ranged selection of films.
5. Who would be the audience for your media product? The likely audience for our film would most be teenagers and young adults. This would be because of the content involved and because they may be able to relate to Leylas character as she is a young girl, this may make the film seem more realistic to them as they would be imagining themselves in Leylas situation. Our film would probably require the certificate of 15. The content involved may be disturbing for a younger audience, and a younger audience may also have trouble understanding certain aspects of the film. Our film wouldn’t be suitable for a certificate under the age of 15 because it would contain some psychological issues in the scenes during the rest of the film. However, it probably wouldn’t be classed as a certificate of 18 because include all the different aspects such as sexual reference or gore, etc. This is what has been gathered from the BBFC guidelines. Films similar to ours with certificate 15:Phone booth, Donnie Darko, The Butterfly Effect 2.
6. How did you attract/address your audience? We have aimed to attract our audience instantly by using a teenage girl as the main character, this will attract teenagers as they should be able to relate to her character in one way or another. We have shown day to day things in a teenagers life in our film, such as ‘facebook’, the social networking site, therefore making it realistic. The fact we have named our film “Leyla” could also be appealing, because people will want to discover who “Leyla” actually is. This strange concept of a young girl waking up in a forest would attract people as it is a bit of an odd storyline. Waking up in a forest is an unfamiliar setting to what the audience would be used to, this could be disturbing yet appealing for them to watch. Our film having attributes contributing to a certificate of 15 would please the audience, giving them slight indication of what the film may contain due to its certificate. We have also tried to include various elements that past psychological thrillers have contained, by doing so, the audience will not be disappointed as they will have some sort of expectations of what the film should contain.
7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I have learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing this product. Before, I knew how to use a video camera to record, but since filming our coursework piece I have learnt a lot more with how to experiment with different shots, and how vital a tripod is whilst filming our coursework. I think a prime example to show how far we’ve come as a group is to look at our initial piece of coursework ‘ The Dark room’. The shots are very basic and even the editing is very slow paced, making it slightly dull to watch. You can see how much more advanced we are with the camera in our actual piece of coursework ‘Leyla’. I think the whole group have come a long way in terms of camera shots, angles etc. I have also learnt a lot about editing. The trip to the CLC with the school provided us with a very helpful session with plenty of instructions on how to use iMovie and garageband, this helped me so much. I wouldn’t have had a clue otherwise. If I hadn’t known how to use these programs, I would have really struggled with editing and composing the soundtrack for our opening. We have been able to use really advanced editing through learning from this session and through trial and error as well, so given the basics from the CLC trip, we experimented ourselves to learn a lot we never knew. For example, the timing with our credits is quite advanced editing, we had to time it perfectly, edit the font and spacing each time in order to create our desired effect. The effects on the actual footage make an impact as well, providing it with a hazy glow, and the contrast of the colour and black and white footage brilliantly portraying real life from the flashback.
8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Looking back at our preliminary task, I feel I have learnt a lot from the progression of it to our full product. The preliminary task contained very simple camera shots and taught me the basics of how to use the camera, how to position it, etc. I learnt how important it was to stick to the 180 degree rule because without it the viewer would become confused. So I made sure I kept it in mind during the filming of our actual coursework piece. I also became aware of how important it was to keep continuity during filming, making sure everything was positioned in the same way for each shot, people were in the same clothing, etc. It was also important to keep the dialogue in the same tone of voice and wording to provide our preliminary task with continuity. I also learnt how key it is to plan and storyboard ideas. By sticking to storyboards and plans it makes it more structured and easier to follow whilst filming. Since the preliminary task, I learnt how to experiment with more advanced camera shots, how to keep the continuity throughout filming and how important it is to stick to the 180 degree rule. These were all important factors to consider whilst filming our coursework piece so the preliminary task taught me a lot which I probably wouldn’t have considered without filming it.
