Task 2: How Does Our Meadia Product Represent Particular Social Groups - Hurtwood

Within films and shows it is incredibly important that the representation of people as a whole are as accurate as possible so that the audience can relate to it. There have been multiple lessons where we have covered most subject area's such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class and others; all of which are covered in an equal and right way. This is to ensure that we have a full, whole understanding of the criteria we are expected to cover when producing our Thriller.

Personally I think that this is a very important aspect to take into consideration as it involoves the audiences opinion as a whole and if this was incorrect in any way or even unjustily then this could cause the film as a whole in a pretty bad way; ultimately giving our film a bad review altogether.

This is a difficult topic to talk about with our Thriller 'Opening' sequence because we don't actually include any characters so people aren't able to associate themselves with a person.
So the only way people could possibly relate to it in a similar way would be the way we created our mise-en-scene and sound, which as a whole is very dark and eery which sterotypically is preferred by typical males. This atmosphere is created by the low key lighting throughout and also the variation of diegetic sound that is also used is fairly mixed and masculine.

However this is only an issue in the opening sequence itself, of course throughout the film there will be characters. Our intensions of how the film is going to progress is to involove a character who is going to try and struggle to save mankind from this epidemic. Together we have created a main male character with an ealry age of late twenties/early thirties who is healthy and rathe musculear; Preferrably someone who is attractive as this is liked by a female audience. Also men feel as if they can relate to a character like this as they strive to become/ use this character as a role model of some sort.
He will also be straight as this gives us the opportunity for him to have some kind of romantic, love insterest throughout the film and can be the streotypical 'hero' of this film. The majority of the film he will be seen in a positive way like most sterotypical characters like this, additionally he will be represting a dominant ideology in a particularly positive way. However having said this we do think that including a twist in the film to show him in a negative way would cause a stir and possibly fustrate the audience as this would subvert our original positive reflection.

We also intend on including the typical 'baddy' in this film which in this case wilol be the sufferers of the disease which will be subverted in a heighted negative way. These characters will be contrasted against the 'good' charcters and effectively produce a more extreme presentation.

Task 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

From my earlier research (questionnaire) I identified that the likely target audience for my thriller is 15-30, both men and women. To confirm these finding I have decided to do another piece of research on YouTube.

Contagion has a similar plot, a disease spreads around the world and kills large numbers of people.

From looking at the statistics taken from the Contagion trailer I was able to see how many people viewed the clip and where. Above it shows that surprisingly the majority of people watching this is in fact male and at approximately the age of 25-54 which is much older than my earlier research suggested. Based on these results I have now realised that the target audience for our thriller will be predominately male. This may be the case because our film includes subjects such as science, political issues, world crisis's and other informative issues.  

Task 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? - Hurtwood

I have struggled to pick a company that will represent our film because of the high demand that we will get as a result of how incredible and breathtakingly mind-blowing that our concept is.

However this is an issue that I will have to face further in the future unlike now where I now have the problem of actually getting people to recognize my film, even getting a meeting or a face to face chat is a massive opportunity which is a once in a life time chance and its important to take advantage of these chances. The problem that everyone has is that there is a limited amount of money available for investment and lots of people competing to get that money. I don’t have the advantage of a successful track record, nor any academy awards. So I am going to need to find a company who is willing to take a risk and this is unlikely that Warner Brothers will invest in me as they wont be willing to give large amounts of money because they like to minimize risk through pre-sold elements.

  Here is a video showing some of the logos used in many of the Warner Bros movies - adapted to each particular film

A company that is more likely to take me on at this stage would possibly be Fox SearchLight. This company was established in 1998 and it’s a film division of Fox Filmed Entertainment which is alongside the larger Fox studio 20^th Century Fox. It specializes in independent and British films and focuses on producing dramedy and horror films in particular. Some examples are, the most recent 127 hours, Black Swan and classics such as 28 days later and 28 weeks later, are along the most well-known thrillers. One of the biggest success’s that Fox Searchlight has produced was Slumdog Millionaire which won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 81^st Academy Awards as well as a further 7 academy awards. Rather than produce big-budget blockbusters, Fox Searchlight Pictures produces smaller specialized films which is a reason as to why I think that this company would invest in my Thriller.

Another reason as to why it is likely that Fox Searchlight would work with me considering that this would be the first time that I had worked in this industry and they would be more likely to take a risk with working along side me is because they are particularly interested in new film makers. In January 2009 they launched ‘Fox SearchLab’ which was created to encourage new cinematic voices and provide an opportunity to aspiring filmmakers like myself. They even provide a small production budget and equipment to create a short film which can then be used as an audition piece. This aspect alone encourages me that Fox SearchLight would be more willing to invest in my work.

Fox SearchLight have indeed had a massive success with many of their movies that they have produced and hopefully, working alongside them my film would also succeed in a similar way. I could benefit from their expertise in production, distribution and marketing which they have used in the past to make a nig splash with (comparatively) low budget films such as those listed above. They are well known as a result of the successful films and their name alone would be a stepping stone in itself. By working with them my film would be given the final push it needs to become successful.

Shooting Day 27th January - Hurtwood

Our shooting day took place on a friday and was very stressful to start with already as we had the thought of limited time compared to others because of the morning talk and also the cutting the day shorter. So we all had this constant reminder of how limited for time we were, dispite knowing that we shouldn't be.

In addition to this I discovered that a team mate hadn't organised the trailer and its location so I then spent some time trying to sort this out. So I think this issue having started at the begining of the day already worried some of us, however we had to overcome this to continue with our other work.

The night before our shoot day myself and two others spent a couple of hours setting up our shoot set which involoved us creating a medical tent in one of our media rooms. We did this by assembling some very large theatre display sheets and some light holders. Becasue of the size of these sheets it meant that they were incredibly heavy and difficult to work with, especially as it kept making the light holders tip over. To solve this problelm we placed weights on the bases of the light holders that thankfully stopped the set from being ruined.

In the shot you can see that there is a body lying in the room, this is our kind media teacher Phil who was more than welcome to get involoved (Thank you).

After we completed this shot and was satisfied with what we had donewe moved on to the Morgue scene shot in the studio. This was my favourite shot becasue of the dark and eeriness of the atmosphere we created.

This was done by the low key lighting in the studio and then placing a tattered sheet over the door; behind this we placed a fan which caused the sheet to flap in the wind. This affect connotes the idea that this place has been abandoned and lifeless. In this studio we then got some people to lie down and be wrapped in some sheets on the floor, originally we were going to use make-up to create some dead looking body limbs but we soon discovered that this wouldn't be necessary as it wouldn't look realistic enough. This is an issue that we should have experimented with before, which we had done on a small scale but in comparison to the larger set and scale of shots, details like this would not be recognised.

So with this scene we experimented with a variety of difficult shoots and one included was a slow motion shot; this was quite interesting as it was performed differently than I would have thought. When filming it you had to more it faster and then when you view it on the camera or the computer it would slow it down to the speed that we'd look to produce. As shown in the clip above you can see that we had the camera on a dolly which enabled us to produce a clean, steady shot. Aswell as this shot we took some close-up's and middle close-ups to be sure that we had a wide variety of shots to work with when editing.

After this we all went to Cornhill with all our equipment intending to go and shoot the scene for the trailer as this was where I was told that the trailer was to be. However when we arrivied we discovered that the trailer was not only in the wrong position (and unable to move) and also full of rubbish; so of course no shoot. Which Sucked as we were really excited to get this particular shot. So as a result we ended up with no shot and having wasted approximately an hour of precious shooting time. This whole issue was down to lack of organisation before hand, this is why itsvery important for eveyone to solve each of their own designated jobs, however now I'm sure we have all learnt from our mistakes and in the future we act upon these.

The last shot that we ended up completing was pretty stressful in itself as it involved a lot of people.

Thriller Schedule 27th Jan - Hurtwood

In order for the shoot day to run smoothly and avoid any extra stress we have decided to put together a schedule. By doing this it assures us that everyone in the group knows what they are doing at what time and enables us to all be 'on the same page. 

8.00 - 9.00 --> Tibetan Village (country-side shot) This shot has now been re-organised for early  one morning next week due to clash of careers talks.

9.15 - 10.30 --> Media room (Set up the night before)

10.40 - 11.30 --> Hurtwood Main House (establishing shot)

11.40 -12.30 --> Premeter Tape (police tape and warning signs etc)

12.30 - 1.00 --> Trailer (Set up the night before)

Lunchtime

1.30 - 2.20 --> Laundry room 

3.00 - 4.00 --> Studio, dead bodies shot

During the lunchtime we will carry out the make up for the dead body victims as this is a period of time where we are sure that more people will be available.

When forming our schedule we had to take into consideration the other group that is filming on the same day, so we had to work around each other to avoid any clashes. For example one area that we will both be using is the studio and both of us will need to set up and arrange the set accordingly so at times like these it is vital that everyone cooperates.  

Friday 27th January - Hurtwood

This is our official date for our filming day which means from now we have 4 days to gather together our last of the props that we need and complete the finishing touches to our Thriller filming. 


The more organised we are the more efficient the final product should be :)


There is a slight issue with this date that we have been given as we have been informed that we can only work until 4pm which isn't too bad apart from our whole year have been told that we have to go to a careers meeting on this day.  As a result of this our group loose an hour of our filming time which has panicked us a bit, however we have been reassured by Matt and Luke that t will be possible to finish our filming within the time that we have. Also if worst comes to worst we can always complete some shots in some time next week if necessary. 


There is one particular shot that we want to get at a particular time and this is the establishing shot of the countryside which we'd like to get at daybreak. The affect that we'd like to get this in is a 'Time Lapse' which involves filming for a long period of time and then when it comes to editing we can almost *fast forward* the shot that we've taken, so we get the clouds and sunrising coming across the sky. This should imply the element of time that has past to the audience. 


A good example of a time lapse: 






We've been told that this particular shot is likely to be filmed next week when the time is available early morning - this also means there will more likely be an adviser (camera-wise) as well. 

Shots and Location - Hurtwood

The idea that we have always had and wanted to produce are long, uncomfortable shots that create tension through the stillness and emptiness of the Mise-En-Scene of the shot. This causes the audience to not only feel uncomfortable but also question what has happened to have triggered these scenes.


Some areas and shots that we have come up with are the following:


1) Establishing shot of the countryside to give the audience an idea of the setting and scenery.
2) Establishing shot of the main building, Hurtwood house.
3) Perimeter shot, fenced off opening, police line, warning tape etc..
4) Clinical waste bins, smelly, rotten, dirty...
5) Medical room/supply room, shot in the media room.
6) Trailer shot, attempt to organise bodies etc...
7) Laundry room, shot in the downstairs of Hurtwood main house.
8) Bodies wrapped up and attempted to organise in storage.
9) Hospital beds in lines.


Both 8 and 9 will be filmed in the studio as a set up.


I really hope and feel like we will be able to create these scenes to the best of our ability through the use of affective props and scenery. We will have to put a lot of effort into the creation of our decoration but this should be fun and a good test of our skills, there's a first for everything and personally this is a first for me so I'm excited to learn and view the final result.