MEST 1: Final draft

EVALUATION

For this brief I had to produce a three minute Arthouse extract and promotional booklet for a national film making competition run by The Little Picturehouse. The extract had to be within the BBFC’s guidance for a 15 certificate and to create this I worked with Gifty Kumi. We chose to make our film a thriller with elements of dystopian future as it is about a world where sex is forbidden between teenagers as it could lead to death or the body to be overcome by a disease. We showcased this by choosing to focus on the topic of friendship as two girls are the main focus of the film.

Before beginning the production process I did some research into the Arthouse genre. A film that greatly influenced our production was ‘It Follows’. It focuses on sexually transmitted diseases and the problems it causes which is what we focused our production on as well.  What I also liked about that film was how they used different shots especially at the beginning of the film where the main character was in a wheelchair and it was in a medium long shot and you could still see what was happening in the background even though it was blurred. So I wanted to somehow incorporate that idea and try to make use different shots in an interesting and hopefully unique way. We also took into consideration of the feedback we received in our focus group and to keep our film in the 15 certificate guidelines we planned to not show any graphic detail of sexual intercourse but instead suggest it in a subtle way. In this way the audience will understand that the film is about sexually transmitted diseases. We were also recommended to keep the disease within a certain age group in order to make the filming process a lot easier. For institution I looked at Film London and what they are about as a company, they fund, train and mentor emerging film makers through Microwave Films. I also looked at a few films that were funded by the company and noticed that they like to make film not just for entertainment purposes but to also to make it meaningful and informative for example Lilting. So we tried to make our narrative somewhat informative to the audience as well.

We wanted our target audience to be focused on the younger generation specifically between the ages 13-20, which in turn made sure that we were able to appeal to our student audience, people who enjoy watching films and love to experience different genres and narratives in a film. We wanted to make sure that our target audience could identify with what we were trying to portray in the film. In order to do this we had the characters in our film extract look similar to what our audience would be like. Our characters were young, students and wore casual clothes that were similar to our audience demographic. We wanted our production to be able to reach both males and females who are ABC1 upper/middle class educated and have professional occupations.  In terms of psychographics we wanted our target audience to be a mixture of Explorers and Reformers. This is because Explorers focuses mainly on the younger generation who are eager to try new things and new brands more specifically. So this would be ideal for an audience who are intrigued to see what our film as to offer. Also Reformers are socially aware and consider personal growth; therefore our film would be ideal for them as the topics that are raised in the film are things they would take interest in.

The first key moment of the film extract was the beginning when the main character is first presented to the audience She is not characterised as a hero because in the extract it doesn’t show her saving the day and restoring the equilibrium. Also, in the extract we see how the narrative begins with an equilibrium which is the disrupted from when things start to go wrong (disequilibrium). We used a range of different shots and angles in order for the audience to build a close personal relationship (uses and gratification theory) with the character. We also get details of what the character is wearing and accessories. The lack of accessories such a bag indicates that she may be in a rush and has no time to carry things if she is on the go. The style of clothing may appeal to the target audience as it is casual and similar to what they would wear on a normal day. We had a close up of the phone call to highlight the importance of the call and to show that it plays a major part in the build up of the film. The setting of the opening shot was all white and clear. The colour suggests safety and peace and at the end of the scene, we had a shot where she walked out of that area which shows that she is leaving and area where it is safe. This could suggest future danger in the plot. This leads to the next key moment which was the running scene.  This was set in the forest which is dark and gloomy. This is different to the bright and high key light setting the main character was in before. This highlights the fact that the atmosphere has changed and gives off an unsettling feel.  The character in this scene is wearing all green with a black leather jacket. The colour of green connotes nature and close connection to safety. The fact that this character is only seen when surrounded by nature is another factor that we considered. In terms of safety, her black jacket suggests an interference with hers and therefore shows she is in danger and foreshadows her death. The last key moment is when the rapist (villain-Todorov) is introduced into the film where he is following our main character towards the end of the extract. The rapist is wearing all black which is a colour that typically indicated danger and evil. We experimented with camerawork at the end where we had a close up of one of the characters laying on the ground dead which panned backwards into an over the shoulder shot of the main character who found the body which then panned back again into the rapist looking down at the two girls and it ends there. I found that this was an interesting way to build up suspense at the very end where it is at the peak of extract and have it end there with no closure leaving the audience on a cliff hanger. No equilibrium has been established and this is also an effective way to raise enigma codes within the audience. For sound I focused on making sure the non-diegetic soundtrack I was adding was parallel to the scenes being shown. This would make it easier to convey current atmosphere of the film which was important to the narrative. A sound bridge is created at the last scenes where we transition from the Flashbacks to the last scenes in the forest where the one of the character is seen running and eventually dies. This is done to create a smooth transition from slow to fast pace. This also suggests that there has been a passing of time since one scene to the other.

For my print work I created a front cover, contents page and a feature page for our Arthouse promotional booklet. I made sure that my print work was simple in its design and easy to read. I made sure that the colour scheme was consistent throughout using the colours black white and grey to show sophistication and accent the colour red to give it a hint of colour. For my front cover I went with a minimal and even look where nothing drew attention away from the other in terms of the image and the text with the information. However, I made sure that the institution ‘The Little Picturehouse’ was slightly larger and placed in the top right corner of the booklet in order to make it noticeable, at a distance, what the company is. I think the strength of my contents page is the placement of the image and the title and what font was used and the size. I chose to use a bold font because it would stand out and draw the reader’s attention to what is written. I included a short detail of what each page has to offer to give the reader more information than the front cover in order for them to know what to expect. With the feature page I placed the image on the bottom left corner with the title of the film ‘Unstable’ written above. This is because it will be the first thing they see when they turn the page and therefore I avoided having a lot of text at first glance.  On the image I wrote a quote taken from the text to give the reader an idea what they will be reading about. I placed the main bulk of the text next to the image which would be on the right side of the double page spread. This is because I had seen a similar layout in other Arthouse promotional booklets and liked how the design was laid out and how it completed the look in almost a systematic way, which I wanted to incorporate in the design of my feature page.Despite the fact that I like the simple look of the front cover, to add creativity, I could have added creativity to the print work, most specifically my front cover, by having the image as the main focus and adding different affects to the image and simple texts around it.

In terms of representation, we subverted the gender stereotype in the sense that the main characters were female and it was heavily focused on them. They were the ones in control of their decisions and it showcased them as a dominant character. However, with the narrative of our film they were also shown as victims as one of the main characters end up dying by a male rapist character which then makes them look like they are the ones that need help. Our characters were teenagers which is what our main target audience would most likely be. Hence we had to make sure that they could identify with the characters. The clothes that our main characters were wearing were casual which similar to how the average teenagers would look like nowadays. This would hopefully allow us to accurately capture the average teenage lifestyle. We stuck with the typical male rapes girl and avoided portraying any other kind of sexuality to make it easier to convey to the audience what was going on and make it less confusing and easier for them to the pieces together. (Medhursts shorthand) I think we are happy with the representations we have created although it would have been a lot better if we had included some complicated representations.

Although making an online film blog was not part of our brief, if I had to consider what to include when making one I would make sure the audience could interact with the blog as much as possible. In order to do this I may include things like a page with the poster on it and if the user clicks on the characters on the poster they will be lead to a page where they will be given a detailed character profile with added information that could give a deeper understanding to the film. Our target audience is teenagers and nowadays technology is a large part of this generation’s daily life. Hence making sure that the online blog is accessible on as many platforms as possible is important, specifically on devices such as mobiles and tablets. This will help when it comes to spreading the news of the online blog on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and even Instagram and also having links on the website to the social networking profiles for the film. Similarly to how Ben Drew creatively used social media in order to promote his film ‘Ill Manors’, especially with his ‘Tag London’ campaign where he got his followers to tweet using a hashtag which generated word of mouth as he projected the tweets on popular landmarks. This would have been useful in the sense that it will allow a wider audience to have access to information about the film instantly and at any time. This also allows the film to gain more recognition worldwide in a cheap and quick way. To make the online blog attractive to my target audience I would have a simple design with colours like grey black and white to match with my print production. The simple design will make it very user friendly for those who access it, whether it is for teenagers or those a little older than that. This will also allow synergy between the media platforms.

Personally, I believe that we as a group have met the brief quite well as we made sure that we kept within the BBFC guidance of a 15 certificate in the sense that there was no extreme violence was shown and we suggested that there was sexual activity without showcasing it. We were able to make sure that the focus of the film (friendship) wasn’t lost within the narrative of the film. I believe that our production will be successful in the media marketplace because it appeals to the audience very well as we have appeal to their lifestyle and what is seen in a thriller.