Location: Battersea power station

Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames, South London. The station comprises two individual power stations, built in two stages in the form of a single building. The station's celebrity owes to numerous cultural appearances, which include a shot in The Beatles' 1965 movie Help! and being used in the cover art of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals.

We thought Battersea would be the prime location as it is sinister and unique, reflecting the image of our band. As well as this it is also visually dynamic and allows us to capture a range of shots. Furthermore it is against the norm of using the studio as the location and makes our video different to the rest as not many people will have filmed there.

In order to be able to use the location, I had to write a letter requesting permission which I was granted due to the fact that my father is a frequent user of the station.

Keith Negus

The Ideologies of the Music Industry

“What I’m looking for is the working act. The real act. The act that can get up on stage and do it. That act will give you a career. I singed Black Sabbath umpteen years ago; they are still making records. These are acts that are career acts… two years ago I started a dance label… now that’s not a career orientated label. I mean those record are one-off situation and every now and again you’ll maybe get an artist come out of it. When I first started it was more about going out and finding bands. That method is become more and more redundant. More and more these days I find it’s as much about: I sit here and think ‘there’s really a gap in the market for this kind of project…’ I don’t go out to gigs. That’s not how I find my stuff. So if a writer comes in he may have some great songs and maybe is looking for a front person. Or maybe I have the front person who I want to launch into the market but I haven’t got the songs. So I put the two together” Ideologies of Creativity •Keith Negus – producing Pop•Identifies two distinct ways of thinking about potential artists from within the music industry.•These ideologies shape the way in which the artists’ images and careers are developed , and the way that they are marketed towards specific target audiences•The organic ideology of creativity and the synthetic ideology of creativity The Organic Ideology of Creativity 1 •The ‘naturalistic’ approach to artists•The seeds of success are within the artists, who have been ‘nurtured’ by the record company•The image of the artist is ‘enhanced’ by the record company•The artist is given time to evolve and progress through their career The Organic Ideology of Creativity 2 •Emphasis is given to album sales and the construction of a successful back catalogue•Often aimed at older or more sophisticated consumers•Profits generated by this kind of act tend to be part of a long term strategy by the record company.

The Synthetic Ideology of Creativity 1

•A combinatorial approach to artists and material •Executives attempt to construct successful acts out of the artists and the songs at their disposal•The image of the artist is often constructed by the record company•The artist will be given a short time to prove their success before other combinations will be tried out.

The Synthetic Ideology of Creativity 2

•Emphasis is given to single sales and to promoting first albums•Often aimed at younger, less sophisticated audiences.•Profits generated by this kind of artist tend to be part of an immediate, short term strategy by the record company

Balancing the two

•In practice, the success of synthetic acts will fund the development and investment in organic acts•Most big record labels will look to balance their roster with a combination of successful synthetic and organic acts to ensure that there are finds available for the day-to-day running of the company as well as long term profit making potential. Promoting Organic and Synthetic Acts •There are clear distinctions between the ways in which different types of artist are represented to ensure short term or long term success

•Organic acts are often sold on their ‘authenticity’, both musically and socially.The image of the artist appears ‘unconstructed’(although, of course, this is in itself a carefully constructed look)

•Synthetic acts are often sold on their ‘look’ or personalities.

The image of the artist is carefully and unashamedly constructed.

Stars and Stardom- Richard Dyer

• In order to understand the relationship between the music industry and its audiences, it is important to consider the role of music star

• The term ‘star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meaning constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience

Some Common Values of Music Stardom

• Youthfulness

• Rebellion

• Sex magnetism

• An anti-authoritarian attitude

• Originality

• Creativity/talent

• Aggression/anger

• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour

• Conspicuous consumption, of sex drugs and material goods

• Success against the odds

• Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music.

• Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common:

• A star is an image, not a real person, this is constructed(as any other aspect of fiction is)out of a range of material (e.g. advertising, magazines etc as well as films music)

• Stars as commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings

• Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media- magazine, TV, radio, the internet – in order to construct an image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences.

• Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and ‘open’. Dyer says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.

Paradox 1 • The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer

Paradox 2 • The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer. The star Image

• The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense’ of the image.

• This is achieved by continued consumption of the star through his or her products

• In the music industry, performance seems to promise the completion of the image, but it is always ultimately unsatisfying

• This means that fans will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

• Finally, the star image can be used to position the consumer in relation to dominant social values (that is hegemony).

• Depending upon the artist, this may mean that the audience are positioned against the mainstream (though only to a limited degree, since they are still consumers within a capitalist system) or within the mainstream, or somewhere in between.

Additional Information about our Production

• Our group are currently in debate as to whether or not we need a prosthetics company to help with the make up. We would need them when doing the make up of the various creatures who play the bad emotions experienced in the relationship. There are other sources that we could use as help towards the make up however the prosthetics company specialise in creating looks consisting of scars, bruising and other minor injuires. We want the creatures to look like they have been damaged which links to the breakdown in the singer's relationship as he is left feeling damaged. However, by using the prosthetics company it all adds up to the budget so in other words we are worried as to how much our budget can stretch in order to finance the prosthetics.
• We are also debating whether we should shoot the video in colour or in black and white. At the moment we feel it would be effective in black and white as it would suit the mood of the song. It is a depressing and uncolourful song so we thought black and white would work well. If the video was shot in colour it might contrast to what the song initially intends to do, being that it is a song about unhappiness and how the singer has lost the "colour" from his relationship
• The costumes are still being discussed as we are not sure whether to have the main singer looking more like a cowboy as the song is also of country/ western genre, or to have the singer dressed in clothes that would widely be recognised by most today. The stereotypical image of jeans, hoodie, t shirt and trainers, something most viewers would recognise on the street and not think of as an odd combination. The creatures will be in torn articles of black clothing. The black to link to the title of the song "Black Heart" and the ripped clothes to show how they have been uncared for and the lack of respect for them. Furthermore this shows how the singer feels, uncared for and been abandoned.

Construction of the anamatic

After the storyboarding was complete we then went on to filming the storyboards in order to edit them to the song. To do this we used a mpeg2 sd nxcam to film it all, which was securely placed on a tripod to keep the angle the same for all shots, keeping the stability the shots were then transferred to final cut pro. The camera is hard disk, therefore there is no tape and means a speedy tansfer of data. Each shot is already cut and editing is made easier. The shots took 10 seconds each to film and combined took up the majority of the lesson.

mpeg2 sd nxcam

storyboarding process

In order to complete our production process, we had to construct storyboards to convey the ideas we had for the video. This meant drawing the different scenes in relation to the different moments in the song. The scenes depended on the timeline of the song so that it was all in time.

The primary idea is that a man has been damaged mentally from a previous relationship and therefore feels no emtion other than depression. In the outside world, society has broken down and nothing is orderly and structured. However, being that this man is so overwhelmed from the breakdown of his relationship, he is unaware of what is going on around him and it is not until the end of the song that he realises this. He is walking down a street, guitar in hand and dwelling on his relationship when he comes across an abandoned building (battersea power station). In the guitar, blood is curdling and drips as the singer walks onwards. Without a moments hesitation he enters the building where he is haunted by various creatures, each representing the bad memories and emotions he encountered during his relationship and moreover the reason the relationship ended. He has been a regular drug abuser and one could say that the various creatures are just made up objects that haunt his mind whilst under the influence of drugs. He continues to slowely walk through the building being possessed by the creatures until he reaches a point in the passage that stops him in his tracks. There before him, is his ex, standing underneath a flickering light (being present when off and gone when on). He runs towards her and as he tries to embrace her, realises she is not there. He then realises it is his mind that wants to see her and reality kicks in. The music stops and sirens, airplanes, shouting, and overall chaos can be heard. A wide shot of the city scape follows and pans around to show reality. The singer then bows his head and the video ends with a black screen.

Scenes that we decided against as a group include: violin players at the sides as the singer walks down the street and a helicopter at the beginning with its propellas moving in slow motion. we may incorporate these ideas at a later time but for now we feel that the video would be better without these additional ideas.

Timeline 4:00 - 4:45

Timeline 3:00 - 4:00

Timeline 2:00 - 3:00

Timeline 1:00 - 2:00

Timeline 0:45 - 1:00

Timeline 0:00 - 0:45

Idea for track- Black Heart (Calexico)

Above is the music video for the track we aspire to use for our own music video. We chose to use the genre country/ western yet thought it a good idea to break the stereotyipcal image of a man wearing a cowboy hat whilst riding a horse through the countryside chewing tabacco. We chose this song as it has a more cynical approach towards typical country western music and widens our target audience vastly as it contains many genres into one track, the main being country/ western.

Copyright Letter to Label

To the copyright holder...

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

Black Heart by Calexico

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.


The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Yours sincerely


Cate Hoare

Hurtwood House School

__________________________________________________________________________


***PLEASE NOTE***

For writer and publisher information, please check the ASCAP, BMI, Harry Fox Agency and All Music Guide websites.

If you are clearing film festival rights for an independent film without commercial distribution, please note that is not policy to issue quotes for additional rights (such as theatrical release, television broadcast, etc.), until such time as an actual distribution deal is in place.

Please complete the following and email to: edroche.chicago@gmail.com
Your name:

Company name:

Phone number:

Fax number:

E-mail address:

Mailing address:

PROJECT TITLE:

Type of project:

-Film

-TV

-Commercial

-Live Dramatic Performance

-Interactive Media Videogame

-Home Video/DVD

Other (please specify):

Production company (if any):

Distribution company (if any):

Overall budget of project and music budget:

Plot synopsis and approximate running time of project:

Requested song title(s):

Master recording: (Name of artist performing the song(s) you wish to use)

Timing and type of use:

(Please provide details on how the song(s) will be used in your project, as well as the approximate timing in minutes/seconds – i.e. up to 1:30 background vocal over opening titles, 0:45 background vocal over montage, etc.)

Requested rights/required media:

(Please specify exactly what rights you require – i.e. film festivals, theatrical, free/network TV, basic cable/satellite TV, pay/subscription TV, home video/DVD, common carriers (airplanes, etc.), Internet, live dramatic performance, etc.)

Length of term: (i.e. two weeks, five years, perpetuity, etc.)

Territory: (i.e. United States and Canada, Japan, World, etc.)

Additional songs used in the project:

Estimated release date:

Summary/additional information:

Chosen Cover Track

Our Target Audience

Our Record Label

Our chosen record label is Touch and Go Records which is an independent record label based in Chicago. Touch and Go Records came into existence in late 1980. In early 1981, Touch and Go Records was officially born. Corey Rusk, for the first couple years of Touch and Go Records' life, ran the business part of it from his bedroom in his grandmother's house in Ohio, and Tesco Vee ran the promotional part of it from his apartment in Michigan. Then Tesco moved to Washington DC, leaving the label in Corey's hands.Touch and Go began to move beyond the hardcore genre, while also increasing the frequency of its release schedule. Releases during this time period included albums from Die Kreuzen, Big Black, Killdozer and many others. In 1990, Touch and Go began to provide manufacturing and distribution services for other independent labels who shared similar ideals. Over the past 15 years, Touch and Go is proud to have provided manufacturing and distribution services for such influential labels. In keeping with 1990 being a pivotal year, Quarterstick Records, Touch and Go's "sister label," came into being, releasingmany successful albums. Since its inception, Quarterstick has developed its own individual, eclectic identity through the releases of groups such as the Bad Livers and Calexico.

Instituitional Context

1. What is the history of the band?

They are a new band of 2 years therefore they are fairly new but have been around long enough to break away from stereotypical conventions. They met in Nashville but once forming the band moved to Austin, Texas where they performed in the South by South west music festival. This is home to descovering other popular Indie bands like MGMT. They have broken away from the stereotypical country genre and in doing so have become more individual. Their songs have a darker feel due to their lyrics not being about the common love interests, but relating to death.

2. What genre(s) of music do the band/ artist fit into

The band are heavily influenced by the likes of George Strait, Blake Shelton, Jerod Niemann. The sound of country is constsntly changing to a modern version, so with this, their modern look will help their star image. Some of their tracks are well known and would attract a niche audience.

3. What record label are the band/ artist signed to?

- Touch and Go records

- Touch and Go Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. After its genesis as a hand-made fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s alternative and underground rock scenes, Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous noise rock by the likes of the Big Black and The Jesus Lizard.

4. Who are the band's audiences?

Middle aged (50+)
Mainly white males
Those who listen to folk, indie music

5. What kind of visual images has the act/band created for themselves?

The band are usually portrayed in their clothing consisting of cowboy hats and chaps. Album covers usually show them standing near a horse or somewhere with a dramatic background, most likely being deserted country areas due to the fact that they are southeners and listen to their own music.

Their Videos are widely recognised as they contain strong use of special effects and avoid the norms that most country singers abide by, such as male singers strolling through the desert singing about their horses and guitars whilst chewing on tabacco. They are not the stereotyipcal country singers and this is shown through their clothing and lyrics.

Initial Ideas

Before my group began the process of finding a track and developing our ideas for our music video, we were asked to do some research on our own and find a track that one would not usually listen to. Therefore I chose heavy/ death metal as Its a genre one wouldn't find on my ipod. I found an artist called manowar and used a music video of theirs named ' Die for metal' as an exampe to show the class. The video proved to be a prime example as it displayed everything one would usually expect to see in a heavy metal video such as fighting, vandalism of other's belongings and actors wearing large amounts of dark make up shouting at each other.

As well as my idea of incorporating scenes from the music video 'Die for metal', others in my group had some interesting ideas to share. Catrina Kirby for instance had the idea of using a well known opera track yet converting the stereotypical image of the artist singing with a dramatic background by introducing the idea of using cartoon characters and various other surreal creatures. This helped convey the idea of a fantasy world that the artist is living, encouraging the audience to want to be a part of it. And another group member, Ellie Mcgregor suggested using a song by 'The Shirelles'. She expressed her idea of using three african american women singing in a nightclub from the 60s, clothed in long evening gowns. The video would be shot in black and white to convey the time period in which the song is suited to. The idea that was chosen for our own music video was James Burkes approach to Classical music. Yet he thought of using an artist that was of modern background, in other words one that people will of heard of. He showed us an example of a potential video, containing a male cowboy gently strumming a guitar, kicking the sand in a desert and watching an old barn burn to a singe caused by his own careless disposal of a ciggarette. James's idea was given the thumbs up by our teacher Jason.

Our Production Group

Conventions of Album Work

Conventions of the Pop Promo

Although pop video is fairly freeform generically and artistically it still employs several common conventions. These include…

• The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption


• The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)


• A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement


• Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)


• A possible narrative structure


• A possible performance element


• The flexibility to disregard Realism


• Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track


• Use of special effects (lighting, annimation, CGIs, in-camera effects)


• A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track


• High impact instantly- competition for airplay on the main music channel outlets is intense


• As music journalist Annabelle Jankell said, “You have three and a half minutes to make an instant impact on people’s eyeballs, instantly!”

Background to the Music Industry

Advanced Production Portfolio 2010

Evaluation of Production

We edited our piece to make it look like a thriller by using a build up of tension. In the first minute we used four different mobile phone shots to reinforce verisimilitude and importantly to create the light-hearted atmosphere of an 'ordinary' day. This then juxtaposes with the atmosphere created in the shots of the gun fire and therefore creates fear for the audience. The mobile phones create fear and tension as they make the event seem more real because shooting the sequence on a video camera would remind the audience that it is a film and not a real life event and therefore not create the same real life fear a person would experience if they were to actually witness this event in reality that our thriller creates. Our thriller is fast paced so that while watching our thriller the audience does not have time to process the event which creates the feeling of shock and horror.

We created a narrative for our sequence using digetic sound. At various points we turned down the volume on some of the small screens to draw the audiences' attention to a single conversation and screen rather than all four screens at once. An example of this is when the boy is rapping, this would attract our target audience and help the audience relate to the characters. To grab the audiences’ attention, the gun shot sound effects are unexpected and therefore shock the audience. They are joined by enhanced screaming to build a sense of panic. The gun sounds were synced, and then recorded through computer speakers onto a mobile phone before being put it into the film to make the sound seem more realistic.

The mobile phones create a cinema verite style of film making that makes the film seem like a documentary in style and is realistic. We used mobile phones and we tried to make the film fast paced and used a split screen which reinforces this effect and helps target a youthful audience as they can easily relate.

We used titles to make it seem like an actual British film. We used a certain font to target a younger audience and also a documentary style of font which adds to the realism of the film, helping to convince the audience. Film4 being mentioned in our title sequence helps to reinforce that it is a British film as Film4 distribute and produce British films. Film4 has co funded successful films such as 'This Is England' which is also a film about social-realism and therefore Film4 may attract a similar audience to our thriller.

To conclude the use of fast paced editing, digetic sound of conversations, split screens and how they built tension and also the content of the narrative and action that takes place would help to attract our target audience. As well as the attractive members of our cast and production company, Film4 would help to attract our target and secondary target audiences.

Audience Feedback

• Unknown- I thought it was really effective how you used camera phones to make the product appear more realistic. Really clever idea!
  Uploader Comments (hurtwoodhousemedia)
• hurtwoodhousemedia I really liked the editing. I thought the composition of the boxes in the screen worked really well. I love the idea of shooting it all on mobiles. The shaky camera adds to the chaos of the shooting. I think it's really clever how you get to see loads of different peoples point of views and experiences of the shooting. Really good!
• hurtwoodhousemedia i reall lik the idea its different!!! well done
• Most Recent Comments see all
• fatboy22222222222222 Block User reminds me of elephant which is a proper good film just like this one
• stephaniemareen Block User Great idea - reminds me a little of the movie "rec". However i really like the idea and the way in which it is edited.

TASK 1

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

Our product both upholds conventions of film sequences and challenges/ subverts audience expectation.

1. in the first shot, one can see how our film doesn’t conform to the regularities of title sequences. You would expect to see it on full screen, yet we decided to use only a section with shot filmed on a camera phone, which is unusual by today’s standards compared with Hollywood films, which would be shot 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. This 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 points 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. Continuing with split screens- 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.
6. Audience are introduced to the director of photography
7. this 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 groups?

Our product represents one major social group, young people (teenagers). Our main target age that we are representing is 16-18 year olds. However, we are specifically representing two groups within this social group; specifically victims of violence from their own peers and the young people who inflict this violence on their peers. We based the events in our film on the Columbine High School Massacre. Two senior students, Eric and Alex, embarked on a massacre, killing 12 students and one teacher. They also injured 21 other students directly, and three people were injured while attempting to escape. The pair then committed suicide. Therefore in our product we hope to represent the young people involved in a non-glamorous way to reinforce the horrific events. Currently there has been a rise in violence affecting teenagers involving gun and knife crime, our product reinforces this and makes people aware that this violence does happen.

Eric and Alex are ordinary and very much a part of the fabric of the high school and its array of student actions. In fact it’s hard to distinguish them from all the other students. The school is filled with various students discussing each other, playing sports, and learning about Science and Civics. Alex plays classical piano and Eric plays video games and they are interested in seemingly average things. They calmly watch Nazi programs on TV and purchase and demo automatic weaponry that they buy over the Internet. They seem just as ordinary and interesting as any of the other students. They analytically draw up plans for their killing spree, indicating that they have enough bombs and ordinance to last the afternoon. They walk through the school killing their school peers and there is no rescue from the authorities. Another example of a media product that represents violent teenagers is Kidulthood. Kidulthood is a British film which follows a day in the lives of four poor youths living in an impoverished neighborhood in West London, where the pressure and desperation of poverty propels each of them towards the choice between a life of bleakness, violence, and crime.

The media (newspapers, magazines, television) tells us there are various reasons for the young committing violence on their peers. It could be a lack of education, poor mental health, poor parenting, drug problems, bullying and abuse which they therefore inflict on others; some argue that a fascination with violence (computer games, Nazi history etc) leads to influencing young people to commit violence. Influence of their

peers (gang violence) also leads to young people being peer pressured into committing crimes. The media reinforces this, if the media tells a person they are a criminal it le

ads them to act like one for example wearing a hooded top.

Skins is a British television drama set in Bristol purely based on young people. It explores themes of violence, death, love, drugs and substance abuse, bullying, sexuality, friendship and personality disorders. Skins explores perhaps exaggerated (to create entertainment and set it apart from soap-operas) situations that teenagers in reality face but also the consequences of ‘living the fast life.’ On the whole Skins represents teenagers dissimilarly to our media product as we focus specifically

on two teenagers who choose to commit violence on their peers. The rest of the teenagers in our product are portrayed as happy, ‘normal’ young people up until the actual shooting. Cook, a character in Skins is perhaps a similar representation to the characters in our product. Cook represents a violent teenager who cannot control his emotions and therefore lashes out and causes harm to his peers. However Cook is less extreme as we do not witness him committing murder in Skins.

TASK 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A media institution refers to the organizations that provide media content and supply the context within which media products are produced. They represent how media is financed, generate profit and the processes of media production themselves. There are many different film industries through out the world such as paramount picture, Sony, 21st century. The kind of media product that would distribute my groups media product would be “film4 productions”. Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel 4. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of low budget and ‘indie’ and ‘alternative’ films made in the United Kingdom.

Our film is low budget and therefore Film4 is good for marketing and promoting our thriller as they will be able to advertise it on their film and TV channel. They also have links with European distributors which will help sell our film in Europe. Due to that our film would be a platform release due to its low budget, it would only need a short release window between cinema and Film4 TV channel. This could benefit us as advertising through its television appearance could benefit our DVD sales. 'Indie' and 'art house' films tend to provoke the audience to ‘think’ more than a Hollywood blockbuster would and have deeper and more intricate plots. Therefore the film institution that would be appropriate for my product would most likely be Film4 as it is not appropriate to glamorise the violence shown in the film as it is a sensitive issue and based on true events. There are not lots of large scale, violent scenes with extensive special effects and explosions, which therefore indicates that it is not a Hollywood Blockbuster. The film requires a low budget because it does not need many special effects, ‘what you see is what you get.’ The opening sequence is shot on mobile phone, throughout the film a large amount of equipment is not needed making Film4 the clear appropriate institution to distribute the product. Gus Van Sant’s film Elephant is also based on the events of the Columbine High School Massacre which was produced by HBO and Fine Line Features (which was the specialty films division of New Line Cinema. It produced, purchased, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flavour than its parent company) this reflects the subject. The film’s budget was only 3,000,000 million dollars which shows that it is unnecessary to be produced by a large Hollywood institution. Eden Lake was produced by the independent film companies Rollercoaster Films and The Weinstein Company. It is also a low budget film containing actors that would be appropriate for my own film. This indicates to me that it is most appropriate to have a low budget for my film and an independent film company like Film4.

TASK 4

Who would be the target audience for your media product?

The target audience we have chosen is 15 and above. This is our target audience because this age has the most disposable money and have more free time than any other age group. Teenagers would be interested in our film because it is based around people their age and they can relate to the situations that go on in high school. It is mainly aimed at the male gender because it is rather graphic piece with strong use of violence and this would appeal mostly to the male gender. However, because of the content of the sequence and the issues raised, we thought that it may to appeal to older audiences, mainly around 25 and upwards as everyone knows about the fear of terrorist attacks etc. The film plays on the natural human instinct to give things a reason and make sense of things that are apparently senseless and is designed to encourage uncomfortable audience voyeurism. The film asks deep questions about life perhaps questions that everyone asks themselves but would never speak aloud. The film would also show how easy it is for a young person to be influenced to commit a sick and twisted crime, the difference between right and wrong and perhaps the flaws in society today. This shows that everyone over the age of 15 would be able to relate somehow to the film. Therefore 15-24 year olds is the most suitable target audience as they are able to relate best to the plot; however there is no reason to suggest that people older than 25 would not enjoy it and relate to it. Because our product takes place and essentially centers around a sixth form boarding college, it is logical to say that male/female students aged 16-18 who enjoy Thrillers and who are inquisitive about Columbine and the other high school shootings are the main demographics for our audience. However anyone who has an interest in these events and why they happened would find the film interesting. Therefore because of the content of the sequence and the issues raised, we thought that it may to appeal to older audiences, around 25 and upwards as everyone experiences the fear of terrorist attacks etc. The main target audience is 16-25 year olds as they would be able to relate best to the plot; however there is no reason to suggest that people older than 25 would not enjoy it and relate to it. This due to that our secondary audience are people who are interested in 'indie' or 'arthouse' styles of film as it deals with serious issues. The secondary audience are therefore educated with an interest in current affairs as well as art and music therefore giving them an independant taste in film. The film plays on the natural human instinct to give things a reason and make sense of things that are apparently senseless and is designed to encourage uncomfortable audience voyeurism. The film asks deep questions about life perhaps questions that everyone asks themselves but would never speak aloud. The film would also show how easy it is for a young person to be influenced to commit a sick and twisted crime, the difference between right and wrong and perhaps the flaws in society today. This shows that everyone over the age of 16 would be able to relate somehow to the film. When reviewing Elephant (which is a similiar style of film to ours) a critic said ‘Van Sant adapted the script from a young-adult novel by Blake Nelson. Though not necessarily the target audience, teenagers will doubtless find a great deal of truth in how these characters talk, interact and lead their thorny lives.’ This is indication for the appropriate audience for my film.

TASK 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

task 5- stereotypes, location and use of shots

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TASK 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

TASK 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

The sophistication of the planning and preparation from my basic preliminary task has improved dramatically and this is shown in my thriller. In the prelim, our group had the advantage of being in the studio which meant we had a setting laid out for our use, which meant that the lighting was in prime position. We were given our own storyboards to work from however for the thriller we had to start from scratch. We had to come up with all our own ideas and constructed our own storyboard. We had to find a suitable location and include lighting, costumes, actors, different shots, props, and edited the sound and footage for the thriller. In the prelim task we were given basic shots to use whereas in the main task we used a variety of shots such as close-ups, tracking, medium shots, long shots, wide shots and over the shoulder shots to create the right effect and add a sense of realism to our finished product. For the man task, we filmed all day however for the prelim task we only had a couple hours to produce something. The main task was far more in-depth and required much more time and effort in comparison to the prelim. We used tracking in our sequence to make particular shots effective, the tracking created visual imagery which added sophistication to the product. Because we had all day to film for the main task I was able to use the camera and work throughout the day constructing various shots. In our editing we use special effects such as the "Bang Bang" sound of a gun and the smoke that comes with it, which added a sense of realism and suspense to our thriller. This was done in soundtrack pro which we over layered and added to our finished product. From the main task my group found it easier telling the basic outline of the story visually rather than with dialogue. Therefore having a storyboard helped point us in the right direction.
Over time my camera skills have developed, in the sense that I know how to capture a variety of shots in comparison to when I filmed the prelim task and knew little about camera techniques. In our main task we stuck to the 180 degrees line at all times and made sure we always got the framing for eyeline matches right. I’ve developed my camera skills dramatically since the prelim. In the main task we worked on completely different scales and the main task enabled me to get more involved and get used to the camera, thus making the sequence of good standard. With my camera phone in hand, I filmed all that went on in front of me, from the minute the conversations of the students in the canteen started, to the end of my life. By using the zoom on my blackberry curve, I was able to capture important factors for my thriller such as facial expressions, the use of teenage language and behaviour. Therefore my skills have improved from my basic prelim brief 0f wide shots, medium shots and close ups to a sophisticated sequence with a visual narrative.

In our prelim task we only used sound from the recording and ambient sound to the use of Foley work. This contrasts to my main task as the music and sound that we used in our main task was diegetic and non diegetic sound. We found our music from sound track pro and edited to make our thriller unique and interesting. The music fits in with our thriller perfectly and creates an unsettling atmosphere through various different tones. We used a vast amount of ambient sound from the shoot day. This included sounds such as people’s footsteps, people talking, glasses and cutlery clinking on tables etc. This enhanced realism and as part of our diegetic sound we also used a drone as non diegetic sound. We researched other horror films and found that many used the drone sound in their soundtrack. Therefore my use of sound and knowledge of sound has developed as you can see there are many differences, between both the prelim task and main task.
I learnt how to master new technology in the programme final cut pro and final cut server. In final cut server we check in our thriller and check out. I learnt how to use special effects in final cut and how to cut all shots together in order to make the narrative effective. I learnt how to apply sound into our narrative.