Evaluation - Question 3 - Sophie

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

The distribution process of low budget, indepedent film productions has changed massively as the industry moves into a digital stage. Where films used to be only exhibited in cinema or TV screenings, in the Alalogue age, home viewing has changed dramatically as a result of a digital revolution. New devices and platforms to watch films on (consoles, tablets, phones, computers) have developed alongside new suppliers of films such as Sky, LoveFilm, Netflix and YouTube. 

For Example, Netflix (founded in 1997) is an Calefornian Film Distribution company which started as a DVD rental business which would delivered DVD's to peoples days, on a pay per rental basis, with additional fares for delivery and late returns. However in 2007, the company delivered its billionth DVD and began to move away from its original core business model of mailing DVDs by introducing video on demant via the Internet. As a result, Netflix grew as DVD sales fell from 2006 to 2011. Now Netflix is one of the biggest film distribution companys in the word, with a pool of 100,000 films to watch online, stretching to most target audiences and social groups. 

There are quite a few reasons why the distribution of films is turning digital but the main reason is costs. It is considerably cheaper to have an online download than to print off DVDs for sale, and even more expensivc for copies to be made for cinema showings (£1500 each copy - indie films would have around 10 copys). 
Due to this, one good option would be to get involved with Netflix or Amazon Prime in order to distribute our film. Through Netflix of Amazon Prime Instant Movie, the film would be exhibited through modern technologies and oppertunities and fundimentally through home viewing as supposed to cinema showings. Having our film available on an online download store, would be suitable for our given target audience (15-24 year olds), especially as these online companies are often available on smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices, making watching our film alot more casual and easily accessable for the audience. 

One other option is to skip the distribution company stage and deal with it ourselves, on YouTube for example, getting money from advertisments. However, that would involve a whole new process of building up a fan base, where Netflix for example already has a multitude of subscribers from all different ages and prefered genres (especially young people). In addition, Netflix would allow users who have wants films similar to 'Pursue' to link directly to our film by recommendation. 

So overall, I am going to say the best option would be to get involved with the online distribution companies Netflix, and use their contacts (streaming on consoles etc) and marketing strategys (advertisements on other Netflix films, online posters, etc) to build a fan base and release our film in the most cost effective way. 

Evaluation - Question 4 - Sophie

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

Our target audience is 15 - 24 year olds, generally we are aiming for both males and females however given the themes and characters involved, it most like to be women that we will be focusing our marketing on. The films ceritificate is a 15. We have made this our target audience as the themes represented in the storyline (kidnapping) is very up to date themes that apply to the current young people of today more than older generations.

In addition, It is most likely that our choice of casting will appeal to women alot more than men. With the main protagonist being a young women, many of our audience will be able to relate. However the main casting for men is the antagonist who is represented in a negative way as the kidnapper. This isn't to say that no men will enjoy the film, it just appears to be most likely that women will be the main gender to target.

We expect our target audience to be from the same fan base a few other films:

Baby Call - Directed by Pal Sletaune - Certificated at 15 

Baby Call is about a mother and her 8 year old son who are under witness protection following a difficult relationship with Ander(the son)'s father. Again here the use of gender stereotypes (women in a place of vulnerability and in threat of a man) is used, much like our opening, which consiquently 

Gone - Directed by Ringan Ledwidge - Certificated at 15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giRMhrOdVzg

Gone is a film that is based around a young women (Jill Parrish), who returns from a night shift to find that her sister has been obducted by the very people Jill was captured by the previous year. The plot is based around her finding her sister in time before she is killed. We would expect almost the exact audince as this film, not only it again based around a young women and conforming with gender stereotypes, but the themes displayed are exact (never being able to really escape from your obducters - hence the name Pursue)

*Screenshots aren't currently working so this still needs to be finished* 

Evaluation - Question 5 - Sophie

Here is my Question 5, presented on Prezi:

http://prezi.com/boiqbqokgj7m/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Evaluation 2 Alex Barker

Our thriller opening represents very little social groups as there are only the given circumstances of 2 characters. Our thriller film is aimed at ages 15 to 25 and is aimed mostly at a mixed gender despite our hero being female. It would appeal to the female audience as it our protagonist is a young male and is wearing a jogger’s outfit. Therefore this already gives the impression that she is an innocent person doing a daily routine. Also she is listening to her music via earphones therefore that adds to the innocent impression which is given from her. This impression of her that is gives the believe that she is a character the audience can trust and figure that she is a protagonist. Stereotypically when the character is seen as the protagonist because of how she is represented in the opening. This is to create enigma and questions for the rest of the film to answer on who is she.  With the camera angles and shots used when the antagonist is shown in shot are mostly low angles with mid shots while the antagonist is seen in long shots. This shows that they should be looked up at and that they're rated quite highly in the film. However in the machine room the camera is positioned high and the camera looks down on the machines. This shows that these props play a key role in the film and will be brought up later on. This opening I believe is similar to many thriller films because a lot of films with the idea of innocence but then a danger occurs.

Evaluation 4 Alex Barker

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When planning our opening the target audience for our media we believed was between the ages of around 15-25, mixed gender despite our hero being female, however our age licensing for the film is a '15' rated.

We decided the age rating to be this because majority of thriller films seemed to be license as a 15 rated film such as “The Woman In Black” and “Sixth Sense” which were both aimed at the male/female target audiences. Despite the fact that both these thrillers have a male protagonist we decided to go for a female target so that it would appeal for a female audience and to get audience interested even more as it has not been done often in thriller films. For our antagonist we went for a male role and chose the stereotypical colours of black and with the face covered as it leaves a mystery on who our antagonist is. We also felt that it would be needed to give our film a “15 age rating” because we thought it was an suitable rating that our target audience would fit comfortably into this category and the fact that there isn't enough violence or gore that would make it any more than a '15'. By having the protagonist who was age 18, this would also help interest our target audience as our character herself fits in between our target audience age range and also the view that the audience can relate to the events and thoughts and feelings of the character in a much more of an open opinion.

Last of all we tried to use the influence of popular suspenseful films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s films where they all follow the trend that the music plays a key role to those films. Many of them follow a related trend in standings of how it is filmed and how the plot works. In these types of films, there can be a lot of ideas to do with what is going on inside the characters heads. This can be linked to our footage when our character begins to suffer illusions shown by close ups of her face we are shown her illusions by the change of music and mixes shots of her and parts of the machine. This idea to me was influenced by the film “Vertigo” where their main character suffers from vertigo as when he looks down the camera shot of him is a close up showing his face and what he is going through. By doing close ups it shows our character’s feelings and emotions of how she is feeling, but in the perspective of her body doing actions. For example, when the character is walking up to the tree we see her in a mid-shot of her slow walking and herself acting weak showing the illusions are effecting her, indicating how condition she is having.

Evaluation - Question 2 - Sophie

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main protagonist in our opening represents a young, middle class, white female.
In the first few shots, through camera angles, shot sizes and music she is shown as independent and a strong character. For example, the low angle panning shot of her legs (revealing her whole body) shows her from the first shot of her from the ground, giving the idea that she is strong character with high power in this section. Following this shot she continues to be represented as a strong character, specifically through extreme long shots of her running through the woods. Where extreme long shots can be used to show someone vulnerability in a scene, we used these to show how alone however confident she is.

Establishing shot of the woods

Panning MS of the protagonist's legs

Up until the protagonists flashback, she is continued to be shown as a character with high levels of power and status. Specifically when she kneels down by the river, although we are aware that she is having hallucinations and may faint, we chose to still show her through a low angle shot from the ground so that she still looked like a strong character.

Low angle shot of protagonist by the stream

However this all changes after the flashback sequence. The second shot we see being an extreme long shot of her kneeling by the stream, shows her as extremely vulnerable and it is here that the thriller conventions of a young vulnerable women being in danger from a dominant direct threat (in this case a kidnapper) comes into play. Especially as the audience now can see that the man is following her, therefore placing him with the higher status and power level.



The antagonist of our opening represents young, lower/working class, white males. In contrast to the representation of the protagonist, the male is represented in a negative light. The man is represented through sound as the character with much power and authority (even if not class). The non-diegetic tense soundtrack used for the flashback sequence, represents his character as a big threat as he walks and runs his hands around the machinery.

  

Evalation 5 Alex Barker

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Here you need to explain why your audience would enjoy your film. Select detail from your film to support your answer, including material on, for example, the story told through the narrative, the use of camera, the use of mise en scene, the use of character, the reference to certain themes or issues, and the use of sound.

Why do you think the characters help to target this audience? Perhaps your representation fits in with standard stereotypes? If so, you will need to discuss why this is, and explain why you did this. Do not simply describe what kind of person your character is: description is not textual analysis, and will not achieve a pass grade!

As I said about the target audience, we believed the target audience age to 15 to 18. To understand what the target audience look for in a thriller film. We used a survey/questionnaire website called Survey Monkey https://www.surveymonkey.com/ which allows users from around the world to answer a range of questions of the subject and give their opinion. Plus it would give us a percentage on what was the best answer. To tell everyone about our questionnaire we would upload the survey link to our social networks which were Facebook and Twitter so that family and friends could give their opinion. This survey was extremely helpful as it told us what the audience like about the thriller genre and what is needed to make it the best. We would then use our results and edit or add improvements to our storyboard. Below the paragraph here is what the audience thought.

By using mise-en-scene we were able to make our thriller opening look improved and give a higher amount of tension. In the sequence there were 2 locations: the woods which were filmed in East Grinstead and in Sophie’s dad shed. The shed was a vital location set as it contained mechanical equipment and dust which created the mood of enigma to the audience.

The costume for our protagonist was the basic joggers outfit to give the idea that the innocent can be put in dangerous situations. We used earphones as the prop so our protagonist was listening to music that the audience could hear (diegetic sound). We also used old machines to create a tone of tension that would be filmed as close-ups. The main reason we chose our main character to be female was because stereotypically the female charaters in horror are all ways seen as in dangerous circumstances