WRITTEN EVALUATION By Lance Ray

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT

USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
-Me and my partner where given the task of creating a film opening for a
genre of our choice. The genre we chose to make our film opening was
mystery. We decided that we wanted to keep with the style of the original
mystery films by having a part of the opening in black and white. This is
something that we don't see often in modern day films so we knew that it
would be refreshing and stand out from the films we see today, but the style
hasnt totally been forgotten, because of the 2011 film The Artist which was a
black and white film that payed homage to the old Hollywood movies. This
film has a gross profit of $121,818.095 so we know that going with the style
would only benefit us greatly. I also watched some old mystery films just to
get a feel of were the genre originated, after doing this it came apparent to
me that all the detectives where white males and always seem to have the
best of lives and never struggle like the ordinary people.
So after making my discovery I knew that I wanted my main character to
challenge the forms and conventions. I did this by making the detective a black
female who was suffering with alcoholism and depression, I also wanted her to
come across as manly by wearing loosely fitted clothing and walking in a male
form. When it came to casting I chose a actress that was feminine because I
wanted the viewers to see that she wasnt always the way she is being
betrayed in the opening and that it was the job or life that made her the way
she is, I also made this decision because it gives more depth to the character
and makes her more appealing to the viewers. We took inspiration for the
female character from Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality (2000), in this film
she plays a female detective who is the complete opposite of feminine. We also
challenged forms and conventions by not having her and her detective partner
in a romantic relationship. This was a decision that we felt strongly about
because we wanted the character to be a beacon of female rights and
empowerment
This and
is something notwe
that to dont
be dependent
often seeon
in afilms
male character.
because there is always a romantic link e.g. going
back to Miss Congeniality she falls in love with her
detective partner, but there are some Tv shows that
show female and male relationships in the detective
profession as just friends but they are usually not the
main characters of the tv series, Orpan Black (2013 -
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTS
REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL
GROUPS?

Detectives / police
Black people / females
DETECTIVES / POLICE
When we decided to make the character a detective we knew that
we didnt want to show the police force in a bad light. The chose to
have the character as a alcoholic and suffering with depression was
to show the pressure and stress of the job. I think that our opening
shows the police force as multicultural and non gender stereotype
by this I mean that they employ anyone. Although it was not our
intension to show the force as bad some people may interoperate
that they are lazy and dont care, I think this because we chose to
only have two people at the crime scene and this may make the
police look bad. I think that our film opening doesnt portray the
whole of the police force but the individuals that work within. Our
film opening is relevant to what is going on in the world today and
showing a black female detective shows that the police are not
racist or sexist which links to the black lives matter movement that
is happening around the world.
BLACK PEOPLE / FEMALES
In our opening we see two social groups in our protagonist. Black people
in films are usually shown in a bad way either something to do with crime
or being poor. We chose to completely dissolve these stereotypes and
had a black character in a well paid job and not being in trouble with the
law but is a law reinforcement officer. We see the black detective in a
well decorated bedroom surrounded by alcoholic drinks this is showing
that she has the money to live a comfortable lifestyle and can also afford
to drink lots of expensive alcohol. Me and my partner wanted to subvert
the genre one step more so we made the protagonist a female but chose
to give her male characteristics. Some viewers may think that we didn't
need to make her masculine but this was because males are shown as
strong and hot headed and this is what we wanted her to be like. The
females are also shown as emotional this can be shown in the first
unidentified female because people will ask thats her reason for walking
about and the emotion also coms though because she detective is
depressed shows her deep hidden emotion.
WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT
DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND
WHY?
I would like to believe that my film would be distributed by one of the big
six film industries but because of the lack of mystery films that have been
made in the last couple of years I think that my film might be picked up by
a smaller corporation like film four or working title or even BBC Films. These
smaller companies may not be as influential as the big six but me and my
partner feel that if we went with a big corporation be would be forced to
change things and the film will not be as we first imagined. The smaller
companies take risks on unusual and Avant Garde films e.g. Frank (2014)
by Filmthink
I also Four.that my film would be shown at film
festivals like Sundance, Raindance and Cannes
film festival. This is because they attract
people who admire the way that films are
made and the emotion and story, and I feel
that my film contains all of them.
FILM FOUR
We have decided that film four may be the best chose because of
the success that most of there unusual films have even though
they may not having a big budget like the Hollywood blockbusters.
Movie Budget Gross profit
(worldwide)
The inbetweeners 3,500,000 60,000,000
12 Years of Slave 20,000,000 187,733,202
Trainspotting 3,500,000 16,501,785

As you can see they have a huge success worldwide and range
from low budgets and high budgets and get a great profit. Our film
would not need any CGI but the budget would be spent on
interesting locations and prosthetics but also on getting the best
writers and actors to make our vision a reality
BBC FILMS
BBC Films just like Film Four is part of a television corporation.
There films never really make it worldwide but are very popular on
the UK. They have made films like Billy Elliot which have became so
popular that it has now been adapted into a musical running in the
West end.
FILM FESTIVAL'S
Films that appear at festivals are a opportunity for unknown
filmmakers to get their movies in front of a real live audience and
to have their films reviewed by professional critics. This means
that it would be my complete vision and wouldnt have to change
anything about the film. If you win the film festival your movie
gets lots of press attention and has the chance on being
distributed by a major company
WHO WOULD BE THE
AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT
The audience for my film would be those who like the mystery
genre but also the ones that like to see lots of twists and turns in
films. We also want to bring in people that may not be a fans of
mystery's, we have done this by also mixing other genres like
action and adventure. This was a choice that we decided on early in
the process because it means that we get a lot more viewers that
are from mixed sex and multicultural. I would also like our film to
appear to many different age groups but because we would
promote on social media and YouTube it means that we may only
reach a selective age bracket. The film may appear to a older
audience because it is a mystery film and they would have grown
up in the era where the genre was very popular. When it comes to
social class I think that my film appeals to all because of the
different and multicultural characters.
HOW DID YOU
ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR
AUDIENCE?
We have decided to take inspiration from the professional film makers
and use social media. Social media has became a huge part of our
society. The main social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and Snapchat. Nearly every one in the world has a account
on one or more of theses media platforms and I feel that using social
media is the best way of getting our film opening out there to the
viewers it is also beneficial because they are free to use and could
have the opportunity of becoming a viral video.
The film companies dont just promote the films but so do the actors.
They promote thought TV interviews but also through the use of social
media. They post photos of them on set and sneak peaks of the film it
is the best way to promote because of the millions of followers that
they have on there social media.
YouTube is also a massive platform which can elevate my film
success. Although it is also free to upload a video if I wanted the
trailer to pop up as a advert it would cost a lot of money but should
generated it back from the viewers I reserve. We can also pay the
popular YouTubers to watch are film and then talk about it in one of
there video's this will persuade there followers to watch our film.
But doing this still means we are only reaching a selective age
bracket.
We could also promote though public transport. This means that we
would be hitting every age range. Our film can be promoted on the
side of buses also inside on posters, we can also have poster in
trains and taxis.
The most expensive way of adverting is through TV interviews and
adverts not only on screen but also off screen in magazines and
newspapers these are the most expensive but are the most
effective because this was how films where promoted years before
social media.
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF
CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?
The first bit of technology I used to create our film opening was the
camera. This was the first camera of its type I had used because I
had previously not done GCSE media. We used a lot of the features
that where built into the camera like the ability to record in black and
white and used balance and hue and saturation to make sure that the
shots look to a professional standard. We came across a problem with
the camera and it was the built in microphone, it was very weak and
struggled to pick up the actors voices, but after discovering this early
on we managed to work through it when it came to filming.
The camera was a challenge but it was nothing when it came to the
editing. We used Final Cut Express to edit our video and it was a lot
to get used of.
We where new to the apple mac computers and new it the editing
software. This was advanced software that worried me at first
because of the level of expertise that you have to have. I am so
thankful that we had the chance to use the software to edit out
preliminary, as without this opportunity it would have been a more
frightful task when editing out film opening. The software helped us
to shorten the clips and make them fit into the time frame, when
using the software we had the ability to use special effects but
because our film opening didnt need us to we didnt use the
feature.

By Lance Ray