Evaluation - Question 3

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

My thriller opening targets the demographic of age, gender, ethnicity and social groups which are of interest to these demographic. I think it would be distributed through companies such as FilmFour due to the reasoning that it is more focused on the independant british market other than anything else. This would be an advantage to distribute using FilmFour as it doesn't aim at any other audience other than british and our film is aimed for be a small release for the british public. I think companies such as StudioCanel would not be considered if I was attempting to get my film distributed because they tend to focus more on the European independant film market. Because my film contains white british characters it wouldn't appeal to other countries so would not use StudioCanel. 

If you look at the films or programmes that FilmFour have distributed, they use films/programmes like aspects of Skins from E4. This programme is aimed at a specified audience so reinforces the idea of our film being put through FilmFour. Another small example of us promoting our film and distributing it could be through Netflix as they also focus on the independant market which is great for us and our small release aims for 'Missing'  

Next, if we examine which cinemas would want to exhibit our film, I believe that there is only one candidate for our potential showing and that is showing our film at Cinema City.

The reason that I think Cinema City is the only cinema that our film can be screened in is due to the reasoning that that they are a picture cinema. They also are an arthouse cinema and very independant so looks at a certain audience. They take in very small niche groups, maybe such as young adults or a specific area of audience but this would be very influencial because we aim to release our film to a main type of audience. I wouldn't expect the film we produce to be distributed in a wide scale manner.

The reason we would not choose or expect other cinemas to distribute the film for example: Odeon cinemas or Vue cinemas is because these both attract a very large span of audience; the question that would need to be presented is would all of this large scale audience want to go and watch our film made for young adults and teenagers? Even that age group may not even go to see it because it would be an unknown thing for them.

Our film, for anybody to even consider watching it in the first place would need to be distributed using more technologies other than just screening it at a cinema.

 It could be put onto youtube as one example of how we could distribute it as nowadays audience are able to stream the films off of youtube and watch them on their own computers or laptops where ever they are. It would then result in the audience who are interested in watching it, actually being able to watch it at their discretion but also mean that the rest of the audience who are not interested then do not have to watch it so would keep tem happy.

Social networking sites could also be used for potenital distribution techniques. When people use facebook or twitter, they are able to see film clips from films that haven't come out yet. This helps as it offers a taster to potential audiences; if they enjoy what they see then it provides the oppotunity for them to decide if they want to watch more or not so using social networking sites is a major benefit. It also helps that many of the population especially of Britian seem to have an account on a social network there is a massive chance of many people watching them.

A last digital technology that can be used is the use of games consoles when offered new disribution techniques. Nowadays people prefer to stay in and watch film in the comfort of their own house. On consoles such as the Playstation 3, you are able to watch film on certain services. However on these services you can also advertise and distribute tasters or clips for your film to entise audiences and make them aware of your film, mich like the previous two methods.

If we also considered our future status as student film makers, we need to ask the question of does it offer any distribution oppotunities for us? If we use me as an example, 'Missing' was my first film that I had made and edited. The status that would then be given to me would help me perhaps to enter competitions. For example: First film competitions or Student film competitions such as Shorts.  It would help us to enter these competitions and have them up for awards consequently. This would offer a distribution opportunity due to the fact that many different and wide scale audiences in the UK would potentially watch these awards, and as a result see my film or parts of it. This in turn shows them and makes them know the film is out there and if they like the look to it they may go out and watch it.

Thriller - Rough Cut

From our thriller I was pleased about the range of shots that we used such as the close ups for example as these helped to show the tension and enigma to the film especially the close up at 0:26 of the poster which creates significance for the whole film. I also liked our use of the flashback at 1:40 - 1:55 which was inspired from the opening scene from Kill Bill 1 of the girl having blood wiped from her face from Bill.

However there are a few minor aspects to the film that need to be adapted and need small improvements. For example I need to increase the sound for the whole of my film and also need to try to create a soundbridge of the breathing of the first flashback. This would be from the start of the film to around 0:58 to help create suspence of the flashback. I have already attempted this but it wasn't successul the first time around.

Soundtrack

Possible soundtracks:

All This

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This piece gives a somewhat strange feel as it aims to get you on the edge of your seats at times but does like Moorland have moments of horror in it combined though with senses of thriller. This can be used but would need to be examined in oreder to get the exact clip from it

Moorland

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This soundtrack, perhaps not great does give moments of brilliant sound however has too many bits which make it more of a potential horror piece so thsi piece will not be considered

Penumbera

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This soundtrack had that mysterious feel to it and gave out a sense of the unknown which would be great for the thriller due to the fact our thiller aims to provide that mysterious feel to it. This is one of the top candidates.

Possible character names

After putting forward name suggestions for our two characters and debating on which would suit our specific film and characters, we have reached a conclusion on deciding what they will be from shrinking the name list down to two for each, depending on what the two names presented. The name chosen on from these two names to be our name we use in the actual thriller production.

Firstly, the female characters name has been chosen to be Eve. We have chosen his name because of the reasoning that Eve is quite a vulnerable and small portrayal of our character which signifies both of these things during the production of the thriller; plus the name also mean 'Night'. We chose Eve over the second suggestion of Scarlett. The feeling in the group was that Scarlett represents the colour red and love and passion which do not fit into the thriller we have done. The feeling was also that the name may be more commonly known in a romance film or even a horror film so wouldn't fit into the thriller produced.
Eve is also the name of the 'Femme Fatale' in Once Upon A Time In America so it was felt that Eve would be a great sybolistic name.
The last reason Eve was the strongest case for a name because of the story of Adam and Eve after Eve was seen to be tempting Adam, so would also make her quite a devient character.

Lastly, after a lot of changing we have again reached a conclusion on calling the enigmatic male figure Seth. This was chosen between this name and also Christian. We feel that the name Seth puts forward that sense of mystery and also sneaky whilst keeping himself away from the action which portrays him sort of like a shadow in many ways. This name was chosen over our second suggestion Christian because we feel Christian doesn't present that shadow type figure as much as Seth so came to the conclusion that Seth was the perfect name for our male character.

Moodboard and Inspiration from other thriller films.

Costume

For the costume aspect towards our thriller film, we are looking for it to look modernised but with aspects of the film noir genre.We want to use casual clothes however these clothes to be a dark/black colour. We think this supports the mystery of it and get the audience asking the question of 'Who is this unknown man?' and also 'Why is this girl wearing dark clothes?' There could be many reasons for this but mainly to hide themselves away from normal society where the man is not wanted to be noticed following the girl who also doesn't want to be followed.

Essex Boys has inspired our costume ideas through the character of Sean Bean. The dark leather clothes would be a decent for the male character as he is an enigmatic figure in our thriller film as well and acts as a shadow in it.

 This would also help if our thriller would be shot in daylight but made to be black and white. These dark clothes would create the sense of a someone not wanting to be seen/found so gives them the idea that they are considered to be a shadow and un-noticed to anyone else.

Location

The location seen here in Essex boys where the wet and shiny streets are supported by a vanishing point is the idea we want to be able to use in our production of the thriller film. We want to be able to use a claustrophobic area and use signifiers such as shiny streets to emphasise our short film. The vanishing point would create that sense of 'walking into trouble' and in our thriller that is perfect due to the fact this girl is attempting to run away from her family but ironically running into even more trouble.

Ideally we would like to be able to shoot our film in Norwich city centre. This would be because the scenery of the area and buildings look very similar to the scene in The 'Third Man' where as you can establish that the tight and damp/wet streets and the slight tilt shot make it look very enigmatic and scary as well.

Secondly, the Third Man has heavily inspired our idea for our location. As it was mentioned before, the aim is to shoot in the city centre. This is because it relates very highly to The Third Man due to the reasoning of the tiled streets and claustrophobic nature of the location which would support our aim to create an enigmatic location and an area of enclosement and a sense of no escape for one character in particular.

Camera shots

We are also looking to use a variety of different camera angles but more than any we want to use over the shoulder shots. These types of shots help to position the audience in the shoes of the character involved.

We also aim to use many close up shots in our thriller to help get across what something is if they are unable to see in a regular shot or to show the audience the characters emotions. These two pictures you can identify being close up shots and extreme close up shots to show emotions again and closely shows the charcter and the horror in a scene.

If a regular shot was to be used in either of these two scenes/shots then we not be able to establish the emotions of Gloria Swanson in the picure above or the policemans identification.

Soundtrack

In some scenes we are looking to use diegetic sound to keep certain scenes natural and to emphasise that horror in some circumstances. For example, hearing footsteps but perhaps not seeing who is walking. However an option for some background sound for the main bulk of the film could be 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.

Here is an example of You'll never walk alone' by Gerry and the Peacemakers.

This could have been used in the thriller film of our production as a little bit of a insight t it, as the title 'You'll Never Walk Alone' suggests that the person is walking but is being followed which is ironic as that is exactly what is going to happen. It really is such a shame that it isn't an unassigned band otherwise it would have been an excellent song to use.

Lighting

We would love to shot during dark hours like this due to the reasoning that it helps to create the mystery and horror to scenes. This particular photo has a certain use of vanishing poin,t so also helps to show that sense of someone walking to danger and is shown in this picture as someone/something would potentially walk into darkness.

We are also looking to use a sort of spotlight. Here is just a basic idea of what we would like to acheive. This is obviously a much larger scale of what will actually happen although gives the idea of what we want to try and do, just much smaller. And so in other words the light would be artifical which would help to show the main aspects to a scene while keeping the darkness and that sense to the same scenes as well.

The thriller film, ideally would like to have as much natural light as possible, hence why the film will be shot during daylight hours. This shot from Essex Boys has inspired our ambition to shot in daylight because it can help to show that sense of an unexpected time of day for the thriller to commence which also helps with the enigma to the film as well.

Brief synopsis of our film and type of thriller

The thriller film that will be produced is a modern, enigmatic version of a missing girl who has choosen to run away from home because of abuse from family and who also doesn't want to be found by them because of this.
She is aiming to get as far away as possible by bus but is unaware of the enigmatic shadow that is keeping a close eye on her and what she is doing.
These two people are connected in one form or another through small hints such as two identical keyrings; one for each.

Rough shooting schedule

First shoot - Duration approx 2 hours
Wednesday 16th January
This will be our very first shooting time so will be us practising our ideas and shots; using different types of shot and angles. However we will essentially try to actually shoot some of the aspects to our film.

The aim to get as much shooting done as possible so it can be reviewed and edited.

When the first shoot arises, the aim would probobly choose to shoot the scenes which are the more easier and then go on to the scenes which may need more thought and shooting such as the flashbacks.

This shoot would take place in the city centre and during our 2 hour period with our media teacher Mrs Barton.

Second shoot - Durarion approx 2 hours
Wednesday 23rd January
Of course this is just a rough schedule for our shooting but this would be our second shoot.

This would be for any scenes to be shoot that were not able to shoot during our first shooting. This may also be used for any improvments to the film that would need to be conducted as well.

Again this shoot would be shot in Norwich city centre and also again during our media double session with our tutor Mrs Barton

At this stage we would like to be able to commence with our edit, potentially at the end of January/Start of February so we can make our film as good as possible. Obviously if we haven't been able to finish during our shoots, or even some scenes need reshooting then we will need to shoot during other hours so the actual edit may have to be moved so the other shots can be done.

At this present moment in time, the group are not one hundred percent if the need for more time will be needed so will have to see how it goes.