Thursday 25 November 2010

Evaluation - What media institution might distribute your media product and why?



As our media product is very low budget we would look at production companies who works with low budget film production companies. Throughout our AS year we have studied the production company Warp Films. They have produced several low budget digitally produced films such as 'Dead Man's Shoes' and 'This is England'. Just like ours, these are set in northern locations, because of this their work is usually within the social realist genre. This genre is growing more popular with British audiences but this also means the films have less cross over appeal as foreign audiences tend to only be able to associate England set in the capital city London.

As well as the similar locations these films were also produced with a very small budget, figures from IMBD show that 'This is England' was produced for just £1.5 million. Though this is far more than our film budget; consisting of a few pounds which we spent on tapes and props, £1.5 million is still far smaller than Hollywood blockbuster horrors such as the recent 2010 remake of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' produced for $35 million.


Warp X themselves have produced a slasher film 'Donkey Punch' which was filmed in Majorca, Spain then the set moves to a boat, although it isn't set in the same typical northern England location, there are cast member, such as, Nichola Burley who is from Leeds. Their budget was around £1 million which also makes the film a low budget production. Due to a lack of famous cast, they were able to produce the film so cheaply, despite the role of Kim played by Jamie Winestone who has since 2008 grown in popularity.


Warp Films distribute their films with the company Optimum Releasing, They are a company based in France, and are owned by a larger conglomerate distribution company, Studio Canal. Despite this Optimum Releasing have been responsible for distributing some very successful Hollywood films, one of the most recent being 'The Tourist' starring Jonny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Though mostly their repertoire features low budget production; many by Warp Films. 

Optimum Releasing would be the kind of Film distribution company that would distribute our media product if it was a full feature length film, as our horror film isn't dissimilar to those produced by Warp Films and WarpX. Our product is a digitally made film, it is very low budget, it features northern characters set in northern England and is a social realist film. All of this means our film, just like theirs will lack cross-over appeal, therefore Optimum Releasing would target British audiences only. It also means our product would be unlikely to achieve a box office release, just as many Warp Film productions are released straight to DVD as the promotion of the films cost substantially more than the production and would be likely to lead to a loss in profit overall.

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Evaluation - How does you media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group that we are presenting in our media product are teenagers.
In the media teenagers are stereotypically presented as antisocial 'yobs', news articles are frequently written about how the young generation of today spend their time illegally drinking and taking drugs resulting in violent crimes and underage pregnancy. This is an extreme view of teenagers however our representation of the teenagers in our text does not challenge this view, it just portrays it in a milder manor.
This meant incorporating in our narrative that our characters are sexual active, drinking and smoking into our plot. We had originally planned on inputting drug references as well however we found achieving verisimiltude with that rather difficult so instead we left it out. 
Another typical label of youths is the term 'Hoody' which we also incorporated into our text through the costume we picked out for the cast, the males as well as one of the females, in only one shot, are seen wearing hooded tops. The countertype for this typical teenage image is our final girl, as she is seen wearing wearing a smart black blazer. This helps to anchor the preffered reading that she is the final girl and doesn't partake in typical teenage activities which are seen as immoral.

Yorkshire as a region is steretypically represented as being an area full of eneducated working class farmers, this has come about from television programmes such as 'Emmerdale' and 'Heartbeat'. Also some well known films such as 'This Is England' have been set in Yorkshire, and once again the predominent class seen in this film is the working class which isn't renouned for being very intelligent. In effect we did nothing to either match or reject this stereotype, other than the fact that the characters are camping in an rural location which is more typical of teenagers northern regions than perhaps those in the south or living in inner cities. Our cast were not nessessarily given lines which would protray them as being unintelligent, however it is possible that this could be picked up by an audience as a negotiated reading.

Because we have used a local cast from the region of Yorkshire we avoided casting our characters as 'AB upper class' as this would have been less believable that they were upper class with yorkshire accents.

As well as this if we wanted a wider target audience appeal so we needed to widen the class bracket we worked with, therefore having middle class characters allows more people to be able to relate with their characters.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

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

Our media product conforms to the codes and conventions of the horror genre because, we input a lot of the stereotypical horror and slasher characters, locations/settings, props, music and story-lines into our plot. 

We cast a 'final girl' who has short blonde hair, despite this being a slight counter-type as it is usually blondes cast for 'scream queen' roles, the short length of her hair would liken her more to a boy than a female which signifies a lack of glamour in her appearance, it also helps avoid her appealing to the male gaze. She is also dressed conservatively which signifies she isn't sexually active.
We could compare our 'final girl' to Laurie Strodes character in 'Halloween'

We cast a 'scream queen' who is killed off in our opening, she matches the stereotypical image of a 'scream queen' as she has long blonde hair, and she is wearing some revealing and tight fitting clothing, this is seen in existing media products such as the opening scene of my bloody valentine it is also signified that she is sexually active, and also, unlike the 'final girl' she is drinking, which all adds to image of somebody who lacks morals and therefore is one of the first to die. As well as her visual image; as the title 'scream queen' would suggest, the girl we cast was made to scream a lot during her murder scene. 

We cast our 'scream queen' a 'Jock' type boyfriend, he is portrayed as a rebellious character by smoking, drinking and being sexually active. This would match the conventions of existing media texts such as the film,'Scream' and 'Sorority Row'.

There is also a psychotic character stalking and killing the characters which is stereotypical of the narrative in most slasher movies, for example 'Friday the 13th'. Also in keeping with the conventions of existing media texts our killer has similar motives for killing the people he does; for being sinful and immoral.

We have composed some music for our film which fits in with the horror genre, using the method of interfering with the heartbeat. This is an effective method of creating tension and a 'jumpy' atmosphere amongst an audience and is therefore an aspect of every horror film ever made, without it a scene would be bland and the audience would not be able to take the same enjoyment out the film.
                
We have set our product in a desolate location, which is the moors. This signifies horror as a location out in the wilderness such as a moor, or a wood/ forest or deserted lane is very commonly seen in horror films. It can be seen in the classic horror films such as 'Friday the 13th' and the more modern films such as 'Severance'.