Note to the moderator

Dear moderator,

Welcome to our blog! Thank you for taking the time to look around. The best way to navigate our blog is by clicking on the labels on the right hand side of the page.

Under the "research and planning" label you will find evidence of all the research, planning and development work we did during our project. The "construction" label includes evidence of the construction part of production and post-production, e.g. editing and action shots from shooting.

In order to see exactly what each candidate contributed to this process, we have included individual contribution labels for both group members. All posts contributed to by the named candidate will appear when you click that label.

We have also both completed our own evaluation, although we have collaborated to produce some content such as gifs and prezis. You can access our responses to the evaluation questions under the individually named evaluation labels.

Our finished film opening is at the top of the blog, and we have both posted our preliminary task video sequence as part of our answers to question 7 of the evaluation.

You can also filter our posts by labels or date and there is a blog archive if you want to look through chronologically. Unfortunately we were unable to fit all of our work onto one page, so please click "older posts" if required to do so.

You will also find a link to the class film blog, which contains links to the other group blogs from our school.

Thank you for taking the time to look around our blog - we hope you enjoy looking at our work!

From,
Audrey King Lassman (0397) and Brandon Poonwasie (0660)

This blog is now closed!

Hopefully you've enjoyed following our film opening's progression from the planning to the final production. Thanks! From Brandon and Audrey

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

Our opening both uses and challenges forms and conventions of romantic comedy-drama films, in terms of both genre and narrative. Challenging and developing what is typical of our genre allows for the film to be original and interesting, but using some conventions keeps it obviously within that genre as intended, so our audience know what kind of film to expect.

Genre
Romantic comedy/drama

Forms and conventions of this genre include:
RELATIONSHIPS: boy and girl meet, their relationship is a significant aspect of the storyline, if not what the entire film is about

Ruby Sparks; Silver Linings Playbook; The Perks of Being A Wallflower;
50/50; Juno; About Time; It's Kind of A Funny Story; Adam

Our media product uses this convention of the genre:

The opening ends with Christopher and Naomi walking off together after they meet, so the audience knows their relationship will be essential to the narrative. 

WHERE OUR FILM CHALLENGES THIS: "I disliked it, to say the least…" 

- unlike many romantic comedy-dramas, our protagonist is NOT the one to fall in love

- he is actually initially frustrated by the love interest: "Please, just stop."

LIGHT-HEARTED TAKES ON SERIOUS ISSUES, e.g. death, cancer, teen pregnancy, mental illness/comedic film with serious aspects

EXAMPLES:

(not all of these examples fit the genre of romantic comedy-drama exactly, e.g. they may be simply comedy-dramas without a strong emphasis on romance, or dramas with a few comedic aspects - but they more or less fit with the genre)

Silver Linings Playbook

(mental illness)

 In the trailer, the theme is established at the start: "Can I do an interview for a school project about mental illness?". The door slam and the light-hearted music (bass guitar, piano, drums) establish the comedic elements of the film, as does the dialogue, e.g.

"I will apologise on behalf of Ernest Hemingway." 

"She is my friend with an F." "A capital F." "For friend."

The more uplifting music at the end indicates that this is also a drama.

It's Kind of A Funny Story 

(mental illness)

This film establishes the genre in a similar way to Silver Lining's Playbook - a serious issue is mixed with humour, e.g. "What's wrong with you?" "I don't smoke." "No, I mean why are you in an ER at five o'clock in the morning?"

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

(mental illness, sexuality issues)

In this example, the audience is introduced to the fact that Charlie, the protagonist, has problems making friends - like Christopher. Potential problems are hinted at with the dialogue:

"Do you think if people knew how crazy you really were, no one would ever talk to you?"

"Let's go be psychos together." The shots of more dramatic moments towards the end also suggest this, but there is also upbeat music (guitar-sounding instrument, like in our opening) and humour: "Write about us." "Call us slut and the falcon."

50/50

(cancer)

The comedy is established at the start of the trailer: "What do you use these for?" "…my body", but then is immediately juxtaposed with the mention of a "tumour". The warm colours and music in the first half of the trailer are later replaced with a moment of silence and low-key lighting. The serious issue of cancer is interspersed with moments of humour, with the music and the dialogue.

Juno

(teen pregnancy)

The music at the start of this trailer establishes the light-heartedness of the film, and the dialogue indicates comedy: "That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be undid, homeskillet." But later on we see the serious aspect of the film, for example, with the shot of Juno crying in the car and the dialogue such as "...dealing with things way beyond my maturity level."

Little Miss Sunshine

(dysfunctional family, overdose, suicide)

The warm colours and music as well as the dialogue establish the comedic side of the film, e.g. "Everybody, just pretend to be normal" - this quote also subtly gives the impression that there are problems explored in this film, also suggested by the shots of characters crying/feeling insecure etc.

Struck By Lightning

(sexuality issues, divorce, depression, death, school)

Comedy is established with dialogue such as:

"I have got to get into Northwestern." "Never heard of it."

"Vicky, you have your weather report ready?" (looks out of window) "Yeah, it's cloudy."

"You were on ADD medication as a kid. I hid it in your food." This quote also suggests possible darker/more serious themes, as does the line "What grade do we stop believing in ourselves?" 

Adam

(Asperger's)

The soundtrack (guitar, singing) is relatively light-hearted but not too upbeat, suggesting the film is partially a drama/romance as well as just a comedy. The dialogue demonstrates both humour and sadder moments, e.g.: "…in approximately 196,000 years." "Adam, I'm having lunch. Speak English." vs. "You don't make my decisions!" and more darkly lit, dramatic scenes.

Inside Llewyn Davis

(suicide, drugs, violence)

Inside Llewyn Davis uses less warm colours and more low-key lighting than the other examples, and this as well as the dialogue and slower music indicate that the emphasis is more on the drama aspect than the comedy. The comedy is still there, however, established right at the start with the dialogue: "I've heard many nice things about you, from Jim, from Jean and from others." "You have not heard one nice thing about me from Jean."

Forrest Gump

(learning difficulty, death, war, racism)

Dialogue such as "You're the same as everybody else" and shots of war and important historical events indicate that major issues are explored in this film, but comedy runs throughout, e.g. when the President says, "How does it feel to be an all-American?" and Forrest replies with, "I gotta pee."

These kinds of films are popular because:

- by framing a difficult or sensitive subject in a humorous (not the extent at which it is offensive) way, it is made accessible to people so they can understand it

- an important issue can be explored without it becoming the film's sole focus or making the film too dark/depressing

- people dealing with these issues themselves can see them presented comfortably, and can find something happy but honest that they can relate to (an important reason as to why this genre is popular with our target audience of 16-24 year olds)

Our media product uses this convention with Christopher's OCD:

(CUs are used here so audience can focus on his habits - they are clearly an important issue… 

dialogue explains them further so it is clear what he is doing, and he is talking to the audience

so it feels more personal)

…and his social anxiety:

…established in the opening in a relatively comedic way, as connoted by the:

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FOR MUSIC:

(this clip is the whole movie since the opening is not on youtube - just watch the first couple of minutes)

(this was our main inspiration for the music, as explained in our research and planning:

http://latymermedia2013filmgroup3.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/construction-music-references.html)

like our opening: acoustic guitar and harmonica-sounding instrument, connoting genre/mood

MISE-EN-SCENE

Brightly coloured outfits connote youth and the comedic aspect of the film, as with It's Kind of A Funny Story:

Coloured murel in the background also suggests light-hearted element

Narrative

OTHER THEORIES USED

Barthes: five codes
Enigma code: this means any posing of questions. In the case of our opening:
- Why does he have OCD and social anxiety?
- Is he happy living in this routine?
- "…clean up my roommate's dishes" - who is his roommate? Will we meet him/her?
- "That morning, my routine changed…" what happened? Why?
- Journey: where is he going?
- Naomi: who is this character?
- Will they get together?
Action code:
- Christopher walking: we expect him to arrive somewhere
- "My routine changed…" - we expect this to happen in the opening

Levi Strauss: binary opposites
Christopher's socially uncomfortable nature juxtaposes with Naomi's confident, overly friendly personality. It also challenges the convention often seen in romantic comedies/dramas of the two love interests being similar in some way, e.g. Pat and Tiffany in Silver Lining's Playbook.

Titles
A convention of our genre is to use white/black, simplistic titles that don't interact too much with the sequence. Our main inspiration for this was Struck By Lightning:

This ensures that the titles are not distracting - romantic comedy-dramas aim to focus more on story and character than titles that are too visual or flashy. The simplicity of these titles also reflects the fact that the film is about someone's ordinary life, set in the real world. The sans serif font also demonstrates that the film isn't too serious.

The actual content of the titles also conforms to the conventions of independent films. Usually with independent films individuals have a lot more control than they would in a studio-owned production. Our last title reflects this: "Produced and Directed By...", demonstrating the extent of creative control that the director/producer has as they have been able to do both jobs. 

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We focused our representation of particular social groups on:

- mental illness

- gender

Here is a prezi that briefly explains how we challenged stereotypes of gender and particularly mental illness:
 

We wanted to challenge the stereotype of men/boys being confident and unemotional, demonstrating this with:
- mise-en-scene: clothing challenging the jock/sporty male stereotype

checkered shirt - quite smart, showing that he cares about his appearance

- dialogue + facial expressions/body language:

his anxious expressions/holding his arms close to him indicate his social anxiety,
something not typically experienced by male characters

- voiceover: "I was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety issues…" showing that men can have these issues too - similar to Charlie in the Perks of Being A Wallflower

(gif found on tumblr)

Like in The Perks of Being A Wallflower and It's Kind of A Funny Story, we focused our representation of mental illness on young people:

- to appeal to our target audience of 16-24 year olds

- because it seems to be a common issue among this age group

- to give young people suffering with these problems something to relate to

- to challenge stigma against mental illness and show that it isn't something to be ashamed of

Although we wanted our film to be a comedy/drama, we wanted to avoid turning mental illness into a joke and making it too melodramatic. We aimed to create an honest portrayal of mental illness that would not make anyone feel like they were being laughed at or pitied.

We created the more light-hearted aspect of the film using mise-en-scene rather than trying to turn Christopher's illness into something funny:

Christopher's outfit: colourful but not so eccentric that he seems bizarre

Setting here: coloured mural in the background creates a sense of light-heartedness 

With the dialogue, Christopher quite matter-of-factly states that: "I was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder." We see symptoms of this:

(THIS GIF WAS MADE BY BRANDON)

These do not make fun of his mental illness nor is it melodramatic. They don't intentionally conform to stereotypes of OCD - we simply aimed to present it honestly.

It is still presented as an important issue, though - the close-ups of his habits indicate the significance of his OCD traits on his life. This way we could present OCD as not just a preference to be clean and tidy, as many people think, but as a disorder that can take control of someone's life. 

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

Since our film is a British independent production, it is unlikely that it would be distributed by a major institution such as Universal or Warner Bros. It would be more likely to be distributed by a smaller British institution aimed at distributing independent films.

I found that independent films distributed by The Works usually had a limited theatrical release. 

International release for 2 Days in Paris

Our release plan would probably be similar:

Since The Works has a small budget our film would have to rely heavily on below-the-line marketing such as social media, as demonstrated by other films they have distributed, e.g. Kill Your Darlings:

They used mostly social media to raise awareness for the film
(this is the Facebook page)

This would be especially effective when targeting our audience of 16-24 year olds, because they use a lot of social media and it is accessible to them.

There might be some opportunities for above-the-line marketing such as posters but these would likely be limited, e.g. in train stations and in cinemas themselves but not, for example, on buses.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our primary target audience would be 16-24 year olds, and our secondary target audience would be family audiences (mostly 12+). This is explained in more detail in this flow chart.

Here are audience profiles for two people within our primary target audience and typical of that demographic, to explore that audiences' media consumption:

Not all of their answers fit with our genre (e.g. New Scientist as a favourite magazine, although our film arguably attracts to those with quirky or unusual interests as it focuses on a character who is different) but for the most part the profiles indicate that this is the right audience for our film. 

This BFI study shows the most popular audiences for different genres in the UK:

As you can see, romantic comedies are most popular among female audiences, but for comedies and dramas, there is not a significant gender difference. 

The chart suggests that these genres are slightly more popular among older audiences, but it ignores differences between films within the genre - a romantic comedy-drama focusing on the 16-24 year old demographic is likely to be much more popular among that age group.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

This chart briefly explains how we aimed to attract and address our target audience, with the uses and gratifications theory (information, entertainment, identity, integration and social interaction) in mind:

Addressing our audience

The audience's ability to relate to the characters is important in how we addressed them. This chart shows what is most likely to relate to our primary and secondary audiences:

Addressing more niche audiences:

1. People with mental illness

By focusing on an issue relating to them, this audience can identify themselves with Christopher:

- this could be a comfort for them

- as Christopher learns to cope with his issues, this could possibly help them do the same thing

- they would appreciate being positively represented in the media 

2. University students

The film is more likely to appeal to them since it addresses their age group and occupation 

Attracting our audience:

We could attract our audience with our soundtrack:

http://freeplaymusic.com/search.aspx?q=building%20blocks

This attracts our audience of 16-24 year olds because:

- it is quite simple and therefore accessible to younger audiences - this also explains why it could appeal to more universal audiences

- the instruments (e.g. guitar, whistling) make it sound quirky and indie, appealing to significant group of this demographic interested in that kind of music as well as indie film fans, which is what we want since our production is an independent film

We also tried to give our film a fresh and original look using interesting shot types and transitions, e.g.:

Camera inside the wardrobe

 The pan behind the obstruction from the shot of Christopher getting dressed to eating cereal:

-->

-->

This way we could appeal to our target audience of young people because it makes our film look more fun and original.

One way we would attract our audience is by creating aspirational characters:

Overall, though, since we explore in our film real issues in a realistic setting, the main way we attract our audience is through addressing them - by addressing the issues important to them, and using recognisable characters, we are creating a film that would appeal to them.

I asked some friends within our primary target audience using email and Twitter to watch our opening and give us feedback. I asked if our film appealed to them, and if yes, why.

Here is one response:

This shows that what appeals to our audience is not glamorous or exciting characters whose lives are so different from their own, but characters they understand and see themselves in. This is one of the main reasons why we chose this realistic genre and themes of mental illness - in doing so we can give a young adult audience characters to look up to who are not so different from themselves. 

Audience feedback was important for us to understand if we were appealing to our target audience. Not all the feedback was so positive. One friend said:

This suggests our genre may not have been clear

She is 16 years old - definitely in our primary target audience

We used Survey Monkey to receive feedback from a wider audience.

We could also get some more specific feedback:

This feedback seems to suggest that audiences did mostly like the opening, although there were things that they didn't like - most of this seems to be technical, though (e.g. the first comment) and one viewer mentions that the film is "relatable", so overall I think it could appeal to our target audience.