Research: Film distribution for "Rewind"

Having done some research I believe that "Rewind" should be distributed by "Wrap film". "Wrap Film", is a small UK film institution however, large companies such as "Summit Entertainment" would not be suitable because "Rewind" consist of unknown characters, and the budget for it would be very low as a result it will be a unknown production company who produces this film.

Research: Existing film production companies

Research on production companies

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I decided to do some research into production companies, this would them help me identify my films production company and distributor.

Research: Hitchcock

In this video he talks about thriller movies by focusing on the audience and how to create tension, for example, he says that at the begging four characters are sitting talking about base ball, the atmosphere is very dull, however, suddenly a babel goes of, this grabs the audience attention as it is unexpected. Then he explains how you can make the audience feel in a specific way for example,Hitchcock uses the same scene ( group talking about base ball) however, the audience know that there's a bomb situated under the table,this makes the audience start working as they think stop talking about base ball and run. Also, it builds tension as the audience feels emotions towards the characters, as they want them to be safe. By looking through other videos of Hitchcock I have a deeper understanding of thriller movies, how tension can be built and the impact it will have on the audience.

Research: identification of target audience

Presentation1

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Sound: analyzing - The lion king

For my home learning we were asked to write about the opening of the film consisting the key words. Having done my home learning I wanted to make sure I understood these words and remember them therefore, I did the same task again which enabled me to explore. I found that different genre have different sound for example, thrillers such as "Phycho",(1960)  and "The thing"(1982)   started with a intense fast sound whereas animations movies such as "Snow white" starts of with high violin music which brings up a happy mood. 


Opening of lion king: 

Sound: Introduction

For this lesson I specifically focused on sound and how it makes me as an audience feel. The teacher decided to play different types of sound and I had to guess what genre it would belong to and how it makes me feel. This activity gave me a more deeper understanding on how significant sound is and how much impact it has on me. For example, one sound that I listened to was a baby laughing, this made me have a rather happy feeling however, later I listened to a clock ticking really fast. This immediately changed my mood and made me feel nervous. I now understand that sound is one of the main key for the film industry, it is a way to connect to the audience as it can make them feel a specific way.

Some new key terms that I learnt are:

Sound track: All the sounds heard in a film, including the score, song, dialogues and sound effect
Diegesis: The world of the story for example harry potter’s broomstick
Diegetic sound: any sound that has a source in the world of the story for example, dialogue and footsteps
Non diegetic sound: Sound that comes from a source outside the world of the story
Synchronous sound: Sound that matches the image on screen
Asynchronous sound: Sound that doesn’t match the image on the screen. For example, a voice over (narrator)
Score: Musk repeated to accompany a film


I even gave examples to some of the key words that I might forget to help me understand them better.

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Titles: Psychological/supernatural thriller

One of the most significant factors when creating a Thriller movie is the title because it promotes what the movie is about. Some of the names we came up with as a group through the use of other thriller films such as, When a stranger calls, Phycho and Batman are, You'r next, Remember me, Amnesia, Unforgettable, Rewind, Preach, Voyour, Wasn't me and liePost Optionss.

Research: Props and costume

How would I know what prompts and costumes we would need in our thriller video?

By looking at other thriller movies, I would be able to conclude what prompts and costumes are typically used constantly, identify any new prompts and costumes that have never been used in other thriller movies and see the different make up thats used to make the characters stand out. Furthermore, I firstly focused on "Memento". Memento, uses a range of prompts and costumes, for example, 

Having done this I then started thinking of some questions I considered to see what costumes and prompts should be used.

Whether the character would use some type of weapon?

what costumes the protagonist would wear? 

Other then a book what other material could we use to make it?

What colour clothes should the antagonist wear? 

What make up would the characters have on?

Analysis of Silence of the Lamb

How are the character introduced?

The opening sequence starts with a women running through the misty woods, however later on whilst she is running the audience realise she is running an assault course through the use of props such as the climbing frame. Furthermore a man who works for the F.B.I. tells her Mr. Crawford wants to see her. The fact that the camera is constantly on this character symbolises she is the dominant character. Moreover, her characteristic are represented whilst she is running this assault course for example, the audience can tell she is brave, committed, and determined and the audience are aware she is working for the F.B.I.  Moreover, the way she talks to the boss tells the audience that she is respected even though she does not benefit the stereotypical patriarchal society.  

What does the location tell the audience?

The location of the opening scene takes place in the woods, this clearly symbolises isolation and gives a creepy, and fearful vibe to the audience. The fact that this women is running through the assault course alone tells the audience that she is brave and is not a 'stereotypical' female.  

When the women enters indoors a masculine blue theme appears however, as she enters the office the colour theme suddenly changes to brown, the reason for this is to give a serious tone to the shot. Therefore, the audience at this point are extremely engaged as they know something important and interesting is going to happen.

Are there any enigma codes?

At the opening scene when the character is running the first enigma code the audience start to think is 'why is she running?'. However, when the male character comes and tells her Crawford wants to speak to her immediately the audience start to raise questions as to why Crawford wants to speak to this women and who he is. Moreover, when the dominant character is in the office the audience also want to know who Hannibal is. These questions have been answered in the opening scene and if not have been answered throughout the film.

What camera shots were used?

A medium shot is used when the female character is running, the reason for this is so the audience can identify the location and feel the creepy, dull atmosphere whilst representing the dominant character. The fact that the camera is a low angle emphasis her power. Moreover, the image below represents a low angle long shot which is used to emphasise that this female character is living in a man's world. The lack of use with bold colours create a creepy and dull effect for the audience. 

How does sound add effect?

The music and speech is one of the dominant focuses for the opening scene. The music is orchestral which creates a tensed atmosphere through the use of looping base line. Furthermore, the opening scene contain heave diagetic sound such as running through leaves. This positions the audience in the characters view as they can hear the sounds of the atmosphere the character is going through therefore, grabs the audience attention. The music fades out when the F.B.I. character comes to talk to her however, as soon as she enters indoors the music starts, this creates a serious atmosphere for the audience.  

How are the credits represented?

The credits are very simple, for example they are white and they come and go without any flashy editing, the reason for this is to emphasis the seriousness of the atmosphere. 

Props research and list

Todorov came up with his 5 structure of narrative however Vladimir Propp, came up with a theory that there are only a certain number of characters, who crop up in most narratives. It is very easy to spot the hero and villian in most cases, but he makes us understand spheres of actions for each character rather than "character types".

Down below is a list of the 7 main character Props comes up with

The villain (struggles against the hero)
The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
Her father (who rewards her)
The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
The false hero or usurper or anti hero

From this theory Propp broke down films into small sentences and suggested that all films have a similar narrative structure that they follow.


1. Preparation (The introduction)
2. Complication (The key or clues to a story)
3. Transference ( The donor event)
4. Struggle (sorting out all the complications)
5. Return (Back home but there are still complications)
6. Recognition (all loose end tied up)

Research: Target audience opinion about plot

I decided to ask my target audience some questions to gain a understanding of what they think about my thriller movie that i will be creating and how i can improve. By conducting this questionnaire I can identify how to grab my audiences attention to watch my thriller movie and things I should consider when creating it.

Questionnaire : thriller opening/plot

1. What do you think about my plot?
2. What could I improve on?
3. What types of shots should I include?
4. Do you think the location is good?
5. Would you go and watch this movie?
6 What scenes should I include?
7. What do you like about this plot? Why?
8. What type of camera angles do you think I should defiantly include?
9. Do you think that the fact the dominant character is female?
10. What prompts and costumes do you think I should take into consideration?

To conclude, my feedback shows me, that my plot is very good, interesting, I should use close up shot which will engage the audience to feel more towards the character, the location is realistic therefor good, my target audience is willing to go to the cinema to watch my movie, my target audience like the fact that there is a lot of suspense and mystery along the plot and they'll keep having questions in their head for example "what happened in the characters past", therefore are very eager to know what happens next, the fact that the main character is female makes the audience feel more sympathy for her when something happens, and I should include prompts such as beds, and mirrors.

Questionnaire

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Moreover, I decided to ask a couple of question to our target audience about our story by telling them our story line. This enabled me too identify whereby my weak points stand, what my advantage is and where I can improve on.



As a result, I found that my story line was very interesting. The audience really liked listening to it, however, one thing I could improve on is prompts. After my interview was over, one of my audience came back to me and stated "you should use prompts such as books" .."and you should make the antagonist character wear dull costumes such as black". This enables me to see how I can get my target audience attention.

Research:Narrative/ 5 point break down of plots

In todays lesson I understood the significance of Narration and narrative and I also therefore, did some more research into this to broaden my knowledge. The will be beneficial when I make my thriller movie as I will be able to know what the narrative of my story will be and explain it confidently.


Narrative refers to what happens or what is depicted in the film however, naration refers to how the narrative is presented to the spectator therefore, narrative refer to actions, characters and events whereas narration is the mechanism that controls how the spectator gains information about these. Moreover, the narrative is also how the story is organised and about how the understanding of the reader is organised by ways in which the story is told.

There are 4 main structure for narrative.

1. Begginning or exposition - gives us a basic situation of the story
2. Complication - where the situation is disrupted
3. Climax / crisis - the turning point
4. Resolution - where after the crisis, a new situation is established

Research: Genre

This video is a brief illustration of my understanding of genre

Genre: The triangle

The triangle represents how each factor; audience, industry and genre text depends on  one another to ensure success of the text, profit for producers and enjoyment for audiences. 

Genre: Analyzing - The dark knight (Thriller) - Attempt 3

Genre: Action, crime and drama  (Society has changed dramatically as movies don't consist of one specific genre) 

Director: Christopher Nolan 

Narrative: A terrorist known to be a mastermind called the "Joker" spreads chaos and mayhem wherever he goes, therefore, Gordon, Batman and Harvey try to put an end to this madness.

Iconography: (This is a significant part of genre as the audience will expect to see certain images on screen) This movie is represented as an action movie, which makes the audience automatically think it's associated with crime. Also, the director emphasis to the audience how good always wins against evil.  


Indexical signs: (Indirectly suggesting a meaning by nudging our existing understanding and knowledge)   1:09 - a gun is shown which indirectly symbolizes action and crime. 
0:29 - the characters costumes considers him wearing a cloak, this signifies superhero 
0:37 - fire symbolizes death 


Symbolic codes: 0:29 - the superhero "batman" is wearing an all black outfit, which suggest "Cool".  


Characters:  Batman is one of the main characters, the director presents him as a super hero whereas the joker is portrayed as an "mastermind" villain.


Camera work:  


Establishing shot- of Gotham city. Enables the audience to recognize where the film has been set
0:42 - birds eye view shot 
0:21 - Low angle of the villain, this emphasizes that he character (joker) is extremely powerful
0:58 - close up low angle - this enables the audience to already build emotion towards this character (joker) of fear/dislike due to a number of reasons for example, the close up shot represents that he is very superior but for the wrong reasons, for example one factor that illustrates the where the scene is set (jail). The fact that the camera is low angle tells the audience the character is not as powerful at that precise moment. 
1:07 - close up low angle of the super hero (batman). This tells the audience that he is very powerful, and serious
1:09 - medium shot 
1:02: - over the shoulder shot, this enables the audience to build emotion in the characters perspective
1:14 - low angle long shot 


Setting: In a city called Gotham 


The fact the trailer shows the audience quick shots, that adds speed to the film, it emphasizes that the movie is going to consist action constantly. 


One thing I learnt by analyzing "the dark knight" is directors use images that belong to an iconography of the genre to excite the audience expectation for example, in this case the gun.

Genre: Analyzing - Blade Runner (Drama, Sci-fi and thriller) Attempt two

Genre: Drama, sci-fi, thriller

Director: Ridley Scott

Narrative:

A blade runner named Deckard is trying to track down  4 replicants. These replicants have

returned back to earth trying to find their maker by hijacking a ship in space. 

Iconography:

Robots - the movie is portrayed to the target group as an science fiction film, this makes the audience believe there movie is associated with space.

Indexical signs:

0:52 - a spaceship is shown, this indirectly tells the auidence the movie consist of action

0:28 - costumne indiretly symbolizes to the audience who the police is

0:32 - scientific computer indirectly idientifies to the audience who the villans are.

Symbolic codes:

1:06 - the women is smoking a cigerate, this tells the audience she is "cool" and "powerful"  This shows how there has been a dramatic change to the way women are now presentedin comparison to the early days for example, women would not be holding a cigeratte therefore, the patriarchal society is challenged.

Characters:

Deckard is presented as the main character where he is trying to save the world, and the replicants are the vilans

Camera work:

Birds eye view, long shot - this is technique that is always represented in sci-fi films, it purpose is to reinforce how the audience the world is coming to an end or in this case the "replicants" are trying to take over. 

1:06 - low angle close up - represents a women face, this tells the audience she is very significant in the movie and powerful. Also it challenges the stereotype of how men are more dominant.

Setting: Los Angeles

Genre: Analyzing - Just go with it (Comedy and Romance) - Attempt one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz5Ubqhru7g


Genre: Comedy and Romance

Director: Dennis Dugan

Narrative:
A surgeon falls in love with his assistant on a trip to Hawaii, he convinces the assistant to be his soon-to-be-divorced wife to cover up a lie he told his much younger girlfriend a long time ago.

Iconography:
Jennifer Aniston can be portrayed as an iconography because her films usually are about her trying to find love in life.

Indexical sign:
0:17 - shampaign is shown this represents to the audience there might be some romance

Characters: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston and Brooklyn Decker

Camera work:
0:11- high angle close up
0:20 - high angle medium shot
1:02 - noddy shot
2:04 - Cutaway shot


Setting: Los Angeles and Hawaii

Genre: Development of understanding

As I had explored the importance of genre and genre theories for this lesson in pairs we had to create a film documentary show casing our research. 

The first step we took in pairs was draw a spider diagram and write any words that connect to the term "genre". We then explained key word for example, "categorizes". All genres are categorized into different group however some genre belong to more then one group, for example comedy and romance.  

The second step we did was produce a structure of a plan. This plan consisted of everything we would include for our film documentary, for example we would start of by typing "what is genre?", from there as you can see we would show different media text, and movies. We also included briefly the main point we would talk about for example "genre is ideological" and  "regulated variety". One of the strengths about making a structure plan is it enabled me to know what i'm going to do and when. This prevents any confuse meant and key points that are missed out can be added. 

This image represents a close up of one feature my structured plan has, it shows that my film documentary will end in a question. I thought this would be a good way to end the film documentary because it would make my audience be engaged. Furthermore, we then decided to write a script, according to the plan in detail. This enabled us to understand how we'd make each point come across for example, "what is genre" (type it - computer) . This meant the audience would see in the video, the computer typing "what is genre" in the search tab by itself. This made it much easier for us to know what exactly we had to do and how to do it when making the video, we also had an advantage as we knew what step to take after each point and how to approach it. Having done this, we then started shooting our different shots, and edited them on a program "Finalcut Express" which enabled us to put them together effectively. 


Image of our script:

This movie explains a brief explanation about my understanding of genre, and how it leads film producers to success. one of the factors we talk about in this movie is the audience, I explain how differant genres are catergorized for the audience to define what type of genre it belongs too. Furthermore, I explain how the audience identifies a certain genre therefore consume some expectations, for example, in an comedy movie such as "Hangover", the audience would expect the main characters to do something stupid, crazy and make mistakes. Moreover, in this video I talk about how genre has evolves, one reason for this is the audience. If genre stays the same the audience are more likely to get bored therefore, within a well known genre producers will challenge some convections to give the movie a twist. This encourages the audience to watch the movie again, as they do not intend to expect this, and gives a good word of mouth to other people which builds a reputation of the movie as well as the produce. This leads to the movie being a success and enabling the producer to gain profit. Also, I illustrate how some audience believe genre is ideological as some genre movies promote western films for example, "once upon a time to the west". Moreover, this video also explains a brief idea about what genre is, and how it has been challenged and developed overtime. 

Having done this activity I was able to expand my skills on "Finalcut Express" for example, I was unsure how to take images from the internet and put them on Finalcut with text. Moreover, I learnt a deeper understanding of genre for example, how genre has evolved, and why (hybrid). One way genre has been challenged is because movies consist of hybrid, that had developed which was a risk to take, to create something unique for the audience, producer and institution..Furthermore, another strength of this activity was having a script/structure plan. The reason for this was because every time I was unsure what to do next I could rely on the structure plan/script, which would guide me. However, if I had an opportunity to do this task again I would firstly include myself in the video. The reason for this is, because it would show me as a human on the video it would be more engaging to the audience as it would make them feel I am communicating with them. Secondly, because I had limited time and resources for example, I didn't have a tripod, I would make sure my shots are more steady and focused. 

As you can see this image represents what we focused on during lesson. Three main factors that enable genre to work efficiently are: 

1. Audience - an way of categorizing genre is by the target audience 
2. Genre 
3. Industry - for example the producers, directors/actors

Adam Buaton is a person who made a video about genre, from that video I concluded that Buaton emphasizes how some elements make genre successful.  One of the factors I learnt through his video is each genre can have a specific shot, for example, scientific movies usually consist of a birdseye view shot. Moreover, he also explains how significant filming is, for example one key point I learnt was the way you film something builds up emotion with the character and audience. 

Genre: Introduction

Today's lesson was very interactive, in pairs we had a range of images of films that represented different genres.To start of each pair had to explain to the class what genre the image represented and why. For example one of the images I had was "Hangover" which belonged to comedy. One feature that represented that the movie is a comedy was the baby wearing huge glasses. Another example is "A walk to remember" which belonged to romance. The reason for this is because it featured a close up of a women and man. There body language tells us that there together as there heads are touching among one another, and both character have a smile on their face for their facial expressions.  

Key words: 


Genre: Is a way of categorizing films, each genre has a set of convection.
Hybrid: When a movie consist of more then one genre.
Convection: Categorize and define the text 

We then discussed the significance of Actors for genres. Some actors define a specific genre, for example Adam Sandler is a famous actor who acts in movie that consist of comedy. Audiences that are a big fan of Adam Sandler are more likely to watch a movie that consist him even if they have no idea what the movie is about because they assume the movie is a comedy. Therefore, actors play a significant part in movies due to them belonging to a specific genre. However, some actors such as Will Smith belong to more then just one genre for example, action (men in black) and comedy (hitch), this challenges the whole idea how genre's have a specific formula to follow. Furthermore, most main stream movies have developed and now include hybrid. An example of hybrid is "Just go with it", this consist of two genres ( comedy and romance) in one movie. 

These are images of actors that belong to genres and names of a range of genres movies belong too.

This picture represents the task we had to do were we wrote down what genre these movies belong too.

In this lesson i learnt the significance of actors, audiences, institution, and genre. Genre's have a formula to follow however, they have now been developed and challenged, I know because a majority of main stream movies now consist of  hybrid for example, "I robot." 

In order to expand my general knowledge at home  I researched and analysed genres and movies, which enabled me to view the formula of genre to a deeper extent.