Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Classification and audiences

Looking at the BBFC classification system, we would expect our film to come under 12A meaning the cinema release is suitable for 12 years and over. We feel as though this would give us the widest audience possible and it is unlikely that strong language or violent scenes would appear in the full movie. If for some reason our film was put in the category of 15 and over, it would probably benefit us to cut out the scene(s) that were stopping it being a 12/12A as we would likely be missing out on a large proportion of our audience. In the first Hunger games movie the original categorization from the BBFC was 15, but because this would mean a massive loss of audience, they cut around 7 seconds which meant it was lowered to be a 12.

Although with the classification, we want to attract the widest audience possible, our target audience is a domestic, national audience. This is due to the budget being low and the narrative very aimed towards the niche, British audience. There is no point spending more than necessary on distribution trying to reach a tentpole audience when this particular genre generally only sells in the UK.

BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification, set up in 1912, categorizes cinema films based on regularly updated, current views on film.

Evaluation: Question 3

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

I feel as though our film should be distributed by film 4; they support UK films reaching out to a domestic, niche audience. Our film is a small budget film that is unlikely to appeal to a worldwide audience

Distributors are not involved in the production of a film. They buy the rights to a film and finance the distribution of it and the marketing. This includes the screening of the film.

Film 4

Film 4 is an institution devised from the television channel 'Channel 4' which develops and finances British films. It was launched November 1 1998. One of the big successes it has had 'The inbetweeners movie'. 

Pathe 

Pathe is one of the oldest distributors, It has had a huge influence of the UK film industry in recent years and although it generally only finances small, independent films it had global success with the release of 'Slumdog Millionaire' and success in the UK with the film 'Pride'.

BBC Film

BBC film was founded in 1990, working with major distributors both nationally and internationally, it produces around 8 films a year. Recent successes are 'x+y' and 'Mr. Holmes'. 

Studio Canal

Studio canal is a French distribution company with the third largest film library in the world. It's recent releases include 'Paddington' and 'Shaun the Sheep movie'.

Funding

To get funding for the film we would apply for the British Film Institute so that we we were illegible for a grant off of the national lottery which is very good at funding the independent UK film industry. Also, our production would come under the tax shelter as over 25% of the filming was done in the UK, and as our film had a total core expenditure of less that £20 million, we can claim payable cash rebate of up to 25% of the total UK expenditure.

Evaluation: Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gender

We chose to cast a male as our protagonist, we did this as it was a conventional theme throughout this genre. This is because the stereotypes surrounding a male character are that this character will be strong and important. For a large majority of our film opening we tried to follow and represent these stereotypes. We did this by introducing the protagonist with a range of close ups and medium shots to create a preferred reading that this was the most important character.

However, we subverted these archetypal views when the protagonist was in hospital through the high angled shot looking down upon the character to represent him as weak and vulnerable.

Disability

We had a small part of our opening where the protagonist was disabled. We wanted the audience to view the character as weak in contrast to the strong, able bodied representation we originally created. We did this by the high angled shot looking down at the character and though make up and costume to make it convincing that he was injured.

Sound

For a large part of our opening, we had only non-diagetic, ambient music to create a sad tone to our opening. The slow, atmospheric sounds create a preferred reading that there is not much happening, it connotes a slow pace of life which is unconventional of the motor sport genre.

Towards the end of the opening, we had some more conventional diagetic sounds of the car engine. This being the only diagetic sound makes this stand out and connotes that this is an important scene. 

Evaluation Question 1

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

Evaluation Question 1 on Slideshare

Evaluation question 1 pp from harrysquire

Audience testing of final draft

We showed this clip to the same group that we used before so that we would get a pattern in the answers. We showed them the film and they said that they liked that we had added and changed everything that they suggested. They also preferred the new ending we gave it with the black out instead of the last car clip. Also they liked the ident that we added at the beginning and said that it gave a professional feel to the clip overall.

Second draft evaluation

Sound

Our second draft is a massive improvement on our first. First of all we have added sound into it, most sound is non-diagetic, incidental music which we and our target audience feel connotes an emotional tone. We also have some diagetic sounds that Amelia was able to get off of iMovie, of the car setting off and turning a corner. We were lucky that these sounds fitted in with our filming but we feel that they are important because they are conventional features of this type of film and it creates a kind of climax to our opening that engages the viewer.

Editing

Changes that were made in editing include the sound that was mentioned previously but the finer detail have also improved our opening; such as the change in lighting. We played around with the effects on iMovie for a while and found that we can make shots look brighter and clearer which made, in particular, our establishing shots look much more appealing than before they looked dark and gloomy.

Transitions were our main focus for the second draft in terms of editing. We wanted to start off the opening with a slow pace to create an emotional atmosphere so we decided on the establishing shots to fade them slowly out and as the music got quicker the transitions did too. For the first shot in the hospital we could fade out to white which gives the impression to the viewer that the protagonist is remembering back to something. 

At the end of the opening when the car is introduced, the cuts get quicker, this is to create a tension and make the viewer pay closer attention. The tone is suddenly more exciting!

Second draft