Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

During any creation process, it is vital to gain audience feedback throughout to ensure that your production intrigues your target audience. Before starting this project, we decided it was important to gather information from the public to gain initial inspiration allowing us to develop a story-line. After this and after solidifying our initial trailer outline, we searched for more insight into our chosen sub-topic of masculinity.

We asked an array of questions on Survey Monkey and presented the analysis of these results in Prezi presentations.

Initial ideas survey Prezi presentation: Survey analysis

Masculinity Prezi presentation: Survey analysis

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Full review: Piktochart

The film website:

The film poster:

The final teaser trailer:
Below is a sequence of clips that are taken from the final teaser trailer that we created. Noticeably, they are similar to the shots of those featured within the film website and the film poster, carrying the same colour pallet and mise en scene too. It was important that all our ancillary text complimented each other in order for them all to work as one, unique promotional package which is identifiable to the audience.

                   

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Across our project we utilised a vast variety of media technologies. Below is the link to a prezi we created to showcase the different technologies we used in all the stages of our project.

https://prezi.com/view/hGEjDph6Vd5JngPEUp9Y/

Evaluation Question 1

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

Our teaser trailer conforms to Fowler's 1989 theory that "An individual text within a genre rarely if ever has all of the characteristic features of genre".  To an extent, our teaser trailer conforms to the conventions of our genre (social realism), for example the way in which the social struggles of underprivileged collective groups are told to an audience via individual stories. This means of informing an audience of the harsh realities of contemporary society is integral to the social realism genre, and is utilised in films such as:

• "London to Brighton" - the danger of prostitution rings is told through the stories of the two main protagonists
• 'Trainspotting" - the dangerous effects of heroine use on society and friendships is told through the stories of the protagonists
• "The Selfish Giant" - the injustices and struggles of working class life are presented via the story of Swifty and Arbour

The social issue we wanted to depict was the issue and taboo surrounding masculinity in regards to mental health and expressing emotion. We chose this as we felt it was a zeitgeist issue popular in the media, for example Robert Webb's popular autobiography titled "How Not to Be a Boy" which discusses the conflict between the alpha male archetype and the ability to express and experience emotion.

We adhered to the convention of the protagonist being a young adult, and deliberately cast our character as a non-professional actor in order to reinforce the sense of realism. We were inspired by the casting of Thomas Turgoose in Shane Meadows "This is England" - the actor is unknown and unprofessional which adds a realistic tone.  We casted an 18 year old male with little prior acting experience to ensure we achieved the gritty tone so integral to social realism.

Whilst researching existing real media texts, we noticed that emotion was crucial to the representation of the protagonist. For example, camera techniques are used to reinforce the protagonist's psyche. For example, in the Rocky films, the protagonist is shot using a backwards tracking shot running towards the camera with a blank expression. Although subtle, this shot reflects the protagonist's desire to escape while reflecting his struggle against society's expectations of him. We tried to replicate this within our own media text as we felt as though it was important to depict the inner conflict of our protagonist which is crucial to conforming to the conventions of social realism.

During the research and planning stages of our project we concluded that social realist texts utilise urban, gritty locations. There are no special effects or complexly designed sets. This was a convention we felt imperative to render our teaser trailer as one belonging to the social realism genre, so we chose to shoot our media text in various urban locations, including urban streets, a gritty run-down pier and a dilapidated sea-side town.

Although our media text adhered to many of the genre conventions of social realism, as Fowler recognised texts "rarely if ever [have] all of the characteristic features". With this in mind, we decided to subvert some of the common codes and conventions of social realism. Often, films with a profound social commentary are created with a semi-improvised script to achieve the effect of realistic life-like dialogue. In our piece we subverted this by not including dialogue at all; we wanted to focus primarily on symbolism and aesthetic cinematography to convey our Preferred Reading. We felt that by experimenting creatively with our technique we could adequately convey our protagonist's emotions and feeling, while simultaneously serving as a step away from clear-cut realism. To show creative experimentation without dialogue we:

1. used varied lighting - i.e. the pink lighting in the boxing scenes
2. used various locations 
3. used various camera angles i.e. underwater shot, backwards tracking, vertical tilt
4. used post-production editing techniques i.e. time-lapse

Adhering to the Conventions of a Teaser Trailer

During the research aspect of our project we listed a specification for a teaser trailer:

• Sheds a film in the most positive light to a potential audience
• Scenes are cut and edited into a short sequence
• The MPAA state that every trailer has to be less than 2 and a half minutes long
• Must portray the protagonist and any other key characters
• Must convey the time period in which the film is set
• Must convey essential aspects of the narrative without giving too much information away

We adhered to all of these points. We clearly displayed our protagonist while informing the viewer of the subject of the film without spoiling the narrative. We did this through the use of symbolism and carefully selected cinematography. 

Website Deconstruction - Room

Website Deconstruction - Room

• The GUI of the website is cleverly designed - the website transitions onto the screen to form a room-like box.
• Interestingly, the user is not taken straight to the webpage but to an initial homepage where they have to click "Enter site' to visit the page - is this something we would consider incorporating into our own website?
• The initial webpage displays a photograph occupying the screen of the two protagonists embracing, giving a hopeful tone to the film.
• A key point to note from this website is that the colour palette used frequently throughout the film is used in the website.
• The colour is consistently cool toned and blue, with a contrasted yellow font
• The website shows the awards the film has received - the cover webpage shows an image of the iconic oscar award to inform the viewer of the success of the film.
• Once the viewer clicks "enter site", sound and video are utilised as a clip from the film plays alongside a soundtrack of the main protagonist's signing voice. This establishers to the viewer the fact that a relationship exists between the two characters.

What inspiration can we draw from this?

1. The use of a similar colour and font scheme to establish a clear promotional package.
2. The slideshow of critics' feedback appearing at the top of the webpage - the text appears one after the other so as to not appear overbearing
3. The use of a

Progression from Storyboard

Progression from Storyboard

In the initial idea stage of our project, I drafted a storyboard depicting the shots and angles we wanted to use when filming our teaser trailer. Prior to drawing the storyboard, we visited the various locations in order to grasp the aesthetic and cinematic effect of each said location. Now that we have filmed and edited our teaser trailer we are able to review our media text against the initial storyboard to reflect on the changes we made.

Above is the storyboard I created before we starting filming our teaser trailer. Listed below are the changes we made to each shot.

• Shot #1: We decided to keep this shot as our establishing shot as we felt it served as an apt initiation of the teaser trailer's urban setting. Upon arrival at the pier, we came across a pair of young boys on bicycles. We asked permission for them to appear in our film, and instructed them to cycle towards the camera. We timed the shot against a backdrop of fleeting birds as we felt they acted as a symbol of freedom as well as adding an aesthetic quality to our trailer opening.
• Shot #2: We filmed this shot, however placed it later on in the teaser trailer to adhere better to the narrative. We filmed this shot in a gym where we were able to change the lighting - we wanted to experiment with gender and colour thus we lit the shot with florescent pink lighting to contrast the feminine colouring with the masculine image of boxing. Furthermore, whereas the storyboard noted that we should capture the diegetic sound of boxing gloves impacting on the punchbag, when we arrived at the gym there was loud music which obscured our microphone and interfered with the sound. To resolve this we actually found a boxing sound online and layered over the video footage carefully in order to make it seem diegetic rather than non-diegetic.
• Shot #3: We liked the prospect of having a montage of backwards tracking shots to reflect the longevity of our protagonist's run. We filmed this by mounting the camera onto the dashboard of a car and slowly reversing with our actor running towards us with a blank expression.
• Shot #4: In our storyboard we didn't specify which locations we would use for the graphic match of our protagonist's head in his hands. We ended up filming him both at the gym and at home in the bath. We did this to reflect our character's inner struggle: the first shot of his head in hands appears to be an action driven by exhaustion after boxing - a masculine stereotype - and the second shot of his head in his hands in the bathtub appears to be driven more by emotional exhausted and trauma. This epitomises the characterisation of our protagonist as we wanted to depict how he presents himself to society in comparison to how he feels internally. The graphic match blurs the lines between expressions of 'masculine' exhaustion and 'emotional' exhaustion.
• Shot #5: We included a vertical panning shot of the view from the pier but we removed the star rating as felt this did not sit well with our genre of social realism. Instead, we included a simple review.
• Shot #6: We kept this shot intact, shooting the running feet against a graffiti-covered wall
• Shots #9 and #10: We shot these indoors, using an underwater camera to film the blood droplets. We also included a very brief shot of a bloodied razor blade. Although subtle, when coupled together these shots are reminiscent of self-harm.
• Shot #11: We travelled to Margate, Kent to film this shot.
• Shot #12: We chose to shoot our protagonist in a shopping centre using a time lapse. We kept our protagonist still while people moved around him. We wanted to depict the sense of isolation felt by our character as even when he is in a busy setting he feels alone.
• Shot #13: We decided to frame our protagonist sitting on a bench, through the metal bars to symbolise entrapment.
• Shot #15: We filmed this scene in Margate with our protagonist running towards the camera. We kept the symmetry intact.
• Shot #16: We actually chose to remove this shot as we felt we could focus more on subtle symbolism rather than explicit symbols of archetypal masculinity.
• Shot #18: We did shoot this scene, however we didn't end the sequence with it. We chose to end the sequence with a shot of our protagonist against the sea.

Media Theorist - Dyer

Due to our piece being part of the social realism genre, it it important to consider how we represent the collective group we are trying to shed light on. Media theorist Richard Dyer (1983) suggested that when analysing media representations we ought to pose the following questions:

What sense of the world is it making?

The sense of the world we created from a negative perspective – we wanted to depict the internal struggle of our protagonist. We included a time-lapse shot of our protagonist in a busy shopping street with him standing still with people moving around him. In post-production we sped this up to indicate the length of time he was standing there, making the world around him seem more isolating. His ordeal becomes decentralised as his story is silenced by society – this is poignant in the quick cut edited mid-shots jumping from him being with his friends in a café to a match-on-action of him being alone, suggesting that although there are friends around him, he cannot reach out and feels alone. Despite companionship, the world is made sense of as a lonely place for the protagonist. Our narrative is absent of a villain because we were attempting to highlight how the society surrounding the protagonist is the villain: as our piece is a social representation on the treatment of men in modern culture.

“Who is it speaking to? For whom? To whom?”

 Our piece is speaking to society to make a change on the attitudes towards men in regards to mental health issues, but also speaking to the women themselves who’ve experienced this ordeal, this message is portrayed from the voice of the victims themselves. Provoking compassion to their voices was then achieved through our use of shooting footage that depicted our protagonist as both vulnerable and isolated. We achieved this through the use of graphic match of a bird’s-eye shot of our protagonist in the foetal position, highlighting her fragility and suffering, as she appears almost child like. The use of two settings one being her domestic bedroom, the other being the woodland, where the rape happened, demonstrates that even when she is in the safe environment of her bed epitomised in the white colour palette and softer haven like setting, she cannot escape her trauma. This extremely emotive, and in some aspects disturbing, footage was how we supported this theory since this is how we was able to visually represent the voices of the victims.

Media Representations in our Teaser Trailer

How did we represent our particular collective group?

Due to our teaser trailer being in the genre of social realism, a heavy focus is placed on how we choose the represent the social group we are choosing to shed light on. In the case of our media text, we focussed on the fragility of the male psyche in a society where expressing emotion is taboo in male culture. Indeed, it cannot be ignored that by definition, all media texts are representations of reality. We wanted to replicate what we saw in the world around us onto the characterisation of our protagonist. Media texts are intentionally composed, written, framed, cropped and targeted by their producers, and are artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us - and our media product served no exception. Media representations are a representation of someone’s concept of existence, codified into a series of signs and symbols which can be decoded by an audience. They are a fluid, two-step process: producers position a text somewhere in relation to reality and the audience assess a text based on its relationship to reality.

The Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds

When shooting scenes for our film opening, we wanted to maximise the effectiveness of each and every shot. The rule of thirds is a theory devised to ensure that each shot is appealing to the eye, while maintaining its symmetry and balance. The rule of thirds applies both within photography and film.

Above shows an image composed with the rule of thirds.

The theory is based on scientific research that the human eye automatically and subconsciously gravitates to an insertion point when an image is split into thirds. The theory also states that the main focus and interest of the shot should be situation in the first and second thirds of the shot. The focus of the image can be placed on the right or left hand side, however it must remain within only the two thirds. This is demonstrated in the image above, with the building located within the right hand two-thirds.

Shown above is a still from our film. As you can see, the railings and the line between water and line align with the horizontal thirds. Vertically we wanted to keep our shot symmetrical for aesthetic value so we kept our protagonist central rather than framing him in the left or right third.

Website Deconstruction - Moonlight

Website Deconstruction - Moonlight

• The initial webpage when the website is clicked on shows a fading transitional slide show of the three stages of Chiron's life as he appears in the film. This indicates to the viewer that these characters play an integral role in the narrative - the three men signalling that themes of masculinity are prominent within the film.
• The title is clear and distinct across the screen, however is written using a delicate typography so as to not distract the viewer from the photography. 
• The photographs occupying the entire screen are particularly emotive - the heavy focus on eyes provoking empathy from the viewer. As a group we can hopefully take inspiration from this apt use of a still image to convey a meaningful message. 
• The webpage also utilises social media by including links to the film's twitter, facebook and instagram. The links are small and discreet, however still legible in a white font. 
• The tagline features on the webpage, however is relatively discreet in relation to the film's title. The Academy Award for 'Best Picture' is privileged over the tagline as it is more likely to attract potential viewers.
• It is interesting to note the use of "Follow the story" in the bottom left hand corner of the webpage. The arrow underneath it signals the viewer to scroll down - leading them towards the rest of the webpage which has a scroll interface similar to those of popular social media networks. The simple scroll nature of the website is aesthetically pleasing and comfortable for use, especially for younger audiences as the website reads similarly to a blog or twitter feed.
• "Follow the story" resonates as something giving the film a narrative that extends beyond the film itself. Being a talked-about zeitgeist film due to its theme of masculinity and predominantly black cast, the film is more than just a story. Black men are statistically greatly underrepresented in the film industry, making "Moonlight" a story of black success made evident by its website.

• Above is a screenshot of part of the website. The website features headlines in a news outlet style fashion, with images and transitioning text adding aesthetic value to the site.

What inspiration can we take from this?

1.  A website that flows - allows for easy viewing, modern and aesthetically pleasing.
2. Image focussed - aesthetically pleasing as image is able to dominate the screen
3. Suitable privileging of typography - most important text to be the largest
4. Inclusion of reviews

Trainspotting - Poster Deconstruction

Trainspotting - Poster Deconstruction

Rob O'Connor, the owner of Stylorouge (the firm that designed the original Trainspotting poster) said that "We didn't really want it to look like any other film poster."

The poster does not follow the traditional conventions of a film poster - it is constructed with simply three colours - orange, white and black. The bright orange colour palette adds a unique and recognisable element to the poster, along with the Helvetica typography resembling the type of font one might see on hazardous materials or a prescription drugs. 

The actors are shot in character, each posing in a way that divulges some detail of their character - for example Begbie is shot posing two fingers towards the camera, which is indicative of his crude and violent character. Similarly, Ewan McGregor who plays Renton is soaked in water for the shot which is reminiscent of the scene in which he climbs into a public cubicle to retrieve his lost opiates. The characters are all shot facing the audience, breaking the fourth wall which adds an eye-catching and personalised touch to the poster.

The black and white shots of the actors arguably reflect the drab and dull nature of the character's lives. Although the drug use which is recurrent in the film is not made completely obvious, it is subtly hinted at. Renton appears cold and shivering, which is a common symptom of drug use. Colour is also utilised with the use of bright orange being reminiscent of prison uniforms - reinforcing the notion of entrapment in the narrative

The poster makes an effort to market unique selling points of the poster - by including text "from the makers of Shallow Grave" fans who have seen the film will be tempted by the new project. Similarly, the review stating "Hollywood... Your time is up" is designed to attract more of a niche, cult following rather than a generic US box office.

Fishtank - Trailer Deconstruction and Inspiration

Fishtank - Trailer Deconstruction

Andrea Arnold utilises the Fishtank's teaser trailer to depict the protagonist Mia as a misunderstood teenager, bound by her disadvantaged family background. The trailer includes stock images of the council estate she resides in, reflecting Arnold's Preferred Reading that Mia has been failed by society. The high angle shot of Mia looking down the stairs at her mother after their argument portrays the separation between the pair, and the lack of love and closeness. This notion of Mia lacking affection is crucial to the narrative as she seeks love from her mother's boyfriend, Connor.

Arnold places the trailer against a soundscape of a dramatic non-diegetic soundtrack alongside the diegetic on-screen sounds. The music is parallel to the pace of the trailer, building tension leading to a climax that we see at the end with Mia dancing. This gives the audience a subtle insight into the narrative as Mia's dream of becoming a dancer becomes apparent.

Inspiration - Rocky II

Rocky - Inspiration

We wanted to include intertextuality to add familiarity to our teaser trailer. Upon watching the Rocky II running scene we wanted to replicate this in our piece. We felt that the montage shots tracking Rocky kept continuity throughout the sequence, while portraying the archetypal sense of masculinity.  To replicate this within our teaser trailer, we filmed various backwards tracking shots of our protagonist running through various locations. The example below is a vertical tilt high angle shot coupled with a low angle of the protagonist's feet. As you can see we took inspiration from Rocky II, while making the sequence our own by including the close up shot. 

Our Final Piece

Our Final Piece

This is our final piece 'QUICKSAND'.

In our final piece we demonstrated a variety of media skills and technologies, both in the planning of the piece and the post-production editing.

Our favourite and arguable most crucial shot is the varying shots of our protagonist running. We used match-on-action shots throughout to show continuity, as well as including an extreme high angle shot of him running towards the camera.

The most difficult aspect of our teaser trailer was retaining subtlety while clearly depicting the protagonists struggle. One way in which we did this was by shooting the protagonist in the same setting both alone and laughing with friends. We wanted to depict how even when he is surrounded by others he feels alone.

via GIPHY

If we were to start this project again the weaknesses which we would focus on particularly would be our shots of symbolism. Masculine symbols such as the boxing scene, running and close ups of perspiration could perhaps have more relevance to the plot. Similarly, we could perhaps experiment more with sound, incorporating maybe a voiceover or on/off-screen diegetic dialogue.

Media Theorist - Fowler

Genre theorist Alastair Fowler (1989) stated that "an individual text within a genre rarely if ever has all of the characteristic features of genre". To an extent, our teaser trailer conforms to the conventions of our genre (social realism), for example the way in which the social struggles of underprivileged collective groups are told to an audience via individual stories. Fowler's recognition that media texts rarely display all characteristic features is one we felt crucial to creating a successful media product. Media products that follow rigid characteristics and conventions are often dull and childlike, manifesting in the form of fairytales or fantasy fiction. With a more complex social genre such as social realism, we felt that it was important we experimented with genre.

We did this through the following techniques:

1. used a lack of dialogue
2. used symbolism and experimental editing rather than naturalistic straight cut edits
3. used only one protagonist in the trailer to convey isolation - typically social realism texts portray a group of characters
4. subverted the stereotypes of the collective group being represented in our piece - although he showed signs of hyper-masculinity our character was fragile and vulnerable

Poster Deconstruction - This is England

This is England

Colour

• The first thing I chose to focus on was the use of colour. The prominent colour scheme is red, white and blue which are the colours of the Union Jack. 
• Due to the subtle association of these colours with skinhead groups such as the English Defence League and Britain First, the colours coupled with the film's title indicate to the audience the general thesis of the film.  
• The general colour palette of the poster is a collection of blue, grey and red hues. Continuing the colours of the union jack, the poster is aesthetically pleasing. Below is a colour chart I made depicting the various hues used.

Mise en Scene

• The characters are dressed in stereotypical 'skinhead' outfits - combat boots, bomber jackets and Ben Sherman shirts - giving away details of their character.
• High rise flats are in the background of the shot - indicates the film is set in a poor area.

The Tagline

• The tagline "Summer 1983. A time to stand out from the crowd." gives away when the film is set.
• The notion of standing out from the crowd relates to the mise en scene of the character's costumes and hair/makeup.

Post Production

• It is possible that the actors were positioned alongside each other for the photograph, however it is likely that they were placed individually against a green screen in order to be edited onto the background.
• Film festivals and award logos are placed horizontally along the top of the poster - they are placed against the blue sky in order to stand out.
• The text is placed carefully in order to not obscure any of the buildings or characters.
• The film's website address appears on the poster.
• Critics' reviews of the film appear at the top of the poster, persuading the audience that the film is worth watching.

Typography

• The style of the 'THIS IS ENGLAND' main title is the largest and boldest text on the poster.
• The typography is styled as thought it has been painted onto corrugated metal - indicating an urban setting for the film.

Title Brainstorm

Title Brainstorm

We wanted our title to reflect our genre. We conducted an initial brainstorm of ideas and themes we could incorporate into our title. We thought that the idea of Tunnel Vision could reflect the idea of being trapped in a fixed path or mindset as a result of social constructs. One member of our group suggested the idea of using boxing imagery to also reflect being 'boxed in', to reflect the two sides of masculinity - tough aggression coupled with trapped isolation. We wanted our title to be short, snappy and natural, indicative of our genre. Eventually, we settled on "Quicksand" as we felt that its connotations of sinking and inescapability were telling of our genre.

FINAL TITLE - QUICKSAND

Casting

Casting for the Role of our Protagonist

Due to the social realist genre of our piece, we wanted our protagonist to be representative of a young male living in modern London. 

Our Actor:

Why did we choose this actor to play our protagonist?

• Age - our protagonist is suitable to play a young man aged 18-20.
• Clothing - this actor owns sportswear which will make costuming easier. We wanted our protagonist to wear clothes popular and fashionable in youth culture.

Theatrical Trailers vs. Teaser Trailers

Trailers

The purpose of a film trailer is a marketing device to display the film to a potential audience in the most positive light. Scenes from the film are cut and edited into a short sequence, usually illustrating the most action-filled, exciting parts of the film.

What does the trailer need to portray?

• Key characters - a trailer usually introduces the protagonist and antagonist of the films, giving an overall reflection of the characters. The audience are also able to recognise any well-known actors/actresses, which further markets the film.
• Time period - the audience are informed when the film is set.
• Essential aspects of the plot - however the resolution of the story must not be given away.

The Motion Picture Association of America (The MPAA)

• The Motion Picture Association of America state that every trailer has to be less than 2 and a half minutes long.
• However, each film distributor or studio are allowed to exceed this limit once a year for films in which it is deemed necessary.
• Internet-only trailers do not have to stay within these time constraints are they are not to be shown in cinemas.

Theatrical Trailers vs. Teaser Trailers

The purpose of a teaser trailer is to simply 'tease' the audience by giving short snippets of the film. Very little plot is given away, whereas in a theatrical trailer the general storyline is hinted at.

Teaser trailers rely more heavily on editing processes, as in such a short space of time a lot of material has to be shown. More creative editing techniques are necessary to give a better 'feel' for the film.

Teaser trailers are much shorter - they tend to be between 1 and 1.5 minutes.

Cinematography Inspirations

Cinematography Inspirations

Below is a mind-map I created showing different cinematographic inspirations I took from various film and television pieces I have watched. I focused on camera angles, colour and general framing techniques.

The research that inspired me the most was the colours used by Jean-Pierre Juenet in Amelie. The emotions depicted in Machado's work are so beautifully replicated throughout the film. The warm colours, dark reds and browns have a very similar tone to the work of Machado.

We could try and replicate this if we opt for an arthouse style by researching artists we like and noting their colour schemes and visual styles.