Our final media product both develops and challenges conventions of real media products. Gangster/thrillers are very common films, however only a few are ever extremely successful so we needed to establish our genre while also developing on it. One example of us doing this in our piece 72 Hours is the use of the camera. Classic gangster/thriller films are full of fast paced action, and the camera usually moves slightly to make the audience feel part of the action, however ours does not. We wanted the action to be clear, but still be fast paced, so encorporated the quick cuts from similar films while holding the camera steady.
Another example of our film challenging and developing conventions of real gangster/thriller films was the use of costumes and the use of light and natural colours. Our costumes show defined roles between the gangsters and the ordinary actor, and this develops the characters too. Although this separation is usually shown in gangster films between the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' me and Kiel dressed slightly differently, although still smart, to show our individuality whilst working together. Gangster films also commonly use the dark to create tension and suspense, so we filmed the opening credits in broad daylight to show there was no-where the characters could hide and no-where they would be safe.
2. How does your media product represent a particular social group?
Our film represents older teenagers and younger adults. 72 Hours develops stereotypical views and also challenges views on the particular age group. The character played by Ryan wearing ordinary clothes represents older teenagers. This is developed by him being chased through a busy outside shopping centre, seen as a typical teenager stealing from a shop and running away; however something much more sinister is at work as the guys chasing him catch up, kill him and take a memory stick from his bag.
In contrast to the older teenager and his scruffy look, the two men chasing him are dressed more smart in order to establish they are from a different social class, and separate the two sets of characters. The stereotype of these businessmen being rational and professional is changed in this film as they are shown chucking trolleys out of the way and doing anything to get to their guy.
3. What media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Although our film is relatively low budget and British we could have some interest from Hollywood studios, however we are more likely to get interest from a small British copany such as Film4 that wouldn't expect our movie to make a large profit. However, this would have its benefits as if Film4 distributed 72 Hours we would have access to their television channel, internet site and their high profile market. Film4 already have an established fan base, and this would allow our film the promotion it needed to attract attention. This film company normally distributes low budget British films, therefore I think this media institution would be more beneficial to our film than a big Hollywood studio such as 20th Century Fox.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our chosen demographic was an age group of 15 - 23 year olds, with males probably most likely to see our film. This was because of our target research questionnaire we did months ago. We found that this age group were most likely to watch newer gangster/thriller films that developed on conventions already set up by films like Scarface and the Godfather.
We decided to have the film rating at a 15 so it would be available to a wider range of people, even though this meant making some of the violence and drug scenes less graphic. Our research supports the idea that men are more likely to see the film due to the violence, drug abuse, and sex scenes; and although well-known actors are key to a films popularity, establishing the gangster/thriller genre is just as important, therefore the promotion will have to include typical conventions of our films genre.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We found out from our questionnaire that well known actors and an obvious genre would attract our target audience to watch our new film, and although we obviously could not include a famous actors now, we could in the final film perhaps with the support of a big Hollywood company. However it is more likely that we get distributed by Film4, a small British company, and have clearly demonstrated conventions of the genre to attract our audience. This includes a chase, death and typical gangster costumes. The speed of the chase, annonymity of characters and the inclusion of '72 Hours earlier...' at the end of the credits are left to keep the audience guessing so they want to find out more and continue watching, as well as being more typical conventions of a gangster/thriller film.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt a lot about technology, in particular the use of cameras, editing software and blogging.
Although I was in the final production and therefore couldn't be filming, I still played a big part in finding locations and different angles, and also filmed much of the preliminary and Juno remake. I learnt how to film professionally and that I must have a few seconds of film before and after the action to allow time for editing. The editing software was especially difficult to use and I think we did well to edit the film together after facing difficulties such as our rough cut being deleted, and struggling to find appropriate titles. However I would now be much more confident using this equipment, and feel that our final product shows we had a good understanding of the software. Blogging was also completely new to me, and although it was a struggle to get pictures and videos on, I think I overcame these problems using common sense and learnt to blog quite well.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
I feel that I have learnt a lot since my preliminary project, and when comparing that to my final piece you can see the difference in quality. When filming the preliminary we only filmed what we needed, so learnt from this and in our main task we filmed lots of different angles of the same clip, for example the trolley.
We also learnt that the microphone and editing software were not easy to use, and the microphone did not have a good enough quality to put in our final piece. We decided to have just music in our final task as to make sound more professional, and included the credits inbetween action shots to split the action and make it look again more professional. I also learnt that certain angles do not work well together from the preliminary, and that in order for the action to flow it needed to be split up and seen from clear and distinctive angles, something we used in our final product.
