Preliminary exercise

Film Analysis

 George and I recently made a film named "When Things Turn Ugly". It's about two men named Egbert and Cuthbert who are good friends and have been for a long while. We see Egbert enter the room and Cuthbert greets him with a "Yo!". They then shake hands with a very difficult handshake that looks as though it's taken years to manoeuvre and then take a seat with everything generally looking ok.

 However, they struggle when Cuthbert tells Egbert that he saw his girlfriend and thought she looked really good. Egbert reacts badly when he is told this and Cuthbert tells him to "pipe down" (be quiet). Egbert says "come at me bruv" and is then pushed by Cuthbert which ignites a fight. Little did he know that his good friend was the former heavyweight champion of Essex. Cuthbert throws a dodgy punch after having avoided Egbert's earlier attempt, and then finds himself on the other end of Egbert's wrath when he is punched square on the nose. We then see Cuthbert sprawled out on the carpet not moving a inch. This leaves the audience wondering "What on earth could have happened to Cuthbert?" It is a bombshell considering the closeness of the two of them shown early on in the film.

The Hypnotist Media Film

Our Final Film



AS Media Q7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the product? 

http://popplet.com/app/#/1777167

AS Media Q6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

http://popplet.com/app/#/1724415  

AS Media Q5

How did you attract/address your audience?

 Our thriller holds the audience's attention because it constantly misleads the audience with the unanticipated story line. One second it is a story about a patient going to a doctor to get help due to mental health issues, and the next minute, it turns into a completely different story where the antagonist is the doctor and he is hypnotising patients and causing them to kill people. It's an unusual story and one that may intrigue audiences and encourage them to come along and watch it. The audience would want to continue watching my film because the opening scene ends on a very unexpected cliffhanger. They could continue watching and find out any number of things that they didn't expect to find. For example, is Mr Jones the only patient that has been hypnotised? Does the murder spark a police investigation which leads to speculation as to who may be responsible?
 For my film, I ensured that I used very hypnotic-sounding music and I specifically chose the music in the film as I wanted the music to match what was happening on screen. For example, when there was uncertainty as to what was happening, I wanted music that sound mysterious, and when there was fast-paced editing, I wanted the music to become slightly faster and perhaps have a change of tune. In my opinion, this worked and was fairly effective in my film, for me personally, it made me feel on edge and  very uneasy.
 In cinema, there are many famous cliffhangers such as: North By North West, The Birds, and Cliffhanger. We hope that our film will be as successful and entertaining as these classics and leave the audience wanting more.

 We carried out a fair amount of research before shooting the film and came to the conclusion that we would follow the trend of a male antagonist and make it unclear as to who would be the protagonist and whether it would be a male or female character, however, I wanted to leave it down to the audience's interpretation as to who they felt would be the hero at the end of the film, or if the antagonist would get away. I know how the rest of the film would go but it is interesting to hear who the audience think will proceed to save the day or if the doctor would prevail and continue his work despite the protagonists' best efforts. The opening scene that we recorded is the catalyst for the rest of the film so it gives the audience the opportunity to guess what could happen after this. I feel that this low level of understanding and surrounding confusion will cause the audience to make a lot of premature guesses and possibly entice them as this is something new to them.
 We filmed the doctors room at my school as my schools standards are very high and our rooms look immaculate and I thought that we could pass the one I eventually chose as a very professional doctors room, given the correct props and lighting. The scene in the alley was filmed not too far from my school as it is incredibly rare to see anyone walk down it so I thought that it would be an ideal location as there is very little chance of our filming being disrupted.

 The types of films that leave audiences wanting more is clearly thrillers and the fact that I have made a film that is from the rare genre of psychological thriller is encouraging as it gives me the opportunity to combine success with a unknown genre and perhaps change people's opinions' of the different genres within thrillers.
 When I carried out the audience research, I was met with mixed reactions. There were a few people with mixed feelings about the film who said that it was an unusual film and one that's' genre they were unfamiliar with, and the majority said that it was a brilliant film that was very well constructed and left them wanting more. I would say that they film as a whole was very well received and had positive feedback in general. There was roughly 10% of the audience that said that it was confusing and not something they were interested in, but 90% of the audience saying they enjoyed it is a positive sign. The audience feedback was helpful as if ever there is a time that I have the opport
unity to film another film or anything like that, I have been given criticisms and advice to help me on my way. 

AS Media Q4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

http://www.slideshare.net/conorlusted/media-question-4-32801513

http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/32801513

Media question 4 from conorlusted

AS Media Q3

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

 There is only a limited number of ways that I could distribute my film because it is very low budget. In a dream world, I would like to have one of the "Big Six" distributing my film. However, I have had an extremely small budget for making this film and Hollywood films traditionally have enormous budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars. For this reason, it is fair to say that it's immediately apparent that it is not then going to fit into the category of the "Big Six". The "Big Six" are the most well-thought of distribution companies in the world of film and my film is the first one I've ever tried to make professionally and I've had no real experience prior to that. Therefore if it didn't do as well as some may expect a "Big Six" film to do, it would go down as a "flop".
 A small independent film company could distribute my film as they could be encouraged by the idea of my story line. Due to the fact that the story line is so unique, they could see this as an opportunity to make "big" money. However, an independent film is more likely to take on a film that has cast and crew who have previously been in or worked on a film. As my film has no big stars and no big crew members, they will probably choose not to invest in it.
 Another company that could possibly distribute my film is BBC films. They are a company within the BBC that fund small films and distribute them in different ways to get the film out and about. However, they tend to distribute films that have big names in the film. For example, "The King's Speech" is a BBC film that has stars such as: Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Geoffrey Rush. In my film, there is nobody that stars in my film who is already known within the film industry. This means that they are incredibly unlikely to take on my film. Although, they are not all about profit as they are always thinking about promoting young British talent. There is a slight possibly of my film being distributed by them.
 Film4 is a good company to look at for distribution of my film as they are fairly well-known for distributing low budget films that have a good story line. My film is an extremely low budget film that has an incredibly intriguing story line. They managed to very effectively distribute "28 Days later", a low budget film at just £5,000,000 to make and raking in over £50,000,000 in the box office. I think it's fair to say that it's unlikely that my film will make that much money but in terms of what it cost to make and the profit margin, I believe that it could be a success. Film4 are possible distributers for my film and are ideal.
 To release my film straight onto DVD would be a bad idea. It costs roughly 15 pence to produce a DVD and then a few thousand to actually release it. Due to the fact that there is not enough funding for my film, I will not be able to advertise my film in order to tell people what it's about and they will not be interested in buying it. Therefore this would be a bad idea as a way to distribute my film.
 If I were to put my film on the internet and try to get it known amongst the public, there is a big chance that I would receive good feedback and it would be considered a success. Should I upload it onto YouTube, I could put the link on Facebook and perhaps start a page, advertising my film for the public to see. Or I could put it on Twitter and get it trending so that it would be viewed by a large audience and I would be able to listen to a lot more feedback. I think realistically, the best way to get my film views would be to upload it onto the internet and reach a wider range of audience.