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

Our film uses the forms and conventions of real media texts as we use some of the same ideas of film noir detective films, where the detective tends to be more of a lone one. On the other hand we developed our own idea of real media products by changing the dominance of male in Film Noir, detective films. Woman tend to be dominated by the males however in our film the main detective is female and her partner is male. We further developed our idea of the main detective that in fact saves the day whereas in our partner saves the day. Lastly we challenged the idea of a female being a detective and the main character in the film.

Film review

Our finished film review our target audience are for niche audiences who prefer the independent films rather to the mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. In our review we kept the colour theme of blacks and reds which matches our films poster to make it look more professional. We also included our films website which is located at the bottom of the page so our target audience can find out more about our film.

Our finished film poster

Our filming process through pictures

The use of this picture above is to show our filming process in how we exactly shot some of the scenes.

This is our director (Tom) explaining to our actor (Kirsty) in how to mae he scene a lot better.

We decided that this location would be good as it's simple and would be to show Marilyn's home.

Hypodermic Syringe Theory

Hypodermic syringe Theory is the model of communications that suggests that the intended message is directly received and only accepted by the receiver. This model is rooted in the 1930s behaviourism is largely considered obsolete today.

 

 

The Cultivation Theory

Cultivation theory is the social theory which is examined the long  term - effects of television  on American audiences of all ages and genders.

Uses and Gratifications

1)      Information

2)      Personal Identify

3)      Integration identity  

4)      Entertainment

David Gautlett

The golden era of films (1930-50’s) everyone went to the cinema just to watch one thing, it was irrelevant what is was, they insisted they want to see it. The media was the most expensive and new thing in society. Watching television in the day as a family/everyone and whatever is on, you would have to watch until it got turned off. Today it’s very important in society as it blends in and you can watch it wherever and when you want to as it’s always available.  Today going to the cinema is a social event, instead of it being a big event, now you can watch television on your computer, phone and even your iPod.

 

 

 

 

Consume television

We consume television and different media technologies differently, the way to watch it or reading the news are done majority the same. You would have to go to the cinema to watch new films. Today people can watch it anywhere, like on their television, internet or at the cinema as so many options are given for them.

Problems with Theorists

The public are blaming Manson for the columbine massacre but his response is-

·         Poster boy for fear (which everyone is scared of him)

·         People don’t listen

·         President bombings/ foreign  policy (no one would blame someone like the president)

·         Conforming

 ‘Keep everyone afraid and they’ll consume’

 

 

filming issues

Our filming process we’ve came across some problems which has therefore slowed us down of creating our film, however on a positive note we have tried to resolve our issues to make a successful film. Locations- Having wanted to film outside after college but with rush hour traffic and with it being set in the 1940’s we don’t think having a modern cars would be appropriate therefore changed to a quieter location. Another issue we have had an encounter that some of our original actors can’t make the times when they’re needed, die to already made plans therefore we had to find new actors to take part.

 

Ideology

What is ideology?

The media can construct our views of our society and our attitudes towards society. Like a newspaper it will usually have an explicit political ideology, but have an implicit ideology as well. Identifying ideology can be promotes in several ways for example; women are portrayed in films as sexy emotional when it comes to men, whereas in adverts and magazines they’re portrayed as the ‘ideal’ woman and the readers aspire to be like her. Thus is linked to the dominant ideology in society.

Film Noir posters

Typically film noir posters tend to have a focal point which tends to be a female, another importance  of films noir posters are that they show a lot of bright colours.

Like this poster has a female as the 'blonde bombshell' with her wearing red lipstick which could indicate blood,death and a sexual colour.

Cast and costumes

Below - Marilyn; Played by (Kirsty)

Dressed in a black 1950's style dress, which matches our era of our film. Also with Marilyn’s fur coat, white pearls and black heels which indicate her wealth. We decided to give Marilyn red lipstick which symbolises  the blood of her husband in which she murders. Putting her all in black shows she is mourning for her husband after his death, but hides the truth that she in fact killed him.

Below _ Policewoman; Played by (me)

Dressed in the stereotypical police uniform colours of black and white, to show she is a part of the profession. Casually dressed as they would have been in the 1950's, We need create a badge and hat to make the costume more realistic to the audience. Hair is tied back as she would have needed to blend in with the male workers.

Below - Detective and Partner; Played by Zoe and Ryan

Detective: In smart 3/4 jeans with tailored cream coat. Suggests power and feminism. Tweed bakers hat, typical popular pattern of the era.

Partner: Long sleeved white shirt with black trousers; simple and sophisticated. With black tweed hat to indicate his occupation as many detectives would wear hats in the 40s.

                       

 

                      Below- Tom who is our director/camera whose costume isn’t relevant as he isn’t on camera.

New Technologies

These are some of new technologies we will be using throughout our filming process

 

By using these new technologies it'll help us create our opening film how we intend it to be.

Target audience

Target Audience

For a target audience, there is a specific group of people within the target market at which the marketing message is aimed at. A target audience can be formed of people of a certain age group, and gender.

Niche Audience

Suited to a person's interests, abilities, or nature. For example, social realism films consist of niche audiences as there are not many films with a similar genre in cinemas.

'This is England' portrays as niche market audience as it conveys the genre of social realism and therefore its targeted audience is limited, as people don't enjoy watching things that relate to personal life and modern-day society.

Mass audience

A much wider group of people who have much broader interests and hobbies that appeal to the majority of audiences. Big Hollywood blockbuster films are a particular example of appealing to mass audiences as they want to rake in the money rather than release a film to engage with the audience.

Demographics

Marketers usually have a demographic profile. A demographic profile provides enough information about a typical member of this group. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership and employment status.
Psychographics

Psychographic variables are any attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles. They are also called IAO variables. They can be contrasted with demographic variables, such as age and gender. Relatively complete profile of a person or group's psychographic make-up is constructed; this is called a "psychographic profile". Psychographic profiles are used in market segmentation as well as in advertising.

'Marilyn' storyboard

Here below is our storyboard that we created to show the key scenes from our script. Some may not be the camera shots and editing techniques we decide to use when it comes to filming, it is how we would like our film to look.

Film pitch

Film noir pitch from kirsty903

Our font ideas

As a group we all had different ideas in what our font should be so below is some of idea we had. We have decided to name our film based on the main character Marilyn who murders her husband for wealth. Some of our chosen font ideas are because of it being a film noir based genre we thought calligraphy writing would be appropriate to the time period.  

Media Theorists

Representation- is the meaning in which the way things are depicted.

The media have "The power to represent the world in certain ways. And because there are so many different and conflicting ways in which meaning about the world can be constructed, it matters profoundly what and who gets left out, and how things, people, events and relationships and represented".
(Stuart Hall 1986)

Richard Dyer argues that representation is a political tool:

On how social groups are treated in cultural representation is part of a parcel on how they are treated in everyday life. However he also highlights the complications in theories which focus on the negative representations of class, race and sexuality.

Our film

We’ve decided to create a short film in the genre of film noir detective. We already know the codes and conventions are similar to those of crime or detective fiction. We also decided on our setting and actors. We have titled our film as 'Marilyn' as it is common in film noir to name the film after the main character. Our plot is an independent female detective who takes on a crime that soon becomes a challenge that tests life and death to the ultimate level. Storyline starts off with the first scene of Marilyn ringing the police to say her husband has been murdered. What the audience don’t know is that she is in fact the killer of her husband. A quick cut to the police at her house, all that is visual is a chalk outline. The detective then begins to ask questions, interrogating Marilyn. He doesn't suspect her to be the murder. She then works out  that someone knows her secret, and kills them so it doesn’t get uncovered anymore. Clues are gradually then found by the detective which she then pieces together to show that Marilyn is in fact the murderer. When he arrives at her house to arrest her she attempts to kill him but before the knife is pulled out the detectives partner enters and kills her before she gets away with anymore murders.

Narrative Structure

 Narrative chain is the cause and effect, the plotlines in a story which are triggered by an action and enigma codes Propp and Todorov are the two theorists that show the typical structures to storylines in films and television.

Todorov

1)      Equilibrium

2)      Disruption

3)      Recognition of disruption

4)       Attempt to repair disruption

5)      A return or restoration of new equilibrium

Propp

1)      Preparation

2)      Complication

3)      Transference

4)      Struggle

5)      Return

6)      Recognition

Propp's  theory of the typical seven character types seen in most forms of narrative media. Hero, Villain, Helper, Mentor, Blocker, Prize, Dispatcher.

 

Hero- Is the central protagonist of the narrative that drives it forward. 

Villain-  He seeks rich and power and stops the hero succeeding.

Helper-  Accompanies the hero and helps them through the journey.

 Mentor-  Who gives the hero relevant information for their quest.

Blocker-  They try to prevent the hero going on their quest.

Prize-  A reward for the hero usually the princess(girl) of the story.

Dispatcher-  Sends the hero on his or her’s quest.

Narrative?

Plot - is the narrative as it seen or heard from the first to the last word which is the signifier, it is what the reader perceives.

Story- is the narrative in chronological order, of events as they follow each other. Which the reader conceives or understands.

(Tools for cultural studies, Macmillian, 1994)

Narrative is the way of organising spatial cause and effect the events with a beginning, middle and end which the judgement about the nature of  the events demonstrates how it’s possible to know the  to narrate, of the events.

(Narrative comprehension and film, Routledge, 1992)

My group below were given several pictures and out of them we had to interpret them in our own way, in which we had to show to the rest of the class the storyboard with everyone having a different interpretation of them.

Target audience

This mood board has pictures taken from different magazines, to show what we think girls of ages between 18-24 may be interested in.  We feel as a group that girls would be interested in the film genre Film noir as it includes romance and also shows murders happening between the 1950’s

This mood board has pictures taken from different magazines, to show what we think boys between the ages of 18-24 may be interested in. We feel as a group that boys would be interested in the film genre Film noir as they like the adrenaline rush of things and our film genre being male based we feel this gender would approach our film, interested to find out more about the genre.

Codes and conventions of film noir

Short films

A short film is considered to be around 40 minutes in runtime which includes all credits. Short films were initially popular in the 1920's and were made in black and white, and silent. American animation studio; Pixar, are also well known for making a short 10 minute cartoons before screening their big feature films in cinemas.

Film Noir

Film noir have the element of crime-usually murder. Motivations for the crimes are generally greed or jealously, just like our storyline Marilyn is after the money in her relationship.It mainly consists of American films of the 1940′s and 1950′s, exploring the darker aspects of modernity, exploring the consequences of a criminal act.The scenes of film noir are all disturbingly familiar, as are the archetypal characters: the hard-boiled detective, the dangerously alluring femme fatale, and the well-heeled villain surrounded by gun-toting thugs. We've subverted our film with women playing male roles and our cast is mostly women and our detective being a woman rather than a male.

  

Our storyline

In the beginning opening scene, Marilyn is ringing the police to say her husband has been murdered, but what the audience don’t know is that she is the murder. We then cut to the police at her house; the audience don’t get to see the actual body, just the chalk outline. The detective then begins to ask questions and interrogates her but doesn’t suspect it’s in fact Marilyn. She figures out someone knows her secret, then commits another crime and kills somebody else, Clues are then found which leads the detective to Marylyn killing her husband.  The detective then goes to arrest her but she refuses, then again tries to kill the detective but luckily his partner is there and stops her and kills her before she can commit another murder.

Theatrical trailers

Theatrical trailers are multimodal text which show a meaning through the uses of written text,moving images,sound effects and the spoken language. They're much longer than teaser trailers and are shown in theatres 4-6 months before the actual realease. Usually lasting between 1-2 minutes long, which consists of montages of the most exciting parts of the film which leads there audience hooked into wanting to watch the film on its release date. Trailers are commonly shown in cinemas, but with all these social networking sites, ‘Facebook’ ,’MySpace’ they’re becoming more popular to be shown on them, and 'YouTube' is another very popular site which users can upload, share and view videos on a daily basis. On television ad breaks they're getting the awareness of which their target audience is watching using the appropriate iconography. Like televsion spots they're like teaser trailers with a short 1-2minute short clip, which gives a quick picture to show what is going to occur in the film. What is different in a television ad is that the producers are able to show different clips that aren't in the film, if they want it to be different to their theatrical trailer, the use of big budgets film only use this way of advertsing to promote their film further.

An introduction to trailers

A trailer is a preview/advertisement for a upcoming new film, now time is progressing trailers are becoming more popular on DVD'S as well as the internet and mobile phones. Movie teaser trailers are usually very short in length and show little footage, their purpose is to let the audience know that this film is upcoming. Teaser trailers unlike theatrical; trailers, are usually last about 30-60 seconds and tend to be very short in length, with little footage from the film. They’re usually made while the film is still in the production process.Some teasrer trailers can take up to 3 years late prior to how the movie production is coming along, they're usually showna year in advance so little shots are shown.


 An early example of a teaser trailer is the Superman film by Richard Donner its purpose was to be designed to reinvigorate interest of the release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhNdBesiKbQ&feature=player_embedded