Planning For Final Film: Final Draft

After making some alterations to our video, such as adding some credits and cutting some shots we have re uploaded it to YouTube. I think that these alterations will make the piece more refined due to the amount of detail that we have put into it.

CAGED Group Representation Within Our Film

To follow on from our previous post in our group evaluation entitled "How does your media product represent particular social groups?", I have decided to use the 'CAGED' group to further display and go into more detail as to how our film - 'The Illusion Experiment" have either met, or rejected the stereotypes of these different social groups.

Class

We aimed to construct characters of a range of different class backgrounds in the film: 'The Illusion Experiment'. Whilst this may not be explicitly shown in the opening sequence, the main character may have been depicted as being from a middle class background whereas the people who have tricked the main character, who are slightly more wealthy would probably have been from a high middle/ upper class background. However, this was only a brief idea that we came across and is something we probably would have changed to avoid class stereotypes. We would possibly have thought through including more characters who have a range of different social classes to add to the diversity of the characters and to make our plot-line more original and compelling. We would also be adding many working class characters in throughout the film - we would be defeating conventions with these characters as they would tend to be the 'good' characters throughout the film and would not get into any trouble, thus defeating stereotypes of the conventional working class person that are portrayed this way explicitly in the media today.



Age 

Our film is targeted, primarily, at young people therefore all of our actors are of a young age; this was done intentionally so that our characters would be easier to relate to, in terms of our target audience. This may be seen as biased as our production has not succeeded in being age diverse. We encountered this as a problem as it was difficult to find people willing to act in our film who were of different age ranges. However, if we had completed our film, the audience would've found that the voice of the man on the phone was of an older age than of the main character. We aimed to defeat the conventional stereotype of young people as they are portrayed as being 'innocent' victims of a crime and to reveal that they had their own secrets and problems that would've been shown later on in our film. We also didn't want to give the audience the impression that the older people are the more menacing characters and the perpetrators of the film, however it was hard to portray this in the two minute opening sequence of our film, if the film was to carry on it would have been more apparent that our characters would not fit the stereotypes that society may have given them according to their age.

Gender

Our opening sequence only includes two male characters, however as our film progressed we would've entered female characters too, hopefully as many as male. We wanted to create a production that wasn't gender-biased and to avoid complying to gender stereotypes that are often used in high budget films. We decided to make sure that none of the characters in our film were 'innocent' victims of a crime, and that first impressions of the characters aren't always correct. This inludes the main character's girlfriend who is seen to have been kidknapped , however it would've later been revealed that she was a key part in ensuring that the main character was tricked and led into a sense of false security in their relationship. It would've also been revealed that the main character had also led a life where he had been involved in crime, which would have led him to being blackmailed. To improve on our opening sequence, we should've included characters of different genders and possibly including the voice of a woman on the phone rather than the main character being tricked by someone of the same gender. This would avoid the audience having a negative impression of our film in the first few minutes and assuming that our film is male-orientated rather than promoting the inclusion of different genders as characters. However, we would have predominately used female characters as the main characters if our film was to carry on - thus, defeating the stereotypical, conventional high-budget film where the main characters typically tend to be male. 

Ethnicity

We aimed to avoid stereotyping different social groups in our production 'The Illusion Experiment' however, we possibly didn't include as much diversity as we should have done as everyone involved in our production was of the same ethnicity. We found it difficult to find enough people willing to take part in our film and subconsciously, the people who were happy to be a part of our film, were of only one ethnicity. We didn't include many actors in our opening sequence, however we would've hoped that if we finished our film we would have included people across a spectrum of different ethnic identities. We would've also had to keep in mind that we should stray away from the stereotypes people often lean to in films, e.g such as stereotypes of black people as being 'thugs', fiercely independent or extremely angry. We would aim to portray the characters of different ethnicities as equal to one another and give them just as valid parts and characters. This would be a big step in beating the often negative, and offensive stereotypes that characters of different ethnicities in movies are associated with.

Disability

The first few minutes of our film doesn't appear to include characters who have a disability, however it is important to mention that the majority of disabilities aren't necessarily physical. However, after thinking through our plot-line we did decide to include characters with disabilities. To do this we would have to avoid negative stereotypes associated with disabilities, we would want to present people with disabilities as being just as able and have just as interesting characters as the characters without disabilities. We would construct a character based on their unique personality and mannerisms rather than their limitations that their disability may cause. This would be done to ensure that our production was un-biased and not offensive or rude towards people with disabilities, because at the end of the day they are equally as valid and important as everyone else.


Sexuality 

Within the opening scene of our film: The Illusion experiment, it appears that our characters within the opening scene of our film were most probably heterosexual - as the film's protagonist (Jesse) is trying to rescue his girlfriend, Alexa. However, if our film was to carry on we would have included characters from the LGBTQ+ community to make it diverse, we would have also made sure that these characters would have defeated the stereotypes that are associated with the LGBTQ+ community within the media. For example, when portraying gay characters - we would have made them look and act exactly the same as the other characters and we would have defeated the stereotypes by not making them act 'camp' and 'flamboyant' as this is predominantly shown within the media, the same goes for our lesbian characters as we would have made sure that they don't look 'butch' and 'manly' as these are not accurate descriptions of gay and lesbian people as you cannot determine what someone's sexuality is just by the way they dress or by the way they act - although this is how the media has constructed gay and lesbian people. There will be many elements of the LGBTQ+ community in our film as the majority of the relationships shown in the film would be LGBTQ+ ones, we would also have characters who are gender fluid within our film - meaning that they can move between genders and that they can have a fluctuating gender identity. We will also represent other types of sexualities that are not predominantly seen in the media, such as pan sexuality, asexuality, bisexuality and transgender people - these different forms of sexuality will be represented in a very positive way and will not be shown as being deviant and we will also ensure that it doesn't show LGBTQ+ as being a stigmatized identity as what is shown explicitly within the media today.



Regionality 

Within the opening sequence of our film, the two characters that were shown were from the South of England - most probably Oxford. However, if our film was going to carry on we would have included characters from other parts of England as well - typically the North. The characters who would be from the North of England would predominantly be the 'good' characters within the film and they would not be getting into trouble, thus, defeating the conventions of a stereotypical Northern character as they are shown to be ruthless, dumb and always getting involved in crimes and within the media. Although this would not be the case in our film and it would be the characters who were from the South that would be the ones that were getting involved in crimes - defeating the stereotypes that are explicitly seen in the media.

Planning For Final Film: Group Evaluation video

Planning For Final Film: Group Evaluation

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

We took inspiration from the film Drive, directed by Nicholas Winding Refn  for our opening credits, mirroring the order in which the credits appear as well as the ambiguity of the opening scene. For example, Ryan Gosling is seen driving whilst the audience is unaware of where to and why.



There is also no significant introduction to the character. In our film, the audience is unsure as to why Jesse is being told to take the bag to the lift as more of the storyline will be revealed later on in the film.

We also took inspiration from the TV series American Horror Story, dressing Jesse in a similar way to the character Tate in season 1. The two characters are juxtaposed due to Tate's role as an evil killer and Jesse's role as the protagonist. Tate has an almost military style, with large boots and a dark coat using an earthy colour palette. Both characters present a disturbed persona of a young white male.






When watching the 2001 Sci-Fi K-Pax we noticed how prominent the use of lighting is throughout the film, due to Kevin Spacey's character, Prot, claiming to have travelled to Earth through a beam of light. At many points in K-PAX the lighting technique Bokeh can be seen. We decided to use this technique when creating our film because of the word and its connections to our plot: Bokeh comes from the Japanese term Boke meaning a sense of mental haze, relating to the instability of Jesse's mental world.

For the shots where Jesse is running up the stairs, we looked into some action sequences online and found a scene from The Bourne Ultimatum. The scene shows the main protagonist running through hallways and jumping out of windows etc. with fast cutting. In order to achieve a similar effect we filmed lots of short clips from different angles, cutting them all together using match on action.


In order to develop conventions of other psychological thrillers we decided to use a realistic urban environment as the location for our opening sequence with only a low budget. This meant that we had to rely on natural lighting and focus on continuity between shots. For example ensuring that the lighting was not drastically different. We also had to film in the order that the light would change naturally in the scene, getting darker as the sequence progresses.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence we represent white males only. If we were to create the rest of the film we would attempt to subtlety represent as many other social groups as possible.
For example we would like to use a variety of extras who represent different groups. This would include different genders, couples of varying sexualities, people with disabilities, people with different body images, different ethnicities and different ages. We used a white male to play Dex so as not to use the negative stereotypes of gangsters that have been formed by films of similar genres. Due to films such as Adulthood (2008), teenagers have been labelled with a negative stereotype; we wanted to subtly conform to this stereotype by involving protagonist in what he thinks is illegal activity. Contrary to this, we are challenging the stereotype of women as weak and vulnerable by initially making the audience believe that Alexa has taken by a group of men and needs to be saved by Jesse, when in fact she was involved in the organization from the beginning.

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

Our film could be shown in local cinemas as well as film festivals. To reach young adult audiences it could be shown at small independent cinemas with a low ticket prices and encourage them to use social media to advertise our film. It could also be available for downloading as this is a popular way for young audiences to purchase films. In order to advertise our film to this audience, we will attempt to promote online using social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We would also like to film magazines such as Empire and Total film, we would also take this further by trying to get interest from art based magazines such as I-D and Dazed & Confused which represent an underground and alternative style - similar to the style we want our film to convey. Through our film we would like to promote new emerging unsigned talent, this can be seen within the opening sequence through the actors and the music used.

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

The age of the protagonist might mean that an audience of a similar age would be attracted to our film because they feel they can personally relate to the experience of adolescence. However, we would aim to create interest in a audience of a universal age range. The grungy and underground feel of our film would also change who would have interest in our film.The genre of our film would mean that we could attract an audience that are psychological thriller enthusiasts. It may also attract people who are involved in the art scene because of the artistic elements within our film. although we cant generalize and expect all young people to enjoy this film; due to a massive variety of interests that they could have. For example two people of the same ethnicity, gender and age group may have completely differing interests in film. We should have a premiere with a specially selected audience consisting of different social groups. We will also facilitate a question and answer session at the end of the premiere - We would do this to gather feedback on what other social groups we could include and continue to target through new marketing schemes.

How did you attract/address your audience? 

We used various ways to attract and address our audience. We wanted to capture the audiences attention through both subtly and the more obvious elements to our film. One example of something we used was the music which created tension for the audience and made them want to continue watching. We also used point of view shots to include the audience within the action of the film, this allowed them to see through the eyes of the protagonist and therefore would enable them to feel as if they are at one with the motion and the narrative. We didn't use any birds eye or worms eye perspective shots because we felt that this would make the audience feel distant from the action. Most of the shots we used are at a 'human' level and therefore mean that the audience can picture themselves being apart of the film.

The use of realism induced by the location and film style has allowed us to possibly attract an audience who are drawn to films with a lower budget with a focus on artistic shots/lighting etc as well as a sense of authenticity; as apposed to multimillion pound hits.

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

As mentioned previously, we used natural lighting when filming our opening sequence. However, looking back it would have been less of a challenge to ensure continuity had we used professional lighting equipment. Although, this may have sacrificed the realism  that is now one of the vital aspects of our film. In order to create a slightly surreal and grungy atmosphere we altered the exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation and white point of each shot. We put the techniques learned in media theory into practice when editing, ensuring our match on action was as seamless as possible, adding pleonastic non-diegetic music (made especially for the film), recording and editing voice overs, also adding the diegetic click of the boot lock over the visuals (ensuring the sound was synchronous with the visuals).

When filming we focused strongly on shot composition as this is a vital technique for making the shots aesthetically pleasing for the audience. For example, throughout the film we used asymmetric composition with Jesse on one side of the shot and empty space on the other, suggesting that he is about to move into that empty space. This is a subtle technique that makes the audience believe they know what is about to happen, when the narrative holds surprises.

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

We have learnt that the planning stages of filmmaking are key to creating a quality piece. When creating the preliminary task we did not focus on creating a plot or script which meant that we lacked in content. By correcting these mistakes with the final film we were able to achieve a more smoothly run filming process. Also, the audio was really bad quality in the preliminary task, with quiet dialogue and lots of background noise. This was something that has drastically improved with the final task due to more skill and more time spent checking the audio. Using a high quality microphone to record audio to be overlaid later ensured that the audio was clearer.

Due to the film being devised by us, we felt more inclined to make it a high quality piece of work. The potential possibilities of what we could achieve with the film motivated us to create something unique and extraordinary; we crafted a piece which we felt demonstrated our artistic perspective. Improved technical skills during the filming and editing process helped us to achieve this finished product.

Planning For Final Film: Movie Posters

Here is our poster for our film, we decided to make the font the same as the one we used in the film for visual continuity.

Planning For Final Film: Self Assessment

For this task we had to write up a self assessment of the role that we had within our film. We have decided to do this as this gives us each a chance to speak upon the contributions that we have had to our film.

Official role within the film: Costume Designer

Within the making of our film, I was assigned the role of costume designer. This role was very crucial in the making of our film as the clothes that the characters wear within films help to reflect their personalities and helps to foreshadow later happenings within the film.  A lot of the inspiration that I had for the clothes that were shown in our film came from American Horror Story - specifically the psychologically disturbed character "Tate". Within American Horror Story, we can see that Tate usually portrays a very "grunge - like" appearance - helping to characterize and exemplify his psychologically disturbed personality. This is where I got the inspiration to dress the film's main character "Jesse" from as we wanted him to wear very "earthy" colors to help him blend in to his surroundings to and to avoid unwanted attention from others. The other main character in our film "Dex" was dressed in dark clothes - helping to portray him as a shifty, deceitful and untrustworthy character.

Also, I helped in the creation of the title of our film. This was a very crucial role as the title of the film paints a picture in the audiences mind from the outset and this helps them to create a brief overview as to what will happen within the film. Within our group, we started brainstorming ideas as to what our film name should be; we started looking up psychological thriller films on the internet to try and find some inspiration as to what our film's title could be. After a couple of minutes of looking online I stumbled across a short psychological thriller on YouTube called "Illusion" - I immediately thought that this would be a great title/ addition to the title for our film; I thought that this would be a good fit for our film as the protagonist believes that the organist couldn't have took his girlfriend and threatened to kill her, he finds this whole experience extremely surreal - especially with the fact that his life is on the line too; This helps to emanate the element of psychology that is ridden within our film as Jesse (the protagonist) believes that the organization is playing with his mind and he is not able to see or think clearly as to what he is doing and he does actually think that what he is seeing is 'illusions' and not his real mind. The word "experiment" was thought up by another member within our group (Sophie Hodgson); this word paired very well with "Illusion" as one could argue that the "illusion experiment" was a film about the protagonist being a "guinea pig" to an organisation trying to recreate the brain and see if you could 'artificially manufacture' an illusion and if so to what extent could these illusions become a reality. On the other hand, one could argue that this film was about someone who had imagined all these "illusions" were a reality and that in fact he was someone with a severe mental illness that just thought it was all true although it wasn't. That is why it was good that we chose a name such as "the illusion experiment" as it opens up a myriad of possibilities as to what the film could be about and it makes people develop preconceived judgements as to what the plot and story of the film is by just looking at the name - that's why the name of the film plays such an important role in capturing the audience's attention and will help to get more people interested in the film when you have a very original and mind-opening title that helps to directly relate to what the film is about.

Planning For Final Film: First Draft

Here is our fist draft of our final film "The Illusion Experiment". We are open to constructive criticism as to how to make this better and more refined in order to make sure we attain the highest possible mark we can.