My Evaluation

My Evaluation

The Lady Killer Opening Sequence

As part of our course we were needed to put into a group which was Nicole, Tony, Zeneath and I. In this group, the first lesson we brainstormed and constructed ideas to make our opening sequence. For me ideas were flowing, I came up with the idea of a romance thriller type genre, which was about a betrayal of a wife to her husband. This idea was the original idea and everyone agreed even though Mary (media teacher) said it would be difficult to do as we would need older people to play the characters otherwise it would not look real. By the next lesson the group made changes without me and decided that we were not going to use my idea but use Nicole’s which was about stalking and have the twist of a woman stalking a man, because it was more realistic. I did not like the idea but I had to go along with it as we were apart of a team and had to work together. The next lesson we watched a documentary called ’The Watching’; it gave us interesting feedback about thrillers. The directors gave us hints and tips on what makes a good opening, which should keep the viewers gripping the edge of their seat. Then the director went on to tell us about instant action being a way to grab attention of the viewers right from the beginning but by doing that you then have to keep the suspense building throughout.

My opening sequence conveys a real thriller’s opening sequence by the way we filmed and formatted it. Comparing our opening sequence to a real thriller I see the features we failed to adapt, capture and the features we used to entrance our thriller. For example, the establishing

shot of the location instantly lets the audience know where the movie is filmed and slowly introducing the cast – Nicole and Tony. Also the quick shots and fast camera movements, these are the conventions in my thriller that compare it to a real one. Another feature is the use of suspenseful music this is used to make the scene dramatic and cause tension, also to be exciting enough to keep the audience intrigued to reach the climax of the title and film to begin. The final feature I feel we use is the selection of our credits, credits usually appear before the title, as in ours the credits appear one by one in white to try and prevent from camouflage with the landscape of our opening and to finish the title ‘The Lady Killer’.

The Lady Killer is Nicole she is portraying an executive she dresses very sophisticated black heels, black handbag etc. in her thirties who despise men, after a bad relationship and goes around killing them, Tony is a businessman in his forties who works London and is ‘The Lady Killer’s’ latest victim, both are very wealthy and living comfortably.

Our media project represents many social groups by the people starring in the film, for example their ages, gender, race and class. Nicole and Tony are both from ethnic minority groups and this in no way is a representation of this group. When speaking of gender I would say our movie is mainly targeted towards men as looking at percentage of females going to the cinema watching thriller’s is not a lot. It would also be mainly aimed at 18-28; this is because the level of violence would be more tolerable for this age.

The type of media institute that would distribute my media product is a company is Working Title. As company’s like those are interested in small independent companies who film and direct films in London on a low budget.. Working Title is a British based institution and our product has a all British cast and production team. Also the institution has produced many big hit British films such as Atonement which won two academy awards. I would release my product for the television. I would do this as I can get the widest audience possible there’s no need to pay to watch it and I would sell it to BBC and Sky. Then if I get a positive feedback I would release it to the internet on such sites as YouTube and Vimeo. I would not release it to the cinema as you cannot guarantee profit from the film.

The audience for my movie is young people, male and female 18-28. People who have just started higher education and people who have already gained degrees already and working. Male and female would equally go to my film as the statistics from a lesson said that certain genres males see more than females and vice versa but I feel my media product has the right genre for men and woman to see equally. The common ground amongst the age range is education, they are all achievers and have high expectations of themselves. Our film will apart if their social life, for them to watch whilst relaxing from a hard working day. Preferably the profile for my typical audience:

Name: Mark Reynolds

Gender: Male

Age: 22

Occupation: Student

Lives: In University Campus

Likes his weekly Friday nights out with university friends to either the cinema, bowling or to a restaurant. He is a frequent cinema viewer and takes advantage of the student discount. Tends to go partying most weekends and in spare time surfs the internet. His daily wear is blazer, shirt and jeans (smart casual). He adores wearing vintage clothes and when he can shops in boutiques. He works part-time as a waiter. Having such a busy life, he mainly eats out or goes to the mum’s house.

Merchandising and advertising is a way of informing the public of our new film out. and to get a wide range of people involved with the film. I would open forums, blogs and fan-based website, to get peoples opinions, this is the method we will use as the internet is the easiest form of communication especially amongst our target audience aged between 18-28 are frequent users on the internet.. The media product will also be advertised on the internet through links on sites such as Myspace, FaceBook and YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/

http://www.myspace.com/
http://www.facebook.com/

The audience can find out about the plot, cast members and the trailer of the film via the internet and through a spread, I would put in The Metro newspaper as many people read those on their way to college and University.

'The Lady Killer’ will be advertised on specific bus routes such as 73 and 149 as they go through a variety of social classes along it’s journey’s around London. For wider distribution around Britain I would use Telephone Boxes and frequent advertisement on the Television not mainstream channels such as BBC as we have a low budget. While advertising, we will be bringing merchandise to the shops following the release of the film such as downloadable wallpapers, ringtones of the soundtrack and printed t-shirts. I would not advertise with McDonalds as they mainly target to little children to going there and the certificate for my film is 15.Some of our marketing strategy will be dependent on funding available and final costing.

In media, at the start of the year, we did a preliminary task and I feel I gained a lot of knowledge on how to use Apple iMac computers, which I had no experience of using before. Looking back on the match cut exercise I have learnt a lot of the processes of filmmaking such as the storyboards, the location finding and the pitch and seen how difficult it would have been to make a full feature film. In the making of a film you need to have patience as we had to film it about three or four times for a two-minute drama I gained experience in using a camera. Also I used Final Cut for the first time learning how to match cut to similar shots and log and capturing footage from the camera. The making of the Soundtrack was difficult looking for sounds in the library and having to match it to the climax moment of the film.

We had two practice filming lessons to familiarise ourselves with the camera equipment and prepare us for the real thing. Also, we learnt how to create a match cut which is effective when creating a thriller. From the exercise, we learnt that with each shot we take it should have al least two or three different angles and we can therefore uses these to create match cuts etc. When we initially did the task I was not there but I was around for one of the practice lessons. Then after the rest of my group did the practical task, I ended up having to edit the clips they had shot and compose the soundtrack. Even though I found it challenging I was able to learn more by attending workshops during lunchtimes.

The use of blogger was the way we would complete our diary of events leading up to the completion of our project. Using this website to complete work was a convenient way, where we could complete at home or in college.