Question 8

What do you feel you have learned in progression from the preliminary task to the main project?

"The Deal" (Preliminary Task)

"Loanshark" Main Project

Titles

From the two clips you can see that we worked much harder with the titles for "Loanshark" and I think that this because, we done a lot more research on titles that we're specific to the Action Thriller genre and that meant that we decided to seperate the title from the clips, as this doesn't take any attention away from the action of the scenes. The way we have done our titles this time looks more professional overall due to the fonts that we have selected, as they fit in more with the genre of the film while with the preliminary task the fonts was very generic and hindered the film more than helped it.

Transitions

The transitions for Loanshark compared compared to those of The Deal work so much better as they make the video so much more smoother than the deal and it also shows how we have grown as in "The Deal" the transitions are just fades and quick cuts, while in "Loanshark" we are using cross cuts and a lot more technical transitions.
I think that the transitions improved ,because we learned the importance of transitions to the all around feel of the film and we really took that on board.

Locations

You can see how our use of mise-en-scene improved just through our use of locations as with "The Deal" it is so obvious that it is filmed in a school, while for "Loanshark" you can't really tell where it has been filmed. This is emphasized as for the kitchen scene that is really filmed in the Sixth Form Common room and you can't tell that because of our attention to detail for mise en scene with the production of Loanshark". Despite this, if we do a task like thi=s again I would prefer filming outside of school as then we will have so many more options when filming.

Target Audience
I feel that for 'Loanshark' we had a much clearer idea of our target audience, because of the research that e carried out. This helped because we were able to find out that the demographic for an action thriller, which is 14-35 year old males. This really helped us as unlike with "The Deal" we didn't know our target audience was and that meant that we couldn't design the film to what our target audience would be interested.

Question 7

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

For this question I decided to make a video explaining the different technologies used and how we used them.

All copyright for the music used in the video goes to Hans Zimmer. All rights reserved.

Question 6

Audience Feedback

For the audience feedback we decided to do a 'talking heads' documentary of people within our target audience that we have just shown our film to.

Thank you For Participating

Elliot Wilders

Michael Galloway

Dominic Render

Curtis Wood

For the second half of this question I have created a video on Windows Movie Maker which gives the views of all the people that we asked to comment on our film opening that weren't within our 14-35 year old male target audience.

The music used used in the video is gone by take that. All copyright belongs to Take That and the respected Record Company. All rights reserved

Evaluation - Questions 4 & 5

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

Mainstream or an independent cinema???

I feel that 'Loan Shark' has the required potential to go mainstream and this is because, of it's genre. Action Thrillers are some of the most popular films going at the moment, behind fantasies and comic book films. This is because these films give the audience a sense of escapism and it doesn't matter what is happening in their life, the two and a half hours they spend watching the film is a chance to get away from it all. This is different to action thriller's because, I feel that Action Thriller's add a sense of Verisimilitude. What I mean by this is that except for the big guns and explosions, these are events and situations that people all other the world are experiencing. I feel that the verisimilitude factor of the film will allow us to distribute the film on a large scale through mainstream cinemas like vue; cineworld; and odeon. Also I believe that a film of the Action Thriller genre like 'Loanshark' needs to be in a large cinema when it is shown due to the atmosphere that it creates. For example when you're in the cinema watching an Action Thriller its nice to be in there with a lot of people, because you hear all the same noises like "Ooooo" and "wow" and also after the film everyone talks about it and I think that it's just a great atmosphere and experience.

 

Twilight is of the Fantasy Genre and gives it's audience a sense of escapism.

Avengers Assemble is a Comic Book film that also portrays a sense of escapism.

Taken 2 is a dramatised film based on a situation that could happen to anyone which means that it gives a sense of Verisimilitude.

Killer Elite is an Action Thriller film that's story line is dramatised yet based on a situation that could happen to anyone which means that it gives a sense of Verisimilitude.

Performance of each film at the Box Office

 Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $829,224,737

Avengers Assemble - $1,511,757,910

Taken 2 - $374,275,836

Killer Elite - $55,701,900

Marketing

Due to the success of other Genres compared to Action Thrillers we would have to be careful of when the film is released into a mainstream cinema, the best time would probably be around the time of the Budget that the Government put out where job unemployment is always a big subject. Also we would have to watch out about what companies want to sponsor the film and advertise to their customers. For example, a company like Wonga.com who are a pay day loan company would be good on one part as it would get the film out to a large audience. But on the other hand it wouldn't necessarily advertise to our target audience, also these types of companies have been accused of being 'loan sharks'  themselves by the government and various consumer watchdogs.

Despite this I would look at companies like this with a good reputation and other companies like dominos and river island that appeal to our target audience as this would meant that our film would achieve a large fan base. I would also demand that the trailers of the film were put on imbd.com and Youtube as well as being on the TV on channels that our target audience would watch like SKY and MTV, and then on the radio I would get Capital FM to advertise the film. I predict that advertising would take up a large part of our budget due to the fact that our film is a small budget film and that the actual filming and editing of the film wouldn't cost much at all (Possibly 2/3 of the budget would go on advertising, but this would be made up due to the films quality and ability to connect with it's audiences). I would aim for a sponsorship deal with someone like Lynx as this is a company that gets a lot of exposure among our target audience.

The type of media that would advertise our film would be; TV; Radio; and magazines. This is down to the fact that these media institutions are what our target audience like to use the most when they are going about their day.

Evaluation - Question 3

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Audience Man Bag

The man bag is designed on that of a 14-35 year old male

Target Audience Character Profile

Name: James Grayson
Age: 18
Interests: Socialising; Football; Films; Drinking; History; Technology; Tennis; Money; Working; Girls; and Music
Qualifications: 10+ GCSE's; 3+ A Levels; and Currently studying at University.
Aspirations: To be a History teacher or Lecturer and having a small family
Favourite Shops: Sports Direct; River Island; Topshop; Marks and Spencer; JD Sports

Evaluation - Question 2

Question

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

To answer this question I am going to get a still of Jason Statham as he is someone that the main character of  my groups opening sequence is based around and then compare it with the main character from our film 'Loan Shark'.

Here's our main character

Owen Grey played by Graham Trotter

When casting for our main character of Owen Grey we wanted someone that would understand what we were trying to create and would be available to us when we were wanting to film, because with this being a sixth form project people would have different lessons; timetables; and jobs which means at certain times they wouldn't be able to film.

We were also looking someone that was reasonably handsome to play our lead character, because even though our main demographic are 15-34 year old males, if we had a handsome main character that would attract a female audience and earn the film more money in the box office. However I felt that the lead character also had to be someone that could relate to the audience in there appearance by not being the typical muscular actor with the fairy tale good looks like Tom Cruise or George Clooney.

Also, due to the appearance of our main character I feel that he challenges the conventions of the typical Action Adventure movie star. This is because a normal convention with the stars of Action Thrillers is for the main character to be thin or muscular and look like he can handle a fight, while with our main character he is overweight and you wouldn't put a safe bet on him to win a fight, however this means that he is able to share more of a connection with the people that are in his position whether that's overweight or low on cash.

The mise en scene is also good for this character as he doesn't wear any watches or necklaces and nor does he have expensive clothes. This was vital for the feel of the film as the main character is someone that 

Taken all of this together we decided as a group that I should be the main star in the opening sequence of Loan Shark, because it was most suitable to us and due to my appearance I fit in with the chosen demographic of 15-34 year old males mostly from Britain as I'm not dashing with my looks but I'm good enough to attract a female audience and I'm slightly overweight and that'll create a connection to the audience even more, because I'm not super skinny and it's more realistic in a way.

Jason Statham

Jason Statham is an actor that has traditionally played the typical hard man in all of his films that can protect everyone and himself. One of the reasons that Jason Statham inspired us when creating our main character Owen Grey was because he still does a lot of low-budget films with British film companies and as we're a British Film Company that is creating the production of Loan Shark we that he was a good person to set our character around.

However, another reason why we chose Jason Statham to base our main character around was, because he appeals to the same audience as he mostly does Action Thriller films which is the genre that we are doing. So this means that basing our character around Jason Statham we should be able to attract the same audience which is 14-35 year olds.

Two males aged 14-35 looking at a film poster with Jason Statham on it.

Similarities

• Jason Statham is someone that a British audience can relate to, because he is British.
• A lot of his films our where he is the good guy that has to save someone.
• The clothing that he wears in Killers Elite (where for a part of the film he is trying to save Robert De Niro) are clothes that most people would wear.
• In both of the films ('Killers Elite' and 'Loan Shark') the main characters are both people who have had someone very important to them kidnapped and are looking to find the person and get their revenge on the guilty parties involved.

Differences

• In the film Killers Elite he is a professional killer while in our film Loan Shark our main character is just an unemployed man.
• He is the typical Hollywood hard guy in the way that he has a muscular body and a grizzly voice, while I have a bit of a stomach and a soft voice.
• I Killers Elite  the film grows and turns to be part of a government conspiracy, while in 'Loan Shark' it is just simply someone in a poor economic state trying to track down his wife and her kidnappers.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

To answer this question I have got nine stills from the 2009 Action Thriller Sherlock Holmes, becuase even though the film is about the Sherlock Holmes books, it is still in the Action Thriller genre and goes back and uses clips from the film with the titles.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

www.artofthetitle.com 

Sherlock Holmes does things a bit differently, because it does it's titles at the end of the film for the end titles/credits. However, it still uses some of the same conventions as we do in 'Loan shark'.

'Loan Shark'

Just about all of the Action Thriller film openings that I have seen in the past, whether it be leisure or research use an animation to show their titles to their target audience, like in James Bond or Mission Impossible. So because of this I feel that we are challenging the standard conventions of the genre when we have the titles going over the film like in 'The Towering Inferno'. We really liked the idea of challenging the standard conventions, because it would show and require more creative skill while still keeping with the genres conventions. So to do this we decided to split the opening sequence into sections by splitting them up with the titles.

Below are the titles that we have used:

This title is showing our production company logo and it is right at the start of the film with no sound over it or anything, as the only connection from the logo to the film is the fact that our production company "Three Lions Productions" made the film.

We done this because, we didn't want a long animated video like those of James Bond and Mission Impossible, as even though the fantastic opening sequence is one of the reasons the James Bond is known throughout the world it weren't something that we were hoping to recreate. Sherlock Holmes does the same thing as us for our title sequence as it puts the titles within the films video, yet it uses an animation so that it stays within the films story line. 

For the clips we wanted it to be quite light given the films plot and I feel that this once again gives us a closer connection to our target audience, because traditionally in Action Thriller it's always done in a dark warehouse where they fight to the end, however because we want our film to be realistic we choose it to be throughout the day and in a wide open space like a field as in reality the last thing that you want to do is to meet a stranger in a dark and spooky place like an old warehouse or alleyway. 

The music however, did stay within the standard conventions of the genre as for most action thrillers their music is a guitar solo and that's exactly what we have used to build the tension through the opening sequence and to give a commentary of events as at the end of the opening we use a piano to explain the sense of loss and disappointing in the eyes of our main character. 

We decided to put the films title at the end of the opening sequence as that is at one of the points where the tension is at it's highest and also it challenges the standard conventions of most Action Thrillers as they normally put their films title at the end of the film. For the other titles in the opening sequence that tell the audience who's in the film and who made it we decided to put in between the different scenes to split them up and help to build the tension even more as it get the audience wonder what's happening, because this is a technique that is used a lot it Thrillers and Horrors.

Despite this, throughout the whole opening sequence we decided to challenge most of the standard conventions of the Action Thriller genre, while sticking with the more basic ones like the music and the plot of the film.