Task 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

It’s hard to know who would invest in our Cyber/Political Thriller as i think it has such a grand plot it would work very well if produced by a large company like Warner Bros. or Sony. But those companies are so big and successful it’s unlikely they would even hear of our idea let alone invest in an amateur group. So I needed to look at more local, smaller companies that are more willing to take risks.

Warp Films is an independent UK film production company, and was launched in 2002. They produced one of my favourite films 'This is England' which was said to be "The best British film since Trainspotting" by the Times. It won the 'Best Film' award at the British Independent Films Awards and the 14 year old Thomas Turgoose won 'Best Newcomer'. They are also known for producing 'Four Lions', 'Submarine' and 'Snowtown'.

Next i looked at Vertigo Films, is a UK Media company for distributing independent films. They are known for films like 'Streetdance 3D' opening all over the world and starting as no. 1 in the UK Box Office charts. Another of their known films is 'Monsters' and 'Horrid Henry' which took 36.5 million. A reason i think they would be interested in our film is because they produced 'Wakewood' partnered with Hammer, and becoming one of the best reviewed horror film in years.

'Summit Entertainment' was the last one I looked at but i feel it is too large a company as it is worldwide and a fairly new company as only began in 2007.

 Vertigo Films Thrillers :

• Pusher
• Retreat
• Valhalla
• Outcast
• Monsters - was a massive risk with first time director Gareth Edwards with a small budget of 500 k

I think Vertigo Films i would chose to produce our film as they seem more likely to take a risk on films which ours would need. They have also teamed up with other companies to have to the funding to produce some movies which ours may need. They also have produced a number of good thriller movies.

To make revenue for our film they would sell to cinemas and i think it would be a movie that grows in popularity, attracting a large male based target audience. After the cinema the film could be sold to DVD shops such as HMV and for download on iTunes. It would be important to market the film in areas such as where men are commuting as it has a relation to business in the Political side.

Task 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our thriller will reach an older target audience because it is based on highly important political problems and technical cyber hacking, and after my primary research survey I found that younger audiences prefer more action in the story, so I think our age will be 30 and over.
I think people will be interested by the insight to what happens and how they are dealt with with by world leaders. The large scale of the problem also draws an audience in. The Political/Cyber thriller genre could also attract an intellectual interest in the film. Because the audience is older they will be working and so in their free time will want something to watch which can excite them and interest them.
Our secondary audience will be a 20s age group. I think they will enjoy the film because it could reach an intellectual area. The film may be more aimed at a male audience because the story is based on men in charge saving the world, and I think men like to watch this type of situation seeing men like them being the hero's. On the other hand I think we would be able to attract a female audience by casting the French leader as a women. Women will like to see another Lady in charge equal with the men, and will be able to admir the powerful roll the Audrey plays.
Feedback about the idea of the thriller from an 18 year old girl The Cyber/Political Thriller feels more like a mans film with the large amount of power involved and keen technical side of the hacking, so if we were to promote this film we would target it as a middle aged male film.

"I think it sounds really interesting, because usually it's the western world that comes out on top and is attacking the rest of the world it would seem. I think the technological aspect adds something cool to the political sub-genre. I think it could potentially be really interesting to see in the cinema if it was completed." 

Task 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

In the early stages of our thriller we did surveys to find out which age groups like what kind of film genres. I worked out that younger age groups enjoy more action films and as our thriller title sequence didn't involve physical action, joint with the rest of our survey results we knew it was a 30 - 50 age range.

The political side of the film attracts stereotypical business men who are interested in news, politics and current affairs as it has similar elements and realism within the storyline.

The man cast in our thriller are all around the age of 50, and we didn't cast them to attract women as heart throbs like Brad Pitt. We chose them as average working men so it is easy for the man audience to relate and compare themselves to the men in the thriller. The audience can also aspire to an idealised version of themselves as the world leaders.

They are also extreemly powerful men at the top with the fate of the world in their hands, with all the decisions left down to them. I think theres a part in every man that would love to be the hero and save the day. The movie would develop and later on involve a family or some loved ones to focus on and see how the man of the family protects them.

The thriller would also be a time for some average men to esscape their normal lifes and fantisies about them being the man in power as they can relate to the cast.

The thriller would reach American and some European audiences as it shows those countries as the goodies and heros, the middle easter hacker character is the bad man in the thriller so those coutnries wouldnt enjoy themselves being so negatively represented.

A way to attract women as a secondry audience will be by bring forward the importance of the two powerful women characters. The American's administrator is played by Alison this is putting women very high up in the rankings, second in comman. Other women will really like to watch this as it shows how women are being as powerful as men.

Task 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at when we did our preliminary task it seems like a very long time ago but it was only a few months. I think it feels so long because i have learnt so much since we first used the camera and Final Cut Pro.

When we were filming the preliminary task it just felt unorganised because we were so new to using the camera set up, where as when it was our Thriller filming day although we still hadnt used the camera large amounts but because we had planned what we were going to be doing, who with, at what time and where, the set up felt very structured and organised. Setting the camera up on its tripod with the muff and the lighting became fairly quick as we each had a different job to do and knew how to do each of them so we could switch around.

For the editing i found it quite hard at first because it was a very new concept to me and there was a lot to remember but after the prelim editing i found i knew the basics, and then when it came to editing our thriller we had longer on it obviously and Walter had been using Final Cut Pro for a few years so he could teach me some more interesting things to do.

I'm proud of what i learnt and feel confortable using the camera and all the technical things that go with it, and am able to experiment more in editing to create a good sequence.

Editing Tiles

For the first part of our title sequence where we have a montage of shots we have decided to put titles on top of the shots. Our title sequence could be called discrete as the titles are separate from the film and are edited differently.
As our theme is political/cyber we chose a fairly simple font. And the way we edited it in was by choosing a typewriter setting which made the letters each come up individually as is someone were typing them. This links and backs up our theme subtly helping the character get behind the movie.

we are following the conventional order of the names that come up in the sequence starting with :

1. the Production company - S.W.W.C. (the combination of our initials)
2. the Distribution company - Vertigo Films
3. a few of the main characters names - Roy Bickinson, Alison Winter and Ted Jackson
4. and then at the end we will create a high tech looking title for the name

Animatic and Storyboard

We created an animatic of our thriller by filming our storyboard and recording in the current script, this was done on iMovie on an Apple. Walter edited it together adding fades and cuts to make it seem more like the real thing would.



It was really helpful creating the animatic as it gave us a rough idea of what the title sequence could look like, as we saw this were able to make changes to impove it and we are still making chances within the editing.

Editing

Now we have the filming done we have moved into the editing suit to put it all together, on Final Cut Pro which is used to edit many well known films.

Firstly we had a look through all of the footage we have and highlighted the best takes of the different shots, so when we come to putting it together we can quickly skip it the good ones.
It will be important for the team to equally work together, taking to jobs in turn and contributing ideas.


Because we used Final Cut Pro for our Prelims we all know how to use the program, and so we quickly started chosing which shots we wanted in. But after putting the wire shots, the hacker and the leaders all in together the sequence was looking too messy and confusing. So i began creating a new sequence which begins with all the wire shots fading together where we can insert the names in the moving shots, and then fall into the dialog and shos of the leaders. This gives the sequence a flow and the audience can get a sense of the genre right at the start when the names are coming up but it doesnt last so long that they will become uninterested because then the dialog begins.


I watched a movie called Salt which is an Action / Crime genre and involoves the President of the United States. In one main scene the President is taken to his safe location which is feet under the White House, this made me think of our thiller as that is what we were going for with our conference location.