Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

In my preliminary task, I failed to create a solid and effective script, which is something I was able to change between the preliminary task and the main project. For my preliminary task, to say there was little planning would be an understatement, as there was effectively no planning involved. My group and I simply had one or two discussions about ideas and then proceeded to film the scenes, which is the main reason as to why the preliminary task was a failure. These failures, however, allowed me to see what I had done wrong, and then build upon those things to ensure that all planning for the main project was thorough. During the editing process, the job of editor was left to one of my group members, with little to no input or help from anyone else in the group, a factor which I was able to alter during my main project. The best thing about my preliminary task was the feedback I received from my classmates, as this was the main basis for improvement which I later applied to my main project. one area which remained constant from the preliminary task to the main project is teamwork, or rather, the lack of it. for the preliminary task, i effectively threw an idea down,and everyone in the group accepted it, without question, so there was a lac of creativity and deviation which could have potentially improved out preliminary sequence.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Given the fact that my film is based around the Action, Thriller and Science Fiction genres, I would target people who are roughly between the ages of 16 and 25. My reasoning for this is that people of between these ages visit cinemas more often that people of any other age, which also links in with my choice of target gender - Male. generally Males visit cinemas more often than females, and therefore it would make sense to tailor my film for and gear it towards Males rather than females, as there would be more potential revenue from this gender. Because my film is in english, the nationality of the audience is fairly elastic, as a high proportion of the world population speak fluent english which benefits me greatly, as again the potential revenue of my film will be higher than a film in italian, for example. I would suggest that people who would enjoy my film would be the kinds of people who visit smaller independent cinemas and who regularly attend film festivals and have a fairly high expertise of independent film rather than people who visit multiplex cinemas, as my film is nowhere near the quality of box office hits such as "Avatar" or "Skyfall".


I know that my film is very niche, and therefore will not attract the mass audiences that films such as "Skyfall" did.

Narrative

A narrative structure is defined as the order in which a narrative is presented to the viewer.
The narrative structure of a film can be divided into five sections: the equalibrium point, the...

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my film, there are four main individuals: two scientists, one shadowy figure (who is the boss of a criminal organisation) and finally one courier (hired by the boss of the criminal organisation to retrieve a serum). I feel that the boss of the criminal organisation could stand to represent one of two sectors of society; upper-class, or lower-middle class, which could create a sense of controversy. my reasoning for stating that he could represent the upper classes is odd, in that i feel he doesn't necessarily represent the people themselves, or as a group, but he can be used to represent their desires and resources, such as the desire to gain more power, material items, the money they have, and the inferior people which tasks can be delegated to, which is reminiscent of people in our society such as government ministers, corporate bosses, CEO's and so on. in regards to the scientists in the film, we tried to go for a simple, stereotypical look (white lab coat, protective goggles etc...), to help the audience identify the type of character they will be dealing with as quick as possible. of course, we decided to set the scenes involving the scientists in a science lab, to further reinforce the stereotype, and with that, the representation. now, the actor chosen to portray the boss of the criminal organisation. he is tall, with a deep clear voice, with an undertone of frustration about him, which allowed him to fit the role almost perfectly, and therefore only enriched the representation. generally, people of high status in our society dress smart (suit and tie) and are looked up to for their vast wealth, intellect, and of course - power.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My film is based on three genre's, as you will have found out in my answer to question one, perhaps the most noticeable of the three is science fiction, which is why I have identified "Hammer Films" as my production company as they have experience producing not only science fiction films, but also thriller films, which is another of my focus genre's. Below are a few examples of thriller films produced by Hammer Films.

Nightmare (1964).
Hysteria (1965).
Fear in the Night (1972).

The Curse of Frankenstein was a horror/ science fiction film produced by Hammer Films.

I have chosen Entertainment Films as my distributor, purely because they have a lot of experience with the distribution of science fiction films. "DREDD", "Apollo 18" and "Mutant Chronicles" are some examples of films distributed by Entertainment Films.

Fig 1. "Apollo 18" Official Film Trailer.




My film could be released in smaller, independent cinemas, and it could be made available to watch either on youtube or as a digital download on one of many other video sharing websites.

Opening Seaquence Analysis: The Expendables 2

Editing style and features: cutting between shot in the opening two minutes of this film are very frequent, and allow the audience to build up a bigger picture of the setting, the scenario, and the characters that play a key role in the plot. A high proportion of the editing directs the audiences attention to two specific groups of people in this title sequence, the expendables (squad of highly trained mercenaries) and an unidentified man (restrained in the centre of a dark room and with a burlap sack covering his head) surrounded by a militia force (who are holding him captive). The editing between these shots shows the link between the two (the restrained man is clearly a person who is the goal of the operation, and the expendables who are there to achieve that objective), this is a form of parallel editing, in which two different scenes are inter cut to create a sense of tension among the audience, and these cuts generally lead to the two scenes coming together, (the climax of the sequence) which is where the majority of the action in said sequence will take place.

Credits and text: there is some text at the beginning of the sequence, which is the location of the compound in the frame. Aldo, as the mercenaries are crusading through the compound, the words “BAD ATTITUDE” and “COMING SOON” can be seen on the side and rear of their vehicles. This ads a slightly comedic tone to the rather brutal action sequence (one of the best I have seen, I may add) and is everything you would expect from the powerful and well humoured mercenary characters portrayed by Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren and others.

Camera movement and framing: right at the beginning, we have the first of two establishing shots in this opening sequence. There is a compound in this shot, which appears to be either an oil refinery or some form of military compound. This shot sets the scene for this sequence, giving the audience a sense of what kinds of things to expect from they following scenes, and certain conventions within the Action genre can be portrayed by different settings – this setting would conjure up images of military spec weaponry and armament, military vehicles, gunfights and high precision kills, among other things, whereas an oil refinery would suggest large explosions, lots of fire, scientists, oil spoils and so on. Also the framing of the establishing shot can alter the way in which the audience perceive the setting, and in this particular sequence, the framing of the establishing shot seems to suggest that someone is looking over the compound to find any weak spots (over watch), and this idea is re-enforces when we see the mercenaries cascading over the top of a hill towards the compound in their military vehicles, as if to suggest they have found a gap in the patrol route which could make the operation run a little more smooth.

Mise-en-scene: most of the Mise-en-scene, if not all, is what you would typically expect from a film of the Action genre – things like soldiers, helicopters, tanks, small arms, explosions, flames, military related activity, fast vehicles, collisions and of course - glorious death.

Sound, dialogue & music: most of the sound in this sequence is diegetic (the source of the sound is visible on screen) –the sound of a tank driving past, the sounds of women and children hurrying to evade the military force, the sounds of the gate being opened and closed etc. also, with the arrival of the mercenaries arrive comes the sound of the machine gun mounted on the top of Stallone’s’ vehicle and operated by Statham, the sound of terry crews firing a man portable rocket launcher. Also the sounds of the mercenaries’ vehicles tearing through the pathways inside this compound, along with their speech to one another.

Introduce characters: there is a man being driven through the afore mentioned military compound in an open-topped vehicle, this combined with his body language and the way that all of the civilians flee desperately when the vehicle drives past suggests that he is a high ranking military officer, or perhaps the head of a militia/ guerrilla force. The man who is restrained inside the dark room inside the compound is only identified as Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) slightly later in this opening sequence, and he is either one of the mercenaries, or is closely linked to them. Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) and Toll Road (Randy Couture) are one of the main focuses of this opening sequence, and they are seen hurtling over a hill and downwards toward the compound, in the typical style, as one would know if one had seen the first expendables film.

Indicate genre: this film is perhaps one of the most stereotypical action films in existence, largely due to the fact that it includes top actors who regularly perform in films of the action genre. People such as Bruce Willis - who plays Church, Chuck Norris - who plays Booker, and Jean-Claude Van Damme - who plays the main antagonist of the film.

Iconography:

Enigma: someone of high importance or value to the people who the mercenaries are contracted to, or the mercenaries themselves, is being held hostage inside some form of military compound, and it is up to the mercenaries to get him out.

Props & sets:

Star casting: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth