what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products (film openings)?
Frame One: My film opens with the 'Good Feelings' Logo which I tried to make link closely to the genre of the film it is presenting; Science Fiction. It has a futuristic looking font similar to films like 'The Hunger Games' and uses a convention in the genre of Science Fiction; lasers, exemplifying the genre. We also had the logo fade in then out instead of hard cutting as to not be to harsh when coming into frame, I made this editing decision based on the title reveal in Brazil.
Frame Two: In my second frame I had a totally black screen for ten seconds, I had the screen to emphasize the noises in the protagonists dream, the idea here was to show that every night he has a dream of a different interpretation of freedom. Here it is meant to represent the beach, whereas the closing dream shows him in a field. This is used to create intrigue in the beginning of the film by making an enigma, just like the beginning of Brazil, it ambiguously opens with a set time, drawing attention to it's importance, and making people guess 'What happens at this particular time?'.
Frame Three: I tried to keep the colour palette for the film very unsaturated, had the character always in Blacks/grey. I had the camera shake here whilst he dreamed to represent the instability of the character. Keeping the camera far away for a long shot I hoped for this to be the establishing shot of the character. Just like in Brazil the colour palette was very monochrome, to depict a sterile and very controlled future, and exemplify the dullness of it.
Frame Four: Frame Four is an extreme close up on the graphic we made, 'Wake up', which we placed onto the television, accompanied by the disembodied voice of a man saying 'It's time for you to wake up'. We did this to represent the anonymous and distant villain, which is a force larger than a single dictator. We took this inspiration specifically from 1984, with the television screens across the city that told the citizens what to do and what was going on.
Frame Five: I used a shot reverse shot back to frame three to represent that time hadn't passed since then . It then shows him waking and sitting up. The beginning of our film was fairly slow just like Brazil's, holding a shot for quite a while, where Brazil had a slow pulling out shot of a television store, our movie had a still shot of the character awaking, this was used to represent that time hadn't passed and how tired how the character is, suggesting this treatment has been on-going for a long time.
Frame Six: Frame Six was a low angle shot of the character choosing his clothes. This was meant to represent the organised routine nature of the protagonist, with his clothes neatly laid out ready for him. We tried to depict this very neatly controlled and watched universe just like in our inspirational films 1984 and Brazil.
Frame Seven: The seventh frame into the film mirrors the previous shot of a high angle of the characters hands, before this it was him taking his clothes and here it is him washing his hands, I did this to continue the theme of routine and control on the characters life, as so far in the film he has took no time to relax or have fun, he has just woke up to his set alarm, chose his set clothes and washed. I made these decisions based on the concepts in Brazil of this very organized and closely examined world, so I used this shot and the previous to express this.
Frame Eight: Frame eight is a medium shot of the character putting on a black sweatshirt. I firstly took this from one of my inspirational movies, Antiviral (2012), the design in this shot was inspired by the main character of Antiviral, Syd March, who is always dressed in monochrome clothes. This is also shown in the movie 1984, where the characters are all dressed in dark blue jumpsuits. I think these movies did this to express that the government made this dystopia with a lack of imagination, and a control of expression or individuality, which is why I implemented this design into my film, to depict the governments control on the character's dress and sense of free expression. I also had the character face ninety degrees away from the camera as to create an enigma, I wanted to create an enigma as to give the audience a mystery to help fuel their desire to watch the film. I helped to accentuate this enigma by giving the characters room dim lighting so the television light is clearly on his face, creating the question of "What is on the television".
Frame Nine: Frame Nine is a medium shot of the television inside the boys room, we used the television here to show the moving graphic of the 'Utopia News' logo. Me and my partner wanted to have a news broadcast within the film to give more back story to the film, we wanted to depict the government showing the riots on television as to make an incentive for the people to want to stay at home. We made the moving graphic to try and give continuity to the news broadcast within the film, instead of just say a still image logo, which we thought would damage the continuity and ruin the suspension of disbelief for the film. We also took inspiration from the film Brazil here, which opens with a news broadcast very specifically discussing riots, but in particular the opening to the film 1984. Which shows a huge crowd watching a giant screen of a man talking of the war outside their country and how great their country is, expressing this propaganda and lies to the people to brainwash them, I wanted to express like in 1984 how the government is trying to control everybody, but the protagonist in our film and 1984, is mentally free from the governments influence. I wrote the character very specifically with Brazil and 1984's protagonist in mind, where the person doesn't believe what the government tells them.
Question Two: How does you media product represent particular social groups?
Brazil (1985)
Antiviral (2012)
1984 (1984)
Our movie - Utopia (2015)Question Three: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Question Four: Who would be the audience for your media product?
Age - 18 Gender - Male Ethnicity - Black, British Education - College
Economic status - Middle class Employment - Part time Sexual Orientation - Interested in Women Family Background - British
Interests and hobbies - Movies, gaming,
Personality - Friendly, intelligent
From studying and online sources I realized that the majority of sci-fi fans were males between 16-40 (roughly). This was prominent in the research of the films Brazil featuring a middle aged man, and Black Mirror, which featured a young boy. I made the main character of my story a young teenager as to try and relate to some of the audience. I made the boy's costume always monochrome to keep with the dystopian theme, and have the character silent, since he is not only alone but possibly representing the silencing of the nation on him.
Question Five: How did you attract/address your audience?
I tried to use sci-fi conventions to attract the target audience into enjoying the movie. I used the dystopian future which appears in multiple movies from The Terminator, The Matrix, Brazil and a film I studied; Children of Men. I tried to keep the concept unique, as to draw in people to see the movie. I also tried to have a well directed story to work thematically as a film. Using cuts to separate the shots, match on actions to connect them, and hopefully with the directing a fully functioning narrative became present.
Question Six: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this media product?
This is a picture I have created showing the six pieces of technology I used during the Media project and were essential to it's completion.
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