What kind of media instititution might distribute your media product and why? QUESTION 3

Distribution is how the companies promote their film by making posters, trailers etc in order to get the film seen and to make as much money as possible.

We would promote our film by showing our finished film at a film festival like BANG. Above is a video we have found for people who like us, have made short films so we can publish our film.

We can also publish our films on youtube in order for us to be seen by other media institutions who like our film and want to distribute it. These are examples of screen shots of films that we have found which are on youtube and are of short films similar to ours.

This is from a bilborough youtube channel where we can upload our film like other students do.

Evaluation Q3: Emily Bland

Distribution of films is when film companies promote their films by using posters or trailers to advertise it to an audience. For our own film we will create a poster that will help promote it using all the relevant information e.g. Title, actors names etc. Major distributers have a much higher budget therefore they are able to widely advertise the trailers on T.V, use posters and create merchandise that relates to the film. However, independent film companies have a lower budget and generally only stick to trailers and posters.
  You could upload your film to Youtube or enter them in film festivals such as the Bang! Short film festival

Here are two local short film makers from Nottingham that entered their film in the festival, we could also do this to distribute our own film.

LIONSGATE
Lionsgate have used this poster to portray 'Saw II' as a gruesome film. The title of the film suggests that it is about extreme torture because of the way 'Saw' looks like it has been with fingernails. Due to the presence of the mask, on what would seem to be the threat, it gives the audience the idea that these torturings will be seen as a game to the villain.

In the trailer for 'Saw II' Lionsgate have use fast editing with occasional lengthier shots to give an intense atmosphere, enticing the audience with the deep voices of the villain and making them become intrigued and eager to see more. They use lots of different images close together that are associated with the genre of the film to let the audience know that this is a gruesome, torturous film.

HAMMER

Hammer have used very dark grey/blue tones for the poster to create a dark and dreary atmosphere, as if all the happiness had been removed from the place in which it is set. This attracts an audience as they begin to wonder why and how this has happened. It is clear that the cloaked figure at the back of the poster is the threat as it is looking towards the main character from behind.

By using more familiar things such as music from childrens toys and little country villages, this trailer helps people relate to old time english countryside making what is happening seem like it could have been true which makes it scarier for an audience. 

FANTASTIC FILMS

                                                                  

 The poster for The Wake Wood suggests that this film is about trying to break free and escape Wake Wood as the hand is reaching out of the ground. The blood running down the arm tells us that there will be gore and that some characters will be fighting for their lives. I believe that this is a very effective poster as it creates an air of mystery as to what is going to happen. This would be the sort of poster which would be put up on poster boards, at bus stops etc.

        

This trailer is fairly fast and jumps very quickly from one thing to another to mirror the way that the characters have a time limit in which they have to sort out their situation with their daughter that they brought back from the dead. This differs from the slow calm pace of the trailer for 'The Woman In Black'.

We based our poster around the Paranormal activity posters as we liked the idea of using a still from our film.

Here is our poster for our film, we took a still from our title sequence and created a tag line to make the poster seem more chilling.

We created our Red Balloon Productions logo by focusing on the layout of the Dreamworks logo, especially focusing on the clouded background. We chose to make the clouds dark and gloomy as it is for a horror film so we wanted to mirror the atmosphere of the film. We also used bold, clear font so it is easy to read and stands out.

What kind of media instititution might distribute your media product and why? QUESTION 3 part 2

        

Trailer for The Resident

Hammer is an independent distributor. 

The way that Hammer sell the trailer to try and sell the film by making the film as ambiguous as possible because you don't see who the threat is as it shows you lots of different people that it could be to throw the audience off and make them want to see the film to find out who it really is.

The trailer shows the main character who is an actress to attract the male audiences to watch this film. The trailer uses fast cuts in editing to make the film seem fast pace and builds up suspense which would leave the audience wanting to watch more and therefore hopefully go out and buy/watch the film.

This is a poster for The Resident made by the production company 'Hammer'

The way the in which they try and sell the film is by having the main character and victim in the middle to highlight who the actress is 'Hilary Swank' which might influence the audience more to go and watch it.

The setting underneath highlights to the audience where the film will be taking place. The setting is New York City which hightens the suspense of the film as there are thousands of people in the city so its difficult to find out who the villian is,

There appears to be someone behind the victim who appears to be the villian but the image is blurry and unclear so you can't see who it is and gives off a enigma.

The title and the slogan is ambiguous so that the audience are interested in going to watch the film to find out what the film is about.

If Hammer distributed our horror film we would have posters and a trailer made to put on the television and on youtube to get out film noticed and out to the public like they did for 'The Resident'

Another independent production company is ''Fantastic film'

 One example of a film which they have made is - The Wake Wood

This is distributed by this independent film company byproducing a poster to entice the audience and make them want to watch the film just by looking at the poster. It is faily ambigious so that it makes the audience question and wonder whats happened/happening in the film.

The two independed production companies and the major production company vary only slightly in difference because they both release trailers and posts to distribute their film out to audiences. The main difference is that the major company has more money and a wider known audience and companies to do business with in order to get their film out faster and to more people/countries.

This is our final poster for our film. Even though we liked the posters from the films above, we chose to make ours based on Paranormal Activity.

Here is our final poster.

We used a still image from our film for the title sequence and included fonts which were similar to our style model of a film poster of Paranormal Activity below, which has been or inspiration.

Unlike our style model, we included social networking sites like facebook and twitter at the bottom of the poster so that audiences know where to find out more information for the film as well as the website. 

Our film poster will appear all around the UK, on bilboards and in magazines. The trailer will be realised at a similar time to the posters so that audiences can see and watch both at similar times. It would be similar to trailers like Paranomal activity, the ring and the grudge as these were all massive style models for our films and research.

Release dates.

As stated on the poster. Our film will be out on Friday the 13th of August in all cinemas across the UK.

The DVD will be released at a later date.

This is our production company logo.

This is dreamworks logo.

The similaraties are the cloud theme which connotes that something is coming like a storm on the horizon, unknowing of what may happen which is always good to have in a horror film as it uses conventions.

The differences are the colours. Ours uses darker colours which links with our genre of film because it is creepy and scary. Whereas, the blue of Dreamworks is more brighter and calmness.

Evaluation Q4: Emily Bland

From the IMDB research I did for the film 'The Ring' and 5 other films including 'Ghost Ship', we are aiming our horror film at a male audience between the ages of 18 and 29. From the research of the other horror films watched, the ages of the audience were either the same or very similar.

We plan to challenge the common representation of the lead victim as we are going to use a male actor instead of female so the male audience are able to relate much more easily to how the character reacts and how he might be feeling.

The film Ghost Ship portrays the male characters as fairly week people as they are soon killed or injured as they often put actions into motion without thinking about the consequences and this is what happened to some of the men in ghost ship. So our male character will be a very vulnerable character to reinforce the idea that men are weak in ghost films.

How did you attract/address your audience? Question 2

 For all of these films are : What lies beneath, The Grudge, The Ring,

Discrimination

None.

Drugs

Can be shown but not glamourised

Horror

Allowed unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) allowed but not in great detail. Weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

Strong language like ‘fuck’ is allowed . 'Cunt’ is allowed but only if relevent. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity allowed but without strong detail. No constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context

Sex

Sexual activity is allowed but without strong detail. Allowed if it is relevent ot the plot. Porn is unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

All themes are allowed if it is accepted for a 15 year old audience

Violence

Violence may be shown but not show detail of injury. Strong gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is not acceptable.May be acceptable if it is subtle.


The Others is a 12 and the BBFC.co.uk website said that to have in a 12 there must be :

Discrimination

No allowed

Drugs

Allowed but inferequent. Not glamourised

Horror

Physical and psychological threat may be permitted if it is moderate and  not frequently shown

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour such as hanging, suicide and self-harming should be shown in detail which could be copied, or appear pain or harm free.  Weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’) must be infrequent.

Nudity

Allowed
Sexual context must be brief and discreet.

Sex

Sexual activity must be shown briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should only be allowed to show what is acceptable for young teenagers. .If it is frequent then it should not be accepted.

Theme

Acceptable - if suitable for young teenagers.

Violence

Allowed but not in detail on injuries or blood
Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated but they must be relevent to the plot.



After reading what the bbfc says about what should be in a film, i think our film is a 12 as it doesn't include strong horror, sex, violence, etc which is in a 15.

Evaluation

Isabel has finished her evaluation
Laurie and Emily have got questions 3 and 5 to do.

Q5 - Reflective Evaluation Isabel Wong

The 5 films I've picked out are : Sixth Sense, The Grudge, The Ring, Poltergeist, The Innocents

This is the user ratings report of Sixth Sense, it shows the males and females under 18 as majority of users. It is a certificate 15, in the film, there is no use of strong language and violence or durg taking scen in Sixth Sense so it matches the requirement of being listed as a certificate 15 film.

This is the user rating report of The Grudge, the distribution of users is quite even, where age group under 18 and age group around 30-45+ are both the majority of users. It is a certificate 15 film, same as Sixth Sense, there is no presence of any drug taking or abuse scenes or use of strong language.

This is the user rating report of The Ring, same as Sixth Sense the group which contains the largest amount of users is Aged under 18, in which female under 18 is rated the highest. It is also a certificate 15 film.

This is the user rating report of Poltergeist, same as the films above, the age group under 18 has the highest rate of users. But there's a slight difference here, as males under 18 rated the most here. It is a certificate 15 film.

This is the user ratings report of The Innocents, different from the films above, its highest rated age group is groupd aged 18-29. It is a 12A certificate film.

Certificate 15 means films only suitable for 15 years old or above, subsequently anyone aged below 15 is not allowed to watched a '15' film in a cinema or rent or buy a '15' rated video work.
The use of discrimination-related language or words is prohibited. For sexual, drug taking and violent scenes, they must not be demonstrated in details and never make them imitable. Especially for drug related scenes, the use of easily accessed drugs and high;y dangerous substences as props is not allowed. Some common strong language like 'fuck' is allowed to use but there is a limited standard on using strong words, for instance 'cunt' is the strongest term that could be accepted in this case. Too many repetition of strong language is not allowed as well.

Certificate 18 means no one younger than 18 is allowed to watch an '18' labelled film or renting or buying it.  There is not much limitations on '18' rated films since adults should have their own choice

of entertainment. But any events in the film that would encourage illegal activities is not allowed.

There shouldn't be any encouragement of drug use or violence in the films.

Too explicit sexual works which might stimulate or arouse sex is classified as 'R18' while educational sexual scenes are not problem to show in an '18'

We've watched a lot of horror films with children and teenagers as victims, this has given us a very important idea that to appeal our target audience who are teenagers, we need to create a mutual threat for them. We need to make the story to be more similar to their daily life so as to engage our film with their daily routine. So mutual threat will be the major thing they are going to enjoy.

We don't target a particular gender since we would like to draw as many audience as we can to our film. Therefore, male and female at the age 15 will be our target audience. In order to make our film more engaged to our target audience, we deliberately selected a boy as the victim of our film. Since we know female audience are the ones easier to be scared while male appear to be more challenging to appeal. So base on this reason, we've made more mutual threat for our male audience in order to draw them more into the film.

In order to engage our target audience, we've picked our filming location in a park where everyone can easily access. As most of our target audience are students, they are the ones who go to park very often as well, so we think we've picked an appropriate location to appeal them. Likewise, the part they will enjoy is going to be the mutual threat we create for them. Since they walk pass or go to parks everyday, whenever they are near a park, they might think of our film then. The thing they will be looking to see should be the horrible backstory behind the park, this might make them feel creepy about parks. Also, we've made the swings and other facilities in the park move on their own, this fits the convention of our sub genre. Mist is also put into the film, the unlikelihood of the appearance of mist in parks could further create the sense of mystery.

In terms of casting, we have chosen actor and actress at the age around 15 in order to fit our target audience. As mentioned, the major strategy to appeal them is mutual threat, so we tend to make everything closer to audience's personal life, then we would be able to leave them an incredible impression by effectively making use of mutual threat. So the resemblance of our actors' age to our target audience's age is really important in putting our film on a successful stage.

In our title sequence, we've put the girl's family footages to tell the backstory of the film. Since family videos are common within our target audience's families, this is another way to create a mutual threat for our audience. As soon as they know about this horrible story related to family videos, they are more likely to be scared or haunted when they look at their family videos again. Also, our target audience are still very young, they might even have been their own family videos, this mgiht make them start thinking if they will be murdered in the way the girl had before. Likewise, the clips we use for the film are quite shaky and jumpy, this makes our film to look more real in our audience's eyes, so this is one of the factors that brings our film to success.

Since our film is named 'The Lullaby'. We tend to make the music to be more lullaby-like. Furthermore, for our yound audience, lullaby should not be a distant memory for them, they might even have some favourite lullaby. So the idea of creating an errie lullaby is just appropriate in haunting our audience's head. This makes lullaby to become something creepy in their mind.

We have received very positive feedback from our classmates and they pointed our that we had a fabulous title sequence with excellent music, various types of shots were also used.  They even gave us very high mark for our film. However, this makes us realize that we were too harsh in the marking of our film, the mark we gave ourselves was just way too low when compare to the marks we received from our audience. So I'm really happy about the comments we've received on our final film.