Q2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our production would be more suited to an independent company in Europe, this would appeal to our niche audience.

Films with similar conventions to ours such as LA Confidential were distributed by Warner Bros, this is high end distributor while distributes box office films such as; The Hobbit, The Dark Knight Rises and Harry Potter, our film can't be placed with those.

The production company of our production would be best suited to be Working Title, they produce a wide range of films, some of these being independent features which don't become major box office hits such as; Senna and Anna Karenina, these are also very different films which show that Working Title produce a wide variety of film. A list of Working Titles most recent productions can be seen to the right.

StudioCanal who distribute many of Working Title's films around Europe would be best for our production.
Studio Canal bought Optimum, since doing so they have dominated the UK independent film industry by distributing their large back catalogue of classic British films through Optimum. This would then allow our production to be viewed by a large number of British audiences.
A list of there most recent distributions can be seen on the right.
                                                                 

Cinema city would exhibit our production as it is aimed at an independent audience and Cinema City is an upmarket/art house cinema which provides audiences with Green and Blacks chocolate, tea and wine, these are more catered to our sophisticated audience.
Currently playing at Cinema City; Alois Nebel, Argo and Arbitrage, all of these aren't playing at multiplex cinemas such as Vue due to their independence, our production would fit in with these.

Digital technologies such as Mubi can allow online users to watch our film, Mubi provides independent and old films to subscribers, this could also allow our film to be opened up to a whole new audience, I believe Video-On-Demand would be the best digital technology to distribute our production, this includes LoveFilm.
On the 28th September 2011 StudioCanal  made a deal to have their films made available on LoveFilm on their subscription at no extra coast, this shows that StudioCanal are aware of this new digitalisation and that large numbers of people are now turning to home cinema. This also means that StudioCanal may be making more deals or buying or creating their own company to stream their films to homes over the country.

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The convention of film noir thoroughly conformed to throughout our production is mise-en-scene, locations were critical throughout the making to make sure we provided the correct atmosphere for viewers. Research into other noirs was made to provide us with ideas to create an eerie and suspenseful atmosphere, which was needed for the production.

One example taken from other noirs is ‘Scarlet Street,’ this 1945 classic showed mise-en-scene which provided the tense atmosphere we needed.

The character Scarlett is seen to be leaning against a lamppost, the use of  artificial light here provides a spotlight to be illuminating the character to the audience.

We were able to select locations very similar, as our protagonist walks towards her location, she passes through a number of conventional noir locations, this includes the staircase which can symbolise either her rise up or fall.

Another example is the use of black and white and large buildings, the large buildings give a vast sense of emptiness, an example of this is from ‘Casino Royale,' although Casino Royale isn't a classic film noir, it still uses many conventions of a typical film noir.The lighting is able to give the building a sense a foreboding, we were able to replicate this, to make the viewers worried for Scarlett as she waited outside the large building. 

The black and white gives the film a sense of old age, it can also help to set the mood of a film straight away, after watching the opening to 'Casino Royale' we decided this was the best way to go with our production. It also provides an old age glamour that cannot be achieved in colour. 

The use of shadows, a convention we tried to input throughout our production, towards the end of our opening we showed the shadow of Scarlett running up the stairs, this shows two conventions. (shadow and stairs)

An example of a shadow being used is shown to the left in, 'The Killers' a noir heavily influenced by German expressionism, in this case it may appear as if the character has two personalties due to the shadow. 

Shadows are used in a variety of ways, the main one to add enigma to the setting or character. 

As you can see our use of shadow provided the scene with a lot more enigma resulting in the viewer becoming suspenseful and on edge, Scarlett appears to be running up the staircase off camera to the left, this allows the viewer to be aware she is there without having her on camera. This conforms to the thriller genre as being one of the main conventions to frighten and inform. Scarlett's shadow appears to be disorientated against the staircase, this provides viewers with the feeling she is rushing to escape or meet someone, it could also symbolise the confusion and complexity of the character and her feelings.
We have also captured this shot at an angle as it adds to the emphasis we are trying to place on this distorted character by making the shot itself appear disorientating. 

When showing the character Scarlett getting ready, there is a shot of her reflection in the mirror applying lipstick, this shot supplies another reflection of her to the right due to angle used, this gives the audience the idea of two faces, the good and the bad which can be translated into a fragmented personality, the fragile wife and the glamorous, fatale femme fatale.  

Our protagonist Scarlett is based upon the character Irene Adler (Sherlock Holmes love interest in the 2009 film) 

When watching the film viewers sympathise for the character and find her glamorous and delicate, as time goes on it becomes apparent that she is the femme fatale character who uses seduction to get what she wants and isn't entirely bothered by the consequences. this is also how we wanted the character Scarlett to appear, by having most of the opening scene showing Scarlett applying make-up and preparing to leave, the viewers find her beautiful and are drawn to her. The action of removing her wedding ring and placing it in the jewellery box forces the viewer to believe that she may not be so delicate and like Irene, she is a femme fatale. 

 We also replicated the use of the hat from the character Irene, it can be 

portrayed in two ways, to add to the femininity of the character or to create moral ambiguity by covering up a portion of the characters face, both of these are conventions used in film noir, so by adding the hat to the character Scarlett we created a larger enigma.  

Moral ambiguity is a crucial convention of film noir through the use of lighting, half of the characters face is bathed in light while the other is in darkness, this represents inner conflicts. In 'Casino Royale' the first time the viewer sees James Bond is through moral ambiguity, this makes viewers confused as to whether he is on the side of good or bad. 

We decided to use this idea for the first shot the viewers get of the character Ray, the use of darkness represents his inner conflict, the love for his wife vs. hurting his wife due to her actions. The light reflecting on him gives the idea that he was once a good man and deeply in love with his wife but due to recent actions, the darkness has overshadowed those feelings.              

The viewer is led to believe that Scarlett is someone of great wealth, this can be shown in her clothes and her house, the image on the left shows her leaving her house, this classic Victorian 4 story town house is only shot for a few seconds but gives the viewers enough time to take in her home environment and wealth, she is also wearing a fur coat and a long lace dress. 

A convention of the thriller genre isn't usually corruption in the upper class but, in the film noir context this is much more common.

An example of corruption in the upper class is in 'Layer cake,' set in a high end London town house, Daniel Craig's character appears entirely normal but he is secretly a drug dealer, ideas of corruption in high society were taken from this.  

  

The soundtrack used throughout our production isn't one which is typical of a film noir, this challenges the usual conventions. Although it is different, I believe it works with our production as the fast paced sound creates the build up we wish to make to her meeting with her secret lover.
Our production shown below can demonstrate the soundtrack we used.

Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

User Ratings

From the data collected above, I can see that LA Confidential that the film was rated similarly with both genders and ages throughout, although the highest rating was with males under 18 scoring 8.8. This shows that this film is aimed more at males, this may due to the female character.
Where as Black Dahlia scored highest with both females and males aged 18-29 at 5.7, this shows that like our film it is has an audience both equally male and female.

Actors

Establishing what actors we needed to use appeared as a complication to being with as there wasn't a male in our group and we needed someone to play the role of Ray, the silent character who follows his wife in the streets.
In our group Holly voulenteered to play the role of Scarlett, this was practical as she owned a red lace dress which was required for costume. Also, she is shorter than the people in the rest of the group which can make her appear even smaller than the daunting character Ray.
As mentioned earlier, Ray was difficult to find but one of Holly's friends, Tom Battell, offered to play the role. As he went to a different school, it was hard to outline a time that we could all film the production together, which resulted in a small time slot to film. In the end we did manage to get all thr required footage.

Thriller video - Rough cut

The rough cut displays that through the use of transitions we were able to make the production flow without being too fragmented, this was shown from 1:41 to 1:55.
I'm pleased with the amount of shot types, for example at 0:13, the angle allows the characters personality to be portrayed. and the tilt shots used at 1:20.
I believe the final piece should be in black and white due to some shots having bad lighting, this will allow this problem to be minimalized, and it will fit in more with the conventions of a film noir thriller.
I also think that the ending shot should be changed because it doesn't fit in with the music and the tension that surrounds the rest of the thriller.

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Q7 by