Note to Examiner

Dear Examiner, 

During the past eight months I've been working tirelessly on my Media Studies coursework, which is hopefully reflected in my blog. During my journey I have learned many crucial lessons about filmmaking and the presentation of media on a whole.

To the right of this post, you'll find a 'Blog Archive', containing a structured account of my project. This ranges from the first post underlining the brief for my coursework underneath the 'September 2013' section to now in Mid-March. I hope you enjoy navigating through my blog as much as I have enjoyed working on it.

Louis Hooke

Evaluation Activity: Progression

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

Due to the difference in the scale of production between the preliminary (Jake 16:3) and opening (Homme De La Montagne), there were forced contrasts in terms of camerawork, editing, sound.

Camerawork

In the preliminary task, the sole focus of the project was to integrate three prominent camera shots including: The 180-degree rule, Match on Action and the Shot Reverse Shot. This immediately shortened the length of my creativity in terms of the variety of shots I could display in the task.

With the opening sequence, I felt freer in terms of the range of camera shots to carry out which widened the creative side of the project. For example, in my opening sequence I used a tracking shot, high angle shots and close ups.     

Shots from Jake 16:3:

Shots from Homme De La Montagne:

As shown above, these shots are a lot more interesting and appealing to the audience depicting the difference in shots and creativity between the preliminary task and the opening sequence.

Editing

In terms of editing, I spent around 2-3 hours editing the preliminary task, making it the best I could and I thought this amount of time was quite justifiable. I think when it came to editing; there were fewer varieties of shots and effects to add. When it came to editing my opening sequence this amount of time almost quadrupled. 

I feel there is very large difference in the style of editing between the two productions. The opening sequence was more visually pleasing in comparison to the preliminary task. This was largely down to using Final Cut Express 4 in the Preliminary Task and taking the step up to the more advanced Final Cut Pro X for the Opening Sequence which has often been described as the most superior editing program out there.

Sound

With the preliminary task, my only aim relating to non-diabetic sound was to find a soundtrack that fit with the occurrences in the film and reflect the atmosphere in the scene.

However, with the opening sequence, I wanted to highlight my target audience through the use of a soundtrack, so had to find a well-known and male centred piece of music. I went into great depth to find the perfect soundtrack which turned out to be 'Seven Nation Army' by The White Stripes.

Evaluation Activity: Construction

Evaluation Activity: Attracting Audience

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to entice a large audience, I had to target my opening sequence at the largest group of people that watch films. After some lengthy research this was found out to be the age range between: 15-24. In order to find this age range the story line had to be one that would appeal to and captivate this specific demographic. Moreover by planning my film to attractive this age group, it means that there will be a lot more marketing through word of mouth.

Due to people between the ages of 10-15 not being as likely to go to the cinema, I decided to put my Opening Sequence 1st Draft on YouTube and the final version on Vimeo. This meant that I could appeal to a wider age range and therefore maximise the potential of my opening sequence.

With my target audience being between the ages of 15-24, I chose upon casting a boy that would fit into that age range. I utilised social media (web 2.0) to help get the word around about my film.

Twitter

To build and audience and for audience feedback I used Twitter:

 

YouTube/Vimeo

The two best and most popular video sharing platforms are YouTube/Vimeo which are both used by my target audience:

Evaluation Activity: Distribution

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

The distribution of a film (or movie) is the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor. 

My film would be likely to receive funding from studios that take greater risks on UK films such as Fox Searchlight or Film4 Productions. These studios tend to take on lower budget films and aim to turn them into major blockbusters. Examples of this are both Slumdog Millionaire and 12 Years a Slave, which were both, turned into Oscar winning, major revenue films from a low budget descent.

My product presents a fresh look and a move away from the current influx of comedy or action ski films by aiming to be an instant adventure classic. My film ‘Homme de la Montagne’ is a large shift away from the Frozen’s and Ski School’s of the recent cluster of films.

Evaluation Activity: Social Groups

How does your product represent specific social groups?

I wanted my character, Tyler, to represent the positive aspects of every class typically displayed in an action film. The heroic charisma of the lower class and the brave and daring persona paired with the quick-witted, canny nature of the middle-upper class. In an alpine environment, the vast majority of skiers are of Caucasian descent, which fits with the personal characteristics of Tyler.

My principle character is aged 21 therefore embodying the typical daring university student whilst they are away on ski trips with the university. This type of student will classically exhibit bold, brave and adventurous behaviour. Hopefully my film will become an instant success amongst this group of typically males who can relate to my media product.

Tyler has a powerful male appeal that has been crafted to appeal to a predominantly male audience with his macho and adventurous actions. This really pins down the target audience of males aged between 17-25 who could be range from leisure skiers to racers.

Evaluation Activity: Target Audience and Marketing

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I don't think my film would have mass mainstream appeal and therefore would be quite difficult to market. The target audience for my film would be adolescents and young males as my film chronicles the adventures of one principle male character and is a French action adventure.

This is a fairly prosperous category of film especially in France; most cinema-goers are between 15-24. Therefore I think my film would definitely be both a festival film and shown in some independent cinemas, as it would be unlikely to receive funding from major studios. 

My film would have to receive funding from studios that take more risks on UK films like Fox Searchlight or Film4 Productions.

Evaluation Activity: Challenging Conventions

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions?

My piece portrays a challenge of real media products, as it contains no dialogue. The film is not a silent film, and dialogue would be essential tool throughout, as it is about the adventures in the life of one man.

Opening sequences often contain lots of dialogue, which can give away clues about the characters, whereas I wanted to keep the mysterious, unknown side of my main character. Or even in some cases voiceovers to explain the context and to introduce the film. I believed that through leaving out dialogue, it should serve to attract greater attention from an audience, who would have to learn through seeing and interpreting, instead of simply being told what is going on.

Furthermore, the omission of dialogue helps hook the viewer into the sequence, as they are not bombarded with narrative, which may function only to confuse the audience. I also decided to experiment with this type of film by using a different linguistic, French, for all of the title sequences. This was to add a specific European flavour to the film and affect the way in which the film was perceived, to move it away from the classic American action sports film.

 

The inspiration that I used for my opening sequence came from two James Bond opening sequences: The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only. Despite these two pieces having a high budget and using expansive, budget tearing shots during the respective chases, I still managed to obtain the style of soundtrack and the areas in which title sequence were placed in the opening sequence.

I added a modern slant on action sports films by utilising majority hand-held camera shots instead of attached onto a crane or tripod. I used these shots to immerse the audience into the film and make them feel as though they were actually on the set.