FINAL PRODUCT: Film Opening: 'The Last Call'

EVALUATION QUESTION 6: (Vince Santillan)

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the production process we used a variety of different types of technology.
The equipment used in our production included:

• Canon DSL 650 D
• Tripod - Adjustable height
• Mic
• Lights
• Dolly 

The software we used for our production were:

• Adobe Premier Pro
• Blogger

Canon DSL 650 D
Pros: 

• 18 Megapixel quality on the camera allowed high definition filming and visuals
• Main part of equipment used in the production of our thriller opening
• We were taught and researched some techniques and setting on the camera so we were able to easily use the camera with no problems
• The lens and manual focus allowed a great variety of camera shots and offered higher quality
• The range of lighting it offered in the settings was very useful

Cons:

• We had to work around the battery of the camera, however, we overcame this by charging the battery whilst we were not filming
• Some settings on the camera were confusing and complex, therefore we stuck to what we knew on the camera or we researched about what the setting did
• The mic on the camera was quite weak, and so we seperately recorded voices and added it into the film for a higher quality voiceover, we synced the sound with the visual so it looked normal and smooth. 

Conclusion:
In conclusion, using this camera, i learnt quite a lot about the settings and techniques of filming. For example, i learnt how to stabilaze the camera onto a tripod; enhance the lighting on the camera using settings and how to use a handheld camera to film to film in a variety on camera angle.

iMac
Pros:

• Used in pre production and post production
• Used to edit some parts of the 
• Used for research, photoshop, photo editing, etc.
• The iMac auto-saved most things

Cons:

• Occasionally the Macs were slow and as a result, crashed or froze. We overcame this by waiting patiently until macs responded again or logged into another mac, also, when applications crashed, everything was saved anyway due to auto save so not much was lost

Conclusion: 
The iMac was one of the most used and most important equipment in the our project, it was used in pre and post production as well as many other times. I learnt a lot of things such as the new softwares, e.g Final Cut Pro X and Blogger, I was able to gain a lot of knowledge about using a mac in general.


Mic
Pros:

• The mic enhanced our sound quality of our filming
• It was a professional mic
• With the use of filters, the mic blocked out the sound of wind and background noise which improved the quality of our film
• Easy to attach on and remove from camera

Cons:

• However, even with the use of filters, the mic did not block out all of the background sound, our group overcame this by seperately recording our dialogue to edit in during post production

Conclusion:
The mic was very useful during filming, I learnt how to attach it onto the Canon and alter the sound it takes in. 

EVALUATION QUESTION 5: (Vince Groupwork)

How did you attract your audience/address your audience?
Distribution:
Distribution is the 'invisible art' yet the most important in industry, its what gets the product to customers and intrigues them enough to watch and buy a ticket to watch the thriller. The distributors can do this by creating a poster, radio advertisements, TV advertisement, billboards, ads on apps and ad shells which will target large audiences and inform them about the film.

Summarise Target audience:
The target audience we aim our thriller 'The Last Call' at is ages 15-24 which consists of the young demographics who are digital natives. We decided to chose such age range due to our research on thrillers and the research had shown that teens and young adults watch thriller films this is due to them wanting to experience thrill, fear and maybe enjoy films which require the brain to work hard. The excitement and build up is what that age group wants to experience they want to feel emotions which they wouldn't experience in everyday life. Which is why we had focused on such age group as our thriller is a psychological thriller which will take our audience in a journey of adrenaline due to the quick cuts, constant action and mystery. 

What aspects of film opening will appeal to our target audience?
Story line:
We will be able to attract our audience through our exhilarating story line and its clues within the film. Our protagonist who is a teenage girl will attract the teen age group 15-20 as they will be able to relate to the character as they were once teens/ still are. They will be able to relate to the experiences of the protagonist of her going to parties, caring about body image and spending time with friends, such character will intrigue teens to a story line which could happen to them in real life e.g get followed by a random person. We have
characters who will appeal to the 20-24 year olds of our target audience though having a detective character who is mature and has a busy life which will allow the audience to relate to him as they know the stress of work and how you can overdo it sometimes.

Our story line has a pace which increases to a plot twist which will keep the audience interested due to the action  such as the suspect being captured and arrested to the girl being kidnapped and put into the back boot of the car. Such scenes will make the audience think why has this happened and will make them want to find out where she is going.

Additionally the use of technology such as mobile phone 'iPhone' will allow the audience to relate to the character as they will have the same/ phone on them which will intrigue them to watch as they are good in technology so they would watch a film with has technology incorporated in them.

Our thriller has generic conventions of thriller films which we have implemented in our thriller opening, we include kidnapping of the girl which the prisoner doesn't reveal why he kidnapped her, prison scenes and prisoner which gives mystery as we don't know why hes in prison, Detective who's looking back at the case file such scene builds suspense because maybe hes involved in the investigation. Such Mystery and plot gives the audience an effect that thrillers give, such as fast paced scenes, settings (prison, police car, office,roads), clues embedded in film, action and mystery which our thriller consists of.

What aspects of film title and opening would appeal to target audience?

Thriller opening title revealed with a glitch animation

 

EVALUATION QUESTION 4: (Vince Santillan)

Who will be the target audience for my media product?

Target audience: Gender and age

• The protagonist in my media product is a female teenager, who is the daughter of the detective. The target audience can relate to her as she is of similar age. This means they can empathize with the character who as she does same activities as them such as go to parties and dressing the way they do.
• Additionally, since the daughter gets kidnapped, parents can relate to the detectives feelings of doing anything to save the child. This will expand our target audience to parents as well as people aged 15-21.
• Our thriller will target both genders as they are both shown throughout our opening. However, the characters we portray in the opening follow the stereotypes of genders as a result, this might irritate a extreme feminist target audience since there is a typical "damsel in distress" situation
• Both male and females would enjoy this because it contains action, mystery and thrill within the film.

Other Possible Target audiences 

•  Another possible target audience would be parents. As i mentioned earlier, the daughter of the protagonist gets kidnapped, among parents, everyone can relate to the fear of their children being hurt or kidnapped. This means they can empathize with the protagonist since his child is kidnapped. This is not one of the main target audiences but it is good for the thriller as it expands the audience. In addition, maybe people who watch films based on storyline as the storyline for this thriller makes people think about what is going to happen and connect the dots in order to understand.

EVALUATION QUESTION 3: (Vince Santillan)

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

Distributors Role

A film distributor is responsible for the marketing of a film. The distribution company is usually different from the production company. Distribution deals are an important part of financing a film.

The distributor may set the release date of a film and the method by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing; for example, directly to the public either theatrically or for home viewing. A distributor may do this directly, if the distributor owns the theaters or film distribution networks, or through theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors. A limited distributor may deal only with particular products, such as DVDs or Blu-ray, or may act in a particular country or market. The primary distributor will often receive credit in the film's credits, one sheet or other marketing material. 




A Real Film Comparison

We can compare our thriller to the film "Taken" (Morel, 2008). This was distributed by 20th Century Fox and Film Flex. 20th Century Fox is a major film studio whilst Film Flex is an on demand rental service provider based in the US.


The similarities of our film is:

• Daughter is kidnapped
• Both have a phone call scene where antagonist talks to protagonist
• Protagonists work for the government
• Both protagonists are chasing antagonist to save daughter

The differences of our films are:

• Huge amount of differences in budget, Taken has big budget, our thriller had no budget whatsoever
• More proffessional actors/staff in Taken