I
completed tasks A and B for brief one in task A I worked with Katie, Amrit, and
Khadijah to create 3 minutes of moving image footage as an extract from our
proposed competition entry. Topics from the brief that provided inspiration
were Secret, Friendship, and Romance. For
task B, I created pages for a promotional booklet to demonstrate the variety of
local film making talent.
My research
contributed greatly to my pre-production
tasks and the final product. I completed institutional research into BBFC;
specifically the classifications for a 15-certificate film, my film rating will
follow these guidelines. I also researched into
the art-house film industry; I looked into other successful art-house films. I looked at what made the films successful, the distribution companies
and budgets for the films. This research allowed me to gather inspiration for
my group's extract. A film of particular
interest to me was ‘A Clockwork Orange’. My research of this film helped me to
gain a better understanding of the arthouse film industry, particularly what the typical audience like to see in
their films.
The most inspiring
film to my group’s production was ‘Donnie
Darko’, directed by Richard Kelly. The story centres on a troubled teenager
suffering from schizophrenia who is taunted
by disturbing visions from a tall bunny rabbit. The narrative of
Donnie Darko was particularly inspirational for me. It allowed me to identify
how best to portray mental illness in a film for niche audiences without
reinforcing negative stereotypes about mental illness.
We completed audience research, by
conducting a focus group. We prepared a detailed pitch, in which we attempted
to sell our film idea to our peers and teacher. We thoroughly discussed our
idea with the group; pitching about all aspects of our idea from the narrative
to how our idea would appeal to a 15 years+ audience. The general response from
the film pitch was positive and informed our film idea. We took on board the suggestions
and comments made and I believe we were able to produce a more professional
looking extract. For instance, one of our peers suggested using a wide variety
of editing techniques (jump cuts, dissolves, fade ins/outs) to produce a
powerful sequence about mental illness and subvert the negative stereotypes in
a creative way, which was visually appealing.
The intended target
audience for Kiss Of Death is the 15 – 35 years old age bracket and of middle
to working class; the minimal age is due to the requirements of the brief. They
are an AB selection fitting into the psychographic groups of explorers and
reformers. The gender split, is 60% to 40% ratio of females to males. The
interests of the audience are likely to lay in Psychology and Drama with a specific
interest into how the mind works. Employment status is likely to vary; some are
likely to still be in full and part-time education. Others are in full and
part-time employment.
In my opinion, the intended audience of our
film is likely to use Apple technology and wear Michel Kors clothes or similar.
Other films that may be of interest to them are Jacobs Ladder, Welcome to New York, Black
Swan, and Mulholland Drive. I have
selected these films as ones of interest to our audience as they all have
original yet creative narratives in which the main character(s) are going
through life with two different
identities.
This audience is
advantageous, as it will help to widen the market and interest in independent
arthouse films. I do not think that we should have targeted a completely
different demographic. This could prove to be a weakness as the film is already
targeted at a niche audience and a different demographic could make the film
too specialist to a small selection of the audience market. Despite this, I
think that we possibly could have targeted both a core and secondary audience
to maximise the success of the film.
Another weakness is
that younger audiences are more likely to watch Hollywood blockbusters rather
than arthouse films. Hollywood blockbusters carry more of an interest for the
audience through its well-known cast members but also because many of them are
sequels to previous films. Therefore,
blockbusters pull in the audiences of the age we have targeted, as they are
intrigued to find out what happens next in the ongoing narrative.
Despite,
strengthens and weaknesses of the targeted audience, I feel that we have
fulfilled the brief in that our product does attract a new audience to arthouse
cinema. Although arthouse films are an acquired taste, the romance element of
our product is a theme that is quite popular among the mass audience, which
could drive them towards arthouse cinemas.
My film meets the
key conventions of an arthouse film as it includes a variety of different
sound, editing and camerawork techniques, which I believe help to emphasise the emotional intensity of the film
and engages the audience. Kiss Of Death utilises Todorov's theory, of
equilibriums. Equilibrium is evident in the flashback sequences showing Katie
living life before her schizophrenic episode. Then disequilibrium occurs when
Katie suffers a schizophrenic episode and struggles to establish the difference
between reality and fantasy. Finally, a new equilibrium would occur further on
the sequence where Katie comes out of her episode and continues to live life.
One key moment is
at 0:32, with the editing technique. We have overlaid the scene to create a
distorted effect to the image on the screen.
I believe that this technique helps the audience to develop an emotional
connection with Katie as it demonstrates to the audience what it is like for
Katie as the sufferer during a schizophrenic episode. This effect helps to give
the audience a true representation of mental illness and challenge Dyer's
theory, 'the complexity and variety of groups is reduced to a few key
characteristics'. This is because we aimed to subvert the negative stereotypes
and categorizations of mentally ill people being crazy and delusional.
Another moment is
at 1:02, with the camerawork. We have incorporated a panning 360 degree shot in
a close up of Katie. This shot allows the audience to build a personal
relationship and identity with Katie. As a result, the extract can entice the
audience through the emotional intensity
built up throughout; the audience is then likely to feel sympathetic for Katie
when she suffers her schizophrenic episode.
Then, at 0:03; we
have used lighting effectively by using low key lighting which is a combination
of key and back lighting creating a strong contrast between the light and dark
scenes; which is also referenced using the term Chiaroscuro (Chiaro=Light
Oscuro=dark). I believe the lighting is effective as it helps to build on the
emotional intensity of the film and encourage our audience who would not
normally take an interest in arthouse films to carry on watching. With the use
of this lighting, I could associate words such as concern and worry from the
darkness of scene.
Finally, at 0:05 we
have layered a selection of shots on Millennium Bridge, with Katie standing in
the middle of the frame. This
communicates a sense of confusion to the audience as to what is happening to
Katie. The people surrounding Katie are passing by her quickly and this could
suggest that Katie's imprisoned in her fantasy world where all her thoughts are
muddled up. This may suggest that she is having an episode.
A notably strength
of the film would be our portrayal of mental illness; I believe that we have
represented mental illness to the best of our ability, without the intention of
reinforcing negative stereotypes. Another strength of the production would be
the way in which we have used editing techniques to our advantage to emphasise schizophrenia.
My completed print work meets the key conventions of arts centre brochures as the
front cover grabs the attention of readers with a distinctively designed title
of the publication and eye-catching
central image. This helps the booklet to stand out particularly when stacked on
limited shelf space. The central image is strong as it provides a focus for the
audience to establish an identity with the front cover feature. I have also met
conventions of an arts centre brochure by keeping to a simple colour scheme to
avoid the page becoming too busy. Arts centre brochures are quite simple and
clean not overcrowded with information. Some brochures often entice the
audience through the colour scheme, such as the 'Warwick Arts Centre' brochure,
which I researched for inspiration.
The biggest
strength of my print work is that I have been
creative in my approach while making pages, which are distinctive, and visually
appealing to promote Kiss Of Death and the other film entries. I did this by effectively editing my images to
grab reader’s attention. Using a photo manipulation technique on the front
cover I was able to make my booklet stand out but also convey a message about
what might be inside the booklet. The photo manipulation allows me to associate
words such as distressed, cold and hope which makes the readers want to look
inside. Inside I have a brief but engaging description about the film, tips
from the director, a section that explains schizophrenia in detail and
information for Kiss Of Death premiere. This will help to gain audience
interest early on and encourage them to watch Kiss Of Death.
However, a weakness
of my print work that I faced was with the layout that I chose. I created my
booklet landscape, which meant that I needed to
design my contents page and double page spread as two individual pages to
fulfil the brief. Another weakness I identified throughout the completion of
the print was that I was not very confident in using some of the more complex effects on images, to create a
strong message. Despite this, I have learnt that you can convey a message with
a lot of emotional power and intensity without excessive special effects.
I could have added
a creative and professional edge to my print work by using some special effects
in moderation to help my promotional booklet stand out more. I believe I have
created a booklet, which is visually appealing, but it still could grab the
attention of the audience more, which makes my booklet explode, of the stand
and makes people want to continue reading inside the booklet. For instance, the
booklet could have included a pull quote from the main actors of the film.
In Kiss Of Death,
we have represented both females and males who
are middle-class individuals. We have a
typical white female (Katie) and then we have also represented two Asians one
of which is a female (Katie's Sister) and the other is a male (Katie's
boyfriend). The main characters are all teenagers, Katie, and her boyfriend are both 17 years old and then Katie's
sister is 14 years old.
The representations
created allow the audience to relate to the characters in Kiss Of Death. This
is because the film targets an audience
of the same age range. In my opinion, at some points of the narrative, the audience may be able to see
themselves reflected in the story. For
instance, when Katie and her boyfriend are having an argument people may be able to see their own relationship problems
reflected. To this, I can link a theory by Blumler and Katz who suggested there
are four main uses and gratifications (pleasures) that audiences get from the
media. I can link 'Personal Identity', which is when people see themselves
reflected in texts or learn behaviours and values from the texts.
In addition, in
Kiss Of Death, we have created a
representation of mental health groups, with the intention of subverting
negative stereotypes about mental health; which is what our whole storyline
centres around. Personally, I am happy with the representation we have created
as it takes the audience on a journey through Katie's eyes of what it is like
to live with a mental illness. Typically, people make judgements about mental
illness from what they witness 'from a distance' without interacting with a
sufferer. However, Kiss Of Death allows audiences to live the life of a
sufferer as Katie lives it and possibly change their judgements.
I can link the
representation theory, which states ‘the
complexity and variety of groups is
reduced to a few key characteristics' suggested by Richard Dyer. This link relates to the group representation of mental
health, this is because mental health encompasses a variety of illnesses but
are often stigmatised with words such as crazy, weird or delusional. As a result suffers are often quickly judged without
much knowledge about the illnesses. Instead, they are all grouped as one.
If I had followed
the third brief, I would have created an online film blog to support the
promotion of Kiss Of Death. I would have created Snapchat and Facebook
accounts, with links to other social media platforms such as YouTube and
Instagram. To make it attractive to our target audience, I would create a wide
variety of interesting and visually appealing content that would not typically
be available for audience consumption. For instance, regular posts with behind
the scenes exclusives. Other content on my blog would be cast and crew
interviews and an explanation as to the inspiration of Kiss Of Death.
To promote Kiss of
Death on social media platforms I would set up a viral marketing campaign,
within which I would encourage user-generated content. I have taken inspiration
from Ill Manors ‘Tag London’ campaign a film produced by Plan B. This is
because he too created a film surrounding a topic, which encouraged a lot of
user-generated content and drove visitors to his social media promotion. For my campaign, I would generate a trend
with the #standupforschizophrenia
and #raiseawareness and get fans
tweeting and posting about mental illness and ideas for an animated short film
about schizophrenia. I would then feature these tweets in the film to emphasise the views towards mental illness,
which Kiss Of Death aims to change.
To continue driving
people to my blog I would have fans suggest ideas for another instalment of a
film about mental illness with the #2IMIF
(2nd instalment mental illness film). I would also personally
tweet to inform fans that a donation from the films takings will go to mental illness charities. As well as
coverage of the film release, I would
include events information for The London Film Festival and Film London’s filmmaking programmes. I would also, include
film reviews and provide readers with information on how to create a successful
low budget Film.
Overall, I believe
that I have met the original brief; I have produced a competition worthy film
to attract a new audience to arthouse film and pages for a promotional booklet
that is distinctive and visually
appealing. I have confidence in my product to be successful in the media
marketplace. This is because the extract provides audiences with a gripping
storyline about mental illness, which I believe, will resonate in their minds
even after the film has finished. I would compare our extract to the success of
Donnie Darko.