1: CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION


  1. How does your product use or challenge conventions?  


Annotations for our Film Opening




Script for the Annotations

  The genre conventions reflect the type of narrative: our production is an exciting film, focusing on current news topics such as technology, specifically Artificial Intelligence (AI).
We create an idea of our genre through visual and sound codes. For example, our soundtrack starts with the diegetic sound codes that displays a television news bulletin that the audience can associate with current news topics which establishes realism and topicality into our production. As well as sound codes visual codes such as setting the mis-en-scene is also very important to understand the genre. For example, one of our main scenes in the office at the start sets the image of business into the audience's mind because we filmed in an office environment with desks and other people.
 
Our production starts with our production company ident for Teethmark productions which features a shark that was made in Imovie. It is a good fit with our target audience as it features a shark with shark teeth which would stick in the memory of our younger audience. 

From our research into the Art of the Title, we learned about title sequences. We looked at film such as I Robot which represented the same theme of technology in it. In Art of the Title we mainly studied how the actual title sequence is shown and how they include the credits. 

It is vital, that film opening introduces the protagonist early on. In our production one of our main protagonists is our Robot Rick. We estbalish him early on in the news report and interview. We did this so that the audience grasps an idea about who he is and what part he plays. 

We follow genre convention in creating an opening that hooks the audience and persuades them to continue watching ( rather than offer outcomes, solutions or complete revelations). Our film opening stops at the point where Robot Rick, Toni and Luke (Richie, Tom and Luca) are sat down having dinner and because Richie's technology has been enhanced incorrectly is starting to turn rogue and attempts to stab Tom. At this point it cuts which creates suspense and leaves the audience intrigued with what is going to happen next and makes them want to continue watching the whole film.


Todrvo's narrative theory suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure. This starts of with an equilibrium, which then evolves onto something which disrupts the equilibrium and finally reach a resolution. In our production, because it is only a film opening, we only have an equilibrium and the disruption of the equilibrium. Our equilibrium is where Luke and Toni (Luca and Tom) enhance Rick' technology. Our disruption of the equilibrium is where Rick' technology is 
unstable and he becomes rogue.


One of the uses of the media text is to gratify the need of making relationships which can be understood by our relationship with the onscreen characters. As indie film makers we cannot cast big names like Martin Freeman. I learnt at my BFI study day on UK cinema that having Martin Freeman as part of the deal secured the funding for Dyson and Nyman's Ghost Stories (2018 Warp films). We have unknowns however we chose attractive personable actors in order to engage the audiences sympathy. 

Our narrative also follows Barthes action code, as we know that one thing is going to lead to another and provide us with action and suspense.




How my film opening represents Social groups and Issues

Social Groups

This is a Pinterest collage that I created to put forward the different social groups that we have been looking at for our film Robotica, at the bottom of each image in the comments section i have creatively reflected on each image to give a bit of information to the viewer of the Pinterest. Max Tegmark and Elon Musk are two people that I have included in the social group as they are key role models in the world of Artificial Intelligence for example, Max Tegmark has written a book as shown in the Pinterest titled Life 3.0 which is about AI.



Issues 

This next Pinterest collage that I have created is focusing on the issues about AI that we are focusing on in our film opening.

Two of these pictures focus on Artificial Intelligence and the rise of it. These displaying that if Artificial Intelligence keeps growing at the rate it is, it could get to a dangerous stage, which is what we will be exploiting in our film. The other pictures are about AI at this moment but showing the picture that if you try and enhance or change technology or even if we develop it further then AI could get out of hand



We also looked at the different problems/ issues that are occurring with Alexa (as shown in the image below). Alexa is Amazon's technology home system where you can programme it to play music, set and alarm and many more things.

 
  

2. How does your product engage with Audiences?

Blumler and Katz states that audiences use media to gratify needs (the uses and gratifications model of audience behavior). Our film opening provides audiences with  topicality, entertainment and diversion. Our film opening consists of fast paced editing where we take our audience into the exciting world of artificial intelligence and business.  



 It also includes a sense of danger and threat as the robot starts to develop his own sense of will and by the end he has acquired his target, Toni, the final scene shows Rick trying to stab Tony in the hand. 

The visual spectacle helps compliment the entertainment we have produced drone shots and beautiful shots of Canary Wharf, we filmed shots of tall buildings and the reveal of the life size robot helps contribute to the entertainment. 





As a group we decided to focus on very topical issues at the moment, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology as a whole. We decided to do this as the we believe that the audience that relating our production to topics in the news at the moment will not only want people to watch our production but also remain engaged, whilst watching it. 


The whole tech aspect of our project is used well as we have presented it well. We have embedded an advert into our opening, as well as a news report and interview. 
We believe that the filming and mis-en-scene went well in our production and we engage the audience. 


                                      
          

2. HOW WOULD MY PROJECT BE DISTRIBUTED AS A REAL MEDIA TEXT? 

Firstly I looked at The Business of Film website (as linked below) and studied what distributors do whilst also looking at Alex Hamilton and the concept 'windows' of distribution.

Secondly I had a look at the FDA (as linked below) and studied the role of the distributor.
 
 What do Film Distributors do? 
 What distributors do is a whole business process which is highly competitive. It is the process of making a movie available for viewing by an audience. They firstly have to decide what elements make the film so they can decide what age to target the film at, for example the genre of the film. In the world of independent film distributors work on a territory by territory basis. The UK distribution company will by the specific film for UK viewing. This means that this distributor will have the right to arrange distribution of the film in media such as cinema, DVD, TV, Airlines but only for the UK. Same applies for different countries, a German company will buy the distribution for Germany. A French company will buy distribution for France. 
 Shows the path of a films distribution from sales agent, to territory distributor, then onto different forms of viewing such as DVD or Cinemas

 The distributor is also given a specific amount of time where they can distribute the film for, this is known as the 'term'. A sales agent is hired by the producer to make sure that they have a number of distributors for a certain territory so that the film can be seen by as many people as possible in that space of time.
 The FDA ( Film Distributor' Association) 


Here I went and looked at this FDA website to understand the role that the distributor plays a bit more. On this Mark Batey developed the point that distribution is a whole business process, which is fast moving, highly competitive and very strategic.


 This screenshot above from the FDA website was explaining the windows that the distributors have. For example the first window is distributing it to cinemas. The windows are a developed system created by distributors to make as much money as possible. The cinema window which i was just talking about it probably one of the most important as it is where most of the income will be gained. This is because there is lots of advertising involved to try and get many people to go and this will happen as many people will want to go and experience the film on a big screen and feel the ambience of the cinema.
 The Business of Film - Week 3 
The Business Of Film- Week 3



This Screenshot is from 'The Business of Film' which i have enrolled on to specifically for this task to understand more about what the distributors do. Section 'week 3' explained that and also developed an earlier point that i made about distributors working on a territory by territory basis.



Alex Hamilton is managing director of Entertainment One UK which is a significant Independent Film distribution companies in the UK and has operations all around the world. He refers to the lifecycle of a film and says that the existing exploitation of films is the concept of 'windows'. This refers to the fact that films can be viewed in many different ways such as cinema and television. However the current window of cinema releases is under increasing pressure as audiences behavior is changing. This meaning that sometimes DVD/ Digital Platform can create more revenue than theatrical release platform, such as cinema.

Case Study- The Tortoise In Love 

I looked at and studied the small budget film- the tortoise in love. I researched how the BFI print and advertising fund helped a small, crowd sourced film to achieve distribution by recruiting a distribution manager to manage and administrate the bookings.



The film had many different regional viewings which attracted local press 'The Oxford Mail', 'The Cornish Press'. The whole village helped with the setting up of the film, such as props, clothes, acting. The setting up of a Facebook account also helped the marketing and promotion of the film to the nearby press who could then extend the distribution process themselves.

Whilst the BFI has been running its Rural Cinema Pilot scheme, most films are still only available to non-mainstream venues 12-16 weeks after the cinematic release. Due to the regional viewings they got the opportunity to release at a national release at Leicester Square. 

Case Study- Distribution of '71 


 
 '71 tells the story of a British soldier who becomes separated from his unit during a riot in Belfast at the height of the Troubles in 1971.
The distributors delayed the release of the film and benefited from this as American audiences had seen Jack O'Connell in his first Hollywood picture,Angelina Jolie's Unbroken (2014) which earned him a BAFTA. This increased demand to watch this actor meaning more people wanted to and did see this film. As well as this, the distribution strategy also involved targeting UK and US audiences who were concerned about the radicalization of young men. Both of these audiences were able to relate to the narrative because they saw it as a global problem not just a Northern Ireland problem, that is the radicalization of young men.







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1 comment:

  1. Excellent creativity and thorough detail
    1. Video / audio analysis plus Pinterest boards explaining your codes and conventions as well as how you represented social groups.
    2. Slideshare and photos with thorough accounts of how you attract and address your target audience as well as case studies on distribution.
    3. Emaze with clear layout and creative presentation of the development of your skills.
    4. Attractively presented and detailed Emaze showing how you have integrated a wide variety of different technologies, from the research and planning stages to the construction and evaluation processes.

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