directors cut from Tom Dart on Vimeo.
Generally in action films, the opening will introduce you to the main character or the main 'bad guys' and continue the story. With my film opening i have decided to play with the narrative and get the audience to ask questions and engage with the film and ponder what is to come. I also chose the music with care, as i wanted to get the mood just right - as with big movies, the music is a major part in setting the mood. For all mood setting music, i wanted to convay an image of a wife who has lost her husband, her life spiralling out of control - this is a depressed mood, so i chose a conventional, slow, quite methodical piece. It only had one instrument (acoustic guitar) with a singer. it really makes the viewer feel her pain and suffering - as does any good feature film scene.
I think my opening deffinatly challenges other films in the action adventure genre, because a classic example like indiana jones, aways starts with indiana on an adventure of some sort.
As this is an unconventional action-adventure opening it cannot really conform to any conventions of a classic film. However it does conform to ideas about emotions and feelings characters have. for example the dark knight starts off with the bank robbing scene - again jumping you straight into that action. however my film contrasts to that of a typical action adventure beacause of its starting point. i decided to allow the audience time to connect with the characters because of the films content.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My main character "Jason" represents a rather stereotypical lad, growing up without a father figure around has made him indipendant, and he has very close ties with his mother. In the film he follows in his fathers footsteps by joining the army at 18 rather than getting respectable A levels or other qualifications. This theme i think a lot of people could relate to, as im sure every one of us has thought about going into the army at some point.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that many distributors would like to distribute my media product, MGM,
Paramount,
Summit Entertainment
and 20th Century Fox
would be the main competitors. They make millions in action films. Summit Entertainment made $16,400,000 US Box Office from The Hurt Locker. Summit Entertainment saw that The Hurt Locker was an action thriller with a difference, and that is what they made their money on, and that is what "Exposed" is. It is a fast paced action adventure with a difference. Different in the kind of way that in "The Hurt Locker" you DIDNT want the bombs to go off.
When distributors look at action films they generally look for some key-stereotypical elements:
» Strong male hero (with the occasional female hero)
» Bombshell love interest
» Big guns
» Big explosions
» Big fights featuring good old fisticuffs or fancy martial arts moves (or some combination)
» Epic car chases, helicopter chases, plane chases, foot chases, boat chases, etc.
» Physical heroism
» Eye-popping stunts
» Evil antagonist determined to destroy the world/kill the hero/steal massive amounts of money
» Street smart hero
» At least two big laughs
» Optional funny sidekick who solves an important puzzle in a pinch
Even though Exposed could tick most of those boxes, they would not be your stereotypical kind of adventure to save the world, it has many layers and sub levels to a big plot that is hidden under a cover up.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My audience would be the sort who watched "ray mears" and wanted to be indiana jones when they were younger. that is what the main character "Jason" is like in the film.
Even though you dont see him in the opening, you are soon introduced if the opening was to carry on. My target audience is 16-24yr olds, but it also could be aimed a little higher as i would put it as certificate 15, so there would be a certain amount of fighting and swearing. the BBFC classify a 15 by splitting into boundries and sub catergories. These are: Discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, theme and finally violence. For all of these a 15 film has to have the guidelined ammount. For example for drugs, "Drug taking may be shown, however should not promote missuse". This means that 15 films are allowed to use drugs, however they must not show the full use of them or promote them to the audience.
Bearing in mind my film is an action film, then there can be a suitible amount of fighting to make a gripping film, but not a massivly over the top rambo style blood-bath. The audience for action films are larger than any other, with classics like "James Bond" and "Die Hard" being in many peoples favorite action movies of all time. over all i think my audience would mainly be 16-24 or perhaps older, with a good taste of escapism.
How did you attract/address your audience?
In my audience research i found that almost everyone (apart from guys who just want sex scenes and explosions constantly - which much as i would have loved to do, just couldnt) said that the best film openings were the ones that make you think about whats happening, but not too much, and i think i really nailed it with my opening. also they said that films that started somewhere in the middle or at the end were very good like "hitman" because it gave a chance to explain events that you start with. I think that the close up of Julias eyes and then the black and white memories really form a close bind to the character, and the background music really sets the tone of a woman who has suffered a loss and cannot move on.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Before i started to think of any ideas, i watched quite alot of film openings, and i went to the cinema and went and payed extra attention to the opening few minutes of the films. I was amazed at all the differences between them, and i was intrigued to find the subtle tweaks that distinguished the good from the bad. I mainly used my laptop for watching, as i could replay and watch certain bits back very exactly if i saw something i was interested in. For the making of my production, i used a Cannon Legria HF M306 HD camera. i found some of its manual focus tools quite interesting to work with for some shots. I know that the screen consumes a lot of battery life but i didnt find it a problem as i was never far from a socket!
I also used a Tri-pod for some shots, but i also found a steady hand was required for others, i didnt find that a problem either, because the iMovie software sorted the unsteadyness of the frames.
The music i chose was called "love letters" by Dan-O (www.danosongs.com). i found that by coincidence and then a little tinkering, the words actually correspond with the images, something which i hope the audience doesnt directly realise, but indirectly effects their thoughts and feelings.
i edited my piece together using iMovie '09. it has loads of different tools that were a great help. the only problem i had was getting hang of all the different tools and where to find them. also i had problems with importing from the camera.
I would say i have learned most from the use of the Mac computers and my dads Mac book pro. I have never really used Macs before and it was a steep learning curve for me, something which i found difficult at the start.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The preliminary task was a simple sequence following a character going through a door, to have a conversation with another character, filmed using the shot-reverse-shot technique. It also took minimal editing to make into a sequence, of course, the editing and shooting took much longer to complete. when editing my final cut i used many tools and features, such as cross dissolve, black and white filter and slowmotion to cause dramatic affects in the piece. when compairing to the peliminary task, barely any tools were used, and the editing was basic. however learning how to take effective over the sholder shots was important - as they were used in my final cut. also learning the importance of different angles of the camera - i found that this was a key part, as it could keep the audience interested in what would have been a very long cut, which was then cut into lots of different camera angles. I also found that with out peliminary task - there was barely any planning done, we had a basic idea in our head of what we wanted and we just went with the flow of it. with my main task i had to plan and story board carefully. i changed my mind about the whole opening 4 or 5 times because of problems that had arised.
over all i learned a few important things from the peliminary task.
