How our media product represents a particular social group

How does your media product represent particular social group?

This is our character who plays the sympathetic victim, Serafina, She appears very innocent and childish with her school uniform. As she is the victim of the danger within the family the audience feel empathy for her and therefore dislike the parents. by having a young child as the victim at the beginning, helps the audience understand her paranoia when she grows up and therefore allows the audience to understand her like from beginning to end.By showing the journey of her life and the obstacles she has to overcome, the audience feel a greater connection to her and therefore can feel more empathy when things go wrong. we decided to show her laughing along with her family to show that she is a very sweet girl who has a very innocent personality and then juxtapose it with the scenes of her parents arguing and telling her to go away. We thought we would keep her in her school uniform as it created an element of normality from the audience and they would feel the connection from when they were younger.

This is the young girl from the lovely bones; she plays the victim in a kidnapping. We believe our character follows the same conventions as this girl as they are very innocent looking and are separate to the rest of society. Our character isn't blonde like this one, often the blondness connotes innocents and angelic nature however, Serafina is very young and beautiful and therefore gives the same effect. In the lovely bones, she has parents that often argue and cause he to get very upset, this follows a similar sequence to our film as we thought it had a good impact on the audience.

Audience

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Due to our film having an age certificate of 15, this set us a good idea that our target audience would range for the 15 to younger adults such as 22. After doing research of the demographics for the majority of horror movies we found that this age category was the most appropriate for our trailer. This is successful as allowing our target audience to be 15 allows a wider range which could potentially increase profits. The typical ratio to watch our trailer would mainly be girls, this could be represented in the female cast, relating about a troubled girl. Therefore,many females could relate to this character and find this as a coping mechanism to escape from their own lives. Although, the percentage of males watching horror movies can still represent huge interest in this genre, but this could just be because males and females are more likely to attend a date to the cinema to watch a movie, stereotypically for the female to cuddle up to the boy. As we found out from our survey our target audience enjoy horrors that create a mystery as their favourite TV programme Sherlock Holmes, we uncovered the meaning of this and it was proven they found the mystery in the programme engaging, getting them excited to watch next weeks episode. Our target audience listen to quite a lot of pop music, in the charts, to keep up with the trends in day to day society.This allows them to have something in common and mingle as a friendship group providing a topic for conversation. We tried to create this mysterious effect in our trailer by having a secretive villain out to get this young girl, where hes face in never exposed throughout the whole trailer, only as man with a black figure. This young age category tend to shop again in the most trendy places such as River Island, Misguided, Topman where it allows them to go out and interact and enables them to become a fashionable idol whether it is only in the environment of school or work. 

Costume Research

When it came to costumes we wanted it to the fit in with the atmosphere of a happy family home, therefore the mother and father are dressed in casual wear to tell the audience that this is a normal day. The actor who plays the father is dressed wearing a casual jumper with a shirt underneath showing his relaxed format but sophistication due to this interpreting a middle class family.
The mother is similarly dressed to create the same feeling towards the audience.
The young girl fits well into this, coming home from school for a typical evening. The reason we want to succeed such a neutral and happy surrounding is because it exaggerates the difference between her life now and what it use to be like as a young child, adding curiosity to what happened. A school uniform shows her vulnerability. I believe this follows the codes and conventions of a drama as immediately  the audience we want the young girl to be safe and protected.

Soundtrack Research

For our film I decided to research some soundtracks to help me decide which type of soundtrack would be the best for our genre. I was looking for a soundtrack that starts of calm, gradually building up creating tension for the audience, reaching a climax when there appears to be a dead body in the house. Researching soundtracks also inspires me to what type of instruments would be most suitable for our film for example, in our film we knew a piano would be suitable as it is successful as creating an eerie and tense atmosphere which is what our group wish to succeed.

Due to our trailer being a horror genre, I decided to research music that would add tension and lead to a climax as I believe this will make our trailer seem more dramatic. I have found some soundtracks that I would like my trailer to incorporate. This is the soundtrack from the trailer 'Taken'. At the beginning of the track it involves the diegetic sound of a piano which is very similar to our opening trailer. It provides a fairly innocent atmosphere which for our trailer would make the young girl seem very vulnerable, however the music begins to become more upbeat which is effective as it helps lead the story that something bad is about to happen. The slow, calming introduction would be complimented by slow paced shots of the flashback in the girls life, which will help make everything seem neutral, however when it becomes more up beat that's when we will begin to see the troubles of the girls life, with the editing of the shots becoming much faster creating suspense for the audience.

http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

The advantages of last year was that we knew a useful website that contained a variety of non copy right music to help get an insight into what would fit our piece. The first stage of this process is to choose what type of feel we wanted and we chose: Dark, Eerie, Intense, Unnerving, Mysterious. After listening to many results we came across "Controlled Chaos" where the instruments include synths and percussion. This year we are going to use two separate soundtracks and combine them together to create the perfect piece for our trailer. From this soundtrack the bit that is most appealing and suitable for our trailer begins at 1 minute as that is when the music becomes much more unnerving and begins to build up to create suspense. The unnerving quality is important for our group as we are looking for a mysterious soundtrack, to make the audience feel uncomfortable and uneasy from the tension. However, the negatives of this soundtrack is that it doesn't seem to reach a climax which is what we look for in our trailer however the up paced soundtrack would fit perfectly in our trailer.

The second soundtrack we found of the website was called "Awkward Meeting" and appealed to me due to the instruments including piano and synths. The piano, being essential to our trailer. It begins with a slow rhythm of the piano, creating a calm atmosphere. As the soundtrack progresses we get a low beat added into the rhythm every few seconds which creates more of a dark atmosphere and can connote that everything is not fine. The silence in between each piece is effective where the music becomes quieter until it fades to silence, this will fit well with the flashback where we are fading in and out of black going through the girls life. The soundtrack then becomes louder and a it more paced, this is successful as it would be easier to blend in with "Controlled Chaos" which is a loud, up paced soundtrack overall.

Location Research

Our location of our film is set in a semi-detached house in a suburban town in England. We chose to set our trailer here due to the warming features of a family home. However, due to the codes and conventions of genres such as horrors we know that at night a house can be come eerie and ominous and create tension, which is what we aim to do. The piano in the bottom right of the left photo is essential in our trailer as the diegetic sound may make the audience feel on edge. This juxtaposes with the happy family home which relates with what happens in the story as well. Filming in a home allows us to do a variety of shots such as over the shoulder shots, close ups of features in the house and medium shots of characters. However, during this process we have to take extra precautions to make sure there isn't anything in the background that may ruin our trailer as it is a normal family home.

Moodboard

This mood board highlights the scenes that our essential to our  trailer. For example our theme of movie will be based around a family and this is represented by the happy family being placed in the center enjoying an evening dinner together. The characters displayed at the top shows our character will consist of a young vulnerable girl, the father and the mother. The piano shows our dietetic sound that is going to be included in our trailer to add tension and build up. The house shows our location that it is going to be set in which links with the dark figure that walks into the house unaware, adding enigmas.

Fonts Researched

Here I have researched the font "Lucida Sans". Due to our film being a horror we wanted to make sure we followed the conventions of the titles to allow people to recognise our genre. Our title would be displayed in capital letters like a lot of horrors to allow it to be bold. As well as this in horror films such as Taken 3 the letters are displayed slightly apart which makes the title stand out more. I then incorporated this title choosing a light grey colour and black background. This is successful in following codes and conventions of the genre as the silver/grey colour allows a sharp edge against the black ground and is still very traditional.

This font appealed to me due to the fact our genre being based on a horror. This is due to the thinner writing compared to the title above with thick and bold writing which has created more of an eerie and mysterious atmosphere, as well as being bold which is successful for that dramatic feel. The perfect mixture of these two makes it much more effective if displayed in our trailer.

Finally, this thin writing gives off a more mysterious and sinister look. This still contrasts with our trailer due to it being full of enigmas and cliff hangers therefore a more mysterious and eerie title can be effective.

Film Institution: The Major Movie Studios

Columbia Pictures:

Columbia Pictures was made in 1919 and is under the operation of Sony Pictures. It has a very recognisable label and this represents their success in the movie business. It is one of the leading film studios in the world and has made films such as ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2’, ‘Skyfall’ and ‘22 Jump Street’ which have a varied range of audiences but are all exceptionally popular.

Paramount:

Paramount was founded 1912 as Famous Players Film Company then officially became Paramount pictures in 1914. They are known as one of the big six and are successful because of their high budget films such as ‘India Jones’, ‘Shrek’, ‘Friday 13th and ‘Paranormal Activity’. They have made a wide range of genre and their horror films were hugely successful allowing us to question whether horror or action will be better for our chosen genre

Warner Bros:

Warner Bros studios was found in 1903 by the four Warner brothers. It is American producer of film, television, and music entertainment. As well as this, they also famously started the original ‘Looney Tunes’, as well as many more successful cartoons. Warner bros is extremely successful as it owns half of the CW Television Network and has made some of the most popular films invented such as Harry Potter.

Walt Disney:
Walt Disney Pictures is one of the most well-known film institution out of all the major movie studios. It was found in 1923 and was immediately extremely popular. Disney is constantly apart of life as played a massive part in childhood. We also know the studio because of the famous founder - Walt Disney. Disney traditionally specialises in family movies and animation such as the classics, 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'The Jungle Book' to the more recent 'Cars', 'Wreck-it Ralph' and 'Up'. They also own a wide amount of film institutions such as Touchstone Pictures and Pixar. This all helps them stay successful and constantly make profits.

Universal Pictures:

Universal Pictures was founded in 1912 and It is the world's third oldest major film studio. It had many successes as it made ‘Jaws’, ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘The Extra-Terrestrial’ which each became the highest-grossing film ever at the time of its initial release.

20th Century Fox:

20th Century Fox, founded in 1935, have one of the most recognisable logos and theme tunes in the industry, the studio used to be a subsidiary of News Corporation, but now it is currently a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. It is the world's second largest major film studio, after Warner Bros. It has made will never be forgotten such as ‘Avatar’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Night at the Museum’ and many more.

Film Institution: The Mini Major Movie Studios

Dreamworks Animation:
Found in 1994 Dreamworks has always been popular with the younger audiences and family types meaning ratings are mostly ‘PG’ or ‘U’. For example they include ‘How To Train Your Dragon’. They are probably the most famous Mini Major Movie studio with a highly recognisable logo.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:

Founded in 1924, it became a success and well-known until an increasingly unprofitable MGM was bought by Kirk Kerkorian, who lowered staff and production costs, forced the studio to produce low-budget fare, and then shut down theatrical distribution in 1973.The studio continued to produce five to six films a year and some popular films were made out of it such as ‘Nanny McPhee’.

Lionsgate Entertainment:

Lionsgate was founded in 1997 and is commercially the most successful Mini Major Film and television distribution company in North America and the seventh most profitable movie studio. They are well-known for horror movies such as ‘Saw’ and ‘The Hunger Games’.

The Weinstein Company:

The Weinstein Company are a recent company, only formed in 2005. Weinstein films include 'The King's Speech' and 'The Iron Lady' which are already known to be a big successful bringing it profits. As more films are released the more popular it will become.

Relativity Media:

Relativity Media was founded in 2004 and is not quite low-key being one of the least famous Mini Major Film studios but is still growing. They have a lot more growing to do, and they have not made many films that have received great profit of publicity. Their films include: 'Bridesmaids' and 'Limitless'.

Certificate Research 18

18 is the highest classification rating that is placed on films. Reasons for restricting films to the 18 certificate category have included scenes of hard drug use, supernatural horror, explicit sex, sadistic violence and sexual violence. This could cause the certificate not being issued at all, banning the film in the UK. In our group we will not involve all these conventions in such detail as if we aimed to get an 18 certificate it would limit our range of audience and the most popular audience which is 15 and above making our film less popular.

Certificate Research 15

Chosen Certificate 

For our film we wish to make our certificate rating a 15 as it helps maximise our audience and making it more popular to a wider range of audience. We gave it a 15 as it will contain mild violence in scenes such as where the parents argue (have spoken about this in detail n my film pitch) and when the young girl nearly gets run over. However, we are not showing extreme gore or dwelling on the pain and injury so it will fade out in black before there would be any traumatic images. Strong language will be used throughout our film to put emphasis on the man as the antagonist as it shows his dark side. At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sexualised threat which we do not contain. Therefore, we felt we didn't need to rate in an 18 as we aren't containing extremely strong sex scenes or nudity allowing it to be more acceptable for 15's and overs.

Cetficate Research 12 and 12A

The 12A requires an adult to accompany any child under 12 seeing a 12A film at the cinema but when you are 12 you do not need to be accompanied and can go with friends, making the film more popular with a bigger audience. Strong language such as the f*** may be passed or changed to a 15 certificate but more moderate language such as b*** are more likely to be passed for 12 and 12A

At 12A, moderate violence is allowed but it should not contain a lot of detail meaning there should be no emphasis on injuries or blood. In 12A and 12 there may be sight of drugs but the scene or film should not concentrate around this area.

Certificate Research PG

PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing. PG films are mostly appropriate for a child aged around eight or older without causing any problems. A PG film will not contain any theme which is inappropriate for a child and can even explore issues such as bullying or racism, advertising it in a more discreet way.

Certificate Research U

The U stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over. A U film can explore a wide rang of themes, as long as it is appropriate for a young audience. This doesn't mean that all films rated U are aimed at children.It just means they are suitable for any age and can be anybody's type. The genre would be positive giving off positive vibes for the audience.

Initial Idea

I am interested in making a marketing campaign for a film in the horror genre. Horror trailers traditionally follow the cliches of where there is a victim and antagonist. I believe our group can achieve this successfully due to our experience last year where I applied this into my opening analysis for my horror genre. This gave me an insight in what type of shots I will need to use. In horror trailers................. Horror genres have to be dramatic to have that suspense and tension, I believe this can be successful by having fast up paced editing, gradual build up of non-diegetic sound and shots that fade in and out of black which have become very conventional for horror trailers to use. As well as this a main eye catching feature for a film with thriller/action is a logo, for example Batman's is a Bat and Spiders mans is a web therefore I would like to incorporate this for our trailer to make it look more advanced and professional. Due to creating a successful horror opening two minutes last year I knew I really enjoyed this type of genre and I wanted to incorporate that mysterious and eerier atmosphere therefore by making it a thriller I can do this but still do something completely different,