Preliminary Task:

Question 6:

Question 5:

How I addressed my audience?

Audiences consume different media products for different reasons which is why it is vital to tailor a film with consideration to how the Film or media product appeals to the audience demographic. for example audiences view films for different reasons however in our "Of The Nights" it is how it utilises suspense and aesthetic quality of cinematography which encourages film "buffs", a niche art house audience.

 

Use of soundtrack engage audience combining with use of lighting and camera angles in mise en scene to create a build-up of aesthetically pleasing suspense leading to a dramatic climax of tension. "Of The Night" attempts to address audience of both gender but for separate reasons. We attempted to address a female audience by feeding off their fears to make them identify with the issues raised by the film in relation to their own fears they have about the world around them. for example we tried to highlight the danger of urban society’s and trying to inform audience to be weary and careful. However we tried to address males with the issues raised by putting an extreme and rather dark representation of gender in order to highlight patriarchal issues within society and challenge generic conventions in quiet a feministic way which is controversial however popular within modern day society and would appeal to our demographic. In conclusion the victim plays/highlights on audiences fears in order to address viewers whereas the attacker challenges representations to an extreme which was inspired by Tarantino's "Death Proof" and addresses audience of film buffs who identify with challenging nature of film as it engages them and stimulates their minds.

How did I attract my audience?

- Costume of characters enables audience to identify with characters and engage with their feelings. We used the hooded parker as they are popular within the young generation, our demographic (16-21) was great for portraying the antihero with zeitgeist by suggesting such people are lurking urban labyrinths and not necessarily the stereotypical hoodie or skinhead which are representations commonly portraying villains in films. The victims costume is fairly stereotypical and fitting to younger people such as the demographic making viewers more inclined to engage and identify with them increasing audience appeal. 

- Costumes are typical of people who live in urban "jungles" (cities) and are fashionable which engages audience with action more. Familiarity of costumes and locations add realism to the mise en scene which is important for real film lovers.

- Film consumers, film lovers especially expect certain generic conventions for example in the case, enigma, tension, claustrophobia, confusion and many more. "Of The Night" attracts audience demographic in many ways, for example elegance and age of buildings in beginning indicates the city/ location has style and tradition which was inspired by Carol Reeds use of similar signifiers referencing glamour, style and history in the "Third Man". However locations are juxtaposed with a urban underpass and then an estate representing Norwich as being a cold, urban and mysterious moral labyrinth. This means that we are increasing audience attraction by using signifiers and conventions that the film lovers expect.

 Audiences may however not expect some aspects of "Of the Night", while we stick to most generic convention of a noir thriller we challenge them with urban modern location, young people who typically are not viewed as part of the underworld of crime and the fast pasted action in the opening which is not generically typical of a thriller opening.

- The cliff hanger in our film leaves the audience cold with fear engaging them and encouraging them to continue watching in order to figure out various enigma's for example who is the villains next victim, what does he want? Who is he? And finally and most importantly will justice prevail? Viewers when consuming media products, when they are faced with such fear typical to suspense thrillers such as those of Alfred Hitchcock like to see a resolution in the film in order to resolve any fears the film may have brought out of the unconscious.

Question 7

Opening to my thriller film: "Of The Night":






Preliminary Task:

Question 4: Evaluation

Question 2: Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


"Of The Night"

The main focus of our film in terms of representation is gender and age stereotypes. in a way "Of The Night" pays tribute to the cinematography of classic noir thrillers. In the traditional noir style the young woman in our film is a victim. Though we wanted to represent women in a much more challenging and positive way with characteristics of Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" and "Shosanna Dreyfus”. However due to organization, time constraints and complexity of plot not to mention unreliable actors we were forced to modify our idea in order to shoot and edit our film before the deadline.

Gender representation:












Costume instantly allowing audience to identify with character as she is the age of demographic as well as the fashionable look of young people today. This shot demonstrates her ignorance with the white van in mise en scene as the first indication of danger; still she continues walking on blind to severity of what is going to happen. Therefore the opening of "Of the Night" portrays females as blissfully ignorant however further connotes with killing that there are dangers in this and women need to independently stand on their own two feet.




Shot inspired by "Essex Boys" marshes + "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" stand off.

This shot shows where the ignorance has led her, isolation, with no way out. This scene in "Of the Night" represents women as non-hardy people, people with non-hardy personalities typically respond more negatively to stress and feel unable to cope with situations as well as not seeing a way out. The POV shot is representative of man’s dominance over females claiming that men are inferior to women.

Female as Victim:

This shot is inspired by the "Eternal eye" shot of Marion Crane in Hitchcock's "Psycho" - shower scene, representing her giving up and accepting her fate. This shot represents women as the lesser half of mankind, the victim who evolutionarily is always weaker than their dominant male counterparts. Tone and lighting change in the shot represents moral darkness falling on this isolated placed representing the antihero - the male as cold and animalistic. If i were to further develop "Of the Night" I wish to build in other archetypes of female representation and paint a picture of zeitgeist showing female representation in film from the objectifying accessory to the strong independent and intellectually feminist women similar to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". This basis for development was inspired by "Death Proof":

The top group of girls are seen as being rather stereotypically ignorant, flirtatious and the damsels in distress, even though they do not rely on men then have some need for them were as the second group are typically more cynical and stronger more independent women who beat the antihero at his own game, representing females asserting dominance over males which is a very challenging convention in film.   







The antihero poses many different representations of age and gender for example the villain in “Of The Night” reinforces connotations of the predatory nature of males and their dominance in mainstream society. Furthermore male dominance is an issue in the media with the majority of directors being male. "Of The Night “reinforces patriarchy in society and the injustice it has on equality in the world.

"Patriarchy (rule by fathers) is a social system in which the male is the primary authority figure central to social organization and the central roles of political leadership, moral authority, and control of property, and where fathers hold authority over women and children. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination. Many patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning that property and title are inherited by the male lineage. The female equivalent is matriarchy." (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchy)







graph deomonstrating difference in income between male and females in uk. http://www.poverty.org.uk/56/index.shtml








Representation of Place:

Menacing urban landscapes are a generic convention, our film represented Norwich as a cold dreary shadowy place with the coldness of tone in the ambient lighting, we achieved this by getting the shot in the snow to increase brightness of shot similar to when wet streets reflect chiaroscuro lighting. I wanted to get a shot of the "Welcome to Norwich" sign in order to establish location and create zeitgeist represented by the action within the opening after it zooms in from the opening title shot. (This shot).




Representation of age:




Stereotypical representation of age is challenged in “Of The Night” by having both characters young people who typically (especially the antihero) would not be involved in this underworld realm of moral ambiguity. However we chose to use young people as our actors in order to make it easier for the audience demographic to identify with characters. Similar to "This Is England" with Shane Meadow's message to young people about the danger of racism and some political party’s at the time, "Of the Night" attempts to illustrate the possible perils of contemporary British cities, thus playing on the audience's fears of the dark where strangers lurk. Statistically most abuse is perpetrated by people known by the victims.



Representation of society today, Zeitgeist:

- Fear of random attacker is present in today's society with a case of random attacking in article released only 13th of March 2013. This makes characters easier to identify with and highlights zeitgeist in the representation of the opening.

Christina Edkins bus stabbing: Man to be charged with murder

Christina died from a single stab wound to the chest

A man arrested over the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old girl on a bus is to be charged with murder, police have said.

Christina Edkins was stabbed on a bus on Hagley Road in Birmingham on Thursday, on her way to school in Halesowen.
Police said they would formally charge Phillip Simelane, 22, in the "near future" following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service.
Christina's parents said her death had left them "heartbroken".
In a statement released by police, Kathleen and Jason Edkins said she was "bubbly, beautiful and intelligent".



Article from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21758146