Full House final film

Full House Final rough cut and links to previous rough cuts

Links to rough cuts in chronological order 
Rough Cut 1
Rough Cut 2
Rough Cut 3
Rough Cut 4

Evaluation: Question 1 - In what was does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation: How Our Media Represents Particular Social Groups

 Evaluation: How Our Media Represents Particular Social Groups

In our film, Women, Men, Parents and Youths are the social groups represented. Throughout cinematic history, all of these groups have faced being stereotyped and while our film subverts and challenges most of these expectations, some of them are actually used in order to help the story move forward. 

Women: 

Although Wonder Woman is a strong
 female character, her costume
is based on appealing to the Male Gaze rather
than suiting her role as a hero. 

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender In Media found from examining 4,000 characters across 400 U, PG, PG-13 and R-rated movies that two types of females frequent in film: the traditional and hyper-sexual. It discovered that females are more likely than males to be depicted as parents (52.2% vs. 40.4%) in motion pictures. In contrast, they also noticed how females could be shown in a  hyper-sexualised fashion. Hypersexuality refers to an overemphasis on attractiveness and sexuality by way of clothing and body proportions. The study stated that 'females were over five times as likely as males to be shown in sexually revealing clothing, which was defined as attire that enhances, exaggerates, or calls attention to any part of the body from neck to knees'. We subverted these stereotypes by dressing our female characters in practical, comfortable clothing that suited the film's subject matter thus adding to it's verisimilitude.

Regarding our chosen  Mystery-Thriller genre, females are usually depicted as damsel in distress types or cold-hearted femme fatales. For example, in Memento, the main female character (Natalie) is portrayed as being manipulative, ruthless and out for her own personal gain.

Natalie is an example of how females are portrayed as
both damsels and dangerous in Thriller films.

This subverts against stereotypes of women being domesticized and maternal as Natalie demonstrates zero empathy for the protagonist's health condition and continuously exploits him as he suffers through his condition. However, she does 'fake' being in an abusive relationship and thus a victimised state to fool the male character and make him feel sympathy for her.

Kicker from Full House wears a costume
that doesn't sexualise her body. 

Men:
In contrast, males are vastly being portrayed as "metro-sexuals", "macho-men" and "skirt chasers" who have little interest in being protective or fatherly. While women are being over sexualised and domesticated, men are suffering from being depicted as unemotional and violent. Wild-Card is the only male character in our film and while it could be argued that he is underrepresented because of this, his characteristics prove him to be a subversion to the male stereotype, as he isn't presented as aggressive or heroic but endearing and peaceful. The dialogue 'Just do as she says, Kicker' highlights that Wild-Card doesn't like confrontation but the fact that he meets the other character's eye's when he is speaking to them also proves that he isn't afraid to stand up for what he believes him, giving Wild-Card a sense of vulnerability as opposed to weakness.

Bruce Willis is an example of males being primarily
portrayed as 'heroic' in Thriller films.

Youths and Parents:
 Films portray youths as being competitive and territorial (e.g. Eden Lake) and our film somewhat conformed to this stereotype as Twist and Wild-Card are shown as very reluctant to welcome Tilt into their group (reenforced through the close up shot of Twist searching Tilt). This lack of trust and hostility towards Tilt was used as a way to address the struggles that teenagers face to be accepted by their peers but also the harsh reality that these young adults are isolated and have no other way to protect themselves but instinct. Parents are used primarily as a plot device in Full House in order to set the scene, this is a common theme in teenage based dramas, where parents are portrayed as too protective and ignorant to their children's dreams. The mother that we use to get Tilt to come home in the opening scene conforms to the stereotype of being loving and anxious.

Eden Lake presents Youths as being xenophobic and victims of Peer Pressure.



Evaluation: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Distribution of Media Product

We decided that our Mystery-Thriller would be produced by an Independent film company as opposed to a Mainstream one due to it's unique interpretation of a popular theme (apocalyptic disaster) and it's frequent challenging of gender stereotypes throughout.

The main 'big six' film companies. 

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) was distributed by Paramount Pictures with a $15 million budget. The second instalment of the Cloverfield franchise, 10 Cloverfield Lane already had an established fan base when it began production and was guaranteed to draw in new audiences through it's interesting plot and promise of impressive special effects. Donnie Darko (2001) however is an example of an Independent film with similar themes but a much smaller budget ($3.8 million). This film was shot in exactly 28 days but managed to develop a strong cult following and gain positive reviews despite this, proving that unique storylines are just as appreciated as big explosions. Donnie Darko was distributed by Newmarket Films, a company that isn't part of the Big Six, which means that Full House won't need a popular conglomerate to support a high production value like 10 Cloverfield Lane. However, it will need the money to market itself in order to reach it's target audience and create awareness of the film.

A scene from Donnie Darko (2001). 

I decided that overall the best distributor for Full House would be Working Title Films as it produces 4-5 films every year including two guaranteed to be 'high risk' which would prove effective for our Mystery-Thriller as it breaches the norms of conforming to stereotypes and approaches the subject of 'the end of the world' from a unique angle, which could be turned away by Hollywood companies like Paramount as it might be seen as 'unusual' and therefore unlikely to sell well with audiences. Working Title Films are able to achieve global marketing due to being a subsidiary of Universal, meaning that if our film is successful in Britain, it could also achieve prominence in America. With Universal handing out $35 million for each film to be made, Full House would receive enough to be produced, marketed and distributed successfully.

Our chosen Distributer. 

Evaluation: Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We aimed to attract a wide demographic, specifically a young adult audience, whose lifestyles would match with the pre-disaster habits of the main characters thus making them more relatable to students. However, the fifteen age rating meant that our film could also be enjoyed by people of older ages who might be drawn to Full House because of it's inclusion of popular thriller themes like grief, deception and self-discovery. It wouldn't be appropriate for anyone below this age because of it's representation of anxiety and stress through the use of strong threat and mild violence. Able to appeal to all genders because of it's interesting portrayal of both female and male characters, Full House is a film with the potential to draw in a vast audience of different races, ages and genders.

The character's in our film related to an audience of
a young adult one. 

In order to ensure that Full House reached it's target audience, our group researched how differences in humour can change the way a film is perceived, how a genre can be stereotyped towards one group of people more than the other (for example, action films are generally made with the intention of attracting a male audience) and even how the film's setting can appeal to one nationality rather than a variety. As our film was shot in England and has a British cast, it could be possible that some of our dialect might not be as understood in America. We also handed out an initial questionnaire to these age groups to see if the Rough Cut of our film had began to apply these conventions correctly:

The majority of the respondent's we asked where the same age of our intended certificate or above. It mainly came back that our film was percieved as a 15 certificate:

We displayed our Target Audience research through
the use of Prezi.

We used this information as a way to produce our film more carefully. We came to the conclusion that our film would be more appealing to males because of it's thriller elements so intentionally put in three female characters as a way to reflect that our film could also be appreciated by a female audience.We made sure that we asked a majority of Women to prove that we could achieve this:

Overall, I believe that our film mainly attracts a young-adult audience which is beneficial to us because they are one of the main three groups that attend theatres the most. It should be noted that our film isn't just strictly for young-adults and can be attractive to an older audience as well because of it's mature themes. This is also a beneficial aspect for us as it means that the people with the most disposable income (for example, senior citizens) could potentially add to the profit taken by our film if it was released in cinemas.

The inclusion of female characters meant that our originally
male dominated film could be appealing to a wider
demographic. 

Evaluation: Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Overall, I believe that we have reached our target audience of 15+. To confirm this, we handed out a series of self-completion questionnaires to our target audience to see what they thought about our storyline and if there were any parts of the film that they believed could be improved.

The first Questionnaire that we handed out asked that
the participant give information on their personal tastes
as well as their initial thoughts of our film. 

When in the process of creating Full House, we decided that it would be in our best interest to use actors of a similar age to our target audience in order to make them feel like they could relate to the characters. The genre of Mystery-Thriller is popular with most ages, especially those 15 and above, as it provides a sense of escapism (one of the main reasons that theorists Blumler and Katz state in their Uses and Gratifications theory as to why audiences watch films). We decided the correct use of iconography like weapons and a typical setting of a rural or abandoned area would be necessary in establishing the film's storyline and making it recognisable to our audience. Pessimism was integrated into our film as way to make it familiar to our British audience as it is a common stereotype associated with our nationality but also as a plot device to show how solidarity and optimism are sometimes needed in order to survive.

We used the familiar rural setting coupled with a long shot for our Mystery-Thriller
to convey isolation (a common theme in our chosen genre).

We used a Medium Shot to display Twist's mistrust of Tilt and how the gang surrondeds her to as a way of intimidation. 

Strengths: Feedback indicated that most of our potential audience agreed with our fifteen certificate of the film and believed that Teenagers, Young Adults and even Middle-Aged audiences could be interested in Full House. Despite results indicating that this was a film more appealing to a male orientated audience, nearly all of the respondents (both male and female) said that they would watch the full film if it was released, making our decision to include more female characters a successful one.

The majority of respondents agreed that our film was
aimed at fifteen years and above with only a small
percentage considering it suitable to be rated 12A.

Weaknesses: When we asked respondents if there was anything about the film that could be improved  there was a few respondents who claimed that at certain points in the film they found that the audio was quite hard to hear. We found that shooting the film in February and March had meant that our audio could become badly affected as weather was incredibly unpredictable.

In this Medium Shot of Tilt and Kicker conversing some of the audio was muffled and had to be corrected in editing.

However, we managed to solve some of the problems during editing. Despite this, we would still chose to shoot our film in the Summer if we had the chance to make the it again, as it makes planning less difficult and is more likely to secure actors, as they're more likely to enjoy working in the sun rather than the rain. 

We also did an online survey that gave more in-depth results
as to what could be improved about our film.

Overall, our film was successful at attracting and addressing it's audience as the majority of the people we handed our written and online questionnaires out to claimed that they were interested in seeing the full film.

Results.

My Evaluation on Technologies

Evaluation: Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?

Progression from Preliminary Task to Full Product

The preliminary task introduced me to continuity editing and developed my understanding of match on action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule. The preliminary task involved Melissa walking down the college corridor and opening the classroom door, crossing the room to sit down in the chair opposite from me and then exchanging four lines of dialogue. Match on action was demonstrated with the opening of the door as Melissa's hand had to be in the same position on the handle in the close up as it was in the long shot in order to avoid any continuity errors.

Match on Action helped to stop the change of angle from looking disjointed or out of place.

Shot-reverse-shots added to the pace of the conversation and allowed for character reactions while the 180 degree rule (see below) ensured that our preliminary task was easy to visually follow and there was no confusion from the audience. 

180 Degree Rule helped us film our conversation to avoid any confusion for the viewer. 

Over The Shoulder Shot from Preliminery Task.

All of these skills have been transferred to my finale project as well as new skills that have been acquired throughout my media course. For example, we decided that we wanted to use a focus pull in one of our scenes as a way to show the disorientation and confusion of the main character. At the point of our preliminary exercise, I had little experience with this method but after practising on how to perform the effect on our HC-V270 Panasonic Video camera, we all became much more confident with focus pull.

Example of Focus Pull (Part 1)

Example of Focus Pull (Part 2)

Furthermore, we also began exploring how to apply the effects of video editing software Premiere Pro to our final project, experimenting with dissolves and fades to help show the passage of time ensuring that our audience is still interested in the film and that we aren't boring them. At first, I wasn't confident with using the software but as time went on my ability improved so that I could edit my film successfully.

Practice of Dissolve.

Premiere Pro allowed for any alterations to sound, lighting, continuity and effects, improving the overall quality of our film, all in all giving us the necessary tools needed to convey the correct tone to our audience. It's compatibility with Youtube made it easy to export the film and learn from our potential audience through rough cuts and attached questionnaires giving us valuable information on what could be done to improve the film and our technique in the future. We would alter the use of long shots in our film in the foreseeable future, as it's lack of close ups was noticed and their additon would have increased the versimilitude of the film.

An example of the long shot that could have included more close ups to improve the quality of our film.

Picture of us working on our film.

Post-Production Questionnare

Results

Locations

In our film we used 4 locations in total.

The first location we used is the study base seen in the first part of the film.

We chose this as the protagonist is quite young and we wanted to show that she had a normal life before the events of the film.

The second location is the meeting room seen in the news report.

We used a meeting room as it was private and we would not be disturbed. It also had a large plain white wall which we needed for the background and also a large table which looked like a news room desk.

The third location we used is the Underbank Reservoir.

We used this as it was out of the way of houses. The other reason we used this location was the large body of water and the tall trees had connotations of isolation. This location also matched the mental image we had of this part of the film.

The fourth and final location was the Underbank Woods

We used this particular section of woods as it was out of the way and secluded enough that we wouldn't be disturbed during filming. Another reason we used this area was as it had a clearing that was by a stream which would be the perfect place for a camp during an apocalypse as it has shelter from the trees and water from the stream.

Fifteen Minute Analysis Of A Similar Film: Memento

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-TWndOsTchfWjFoUHVBZmJWX2c/view?usp=sharing

Photo storyboard

INT. DAY. Library






















Shot: Close up.

Mise en scene: Books.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Diegetic sounds of the book being grabbed and people walking around in the backgroud.
Duration: 3 seconds

INT. DAY. Library

Shot: Medium shot.

Mise en scene: Books, table, public area.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Diegetic sounds of the book being placed on the table and pages being turned, also diegetic background noises of other people walking around.
Duration: 3 seconds

INT. DAY. Library

Shot: Close up.

Mise en scene: Phone.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Diegetic sound of the phone ringing.
Duration: 2 seconds

INT. DAY. Library






















Shot: Medium shot.

Mise en scene: Books, public area, neat and tidy.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Diegetic dialogue and diegetic sounds of other people walking around. Diegetic sound of the phone call.
Duration: 10 seconds

 INT. DAY. News room

Shot: Medium shot.

Mise en scene: Blank wall, smartly dressed.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Non diegetic sound of the news report going static and cutting off, diegetic sound of the news reporters dialogue.
Duration: 22 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field by pathway and lake





















Shot: Close up.

Mise en Scene: A lake in the background, connoting isolation.
Editing: A focus pull, cuts to the next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 2 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field by pathway and lake






















Shot: Medium close up.
Mise en Scene: A large lake in the background, connoting isolation.
Editing: Cuts to the neext shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 4 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field by pathway and lake





















Shot: Medium shot, the camera tilts and pans as it follows Tilt getting up.
Mise en Scene: A lake, grass and trees with no other people around.
Editing: Cuts to the next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 3 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field by pathway and lake





















Shot: Long shot
Mise en Scene: A lake, grass and trees with rural hills in the distance.
Editng: Cuts to next shot
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 2 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field by pathway and lake





















Shot: Eye line shot, that pans around as Tilt looks out into the distance.

Mise en scene: Lake and rural hills in the background and one house, signifying that there is possibly some civilisation left.
Editing: Cut to next shot
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 2 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field by pathway and lake





















Shot: Medium shot
Mise en scene: Rural hills in the distance, lake and trees
Editing: Cut to next shot
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 3 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field by pathway and lake
 

Shot: Medium long shot which pans on Tilt as she walks away.
Mise en scene: Tree's, lake and rural hills in the distance.
Editng: Title added onto the screen, and a cut to the next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 6 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field by pathway and lake





















Shot: Long shot
Mise en scene: Tree's, lake and rural characteristics.
Editing: Cuts to the next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 5 seconds.

 EXT. DAY. Field by pathway and lake






















Shot: Long shot.
Mise en Scene: Tree's, lake and rural characteristics.
Editing: A fade to black
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 3 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field

Shot: Medium shot.

Mise en scene: Tree's, bin as a table, some ripped clothes, playing cards, very rural area.
Editing: Cut to next shot.
Sound: Diegetic dialogue, tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 4 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field






















Shot: Long shot.
Mise en scene: Tree's, rural characteristics.
Editing: Cut to next shot, parallel editing between Tilt and the group.
Sound: Diegetic dialogue, tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 2 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field






















Shot: Medium shot.
Mise en scene: Tree's, bin as a table, some ripped clothes, playing cards, very rural area.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue.
Duration: 4 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field






















Shot: Medium close up.
Mise en scene: Tree's, rural area
Editing: Cuts to next shot
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music.
Duration: 6 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field

Shot: Medium shot.

Mise en scene: wooded area, tree's, some rubbish on the floor, playing cards.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue.
Duration: 6 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field

Shot: Medium shot.

Mise en scene: Tree's, ripped clothes, rural characteristics.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue.
Duration: 2 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field

Shot: Close up.

Mise en scene: Cards, toothpicks, ripped clothes, bin as a table, leaves and muddy ground.
Editing; Cut to next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue.
Duration: 2 seconds

EXT. DAY. Field

Shot: Medium shot.

Mise en scene: tree's, rural characteristics, ripped clothes.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue.
Duration: 2 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field

Shot: Medium close up

Mise en scene: Tree's, rural characteristics.
Editing: Cuts to next shot
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music
Duration: 2 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field





















Shot: Low angle medium shot, camera tilts upwards as they stand up.
Mise en scene: Ripped clothes, tree's, clothes hanging on a branch, rural characteristics.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue.
Duration: 4 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field

Shot: Medium shot with a slight high angle.

Mise en scene: Tree's, rural characteristics. Kicker walks towards Tilt.
Editing: Cut to next shot, shot reverse shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue.
Duration: 8 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field






















Shot: Medium close up, slight low angle.

Mise en scene: Tree's, rural characteristics.
Editing: Cuts to next shot. Twist walks into shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue.
Duration: 6 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field

Shot: Medium shot

Mise en scene: Trees, clothes hung up, wooded area.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue and walking and shoving sounds.
Duration: 5 seconds.

EXT. DAY. Field






















Shot: Close up, deep focus.

Mise en scene: Tree's, knife.
Editing: Cuts to next shot.
Sound: Tense/suspenseful non diegetic music, diegetic dialogue.
Duration: 3 seconds.