Media Studies Coursework

Wednesday 25 April I felt as though choosing a distribution company dedicated to short films was important, as short films are a niche market in themselves, and our blend of genres takes this a step further. On research, I found 3 main companies that distribute short films: Shorts TV Dazzle Films Left ltd. On further research, I found that Shorts TV was our best bet. Here is how they describe themselves on their website: I feel like Shorts TV suit because they not only produce a high standards of all types of films, they also support emerging talent (which our film includes.) Their ident also blends in with our colour theme, red and black, near the end of the film, however I decided to put it at the beginning as this is a common convention of all films. I also decided to include the production company's logo close to the distribution company, separated by only one shot. I am using the same production company as last year, as this compliments the magazine r...

Wednesday 18 April Today, I wrote our group's magazine review. I struggled coming up with an opening line, so I took inspiration from reviews of other mockumentaries such as Borat and Bruno. I also looked at this WikiHow to help me write the article: https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Movie-Review I made a list of key words to look at for inspiration aswell, such as horror, dark comedy and dying of laughter. Final Magazine Review As the amateur mockumentary genre is slowly being killed off by Hollywood’s big names, such as Bruno, Last Dates gives this genre its last fighting chance. At the beginning of the film, by combining dark comedy with what seems to be an innocent theme, upbeat music and a light hearted setting, the film manages to create a unique and new take on dark humour. But despite a compelling and tenebrous performance by lead actors Cormac Dwyer and Beth Hamill (debuting in their first notable film roles) in the final few scenes, it is almost impossibl...

Friday 13 April There are two pieces of music that we need to include in our film: 1. A light upbeat tune for the introductory scene (like in the Undateables) 2. A retro sounding theme to give a creepy vibe to the final scene and the credits. 1. Light, upbeat tune To find this song, we searched through some royalty free music sites. The best that we found was www.purple-planet.com This site allowed us to explore songs by theme: Naturally, we firstly looked at upbeat. Here, we found some really good songs however we felt as though we didn't like the guitar and bass on most of them as it would be too heavy for this particular part of our film. We then looked through several other categories such as active, funny and cool before finding our final decision, 'Winter Wonderland'. This is a Christmas theme song however the Christmas theme is not noticable in the context of our film. It is light and upbeat and comes to a nice, soft ending that is perfect for our ti...

Monday 9 April What does it look like? Large images, usually promotional images or screenshots of the film, taking up around half of the page Title of the film review (usually that of the film) in large print at the top centre Important quotes repeated in a larger, colourful font (often in their own box) to catch the viewers' eyes A briefing of the film (i.e. director, stars, bio and star rating) at the beginning of the review in a separate box A summary of the review at the end Here are some examples that I found that helped me analyse film reviews: How does it sound? Often uses snarky humour and puns Generally very informal and geared towards the audience that the film is targeted at Can become quite long and winding Should be a brief summary at the end

Thursday April 5 It is important for all stakeholders that the film is given an appropriate certificate. For directors, writers and producers, it gives guidelines for what can and cannot be included in the film. For the audiences, it allows them to know how suitable a film will be for certain age groups whilst also giving an idea about the content for the film. For example, a film about vampires rated U will probably be quite comical and very kid friendly, whilst the same genre rated 18 will be edging more towards a horror or a thriller, unsuitable for younger viewers. Last Dates - 12 Whilst our film is a comedy, it has themes that will be upsetting to younger viewers. In normal cases, this would only make it a 12A, however our film also includes scenes with graphic violence, so this pushes it into the 12 category. However, due to the comical context, it would not be a 15. According to the BBFC, this is what constitutes a 12 rated film: Discrimination Disc...

Thursday 1 March We got 24 responses to our survey. 70% were female and these are the age ranges from our respondents: Question 4 This question asked the public what films they have watched and enjoyed in the last 6 months.  The three most popular genres were comedy, action and documentary. Whilst our film is not necessarily an action film, the comedy and documentary is a pleasing result, as it is clear that many ages and genders have watched and enjoyed these types of films. The people that did not watch and enjoy comedy seemed to overwhelmingly be older females (46-55 and 75+), whilst that for documentaries came from the younger population. Despite this, I think that the comedy aspect represents more for our target audience and we can expect to target a young audience. Question 5 This question asked our audience what aspect of a film they felt was most important. Whilst this question may not help in finding out who our target audience is, it will help...

Wednesday 28 February  Summary All the posters I have analysed, along with other mockumentary posters I have seen in the past, have common themes that we are going to incorporate in to our film.  These will include: A colour scheme that goes with the theme of our film   One simple, central image with text layered over it Production teams and companies listed at the foot of the poster with a standard font A title in the centre bottom of the poster, with font and colour relevant to the theme that will also stand out A tag line underneath the title of the film

Tuesday 27 February  Today, I created a survey to give to a range of people in order to get audience feedback. The focus was to see what ages and genders our film should be tailored towards, as well as finding out the trend in the types of TV and film watched by different types of audiences. We are going try and survey an even amount of males/females and ages in order to get varied responses. Expected Audience We expect for audiences that watch mockumentaries to be an even mix of males and females aged 16-25. We expect that these audiences have a strong liking for comedies, particularly dark comedy, and will be interested in a wide range of film genres. Here is the survey that I created today:

Here is an Emaze that I created during my research into our target audience for mockumentaries: Our film will most likely be a 12, or a 12A. I used the BBFC website to make this decision, and here is the page detailing what makes a film a 12 or 12A: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/12a-and-12 Whilst there is no strong language, sex or drugs in our film, there is violence and potentially dangerous behaviour that children could imitate. There is only emphasis on injuries and blood when the context justifies it and the horror sequence in the film will not be disturbing.

Like Bobby, we are going to use the colour wheel to get inspiration for Poppy. For Poppy's main colour, we have chosen red. This is because when paired with black (Bobby's colour), it creates a very aggressive colour scheme, which is exactly the kind of characters we are presenting.  Red represents danger and strength, which is an obvious choice for Poppy, however it also represents passion, desire and love. Whilst Poppy is a thrill killer and feels no emotion for Bobby, many films and TV shows present everything women does as being related to or for a man. Giving a nod to lust may make the plot easier to follow and the short more enjoyable for the audience to watch.  Using an accent colour such as red stimulates people to make impulse, quick decisions in advertising. This can also double up as Poppy's style of thrill killing, which is often on impulse. I am also researching some female killers in films in order to see their costumes and gain inspiration...

Bobby https://www.ranker.com/list/serial-killers-wearing-victims-clothes/christopher-shultz   This link gave me an idea to include an item of clothing on Bobby that is worn by some of his victims in the photographs that are more prominent on screen, so this nod to what Bobby does is a lot more out there for the audience. I am planning to use this colour wheel in order to design the costumes of the characters. For Bobby, I think that wearing black will be the best option. Not only will this blend in well with the set, which includes dark colours: It also represents how Bobby is associated with power, evil, mystery and death. It also can be associated with black humour (which is the basis of our film) and will allow the viewer to subconsciously realise that Bobby exerts strength and authority, whilst also creating an air of mystery and diminishes readability. We have also taken costume inspiration from a character named Trent in the TV Show...

Thursday 22nd February Poppy is a female, aged between 18 and 20. She is of regular height and weight, however she is a bit different to most people her age in how she dresses and acts. We have taken inspiration for Poppy from a character in the Undateables, who first appears in this episode at 30:20 She will not be as socially adequate as Bobby is, yet she is still talkative and confident enough to carry out her act. Poppy is more of an "unorganised" killer. As I previously mentioned, she has poor to moderate social skills, and she also has had difficulty dating in the past. However, she carries some characteristics of an organised killer as well, such as she has good hygiene (wants to go and freshen up). She clearly did not plan in detail what she was going to do after she killed Bobby, as the film crew were there,  nor did she fully plan out her attack (her approach was rushed and she only had a fleeting moment to pour the poison), and she left evidenc...

Wednesday February 21st Bobby is a male aged between 18 and 20. He is tall and strong in stature, however looks completely normal. He takes on the characteristics of an “organised” serial killer.  Here is a list of common character traits for an "organised" killer: From this list, Bobby will have many characteristics. He will be socially adequate, which is shown in both his interaction with Poppy, how he holds a conversation and in his response to the direct interview. He dismembers the body and leaves little physical evidence, as he eats the evidence, with a controlled crime scene. His house will appear very clean and well kept and he dates women. Even further, he uses seduction and his interpersonal skills in order to attack his victim. This list also helped us to form Bobby's character. He has obviously planned this act beforehand, as seen by his recipe for Poppy Puttanesca, and gets pleasure out of. His victim is a young woman and he clearly has no fe...

Wednesday 21st February  Whilst writing the final scene, I decided to take inspiration from the style of end scenes in Pretty Little Liars. These scenes show the villain to be mysterious and creepy, and they convey this by using no dialogue, minimal graphics and old-timey music. I think that this will work well in our film, where Bobby sits down to eat his victim and also dies. I am currently researching music to play in this scene and have come up with some ideas. Patsy Cline seems to be a popular choice in this show, and in many others,  to convey a chillingness creepiness in a character through calm, slow music. As so many of Patsy Cline's songs are suitable, I want to use one that has a title and/or lyrics that can create a double meaning. My favourite, and probably final, option is She's Got You. As this song will play as this scene unfolds, Bobby will realise that Poppy got him. I am hoping to play the first verse of this song in this scene. The lyrics ar...

Tuesday 20 February For our interview scene during the date, we were originally inspired by this sort of setting from Come Dine With Me: However, after analysing many mockumentary films, we noticed that it is important for setting to be very minimalistic in order to focus on and highlight the simple, ironic humour.  We have since decided to opt for a background like that used in First Dates: We are going to do this by using a plain wall and attaching our own design using art props and suitable lighting.

Thursday 8 February To help us get a clear mind of how to write our script, as a group, we compiled a bullet-pointed list of what we specifically want to happen in each part of the film (beginning, middle and end): I have also researched myself to help find some quotes from the Undateables, our primary source of inspiration, that I can get inspiration from and tailor to fit the plot of our film. Here are some websites that I have found useful to find these quotes: http://www.able2uk.com/news/tv/classic-quotes-from-the-undateables https://cpink.wordpress.com/tag/funny-quotes-the-undateables/ The last website also includes some themes of the show and talks about specific character traits and so on, which I will try to incorporate into the script as well.

https://prezi.com/view/aV7Qfnser7bvib4uWdYw/

How is it structured? The film opens with some white text on a black screen: This text helps to set the context of the film and explain the setting to the viewer. As our film is only five minutes long and we have a lot to explain to the viewer, a tool like this may come in helpful in order to quickly and effectively set the scene, whilst keeping in line with the conventions of mockumentaries. To further establish the setting a range of shots of a window and an unmade bed are shown before the credits, which lead into shots of a computer and a desk on top of which are the credits and the title of the film in a typewriter font, accompanied by the sounds of typing. I think that these typing sounds will work well with our film also, as a precursor to shots we plan to have of ladies in a dating agency, like the Undateables. The contrast of the red font against a black and white background also works well as it stands out, yet is still simple with no capitalisation on t...