Final Product: Depletion

This is our final film entitled Depletion:

Main Task Film Opening 'Depletion' - Evaluation Question Seven

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

Primarily progressing from the preliminary task I feel that I have learnt the importance of following the shot list and recording extra coverage shots, as in our prelim task we experienced various continuity issues; whereby the narrative structure didn't flow as well as we would have liked. This was primarily due to our decision to film experimental shots when on set, testing out the capabilities of the camera. Therefore in the main task, we planned our shots very vigorously, scheduled the amount of time we could spend on each shot and allowed time to film shots multiple times if we wanted to experiment with camera angles. 

Another thing we have learnt since the prelim task is how to effectively plan, ensuring our planning details were much more accurate and developed by the main task. This can be particularly evidenced in our developed shot list, that details the length, shot type, visuals of the frame and the sound that will be recorded or edited onto the visuals, which were features that weren't featured on our preliminary shot list. 

On the main task, we developed our editing and technical skills by purposefully choosing challenging editing styles, such as difficult titles/credits and complex tracking shots that had to be filmed several times to achieve the desired effect. This meant we learnt a lot more about shot types and how we can break and adhere to the laws of cinematic composition to create a more aesthetic shot. We also learnt about the vitality of light, in changing the shot and adapting the ease of colour grading the shot in post production if the lighting was better. This was something that we needed to improve on in our preliminary task, as the lighting of each shot was seemingly different and created disparities when colour grading the piece. We have also developed our skills of editing on Premiere Pro, which I believe allowed us to assemble our product together with more efficient cuts and better continuity throughout. 

Music is a vital element in creating the atmosphere and tone of the opening, however within our preliminary task looking back the music we chose used wasn't highly effective in building our intended atmosphere, and the sound effects were highly unrealistic; these choices didn't portray our chosen genre and made our film seem unprofessional. Therefore, when constructing our main task, music was an element that we heavily researched beforehand to ensure we found something appropriate in building tension. This was often difficult, as many royalty free audio tracks that classified as 'action' sounded distinctively reminiscent of a horror film. We quickly decided to use ambient sound effects as an alternative to a music track; using a low robotic hum throughout, with loud foley recorded sounds of things such as doors slamming and keyboard typing, these broke the silence which scared the audience and kept them engaged. This proved to be highly unsettling and created the dramatic atmosphere we intended for our piece.  

Main Task Film Opening 'Depletion' - Evaluation Question Six

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?:

I have evidenced my learning of these technologies when constructing this product, through the use of a powerpoint:

Within the editing software section, we screen recorded an example of how we used the Ultra Key tool, which can be exemplified by the following video:

We also screen recorded an example of how we Colour Corrected our shots, this can be exemplified by the following video:

We screen recorded an example of how we exported our product this can be exemplified by the following video:

Main Task Film Opening 'Depletion' - Evaluation Question Five

How did you attract/address your audience?:

1) We initially attracted our audience by utilising POV shots from the perception of Hayden, this allowed the audience to become more engrossed in our film opening as they are experiencing the action from a first-person perspective. 

The annotated screenshot below displays the methods in which this particular shot attracted our audience:  

2) We addressed our audience through our decision to create a character that was of a similar age (18) to our target audience, who possessed similar mannerisms to the viewer. (15-25). This made our protagonist relatable and familiar to the audience. 

3) The fast paced shots also attracted our audience, as our target audience are aged 15 and older (who stereotypically have a more limited attention span), and these fast paced shots keep their attention on the screen and the quick pace creates interest. I created a GIF which display's an example of our use of fast paced editing:

4) When our focus group watched our first rough edit, one of the members picked out that the 'injection scene and flashback' we originally had in our opening revealed too much too quickly and made it quite confusing for the viewer to interpret. Taking on board this feedback we removed this scene in order to make the introduction to the narrative slower and more ambiguous in order to attract our audience to watch our product. 

The annotated screenshot below displays the positives and negatives of using the following shot:

5) We decided to use ambient sound effects as an alternative to a music track; using a low robotic hum throughout, with loud foley recorded sounds of things such as doors slamming and keyboard typing, these broke the silence which scared the audience and kept them engaged; attracting our audience as it kept them hanging in suspense. We feel this attracted the audience more than music as this would detract from the continual action of the opening. 

6) We particularly attracted and addressed our audience of 'devoted action film enthusiasts' by incorporating all of the stereotypical action film conventions, that help make an action film successful. These include Chase Sequences, Physical Violence, Weaponry, Strong Protagonists and obvious 'Shady Antagonist'. 


7) We created a very interesting and attention-grabbing opening scene in order to attract and entertain an audience member; and because our film opening is exciting it may influence people to discuss it and share it, perhaps predicting the ending of the film. 

8) We addressed our audience through technological convergence when distributing our film, as we decided to upload it onto the social media platform YouTube. This means it's highly accessible to our target demographic, who can watch our film with ease on their tablets and smartphones. 

Main Task Film Opening 'Depletion' - Evaluation Question Four

Who would the audience for your media product? 

I believe the target audience for our media project would be aged 15 and above; in particular between 15 and 25 as this age bracket, in accordance to the BFI statistical yearbook from 2014, make up the largest proportion of the UK cinema audience. (31%) Which means the likelihood of this target audience going to the cinema to view our film would be much higher. We also decided on this audience as our action film contains scenes of threat and violence which categorized our film into the classification of a certificate 15. Originally we also had shots that contained mild references to drug taking in flashback scenes that were featured in our rough edits, however, these have since been removed. 

We also chose this audience as if we were to distribute our film opening on streaming sights such as Netflix, their target demographic is within this age bracket. 

What classifies a film as a certificate 15?

• Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds.
• Language: There may be frequent use of strong language; the strongest terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable.
• Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour.
• Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief.
• Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (in particular, 
• Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use.

-Retrieved from ScreenOnline March 6th 2017 - http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/592478/

To display our desired audience I created the following video:

The following video was created to further explain the desired audience for our film opening:

Main Task Film Opening 'Depletion' - Evaluation Question Three

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

Due to our low budget, our film is likely to be an independent release, and therefore it is highly likely to be available on online platforms such as Netflix or through online streaming. By placing our film on Netflix we will have limited distribution costs, and due to the annual or monthly payment plan available to our target audience, Netflix has proven highly popular and makes films cheaper to watch than at the cinema. Which means it is highly likely that our target audience will watch our film. (15-25, as Netflix is popular with this demographic) We may also be eligible to enter various youth film festivals, as the film boards running the festival will distribute our short film to a wider audience. An example of this being the NFFTY, International Film Festival. 

Netflix - Online Streaming of film's and television shows.

National Youth Film Festival - One of the biggest youth film festivals in the country, providing young talent with the opportunity to share their work with a wider audience, and potentially gain funding to continue their work. 

Distribution Company - Open Road Films

Open Road Films, is a distribution company that specializes in distributing similar independent action films to ours, therefore they may be eligible to distribute our media product as it would resonate with their target audience due to the genre.

Open Road Films, Distributers of the independent action film Nightcrawler:

"Open Road Films (or simply Open Road) is an American film production and distribution company based in Los Angeles, California. It was launched in March 2011 by the two largest U.S."

-Retrieved 10th February 2017 from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Road_Films

Distribution Company - Momentum Pictures

Momentum Pictures may also distribute our film, as the company (though Canadian owned) primarily distributes Action films, with all of their films Independent British Films. Since our film is a British Made film to cater for a genre that has a particularly rich heritage in the UK (Due to the creation of such films as James Bond) our film would be easy to distribute to their British Audience. Whereas if the distribution company was American (Like Open Road Films) it may not be suitable as for their audience, as conventions between independent films in the US vary greatly from the UK. Therefore, our film may not be as well received. Therefore if we were to release our film with Open Road Film's, it would require a screening with and American audience, to see if it was as well interpreted.

"Momentum Pictures is a film distributor owned by Entertainment One. Prior to 2013, Momentum was a brand of Canadian distributor Alliance Films used for its releases in the United Kingdom, and was one of the leading independent distributors in the UK and Ireland."
-Retrieved 28th February 2017 from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum_Pictures

Main Task Opening 'Depletion' - Evaluation Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?:

How our product represents the younger demographic:

Our media project represents the younger demographic through the usage of our protagonist being a teenage female. This makes our piece more relatable to our target audience, (Certificate 15) as they can relate to certain emotions the protagonist is feeling. 

How our product represents stereotype roles of authority in society:

It is also representative of The Mafia (Rebecca), with this trope evident through Rebecca's character the guard and the possession of guns, in coherence with the shady nature. 

How our product represents feminism:

The female protagonist and antagonist would be a popular choice due to the role reversal of typically male roles, which represents the wishes of feminist social groups in society.

Our media product purposefully challenges gender conventions of real media products of the action genre, through our decision to cast the protagonist as a female in a genre that is over-represented by men harboring lead roles. 

An action film is defined as a film in which a protagonist/protagonists end up in a series of challenges, which typically include violence, physical feats and fighting with the inclusion of frantic chases. Evidently from this depiction of the genre, one can decipher that a male is likely to be cast as a protagonist in an action film, due to the stereotype of a male being strong, brave character who possesses the ability to fight; unlike a female who is deemed weaker and unable to fight for herself, which is then shown through the femme fatal role females play in many high-grossing blockbusters such as the  James Bond films. (Bond Girls) Therefore in our media product, we wanted to challenge this convention which we set about doing through incorporating a 'frantic chase' and 'physical feat' whereby our protagonist was tied up in rope and had the initiative to escape. Our actor Emily successfully portrayed the will power and strength Hayden's character has, which displayed the high capability of females to fight for themselves and the 'mental strength' that allowed her to escape challenges, which puts her on par with her male counterparts. Another convention relating to gender roles we broke was using a female actor as a guard, which is again viewed in the film industry to be more of a masculine role. 

Through our film, we were attempting to shed a new light on female strength and independence, in order to develop the new concept of 'feminism' in film and particularly the Action Genre. As throughout history, there has been a prejudice against females in Hollywood. I wanted to do this for various reasons, one being that as a student who has aspirations to work in the film industry in the future, as the director I wanted to evoke to the audience the potential for women to challenge gender roles and encourage others to do the same; as this encouragement will begin to relay to the film industry if enough action films are created showing the abilities of women. I also wanted to make sure our short wouldn't fail the Bechdel Test (a test of gender bias) which states that a director must abide by 3 rules: it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.

We also subverted a convention within the Action Genre, whereby women (who are stereotypically the prize or femme fatal in an action film) are viewed by the audience through Laura Mulvey's male gaze principle; these are shots that view women from a close-up, usually low-angle in an attempt to sexualise them. 

Other products that have similarly used a female protagonist include Laura Croft Tomb Raider, Momentum and The Hunger Games, which were all major hits in the Box Office and of the same genre to our film, which shows that using a female protagonist is highly popular. (The Hunger Games grossed $677,923,379.)