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

After much research on Distribution Company that may distribute our media product, i have decided a universal studio is our ideal company. Universal Pictures (sometimes called Universal City Studios or Universal Studios for short), a subsidiary of NBC universal, is one of the six major movie studios. Founded in 1912 by Carl Lamelle, it is one of the oldest American movie studios still in continuous production running for over 95 years. On May 11, 2004, the controlling stake in the company was sold by Vivendi Universal to General Electric, parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. In addition to owning a sizable film library spanning the earliest decades of cinema to more contemporary works, it also owns a sizable collection of TV shows through its subsidiary NBC  Universal Television distribution. It also acquired rights to several prominent filmmakers' works originally released by other studios through its subsidiaries over the years. Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City. Universal Pictures is the second-longest-lived Hollywood studio; a Viacom-owned Paramount picture is the oldest by a month. With this much experience behind universal pictures, it was only right that i chose it to distribute our media product. Also there success in thriller films that they have distributed in recent years such as:

Devil

Devil (also known as The Night Chronicles: Devil) is a 2010 US supernatural thriller film based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan, written by Brain Nelson and directed by John Eric Dowdle. The film was released on September 17, 2010, and is the first of The Night Chronicles trilogy, which involves the supernatural within modern urban society. The film's plot follows a group of people trapped inside an elevator that realize one of them is the Devil Universal studios budgeted this movie around ten million and grossed over fifty one million showing there smart business stature and experience coming into play..
















The Fourth Kind

The Fourth Kind is a 2009 American science-fiction thriller film, starring Mila Jovovich, Charlotte Milchard , Elias Koteas, Will Patton, and Mia McKenna Bruce. The title is derived from the expansion of J. Allen Hynek's classification of close encounters with aliens, in which the fourth kind denotes alien abductions It claims to be fact and uses real archive footage of actual events. The film purports to be based on actual events occurring in Nome, Alaska in 2000, in which psychologist Dr. Abigail "Abbey" Tyler uses hypnosis to uncover memories from her patients of alien abduction, and finds evidence suggesting that she may have been abducted as well. The film has two components— dramatization, in which professional actors portray the individuals involved, and video footage purporting to show the actual victims undergoing hypnosis. (At some points in the film, the actual and dramatized footage is presented alongside each other in split-screen.) Throughout the film, Abbey is shown being interviewed on television at some point years after the events of 2000.The film was a box office success, earning US$47.46 million worldwide, from an estimated $10 million budget. Again Showing Universal studios smart and effective budgeting along with their  experience. 
















All of these factors above played a part in why i have chose them to distribute our media product. They may also want to distribute our product as they have found much success in the thriller genres so they might see this as an opportunity. They have the experience and marketing scheme as they are well known worldwide in distributing excellent films worldwide.

Preliminary Task & Grimaldi Title Opening Sequence

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As you can have seen on previous post, i have researched our main target audience for our title opening sequence. This is more specific in general and it is about one of our audience member called Marcus.

Click on picture to enlarge it!

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As seen on previous posts, we identified the 15-25's as our target audience for title opening sequence. So it is only right that we represent this social group in our title opening sequence. Our character as shown on earlier posts is a teenage girly girl living at home with her parents.  She likes to party and socialise with her friends with little interest in school. She has a boyfriend who's not an angle and her parents dislike him.

This is our character Samantha Evans posing for a picture at a party. This represents the teenage social group in our title opening sequence. We purposely did this to represent the teenage social group. We did this as our target audience is predominantly teens so we wanted to represent this in and out of our film.

As you can see from the above picture, this is the type of social group we wanted to particularly represent as they were likely to be our audience. This as a result alows them to relate to many things that Samantha Evans is going through, throughout the film such as party's, get togethers, fighting with her parents ect.




One of the main elements of a teenagers life is partying and clubbing, if we had the chance to make the whole film we would of represented this in our film as it represents this social group. Heres what a typical club teenage scene would of looked like:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The forms and conventions of a thriller typically include:

Music: Usually tense, starting off slow and then quickening the pace to become dramatic at the climax of the shot. Or the music will take on an opposite tone, of a lively, or even happy mood, whilst the shot is of people being murdered or something– however this usually happens in a more original, edgy or independent film.

• Mystery: There will most probably be an enigma present which will run throughout the thriller film, and it will be answered right at the end, and usually by the antagonist (Serial Killer?) or by the detective (protagonist) which has been clever enough to work out the plot.

• Pace: The pace is quick when action is taking pace, but slower when protagonists are trying to work out what to do, the end scene is open to much interpretation though.

• Mise-en-scene: Cities, where lots of action happens, there is culture and diversity, and a high population. Making the place where the crime happens a ‘normal’ place where the audience themselves are likely to live, so they can relate. Costumes yet again usually represent the ‘casual’ clothes of people, travelling to work, walking in the park, the antagonists is likely to fit in with the rest of the people around him, to he is indistinguishable. The protagonist also, will be either an everyday person who has been thrown into the story unwillingly, or an agent, so the costumes are standard. Props are nearly always used in Thriller films, they could come in the form of clues, murder weapons or guns used by the agents.

• Themes: Isolation, vulnerability, loneliness, betrayal, revenge, love/passion, jealousy, troubled childhood, outcast, obsession...

• Gender: Stereotypically a male character plays the main antagonist maybe with an entourage or on his own. The protagonists are usually a mixture of male and female characters.

• Characters: The antagonist is usually intelligent and scheming and there is usually a relationship between the protagonists too, like a partnership between two agents. 

After researching music of the forms and conventions of a thriller we decided to use some of the elements that it contains. For example the tense music used in most thriller title opening sequence. We decided to use this element but however we developed it by playing two tense music at once over lapping each other. We were cautious as we thought it wouldn’t work but thankfully it worked perfectly, this was a challenge that we had and we overcome by finding ways of editing it for it to fit.

A thriller is usually faced paced and tends to have a mystery, we looked at many title opening sequence which have these elements such as se7en:

.

We looked at these elements and decided to use it in our title opening sequence "Grimaldi". However it was not a matter of copying it, we develop it by changing the character from your typical male to a female, and bringing a toy to the picture.

Mystery is one of the main forms and conventions of a thriller and it sometimes in films contains a serial killer or a psycho path. in this case of the dark night, it’s the joker. We as a group wanted to implements a similar but not identical mystery sort of character, so as a result we thought of "Grimaldi" who is a clown toy with a mystery. It is clear it’s a similar idea but we developed this and added a toy into the equation to create more mystery and drama.

Our DVD & Cover

After finishing our editing we burned the title opening sequence to a dvd. We also decided to put the finishing touches to the cover to make it look professional and slick.

After we done this, we printed out two sides of our poster that was created by Taylor Beahan and we measured it so that it would fit the DVD cover and we placed it on there also having the age certification on it.

Delay to uploading our Title opening sequence :(

Unfortunately due to the college computers not performing well when we tried to upload our final finished and edited video, we could not upload it. This is because it took hours to process the video without even uploading. As this was on the last day of college before we split up for Christmas we did not have time to try upload it again. Therefore I've decided to go ahead with my evaluation and as soon as we get back to college, I will immediately upload the video.

Shot List

Throughout our title opening sequence we decided to use a varied amount of shots in order to create a bigger quality product. Also by showing that as a group we had concidered showing our audiences the best view of each part of action, we believe that this shows the best possible concern in delivering a high quality title opening sequence.

A list below shows the types of shots we used within our title opening sequence:

• Over  the shoulder
• Medium Close-up
• Close-up
• Shot reverse shot

These shots plus a few more, allowed the product to project a more entertaining element for our target audience whilst still coming under the selected Genre which happened to be "Thriller".

New and Final Synopsis!!!

Due to new simplar and better quality ideas as a group we decided to slightly make changes from our original synopsis in order to make sure that we was happy with our final product as a group. This final synopsis can be seen below. 

Our title opening sequence begins in a girls bedroom were we are given a view of the room twice, once from an audience's point of view and the second is a more dramatic entrance to the room including the added visual effects to emphasise the element of a thriller to the audience. We then see the main character (Samantha Evans) tossing and turning in her bed until she gets fed up with the clown's melody and therefore projects this anger and throws the clown to the floor and goes back to sleep.

(Alarm clock goes off) 

A view of the alarm clock shows that the alarm clock in going off and therefore Samantha has to wake up in order to start her day. After turning off this alarm clock and turning the lights back on, Samantha realises that the clown she threw on the floor is back on the side next to her alarm clock. Therefore due to her uncertainty she grabs this toy clown and takes it downstairs and throws it in the bin believe she has got rid of this abnormal toy. Only to realise once she goes to shut the front door to go back inside, a dark hand is projected infront of the door stopping it from closing and causing Samantha to scream in both desperation for someone to help her and fear of what or who could be behind the other side of this door.

Preliminary task

This is our preliminary task that we done when we first started our course in September. Although it did not seem much when i did it, it helped me develop and learn so much on how to edit the video and sound. I took all the things that i learnt from this and applied it to our main task "Grimaldi".

Evidence of us working

• Farh and Taylor here discussing possible group logo's and ideas.

• Sam editing our title opening sequence

• Myself (Moe) working of the editing and the sound of our title opening sequence. 

Responsibilities and Roles

As i have previously mentioned in other posts, we as the group had a meeting whereby we all sat down and agreed different roles and responsibilities throughout the process of the whole production. These roles included:

New Synopsis

we have slightly changed our synopsis. We knew we might do this as we keep on coming up with better ideas and somehow I don't think this will be our final synopsis either. Our more improved synopsis is: 

The first scene starts off with a clown watching a girl sleeping. She wakes up in the middle of the night, looks at her alarm and see's the clown facing her. The girl then grabs it and throws it angrily and restlessly on to the floor. 

It is now morning and the girl wakes up from the alarm of her alarm clock. She gets up, gets dressed and puts her school books into her bag (This is when some eerie clown music is played). What the girl doesn't notice when she was packing her bag was the clown somehow managed to get in it. The girl goes downstairs with her to have some breakfast (As she is going down the stairs we will have a shot from the clown looking around in her bag). As she puts her bag on her table and looks in it for her keys, she shockingly notices the clown in it. The girl has now had enough of this clown keep popping up and decides to throw it in the bin. She walks back in her house goes back into her back for her purse this time and the clown is mysteriously back in the same place. Now the girl is really scared, picks her bag up without the clown in it and rushes towards the door. Just as she is about to open the door she is grabbed from behind!     

Storyboard Animation

Production Company logo process

Character Profile

Samantha Evans is the name of our character in our film Grimaldi. She is played by actress and friend of Farah Warda, Magnolia. Samantha Evans is your typical teenage girl living at home with her parents. She has your average girl room with pink colours all around and toys and is studying her GCSE's at school in hair and beauty, French and food technology. She is left home alone for the weekend as her parents have gone away to Scotland for the weekend.

Risk Assessment

Example of Risk Assessment 

A Risk Assessment is a systematic method of looking at work activities, considering what could go wrong, and deciding on suitable control measures to prevent loss, damage or injury in the workplace. The Assessment should include the controls required to eliminate, reduce or minimise the risks. As you can see above, that it was an example of a risk assessment table should look like. We as a group sat down at a meeting and discussed the risks of shooting our title opening sequence. This had to include everything from the group to our actress as any injuries can ruin our day of filming. We came up with our own risk assessment table which looks something like this:

My Mood Slide

Location & Props

As you have see from previous posts, we have researched and identified a few possible places for our location. After a few meeting and many discussion we've decided to make it rather simple and not fancy and film it at one of our group members house (Farah).

This decision was mainly influenced by the story behind our title opening sequence. Our character Samantha Evans is your average typical teenage girl who pimps her room out, girl style. The only female person in our group (Farah) mentioned that she had a similar room matching our expectations of Samantha Evans room.

So As a result We decided to film there as it was easily accessible, no consent forms had to be filled our anything as it was her property and it was close by.  Her role as set designer was made easier as she new were everything was and could set it up during her own time. So it was only right if we film there.




Props


One of our main props was the toy as our whole title opening sequence revolved around it. So it was vital that we purchased that. Luckily it was the only prop the we had to buy as all the other props was already at the property. This helped us to save money, time and also made the shooting happen as if we didn't have all the props, we probably wouldn't be able to film it.

Other props that we used included:

• Bin

• Alarm clock

Shooting Schedule

Monday 29th November


9:30am: The group, consisting of Taylor, myself (Moe), Sam and Farah meet as per usual during the media lesson and briefly discuss the procedures of the day and how it is going to take place. Continuing to update our bloggs during this brief meeting.




11:00am:  Farah heads of to the location of our shooting (her house) prepares everything including props, bed, laptop, alarm clock, clown, video camera and tripod.  This process should take around 2 hours to setup.




1:00-1:30pm: Farah goes to meet our actress (Magnolia) at lee green station and head back off the location of shooting and prepare for filming whilst waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.




2:00pm:  Taylor, Sam, myself (Moe) meet outside of Greenwich community college ready to depart and make our way to the location where we are going to shoot our title opening sequence. The journey should take roughly around an hour and a half and split into to parts.





2:15pm: 122 bus from outside of  Greenwich community college to lee green Sainsbury






3:00pm: 261 bus from outside of sainsburys to our location, Kingbolton road.




3:30pm: Reach our location ready to shoot our title opening sequence




3:45pm-4:30pm:  Sit down with the actress and discuss every process of the shooting and explain everything in detail whilst always making sure she is fine with everything and getting her consent before filming.




4:30pm-4:45pm: The actress prepares herself by changing to her costume whilst we setup the camera and prepare all the angles and shots the we are going to take of each clip.




4:45pm-5:15pm: Filming!




5:15pm-5:30pm:  15 minutes break to energise ourselves and prepare for another hour of shooting.




5:30pm-6:30pm:   Filming!






6:35pm:  Finish filming.





6:40pm-7:00pm: Sit down with the whole group and look through all the clips that we have shot. Also discussing to see if we are all happy with all the shots taken or if any shots need to be re-filmed.








7:00pm: ITS A WRAP!!

Possible locations for filming:

House

A house is one of many possible locations were we can film our title opening sequence. This is because the props needed to film this includes such props as beds, kitchen stairway which we discussed when we was putting the story together. This as a result would be an ideal location to film.

Woods


when researching and discussing where we wanted to film our project, the woods was a place mentioned by one of the group members. This is mainly due to the fact that our title opening sequence is a thriller and the woods at night can be a perfect place to film a thrilling scene. However due to the location of our college and where most of us live is in London and in London there are not too many woods were we can film our project.

Shopping centre 

Another location which went through our minds during the process of researching locations to film our title opening sequence is a shopping centre. We thought it will create a dramatic scene if the character is getting chased through out the shopping centre by a clown. However this may take many takes as civilians might  walk across when filming which can become very time consuming.

Delay to our editing:

Snow

Myself and Sam Doona task as the group members is to edit our film. We was supposed to be editing our piece today, however heavy snow stranded many people at home including us two and our teacher. So therefore we could not make it into college to use the right software to edit our film which means we will have to do it at a later date.

FINAL GRIMALDI POSTER!

Created by Taylor Behan

Poster Development:

All of these following posters were created by Taylor with a bit of help with the ideas from the rest of the group. This is because it was his set task as the group member to create the poster. This is our first poster, plain and simple.  As the rest of the group we input a few ideas that could better the poster which can be seen in the next part of the development process.

This is the second poster Taylor created. As you can see there is some red around the title. This decision was mainly influenced by the bloody reference within our title opening sequence. So we wanted to represent that in our poster which Taylor did a brilliant job with.

This is the third instalment of our poster development. As you can see from the previous poster, this has four clown faces rather than one. We wanted the clown to represent us as our names are on the poster on each corner. So it was only right to do such thing and it also makes it more full and effective.

This is our fourth and final poster. As you can see from the previous posters above, it  has developed from stage one to stage four. Addition of clown faces and red colouring and even the certificate badge on the poster helped it become more full, real and effective. These steps helped the poster come alive and look more professional. 

Inspiration and Ideas

When researching and looking for ideas to help us create our poster. One poster in addition to "it" (look at previous posts) the dark night was one film poster that we looked at to help guide us in the right direction to creating our poster. As you can see we the reference of the clown in the poster which in our situation is essential as it is about a clown. The colour used was also influential to us as you can see the bright yellow and orange explosion on the bottom right of the poster. This clearly symbolises that violence and explosions are going to be a likely event in the film. We looked at this and decided to put red colouring around our title head ing.    

As you can see above the red around the title helps show the audience that the film may have some bloody reference. As the colour red symbolises blood and love.

Our Age Certification:

After much research and discussions, we decided to award our title opening sequence a 15. This comes after we sat down and discussed that all the things mentioned and shown in our title opening sequence is suitable for that age range. The 15 age certification can include:

• No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

• The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

• Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

• Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

• Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

• There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

• Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

• Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely  to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

• No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

• Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.