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

To attract our audience of  females between the ages of 16-21 we used methods which would appeal to the gender and age. As well as using continuity techniques to create narrative flow and understanding we found we could attract our audience by tapping into thier fears and giving the opening sequence a realistic but gritty approach.

The techniques we used were firstly to create a main character that was believable and that represented our core market. We therefore came up with our protagonist Lizzie, a young woman living in a typical London suburban neighbourhood. The reason we used this character is so that the audience can place themselves in her shoes and feel similar emotions through the duration of the film as it is a character that reflects the core market.

Furthermore the Paranormal Activity drone and the arty grading style in the opening sequence are a relatively modern style more prominently in films this side of the 20^th century and in recent decades. This means that the generation of younger people have grown up with it and is a more appeal style for film and therefore our opening sequence represents this social group through film style also.

We also knew that we wanted a gritty film as gritty British films had been successful in the past for the gritty approach. Modern greats such as 'This is England', 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Snatch' prided themselves on there gritty backstreet approach to film as did all the successful football hooligan films such as 'Green Street' and 'The Firm'. These sorts of films put actors such as Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones on the map as successful film stars. However all these films have one thing in common. They are directed at men and we saw potential in using this style for a female British audience who may also find it appealing.

We advertised our screening with a poster that aimed to entice members of our target audience along to watch the film with an striking image of Lizzie on it.

We found that a majority of the people who came to watch the sequence were females but didn't fall to conclusions. This is some of the feedback we received:

Group 5 Sample Audience Feedback

These are some of the more helpful responses. From our responses we found that our sequence was liked because of the suspence and many of the audience found it intrigueing.  The also thought the build up of the sequence including the sound (drone) was successful which relates to the the planned appeal.

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

Typical member of our target audience:

Name: Jessica 

Age: 20

Background information:

• Studying English literature at Oxford
• Wants to become a lawyer after university.
• She is the academic type and has many friends like herself
• She enjoys watching TV dramas and apart from novel films also enjoys romance, drama, comedy and the occasional horror film.
• She likes a mixture of mainstream and indie music.
• She can’t stand action films with violence and guns.

Core market:

We decided our core market was to be one that reflects our main character, the ideals of the court case and situations that take place in the flash backs that occur throughout the film of Lizzie’s experiences with Josh. Therefore our primary market is young women aged 16 to 25.

Secondary market:

A secondary audience was also selected based on the appeal of the story. Mothers and older women 30 to 60 would be a likely candidate for the secondary audience from their ability to relate to their childhood experiences and also look down on the situation in a motherly fashion. The seriousness of the film and the twists in the plot should keep an audience like this entertained like they would if watching a clever crime/ police drama. 

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our production company is Madhouse media

PLEAD release strategy

We would have a national staggered release, with a high profile premier at the Empire cinema in Leicester

Square, London since our film is a gritty British drama and set in the suburbs of London therefore reflecting a regional audience.

The release strategy will be staggered regionally at first solely in London Multiplex such as Odeon, Cineworld and Vue and some Indie cinemas such as the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. After the London release in will then be released a few days later in other major cities around the UK like Manchester, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff.

The release will be in mid autumn and the film will be previewed until early December. This is due to the fact that at this time of year it begins to get dark earlier and people such as our target audience are less likely to be out in the fresh air. This is also the time of year these sort of dramas come out. The season in which the film is set will also reflect the time of year the film is exhibited.

Plead will then be exhibited in a global fashion starting with showings in cinemas across Europe and then in the USA. Depending on the success rate we can then exhibit the film in the rest of the world. London is associated with globally and when people think of London they associate it with Big Ben and the London eye which will be included in our film.

Madhouse Media our production company who make many gritty British films but with an international appeal  for larger audiences by making films with globally recognisable themes and locations which people can associate with as well as unique characters. A similar example would be working title making iconic British films which are globally renowned.

Kingwell Studios are a distributor of solely British films. Funded a the multi-billionaire they distribute a wide selection of films from practically all genres in a professional and clued up manor globally.They are the equivalent of Universal having a global presence and reach except that they dominate the UK market and not the USA (Hollywood). They have produced many gritty British classics similar to that of This is England & Harry Brown.

Question 2:  How does your media product represent particular social groups? 


The main character,Lizzie represents young women, through the film being an icon and a role model through her struggle and her courage in hiding the truth from the world through her plead of guilt for the murder. Lizzie represents this group through not only being a member of it but being a role model of sorts who fights through the trouble in her life.

An example of a female like Lizzie from another film is Rose Dawson (Kate Winslet) in Titanic who is abused by her fiancée and is controlled by everyone and tries to break free, at one point on the edge of killing herself. She is the victim in the film and is the main character in the film who eventually is free in the end.

The story told covers a taboo that is a worry for many young women, being the security of a relationship. This film shows a situation that could be a worry for many young women. 

Evaluation

Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of the real media products?

Film Synopsis

Our film PLEAD is a courtroom drama. It is based on a true story and follows a young woman, aged 19, called Lizzy, who has been convicted of murdering her long-term boyfriend of 5 years. The film immediately opens with disruption, beginning with the murder, and we see her just after she has committed the act. The film then moves forward in time to her court case. We follow her trial, and how her lawyer tries to dig out the truth behind the murder and find the real motive. This will be shown through a series of flashbacks, both before and after the murder took place, showing what built up to the final kill.

As the film progresses we come to learn that her boyfriend had been abusing her for years, and her parents and his refused to believe, deemed her a liar, and disowned her. She became so traumatized by everything that the only way out was to kill him. This is all revealed in a final climactic moment before the final judgement is made, and as a result, equilibrium is restored as she is released, free to go, and proven to be nothing but a good person under horrible circumstance.


The opening sequence takes place just after the murder and follows her emotion and reaction to what she has done. 

The conventions of film opening sequences can be categorised into four groups:

• Film Genre
• Narrative structure
• Form (typical opening sequence format)
• Style

Film genre

Plead is intended for the courtroom drama genre. One signifier of this genre comes in the form of emotion as any drama should contain. The Shawshank Redemption is a prison drama which has very similar conventions to the courtroom drama, The film contains a lot of emotion and powerful scenes which are made so, not with special effects, but the emotion conveyed by the well established and audience sympathised characters. This short sequence is an example of the drama that should be conveyed in our film genre:

Dramatic sequences that convey emotion generally contain slow cuts to show facial expression and make the audience think or even feel sympathetic or unsympathetic for a specific character. Dialogue construction and delivery must also be treated in a similar fashion.


The opening sequence for Plead attempts to show this sort of drama to follow the genre conventions through slow cuts and a strong focus on facial expression and emotion, especially conveyed in the bedroom part of the sequence. Characteristics of Lizzy shows tension and shock through her behaviour of heavy breathing, gagging and her changes of pace from being still one minuet and then frantically trying to clean herself up in front of the mirror to answer the door. The series of emotions she goes through in the sequence vary a lot and help to develop her character.  
 

The events that take place in our opening sequence are also typical of a courtroom drama. For example in the film Dead Man Walking the actual events of the crime are revealed in small parts at different points in the film with a reveal of what actually happened near the end.

Also another film which uses this effect is the Green Mile, like Plead, the film begins after the crime has happened and keeps the audience asking questions of what actually happened, once again being revealed at the end.

This links to narrative structure.

In terms of the theme of our film opening we broke conventions slightly creating an atmosphere not too common of a courtroom drama with contrasting grading of the red and blue which make up the bedroom half and downstairs half.

Also the blood use was quite graphic which develops on the crime side of courtroom dramas where there is some use of blood but not so much as to shock the audience with it. We can see that this image was intended to shock the audience after the build up of enigma:

Narrative Structure

We included Levi Strauss'  theory of binary opposites with the following:

Dead – Undead

Red – Blue

Inside – Outside
Silence -- Noise
Killer -- Killed

Todorov's theory of equilibrium disruption and back to equilibrium could be applied to our film but we have challenged the theory so that we can create enigma. The theory is challenged as there is no equilibrium at the beginning of the sequence at all. We do however see the equilibrium that was present between Josh and Lizzie in flashbacks throughout the full film. However there is a solution to the disequilibrium at the solving of the court case.

Equilibrium before murder (of no court case) à Court case (flash backs), Lawyer discussion, development of character à Resolution of courtroom, Lizzy set free.

The sequence gives us a sense of flash back real time as the viewer when watching the rest of the film cannot tell whether the opening sequence was at the present moment or part of a flash back in court.

The following continuity techniques were used during planning, production and editing to create a believable flowing sequence:  

• 30 degree rule
• 180 degree rule
• Cross cutting
• Sound bridges

Application of Propp's theory of Character Roles to our sequence: 

As we can see there are substantially less characters than in Propp's theory, but there may be more character roles made present in the development of the film. However the focus on three central roles means there is more focus on Lizzie our main character and we wouldn't want to draw away from the fact that she is the focus of the film. 

Form

In our opening sequence we attempted to follow the conventions of an opening sequence in terms of format and function as well as we could. One of those conventions that we included were titles, introducing the story (which is done in some films and creates enigma), displaying the people responsible for the films production and of course the main title.

Our opening sequence aims to set up location, characters and thier relationships well. This is done through a series of key shots for example:

This shot introduced the location as in a suburban street.  

This shot shows the suns position showing that the time of day is morning.

This shot introduces two main characters and thier relationship.

Style


We aimed for an original look to our film, however inspiration for this style came from a number of other films. For example the shaky and disorientating camera work in the film ‘Collateral’    to give a sinister hand-held effect which has been made popular by films like 'Coverfield' and 'The Blair Witch Project'.

Another method we used to give the film a distinct style was to do do an effect on grading inspired by 'Sin City' (Robert Rodriguez). In 'Sin City' the saturation is brought down on all other colours except for one colour where saturation is boosted in different sections of the film. We attempted to mimic this effect, but not completely, by making the the room setting look redder and the downstairs shots bluer by brining down saturation and then using a colour corrector to bring out the specific colours.    

Finally we took inspiration from the popular 'Paranormal Activity' films by using drones and sound effects to create tension. Just like in the Paranormal Activity films we aimed to use them to create tension and build suspense subtly buy build up of volume and giving a 'hair on neck' effect which is what made the paranormal activity films so popular. 

Sequence Sign Off

Today we had our final edit signed off by our teachers and the technician with a few comments on possible changes but we were told these were optional for us for example lengthening some of the titles and one on the master shots outside at the beginning of the sequence.

Initial idea

We decided in our group that each of us would go away and come up with an idea for a film which would then be discussed at our first planning meeting. This was my idea:

A zom com set in East London hero. The story would be the living through this apocolipse by a butch and thug like man whos major concern isnt the zombies but his moany cockney wife. The opening sequence would consist of a chase sequence of the main character down a street to his home killing zombies as he went in an unorthodox style with freeze frames and witty comments.

Inspiration came from actors like Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham who play a major role in gritty British film with this thug like appeal. Also inspiration came from films like Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Zombie films in general (28 Days Later, Dawn of The Dead etc.)