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

Director's Cut of "The Yellow Brick Road" from Anna Wyatt on Vimeo.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

From the opening, my film could represent any social group, within reason; I simply have a woman, who's clearly the main character, doing the same thing every day- waiting for a train, as many people from many different social groups would do. It could also represent those who are more free-spirited, due to the insinuations that this woman will travel, and break free from the normal daily 9-5 job and lifestyle. The woman would be more likely to represent someone outside of the higher classes of society, as clearly she has to work, which is one of the reasons she feels so fed up, and in the need of escape. Many members of the audience will have wanted to escape their daily lives for something totally different, and as such, this woman could represent them.

The film could be seen as a feel-good film too, because it sees a normal person become different, change their life around, thus causing an audience to believe that it is possible for anyone, and in this way, my main character could represent anyone in the audience, within a certain range.

My main character may also be perceived to be quite isolated, emphasised by the train just passing her by, while she stands, unaffected by it. This isolation will allow certain members of the audience to empathise with her, and those people will come from all walks of life, proving how despite social class, you can take one character, and represent any number of different stereotypes or groups. 

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

 

Palm Pictures produces, acquires and distributes innovative music and film projects with a particular focus on the DVD format. Palm has positioned itself as a leader in the converging music and film markets, placing an emphasis on projects like music documentaries, arthouse & foreign cinema, and music videos. This company distributed “New York, I Love You” which isn't similar to my concept, but has themes that could be, and also is very art-house in style.

Focus Features is the art house films of Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films. This company distributed “Billy Elliot” and “Lost in Translation”, which have similar concepts to those found in my film.

Momentum Pictures

Momentum Pictures a leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland and releases approximately 20 theatrical films a year, with several stv releases. The fact that it has previously distributed films such as “Amelie” make it a suitable distributor for my film, which is in a similar style to both.

Ideally, I would choose to use Momentum Pictures to distribute my film, because it has a similar feel to many of their films.This company is also one of the most successful in the industry, and as such, my film would therefore have more chance of being successful. However, Palm pictures would also be a good choice because it is becoming a leader, but is not one yet, and so there would be a higher chance of being able to distribute my film with them. They also focus more specifically on the ArtHouse style.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I would primarily be looking at those aged between 18 and 40, in the ABC1 category, to be my main audience. This is because these ages and classes would be most likely to appreciate what is going on in the film, and engage with my main character the most. Having said that, I can also imagine an older audience as well, because they may be able to appreciate it in light of their own experiences, rather than their own feelings, and the younger generation may be able to.

My target audience would have a genuine desire to travel, and discover other ways of living, as then they will be able to connect with the main character more, and so the film will be more effective to them; for example, it might be pointless for someone who is perfectly happy with their life to watch this film, because it puts across the message that one can change their life around, and this is something that someone like that would not need to do, and so would be unlikely be as interested in the film.

An audience who may want to watch it could be those who enjoyed the recent film “Eat, Pray, Love”, which was released shortly after I wrote my film synopsis. Turns out it actually had a fairly similar plot.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

With the audience research I conducted, I found out that the most common genre of film people like were films that allow you to escape, in particular romances. My film is not a typical romance film, but the idea is very romanticised, and it certainly allows escapism, and at the end a feel-good solution; audiences tend to know the topic of the film before going to watch it, and as such this genre would attract a range of people, from those who like the escapism of sci-fi, to those who enjoy the escapism of romantic films. This is partially because, during my audience research, I found out that most people like a fairly slow-paced introduction with only one or two characters, that doesn't leave them reeling from the amount of information they've had to process, and my opening does this, hopefully attracting the audience to keep watching.

The opening itself also serves to attract an audience by hooking them in, forcing them to question the connection between the two story worlds we see in the introduction. In the audience research, most people agreed that they only like to be introduced to one or two characters in the introduction, a suggestion I have stuck to, because it allows them to become familiar with the characters. One person said they enjoy being able to grow with the characters as well, which would certainly be possible in my film, where the audience go on the protagonist's journey with her. It also gives them something to relate to; the normal 9-5 working day, waiting for the train and going to work, which addresses them directly, as they could perhaps envision themselves in a very similar position. 

However, the main connection any audience would have with her is this desire to leave everything behind, and find out more about the world and a different path of life. This wanderlust is something that many people in the audience would have felt, and as such, they can hopefully relate to her. The idea of travelling is enforced by the images which are clearly not from where she is now, and this hopefully entices the audience to watch the rest of the film. It also addresses them; if they want to travel, this will talk to them personally. This is why the film could be seen as a feel-good film too, because it sees a normal person become different, change their life around, thus causing an audience to believe that it is possible for anyone. Films that show an ordinary person change their lives around tent to attract audiences, because they allow escapism on a possible level; one of the topics that came up in my audience research was escapism, one of the reasons audiences choose to watch a particular film.

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

On the way to my final piece, the editing software is the area that I feel I have learnt most about; my opening makes use of shot alterations, such as sepia; many shot transitions that I have altered the length of to create the necessary atmosphere; much more editing in terms of cutting out sections of film; and also the alteration of speed of the shot. For all of the above, I have found the editing software iMovie perfectly adequate, as it has allowed me to manipulate all of my footage to exactly what I wanted. There are certain limitations I this software, such as only being able to speed up or slow down footage to a certain amount, but that would be expected, given that it is provided for free on macs computers, and there are ways around the problems as well, so I found iMovie right for this level of editing; if I wanted to produce anything longer, or more complex, I would find it a lot more limiting.

For the audio of my opening, iMovie was also fine for incorporating it, after finding the audio elsewhere; the song I have used comes from a website called “SoundCloud”, which allows new musicians to upload their music copyright and royalty free, and enables users of the website to download it, which was incredibly useful. If this technology had not been available to me, I would have created my own music in GarageBand. At first, I did experiment with creating my own music using the loops feature on the software, and there were many appropriate sounds and sequences of music on there, but I did find it limiting in that the way of recording music on to it wasn't very high standard, which would have dragged down the audio, and thus the entire feel of the opening. However, I have discovered how to use it for basic things; in fact, I have used it and iMovie to create the director's commentary for question one of the evaluation.

I have found social networking sites, such as Blogger, Vimeo, and Youtube, highly useful for my coursework; Blogger in particular has allowed me to document the process to the final opening easily and efficiently. I have also learnt how to embed clips from both Vimeo and Youtube successfully onto my blog; both of these video sites have been invaluable, both in uploading footage to Blogger, as well as for research purposes. In particular, I used Youtube to look up other effective film openings, to see what worked and what didn't, which has allowed me to create an opening that hopefully avoids many of the downfalls of other film openings. The downfall of Vimeo is the sheer amount of time videos take to upload; a 3 minute film could take two hours to upload, which posed problems when uploading the audience research and preliminary task, because a limitation on lesson time means it was hard to find enough time to put films up. However, for the actual opening I was using my own laptop, so this hasn't been a problem.

The final major technology I used to create my opening was obviously the camera itself; I was using a Canon HD camera, which was of high enough quality and complexity to allow me to film all of the footage that I needed to make the opening work. The only problem I had in the process of filming arose when I went to France, and discovered that the tripod I had been using didn't fit in my suitcase, no matter how many angles I tried to squeeze it in... Looking back though, I feel like the scenes in France have actually benefitted from this, because they look slightly edgier now, and have more of a contrast with the shots at the train station, for which I did use the tripod.

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

The preliminary task was a simple sequence following a character going through a door, to have a conversation with another character, filmed using the shot-reverse-shot technique. It also took minimal editing to make into a sequence; of course, my opening was much more complex than this, and particularly the editing, took a lot longer than that used in the preliminary.

One of the first things I learnt while creating my final piece was that it would take a lot more planning than the preliminary had done; for the preliminary exercise, there was hardly any planning involved, only the creation of a script and an ordering of events. We simply found two people from around school who were free, and told them what they had to do, and that was that. However, for my final piece, I needed to create detailed plans, mood boards, story boards, before even considering filming. I also had to find appropriate characters rather than pick the first person I saw. I have also discovered how hard it can be to coordinate people; this is one reason I am glad I only needed one main character; it was a lot easier to coordinate one person than it would have been to coordinate many.

In my preliminary task there was very minimal editing, something that changed drastically in my final piece. The preliminary only required cutting slightly and ordering, where my final piece needed a lot more work to make it something watchable. For example, I think I filmed around two hours of footage in all, perhaps more, of which two minutes was actually used. This is partially due to the speeding up of some film for effect, but also because there were many scenes that I couldn't use because of some outside circumstances affecting the effectiveness of each shot. This wasn't a problem because I had a lot of footage, but had I had much less, I expect the opening wouldn't look as it does. Another new thing I used in my final piece was shot transitions, which play quite a large part in my final piece; basically, everything that goes into the editing of the opening I learnt whilst creating it.

Audio is another aspect I feel I have learnt a lot about; it is quite amazing how much effect the soundtrack has on the overall feel of a piece. Even if I had used a similar song by the same artist, it would not have had the same effect. I also had to take out audio from the actual film in my opening, which is another thing I didn't have to do in the preliminary task.

I've also learnt about the importance of the visuals in a piece like mine; they weren't very important in the preliminary, given the simplicity of the task, but they make up all of the content in the final piece, and as such the positioning of my main character, the actual setting, and the way in which I filmed a shot was all a huge amount more significant. Creating a piece purely based on visuals and on constant sound track has allowed me to realise how much can be implied or communicated through images alone; as such, I've learnt about the importance of good quality camerawork, and interesting shots that hold the attention of the audience. Also included in the visuals is the mise-en-scene of the piece, which is a huge contributor to the mood of the product, and another thing that makes the visuals of any piece so important.

I have also discovered in better depth how to use the video sharing sites such as Youtube and Vimeo, and I have discovered how invaluable they can be when creating a project like this, from planing the piece to broadcasting it to the entirety of the internet.

In all, I have learnt so much from creating my final piece that I wouldn't have considered in creating the preliminary task, from the actual camerawork through to the editing process, and sharing the outcome.

Audience Feedback

Recently, my film opening was shown to a group of media students, who filled in a response form anonymously, with their reactions to my work.

Generally, this feedback was very positive, with comments about the high quality of camerawork, fitting music, and use of different effects. I also had comments about the effectiveness of the changing outfits, which is positive, as that was one area I was concerned didn't have enough impact.

The only concern that repeatedly came up was that the storyline wasn't clear from the opening two minutes. However, as much as I will take in this criticism for any further work, I don't believe that it is important for any film to give much indication of the plot in the opening. This applies to my film especially, because of the two separate story worlds that are going on; one of the main protagonist in her normal life, and one of where she will assumedly end up. The idea was to not give away the plot in the opening of the film, and to perhaps cause the audience to question where the story was going, and what relevance the two scenes held to each other, which was achieved, given that people didn't understand the link between the worlds.

Overall, I am very pleased with the feedback I was given, as it has reassured me that the sorts of effects  was hoping to create were achieved, and has also allowed me to think about areas where I can improve my work in the future.

Final cut of my film opening!

The Yellow Brick Road from Anna Wyatt on Vimeo.

Music

Instead of going immediately to creating my own piece of music, I had a look on the website called "Soundcloud" which allows you to use music that hasn't been copyrighted. On here, I found a song that fits perfectly with my opening, and so I've requested permission from the creators as a back-up, even though I know it is a copyright free song by an unsigned band.

Change of cast

Due to complications (of my sister being in France and there being not enough appropriate material to film to use over there), I have decided to use my friend Megan as my main character instead, as she looks older than she is, and she also has the right sort of look. I can also film with her much more easily and at shorter notice than I would have been able to had I used someone out of school.

Storyboard

Soundtrack

For the music for my film, I don't particularly want anything with too many lyrics, or possibly lyrics at all. So, I have the choice of either finding the backing of a song that fits in, whose artist I can contact easily for permission to use their music, or to create my own music, possibly using the software of Garageband; basically for this, I could use different loops to create a fairly simple soundtrack that would actually fit with my opening as it's something that I would have created specifically for my opening. This may be the most sensible idea as it's something that I can do without a problem, and then I won't have too many complications with permissions etc.

The Fourth Wall

The idea of breaking the fourth wall doesn't particularly appeal to me for use in my film, as when it's used it is usually used in a comedic manner. In these situations it is really effective; it's used in films such as "Ferris Beuller's Day Off", where it's particularly effective. It helps with the narrative as well, as we see things more often from the opinion of the characters, giving us greater insight into their minds, letting the audience connect with what's going on in the film more.

More changes...

To avoid the confusion that would be really likely to happen had I shown two changing scenes mixd together, I have decided to have my main character standing at the train station in different clothes between each shot of something interesting happening. This will hopefully imply the idea that she is doing the same thing over and over again.

To make the scenes of her waiting at the station more interesting, I'm going to film for a few minutes in each outfit, and speed the scene up to emphasise the passing of time. On the final scene I'm going to film the train arriving, with the character still on the platform, and then leaving again but with the character on the train. This should make a good final scene of the opening.

I'll also use music that I'm planning to make using GarageBand to go over the top of the visuals, to make sure it fits with the opening.

Filming:

I will be filming throughout the next week, until thursday the 17th. On each day, I'm hoping to get several shots and be done with the shots that I need from England by Saturday evening. From the sunday, I will be in France, and I'm going to try to film a shot out of the airplane window, or at least of a plane in the sky/. I'd also like to get film of people skiing, in a bar, and generally having  a bit of fun, to contrast the boredom that my main character is feeling.

I hope the introduction doesn't get too confusing; I'll have a shot of her going about her daily life, then a shot of something she'd rather be doing, filmed using unrelated people, back to another shot of her. Each shot of her will show her in different clothes to emphasise the fact that she's got the same routine for every day.

I also have had to change the scene at the beach to a scene at the river, because of complications with the camera and also the cast.

Some of the places I am considering using for this include:

Wymondham Train Station

 Tignes in France

 The river Tiffy in Wymondham

Another change of plans

Right.

Having thought some more about how my opening is actually going to look on screen, and how the audience are going to react, I have decided to change it yet again. I am going to have the same basic idea, but slightly changed.

After two screens of opening credits, I'm going to have my main character waking up, responding to an alarm, The second shot will now be someone who is NOT the main character opening curtains to an amazing view, followed by a shot of my main character opening her own curtains- or possibly blinds- on somewhere dull. Then I'll have a shot of an aeroplane or something similar in the sky, followed by my character leaving her house. It'll go on like this, contrasting between her boring and dreary life, and all of the other things she might rather be doing. Each shot with her in will show her in different clothes, to keep the idea of her living her life day to day.
This interspersion of interesting and dull activities should make the introduction less boring, and it should also fit in with the story and continue the idea that she is dissatisfied with her life.

I'll make a storyboard next to explain all of these confusing ideas better!

Cast

I only need one person for my opening, and this person is going to be my 19 year old sister, as she is a better age for the role, even if not the perfect age. Most other people I have access to are either too old or too young, so given the circumstances, she's probably the closest person I have to match the character. She also can ply the part as she's been in previous media productions, and also did drama at gcse.

Thinky things

Considering different ways to edit the opening, I think that maybe the titles should all appear at once to stop the whole things looking disjointed; they'll appear one after the other now, instead of between shots, except the last title, which will still appear at the end.

I've also thought about starting off each shot slowly, with quite a lot of time on each shot, perhaps 4 seconds, and speeding the shots up after each sequence; i.e the next shots will become 3.5 seconds, then 3, then 2.5, and finally 2, to make it seem as if her life is rushing past; even if this change of shot doesn't directly click with the audience, it would be more interesting and effective than simply repeating exactly the same sequence over and over again. Similarly, the music will also start off fairly slowly and then speed up to match the pace of the editing, to perhaps create a little more interest for the viewer.  The shots listed in the previous post are most likely going to be the shots I will use, but I may see something that I particularly want to, or don't want to include when I get to the location in person; I've looked at it over the internet, but not in person yet.

Change of plan...

Due to certain circumstances, I am going to France for a few days before the deadline of the 25th of March, where my sister works. She's a better age for the character I'm looking to cast, and the shots themselves, and the opening sequence would be very simple and easy to film. However, I may have trouble with trains in France, so some of the shots I'm going to use have changed.
Now, I'm going to have:

A shot of the character opening her eyes (a close-up on the eyes)
A shot of her opening the curtains
Putting the kettle on
An over-the-shoulder shot of her making cake/ other food
Laying the table or lighting candles
Cleaning up- probably putting dishes in the sink or running the bowl of water
Closing the curtains again
Then closing her eyes.

The shots will now be in this order, rather than seven of the same shot one after the other, as I think that may get a bit boring and confusing. The new format of the opening will show her day to day life better as well.

To include the titles, I will start with a black screen, with the first title appearing on it, brightening from black to white, an then fading out again. Then the shot of the eyes opening will appear for roughly three seconds.  The next title will appear after this, followed by the next shot of the curtains opening. I won't do this throughout the opening as it would seem disjointed, but only on the last shot of her closing her eyes, the final time around, the screen will fade to black and the title of the film will appear. Other titles may appear in a corner of the screen (the less important ones) so as to not take up too much time.

The opening should be around two minutes, and if I show the sequence of her day five times, which I plan to, that will give me 24 seconds per sequence and 3 seconds per shot, not including titles. So, each shot should be around 2 and a half seconds to allow time for the titles, and this should leave me with just about two minutes.

Narrative

My film would be told from the perspective of the main character, as it is her who we follow on her trip.  might consider widening the narrative as the story goes on though, to allow the audience to get the impression that she too is widening her points of view, but I'm not sure if that would work. But certainly in the opening two minutes of the film, we would see her daily life from her point of view; in this way, the narrative should also show the monotony of her life, setting the tone and potential for things to change through the film.

I do like the idea of having the end of the film at the beginning, playing around with the time perspectives of the film, but I don't think that it would fit in with the concept of my film; the main character goes through a journey, and the audience need to be able to see her progress from this bored woman at the start, dreaming of doing more adventurous things while she waits for the same train every day, to the woman actually doing these things.

I have, however, thought of the use of flashback, and if I were to continues with the making of the film, I would include these, with the woman remembering back to her childhood and upbringing at different stages of her day, and wondering how she ended up in her dead-end job and why she's done nothing about it. The flashbacks would explain what's happened in her earlier life and why it's affecting her now or it may even be the reason that she decides she wants to change how she lives, or get more life experience.

To do:

Narration
Conventions

More potential lkocations and how they fit

Video/podcast audience research footage

Cast; who and why?

Storyboards

Script

Music

Opening Titles

I need my titles to reflect the tone of the film, from their physical appearance to how they get onto the screen. Considering that my film is basically about someone becoming who they want to be, I would consider having a nearly transparent title darken into a more obvious colour, and then possibly fade out again. I definitely won't want to make them too obvious, or garish; I'd rather they be more subtle, and not appear too dramatically as this may seem too unprofessional and distract the audience from the content of the opening.

I don't yet have a title for the production, but this is going to be very important, and needs to fit in with the overall tone and idea of the film without seeming too boring or illfitting.

Mood Board

Here I've included some images to represent inspiration for certain sections within the opening of the film.

Opening Titles

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: This opening starts with giving us some basic information about the character through an everyday conversation with his flat/housemates. In this way, we find out who he is, how old he is, and what he does. The sequence then goes on to introduce other characters in the film, which lets us immediately get into the film. We are almost in the position of the character of "Knives" who doesn't know any of the characters or their music etc.

Any Human Heart: This introduction s very different to the previous one, as it gives us no real information about the film, or about what is to come, which  I think is fine in an opening as we don't want to be overloaded with information as soon as a film starts. It's an animated opening sequence and is quite visually interesting, so captivates the audience without them knowing about anything that is going to happen.

FIght Club: The opening sequence to this film leaves the audience with a lot of questions about what's going on, once they have seen to whole opening. The very beginning takes us through the character's brain, but before we see the whole picture, we have absolutely no idea of what's going on, which is quite an effective way to open a film. The colours are very dark, setting the tone perhaps for the rest of the film, and the audience is only introduced to one character visually; we still don't know who he is or who is holding the gun to his mouth.

Opening Details

How I am starting my film will be with a black screen and some softish music, fading into my production comapny title and logo, just for a few seconds. After this, the screen will fade to black again, and once more fade in to an image of a woman stnading at the window and opening the curtains. This static shot will last for probably 1.5 seconds, and this shot will be repeated seven times, with the woman opening the curtains over and over as if on different days. This will be followed by the woman picking up keys seven times of different deays, folowed by a sequence of her on a train, probably sitting in the same seat, but wearing different clothyes in each shot to show the passing of time. We'll then see her in a queue for coffee, moving closere to the bar with each of the seven shots. This willl be followed by her eating her lunch on the seafront possibly, which is near where she may work. After this, we'll see seven more shots of her walking down the beach in the same clothes as the previous sequences, but getting further and further away from the camera, so we assume she goes on this walk each day. It would aslo be a good note to fade the screen to black on, as she disappears up the beach, but I'm not sure how long this sequence will be overall; if it's significantly under 2 min utes, I would need to extend it beyond the shot of her walking away, possibly by shots of her putting her keys back down at home, and then sighing and sitting down/ almost collapsing on the sofa, just oncea tthe end of the opening, to show how she is bored of her life.

For actors, I would ideally like to use a woman around 30, but as of yet I am not sure if I will have access to someone like this, and I may have to use someone younger, which would not be as good, as we wouldn't get a proper idea of the pattern that she has fully settled in to.

I would need, for this opening, a house overlooking somewhere fairly rural probably, a train, a coffee shop or hut, and the beach, which should all be fairly doable.
This is a shot of Sheringham beach, where I'd consider filming the beach scenes.

I'd quite like the coffee hut to be an outside one, not very permanent looking, as this would both be less hassle to fim, and more visually interesting to film. There are several huts like these on beach fronts and so they're easily accessible.

Production Titles and Logo

Name of Production Company: I haven't really thought much about my company name yet, but it should probably be something personal to myself to disitnguish from other companines. That woulod mean basing my company name around my own name probably...
On the other hand, if I were to think of something not based around my own name that sounded good, I'd be ahhpy to use that.

I quite like the name "Workhouse Productions", and for this I might have my logo just as a workhouse with perhaps some steam coming out of one of the chimneys; it's quite a ismple idea but one that would probably work quite well.

I also quite like "Henhouse Productions" as it's different to other company names, and would give my company more individuality. For I would find a line drawing of a henhouse, or similar, and have the title appearing in an interesting way across the image.
I'd be looking at using a line drawing similar to the one above as it's simple and different.

Ideal Actors

Ellen Page would be a really good actress to portray my main character, if I given access to any actress, as she is very versatile and has the right sort of look for the part. She's been in films from Juno to Inception and she's got excellent ratings in both films in very different roles.

However, clearly I cannot use her in my film, so I'll need to find another actress to be my main character. There won't really be too much "acting" as such involved, because I am not having any speech in my opening, and the person I use just needs to look around the right age, even though I don't have access to anyone who's actually the right age.  However there are lots of people around school who I'll be able to make look the right character, and who will be happy to be in the opening.

Genre

My film doesn't really have a set genre; it is definitely not a horror, a thriller, not a romance or a drama, and not a western or comedy either. As such, I would probably need to decide what to call this new genre, or what to combine it with, as genre is a key aspect of marketing a new film. The closest genre to my film would be an adventure film, but it's more about self-discovery than going on an actual adventure, and without any action. It would be crossed with an art film, so it has a more melancholy feel while showing the character during new experiences, as is usual in adventure films. To conform to the genre of adventure, my film will include new experiences and exotic locales, which is one of the points of an action film. They do not put so much emphasis on violence and action as action genre (my film will probably not include any violence), but focus more on travels, conquests, explorations, struggles and situations that confront the main character.


Genre is so important because it labels the film and allows the viewer to know what they're going to watch, ad what to expect from the film; genre is considered to function in the same way as a language system does.

Audience Research from Anna and Sarah on Vimeo.

Here, me and Sarah have interviewed 6 different people on the five questions that we composed. This has allowed me to confirm the ideas for my opening; despite some conflicting ideas, most people enjoy only seeing a few characters in the opening, with not much going on.

Film Pitch Feedback

Good Points:

• It sound new- good.
• Arty, very different to what e see regularly. Make sure you show there is a market for this type of film (Cinema City/ Village screen)
• Opening sequence, 7 days 7 different shots of same routine etc, reinforces idea, good.
• Spoke clearly and well.

Bad Points:

• Powerpoint would have been good to aid presentation.
• More indication of potential audience/ audience research needed to help "sell" the idea.

From this feedback I decided to carry out more audience research. I have some preliminary research already completed, and I need to put this information in a clear form so I can tell more easily which type of film in popular anhd what would sell a film to an audience more.  I'm going to do some more indepth research soon, and get that on my blog.

Film Synopsis

The opening of the film shows us the woman, Eve Robinson  opening the curtains or blinds in a sequence seven times, so it looks like she is opening them over and over again on different days in a week. This is followed by a sequence of seven shots of her sitting on the train, then seven shots of her waiting in a queue for coffee, seven of her eating lunch, seven of her on the train home and then seven of her putting her keys down back at home. This sequence is followed by a shot of her sighing and then finally the screen goes black, where the title of the film appears. Each shot will be about 3 seconds, and so the viewer gets an overall idea of how this woman's life progresses on a day to day basis. This sets up the idea that she is just an ordinary woman to start with.

After the opening, we see Eve as a girl, in the scene where her parents are arguing, and as she is only five at the time, she does not understand the repercussions that a divorce in the family could bring, and so she just stays in her room doing what she normally would on any other evening. We see her at school, going about a normal day, and we see her coming out of the school to meet her mother, who looks as though she has been crying. We'd see a few more minutes of this childhood, so that the audience gets the idea of the discomfort and tensions in the family, before returning to the present, pulled back into the present by a phone ringing.

The film  continues like this, giving us long flashbacks and memories from the Eve's youth, such as when she was seventeen, coming home from a night out and having an argument with her mother, where it is revealed that her parents overcame the problems they faced when she was younger. We then see her graduating from university, then when she gets a job and her life starts to settle into a pattern; one that she still carries, and doesn't particularly enjoy.

Back in the present day, she sees on television an event, which will most likely be the bombings of 9/11 or 7/7. This makes her realise how she needs to make herself be her own person, and how people go through life being pushed around and shaped by other people, when all they need to be is themselves. This leads her on to questioning herself and what she's doing and why. This in turn leads on to her trying to break free of the social norm, and the influence of other people. Questioning what makes us who we are, she takes a year leave from her work to go and live with people around the world who don't lead the life she does; she will visit the slums of Brazil, and the inuits of Greenland for example. She sees the places that the world left behind, and finds out what really matters in life; not the things we own or the places we work. Throughout this year she takes a photograph at each place she stays, with the people she meets, and at the end of the film we will see a montage of all of these photographs, with Eve having found out what matters to her and who she is. She goes back to her home town with this knowledge, and we once more see her sitting on the train on her way to work, but this time with a smile on her face.

Film Pitch:

Idea: We start the film seeing a person going about their ordinary life day after day, and during the film we see them transform from this ordinary, average person to someone more extraordinary. The reason for the change is something I have not decided yet.

Locations: The opening would be filmed mostly on a train, but with some shots of their own house and possible some other key places in their day to day life. Other places where the rest of the film will be shot is at the beach, where possibly the "experience" happens.

Actors: The main character will be a woman, fairly young, and she will have supporting characters around her, such as a kind boss, and an older woman, who she may see as a reflection of herself in the future; this woman could possibly be the trigger for her change.

What makes your film so special and why would people choose to go and see it over everything else available? My film is different to other films, as it focuses on a younger person going on a journey to find happiness and freedom, but instead of the usual teenage audience you may normally get going to see this, I would expect to appeal to an older audience as well, probably in the 24 to 35 age range. This might be because I wouldn't intend the film to be purely silly and happy-go-lucky, but more melancholy with a question of what in life makes us truly happy.

How does it express your creativity? This film would be slightly more arty than other films of the genre, which would be able to capture the tone of the film. For example, the camerawork would not be simply filming the actors, but would almost be a feature of the film, making it much more visually interesting than other films. There would also be more interesting locations than just an office block, which would go towards the whole film looking more interesting and creative than others of this genre

Why should you back it, attach your name to it and fund it? Well, this film would be a new type of film, the first of a kind, and this new style would attract new audiences and stereotypes, both bringing in higher revenue, and setting a new standard of film for other companies to follow; a style that you would have started.

How can you guarantee success? I have spoken to a wide range of people who I would expect to be my target audience, and they all seem interested and keen on the style and idea of the film. The film will also be a different style to previous films, and when you create the first of something, or something different, people are likely to go an see the film even if just to see if they like the new style. When watching, they will get drawn into the plot, and hopefully, this will ensure the success of the film.

FIlm Openings:

Amelie; I like the montage sequence not quite at the beginning of this film, because it's visually interesting, and it also gives the audience information about the character without much of the plot being revealed too early on in the film.


I also quite like the introduction to Napoleon Dynamite, as the way the credits are shown to the audience is different, and a lot more interesting than just titles appearing across the screen.


The opening to Billy Elliot is simple and there's no narrative or dialogue at all, which is quite effective. We only see him putting on a record and then jumping around, but this gives us a good idea of what the main character is like and when/where the film is set.


The introduction to Juno is basically just her walking around in cartoon form to a song, which is interesting to what and a bit different too. There is dialogue and photographic camera work at the very beginning, but I think just having a song and images would work better for a non-professional opening.

Thoughts for my film opening...

Having watched some examples of media openings, and experimented in iMovie, I really like the idea of playing around with the speed and motion of videos (for example, I could speed a clip up and put in in reverse), which would be an interesting way to reveal the opening credits.

I haven't had a set idea for what's actually going to happen yet, but I'm going to keep it very simple, probably without narrative, as having looked at a few more openings, unless I had access to someone with a good accent, and a good recording studio, it may make the whole opening sound a little unpolished. So, I think I'll use a montage type opening that will capture the audience's attention, but stay very clear of looking like a trailer. I'm also still avoiding thriller or horror, and going for a more cheerful film, because lots of students don't, and so it could look more original, as well as probably being more fun and even less like a trailer.

Film Openings

American Beauty: I really like the introduction to this film (not very first bit, but when the narrative of Lester Burnham takes over). The information given to the audience about himself, which is written after the scene that is shown with the narrative tells us what is going to happen vaguely, but keeps our interest in him, because we want to find out why.

Amelie: The introduction to this film is seemingly unrelated or random in context to the film, which captures our attention. It is simple but effective, with the fast voice telling us of unrelated incidents throughout France, such as stories of a few people/ things. The old-style camerawork and simple music work really well, giving it a different style, which is good when capturing an audience. The second part of the opening sequence shows Amelie just being young, without any props of much detail, which is amusing and captivating. The muted colours and occasional effect such as a flare and purposely shaken camera are effective too. There is no speech when focussed on Amelie.

Pan's Labyrinth: The start of this has no visuals, only breath and a hummed lullaby, which is very effective as it makes us concentrate on what's going on. The first voice we hear tells us a story, but we don't see the voice, only a girl and the pictures attached to the story, which again is different, and so interesting and effective.

Billy Elliot: The opening is very simple and effective; it sets the scene of the film, and who it is based around, but doesn't really give us any information about the plot or characters. This works because it lets us focus on the boy jumping, and we don't get given too much information at once which could potentially mean the audience lose interest.

Matilda: The start of Matilda also starts very simply, with an image of a baby and narrative over the top. The audience then are introduced to the baby's parents, who are very unlikeable characters; by giving the audience characters to dislike, the audience are interested, because by forming an opinon they are getting involved. There is also an element of feel-good when Matilda is making pancakes, and I think this sort of scene would work as an opening. The narrative continues some way into the film, giving the audience an idea of the background of the film.

In light of these introductions, I have decided to keep my introduction very simple, without much information or too much visual impact (such as fight or action scenes), because none of the above introductions give away much of the plot, which I believe makes them good introductions, as they only open the film, and don't dictate what is going to happen in the rest of the film in too much detail. I would like to use narrative in my opening, as it's a technique that I have seen works, and I'd also like to keep the visuals minimal, perhaps only having one or two shots alongside the narrative. On the other hand, I really like the beginning to Amelie, and Billy Elliot, where we see a character having fun effectively, with only music in the background and no speech. Either way, I plan for the opening to be fairly simple, which will also ensure that it does not become a film trailer as some openings do.

Media Studies Coursework

We have decided, from watching the projects and final videos of previous media classes to avoid the following, as they do not work in my opinion:

• Horror
• Thriller
• Crime
• Gun-related openings
• Over-complicated plots to begin with
• House or school settings

In this light, I think that the opening should be either happy, or uneventful, as otherwise it could end up looking too much like a trailer.

"Time Warner's takeover of British publisher IPC media has given the NME brand a new lease of life". Discuss.

Before IPC media was taken over by Time Warner, there was a significant lack and even a decrease, of readership of ther classic British music magazine, NME. Over recent years, NME has seen readership drop by 53% from 2003 to 2010. However, recently, Time Inc have taken over the whole of IPC media, including NME, and the brand is now beign taken to America, which could be argued to give it a new lease of life, where others may see it as unfair globalization of an iconic British magazine.

The synergy of IPC with Time Inc. has provided the company with wider readership both across the UK and the US, and also has enabled much more advertisement, paticularly of their own brands within the company. This has been helpful the NME, whos struggling readership had been a cause for concern among both it's publishers and some opf the British public, who of course, did not want the m,agazine to go under. Whilst being taken over, NME was taken to America, where they now host the "Club NME NYC" every fortnight, both bringing in more revenue to the magazine, and rasing awareness of it in America. This, for a start, has helped NME to start to regain some of its former glory and popularity. It has also given the NME to opportunity to express views on new American music as well as British music, allowing perhaps a broader horizon for the articles in the magazine, and again the readership.

Having said that, the NME is losing none of it's "rock'n'roll heritage"; Club NME will give those who attend "the full-on live experience of Club NME both in LA and NYC", both huge American cities where hopefully, the NME will raise it's profile, and it's sales, which will ensure the survival of the magazine both in America and in the UK. In thsi way, it could certainly be argued that taking the NME to america has given it a "new lease of life", because it has made sure that it can survive in the modern world.

The NME has kept up with modern advances, such as magazines online; the NME magazine is already the 3rd most popular music news site. Perhaps it's readers enjoy the site because of it's rolling news, 24 hours a day, and the accessibililty of the magazine conveyed across to anh internet audience. EVen though the online site has been up and running for 10 years, only recently has it been taken to America, and so within a short span of time, it has risen through the ranks to 3rd most popular, showing that by being available in America, the readership across the different types of media has increased; this is reassuring to the owners of the NME, as  it means the NME is not unpopular, as may have been thought from the massive drop in sales in Britain over the last decade.

There has also been a huge increase of interest in NME radio; recently, overall listening hours have been increased to 1.3 million. Clearly the availability to get NME on the radio, and the television too, has meant more people are interested in listening to music from NME, signalling that a new generation will follow the brand, in such a way giving it a new lease of life. NME, available in paper, on the internet, on the TV, and on radio has becomne incredibly accessible, and so has become the chosen music brand for many more people; the station currently has 253000 young listeners.

There has also recently been an NME app released, available to all who have iPhones or a simiular device; again, this appeals to the youth, and so by being taken over by Time Inc, the digital platforms of the magazine have been hugely increased, possibly ensuring that even if hard copies of magazines do become redundant, there will always be versions of this iconic British brand available to people across the globe, in as many different forms as one could want.

Overall, with the takeover of IPC media by Time warner, NME has been given new life, through extended finances of  the Time Warner company. Despite some of the British public being unhappy about the globalization of their brand, being open to an American audience as well will ensure the longevity and survival of the NME in todays incredibly competitive and tough market. Being available on all digital platforms is not only incredibly good for business, but the convergence of the different media into new medias, such as internet phones, will have made sure that wherever you go, it is possible to access not only the NME, but the whole of the internet. In today's tecnological age, the life of any magazine will be increased by having larger availability, and tyhe NME is no exception.

Anna Wyatt

Create your own timeline reflecting the significant developments in the magazine industry since 1990.

1992:

• First SMS text message sent to a mobile phone
• Newspaper and Magazine archives published on CD-Rom.
• Plans for World Wide Web revealed by the Economist

1993:

• Mosaic (first graphical web browser) launched.
• What Car? produces CD-Rom holding review of Saab saloon with XYZ new media magazine

1994:

• Guardian newspaper launches UK version of Wired
• IPC launches UnZip, 'the UK's first fully interactive magazine on CD-Rom'. 
• Editor Gill Hudson puts CD-Rom on cover of August issue ofMaxim in UK
• IPC launches Uploaded.com, based on content from Loaded , andnme.com, based on New Musical Express. Start of an ambitious web programme

1995:

• Futurenet website claims 200,000 registered users.
• VNU launches Jobnet recruitment website based on advertising inComputing, PC Week and Network News

1997:

• TV Guide magazine in US goes online
• Zest and Good Housekeeping make masthead TV programmes

1999:

• Launch of www.natmags.co.uk Over the next 18 months, National Magazines launches 'microsites' for each of its magazines

2001:

• Dotcom crash. IPC closes high-profile websites such asBeme.com and Uploaded.com. Similar story of contraction at Emap. Technology-dependent Future in crisis: sells Business 2.0in US and closes UK edition; closes many other titles

2002:

• Despite series of relaunches, Punch closed by Mohammed al Fayed. Lives on as website selling cartoon catalogue www.punch.co.uk

2003:

• Dennis uses picture messaging on Maxim website
• Sunday Times newspaper launches The Month, a CD-Rom previewing arts and entertainment events in the weeks ahead. To be published on the last Sunday of each month.
• PPA announces marketing programme to promote magazines for advertising  www.ppa.co.uk

As far as I can find, there are no significant technological advances after 2003, despite many more magazines being launched, and a few having to close down due to the recession, which was prominent in 2009.