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Looking at such films as 'Them', we also picked up on the effect of hearing a sound out of shot, with the actor reacting this. This idea is almost spine chilling as you are unaware of what the sound is or where it came from, and leaves the character looking vulnerable, positioning the audience on the edge of their seats. We developed this further in our media product by producing a number of quick shots of Kia Tasbihgou alone in the forest, in which he hears a sound and swiftly spins around in fright (*see 1:39 - 1:49 minutes).
Another motion picture we studied was 'Eden Lake'. This film uses a lot of violence to create its horror and shocking effect on the audience. We liked this element of the film and decided to adapt it in order to make our film less of a cliché Gothic horror. We did this by getting Roman Kemp (one of the gang members) to shout aggressively as though he is threatening one of the teenagers. The next shot we filmed was of Roman swinging a baseball bat at the camera, which we edited with a impacting sound effect and a black out in order to create the effect that he just hit someone, again filmed in 1st person, drawing the audience further into the terror (*see 1:52 - 1:59 minutes).
Other ways in which we developed forms and conventions of real media products in our production of 'The Youth' was in editing. When editing our film on Final Cut Express, we decided to put lots of short, fast paced shots together. We felt that this added a sense of diving straight into the action, and built up suspense and shock in the motion picture. The use of having broken-up flashbacks also added pace and action to the film, as the viewer takes a lot of information from the start, really engaging the audience. We developed this idea from the beginning of 'Severance' (as shown below), in which they dive straight into the action by showing shots from the end of the film at the beginning, immediately gripping the audience.
Our media product is about a gang of youths who terrorise a group of teenagers in a forest. In doing this we had to represent youth, we did this through clothes, surroundings, voice, action, dialogue and props.
In order to separate the two groups of teenagers, we gave them different styles. The gang of youths were dressed in tracksuits, with such things as hats and hoods, creating a big daunting body shape. We felt that this portrayed a stereotypical 'chav', who are stereotypically aggressive, which was complimented by the prop of a baseball bat, which as used as a weapon. This fitted the part perfectly as we wanted an intimidating gang in order to make the audience genuinely scared for the group of teenagers.
The group of teenagers who were terrorised we dressed in the opposite that included, skinny jeans and jumpers, making the characters look small and vulnerable.
The environment had two effects in our film. The first was that it made the gang of youths look more menacing as the forest made it look as though they were in a middle of nowhere and that there was no escape, creating second effect which was to make the teenagers look as though they were trapped.
The action in the film shows a lot of running and restlessness. There isn't a single shot when someone isn't moving. Even when Kia is in the police station in the cuts in between the forest shots, he is restlessly running his hands through his hair. This represents teenagers has energetic and troubled.
The dialogue and tone of voice used in our film, such as Roman shouting 'Told you not to come here! I'm gonna kill you!' showed that the gang of youths were aggressive and violent (*see 1:52 - 1:57 minutes). This was emphasised by the distressed and tormented dialogue of Kia in the police station.
By representing the social groups of teenagers through clothes, surroundings, voice, action, dialogue and props, we hoped to engage a variety of audiences, including the two social groups of teenagers represented within the film. We felt that by including two different styles of teenagers in 'The Youth', as well as adding aggressive, troubled, and vulnerable personalities we would intrigue various audiences as people will not only be interested to see a film which contained their style, but the personalities present in the film, are quite common in teenagers in today's society, and so some viewers may be interested to see how each character copes with the issues risen within the film.
In studying different production companies such as Rom-com lover Working Title, I feel that the kind of media institution that might distribute our media product would be Channel 4's Film 4. I believe this as they have released blockbuster hits with similar target audiences to ours. We can see this as they have produced lots of films with violence, and in most if not all their films, there is an attractive main cast member. This is evident in such films as 'Donkey Punch' a new thriller/horror film about a group of young adults who enter into youthful activities such as drug taking and sexual acts, but then all end up trying to kill each other. Film 4 is also a British film production company and so would jump at the chance of distributing new British talent. Not to mention, the fact that our film has some educational purpose in the way it deals with the lives of teenagers and the emotions they go through such as troubled and violent, allowing viewers to study teenagers and how they cope is desperate situations. Also, our film jumps straight into the action with such things as flashbacks, leaving the viewer on the edge of their seat after the first minute and a half.
The target audience for 'The Youth' was teenage - middle age. We felt that the horrific events we wished to portray in the film wouldn't be suitable for young children and would not appeal to the elderly. However, we felt it would be interesting to teenagers and adults from an educational point of view (studying teenagers and how they cope is desperate situations) as well as for entertainment value. In order target this audience, we incorporated an investigation (the police station shots) into the story, adding the theme of crime/thriller, making the audience reflect on the crimes and the experiences the teenagers go through. For entertainment value, we added violence and horror, making an exciting story engaging the audience.
In order to attract and address our target audience, we used a number of techniques. The first one was in planning. When deciding how to shoot our motion picture, we studied hit films such as 'Severance'. In developing ideas, which stem from these amazing productions, we already intrigue viewers as they will want to see more movies like these hits.
To advertise our film and placements for actors, we used Facebook. This was another trick into drawing in our target audience as young people use Facebook, and so we immediately skipped children and elderly and drove our marketing straight into the young public.
'The Youth' Facebook Group
Within the actual film itself we use a few techniques to engage the audience. Violence is a great seller in today's society, we can see this by simply walking into Blockbusters where there are shelves and shelves of violent movies. In the knowledge of this putting violence in our film was key for targeting the audience we wanted. Sex is also a key selling point in the media, and so by intertwining a love triangle, along with an attractive leading lady, Alex Smith, we have succeeded in another technique to draw our target audience in.
Within planning we also created a poster. it quite simple using red font (chosen as red is so often associated with blood and danger), and a black and white image of the moon shinning down between some trees (adding a sense of horror and mystery). Having grabbed the essence of horror with the picture and the colour, we felt that the simplicity of the poster would intrigue our audience further as it doesn't give too much of the film away.
In filming this media product, and through reflecting on my preliminary task I have come across a number of difficulties, successes and new technologies, all of which I have learnt from. On one occasion, we went out filming, and once we had arrived at our filming destination, we realised that the camera had not been charged up. However, we did not give up, instead we searched the woods and found a house in which we asked the owner if we could charge our battery. This not only taught me to double check equipment before we come out for a shoot, but also to not give up and use every resource possible. Another problem we came across was special effects. In order to introduce violence into our film, we wanted to try and make blood (as shown below, 'Eden Lake'. Our attempt at this included the cliché children's fake blood of Ketchup, and then a second attempt of mixing red food colouring with honey. Neither of which looked realistic. So unfortunately we could not create this special effect, but we managed to get around this by creating the effect of violence through such shots as the 1st person baseball bat smack, instead of actually showing someone covered in blood.
In creating the media project, I also learnt how to edit film, creating special effects with Final Cut Express and adding in credits with Live Type, all on the Apple Mac. I learnt some very interesting and important skills in doing so, all of which helped my group and I to add the finishing touches in order to create the right effects for our target audience. This included adding fuzzy 'bad TV' effects for our DVD menu, adding an eerie edge to the presentation of our film. We were also able to darken the lighting on all of our shots, allowing us to create a spooky atmosphere, much like how 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Them' had grabbed the essence of horror by using a lot of dark footage. Whilst editing 'The Youth' I also learnt how to mix sound effects and soundtracks with the footage, in order to create impacting and scary atmospheres and moods.
All in all I feel that I have learnt a variety of skills from producing this media product including: planning (costumes, storyboards, props, sets, advertisement, and recruiting actors); editing footage, sound and text; as well as ways of selling films through developing ideas and using effects within the films themselves.
*Shot references, in minutes.
