evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your film?

When looking at my film there are a few conventions and themes that would suggest that my film is not for the younger generation.
In a previous piece of work i defined what criteria a 15 film must have which included: 

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

Within my film you can see a few of these themes occuring; within the first forty seconds of my film there is a scene of a women being grabbed and through the sound of this scene, the implications are that she is stabbed and killed in a very brutal manner.

Later on there is another scene of violence where two youths, who approach the main character with intent to steal his wallet, are struck down and the film ends with the main character raising his fist and bringing it down very fast. Just before it hits the mugger, the film cuts to the title.

There are also instances of strong language being used within my two minute opening which allows the audience to imply that this will be a recurring theme within the piece. It also gives some insight into what the film may be like; the frequency of swearing may also be linked to the amount of nudity/ drug use/ racism or discrimination and portayals of sexuality. 

It is for these reasons that i have decided to classify my film as a '15'. I also think that these attributes that i have applied to my film, are appealing to people of the ages 15-30. I feel that people of these ages will watch my film as a way to escape from reality and immerse themselves in a tale of violence, loss and revenge. Seeing as there is so much violence displayed in the media today, especially through the rise of First person shooter games (Call of Duty), i thought that i would apply this to my film in order to appeal to my target audience.

I feel that my audience will be inclined to watch my film for a few reasons. The first is the genre itself, thriller is a very popular genre among the younger generation. This was shown through my questionnaire as those who viewed my film were pretty much all of the ages 17+ and of the 14 people who took part, 10 ticked the box thriller as a genre they liked. 

Another thing that supports the idea that 15-30 year olds are my audience is the criticisms of my film itself; in fact there is a distinct lack of criticism, many said they felt that it didn't need to be changed/ improved however in my opinion the voiceover is too cliché.
Oddly enough many about 7 of the 10 females ticked the thriller box in terms of genre they liked, and all the males ticked thriller. I was surprised by this as i thought among the females that thriller may be a genre that is unappealing, however this is evidently contradicted by my questionnaire results. I can now broaden my audience from mainly males aged 15-30 to males and females aged 15-30.

Evaluation question 3

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

In terms of media institutions looking to distribute my film i would hope that my film is distributed by Film 4, TriStar Pictures and Sony pictures entertainment. I have chosen each of these distrubutors for a
number of reasons:




I have chosen Film4 because they tend to release more up and coming, indie/ documentary style films. I think this relates to my piece well as i wanted to stick to the story of a classic revenge thriller with a modern twist, however i didn't want it to be too stylised like most Hollywood thrillers. For example one thriller released by Film4 was Shifty, an interesting thriller that follows the story of a drug dealer. Film4 tend to release films that are similar to 'Shifty' in that they often have slightly controversial or unique story lines which is why i feel my film is suited to a distributor like Film4 as it has an original concept and has an indie feel about the film as it has a low budget. If the budget was to be extended i would aim to try and keep the gritty nature of the film so that it doesnt contrast with the urban environment however i would try to sharpen and stylise certain characters in it such as the main protagonist could be slightly exaggerated in his power.


I have chosen TriStar pictures as they are a distibution company that released the film District 9. Although the film had a relatively high budget the style of filming was unique in that it started as a documentary and then migrated to a constant story of the main character. I feel that my films style of filming is (especially later on in my film) similar to 'District 9' which is why i think company like TriStar Pictures would distribute my film. This would be the ultimate goal as initially this film would not have an american audience. However through distributors such as Film4 and Film London, as my film gains notoriety i would hope that it is recognised as a well made piece of film that would attract a diverse audience that is not exclusive to the UK. 

Although my film might start out in small arthouse cinemas, with a possible american company backing, a larger budget could be allowed and the film could be produced on a new scale, allowing the extending of storyline, characters and action, making the film far more thrilling and exciting to watch.

Evaluation question 2

Evaluation question 1

week 5 blog entry (what needs to be done etc.)

I have completed a number of things since the start of this term which i am extremely pleased with. So far i have completed:

• Completed a shooting schedule
• Filming and listed missing scenes
• done any reshoots and that were required
• Almost finished my rough cut which is planned to be finished by the deadline (Feb 15th)
• Most of my sound has been recorded aside from the narration which will be finished and applied to the video rough cut shortly
• i have started my question 7 evaluative essay

Things that i need to do:

• I Must complete my ident which will be filmed over half term
• i need to source some music and SFX
• I need to remake my titles and some of my graphics as i am extremely unhappy with what i have produced and thus not uploaded it.
• Polish my film and make it look proffessional.

Edit: unfortunately i ran into a little bit of an altercation with filming yesterday. Filming will take place on tuesday the 12th of february.

graphics planning

for my piece i want to create a very dark feel. I will achieve this in a number of ways by utilising elements such as fonts, filters, images and other various factors at my disposal.

Firstly there is one font which i am particularly keen on which is used in the woman in black:
as you can see here the font is white and placed on a dark background. The font is also distorted slightly to make it look as if there is light shining behind it. This also makes the font appear very "spooky" and scary.

Unfortunately i feel that this font is more reminiscent of a 'pure-bred' horror film rather than a thriller which is why i want to use a font that is similar to this although not exactly the same.

week 4 diary entry

Over the past week I have dfilmed almost all my shots for my piece. I need to film 1 more scene which I plan to do this weekend and it should not take more than an hour. Luckily the shots are not forming a constant narrative so continuity with the snow is not a problem.

As well as this I have completed a large amount of editing so far on my piece and I have already received some helpful constructive feedback from my teacher. For example a lot of my shots felt very disconnected and it did not seem like a constant narrative; it felt more like a trailer. However i have rectified this and it seems more like a story now.

I need to record the sound for it, which will not take long at all and I can do it in a lunch period at school.

After this all I need to is complete my editing and I will upload my rough cut within the next few weeks.