Evaluation Part 4 - 'Who will be your target audience?'

Production Log 13

Production Log 13.

In this week, we have finished our filming and editing, which was quite successful due to us being able to fit in components such as the right music, font and transitions. As a result, I have also been able to start my evaluations which was part 1-3. Part one being the brief made us discuss  what our movie was about and how it targeted our target audience. While part two made us talk about media conventions and what media products I used to develop my conventions.  While part 3 talked about how we would distribute our product.

The Evaluation Part Three 'What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?'

Evaluation Part Two - 'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?.'

Evaluation - Part Two

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

Performance/Narrative

The protagonist moves throughout film in a drunken or disturbed manner, mostly feeling anti-social within his area and society. He is also very secluded from everyone else due to him having very little dialogue. In addition, his addiction to alcohol is evidence for him trying to soak his frustration against his pregnant girlfriend, the use of the alcohol creates symbolism of the protagonist being at his all time low. This links into the main character of Fish Tank, both protagonist are very introverted from society and anyone else, having very little feelings of happiness and social interaction unlike most of the typical teenagers.

Our opening sequence reveals the tragedy thats happens to our protagonist, which makes it mirror a intense opening as he almost instantly finds out about his pregnant girlfriend. Thus, leading to him become an alcoholic to try escape. Similar to Fish Tank, the protagonist is also an alcoholic showing how depression and isolation leads to an empty shell life. Nevertheless, the lack of shots shows exclusion from the audience, making him much more isolation and symbolising how far away from society he is, the use of the long shots and medium shots illustrates more of a isolated tone, and showing more of the gritty area he lives in, linking in with the area of FishTank also having living in a working-class area.

Settings/Location

The places we used were well portrayed through the use of medium shots, the weather was always seem to be dull as well which, further portraying the dark-tone within the movie. Nevertheless, we first wanted to put him in a posh area causing trouble, showing the juxtaposition between him and the area ( Working and middle class ) however, we decided to put him a place where he is more suited to - a rundown working class area. The picture used here is the area we decided not to use, after it having more of a sophisticated feel which, does not suit the tone of the movie. We felt the streets of Vauxhall and Stockwell, created more of a dark tone than near the quiet RiverThames. As a result, this conformed more to the conventions of a BSR making it our media product have more realism in addition to the use of the Council Estates which is also used in BSR' such as Kidulthood to promote a gritty tone, this shows to the audience what social status Tate is.

Effects/Transitions.

We used quite a few transitions such as: Fade to black, cross dissolve and parallel editing. Firstly, the fade to black transition was used to build up suspense and show the chronological order of the events that happen in the opening sequence. For example,  when Tate is drinking alcohol randomly on the street, we used the fade to black to show he ends being in distress in the street after drinking too much.
Nevertheless, we used quite a few fast cuts to keep up with the suspense of the movie, thus keeping the audience more engaged. Although, this may not conform to the conventions of a BSR we did balance it out, by having quite a few slow cuts and movement of the camera to have a more realistic atmosphere, thus making our media product more of a BSR.

Moreover, we used quite a few effects on our credits which was the 'rain' effect. Right near the start of our opening sequence we introduce the main title - 'Devil May Care', on the main title we used the rain effect pouring on the letters to reflect the atmosphere and themes of our movie which is depression and isolation. As a result, the effect of the rain connoted this which gave it more of a dark tone, in addition the consistent use of it established this theme and tone well.

Lighting

The lighting used in the opening sequence was quite dull and dark, without any use of ambient lighting. The use of the dull lighting also reflected our conventionally BSR themes which is the depression and violence the protagonist faces, this was effective as if we used quite light lighting then it wouldn't be seen as a BSR and more like a Hollywood movie.  Nevertheless, we excluded any use of ambient lighting to make our movie more realistic and less artificial in order to conform to a BSR. For example, if you take a look at other BSR's such as kidulthood, Dead Man's shoes or Fishtank, they barely have any bright ambient lighting as they keep to the general natural lighting to reflect a realistic tough day life .

Was you're narrative original/conventional?

Our main storyline in my opinion was quite conventional due to the stereotypical problems faced within a BSR in a disrupted teenagers life, which is teen pregnancy and alcohol and other factors such as guns and violence. However, our characters are quite unique and subvert most of the stereotypes for example, the main protagonist is asian and subverts the stereotype of him being obedient and smart intact, he is the opposite and mostly rebels and is quite reckless in life. In addition, he has a muslim girlfriend which, expresses the inter-faith couples that is rarely seen in most british social realisms.

The Evaluation - Part One - The Brief

Brief

The brief has asked us to produce a new British Social Realism film, which was requested by Film4 - our producer. Me and my group produced an opening film of a BSR containing many conventions of an generic BSR. Our target audience was attracted to 16-24, which are mostly males.

Themes

Teen Pregnancy.

- This theme was used to establish and justify an unstable protagonist who makes decisions which lead to dramatic consequences, such as teen pregnancy. Thus, also showing a reckless teen who is sexually active at a young age, portraying the confused mind the protagonist has as, he makes the morally wrong decisions. BSR'S such as Kidulthood express this theme through a young teen girl who is pregnant and regrets every decision she makes almost all the time.

Violence.

This theme was used to establish and justify the gritty and unpleasant atmosphere the film has, which conforms to the generic conventions of a BSR. For example, guns were used in the film to connote death and murder in addition to a young teen getting hold of a gun showing the corruption of youth.

Alcoholism.

This theme was used to show underage drinking, which adds to the stereotypical atmosphere of a BSR - unpleasantness.  Nevertheless, it makes our character even more reckless and depressed, as he goes down the route of drinking at such at a young age, due to his morally wrong choices

Religion.

The main protagonist's girlfriend is Muslim and she becomes pregnant.This shows the consequences within religion which is quite a controversial topic. As a result, our protagonist goes through a lot more events that create trouble within his life and his girlfriend, who is pregnant from someone he doesn't even know. This also brings up the sin sex before marriage which, is a looked down upon action in life by religion.

Film4 Production Company

Film4 is seen as the best company to be working with us and assisting in the distribution of our movie: "Devil May Care". Aswell as them being  a British digital company, founded in 1982.  Most of the themes above are greatly linked to BSRs and are quite frequently used in Film4. They have also included movies such as Trainspotting or even This is England, both respected BSRs by critics.

Target Audience.

Our BSR is aimed mostly at 16 - 24 years old, which could be identified as young adults and teenagers. As a result, to attract our target audience we used all of the themes above, which also conforms to the conventions of a BSR. Our audience could also identify with our BSR due to it showing a struggle in everyday Britain that teenagers and young adults can often face. Our audience would be mostly aimed at males, due to a male central figure and stereotypical themes that seem to attract mostly males. 

Nevertheless, other Films that inspired us was most likely to Kidulthood or even Adulthood, due to them being very famous films that were rated high by critics. Also, they conform to the conventions from a BSR due to natural lighting, working class clothes and gritty locations.

Devil May Care Opening Sequence.