Audience Essay Summary

Frank, Joe and Twigger Logo Review

Trailer Analysis - SuperBad

Logo Analysis - Lionsgate

Logo Analysis - Universal

Character types

Prop’s Character Theory:

Vladimir Prop was a literary critic and a scholar who founded the idea that a certain type of character was to be used in every narrative structure; this also was applied to fairy tales. Prop’s character theory says that all characters fall into 7 broad character types, all of which can be found in a variety of different media. These types are; the villain, the donor, the helper, the princess, the dispatcher, the hero, and the false hero.

·         The villain: Usually locked in a constant struggle with the hero, often trying to harm princess. It is often seen, more so in current days, that the villain has some kind of mental or physically disability, from James Bond’s Scar Face all the way to Disney’s Captain Hook. 

·         The donor: Gives the hero an object or a piece of information that helps them prepare for what is to come. An example of this would be Lucas Fox in Batman, this was most recently displayed by Morgan Freeman; He is the man who provides batman with all his weapons and gadgets.

·         The helper: Assists the hero with their quest, often referred to as their 'sidekick'. An example of this is again in batman, this would be Robin, arguably the most well known ‘sidekick’

·         The princess: Needs assistance from the hero, usually because they are in some form of danger, typically the princess is the victim within the narrative. An example of the princess would be Gwen in Spider man, often the goal or reward for the hero and is manipulated by the villain.

·         The dispatcher: Is the character that sends that hero on their mission or quest. An example of this would be Nick Fury in The Avengers. The dispatcher is often the leader and does not get heavily involved in the action.

·         Hero: Reacts to the donor and saves the princess, often resulting in them falling in love with the princess. The example for the hero is Batman or Superman, often the face franchise.

·         False hero: May appear good but has an ulterior motive, or attempts to take credit for the hero's actions. 

Logo Analysis - DreamWorks

DreamWorks Analysis

While most movie production companies start from the bottom making small, low budget movie, the DreamWorks entertainment company actually started with a serious status within the media world. Steven Spielberg, Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and record producer David Geffen came together to form the company in 1994, which all but sky rocketed the company to greatness. Since then this company has come to create such blockbusters as “Shrek”, “Kung Fu Panda” and “How to Train Your Dragon.” DreamWorks has shown no signs of slowing down and is sure to be a powerhouse in the entertainment industry for years to come.

One important factor that has helped DreamWorks to obtain its lofty perch is the distinctiveness of their logo. Before many a popular movie, the hugely recognisable logo is what  If the people in the cinema enjoy the movie that comes after the logo, then they are much more likely to seek out other DreamWorks movies. Anyone seeking to create a branding empire of their own should consider the lessons of DreamWorks.

 

The first logo came about through the imagination of Steven Spielberg. He wanted a logo that reminded others of Hollywood’s golden age. To that end he suggested the concept of a man fishing while atop the moon. He at first wanted it to be a computer generated image but, in the end, an artist named Robert Hunt was asked to hand-draw the image. It was Hunt that suggested that the man become a boy and Spielberg agreed. As an added bonus, the boy on the moon was modelled after Hunt’s son.

As a nod to the three people who had come together to make DreamWorks, the initials SKG were added to the bottom of the logo. This stood for Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen, the three original founders.

This logo, although not massively recognisable today, was a foundation for greater things. The boy sitting on the moon could have a connotation of night and dreams, and along with this idea this could be the reason for the child sat on it. Therefore the logo itself could be a symbolism of children’s dreams (hence the word ‘Dream’ in the com

panies title), or even their bed time stories etc. The colour and shade of the blue is very neutral and is also synoptic to the night time theme.

As the company grew, the logo needed to be updated to reflect its growing popularity. While they stayed with the original logo of the fishing boy, they decided to update the logo with the use of computer graphics to give it a more modern feel. This included giving the boy and the moon some updated artwork as well as adding digitally created clouds to give the logo an illusion of depth.

This logo created secondly concurs the ideas of DreamWorks being a reincarnation of children’s dreams and the logo is no longer plain, it has greater depth and different shades of colour. The log is no more realistic – in terms of the moon. And the title is now white, which is in collaboration with the idea it being night time. The night time lexical field is finally added to by the addition of clouds. This could show a few different things – for example for a religious stand point, it could connote that the boy on the moon is in heaven, he is above the clouds, looking down, showing that DreamWorks is a kids heaven. On the other hand, it could show the companies ambitions to cater to children’s needs and bedtime story desires.

The current logo of DreamWorks has stayed true to its predecessors. It too shows the idyllic image of a young boy fishing from the moon with clouds surrounding him. However the “DreamWorks” name itself was changed. Each letter was given a bright colour so as to stand out and make the logo that much more visible. The logo is now so what more child-friendly. It is much more colourful, its letters are now bolder and stand out more, and the clouds and moon are also much more bold and colourful. The child, now much smaller compared to the moon, is now still sitting in the centre but doesn’t appear to be the main focus of the logo. Is this because DreamWorks is trying to evolve into a more serious, adult company? Maybe, but the ‘DreamWorks’ text itself is more colourful and childlike, contradictory to the lesser image of a child. The clouds and now more white and fluffy, this again, going back to a heavenly scenario, is again more light hearted and childish.

Overtime the DreamWorks logo has changed and adapted to all and any technological advances and has constantly been on the rise because of it. Today the DreamWorks logo is much more recognisable and up to date.

20 Word Summary

A group of innocent school boys go to the party of the century as their determination and friendship is tested.

This is the 20 word summary of our final product we are striving to create. This product is targeted at a teen audience with the ideology of young school males and females who aim to explore this lavish lifestyle the media has created. This type of party lifestyle is often shown through television and movies to tempt and intrigue a teen audience who either have never done anything of that calibre or who enjoy to rebel and party. As three teen males ourselves, all of which soon to be 18, this is something that is the next milestone in our lives – the right to party. Taking the lead from critically acclaimed films such as ‘Super bad’ and even ‘The Hangover’, we want to rectify the issues and outdated nature that these films provide and purpose a much more up to date and down to earth scenario which we are sure most teens will relate to.

After presenting our initial ideas to the class and a group of our peers who are the targeted age group, we took on board their feedback and decided that we were going into a blind alley with no real intentions. So once we had realised this we took a step back and decided collectively to start over. So when drafting ideas we had the suggestion that we were being too farfetched and that we had to give the audience something to relate to. Therefore, we decided to take real life experiences into consideration. So, we went around that same group of peers and asked what issues and experiences they have faced (which they were willing to share) and came to the conclusion the majority had been involved in similar problems. Therefore we took the most gruesome and funny problems we could and combined them to create a basis for the film we now wish to create.

As before, we took this new film idea in front of the panel of judges we had previously faced and asked them once again for their opinion and for any question or improvements they might have for us. As a whole, despite the odd one or two not completely understanding (or maybe due to a lack of interest) the majority vote was an astounding improvement. The group of judges stated that this was a film idea that they believe, and we also believe, that a teen audience could relate and reform to – which all in all was the main goal. Of course limiting the audience down to one strict guidance is always going to be risky but we thought that the most common viewers of films (especially independents such as ourselves) in the present day are teens; due to platforms such as Youtube and Netflix

Harry Brown Analysis

Final Product - Redemption

Evaluation: Question 7

Evaluation: Question 5

How did you attract/address your target audience?

Our target audience was people between the ages of 18-35 which we have tried to address by keeping up with the fast tempo pace of the movie in order to keep the youthful minds watching our film constantly interested so that they do not get easily board/ distracted by other things occurring around them. Me and my group also feel that our movie would be better off directed at predominantly English audience because of our casting choices in the fact that we chose to use all British actors for our film so would more likely than not attempt to distribute our film predominantly in the UK with  an idea to have the first screening in an independent cinema in London mainly because of the fact that we feel our film would best suit an independent production company which would not be able to finance a film being shown on over 1000+ screens worldwide in well-known film institutions/ cinemas such as Odeon and showcase.

We also feel that our action thriller genre will suit UK audiences because of the fact that in a survey taken in 2013 action thriller was by far the most amounts of votes during the survey taking in 55% of the votes topping some film genres such as drama, comedy and sci-fi. We also feel that there is much less of a market for congested films in the UK rather than the US because of the fact that in the US Action Genre Movies took in 3,900 million us dollars on average last year

Evaluation: Question 4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

When brainstorming ideas for our media product one of the things we decided was to not cater the film to a certain audience as it gave us more freedom when creating a storyline. The main audience that may be interested in our media product will be an older generation varying from maybe 18-40s as it is a high paced action movie which involves violence and an emotional attachment.

One film we looked at to find the correct audience is The Green Mile as it is within the same genre, crime, as our media product. The Green Mile is a film that follows the lives of guards on Death Row are affected by one of their charges: a black man accused of child murder and rape, yet who has a mysterious gift. The rating of this is an 18 due to its sensitive matters and therefore targets an 18+ audience. Similarly our media product is targeting the same audience as it touches on very sensitive issues involving violence and action.

Whilst it is clear that The Green Mile targets a clear audience due to its age rating, it also does this by the mise-en-scene elements such as costume and setting. The setting derives from a 1930’s Death Row which means the costume has to be synonymous with the setting; wearing classic police guard uniforms with smart and formal gesture codes and mannerisms. This means the audience will be those who have interests within the time era and/or that particular industry. Contrasting this, our media product is set in a different and more modern era to cater for a slightly different section of the community. One advantages of supporting a more modern audience is the ways in which we can use current trends and events that can attract audiences and ensure the film is more relatable to the audience. 

Evaluation: Question 2, 3 and 6

Once the final edit was completed we needed to look through and begin our evaluation. The first questions were complied into the short video above by three of the members in our group.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

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

Evaluation: Question 1

First Edit Feedback (2)

A-level Drama student Chloe Jackson tells us what she thinks about our original edit.

First Edit Feedback (1)

A-Level Drama student Chloe Jackson tells us what she thinks about our original edit.

Planning: Filming schedule

First Thoughts Mr Wilkinson - Feedback

After completing the first edit of our film we asked Wilkinson to give us his original thoughts and feedback. This helped us improve our film for the final edit.

First Edit Media

This is the first draft of our media product and was edited and changed to help the final production.

Animated Storyboard

Planning: The Script

Script

Lawrence: She should not have been involved!

*Phone Rings*

Joe: Hello ( Puts phone down ) he’s back. What you gonna do about it?

Luke: I’ll get the job done.

During Redemption we want to uses a little speech as possible since the majority of the characters are emotionless male meaning they are often stereotyped as quiet and reserved, not sharing their emotions.

Planning: Character Discussion

Research into Other Media Products: Genres

Research into Other Media Products: 21 Jump Street

Research into Media Other Products: Movie Opennings

Saturday Night Fever

Saturday Night Fever

In the start of this opening the director has chosen to use a dull, grey background of an aerial shot of New York with a contrasting red title. This juxtaposition shows the contrasting colours of New York and its people. This is followed by the non-diegetic sound of a horn with a smash cut of a close up panning shot of a train coming to a stop.This presents the idea of a working class and the idea of an urban feel. The train is also an indicator to the audience that the protagonist is about to take a journey. This lures in the audience and engages them to watch further.

After this the film is cut to a close up shot of shoes in a shop window which the protagonist compares to his own. This is in parallel to the now new non-diegetic music of "stayin alive" by the Bee Gees.This music has lots of significances as it is the centre piece of the extract; everything is in sync with the music. The music is a base in which everything is based around and the music itself it a very iconic and easily recognised. It also fits in with setting the tone for the genre and tells the audience that the film will have a high paced disco feel to it.

The panning shot of the protagonist reveals the outfit he is wearing; he is dressed very fancy and seems to be wearing expensive clothes compared to the people he walks past on the street. As he walks along the street he seems to notice other people who he finds physically attractive and is seemingly very aware of his own physical prowess. This gives him a sex appeal which the female audience can identify with as well as the male audience who can aspire to be as charismatic as the man they see. A canted low angle shot is also used as he is walking; this suggests to the audience a sense of dominance and is perhaps reflecting his personality and lifestyle.

The montage then goes back to the tracking shot of the protagonist walking. This is a significant and reoccurring shot as the protagonist feet are shown in rhythm to the music as previously stated. Throughout the opening his pace and actions match the beat this implies a disco vibe in correspondence to the genre. The paint pot in the protagonists hand is also significant as it is shown as a close up towards the end of the montage. It joins with the image of the train and re-establishes the idea of working class as the protagonist works in a paint store.

The images of the protagonist noticing oncoming women and going out his way to impress them and grab there attention shows this man may be a player or a stud. This again connects to the male establishment as some/most men want to impress women, and this is shown as one of the protagonists strength despite his inablity to capture this women

Evaluation

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The Final Product

After months of research and filming we have finally produced the final product. This product was filmed, directed and acted in by myself and my partner and this therefore made things slightly more difficult. The story consists of two men partaking in illegal activities and things taking a turn for the worst. This is a barrier to overcome for one of these men and a life altering decision may be what is needed.

Research

Area Research

Storyboard(s)

This is a first edit of our animated storyboard. After having it reviewed we have decided that we need to add more photos with different camera shots and angles to enhance the story that the audience sees. All photos within the storyboard were taken on school premises and not in the exact locations; and the characters aren't seen in the correct attire that will be used in the future and final product. 

This is the second version of the animated storyboard and has some large changes. After looking at the feedback on our original storyboard we have made some changes. We have added more camera angles which gives a greater insight on what we are trying to achieve.