2. When creating my product I used various different codes and
conventions that you see everyday in most films and television
programs, most of the ideas that I came up with are pretty
similar to what you see in popular films however some of my
ideas I have tweaked and allowed my imagination to try and
come up with something completely different which I admit is
quite risky especially when the original plans work so well.
Most of my ideas combine already created products and mash
them together to maybe create something better suited for the
product that I am trying to create. I will be going through my
auxiliary tasks and main product to evaluate how my media
product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products.
3. My main character in my trailer has a similar
personality to that of the character Charles
Bronson from the film “Bronson”, he is incredibly
volatile and is a borderline psychopath who's
main goal in like if to make a name for himself by
being incredibly unstable and violent.
I like the idea of unstable characters as it always
keeps the audience guessing as to what the
character is going to do next, in my trailer I have
sections where the main character looks and
talks basically straight to camera making him
talk directly to the audience, this was heavily
influenced from the parts in “Bronson” where in-
between scenes of violence Bronson would talk
to an audience and narrate them through his
feelings and beliefs to give you an insight on the
character, I loved this idea so tried to incorporate
it into my product.
4. “A MacGuffin is a plot device in the form of a goal, desired object, or other motivator that the
protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation as to why it is considered so
important or needed.The specific nature of a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall
plot.The most common type of MacGuffin is an object, place or person. However a MacGuffin
can sometimes take a more abstract form, such as money,victory, glory, survival, power, love, or
even something that is entirely unexplained,as long as it strongly motivates key characters
within the structure of the plot.”
My work completely is centred around this plot device and is something
that I considered ever since I saw Pulp Fiction for the first time and the
significance of the brief case where its contents is never shown, in my
product I convey the fact that my protagonist/antagonist is in this for
glory and the recognition that he feels he deserves, why he believes this
is exactly like the plot device it never is truly explained instead it is
implied briefly as the main attraction to the film is him being violent in
his current state. My main characters conscience is what drives the
narrative that asks him why he’s doing what he is doing which can be
hard to explain like MacGuffin’s plot device.
5. I wanted to try something different when it came to my
movie poster, I knew that I couldn’t have something
basic because the poster I felt needed to reflect the
main character as he is the focal point and the attention
should be on him, so when it came to researching
posters I would find things like the Star Trek poster that
featured different characters and I thought to myself
that it would be a really good idea if I kept that theme
going so I decided it would be a good idea to do
something similar but only include one character in
different stages of his life from when he was a hired
gunman, to feeling regret to now how he is now a
warped psychotic thug. I also used the same sort of
colour scheme idea where for example the Star Trek is
featured mostly in blue which is related to the film, so
for my poster I used really dull colours and made the
focus on the colour red which is the colour of danger
which sort of gives you an insight on what the film is
about.
6. As you can see my magazine cover is pretty much the same as the
Empire Skyfall cover and the reason for that is because I wanted to
give my film a professional look to it, it is also quite an ironic cover
as my character is essentially a crazy person but is put in a very
different style that makes him look puzzled and full of regret but at
the same time he is holding a weapon and a mask in his hands
possibly to throw them down? And why is he wearing a suit? These
are the questions I wanted my audience to ask whenever they would
see this cover as it is a very different experience than that of the
movie poster which is pretty direct in telling you what the film is
about. I love magazine covers that involve a film but completely go
away from the actual plot of the film and do something else. My
magazine is heavily influenced from Empire most importantly the
one you see below my cover, I tried to incorporate different things
such as the location of text and the website which is something that I
think is one of Empires strong points (the way they display the
cover). If you look at the direction that both my character and Daniel
Craig is looking they are both looking away from the audience which
keeps the audience guessing as to what they are looking at and may
sway them into purchasing the magazine, this is why I used the
image of my main character looking down as you don’t really know
what he is looking at.
7. “In 1975, Laura Mulvey created the Male Gaze theory, the theory is believed that in film
the audience have to see the various characters from the perspective of a heterosexual
male. She then later argued that women are relegated to the status of objects and that the
female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily by identification with the
male.”
My work re-creates the various themes that are looked at in this theory, my work
features a lead heterosexual male who goes around showing his alpha male like
dominance which re-establishes the many different parts of this theory. My project
doesn’t contain woman at all, in fact woman aren’t even mentioned as I feel like it
would just end up coming across incredibly cliché and lacklustre as everyone has
seen it before where the strong male lead is trying to fight for the attention and love of
a female and knowing my target audience who are mostly students they would piece
together my work to like that of those films if I just had a glimpse of a female in it. It
might be a really sexist thing to say but I don’t think my target audience would be as in
touch with my work if it was a female as my lead role as the way they are portrayed in
other forms of media that is similar to mine show them as really frail and more in touch
of their emotions more than anything else, whereas my character reacts more to his
instinct and reacts in the moment without thinking and without feeling which is
something I would find to be really hard to display had a female been involved.
8. I wanted to create a film that was a
gritty English film that is mostly filmed
in back lanes and areas that are sort of
run down but at the same time pretty
quiet that doesn’t see much happening
in terms of action. Once again this is
similar to the film “Bronson” as he lives
in an area that has its fair share of crime
but not as near as much as he causes.
Another influence would be “This is
England” which is set in a rural estate
like area of England and deals with
everyday life.
9. Pretty much all of my shot types are quick cuts dissolves and a few low and
high angles.The high angles where inspired by the scenes from different
programs and films that I've seen that show a lot of the characters power by
portraying him in a higher or lower state
than the rest of the characters which
is sort of what you see in most media
products nowadays.There is also a
couple of close up shots that was
used In the beginning parts of my trailer
that are apart of my flashback, I used a
close up shot of a clock which was meant to be used to represent the fact that
this part of the trailer takes place before the rest of the trailer. I had seen the
technique used before to using a close up of a clock before in other forms of
media and thought it was a good idea so I implemented it into my work. I
tried to follow a similar path to some of the things that I have previously seen
from my favorite films and television programs to portray the theme of my
trailer in a certain light that tells you exactly what type of film it is and what
to expect.
10. When it came to coming up with a
costume for my main character I wanted
to have him wear something that would
reflect the characters traits and
personality and something that he would
always wear, which is why I chose to have
him wear something pretty casual which
you could see used in everyday life and
say if somewhere was getting robbed in a
bank heist film.The costume is something
very basic but when used with the mask it
looks very believable for a hired gun.The
reason why he wear nothing but his
leather jacket and hoodie is contrived
from the film “The Dark Knight” where the
Joker character wears the same clothing
throughout the film which tells you that
the character doesn’t care about what
people think about him its his actions that
show who he is.
11. I liked using just very basic
natural lighting because I
wanted it to feel really gritty
and real and if I was to use a
different way to project light
it wouldn’t be very gritty and
wouldn’t have that British film
feel that I want for it. I also
love how shadows of the
buildings are reflected when
you go down certain back
lanes it makes it all very real.
12. Overall my product follows similar codes and
conventions that you see on a regular basis in
films and other forms of media and the
various different theories, I tried to improvise
and come up with different ways to display
my work for example with my movie poster
which has the same sort of build that you will
find on a movie poster but with a pretty
significant difference. My influences have
helped me a lot in the designing shooting and
editing of my overall product.
