This document provides an analysis of the short film "Trunk MoNK3Y5" in three sections: 1) It establishes conventions used in the film's narrative structure and opening scene to draw in the audience and create mystery. 2) It examines the strong male gender representation and how the characters' language, behavior and clothing reinforce stereotypes of their rough backgrounds. 3) It proposes typical distribution channels and target audiences for this type of action crime film, aimed at entertaining males aged 15-25.

1. TRUNK MoNK3Y5 Evaluation by Liam Camp

2. Conventions of real media products Our narrative structure uses a dive straight in approach, there isn’t any set up or voice over. It isn‘t the first time this technique has been used to add to the enigma code however it does defy typical conventions of this film type such as Snatch and Lock Stock both of which start with some form of set up and/or voice over. A really strong enigma code is the bases for our whole opening, the body and “Columbian sugar” found in the boot of this car act as a hook to the audience, this is a common convention of films and a variety of other products, creating the air of mystery instantly creates interest and a desire to see more. Another example of this is in Snatch where they start off talking about this diamond and then cut to a group of Jewish men viewed via CCTV, it draws up feelings of inquisition in the viewer. This is typical of the genre The closest item to typical mise en scene we had was the coat one character wore its a similar type of coat to the one worn by Bacon in “Snatch”.

3. Representation of social groups There is a Strong male gender representation within out product. The way in which the two characters behave is very stereotypical of the male gender as is the way they dress and language they use. The short sharp language is not just used to represent a strong male gender role it is also used to suggest at the class and sub culture of the characters words like “ya prat” demonstrate a rough hard background to the characters. Ethnicity doesn't play a role as such within the film but looking at films such as lock stock the lead characters are typically white males and we conform to this in our film opening. The characters age in the film should have been in the late 20’s to early 30’s however due to the fact we couldn't get people like this for our film we had to do the best with what we had. We signalled to the audience that they should have some sympathy for Jim from the way Tony treats him once he finds the drugs, this harsh treatment and Jims bewildered reaction suggest the form of relationship these two have with Tony clearly being in charge and that this is obviously not the first time Jim has made a large mistake.

4. Distribution The basic distribution plan for our film would be to use a British type company such as C4 or the national lottery as they are the typical people used by films of a similar nature such as lock stock. This is primarily an action film so would be shown in Multiplex type cinemas and not art house ones as it simply isn't designed to appeal to the intellectual artistic crowd as a specific niche market.

5. Target Audience We intended to target an age group between 15 and 25 mainly males of no particular social group although most likely not the higher socio economic groups. Films we would have expected our target audience to have previously seen are those in the same vein as Rock”n”Rolla and possibly My Kingdom. The motivation we would expect for a person to come and see a film like this would be a lads night out, its a film to be seen by large groups mostly male dominated on a night out. The action and crime are both things typically seen to appeal to the male gender both of which feature heavily in our film.

6. Attracting and addressing our audience A key component of our film designed to address its target audience is the pace which is set through the choice of music at the start and the short sharp dialogue. This is designed to appeal to the male action orientated audience the short cuts and dark humour of the blasé way the body is treated are more examples of how this film appeals to a largely male audience possibly not adult but defiantly at least 15 years of age. The camera angles used are fairly standard there are no unnecessarily artistically creative shots with the only really unique shot we have which breaks away from the usual types of shot used by films aimed at this audience is the “inside the trunk” shot.

7. Technical skills and understanding The main thing that I have learnt from this production is to try and plan for unexpected incidents which may set back either editing or filming or anything else. This production has expanded on my ability to intercut titles and credits in to scenes of a film and combine them with music and shots which may not necessarily be interesting but will help to provide a setting for the rest of the film. During this production my understanding of the importance of mise en scene was greatly expanded upon. Things like the object we used to represent the bag of cocaine were important whereas before I wouldn't have given this any thought.

8. Progressive learning Looking back at the preliminary exercise i can see that skills such as match on action have been carried through and improved upon in our production. And how I've learnt that simple dialogue isn’t enough alone to set a scene, mise en scene setting shots and other techniques are all crucial to building the correct feel of a media product and address the right audience.