Evaluation for media 1

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

By Kristopher Cook

Evaluation Question 1

Introduction 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.

Main CharacterMy 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.

MacGuffin Plot Device

“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.

Film Poster

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.

Magazine CoverAs 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.

Male Gaze Theory“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.

SettingI 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.

Shot TypesPretty 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 mediaproducts 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.

Costume 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.

LightingI 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.

Evaluation

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.