Mise En Scene Mood Board

                                                     

     

Evaluation

Evaluation

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

My media product challenges mainstream forms and conventions of real media products, because it has a concept that is pretty much new to the film world-crackhead clowns. It develops the idea of a drug movie, to a whole new dynamic. Normally drug movies involve either a bunch of "pot smoking hippies", or big time drug lords. I think it challenges forms and conventions of real products in many different ways; I use a great deal of colour, contrast and blur editing, more than i have seen on any other piece of film, i also use metaphors and 'flashes' throughout, which is something that i have not often seen in films. It challenges the stereotypical view of clowns, being funny, scary or evil and puts them in a new category, it shines them in a different light, one that hopefully makes people feel sorry for them, instead of judge them, or fear them. The use of clowns as the main characters of a drug film is something that i have never seen before, so i thought it would be an interesting and daring convention to develop. My film challenges the usual mise en scene of drug movies, which are usually either set in poor dirty areas, or in really expensive places, drug labs and towns, my piece takes dirty to the max, combined with very dark lighting, making it hard to see whats going on some of the time, i did this so the viewer has to look more carefully, and is drawn in. I think my use of extreme camera shakes also challenges the usual techniques seen in other films, making it very distorted and disorientating. I feel my use of music also challenges the normal music choice for drug movies-- Drug movies usual have a mix of phsycadelic rock, sad and suspenseful classical music, whereas mine has a disturbing clowny score with white noise and crackles mixed with it, which again is something i have not seen in any other drug movie. Finally the storyline-- from what ive seen, drug movies have 2 types of storyline one is the users, and their story, or the dealers and their

story, usually both come from broken homes, and go into the drug world trying to 'make it' and to kill their pains, the other type of drug movie is for comedic puroses and shows the silly shenanigans 'potheads' get into. My opening sequence does follow these storylines loosely, however its purpose is so that it feels as if the story isnt really moving on.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents 3 different social groups, and combines them all in one hybrid character type. 

It represents crack heads as strange, deranged, twisted, insane individuals that run around doing weird things, as if they have regressed back to their childhood. Willing to do anything for crack, the sad reality is, my representation is mostly true. I represent crack heads and  homeless people as people that live in really dirty abandoned places, out of society, only coming out at night to roam the streets and smoke their troubles away. I then combined these, and put them together with clowns, to make clowns seem as reclusive, insane individuals-- also i go along with the sad clown, and the manic clown representations. These hybrid characters are represented as very confused, insecure, scared people that have lost touch with reality and are slowly wasting away both physically and mentally. 

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

I think that Film 4 might distribute my media product. i think this because film 4 are renound for their daring stories, hard hitting realism and experimental techniques. Their films are often filmed on location, and have low budgets, as does my opening sequence. Film 4 often make films with daring subject matter, the taboos of society like drug abuse, for example trainspotting-- is all about heroin addicts in Edinburgh, and it deals with their irresponsibility and follows their journies as they try to come off heroin. Mine is similar, however my characters are clowns, i chose this partly to take away some of the seriousness of the subject, so that it is slightly comedic, but it think this could work well as a film 4 production as it still deals with the gritty realism, and the dark underbelly of society.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

 My target audience for my media product is very much a niche audience, only certain types of people would go see it, by certain types i mean people that like alternative weird films, and possibly even real crackheads themselves. It would be for ages 18 to 30, however young teenagers will probably watch it, so it was made with them in mind.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I think my opening sequence attracts its audience because of its dark nature, people hear crackhead clowns, and they're not sure about what to expect, because its a topic that hasn't really been done before. I think the audience will also be attracted by the dark mise en scene, and the disorientating camera movements, and the possibly disturbing themes within.

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The two main technologies that were new to me were hardware, and software. 

Hardware- i used a gopro hero 3 for the first time, it was quite a challenge to film with it, because it is very small, doesn't have screen to see what your filming, and has limited battery life. I had an led screen that plugged into the gopro, but it drained the battery even quicker. so i had to film fast, and not make many mistakes, it was also very hard to hold comfortably. 

Software- i used the new adobe after effects to edit my video, it looked quite complicated when i started, but after viewing editing tutorials on YouTube, i realized that it was relatively simple to use and i was on my way. There is still so much more to learn about the program, but i only needed basic editing and effect,  so it was fine.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Personally, i feel that our preliminary task was very basic, we didn't use any effects, sounds, or interesting camera angles. Because we worked as a group, i feel it was not as good as it could have been, because everyone always has varied ideas, and ends up arguing, maybe that's just me, i like working on my own, because then i am not restricted in what i can do. I think i have learned alot about making films since the preliminary task, as it was a wake up call that i needed to' step up my game'. I learned that no film can be successful without some degree of planning, we just made something up on the spot in limited time, having said this, when i was making my opening sequence, i  pretty much made it all up on the spot, but i still had rough ideas, and knew what sort of feel i was going for, i knew what kinds of camera shakes and angles i wanted to use, and how i wanted the lighting to be.