Character Analysis

Our characters are all mysterious and the audience does not know about them considering their background. through out there are only two characters shown through our product.

The Protagonist
 the protagonist  in our production is played by me. the protagonist's name is not known through out the opening scene. the audience in the beginning sees through him in point of view shots and thats his first part in the film. he is a part of the audience and they like him do not know what is going on and in his case he has amnesia. the audience sympathises with him and relates to him.
the protagonist is an archaeologist who was in a secret forgotten location looking for an artefact with an archaeological group. as they find the artefact something occurs, unknown to him or audience that kills his expeditionary group and he survives but his on the verge of death and badly bruised. the first time he is visible in the film is when there is a point of view shot where he looks at his hand and finds unknown archaic writing on his hand. the movie would carry on with the main plot being that the protagonist trying to find out what happened to his expeditionary group and find the artefact




The antagonist
He is unknown through out the opening scene and the only reason he is known is because of his loud commanding voice that echoes. it is mysterious and the audience doesnt know where it is coming from but knows its menacing and is the antagonist and a possible danger to the protagonist. he is only seen when he smacks down on the table. he is an agent for either the authorities or a organization but it unknown.

Evaluation

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

Our product followed the conventions of a mystery thriller

This first shot here is the very first in our opening and sets off the theme of mystery. The blurry effect creates the image that the main character is delirious and there is some sort of problem The symbols on his hand create more mystery and makes the audience want to find out what has happened and what they mean. they are mysterious and the audience want to know what they are and they can tell they are archaeic and ancient. This shot is a first person shot and is supposed to make the audience see and almost feel as if they are going through what the protagonist is going through.

The shot isn’t very clear about the setting which again leaves the audience wanting to know where the main character is and how he got there. This fits in nicely with our survey results as many people said they didn’t want the introduction to give too much away.

Next we have the start of the credits which appear between clips and not in one large chunk as that would be boring to watch.

The credits have smoke surrounding them to create a spooky effect and fit the genre of mystery thriller. The credits also fade into each other to give a smooth flow which fits with the movement of smoke.

The blackness around the smoke suggests the unknown and the audience will have to watch the rest of the movie to find out the answers. The purple themed colour was planned to have the artefact glow a purple colour but you would see that later in the movie. This relates to the audience survey results which tells us that people wanted the credits to be animated and that it fits into the theme of the movie somehow.

This third shot of the main character’s eyes opening but you can’t see for certain, yet, where he his opening his eyes too and if he is safe or not. This creates suspense which all thrillers have. Without suspense in a thriller, there would be no build up to keep the audience entertained long enough to want to keep watching the movie. it i a common techniaue in film.

The eye opening shows that the main character is still delirious and hasn’t fully recovered from whatever had happened to him. Again the theme of darkness around the opening of his eyes represent the unknown.

This next shot still doesn’t give away anything obvious to the audience although introduces the audience to the protagonist’s situation and the potential antagonist. This is also shot in first person because it lets the audience share the fear and emotion going through the main character as he is threatened and shouted at by a man.

This man we can only assume is an interrogator of some sort and the audience can see his is dressed smartly and has a suit and shoes on. By noticing that he has a suit on, this lets the audience take guesses about who this other man is.

Still in first person, this shot resembles a flashback with the present voice of the main character talking over, trying desperately to remember what happened.

This shot also introduces the audience to the mysterious artefact that Ignotus is based around.

The music is well timed for this shot as the audience will hear a loud bang as this shot cuts to black. This makes it scary and even more mysterious. The music track for the opening is very important and can help emphasise scary parts.

Whilst some of the credits are going on, the audience is able to hear the main character and interrogator communicating. The audio clips have been edited to have an echo effect to make the audience feel the suspense and fear for the main character as the protagonist struggles to remember anything and cannot answer the interrogator properly.

This shot allows the audience to see the main character and see how he is feeling and how is being treated. The bloodstains on his shirt suggest he has been brutally beaten or has been injured and not fully recovered properly from a previous event which may reveal itself later on in the film.

Now the eye opening shot makes sense because there is an interrogation light in the main characters face.

Here the audience is exposed to the main character being abused which evokes sympathy for the main character and one the audience has seen and develops any emotions for the main character, they start to worry about him which may keep them entertained to find out if he is safe in the end.

This is the last part of the title sequence. It is shrouded by darkness which shows there is still of unknown answers but the title is bigger and brighter suggesting that the audience now have an insight into the what is happening.

2) How does your product represent particular social groups?

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

Our media institution could be distributed by LionsGfate as they have distributed many thrillers and psychological thrillers such as American Psycho, Saw Series and Killer too name a few. so they have experience in this genre and finding the right audience for them.
 
Ourexisting product analysis was linked to National Treasure, Angels And Demons and Da Vinci Code. National Treasure was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and Angles and Demons was distributed by Columbia Pictures. but Disney usually makes ratings for 12 and under certificate so it wont be suitable and will unlikely use our film unless it was scaled down. Bourne Identity is like our film in the sense there will be a chasing trying to find someone or something whilst the protagonist has amnesia. this was distributed by Universal so that is a viable option .Lionsgate will be suitable as it distribute through diffeerent certfiicates. Columbia Pictures on the other hand have a more adult rated target audience. For example they  produced Bad Boys and distribute James Bond films. Our mystery thriller opening has some form of violence and blood is shown so Walt Disney Pictures would probably not be the right company to distribute our product as their target audience differs from ours. I would say Lionsgate is the perfect distributor or alternatively Columbia Pictures

4) Who would be the audience for your product?

 Our target audience are people aged 16+ and who love thrillers, especially when a mystery is involved, people who like the introduction to a movie to keep them guessing and the enigma to really get into the movie. Our target audience also include people that want animated credits that relate to the theme of the movie. Looking back at our opening scene survey results, 90% of the people we asked wanted the opening scene of a movie to keep them guessing and that’s what we have done. We have made it enigmatic making the audience want to find out more about the main character and his situation.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

attraction of our audience consisted of looking at survey results and tried to address as many preferences as possible. We also attracted our audience through the mystery we put into the opening scene like the smoke and the blurriness effects. The blur effects only give away that the main character is delirious but we don’t know how he got there or what the artefact does and where he found it. By only showing short flashbacks in the opening scene, the audience are more involved in the movie and lets them know the background to what is happening in the present so they understand how the flashbacks help progress the story.

NOTE: The video doesn't show the annotations when I put the video on the blog so please visit: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPTKpou0iqo&feature=player_embedded
to see the fully annotated final cut of Ignotus.

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

    

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

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel I have learnt that it takes more than just footage to make a movie or at least make something look interesting. The use of special effects, animation, music and editing are all very vital to creating a film or video clip to make it entertaining. I would say that music was the most noticeable thing when editing and watching the footage because the wrong backing track to your film can give a totally different impression to what you wanted in the first place.

Since I started this project, I have learnt to use more professional editing software like Final Cut Express instead of Windows Movie Maker which is very simplistic compared to Final Cut Express. I have never created special effects before and I learnt to use Adobe After Effects to create the smoke credits used in the opening scene and the title sequence. I knew people kept blogs but I didn’t know people did video blogs which is actually quite interesting and it’s more interactive than just reading lots of text.

What I would change

Over all I think our opening scene is very well done and would rate it 7 or 8/10. the credits are unique and plot is good and captures the audience and is marketable for wider audiences.

What I would change?
What I wouldve done differently is made it longer and used more camera techniques such as jump cuts and so on. I wouldve made it longer so it was 2:10 so we could have made use more of our footage but I think it is a good piece of work and the team spirit was exceptionally good we had fun and got along very well but still maintained our work ethos and managed to finish it in time and of a good standard

Ignotus Final CUT

This is our last cut of our movie

after deliberation and weeks of editing and  filming we came up with a final cut too submit

Audience Feedback

After months of working on this project and changing we came up with our final cut and asked for Feedback from our classmates. the feedback we received was mainly positive and the constructive crticism was beneficial. the cut they saw was the fourth cut.

Fourth cut of our opening film

                                                    OUR FOURTH CUT

There is a bit where the main character is talking but you cannot hear anything.it is a glitch where the voice doesnt match the voice movements. we done many audio so we can do a voiceover we recorded many voiceovers but we still need to put it together and there was a glitch with this cut

Third Cut

THIS IS THE THIRD CUT

Here we have modified the voices to have an echo effect and added some voice overs during the credits to make it more enigmatic.

Second CUT of Ignotus

THIS IS OUR SECOND CUT OF IGNOTUS

We have redone the audio, changed a few clips around, added second names to the credits and added different music. However, we will re-do the audio and make some of the clips have an echo effect and re-do the music but as for now the order of the clips will remain the same.

Changes we made from initial Idea

Initially we had a further two actresses as Doctors and Nathan was also an actor however due to it being too long and over complicating we decided to cut that out

First draft of our film

Our first cut

this is the first draft of the movie.

as this is a draft we had too amend it many times.

we found out that the acting was too wooden and the Opening scene seemed too much like a trailer

Storyboard

This is the initial storyboard we have come up with to accomodate our Ignotus idea

The beginning of the opening will start with the main character opening up his eyes to find himself in an interrogation situation.

The main character will have a blood stained shirt to show he has been beaten for answers about the mysterious artefact the interrogator is after.

Credits will keep splitting up the footage.

The interrogate will begin to get angry and start making physical gestures at the main character to let him know that if he doesn't give them any asnwers soon then they will continue to toucher him.

The main character will be forced to look at photos of the mysterious artefact to try and trigger his memory and provide the interrogator with the answers he needs.

[Credits]

There will be a flash back of the main character almost remembering what happened when he found the artefact to tease the audience and make them want to keep watching the film (if it was a proper length film).

[Credits]

The interrogator will continue to physically abuse the main character in order to get answers out of him.

The title sequence will be played last.

Final Idea

this is our second idea that we decided to go with. we decided to go with an adventure thriller instead.we decided on this final idea because we thought it ll be more interesting and we can use our skills and let us be more creative and this genre can hook in the audience.

meeting to discuss plot idea

this is a further chapter in the plot meeting :

plot meeting 2

Locations 30/1/11

Film Locations

For our film opening we need three different locations:
1) An interrogation room
2) A street
3) A dark room for the artifact
The street was the first and easiest location to acquire, as we planned to use my road as it is quiet and we went to film early on Saturday morning. The reason for it being in the morning was due to the difficulty of having to use the pavement as a set and so we needed to film early in order to make sure there was little people around. Other members of our group said they would be busy on that day so the earlier the better. Me and Sachin done the filming that day. the morning was a bonus because the weather was sunny. the glaring sun allowed for the scene where he wakes up and looks directly at the sun.

The second location we want to is the assembly hall in school to film the scene where the “artefact” was found. We want to use this because we can make it really dark and pretend it is a cave/underground area of some sort to add to the enigma and because the hall is large it has an effect even though you may not see it in the dark the audience can feel it. We figured that if we were able to acquire some flashlights and have access to the assembly hall we could turn off the lights and film the scene in there. The only problem we see with using this location is that we have to make sure it is not being used by other people due to the fact that we need the entire space. We hoped to film during our Media lesson so fortunately the hall would most likely to be unoccupied.

The final location which would be used as an interrogation room was difficult to think of where to use, at first we had the idea of using one of the school rooms that had a glass window in order to look inside, however this was a problem due to the school hours that we had and our ability to make the footage seem realistic. If this doesn't go to plan then we will use my living room. we had a problem with the lighting coming across and making it unrealistic.

Marketing and who its for

for our film we needed to find out which audience will be interested in the film and to see if it will be a niche market or wider audience market.  We had to ask them what they wanted and what they were looking for in a film. so we done a questionnaire and asked people using facebook and asking people to complete it:

1)Would you prefer the credits to follow the shape and colour scheme of the movie?

 

2) do you prefer credits to simply pop up?

3)Do you like when the opening shot is an Aerial shot of the city/town/setting?  

4 Do you like long opening scenes or when events progress quickly?

 

5) Would you prefer diegetic or non-diegetic sounds for the opening scene?

 

6 Would you like the theme tune to play during the opening credits?

7 Favourite genre?

 This is our mood board and shows what the artefacts  would look like and its inspiration. As you can see its has ancient occult signs and symbols as its main inspiration. We drew inspiration from occult writings, greek legends and myths such as pandoras box, ancient egyptian artefacts such as the pyramids and codified objects from modern day era such as rubix cube and coded objects seen in Da Vinci Code. this is an explanation of our mood board.

moodboard explanation

a further video expalining what inpsired the artefact

Existing Product analysis

Existing Product Analysis

We are going to create an adventure mystery thriller hybrid. The film will get the audience asking questions such as ‘where did the artifact come from?’, ‘what does the artifact do?’, ‘what kind of people are after the artifact?’ and so on. Films that were the inspiration were Indiana Jones, National Treasure and Angels and Demons. These films are what we are trying to model our film around however more mystery than action adventure.

The majority of the film would be watched by the audience through a series of flashbacks. The flashbacks will be triggered by the protagonist being interrogated and forced to remember his events starting from how he came into contact with the artifact. A good example of this method in use is from the film Slumdog Millionaire. The audience see the protagonists past and come to realise how he won the TV game show. Likewise, the audience will see flashbacks that will answer questions relating to the storyline and the final outcome.

We would like our credits animated in some way that relates to the spooky and mysterious effect we are trying to achieve. Examples of this are Charmed and Supernatural. They both have smoke mixed in with their text used for the opening credits.

Indiana Jones :

We have chosen to model the idea of involving artifacts from this film because in our film we use one as the main source of attention.

Silence Of The Lambs:

We have chosen to model the idea of having an interrogation scene. The cannibal in Silence Of The Lambs is questioned in the film to reveal answers and help progress through the storyline.

Se7en:

We have chosen to model the idea of using symbols and other text flashing up during our opening credits.

Codes and Conventions

We will conform to things such as:

·         Smoke effects relating to mystery

·         Clues and Evidence                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

·         Touch voice for interrogator

·         Flashbacks

·         Victim/Protagonist feels weak

·         Dark rooms for interrogation

·         Blood on protagonists shirt

·         Pictures of object of attention around the protagonist

·         Not being able to see the interrogator’s face

·         Bright light on protagonist’s face

·         People fighting for possession of object of attention

The only thing that can be suberted from is that the idea that it is  teenagers looking for an artefact instead of full grown adults. however it is not subverting alot hozever the genre of mystery thriller it is still a popular genre and the stereotypical things are what make it really good in the first place.

Other Products On The Market

Other products on the market in recent times will be Angels and Demons and