Directors Commentary

Shot List Of 'The Missing'

1) Eye Line Match / Medium Shot - of the news anchor as the 'Production Title' fades out.

2) Panning Shot - of William as he walks into the elevator room.

3) Close up / Low Angle Shot - of Williams back as he stands within the elevator.

4) High Angle / Over The Shoulder Shot - of Willaims looking down at the villain from a balcony.

5) Wide Shot - of William as he sees the villain and flees.

6) Long Shot - as William runs through tunnel.

7) Panning Shot / Wide Shot - as news reporter broadcasts.

8) Tilt Shot - as William runs down staircases.

9) Extreme Close Up / Cutaway Shot - of Blackberry revealing Lucy's name.

10) Establishing Shot - as William runs over bridge.

11) Two Shot - as news reporter interviews Lucy.

12) Backwards Tracking Shot - used as William runs into tunnel.

13) Forwards Tracking Shot - used as William runs through tunnel.

14) Panning / Slanted Shot - used as William runs towards door.

15) Close Up - as William goes through the door.

16) Shaky Cam / Point Of View Shot - used to show protagonists movements.

17) P.O.V Shot - used again as villain attacks William.

Michaels Personal Account Of The Group And Tasks

When I decided to take media in September, the reason was that if i advertised the aspect of being able to work in a group and produce a media production which would be both entertaining and educational at the same time. As January arrived my eagerness for filming remained, luckily I was paired off with a group of people who I would class as friends through this experience they were: Koceila, Kelsea and Lucy. The mixed gender in the group provided many advantages in filming due to the use of more realism as both genders are common in society, it also brought various ideas together which males or females alone may have not created.

For our project we created a horror opening sequence to a film, this was entertaining as the scenario was of a main protagonist being chased by a mysterious figure (which was me). To create the best mis en scene we used the latest fashion techniques to cover my face to blur the fact hat the figure was an unknown character. By doing this we used a £2 primark scarf wrapped around my face and my coat zipped up to my collar to cover my neck, not exactly Hollywood effects but it worked for our product. Many challenges faced in our group was the weather when filming luckily it was cold and gloomy which suited our film perfectly to add more realism of a typical horror film.

The positives I taken out of working on the whole production of the film was the amount of knowledge I gained and techniques in the editing process. It was enjoyable to go around Manchester finding shots to suit our product. I also very much enjoyed the aspect of of group work as i feel that we all pitched in our ideas and work together for example: Kelsea and Lucy did the camera work, Koceila did the editing and I blogged along with everyone else. Working as a unit went very well as we accomplished a high quality film therefore succeed in our task and we are all very proud of all our work as group.

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

In our group we have develepoed an urban British film. The film we have produced came from ideas from watching Shaun Of The Dead, Mirrors and The Messenger. These are a mixture of thrillers and horrors we wanted to base our main task on. However we chose to mainly focus on the films Mirrors and Shaun Of The Dead.

We have developed this idea by having a male character who at the begining see's a mysterious black figure on two occasions. He then becomes highly paranoid and begins to run looking around nervously. We end the opening scene in a dark boiler room, this relates to the opening scene of Mirrors where the man enters the grungy locker room.

We also took the typical horror convention of "You don't know who the villain is" and used it in two occasions in our opening. We were inspired by films such as 'Final Destination', 'Halloween' as well as 'Shawn Of The Dead'. As you can see by the image on the left we took the figure look from the film 'Shawn Of The Dead' due to the fact it was our inspired film of choice.

However we challenged the typical 'Damsel in Distress' theme that runs through thrillers by planting the role of the victim on a young male. From films like 'Halloween', 'Cloverfield' and 'Silence Of The Lambs' it is a female character who is the victim. In our film we didn't want this reoccurring stereotype so changed it to fit the modern era and cut the theme of scream queen. This was made ironic from the final part of our film where the protagonist screams before the sequence finishes.

The music added is typical of thriller films as such as our own. Its progressive and suspenseful and we received a great reaction from our audience based upon our film and its music. Its similar to songs from films like 'Requiem For A Dream' and '28 Days Later'. Those two films (Drama and Horror) suite the songs perfectly and our thriller genre film has the same effect with the help of the track used.

We also used horror setting to make the fear set in. This is used in our 'Tunnel Shot' or 'Pipe Room' scene. The eery environment and exclusion in the dark add to the fear that we wanted to show by captivating the theme into our story. Films that do similar are 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', '28 Days Later' and 'Nightmare On Elm Street' proving that we have hit the right theme due to the sheer vast library of immensely scary films which we used.

We also used the idea of relationships to do this we looked at the film Shaun Of The Dead. In this film the protagonist Shaun has an issue in his relationship with his girlfriend Lizzie. We used the consept of broken relationships but put a twist on it so that the girlfriend was not seeing her boyfriend and being distraught due to him being missing. This takes the idea of broken relationships but in a different direction.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product representents both middle and working class audience. This is due to the female newsreporter being middle class unlike the protagonist being 'Working Class' working part time in a local shop. These two very different people can relate to both audiences the middle class news reporter showing a woman in power giving the story of the typical every day working class male going missing. These two roles work well together to give our product more realism and seem more realistic.

In our product we enabled the working class to seem inferior and vunerable in a way that it was typical for a working class male to go missing, we also used a female news reporter on purpose to show a middle class fem

ale reporting on the story. The irony of this was the male being in danger and the weak one whereas the female news anchor was reporting the story. Also the male news reporter, who is also middle class, was working for the female news achor which breaks typical stereotypes of men being dominant. As you can see, in comparison to 'Anchorman', we have a female reading the news in comparison to the typical anchorman.

However, the use of 'Anchorwoman' can be seen as typical. This is due to most news channel being dominated by 'Woman' such as BBC News. The mis-en-scene, as you can see below, of the news reader is similar to that of the news reader from 'Anchorman'. The brown suite is the most recognizable and the entire transition between Hollywood typical anchorman to low budget anchorwoman is perfect and entices the social group of females in a upper class society.

What Kind Of Media Institution Would Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

Our group had decided that the most suited to ditribute our product would be 'United International Pictures'. Due to their link with 'Universal' we thought this would be a fitting company to distrubute our film. Universal Studios owns a large proportion of 'Working Title'. Due to their British recognition we thought they would suite our 'Urban British Thriller'. They have also been involved in film which we had been inspired from for our 'Final Task' which is 'Shawn Of The Dead' as part of their link off company 'Working Title 2'.

UIP is a huge distribution company and they would allow us to do whatever we wanted in the marketing area. For example we would put billboards up in the city centre due to our urban setting. We would apply them onto high end youth buses, such as the 85, 86, 15 and 192 in Manchester. As well as this we would have advertisement on TV after soap operas (Hollyoaks and Skins) and football matches (Which would be a huge bonus with Sky Sports). As well as this we would also put it up on MTV and many music channels.This is hit our target audience and would work best at these times due to the average viewers being between our intended age of 15-30. Magazines such as 'Game Informer' and 'Heat' would also be our targets as well as websites like 'Youtube' and 'Facebook'. This could cost millions of pound meaning we would need the backing of such huge distribution companies to help us to do what we intend to do.

However, if such a high Hollywood distrubution company wont take us on we would stick to our full British routes. We would use 'Optimum Releasing'. They have distrobuted the thriller 'Dead Mans Shoes' and are a Category A British distribution company. Our marketing scheme for them would be limited in comparison. We would not have TV advertisements in such expensive places and would only apply simple billboards in comparison to ones on buses. On top of this we would exclude magazines and most internet sites. Instead we would probably go for a viral rather then huge schemes that require millions.

The budget for our finished productand every wewere intending to accomplish would be no more the £10 million which is why a company like UIP would take us on board as our distributor. They could potentially make a huge profit off our film and expand its audiance from its original UK origin to the USA and multiple European countries. Our film tends to be the thing they would go for, for example Shawn Of The Dead, and with their support our film will be just as big and successfull as well as profitable making it an opportunity UIP wont pass down. However, Optimum Releasing wouldn't be a disappointment.

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Final Product?

We learnt how to work together and how to time our production. We needed to move to our locations and to do so needed to be organized in who took what and where we went. There were no fallouts and the entire movie went smoothly. This is in contrast to our 'Prelim Task' where we didn't know what was going on and who was doing what. Everything came with slight spontaneity compared to our 'Final Task' where everything was organized and thought about before hand.

However, one of the most important things we learnt in the ‘Final Task’ in comparison to the ‘Preliminary Task’ is that we should not cut heads off the shot. This is vital as it makes a good film great and ruins most of the shots. As you can see from the ‘Prelim’ (left side) Michaels head has been cut off as the protagonist (this is one example from many other shots). To correct this we added extra room for a professional touch and to ensure we did not cut off his or any other characters head (right side).

As well as this we also ensured that the image looked sharp and professional. The movie we wanted to make had to look better and the overall feel of it had to be too. Its key for making a good film and making everything look better. As you can see in the ‘Prelim’ the shots were blurry and at times untidy due to the fact we didn’t check the lighting and misused the tripod for multiple shots. You can see the sharper image quality in the ‘Final Task’ making it more authentic.

We were fairly happy with our shots during the production of our ‘Preliminary Task’ however, we became ambitious with our ‘Final Task’. We didn't want an outside shot near a chapel, we wanted one near a river in the middle of the city. Also we didn't want our protagonist to see the villain suddenly and the build up to not be as dramatic. So we took a car park and placed the villain in various shots around the area to make everything bigger and more ambitious. The following shots show the diff erences in what we wanted to accomplish and what we went for. This was helped by our choice of locations which were a lot better in comparison to our ‘Preliminary Task’.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

To complete the film we first had to film the footage. In many aspects this was one of the most important sections of the entire project. To pick the right shots would set the film and its course and if it were to go wrong the editing process would become a failure. We needed to ensure our camera crew were organized and ready to tackle any situation. Our main camera team consisted of Lucy and Kelsea, more dominantly. To quote Kelsea had stated that “We had to make sure that the camera shots would match for the final edit and that we didn’t cut off any heads or important details this time round” Lucy also stated that “I learnt that the lighting effected the camera so we had to change and adapt to different environments to make sure the film looked good in association to the lighting keeping it dark as it’s a thriller”.

To convert the footage to fit into ‘Final Cut Pro’ we had to put it through the main

converter and make sure that the format and footage was the right size to do so. As you can see from the picture it

looks fairly complicated but we managed to find an easy way round it and transport all footage to the right codec so you can use it in ‘Final Cut Pro’. We also had to convert sound effects and music into the film to give it more soul and life. This was a difficult task and needed to be done by someone who had advanced IT skills to navigate. Michael was in charge of converting, computing and importing music states that “I found it efficient yet challenging at times in the means of setting the correct measurement and the format to put the filming in”.

When we eventually got onto ‘Final Cut Pro’ where we very unsure about what to actually do. However we caught on fairly quickly and got used to the program, this is mostly thanks to the ‘Preliminary Task’. Despite this we must ensure that all parts fitted together, synced perfectly and had no lags. We needed someone creative to do so. Koceila, who was the main editor, states “The software was tricky at first I have to say, but when the shots were in and the story was set the editing process was fun, enjoyable and easier then expected”.

We also used various helpful tools such as green screen. This was a huge advancement as we never used it before. To get the hang of it we needed help and when we got used to it we film it perfectly and fine. We had to get used to cropping with the videos and effects to make the shots fade in and out of each other and sync. Also the titles had to be done separately and had to be placed in correct areas. We did this by using the screen crop of the predicted cut off parts if imported out. This means our titles were still in frame and still looked good.

How Did You Attract / Address Your Audiance

We did this by editing the film with speed and addressing issues such as peoateple going missing that is mostly relatable to people aged 15 – 30. We also picked the genre of thriller. This genre attracts our target audience and with the modernization of the film i.e. music, mise-en-scene and setting we achieved this brilliantly. One of our pieces of technology was a Blackberry Smartphone. The average teenager and young adults have this gadget meaning its appeal will be huge to our designd target audience.

The character that goes missing, William Fisher, is a male aged 24. The aim of this is to leave ambiguity between the viewers to interpret why he is actually running. The fact William is 24 means people can relate to the character and the added touch of him having a girlfriend also does so. This will attract a female audience to what appears to be a very male dominated film with the actors Koceila and Michael taking more dominant roles within the movie. Therefore giving Keslea the role as news anchor means it counter acts the dominated gender type. Making Lucy the vulnerable girlfriend means that Koceila had to take the role of victim to balance out the gender stereotype ratio making the film appeal to both sexes.

We also added a ‘Parkour’ sequence to make it more urban and more youthful as its energetic and means the movie contains more action. As you can see by the picture the protagonist William is leaping over a banister in the middle of Manchester City Centre. This urban environment is why it attracts our target audience.

Who would be the auidence for your production?

The primary audience for our media product was aimed at late teens and young adults. We decided on setting this target audience as the genre of our filming is a thriller so, with the suspence of a thriller and the scary elements of surprise included, we found that anyone under the age of 15 would find the production distressing. We also took in mind the older generation of over 15. We knew that this certificate would make them attract to it as 18 means its too extreme whereas 15 means its slightly light violence with strong language etc (everything an 18 has to but with no sexual nudity).

It also promotes that the target audience is above the age of 15, being this the target range could not be more than 15-30 because it gives film the fifteen year age gap who would like a horror film. The film would target both a male and female orientated audience as the main protagonist is a male and the fictional elment of the following character suits a males imagination and it can appeal to females as in the film it reflects a dominating role in society (e.g the news reporter) also the girlfriend of the main protagonist reflect the sense of emotion which can reflect on some females as woman are usually the sterotypical naturing type and are known to show more emotion than men.

The certificate also proves cheaper and less controversial meaning it can fit on TV before 9pm and that we can advertise our film without being cut off or cause an uprise in the viewers. We are able to market the film honestly showing its violence and content without cutting anything vital off the final product. This would get us our female / male audience at our intended age. The attraction of fear and horror would get a larger audience too as its a widely viewed genre and onto of that the theme of thriller and crime. This will attract both teenagers and the older generation making it fitting for our film giving us an overall profit.

It also enables it to be marketed in trailers for films that also are rated 15. Due to it being the most popular certificate viewed in cinema it would attract a large audience if not for a higher price. However would mean that we get the audience we need therefor the money we do.