Evaluation Activity 1

A lot of the shots throughout Thom and I's film opening are taken with the location being the main feature of the shot, with the character walking through, but his face being kept from the audience alongside his identity

This was because from earlier research we established that film openings generally introduce the character and a bit about their story without taking into full account the choice of surroundings, for example, despite 'Submarine' starting with location shots, the main focus of the opening is the introduction to Oliver Tate.

Thom and I wanted to focus on the juxtaposition of the country environment, the small village and outdoors landscape the character finds himself in and these massive aspirations shown towards the end by him stressing out over his sprinting.

We did however similarly to ‘Submarine’ show the isolation of the character from social environments or situations. In doing this alongside the walking through different terrains it gives the character a mysterious vibe, this was intended to get the audience considering his story while at the same time, urging them to watch on to find out more of the characters story.

The significance of having the title come up over the picture of our protagonist was that there can be many obstacles in the way of him, but then by having it go clear on him before the credits it shows that they CAN be overcome.

We chose to have the credits at the end in one block as it doesn’t distract from the shots by coming up in the way. But also, having the credits in black and white was representative of a finish line, a finish line being all our character has as his aim; to overcome injury and stress to finish each race/tournament first.

FINAL PIECE

Evaluation Activity 4:

Who would be the audience for your product?

Thom and I attempted throughout our planning, research and filming/editing stages to make our piece appropriate for all viewers. However of course this would be difficult and I do feel despite our efforts our final product would appeal more so to those at a similar age to ourselves (late teens/early twenties). This is because of both the music used and the characters involved. By having the character at a young age it immediately makes it relatable to those viewing at the same age; automatically drawing in the younger end of our target audience spectrum. The music we chose to use is contemporary, and may limit the audience as it doesn’t fit into several different music genres. However, I do feel that the actual storyline of our piece is one to which many people can relate because disability does affect a lot of people, even if not directly. Thus meaning that all sorts of different people will be able to emphasise with our sole character, making the product a vary of different people’s choice to view. 

By using a song by Modern Baseball the target audience is immediately confined, as some people may not enjoy their music and others may become excited in the piece once they see the band name in the credits. Doing this could be a risk, but we felt music was definitely required and you aren’t ever going to be able to fit everyone’s tastes.

Using the idea of an injury stalling someone on the way to completing their dreams is a storyline which can definitely draw the attention of all different people. Firstly you have the sporty type which may have possibly experienced this type of injury but would mainly feel the anguish and despair of the character and are able to emphasise with them. Then, you also have the type of viewer who loves a sob story. Throughout the piece the character would have ups and downs and I personally know many people who enjoy this type of drama.

Compartment Syndrome.

Our film opening surrounds the idea that our protagonist (Kieran) has compartment syndrome, so here are some basic facts about compartment syndrome as a medical illness.

Character Profile

Name: Kieran Wallace

Age: Late teens, around about 17/18.

Hobbies: Uses his spare time running/sprinting.

Intro

You meet the character after they have been a part of a car accident thus leaving them with a disability known as ‘compartment syndrome’. This syndrome has taken him from a highly touted sprinter, expected for the Olympics to an average runner determined to build back up to his personal best.

Character Background

After attending numerous athletics clubs since a very young age, and having very supporting parents who want the best for their child, this character was expected to be up there with the giants of sprinting, but a tragic car accident on his way back from training left him with a broken leg which eventually caused him to develop compartment syndrome which means that the muscle tightens up surrounding the break and causes problems healing. Without surgery this can lead to nerve necrosis but luckily it was treated as soon as symptoms were identified. However this still prohibits the speed of this athlete and leaves the likelihood of him excelling at that of your average student. However alongside his determined nature and willingness to succeed he pushes the boundaries and is convinced he will one day step out on the big stage.

Questionnaire feedback.

After handing our questionnaire around to people of different ages; parents, peers, young children, etc... we managed to really get a good idea of what our target audience requires.


Despite very little respondents knowing what a 'social realism' film actually is, when prompted most could name their favourite 3 or at least one. This tells us that it is a decent genre for us to do because a very widespread of people tune into films from this genre thus meaning an audience would not be impossible to find.


Many people agreed with our predictions that the film opening is a very important part of a film, if not then THE most important part. This is because without a decent film opening you are likely to simply switch it off. It needs to draw the audience in and have an essence of mystery to lead to something later in the film.


There was a divide between whether narration or music should be used in the beginning of our piece but when given the chance our participants said that they liked both, but admitted it may be hard to create the perfect mix of the two. From this Thom and myself decided to use both, but to play around with how much we use each one.


Overall most people agreed that the style of the opening should correlate with the rest of the piece and therefore should not differ too far from the rest of the piece.


It was decided that we should include essences of many different emotions or to contrast very little at all. By doing the latter it confuses the audience and urges them to keep watching in order to have their questions answered. The main emotions given as examples were; anger, depression and disappointment which are all very negative emotions thus setting the mood for our film.

Diving deeper into the 'Submarine' Opening monologue

"Most people think of
themselves as individuals,
that there's no-one on the planet like them.
This thought motivates them
to get out of bed,
eat food, and walk around
like nothing's wrong.
My name is Oliver Tate."

After a sit down to discuss ideas for our opening Thom and myself decided to include a monologue from the protagonist. This we feel will have many different benefits to our piece. We took inspiration from the film 'Submarine', and studied their opening monologue in great detail. The monologue for 'Submarine' gets you thinking, it immediately gets the audience wrapped up in thought, yet doesn't give away too much content wise for the rest of the play. It also includes an introduction - although brief - of the protagonist.


Revolving around a similar idea we want to have the name of our character revealed at the very beginning and then have some sort of phrase or question to force a pre-determined idea of the character into the audience. By doing this it drags the audience into the piece to find the true meaning behind what the character says.

Thought Process.

So after sitting down with Thom to brain storm all the different branches we could explore for a social realist film we finally came to our conclusions. We asked each other what concepts we would enjoy exploring, the main 3 which stood out for the both of us were; relationships, drugs, and disabilities both mental and/or physical.


The main problem with doing a relationship piece is that so many people have favourite and least favourite, romance films. It's hard to find something original due to the mass on the market and we could easily fall into the trap which is having a film opening full of clichés which the viewers do not like, thus meaning the viewers won't enjoy the piece.


When picking up the idea of drugs similar problems arose; there are a lot of films on the market currently surrounding all the different aspects of drug use and misuse, making it very difficult for our piece to remain original but also to stand out as a great piece of media.


Disabilities or something which some people feel very sensitive about. If not done correctly they can cause grief to certain viewers and that is not what we want to do. However, if done correctly, with empathy and thoughtfulness you can play with the viewers emotions to make the opening, happy, sad and all kinds of different emotions. This is why Thom and myself eventually decided on this topic. A well done piece that tugs at your emotions is the key to a great film opening and I feel we are capable of creating just that.