Evaluation Question 3 (Part 2) Which institution would distribute your media product and why?

Which institution would make our film based on what we actually made?

After doing some research into the topic, I have found a distribution company which could realistically develop our idea from what we have. It is called CinemaNX and is relatively new in the industry, being created in the year 2007 and distributing their first film that same year. Its founder and producer is Steve Christian, who died suddenly this February 2017 at age 53. Over the last ten years, CinemaNX has distributed films which are similar to ours in terms of story line and, though they did not count with high budgets, managed to get a reasonable revenue. Most of them are action thrillers as well as drama, some examples being "The Disappearance of Alice Creed", "TT3D Closer to the Edge", "Waking Ned Devine" and "Orson Welles and I". Recently, they co-produced a film  which is currently in its stage of post-production about A.A. Milne, the British author of The Winnie The Pooh novels. Throughout their films, they have used a variety of well-known actors such as Zac Efron and Christian McKay. In the A.A. Milne's Project, the leading couple is formed by Domnhall Gleeson and Margot Robbie. 

I have chosen "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" as an example to illustrate the similarities between this media text and our thriller. The first one deals with the kidnapping of a girl who comes from a rich family in order to get a ransom. It is unconventionally directed, like our film, and it is full of plot twists that change the view that the spectators have of  the characters. The budget was only of $1,500,000, and the acting is in the hands of three actors: Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston and Eddie Marsan. The revenue ($1,605,139) did not mean much gross profit for the company, but the critics were generally outstanding (82% in Rotten Tomatoes and praised both by The Guardian and TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival).

CinemaNX is such a small company that it lacks a Wikipedia page and, according to the data found in Linkedin, its permanent employers merely range from 11 to 50 people. I believe that such a small company, though it would be careful not to risk it, would probably be willing to grasp our idea and distribute it as a whole film because we share the same passion and creativity that Christian always had, qualities that many co-workers highlighted about him and his way of leading the company. Our idea is quite avant-garde if we take a look at the technical aspect, but yet it holds the values of a true blockbuster.

The institution does not specialise in any genre in particular, but the majority of its films are either comedies or thrillers, with some dramas along the way. They also distributed one animation movie, "Chico & Rita", which actually became quite popular at the time. It was praised by the critics and constituted a novelty for the company and the worldwide audiences. This is among many other examples of when CinemaNX invested in completely new projects, being consciously reckless but making the right choices. They give lots of opportunities to new directors and actors, and they know how to captivate different sectors depending on the kind of film that they have planned. Their publicity campaigns range from creating Facebook pages to advertise the film in question to presenting it to festivals such as the London Film Festival or Tribeca. I believe that their ways of spreading word-to-mouth are effective and cost-efficient at the same time, so I would like my film to go through a similar marketing procedure. It would also be remarkable if the company organised a campaign to choose the Cinema that would host the premiere of the film, as they did in 2010 making a smart move.

I have created a Timeline which includes the main events since the origins of the distribution company.

Bibliography:

http://variety.com/2012/film/news/cinemanx-to-merge-with-pinewood-shepperton-1118055092/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/cinemanx

http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=59279647

http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9b74064a

http://deadline.com/2017/02/cinemanx-founder-producer-steve-christian-dies-aged-53-isle-of-man-pinewood-pictures-untitled-aa-milne-project-1201921174/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disappearance_of_Alice_Creed
http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Disappearance-of-Alice-Creed-The#tab=summary

Shoot Day

8:50 AM

Our group met in our usual classroom to get everything we needed that was not in the Studio already. We gathered the boots that Katie had brought and I suggested to print out two copies of both the script and the storyboard in case we needed them.

9:20 AM

We got into the studio with everything arranged. We saw the final set and greeted some of our actors who had already arrived. Louisa had to take a look at the script so I provided her with one of the copies. We decided where our hand made props, passports and tickets were going to be located in the room and Katie made the bed —an important detail—. 

While Myles went to the French classrooms to look for Andrey, the only actor who was missing from the cast, I proceeded to  refresh Luke's memory and explain him the choreography and the correlation between the character's speech and their action. I moved around the set and demonstrated him in detail how everything was thought to be carried out.

9:40 AM

Our main actors, Callum and Louisa, started warming up and practicing their lines in a relaxed way while our group set the camera and started deciding what we wanted to include in the frame and what we didn't. Everyone got into their costumes and took positions. Ellis was in charge of the sound, while Emma was holding a white light just behind the bed, on the right hand side of the camera, so that Louisa could be seen better while she was hiding under. Myles went behind the set and so did Andrey and Said, waiting for our instructions on timing. Paul turned out the Studio lights and we finally got to see the actual lightning of the sequence, It was dim but not too dark, with pink and yellow lights coming out from the windows.  The whole scene looked far more compelling.

9:55

We started running over the scene to get into grips with it, without filming yet. Callum and Louisa seemed to work well together, which was such a relief. At first, they sticked too much to the script, but we told them to get off it and be more natural. By that time, Luke had assigned me the post of director and I was more than happy to accept it after all the previous work I had done to make the shoot day possible. I told the actors what they could improve and controlled the timing, as well as their way of moving and behaviour.

We encountered some problems with the Russians because they rushed into the room when it was their turn to appear and they had to wait twice as much as they did, but Myles and I eventually sorted it out. Some corrections had to be made regarding the use of espace and position of props.

10:45 AM

After running the scene for about ten times, we had to give the actors and ourselves a good rest of twenty minutes to unwind and come back to the Studio with renewed energy.

11:05 AM

We did one last general rehearsal and then started recording. We still had to solve the problem of Callum's death and the fake blood effect. However, Luke called Henry to make sure we could do that afterwards during the editing process, and he said there wouldn't be any problems at all with a pack that he had downloaded. To add some realism to go with the effect, we got hold of some fake blood and placed it in a bowl next to Louisa's under the bed position. She had to take some with her right hand and put some drops in her face so that when Callum collapsed, she reacted by turning and we could see that he had splashed her in the mean time. 

This idea made the process longer because, each time there was a conflict —the cables of the Studio could be seen behind the door, Callum fell in an artificial way and didn't seem dead, one of the actors forgot their lines...), Louisa had to clean her hands and face from a substance that was quite difficult to remove.

The screenplay, by that point, had become merely an inspiration and that made the sequence much better. We added details like the extremists in the end checking the passports around the room and discovering that there were two instead of one, which made them aware of the fact that there was probably someone under the bed.

In the end, we came up with some beautiful takes and the last one is bound to work perfectly with some colour grading and sound effects.

12:45 AM

By this time, we were done filming. We told Callum and Louisa that we didn't require them any longer and thanked them for being so collaborative and quick at obeying instructions and suggesting better ways of doing certain things. There was a break for lunch that everyone deserved. 

2:30 PM

There was a meeting in the Studio again, this time only with the Russians, because we wanted to get extra sounds on the spot to include them in the background in the parts of the sequence when the couple is still hiding without knowing what's going to happen and also to add some pleonastic sounds from time to time.

3:00 PM

We went up to Hurtwood to get some ambiance noise from the corridors, the toilets and furniture moving. It was difficult because, almost everywhere, there was someone having a conversation in their room or music playing. Luke joined us from time to time and helped us use the microphone to capture the sounds better and shut the ones that were ruining the filming as much as possible. We didn't get all the effects that we intended to, but Luke told us to wait until we had everything cut and edited to see if we were actually missing anything that couldn't be arranged with a program.

3:30 PM

Everything was finally done. We cleared up our costumes and props from the Studio and asked Paul if he needed any additional help. I felt and still feel utterly satisfied with how the thriller sequence looks like at the moment thanks to our effort and creativity. I would like to thank Luke especially because of all his professional support.

Location and Set Design

After having considered boaring houses such as Ewhurst, which has convincing rooms, or Cornhill, which used to be a hotel, the preferred location for our sequence is the Studio, an option recommended by Matt. He said that it would be perfectly feasable to recreate a hostel room with some parquet flooring that is available and some wooden strips to assemble the bed. The cupboard and chair are easy to find around, and the rest is a matter of creativity. The walls and door could also be constructed on set as it has already been done for previous works. 

To have the room —our only setting— more clear in our minds and, most importantly, to make it evident also for the people who can actually turn it into reality in the school, I drew the space with all the pertinent details and included some descriptions.

Storyboard

After so much time and effort, I have finished our storyboard. It was tricky to do it because most of our sequence is going to be filmed continuously, so there weren't any real changes in angle or major movements. However, I think that I did a clear account of everything that we want to show and how we want to show it overall. I have tried to include many details of the set design, as well as the most relevant actors' changes of position. The storyboard also made me reflect on issues like lighting; Luke maintains that we should have a window somewhere in the set to give more clues to the audience about where is the action taking place. The glowy reflection of the snow in the parquet flooring would certainly be effective.

I am certainly satisfied with the work I have done, especially because I haven't had any actual help and it was my first complete storyboard to plan and illustrate. See it for yourselves! 

Elena, Ellis, Myles and Emma Storyboard from Katie Emily

Pitching to Matt. Feedback & changes

After having decided on most aspects of our opening sequence, we were recommended to talk to Matt, as he is the person who has the last word in the issue, at this stage of the process. As our idea had already been approved by Mike, it was easy to explain it with accuracy and efficiency after the slight improvements that we had implemented. We even put together a Power Point to point out more clearly the plot, the props and costumes that we require and the ideal cast, among other details. However, Matt wanted to hear the idea directly from us, so we constructed a quick synopsis making sure that we included everything. 

Initially, he thought it was a good idea but had some objections. He explained that it was not advisable to place our characters in a thriller involving a major crime like drugs, as we suggested as one of the reasons why they were being chased as a couple. He also clarified that it would be quite difficult to show a convincing hotel room to the audience because of our lack of resources and budget. Likewise, we were reminded that most twin beds in expensive hotels do not have a gap under them so the credibility would be doubtful. 

At that point, we were discouraged and thought that we would have to think of complicated alternatives. Nonetheless, Matt came up himself with a perfect variation of what we had been developing throughout the last weeks. He proposed that we could set the story in a location with extreme weather like Siberia, in a backpackers' sort of hostel with grungy facilities. The protagonists could conform to that stereotype as well and be young globe-trotters and film makers that had recorded something on tape that they shouldn't. This would be shown thanks to the dialogue; the enemies, presumably from the Russian government or a private organisation, consistently ask for the tape, and the girl hides it with her under the bed following her partner's order. 

If we used this alternative, the scene could perfectly be filmed in the Studio and the story would be more engaging. Moreover, we would not have to worry as much as before about the appearence of the backpackers as they would not have to look especially old for the roles. We have been thinking of casting Charlie Ridgeway and Louisa Binder as the definite couple, so we will be making them aware of this fact before the end of the week. Their assassins/kidnappers are going to be Russian actors, so we would have more plausibility and we would place the thriller in a more international context, probably involving a complex spy story in a worldwide scale later on.

Ideas for an Opening Thriller Sequence

I've been brainstorming... Here's the result!

Ideas for an opening sequence from elenae81

What is a Thriller?

A thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television. It is defined by the mood which it immerses the audience into, generally excitement, anticipation and even anxiety. The plot usually revolves around a climax, which is the most important element of this type of media text. Literary devices are utilised as resources to build up the feeling of suspense the film needs to be successful. Some examples are red herrings, cliffhangers and plot twists, to contribute to the unexpected nature of the genre. However, it is important not to get too carried away with the unpredictability of the storyline because, most of the tims, it is advisable to be accessible for the regular audience. One of the most attractive characteristics of a thriller is having the opportunity to try and guess what will happen in the end, so there needs to be a clear logic behind the actions that we see in the screen. 

The main axis of a film like this is mostly always determined by the relationship protagonist-antagonist. The danger that the main character faces is over exaggerated to add to the tension. For instance, an atmosphere of menace and sudden violence is prevailing. Hitchcock's films often include an innocent victim or even just an average person into an unusual situation, probably for us to get more involved in the story and sympathise with them. The element of time is also very handy, as well as the inclusion of personal problems or doubts along the way, sometimes clashing with the overall objective of the protagonist. It is another technique to give more truthfulness to the characters and to make us stressed by the perspective of not seeing the problem solved by the end of the movie. Though I haven't mentioned it yet, thrillers often have happy endings as a contrast with all the amount of tension we were exposed to during the rest of the thriller.

I found some advice I could probably apply to the future opening scene I am going to do. 

Any aspiring artist should make sure that they:

• feed in necessary information about the characters or their world by dribs and drabs well before a suspenseful moment arrives --  and when it does, keep information to a minimum. Suspense stumbles beneath the weight of exposition. 

• use foreshadowing to signal uneasy possibilities. Sometimes, you know that it’s dangerous to try, but you can’t help but do it anyway or I felt a chill, as if someone had walked over my grave.   In the classic courtroom thriller The Anatomy of a Murder, the writer Robert Traver several times describes features of the landscape with phrases like as treacherous as a spurned woman; this raises in readers’ minds the unsettling idea that the alleged victim whose rape was provocation for a murder could be lying. 

• introduce will he/ won’t he situations: will the boy from the Indian slums be able to answer the quizmaster’s question, or will he fail? The more impressive the obstacles ranged against success – the slumdog’s lack of education, the quizmaster’s hostility, the covert threats – the more thrilling is the suspense. 

• sprinkle a hint, for readers to pick up, of danger ahead (the shadow at the window, the unlocked door, the blinking answering machine) while your character, who is luxuriating in the bath, or playing video games,  remains oblivious. Alfred Hitchcock made expert use of this ‘Hitchcock effect’ in his films; equally in novels, scenes where readers are aware of an imminent threat that a character has overlooked are the ones that have us screaming: Stop, Stanley, stop!!!! Don’t drink from that open bottle! Don’t go into that dark alley! Don’t …!!!

• set up two courses of action, where the neglect of either could have dire consequences; then force your character to choose between them. Should she rush to collect her child from pre-school, or make a dash to intercept a killer? Should the detective save his partner from imminent death, even though the resulting exposure could land himself back in prison, or should he get the hell out of there? Lose-lose choices plunge readers into an agony of uncertainty. Result? Rocketing suspense. 

• at the same time, don’t overdo it. Recognize that suspense depends upon fluctuation in mood. It relies for its impact on contrast with more everyday moments that precede it. There’s nothing less exciting than non-stop excitement, says Guy Saville, author of The Africa Reich, and he’s right. 

For the whole article, go here.

After this introduction of the gender and its effectiveness, we should break it into sub-genres to explain it in more detail. The main ones are:

Action Thriller

Its means of creating suspense is through physical action and continuos motion, with lots of scenes which contribute to the sense of danger I previously talked about. 

Some examples are "Die Hard", "Kill Bill Vol. 1" and "The Bourne Identity".

Crime Thriller

It is full of suspenseful aspects and the plot usually focuses on a murder, robbery or manhunt. Both action and psychological aspects build the tension. 

Some examples are "The Usual Suspects", "The Fugitive" and "Jagged Edge".

Film Noir

Some would not consider this a sub-genre, but it is regarded as one in many sites. It is basically a stylistic type of crime mixed with drama that flourished throughout the 40s and 50s. It often relies on a narrative voice and the use of flashbacks to explain the plot, which tends to be intricate. 

Good examples would be "Sunset Boulevard", "The Maltese Falcon" and "Sweet Smell of Success".

Psychological Thriller

In this sub-genre, the suspense comes from the mind, rather than from a physical origin. The protagonists often have to rely on their mental resources to solve the complications they encounter. Some of them almost mix up with the horror genre.

"Memento", "Rear Window" and "Taxi Driver" are psychological thrillers.

Science Fiction Thriller

It incorporates hypothetical, science-based themes into the plot, placing the characters in a utopia or, most likely, ina dystopia. Advanced technology and unknown places are important here, an contribute to the effectiveness already caused by themes like alien invasions or contagious diseases.

Some examples are "Alien", "Inception" and "Distric 9".

After explaining all this information, I hope that everyone gets the idea as well as I have understood it. Now it's just a matter of creativity to come up with ideas for the actual sequence! Wish me luck.

First Editing Lesson

On Friday, we were introduced to a programme used by all kinds of media artists, from amateur YouTubers to professional film makers: Adobe Premiere Pro. Personally, I had already worked with it a couple of times before, but this lesson helped me review the basic principles and I also took the opportunity to show friends in need how it worked. 

What we first did was learn the basic vocabulary essential for the utilisation of the programme. In the bottom left corner, we can find the folders, which are called "bins" in this case. The name is used since the birth of cinema, when the frames were so little that the crew had to hang them in the ceiling to be able to see them. They grouped each one of them according to the scenes they belonged to, placing a bin under each separate one. Moving on to the next word, "rushes" is used as a substitute of footage. The background story here is less original: the footage would be rushed off to be edited at night so next day the director could watch it. The equivalent in America is "dailies", if you are curious.

After getting to grips with these few terms, we started to figure out how Premiere worked by ourselves, carefully following Mark's instructions as to click twice in the squares which represented each short sequence. We were shown too the underlying controls to change from the regular clicking arrow (press B) to the razor blade to cut frames into segments (press C).

Having observed the mentioned details, we were ready to start editing our clips more or less properly —as effectively as we could do so—. Franek and I started dragging the frames to the grey espace where it is possible to set their In and Out (marking), cut them and mix them by moving their edges back and forth. We likewise changed the sound settings. The best time to jump from one frame to the next one is when the characters are in movement, as it makes the change less drastic. It is also relevant to know that the clip which is going to play once the editing is done is always the bit higher in the scale. 

I contemplated the entire lesson as extremely significant for the future tasks we will perform in order to carry out our thrillers. By all means, we will be able from now on, as a class, to work in the basics when we want to shoot our stories, with no technical restrictions and the opportunity to give free rain to our ambition —to a certain extent, of course—. In present day, we feel confident and able to make the most of the resources we have. And, more importantly, the issues we are learning about can prove useful beyond the classroom, when we are developing personal projects.

Letting my mind wonder about the Preliminary Task and the Thriller sequence that I start to foresee, I feel ready for both challenges after Matt's lessons' impact: he has made sure, within a few hours, that we can perfectly utilise a camera and a tripod, shoot a brief scene with creativity and dynamism and then edit it, three of the golden rules for a proficient media product. Undoubtedly, it is an impressive achievement what he has done during the last weeks, and I am glad that every student has collaborated sensibly throughout most of the process. I am really looking forward to getting started with the practical side of Media. I have started brainstorming already!

under these lines, the result of our edition can be viewed. Not very professional, but we did our best. I'm sure we will improve awfully through time.

Tipping Point (review)

During Friday's class, we have been working in groups to make comments on a thriller which is called Tipping Point. It takes place in a basement with low key lightning, which makes us feel that something suspicious is taking place there. Within the first seconds, we are shown a scene where a young man is leaning with blood on his face. The gesture he makes shows fear; he is terrified and this obviously makes us want to understand why he feels this way and what is going on. The scene is dark, which contributes to an uncomfortably morbid setting. We can see blood on the boy's face. It forshadows that the boy is hurting somone or is being hurt himself. Before the boy's face is shown, we have also seen a knife on the groud, which implies that violence will be involved.  

Afterwards, we are showed a man who seems quite relaxed; he is eating popcorn in a sofa. On the contrary, the boy who is facing the task of killing the girl looks devasted. The man in the sofa starts to force the boy to finish his job and, although at this point we are unsure about the plot yet, we can assume it is some sort of a sick game. 

Then, he crumbles and, with a fake paternal tone, the arrogant-looking man who is eating popcorn tries to cheer him up while he asks for a gun. Soon, the apprentice is dead and the camera lets us have a glimpse of the scientists writing things down in their notebooks. After that, it is the turn of a second boy. It is implied that the process is going to continue until all the young killers-to-be die or one of them actually murders the girl and there is a change. That is part of the tension the thriller builds: will the next boy manage to kill her?

 

As the scene evolves, we  start to perceive what the thriller is about: a Chinese experiment is being carried out. It consists of young men being casted to kill an actress who gets paid to pretend that she is a victim.

We know about the story thanks to the visual support and the clever angles through which we can see the characters: the actress, the prospective killer/s, the watcher who is checking the experiment while he ironically picks at some popcorn, and the Chinese scientists, viewing everything from a window fitted in one of the walls of the basement.

  

                            

Tension is all over the place since the first second, in fact. At first we feel pity for the girl thanks to her dramatic gestures of fear and desperation. Then we jump in our sits while the watcher kills the apprentice in cold blood. Finally, we wonder what will happen. The reigning obscurity and the close shots of the faces of the characters add up to the feeling of insecurity and strain that we are already experiencing. The sound effects (gun shots, steps) or even the lack of them (the initial roaring silence) enhance the scene. The lighting, as well as keeping the scene dark as we already mentioned, give a sence of industrialised space and some blue and red lights are intelligently used to make the actors glow and see their gestures with more precision.

The acting really stands out in this opening scene. It is what makes us feel sympathy or disgust towards the different characters, as well as the script, of course. It seems so easy to worry about the girl and then blame her for being just an actress and making suffer the apprentices who believe that the are being asked to kill a real victim. It is also effortless to be implicated with the young men and to detest utterly the watcher who assassinates without emotion.

In this thriller sequence, it could even be argued that the actors are the strongest part. However, we can still find all the elements of a sequence: it is clearly shown by a wide shot that the location is a basement. Moreover, the use of sound is effective: having a white noise at the start with no real sound makes the piece interesting as you wonder what is going to happen next and expect a climax. The scene, although it seems to present the stereotypical pretty damsel in distress,  is full of dark humour and fear, and nothing is what it looks like.

The idea of this deadly "X Factor" strikes me as a very original and effective one which keeps us on the edge of our seats. The thriller is left on a cliff hanger which can even manage to frustrate some of the most eager viewers. As the last character comes in, his aura of mystery certainly creates expectations. Will he be the protagonist? The tone and language suggest that the rest of the movie is going to involve a good amount of action, murders and betrayals. 

Having contemplated the aforementioned facts, we regard "Tipping Point" as a remarkable work which achieves what any opening sequence should do: engage the viewer and make them eager to continue watching.