Evaluation of 'Vandals'

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

When planning our thriller ‘Vandals’ we paid particular attention to our setting and the way in which we were going to shoot it and also the costumes we used and how they would represent our chosen sub genre which was British gangster. To do this we paid particular attention to the costumes used in film such as ‘London to Brighton’ and ‘Lock stock and two smoking barrels’ we looked at the costumes used in both films and how this helped portray the characters and the genre and particularly in London to Brighton how the location was portrayed in the way it was shot. We paid particular attention to the male costumes, which were just a combination of tough army style boots and long black coats with hoods. This clothing helped portray a touch and gritty look and is found in many conventional thriller films.



(below- the first two pictures are taken of the costume used for one of the men in our thriller, the dark coat and dark boots represent the look we wanted them to portray)

(Above- A still from 'Lock stock and two smoking barrels' where the male characters are dressed in a very similar way to our two actors and in the scene of the wall of graffiti is very very similar to our setting also)

( Above- in the film snatch these similar costumes are used to emphasise the gritty, gang lifestyle that these characters live)

This costume made our characters look as though they wish not to be recognised, which made viewers suspicious as to what they were going to do. The female character was dressed in heels and a dress to represent femininity and a contrast to the gritty male characters. The male costume is typical of our genre and emphasises the suspicious, rough and gritty look which we tired to give our characters. This also linked to our setting as the location was very rough and gritty. We chose this location because it set the scene of our thriller particularly well as it is a burnt out, derelict building. (below)This type of gritty location is fairly common of Thriller films. It connotes images of isolation, destruction and vandalism which developed the plot of our thriller, which wouldn’t have been as effective with a different set. The set gives off feelings of vandalism and danger as the building itself is unsafe due to how much damage has been caused by vandals and violent youths. The surrounding ally ways were also used in the title sequence as they are dark, covered by overgrown bushes and contain many fences and gates which are supposidly ment to prevent entering the site but over the years have been dismanteled and vandalised to make entering the unsafe site easier. This shows the type of people that have used this building over the years and what they have used it for, which is predominantly graffitti and drug use. The way it was shot connotes panic and escape as the clip was shot from a point of view angle of a running person. The colours are very dark, bland and bleak and connote emotions which the viewer can recognise to be linked with the mood of the film which is not happy or joyful. The name of the film and the font used in the opening gives the viewer an idea of what the film will be like. The title ‘vandals’ connotes anti-social unpleasant behaviour, and the font used connotes our genre and the way we wanted our film to be portrayed. The name of our production company was 'Decayed Films', this also contributed to our genre and location as the setting was a decaying building. We concerntrated really heavily on the themes of violence and corruption as these are very typical themes in british gangsta films. We had a lot of planning on what props we could use in order to give the thriller a very british gangster edge and we thought about the use of cigarettes alot. We included a cigarette drop in one shot, i like this becuase i think it adds to the atmosphere. Cigarettes are linked with rebellion and disreguard for social norms and the way in which the shot is handeled draws attention to the boot and the floor and the way that he squashes it with his boot to extinguish it, this shows authority and ignorence.

ABOVE- This still shows the dark, bleak Allyway shot in our opening. It has many conotations of Thriller films and British Gangsta films. The still is blurred as the shot is a point of view shot of a person running. The mood of the opening sets the mood of our whole clip, this educates the viewer on what to expect for the overall mood of the rest of what they will watch. It creates expectations because if we had shot this clip on a sunny day the connotations of sun would have created such moods as happiness and pleasure, which we were trying not to display.

ABOVE- This still is taken of the name of our thiller. This font connotes vandalism and destuction and represents our sub genre. The text is centeral and cathces the viewers attention. The font creates a really good effect which other fonts would not have. The titles are similar to that of Se7en in that the titles fade in and out between footage and are of a similar type font. (as below)

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When planning, we had to seriously think about the image we wanted our charaters to portray and how their costume would display elements of their personality. Our male characters display elements of Anti- social behaviour and wear 'yob' type clothing. The female character is dressed in a typical everyday costume with heels and a dress. the heels were particulally important as they are very femenine, hard to run in and make more noise than most shoes, which gave effect when were were filming, particually inside. There are several films i can link to our thriller, the first would be open to brighton, this films has a very bleak outlook on social groups, the only difference is that the female characters in london to brighton have a more strong personality and persona than the female in my opening. The main link between the two films is that of male dominence and female vunrability. The male characters rely on brute fource in order to get their way instead of approaching other more sociable and less harsh actions. This is the same in london to brighton in that the main male character tries to find the vunerable female characters in order to murder them. My thriller does not portray either sex in a particulally good light, there are no hero's. Just criminals and victims. There is no clear representation of good and evil other than possibly the male characters being dressed in black and carrying a weapon where as the female character is hysterical and wearing a bright red dress this could connote her as good, and possibly innocent.

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

Our thriller was intended for a more independant audience. Elements of our costume and plot ect have some mainstream concepts i think that our thriller would be more widely accepted by a similar audience of that of london to brighton and lock stock as they are films which are the closest to our idea. I think that distribution would be better exhibited at a film festival or on video sites such as youtube. This is because of the way we used teenage characters and a modern dress sense we are linking to a younger audience but old enough to appreciate the plot. If we posted the opening of our thriller on websites such as youtube and myspace, websites which we know that our audicence use. The aim of this would be to attract our audience and create a buzz about our film before release. The company Warp X would be a good low budget film distribution company to work with as many of its films have been set in gritty places with strange and violent characters and all of the films have a very raw edge.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our film was aimed at audeinces aged 15-25 because these are the people we can realte to most and also because our film will be watched primarily by young media students. People our own age will find it easier to relate to our ideas, costume choice and plot because they may recognise the setting, costume or even actors. Because of this age range this best way to exhibit our thriller would be online, this is because people of this age use sites like myspace and youtube alot and would easily be able to acces our thriller. Because of this, we would have to make sure our film was suitable for this audience and would not be classified as 18+ due to violence/drug use ect.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

In my audience research i targeted mainly my audience and i found out what was important to the viewer in terms of plot, cast, music ect and i also found out which ways my audience most watch films. The results of this were that Audiences prefered to watch films either online, at the cinema or on DVD. I also researhed into the films which were preffered by my age range, many of which were similar to my thriler, small, independant gritty films. This aided me in working around what the audience wants and things to consider including in my thriller when i shot it in order to make sure my targeted audience would like it. Another reasons young people of our age range can link to this film is the surrounding issues in todays society about youth being branded as "chavs" and "yobs" and the on going issues in our county about young people being anti social. This is a really key way that youths can relate to this film as its a growing issue in our country. Enigma was also a big element when planning our thriller and i think it is an important factor in most thrillers. The reason for the persuit of the girl is left, to the viewer, unknown. The harash actions taken to get rid of her are left unknown also, and the viewer is left questioning the killers reasons for persuing and murdering a young girl. Alot of questions in the opening of the film are left unanswered and the audience would have to watch the rest of the film in order to know why she was murdered. Enigma keeps the audience gripped and wanting to know more, which is the point of thrillers, keeping you on the edge of your seat.

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

Before filming 'Vandals' i had very basic knowledge of how to use a video camera but from filming i have learnt how to use it to its full advantage and also how to use the little equiptment we had in order to bring out the best from each shot. Alot of the lighting we used was very basic and we had to improvise with tripods and different angles to get the best outcome. This was the same with out camera, when using a very nice camera, which we had very little knowledge about all the different fuctions and had fun experimenting with the settings and what we could change to benefit our thriller. I also learnt more about the hidden meaning of shots and how the way something is shot can change everything about the situation. We also took advantage of our editing suite in order to put together what we had filmed. We played around with different effects and timings and sound and brought them all together using computer softwear, something which i couldnt use before filming. The internet has also been very helpful as i can use sites to download fonts to put into my thriller and use as the opening and i was able to re-watch openings and title sequences to other thrillers online in order to edit mine in a way that i saw fit.

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

The main difference i had from shooting my preliminary task and my thriller were the creative liberties that i had. For my Preliminary task i could only shoot within school grounds and had very little time to plan and edit it. I also had very little time to plan costumes and props or even location. In my thriller we had alot longer to draw up shooting scheduals and story board ect and more preperation for our props, cast and location. Because we had longer to plan i also had more time to plan each shot and how i wanted them to look, as apposed to in my preliminary task having to make the most of what little time we had. For my thriller i also had to research about my audience and had out questionaires in order to see what they wanted to see in a film so that i could take this into consideration when shooting. I feel that the prelimiray, although sucsessful, was just a warm up for making my thriller and i really felt that it was good in getting to grips with some planning techniques and basic knowledge of your set and your camera and how to bring out the most in it. I also learnt that though all the planning for our thriller was good i feel that it was slightly too ridged and we planned more of our shots when we got to the location as apposed to sitting on a computer or in our classroom planning how we were going to shoot things. I think the over all planing of our story line and plot and costumes were needed but it was more effective turning up at the set and seeing how we could use every little element of its gritty, raw feel to our advantage. For example using holes in the ceiling and things hanging out of the walls in order to get some needed high angle shots and using things like rubble and bricks to get desired sounds in the running shots. The only element we found difficult was lighting as there are no windows in more of the building and our main source of light was flash lights on tripods and ambient lighting which came in through holes in the ceiling and walls.