As a group, we discussed with our teacher and decided that the opening sequence would be better if it was changed to a film noir type genre rather than an action film. We were able to still retain the basic idea while changing the piece to a noir which worked really well.
Evaluation question 2 – How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
In our piece, a man named Alex
Dawson who is the main protagonist walks into a pool club that he has been
given directions to. Our opening sequence shows dominant ideology of patriarchy
as there is a white man who is Alex Dawson and is given a lot of time on the
screen as he is the main protagonist. Alex Dawson is 20 year old English Male
with a girlfriend Kerry and soon a son. Works an ordinary job in an office and
leads an ordinary life with a completely normal upbringing. He was successful in
school and secured a well paying job which means he notices things going wrong
in his life and knows something strange is going on. Our group conformed to the
stereotypical characters in film noirs through having a white, middle class
male play Alex Dawson as film noirs rarely contain a black male protagonist.
Barthes’ theory is represented as there are puzzles that should be solved while
watching the film. Also i think that people around 30 years old will enjoy the
film as they might be stressed from work and due to the modernization twist.
Older generations will also like the genre as it has a thriller feel to it. Men
would want to watch the film as there is violence and mystery and the mental
challenge the film has. Our film appeals to a wide demographic because of the different aspects the film has including cinematography, it isn't necessarily directed to one specific gender or age. Psycho graphically it attracts people who are succeeders and explorers as our film explores what really is happening to Alex Dawson although it could appeal to every type of psycho graphic.
Evaluation question 4 – who would
be the audience for your media product?
This is
John; he is a male 30 year’s old living in England and enjoys watching film
noirs. He really enjoys meeting new people and doesn’t like to be alone. He also
lives with his girlfriend and likes to play video games online in his spare
time. He also loves kickboxing and competed as a junior. All types of music are
enjoyed by John especially Jazz as he believes that was the core moment of the
starting point of the music that we listen today. He is currently listening to
a lot jazz and has started a jazz band and is the current drummer. His style
included mostly suits and blazers as he believes looking very professional and
classy is one of the main factors to succeeding in life. A succeeder and
aspirer, he seeks status and seeks control. He has very strong goal and is very
confident. Through this he is very organised and professional as he goes to
Queen Mary University to study a Masters degree in media studies and is half
way through completing his degree. He plans to take a year out after finishing
his studies and go travelling. John loves to watch Film noirs which contain a
lot of action as he often gets excited during these scenes. He also likes to go
to the cinema at least once in 2 weeks as he enjoys watching different genres
of films but mostly film noirs as his mum does who got him into the genre
type.
Evaluation question 5 – How did you attract/address your
audience?
From
the start, our film addresses the audience through the use of the titles, which
show that the film followed a noir style. The use of characters within the film
helps attract our audience as they unfold and shows in the opening sequence
that these characters will be explored as the film goes on. We aimed to appeal
to an older demographic specifically white male. Women would be attracted to
this film due to them having an attraction to the ideal man being handsome,
having no fear and being a family man who loves the people around him and would
go to any lengths to fulfil their happiness. The film protagonist also attracts
men to the film seeing that he is loved by women, men would also want to become
like Alex Dawson through his actions. The film also attracts a lot of noir fans
who are our main target audience through the use of black and white filter
shots. We used this as this marks our film as a recognizable noir film as this
would draw fans in and is a key convention of the noir genre. The plot also helps in draw in noir fans
through the use of crime, violence and mystery. The opening sequence is also
set in a pool club which shows the film is going to be very classy and mature and
the site of the setting immediately gets the audience excited to see what will
transpire in the scene. During the opening sequence we also used a piece of
jazz music which helped set the atmosphere as jazz music is often used in
classical noirs; it also can help the audience realise
something exciting is about to happen or make the audience feel relaxed
depending on the scene and the type of music used.
The questionnaire gave us information that we used to see people's thoughts on our genre which showed that people from the focus group liked our ideas.
