Mahalia John, Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Michael is a coming-of-age, teen, romantic comedy. I have chosen to answer this question in four parts Genre, Narrative, Form and Style.

Genre

We conformed to the majority of conventions because we wanted our audience to be able to easily recognise and relate to our film opening. Common genre conventions:

We took influence from various characters to create our characters.

Michael

Michael is an awkward British teenager who wants to get his girlfriend back after she breaks up with him

Characters who influenced us:

Scott Pilgrim (Scott Pilgrim vs The World)
Scott is an awkward 22 year old who is in a band and is slightly hopeless with girls

Oliver Tate (Submarine)
Oliver Tate is an awkward British teen, who spends a lot of the film chasing after his love interest Jordana

Charlie (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
Charlie is a socially anxious, american teenager who makes new friends and fall in love with Sam

Tom (500 Days of Summer)
Tom gets extremely upset when his girlfriend Summer breaks up with him

Lara

Lara is a self-centred British teenager, she leaves Michael for Brad

Characters who influenced us:

Regina George (Mean Girls)
Regina George is vain and self centred, she is the school princess

Lindsay (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging)
Lindsay is a fickle, British Teenager. She is admired by most of the school but is also the school bully

Form

To create our film opening we researched the form institutions use and made sure we used similar form.

Style 

Titles: 

We chose to use integrated titles in a simple sans serif font, taking influence from similar films. We used this because we felt it was aesthetically pleasing and suited the genre; British coming of age films use sans serif because it is not stylised like the films, which usually aim to be naturalistic.

Examples from Michael:

Integrated titles disappear when walked in front of

Integrated titles disappear and change behind Michael

Similar films which used Sans serif fonts:

Submarine (2010)

Submarine is a British coming-of-age film following Oliver Tate which influenced Michael. Submarine uses Sans Serif to offset it's quirky tone.

About Time (2013)

About Time is a Romantic Comedy about a slightly awkward British man called Tim. About Time uses Sans Serif fonts to add it's naturalistic tone.

Scott Pilgrim VS The World (2010)

Scott Pilgrim VS The World follows Scott Pilgrim as he tries to win Ramona Flowers, it was one of our biggest influences for Michael. It uses Sans Serif font to follow the comic book and video game theme running through the film.

Films which use integrated titles:

We used integrated titles because we wanted to develop and practice new skills in using After Effects, they are visually pleasing and they don't detract from the scene. During focus groups with our target audience we found that they found them interesting and added something to our opening.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010)
Integrated titles serve as a transition from the scene into the title sequence and look good visually

Zombieland (2009)
Integrated titles help the audience to focus on what is happening in the scene because the titles are part of it.

Grading and Colour

We chose to grade our film opening to make it look natural and realistic; grading served as a way to improve and bring up our shots.

Grading in Michael:

Michael is a naturalistic film about realistic characters. We wanted to reflect this in the grading by using natural colours and tones and high key lighting.

Shot from Michael

The grading in Michael uses blacks, browns and beiges

Similar grading in About Time:

About Time is also a film about realistic characters and emphasises this through grading.

About Time (2013)

The Grading in About Time uses blacks, browns and beiges

The naturalistic grading that is typical of independent films is contrasted by big hollywood movies using vibrant grading. The vibrant grading reflects the fun, hyper-realistic tone of films such as superhero film The Amazing Spider-man and romantic comedy That Awkward Moment.

That Awkward Moment (2013)

The Grading in That Awkward Moment uses pinks, reds and blacks

Narrative theory

Todorov:

We used Todorov's narrative theory as a base for our narrative but did not conventionally use all aspects of it. We started in disequilibrium to engage our audience from the start of the film and added a secondary disruption to increase the conflict and drama in Michael.

Flow chart explaining the narrative of the entire film compared to Todorov's narrative theory.

Our Narrative is similar to that of Freaky Friday's:

Freaky Friday is a film that was successful worldwide, we hope to have the same effect on audiences

Specific Narrative Techniques:

Ellipsis - When Michael runs away from Lara we do not show the journey he takes when running home. We cut from him running away to him arriving home. The audience fill in the gaps and assume he has taken the journey home.

Michael running away from Lara

Michael arriving home

Propp:

We conformed to Propp's character theory but did not use all 7 character functions:

Hero - Michael

Villain - Brad

Princess - Lara

Helper - Tris

We did not include the donor, dispatcher or false hero because introducing too many characters can be confusing for an audience. Also not all of the character functions worked with our story eg. we did not use a Dispatcher function because Michael decides to get Lara back by himself.

Levi-Strauss:

We used Levi-Strauss's theory that conflict is set up by binary opposites in our opening.

The binary opposites we set up were:

- Michael vs Brad

- Michael vs Lara

- Good vs Evil

- Happy vs Sad

We did this to create conflict which engages the audience and drives the plot forward.


Barthes:

We conformed to and challenged Barthes codes and signifiers theory.


Enigma Codes:

Our opening raised questions such as

- Why did Lara break up with Michael?

- Why is Lara going out with Brad?

- How will Michael react?

- What will Michael do to get her back?

- Will Michael win back Lara?


Enigmas intrigue the audience and make them want to keep watching to find the answers to the questions presented.

Action Codes:

We challenged the action code theory for comic effect because Michael's actions are unexpected

This makes our opening humorous and engaging for the audience.


Cultural Codes:

Where Michael lives and his room both contain cultural codes

This quiet street with semi-detached houses connotes suburban London

My Chemical Romance Poster (US Punk Rock Band)

Jimi Hendrix poster (US Rock artist)

One Direction Cardboard cutout (UK Pop Band)

Cultural codes allow the audience to identify with certain regions and countries. Iconography, accents and setting all connote where the story is set. We used this this to connote the suburban London setting in Michael.


Symbolic Codes:

We showed that time was passing with a montage. An example of this is Edgar Wright's Comedy Hot Fuzz (2007):

We implied that Lara did not feel the same way about Michael as he did about her when pulled her hand away from his and rolled her eyes.

Semiotic Codes:

Michael crushing his ice cream shows his anger

Michael crying shows his sadness

Conclusion

Our film opening conformed to the conventions, narrative form and style in most cases but sometimes we used unconventional techniques in order to entertain and shock our audience.

Mahalia John, Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Michael is a British, teen romantic comedy so our main representations are gender and age as we chose to represent British teenagers. 

Age

In the British media teenagers are typically represented as rude and antisocial; Shows such as Skins and The Cut show teenagers drinking, taking drugs and arguing. We chose to represent teenagers in a more positive light which is more representative of British teens; Our characters enjoy music, playing video games and hanging out with their friends. Shows such as My Mad Fat Diary represent teenagers in this way. 

Teenagers drinking and smoking in Skins

Teenagers hanging out, laughing and hugging in My Mad Fat Diary

Gender

We chose not to conform to the stereotypical representation of teenage males and females - males being dominant in relationships and females' plotlines being driven by male characters. We reversed the gender roles so that the female was dominant in the relationship and the male was upset and moped about crying. This role reversal is unexpected so creates humour which engages our audience.

Characters In Michael

Michael is a typical, awkward British teenage boy. He likes music, video games and plays the guitar. Being so representative of British teenage boys makes him relatable and the audience are empathetic towards him. We heightened certain parts of his personality for comedic effect eg. Michael runs away from an awkward situation which is unusual behaviour.

Michael runs away after an awkward silence

Michael playing the guitar

Female:

Lara is vain, fickle, self centred and confident. Not a typical representation of a teenage girl but this worked in our favour as her character is meant to be disliked. We connoted this through her actions and dialogue. For example she pulls her hand away from Michael when he tries to hold it and is incredibly unsympathetic when she breaks up with him, using the cliche 'we can still be friends'. First impressions of Lara as dislikable are easy for the audience to understand and relate to; setting up binary opposites immediately makes the story interesting.

Lara rolling her eyes at Michael

A bit more on representations and our characters:

Mahalia John, Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Michael is a British Independent production. We researched various distributors, production companies and distribution strategies to decide what would best fit Michael.

Production Company

Following the typical model of an indie British film, we decided to create our own British Independent production company: Alma Gavon Studios. It is a small, independent, British production company specialising in producing small independent films such as Michael.

Our logo

We based this on our research into similar films and their production companies. We found that low budget independent films like Michael were produced with the same model:

• co-production between independent studios
• independent studio with large distributor

Similar production companies:

Warp Films Logo

Warp Films is an independent production company based in London and Sheffield. They specialise in gritty, quality films and TV Series about British people and British life.

Films they have produced:

Submarine (2010) was a big influence for Michael. It was a co-production between 9 production companies including Warp Films and Film 4. It was distributed in the UK by Optimum Releasing.

Tyrannosaur (2011) was a co-production between Warp Films and Inflammable Films in association with 5 other companies. It was distributed in the UK by Optimum Releasing.

This Is England (2006) was a co-production between Warp Films, Film 4 and 5 other production companies. It was distributed in the UK by Optimum Releasing.

Big Talk Productions Logo

Big Talk Productions is a British independent production company based in London.

Films they have produced:

Scott Pilgrim VS The World (2010) was a huge influence for Michael. It was a co-production between Big Talk Films and 6 other production companies. It was distributed in the UK by Universal Pictures International.

Attack The Block (2011) was a co-production between Big Talk Productions, Studio Canal, Film 4 and the UK Film Council. It was distributed in the UK by Optimum Releasing.

Distributors

We researched many distributors and decided which one was best for us

Typical Marketing Campaigns

Flow charts depicting how Michael - a British independent film - would be marketed compared to a typical US indie film release. We used the marketing of Kill Your Darlings (The Works) and Submarine  (Optimum Releasing) as references and examples.

Our Marketing Campaign

Our target audience is British 16-24 year olds, a marketing notorious for being hard to reach. However this has been made easier with the rise of web 2.0, we intend to take advantage of the interactive and free nature of social media advertising by creating pages on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube and Instagram.

Graphic showing the vastness and connectivity of Web 2.0

On these pages we would share exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes photos, cast interviews, theatrical trailers, TV spot trailers, posters and competitions.

An example of a behind-the-scenes photo

Exclusive and interesting content will engage our audience and encourage them to share it with their friends. Awareness and a buzz about the film will be generated through word of mouth.

Because our distributor is industry heavyweight Universal Pictures we also intend to use traditional marketing methods to reach our audience as well as our secondary and tertiary audiences.


We will get articles run in free magazines such as Time Out which target a youth audience

An article in Time Out magazine. An interview with actor Tom Hiddleston who is popular among 16-24 year olds

We will run poster campaigns on buses, bus stops and tube stations that are near schools and cinemas.

Poster for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug on the side of a bus in Kings Cross

We will run audio ads on stations with large 16-24 year old audiences such as Xfm

The Radio adverts that Star Wars ran when marketing

Our campaign with be synergistic and symbiotic across all platforms - online and traditional. This will ensure that audiences understand it is all marketing the same film. It is similar to the social-media-centred, interactive marketing campaign that The Works used for Kill Your Darlings.

Our Release Plan

Theatrical Release Date:

We will release Michael during the Easter holidays (2 weeks in April) because that is when our TA will be on holiday and have lots of free time to go and see our film with their friends. An easter holiday release will suit Michael because it will most likely not get overshadowed by big Hollywood films, which get released during major holidays.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was the big christmas release for 2012

Exhibition:

Due to it's British setting and characters we will release Michael nationally in the UK with a London premiere. Michael was not shot in 3D and has no CGI so we will screen in smaller 50-100 seat screens, twice a day for 2 weeks.

Smaller seat screen in Vue

We based our exhibition on how The Works exhibited Kill Your Darlings (2013), which had a london-centric release on 50-100 seat screens. 18 in London and 46 nationally.

Exhibition Platforms

Theatrical

With our distributor being universal we will screen in chain cinemas  such as Vue, Odeon and Cineworld. We will also screen in independent cinemas such as the Prince Charles Cinema and the Rio. We are following the example of The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy which screened at both chain and independent cinemas.

Vue cinema in London

Rio cinema in Dalston

Online 

We will sell Michael to legal streaming sites such as Now TV and Netflix. For example Double M Films sold the rights for Papadopoulos & Sons (2012) to Netflix. Our TA of 16-24 year olds spend a large amount of time online so this method of exhibition will appeal to them.

Netflix promotional image

PPV (Pay Per View TV)

We will sell the rights to Michael to PPV services such as Sky Movies, Virgin Filmflex, Picturebox and Blinkbox. This will target older audiences who still like to watch films on TV but like to have choice over what they watch.

Picture Box Films logo

TV

Michael will most likely be screened on Channel 4 and Film 4 - who typically support independent productions like ours - and BBC 3 who target 16-24 year olds.

Film 4 Logo