Mallika Q3 - What kind of media institution might destribute your media product and why?

Rogue pictures is a division of Relativity Media. They are an independent distributor who have released films such as:




This enables them to be able to promote our film successfully. As Rogue Pictures are an independent based company, we would also be able to target niche audiences, therefore widening our box office ratings.



The most important roles in the film were placed in the credits during the opening. We credited the lead actor, the director and the editors. Ths therefore tells the audience that these were the most important roles.

Kwame - Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents the social group of higher middle class, due to our character’s position as a banker. This will bring about the feeling of hatred amongst the audience due to the current event of recession. This is also brought about because our character is selfish, which stereotypically is the characteristic of a young, middle classed banker.

This representation was influenced through our audience research as the majority of our audience were middle classed, so the character is somewhat relatable. However because of his slightly higher status and his occupation as a banker, it leads them to resent him and find him unattractive. This is reinforced by him being wealthy and involved in quite a lot illegal activity. This is similar to American Psycho, as it represents the main character as wealthy, which allows him to involve himself in illegal activities. This is emphasised through our own opening of our main character going through a daily routine, and you can see this at the end with a smug look on his face to give the impression of how bankers are self-involved.

Yacine: Q1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Mallika Q2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The character in our opening is not only the narrator but an anti hero. He's an investment banker and presents this facade of normality and sanity.

He loves materialism and his greed is evident. He has compulsive OCD and must do everything in triplicates. This results in him being somewhat of a control freak. He presents this facade of normality by his charm, wit and arrogance. He is an adreline junkie and has a very wild lifestyle. His wealth means that he is exposed to a life of drugs, sex and illegal activities, which he takes delight in.

Not only is he wealthy but he's superficial and shallow. His friends are similar to him. Not just in personality but in appearance. He has a tendency to obsessively detail every part of his life, including his daily routine.



Our character is based on the character of Patrick Bateman in the film American Psycho. We have taken elements of his character to create a persona for our lead charcter. We decieded to focus on the social group of bankers. This helps us when wanting to relate to our audience as in reality bankers are now seen as the enemy. This results in our audence having instant hatred for our anti hero.

Kwame - Q1: In what ways does your media production use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When making our psychological thriller opening and we had to consider some things in order to develop it and make it a successful media product. We had to consider the setting/location, props and costumes, camera angles and editing, title and its font/style, special effects, and how the main/opening characters are introduced in order to make it similar to that of a real psychological thriller.

The use of setting/location was limited, due to school ground facilities, i.e. couldn't get a proper kitchen, bedroom and living room, so in order to make it seem like an ideal setting for a psychological thriller, we used places that would make it similar to our ideal setting of a house. I believe that we did this very well, especially when watching our opening as when you watch it, it seems very "homey". Despite these set backs, we have used this to be able to develop a look that would be ideal for a psychological thriller.

The title and its font/style is another convention that we used in order to make our production successful. We entitled our film, The Skinner, in order to add a sense of tension, even before you actually see the whole film itself. We also created this effect through the editing of the title font by adding special effects which is like as a peeling effect, which is similar to how our killer treats his victims. We also used our enthusiasm and imagination for this "homey" look by providing our own props and costumes like, pyjamas, robe, bowl, cereal, bed etc. For this reason, it was successful, and I believe this because we were able to make use of the equipment that we had to make this a successful psychological thriller.

One strength in developing our media product to be a successful psychological thriller is through the introduction of the main character. We have done this in such a unique way, which is unlike a stereotypical thriller, mostly showing some sort of action before finding out the criminal. In our movie however, we introduce him with his daily routine, which allows the viewer to be open to ideas about what this movie could be about. I think that by doing this, it will get viewers more interested in our movie through this unique opening as it is not something that they expect from a thriller. Famous Thrillers like American Psycho use this type openings to give an insight of how the killer is portrayed at the beginning.

Mallika Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before we started production we carried out questionnaires and researched the conventions of thrillers.
Our opening was heavily influenced by the television programme Dexter:

We decieded to title our film once we had finished production. We entitled our film "The Skinner". This decision was based on the narrative. As the media calls the elusive serial killer "The Skinner" due to his signature of skinning his victims.

Location

When it came to location we were very limited in our resources. We were only able to film on school grounds, which affected the quality and narrative of our opening. Limitations of the location meant that we had to find somewhere in the school, that would resemble a house.       

Props
We were also limited when it came to making props. In order to film the first scene we needed something that would look like a bed. We improvised by bringing in an inflatable matress and bedding. Our last shots include a beakfast scenario. To avhieve this, we used props, such as a newspaper, tablecloth, cereal box, bowl and spoon. Our actor wore bedtime clothing (dressing gown, pyjamas, slippers) to create a sense of realism.


                                

Plan of filming for 16/03/11

Period one
Equipment : Camera + tripod
Filming of close up shots. This will be the bathroom scene

Period two
Equipment : Camera + tripod + tracks
Tracking shot of the killers feet as he walks
Tracking shots following movements of killer

Period three
Editing
Finishing off props

Period four
Editing
Search for music

Period seven

Storyboard

This storyboard is a rough copy of putting all our ideas down on how we are to shoot this opening and give us an idea of what shots we may use.

This is the storyboard that we will use to base all our shots and ideas and position of actor(s) when we come to shoot our thriller opening.