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Locations

Social stage theory dictates that if we are setting our film in an opressed city then the "look" of the locations should be urban and to draw parallels with the corruption of the society; it should be "grungy" and dilapidated, hence why we chose the carpark. The grey cement walls, low key lighting and enclosed feel allowed us to explore the "jungle" metaphor of the city.

 

We filmed our shot of the rebel headquarters in an old warehouse used to store farm machinery; the open-plan setup of the barn is juxtaposed with our other locations, reflecting the liberty the rebels are trying to attain. Having the old workbench and machinery around, along with the smashed window and dusty filing cabinets gives the idea that the rebels find safety in the remnants of the 'old world'. We also used differents lights to try and create the yellow light that was in the carpark stairwell, which threw strong, striking shadows and gave an interesting shot when we filmed from high angles.

We wanted to explore how the corruption of the government has invaded every aspect of the lives of the public; this is why we chose to have shots of the speech being shown in the pub and the school hall. The school especially highlights the loss of privacy and the corruption of knowledge, as schools are generally perceived to be safe and secure places.

Other Media Theory Applications

Theory of Semiotics
One of the original theorists of semiotics Ferdinand de Saussure created the concept of signifiers within texts which suggest at other meanings and indications behind signs and symbols. It creates a deeper underlying meaning based on the audience's perception of that object.

Signs used can be split into the following categories:

• ICONIC - literal meaning of the object e.g. an image of a man means the men's toilets
• SYMBOLIC - arbitrary meaning unrelated to what it is representing, but which is learnt and denotes a certain meaning e.g. chemical signs
• INDEXICAL - an indication of a meaning e.g. chess pieces in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy indicate that the narrative is a game. To read more click here.

Our rebel symbol is a symbolic sign of anarchy and the fight for freedom of speech. To read more on our symbol research click here. 

Theory of Audience

Appealing to a target audience is central to the creation of any media text. Audience demographic can be split up into six main sections: Age, gender, family, money, sexuality and education. We believe our target audience are between the ages of 18-30, are male, interested in thriller books and movies, are middle class, and are educated to a higher level.

We are appealing to a niche audience due to the high brow content of our trailer. Audience theory also states that media has a preferred reading where the audience recieves the media in the intended way. Adherrant decoding is where the audience reads the text in the incorrect way, but not neccesarily with a negative effect. In this way our text may be recieved positvely by a female audience to the same extent as male reception, for example.

Hyperdermic Needle Effect (1930s)
The Hyperdermic Needle Theory assumes that an audience will passively recieve any message presented to them and this message immediatly effects them. It states that the public cannot escape from the media's influence and vulnerable to it in this way. In this way, it believes that media is an invasive force in our lives. To some extent this applies to the presentation of our trailer, as the message we present is the importance of freedom of speech and we would hope this would affect our audience. It also applies to our narrative, where the media the government presents is recieved and accepted by a majorly passive audience (excluding the rebel force).

Uses and Gratification Theory (1974)
Uses and Gratification Theory attempts to define why audiences seek out particular media content. It states that people will attempt to find media that will meet their needs and also enchance their knowledge, improve personal relationships and a knowledge of personal indentity but also provide escapism or catharsis. It, as a contrast to Hyperdermic Needle Effect, assumes that the audience has an active role in how they use and intepret media.
The theory applies to our trailer as one of the aims of our genre is to provide escapism through a alien or parallel society. The audience would experience the action of the film and catharsis would be acheived because the action and emotion of the film would provide cleansing. It might also effect personal identity in the audience's own perception of goverment control and the need for freedom of speech and mass media.

To read our evaluation question on audience, click here.

Production Companies Research

After researching into which production companies we would use at the beginning of our trailer, we decided to use "Focus Features" and "HanWay Films".

We chose HanWay Films due to its involvement in producing other films that fall under the same genre as our film trailer, particularly the film "Franklyn", which we used as part inspiration in our film trailer through our research into other media texts as it included a dystopian narrative.

We chose Focus Features for similar reasons to that of HanWay Films. Focus Features produced the latest version of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", another film that we particularly drew inspiration from.

Sound

THE HUNT

 

                                                 LEGEND AND FINAL DISSENTION

For our trailer, we had two main sections of non-diegetic music; underneath the news footage montage, we had the slowly building sound of "The Hunt", and through the fast-cut clips in the rest of the trailer we used the dramatic "Legend and Final Dissention". Both of our main soundtrack pieces were fan-made compositions from YouTube. In the first few seconds of our trailer, during the production company logos, we used a 'booming' noise which we found from a fan-made song inspired by the Inception soundtrack, and the three different crashes (when the carpark stairwell door hits against the wall, when Luke punches the metal container, and at the very end when the title appears) were sound effects taken from an episode of "Alcatraz".