What i have learnt in the progression from the preliminary tasks to the full product.

Film feedback

Representation in vampire films?

The representation of social groups in the vampire sub-genre.



This is a clip from the vampire film "Blade". This scene is the final confrontation of the film that has been built up to over its course and it does a good job of conforming to and breaking the stereotypes of different sects of people. This clip starts with Blade who is the main protagonist fighting and easily defeating a vast amount of plain enemies who are both human and vampire. The fact that the main character is able to defeat these enemies while being outnumbered shows his prowess and strength, where as the weak and defeated enemies are not given names and wear the same plain black outfit.During this fight he is shouting the name of the main antagonist, this re-enforces the stereotype of the manly vampire who is very powerful.
The female characters also fight and this breaks the idea of females not getting involved in fights and leaving them to the males. However the human female uses a shotgun and eventually triumphs over the female vampire not because she was physically stronger but because she outsmarted the enemy. this conforms with the idea of men brute forcing their way through and females being more logical a bought problems.


 This is a scene from the film "Let the right one in". This scene does a good job at showing the normal age and size difference that usually affects bullys and their victims, it then goes to reverse that idea as the vampire kills the bullys. The representation of the older bullys and the younger victim that is initially set up at the start of the scent is that of the larger and older male torturing this smaller and weaker child. These ideas are then drastically changed and challenged as the vampire dispatches the bullys, it is done well as we never see the carnage and only the body parts and blood streaks along with this small smiling girl dotted in blood. This shows the power and ferocity of vampires and the fact that one young girl could easily do this to the characters that no one else stood up to.

This was the actor and the outfit we decided on for our victim. We wanted to have a victim who would easily fit within our target audience and also had a plain outfit that could be owned by any of the viewers.
By deciding to make the victim a large male who are stereotypically seen as strong characters and then thrusting them into the role of the victim, we wanted to show that even tall young males were nothing to the vampires who posses superhuman traits.

Film Poster.

I have created a film poster for our film Thirst.

Here are some posters that inspired me:

These posters all show a clear Idea of having one central image with a film slogan and the film name in large font. it should not be cluttered.
The simple image of a protagonist along with a tagline that draws the reader in should make the viewer want to know more about the film.

Representation in vampire films - Jake

Here is a good example of the representation I wanted in the film. The two male leads, the original victim and assailant, fighting. Not only for revenge but also for their masculinity and honour. This paints males as warring, honour-bound fighters. This goes conforms to the stereotype that men are destroyers.

Here is an example of age, the old vampire who is supposedly more powerful is being beaten by the younger less experienced vampire. It also shows the woman vampire to be powerless at the beginning, this conforms with the ideology that woman are weaker than men, but at the end of the clip the female vampire slices the bad vampires face in two, this goes against most ideas that woman can't slice a mans face in two and also goes against the ideology is set up earlier that woman shouldn't fight.

Here is the actor who played the protagonist, I decided having him goes against stereotypes now that women were always the victims, I decided to go with someone a bit different, hence the long hair on a male. I think I should have gone for a more innocent, smaller victim who conforms with the usual stereotypes of horror films.

However, I think it's quite an interesting idea having him actually slightly taller than the vampire and appearing to overpower him but being scared of the vampire, this shows the true power there. This is most noticeable in the chase scene when he sees the man and runs, showing the terrifying aura the vampires are able to put out if they want. The feedback agrees however that a more innocent victim would've made the movie more effective.

Media institution - Jake

Here is the movie poster I created, I think it's a bit too cluttered but the vital points of a poster are there, the tag line, the title, the date, the technical information at the bottom and the age of the film. My aim for the poster was to be quite gritty, like the desire for the film, this way people won't get confused looking at the poster, expecting to see hollywood budgets. The tag line needed to describe the film, which I think it does quite well: "The prey must become the predator." It's imperative, the prey isn't going to maybe become the prey, they know he will. They know at some point in the film, there will be a role reversal, the anticipation for this will hopefully help add to the tension.

The date for release will be June 13th, I feel this is a good date as it will be in the cinemas for the summer holidays so the target audience will have more time to go and watch it. Alternatively, I might have the release date as the 25th of November, this way we can try and release it for christmas, going against the usual four month period, and we can showcase it at Bang! A local short film festival that is over 23rd to 25th of November, this film festival gains a large following each year and reviewers review the latest short films, this will hopefully get assistance from film reviewers and gain something of a following.

The advertising we do will probably be done via posters and social networking sites, such as facebook as this is quite easily done and low cost. If we were to go with a larger distributor we would probably have TV adverts, internet adverts and billboards but I like the feeling of being a small film and so the advertising will probably be quite minimalist at first. We would hope to gain more of a word of mouth advertising, hopefully with the help of a cult following.

If we were to go with a major distributor I would have Warner Bros as they have a good track record with successful advertising, for instance the Sherlock Holmes: A game of shadows advertising in the baker street tube station, this is good advertising as not only did the many people who travel on the tube daily, it also gained news coverage which is good national advertising that creates itself. Another thing is, the larger the distributor, then the more cinemas the film can get into, so we can have a more saturated release.



An independent company I would choose would be Fantastic Films, using Fantastic Films to distribute the film would allow for a much more cinema screen releases than we would be able to do without a distributor.

The media institutions and distribution.

For small independent film producers there would be many ways to distribute our film on various scales and ways. The smallest way would be to use an independent theater to screen our film, our local cinema that takes part in this is called the Broadway and it also holds a film festival called the Bang! short film festival. Many theaters across the country hold small film festivals for independent film makers and this is a good way to broadcast your product.

A way to get a larger release but still maintain a smaller scale and not go to a major distributor, is to go to a smaller distributor. An example of a company like this is Fantastic Films International, these distributors help getting the films they accept in to a theatrical release at many theaters as well as helping the making of trailers and posters. By using smaller independent companys like this it allows for the film to have a much wider release than it otherwise would have, it also helps in generating interest and exposure to the film.

The largest scale possibility would be to present your film to a larger distributor like Lionsgate or Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. these larger scale distributors as well as distributing their own products also distribute the products of other smaller companys and teams. This rout would have the largest theatrical release and have the largest advertising push behind it, however larger companys do not like taking risks so more adventurous films may be rejected.

For a Full scale film release the standard rout would be a standard release this would include:

1. Theatrical release, this is where the film is release in theaters and is the first release.]
2. DVD release, roughly 4 months after the theatrical release it is made available on DVD.
3. TV release. roughly 2 years after its initial release it is made available for TV institutions.

Other release methods are available however release strategys like simultaneous release are controversial and typically do not receive the same level of funding and promotion as standard releases.

Advertising.
Advertising takes many forms and depending on the level of release and the amount of money available many techniques can be used.

• TV commercials while being expensive are an effective method of creating interest for a film to mass audience. however it is expensive and so typically reserved for the largest distributors and their largest films.
• Online adds depending on the popularity of the site can vary in cost, they often have links that lead to a trailer or movie website for more information.
• Billboards are a classic advertisement method and are usually placed in places with busy traffic. they usually display large images that are iconic to the film and large important information like the name. 
• Social networking has also been used to create viral video's that advertise some films. even using sites like twitter to raise awareness for films.