Creative Critical Reflection
Stuart Hall suggested that representations use stereotypes in mainstream media in order to “fix” the way in which audiences relate to characters. Stereotypes are universally deployed to help audiences understand characters.
Our protagonist is the stereotypical employee who has been unfairly dismissed in the workplace. He fits the psychographic profile of a struggler: His manager and colleagues have always mistreated him and treated him as if he is below them. The workplace is where we began to set out the first and main stereotype for the protagonist - especially from the protagonist’s (Tom) point of view and how he deals with his work issues in his personal life (outside the office). Even though it is not a ‘typical’ stereotype to exhibit the character’s emotional development outside of his place of work, we decided it would create a unique selling point (USP) to our audience if we positioned the trailer in this way. We made the judgment that this would allow our audience to relate to similar if not the same issues/problems that the protagonist faces in the day-to-day workplace. Our film reveals the struggles and overwhelming emotions that come with working with megalomaniac employees in a corporate firm. Many people who have lost their job, or perhaps filed for constructive dismissal, will relate and feel similar feelings as the protagonist does. He is seen as another “little man” punished by the social machine. This also relates to Gauntlett’s ideas around to identity. He argues that despite individuality, people do tend to exist within larger groups who are like them. For our group, we thought creating the identity of the struggler Tom would facilitate this wider idea of collective identity for sections of the audience who could empathise with our character.
The second stereotype in our film trailer includes the rigid, driven and ruthless corporate employees (who are Tom’s colleagues in the trailer). We decided we wanted to show Tom’s colleagues through mise-en-scene. We decided to introduce these characters in an intense casino game. This was achieved via mise-en-scene / location, which helped us to create the second social group. We asked the rest of the cast (actors) to wear formal, black-tie attire (dress) for this scene. This included: suits for the males, and dresses or formal suits for the females. This created an intensely intimidating ultra-professional environment for our protagonist. The audience clearly discerns significant distinctions between Tom and the people he works with. His messy hair, dishevelled appearance and comparatively informal dress in this scene (he is not wearing the tie) immediately sets up a binary opposition (Lev-Strauss) between stereotypes of professionalism and notions of unprofessionalism – which are often unfair, value-judgments. This is reinforced by the temporal code of Tom arriving late to the casino game. Further, we carefully positioned the audience to be in Tom’s ‘corner’ by virtue of the breaking of the fourth wall in the split-second moment when there is a direct mode of address. There is then a cyclical aspect to our narrative hooks at the end of the trailer when an exasperated Tom looks back at the camera, only this time with a facial expression connoting fighting spirit. Ultimately by deploying the stereotype of the beleaguered employee and setting up in binary opposition to the stereotype of the corporate ‘shark’, we felt that issues such as work-place bullying and harassment/discrimination were addressed in an interesting and relatable way.
Branding is a business technique of producing a design or name that differentiates one brand from another. We created a unique font to help us create a sense of “branding.” As this unique brick type font we made has been used on all of our accounts. For example, our social media accounts such as: Twitter and Instagram (and all film posters). The front type we created is an important factor because this is the font that is seen everything, including: social media, film posters and trailers.
PPP Productions is our independent film company for our A2 coursework an consists of a unique logo that is distinctly recognisable and styled in a way that conveys innovation and creativity. In determining our logo designee I used Wix Logo Maker which had a very insightful style survey but to the process of coming up with a final design. This logo created a sense of branding, as we used this in our promotion across both our main trailer and teaser. With the logo tagline "creativity at its best," suggesting we are an innovative company that thrives of creativity and uniqueness.
Our brand identity is created through recognisable and unique logos, as well as mentioning the previous directors, actors and film name/title will create a consumer loyalty for this new film: “Ground Floor.” As our audience is aware of the directors & actors that were involved in “Criminal Minds,” which was our AS fictional film opening. As in our AS coursework we used the same actors in our A2 Film Trailer, that the audiences will recognise and this will generate excitement and engagement with our new film promotion and branding. Thus, making the actors and directors the prominent part in our branding and promotion techniques. The star talent is stated all social media platforms as well as the main trailer allows the audience to recognise the previous actors that were involved in the fictional film opening that we had made last year (AS piece).
My product engages with the audience of ages: 18-40, slightly skewed towards the male gender. Our promo pack engages our targeted audience with the use of social media. I made an Instagram account, and my team partner made a Twitter account to engage with our audiences. We believe that that for if we used Instagram we can cater for the majority of our audience. Social media is a cost-free form of promotional advertisement that we have use in order to further engage our audience. We heavily engaged our audience through this form. I made an Instagram account, and my team partner made a Twitter account to engage with our audiences. My Instagram account included interactive posts as well as thought (and entertainment) provoking captions that further engages/encourages the audience to respond and comment. The older generation demographic requires a more simplistic form of advertising as we would assume they slightly less experience with technology, which we have catered for. I have uploaded simplistic “behind the scenes” images of the filming production that engages our target audience.
Our small cast is mainly older males. Thus, suggesting that naturally the film trailer would attract a more male dominated audience (hence our audience being skewed towards the male gender). We did not necessarily see this as a problem as in our film trailer, we wanted to address issues such as males’ mental health (which has become increasingly more important and significant) This is a somewhat untouched subject in the film industry, and we wanted to explore this further in our film trailer. However, we have not fully aimed this product towards the male gender – we believe that many people (regardless of their gender) can relate to the protagonists’ problems and issues that he faces in the workplace.
The tagline that is on my film poster attracts the audience’s attention with the words “when a man hits rock bottom he will fall apart” which hooks the audience because they are felt wondering or questioning what has happened to the protagonist, to make him fall apart and why he has hit rock bottom.
My promo pack uses drama and action conventions through visual and sound codes such as our protagonist running ‘away from his problems with the sinister soundtrack in the background. The (non-diegetic) soundtrack was an important sound code for the audience to emotionally connect and relate to what our protagonist was going through (his problems).
My promo pack uses drama conventions through protagonist of the film trailer. The protagonist Tom who is an employee at a corporate firm. But it tangled up in dramatic problems to do with his work. By him essentially running away form his work problems and the ‘bad’ people has been surrounding himself with – it creates drama conventions that engage the audience. As the audience does not see who the ‘bad’ people are in the trailer (that Tom is running away from) it leaves them questioning and wondering who they are, and the main reason are to why they are chasing after the protagonist.
The Mass of Men (dir, Gabriel Gauchet, 2012), gave us inspiration for our film trailer. We were moved by the narrative of the film, and how the audience are positioned in such a way we are sympathised with the character (employee) who is talked down to and made to feel empty by a patronising and self-important manager. From watching The Mass of Men it help to form the genre conventions of our film trailer. Our genre includes: drama/action.
My film poster is a powerful take that reflects the genre conventions of our film. The genre of our film is action and drama. I believe I have successfully reflected the action genre through the colour palette of my film poster. The background of my film poster is sapphire – which is a powerful/intense colour and packs a punch against the protagonist on top of the background. The key art is the main character looking down with a disappointed facial expression. With an added layer/gradient of him running away (his past comes back to haunt him) from the “bad people and frustrating problems” that he is facing with. This shows clear conventions of action as Tom is looking down in a distort facial expression creating suspense and drama conventions. Alongside this, the sharp sapphire colour adds to the action and drama genre of the film. Furthermore, I have added an impactful tagline to my film poster: “when a man hits rock bottom, he falls apart.” This tagline creates drama conventions that allows the audience to have an expectation as to what this film is about, whilst also creating enigma.
The music of our film trailer creates clear conventions. We spent a while selecting the soundtrack music for our film trailer. The intense music builds to the climax (where the protagonist punches the camera), having a huge impact on the mood of the film, creating a dramatic suspense and horror, leaving the audience to question why the protagonist (Tom) is running away and what happens next. Secondary uses of sound are used to help us achieve these moods. For example, using dialogue and diegetic voice overs. This helps the audience to connect with the character of Tom and understand his frustrating emotions.
