Filming schedule

Location:	Shots:	Time of day:	Needed actors:	Props needed:
Tunbridge Wells  (12/12/2017)	o   Kebab shop o   Café o   Job search o   Public toilets o   Money exchange o   Cupcake meets Debbie	17:00 + (Darkness)	Lily Fulton Maeve Wigham	o   CV o   Money o   Fur jacket o   Plain black jacket
Otford house (13/12/2017)	o   Shower shot o   Bed shot o   Lipstick appliance o   Lighting cigarette	17:00	Lily Fulton	o   Lipstick o   Red skirt o   Black top o   Cigarettes o   Lighter
School (14/12/2017)	o   Protest o   Client shot (man doing up belt) o   Blowing out candles	13:00	Lily Fulton Protest cast Sam Crick	o   Protest signs o   Bright coloured tops
Small quiet road (14/12/2017)	o   Taxi scene o   Cupcake walking across road	11:00	Maeve Wigham Lily Fulton	o   Car o   Fur jacket

The Production Company

Our production company is called GEL Productions which stands for Gaia, Elizabeth, Lucy (the first names of our group/ the founders of this company). Below is our logo:

This is the introduction annimation to our production company:

Below is another intro we considered using:

Trailer Alterations (post teacher feedback)

After receiving feedback from our teachers we knew which areas of our trailer we needed to improve on.
One major issue with the trailer was the audio and how it was hard to hear some the dialogue. To tackle this we reduced the volume of the background music and tried to make the dialogue louder. However, the actual quality of the recorded dialogue was not very good and it would not turn any louder. We considered re-recording the dialogue and putting it with the old visuals but decided against this idea as it might look unprofessional if the lip sync did not work. Also, we did not want to change our storyboard too much as it had been altered before too many times. Therefore, we just chose to simply make the music even quieter. It was a hard task to make a subtle fade in the music, which involved a lot of splits between clips, but eventually we made the correct alterations.

Audience Feedback

On Facebook, we created a survey for our friends to fill out after having watched the trailer.
https://apps.facebook.com/my-surveys/trailer-feedback?from=admin_wall&v=303

This feedback was very helpful because we were able to gain constructive criticism from our peers (mainly who were between the ages of 15 and 25/ our target audience)
Using Facebook as the means to gain feedback is an example of the way in which social media platforms and other new technologies have change the way we communicate. The fact that I have the ability to get criticism from a friend 10,000 miles away in Austrailia, demonstrates the extent to which I am able to gather information and to such a wide spread and varied audience.

The Final Website

Below is the final version of our website. We created it using wix.com which was an accessible, free and easy website to use. It also made our website look professional as we were able to choose a template that reflected our film as the warm colours against the harsh tone is reminiscent of our colour palette and the font matches the trailer and poster fronts.



Click the image to view our website

Poster Designs

After experimenting with and developing different minimalist and theatrical posters we finally designed these and then chose main poster no.1 as the one to publise.
One day we ask Lily if we could have her for a photoshoot so we could get some shots for our potential poster designs. We used a Canon DSLR camera and took photos of her in a low lit room. We edited these photos on Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft. We took inspiration from social realism film posters like the ones below for London to Brighton.

Minimalist Poster Design No. 1

Minimalist Poster Design No. 2

Main Poster Design No. 1

Main Poster Design No. 2

Main Poster Design No. 3

Final Poster

This is the final poster as part of the promotion package for our film:

The reason we chose this poster as our final version was because it reflected our trailer well and would attract audiences to watching it. Many images are snapshots of the action in the film or show the protagonist’s vulnerability and facing obstacles. We also wanted to leave some ambiguity of the full narrative of the film to intrigue them. The film title is in bold and in the centre to draw attention to it and for audiences to remember the name. The colour scheme matches the colour palette of the film. Red signifies the danger of her situation. The layout is the same format as the ‘London to Brighton’ poster to give the audience an idea of the themes explored in the narrative and it has connotations of prostitution.

Below is another poster design we almost used as part of our final promotional package:

After experimenting with a variety of different photos, layouts, colours and fonts, we finally created this poster. It took inspiration mainly from the film poster for Fish Tank. There are lots of similarities between them from the use of colour to symbolise something about their situation, the information presented, the way the star actress/protagonist is in one-third of the screen, etc. We edited this photo in Adobe Photoshop which was hard to use at first but also offered us a lot of options to ensure our poster looked professional.

Trailer Montages

When researching into the conventions of real media products we noticed that many trailers have fast shot montages towards the end. One of these trailers that we were inspired by was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Final CUPCAKE Trailer

Below is our final theatrical trailer. We used an iPhone 7 to record the footage, iMovie to edit and YouTube and Facebook to publish.

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Click the link to view the Prezi annimation: https://prezi.com/p/anriz1qlq9_5/

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 1

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

Trafficking Research

Article 3 of the Protocol defines trafficking as:

(a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;

  (b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;

 (c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;

 (d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.

First Draft of our Trailer

Below is the first draft of our trailer. We hope to gain feedback and then improve on this version.

Film Distribution and Producing Institutions

Our chosen distribution companies for our film are Vertigo Films and Pathé. They both frequently support the release of independent and British, especially ones with elements of horror and social realism.

Vertigo Films is a British film production and film distribution company based in London. Vertigo Films has been responsible for the production and distribution of Bronson, Streetdance 3D and Monsters.

Pathé is a major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Les Cinémas Gaumont Pathé and television networks across Europe. It is the second oldest operating film company in the world, predating Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures, and largest in Europe behind the French Gaumont Film Company studio.

Shooting Days

The time we took to shoot our trailer took about 5 different days (not including the alterations we intend to make after we get feedback). For the street scene we were planning to go on a location recce and take some test shots with Lily. However, when we arrived in Calverly Park, Tunbridge Wells we realised that it was the perfect set to film for the actual shots. Therefore, instead of wasting our production time and little time we had with Lily we started to film as if this was the footage for the real product. As a result, we got the effect we wanted as many social realism films use everyday areas rather than high budget sets. This made it seem more realistic as if these issues could happen anywhere and to anyone and it also meant we did not need to carry out a location recce for the street scene.

Test Footage

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=iFcEy-drd1Q

The Characters

This is a list of our character in order of appearance in the trailer:

Character One: Harriet Young or "Cupcake" (as referred to by her abuser)

Character Two: Ian Young- Father to Harriet

Character Three: Debbie - Prostitute, vague mother figure to Harriet

Character Four: Mikey P
Pimp to Debbie- although he is an important part of the narrative as he eventually traffics her, this character is never shown in the trailer.

Character Five: Reece Taker
Harriet's abuser

Influences

Once we had decided on a genre, we started to look into other social realism films that might inspire our own product. We gained an understanding of the term "kitchen sink realism" to describe the rise of the arts (particualrly film) in the 1950s/60s that depicted disillusioned characters in modern society. 

Journey to the End of the Night- Theatrical Trailer

Not only does this film/film trailer, in a very explicit way, expose the brutality and violation within society as the social realism genre does, its trailer also conforms to many conventions which we now wish to include in our own trailer.

London to Brighton- Theatrical Trailer

This film was our main source of inspiration as it centres around the struggle of a 12 year old girl who faces sexual exploitation, homelessness and voilent threats.

Like many social realism films, London to Brighton's narrative concludes with a balanced equilibrium whereby, although both main characters escape their horrorific situation that they face through much of the film, they still return to their original or worse point of struggle. For example, the final shot of the film is a shot of Kelly's back walking out from an London train station to a street which will inevitably lead her back to a life of prostitution. The most innocent of the victims though in this story is Joanne who, although it appears at the end of the film that going to a secure, potentially more loving home than before may improve her life considerably, the audience are still aware of the mental scars that this experience would have left her with.

Fish Tank- Theatrical Trailer

Following the story of a teenage girl struggling against the sexual exploitation from her mother's boyfriend and other issues such as poverty and violence. We see Mia going away at the end of the film and although it is evident that the series of events that lead up to this point were horrorific, we are still unsure whether the ending of the film is one of brutal reality or hope.

Albatross- Theatrical Trailer

This coming of age drama following the story of a girl battling the struggles she faces in life after the loss of both her parents. After befriending another girl, she starts having sex with her friend's dad and she is confronted with even more worries.Themes such as these are very common within social realism and this is the reason this film was such an inspiration to our trailer.