Evaluation Question 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

Mise-en-Scene We tries very hard to create a believable mise-en-scene for our dystopian trailer. When creating the mise-en-scene for our film we used influences from other dystopian movies such as The Hungers Games, where we decided that our female protagonist needed to have an iconic weapon like Katniss Everdeen. We decided for the bow and arrow because we reasoned it would be a good and easy weapon for an apocalypse. We were heavily influenced by the TV show The Walking Dead. Especially for the cannibal chase scene in the woods this was because a lot of the scenes from The Walking Dead are set In the woods, the setting we chose fit the ideology of where a post apocalyptic dystopian world would take place. The idea of cannibals is also influenced by The Walking Dead and is further influenced by 28 Days Later which is set in London in a post apocalyptic world where zombies have appeared after a virus has spread and now inhabit the Earth.

Conventions Our film trailer is very conventional of a dystopian trailer. An example of this through our camera work where during the cannibal chase scene we used a lot of shaky shots to make the audience feel distressed and uncomfortable like the protagonist. We also used fast paced editing in this scene to reinforce the idea that the cannibals are chasing our protagonist. We also follow conventions of the dystopian genre in our trailer by using non diegetic sounds which help create the mood and atmosphere of our film and some also create suggestions of what happens in the narrative of our film. In relation to our narrative our trailer further follows the dystopian conventions by clearly showing a three act structure with the equilibrium that establishes our narrative and characters, our dis-equilibrium which is shown through finding the phone and radio tower and being hunted by the cannibals and the new equilibrium which is hinted at by showing by our protagonist killing a cannibal with the bow and arrow.

Editing After we had completed our filming, Patrick took on the role of editing our footage for our group. The editing process was tedious, as the process of editing the parts where she fades in and out of shot were time consuming. We called this effect “ghosting” because it makes her character seem ethereal and ghost like, the technique is done by separating the clip into three segments and using “cross dissolve” to make them fade into each other. As long as the camera is still, it’s possible to make a character or object fade in or out of shot. We used this effect because it implies that the world is now a lonely place and depopulated of other human beings, hinting to our title “The Last.” Luke and I wrote the titles, in addition to this we looked for fonts online that looked suitable for the post-apocalyptic mood of the trailer, We then gave them to Patrick to insert into our trailer. To make the inserts sound more proclaimed and professional we added statements like “award winning” director, novelist or producer. To make the trailer more exciting, we made the first half of our trailer is quite slow moving and calm, we did this by using ominous diegetic music and slow editing. In doing so the audience would get a feel of the environment and atmosphere. Halfway through the trailer, the editing starts to speed up to create excitement, to do this, we made the transitions very quick and added a fast paced adventure type music.

Characters & Narrative The genre of our film is dystopian; this is because our film trailer follows the conventions of a dystopian. The protagonist of the film is Kat; she depicts the last human, surviving in a post-apocalyptic destroyed world. As most post-apocalyptic heroes Kat is lonely and finds comfort in the idea of there being other survivors in world. However she is similar to Robert Neville in I Am Legend who is a lone survivor. He has no one but his pet dog Sammy to rely on for company, Kat in a sense is much lonelier as does not even have that, making her need for other humans that much more desperate. Kat’s fatal flaw is her hope, it is what puts her in danger throughout the entirety of the film, this is a generic convention. This again leads us back to her fatal flaw, hope. However Kat, the protagonist of our film challenges conventions and is postmodern, because she is a strong female lead. The cause of the apocalyptic world is never explained which is unconventional. We did this to add mystery to the film, because it leaves the audience guessing as to the cause of the apocalyptic world is. It makes the audience wonder if it is the fault of man or if its natural which relates to the fears of people today as it is unknown and worries people. This is similar to The Road where the disaster is never thoroughly explained. Our antagonists of the film are cannibals; they are animalistic and have gone back to primitive routes. They have lost their emotions, such as empathy and guilt, and only care about surviving. Therefore this forces Kat to do things that she wouldn’t have done in a civilised society. Although Kat is the protagonist she cannot be said to be a generic heroin this is because she isn’t fighting for the good of humanity nor does she have a noble cause, her only thought is her own survival and she will do anything to stay alive which is why she is an anti-hero. Which is similar to Deckard in the Blade Runner, this is because he will do anything to complete his quest even if it means changes his morale's to achieve them.

Sound At the beginning of the trailer we used calm but ominous music to ease the audience into the trailer; however it stills makes our audience feel uncomfortable while watching. On peaks of action we used fast paced action music to help better convey the action see on screen this also helps to add excitement to our trailer. There is a low eerie hum all the way throughout our trailer this is again to make the audience uncomfortable in this new dystopian environment we have created within the film. For the sounds effects such as the scream, heavy breathing, footsteps and bow and arrow we implanted them into the trailer. We did this to make the sounds more definite within the trailer so it creates a horror like feel. The voiceover introduces our main character. It helps set the scene the narrative and gives the audience a quick overview of how this new apocalyptic world functions. To give our trailer a run down, ruined feel we made the voiceover sound mechanic and broken. Finally for our survivor’s message we added static noise and a radio tuning sound effect to convey the idea of there being a loss of communication and things being destroyed.