Using the Internet to promote a movei relesase in the UK - The Hobbit: DoS

What is it: Facebook Page
Source: Facebook.com
Above or below the line: Below the line
Who it reaches: Teens, active fans of the Hobbit
Value: Free, unlimited audience, wide outreach

What is it: Competition
Source: ODEON
Above or below the line: Above the line
Who it reaches: Loyal ODEON fans, 18+ year olds
Value: Strong incentive for audience - holiday to NZ, utilises present ODEON fans, older audience

What is it: Article on new character posters
Source: Spinoff.com
Above or below the line: Below the line
Who it reaches: People interested in characters from trilogy, devoted website users
Value: Mutually beneficial for website and film, free, unlimited audience

Tracking: The Hobbit: Return of the Smaug

Yet another trailer promotion

Using Ed Sheeran to attract more attention

Feature article of Empire magazine

Trailer promotion

Attracts fans via Ed Sheeran star status

Competition attracts fans, new and old

Tracking: Kill Your Darlings

Article using actor status to promote film

Article promoting art exhibition

Metro article, made to catch attention

Official UK poster

Cineworld promotion 

Radcliffe appearing on The One Show, Thursday 14th November

10 Quick Questions - Kill Your Darlings

1) UK release date ?

6th December 2013

2) Institutions behind the film's production and distribution?

Production: Killer Films, Benaroya Pictures, Outpost Studios

Distributors: Future Film, Lumiere, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Releasing, Works UK Distribution, Paris Filmes

3) What's the film's production budget?

$2 million (estimate)

4) Nationality of the film?

USA

5) What kind of production film is it? 

Low budget independent film

6) Any connection with other films?

No

7) Who's the director?

John Krokidas

8) Any star names in the cast?

Daniel Radcliffe (lead), Dane Dehaan, Ben Foster, Michael C. Hall, Jack Huston

9) What's the film about?

"A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs."

10) Who will the film appeal to?

Fans of the drama, murder mystery or romance genres. As well as those who are into poetry. Even just fans of Daniel Radcliffe. 

10 Quick Questions - The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

1) UK release date?

13th December 2013

2) Institutions behind the film's production and distribution?

Production: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), New Line Cinema, WingNut Films

Distribution: Cocinsa, Forum Hungary, Warner Bros. Entertainment

3) What's the film's production budget? 

$250 million (estimate)

4) Nationality of the film?

USA

5) What kind of production is it?

3-D Studio Production

6) Any connection with other films?

Part 2 of 3 of the Hobbit trilogy. Sequel to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey released in 2012 and prequel to The Hobbit: There and Back Again, which is set to be released in 2014. The Hobbit Trilogy itself, is a spin off of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

7) Who's the director?

Peter Jackson

8) Any star names in the cast?

Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Richard Armitage

9) What's the film about?

"The dwarves, along with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, continue their quest to reclaim Erebor, their homeland, from Smaug."

10) Who will this film appeal to?

Fans of the fantasy or action and adventure genres. Not restricted to any age group. Fans of previous film or Lord of the Rings. Fans of the actors.

Papadopolous and Sons - Director's Q&A Session

We had the fortunate experience of having a Questions and Answers Sessions with the director of "Papadopolous and Sons", Marcus Markou. This is a list of the top 5 things I learnt from the session:

• In order to save money, Marcus avoided finding actors via agencies. He instead directly contacted potential actors. This allowed him to get the script to them directly and it just so happens that many of the actors were willing to act for less pay than they usually would, simply because they loved the script.
• When being produced, the film was not aimed at any demographic in particular. It could appeal to Londoners, immigrant families living in the UK, Greek people, Turkish people, people living in the suburbs and even anyone affected by the economic crisis. However, in the marketing side of things, Marcus specifically targeted the Greek demographic.
• Marcus strived to abolish any form of hierarchy in the production team. By this, I mean, getting rid of the superiority complex and benefits from being a lead actor. For example, in the queue for lunches it would be done on a first come, first serve basis and not dependant on the role you play in producing the film. Furthermore, Marcus learnt the names of all crew members by the end of the first day and ensured that the process was as laid back and as informal as possible.
• Marcus told us about a job I had never heard of before. The task of reading through a script and judging how much each scene would cost, belonged to a Line Producer. In the case of Papadopolous and Sons, the Line Producer was Sarah Butler.
• I also learnt that the filming was done in 3 primary locations. This was done in order to cut costs significantly and to make it much easier for crew and equipment to be moved about as there were only 3 major distances to be travelled.

Papadopolous and Sons Case Study

Papadopolous and Sons, also known as "Papa and Sons" is a British comedy-drama film, written and directed by independent filmmaker Marcus Markou. We got a chance to speak with Markou in one of our lessons.

Official Plot Summary: Following his ruin in the latest banking crisis, a self-made millionaire reluctantly re-unites with his estranged freewheeling brother to re-open he abandoned fish and chips shop they shared in their youth.

Cast:
Stephen Dillane - Harry Papadopolous
Georges Corraface - Uncle Spiros
Frank Dillane - James Papadopolous
Georgia Groome - Katie Papadopolous
Thomas Underhill - Theo Papadopolous
Ed Stoppard - Rob
Cosima Shaw - Sophie
Selina Cadell - Mrs Parrington
Cesare Taurasi - Mehmet Ali
George Savvides - Hassan Ali

Budget and Actors:
Marcus had a relatively small budget of £850,00. However, he managed to get the actors for a cheap price because they were willing to act for low pays simply because they loved the script. Furthermore, Stephen Dillane thought it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to act with his son (Frank Dillane) and therefore cleared his schedule for the film.

Marketing:
To save money, Marcus focused heavily on spreading the film via word of mouth and directly contacting the target audience in places like Greek churches. He also used Facebook and Twitter to secure a lot more viewers. This film is a great example of one that can do well without having a particularly large budget.

Film Festivals:
The film was present at three film festivals in 2012. One being the Dinard Festival of British Film in France, another being the Palm Springs Film Festival in North America and lastly the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece. The film also managed to win the Michael Cacoyannis Audience Award at the Greek film festival.

Location:
The film was predominantly shot in three locations; a street in Morden that providing the chip shop and kebab shop setting, a mansion in Croydon and a Greek food factory in East London.

Reviews:
Overall, the film received good reviews. It got a 6.2/10 from IMDb and an 83% positive rating from Rotten Tomato. The Guardian posted the comment that the film is "an ambitious attempt to rewrite Lear for laughter rather than tears. It's a throwback, but relaxed, sweet and funny with it; a first feature that makes an impression without trying too hard to make an impression".

Trailer:

Sweded Task Review

The film that our group decided to swede was King Kong, mainly because we had a specialised King Kong costume available. We filmed it, edited it and marketed it. To market it we created a poster, a Twitter page, a Facebook page and an interview with the cast.

Twitter: twitter.com/KingKongSwede

Facebook: facebook.com/pages/King-King-Sweded

Interview: youtube.com/watch?v=oTtUpFLBxqY

Dexter Title Sequence - Evalutaion Questions (DYM)

1. Summarise the conventions of title sequences that were most important to this task.

The role of a title sequence is to relay important information on the names of those involved, like actors, directors, producers, sponsors and so on. However, in order to avoid boring the audience the title sequence most show an interesting and engaging piece of film, with the titles being overlaid on the film. Therefore, arguably the biggest task within making a title sequence is finding a suitable spot and time to put titles in the shots. You need to ensure that the title is clearly legible whilst also ensuring that it doesn't take away from the focus of the film.

2. How did the group plan to edit the title sequence (consider timing, industry requirements etc)?

First of all, Audrey and I watched through the film a couple of times and noted suitable windows of opportunity for inserting a title. We then worked through the film putting basic title in, using LiveFont on a Mac. We planned to work on the finer details of the titles after all of them had been inserted but that isn't what we ended up doing. Instead, we worked on them individually as we went along.

3. Explain the creative decisions made by your group.

The creative decisions we had to make were fairly simple. We need to decide on the font, the colour, transitions, timings, positions and texture. We decided on a bold red font with no textures. This is because the Dexter main title is of a similar style. We decided on having transitions as that may detract from the focus of the action in the shots. The positioning and timings of he title were always relative to the action in the shot. We wanted to make sure that the title would stand out, but that it would also not dominate the shot.

4. How does your re-edit compare to the original?

I believe that our re-edit had the basics of what the original had. They both had similar fonts and lacked transitions. However, in the original they didn't care as much about positioning and would instead just placed the title anywhere in the shot. The main difference between our re-edit and the original is that the original had a constant stream of titles, whereas we had about 4 titles all spread out across the sequence. This is partly because we ran out of time, but we also weren't planning to have constant titles appearing and instead planned to have 5 seconds gaps.

Sweded Films - Research (BLK)

The term "Sweded" originates from Jack Black's spoof film "Be Kind, Rewind" which was made in 2008. In the film the characters attempt to flog VHS copies of a bad film by claiming it was Sweded, meaning that it came from Sweden and was therefore worth more money. Now it describes the method of filming used to make spoof versions of Hollywood films.

The requirements for a Sweded film are:

• No editing - All audio played live in filming
• Each shot only has 1 take
• Typically between 2 to 8 minutes long
• All props and costumes are home made
• High comedic value
• Typically posted online in an attempt to go viral
• Based on a fairly recent blockbuster film (one that everyone would know of)
• Extremely low budget resulting in the use of basic technology

Below are two of my favourite Sweded films:



In the Matrix, I like the subtle comedy, acting and creativity in action scenes. The way they used paper balls as bullets and a white board as a weapons rack was ingenious. The acting was also serious throughout which allowed the true satirical comedy to break through.



In The Lord of the Rings, I particularly like the costumes and use of props. The scene when both the wizards are talking is very well done in my opinion. The use of the skateboard to make it seem like they've been pushed back was very clever. Plus the costumes and setting looked very belieavable even though they were home made.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

The brief for our preliminary exercise:

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reserve shot and the 180 degree rule.

1) Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

My group consisted of Louis, Vivian, Mari and of course, myself. Mari and I were the two actors, Louis was the cameraman and Vivian was the director. Although those were our primary roles, we all helped with each other's roles as well. There was some thought behind each of our primary roles. Our sequence consisted of two characters - a teacher and a teenage student. Mari is the smallest and youngest looking member of the group so it only made sense to have her act as the student. Similarly, I am the biggest and oldest looking member of the group so I therefore acted as the teacher. Louis was very keen to experiment with using a camera as he has very little experience of manning a camera, whilst Vivian was eager to challenge herself by taking on the role of director. Furthermore, Mari and I had also studied Media GCSE at this school, meaning that Vivian and Louis would most likely learn more from the experience if they lead the more technical side of the task. Also, for editing, we split into two groups - one being myself and Vivian, the other being Mari and Louis. This allowed us to all have a good portion of time to edit.

2) How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?

The first thing that we did, was to have a group discussion. We quickly agreed that it would be easiest to have the characters be a teacher and a student as that would link well with the school setting we had available to us. We established what costumes we needed then spent about 2 minutes outlining the general flow of the script. This is because we wanted to focus more on the setups and shots and, more importantly, how we would conform to the rules of continuity. Vivian and Mari worked on the storyboard whilst Louis started the shotlist. My role in all of this was to ensure that our decisions on shots were based more so on continuity than any other aspect. Throughout we had a few walkthroughs in order to test whether certain shots would work. We needed to ensure that during the process of Mari walking into the room the camera would always be on her right, thus conforming to the 180 degree rule. We also made the decision to film a lot seemingly unnecessary shots so that we had spare shots that could be used to cut to in editing, if needed.

3) What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?

We used a Canon HV30 camera, a tripod, a shotgun mic, Sennheiser HD 201 headphones, a clapperboard and Adobe Premiere Pro. We filmed with the camera using tape to record onto. We used the tripod to alter angles whilst keeping the shot steady. The shotgun mic allowed for the camera to only record audio form one direction, ensuring that a lot of background noise wasn't recorded. To listen to the audio whilst shooting we used the headphones, allowing us to recognise any audio issues instantly. At the start of every shot we would film the clapperboard (with information on) for about 2 seconds in order to help with the editing process. At the end of filming we reviewed all the shots that we had recorded. This enabled us to see if we missed any shots out or needed to re-shoot any. Finally, we edited everything with Adobe Premiere Pro. This included the process of selecting shots, cutting the video, cutting the audio and putting the shots together.

4) What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

For planning we had to take into account the time, equipment and locations we had available. We only had an hour to shoot, meaning that we'd have to make the sequence fairly simple. We decided to use the Media Block as our setting as it would involve minimal movement when setting up. However, it did mean we had to get permission to use PA7 and that we would have to negotiate with other groups our slot to shoot in the corridor. Whilst shooting we had to take into account lighting, background noise and background movement. For instance, we couldn't film in the corridor when loads of kids were running outside because the bell went. We also had to check if the framing was right for all of our shots and see if there any issues with audio. We also made sure that any shots we took conformed to the 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule. Even though we had the shots on the shotlist, we needed to check for any mistakes and make sure that any unplanned shots were correct. For editing we needed to ensure that the narrative flow was in place. We also had to check the audio syncing. This all built up to establishing the continuity of the sequence. Perhaps the most useful tool for this was match on action, which we relied upon heavily. We also had to make sure we didn't worry too much about 1 shot or cut as we only had 1 hour to edit.

5) How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

I think our sequence was extremely successful. It met the demands of the brief well; displaying the correct narrative, utilising match on action, conforming to both the 180 and 30 degree rules, in turn leading to a solid level of continuity throughout the sequence.

However, there are a few instances when cuts in the sequence didn't flow very well. For example, the cut between the first and the second shot seems jumpy. This is because in the first shot Mari extends her left arm, whilst in the second shot she uses her right arm to open the door. This meant that we had to cut from the first shot prematurely. To further improve the quality of the cut, we could have altered the angle and framing of the shot so that the cut seemed more necessary, seeing as the current cut is on the border of breaking the 30 degree rule. Similar scenarios apply to two other cuts in the sequence, but they seem to be the only clear issues. Therefore, in hindsight, I would make sure that we make each shot's framing significantly more different as to avoid breaking the 30 degree rule. I would also ensure that in every shot the characters' actions are completely identical, so that I have larger windows of opportunity to utilise match on action.

6) What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?

In completing this task, I have had the chance to witness the importance of every aspect of filming a sequence - planning, filming and editing. I have learnt that in order to edit a sequence effectively, you need a lot of narrative-consistent shots and in order to achieve these shots you need thorough planning. Specifically, I have learnt about the effects and importance of the 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule, and how they can completely shatter the continuity of a sequence. This learning will be very significant as it will enable me to effectively create a seamlessly continuous sequence in order to suspend the disbelief of the audience. It will also be significant as it has taught me how to keep to a tight schedule and work effectively and quickly within a group, which will be of the up most importance in the rest of my foundation coursework.

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Art of the Title Grid Evaulation (DYM)

Storyboard for "Followed"

Summarise your film idea. Provide a brief synopsis and outline what happens in your film opening.

Our film "Followed" is about a seemingly innocent girl being pursued by a mysterious and creepy villain. In the opening, it is assumed that the girl is on her way to meet a friend. All the while, there is a man following her with a gun. Towards the end of the opening, her catches up with the girl, placing his hand on her shoulder. Then, the screen suddenly turns black, preventing the audience from knowing what happens next.

What kind of information has been included in your film opening?

In the opening, we have presented the director's and two main actors' names, along with the title of the film. Regarding the narrative, we have presented the idea that the girl is innocent and vulnerable. This is done through the fact that she's a small girl in normal teenage attire, showing that she is involved with nothing out of the ordinary. The fact that the man pursuing her, is physically much larger than the girl and that his face isn't shown, depicts the idea that he very mysterious, creepy and powerful. He also has a gun, which shows that he wants to either kill her or abduct her.

How do the titles link to the main film idea?

The font of the title conform with the stereotypical and grim conventions of thriller font. It's also white, that makes it easily visible and bold, as well as slightly uncomfortable as it greatly contrasts with the shot it is placed upon. The actual title, "Followed", obviously synergises well with the plot.

Summarise the expected audience reaction. What should the audience be thinking by the end of your opening? Is your opening clear or ambiguous?

Our opening scene is deliberately very ambiguous in order to make the audience very intrigued and excited to watch the rest of the film. I expect the audience to be wondering who the girl is, who the man is, why he is pursuing her, why he has the gun, who she was planning to meet and finally, what happened when the man caught up with the girl.

Identify three things that you included in your grid that are important in the construction of an opening sequence and explain their role in understand the film.

1. We used a variety of shot types in the opening sequence. We used different angles, distances and focuses. This is because we needed to make the opening scene interesting and dynamic in order for the actual narrative to intrigue the audience, without the shot type boring them. It also aids in the portrayal of the characters.
2. The character development is also extremely important. The man never gets his face in focus and is only seen in full once. This makes him seem very mysterious. In contrast, the girl has an extreme close up of her face when the man approaches her. This strengthens the idea that she is vulnerable and innocent.
3. Finally, the black screen which only shows the title is vital. It prevents the audience from fully understanding what is happening and ends the opening scene on an interesting cliff hangar. It also clearly tells the audience what the name of the tile is and gives them an opportunity to really appreciate the thriller font

How effective is your project as a film opening? Explain your answer.

Overall I feel our opening shot was fairly effective. This is because our character representation is very clear and the narrative is easy to follow. Especially the last, which creates suspense and gives the audience an incentive to keep on watching. However, my main concern with out opening scene is the setting. The setting is not very clear. This is because of two main reasons - we had no control of the lighting, objects in the background conflict with each other (a head teachers office with a lecture poster conflicting with boxes and barrows). We also had no establishing shot so right from the start it's not clear where the scene is set.

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Judgement of how effective and reason

Campaign's focus on both reach (communication with) and appeal to specific audience

Band Identity
Style
 -
Persona

Branding
Consistent style (?)
Logo saturation
Iconography

Symbiotic Relations
Social media
Radio


Folder help:

p23 marketing Qs
p24 marketing theory
p25-29 marketing website
p30&31 website
p32 terminology
p33 further marketing details

Continuity - Opening Scene (BLK)

The opening scene that I have chosen to analyse is that of the 2012 comedy "The Dictator". The opening scene is split into 2 sequences. The first sequence is when he is walking down the corridor with a guard border.  The second sequence is when he is delivering his speech to the public. Before either of these sequences however, there are a couple of establishing shots that set the scene.

The first group of shots are extremely effective in my opinion. This is because there are no glitches within the shots of him walking. Plus, the montage of close ups are very interesting, especially because they don't show his face. This builds up anticipation for what he looks like, whilst the close up of items like his golden pistol, plethora of medals and pointed finger will give you an idea of what he should look like and in turn an impression of his character. The sequence must have been filmed multiple times in order to utilise the match on action technique. This is what ensured that there were no jumps in the walking sequence. The sequence also follows the 180 degree rule, as well as the 30 degree rule.

The second sequence of shots are fairly effective as well. The main technique used in this sequence is match on action. Yet again, the sequence would have been recorded multiple times and from multiple different angles in order to ensure his body language and actions are consistent. It also ensures that his voice is always in sync with his movement. I suppose you could say the sequence also has a few shot-reverse-shots between him and the public. These shots allow you to see how and what he is saying and then to see the public's reaction to it. Also, you could argue that the director makes sure that there is always a person in the background of each shot in order for the audience to always see a reaction for what the dictator is saying - it also helps develop the setting. Fairly early on in the second sequence, there is a master shot, showing the full geographical location (the public, the dictator, the palace and the desert).

Between both sequences of shots and the establishing shots, it is clear that there is a massive variety in shot types, which will help keep the opening scene interesting and aid the audience in understand the scene and setting.

Continuity - Accident Sequence (BLK)

a) What techniques did you specifically use to create continuity (narrative flow) in your accident sequence?

• We utilised a few techniques in order to ensure the sequence made sense and wasn't confusing for the audience - which is the purpose of continuity.
• Firstly, shot one is slow paced and pans across the corridor following the character, Matt. This could perhaps be classified as an establishing shot as although it doesn't show off that much of the location, the audience is still able to discover the first main character. They also get a chance to see books and a poster, which connotes the idea that that the setting is in fact, a school. 
• Shot 1 and 3 are both taken from Matt's left. This allows the audience to understand the direction that Matt is walking in (this technique is called the 180 degree rule).
• The first three shots of the sequence are cross-cut, meaning they switch between the two characters and tell a different story for each. As the audience would expect, both stories interlink later on.
• Shot 4 is what's known as a master shot; it helps establish the location and in this case allows you to see both characters' journeys collide, quite literally...
• Additionally, the sequence include a variety of shots, as to not make it not too dull. The shots are all substantially different  in order to not conflict with the 30 degree rule. The 30 degree rule states that consecutive shots should have a difference of more than 30 degrees so that it seems a change in shot was necessary and so that it doesn't look uncomfortable. 

b) In hindsight, what could you do to improve the continuity (narrative flow) of the sequence?

• Unfortunately, one of our shots got corrupted. It was meant to be after the over the shoulder shot of Matt and show me running down the next flight of stairs looking rushed and checking my watch whilst in a head on long shot.This would've further added to the narrative and made the sequence more interesting.
• My main criticism however, is the fact that in shot 4 and 5 there is a glitch in the transition. By this I mean, it seems odd how I seemingly port from one position in shot 4, then to a  few meters ahead in shot 5. To correct this we should have enacted and recorded both shots as a whole, but from two different points of view. This would have meant that I would be running in the same line for both shots and it would've also allowed us to have a longer window of time for which we could have cut between both shots. This technique is known as match on action.

Analysis of Film Opening Scene (DYM)

The film I have chosen to analyse is "The Book of Eli". It was released in 2010 and directed by Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes. It stars Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman.

The Book of Eli is an action and adventure film, set in a unique situation. The opening scene is full of clues as to what genre the film is. In the first five seconds there is a blank white shot, but you can hear gunfire then an explosion. This already tells you that there was some kind of conflict before when the film starts (later in the film it explains what exactly the explosion was). Then, at 6 seconds in, the scene is established. The setting is a forest, with leaves all over the floor and green mist shrouding the area. The trees appear to have no leaves and what you first assume is leaves falling down, is in fact ash. You can then see a gun and a corpse. The corpse seems to have been looted of its shoes and presumably other valuables. Its foot is exposed, which baits in a seemingly ill and disfigured cat. The shot continues panning to the right to show a man hidden in leaves, with a loaded bow aimed at the corpse. He is also wearing a gas mask. This, alongside the trees with no leaves, the green mist, the disfigured cat, the looted corpse and the ash falling from the sky, strongly suggests the film is set in a post nuclear apocalypse, which it is.

The only character introduced in this opening scene is of course the man hidden in leaves. We assume he is the protagonist as there is no reason to suggest otherwise. The fact that he is seen killing a cat with a skillfully made bow, suggests that he is talented in the art of survival. The scene also connotes that he killed and looted the corpse, which suggest he is lethal and serious enough to kill another human with little consideration. The fact that he looted the corpse also tells us just how drastic the post-apocalyptic situation really is.

All in all, the opening scene is very exciting. It grabs the audience's attention right away and constantly drops hints as to what the setting and situation of the film is. The obvious thing that needs to be cleared up straight after the scene, is who the man actually is.  The setting has been depicted well and will surely get developed as the scene goes on, but the assumed protagonist hasn't even had their face revealed. The audience know of his skill set and that he is a lone wolf, but that is all.

The opening scene is not referenced at all during the rest of the film. Its purpose is solely to show off the first few details of the film. Therefore, it does not matter at all if the audience doesn't entirely understand what is going on. This makes is easier for the audience to simply enjoy it without fear of being too confused in the first 5 minutes of the film.

Analysis of Still (BLK)

My chosen shot shows two teenagers attempting to break into a bike shed

Representation of genre:
The genre reflected in this shot is the urban/gang sub-genre of the thriller genre. In order to represent this genre, both characters are wearing appropriate costumes. Hoodies, jeans and casual trainers are typically worn by London teenagers. Both characters also have their hoods up, even though it is sunny, which suggests they are trying to conceal their face and are therefore up to no good. The padlock for the bike shed is visible and the boy is tinkering with it, whilst the girl is on lookout. This is a situation most Londoners can associate with - teenagers breaking into a bike shed. The shot itself is a Two-Shot Long Shot. This allows the bikes in the background to be visible, as well as the characters' full costumes. The fact that you cannot see the boy's face adds a mysterious element to the shot. Whereas, although you can see the girl's face, her expression makes her seem very sly and mysterious as well. This slight bit of uncertainty conforms more to the thriller genre.

Success of shot:
I believe the shot is quite successful in depicting the genre. The costumes, setting, characters' age, character expressions and actions are all very synergistic and show off the genre well. In particular, the character representation is extremely accurate and effective.

Possible improvements:
The worst part about the whole shot is the lighting. Ideally, the shot would be taken at night, with the main source of light coming from a bright bulb within the bike shed. This would conform to the conventions of a gang film. With lighting only coming from the shed, the characters will appear more like silhouettes, in turn adding a more intense and mysterious element to the shot. Secondly, I would refine the framing more, by not cutting off a bit of the feet and instead cutting more off of the top. I may even zoom out a bit, in order to make it clearer that the shed is indeed a bike shed. Thirdly, I would angle the camera so that the shot is a low angle shot. This will make the characters seem very powerful and is if they are seasoned veterans of breaking and entering, rather than two kids who are struggling with a lock, which is what the shot can be interpreted as now.