Unique Selling Point.

Anything in media, whether it be a film, an album or a piece of technology, to be successful  it needs a unique selling point (USP). 

In terms of films, it needs to cover enough of the conventions of that particular genre, or even actor, but then be slightly different to separate it from the rest. There is a certain level that needs to be found. Too 'unique' and you risk losing a large portion of your audience, as they may not be used to what they are seeing, they may not understand it, and they may not like it. However, not 'unique' enough, and your film becomes predictable, cliche, and mundane. 
With short films however, from what I have seen, it is slightly different. Short films are usually created for one of two reasons. 

1. To create a short draft of what the director hopes will be able to be developed into a full feature film, for example Saw. 

2. To portray a unique, original idea to a fairly small audience, to  try and gain recognition as a creative, and interesting director. 

However, when planning Dystopia we were very aware we were not creating the film for either of those reasons. We were trying to create a film that consisted of most conventions expected to be seen in a Post-Apocalyptic thriller, but with one slight difference, our unique selling point.

We felt it would be an interesting idea to create a dark piece of film, intensely following the journey of a young survivor after losing his companions during a the release of a deadly virus, but to all be shot in full, vibrant colour.

We designed the shots to try and make every single one as good as it could possibly be, being influenced by directors like Wes Anderson. However, we allowed the camera work to be fairly loose, with first person shots, hand held shots and moving shots, where the character would be followed by the camera, all integrated between the more structured, cinematographic shots.

I feel this is our unique selling point. The way we have purposely designed this film to look to positive, despite the horrendous plot. This is especially the case in the final shot of the film, where the protagonist walks off into the horizon, with huge, powerful music playing, as if to say that this character is going to survive. We want to convey to our audience that this is a positive film, and that despite everything, this character is going to continue his journey, and survive.

I feel when being distributed this could make the film very successful. By purposely not adding shots of burning cities, and corpses littering the streets, it gives the viewer a chance to connect with the character. The lack of information about the disease and the current situation provided to the audience is so that they are connected to the character by knowing the exact same amount about the disease as he does; which is explained during the voice over.