Evaluation- Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at the filming process of my preliminary task, I was rushed for time and only had limited shots. I learnt from this that I should take a variety of different shots and preferably take more shots than I need. When I moved on to filming my Thriller, I had this in mind and took more shots than i needed and filmed on multiple days, so that we had more content and therfore more choice when editing the film. 

I was also more aware of the natural lighting that we used when filming. This is because when we filmed the preliminary we didnt consider how well lit the shots were, however when we moved onto the editing stage we realised that one of the main scenes was poorly lit and lessend the quality of the film. Here is a screenshot of the scene I am reffering to:

However when I begun filming my Thriller i was more aware of the consequences of poorly lit shots, so i ensured that all shots we took were well lit and didn't lessen the quality. We re-filmed one shot a few times because to begin with it was too dark and you couldnt see the actor's facial features. Here is a screenshot of the scene once we had turned specific lights on:

Planning 

The preliminary task and all of the planning involved with it, helped me to understand that to create a high quality film you have to plan as much as possible. Because of this we ensured that we had our storyboard done before we started filming and we looked around the area that we were going to be filming in to ensure that we were using the best possible location (Location Recce shots). I also created a questionnaire and emailed it to all students in sixth form in the hope that they would complete it. I managed to get 46 resposes to my survey, which allows me to get a general feel of what my audience would like to see. However because i sent it mainly to sixth form students I do understand that my results may not be that varied because they are all around the same age. Having said we did bare in mind that we were creating the thriller for  ateenage audience.

Evaluation- Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation- Question 5

 How did you attract/address your audience?

In the audience questionnaire that i conducted I was able to observe that 95% of the people who answered my survey were between the ages of 16 and 20. With this information I was able to plan my Thriller around the results gathered. The results for the gender question were 50/50 so I didn't plan my Thriller specifically for one gender. Because I had feedback from a younger audience I decided to cast younger actors, because this would attract our specific audience most. We casted a female and male as the protagonists, I think that this was a good idea because we would be able to capture the attention of the younger viewers if they were of a similar age.

 We were able to get feedback from our audience on our finished thriller. The feedback we got was a mixture of positives and negatives. A positive was that the music and sound was effective in creating tension, as well as that we were told that the cues in the music were well timed which made it look and sound like it had been made to a high quality. However someone said that we should have used different colours for the titles in order for it to suit the character more. We maybe should have made the connotations and implications of the colours in the titles more clear or changed the male characters costume etc. Another bit of feedback that we received was that the suspense was great as it left you unaware of why the character was cutting hair etc. Our choice of actors was also praised because it allowed us to build more tension through instructing the actors on what to do, we were told that we used a wide variety of angles and shots and it created good representations. These comments suggest that our consideration of the feedback from our questionnaire was good and that we had our audience in mind when creating the thriller.

Evaluation- Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My results from the survey that I carried out showed 95% of the answers were from people aged 16-20. These results allowed me to plan our Thriller based on the answers that we received. As a result of this and the fact that the results allowed us to create a Thriller specifically for this age range, we would set the age certificate as a 15. I did some research into the age certificate, using the bbfc website. ( http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15) This website said that rated 15 movies usually include discriminatory behaviours and I think that if our Thriller was a full film we would see this behaviour, specifically sexist behaviours. It also noted that strong violence is allowed in 15 movies, again our Thriller would display this specific activity if it were to progress into a full movie. For these reasons, I decided that the 15 rating would be most suitable for our Thriller- 'CUTS'.

We casted teenagers in our Thriller as we wanted a younger audience and younger actors would keep the audience interested. The results also showed that there was an equal amount of boys and girls who answered my survey.

Results from 'How old are you?'- shows 95.65% aged 16-20.

Results from 'What is your gender?'- shows 50% Female, 50% Male.

Evaluation- Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I would choose 'The Works UK Distribution' to distribute our media product- 'CUTS'. I would choose 'The Works' because they aim to release distinctive and exciting films, I think that my Thriller portrays some of
these features as it is tense and exciting. The works distribution company has released films such as 'Bend It Like Beckham' and 'My Summer of Love'', both of these films are low budget yet are produced to a high standard and are enjoyed by their audience. They have also distributed films such as 'Emperor' and 'Rosewater', both of these films are dramatic and thrilling. I think this company would be interested in our Thriller, because we have produced it to convey typical and distinctive features of a Thriller movie and we aimed to make our production individual and unique.  On their website (www.theworksfilmgroup.com) they say that they specialise in independent feature films, I think that 'CUTS' would fit into that category. Our Thriller aims to create a tense and uneasy atmosphere and we hope that it is thought provoking, which is something that I think 'this works' distribution company would look for.

Evaluation- Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gender is very stereotypically represented in our Thriller, because the male protagonist is shown using forceful and is portrayed as dominant and controlling. The girl featured in this film is attractive and is a typical teenage girl, this helps to represent her as a typical victim. The way in which the male smells the females hair suggests that he has control over her and she just allows him because she is weaker. These are typical representations of woman and men (men being more dominant and woman being the weaker sex.)

Evaluation- Question 1

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

Conventions of Thrillers:

• Suspense
• Male protagonist
• Antagonist
• Crime/Mystery
• Low key lighting
• Tension music

Conventions of an opening sequence:

• Title sequence (Production company, Cast names etc)
• Soundtrack
• Narrative
• Introduce key characters
• Enigma

Screen shot of a black and white shot.

My media product uses typical Thriller conventions such as tension building and music to create tension and build suspense. I also used some effects on the video, I used a black and white effect this is present in many Thrillers, for example 'Casino Royale'.

It is typical of a Thriller opening scene to have opening titles, we tried to include as many as possible. These included actors names, producers and who the film was by etc. I created the original Title sequence on After Effects, I used four colours throughout my titles: Red, White and black. I chose to use these colours because they all contrasted nicely against the backgrounds, and the colour red has connotations of danger and it is an intense colour. These connotations fit in well with the uneasy feel to my Thriller.

Screen shots of a few of the titles we included in our opening sequence:

Some opening sequences have short bursts of speech to build tension or to add to the plot and intrigue the audience. We decided to include some audio in the style of a news reporter, this worked effectively in adding to the plot and adding to the suspense of the opening scene.

We chose to cast a male protagonist as we needed a character who could be portrayed as intimidating and who would be able to create an un-settling atmostphere. This is a convention of a Thriller and we decided that it would benefit our film to include it.

Male protagonist