Christine Newman - Evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A. As my media product is the opening of a Psychological Thriller, and I had watched other psychological thrillers prior to filming my own, I have followed some of the typical conventions you would normallly associate with thrillers.

Firstly the music used is a slow/mid tempo piano piece, that slowing builds up tension and suspense.

Also by using some sort of action so early in a film it keeps the audience quessiong what could be the back story of the film, the motives of a specif character, which is what we did in the opening. Many thriller films start off like this for example 'The Usual Suspects'.

Q2. How does you media product represent particular social groups?

A. In our psychological thriller we originally wanted to use a 15 year old school girl but insted, but instead, down to lack of time and option, we used a 17 year old (sixth former) as our victim.

The actress is presented as a typical modern day school girl, shown by the clothes, not full uniform, and accessories like the handbag and mobile, things typical of young girls in this day and age, also she is presented as being vulnerable because she is being kidnapped. Using this stereotypical representation is key for the film as maybe younger audiences' can relate to her.

The male lead (kidnapper) is shown wearing dark clothing and his face remains a mystery at this point. He is presented as the unknown character because the audience doesn't know the full story behind his actions.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A. I would say the film is more Mainstream, so I think Working Title would be a more appropriate distributer of the film with their connection to Universal.

Working Title have distributed a number of successful films over the years, notably the thriller 'The Interpreter' (2005). The film has become Working Title's biggest three day opening weekend ever, with a gross revenue of approximately $172 million and opening at the number 1 spot in over 20 countries including the UK.

Working Title's latest film to be distributed is the thriller 'State of Play' with a gross revenue of $40,667,121. With Working Title's list of successful films, they would be more appropriate distributers.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

A. As our audience research was aimed at 15 to 24 years olds, this is our prefered age range for our media product. The young actress used would attact in more of the younger audience, whilst also being gripped by the storyline.

Our media product is also aimed at those who enjoy medical thrillers, which was the majority vote in the audience research we conducted. This is why we decided to make our film a medical thriller, with our to male leads, one being a doctor and the other being the unstable kidnapper in the story.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

A. There were many techniques in which we used to attract our audience, firstly with the kidnap storyline. Although this type of storyline is quite cliched, it can make for an exciting and gripping film.

The action of a school girl being kidnapped by an unstable man happens right at the beginning of the clip to keep the audience hooked by wanting to find out how the story develops.

Not only does this action at the start create tension, the non-diegetic sound of the music in the background which is a piano piece that changes in volume to make the action more effective in building that tension.

Besides the action and music, the role of the characters also attracted the audience because of the position they are in and how they deal with it. You have a vulnerable young girl who gets kidnapped by an unstable man with psychological issues, which draws the audience in to see how the story unfolds.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

A. When constructing this product i've come to be more familiar when using technologies such as cameras and a Mac computers.

I personally thought that filming the product was quite straight forward, like using functions such as zoom and auto focus aswell as positioning the camera in the desired angle. However I think the most chalenging part was using the Mac computers for the editing. I wasn't familiar with using this particular computer model, so it took a while to learn how to cut scenes etc.

This is the way in which we cut scenes down by 'Split Video Clip at Playhead'.

I have also learnt how to add to our video clips, things like Audio, Transactions and Effects to make the video more effective.

Now it is much easier for me to access and operate iMovies aswell as editing, so I would have any problems in the future.

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

A.

Looking back at the preliminary task it wasn't anything spectacular, just ordinary shot to shots, over the shoulder, that sort of thing, also not that much time was spent on the editing of this task, so it was quite plain.

However moving on to a bigger project has given us the chance to broaden our knowledge of camera angles, shots and techniques like also inserting those transitions and effects to make the clip flow more fluently.

Now when you compare the preliminary task to the final product, you can see the significant steps and changes that were needed to be made in order to successfully film the thriller opening.

Shots were used from different angles, heights etc, and the end product gives us a sense of satisfaction.

Final Product!!!

Evaluation

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

The preliminary task helped in introducing you to the cameras and to iMoive and gave you a basic understanding of the cameras and software. However since the preliminary task and from working on the production of my final product. I have learnt it is important in having storyboards and being well prepared and organised is a key skill and necessity is producing a product. I have developed my camera skills such as using zooms, pans and more technical shots which we did not attempt during the preliminary. Also my editing skills have very much improved i know how to use imovies in more detail now since working on my final product i did not know how to make transitions or add effects on my preliminary task or how to use sound. Overall i think i have made a lot of progress and have learnt a lot about the development, production and editing of a media piece.

Evaluation

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

My knowledge and understanding of cameras and the editing software iMovie has improved. I had no real experience using cameras before so it was a little daunting at first but it soon got easier. Using the cameras I found even shots that I thought were going to be simple were quite difficult depending on lighting conditions and location. We encountered problems such as filming in the direction of the sun and traffic in the car scenes. Technical difficulties we had were when trying to achieve close-ups of the mobile phone the camera kept going out of focus if we got to close. As well as you could see the reflections of the camera lens in the screen. However we did have many successful shots such as the tracking shot of the Mr Pratt's legs walking to post a letter. We placed the camera along side where he was going to walk and as he walked we moved the camera along side him. This had the effect of allowing the audience to follow him as he walked and created a sense of mystery and suspense as the viewer could not see his face, or identify him.







Another successful shot was of the father receiving the letter in the bungalow. I had to use the zoom setting and pull the camera up at the same time this made it more of an interesting shot and add diversity to our shots. From using the cameras I have learnt by doing different types of shots such as zooms, pans, using tri-pods and trackers shots it makes the product more visually interesting for the viewer. I now also understand why production of a film takes times and money. The editing software iMovie was also new to me, I found editing to be challenging and exciting as using iMovie you could see your production developing and you could modify it into it final product.








I have learnt how to add and remove transitions and effects such as ghost trail which created more tension in the kidnapping scene. I have learnt how to import files from the camera to a Mac computer, save audio files in iTunes then get them from the audio lists in iMovie and change the setting to audio to see the audio timeline. iMovie allowed us to cut out the diegetic sound which we did not need and place the non-diegetic theme tune on top. Split videos at playhead to cut shots in to two individual shots this was very useful in making shots long shots shorter, editing out mistakes and making our quick cuts scene.

Evaluation

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by quickly building up suspense and getting to the climax of the opening to keep the audience engages and interested. We edited the kidnapping scene to have quick, manic shots to represent the unexpected and to create tension as she gets kidnapped. During one of our editing session we decided to do this as just having a normal shot of her getting kidnapping was not very effective in attracting our audience. We were thinking of have fast rapid shots originally but due to timing and location it was hard to get these shots. It was more practical and easier to cut the shots we had done during editing. This increased our audience appeal as it would appeal to the demographics of some of our target audience who like action trillers, this scene became more exciting and increased the tension and fast paced action of the car scene.








The ending shot was a close up of the daughters mobile phone screen, showing the dad ringing. We used this shot to attract the audience members who like cliffhangers to keep watching as it ending on a cliff hanger, this created suspense and a motive for the audience to continue watching. It also appealed to the age range of our target audience as it used modern technology. As the generation of today is surrounded by new technology they will relate to this and appeal to their interests in technology.

Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

During the research stage we did questionnaires targeting an audience between 15 and 24 years of age. Our product would appeal to a mainstream target audience through the use of our representation of characters. We portrayed the main protagonist the father to be relatable and the daughter to be a stereotypical teenager. We achieve this through the use of sartorial codes and relatable mise-en-scene such as the school and the house which reflects normality and daily life. Some difficulties we encountered were establishing the characters persona, personalities and relationships. To improve I think we could have used the mise-en-scene better by placing family portraits of the father and daughter in the home, so the audience could make the link easily between daughter and father. This would help further appeal to a wider audience as parents could relate to the relationships and bonds between the family members. The daughter is around 15 and at school this would appeal to viewers of that age. Although are main target audience is a mainstream one our product could also appeal to a niche, independent audience as it require the audience to engage and question what is going on which is typical of a independent thriller it also has a low budget independent feel to it which would appeal to a more independent audience. As well as the sub-theme which is of a medical nature further on into the film and this increased the audience as it would appeal to an audience that liked the medical genre.

Evaluation

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

A mainstream media institution such as Sony Pictures Entertainment would be appropriate for distributing our production.

This is because our media product contains many quality and conventions of a mainstream genre thriller. The thematic concerns of characters such as flawed, and distressed Mr Pratt and the stereotypical school girl. As well as the technical codes such as quick cuts to enhances suspense. Mainstream Institutions have more income and therefore can spend more on distribution of the product so can reach a larger audience. Sony also has many sub-institution such as Sony Picture Classics that specializes in acquiring distribution rights to independent films and also producing low-budget productions. Our product has conventions such a non-linear narrative at the beginning at it start mid-action. It would be quite a low- budget production so Sony Pictures Classics could give it the right support in distributing it to its target audience. It also means that there is still a lot of money going into its distribution as it will be distributed by a organisation attached to the large conglomerate Sony