Evaluation

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

Realising that the opening sequence is an essential part of my film as it introduces the audience, I felt the need to make the audience want to keep watching. I did this by following the girl on her journey; I thought that this would make the audience want to follow the rest of the sequence to find out what happens to her in the end. My film conforms to the stereotypical real film, as it starts by introducing the main character, followed by the title of the film.

Films that use a similar introduction to this would be 'The American.' The conventions of this film are similar to mine, as the opening sequence follows the main, innocent character on their journey before revealing the title of the film.




My film conforms to typical conventions of thrillers in a few ways:
It doesn’t reveal the identity of the killer; also it contains ‘spooky’ lighting. This makes the audience suspicious of who the killer could be, and also the spooky lighting creates a setting where bad things could happen.

Within my thriller, I do not use dramatic music as such, but the choice of music I made, I think suits my film, as the lyrics are associated with my film as they repeat that someone is coming to get them. The music also has an echo in a way that could resemble the voice of the killer, which would create tension for the audience. This conforms to the conventions of a typical thriller.
Also conforming to the conventions of a thriller, I use high angle shots. This makes the character appear more vulnerable which is key in a thriller, as it will make the audience scared for what is going to happen to the character.

My film also conforms to the conventions of a thriller by the setting. The graveyard location is mysterious and builds tension for the audience as this is an environment associated with death.

The opening of my thriller challenges the conventions of a thriller by filming in an environment with bright, natural lighting. This is not typical of a thriller. My film also doesn’t have the use of silence which is common in thrillers. I chose to leave this out as I did not have time to fit it in, and thought that it may be boring.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I think that my film represents the younger audience of teenagers aged 13-18 as the main character involved is of that age range. My film focuses on the social group of females. I believe it represents a typical middle class young adult, from the way I chose to dress her. I chose to dress her in typical fashionable clothing, which you would expect a woman to be wearing in the street on a normal day. Females are also associated with being victims in thrillers, as they are seen as vulnerable and innocent. Within my film, I only tried to represent this one social group, as my target audience was teenagers aged 13-18, and I thought that using a vulnerable looking, young female would appeal to them most, and relate to them. Mise-en-scene was important as I wanted to relate to the target audience as much as possible. I chose for the girl to be listening to her music through her phone, as many young teenagers have a music playing device. This would relate to the target audience, and also is a stereotypical representation of how older/younger generations view teenagers.

This is a picture of the person I chose to play the victim. I believe she has a vulnerable, yet stereotypical female look.Most thrillers chose to have the victim as a female, as they are typically seen as vulnerable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQKs169Sl0I

-The embedding code had been disabled for this trailer.
This thriller also has a young female as the victim.

I did some brief research into target audiences, and found that teenagers were one of the largest target audiences in the UK for thriller films. This is why I chose my specific target audience. Also as being a female teenager myself, I believed I would be able to adapt my films in ways to what I thought girls/boys in my age range would be interested in.

http://www.valmorgan.co.nz/nz/audiences/profiles/thrillers/


What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of media institution that may distribute my product, would probably be a low budgeted company such as ‘Universal Home Entertainment’ or ‘United International Pictures (UIP).’ Both these companies have distributed many UK films, and mainly consist of low budgeted films. I believe both these companies would be relevant to distribute my film, as it’s a first film, where the director has not had much experience. I believe that they would have a better chance of being funded by these companies, than larger ones such as Universal Pictures Fox Film Corporation.

I believe they have better experience with low funded films, and therefore would suit distributing my product.
Unconventional distributors distribute their products online; this could be a cheap solution for me to promote my film. My product could be marketed online through social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, this would be a good form of promotion as my target audience regularly use these sites.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
My thriller initially was supposed to target both male and female, ranging from the age of 13-17. However, I feel my film may appeal to older age groups and mainly men, as men are generally more likely to watch thrillers as they can tend to be scary, therefore women do not find them appealing. Apart from this, the main character is a young female, which would attract a female audience as they can relate to the character.
I believe my film is alternative and would appeal to both female and male teenagers who enjoy watching thrillers.


How did you attract/address your audience?

I did a questionnaire within my class, I asked the following questions:

Would you rather the killer be a mystery or obvious?
The result of this question was 11/15 students would prefer the killers identity to be a mystery. I believe that conforming to this choice would attract my audience.

Would you prefer a couple of main characters, or a large cast?
The result was that the majority of students asked (9 0f 15) would prefer a couple of main characters. I believed that to address my audience, only having one main character would be suitable.

I used modern camera and editing techniques, such as handheld camera, and cross cutting. I believe that as a younger audience are more up to date with technology, this would address them more.I addressed my audience by having a young girl in a setting that most of my target audience would be familiar with (the house). I also filmed in a suburban setting, which relates to my target audience of teenagers as most of the middle class audiences live in such areas. I believe that filming in a graveyard would also appeal to them, as it is a mysterious location and teenagers are not familiar with this location, so would want to discover more about it.
If I a bigger budget was available, I would of chose to attract my audience by advertising on social networking sites, on radio stations that are associated with teenagers, and in cinemas.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt that technology can often be unreliable, as I had many issues with the editing programme crashing. I also learnt that lighting has a big effect on how the camera captures images. I overcame this problem by re-shooting certain scenes in different weather conditions. Ambient sound was often muffled by the camera not being correctly positioned, so again, I re-filmed these scenes by placing the camera closer to the sound I wanted to capture. One of the scenes I had this problem with was when the girl was walking out of the door.

If I had the chance to re-film the whole of my project on a bigger budget, I would choose to have a better camera. I believe this would give a better image and sound quality. This would probably attract a wider audience as they would not think that it was a low budget film, and therefore would probably be more entertaining. Also if given a bigger budget, I would choose to have lighting as this would enhance the final product. I’d also pay for a better location, or a set, so I could have the setting exactly how I wanted it to appear.

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

With working in a group I do not believe that I had the chance to use the camera as much as I would have liked. I believe that I have progressed to my final product by gaining experience with using the camera and editing programme. I have learnt that I work better independently as I could things the way I wanted to rather than having to negotiate with others.
I have learnt the factors of what a thriller consists of, and how to portray my characters in certain ways. For example, how using certain camera angles can make a person appear vulnerable, or superior
I have learnt that small errors such as having the same weather conditions when re-filming parts of a scene are vital, as having different lighting would make it look fake and un-professional. Another thing I learnt, was to not catch the shadow in the filming of scenes, as when filming the boy going up the stairs in our preliminary task, we caught the shadow of the camera, and therefore had to refilm.

I have learnt how to stablise the camera using a tripod, as in the preliminary task, there were many scenes where the camera was shaky. I learnt how to pan with a tripod without it shaking, which is something we as a group could not achieve.
I believe that the placing of the credits have a impact on the film, as in the preliminary, they are not placed in a imaginative way, therefore this makes the film apear rushed.
Cutting scenes so they do not go on for a long period of time, and boring people, was something that I changed in my final product. I believe that this is because i had more time to come to terms with how the editing programme worked, and as working idividually, I spent more time using it and therefore gained more experience.