AS media evaluation of media product

By Harry Rebbeck

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

My group and I done a thriller so we had to decide whether it would be a good idea to challenge or support the conventions of what people would usually expect to see in the thriller genre. We thought it would be best if we challenged but also follow the some of the conventions. We challenged the conventions because we wanted our audience to be surprised and shocked at what they would be viewing. However we also to listen and follow some of the conventions so that the viewers will be aware that some things are supposed to be there fit in to this type of genre.

An example of where my group and I challenged a convention of a thriller was that in our film opening sequence, our lighting was quite bright, where as you would usually expect to see quite dark lighting in a thriller. However we thought that this was a good idea because we wanted the audience to be suspicious and would want to see who, and why these people were being stalkedWe also challenged the lighting convention – we done this by making our opening sequence in colour, while in many other thriller opening seqences are very dark e.g. Asylum.

An example of where my group and I did follow a convention of a thriller was the camera movement we used e.g. we used a lot of pan shots and tracking shots.; we done this to show that there were other people in the shot but also so we didn’t see certain characters to try and create some sort of tension.

Development

I think that my group and I developed on the thriller convention on a hidden identity. What I mean by this is that the audience does not know who this stalker is or why the stalker is doing what he is doing. We made sure to add a story in for the stalker such as pictures of victims/targets, this would ensure to the audience that this persons has reasons or the people behind it are either doing it for some sort of revenge or just because they enjoy getting misery out of others.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My group and I mainly represented teenagers as irresponsible. This is because they did not think of the consequences or the possible outcomes/affects that could arise of what they were planning to do. Because the characters in our film are quite young.Sam – 18, male, unemployed, middle class. This character is represented as an irresponsible person which is a negative representation of people his age. This was done by making him act like the ring leader of the group and him acting like he doesn’t really care and making fun of his friends. He was supposed to be a typical teenager, thinking it was a bit fun and not realising what he was getting themselves in to. We show him first talking about how he’s going to prank his friend which makes him seem like a not very good person. This character makes the audience feel annoyed because you wouldn’t really want to get anyone in a situation like that so the audience immediately dislikes him and sides with other characters – the audience almost doesn’t really want to see much of this character.

Ray – 17, male, student, middle class.This character is supposed to be the guy the audience want to side with and this is because he is completely opposite, so he is represented as the responsible one of the group; this is because the first time we see him on screen he is hesitant about hurting or pranking his friend. He is the vulnerable as he doesn’t really get any say in what happens. This character is a stereotypical geek, we do this by making him always think of what will go wrong analysing everything and in way you could say he isn't up for taking risks; he knows right from wrong.I wanted the audience to side with this character because he is forced in to doing things he doesn’t want to, I also wanted the audience to feel sorry the character because of this. This character makes the audience wonder why he is friends with the other two. The audience also sides with him because he cant really stick up for himself and you feel sorry for this character.

Flynn - 18, Male, student, middle class.This character is irrespirable also and he also thinks he knows everything, so he is represented quite smug. We do this by making him talk down to Ray and making him feel worthless. He wouldn’t really fit into one stereotype because he is not a very nice person to be around but he is also very smart , very knowledgeable around technology, and this is weird because you wouldn’t really expect a smart person to be nasty. We intentionally done this because we wanted the audience to constantly question whether they like this character or not.

We also represented a male character as quite a lonely/ character which contradicted what you would normally see because you would usually think that the female characters would be dominated by other characters, but in this case my group and I used a male character for this role. We purposefully done this because we did not want to follow what was the “norm” when it came to characters, we wanted to show the audience a different perspective, we had two different types of male characters one similar to the other character (a more dominant role) and the other male character took the role of someone who was over powered by the two other characters. Which made them vulnerable

Over all my group and I represented the social group of teenagers because our target audience are 15 – 25 age groups and we concluded that the social groups in these age gaps would relate to the characters in our horror film. We also wanted a contrast in our characters because we thought it would widen our target audience.

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

Realistically my group and I would want a major institution to help create our film, and a big distributor to promote our film when it would be re-least to the public, hopefully making it a world wide film. However as we had no/hardly any budget at all to help create this film our realistic institution would be ourselves. We would create it with out own equipment e.g. camera to film and an editing software e.g. final cut pro and movie maker. Our realistic distributor would be YouTube or hopefully Netflix; here a lot of people will see it and possibly recommend it.

Another possibility would have been family/friends/audience funding. This is where they would donate money to help fund the project – in our case a film. The problem with this is that even if people do donate, it still may not be enough to produce a film of the scale we would be hoping, this would result in the film not being made at all. Another problem with this is if not enough people donate, it would be hard to re fund the people who did (if the film making did not go ahead). So this

strategy is not completely guaranteed to succeed.

Disney Pixar – we wouldn’t really pitch our film to this company because they are associated with horror genres and we would lose half our audience even though it is a big distributor. Disney is usually pictured by animated films. So overall we would not class this as a suitable distributor for our film.

Lionsgate – This would be a suitable distributor for our film because they are well known for big blockbusters (similar to Universal). This would be good for us as they could easily promote our film as they are well known and have the money. They are also quite well known for horror films e.g. Saw. They also have the contacts to make our film as good as it can be.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my group and I’s media product (horror film opening sequence) are to be young teenagers to young adults (15-25 years old).

These age groups are our target audiences because the type of characters we have created/decided to portray in our film have characteristics that the audience of our choice can relate to.

My group and I also had to think about a suitable target audience for our film considering it was a horror. What I mean by this is because it was a thriller we had to think carefully about every detail our film had e.g. the type of language we had in our film, so we had to link the two together.

I think the target audience we chose will be good for our film because I think by the end of the film they would want to see it again or recommend it.

How did you attract/address your audience?

First of all my group and I constructed a questionnaire that would give the audience an idea of what they could be expecting in our film. This was because my group and I listened to the response of our questionnaire e.g. they think that mise en scene is a good way to create an atmosphere for a good thriller movie.

We also put in some enigma codes e.g. why are these characters being targeted; this story would keep the audience engaged as they want to find out why? Also because our film was set in a near enough local area it gives the sense of reality and that what is happening can happen to anybody and this gives the audience fear.

Narrative:

We wanted address our audience in a way that they could relate the characters and have an opinion on the film. We found out that they mostly prefer thriller films (equal to popularity in horror) so this is what we based our film genre on. To try and do this to effect we carried out a questionnaire to get the correct information for our film however I don’t think we did this full effect as we didn’t really answer a suitable amount of questions to get enough information.

We wanted a story that would create tension while the audience was watching, this was because we didn’t want to think that it was just a movie, we wanted them to think that this could actually happen, and possibly happen to them.

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

During this process of planning and constructing this media project I have learnt new information such as the technology used to create a product such as this; and also the process that institutions/film companies have to go through to actually get their film distributed across the world.

I have learnt how to set up a tripod e.g. how to connect the camera to the grip.I have learnt how to set up a blog (blogger) to put all my findings on.I have also leant about all different types of camera shots and the transitions that come with them.I have also learnt how to edit all of the shots collected together using editing software e.g. final cut pro and Microsoft movie maker.

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 preliminary task my group and I did I have I have a learnt all the different types of rules that come with filming which I didn’t know existed such as the 180 degree rule. When I did the preliminary I did not follow this rule so when it came to actually filming my opening sequence I knew what I had to do. I have also gained knowledge on some professional shots such as tilt up shot, extreme close ups. This was helpful when it came to our actual shoot because we could vary what we wanted our audience to see to possibly build up some tension.I have also learned about the use of sound in a film and the affect it can have to make the audience have different feeling towards what it happening (diegetic and non diegetic sound). Also the camera movements which relate to the editing process; this is because of such rules as match on action, where we have to edit it to look like the different shots are actually being shot at the same time and make it look like there is not a lapse in time when edited together. I also learnt that everything you film must have a purpose other wise what you are filming is pointless

Over all I think the preliminary task helped me with the progression into filming my actual film because it made my knowledge on filming a lot better and aloud me to have more ideas to construct a good film opening that will have an effective impact on whoever views it.