Nathan HillMedia EvaluationFoy my media portfolio I have chosen to create/make an opening sequence of a film, this opening sequence was expected to last a minimum of 2minutes. For my opening sequence I decided to use the genre Crime Thriller. I had chosen this for many reasons, for example this type of film genre is in my opinion the most enjoyable film to watch, leading on to another reason why I chose to make a Crime Thriller opening sequence, many people enjoy this genre of film therefore I believe that I would be able to make it appealing to a wide variety of target audiences. I named my finished product Deception, the word Deception means to be deceived; we thought that this would link with our film as throughout the entire opening sequence the main character is being deceived. Before filming my main opening sequence, I was required to do a preliminary task, this allowed me and the people in my group to get used to the camera and camera shots that I would be using throughout my entire main task, it allowed us some practise for the main opening sequence. Our preliminary task included footage of different shots/dialog that was essential for later on in our media coursework. -In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?To make sure that I had all the correct information about the conventions of a Crime Thriller film I was required to do a variety of different research, at the start of my project I decided that I should research the typical codes and conventions that feature in Crime Thriller films. A film that I used throughout my entire research is Sin City, this is a typical Crime Thriller film that demonstrates all of the conventions of a Crime Thriller, the typical codes and conventions that I found was; There is almost always a protagonist (main character/hero/heroine) and an antagonist (villain/evil character). A shot that shows a disturbing scene, this could be one character murdering another character or a character in great pain. A scare shot, this would normally be at the end of the opening sequence, it will show the character in a venerable situation. Dark, creepy/eerie music at the opening title of the film, normally downbeat music that gives off the impression that something bad is going to happen (suspense) Suspense- areas within the filming that makes the audience on the edge of their seat, keeping them wondering what will happen next. There is almost always an enigma; this leaves the audience with a question Will they survive, What happens next. Would also include high intensity action, this will help keep the audience engaged and wanting to know more.For my opening sequence, me and the member in my group tried to incorporate all/most of the following conventions, we wanted to do this so we could create a successful Crime Thriller film. We wanted to add suspense to our opening sequence and we also left the audience guessing who the killer could be at the end of our opening sequence. In my opening sequence we give off the impression that our main character is going to be killed however the target audience dont know whether he makes it out or not, this gives the audience the question and makes them want to think about if the character makes it out or not. Like the film I have done research into I have chosen the main character to be a white male who finds himself I a sticky situation, this is a typical convention of a Crime Thriller, I have also used a black male as an antagonist, in this situation my character is a drug dealer therefore copying the stereotype and making him out to be the bad guy, yet we have also left the question to my target audience to see if he is actually a villain or not. Narrative theorist Todorov stated that most films should follow a specific narrative theory, this theory states; A state of Equilibrium, this means that all should be as it should be. A distribution to the Equilibrium, this means that something bad must happen. Recognition, this means that the characters must recognise that the Equilibrium has been altered. An attempt to repair the damage, this means the protagonist will attempt to restore the peace/the Equilibrium. A restoration, this would mean for the film to get back to the Equilibrium stage. For my opening sequence I tried to follow some of Todorov main theorys, however for my opening it doesnt follow the first rule, this rule is A state of Equilibrium, this means that all should be as it should be, even though everything appears to be alright at the beginning of my film and that nothing bad has happened you will see constant flashbacks from one stage of the filming to the other, so we are able to see the second rule, A distribution to the Equilibrium as there are constant flashbacks from when the character is free compared to when he is trapped, however for my opening sequence there isnt anyone who follows the third rule, Recognition, we wanted to add mystery to our opening sequence therefore we didnt make what characters play what roles, we did this because we believed that it would leave our audience guessing and would make them want to watch the full film, also in the filming of our opening sequence we didnt use the 4th and 5th rule as like I have previously said, we believed that if our opening sequence had a bit of extra mystery to it people would be more encouraged to watch it and learn more. Our opening sequence continues to cut into different scenes/flashbacks where one of our main characters appears to be being tortured against his will.

-How does your media production represent particular social groups?Throughout my opening sequence I have tried to show different social groups, for example my main character Kyle, we have shown him as being a casual middle class character who probably has a decent pay job with a relativity good house and possibly a family, however we also show our character in a different perspective, for example when Kyle is captured, the audience would stereotype that he has been gotten in trouble with a drug dealer, which can be stereotyped as a another type of social group, he may have had a very stressful job/family therefore he may have felt the need to resort to drugs which later on in my opening sequence will get him into trouble, therefore this would suggest that we are challenging the middle class status with this character. Another main character that we have used in our opening sequence would be T, T is seen as the antagonist in our opening sequence, however he may or may not be, typically we have used a black male to be our drug dealer, we have stereotyped T as many of our target audience will make the assumption that he will be a drug dealer, T is seen as a lower class citizen as he is perceived as a drug dealer through the opening sequence. T does not challenge the stereotypes surrounding black males as many people would assume that in our film he is the antagonist. My opening sequence could be seen as similar to shows like Adulthood or Kidulthood; this is because in both of them films black males are used as drug dealers as they are portraying the stereotypes surrounding black males. My opening sequence follows some of Propps character theorys, this is because in my opening sequence we are able to see what could be an antagonist and we are also able to a donor, Propp developed the character theorys, he also believes that there are seven broad characters, these character types are; The villain The hero The donor The dispatcher The helper The princess/prize The father/family member or the princess/prizeAs you are able to see, Propps theory links into cartoon/fairy tale films and not so much crime thrillers, even though in my opening sequence I have used what can be seen as an antagonist and a donor.

-What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?Media institutions will make sure that the media products companys make get distributed. For my opening sequence I would like a large distribution industry to help distribute my film, this is because I would like my opeining sequence to be known globally, as this would help with the overall profit of the opening sequence. Out of all the major distribution companys I would prefer Lionsgate to help distribute my opening sequence, this is because Lionsgate have been known for producing a wide variety of successful films, including many crime thrillers, from the history of Lionsgate we are able to see that they will help distribute a variety of different controversial films, for example Saw, I dont feel that my film would be as controversial a Saw however it can be seen as challenging the normal conventions of a crime thriller. A crime thriller that Lionsgate have helped distribute is Blitz, this was one of Lionsgates top selling crime thriller, after watching the opening sequence of the film I am able to see some of the similarities that are represented in my opening sequence, therefore I believe that Lionsgate would be a good distribution company for my opening sequence.

-Who would be the audience of your media product?for this section I felt like it would help to find out a bit more about my target audience, therefore I carried out a questionnaire, the questionnaire was used so that I could gather a better understanding of my audience, I asked 9 questions to my target audience, the questions were the following; Question 1- What gender are you? Question 2- What age are you? Question 3- What is your favourite genre of film? Question 4- What is your favourite Crime Thriller film? Question 5- What do you think makes a good Crime Thriller film? Question 6- What was the last Crime Thriller you watched? Question 7- What type of camera shots/angles would you expect in a Crime Thriller? Question 8- What things interest you about Crime Thriller films? Question 9- What makes you want to continue watching Crime Thrillers?After I had asked these questions to 10 people, 5 boys and 5 girls, I then gathered all the results I needed and put them into pie charts. The first two questions I used to see what both gender of people wanted to see, I chose people within the age range of 15-17 this is because this is what I'm aiming my film at this will be my target audience. On the 4th question I was starting to get an idea of what peoples favourite crime thriller was, I asked this question because I wanted to go through each answer and watch the opening sequence of each film, I did this so I can get an idea what would make a successful opening sequence then I would implement some of the successful features into my opening sequence to try and make it as successful as possible. For question 5 I asked my target audience what they think make a good crime thriller, like question for I asked this so that I could get a better idea of what people want to see from my opening sequence. For question 8 I asked my target audience about what things within a crime thriller interest them, like the following questions I did this so that I could get a clear idea of what to implement into my opening sequence to make it the best t could possibly be. In terms of the social groups that I asked, I asked students in the middle class within the age range of 15-17, I feel that the knowledge that I gathered from my target audience helped me to make an overall successful crime thriller opening sequence. My questionnaire results can be seen on the "planning" page of my blog.

-How did you attract/address your audience?For my media production, I had tried to appeal my target audience the best that I could, I used a questionnaire to find out the best features that people thought should be implemented into a crime thriller to make my opening sequence the best that it could be, I wanted to gather all the information that I needed to make sure that I made the best possible opening sequence I also wanted to see what they wanted from my opening sequence. From all of my research I have now got a clear idea what my target audience want to feature in my production therefore I believe that my questionnaire helped me vastly with the overall outcome of my opening sequence. The main areas that my target audience thought should be implemented into my film, I tried to make sure that I added, this was a technique that I used to try and attract my audience, if they wanted something in my crime thriller that they thought would help improve then I tried my best to add it for them so that it would appeal more to them. The highest request that I added into my crime thriller opening sequence was to make it mysterious, therefore me and my group thought that we would leave my target audience off with a cliff-hanger, this would make the audience want to watch the entire film and it could help produce a wider variety of different audiences. Another request that I also thought was necessary to implement into my film was to make it look good overall, therefore I had to do research into the different settings, sound, camera angles ect that would help attract my audience into watching my opening sequence, my questionnaire also helped me with this section. I used the damp, eerie, dark boiler house to make it look as realistic as possible to my target audience, we used this setting when we was torturing our main character. Another way that I tried to attract my target audience into watching my opening sequence was to make sure that it had a suitable background track, this may have been one of the most important areas that we could've covered within our film, therefore we had to make sure that it would be suitable and would be appealing to our target audience, we tried multiple track until we found the right one that we thought would appeal to our target audience and went well with the film itself. Another thing that I thought would make my opening sequence attract more people would be the fact that I didn't give too much away in it, this would add suspense and would make the target audience want to wait till the full film came out, I did this my making my last scene look like my character was going to be killed off but the audience will not know that the character could escape, I thought that this would attract more people to watch my opening sequence. With all the research that I carried out on trying to attract my target audience to watch my opening sequence I believe that I made it a successful as it could possibly be.

-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?The first and the main media technology that I used throughout my construction of this project would be "Blogger", before the construction of my project I did not hear about it, therefore it was all new to me and it was something that I needed to learn how to use correctly, I used this website only to put all of my coursework on it, for the main aspect of using blogger I mainly used PowerPoint's and word documents to do my coursework on however in some cases I was able to upload straight to blogger, instead of uploading straight onto blogger I used websites like slideshare and scribd, they would allow me to upload PowerPoint's and word documents onto my blogger free of charge, this was useful as it gave me a wider variety of different ways of uploading my coursework. For the filming of my project I used the schools cameras that was provided to us to film both our preliminary task and our main task. I had only ever used a camera a few times, however this was during my year 11 media course, the cameras was abit different to the ones that we was using however it was relatively easy to get used to them. After filming both my preliminary task and my main task I was required to hand the cameras back to the school. Another technological thing I used during the construction of my project was the editing software, we used Adobe Premiere Pro, as I had previously used this editing software it was just a case of getting back into the habit of remembering all the different techniques that I could use to make my opening sequence better. I thought that I used this software well and I am pleased with the outcome of my final opening sequence and also my preliminary task.

-Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you had learnt in the progression from it to full product?During my preliminary task I worked with Ben Wale, our preliminary task didn't take too long to film and we didn't need to re-film any areas, we made sure that all the shots was the best they could be and that we stuck to the main rules that we was given to make this preliminary task successful. Throughout the filming of our preliminary task we didn't come across any problems, we both knew the editing software very well and we knew how to work the cameras well and also we knew what we had to do to make it successful. Another thing that we did during our preliminary task was to create a shot by shot storyboard, we used this so that we was able to follow some sort of guideline when we came around to filming it. I felt that I learnt all the main things that I needed to know in order to make a successful opening sequence and I also believe that my opening sequence came out as well as I thought it would've.