EVALUATION

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

In our media studies lessons, we have been working towards making an introduction for a thriller. This introduction will need to be no longer than two minutes and it will need to set the scene for the rest of the film. In my group’s opening, we decided to make it a 15 because of the content of the film and the language used later on in the film. To come to this conclusion, we used the BBFC website and found out what was allowed in a 15 rated film and was not. So, if there is violence in the film and it is seen, then it can not be a 12. However, if there is too much and it is “bloody violence” then it will be rated as an 18. This is why we came to the conclusion of making our film a 15. To get to our final idea, we watched many different thriller films but the one that we got most of our ideas from, was “Jagged Edge.” You can see this in our film from the dark room and the killer being followed by the camera and him being quite in his approach to the room. We also got the idea of some music being played over the top of the scene from Leon where the music is playing as the camera pans across the scene.

To make a thriller it will need to have all of the right conventions. It is hard to really define a thriller because there are so many sub genres. In a thriller you normally get a killer, a victim, an investigator and a suspect. They normally start off with the victim being killed, the inspector going through a list of options and then finding out who the killer is at the end of the film. However, this only happens in the policing thriller movies. In the first couple of minutes of a thriller, you need to set the scene for the movie and also start off the narrative. This is important so that you can keep the audience guessing all the way through the film and to keep them interested and to also help them to understand the film. One convention of the thriller genre is that all of them tend to run in a chronological order, for example in a policing thriller when the inspector is going through all the suspects then finding the killer last. However, a film can also run in non-chronological order when you find out who the killer is to start off with, but then find out why they did it. This shows why the killer was wanting to kill the victim, how they were leading up to it, and then in the end, how.
In our film we used many different camera shots like close ups, pans and a low shot. We used the panning so that we could let the camera adjust to the light and so that we could set the scene for the start of the movie. We did the close ups so that we could see the emotion in our actors face when he is looking at the picture of his “daughter.” We used the low shot so that we could get a different shot type into our work and also so it could be used to show that our actor is the main character in our film and so we are portraying him as an important person and so we are looking up at him.

When we watched some thriller openings in class to get an idea of what we need to do, we were also starting to put together an idea of our own. We got some ideas from Jagged Edge like the dark clothing for the killer which would make it seem as if he is evil and he would also blend into the dark background. We also used the camera shot of panning around the room, this meant that the audience could see where our actor was and it is also setting the scene. The darkness of the room in our media film was also from Jagged Edge. The idea of no talking and an eerie style of music came from previous films we have seen in our own time and that it is also an old fashioned style of getting the tension up. We also found that this was in Leon at the start of the film when the car is driving along the road in the dessert. It was done like this to create tension. One idea that we did have was to have a shot of the mirror and you can see the door opening in the reflection. Unfortunately, we could not do this due to the shape of the room. Instead, we had a shot of the door opening from a low angle as the dog came into the shot and we also followed the killer going into the room for the kill.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In my research I looked at who is represented in the films and how the character is portrayed. For example in the film Jaws the cop is shown to be someone who is uptight about everything and likes to keep his thoughts to himself. He is also shown to be worried about the resent deaths of many people and is shown to be a person who likes to get everything right. He is also portrayed as a middle class man because of his job as a policeman and as the way he dresses. This meant that the film was aimed more at the middle class people than others. From my research into other thrillers that we have been looking at, I found that the killers usually tend to wear dark clothing and they cover their faces. This is so that they can blend into the background in the dark clothing and so we do not know who the killer is, therefore, making us guess who the killer is. I found this from the movie Jagged Edge and the killer was dressed in dark clothing. When we were filming the killer walking into the room, we never saw his face and we stayed behind him to do this. This would have made it harder for the audience to guess who the killer was later on in the film. This will also get more people interested in the film as they have to interact with it. We filmed the victim using a lot of close ups and midshots. This was to show his emotions and to show how he reacts to the dog coming into the room. We had our actor dressed in just normal clothing for what we though a young father would be wearing. This was to create the feeling that it was a normal person who had lost his daughter. The lighting around the victim was fairly bright but it was down by the floor and so there were not many shadows. This was good because as the killer walked into the room; it looked as if he really was blending into the black because of not having shadow. We tried to get this film to appeal to as many people as possible and to do this; we made it a 15. Hopefully, it will also appeal to all the classes, especially the lower classes and a family. This is because the main character in it is a middle class man who has lost his only daughter when she was very young. We have shown this by the clothing our actor wore, and also through the photograph of his daughter on the rocking horse. This means many it will strike people with a family and they feel as if they could relate to the character. The main reason for it is because a family’s biggest fear is to lose their child.

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

I think that we should use the company Warner Bro’s to distribute our film. This is because they have produced and distributed out many films, including our film style, thrillers. Warner Bro’s is a large, American company and is one of the largest producers of films. Warner Bro’s own many different sub companies which include “Warner Bro’s Studies”, “Warner Bro’s Animation” and “Warner Bro’s Entertainment”. Warner also owns half of “The CW Television Network”. Some films that Warner Bro’s have distributed that fit into the thriller genre are ones like “Terminator” in 1984 and the Harry Potter Series. This are both in the Thriller genre and so therefore mean that Warner will hopefully distribute our film. Warner Bro’s also make films for all ages so will also accept our film which is classified as a 15.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

To find out the main target audience of our film we decided to produce a questionnaire and to give it to many different people of both genres and different ages. The youngest we asked was 16 and the oldest was 40. We asked them questions like “what type of thriller genre do you prefer?” The main type of thriller genre people liked the most was an action thriller, and the least popular was medical. We decided to go for a cross between a crime and a psychological thriller style. This was because both of these styles were popular and they also go well together. Another reason why we chose this style is because we had some ideas that had already been rolling around this type of genre. Most of our audience was younger people but we also had some older people who we asked to find out what they thought about thriller films. We asked mostly middle class people who we felt would be interested in the thriller genre of film because the story is based around a middle class family. To find out what people liked about thrillers we watched some bits of a thriller and deconstructed it to find out what makes the film work

How did you attract/address your audience?

We have met our audience expectations by doing the film as a crime and a psychological thriller, which were the two main genres of thrillers that the people we asked with our questionnaires liked. We have also put in many different aspects that they liked as well. For example, they liked the idea of the introduction ending as a cliff-hanger and we have done this by leaving it as the main character is possibly killed off at the end of the introduction. This means that the cliffhanger would be that the audience does not know if the person lived or even who tried to kill him. The BBFC would influence our age rating of a 15 by saying that the language in the film most be moderate but the stronger words may be used as long as they are not used all the time or out of context. It will also say that the violence in the film can be strong as long as it does not dwell on it or show any forms of self-harm. Hopefully, this will mean that we will get more people watching the film and also thinking that it is a good one and that it can relate to them. This is because it is all about the family and so will relate to the people watching it.

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

While filming our thriller opening, we learnt how to properly use the camera and tripod system and we also learnt about the editing software we would be using. For the camera, we learnt that if you zoomed into fast with the camera, or started to film strait away, then it would take a while to focus and will be a bit blurry as you start. I also have learnt keeping my hand steady for when the tripod could not be used or was inaccessible. For the editing, I have learnt how to capture the shots from the camera and onto the computer, how to edit the computer by using Adobe Premier Pro and how to add effects like fades and titles. Using the editing software was a new experience for all of us, as none of us had ever used it before we started to edit our preliminary task, so we had a bit of a go at everything. When it came to editing our main film, none of us could remember how to do everything, but we could all remember little bits of it so we got it all done between us. While filming and editing our preliminary task, we found that we really needed to have a longer gap between shots and that we needed to leave the camera to focus better before starting to film. On our main task, we did leave it longer yet we still did find it a bit hard to get the editing right still. We also found that at the start of the film, it was really dark. To get around it, we put in a fade to hide the fact that it was really dark. For the music of our film, we had some difficulty finding the right sort of music for our film as we could not use real music, until we found out about the web site “soundsnap” and one member of our group also found an old music box in their attic. While adding our music to our final film, we found it hard to try and get it all right to the last bit of film to make it sound as if it carried on without a jump.

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

I feel that all of us have developed as both film makers and editors because we all know more now, than we ever have done and I think that with a bit more practise on the editing software, so that we can get better on it to make it easier for us. One of the strengths of our preliminary task was that we tried out many different styles of shots and we also got to grips with working with the camera and working as a group. It also allowed us to experiment with many different ideas we had and to see if they would work or not. Although we did get the hang of it, we still learnt some important lessons from it, the main one being not to let your actors take over as a director. The other one was that we needed to leave a few more seconds before we started to film properly so we could cut the pieces of film easier in editing. In the main task we left some more time in front of most shots although I think that we needed to leave a bit more time on some of them and that we did not let our actor take over as a director, even though he is in our group. For our preliminary task we did do a plan, all though we did not fully stick to it. The same happened in our main task although we did stick with it more in our main task. We also had to change one idea in the main task of the reflection in the mirror of the killer coming through the door of the room. If I were going to do another short film, I would make sure I would stick to the plan I made in the first place. I would also try out different ideas on the set that we would be using to make sure I know what I am going to be doing on the real day. Also I would make sure that before every shot, we left a gap of 10 seconds before we shot. As a group, I think that we all helped in the filming and we all came up with ideas on how to improve it or where to put the props. While film the main task, I did nearly all of the camera work as I was more confident with it.