Evaluation

Question One – In what way does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In our media product we used several different psychological thriller conventions from real media products. In our research and planning we researched the different conventions of thriller films to get some sort of an idea of what the target audience would expect to see in a thriller film and what makes a thriller film more effective. I looked into the conventions used in lighting, mise-en-scene, camera shots, camera movements and sound that were most commonly seen in thriller films. I looked at the conventions in horror and thriller films such as to kill a mockingbird, Orphan, the unborn, the house at the end of the street and the cabin in the woods.

We also looked at TV programmes such as Six Feet Under and Dexter for inspiration. We really liked a shot from Six Feet Under of the opening shot of the sky and the camera then turns into an establishing shot of a field with a tree. We really liked this idea so we developed the idea and made it our own. We did this by having the camera go into a sky shot and have our film title ‘voices’.

A convention of a thriller film that is expected to be in a thriller is the location being at an old or run down house in a quite isolated area. We used this convention in our film. The location we choice was at Laura’s nans house because it was to our advantage as it was easy to access to film and we thought it was the perfect setting as it is an old cottage. I got the idea of where we should have our setting from the film ‘the cabin in the woods’ because it seems quite scary to be in an old house in quite an isolated area.  Another convention of a thriller that we used is the use of a mirror; we used the mirror as a camera shot to show the main character appr0oaching the room. The mirror was used in the thriller film ‘the unborn’ which was realised in 2009.

We then looked at different camera shots that are used as a convention in thriller films.  We used framing shots and close up shots because they are a good way to use to build suspense tension in thriller films such as the film 'se7en' a numerous of times. Establishing shots and long shots are used in thrillers being used to set the scene and to show the audience where the scene will be taking place. We used these shots in our film because they are the most typically used shots that are used in thriller films.

Another thriller convention that we used in our media product was sound. We used tense music in the background and didn’t include any of the characters having dialogue. The only dialogue is the sound of the television in the background when we see the mum unaware of the main character sneaking out of the house.

In our media product we also developed the idea of the commonly used tracking shot by doing the tracking shot from behind a bush so the shot looks as if someone is watching the main character walking across the garden to create eeriness and tension and make the audience question whether the voices she is hearing are actuallysomeone who is watching her, or that it is all in her head and she is actually suffering from a mental illness. This leads to the audience questioning the story line and make them intrigued to know what is actually happening to her.

Also in our media product we challenged the lighting convention used in thriller films. The lighting in thriller films is most likely to be dark and gloomy; we challenged this because unlike most thrillers we filmed our films in well light settings and used natural lighting. We did this because the main character who is actually suffering from schizophrenia because of the death of her twin sister is unaware of her condition as well as her family. We want the audience to think that she is a normal teenager but might actually have a dark past. Whereas, if we had used dark settings that is used mainly to represent darkness within people we wanted to go against the normal stereotypical psychological thriller. 

 Question Two– How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our two minute film opening represents modern teens in many ways through our use of mise en scene.  In our media product the main character in our film is a girl in her teens who is roughly 15 years old. This means that our media product might represent teenage girls within this age range.  Through the use of clothing, our main character in fashionable clothing which teenagers would wear, such as a white knitted jumper and black leggings.

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

A studio such as fox searchlight pictures might have an interest to distribute my media product because they are interested in films that are the same genre as our film.  Fox searchlight have distributed horror and thriller films such as 28 days later, the hills have eyes, black swan, Joshua, 28 weeks later as well as others.

Another media institution that might distribute my media product is cinema’s such as Vue located all over the United Kingdom. Cinemas would be interested in my film because they show lots of different films with different genres. Netflix is also another media institution that might be interested in my product because they provide different genre films including horror and thriller films to the public, therefore they might be interested in distributing my media product.

However, the internet will be what my audience will be predominantly using to watch my film. Websites such as let me watch this and blink box is the most common website that teenagers use to watch films online.   

Question Four – Who would be the audience for your media product?

I have found that psychological thrillers usually have age ratings of 15. This is because they contain violence and psychological issues that may be disturbing to young people. However the target audience differs from the age limit as the target audience is the main ages of the market that the film aims to entertain. For our film we think it would be a good idea to target an audience of late teens to young adults. Approximately 16-25. By targeting teenagers this means we will have a greater understanding of what this age group want in a film. Also because it will mean we can have a larger sample size for our primary audience research to make our findings more representative.

Question Five – How did you attract/address your audience?

At first we looked into how the casting of the film would attract the audience. Initially our main character was meant to be a young girl between the age of 7 and 10 however we changed the main character to a teenaged girl who is roughly 15 years old. We thought that if the girl was older, our target audience who we said were people between 16-25 years old 

they could relate more to the main character more.

We then went on and looked at how the setting would attract the audience. The setting in our film attracts the audience because it is set in an old cottage which is a very common convention that you would expect to see in a thriller film. This is because if the setting was in a modern house it might not have the same effect as what the old cottage has as it makes the audience feel tense and quite scared whereas, if it was set in a modern house it wouldn’t have the same effect.

We then looked into costume, make up and props, the main character wears clothing that is quite fashionable as she is wearing a white knitted jumper, black leggings and a jack wills coat this will attract the audience because they might dress similarly. We also looked into the type of make-up she would be wearing, we made sure she wore barely and make up and we put dark eye shadow under her eyes to make her look tired to show that she wasn’t sleeping properly to indicate to the audience that something was right. We only really used one main prop which was and the picture of the little girl, this made the audience question the picture and make them want to know why she is carrying the picture and what the picture means to her.

And last but not least we looked into the type of music we would use. We used sound to attract our audience by making it sound quite creepy in order for our audience to feel the tension and built a climax, and therefore they wanted keep watching in order to find out what happens next.  

we learnt how to use the software. The knowledge of using iMovie increased from when we made our prelims and the full product as editing the prelim was basic editing, whereas when it came to editing the full product it took more time to ensure it was the best it could be. We also used the blog website ‘blogger’ to blog about all of our research and planning that we had to do before filming our full product.

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

In the process of constructing our media product we learnt how to use a variety of different types of technology.  Firstly, we learnt how to use and set up the camera and tripod correctly. Through the practice that we got whilst filming our preliminary task it made it a lot easier when it came to filming our opening sequence. When it came to editing we had to learn how to use apple macs which I personally hadn’t had much experience on until taking media studies. We mainly used iMovie and iTunes, having already used iTunes iMovie was complicated to use at first but in making the prelims we learnt how to use the software. The knowledge of using iMovie increased from when we made our prelims and the full product as editing the prelim was basic editing, whereas when it came to editing the full product it took more time to ensure it was the best it could be. We also used the blog website ‘blogger’ to blog about all of our research and planning that we had to do before filming our full product.

 

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

The progression from the preliminary task to the full product taught me a lot in regards to how to use the technology involved in making the product and how to get the most use out of it. The preliminary task was different to the full product in a number of ways. Even though the preliminary task and the full product were different the preliminary task taught me the basic skills in order to make the full product to the best of my ability.

The planning for our full product took a lot more time than it did to plan our prelim task, as we needed to look into things with more detail as well as researching conventions of thrillers. By making a story board it showed me how important it was that each shot linked in with the next shot and that they were in order and that it will appear in a sequence. In the prelim task we didn’t have to research but in the full product we had to research characters, location, costumes, conventions of a thriller film and our audiences.

The prelim really helped when it came to working on the full product. It showed us how important it was to plan everything before filming the full product. It also taught us a lot about how to manage our time, although we had more time to film our full product than when we filmed our prelims it was still very time consuming. Probably the most important thing that I learnt from the prelim task was to film the same footage twice so that if one shot doesn’t look right then you have a backup saves going back to the shot at a later date and having to rush it. As well as saving time it also gave us a variety to choice from.  

The full product required more amount of careful editing unlike the prelim was basic and was completed within a short amount of time. The prelim gave me the chance to experiment with different camera shots and angles and be creative.

During the production of making the full product we used a lot of skills that we learnt whilst making the prelim. The prelim taught us how to do basic shots such as shot reverse shots and match on editing whereas in the full product it allowed us to be more creative with our shots and being able to work with different effects, music and also titles. We didn’t use shot reverse shot in the final piece because shot reverse shot is typically used to show conversations between characters however, we didn’t include any dialogue in our full product, so we didn’t include it cause we thought it wasn’t necessary to do so. However, we did use match on editing when the main character opened the door from inside the house and then coming out the door from outside.