As Media Evaluation- Question 7

Question 7-

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

The prelimniary task was a real learning curve for myself as I learnt skills and valuable information that I would use later on in the filming of my thriller. For example; the camera was very new to myself, and having experienced and getting to grips with it within the premlimary task allowed me to be able to be comfortable and efficent at using the camera when it came to the filming of the thriller. Had we not had the opportuinty for a preliminary task, valuable information would not have been learnt and would have wasted time in our thriller filming process. As well as adding experience, it also allowed us to work and get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses as a group overall, making it easier to set roles for when we were planning our thriller.

When comparing our preliminary task and our thriller, we can clearly see the differences in what we have learnt. The preliminary task now appears as rather basic in comparrison to our thriller, and it is a notable showing of just how much I had learnt in the profession from it to my full product (my thriller). There are clear indication of errors within our preliminary task that had I have known what I do now that I could have fixed. For example, the use of editing was very vivid and the shots do not run smoothly into each other. Now as an individual, I can edit and would have been able to have fixed that error had I have known at the time.

Looking back on my preliminary task we can see that the purpose of it was to prepare me for the task ahead. Reflecting back on the task now, as students we have came a very long way in regards of so many aspects that are regarded within the filming industry. From the preliminary task we learnt a series of things that we were able to carry and incorporate within my final task. Things such as compromising as a group was learnt from the preliminary task as well as, tasks such as setting up the equipment from one shot to the next. Overall the skills learnt within the preliminary task, allowed my  group to really excel within our work. Had we had not had the preliminary task, perhaps our thriller would have not been to our wishes and expectations as we would have not been able to undergo a learning process. As a group we refer to the preliminary task as a real eye opener for us all as to what our thriller process was going to be like.

As Media Evaluation- Question Six

Question 6-

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

Prezi Presentation 

http://www.prezi.com/5q3qsyqyqdjk/

By constructing our product we have learnt a lot about technology and the use of it within both media and the thriller genre as a whole. We used a series of technology within our thriller from, blogger where we posted our research weekly to the use of the camera and tripod in our filming, reaching right the way through to the use of the software programme Final Cut Pro X at the end of our task. Learning to use the camera and the tripod was tested during our preliminary task, as it gave us a chance to get to know our equipment. The task allowed us a chance to also see who handled the equipment best which, then resulted in helping contribute towards our planning of production roles. With anything new there were a few difficulties such as, figuring out how to set the tripod up efficiently and how to play back what we had pre recorded. This was all solved by enquiring and taking our time when handling the situations so, we could learn how to use it properly so, we would have no further errors in the future. Other difficulties we faced within the context of using the camera and tripod was executing different camera angles we had chosen. We found shots such as Close ups were quite easy to carry out where as, panning took some control and further planning. We overcomes this similar to how we did with our other problems which, was brainstorming as group and researching into how we could carry it out correctly. The editing software Final Pro X was use by both Sophie and I as we had a joint role of editors. In this process as learnt a great deal about editing such as, how to crop our shots down and how to rearrange our work. We found that we were strong at creating the credits as we found our research into it had really payed off. However, we found our weakness was fitting our work within the time slot given. This was overcome by a group meeting between us and looking at the piece together and deciding as and where we can take parts out. One area within our film that reflects our editing skills is the jump cut from the killer attacking the victim to the victim waking up. This shows that we can place a cut within our thriller and make it appear as if a scene has jumped from one to the next smoothly. 

As Media Evaluation- Question Five

Question 5-

How did you attract/address your audience? 

Primary research as we see above in my video ,was essential to our production. It was essential due to making our film appeal to our viewers as much as we could, as we were treating our thriller production as if it was to be presented to an audience and to be enjoyed by them. Had we have not taken any primary research out we would have not known what our audience was looking for within our production. This would have led to us not being able to incorporate there opinions within our thriller, which would thus be a less effective thriller.

 The type of primary research carried out was the survey which, we collected in both video format and written. It obtained a mix of both opened and closed questions, so we could collect a range of information. There were many stages within the research process from the analysis of thriller films to the creation of the questionnaire. By having taken our a series of secondary research before taking out our primary research, we had a knowledge and background of thrillers behind us which, shone through in our final research task. These type of researches assisted us in the planing of our thriller by letting us know and have an insite into our audiences requests. It allowed us to plan the film around them, making our audience feel very valued and involved in our creation, and satisfied with the end product. Overall without the taking out of both secondary and primary research our thriller may have lacked audience value, as they would have had no say in our thriller resulting in it not appealing to them as much as we would have liked. 

As Media Evaluation- Question Four

Question 4-

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As we can see from my video, in the film industry, recognising and appealing to your chosen target audience is extremely important as ultimately they will be the people watching and viewing your film. Recognising our target audience early on in the pre-production process was vital as it determined the content of our thriller film. For example: a film that is aimed at young children will contain different content than one that is aimed at adults in their mid twentys.  The aim is to get your target audience to be able to relate to what is going on in the film.

Taking this into account,  after conducting a survey my group concluded that the most generic target audience for a thriller is 15-25 year olds. As my brief was to produce a thriller film, we quickly decided that we would use this age group to keep in with the generic and conventional thriller audience- aiming our thriller at 15-25 but mainly focusing on the teenage audience.

As my target audience are the 15-25 age group, we felt it was important to incorporate a main character who was of this age range. I decided to use Sophie as our main character and victim, as she is 17 and would be considered apart of my target audience. By the audience feeling that Sophie falls into the same category as them, they form a relationship with Sophie. This character and audience relationship allows the audience to feel sorry for Sophie and the events that take place to her as they care about her well being in the thriller. Had Sophie had not been the same age as my target audience of my thriller sequence then the relationship between the audience and my main character may have not been as notable as it was. Watching someone who is their own age enables a sense of worry and fear and with the help of the relatable setting; makes them put themselves in the characters shoes.

I created my narrative in order to link in with my target audience. The storyline of being at a train station with your friends and then being left to travel partially by yourself is something my audience can relate too as they may or would have been in this situation themselves. I also believe my mise en scene helps to attract and appeal my target audience towards my thriller as, we dressed the female and her friend in stereotypical teenager clothes that the audience would wear. This means they can feel as if they have something in common with the main characters and picture the experience in a more realistic light.  Furthermore, using slang like dialogue at the beginning of the clip with my characters makes the audience feel as if they are apart of the conversation as they understand what is being said. These all meant that my thriller appealed to the correct target audience in a positive manner.

As Media Evaluation- Question Three

Question 3-

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

http://www.prezi.com/mv7m3chcag73/

The generic conventions of a thriller are, dark lighting, suspense filled soundtrack, unexpected sounds and a series of camera angles, to name a few. These are all presented in successful thriller films which, support us as a group using them as we know that they have made a positive impact prior. As a group we researched past thriller films in order to collect a wide knowledge of conventions, their impact and their success rate. For example: a conventional storyline to a thriller is the use of an unknown caller which, we as a group first indenitifited in scream. As a group we used the use of an unknown caller in our thriller to make sure we were being generic and were displaying to our audience a sense of foreboding. Having we had not taken this research, other aspects we used such as low key lighting which is seen in Prom night, and a suspense filled soundtrack which is seen in The Conjuring, we wouldn't have known how to use them to their full effect. These were used in our thriller at different points. Low key lighting was used throughout, but, we used a relatable setting which too is a convention. We used a train station as our target audience were ranged between 15-18 and would currently be using public transport to get home perhaps late at night. By using this, the audience were relating the events that took place to the characters to themselves. Our opening sequence defines the thriller genre as it obtains many micro elements of the genre throughout the duration of it, if we was to compare our thriller to another film it would be final destination in regards of this. Our story line is slightly simular and the use of transport being used is also evident in ours, other micro elements that are simular are the use of high pitched music which, is used in our thriller. Both our thriller and Final Destination use the use of high pitched music when the main part of the thriller is about to take place, this means we can define to our audience when certain parts are going to happen. 

Over the years many media distributors have created a reputation for themselves that ensure people wanting to have their film distributed by their company. Having created my film, it allowed me to place it within the thriller genre firmly and think and consider what company may have distributed my film to the public. One media distributor I considered was LimeScape. LimeScape distributed the Saw films to the public and although Saw is a hybrid between horror and the thriller genre, I saw similarities within the Saw films and The Continuity (My thriller). Simulaities I found and discovered were the continuous storyline and the use of the suspense filled soundtrack. Having seen similar conventions used with a film that was distrubted by a company, allows me as the maker of my film, to consider my film perhaps being distributed by them too due to the similar nature.

As Media Evaluation- Question Two

Question 2-

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents certain social groups through it's use of character. Within my thriller I  obtain three characters. The main character is a blonde female, which links in with the stereotypical blonde perception. I made the actor portray this by wearing girly clothes, that were coloured pink as the connotation of the colour is stereotypical to niaivety. This character was included in order to portray a vulnerable character to the audience so they knew who they were to draw towards and gain a relationship with. The use of gender was also used to create a further more conventional thriller leading role. By making her a female, I was able to play on the stereotype of a 'dumb blonde' more and would be able to draw more emotion from the audience due to the sympathy they will have for her/ towards her. Overall the use of our main character was to appeal to the audience, and I did this through using stereotypical thriller aspects such as, gender and hair colour.

By creating a main character who can pull on the audiences heart strings, we will have events that are thus more impactable as the audience have a sense of care towards her. This was our aim from the beginning and a lot of thought and indepth planning was taken out in order to create this realtionship between audience and character. This means that the audience wil having emotions towards the character and her events that are taking place. For example; When the character is attacked, the audience will feel worried and scared for the character as they can sense her vunerability and niavety. Equally, at the opening of our thriller when the young girl is laughing and giggling with her boyfriend, the audience may feel a sense of happiness and join in on the laughter with the young girl. This means that as the characters emotions change, so does the audience and they mirror eachother in that sense. This is all due to the relatonship I have created in order for the thriller to impact the target audience emotionally.

By placing my main character in light and girl clothes, a clear contrast was created between them and the villain in the film. The girl within my thriller is wearing a pink top, and has her hair groomed to show she is a clear carer of her physical apparence where as, my villain is dressed from head to toe in black and has his face covered with a mask. By my villain being dressed in dark clothing, it allows the audience to infer connotations of this colour to his personality and persona. For example, the colour black is associated with death and darkness, both of which happen within the sequence of my thriller film. Therefore, by using the mise-en-scene element of costume I could speak to my audience through the character, and allow them to underline the characters characteristics.

Examples from the film "Prom Night"  

As Media Evaluation- Question One

Question 1-

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

My brief for this whole task was to create a two minute opening sequence for a film that fell into the thriller genre. The brief obtained many features and expectations that as a group were to include and meet within the thriller such as, a time span of two minutes, to include sound, a wide range of camera angles and a varied use of conventions that fall into the thriller genre. My group consisted of myself and Sophie who obtained a different role/roles within the production. For example I was the role of both mise en scene co-ordination, and editor, where as Sophie was both editor and director. We also assigned roles to people outside the group whom helped us with our production.

As a group, it was always an essential that we worked well and productively together. We experienced as a group a few issues that we were determined to over come in order to create our thriller to be as effective and good as it could be. Overall, me and Sophie worked really well together and created a really strong team. We listened to each-others ideas and worked together on decisions and crucial editions that needed to be within our work. Together we had the ability and skills to bounce of eachothers ideas and to execute what we feel was a really good take on a thriller film. The key to creating a successful thriller film was to always relate our decisions back to the genre and the conventions associated with it. For example: in the discussion of what characters we should obtain with in our thriller, we concluded it was best to include a blonde female victim in order to keep up with the conventional thriller film. By relating all our decisions and choices back to the thriller conventions we could evaluate and asses just how effective and beneficial they would be, and therefore use it as a tool to know weather or not we were making formed and correct decisions.

The generic conventions of a thriller are, dark lighting, suspense filled soundtrack, unexpected sounds and a series of camera angles, to name a few. These are all presented in successful thriller films which, support I as a group using them as we know that they have made a positive impact prior. As a group we researched past thriller films in order to collect a wide knowledge of conventions, their impact and their success rate. For example: a conventional storyline to a thriller is the use of an unknown caller which, we as a group first indenitifited in scream. As a group we used the use of an unknown caller in the thriller to make sure we were being generic and were displaying to our audience a sense of foreboding. Having we had not taken this research, other aspects we used such as low key lighting which is seen in Prom night, and a suspense filled soundtrack which is seen in The Conjuring, we wouldn't have known how to use them to their full effect. These were used in my thriller at different points. Low key lighting was used throughout, but, I used a relatable setting which too is a convention. I used a train station as the target audience were ranged between 15-18 and would currently be using public transport to get home perhaps late at night. By using this, the audience were relating the events that took place to the characters to themselves. Another way in which I followed thriller conventions is by using non digetic sound of a soundtrack. This covered up the natural sounds of the train well and created a suspense and sense of enigma for the audience who were watching it. It also alowed me to highten certain parts of the thriller; for example, when our female victim falls to the floor the music's pitch is higher to highlight what has just taken place. A final example of myself keeping my thriller within the conventional thriller genre was the use of the handheld camera shot. This allowed a jolty and uneven view for the audience of certain scenes. This was used in my thriller and is used in the genre to give off the perception of the killer's point of view. This makes the audience fear as they feel that they are in the killers control and not that of the victim who they have made a realtionship with.  The opening sequence defines the thriller genre as it obtains many micro elements of the genre throughout the duration of it, if we was to compare our thriller to another film it would be final destination in regards of this. The narrative is slightly simular and the use of transport being used is also evident in ours, other micro elements that are simular are the use of high pitched music which, is used in our thriller. Both the thriller and Final Destination use the use of high pitched music when the main part of the thriller is about to take place, this means we can define to our audience when certain parts are going to happen. My title of my thriller was "The Contiuity" which means, "Continuous". I felt that this was a good title to choose as it stayed with the thriller convention with the title suggesting that the events are always on going. This means that the audience will be drawn towards the film as the title doesnt give very much away and they want to see what this 'continuous' event is going to be. This falls into the thriller genre as thriller titles tend not to give too much away but, obtain an element of fear; the same way in which my chosen title does.

Thriller Comparison

 Thriller comparison-

 

From our research and viewing of other thriller films, we could look and discuss weather we felt our thriller sequence was successful. I felt that we have created a successful thriller sequence due to our following of the brief and our including of the thriller conventions. For example: the use of iconography used in our sequence ie. the mask, allowed us to create a typical mysterious identity and therefore lead to a fear of the unkown. It was conventions such as the one stated that I felt made our thriller as succesful as we thought it could be.

The micro elements I felt best showed our cretivity and undersanding of thriller conventions the most was the wide range of camera shots we used. For example: our thriller starts with a high angle shot, then moves into a midshot, then into a longshot of the train carriage. By including a wide range of camera shots we were being conventional to the genre as thriller films tend to enhabite a wide use to show things from all different points of views. Another micro element I felt showed our creativity and understanding of thriller conventions was the use of the blonde female victim. This is stereotypical to a thriller and allowed our audience to imediately realise who the main vicitim was going to be. This then led to them being able to create a relationship with our character from the offset and therefore whatever happening to her being more effective as the audience care about her well being.

If I were to compare my thriller to another successful thriller I would choose to compare it to Scream 3. Having studied and researched Scream 3 as part of my collecting of ideas for our own thriller, I can now see that there are elements that my thriller has in common. The conventions stated such as the use of a blonde female victim, the use of camera shots and the use of iconography were all evident within Scream 3 also. Sound wise, our was notably different as we contain a soundtrack throughout where as, Scream 3 does not. We chose to do this as we felt it hid the natural sounds of the train quite well and added extra suspense and enigma. The use of diagetic sound was also used as we included dialogue throughout, the same way in which Scream did. However, we did include more dialogue than Scream which, could be due to the difference and potrayl of our contrasting narratives. Both thrillers contained contiuity editing and slow editing ie. when our characters getting away from the killer and when the girl in scream is falling. Mise-en-scene contrasted and compared in as series of ways. For example: we both used high key lighting as well as low key lighting in order to show the audience the sudden change of events. However, an example of where we contrasted with Scream 3 was our use of costume as we both dressed our female victim in conventional girly clothes to potray her characteristics to the audience. Overall, our thriller I felt had a great deal of simularites and differences to ones in comparison, met the brief and showed a good understanding of the thriller genre.

Audience Feedback- Miss Georgiou

Audience feedback-

After finishing our thriller, as a class we showed and reviewed eachothers work. As the age group of our class are also, our target audience age range; the feedback we were given was from who our film was aimed at meaning the feedback was relevant and concise. Audience feedback is important to a production as it enables us as the producers, to take into consideration what has been said and make improvements and changes to fit our audiences needs and expectations. This overall makes our thriller better as it reaches out to our target audience in a positive way.

We receieved our audience feedback from our target audience by showing a screening of our production to the selected group and asking them to fill in a short survey consiting of releveant questions all based on our film. The questions we ones such as providing a level of which they thought out peice desserved, what we did well and what we should focus on improving. This feedback would then benefit our production and in general the industry, as we could see clearly what we needed to take action on and also identify if there was any common errors from multiple people. This would mean that it is an outstanding error and would show us the matter of importance in which this needs to be taken care of.

Part of the constricutive criticism we receieved noted that we should provide a clearer narrative. This was due to some of our audience not being able to clearly understand what is exactly going on. This then therefore led to them loosing and lacking intrest within our film, which provides an issue for us in which we need to improve. Another peice of cristicism we were given was that our camera shots at times were too shaky. This was due to us using handheld, and not using the tripod as much as we could. By idenitfiying how we can improve it makes it easier for us as a group to go carry out the improvements our audience would like us to make. We realised that this went hand in hand with the unclear narrative as the shakiness can confuse our audience, thus making the narrative unclear. A final peice of critiscim we receieved was our use of dialogue being overly used. The audience felt that our over use of dialogue took away from the suspense we were trying to create so, we therefore should improve on reducing it.

Part of the positive feedback we recieved consisted of our audience saying that they felt although our narrative was confusing that overall we obtained a really intresting storyline. This was good for us to hear as we felt that our audience was generally intrested in our thriller which, is what we always aimed to do. Another peiece of positive feedback we recieved was our use of setting. We used an unusal setting of a train which meant that we could relate to our audience. Our audience felt that this was unique and had seen previous films do this but, not quite in the same way we had. All the positive feedback made us as a group take note of how our hard work had paid off, and motivated us to continue.

Overall, we followed the brief of making our 2 minute thriller clip in a series of ways. We stuck  to the timing of the film, and also included many thriller conventions such as; the use of iconography. By sticking to the brief and following it correctly, we knew we were meeting the requirements and providing a peiece that fitted the expectations.