Georgia Shepherd AS Media Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The thriller in which we produced incorporates a number of different conventions outlining what genre it falls into, as soon as the audience witness the opening scene. Throughout the opening, representations of typical thriller scenes are developed, twanged with independent ideas from the group and myself, such as flashbacks of the victims eye, and the build up of the assassin secretly behind the door. We incorporated our own sound effects of screaming of the victim, the tap running vigorously and the panting of the victim too. By having these ideologies shown in the opening, indicates what genre our filming fits into being a physiological thriller. Conventions from other thrillers fall into our work you could say, as many have been used already an example of this would be the typical male stalker obsessed with the female victim, and then leading onto death or torture, however with our own ideas of mise en scene and camera skills we have with an effective storyline to overcome the cliché of other texts. Also by researching other thriller films such as Signs and Phsyco (on my blog) this gave me an understanding of what a successful film is like, therefore by looking at the timing on each shot and hearing when the sound comes in at the appropriate time, really made me think how precise all these elements had to be in order for a effective opening.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our media product represents youths becoming particularly jealous over someone or something, leading onto violation and being out of control of the situation. It's often seen as when someone has an 'obsession' for someone they would go to lengths to try and make them be obsessed or involved as well. In other media products you see more older/experienced people taking over women’s lives and being violent towards them. By younger people seeing these actions on TV programmes and on the news, they follow their footsteps and eventually act like that. Our media shows how it can be done by younger generations too, which then links to our target audience age group as we aim this at a generation whom will know the circumstances between jealous love and envy. Class isn’t really shown within our text as we don’t have any scenes which represent class, for example we don’t have locations where there are work forces or stylish cars, although the house in which the murderer is set upon could be a good representation of class. Our media product consists of the minimal of 2 people one being a man whom is madly insanely in love and the other being an innocent young beautiful girl. Both characters are young and innocent and prop &costume reinforce this. Furthermore, we used innocent action as this would enforce the strength of the male character to be not excessively strong as he is not a man yet, and by using innocent action with the female actor, her main purpose was for her to look clueless and oblivious. By making the villain/murderer seem guiltless and relentless we directed him to be care free and not bothered, this worked well in my opinion as we definitely felt this emotion. However with the female character we directed her to be very panicky although watching through the opening over and over again we could have directed her to be more terrified than she was.

Our media product represents youths becoming particularly jealous over someone or something, leading onto violation and being out of control of the situation. It's often seen as when someone has an 'obsession' for someone they would go to lengths to try and make them be obsessed or involved as well. In other media products you see more older/experienced people taking over women’s lives and being violent towards them. By younger people seeing these actions on TV programmes and on the news, they follow their footsteps and eventually act like that. Our media shows how it can be done by younger generations too, which then links to our target audience age group as we aim this at a generation whom will know the circumstances between jealous love and envy.

Class isn’t really shown within our text as we don’t have any scenes which represent class, for example we don’t have locations where there are work forces or stylish cars, although the house in which the murderer is set upon could be a good representation of class.

Although this may not have adjusted our group’s grade and it wasn’t a major point to why our work wasn’t the best, I feel that if we did direct her as an actor to be more terrifying this would have made the opening very scary. The environment had two effects in our film. The first environment in which we shot in was inside the house, where it’s dark and a door is hiding the view of what we want to see. After this shot we follow on to see the environment in which is outside in a dark wooded area blocked off from anyone and anything. The environment inside is clean, tidy and a positive atmosphere indicating a careless attitude from the villain, which we want the audience to gain an understanding of. However outside the environment is messy, dark, enclosed with many trees, creating a sense of disturbance and claustrophobia illustrating danger and eerie sensations. We felt the social groups of teenagers and youth ages today had to be demonstrated through the use of costume, innocent dialogue and props; this would then connect a variety of audiences to our filming. Due to society nowadays there is a lot of crime taken place by young people. Older generations of audience would look upon ours and gain a different view on them as many issues aren’t raised by the fact of younger people killing other people due to jealousy and obsession of that particular person. We don’t want people to watch this and think that teenagers are a bad influence to modern society but different personalities I think would be intrigued to watch this. However some audiences may watch our opening and think this is not for them and that maybe they might be interested in made up issues not issues that may concern future preference, as people will not only be interested to see a film which contained their style, but the personalities present in the film, are quite common in teenagers in today's society, and so some viewers may be interested to see how each character copes with the issues risen within the film.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Looking into different production companies my group and I feel that the kind of media institution that may possibly distribute our media product would be Channel 4's Film Four. I judge this as they have released many hit films and blockbuster titles, with similar target audiences to ours. After researching, they have produced lots of films with violence similar to ours, making it a better chance for our film to be released. Films such as 'donkey punch' show an good example of teenage lifestyle and behaviour, this then allows viewers to learn how teenagers get by in desperate circumstances. Furthermore our film footage cuts straight to a shot of a flashback of the female role, leaving the viewer on edge of their seat after the first 10 seconds showing both sexes involved straight away. By directing the footage like this, gives the audience a sense of what the film will lead onto be like. Our footage is to do with teenage life in which film four like to show, as it brings in more of a young age audience to their broadcasting.

What kind of media institution might distribute

your media product and why?

Who would be the audience for your media product? The target audience for our media product would be 15 + just so that all ages of people can recognise the consequences you will face when taking actions like this. I think this is an effective audience to aim our media product at as we haven’t got excellent studios, expensive equipment and enough experience to make a top of the range media product, but people our age will engage into what we have designed which is important for us as we want it to be successful in a way of them enjoying it. Also the storyline is really effective for our age group as these sorts of issues usually take place around the age of 15 – 19 years of age. Theme: No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds. Language: There may be frequent use of strong language; the strongest terms are only rarely acceptable. Continued aggressive use of strong language and sexual abuse is unacceptable. Nudity: There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context. Sex: Sexual activity and nudity may be portrayed but without strong detail. The depiction of casual sex should be handled responsibly. There may be occasional strong verbal references to sexual behaviour. Violence: Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain, and of injuries. Scenes of sexual violence must be discreet and brief. Imitable techniques: Dangerous combat techniques such as ear claps, head-butts and blows to the neck are unlikely to be acceptable. There may be no emphasis on the use of easily accessible lethal weapons (in particular, knives). Horror: Sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable. Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable. The film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug use. The above text is what is expected from a film within the British Board of Film Censors, and by following these outlines gives us the authority to be able to broadcast our product if having the permission and ability to do so.

The target audience for our media product would be 15 + just so that all ages of people can recognise the consequences you will face when taking actions like this.

I think this is an effective audience to aim our media product at as we haven’t got excellent studios, expensive equipment and enough experience to make a top of the range media product, but people our age will engage into what we have designed which is important for us as we want it to be successful in a way of them enjoying it. Also the storyline is really effective for our age group as these sorts of issues usually take place around the age of 15 – 19 years of age.

How did you attract/address your audience? In order to attract and address our target audience, we had to make sure that our footage was exciting and what teenage audiences want to see, without showing any dramatic footage and footage that makes teenagers feel involved it would not be as effective. We wanted the target audience being teenagers to watch the film and think ‘I know exactly this feeling’. To enable success as of such, we had had a task to complete for our first completion on our blog set by our teacher, and that was to look at 5 thriller openings, and to analyse the mise en scene, camera and sound, and by carrying out this task it gave me a sense of direction into thinking what sort of criteria I want in my footage, and what genre to link into. By looking at psychological thrillers, horrors and thrillers really made it hard for me to choose what I wanted to do, therefore we managed to link all 3 into it. By using flashback and sound to shock the audience gave the film the genre of a thriller, as it thrilled the audience. When I showed the footage to my friendship group one of them turned away as they were already freaked out. Thrillers and horrors have always been great sellers and always will be. To advertise our film out there we used the social network ‘Facebook’, this was really effective as our target audience are teenagers and as young people use Facebook we thought to use it for a definite way of advertising. We decided to miss out children and elderly people and drive our film towards the intended marketing audience. Also on Facebook we asked for reviews on what people think was good and not so good.

In order to attract and address our target audience, we had to make sure that our footage was exciting and what teenage audiences want to see, without showing any dramatic footage and footage that makes teenagers feel involved it would not be as effective. We wanted the target audience being teenagers to watch the film and think ‘I know exactly this feeling’. To enable success as of such, we had had a task to complete for our first completion on our blog set by our teacher, and that was to look at 5 thriller openings, and to analyse the mise en scene, camera and sound, and by carrying out this task it gave me a sense of direction into thinking what sort of criteria I want in my footage, and what genre to link into. By looking at psychological thrillers, horrors and thrillers really made it hard for me to choose what I wanted to do, therefore we managed to link all 3 into it. By using flashback and sound to shock the audience gave the film the genre of a thriller, as it thrilled the audience.

When I showed the footage to my friendship group one of them turned away as they were already freaked out. Thrillers and horrors have always been great sellers and always will be.

To advertise our film out there we used the social network ‘Facebook’, this was really effective as our target audience are teenagers and as young people use Facebook we thought to use it for a definite way of advertising. We decided to miss out children and elderly people and drive our film towards the intended marketing audience. Also on Facebook we asked for reviews on what people think was good and not so good.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Throughout our filming practice the tripod was a useful source of holding a shot stable and level to however we wanted the shot to be. Although occasionally the tripod would jolt when we tried tilting and panning consequently leaving a jumpy/all over the place shot. We came across another problem whilst filming; we discovered not until long after that the camera wasn’t very good at capturing the sound of what we specifically wanted so we decided to use a sound recorder to enable the best quality sound possible. After recording the sounds we wanted, we dropped them into our footage in sync with what was happening. Reflecting back to camera, our first shot with the door (shot one) the zoom on the cameras would either is too quick or too slow, and being the person to record this, it was really hard to grasp the right speed of zoom. To defeat this problem we as a group decided to use a different camera with a slower zoom to enable manageability of the shot. After recording the sounds we wanted, we dropped them into our footage in sync with what was happening. Reflecting back to camera, our first shot with the door (shot one) the zoom on the cameras would either is too quick or too slow, and being the person to record this, it was really hard to grasp the right speed of zoom. To defeat this problem we as a group decided to use a different camera with a slower zoom to enable manageability of the shot.

Throughout our filming practice the tripod was a useful source of holding a shot stable and level to however we wanted the shot to be. Although occasionally the tripod would jolt when we tried tilting and panning consequently leaving a jumpy/all over the place shot. We came across another problem whilst filming; we discovered not until long after that the camera wasn’t very good at capturing the sound of what we specifically wanted so we decided to use a sound recorder to enable the best quality sound possible.

After recording the sounds we wanted, we dropped them into our footage in sync with what was happening. Reflecting back to camera, our first shot with the door (shot one) the zoom on the cameras would either is too quick or too slow, and being the person to record this, it was really hard to grasp the right speed of zoom.

To defeat this problem we as a group decided to use a different camera with a slower zoom to enable manageability of the shot.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? From the preliminary task I have learnt as an individual that progression is a key skill you need to develop whilst performing tasks. From the very start with the shots on paper I have understood that we may have needed to make additional changes, therefore thinking about what will be best for the final product was essential from my own ideas and groups ideas. Whilst editing we have done a series of changes where if it looks good anyway, what will make it look that little bit better. By going that extra step further into developing ideas we’ve made good editing and effective footage to gain a grade in which we are happy with. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ZB1fv8_Ks

From the preliminary task I have learnt as an individual that progression is a key skill you need to develop whilst performing tasks. From the very start with the shots on paper I have understood that we may have needed to make additional changes, therefore thinking about what will be best for the final product was essential from my own ideas and groups ideas. Whilst editing we have done a series of changes where if it looks good anyway, what will make it look that little bit better. By going that extra step further into developing ideas we’ve made good editing and effective footage to gain a grade in which we are happy with.