This is my evaluation of my media group's 2 minuteThriller opening.

1. Callum Coupland 4035 Abbeyfield School 66504

2. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression of it to the full product? Whilst working through our thriller treatment I feel my skills both individually and as a member of a team have improved I had no idea just how tight shooting schedules were. As you can guess, it was very difficult keeping to them. The weather plays a surprisingly pivotal role in shooting times, I feel we learned this the hard way. Even before beginning to create our product I learned so much I never realised that things that appeared to be filmed at night could be filmed during the day. After having learned this, we utilised this in our treatment. During our planning stages we watched many thriller openings and at the same time learned the techniques used by industry professionals During the shooting of the final product, I learned just how important framing and holding shots steady were. They could be the difference between grades, something we could not risk as a team. Before embarking on this project, I had no idea of the rules adhered to in cinema. Things such as the 30 and 180 degree rules we a shock. Also Audience theories, I had no clue that such thought went into these things Although during the preliminary task we were required to complete storyboards etc, they were no where near as in-depth and informative as they are required to be in the final products. Before the main task, I was aware of BBFC ratings, but I had no idea of the depth covered by them. Knowledge of these ratings allowed for us to cater for the audience we wished to capture.

3. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression of it to the full product? I feel I probably learned most during the editing stage of the final product. During the preliminary task we were given an overview of the editing software at hand (Adobe Premiere Pro CS3) but by no means were we told how to achieve what we aimed to. We were left to figure this out for ourselves. I took this as a bit of a personal challenge. When I had an idea for the editing process I trialled ideas until either I achieved what I intended to, or seeked the assistance of someone who may already posses the knowledge I required. I feel I learned a great deal during this stage, not only actually using the software, but also how to instruct others as to how to use the software effectively. All new skills I acquired were shared with anyone who needed them; seeing as all the groups were working on thrillers, we all had roughly the same editing requirements, so help was always shared between groups. The importance of audience feedback is something I would previously overlooked. But without it, we would have missed many mistakes we had made. This is something I will use in life, I will always have someone check over my work, to ensure I haven’t missed something important.

4. What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why? To answer this question I researched films that are similar to what we have produced. Seeing as we based our ideas on the hand held style like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield they are the films I will look at in order to find which companies may be interested in our treatment The The Blair Witch Project was distributed by a relatively small company, Artisan Entertainment. Since distributing the film, Artisan was taken over by Lionsgate. Lionsgate also distribute films such as the SAW saga. I feel that this would be a good company for us to work with as our idea was based on that of The Blair Witch Project, which was also an independent film. The belief the company put into such a risky film shows that they are open to controversial ideas, something bigger companies definitely would not wish to be part of. Lionsgate is a large company, and so may not be quite as supportive as Artisan would have been. Cloverfield was distributed by Paramount Pictures, a company that is world renowned for it’s successful films. Paramount usually work with high budget productions, like Cloverfield, but with the right pitch any film could stir interest in any company. Being a recognised film icon Paramount would always wish to be involved with high grossing films. I feel paramount would be of great help to us because there are few people who have not heard of them, and so people assume films distributed by them would live up to the standard regularly output by the company

5. Who would be the audience for your media product? Our intended audience is teenagers 15+. But being an avid film watcher myself, I know that films always appeal to more than the target audience. Through research I discovered that, for this style of film, the average age of viewers is somewhere between 14 and 25 years of age. The Blair Witch Project is a 15. This is the same as our product and thus our audience will be very similar to theirs. This makes drawing comparisons much simpler for us. Blair Witch provides evidence for my average age range Teenager’s attention spans aren’t that long. I know that very well seeing as I am one of them. Gripping suspense is a must have for a thriller aimed at teenagers or they will switch off and either stop watching, or miss an important part of the plot, ruining the film for them. Because of our understanding of the teenage mind, we were able to cater for it. An average group of teenagers. This is our target audience. This group consists of both males and females, so there is variation in audience members. This gives our audience diversity thus harbouring more success

6. How did you attract/address your audience? When we set out on the task, we were unclear as to what we wished to create. We watched a number of films to gain some ideas. When The Blair Witch Project came up we all knew that was the style for us. Being a diverse group of teenagers ourselves, it was clear that we were on to a winner. Possibly the largest question posed is who this character is. Nothing is revealed about him. The audience is left clutching at straws, the name of the film is their only clue We posed many questions, each received no answer within the opening sequence. This pulls the viewers in, causing them to want more. This is a widely used technique in thrillers. As I previously mentioned, teenagers have poor attention spans. We ensured we attended to this problem during the development of our thriller. If nothing else, the music chosen will keep the viewer on the edge of their seat, waiting for an event. Previously, we had a very muddled product. We were guilty of over-complicating our film. We addressed this by cutting out all unnecessary scenes. The images used for much of the actual title sequence are unclear. This builds huge suspense, especially as objects are continuously appearing and disappearing

7. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? We researched and have developed many real media conventions to ensure the success of our media product. As a group we have stuck to the classic Antagonist and Protagonist set up in our thriller. Our Antagonist is Lewis, the only character actually shown in the sequence. But he is never seen naturally. Perhaps the most integral part of creating tension is through the use of music and sounds. All sound other than the music is diagetic. Nothing was added post production, all sounds heard are from the video camera itself when the scenes were filmed It took us a long time as a group to decide on the right music for us. Our audio loop was only introduced to our thriller in the final week of editing The form we experimented with most was filming technique. We used a variety of shot types and shot distances in order to create tension and pose yet more questions. Disorientating close ups of previously unseen clothing is challenging conventions as it is not often seen. Also the dirty shots used to conceal the identity of Lewis is unconventional. Should we have been following convention, we would either have not shown him at all, or we would use close ups of parts, but not all of him. Our shooting techniques contest a number of conventions, making it interesting to watch. Dirty Shot Close Up

8. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Teenagers camping is a regular occurrence, all teenagers can relate to this. On that note, our opening no longer contains the evidence that the group are going camping anymore. Protagonists Antagonist Our cast contains both males and females, all of which are in the teenager age barrier. Although one of our males is the antagonist, this does not prevent males from associating with the film as one of the protagonists is also male. There are 2 female protagonists, which sets up the classic damsel in distress scenario. But this cannot be built on in the allotted 2 minutes The age certificate chosen by ourselves is obviously a huge factor in representing our chosen social group. Being a 15 means that our audience must be mature, which a catered for in our adult theme.

9. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product? With this project, we were all in at the deep end. I don’t know about the others, but I had no clue what was involved in producing the finished product. Through completing this project I have new found respect for the industry professionals who do these things on a daily basis Cameras were the first technology we got our hands on. Before doing this task, I had no idea how many different modes, effects or shooting styles there were with them. They were just camcorders to me. I now know that there are night modes, built in effects and a whole host more built into the cameras. I also had no idea just how important steady shots and framing were, although not strictly technology related, these are two factors that would make all other stages near impossible to complete to a decent standard

10. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product? As I said before, I have new found respect for the industry professionals that do this everyday. But the editing stage is on a whole new level, the amount of time spent and the attention to detail during this stage is commendable. There are many software manufacturers that delve into video editing, each with different UI. Professionals may need to understand a number of different interfaces. I struggled to comprehend the single user interface in front of me. That said, I feel I now have a host of knowledge in Adobe Premiere Pro. There are so , so many different ways of manipulating the video and audio it is mind boggling. But I stayed focused and kept the task at hand in mind when experimenting with the many different effects. I feel confident in the processes I used, so much so I feel I could teach what I learned to others. As if these confusing arranging panels weren’t enough. We had to export our finished products ready to be hosted on YouTube. YouTube has strict uploading policies and so videos cannot exceed a certain time limit or file size. So knowledge of frame rates and video sizes are a must.