Media main task evaluation AS-Level.

1. Main Task Evaluation
By Morgan Redman

2. Media Conventions
• In what ways does your media product, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real products?
• First of all we wanted our main task to challenge the
convention that horror/ thriller films are for
stereotypically masculine audiences.
• Many horror/ thriller films with female leads still conform
to the conventions of other media products through means
such as the male gaze as theorised by Mulvey. For instance,
Carrie.
• We have female leads in every role in our media production
with the villain and victims being played by females and in
a way that is non-sexualised for a hetero-sexual white male
audience.
• We have not challenged conventions with the ethnicity of
actors used. There is lacking representation of ethnicities
within media texts and we, due to lacking availability,
used only Caucasian and European actors.
• We have conformed to conventions in the use of music to
build tension and minor gore which is often a feature of a
horror.

3. Social Groups
• How does your media product represent particular
social groups?
• Our media product as mentioned in the prior slide
depicts females in roles usually assumed to be
played by males.
• Additionally, we wanted to have a more socially
diverse group of actors but due to availability we
were limited to only English and European actors
who are therefore the represented social group in
our media text.

4. Institutions
• What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
• As our product was made on an extremely low budget,
almost no budget except for prosthetic make-up, we
would most likely have our project distributed at a
independent film festival such as ‘Sundance Film
Festival’ and could be exhibited via BFI cinema.
• As a British made film that is an independent, a
company such as BBC may distribute our work; other
films released by BBC include horror products such as
‘The Woman in Black’.
• Low budget horror films are also not uncommon and
therefore more companies would be more likely to take
a chance on our media production than another genre
independent film.

5. Audience
• Who would be the audience for your media product?
• Gender: All genders due to female lead and orientated
plot and characters. Horror/ thrillers are
stereotypically masculine even with female leads such
as Carrie but ours is aimed at all.
• Ethnicity: Any ethnicity as long as they can engage
in English language due to the language barrier.
• Age: 18 and over due to the nature of the BBFC rating
system although younger audiences of teenagers may
engage with this media.
• Region/ Nationality: Cast is Caucasian and European
and therefore is stereotypically aimed towards this
audience. Lack of other ethnicities is unintentional
due to who was available at the time.
• Socio-Economic: C1 bracket down to the the E bracket
in the traditional segmentation model due to E being
where students fit into the system.

6. Audience Continued
• How did you attract/address your audience?
• The most significant way that we addressed our audience
is by including the female leads to encourage all
genders that the media product will appeal to them.
• We would also distribute our product to attract
audiences via social media with captions that associate
it with various social groups including ‘Female Cast’.
• Moreover, we could supply our work to an independent
film festival to promote our product to a larger
audience.

7. Technologies
• What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
• We have expanded our use of tools and techniques
through the employment of a Nikon D5 300 rather than
a lower quality video camera.
• We have also experimented with more techniques in
Premier Pro such as ‘Vignette’, ‘Fast Colour
Corrector’, ‘Three Way Colour Corrector’, ‘Default
Transitions’ and ‘Key Frames’.
• I was responsible for creating a few props within
Photoshop CC 2014 for our main task. This involved a
polaroid template on a transparent background which I
layered over the headshots that I took using a Canon
EOS 450D. I also experimented with the ‘Dodge’ tool
alongside the ‘Brightness/ Contrast’ to lighten the
faces of the subjects to create a deathly pale
effect. Although I also used the ‘Burn’ tool to
darken the eyes to create a gormless appearance.

8. Learning Process
• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you
feel you have learnt in the progression from it
towards the final product of the main task?
• In conclusion, we have learnt from our prior mistakes
including continuity errors, how to focus the video-
camera and how to zoom.
• We have also learnt how to use the correct tripods
and dolly systems where appropriate.
• Additionally, we have also learned some techniques in
certain software that aided the final product
including Photoshop ‘Dodge’ and ‘Burn’ and Premier
Pro tools as outlined in the pervious slide.
• Also, we have come to the conclusion that some
production techniques appear more aesthetically
pleasing and smoother when done in editing rather in
filming including zoom/ cut ins.

9. Finished Product Version 1