My evaluation of my groups media product from A2 Media Studies.

1. By Jack Denning

2. USE
 Our trailer uses a variety of forms and conventions from real media products. Its
important that the genre of the production is easily identified so that it attracts an
appropriate audience. Our trailer shows the key moments from the film to
intrigue the audience and make them want to watch the film. However, they
aren’t shown in the correct order, this is to avoid giving the plot away.
 Our production also follows the 3 act structure which is used in most real
media products to make the plot interesting and understandable. The first act
establishes the main characters and the storyline, the second act is when a
character is faced with a problem which sets an objective for the rest of the film
and the third act is when the characters face the problem head on and solve it to
create a new equilibrium.

3. USE
 Our trailer also displays the name of the film along with the release date at
the end, this is the last thing the audience see from viewing the trailer so this
information remains strong in the audiences memory, this is vital because the
audience need to know when they can watch the film and could be the
difference in the audience deciding to watch the film or not. In addition, we
added more important information at the end of the trailer such as the directors
name and production company, this is so the audience can relate to previous
productions from the director/production company and will be more likely to
watch the film because of their success in previous productions.

4. USE
 We used titles to give important information about the plot to the audience,
this was then supported by a clip from our film. This is used in many film trailers
to help the audience understand the plot but also see some shots from the film.
For example, the film ‘In time’ uses titles and then shows a clip supporting what
the title says, as shown below:

5. USE
 For the editing, we used fast cuts which is very common in action/thriller
movies, this creates excitement and intrigues the audience.
 We added non diegetic sounds such as gun shots, this added to the
excitement and emphasised the action. Police sirens were added in the
background of one of our scenes, this was to make it realistic and to support our
plot.
 We used two soundtracks throughout our trailer to create two types of emotion;
our first soundtrack created tension and mystery because the trailer was
showing the main character being interrogated/drugged by a scientist and our
second soundtrack created excitement because the main character was being
chased, he was killing people and buildings from the town was on fire. The
soundtracks emphasised the emotions we were trying to create from the plot.
Gun shot SFX: First soundtrack: Second soundtrack:

6. USE
 Different types of characters are used in most real media products, we tried to
achieve this in our production by using a little child, teenagers and a female.
This was to make the trailer realistic because in reality there isn't just male
teenagers. In addition, the 'murderer' in the thriller genre is often a strong male
figure, whereas the victims are a mixture of genres and ages. We tried to
achieve this by having different types of victims, we included a 7 year old child
and a male/female teenager.
 For the mise en scene in real
media products the main character
wears smart clothes and the other
characters, mainly villains, wear
all black. We used this in our
production but also challenged
the way its used because our main
character wears partly black when
killing. This makes the audience question whether or not he is doing the right
thing or whether his killings are unjustified and therefore a villain.

7. CHALLENGE
 We attempted to challenge forms and conventions of real media products so we
could make our production unique and different to all the other films in our genre.
First of all, we added a sci-fi element to our production so it was an action thriller
with parts being Sci-Fi, however, we didn’t want to go to much into the Sci-fi genre
because Sci-Fi productions are usually high budget as they require a lot of special
effects. We don’t have the financial backing required to be able to create a Sci-Fi
production and didn’t want to mislead the audience into thinking they would be
watching a Sci-Fi production, therefore we didn’t include too many Sci-Fi
conventions. Our media product contains time travel which is common in Sci-Fi
movies, having these three genres combined is a rare occurrence (Action, Thriller
& Sci-Fi) so we feel we have made our production unique by doing this.

8. CHALLENGE
 Another way in which we have challenged the forms and conventions of real
media products is our main character; he is a protagonist but may also be a
false protagonist because he is shown killing people without the reasons being
explained to the audience. An example of a real media product that also used a
false protagonist is ‘Psycho’. Our main character also kills a child which suggests
he is actually the villain because the child is simply too young to defend himself
and couldn’t possibly have done anything to deserve being murdered. The child is
playing with his toys in his garden having fun, this will make the audience
sympathise with the child and generate some hatred towards the main
character, causing the audience to question whether or not the main character is
the good guy.
 We also show the main character being vulnerable because he is drugged by
scientists at the beginning, he is chased by a man and then shot by the man. This
is also a factor for the audience to consider when deciding if the main character is
the protagonist or if he’s a false protagonist.

9. CHALLENGE
 Our main character wears smart clothes which is common for main
characters in the thriller genre but also wears partly dark clothes when
killing people, even though it’s villains that wear dark clothing in thrillers.
Therefore this also supports the theory of him being a false protagonist
because he sometimes dresses like a villain, especially when killing
people.
Our main character dressed smart. Our main character dressed partly black.

10.  Its important to target all types of audiences when promoting your product. There are a variety
of ways in which you can successfully promote the product, we decided to use a poster and a
magazine to promote our media product. We decided to use a poster and magazine because
they can help reach out to a large audience, our magazine cover was from Empire which has
a lot of readers because of how popular the magazine is, using them would help us promote
our product. Our poster would be able to target a large audience too because it can be posted
online and also in cinemas to attract those who like similar media products. We tried to keep a
consistent layout and also similar fonts/colours to make it professional.
 We decided to use the main character on the magazine cover, he is centred because we want
him to be the main attraction to the film and also what people relate to our film . We decided to
have the character dressed in casual clothing so that it appears as though he blends in with
the crowds (average day clothing). We decided to use Empire for our magazine because they
are one of the most popular magazines in the film industry which have thousands of readers.
We decided that our production company should be LionsGate, they create high budget
productions and have a great history of successful films, this would give us the exposure to a
large audience which is needed to make the production a success. To make our magazine
cover realistic and professional we decided to look at some examples of Empire magazine, we
used a similar template with the same fonts so we could achieve the professional look.

11.  Film posters are used mainly for promotion, they can be displayed in cinemas worldwide,
billboards, shopping centres, online and anywhere else that is appropriate. To maximise the
promotion from the poster its important that it’s appealing and relevant to the plot. We used a
picture of our protagonist which was also used on the magazine cover as this is a common
convention of film posters. We tried to achieve the ‘simple but effective’ look for our layout, the
background was relevant to our plot as it was about devastation and then we had our main
character overlaying. The main character is on the poster and the magazine which is an
element of synergy as people can recognise our production via this character. The title of the
production should always be in bold and easy to read, this makes it easier for the audience to
identify what film the poster is for. The poster should have a theme and important information
for the film should also be present. Our theme is destruction and an urban feel because this is
the main setting for our production. The information we included are all the technical roles
such as the director and producer.
We have used a quote to add effect to the poster, this relates to the plot of our
production. We have included important information such as the producer and
director, this is common on all film posters. The title is bold and appealing to
attract the audiences attention. The background we have used is dark but has
brightness from the sun set. This works well for our poster as it shows both a
devastated city yet a small glimpse of hope.
An image of our main character is at the front so the audience can identify the
character, this is useful if your production has a famous actor because it will
appeal to their fans. We have also included the release date of the film which
is important because it informs the audience of when they can watch the film.
An example we looked at is ‘Source Code’, this contains quote with the main
character being the focal point, the title of the production is also bold and
stands out.

12.  It’s important to understand what your targeted audience expect from a production and the
types of codes and conventions required to satisfy them. We decided that our production
would be rated a 15, this was because of the action scenes which should be viewed by
young/mature adults.
 To receive feedback from our audience we started by creating a questionnaire that asked the
audience what codes and conventions they expect in a production of our genre and what
characteristics of characters they like/dislike in productions. We asked members of the sixth
form at random and this information helped us decide what to include in our production and it
gave us some ideas. Some of our results are shown below:

13.  To receive more feedback we interviewed 3 members of our Media class. The sampling
method we decided to use was the ‘Simple random method’ and to do this we used a website
called random.org which allowed us to put a minimum and maximum number to randomise
and this would give us a number and select a person to sample. This would make it a fair
sample and prevent biased answers and unrealiable data. The people chosen are shown
below. As a group we came up with questions to ask the 3 chosen people so that we could
understand their expectations of our genre and so we could gain some ideas to include in our
production. The questions asked allowed us to learn about the type of characters they like in
our genre, what attracts them to our genre, their favourite films in this genre and their opinions
of the ideas we had.
 Click here to watch the interview.

14.  Once we had finished our production we wanted to receive feedback from our audience about
what they thought was good/bad and their overall opinion of it. This helped us understand
whether or not we had reached our target audience and whether our production was suitable
for the genre. To do this we selected 3 people who had watched our production at random and
then asked them open questions so we could get their opinions on what we did good/what
could be improved.
 Click here to watch the interview.

15. Apple Mac Computers:
We used apple mac computers throughout the whole project. This is
because these systems are faster than the other computers that we
had available so it helped us to work faster so we could continue with
the production. In addition, these systems have advanced programs
that can’t be run on the standard Microsoft PC because they’ve been
specially designed for these systems, therefore we had to use a Mac
in order to use these programs for our production. These programs
include Final cut and iMovie which are used by professionals in the
media industry.
Edu blogs:
We used ‘Edu blogs’ as our blogging provider. This enabled us to keep
track of any work that needed to be done and allowed us to
communicate easily. It also allowed us to receive feedback from our
teacher and other students via comments so that we could improve our
production. We used our blogs mainly in the research, planning and
evaluation stages.

16. PhotoShop:
This is another program used by professionals, it allows you to
creates images instantly and easily. We decided to use this program
because we wanted to use the best possible resources so that we
could make our production to the best of our abilities. We used
Photoshop to create our film poster and also our magazine cover.
We used the magazine ‘Empire’ as a template and attempted to get
a similar style to this so it looked professional and realistic. We
looked at several posters including ‘Inception’ for inspiration because
this is also in the same genre as our production. This program was
used in the construction stages involving our poster/magazine.
iMovie:
We used iMovie to create the titles within our production, we were
undecided on what titles to have in our production but once we decided
this we looked on YouTube for inspiration. After doing some research
we decided to go for the simple look with just white text and a black
background, this also faded in/out. iMovie was used mainly in the
construction stage to create the titles.

17. Final Cut Express:
This program was the most important to us, this is the program we
used to create our trailer and is where we combined all our
shots/edited our shots to create the final product. This program
enabled us to add effects such as cross dissolves, blur and special
effects such as fire/smoke/gun shots. This program is used by
professionals and is the best software to use because its possible of
anything. We used this in the construction stage to create our
production.
Camera & recording equipment:
We used the camera to record our clips for the production. We also
used the camera for location scouting, although most of our final
images were off the internet. The camera was used in the construction
stage and the research/planning stage. We also used a tripod to
support the camera and make the shots more steady and professional.
A memory card was used to store the clips and transfer them on to our
editing computer.

18. YouTube:
We used YouTube in every stage of our production, whilst
researching/planning we used YouTube to watch trailers from similar
films in the same genre to give us some inspiration. We also used
YouTube in the construction stage to find special effects such as
fire/smoke and sound effects. We also used YouTube to look at
camera movements and angles to refresh our memory from last
years production, this helped us use professional camera
movements/angles so that our production was to a good quality.
Google:
We used Google when in the research and planning stages of our
production to find out information that we needed. Google was used to
help us gain an understanding of important media theories and also
camera angles/movements, we had learnt most of this from last years
production but Google helped remind us what was needed when
making a production. We also used Google to find our soundtracks and
the images for our poster and magazine cover.