The document discusses the process of creating the media product "The Decoy" and what was learned throughout the process. It describes how the opening scene drew from conventions of espionage films like James Bond by including spy/crime themes. Research was done on title sequences and openings of other films. The film also includes a terrorist antagonist and uses lighting, music, shots, and costumes to further conventions. Creating the product helped develop skills in camera work, editing, and use of equipment like tripods. Communication between group members could have been better to improve cooperation.

1. Evaluation For ‘The Decoy’
Jordan Brown

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
When creating our media product ‘The Decoy’ we
used, developed and challenged forms and
conventions of real media products. We based our
opening on the espionage sub-genre. This means that
we had to include spy/crime related themes, so that it
applies to the conventions.
We looked at films such as ‘James Bond’ to gain ideas
and to get a better understanding in what we must
include. My job in the research stage was to analyse
openings to previous espionage films, from this I
learnt the a large majority of espionage films have a
opening title sequence, therefore I researched into
the title sequences further and realised that each
were unique, so I decided that our opening had to
include something like this, that’s when I came up
with the paint in water idea. Moat of the opening
were also quite thriller, and then became cliché, this
is because they were intense, and it felt like the
opening was building up to something , then the
scene turned very calm, and anti climatic, this is
something we tried to portray in our opening ,we
done this by an intense running scene, leading to a
quiet conversation.
This is our attempt of
making an
interesting opening
which applies to the
conventions.

3. We have a terrorist character in our film, this
antagonist would be tackled by spy's, and a ‘James
Bond’ type character, which makes this film an
espionage. Our terrorist is from Asian descent to
provides a sense of familiarity with the audience.
We used fairly dark lighting in the running scene, to
create an ominous affect, where as in the dialogue
scene the lighting is slightly brighter, to portray that
the scene had slowed, and the thrilling factor is
slowly fading out.
We used quite up beat music to keep the tension
flowing through the complete scene.
The shot from the dialogue scene between the
antagonist and protagonist of the story was shot
with a wide shot; our intensions behind the shot was
to convey the distance between the characters as
they both represent two different archetypes within
our society. “Benoit Ganesan” who plays the
antagonist was given a balaclava as apart of his
outfit; this was a convention developed from other
real products to illustrate to the audience that he is a
form of radical.
Most of the conventions come from the film ‘Skyfall’ as
this is the most similar film to our production. The
antagonist and protagonist are both wearing black his is
because even though the protagonist is deemed to be
good, he still has a dark side as he is committing a criminal
offence.

4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I believe that an institution like YouTube would
distribute my product, this is because it will be a
low budget film, the must cost affective way to
promote my product, will be through social media
, as it is the cheapest way, and I can aim it at the
right the audience.
However if our film was a big budget I believe a
institution such as Columbia Pictures would
distribute our product , because they have
distributed the film ‘Skyfall’. They would be best
fit for this role as they have experience in
distributing big budget espionage films. Also is we
used a large institution then the produces would
have more control over our product, therefore us
as group couldn’t explore, and wouldn’t be
allowed to become film makers as much, because
we wouldn’t have as much control over the final
product, where as I we made the film
independently then it would truly be our film.

5. But as we want our film to be independent we will
use our own media company to distribute our film.
As it’s an independent film, we would take it to film
festivals, such as Cannes Film Festival and Sundance
film festival. I think this would be a good way to
increase the popularity of our production.
As our film is low budget a cheap compared to other
institutions similar and good way to show it is by
using Film 4, I think this will be the best way to
distribute our product, as the film channel is growing
in popularity, and the also help by funding some
productions. Then I would like the film to be
produced into DVDs/Blu-Ray depending on the
popularity.
If it was a bigger budgeted film Id hope it would get
into worldwide cinemas, like Odeon and Empire.
Then onto channels like Sky Movies as they have a
large audience.

6. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our media product would be people from the
age of 12, this is because some scenes will obtain some violence.
The type of language used, will be fairly simple, so that a vast
audience will be able to understand what is going on, and it will
be easier to follow the story. The violence feature would be
realistic, therefore it may be deemed quite scary to younger
viewers , also it will have some adult content in the film, but not a
lot this is why I believe it should be a 12 rated film and not a 15.
Due to some of the scenes containing violence the film will appeal
more to male’s, this is because our film focuses on the male gaze
to deliver the scenes.
I also believe our product shouldn’t be higher than a 12 rating
because the film is based around a school, therefore the film will
be relevant to this age group.
The overall tone of the film, and the way
it makes the audience feel may affect the
classification. For example, a work which
has a very dark tone which could disturb
the audience would be less likely to be
passed 12A even if the individual issues
in the film were considered acceptable
under the BBFC Guidelines. Similarly, if a
work is particularly positive or reassuring
this may stop it being pushed up a
category from 12A to 15.

7. How did you attract/address your audience?
For our end product we mainly used word of mouth, for
others to gain knowledge about our product. We could
also use social media, so that we can choose the market
segment to aim our film towards, instead of aiming it to
towards a wide variety of people, where some people
may not show any interest to it. Also social media is a
free from of promotion, therefore it is a perfect fit for us
as we will be producing a low budget film, so money
would be a worry as it is limited. With social media we
can promote as much as we want, however a negative to
this is that we still will have ty and attract people to our
pages.
We would also show our final product at film festivals, as
this would be the most relevant place to show our
audiences. We could do an question and answer at these
festivals so that the audiences so that people gain more
of a knowledge about our film and what we are trying to
succeed.
We also created a poster to raise the awareness of our
product.

8. I produced a trailer showing all of the best bits from the
film to attract the audience, this will portray the film to be
really good, which would hopefully attract a mass
audience.
Also Film 4 could advertise our product , if the televise it,
this would also be a good way to attract audiences because
they are owned by Channel Four Television Corporation,
which is a very popular institution, they own Channel Four,
which has millions of viewers each day, so if we had an
advert on that channel, then it will increase the popularity
and awareness of our film.
Our product could also have magazine articles, this would
be an affective way to promote our product because if it
was in a film specific magazine such as ‘Empire’ then the
film would mainly attract our target market.
How did you attract/address your audience?

9. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
During the process of constructing our product I
developed my skills within my camera abilities. I
am already experienced in using a camera,
however I never have to record things, I stick to
photography, so recording footage, and using a
tools like a tri-pod was something I’m not used
to. I had to learn, and practise on getting a
smooth pan, which was more difficult than I
originally thought it would be.
I also advanced my skills using Adobe Premiere, I
learnt how do things such as editing in fade, and
colour correcting scene to get the best look
possible.
I also learnt how important the use of a tri-pod is,
this tool is important because it helps to obtain
good camera angles, and it decreases any accidently
movement in the shots. Usually I wouldn’t use one
as I prefer to not be refrained from the type of shots
I can have, I like to have the sense of freedom when
I'm shooting.
I used to depth of field to challenge and focus what
the audience perceives in the scenes, it causes the
audience to really think deeply what is really
partaking in the scenes.

10. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at the preliminary task, I have received a
better understanding and appreciation as it gave me the
opportunity to test out ideas and execute them.
Therefore after this I can learn from my mistakes and find
out what I had to do to improve, and what I had to do to
achieve a good final piece. This helped us with our final
product, as we could improve our weak spots. We mainly
struggled in executing the 180 degree rule.
If I was going to re-do the task I may of picked a different
sub-genre such as crime, this is because there would be
more films, therefore I can experiment with different
things.
Within our final piece we learnt how crucial it is to obtain
a steady camera, this is because if the camera isn't steady,
then it may distract the audience from what is happening
in the scene.
I think that my group didn’t work
very well together, this is because
there was a lack of communication
between us, if I was going to do this
again then I’ll make sure everyone
knows what's going.