1. Evaluation Question #1
Winnie Sunday Dacosta
In what way does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
2. Research
We researched many different media products
both within our chosen genre of crime/mystery
and around it
We looked at films, TV shows and even music
videos for inspiration.
We were able to identify different techniques used
within the products that we chose to imitate.
3. The first of these would be our opening shot which is a slow
zoom into our location. This shot is inspired by the opening
shot in the James Bond: Quantum of Solace film.
We chose to use this shot because of the effect it had on us
as we watched it in the film. It served as a way to draw the
audience from outside of the action, right into the middle of it
in a non-overwhelming way.
4. We altered this shot to tailor our needs by changing it from an
extremely high angled shot zooming in at a fast pace over the
ocean to a more suitable zoom into the front window of the
house we chose as our location.
We did this partly because we did not have the necessary
equipment to replicate such a high angle and also to adapt the
shot to our chosen location; a suburban street.
5. Another film we got some inspiration
from was the Sherlock Holmes
(2009) film. This film is very similar to
ours in genre as they both have a
mystery/detective element.
In the opening of this film the main
character, Sherlock Holmes, is seen
running throughout the streets in an
apparent chase.
The aspect of this that we extracted
was the fact that throughout this
sequence, the shots and camera
angles did not allow his face to be
seen until the end of the opening
sequence.
6. We developed this a little bit further by showing extreme
close-ups of our actor’s eyes and mouth before actually
revealing his full face.
This was to highlight the air of mystery around the character
and the murder case before him.
7. Another idea we had was to use a voice-over during our film
opening. We were inspired by the film opening Hot Fuzz
which also used a voice over as a way to fill the audience in
on the main characters past and skillset.
Police Constable Nicholas
Angel: born and schooled in
London, graduated Canterbury
University in 1993 with a
double first in Politics and
Sociology. Attended Hendon
College of Police Training.
Displayed great aptitude in
field exercises, notably
Urban Pacification and Riot
Control.
8. It was a very effective way to bring us all up to speed in a
short space of time; however it was a large amount of
information to take in all at once. Of course, as the audience,
we weren’t expected to remember every little detail mentioned
but instead it served to show exactly how much the main
character had accomplished.
We stripped the idea down to its basic form and decided to
have our voiceover be the audible thoughts of the main
character, Mack Mason as he analyses the scene before him
whilst giving the audience an insight into his personality.
Strangled to death? No, no
throat marks. Hit with a
blunt object? Perhaps...
9. We also took inspiration from a scene in the Sherlock Holmes
movie where Holmes is sitting on a chair alone with his
thoughts. The voices of several different people saying
different things are heard played over each other and merging
together.
Instead of different people we decided to make the voices his
own thought processes. Just like in the film, we hope this
technique will create tension and give the audience an insight
into how he thinks
10. We used a range of different products and genres
to get inspiration and point us in the right direction.
Most of the techniques had to be altered and
tailored to fit our idea, genre and abilities.
It helped us use pre-existing techniques that have
already proven to be effective to make our products
equally as effective.
