Our media product uses conventions typical of real thriller films, such as a dark mis-en-scene that creates suspense and mystery. It also mirrors real thrillers in its plot about uncovering a dark secret through clues. While our film represents some stereotypes conventionally seen in thrillers, it also challenges expectations by portraying a middle-class black family. As a psychological thriller with a similar style to films like Se7en, it would be well-suited for distribution by a company like New Line Cinema.

1. Evaluation Bradley Gregory

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our media product uses typical conventions of real media products such as a dark mis-en-scene. This creates a sense of suspense and tension because the dark lighting gives a sense of mystery. Although it is not raining, the ground is wet and the sky is grey and cloudy which is also typical of genuine thrillers like ‘se7en’, where in every scene outside it is raining. This creates a solemn mood as there is no light, and the bad weather reflects the events to follow.

3. Also the theme of our thriller is typical of a real media product as it is about uncovering a dark secret. The plot is about mystery and figuring things out as the daughter finds mysterious photographs in her father’s bedroom and she is curious to find out why he has these photos and who the women are in the photographs. This is mirrored in real thriller films such as ‘se7en’ where the characters piece clues together to solve a mystery. It has an element of drama, as well as elements that are typical of a psychological thriller.

4. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our thriller film both conforms to, and challenges the stereotypes of particular social groups. Firstly, the daughter character is typical of conventional thrillers as teenage girls are seen as vulnerable and easy victims in the thriller genre. However our thriller also challenges typical conventions as you may not expect a black family to be middle-class, living in a nice house with nice decor and an expensive car. This is a positive representation as opposed to a typical thriller that may conform to stereotypical views that black people are lower than middle-class.

5. What kind of media product might distribute your media product and why? Our media product is a psychological thriller that would be distributed by an institution such as ‘New Line Cinema’ responsible for ‘se7en’, a thriller with similar conventions to our own (dark mis-en-scene, uncovering a mystery, piecing clues together etc.) Although our media product is a student film project with limited funds and resources, I feel the storyline and ideas in our thriller are successful, and would generate a great deal of interest from a company such as ‘New Line Cinema’. As they are a large company they would be able to replicate our idea on a larger scale, with a larger budget and larger number of resources, so that our film could be a great success.

6. Who would be the audience for your media product and how did you attract/address you audience? Our typical audience would be males and females aged between 16 and 40. This is because the thriller is about a family and people aged between 16 and 40 will be part of a family. The younger audience will be able to relate to the teenager whilst the older audience will relate to family values. We have attracted a younger audience by using a typical teenager in our thriller that this age group can relate to. We have addressed the older viewers by using sophisticated, classical music for our thriller. Also the parents can relate to a moody teenager in their family. Furthermore as the film is based around finding clues and solving a mystery, an older audience with more intelligence is drawn in as they do not just want to sit and watch the film they want to interact and solve the mystery for themselves.

7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Over the course of this project I have learnt a great deal about technologies. Firstly I have learnt how to use a video camera film our thriller. I have learnt to use ‘Final Cut Pro’ to edit our media product. It allowed me to: cut scenes to get the best overall outcomes, add effects, for example to make scenes darker and typical of conventional thrillers, add text to our film showing the credits and add transitions to make our thriller opening flow. I also learnt to use ‘Soundtrack Pro’ to create a soundtrack for our thriller. It allowed me to combine sounds and import them into ‘Final Cut Pro’ to get the tense, suspense building music we wanted. Furthermore I have learnt how to save my files to the server in the specific place and folder so that we can easily access it. Also I have learnt to constantly save my project in case of a technical fault that may cause me to lose work.

8. Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? When we began our preliminary exercise I was unaware of the typical conventions of thriller films. Now I am confident in producing a piece is uses conventions of typical thrillers due to research into the thriller genre. Furthermore our preliminary task was the first time I had ever used a video camera and I was unsure on how to use the technology. However after filming our thriller opening I can use the camera with ease to capture successful footage. In addition I had not used technology such as ‘Final Cut Pro’ in such great depth. Before we just arranged shots on a time line to show understanding of key concepts such as match on action and the 180 degree rule. Now I can consider these key rules of filming without much thought and I can use ‘Final Cut Pro’ with ease to cut scenes to desired length, add special effects to add to the thriller effect and also add text to be included in our thriller. Before I had not used ‘Soundtrack Pro’ at all and now I can create music clips that sound authentic and are relevant to my video. In conclusion throughout this project I have learnt a great deal of things, as well as key skills that will enable me to create even more successful work in the future, when I hope to be able to use programs and create intended products with ease.