The document discusses the student's media studies practical assignment evaluating how their media product used, developed, or challenged conventions of real media products in the thriller/crime genre. It provides examples of how various shots and editing techniques were used to set up the story, introduce characters and props, establish setting and costumes, and suggest the genre. The student discusses what they have learned about technologies like cameras, editing software, and blogging from constructing the project. They also reflect on how planning and researching similar films helped strengthen their final product compared to their preliminary task.

1. AS Media Studies Practical
Task – Evaluation Q1, 6 and 7
Amar Jakupovic

2. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products? (Thriller/Crime)
By using these nine key screenshots I managed
to show how various media factors were
represented and how they developed/challenged
forms and conventions of real media products.

3. Suggested story through opening
We began by introducing the scene through a panning shot which was able
to establish who the main character (Michael Thomas as Michael
Blakewood) was and what characteristics he held as it was quite clear to the
audience that this main character was suicidal or liked to lived a dangerous
lifestyle through the use of props such as an empty bottle (which the user
would presume to be alcohol) and tic tacs to act as pills as we obviously
weren't going to use real pills. It suggests that the story behind the movie
would be along the lines of the protagonist being distraught over previous
events in his life and how must make justice for himself.

4. Props
This was also utilized by presenting to the camera that the main character
had clearly been consuming drugs and alcohol through a close up of a wine
bottle and white pills. The props in this case were more focused on (tics tacs
and an empty bottle) to represent that characters dangerous lifestyle and the
level of detail of his life due to his consumption of drugs and alcohol,
suggesting that they control his life.

5. Editing
Furthermore, a medium shot was used on the back of Michael's head in
order for the audience to concentrate on the fact that the character is now the
point of focus since he is a pointing a gun to his head. A straight cut was then
used from this shot to the close up of Michael to increase the level of
intensity within the audience due to the how they can see the level of anger
and difficulty of committing suicide through his facial expression.

6. Suggested Genre through opening
We also shot a close up of our lead actor Michael Thomas' face who plays
the main character Michael Blakewood when he is holding the gun prop and
about to kill himself in order to show the expression on his face and the
impact and effect of it, one of which presumably shows his struggle with
ending life but also his struggle with continuing life. This is seen by how he
adds pressure to the holding of the gun and holds it tightly. We wanted to
make it as realistic as possible in comparison to real life thriller/action movies
such as Taken as that was out target.

7. Setting
A high angle shot was used closely from Alex's body aiming at Michael to
show that Michael perhaps possesses more power over him (obviously due
to the fact that's he's dead) and also as a build up to the audience possibly
as to what has actually happened to him which they discover in the next shot.
This shot is in a lot more depth as to what the setting is because since the
lead character is now in another room, it shows that the setting is within an
apartment building of some sort with various rooms.

8. Costumes
A wide angle shot was then used to create a new setting as Michael had left
the room he had heard the gunshot in and gone to investigate where he had
heard it from (the current room) and to clearly show what the gunshot had
meant as the audience can now clearly see that the lead character Michael
has found a dead body. The costumes were also clearly presented and the
ones used between all characters were fairly casual as there was nothing
specifically that stood out e.g. a suit. The costume between both characters
consisted of essentially: a sweater, jeans, a t-shirt and trainers.

9. Character Introduction
A Two Shot was used here to distinguish the similarity between the two
characters Michael Blakewood and the dead body of Alex Wilson (played by
Alex Jokovic) in order to show that perhaps they have something in common
in the manner that Michael may eventually see himself in a similiar position
one day if he continues to lead a life of drugs and suicidal thoughts. This
introduced both characters and suggestively all remaining characters within
the film as dark and living lives of horror as they have both half both within
the first three minutes of the film experienced drug use and death.

10. Props again
For our final shot, we used an additional close up shot to focus on the gun
prop and also the dead body to signify their importance for future scenes
and also that since the dead body and the gun were the focal points of the
shot it would result in the character Michael Blakewood appearing to have
been responsible for the death of Alex Wilson. Props were essentially key
within this frame as well due to the gun being the focal point to represent the
gun as a symbol within the remainder of the film.

11. Titles
By analysing opening title sequences of other action/thriller type movies such
as Total Recall or The Terminator we found that the majority of those movies
generally tend to use dark backgrounds with quite a bold and stand out font.
Therefore, we decided to follow this convention in order to make it mirror our
genre through a black background and a standard white font.

12. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
In terms of production, I have learnt a variety
of things; one reason for this is because we
have been using one camera extensively for
various purposes such as for taking test shots
and taking pictures of the actors
which therefore has allowed us to most
importantly film our final product. I have also
learnt multiple camera techniques from our
previous experience and practise within filming
but also by evaluating movies such as `Pulp
Fiction or Reservoir Dogs and what types of
shots they use to portray a specific message.
This allowed us to know how to film tracking
shots and how to conduct a shot in terms of
using lights correctly or using focus in a correct
and sensible way.

13. Furthermore, I have also learnt how to use
various blogging websites, the most
commonly used one in my case would be
blogger.com which some of our group have
used. Using our blogs, we’ve learnt how to
alter text, upload video, upload photos,
include web links and even to insert ‘slide
share’ in our blog posts for when we're
unable to immediately add a presentation
file. By using each others we managed to
participate in various roles within the
project (e.g. conduct a questionnaire for
the target audience, cameraman, editor.)
and as a group complete the final product.

14. In addition, I have also learnt about how to
use editing software (in this case, Final Cut
Pro) and specifically how to use it to edit
our finished piece but to to a low degree as
Barney was essentially the only one who
knew how to use that specific piece of
editing software and to a high degree
as he had previous experience in
editing. We have all had more experience
in using cameras, editing software and
various websites and can say that our
expertise in these products have all greatly
improved over the course of the year whilst
not only making our finished product, but
also making our preliminary product or
practicing using a camera.

15. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you
feel you have learnt in the progression from it to
the full product?
In terms of production I
believe that I've learnt a
substantial amount in terms
of editing and camera work
due to the fact that when I
helped produce the
preliminary task we had a
short amount of time to carry
it out. When we had been
supplied with better
equipment and more time, I
thought that my editing skills
especially had significantly
improved as I took more part
in that area in comparison to
camera work.

16. Even with technologies aside, I have also learnt how effective
planning can be in utilizing an idea for a media product. With
planning, we were able to make our product much more effective as
we knew exactly what we wanted to do and how we wanted to act on
that. Firstly, by researching films similiar to ours based on genre
(action/thriller) such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction is what
firstly started us off in the creation of our product as we analyzed the
codes and conventions that these type of movies have and then try
make ours similiar. By creating a storyboard we were able to create
an idea of what type of film we wanted to create and also then go on
to write a synopsis for our film. This also helped our cast also gain
an idea as to how to portray their roles.