The media product is a chase scene opening for a thriller film. It uses conventions from films like James Bond Casino Royale by starting with an explosive chase scene to grab audience attention. Some conventions included are the smallest character being chased and the biggest character delivering the final hit. The group faced challenges like illness and no-shows that required changing plans and taking on new roles, but they worked hard and used skills learned from their preliminary task to complete the project successfully.

1. Media Studies Evaluation Piyal Matilal

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our media product starts off with a chase. Rory thinks he had got away but all of a sudden the chasers re-appears and knocks him out after Rory talks on the phone to his girlfriend to warn her about these people are out to get them again. After the blackout we run the titles and we show off the start of the next scene which shows somebody else waking up. There are lots of action/ thriller films that have similar types of opening. A good example of this is James Bond Casino Royal. This has an explosive long chase which grabs the audiences attention straight away. We showed the chase part only as we just didn’t have the finance or the budget to do have gun shots and have big explosions like they have in Casino Royal. As this whole film was on this chase we needed the audience to recognise that this is a chase so feel the way we achieved this aim by emphasised the fact that when Rory tried to hold them off at the gate and we showed the violence of the chasers at the end when he smacked Rory on the head. We added a twist at the end when we see somebody else waking up. The audience then must judge for themselves whether this was all a dream or is this signs to on what could happen in the future. The location where we chose suited our chase scene very well. The location we choose wasn't the most conventional place to film though. You wouldn’t see these criminal chases through posh side of Oxford. On the other hand, something which you would say is conventional is that the person who is being chased was the smallest person as this creates hierarchy of power. Another thing which goes with convention is that the biggest person (Sam) is the one who is the one who hits Rory. The music that we have chosen for the chase is very fast pace. The music we have chosen for the chase is very fast paced and the heartbeat sound afterwards keeps the tension from the chase right until the very end of that scene. We then have this dramatic sound at the start of the next scene when he wakes up.

3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The three main characters are all teenagers. How the media works is that they portray teenagers and associated then with hoodies and being in nasty gangs. Our film fits in with the stereotype that the media puts on us and for that reason our film would work. The film does back up this theory where two yobs chasing a frightened man. To show there is no love lost in the area the two yobs are not afraid to confront Rory and are determined to get him in circumstance. We could conclude that that this is representing teenagers as the violent yobs and going on the media line of negative media for teenagers.

4. What kind of media institution may distribute your product and why? One of the institution which would take our type of film is film 4. Film 4 takes on young British talent and try to work and develop them into successful directors. However after looking at similar films we saw that Universal was the institution that distributed the likes of the Bourne series. Distributing our product may help it become more successful as people can relate to other films of similar genres that they have liked from the same institution. It would be true that it may be harder to get involved as Universal is an global world brand and Film 4 is an British brand which would go for our type of film. Film 4 has a national reputation meaning we would have a much bigger chance of having our product distributed by them.

5. Who would be the audience for your media product and how did you attract/address your audience? Our target audience is would range between their mid teens to there mid twenties. We feel that they can relate that age group to this sort of film. They would be more interested in this genre and may even relate this to there own background. I also believe that this may also interest more for a male market because of the chase and the violence. The audience is straight away as the chase begins as soon as the film starts with an fast pace music going with the flow of the chase. The dialog is limited but what we did was the dialog we did have was effective. The only time we heard someone speak was when Rory spoke on the phone to his girlfriend warning her of the dangers in a panicked way. We built the tension by fading the music as he gets into the phonebook and once the music stops we just here his voice and the sound of a heartbeat on top. On some of the feedback that we were getting they commented on how they thought the point of view shots were used really well. It gave the audience a few moment to see this from Rory point of view and for that the audience would feel more sympathetic towards him.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I have learnt how to use the macs. Before I didn’t have any idea how to use them and how useful the macs would be. By learning how to use the macs I was able to help out throughout the editing. That was part of the project which I was most dreading but after the teachers and my group showed me how the macs worked I was able to take part fully in the decision makings of how the film would run. I have also learnt about that the music should always be added last. What the group thought before was that the music is the most important part of our film and we tried to put in the music first but we quickly recognised that we needed to do the editing part first and then find the music which went with the flow of the chase. The final thing I learnt, which I think is the most important is the filming aspect. As we had a lot of problems with Matty being ill and other members not been able to come we did I had to step up to the plate and become the cameraman and I had to be imagitive with the different camera angles and the different placement and trying new things. I physical aspect of using the camera to my taste which I feel came through

7. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? When we started this project we were quite keen in trying to take all the positives from our Prelim task and embed it into our final product. For example as a group we really liked our ending which was an black out and we put at the end of our main task. We learnt from our prelim in how we could improve our ending. What we did this time was Rory was hit from a point of view shot which we thought made the ending part even more effective. Another thing that is apparent is that we used the stand a lot more in our main task. Even though we weren't that keen for using it but it allowed us to get much better looking shots which was also easier to edit. We also used a lot more variety of camera angles. I felt in our Prelim we were doing the shots that we were told to do because we had to and we didn't go for other shots. But in our main task I felt that we showed our wide ranges of camera shots. We were experimenting a lot and we were not afraid of trying other methods and for doing that we were able to use a wider range of new shots that we didn’t use in the prelim. It is true that we had our problems throughout our main task. For example we started filming half of our main task on one day and we got through it productively but the day before we were scheduled to film again disaster struck as Matty had to go back to Hospital. This was a big problem for us as Matty was our main character. What that meant was that we had to re-film everything and change our characters around. We luckily got Senan to help us out and he volunteered to become our main character.

8. Continued Another thing which didn’t go our way is on the day one of our characters didn’t turn up so Patrick and I had to step up roles to cover each other. Where our skills came into play there was what we had learnt from our prelim. As I wasn’t the type of person who wouldn’t fit the characters that we played Patrick had to play one of the chasers. I was able to pass on some of the acting skills which was needed to play the chasers so I helped Patrick on that front. Patrick was able to help me with the camera by passing on his experience of filming the prelim. We passed on some skills that we had learnt from the Prelim to the main task so we could help each other fill the gaps that had been left because of difficult circumstances.

9. Group work As a group we have had a tough time but I feel that we got through all the challenges put in front of us. Firstly we had many different views in how our main task was to pan out. We felt very strongly about our ideas and that led to a lot of arguments. This also reduced our time significantly as we couldn’t find a compromise that quickly. We were quick lucky as our Prelim task was done quite quickly and done to a good standard. We did finally agree on an idea that we all liked. We had filmed half of our film and hopped we could finish the film within the next few days but regrettably Matty feel ill and went into Hospital. This happened the day before we were planning to find a new actor and re-film what we had already filmed. We also had to sort out a back-up plan so we could carry on filming. On the day another problem emerged which was another character didn’t turn up. This meant that Patrick had to become one of the chasers and I had to become a cameraman. As a group I feel we worked extremely hard together. We built a good relationship and we have certain qualities which are all valuable to the team effort. We showed we could get through some tough times and show off all our qualities. We also showed off our flexibility. Matty was ill but we were prepared to do other different roles and work to the situation which we were put in. In conclusion, I feel we are hard working, flexible and we compliment each other well. I feel we could work again and through this experience and teamwork we could have even better films than we had this time but I was proud of the groups effect and loved every minute of this project.