Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The main source and film production focus is on the opening of a film, its opening credits and the titles. In our thriller we have focused on the typical conventions that make a good opening to a thriller. In our thriller we have focused on some of the conventions as we have used Suspense and tension to build an atmosphere from the bringing of our thriller to draw the audience into the film, as I feel that keeping the audience on the edge of their seats from the beginning of the film gets the audience attention for the rest of the film as they want to know what’s going to happen next. We has also stuck to keeping the victim a woman as women are seen as more vulnerable and also it keeps the audience’s sympathy. We didn’t choose to use a male for a victim as we wanted the victim to be vulnerable. Throughout our thriller we have used non-diegetic sound to build tension between the characters and the audience. We learnt that following the guide lines of theses conventions you can produce a good thriller and tick all the boxes.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our thriller we tried to represent particular social groups by having young characters so the audience can relate to them, also we wanted the audience feel that they can put themselves in the characters shoes and feel like they were them. In our opening sequence we have tried to aim our thriller at the age range around 14-18 year olds as we wanted to aim our thriller at a young audience as we felt that the film industry aims its films at younger people as they go out more than the older audience. We founded this by doing some research into it as we made a questionnaire that asked members from the public. To convey this in our thriller we have two young characters aged 17, we have done this so our audience can relate to them. We have presented the female character as a hard working student who is from a middle class background. The female character has been noticing strange things but she doesn’t know that she is being followed. The male in our sequence is stalking the female in our sequence. We have presented the mise en scène in our thriller by having dark clothing to make the boy more threatening also it was important that the props, surroundings and location. We have stuck with typical stereotypes as having the stalker dressed in black clothing to make him seem more threatening to the audience, as we have the girl dressed in light clothing to make her seem vulnerable to the audience. In our thriller it was important to use that we got the connection between the audience and the character’s correct as I feel that if you can connect the audience and the character’s that the audience feel more attached to them as if something was going to happen in the thriller this would be a shock to the audience also I think including typical stereotypes in the thriller the audience are aware of them as intensely by dressing the stalker in dark clothing intensely makes him the stalker  in the film and it makes the audience feel vulnerable .

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

 I think that Paramount pictures would be a good distribution company for our thriller as Paramount pictures is an Independent company and also it distributed Psycho in 1960. Also this distribute would help us reach our target audience as Psycho is aimed at the same target audience as my thriller. Paramount Pictures is an American film production and distributed company which was founded in1912 by Gulf+Western , Paramount pictures

original name was  'famous players studio' but later in 1914 was named Paramount studios. Paramount is also one of America's oldest existing film studios, this shows that paramount pictures is an reliable company to distributed my thriller.

Paramount Pictures has also distributed Hitchcock other 4 films Rear Window 1954, the trouble with harry 1955, the man who knew too much 1956 and  Vertigo 1958. Paramount Pictures has also Distributed films such as Eagle eye 2008 directed by D.j. Caruso  and Bless the child 2000 directed by Chuck Russell.

  was founded in 1912     Rear Window distributed  in 1954      Psycho was one of Hicthcock famous things in  1960  




Eagle Eye distrubed in 2008

 

 On the Paramount Pictures website I found out some interesting information about their new films that are currently in the progress of making and also there old things which they have done in the past. Also the website tells you more information about what they do and also information and there films and press releases. http://www.paramount.com/

 Who would be the audience for your media product?
Before we decide on what we were going to aim our thriller at, we did some research on the target audience by producing an questionnaire, from the results we founded that the most popular answer was between female and male 14-18 year olds .I think that this was the most popular age range as around this age teenagers are more likely to go out to the cinema as they are more sociable at this age. We decided to aim our thriller at people over the age of 15 as our thriller is young and fresh also that the most popular outcome in our questionnaire was round that age range also I think that the older generation wouldn't see our thriller as they aren’t as sociable as they are much busy with jobs and families, also we have used young characters in our thriller as we want to relate to the audience.

 I think if we were to give our thriller an age rating I would rate our thriller at an 15 as I feel that anyone younger than this age would frighten them this is what we didn't want to achieve is to frighten young people as we want our thriller to be enjoyable but has an thriller thrill to the film as I feel that people above the age of 15 can enjoy and get more experience out of the film.

Age rating certificate

Results from questionnaire

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by having the characters in our thriller as young college students as some people from our target audience could relate to them. Also we have set the storyline to a natural realistic storyline as we felt that the audience could relate to this as it is a part of everyday life. Also it was important to me and Sophie to be able to get our audience to be able to connect to our film as we wanted our target audience to relate to our characters.We also did some research into films that are aimed at the same target audience as our thriller. I looked at Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock 1960, which is a story about how a women steals $40,000 from here employees client and then she encounters a young motel to long under the domination of his mother.  We think that our thriller is similar to Psycho as it is about an stalker and also the women is seen at the man victim and also the directed as used the women as an vulnerable women also Hitchcock cut the main female actress shocking near the beginning of the film, this caused an big stir in the media in 1960’s as it was very shocking to see an big star of the film cut very early in the film, also Hitchcock used very tension music in the shower scene to build an atmosphere to the audience also this shocked many viewers of the film, now Psycho is one of the best well known thriller known today.

This is the trailer was the trailer they used to promote Psycho, The trailer is very dark and also they have used rapid shots to attract the audience also they have filmed the film in black and white to show the different contrasts. I also think that the black and white colour scheme throughout the film creates an atmosphere between the audiences as you can’t see the characters true colours. Hitchcock has used young character in his thriller as the audience can connect with them to make them more vulnerable and also to make the audience vulnerable and shocked.



Shocking shower scene from Psycho which shocked the audience in 1960



What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have many old and new things whiles making our thriller, I have learnt how to use a camera correctly and equipment propitiatory as before I didn't any much about how they work and what things you can achieve with simple equipment such as a tripod. I have always learnt how to achieve a good white balance and how to position the camera to achieve professional standard angels. Also I have learnt how to use the software whiles editing our thriller, as in the preliminary task I didn't know a lot about the software only the basics, but whiles editing our thriller I have learnt how to insert different transitions and how to use the arrange of tools on the software and also how to create professional titles and how to create credits. One of the things I learnt using the software was how to cut footage into parts to create different effects with the footage to build tension in our thriller also we went how to change the sound on the software by turning it up at different steps in the footage to add more tension to the thriller and also how to add certain sound effects to the footage to give the footage an professional cut to the footage and also the sound effects add suspense to the clip .Whiles filming our thriller we did re-film some of our thriller an couple of times to make sure that we got the perfect footage for our thriller as we wanted to create an  professional  standard in our thriller as we want to make our thriller the best it could be by re-filming and changing things in our thriller to get the correct standard. I think from re-filming certain parts of our thriller has helped me learn how to use the software as I feel more confident on using the software . I now know how to use the correct tools and different transitions and how to create different effects to the footage. Also whiles filming our thriller I have learnt how to use two different cameras with tape and memory card and how to import and cut certain clips from the footage and how to set the balance and widescreen.

  

 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 our preliminary task, I feel that I have come a long way since then as I have learnt new skills and learnt how to manage time to create an good thriller, I feel since from the Preliminary task that I have learnt to understand how media works and how to create films with different camera shots, sound, mise en scene etc. Also I feel that in the preliminary task we didn't fuller complete a full produced film as we had a short period of time with the preliminary task as we do for the thriller, as for the thriller a lot of planning and research went into it to create and perfect piece. I also think that we have learnt a lot since the preliminary task as we did research in what costume, set, props ,lighting etc for our thriller also we were more organized also we made an timetable when we were filming to make sure we knew what we were doing and also how we were going to present our thriller by deciding on what shots we were going to use and writing every detail on our storyboard.