Evaluation

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I created my work in such a way that it followed many typical thriller conventions. After watching clips from many other popular thriller films such as No County For Old Men and Batman the Dark knight, we decided that it would be best for our thriller to be dark and gloomy like these two examples.
We also decided to use other typical thriller conventions such as time lapse by using the dissolve transition.
We also used insert shots to create a sense of wanting to know for the audience and this attracts them to watch the rest of the video.





• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

To represent social groups in our work, we decided to create specific characters. The antagonist (the main character throughout the opening) was supposed to be a gothic, almost emo male in his early twenties. We did this to represent how a lot of teenagers in society have become in the past few years. We wanted to represent the regular teenagers by having the protagonist (walks past the antagonist on the street) dressed in bright coloured clothes, contrasting with the greys and blacks and reds of the antagonist. This was to represent all of the happy social groups that enjoy life and go out to have fun. The typical 'emo' stlye consists of a hairstlye that covers one side of the face, however the actor that we had in Adam Turner did not have the kind of hair for this and we therefore decided to use the hooded coat with the hood up, this represents another kind of social group within the teenage genre, as hoodies are seen as trouble causers by members of older generations this proves to be the case in our video also, as the hooded character is the antagonist. People with an emo style are also seen to be depressed, and unhappy with troubling moments in their lives encouraging to stand out with aspects of their physical appearence, this depressed state is also shown through out video as it is apparent that the antagonist is deeply troubled by one particular moment in his life which relates to the bomb shelter that can be seen in the insert shots that we have included.

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

A possible distribution company that could put our work to the cinemas is Lionsgate (http://www.lionsgatefilms.co.uk). This is because the films that they normally distrbute follow the same sort of conventions as the film that we have chosen to create, for example the saw series. The advertising that is used by Lions Gate films is often simple and attractive for example the posters for Saw III, the colours that were used were extremely neutral yet still managed to engage the audience. Another type of advertising that I would use to promote our product is the use of the Youtube website, not only is this source free but it is also a source that is mainly accessed by people in the younger generation, and this would be a good advertising move from our point of view as this relates to our target audience.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our thriller video would be teenagers around the age of 16 years old as the characters in the actual movie are around the same age as this and it would therefore make the film easier to relate to for this target audience, also any persons younger than this and thriller films often contain material that is unsuitable, for example murder, although we do not actually depict this throughout our video, there are hints that something disturbing has occured during the film. The insecure physcological state that the character is in during our clip is something else that may be unsuitable for the younger generations. The film is also unsuitable for older people as it has content that may not suit the interests of that target audience for example the different social groups that are represented throughout the clip have no relevance to the older generations, as the style of 'emo' and 'hoodies' often relate to people within the younger generation boundaries and therefore contain no relevance to an older person.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract our audiences we decided that the location needed to be able to be related to. Therefore, We chose a park and an antagonist with a dark constume on what was not a cold day, he was seen to be wearing an extremely thick jacket with the hood up and also large boots, so that he looks extremely out of place in a park. This is something that everyone is able to relate to as many people have seen someone that looks out of place in a park and naturally become nervous. As mentioned before we also attempted to attract our audience with the different social groups that are represented throughout our video, also the content of our video, which engages the audience into thinking about the possible plot and asking rhetorical questions, who is that man? what is the relevance of the bomb shelter?

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

From constructing the product I have learnt much about the camera equipment that was available for us to use, for example setting the white balance on the camera. This must be done before every shot to make sure that the colour remains consistant throughout the video. I have also learnt a lot about the editing equipment for example how to add music and transitions.

• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From doing the preliminary task, I think that it helped greatly in how well I performed in the final piece. In the preliminary task I was able to get used to working in a group with people that I might not have done previously and helped me make the right choice for the final project. I was also able to get used to the camera and editing software. The preliminary task also helped us get an idea of the correct costume to use, as during the preliminary task we went through the process of chosing the costume with great detail, so that the audience of our video were able to tell that the antagonist in the clip was supposed to be a pizza boy, it helped me to understand

how the costumes that are used on the characters can engage the audience, and also relate to them.