EVALUATION - Q1

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

EVALUATION - Q2

REPRESENTATION: This is the portrayal of social groups to the world in a particular way by the media.
e.g Age, Abiliti, Ethnicity etc.






Immigrants are portrayed in a negative way by the media. Tv shows such as "UK border force" portray immigrants in a negative way and being less intelligent.

EVALUATION - Q3

EVALUATION - Q4

Q6-evaluation

Here is an example of a twitter page of a certain member of our target audience:

He is part of our target audience because he is within our age limit, therefore making him a suitable person to target because he is young and will most likely enjoy the concept of our movie. 

Also because of the fact that he lives in the UK, it makes him more suitable because our film is a low budget, independent niche film which means that our target audience has to be located within the UK. 

EVALUATION - Q5

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

EVALUATION - Q6

This has helped me become more creative and has expanded my knowledge on advanced technology that I could use. 

EVALUATION - Q7

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When we was planning both our prelim and our thriller, we had to make a story board of shots we had to work of.
In our prelim story board we didn't have that many shots to use which made it harder for us to film. However in our thriller we decided to use more shots in our story board to work off so that we can improve in our thriller and make it better.

Here is our prelim storyboard:

Here is our Thriller storyboard:

In our preliminary task, our location was in college which made the quality of our video not as good as it could've been. I don't think that this was a very good location to shoot the film for the idea we had.
We took the idea of our film into consideration and thought that we should have a more suitable location to match the idea. We decided to have a formal location for our thriller idea and we chose 'kings place' to shoot the film. This was a much more suitable location because it was formal and luxurious which suited the idea of our thriller.

The props we used in our preliminary were very limited because we didn't use many. This was a factor we had to improve in to make our video better.
Therefore, we decided to improve our mise en scene by adding more props and better props to make the film more interesting to watch and to make it more believable.
In the preliminary we used only a tape recorder, a pen and a piece of paper. Whereas in the thriller we used props such as passports, photographs, credit cards, suitcase, sun glasses, watches etc.

Our costume in the preliminary was also something we had to look at it because it didn't make it as good and realistic as it could've been. We had a police officer in our prelim who was dressed very casually. This didn't make the prelim very believable.

In our thriller, we took this and the idea of our thriller into consideration and decided we would need to dress suitably. The criminal had to dress formally in a suit to stand out and to look suspicious and the victim dressed formally to suit the atmosphere. 

In our prelim and thriller, we used stand alone titles. This was because in our thriller we had cross cutting which looked more suitable with stand alone titles. In our prelim we felt that it was the easiest to use so we decided to use it. However in our prelim we didn't take the font into consideration and how the text enters which made it very dull. Where as in our thriller we made it fade in and out in a type writer style and used a font that suits the style of our film. 

Here is the title style for our prelim:

Here is the title style for our thriller: 

Also, in our prelim we used dialogue which intercepted our music making it sound messy. We also had a lot of background sounds which reduced the quality of the film. 

We took this into consideration and decided to remove all background sounds to keep the quality of the film and we also made our own soundtrack to suit our film. Our soundtrack consisted of slow piano music at the start to keep the calm atmosphere which we faded into a tense upbeat sound when the criminal started to make his move. We once again faded the music out to the slow piano music which we had at the start because the mood changed to a sad, hurt moment when the victim realised she had been conned. 

Over both productions I have learnt that when making a film we have to make sure that the mise en scene suits the idea of the film and keeps the quality hight. I also learnt that when filming we have use a variety of shots to make the film more interesting to watch and also to make sure the shots our focused. We had several shots that weren't focused which we couldn't use. This didn't make the film opening as good as it should've been because the unfocused shots were key parts that were interesting to watch. 

EVALUATION: Question 1

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

The conventions of a film opening inlcudes intorducing the main characters of the film, whilst establishing the location of the film. It should also provide a 'hook' for the audience making them want to carry on watching. It should also require Sound Fx and music to create a mood/tone for the rest of the film.

 

 

Here are a series of gifs that I have created, to show how I have used intertextual elements from 'Collateral' the thriller film we took inspiration from:

 One element of the opening we took from 'Collateral' was the swapping of the items. Which raises suspicion and anticipation for the audience, through the question of what the significance of the items could be.

 

 

 

 

The grey suit was another aspect in which we used intertextuality. This use of mise en scene  constructs both characters and professional and wealthy. 

Here is an explanation on how our group used the conventions of a film opening and the conventional order of title sequences:

EVALUATION: Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation is the portrayal of social groups in particular way or of being of a certain nature. It is the media's way of presenting aspects of the 'real world' to audiences. 

Here is a mood board I made using FotoFlexer, highlighting the stereotypes of a certain ethnicity (in the case of our opening this is immigration): 

Here is another mood board I made using Fotoflexer used to highlight the stereotyped made about Women: 

  

Here is a SlideRocket presentation, showing how my thriller opening represents particular 

social groups.

 

EVALUATION: Question 3

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

Here is a Slideshare presentation which discusses the production and distribution companies used in the opening of our thriller project and  my reasons for choosing them. 

EVALUATION: Question 1

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

This is a prezi where I have explained how our thriller opening has followed conventional forms of other media products.

EVALUATION: Question 2

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Question 2 by ankaalexe

EVALUATION: Question 3

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

This is a Slideshare presentation which describes the way we used distribution and production companies in our thriller opening project.

EVALUATION: Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Here is a Scribd publication describing the wider audience for thriller films in general and the audience more specific to my sub-genre:

  

This is a Facebook profile I created to demonstrate a specific member of my target audience. He is 22 years of age, which is within our thriller's target audience age group:

He is suitable for our target audience as he is at and age and of a certain social class,in which includes him regularly using social media- making him aware of our thriller film's release, through our film's use of social media marketing. His gender is also appropriate as the film circulates,a man also in his mid 20's deceiving vulnerable people in exchange for money, a plot which would be more engaging for males rather than females- due to it's use of conflicting and perilous themes:

He is also a British citizen, making him appropriate to the fact that due to our British distribution company is responsible for film that primarily have a UK audience- making our film more approachable to him: 

He is  a university student, which would possibly have him regularly attending social gatherings with friends increasing his chances of seeing the film in the cinema. He also has an interest in business and economics, resulting in him having a particular interest in the film due to some of it's themes circulation wealth, exchange and money. 

I made a Wordle to write the words associated with a member of my target audience:

  

EVALUATION: Question 4

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for the thriller film opening we have made includes British people between the ages of 16-35. The audience would be mainly from an urban environment, as our film is set in London.
The fact that our film fits into the crime thriller sub-genre means that the target audience will mostly consist of males, as they are usually the ones that are more attracted to this genre. However, by having a female main character we are also able to include female viewers in our target audience, as they might connect with this character.

I have created a Facebook profile for a potential member of the audience of our media product, the thriller film opening we have created.

This is the Facebook profile of Daniel Scott, a 22 year-old student who lives and studies in London. 

 

 He is in our target audience because of his age and the fact that he lives in the UK, as our film was mainly aimed at a 16-40 year old British audience.

 

He is 22 years old, so he fits into our target audience.

 Our product is a crime thriller opening, a sub-genre which usually attracts more males than females, mostly between the ages of 15-40.

EVALUATION: Question 5

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?


There are several aspects of our thriller opening which will attract an audience composed of people between the ages of 16-35.
The crime thriller sub-genre is most likely to attract male viewers, as they are usually interested in this type of film. However, our main character is female, which means that some women will also be interested in this film because of her.
The location of the film, set in a beautiful building in central London, will attract an urban British audience.

This is a wordle containing keywords that an audience can associate with our film:



We used the Internet to promote 'Disperare'.
We created a Facebook page for our film, as this is the most widely used social media website and millions of people could have access to this page.

Twitter is also a very popular social media network and it is often used to promote media products: 

We recorded feedback from members of our target audience, asking them what they thought about the opening and if it looked interesting enough for them to want to watch the film further.
We were happy with the feedback we received and we were glad to learn that the opening captured our audience's attention and that they would like to find out what happens next in the film.

EVALUATION: Question 6

6. What have you learnt about technologies fro the process of constructing this product?

This is a Final Cut Pro timeline where I described the way we used technologies to create our thriller opening. 

EVALUATION: Question 5

How did you attract/ address your audience? 

One way that we address our audience was through a cinema screening in which the audience were able to see our end media product:

Through our group getting feedback from our target audience after the Cinema screening, we were able to sum up aspects of our opening that appeal specifically to them: 

Here a member of our target audience comments on how they liked our use of mise en scene, and how they personally found interesting and intriguing when they watched it on the big screen in the cinema. Here we successfully attracted our target audience.

Here another member of our target audience comments and praises our use of cinematography our unique idea and our use of cross-cut editing. They particularly enjoyed watching these aspects on the large cinema screen. They also found our use of sound intriguing and exciting. Here we were successful in attracting our target audience. 

However we received some constructive criticisms from someone in our target audience when sharing our thriller opening with the rest of our class:

We were able to attract and address our audience in many more ways: 

Here is a video of one of our actors explaining his hectic promotional schedule, whilst also explaining how we reached our target audience, such as through the cinema screening, social networking, Vimeo and DVD:

This interview allowed our target audience to be aware of the how they can keep in touch with the release of the film, attracting and addressing our target audience that watch it.  

The rough-cut feedback that we received as a group was very significant when it came making our final product appealing for our target audience. For example we were told by our teacher to add more effective sound to create a mood/tone. This was very significant as sound was on of the factors that appealed the most to our target audience. 

EVALUATION: Question 7

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

Our preliminary task was of a much lower quality compared to our final thriller opening. This was due to the difference in the amount of time we had for planning these two projects - for the preliminary, we only had a few hours, while for the final project we had several weeks to come up with our idea and the things we needed for it to look real and interesting.

LOCATION

In the Preliminary project, we had a limited amount of time for planning and finding a location, so we decided to film it in a corridor and a small room in college. The preliminary was a police interrogation, so the use of the small room would be appropriate, but it was obvious that it was filmed in a school environment.

In our Thriller Opening, having enough time to plan and search for a location, we were able to film in King's Place in London, a beautifully designed, professional-looking building, which was much more appropriate for our story.





LIGHTING

The lighting in our preliminary was not appropriate for the 'police interrogation' storyline, as these interrogation rooms are usually much darker, in order to convey the mood of the scene.

In 'Disperare', the lighting is much better and it changes a lot as the characters move: outdoor light, bathroom, couch area all have a different tone and mood.

The lighting is much better on the character in 'Disperare' compared to the prelim

TITLES

In our Preliminary, we used a stand-alone structure with white text on a black background, which we also did in 'Disperare'. However, in the preliminary project, the size of the text and its placement on the screen changes throughout the short film, which looks very unprofessional. We made sure that the text was the same size and in the same place in the different titles of our final project. We also used a different font which we thought would look better for our film.

Preliminary project titles: 

'Disperare' titles:

PROPS

Our preliminary project was done without much planning and inside college, so we could not have many props that would have been useful for our scenario. We had a voice recorder for the interrogation and the 'police officer' also had some papers and a pen, but this was all we used for the film. 

The props we used for our final project were much more appropriate, as we had time to gather everything we needed for our idea to look real: passports, credit cards, briefcase, lipstick, photograph, watch. 

COSTUME

The clothes worn by the actors in 'Disperare' were very smart-looking, which is a big upgrade from our preliminary, where the clothes were not appropriate for the character, especially for the police officer.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Although the angles in our preliminary project were quite good, we improved them for our final thriller opening and made it look more professional and also had a wider range of angles and shot types, most importantly more close-ups on key props, which allowed us to create a more interesting film. The preliminary had very few close-ups, and those were mostly on the characters' faces. 

Wide range of shots in 'Disperare': close-ups, two-shots, long shots, mid-shots. 

Fewer interesting shots in the preliminary 

SOUND

In the preliminary, we did not have any music or other sound effects, we kept the voices and background noise of the college. 

The final project did not have any dialogue, instead we created a soundtrack using software, which helped us convey the mood and pace of the opening. 

EVALUATION: Question 6

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

Here I used Final Cut pro to construct a technology timeline, which shows the significant technologies and I and my group used during the pre-production, production, post-production and distribution processes. It also shows what I have learnt from them, as well as their usefulness, whilst also concluding with an explanation of the what I have learnt form the whole creative process:

EVALUATION: Question 7

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

Here is a Prezi presentation I made in response to question 7:

EVALUATION: Question 1

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

The purpose of a film opening is to hook the audience in order to get them to continue watching it and also enjoy it. This can be done via the story line, the sound, the conventions of the titles etc.
The thriller film which me and my group created has the structure of stand alone titles. This type of convention of film opening was used because we thought it would suit our theme. We wanted to give our film a classy look and thought having the titles on a black background would be perfect for it, such as the film 'Psycho'.

Our title sequence follows the general order of titles and is shown in the video below. However we made a minor change by not including the cast, as we wanted our opening to be short and to be left on a hook to engage the audience.
Our intertextuality ideas are also presented in this video. We wanted to suit the ambience and the look of the film 'Collateral'.

EVALUATION: Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation: This refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of 'reality' in the 7 most important areas of representation- Age, Gender, Class & Status, Regional Identity, Ethnicity,Disability and Sexuality. When making a film we have to consider how we are representing these areas.

Social groups:

We have presented 2 social groups in our film opening- Ethnicity and Class. In our film opening we challenge the typical stereotype of immigrants being criminals and we also show that the rich are not always lawful.

 Ethnicity: We have represented them in a positive way. Normally people would say immigrants are criminals, but we have done the opposite. We've shown that not all immigrants are criminals, in this case a Romanian female. She ends up to be the one that is deceived by a British citizen.

Presented normally:

Presented in our film:

Class: We have presented the rich in a negative way. Normally people would say the rich are lawful and are the ones that are targeted on. However we have shown that the rich have dodgy deals going on right under their noses. They allow these illegal trades to go on.

Presented normally:

Presented in our film: