Evaluation

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

One of the main features of our thriller opening, which links to the conventions often used in popular films of the same genre, is the use of sound. The music is one of the many ingredients which help to set the sinister and eery atmosphere. It helps to change the pace of the action that is taking place on the screen. For moments of everyday activity the music is slow, but creepy nonetheless, to give the impression of odd goings-on, and thus arousing suspicion.

Although thrillers often include dark, cloudy skies, and stormy weather, our thriller opening does not employ this detail of pathetic fallacy. We rely on the sound effects to give implications of such weather, and hence suggest something sinister coming. The weather sets the scene for an ordinary day. But the action which takes place, suggests otherwise. This is done to take the audience by surprise.

The use of costume is also significant in reflecting good from evil. The dark clothes are intended to show their dark personality, especially the long dark cloak, worn by the male character. The young girl however, is dressed in ordinary clothes that you would expect to see a female wearing in an everyday situation. This hints at her innocence, especially in comparison to the other characters in the film. This detail is a vital message often used in many thriller and horror movies.

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

Our production includes young adults but are represented differently to convey different opinions of the characters. The main male character is shown as 'bad' as he is instructed to kill a girl. This is reflected through his dark clothes - black shirt and long black coat. The female character, who gives to instruction is also represented as bad and mysterious in the same way. Gender, in our production, is represented stereotypically because the male character is ordered to kill a female character so it gives a sense to the viewer that he has more dominance over the female character. However, the female who instructs the killing subverts to the 'passive' woman's role because it shows she has power over who is going to die and is giving orders to the male character. Our intended target audience is also young adults and we decided this using the Pearl and Dean website and researched the audience age for thrillers. We also felt that it would attract them more because the characters are their age.

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

We would like our media production to be published by a major film company because we feel that it is the best place to market the film to our intended target audience and distribute the idea to as many people as possible, although it is highly unlikeable because of the money and production facilities invested in the project. This can be done, however, using social networking sites and video sharing networking sites such as Youtube, Facebook, MySpace etc. because it would reach our target audience better as a majority use their time as they are time-rich and money-poor and look for more convenient ways to watch films. It would be released because it has the normal conventions of a thriller movie but offers twists in the storyline and will captivate younger people because of their interests.

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

After looking at the 'Pearl and Dean' website, along with the 'BBFC', we were able to make comparisons with various popular thrillers and the target audiences found most suitable for them; i.e who would most enjoy the type of film opening we were assigned to make. We looked at what makes a certificate right for a particular film, and how they are assessed as belonging to that category.

We came to the conclusion that the 'thriller' genre contains a more sophisticated story-line, setting and characters. We therefore had to come up with a compelling story-line in order to grip our audience. It is because of this that the thriller genre is not generally aimed at the younger audience. According to the 'Pearl and Dean' website, thrillers are more commonly aimed at fifteen to twenty-four year olds.

One of the many conventions of a successful thriller is maintaining to keep the audience in suspense. We therefore agreed that our focus would be to reveal as little as we could about the plot of the film in our opening sequence. We also included basic introductions to characters, reflecting a sense of ambiguity. In addition to this, point-of-view shots meant that the audience had to use their imagination when thinking about what the character looks like. This may be difficult for the younger audience, or perhaps confusing, thus why it is more closely aimed at an older generation.

According to the 'Pearl and Dean' website, a lot of thrillers tend to target the male population. We therefore assigned the lead role to a male to perhaps appeal to the female audience too.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

One way that we hoped to appeal to the modern young-adult audience was by using the setting of a public park. The park being a frequently visited place by many, meant that by placing our story in an everyday situation like this, our audience would find it easy to relate to.

Often the inclusion of a male lead role in the casting of a new film has a strong impact on the type of audience it draws attention to on its release. Stereotypically, it is thought that by perhaps giving the main part to a male, it would encourage the female population to view the film.

Also, by using a young, teenage cast, this could also assist in appealing to the teenage generation. It is evident from the 'Pearl and Dean' website, that thrillers are most favoured by, and more frequently watched by, fifteen to twenty-four year olds. We therefore used this theory to our advantage.

Point-of-view shots are the key to putting the audience in the position of the character on the screen, and are very effective. This can often be used to put the audience in an uncomfortable disposition, and in one example of our thriller opening, it is the position of the teenage girl that the audience are put in. Here, the audience are made to feel like voyeurs. Before we reveal the character behind this point-of-view shot, all that is shown remains to be the feet. This builds an element of suspense.

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

Whilst producing our media product we have learnt a lot about the technology used to produce a piece of film and have also learnt the IT key skills through programmes such as blogsites, and how to transfer different types of media (film, music, credits) onto our production. We used a number of software programmes during the filming and production process such as Final Cut Pro where we downloaded, edited and changed the flow of the thriller opening to make it as good as possible for the viewers. We also used Garage Band to create music to mix in with the action and create a sense of tension. The programme Live Type was used to create the credits and use certain graphics to give the thriller opening more realism. We used different types of hardware as well such as the camera, where we could learn basic functions such as zooming in and out. We used the tripod during still shots so it wasn't shaky but we didn't use it during point-of-view shots to create more emphasis of tension. The equipment enchanced our thriller because it made it more conventional and believable as it had eery music, fast, point-of-view shots and credits.

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

We have both progressed since our preliminary task because when we first filmed our thriller opening, it appeared too rushed and the camera shots didn't emphasise the quickness of the opening of the thriller. The unpredictable weather made it hard to film and the storyboard didn't seem conventional of a thriller because not much of a storyline was given away to the audience. We have been able to work more co-operatively with each other and worked with people from other groups and they also received help from us. Time management was important because since we decided to scrap our first thriller, we used our time efficiently to spend more time on editing and the thriller opening overall. We have learnt how to use the different types of equipment - hardware and software. We have learnt a variety of different shot types and used these in our thriller opening (e.g. panning, close-up) and looking back I feel that our end product is as fulfilling as the task because we have learnt better to work as a group and improved our knowledge with equipment used in media.