Media evaluation arran

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

In My group’s media product we followed many conventions of real media products. We succeeded in creating a huge sense of enigma, which was one of our aims. The fact that there is only one character whose identity is never revealed really helped this along. So too did the fact that neither a protagonist nor antagonist were revealed further adding to the sense of mysteriousness.

Together we came up with several ideas for a story line for our piece,
After suffering a near fatal accident six years ago, Mark Wren is starting to get his life back on track. There is just one problem, every body he knows has started to go missing and he has gone into hiding to protect himself from this unseen force.
It started just after he was released from hospital after the accident. First acquaintances and distant friends started to disappear, slowly moving in on his close circle of family and friends. There have been no leads as to why these people have gone missing but after the disappearance of Mark’s old girlfriend, he decides that it is up to him to solve why every one he knows and loves has gone!

We decided to use this story line as we thought it showed good aspects of a thriller movie. For example, it builds tension through the use of sound and lighting, like when the main title appears on screen, the music builds up and then peaks while the lighting becomes darker. It definitely makes the viewer want to watch on and find out why every one is going missing and who is behind it. This creates enigma as is raises a lot of questions about the story and the characters involved.

We decided to use a restricted narrative. I feel this was the right choice and because our product is only a two-minute introduction and I would say the audience actually knows less than the character. Even though a huge amount isn’t revealed in the two minuets it doesn’t get boring, as there is a great sense of suspense. I find myself thinking who is this man? Where is he going? And what is he doing? This exactly what we intended to keep the audience asking questions to maintain interest. The entire product has quite a dark feel to it. The use of dark lighting and contrasting clothing really compliment this.

Through the different editing techniques we used, we managed to keep to the convention of a thriller, as well as challenging them. We managed to entice curiosity and plenty of questions, as well as keeping the audience the edge of there seat. These devices are typical of a thriller, as it makes the viewer want to watch on and find out what has and will happened. Because of this I think we have created a successful opening sequence to a thriller.


How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our product only one character is revealed. It is a white male in his late twenties. We tried to keep an element of mystery around this character at all times. We did this by using shots that wouldn’t reveal the face of the character. We also wanted to give the character n element of intimidation and power by using low angle shots. We succeeded with the mystery, as the face of our character was never properly revealed. For example I like the over the shoulder shot in the train. It then zooms in and we connect with the character by getting a first person view of what he can see. This is effective because the audience doesn’t know if he’s good or bad, so it is odd to connect in this way. We struggled however with the low angles. The days we spent filming we didn’t manage to film enough of them, this was partly due to the lack of them in the storyboard and also disagreements on site within the group. We ended up with too many long shots. This was good for hiding identity, but we really lost out on the power image and means the whole product lacks much diversity. Diversity of shots was what we scored least on with the peer feedback, scoring four overall so it was obviously noticed.

We used a suit for the character. We thought this provided a strong and interesting contrast with the hut in which we gather is his dwelling. It also implies to the audience that the man has a job or some kind of reasonable income. This is what makes it so odd that he resides in a tiny run down hut. The suit also contrasts with the long hair, which in turn was useful to hide identity. Unfortunately on our first day of filming we had no way of getting any black shoes for our actor. He ended up using trainers, which really didn’t look as effective.

Our character was not stereotypical in anyway as we haven’t used the character to attract a certain audience. We actually purposely made him quite odd looking. Our thriller was simply aimed at people who like a good thriller, full of suspense and mysteries, which are solved over time. I feel I should also briefly mention the character on the wanted poster we focused around. She is a younger than our male character but they are in a relationship. We see our male character rip down and take back the missing poster. On his table we also see a picture of them both, finally revealing his face. On the wanted poster the girl looks happy and the colors are homely. Both of these are supposed to be glimpses into the past of both the characters where times were better. They suddenly seem more human.

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

An institution that would distribute our film would most likely be an independent film distributor. We could do this by entering film festivals with our product in the U.K, so it could be picked up by a distributor willing to distribute the film to cinema or television.

Looking for independent film distributors, there was one that I couldn’t get away from. Entertainment film distributors are UK’s leading independent distributor. The company was founded in 1978 and has grown in size and wealth since. The most recognizable films released by the company are probably the Lord of The Rings trilogy, which gathered an amazing seventeen Academy Awards. The company has won over thirty Oscars and twenty BAFTA’s. For me it was interesting to learn that an indie distributor could become so successful. A lot of films are only released as artistic pieces or never really take off, Entertainment obviously shows that done commercially and choosing the right films can generate huge income. I would prefer an indie distributor for our product as I feel that filmmakers retain more rights to their films, controlling costs and receiving more revenue and profits than with a larger and more commercial distributor.

Because these distributors start looking at film festivals and such, it means that there interest is just as much through passion for making films work as to satisfy there own revenue. Getting our film distributed by an indie distributor as it would benefit our film and help gain the audience were looking for


Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience would be quite mature, fifteen over really. Thrillers contain quite adult themes and can be difficult for younger viewers to understand and may not be suitable. Looking at the BBFC we came to the conclusion that our film would fall under the 15 category, as our story line contains some violent scenes and some strong language. We would have like to keep the audience as large as possible by making the certification lower however not if this would directly affect the quality of the film.

What’s great about those from 15 to early twenties is that they are the ones with the most disposable income so would be most likely to pay to view it, however I can see no reason why it would appeal more to them than anyone over that age. I also don’t think there is a gender preference for our audience. Our feedback showed that many of the females liked it as well as the males. One of the main characters is female and the story we had in mind didn’t contain to much violence. I strongly feel it should be enjoyed by both sexes. Asking two people who both enjoyed our product they both enjoyed “along came a spider” and “Face/Off”. They both said it was the slow unravelling of the stories and surprises that they enjoyed and the suspense in ours showed promise.



How did you attract/address your audience?

Our audience would enjoy our film because our story appeals to both genders and is full of suspense and unexpected twists. There is also a love interest at heart so, although quite a dark film, there is light at the end of the tunnel in a good ending. The main factor in our storyline is that this girl has been kidnapped. This something that is an issue these days and because people are familiar with it that they are more likely to go and watch it. The soundtrack I also feel was effective in the end. Although not that original it definitely suited the film and will give viewers the true feeling of a true thriller. The main aspect put forward to attract the audience was the title. The flickering and quite title of “missing” is really quite creepy yet looks very professional, appealing and very well suited to a thriller. This could be used to full potential in an advert in poster form.

Another idea we had was to a well known actor for the main role in our thriller. This would bring interest from fans. We would have to make sure we chose the right actor as some are appreciated for different things. When looking at thriller actors such as Morgan freeman would stand out. Going with somebody such as Robert Pattison who is known more for sex appeal than true acting talent, I feel, would be a huge mistake.

Some of the main strengths included: a simple story, good use of credits, and good match on action. There are a few things we could have improved to further please the audience to encourage good feedback via word or mouth.
Weaknesses reported in peer feedback included: reflection of torch on poster, and not making enough out of the Shack sequence and needed more shots of the ‘missing wall’. Its this type of feedback that we really need to pay attention to, so we can improve our next product.

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this
Product?

I know that as a group we have all learnt a lot in the last year. My jobs have mainly fallen under filming, lighting and sound. The areas I learnt the most in were editing in final cut pro and using garage band to create a soundtrack. In final cut I learned how to crop scenes, change the brightness and colour tint of scenes and how to enter transitions and text. The programme made it all pretty easy to be honest, even if it wasn’t as simple as iplayer, which we used for our preliminary.

I had never really used garage band before and although it seemed a bit complicated, using the loops provided I quickly got the hang of it. I tried to make a soundtrack however it failed to capture the right mood so we decided to use some simple dark ambient sounds instead throughout. I thought this was quite effective. I also thought some of our Foley sounds were pretty good and they were actually quite good fun to go out and find. I learned most of what I needed to know about filming in the preliminary exercise so it was quite easy this time round. I’m very happy with our framing and angles; looking back I just wish we hadn’t got as many long shots and a few more close-ups.

One of the roles I didn’t do such a great job with was lighting. Because ours was outdoors I chose a jack and I chose a powerful torch instead of proper lighting. The problem was the torch didn’t light the room but instead only the spot I was pointing it. This made it really difficult to get lighting right and we had to try all sorts of angles. It all looks quite good until the final retreating shots where it is easy to see the dot of light by the actor jolting about, as there was no stand to keep the torch steady. We couldn’t make our mind up if it looks poor or like flickering candle light. But personally, as the light was my job at that time, I don’t like it at all. Unfortunately we couldn’t all find the time to go and re shoot.


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

While creating our media product I feel I have learnt a lot. I have improved gradually using the technology and programmes provided while also improving my skills of organisation and working with a group. I mainly found I had to involve myself more in areas of the project such as the blog. To start of with I was very laid back. I did what I was told and would take part in discussing the story line but not really do anything off of my own accord. This changed when I realised how little time we had left and I didn’t want to let down the people in my group. I’m happy I learnt to take more of an active interest this time round and actually had much more of an input.

Compared to the preliminary exercise, I also found that location scouting was a lot more difficult. I learnt that not everything goes your way no matter how hard you persevere. A good example of this is trying to get a platform at the station in Hayward’s heath. In the end we compromised and found balcome station was perfect, as there is no staff and very few people for us to get in the way of. It was also quite close by to the rest of our filming which was useful and I think the results were actually better than had we used Hayward’s heath.

I found I was also more time-efficient than previously although filming and our editing time was not as well thought out as it could have been. These areas lacked good planning but most areas were well thought out such as the storyboard and the research of the blog.

Technology wise I think I learnt the most. I wasn’t confident at all with any of the software in the preliminary and I was just getting used to the cameras but now im really pleased with the shots I gathered. On average our peer feedback for the camera categories all scored a two on average. I also had to pretty much teach myself how to use garage band and final cut (with a little help from ross). I didn’t really master final cut pro, but I can do the basics and really took off with garage band. Both I could barely use during preliminary.

Overall it was a great learning experience and I really enjoyed working with other people. I will take these skills with me to use in the future which will really help me next year too make my A level product even better. I hope to learn even more about using final cut pro next year and also get a keener eye for lighting. We didn’t use a huge amount of lighting in either of our products, which is why I would like to experiment with it in the future.