Tuesday 31 March 2009

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our sequence consists of the basic conventions of a thriller; suspense, tension, mystery, and pyscological twists. Because it begins with a black background, with the text "A E&M production" and then fades into an establishing shot of the park, and then goes back to a black background with "Directed by Ellie Holland" the audience is left questioning what this opening sequence will be about, as the camera work is paced and takes its time; it doesn't show all footage and action at once. The camera slowly tracks around in a circular movement, and sometimes with this technique, something will suddenly appear and cause shock. However, we only use to show the mis-en-scene, thus confusing the audience by choosing a different approach. This was our main theme of the sequence, using a more paced and mysterious approach to leave the audience questioning on what was happening, which created a more chilling and tense effect. We challenged the conventions of a thriller by beginning with the ending, but whereas most thriller films that begin with the ending feature large amounts of action and dialogue; we chose to be more silent and paced, therefore more mysterious.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our thriller covers many different social classes, such as teenagers, parents and working class citizens. we tried to capture a social class that the general target audience would be able to easily relate to, this enables them to be able to sink deeper into the experience of the film. We chose to represent them in ways that could be considered to break the stereotypes that a commonly used within film. An example of this is the character Molly; (played by Ellie Holland), she is of an age where she falls into the social class of a teenager however she does not act the like the stereotype as she has a more child-like nature than someone of her age would be expected to have.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our media product would most likely be distributed by media institutions such as Lionsgate or Dark castle for example because they have a history of releasing films within a thriller/ horror genre such as Saw and Hostel. Our product covers both genres of thriller and horror with the use of editing such as slow motion and a wide variety of camera angles and camerashots which capture the different emotions of the sequence.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
The main target audience for our production would be both genders aged between 16-24, this is because of the social references. Our target audience would be for teenagers and adults since it deals with the problems of schizophrenia and young people of a sensitive age would not fully understand the concepts of this condition; especially as it triggers an unusual twist. The film will also appeal to those of a supersitcious nature, and those who are fond of Steven King and his thrillers. The certificate for the sequence is a 15, since although it does not include gory and graphic footage; there would be some chilling scenes and complicated storylines. From looking at the pearl and Dean website, it can be established that the target audience for a similar film such as identity; released in the year of 2003 was ages 15-24 with a male dominated audience on 75% of men to the 25% of women in the audience. 

How did you attract/address your audience?
We attrated our audience by using a large amount of tension in our sequence and used the right kinds of camera movement and footage to create msytery and suspense. The storyline is not clear straight away so it immediately leaves the audience hanging on and wanting to see more. It grabs the interest of viewers straight away. Watching the two main characters of the sequence and establishing the differences between each of their personalities, the audience can see that they will need to and want to see more in order to undrestand the plot.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
The programme we used to edit the product; Final cut pro, has taught us a wide variety of skills in editing footage. With the use of certain special effects such as slow motion for example and fading subtitles, the general feeling of fear and suspense has been created purely through the use of this technology. The fact that the sequence has no actual dialogue, proves that the mood can be set by using the right skills and the use of technology to suit the certain sequence.

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The preliminary task was useful to us to be able to get a feel of the different camera angles and camera movements that would be effective for our sequence. A number of different camera shots we used during our peliminary task include over the shoulder shots and wide angles which taught us the benefits of using each different movement of the camera to capture the certain moment. The part of our sequence where we see a point of view shot looking out towards the girl as she turns around in circles was created by holding the camera by hand because we knew that it would seem more realistic to the viewer,the theme of spying would be made much more dominant to the sequence and it also would give the audience a chance to put themselves into the clip.

Research


As a group, we researched various thriller films in order
 to give us a clearer perspective on the term "thriller", as well as giving us ideas on what to use and include in our own. We first looked at 'The Shining', orginally written by Steven King and later directed by Stanley Kubrick. It was from this film where we adapted the idea of an evil and spritual land which influences the behaviour and mind of humans. Also during the course of this film, there is a great deal of uncertainity, suspense, and tension; which were key elements in our opening sequence.

We also researched 'Misery', which was also written by Steven King and directed by William Goldman. From this, we adapted the idea of possession and the unnerving feelings a cold and sincere character can bring.  

We also looked into the film "The Gift" where a woman goes missing and a young woman with physic powers is called to help with finding her. this film is where we got in inspiration for the idea that there should be a physic connecting with the killer. We felt that this would capture audience attention as it explores the unknown. 

As well as 'The Gift' we also researched 'The Departed', where on on the pearl and dean website we looked at the statistics for comparable film 'Gangs Of New York':
comparable
Gangs Of New York
agegender
4-60%male64%
7-110%female36%
12-140%class
15-2428%AB28%
25-3438%C133%
35-4411%C220%
45+ 23%DE19%



From the chart, you can see that 64% men prefer this particular type of thriller, whereas only 36% of women do. 
Most references to thriller films involve crime and tension, but like in 'The Shining' and 'Misery' we combined these two themes with a chilling and mysterious twist. Although we did look at the orginal and more traditional approach to thriller films (such as The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club); we felt that many of the thriller films written by Steven King matched the ideas and themes we wanted to use in our opening sequence.