Evaluation- Louise Farrugia - Write Up

Evaluation

In what ways does our media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?

Our thriller movie share many common conventions such as a dark environment where the main murder would take place, and a main victim (possible victims). Some of the common themes of horror are death, victims, torture as well as the conventions of the production such as ominous music, and editing or creating a story which itself creates and enigma for the audience, leaving the audience guessing. Many films use the idea of the innocent girl who is sexually objectified and the man who initially has more power, and because of this he therefore had the power to kill. We fit to these conventions of our thriller film by having the classic characters of a ‘victim girl’ and ‘the murdered’ however we challenged conventions as the villain was a girl however had more power than the ‘victim girl’. Another way of representing the genre we used chilling/tense music. In our feedback it showed that they thought the music made the film to be more scary due to the music- sticking to conventions helps the genre.

How does our media product represent particular social groups?

Our product represents particular social groups such as ‘young teenagers’. Teenagers are stereotyped to be alcoholics, drug abusers, criminals, youths, aggressive and much more. We have incorporated this into our video as are target audience research suggested to us that the age group from 15-25 liked the idea of thriller film. The characters were aged at 16 therefore they were prime for being the ‘young teenage’ stereotype. The character Donald was a boy only wanting to drink and get all the girls at school. We also used the ‘innocent girl’ stereotype as girls are perceived to have less power than boys which means our character Shelly was fit for the part of the victim.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Before the making of our thriller film we carried out researched that concluded that the age group between 18-24 watched more horror/thriller films than any other age group.  This helped us to come to the conclusion of what age group would watch our film which was 15-25 year olds. Also due to the violence that our film contains made it appropriate for the film to be certificate 15. Moreover our film would relate to young teenagers as they could relate to the characters in our film. Because of the ‘teenage stereotype’ we thought it would be appropriate to incorporate this stereotype into the film such as the scene where Donald and Shelly are drinking alcohol all in aid of Shelly losing her sense of control and Donald getting what all ‘Teenage boys want, sex’ (stereotype). After our research at the shopping centre we came to the conclusion that both men and women would both watch horror films therefore we made our film for both genders. We did this by having both gendered characters. To attract men we had a violent scene between two women this attracted them because of the violence but also attracted them because they were sexually objectified. To attract women we made Sandra powerful by making her the villain, hopefully this would attract women as it would make them feel as though they are not perceived as a typical naive girl.

The region for our film is not specific as it is not based in a well known place, however i believe young British adults would relate more to this film as because  of where it was set. After our research we found that no specific race watched horror films more and in fact all races would watch horror films.

How did we attract/ address our audience?

We attracted our audience through many research methods, by making a research table to find out exactly what horror films people liked to watch. We also made a questionnaire that we gave to the people in our local shopping centre so that we got an idea of what sort of people would watch our thriller film. From this research we came to the conclusion that the most thriller was the most favourite genre at the age group of 18-24. This research was very helpful/useful as it gave us an inkling of what sort of people were going to watch our thriller movie. We applied this researched to our film.

Once our film was complete we uploaded it to face book where our friends could view the film and give us some feedback about what they liked/disliked. By doing this we got thoughts about our film from a variety of different people, different age groups, gender and race.  We put our film on to YouTube to attract another audience this time one that is a worldwide range.

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

From the making of our whole film i have learnt a wide range of technologies skills both from the equipment used and the programmes we used. From using the camera i have learnt about the way the camera works this is from turning the camera on to the way that you have to zoom slowly to get a professional shot. The tripod for me was tricky although we had a lesson about how to use the tripod i still found it hard however once i got the hang of it it wasn’t so bad. The tripod allowed us to get different shots and angles such as medium shots to PAMS.
The other technology we used was programmes such as premier this programme is where i made the film, i was able to cut shots, add music, add title graphics, cross role and fade to black to make our film finalized and professional. We also used YouTube for not only research about thrillers and thriller music but also we could get music for our thriller film. Celtx was another programme that we used to make scripts, story boards, and master caseload. We used Microsoft, Facebook, and blogger which i have used before however for our course work was very convent.

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

Our film has been made by independent students therefore it would not be viable to be shown in ‘The Movies’ as we do not have the finances to promote our film and get it to be watched in cinemas such as Vue or Mercury. Therefore we have put our film on the website YouTube as it its free and the quickest way to get noticed as YouTube is used worldwide.

After this we would then contact small independent cinemas and their companies, these cinemas are usually found in areas in London such as Soho, or film institution such as Film 4, the UK film council and lastly the BBC. The UK film association support and fund upcoming directors if they believe that the company are worth the support/funding. This would attract a wider and broader audience.
The BBC features many films and are always looking for new talents. However if the film was a great hit it would then be considered to be premiered in the cinemas this includes international producers. This would be an astonishing achievement for a new film with amatory producers they would then therefore become very popular and receive lots of money as after the film is featured it would then be brought our on DVD were more money would be made.
For our film i would consider taking all these steps so that the finances are covered and my film would be viewed by many.

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

Looking back at my preliminary tasks i feel as though i have achieved a great deal, this varies from  team work, management, filming, editing and managing time. From when we first started filming to now i believe i have made much improvement on filming as during the preliminary new to using the camera and tripod this meant that the camera shots were shaky, the tripod was frustrating to use as it was complex. I Learnt thee different shots and what ones to use for what scenes for example a medium shot on one person when they are talking and a close up for the other persons reaction. Also i learnt that you cannot film facing direct sunlight as you will not be able to see the actors face.
Moreover i learnt we should always take more than one shot and shots in different angles, and sizes. The first time we filmed we were still very un- experienced taking lots of shot however different angles. Therefore we had to film again on a different occasion leaving us with community issues. So when i was editing the film i found this hard to deal with as we had not more time to film.

I have come a long way from not being able to use premiere to editing and creating the whole film. I know how to add effects, music, clips, transitions, titles which i did not know how to do when we first began.  I have learnt how to use my time more wisely as editing just one section takes a whole lesson.