Evaluation

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

My final film uses a lot of thriller conventions but also challenges the forms of conventions of a thriller. Thrillers are aimed to create suspense and tension throughout the film. Our film is successful in creating tension by the use of the score. The score is quite slow at the start but increases at the end to create a sense of suspense and tension and to leave the audience questioning about what will happen next.

Furthermore, a lot of editing has been used throughout the film. Transitions have been used with good effect to show the difference in time between the flashbacks, which are in black and white, and the present day. Also, near the end of the film, fast paced editing between the antagonist and the briefcase, builds tension as the audience do not know what is in the briefcase. The fast paced editing between the antagonist and the briefcase is almost similar to a scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s traditional thriller, ‘Psycho’. It is not until the sound effect of the explosion is heard, that it is signifies that inside the briefcase is a bomb.

In addition, we used many shots and angles to help create our thriller film. Shots such as ‘long shots’ and ‘close-ups’ have been used to show the antagonist getting revenge on her school. The close-up helps show the facial expression of the antagonist as she seeks revenge. Her facial expressions are quite cunning and serious to show how she is determined to get her own back on her school for them giving her a hard time.

Our character types are quite traditional. The antagonist is a young girl who was bullied by her teachers and fellow students at school. She was an innocent little girl in school but after the series of bad events that occur to her, she decides to seek revenge. Also the antagonist is quite a small character in height compared to the bully who is bigger than her. This was done well as it shows that because the bully is taller and bigger than her, it shows that she has more power and authority but this changes when the student comes back to haunt the school with the bomb in the briefcase.

However, on the other hand, there are conventions that challenge the thriller conventions. In our film we opted to heave a female antagonist. This therefore shows that we have challenged the conventions as in films such as ’28 Days Later’ and ‘From Russia with Love’, the antagonist is male.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The film represents both males and females. The antagonist is unusual as you wouldn’t expect to see a female in such a violent role. Having stereotypes is a quick way of communicating a message to the audience. In addition, the film shows how teachers have authority over students as in the film, the student gets in trouble by the teacher. We chose to represent them in the way we did as it challenges the stereotypes. It’s quite unusual for a female to carry a bomb and in everyday life from events that have occurred in the past, it has been seen that the majority of the people that have tried to bomb places have been males. Also age is represented as its unusual for a school girl to carry a bomb round the school, normally these events would involve adults so therefore our film challenges this.

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

Our product is the first scene of a thriller film. It fits into the category of Independent films as it

is quite low budget. The style of our film is not like the Mainstream films where the styles are quite glamorous and bright. It does not consist within the Mainstream films as them films are films which have had a big budget put into them and they have been successful in Hollywood. In addition, Mainstream films have good casting, which include top actors e.g. Brad Pitt and actresses e.g. Angelina Jolie, which help attract people to watch the films. Our film consists of ordinary school students and teachers and so wouldn’t make it on Mainstream. Furthermore, our film would be shown in Independent Cinemas such as the ‘Electric Cinema’ in Nottinghill and not in Mainstream Cinemas such as ‘Vue’ and ‘Cineworld’.

Moreover because our film would be classed as an Independent film, it would be shown at Independent film festivals such as ‘Sundance’ in the USA. Also it could be shown at local film festivals and student film festivals.

What is more, a popular way of distributing media products is through Internet and TV. Internet sites such as ‘YouTube’ allow users to post videos on the web for anyone to view at no cost. Also, social networking sites e.g. Facebook, also allow users to post videos on the net and that is also at no cost. Therefore we would be able to show our video worldwide through the use of the web. Furthermore, TV is an easy way of showing media to vast amounts of people. Terrestrial TV (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, CH4, CH5) are all mainstream Channels. However, Channel 4 is a Public Service Broadcaster which provides programmes for the minority interest. It shows programmes such as short films and community films so therefore our film could be shown on TV on Channel 4.

Who would be the audience for you media product?

From doing our research, we aimed our film at people aged 15+. This was our target audience as predominately these were the ones who enjoy an intense storyline. Also we chose our target audience from looking at our location, having our film based in a school is an everyday place for 15 year olds so therefore it is quite relevant. The regulatory concerns were that for a 15 on the BBFC it states that we could show violence but it cannot dwell on the infliction of pain and injury and can’t include strong gory images. Also the BBFC states that no theme is prohibited as long as it is suitable for 15 year olds. From looking at our film, I honestly believe that we have created a product suitable for our target audience and we have stuck by the BBFC classification.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We was able to address and attract our audience by looking at our audience feedback and editing out film to meet their demands and interests. From our audience reviewing our first draft, all of them agreed that our film was relevant to the thriller genre. A main point that we came across was that the audience suggested a score throughout the whole of the film. They all thought that our film was relevant to the audience and an improvement that some people suggested was to try and experiment with other effects and to make it more of a climatic ending. After the audience feedback we edited our film to appeal to them. We added a score throughout the whole film which increases in pace towards the end to build tension and suspense. We also added sound effects at the end to make it more climatic. The conventions that we included that appealed to our target audience was the fast editing and good use of transitions to show a difference in time. If we didn’t add transitions, then the film would last too long and it could end up boring the audience as it would take too long to get to the climax. Transitions help show a change in time and therefore don’t drag the film on which then keeps that audience’s attention towards the film.

Morover, we included a theme which would appeal to our audience. Our theme was appealing as it was based in a school where the antagonist tries to seek revenge on her school. Also, the characters also appeal to the audience. The antagonist is someone just like the audience, someone who goes to school to learn and to get a good education and the bully is a character that appears in all schools as bullying is a major concern in some schools. Therefore with these characters and seeting, it gets the audience involved with film.

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

I have learnt a lot from the whole process of constructing my film. The process started from research. In this part i learnt how a lot of research has to go in to making a film. Research such as ‘Codes and Conventions’, ‘Genres’ and ‘BBFC Classification’ all have a big impact in making a film. Film producers need to know what to include in their film so it can suit a specific genre and also what to and not to include for particular target audiences.

Furthermore, we used the technology of the internet to help us research our film and to compile our group's blog. Research was a vital part of creating our film and the majority of our research came from the internet from various sites.

Moreover, from this project I learned how to use the programme ‘I-Movie’ to create my film. It is a non-linear editing software which is very easy to use. Unlike linear editing programmes, which are very destructive because if u do something wrong, you have to delete the whole footage and start again, non-linear programmes let you create your film, then go back and edit it without having to start the whole process from the beginning. Therefore, non-linear software allowed us to continue to develop and improve our film during editing. This made the process a lot easier and more time consuming.

Also, we used ‘DV Cameras’ and used DV tapes. These effected the overall look and feel of our film as it added more realism to the film as the end look is quite gritty with less intense colours.

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

When we approached our preliminary task we wasn’t very familiar with using a camera and the software to edit our footage. However, after completing the preliminary task, we was able to go into the main task with quite a good understanding of how to use cameras and the software.
Our preliminary task was limited as we was only allowed to do it in school whereas for our main task we was allowed to film outside of school and in our own time e.g. on the weekends.

Furthermore, the casting was quite basic as we could only uses students in school so the mise-en-scene was of the traditional school student with normal school lighting and location. But in the main task we had the option of using people from outside of school and also we could use props and different outfits to add realism to our film. The sound for our preliminary task was of ambient sounds with no score. However this changed in the main task as we added a score and sound effects to add tension and suspense and to make it look like a proper film.

In addition, our camera skills had improved by the time we started filming the full product. The 1preliminary task was quite a quick and basic task and our camera skills were not developed enough to make our preliminary task look good like a proper film clip. However from the progression from the preliminary task to the main task, our camera skills had improved and we learnt how to incorporate different camera angles and shots to make our final product look real.

Moreover one main thing that we progresses on was the editing. During our preliminary task, the editing was very basic with no transitions. This changed during our main task, as we allocated more time to the editing and added techniques such as transitions and match-on-action to improve from the preliminary task to our main task.

BY ROSS DALTON-SHORT