Evaluation - Alana Abrahams (Individual)

Evaluation Questions

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

I feel that our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products in many different ways. The music we used was very similar to what you would find in a real thriller film. It had the different sounds and instruments that are stereotypically used in thrillers. It creates an atmosphere of suspense and mystery that also very common in thrillers. The setting that we filmed in uses conventions because it is stereotypically set in a type of forest with nothing around. The shots that we included in our thriller, for example a close up, are regularly used to show the emotions of a character or an item someone is holding. It emphasizes what is being shot. Our media product develops real media products during our titling. When editing our product we used jump cuts for the transitions of scenes which is found in almost every thriller to keep the pace fast and leave it mysterious. At the start we added a 3-5 second clip of the production company, “Paranormal Productions”, using a plain, black background with plain white writing and a lightning strike effect with sound. This develops usual conventions because normally they are between 10-15 seconds long and use lots of different sounds and effects to make it look better. We went for the simplistic option, keeping it in with the theme and not making it too long so that it drags on. This keeps it less boring for the audience of the film.

We haven’t really challenged the conventions that much in our thriller but one way we have is that we introduced the whole of the “evil” character straight away. Usually in thrillers, at the beginning, you only see parts of the bad character or even not at all.

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

The ages of the actors and actresses in our thriller are meant to be 16-17 years old so the main social group that I think we represent is teenagers. We tried to portray the characters as quite suspicious to create a bit of mystery and adults/older people always stereotype teenagers into being up to know good or just being mysterious in general. We played up to this stereotype so we could represent teenagers and young adults more accurately and it would make their age more recognisable to the audience.

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

We would want a small independent production company to produce our film. An example would be ‘Sabana Films’ who are located in Bristol so it can be kept local and they specialise in low-budget films because they aren't a very big company. We would choose this kind of media institution because it will be cost-effective, if less money is used in the production then a potential higher profit could be made, more money can be spent on the marketing of the product so people get to know your film or a better cast.

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

Our film is rated a 15 so the audience for our thriller would have to be 15+. I think that the specific age range is 15-21 because the film represents/includes teenagers and I don’t think adults would react or appeal to it in the same way as teenagers would. The typical film that a teenager watches usually includes teenagers as they can relate to the film better.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

In the picture above is Emma (left) and Sophie (right).

Emma is 17 years old and a fan of all things thriller, but her favourite sub-genre is thriller/horror. Her favourite films include Psycho, Woman in Black, and Halloween. She prefers films that aren't gory, just ones that make her jump.

I asked Emma what her thoughts on ‘Our Little Secret’ were and she said this: “I loved the opening, I thought it was full of suspense and looks like the type of film I would go to watch in the cinema”.

Sophie is 17 years old and very interested in media. Her favourite thriller sub-genres are thriller/crime and thriller/supernatural. Her favourite films include the Paranormal Activity saga, The Sixth Sense, Carrie and The Omen. When I asked Sophie what she thought on our thriller opening she said “The camera shots are really good, especially the close ups. I like the ghost girl sort of theme and I would definitely love to watch the rest if it ever got produced”.

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

From constructing my product I have learned about the different technologies on offer that I can use to help with the production and filming.

On the Mac computers that we used for the editing of our product, we used software called ‘iMovie HD’. This software aided us to cut clips and add visual or sound effects to them making the film seem more realistic and professional to the audience.

Another piece of technology we used is a video camera. For our media product we used a ­­­­­­­flip camera which was small, easy to carry, easy to use and included effects like changing the contrast, brightness etc. We learnt how to use it quickly and easily but it was very interesting to see how many things we could change just on the camera without having to edit it on the Mac.

To help us keep the camera steady when filming and for any panning scenes we used a tripod. This keeps the camera still so the scene doesn't look shaky and helps when want to film at different angle and heights.

7. 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 our preliminary task, I feel that the part that we have most progressed on is the camera angles and shots. I feel that I have learned what camera angles are available to use and in what situation/setting it is appropriate to use them. When filming our preliminary video we were unsure of what shots would be the most effective to use and didn't any research into the types of shots there were but before we filmed our thriller we decided to do little bit of research first.

Conclusion

Overall, I am very pleased with how our finished product turned out but if I did again I would change the way we did some things because after we had filmed our scenes for the first time and went back to review/edit them we realised that it was too dark and you couldn't see what was happening in the scene clearly. We went out to film again but during the day so it wouldn't

 get dark and we knew that if we wanted the scene to be darker then we could change it with the iMovie software. As well as changing the time, we also changed the setting that we filmed in. Our original plan that we put onto our storyboard was to film it in a graveyard because it fit in with the story but a graveyard was too hard to access and we found that we wanted more trees /greenery to make it look more like a scary forest setting. It took a lot of time and hard work but I think we have produced a good final thriller opening and I am very happy with the research/planning that we have done.