Jessica Venson Evaluation

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

We have chosen to do Psychological thriller for our film genre. A psychological thriller is a film where there is an escape, mission, or mystery and the protagonist faces danger; psychological films often focus deeply on the one of the characters life and their mind. Our film is a thriller and we have shown this by including suspense, unexpected events and a puzzle to be worked out. Based upon our research we have found the ‘Sixth sense’ is also a psychological thriller, and is about a boy who can communicate with the dead. This is similar to our film because it includes someone who may have a mental illness and the mystery of not knowing what is fully happening. Our film looks like a thriller because we have used different lighting for example when Daryl is in the garage the lighting is dim suggesting he is doing something in secret, we also have stalker in our film that kills someone in the first two minutes.

The very first shot in our opening is a low angle of Daryl to show he is, so far, superior.

We also have a close up shot of Daryl getting the key suggesting it is important information.

An over the shoulder shot is used so we can see what is in the journal and what Daryl is writing, this suggests it is private and we shouldn’t be looking. This shot is similar to one in the ‘Sixth sense’ of the paper and also a shot from ‘Silence of the lambs’ where there are lots of pictures of victims.

 

A crab shot of willow walking is a good way to introduce her; we have an idea what she is like through the clothing she is wearing and the way she walking and presenting herself.

The shot reverse shot between willow and Daryl gives tension and suspense.

During editing we have used lots of cross dissolves, match on action, and followed the 180degree rule (as shown to the left) throughout our film because to help it flow, pass time and change location, also so then the audience can follow where the characters are in the location.

We added sound when Daryl enters the garage to create an atmosphere and the sense of not knowing what he is going to do. The scene between Willow and Daryl is silent to feel the tension and suspense of what was going to happen next and who will make the first move? In the scene where Daryl enters the garage we have used a sound bridge to bring over the sound from one shot to another to disguise the cuts between the two shots of the match on action.

The typography is called ‘burnt letters’ it looks like torn, burnt paper and has words inside each letter; this represents the journal, because inside the journal it has lots of writing about different people.

We kept the colours simple, black and white to stand out and be eye-catching in the dark lighted background, also appeal to everyone.

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

Our film has represented both men and women differently throughout our film and has not stuck the typical stereotype. In the first two minutes of our film it seems to be very stereotypical, where the male dominates the female, but further into the story it is shown that it is actually Willow is the main character and she has much more power over any other character in the film.

Our character has very different personalities, and we show this at the beginning of our film through what they are wearing;

Daryl is a school teacher and is wearing smart clothes, a shirt and tie but as he is about to leave his house he puts on a dark jumper, this suggests he is covering who he really is and is about to do something that isn’t what he would usually do. Also because his clothes are dark this could suggest that we don’t know everything about him.

Willow (at the beginning) seems to be a normal typical teenager; she is wearing jeans, converse and a gilet and a top that is quite brightly coloured, and is listening to music on an I-pod and hasn't got a care of what’s happening around her.

However Evie isn’t a stereotypical teenager because she is wearing dark clothes and is in a dark alley looking towards willow with a stone in her hand to kills her.

During the scene in the garage, we made it so that the lighting looked dim and that only certain part of the room was lit up including only half of Daryl this suggests he is only showing one side to his personality, this also is how other films show this, for example ‘Abduction’ to create mystery.

We also used different camera angles to represent social groups. At the beginning we used a long shot of Daryl when he is walking up to his house to represent him as a strong character, by the way he is walking. 


And also the first shot on the alley, of Willows feet and nothing else, this could suggest that this is how she feels that she is very lonely.

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

Based on our treatment our budget for our film is enough to reach a national audience and so feel a big well-known institution would be best and for it to be released in a cinema to maximise awareness and profitability.

 ‘New Line Cinema’ has distributed thriller films such as ‘Se7en’ and ‘Final Destination’ and all have done very well. These films both have something that is similar to ours, ‘Se7en’ is about a 2 detectives trying to hunt down a serial killer, and our film has several serial killers in who hunt other people down. And ‘Final Destination’ has lots of deaths and gory scenes; our film also has deaths and gory scenes.

We also looked at the company ‘optimum’; this is an independent distributor who sends out over 200 films a year, they are better known for distributing to a more niche audience. If we chose this company things would be done differently because we would have had a smaller budget, meaning it may not have been able to be released into many cinemas and advertisement would be limited, also the style of the film may have changed because optimum focus on a more niche target, and so need to change some content and style to suit them.

New line cinemas would be the most beneficial distributors because they have distributed a large amount of thriller films that are similar to ours and so they have had plenty of experience when designing eye-catching posters and trailers. Furthermore, because they are well known distributor’s people are more likely to watch our film if they are familiar with the work of the distributors because they will know the types of that they have distributed and so they have a fan base already.

We came up with the production company ‘Golden Pumpkin Productions’ because it is unique and recognisable. I designed our logo to represent the name and to look professional.

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

The audience for our media product would be people who enjoy going to the cinema to try and solve the story.  Their lifestyle would be laid back and enjoy going to the cinema for a good time with friends and family. Our product would be shown in cinemas so it is easily available for everyone, and then released on DVD and download so people can watch it at home without even needing to go to the shops.

The certificate for our film is a 15, due to strong violence and suggestive themes to do with death and murder. The frequent use of these suggestive themes will be suitable for this audience, and no one younger.

We did a questionnaire for our pre-production research and included a logline; a young girl who has a mental disorder, goes around killing innocent people. While her godfather, who she doesn’t know exists, sets out to protect her from herself. The questions included; what do you think to our storyline? Would you be interested in watching it? And what certificate do you think it is and why? etc

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDh6RHA3eWhWRTV3X1Q3NWx1akt3REE6MQ

We found that,

The majority of people who took the questionnaire thought that our storyline was Good and would appeal to them. 63% said they would be interested in going to watch the film, and 26% would think about it once the trailer had come out.

We also found that over 50% of people thought the correct genre for our film, Psychological thriller, where as 18% thought it was a romantic drama so we would need to sort out the logline to make sure it is more obvious.

Our research effect our production because we wanted to address the results of the questionnaire in our film, for example we changed the lighting and added better music to make it more mysterious. We also made sure it was suitable for the correct ages, as it is certificate 15.

5. How did you/attract your audience?

I think we have reached our target audience and have used several methods to do so;

During our planning we researched who our target audience would be, so we had an idea of what they would like and what would appeal to them.

Firstly our target audience are laid back and enjoy solving the puzzle of the film, we appealed to them in the first 2minutes by not showing who is going to kill whom. Daryl is walking down the alley looking as though he is about to kill Willow, when another girl comes out and get killed instead. This would appeal to them because throughout the rest of the film they would be trying to work out who the girl was and why Daryl killed her and not Willow. Our protagonist is a teenager, which is also unusual, and so would appeal to teenagers as they may feel they can relate to her, and because it is a certificate15 they would be able to go and see it.

We also tried appealing to the audience by using our camerawork; we used point of view shots to involve the audience for them to see what one of the characters see, and panning shots that follow the character so then the audience can see everything what is happening, and feel part of the scene.

Here are some reviews;

Robyn 15, “I really enjoyed the film it looks really interesting and exciting, I really love how you have done the titles. I want to know what happens next now”

Abby 16, “I like it how it get straight into the action, but I think it would look better if it was really dark “

Heather 13, “I think the film is good, but I think it is a bit brutal for my age, I think the titles look really professional”

Lee 43, “I really like it, I was very intrigued and wanted to know what happened next, I do think the music could have been better though”

Overall I think our film has been successful, our target audience like how we get straight into the story line in the first couple of minutes and that the cuts are smooth and almost unnoticeable. They also liked our titles and the font we have used as it is relevant to our film style, genre and storyline. However the people I have asked for feedback have said that the music could have been better, we could have improved on this by having music in the background all the way through. And that it would have been better darker, we could have done it darker by filming later.

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

I feel I have learnt a lot about the technologies I have used to create our 2minute film.

Our pre-production research was all put onto google blogger, this was hard to use to begin with but got easier, and we did also have problems because not everything published onto the blog the first time, but we refreshed the page and republished the post. We changed the background to something that related to our film it is of the forest and has a path running through. (However sometimes the path is behind the posts.)

We also used ‘Prezi’ an online presentation editor, to vary the types of media used and make our blog more interesting and set out our ideas clearer.

Our questionnaire was done using google questionnaire, it was simple and easy to use, and the results are easily seen.

During our filming we used a hard drive digital camera, it is good quality and very easy to use. We decided not to use any special features on the camera in case later on they weren’t suitable. We also used a tri-pod to mount the camera on to make the shots more stable, however we did have a problem because the ground wasn’t even and was hard to stand it up.

To edit our film together we used final cut express. It was easy to cut each shot together as you could zoom in and be very accurate. We also learnt how to do a sound bridge; we used this on the shots where Daryl enters the garage to disguise the transition. It brings over the sound from one shot to another. Final cut was also good at importing over sound and our logo (that was made on Photoshop.)

Photoshop was tricky to use but I am happy with the end result.

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

During our preliminary task have learnt lots and this has helped me with our 2min opening greatly.

I learnt all about the 180degree rule, and that if you cross it, it could be confusing for the audience to watch and understand where things and people are in the shot. We used it in our preliminary task when the 2 characters are sat having a conversation and in our 2minute film when Daryl is walking into and through his house,

I have got better at editing the film together using final cut express. Cutting the shots together is easier and match on action looks smooth and realistic, especially when characters go through a doors, we made it looks even better by using a sound bridge that brings the sound across to the shot before, this has made it look smoother and disguises the transition,

We also do a shot in both where the character walks past the camera, as if it isn’t there, we have learnt a lot about match on action here because we needed to make sure the next shot was in the same place as the last finished and that they were stepping on the corret leg.