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

Task 1 conventions of a thriller power point 1 from Felix Flint Wood

evaluation task 2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

To analyse my title sequence I will look at ethnicity , regional identity and gender , then look at similar aspects found in other films or clips.
     You automatically realise the film is set , the first few establishing shots clearly show that the film is going to be based in the countryside.

These shots created a very calm and isolated atmosphere , a stereotypical countryside is portrayed . The synchronous sounds that we edited in helps to portray this atmosphere , using recorded sounds of birds and wind. You can clearly tell from our shots that we tried to make the area look as isolated and tranquil as possible . contrasting with a very rural film which normally follows a hectic theme instead of a country , calm and tranquil scene. We set ourselves up for a huge twist when he gets stabbed as the audience wont expect it because of the calm and tranquil setting. We also ordered our shots to make it look as if every time there was a cut it got closer and closer to the woods , at the same time slowly increasing the volume of the wind and chopping noises . The chopping noise in a way created tension , but this and ambient noise linked well with the shots to really set the scene.
        Our sequence can relate to that of the real media product of the tv show 'emerdale'. We can relate through the similar shots and setting , excluding the happy music our sequences are fairly similar , it creates an isolated and calm atmosphere , similar to ours.
(Watch from 0:10 to 0:40)
 
 


We only have two characters in our title sequence , the male stereotypical 'hunter gatherer', whos doing the  physical and practical work , by chopping the wood for the fire .He wears rough and casual clothes for physical and though work which all follows the stereotype of the male being strong and powerful . A fairly positive representation . On the other hand again a stereotypical woman working in the kitchen wearing a white apron and cooking for her husband follows a fairly stereotypical view as her being the housewife and being domestic. This is then challenged by our huge twist , as the wife kills and brutally murders her husband , without a slight care . at this point the stereotype is challenged (but women don't usually stab there husbands and look emotionless). We thought that our best link to this is the adverts in magazines , usually the man is doing something physical and the woman something domestic.

 

 

Lastly , ethnicity is clearly very stereotypical in this sequence . Asian female actresses are stereotypically very mysterious and dark. In our thriller our actress conforms to this stereotype , at dirst she seems completely normal until the twist comes in , we see this mysterious and secretive side . this is clearly shown through her clear lack of emotion as she kills him, Theres also sense of this mystery when we played the non synchronous sounds. overall she follows a fairly stereotypical role and is represented fairly badly as she kills someone. we related this to some other films involving Asian actresses , like the poster to 'audition'.

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

To begin with , our film is clearly targeted at a smaller audience , automatically this means we wouldn't use global companies such as warner bros. It wouldn't fit the criteria for these companies and we are not targeting that great of a target audience. Our film doesn't include certain things which firstly makes it un-reasonable to use huge film distributors like warner bros , and secondly allows for a smaller target market and smaller distributor . The film doesn't include:

1.Recognisable actors or a big director.
2.A pre-sold element such as a book or game.
3.And lastly spectacular visual effects such as IMAX or CGI.

This is due to our low budget production and marketing . Making it difficult for us to raise awareness  in foreign countries such as America . Also implicating that most cinema owners wouldn't display such a low key , un-heard of film , due to the films high chance of failing.
           Our film would most likely target a British audience due to low key British actors and directors , also the film is based and produced in England Which will make it more appealing to British viewers as to foreign viewers , as the film will clearly target an audience that culturally makes more of a connection to the film than foreign viewers.

           Due to this we have two options . Use a British distributor that has worked with similar films to ours and done well from them , or we could distribute the film ourselves through social media . The top Uk film distributors like Lionsgate Uk , Vertigo films and twentieth century fox are very successful companies that have distributed huge and successful thrillers such as 'Now you see me ' - total gross -$117,723,989 - Lionsgate. 'The last king of scotland'- total gross - $17,606,684 -Twentieth century fox. These top British distributors would work perfectly for our film , but in being the top , they most likely wouldn't distribute a low key film that doesn't follow there high standard criteria like ours.

We would then distribute the film ourselves through social media and word of mouth , there are many different ways on doing this without paying a huge expense of using a film distributor. Through this we would attempt a small scale success in which we would make profit or at least break. The biggest social media sites , such as Facebook , Twitter and You Tube would me our main source of advertising . Then again things like teaser trailers and advertising from bloggers are great ways to involve the target market , this allows for the spread of views on our film , and hardly costs a penny to do . By any chance this low key distribution works and the film spreads and creates positive feedback , we would consider using very minor film distributors based in the Uk , that have worked with low production budgets and first time directors and actors. Companies like Soda Pictures. Imbd suggests it has distributed roughly 103 films , including films involving first time directors . Such as the film 'Flying Blind' a thriller that had a very low budget and included first time film makers.

evaluation task 4 p1. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Overall the interviews showed that , firstly our thriller idea had quite a a lot of interest from most of the people interviewed , most said that they would watch a film that followed that story , some said they wouldn't only due to the fact that they didn't enjoy or were scared of thrillers. Majority said that they would expect suspense, confusion and death in a thriller film , all of which benefits us as we use a lot of these aspects in our film but we can now work off of these notes.

evaluation task 4 p2. 4Who would be the audience for your media product?

What lies beneath is a horror thriller from 2002 with a very similar plot to our thrillers storyline . Involving a haunted lover coming back to haunt a wife of the ex husband . The film did very well in theatres , its main actors were Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Below I've grabbed screenshots of its storyline and statistics on its views , The overall main views came from women under the age of 18 , clearly outlining there target audience , this may have been a relation between young women and the main actress . The second highest was women from 18 to 29 . overall the main viewers were women , un-usual for a horror thriller . But we can relate to this film which allows us to believe that women may also be our target audience , especially younger women. Our film also revolves around a haunted woman which will be shown in the final title sequence , similar to that of What lies beneath.

 

 

 

 

 

task 5 How did you attract/address your audience?

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

We evaluated our thriller and looked into adding comments as boxes on our YouTube video.
We placed boxes at points in the thriller when we used certain technology to create a shot . we looked at what we had learned through creating our thriller such as:

 

Internet - props and costumes?

Camera

Pull focus

exposure/white balance

Final Cut Pro

Sound - microphones

Sound Fx/Sound mix

Mobile phones

Titles

Music

Transitions

After Effects

Scaled and cropped shots

Changed RGB balance for CCTV

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