Naomi Evaluation

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

Within the genre of ‘Thriller’, there are many conventions, which of course have to be used as much as possible to make the Thriller effect work properly. A crime is usually at the core of the story or a murder this mysterious crime or murder is usually what keeps the viewer hooked. In our thriller we have put a suicide at the core of our story, which is seen the opening shots which immediately makes the audience hooked as they want to know what has caused this. In terms of thriller conventions using camera work we used slow tracking shots to build suspense. Eg. 

 We began this shot with the close up of the girls face to show her emotion. We made sure there was hair blowing in her face to emphasize her venerable character. We then zoomed out to enhance the height of the cliff and danger she was in to build tension and reinforce her isolation. We also used this shot to enhance her emotion and scrutinize her to emphasize her weakness.

 In terms of props we used a photograph. This was our main prop as photos are realistic as everyone has experience cess of photos and can relate to them.  This photo shows our character in a group picture with friends having a laugh and a good time. When the audience see this picture they also hear a voice over we created saying nasty things to emphasise this is what she had and for some reason it has been lost it emphasises the fact that she is passive innocent victim.  We also used a shallow depth of field here to direct the audience attention so they see what there meant to see which is the character in this photograph. Shallow depth of field is a main convention of a thriller and is use in many thrillers such as the disappearance of Alice creed with depth of field of the sword to inflict danger on the audience. 

Our title name was very important to our group. We eventually decided upon summer starts here. I believe this is a great title as it is ironic because summer ends here for this girl but the revenge of her brother which is told in our story plot starts here. We chose very carefully our front and we liked this one as it kind of looked like it has over ground plants on it to suggets in our story things will be brought up from the past and discovered.  

There are two main narration conventions that are usually used in thrillers these are restricted narrasrion which is when the audience only knows as much as the chararcters which creates enigma. The other is unristrcited narrartion this is where the audience is omnicient ( knows all) the audience know more than the characters. We chose unristricted narration for our thriller in the sense that we used parraallell editing between the cliff scene where the girl takes her life and the diggign scene to give the audience privilage information. This craetes create suspense as we know that he is digging something (probably her body)!

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

Our main chararcteer is a teenage girl therefore we have adress on problems and bully and what happens when this goes to far and results in someone taking there life. We decided to forcos on the sociol dynamics of teenagers.  We have done this by the age of our character and her clothes to show her age and the typictal taste a teenager would have with a hoodie etc.

We chose to focus on a british ethnic group to avoid the clishe of racism but to use someone who is normal and advage. A typical teenage girl. 

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

I think our film would blah from the kind of production companys that are well eperienced with the thriller genre and also one that tends to pick up on small british films with good ideas like our film

In terms of distribution I think we would work with a smaller distrubution outlet such as the picture house franchise because they are known for there use of smaller films in cinema and that could be key to us as we are a small up coming film and there experience in distrubuting smaller films could benefit us and become very helpful.

Also we could use a company like blockbusters or video box to distribute our film as they can be very valuble with the amount of stores they have and this could bring large exposure to our small film by simply being able to rent and sell our dvd from one of there stores. We could also use them to help us advertise like put film posters around there stores and in the windows to promote us.

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

our film is aimmed at teenagers in the age range from 15- 19.. Our gender focus is on both men and women as in the beginging of the film  we touch on the feminine side of the story and express the emotion stress of our femaile character and then we swicth to a more manly aproach that boys will like in the scary danger and thriller of the boy digging.

5.     How did you attract/ adress your audience?

I believe are chosen audience will enjoy our film because the isssues that are raised and exploid will interest teenagers and even help them relate to there own experiences. 4 out of 5 people will have experienced bullying in some form during there lives especially in there teenage years.

6.     what have you leanrt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Camera: In terms of technology on camera I’ve learnt some useful technics such as zooming in, panning. I strggled with the trasistion from director to camera operator, although I knew what I wanted from my story board it was just difficult not having the techniques or the technology for example how do we do a zooming shot and a pan on the edge of a cliff. If I had no limitations on technolgy I would have had the camera shoot out over the clif edge and I would have been able to achieve much more spectacular shots. However I think we did very well with what we did have, and achieve some fantastic shots.

Lights;  In terms of lights I learnt how to do a three point lighting system to create the sun set on lauras face and how this can emphasise the mood and enigma we were trying to craete.

Sound; I learnt how to edit sounds and use revurb using garage band to create more suspense in our scene. We recording vioces for our voice over and out them over each other to achieve an aue of confusion.

I improve my musical recording skills when I recorded the soundtrack for the product. I tried to make the piano fit it with the flow and order of the scenes and select sutuble music to enhance the mood we tryign to create.

Editing; I’ve learnt to use editing programmes such as final to order our scenes and set out the chronology and then polish our film and then do titling etc. We also used it to create illusions such as laura jumping off the cliff. We found that some of our shots were quite short so because of the editing programe we were able to exend the time of our shots to achive the effect and shots we wanted.

I throughly enjoyed getting handds on with all of these processes and now I can use the skills I’ve learnt when concieving ideas in the future.

Final Evaluation-Brendan Searle

1. Conventions

The definition of 'Thirller' is 'A novel, play or movie with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage.
I feel that our product has kept to the brief because of the 9 slides that i have chosen
I feel that they all show the different ways in which we have portrayed our product as a thriller. 
Shot 1 - This is a canted over the shoulder shot and has been used to place the main character into a setting and also to change the perspective of the character and the scene.
we have used a dark filter to make the setting seem dark and sad, this helps the mood and atmosphere of the product to be more like we had first pictured it.
Shot 2 - This shot was used as another way to put the character into a vulnerable state.
by putting her at the edge of a cliff she is seen as weak and dependent.
This shot is a bit lighter than the first one which means that there is a slight change in mood but there is still a slight shock for the fact that the female character is on top of a cliff.
Shot 3 - This shot was used to show the shear height of the cliff, by seeing the head over the edge it makes the audiences hearts race and it also gets them guessing.
The filter used on this shot was also a dark one, we have also increased the contrast so everything is sharp and vivid.
This increases the focus on the characters and keeps the tension.
Shot 4 - This shot is a very dark and silhouetted shot, it has been used to focus mainly on the beauty of the sunset and as a possible hint as to what might happen.
Shot 5 - This is a very key shot that we have used because it shows an extreme close up which is used in many great thriller films such as 'Psycho' where there is an extreme close up of the woman's mouth as she screams.
The reason why this is such an important shot is because this is the moment where the heartbeat gets louder and where we hint that the girl has jumped.
Shot 6 - This shot is the main link between the two different scenes.
It is used to symbolise the female character jumping off the edge of the cliff.
I feel that it is a very powerful shot because even though you can't see anything, there is a sound match that links the two shots together.
Shot 7 - This is a good establishing shot in this next scene because it keeps the second character hidden while it also shows exactly what they are doing.
There is also a dramatic change in setting, this is to show what happens after the female character jumps.
The colours are also very dull and dark, this is to keep the feeling of secrecy and tension following throughout the whole piece.

Shot 8 -  This shot is very interesting because it is a worms-eye-view and also very canted
These techniques have been used to confuse the audience will they are still kept in the dark from knowing the truth about the male character.
By using dark filters and effect we have managed to keep the face of the unknown character hidden, this helps with building the enigma and tension.
Shot 9 -  This last shot is part of a zooming out shot, this has been used to put the character in their surroundings and give a Little bit of information about the character and what is happening while still being able to keep the identity of the character unknown.
2. Representations
Who Is Being Represented In your Product?
In our product we have only really represented 2 social groups and they are male and female.
we can see our female character in the first half of our product looking very vulnerable and also quite needy.
these are both seen as very feminine characteristics.

we can see our male character performing a very active and masculine task such as digging.
this portrays our male character as being very independent.

How are they Represented? 
We have represented our two social groups in quite a traditional way.
The female is see as being vulnerable which is seen as a very feminine characteristic.
We see this in the way that her facial expressions are less than enthusiastic and also because she is considering taking her own life.
The male character is portraying very masculine characteristics such as strong and work orientated.
This is seen by the digging done by the male character.
He is seen working hard to dig a hole and because this is done by a male we have kept to the traditional stereotypes.
The camera has been shot at low angles in the first half of the product, this is not to show a position of power but more to show the height of the cliff.
We have also used high angles when shooting, but this has also just been for effect.

We have not focused on positions of power because the only two characters that are shown are completely separate.
These are seen as negative representations in the way that they are very stereotypical.
A more controversial representation would have been if we had shown the male character as vulnerable and the female character as active and masculine.

Why have they been represented like this?
We have represented these two characters in very traditional stereotypes.
We have done this because we think that it will be easy for the audience to see and possibly relate to them as being vulnerable or strong.
I think that this means that our target audience will respond well to our product.

Who is the target audience?
In our product there are two main characters, one male, one female, and they are of the same age.
This is shown in costume worn by both characters.
they are both dressed in modern costume, an example of this is the Hoodie worn by the female character and the trainers of the Male character.



3. Distribution
Because our film is of British origin i believe that our film should be distributed by a British distribution company
This would probably be by Buena Vista International who have distributed films such as 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' and 'Signs'
Another distributor we might look at would be Ace Distributors Ltd.
this would be a less known distribution company and would probably not improve our films audience range.  


4. Target Audience
We decided to aim our product at an audience that could relate to the issues that are raised in our product.
this meant aiming it at teenagers, our age range was from 15-18
I think that there was an even focus on male and female audiences.
This helped us to be able not to focus on one particular character too much
It also meant that we would have a bigger target audience.

5. Audience Feedback
I think that our chosen audience will enjoy our film because there are many themes and scenarios that they can relate to.
I also feel that there is a distinctive advantage because of the ages of the characters
By using an age range that is relatively related to our audience we felt that there would be a connection that would possibly draw in our audiences.
I have attempted to ask for audience feedback but unfortunately I was unable because there was not enough publicity.
I posted our video on Facebook as well as youtube and the only comments that were reasonable were mainly aimed at the digging
The camerawork used was very dramatic and we felt that it would help the audience to understand the tension and suspense that we were trying to build.
The costumes that were used were modern day and also related to our audience, this was one of the ways we tried to draw the audience in.
the lighting was used to emphasise certain elements that were key to the particular scenes such as the shot of the hand on the spade.


6. Technology

7. What I Have Learnt

Laura's evaluation

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

Shot One

• We decided to use a very low angle to create suspense and to create enigma for the audience to why she is standing right on the cliff. 

 



Shot two

• Our group found it essential that the setting was set at the coast. This is because its an isolated area - the sunset gives a romantic, calm event which makes the females thoughts contrapuntal to what is going on in reality around her. 





Shot three

• We used a lot of long shots with low angles to reinforce her isolation, and the height of the cliff.



Shot four

• Our group found the titling important to our thriller opening. Our title is ironic as the female's suicide is the start to more cold blooded killings from her brother as the bullying. The black colour and the wilting gothic flower like font give it the sincere affect, giving the audience the clue that this film is linked with death.



Shot five

• The photo was a main prop to our thriller. Without the photo, the storyline would be much more complex. 

 

 

 

Shot 6



• This part is when the bully's voices echo through her head, we decided to let un restrict the narrative structure so the audience get a taste on what is going through her head all of the time, we didn't want to restrict the audience too much on what was happening at this time as we didn't want confusion but sympathy.







 



Shot seven



• The use of the extreme close up shows her blankless facial expression to reinforce how she is feeling. 



 



Shot eight



• For both the female and male's characters, we chose simple clothing - the typical teenage wear - to help show their vulnerability and to show their age is teenager. 





Shot nine

• We found that back lighting gave this shot a silhoutte look -  we wanted this to create enigma as the audience would want to know who this character is and how is he related to the girl who commited suicide.

2) How does your media production represent particular social groups?

The main female character - the use of a female shows her vulnerability, reinforced by her age portrayed by her clothing - stereotypical teenager taste. 

The use of using the male character of a similar age digging her grave creates enigma - why would someone her age be covering up her death when he is just as vulnerable as she is?

We chose white british characters, we thought it wouldn’t matter what ethnicity they came from as bullies can come from all sorts of ethnic groups.

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

For our media, I would like to distribute our media thriller in a number of ways.

• Reviews and film posters about our thriller in certain magazines such as Heat and Empire, these magazines are targeted at young adults, who are also our main audience, who purchase these sort of magazines. As we want this group to see our film, this would be a good oppertunity to distibute our thriller in these magazines as our target audience tend to purchase them, giving them a taster of what Summer Starts Here is all about.
• The internet is another source i would choose to advertise our thriller. Social networks such as Facebook are very popular to use, especially to young adults as the whole purpose of Facebook was for some university friends to keep in contact. With our thriller being advertised on Social sites, this may catch some young adult's attention and interest them on finding out more or viewing our thriller.
• Chat shows would be a very money efficient way of advertising our film - an interview with the producer, director or actor/actress would benifit both the film and chat show (with the ratings of the show going up for those interested in the film and costing nothing to let the interviewe be on the chat show). However, the problem would be for using this method to distribute our film is that this wouldn't attract our main audience wanted - Chat shows such as This Morning are generally on at weekday mornings, where the majority of young adults are at school/college etc. However the few evening chat shows such as Piers Morgan, mainly focus on the background and life of famous people, not generally about if they have been in any recent films etc.

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

For our thriller, our main audience would be young adults, both male and female. This is because our storyline is based on the protagonist male police officer, who's sister commited suicides, hunting down the bullies who pressured her into her suicide.

It is also aimed at this group to give a moral that bullying is wrong, it doesn't achieve anything and can harm not just one person but their whole family and friends.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

To see what the target audience thought were the positives and negatives, i private mailed them on Facebook and asked them the following questions:

• Positive points: i asked this to find out what aspects we should keep using throughout our film. All feedback complimented our use of alternate camera shots - the one under the male character digging especially. We wanted that high angle, medium shot in because it was different and the back light silhouetted the male, creating enigma to who he was. 

• Negative points: i needed to know this one so i know what to improve on through someone else's eyes. The majority of the people agreed the lighting was off (white balance wasn't very good). This was because as our group went to Peacehaven more than once to film, the lighting changed due to one day being cloudless, the next being cloudy. As the natural light had a huge difference from one shot to another, we decided to edit this with putting saturation on each of them, so the viewers wouldn't be confused and think it was over a period of time. However this did result in the bad quality of some shots

• If you understood this film: i wanted to know if enigma was being created and the audience wanting to know why she commited suicide.

• what age group is it directed at: to see if we used the right techniques to hit our target audience.

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

I have uploaded a voice over of myself describing what i learned and what we had problems with technology in our group. Due my computer playing up, i cant just upload the voice over as it wasn't a movie, in which the only movie on my computer is my baby brother dancing. I apologise as putting that as the soundtrack is the only way to put the voice over on the blog as a still picture wouldn't work.

 Using the blog has been hard for me to use, i find trying to organise things such as photos and videos very difficult to fit in places, making the layout seem messy. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/footychamp33?feature=mhum#p/u/0/utblbFidiEw