Media Evaluation

By Charlee Frost

Question One
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Me and my group have tried hard to keep in mind the generic conventions of a thriller and we have tried to incorporate this into our opening scene. We have done this through our editing, music, camera angles and also the idea of the film in general. Violence is quite a central thing in most thriller films, such as the dark night, inceptions and so on. We have included this convention in our film when our antagonist is seen to be throwing a book and pulling a knife out on a female victim. another convention was thrillers often revels the workings of particular institution such as army or government or in our case religion. This is made clear in our thriller with the dialogue, in the torture scene the antagonist says Thou shall not sin and throws a bible. Not only have we included generic conventions we have also changed a few as well. This can be seen in our antagonist character as he is both a family man and a psychopath. This contrast and developed convention is highlighted on with not only the dialogue and body language, but it is also highlighted on with the change of colour from full to black and white. We have also changed the convention of of particular workings being reveled instead of a conspiracy we have chosen a religious sub genre. Although it has been done before and hasnt been done as much as say a psycho sub genre. I think by following these conventions has helped us to create and make our sub genre of religion and it has also helped to making this sub genre obvious to the viewer. Knowing the conventions have also helped us to be more creative with our film, as we wanted to be different by going against some conventions people expected. This in turn helped us to make our film interesting to the audience as it wasnt the same as every other thriller. Yes it is clear with our convention the specific thriller openings that we were influenced by movies such as the De Vinci code or Saul bass as in both they have similar shots and ideas shown throughout the opening scene and title sequence.

Question two
How does your media product represent particular social groups? There are many different social groups within our thriller opening the mains one however is the religious social circle shown by our antagonist, and our story line as it would of developed into showing how religious social circles work. Gender is equally split between the females and males however the characters are mainly played by very young teenagers. The set and house that we filmed in suggested that our antagonist was mainly in the upper class. The only bad thing that I think we didnt explore enough was race as we dont have very much variety in our opening. Gender is represented in our film but it is represented in a very stereotypical way, as seen in our torture scene where the woman is being handled roughly by our antagonist. She doesnt show strength or any signs of male dominance instead she cowers and pleads for her life. This is very stereotypical and what the audience would of expected a woman to do when in this situation. However we did start our with a controversial scene of the woman shouting abuse at the antagonist but people said that it wasnt realistic enough so we decided to change it to a more expected scene. This all links into the target audience by the different social circles that are presented, how age is presented and how gender is presented. This is because people who can relate more will go and watch therefore I would expect quite a young audience, mainly male as there is a lot of violence and damsels in distress. However females could be interested in this type of film because of the religious element many females are interested in element as well as introducing a child and a family man.

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

Question three

The protagonists face is in central vision, he has a very ragged look about him and he looks like he has experience due to his age. This is what we were trying to aim for in our opening with our antagonist by choosing the actor we did. The use of fire connotes to the action that is involved in the film although we dont have fire in our opening film it does involve some violence and action when the antagonist is throwing things and pulling out a knife on the female victim. The expression on the actors face in this poster is full of anger and determination. This is meant to be seen in our film as the two things that drives our antagonist to do the things he does for the religious community.

Question three
The use of colorings in this poster connotes to a sense of mystery smoky surroundings this kind of coloring we use a lot in our opening to show the differences between his real family life to his psychotic one. The use of writing in this is very similar to the one we use for our titles in our opening. The use of the cross in the title re presents the fact its a religious thriller. The use of religious paraphernalia in this is in the view of a weapon which we again have done with the bible being thrown at the female victim. The use of clothing that he is wearing is very significant as it connotes to him being of some kind of importance. As in our film this gives our antagonist a sense of authority.

Question three
Both films had very similar features to ours and features that are obvious to the audience, and features that also help with distinguishing the genre of a religious thriller. The first film that I compared mine to was end of days whos main distributer is Universal Pictures. The poster of this film does have some comparisons to our film but I dont think they are very obvious comparisons they are only little bits that can be picked out. However the theme of this film is very similar it is very much based around the devil and sin and is very religious in the script and storyline. I can see our film being produced by the same people but I think that there might be better distributers out there that will suit our film a lot better. The second film that I looked at was Constantine which again has a lot of comparisons to our film more than end of days had and they were a lot more obvious to the audience. The Mise en scene in particular is very similar to ours as well as the coloring, it is very dark, smoky and black and white which is the feel that we wanted to give our film, in bits of the torture. Constantine is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, I can defiantly see our film being distributed by this mainstream company, and I think that the styles would match very well with the ones Warner Bros have previously produced including Constantine.

Question three
I think between internet and mainstream viewing I think that even though a few aspects about our film are controversial and a bit different to the normal thriller. Looking at all these religious thrillers such as angles and demons they exceed better when distributed as mainstream films. Therefore I think that out of going viral on the internet or distributing through a mainstream company I think our film would to better mainstream. Looking through our film at the color's and clothing I think that these suggest it would be a very current film, that is in date with all of the styles. Not only with clothing and fashion but also with the idea and different way of portraying things. I also think that the house and Mise en scene used also connotes to that the film would be current and would maybe appeal to a young audience. I dont think there is a gap in the market for our type of film I think that genre is so well known and that the storyline is similar but different to many different religious thrillers that the gap has already been made by past movies like ours. I think that people would just think it was another religious thriller, and I think that the religious thriller genre is timeless shown by very modern movies like Angles and Demons and then some very old movies such as the Oman and the Exorcist. Therefore I think that it would be easy to get interest in our film as the genre is very popular and appeals to so many different types of audiences. The Mise en scene in our film will help promote it, the use of certain clothes of the house that we filmed in of the car in the background, this will connote to the audience that there is a modern twist to this timeless and classic genre. I also think that the use of make up and settings will also increase the popularity of the film as the make up is very realistic as well as the setting but the reason why I think this will boost our popularity it due to the fact that these aspects give the movie a horror twist to it. I think by adding in this bit of horror makes the movie more broader and more interesting in its style.

Question four
Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for our media project I think would be both male and female as we include features that both genders like and enjoy when watching a film. We have the mysterious and intriguing secrecy of the film and of who the antagonist is and what he is going to do next this would apply the female audience. The violence and action towards the female and other victims would apply to the male audience. However when it comes to age it was hard to pick between the age of 16 and 18 by doing our questionnaire we realized that the film would attract more 18 year olds, this in turn would be the age restriction we put on it because of the graphic content. I thin that most people will be interested in the plot but I think that it would mainly be the females that would be most intrigued in the story line and I think most of the young audience would be to. However I think that the action, violence and horror aspect of the film would interest and draw there attention the most and not the plot line. Our film does respond to previous movies such as the ones I have mentioned the Da Vinci Code, Constantine, The Oman our movie incorporated ideas from all of these. Additionally the people who watch these types of movies vary so much in age and gender that I think it matters most when you film it, the characters you use, the story line and also the Mise en scene. The main characters are all very young which I think would attract more of a young audience, I also think that the type of dress that the female victim has on would attract a young male audience as well as it can be seen as quite provocative wear. The themes and issues involved however would attract a more mature audience as it deals with things like religion being a type of brainwash and conspiracy theories within religion head on. I think it would take a mature person to understand and appreciate these themes and issues presented.

Question five
How did you attract or address your audience? We do appeal to specific people in our text such as people who are confused when it comes to there religion and where they belong, it appeals to woman who have been beaten and overruled by a man. I think that the music helps to engage the audience and draws them into the story line and makes them what to no what happens next as builds to much suspense. I think our POV shots have been successful especially when it is through the antagonists eyes as it helps the audience to build a sense of disgust and hatred for him when they see the victims through his eyes. I think the opening has a sense of both reality and fiction within in it the issues that are brought up could very easily be a realistic issue within society, however it does have a sense of fiction to the fact that the antagonist has this secret life and has torture victims in the garage with his young son upstairs. I think the sound and Mise en scene help to most to appeal and attract the audience in to wanting to watch more. They help to build suspense to give it a sense of realism and in all makes the movie seem that little more interesting to the audience. I think the editing also helped as well, the cut away black and white scenes add to the suspense and helps to build in that tension for right at the end when everything comes together and the audience understands what's happened.

Question five
This is our questionnaire summary and is also where we got most of our answers for number 5 from it also backs up some of the answers that I have given already through my evaluation.

Question five

Question five

Question five

Question five

Question six
How have your technical skills developed since the begging of the course Overall our equipment was good in the fact that we had no budget for technology and in all it gave us the best possible quality we were able to get. However there were a few moments were we had trouble with the lighting parts where it was so light and parts to dark. We though editing could fix this but only a f reshoot would. It could have been fixed easily with a lighting rig and if we had the chance to chance to reshoot with a budget this would be on the top of what we would need t need to get. However the other equipment such as the camera and tripod they did did there job well. The tripod in particular was a brilliant asset to have, as you were a able to do a smooth title of pan, which proved to be very difficult by hand the tripd tripod made this a lot more easier. When it came down to editing our whole group knew this was more Oscars domain but we all had our fair go at doing a little of the film. The programme we used was premier pro and as a first timer I can say it was very easy to handle it was smooth and all in all made our film just that bit better. Although I dont have much experience in this type of field and so I cant compare this programme to any other I can say that everything we were looking for it had. We struggled a bit on making the blend from colour to black and white but after a while searching around for ways of doing it, we got it and this adds to the affect of having two separate lives. I helped with this aspect of the editing. The most technical piece of editing we came across was green screen, although I had no clue how to do it , it was very interesting to watch Oscar completely change the background of a scene so easily. I think we were all shocked at how easy the editing proved to be in the end.

domain premi all fiel look but ao piece was easily

Question seven
looking back on your preliminary task what have you learned - and what have you improved on? Looking back at when we were planning and researching for our preliminary task and then again for our final media project we have defiantly improved, we improved in detail, in ideas and even as a group all together we started to work more together realizing each others strengths and using them. We struggled at first with our researching and planning but as we got used to it the better it got and by the end we had an opening of a movie to show for it. Storyboarding and animatic was hard we found it hard mainly because visualizing the shots we wanted and writing and drawing them on paper seemed very difficult as none of us could visualize our film yet. But in the end it worked very well and without that storyboard we wouldnt of known which shot was next. By putting our storyboard on the wall and cutting it up it helped us to be a little more free with out ideas and storyline, it helped to open up the narrative more. From the preliminary task we have improved enormously in our camera work and shots and also in continuity. Looking back our tilts are a lot smoother as well as our pans, tracking has improved in the stillness of the camera and also our positioning of the character within the frame. These are all the things we really struggled with but as seen in our final piece we have found ways to get around it and all make our skill set a lot wider and a lot better. We are now framing the face of someone on the screen a lot better they and we have played around with this a lot more so that they aren't always central. We have also expanded in our shots we have used more POV shots. Our Mise en scene has also improved since the preliminary task as we had a proper art student to help with the setting and make up. We have also got proper costumes and props to use as well to help with the realistic nature of our film. Editing however is the biggest thing that we have all improved on. We have all got to no the programme a lot better we have all had a go at editing, we have been taught how to do it, we have gotten a lot more artistic with it and we have made the editing look that little bit more professional. We haven't just cut the scenes so that they fit we have added interest in entertainment to our film through the editing which I never thought I personally would be able to do.

Question seven
I personally feel that I have made huge amounts of progress, when I started this course I didnt no how to turn on a camera, get a tripod out, I didnt even no what premier pro was let a lone use it. Now I have helped direct a film, edit it shot it and put it all together. My skills on the camera has improved I can now do a pan and a tilt without jolting the camera, I can edit scenes together and fade from colour to black and white and I can also help direct the scene and Mise en scene so that it looks its best rather then standing doing nothing. I think our piece is very successful in fulfilling the brief we have indeed created a thriller to the best of all of our abilities, the audience like it, it is different and unique, it has an interesting sub genre, and the quality of work is I think outstanding and shows all of our best works combined. However if we did get the chance to film again I would change a few things I would get better equipment to help boost that quality even higher, I would maybe edit the script between the father and son a bit more and have a bit more added in to the torture scene. But really I am very happy with the outcome ad the achievement of this project.