Evaluation!!

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

The ways in which our opening sequence reflect, develop and change different forms and conventions much like a real media production include; establishing our setting, genre, characters, and narrative. We did this by presenting clear establishing shots of our environment to display the eerie location, and then changing the colour scheme of the piece to grey scale in order to gain more effect. As well as setting, we also used our characters to present our chosen genre of Crime Thriller. Choosing actors who would suit each role in terms of body type or look; and also selecting costume which would reflect their characters in a clear manner. Using the fast paced musical score we were able to present our genre immediately, this paired with the variety of camera angles and shots helped us gain an effective media piece.

A Crime Thriller which has used similar conventions to our opening sequence is the film "Se7en". Using similar characters, such as an In-uniformed policeman, armed gunmen, and also a chase scene, we were able to see a clear resemblance between the film and our opening sequence.

 

 

 

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

Being fan's of the Crime Thriller genre we were able to create a media piece which would appeal to our target audience as we believed that we would enjoy it if we watched the film as an impartial member of the audience. Our opening sequence contains three characters, two being antagonists and one being a protagonist. Using gangster type characters we were able to adopt the Crime Thriller genre easily.

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

As we are a small independent British production team on a

very low budget, we would need to distribute to a low budget film distributor such as Film Four. This would be as our production didn't cost allot to create, and with a low budget distributor like Film Four, it would be more possible to make a profit and produce more money.

Even though our production would have been on a very low budget, that wouldn't have necessarily effected it's success. There are some British low budget films which have been associated with Film Four that have been a great success; the films "Slumdog Millionaire", "East is East" and "Sexy Beast" have all been extremely successful despite their very low budgets.

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

As our media piece is a dramatic genre which contains allot of action and aspects of horror we needed to choose a suitable age certificate for it. We did this by looking at other Crime Thrillers such as "Se7en" or "Dirty Harry" and their age certificates. We also used the British Board of Film Classification, or BBFC website, in order to look at the legal requirements for each age certificate. Even though both "Dirty Harry" and "Se7en" are classed as an 18, we decided that our film wouldn't be as extreme, and that we would class it within the age of 15. This meant that our film would not be suitable for anyone under the age of 15 nor be able to to be purchased by anyone under the age of 15 either. Obviously aimed at fans of the Crime Thriller genre, our piece should appeal to a very vast age range. Beginning at the minimum age of 15 for legal reasons, and ending with a typical age of around 45, we would hope that a range of ages of male and female viewers would enjoy our media piece.

 

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?
In order to attract our audience we used different techniques to gain effect and produce a successful media piece. Whilst editing we were able to change the colour scheme, and also add a fast tempo musical score which we found added the detail we needed, but was also appreciated by our target audience. We also found that our audience could also relate to our main Antagonist, as he was our age, and quite a likable character due to his vulnerable situation.

To gain a further understanding of what our audience thought of our piece we first posted it on Facebook so that they could view and then comment on the video. Overall we found quite a positive response which we were very thankful for; here are a few of our favourite comments...

To gain a further understanding of what our audience thought we also produced a questionnaire about our film. We asked 20 people to complete the questionnaire and again found that the results were generally positive. Here are our questions and the results we found...

1. Did you enjoy our film?

We found a great response to this question, with 18 people answering "yes" and only 2 with "no".

2. What genre would you say our film is?

We found that the response to this question was quite mixed, but the majority still answered in the way that we were aiming for. 13 people thought that our film would class as a Crime Thriller (which is the genre we chose to portray), 4 people thought that it was an Action, 2 thought Horror, and 1 thought Psycho Thriller.

3. Did you think it had a good storyline?

This was our best response to a question as 20 out of 20 liked our storyline.

4. Do you think the characters suited their roles?

Another successful response, all of the 20 we asked believed that we had made a right decision in casting and thought that all of our characters suited their roles within the film.

5. Were the character's roles clear?

We found that the majority of the people we asked understood who each character was, however a few people were unsure about Jack's character. This is understanding as his character was quite mysterious and appeared in a very brief scene.

 

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

Whilst producing our piece i learnt allot about using modern technology within media. These modern technologies involved things such as; using a video camera free hand to gain more of an edgy effect, or using the tripod for a steady shot when filming. Using a reflective light board to generate more light as the natural light wasnt enough when we were filming. Taking photographs of establishing shots and different scenes whilst filming using a still camera or our mobile phones. I also learnt allot about modern technologies whilst we were in the process of editing as we were using the school's movie maker software, which was very handy and simple to use. Even though i didn't do much of the editing it was interesting to observe and learn how the programme worked whilst we were in the editing process. I also used the internet whilst in the research stage of my blog, before filming which was really helpful. I was able to find pictures, information and reviews on different films which was a great help before and after filming. I also watched DVD's of different films in order to gain ideas for our own piece helped allot also, i found that different dvd extras provided some great information in the form of deleted scenes or director's commentary. The internet was also very useful when we posted our film on "Facebook" and "YouTube" so our audience were able to respond to it and give us feedback.

 

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 premininary there were a few complications whilst filming and editing. We found difficulties in filming when it came to lighting due to faulty plug sockets in our chosen location. This effected the quality of the film as the lighting wasn't how we wanted it; also led to problems when editing. As we werent used to the editing software we were using most of the editing of our piece was experimental. Although it doesnt look as effective as we had hoped it did give us good practice for our next piece which was helpful. I think the lack of planning our preliminary task effected the detail and success also. To prevent any possible problems with our opening sequence we decided to do allot more planning, we needed to do this as this piece was allot longer than our preliminary which had a duration of less the 1 minute. We found it very helpful to gain more research on different films and opening sequences aswell as possible camera angles, as we got an idea of what could go wrong or what may work within the piece. We also thought more about our location, and carried out a risk assement which we found useful.
I think you can see a significant change between the two pieces. The variety of techniques used within our opening sequence definatly gained us the effects we needed in order to create a successful media piece, which differed from our preliminary. I believe that the whole of our group was generally really happy with our final opening sequence as it was allot more effective than our previous piece due to our gained experience working in media. I definatly have learnt allot from the two experiences, i found working with the cameras, location and cast not only an enjoyable but also an educational experience which i would gladly do again.