Finalised Product

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

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Question 3: What Kind Of Media Institution Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

As our media product had to be a film of a thriller genre, our first thought was to aim towards the age rating of either 12 or 15 as children younger than this might find the film complicated or even scary in some cases. As our film is a thriller, we needed to aim towards an audience who seek excitement whilst watching a film and who are kept on the edge of their seats.

              

As we started to shoot our film we had the age rating of either 12 or 15 in our heads but weren’t sure which one to go for. However, once all of the production of the film was complete we decided to keep it at the age rating of 12. We did this because the content that is incorporated in our opening sequence isn’t as strong as some that may be seen in a film rated 15, for example in the fight scene there is no blood seen at all by the audience. Also, no strong language is used in our scene. If we had chose to stick with a PG or U film then the content may be a bit too strong or even scary for some of the audience. If we had chosen to stick with an 18 rated film then we would have to incorporate different effects such as blood which is hard to make look real and isn’t really necessary, also strong language isn’t needed in our sequence either. Arguably our film could also be rated a 12A film but yet again may scare some of the younger viewers of the film or even confuse them.
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An example of a Thriller film that has been classified a 12 by the BBFC is the film 'Source code'. The film is rated 12 as it does not contain any strong violence, bloody scenes or any other unsuitable scenes for people above the age of 12. However, it does contain mild strong language which would be unsuitable for younger viewers. The opening sequence to our film is similar to this film as it doesn't contain anything unsuitable for people over the age of 12 but has aspects that may be unsuitable for those younger than this age. Above is the DVD cover for the film which shows its BBFC classified age rating in the bottom left hand corner. Below is the trailer for this film;

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An example of a Thriller film that has been classified a 15 by the BBFC is the film 'Shutter Island'. The film is rated 15 as it contains some strong violence, bloody scenes and unsuitable scenes for people under the age of 15. There was no need to incorporate strong violence or bloody scenes in our sequence and also would have been hard to do with no budget. Above is the DVD cover for the film which shows its BBFC classified age rating in the bottom left hand corner. Below is the trailer for this film;

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An example of a Thriller film that has been classified a 18 by the BBFC is the film 'Seven'. The film is rated 18 as it contain many scenes of blood and gore, although only one murder in the film is seen on screen, the aftermath of many others is shown which is quite graphic and unsuitable for those who are of an age younger than 18. Above is the DVD cover for the film which shows its BBFC classified age rating in the bottom left hand corner. Below is the trailer for this film;

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When it comes to social profiling, it is questionable about which group our film would fall under. It contains characters that some of the audience for both ABC1 and C2DE profiles could relate to. For example, those who lie under the ABC1 profile may be able to relate to Rob Thompson by seeing how he lives and the sort of career he has denoted by his clothes. On the other hand those who fall under the profile of C2DE may be able to relate to the stranger in a way that they may find it hard to find work and make money. However, if we look at which profile would most probably prefer our film, it would have to be ABC1 as they would most probably find it more exciting than those in the C2DE profile who may find it predictable and may even see it as unrealistic.

After our film was completed with all the post production done, we had a look at whether we thought our product was suitable for our initial target of a 12 rated film. We decided that it was a suitable opening sequence that would keep the audience excited but not scare them or incorporate inappropriate content. 

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

One way in which we constructed our film, in order to achieve our target audience, was via the gender of our cast. The cast is completely male, but this was not intended to achieve our target audience, but because the gender of our group and our planning for the opening sequence. The female gender in this clip is not represented in the clip, however not by choice, this does not hinder the idea of females watching the clip, but just favours the older, male gender. We included violence and some mature, psychological themes which would attract an older possibly male audience. such themes as reality and death are usually unsuitable for younger audiences, which is why we have aimed at around 15+. Typically, the themes we used would make a real media product rated at around 15+ by the bbfc for cinematic release.

The score which was used on top of the opening sequence was generally quite gritty, similar to that of such films as "Se7en" which also was a psychological thriller. Another convention which was used was the setting of a dirty alleyway, for the fight scene between Rob Thompson and The Stranger, typically used in modern stalker/ thriller films and highlights this place to be dangerous, connoted by its ill-kept manner. all of these themes and conventions are typical of the thriller genre, and meets the expectations of a thriller audience.

Not much discernible feedback was given to us when our media product was uploaded it to such mediums as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but however some criticisms were made. The general consensus was praise by those we know. However one person stated that at the very end of the clip, as rob runs to find the stranger "you can't really see the path properly... you can just see leaves at the end where he walks out" this does not make it clear wether the stranger has disappear and a proper point of view of Rob isn't greatly achieved due to the obstruction of the bush.

Another, female viewer deemed that some parts of the clip "scared" her, because of the inclusion of violence and a quick "jump-scare" as the stranger appears in Robs mirror. we found this helped prove that our target audience had been achieved as a female that wasn't part of the target audience found some parts of the clip distressing, whereas other male reviewers didn't.

Finally, another criticism  was a continuity error that had been spotted, because the film had been shot on separate days and hadn't been noticed in post production, when Rob looks out of the window a car is not parked, but as he runs downstairs, a car appears to be parked in the driveway despite the shots being within a few seconds of each other. The general praise that we received from showing the opening sequence was that the clip was "very professional" and "flowed brilliantly". Another specific piece of praise was that "The part where he is there and then not is very well done... well edited as well". we had to concede that some reviews may have been biased due to being given by friends and close family members.

We also used a group screening in order to get some feedback on our film. We brought some people into a classroom and put it on the big screen, they all watched it and filled out a questionnaire about the film giving their views, with which we got good criticism and praise

Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Before producing our final media product, we as a group had to use a range of different technologies during the process of creating our product.

First, we had to gather and organise information that we could use to benefit our products, this ranged from researching exactly what the thriller genre was to learning different types of the genre itself which we each placed on our group blog to present to other group members.
 After finding out exactly what genre is we delved deeper into the subject researching forms and conventions of exciting thriller films as well as opening sequences backed up by pictures and videos to show our understanding of the subject and how we could benefit from it, enhancing the range of our research to really create that thrilling feel you get from thriller movies.

Second, after gathering all the research we needed, we went onto to the next step planning exactly who would play what part and where we film everything. With the use of our phones we were able take pictures that we could directly transfer to our blog for all our members to view and give their opinions on the move not cutting anyone’s time. Apart from our phones we would come up with ideas and plans over Facebook since it was the social media that everybody had access to and gave us the capabilities to share videos and music links that we thought would be good to use for our product.

Third was the production. This had us use a range of technological devices to create our product, within our arsenal we had an SD camera which was portable due to its miniaturisation, it’s easy to afford price. Its user friendly interface allowed for auto focus, auto white balance and auto zoom which made the capturing of our product all the more easier.


However with its ups the camera also had its down, due to its cheap affordable price it lack quality footage leaving a grainy drained image as shown in our preliminary video.With an built in microphone the cameras not only picked up the casts voices but the unwanted ambient sounds around us as well, to counter-act this we chose moments where are setting was completely quiet and planned a limited range of dialogue to minimise this negative attribute.

Finally all that was left was our post production. This had us using mac laptops with a very handy programme called I-movie which helped with our post production. I-movie was a non-linear editing software that allowed the user to edit out of sequence non-destructively.

Since this product was a consumer audience programme it was user friendly, filled with pre-loaded sounds, scores, transitions and effects whilst being cost effective, free for mac computers and laptops. The downside to this was its limited compatibility to other camera not in its consumer audience and lack of a detailed sound resource meaning we had to source royalty free scores and sound effects from websites on the internet.