Our Thriller Evaluation.

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

By using the trailer for 'Hide and Seek' as our main inspiration for our film it allowed us to research into the forms and conventions it used that made it so successful.
Our media product uses all aspects of the mise-en-scene to make it effective and intersting to the audience.
In our thriller we used lighting to our advantage in setting the mood and atmosphere at the beginning, the park location was sunny and bright which reflected the childs innocence and purity. This hugely contrasted the darkness in the rest of the film, we used low key lighting by positioning a variety of different lamps in different positions to create a shadow projection onto a blank wall. The shadows represented the evil in the film, and made the little girls lonelyness at the park seem more sinister once you saw the violent shadows. By using the shadows which the audience were made to think were the girls Mother and Father it created mystery because you couldn't see the faces or know the identities of them. This audience manipulation is used in 'No Country for Old Men' and 'Psycho' because the audience doesn't visibly see the violence, but it is edited in such a way by using shadows and sound clips that we believe a brutal attack has took place without having to witness all of the gory details. We wanted to create this binary opposition between good and evil because in many thrillers we have watched there is always some sort of convention of good and evil etc being portrayed.
The soundtrack of our film was called 'Save the Hero' by 'Beyonce', the lyrics in this song were extremely applicable to our films stoyline in that the young child was the hero stuck in between all of the fighting, this convention of a hero or heroine is used in 'Hide and Seek' as the little girl is simply being manipulated by her Fathers schizophrenia and dual personality.
Also the way the music reflected the mood and pace of the film was used in the 'Hide and Seek' trailer as more and more instruments were added such as strings to build the intensity and volume of the music, which led to the final action climax. We used this convention in our film by timing particular poignant parts of the music in with key parts of the storyline, for example when our soundtrack became more intense as drums were added, this is where the violent shadow scene was shown.
The editing was very important to us because we had identified this as being the main factor that makes a film successful. We used a variety of length shots because by quickening up the cuts it increased the pace of the film, this increased the intensity of the film and built up the tension ready for the final climax scene, this technique was found in many different thriller trailers that we watched including 'Hide and Seek'. In contrast to this we used slow motion effectively to focus on a particular point and line in the soundtrack and storyline of our film, this gave that particular clip a more thoughtful and meaningful portrayl. By cutting between the park location and the room location it showed the contrast between light and dark, good and evil.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The particular social class that we were focusing on wasthe lower social class. Our film represented the type of people who had low amounts of disposable income and didn't have a comfortable way of life, this was shown through the mise-en-scene of our film such as the oppressive room and violent characters. The male figure in our film was portrayed as a domminant man who beat his wife, the female figure was conveyed as someone who was fragile and vulnerable who suffered domestic abuse at the hands of her husband or parner, this in itself is a representation of a lower social class.

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

We researched into who distributed the film 'Hide and Seek' because ours was similar to this, and targeted the same types of people. 20th Century Fox distributed this film, so we believe this media institution would be the ideal company to distribute ours because it is a globally known name and would give out film huge credebility and make people want to watch it. Because of the thriller genre we were using it immediately gave our film a certificate of 15+, because of the scenes of violence, so we would have to be careful how we advertised the film such as not putting the adverts onto childrens channels or before the 9 o'clock watershed incase it scared younger children.
However as our film is of a low budget and not produced by world famous producers and directors there may be little interest by big global distributors in distributing our film for us. So we may have to target the niche market of distributors such as filmFour as they aim for a more niche and highbrow market by showing a mixture of old and new independent, arthouse, British, foreign language and specialist cinema, along with some critically-acclaimed Hollywood films, this describes our film precisely so maybe FilmFour would be the better option however it wouldn't make our film as mainstream.
I believe our film should be shown through mainstream multiplex cinemas at night because it would create the scary thought provoking atmosphere we were looking for.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media product would be people above the age of 15, because our film would be given the viewing certificate of 15+ by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), because it contains strong violence, imitable techniques such as the shadow fight scene, and horror.
Our film would target both males and females above the age of 15 because it contains characters of both genders and also a child, so every type of person can relate to the characters. However as the thriller genre is very specific and not all types of people like the genre we realise that it wouldn't be everybodys favourite film, so the audience for our media product would be a fan of the thriller genre who enjoys unravelling a complicating and intriguing psychological plot.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We would attract our audience to gain interest in our film by showing a series of advertisements on all standard channels, BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV 1, Channel 4 and Channel 5, but they would have to be shown after the 9 o'clock watershed so they don't cause any distress to younger viewers.
By using a child it gave the portrayl of innocence and vulnerability which is exactly the idea we wanted to create, this would address the audience because they would feel sympathy towards a child once the sinister twist was revealed.
The park location of our film would immediately attract our audience because it is a place that everyone can relate happy childhood memories too, and would be typically associated with love and family, however the park in our film is represented as being a sort of get a way for the girl as she is shown as a withdrawn yet pure character that makes the audience question whats wrong with her. Then once the violent shadow scene is brought in it creates suprise and shock amongst the audience and increases the sympathy towards the girl.
The theme and implications of domestic violence that is used throughout attracts the audience because it shows how it can affect someones life, this life being the childs makes the audience feel immense sorrow for her and makes them want to watch more and find out what happens to her and the psychological impact it has.
From the posotive feedback we received it shows that our film was widely welcomed by out target age group and should be successful if produced on a bigger budget scale.

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

I have learnt a great deal about the technologies used in constructing a media product because i had never used apple software on a MAC laptop before so i had to learn from scratch.
Initially we practiced using the technology by completing a short preliminiary excercise, this consisted of filming a short film in the genre of your choice using the video cameras provided. By doing this excercise before diving into our main Thriller task it allowed us to explore different camera techniques, angles and what worked on screen.
After we had collected all of our footage we then uploaded it onto the Apple Mac's, and then started the process of cutting all of the clips we had and editing them together to create a smooth professional looking sequence. I learnt that you can never have too much footage because once editing you sometimes only need a few seconds worth of a particular clip, so if you have a variety of these then it can make your film more interesting.
This editing showed me how to use transitions to make the cuts between clips smoother, add effects to clips to give a certain effect or create a particular atmosphere, and how to actually cut the clips so your left with the precise sections you want which was quite tricky to do, I learnt how to put a clip into slow motion or alternatively quickening up a scene by changing the amount of frames per second, and i also learnt how to add a soundtrack into your film for effect by fading in certain parts and emphasizing others.
However once we had played around with the apple software we got to grips with it, and learnt that the editing part was the section that made your film successful, created tension, and gave the overall atmosphere effect you desired.
Overall the technology involved in fiming and editing our thriller was imperative but time consuming, but once we had practiced using the software it was simple to use.

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

Our preliminary task consisted of a few lines of dialogue being exchanged between two central characters, this showed a few key camera techniques such as zooming and tracking, and also a few camera movements that are commonly associated with a conversation which are two shots, medium shots and reverse angle shots.
I have learnt how important the planning process is because on our preliminary task we did a storyboard of the shots and thats it, but when doing our actual Thriller we planend in much more detail, for example we brainstormed possible ideas initially then had a group meeting to decide on a final storyline. We then completed brainstorms for things like location, props and character ideas and finally we drew a storyboard to illustate our shot list. By completing all of this planning it allowed us to set deadlines and keep a track of what we needed at each filming session so we were organised, and by brainstorming our ideas together it allowed us to be creative and throw all of our ideas in together in order to create an amazing story line.
I feel as though i have learnt a huge amount in the progression from the preliminary task to the full product because i have learnt how to edit to create a certain atmosphere or effect by using editing effects such as slow motion. I have progressed in my camera skills work, as previously i don't think i got enough footage to make my edit successful but in my Thriller i shot from a wide range of angles and used a variety of camera techniques, so i could edit them all together to increase the pace of my film if need be, also because we had already planned what shots we were going to take that would create the best effect it was relatively quick and easy to film as we knew what we were doing and what we wanted out of the filming session.

I believe through completing the preliminary excercise it allowed us to progress hugely because it gave us the experiance with using the cameras to film and laptops for editing to create a certain atmosphere and to add tension, without doing the preliminary task it would have been a much longer process in completing our Thriller because we wouldn't have the skills needed to make our film successful and overcome obstacles along the way.