Foundation Portfolio By Steven Turner

Evaluation

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

Our opening sequence was based on the conventions of a thriller however showing aspects of a horror. The film is based on a girl who has gone missing and the last person to be seen with her is this male character, the male character is questioned and later gets knocked out with a cloth soaked in chloroform and begins having flash backs of the events he was involved in when the girl went missing.

The opening sequence has been based on mise-en-scene, editing, sound and cinematography that all thriller films have. The first setting shown is in a small box room with a table and chair in, this setting has been picked to emphasise the person is being interrogated. The lighting is a bright blue, as the connotation of the colour is mystery it fits in perfect with the actions going on. The next setting shown is in the woods, this has been selected as it adds more mystery linking the part earlier on in the sequence. It also shows danger as not many people go there as it is viewed as ‘scary’ due to it be isolated compared to the outside world.

There have been a variety of cinematography used in the sequence, these shots include; high-angle shot, over the shoulder, close-up, match on action, forward tracking shot, medium-shot, point of view shot etc. The high-angle shot has been used to not only show the perspective of the other character but also show he has dominance as he is looking down onto character shown in the scene. The over the shoulder shot shows dialogue and the communication between the characters, this shot is also at a high angle as one person is standing up meanwhile the other is sitting down. The match on action emphasises an action within a scene, a close-up highlights the facial expression of the character showing how they feel and so on.

The sound adds to the atmosphere as it emphasises certain features such as rustling in the trees etc. The editing has changed the scenes making them darker, this adds a low-spirited effect which links into the story line as it is a sad story of a girl going missing.

Overall

When planning for the opening sequence we based it on the conventions of a thriller, meaning we changed things within the opening such as mise-en-scene, editing, sound and cinematography

· The sound emphasises the actions in the scene such as when the person is running through the forest.

· The music added in the background creates a mysterious atmosphere

· The shots are of a diverse range, the shots involve: close-ups, medium shots, long-shots, forward tracking, over-the-shoulder, point of view etc.

· Close up’s emphasise emotions

· Medium shots show scenery and also showing the action of the character

· Long shot’s show the environment the character in- sets the scene and genre

· The editing is of a fast pace in parts of the opening sequence, linking to the thriller genre

· There is a slow build up creates tension which also emphasises the genre

· Mise-en-scene has low lighting.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The opening sequence’s representation of the characters is based on stereotypes. The younger character is shown to be laid back not caring to much about society etc. However when taken in to into the room and interviewed about the girl that’s gone missing we see a change in character as he becomes worried with a blank expression. The other character (the man asking the questions) is shown as a dominant character as he standing up looking over the other character. The genders are represented differently, even though the girl isn’t seen she is presented the more vulnerable gender as she is the one that is now missing. There is a division of class between the two characters, the character you don’t see much of is supposed to be portrayed and shown as someone from a higher class, his clothing emphasises this he is wearing a suit. His suit is sophisticated looking as the shirt it buttoned up right with the tie at a suitable length, meanwhile the other character is showing a more laid back approach his shirt isn’t done up, however his clothing shows he is of a higher class as he can afford nice clothes.

· - Class

· - Age

· - Gender

· - Personality

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

Film distribution is always a very important part of the process of getting your film out to the wider audience, not just in the country that it is made, but also outside of that, in other places. For example if a film is made in the U.K, although the main objective would be to make it successful there, getting it out to other countries, maybe the U.S would also be key.

There are quite a few films that compare to ours, however with our film being part of the thriller/horror genre it could compare to films such as ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. Both of these films were distributed by one of the largest film companies in the world, Warner bros. pictures. If our film were to be distributed by a large company I feel this would be the sort of company to do it. They have also distributed films such as Terminator Salvation, another thriller type film.

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

The age range is 15-45; therefore it would have an age rating of 15+, as it is a journey of finding the girl who he’d seen in the flashback. The thriller genre allows it to have a good range of audiences, as from my primary data I found the most popular genre was horror and thriller therefore we made a horror with conventions of a thriller. This is what inspired the chase scene of the movie (for the horror aspect), and the investigation of the missing girl (thriller aspect). We found that we were targeting a white audience mainly, but it could be viewed by all ethnicities, as the movie doesn’t focus on just the one. From our primary data, we found that we were targeting a working class audience therefore the actors in the movie are wearing regular every day clothing, and are speaking as normally as most, showing that they are of the same class and status.

·

- - 15+

- Age (15-30)

- Genre (Horror with conventions of a Thriller)

- Ethnicity (white, but could be viewed by all)

- Class and status (Working class)

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

In our opening scene, it opens with a lot of dark slow paced shots a lot like that at the start of ‘Insidious’. We thought this would draw the audience in as it adds that air of mystery around the movie and it makes you want to carry on watching. Also we used a cliff-hanger in the opening, and it is just before he is about to explain where the missing girl is. We thought this was a fantastic idea because it will leave the audience wanting to know more about the girl and where she is, making the audience want to carry on watching.

This movie is effective to our audience as the actors that are featuring in it are fairly young, so that the audience can empathise with them. Also some of the camera shots that we have done (handheld) would appeal more to the younger generation, as it is more energetic and scary. We have other camera shots such as a close up on the teenager being interrogated, along with an over the shoulder shot of the mystery villain, before the close up shot which helps to build up tension around the situation.

Our movie uses quite ‘dark’ non-diegetic music for added horror effect, and this is more for the horror aspect of our movie, but the dialogue between the two actors adds in those conventions of a thriller.

The clothes that the actors are wearing are just bog standard suits, and this is to try and make the movie more appealing to the working class audience.

We have used low-key lighting in our opening scene for the interrogation effect, where we have a blue light, illuminating the face of the person being interrogated (Conventions of Thriller). There is a lot of shouting and a bit of violence from the interrogator and this, plus the scary slow opening 30 seconds of our movie, helped us decide on our age rating of 15+.

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

The use of technology was very important in creating a successful final product. We needed various types of technology for various different stages in the process, and their strengths and weaknesses also became obvious.

The first piece of software we came across was adobe premiere pro. Compared to the other editing software we used, Adobe After Effects, premiere pro had both advantages and disadvantages. One advantage was that we found it easier to do simple editing, however I also found that after effects was better for adding final touches to the product, including effects and sounds, aswell as creating a very good opening title.

Overall, I learned a lot about using both of these programmes and by the end of the actual editing stage I felt that I was a lot better off than I was at the start.

Another very important piece of technology that we encountered was the HD cameras, that we used in the initial filming process. We used both Sony and JVC cameras, and despite the fact that they both were good at fulfilling the job we needed them for, I felt that the sound quality of the JVC was better. However, being smaller and lighter, the Sony camera came into its own when we had to film outside, and needed to be mobile.

Blogging has also been a large part of the process. We used blogger, one of the most popular websites of its kind. Personally I think it is a good blogging website that has a user-friendly interface and it is also easy to embed clips etc. My favourites feature was the fact that it linked straight to your gmail account which made the signing up process easier.

In conclusion, I would say that our group as a whole learnt a huge amount about the technologies we encountered.

- - Editing softwares, compare Premiere Pro with After Effects.

- - HD Cameras we used, the smaller sony and the JVC.

- - The use of blogger and its positives and negatives.

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

From the start of the preliminary task, to the end of the main task, we have definitely learnt a lot, in terms of working as a group, operating the cameras and filming the sequences and also in terms of applying that knowledge to the final production.

In the case of working as a group, we learned a lot during the initial filming phase and the editing phase. From the filming stage, we found out quite quickly that it was important to all be available for filming, and also to all be critical of the shots we were taking. We realised that making sure that the shots were good was very important, as the shots are probably the most important part of the film. I think that during the preliminary task, we figured out also that the shots had to be perfect, and any bad shots could only be improved so far with good editing.

The editing phase itself, presented even more of a challenge as it was even harder at times to collate everyone’s views on the film. However the prelim task had taught us that editing is often a case of trial and error, and that became clear to an even larger degree in our final task.

Camera operating was also an area that we learned a lot from our prelim task, and have therefore progressed a lot in the process of creating our final film. The art of being a good camera operator involves various things, that our preliminary task helped us to realise. At the start of our production, we found that quite a few of our shots we not very steady, and that there was often not a range of shots, something that we noticed also in our preliminary task. Another problem that we had to overcome was getting the shots to link together to create a good sequence. From our preliminary task we had realised this was not easy, and so we focused on this during the final film.