Evaluation questions

 

Feedback questions for media practical

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

Throughout our thriller there were many aspects that created a tense, negative atmosphere particularly mise-en-scene. The use of familiar settings in our thriller, e.g. the bathroom, makes our thriller particularly scary as it is familiar and realistic to the audience. This technique is very similar to Hitchcock thrillers particularly psycho as one of the most iconic murder scenes was set in a bathroom. Weather and lighting was also used to create a dark, tense atmosphere, during the scene in which the murderer enters the gangster’s house, it was raining and the sky is dark, creating a dangerous and negative atmosphere adding to the tension.

The music we used was not produced by us; however we felt it was quite tense and eerie. It also had quite a typical Italian, gangster sound to it and fitted well with our theme. We kept the music playing in the background throughout the whole of our thriller opening to suggest that there is a quite dark and mysterious side to the female character throughout the whole of the opening. We took inspiration from the opening to The Departed (Scorsese 2006) for this idea, as the same music is played continuously throughout, however in The Departed, diagetic sound is kept in, whereas in our thriller we cut all diagetic sound out to make it creepier and to add tension.

The storyline also conforms greatly to a typical thriller; the group of gangsters are quite  lower class people who are shown enjoying themselves. Whereas the main female killer seems quite ordinary but with a dark side, varied shots between her and the group change the feel of the film and demonstrate Todorov’s theory of equilibrium. To begin with, the group are shown laughing and appear care-free, creating a sense of equilibrium and then the shots of the female killer and her gun change the tension creating disequilibrium. The main females reason for killing- an affair, also adds tension to the story as this is quite a dramatic action, making her seem a lot more dangerous and slightly unhinged. This very similar to many thrillers as the ‘villain’s’ actions can not always be explained which adds terror and suspense to the film and character.

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

Our film represents a group of lower-class, unprofessional gangsters. The setting is quite simple and there are small amounts of expensive, upper-class possessions suggesting their desire to be wealthier and successful. The clothing is also ordinary, the males wear simple suits consisting of a white shirt and tie, to suggest they are not highly important or rich people. However the prostitutes in the gang wear very revealing, cheap clothing. This gives the impression the gang are quite dirty, lower-class, back-street gangsters.

The female murderer however is dressed far classier than the other females represented in the film. She has a long black dress, which makes her seem very feminine and quite elegant. Her make up is quite simple apart from bright red lipstick, which suggests she is quite dangerous and dark. The use of a female lead also challenges a conventional lead, as typically males are the lead characters in a lot of thrillers.This therefore also gives us a unique marketing point.

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

Although it is a thriller and the theme and nature of it may appeal to a larger distribution company, for example Universal pictures as they are one of the largest distributors catering for many large thrillers, for example psychological thriller Mama (2013). Our film is a low-budget thriller and was produced on a small-scale, therefore more likely to appeal to a smaller, independent company like working title. Although it would be less expensive to distribute from an independent company like working title, it is still a big, well-respected company which would produce our thriller to an excellent quality. Therefore is likely to get a lot of attention and become successful.
In terms of the public viewing our film is more likely to appeal to a smaller niche market and therefore possibly an art-house cinema due to the smaller-scale production involved.

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

The target age rating for our media product would be 12A, based on BBFC guide lines, due to moderate violence, mild sexual references and the mature theme of the film.The nature of the film is kept mild ensuring a 12A as opposed to becoming controversial similarly to other films containing violent themes, e.g. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan 2008). By doing this it will be able to hit a more expansive target audience. The BBFC states that ‘moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail’ to ensure this the gunshot at the end is used to imply the main ganger’s death and his death is not shown.

The audience is likely to consist of both male and female due to the topic and characters involved in our media product- the main character being female.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

To ensure we can attract the mass possible market, we will use web 2.0, as it would likely be rated a 12A we would create a campaign using the Internet particularl sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace and create a viral campaign as many people, particularly teenagers use these sites frequently. However we would also create teaser trailers and show them mainly online and then begin to show our main trailers on televisions and in cinemas. This will enable us to reach people who are less likely to use websites like Facebook. We would also use posters on billboards and bus stops to ensure the maximum possible amount of people will be exposed to adverts for our film.

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

For our preliminary video we used an apple Mac to edit our film and although initially found it difficult to edit, as most our group had little experience in editing, soon picked up the technique and were able to put together our film. However, particularly from our preliminary we found that sometimes technology can be a set back as some of the Mac’s we used were quite old and occasionally broke down and similarly the cameras didn’t always work properly when syncing footage to the computer. However when we did out main film we decided to use better software we were familiar with to ensure there would be no similar problems. The editing suite we used was Vegas Pro 12 as it was of far better quality and had better transitions and techniques, therefore better to use compared to the Movie maker on the apple macs. However I feel my skills at editing hugely improved and although we used quite basic cameras we were able to produce a far better flowing and improved quality piece than our preliminary.

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

I think that the quality of my preliminary task to the product I have now has been hugely improved and I have gained a lot of knowledge by working on the latest thriller product. Our preliminary task was not properly planned out and we began filming with out proper planning and therefore the outcome was quite poor. It showed me how much time it actually took to film and edit a short clip and made me appreciate the editing side of creating a film. Also since the preliminary task I have done far more research into thrillers and by making ‘Vendetta D’amore,’ realised what was actually needed to make a scarier, tense film outside of filming. For example the editing, enhanced sounds and the music. For our Preliminary we also used settings out of convenience and therefore had little to work with, however we planned more for our main film and chose appropriate settings for our story. I feel that our final product is a huge improvement on my preliminary task as we took far more time and planning to ensure we create a more interesting and tense thriller.