Abbeys Evaluation

EVALUATION

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

The different techniques and conventions used in a thriller film aim to create tension, suspense and anticipation for the audience. Typical conventions such as low key lighting to create a mysterious setting, gives the effect of silhouettes and doesn’t reveal the whole picture to the audience thus creating a hidden message within the scene. Thrillers are often set in foreign cities, deserts, high seas or Polar Regions. Such as the Bond Film `From Russia With love` set in a middle Eastern City- Istanbul, Turkey, the location seems exotic and different which draws the audience to the suspense of an unknown destination. In terms of sound thrillers tend to have a mysterious score which starts at a low pace and increases as the on screen action increases, enticing the viewer. Thrillers tend to consist of a protagonist and an antagonist; the innocent character who is the victim of a nasty, usually male protagonist. There are two different types of thriller; the traditional thriller, and the contemporary thriller. The traditional thriller is films such as the classic Hitchcock thrillers. They use common thriller conventions as seen in the film `Psycho` where the innocent female antagonist is killed by the gruesome protagonist. The contemporary thriller however is more updated and contemporary; it incorporates the typical thriller conventions yet develops and modifies the techniques found in them in order to make the storyline more intriguing to the viewer. We believe that our film is more of a contemporary thriller than a traditional thriller. Set in the urban location of inner city London, I believe that our film challenges the likes of a classical thriller. As we chose the sub genre action thriller, we combined the techniques that would be found in an action film along with the conventions of a thriller, the action thriller is much more contemporary as it involves guns, explosives and knives, usually fast paced and takes place in a high profile area, whereas the thriller has be around for much longer, so in order to combine the two the film would tend to be much more contemporary. Our film is about a boy being chased and then comes into contact with his enemy at the end of the scene, the whole way through the opening sequence we are unaware of why the boy is being stalked and chased, this leaves the audience in suspense. We chose a male protagonist and a male antagonist this is commonly found in the thriller film such as the James Bond films, however we challenged the typical range of plot twists, throughout our opening sequence the viewer is unaware of which character is the protagonist and which is the antagonist. The flashback used in our film gives clues to the audience of what might be the reason the boy is being chased. However the unknown weapon that is seen being taken from the boys pocket in the flash back and from the draw in the bedroom, makes it harder for the audience to work out who is about to kill who, when both characters meet at the end of the scene, the clash between the two still leaves the audience puzzled and on a cliff hanger as they do not know who has been killed and for what reason, furthermore what was the mysterious prop shown throughout. The first score we use in our opening sequence is just a beat, used to build up tension and anticipation as the scene progresses; this was developed from the typical thriller score where pace increases along with the actions of the characters. However I believe the second score we used challenges the typical thriller sound effects. It is more of an action theme, where like a typical thriller as the chase builds up so does the pace of the score although the score does not create tension in the scene it reflects the action of the chase and would most likely be used in an action film, like `Mission Impossible`. The third score we used, aimed to create suspense and anticipation for the audience; it is more of a traditional thriller theme it was used to build up to the stabbing of one of the characters. We decided against having any form of dialogue, instead we chose to just use a range of scores and have ambient sound. The reason we decided to do this was so that the whole time the audience was left in suspense; they would be focused on the actions instead of the dialogue of the scene in order to find out what was actually happening. By looking at an extract from the Bond film `From Russia With Love` when the protagonist is after Bond there is little to no dialogue it builds up tension and leaves the score as a more important factor rather than dialogue- in terms of sound in the scene. `From Russia With love` and `Casino Royale` both James Bond films are the main existing thrillers that influenced our film. We looked at the different techniques that were used in the chase and stalker parts of these films in order to incorporate them into our own film .For example the use of close ups to display a main prop which is used to give a clue to the audience; for example the small box in the `From Russia with love` extract, we developed this sort of prop in our own film through the use of a phone, we used a close up shot to display the text message sent from the blacked out figure to create anticipation, also a range of clips show an unknown prop being taken out of a boys pocket in the flashback and also when it is being taken out of the draw, the viewer never actually sees what the prop is which develops the conventions of a thriller with one main prop that dominates the actions of the characters, there is a story behind this unknown prop. When editing we increased the pace of our chase through a range of quick shots a method of cross cutting between two characters through out, as seen in the bond films this is a technique that forms a connection between the two characters creeping up on one another, it allows you to use a range of different shots for example over the shoulder and point of view to show the suspicious movements of the characters from both perspectives. We also used a lot of `Match on Action` shots to create an impression of continuity, this aimed to make our sequence look seamless like a James Bond film. As our film is more of a contemporary thriller I would relate it to films such as `Kidulthood` and `Adulthood`,

 

the location and characters we chose were developed from these films. As the setting is the gritty inner city the characters were portrayed as thugs and aimed to reflect some of the crime that is presently happening. Although `Kidulthood` is not a thriller it combines aspect of knife crime along with the image of what we aimed for our characters to look and act like along with the setting. We challenged the character traits through making one of the characters a blacked out figure and all three characters wearing hoodies, the reason why we did this was to meet the likes of our target audience, so that they could relate to the characters in our media product. As the film is based on teen thugs and street life of London, we made the appearance and performance of the actors how we believe a thuggish teenager would look and act like today; this was different to the typically character performance and appearance you would find in a thriller. For example in the Bond films the characters mainly wear suits, look much older and of higher profile. The reason why we didn’t choose this type of style was to emphasis the urban lifestyle and the likes of London teenagers therefore the characters style had to fit in with the storyline along with the setting.  I believe that our film is identifiably British, like `Kidulthood` and `Adulthood` the film is mainly aimed at the teenage audience of more precisely Londoners. It is no where near the likes of an American thriller, American thrillers have extremely expensive sets, with the ability to use a range of complex editing and filming techniques, as our film was low budget, it seemed more realistic to base it in the scrubs of the inner city, with low price props, little need of a classy set and costumes, this way it enabled or film to look more realistic. By doing this we challenged the likes of a contemporary thriller, by creating the same sort of tension, cliff hangers and plot twists that would be found in an American thriller yet and would leave the audience anticipating and in suspense, yet at a much cheaper budget. I believe that if we had changed the style of the characters yet worked with the setting we had chosen the scene would not have seemed as realistic; our film is identifiably British, stereotypical characters such as the young teenage thug work well with the choice of storyline and setting to meet the expectations of our London 15+ audience.

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

Our media product represents male teenagers, of an urban background. We focused mainly on stereotypical perception of 21^st century youths. We chose to have only male actors as the storyline was based on knife crime and the streets of London, young boys are constantly portrayed in the media, as thugs who hang around on street corners in gangs, ready to cause trouble. By using females we would have challenged this perception and shown that it is not only the male gender that cause trouble, it is also the female gender; however as I worked in a group with two males we found it easier to work on an image for the two male characters and the idea of a stabbing seemed more related to the male gender so we stuck to the traditional stereotype. We chose to have teenage actors as the film was based on teenage life on the streets of London and it wouldn’t have seemed right to use adult actors to meet the likes of our teenage target audience. The three characters seen in our media product are all of ethnic minorities, the reason why we didn’t choose to have a white person acting in our film is to show that London is a diverse area, although it is set in a British country where you would generally find white people, using the black and Arab ethnicity as our main characters shows that teenage thugs are of all ethnicities and London teenagers are of all ethnicities. The stalker who we first meet hiding behind a tree sending a text, would be seen as a stereotype, young black boys are portrayed in the media as violent and those mostly involved in crime, we chose this particular character to be black in order to communicate with the audience, sending a message out- they would instantly think that a thuggish black boy is the protagonist however we tried to challenge this message. Throughout the sequence we are never aware of which character is acting as the protagonist and which character is the antagonist, this way we challenged the often used stereotype and aimed to make the audience figure out whether it would be the stereotypical black boy who is the killer or the Arab teen who is being chased. The effect of this is to leave the audience suspicious of the character they would relate him to his stereotype however suspicion is created when it becomes unknown to the audience whether he may actually be the antagonist. The regional identity of the main characters are the British mainly UK based, more specifically London and the South West regions, as the film is aiming at the London teenage audience we represented the characters as how teenagers of London are portrayed every day  therefore we stuck mainly to the London region as it was based on `London City`. The characters are of lower status and class, the reason we represented the characters like this is to make it as realistic as possible, it is less likely to see a posh, rich white boy stabbing a black boy than a black boy chasing an Arab boy who are both from a working class background. The message we are giving out about London teenagers is that they are those who cause trouble in community, involved in violence and the stereotype portrayed is generally used in films to display present day generation teenagers; just like the media product we have produced. During the flashback of our media product we meet a third character, he is seen being beaten up and then something is taken from his pocket, this flashback makes the audience change their mind about the boy who receives a text, he is also represented a thuggish teen who causes trouble. However the third character who he beats up is also an Arab, this challenges the common victim of thief, usually white boys are the victims of trouble, however in this scene we have challenged the stereotypical victim and used another thuggish teenager of ethnic minority to act as the victim; by doing this we were trying to send out a message that it is not just the white who are victims of violence it can be any minority. All three characters appearances and performances are stereotypes of a young teenage thug, by representing their image in this way, it makes it clearer to the audience what the film will be about and it also relates to the appearance and performance of those who would be watching the film. They will have grown up in inner city London and would straight away be able to understand the connotations being displayed. 

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

We would most likely distribute our media product in the independent institution. As it is a low budget film and directed mainly at the teenage London audience, the product we created is realistic and at a much lower scale than a glamorous American film. Mainstream institutions distribute big budget films, such as those filmed with a Hollywood style, they consist of expensive sets and famous actors and actresses, the editing is much more advanced then the basic editing we have corporated into our own film, they usually distribute films with an extreme range of special effects, for example explosives and the use of kinetic camera work.  Our media product stands little chance of being distributed in a mainstream institution. Independent institutions tend to be gritty, usually of a much lower cost and based on realism, our film would fit into this institution well as we based the storyline on the life of teenage thugs, the product is realistic and based in the urban area of London. Our media product can be distributed in many different ways. If we chose to distribute our film in the cinema we would have to choose an independent cinema for example, `The Electric Cinema`-(www.electriccinema.co.uk/ ) in Notting Hill, London. This would be a great place to distribute our film as it is the place our film is set, therefore the audience we are aiming at will be able to relate to it as much as possible as it is in their local cinema and the product was filmed in the local area. We wouldn’t be able to distribute our film in mainstream cinemas like Vue- (www.myvue.com), Cineworld- (www.cineworld.co.uk) or the Odeon- (www.odeon.co.uk) as they usually display Hollywood style films of a much greater budget. The internet is a relevant and easy way for us to distribute our media product, video sharing sites such as YouTube are an ideal way for our target audience to watch our product, the younger generation are more likely to look at videos on video sharing sites than the older generation; other social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace -( www.myspace.com/) which are also generally used by the younger generation allow the audience to watch the product then post it on to friends to watch, gradually the product becomes more known and is distributed for free; this is why distributing it by internet would be a great way to directly reach our teenage target audience. Television is another way we can distribute our film; when considering TV there is only a small range of channels that our media product would stand a chance of being distributed on. Channels such as BBC1 and BBC2 are public service broadcasters; however they don’t tend to display independent films. 

Channel 5 and ITV are commercial channels; they are there to advertise products to the audience instead of the homemade film we have to offer. 

Channel 4 however, is also a public service and it shows programmes for minority interests; for example short community films. The channel is more focused on realism with a range of documentaries and programmes shown everyday to talk about issues that occur in the 21^st century or looking into historical facts. 

Our film could stand a chance of being featured on this channel as it is based on the portrayal of young teenagers and is a basis for debate. There is also a few cable channels that might distribute our media product; for example one I researched was the American channel `Showtime` when the channel was created it ventured into acquiring and premiering independent films as part of its 30-Minute Movie` anthology series of short films. Although this channel is American; a channel like this one would be ideal in showing our media product, the channel allows `user created content` to be aired to its cable users. Lastly another way we could distribute our film would be at a film festival, local film festivals take place extremely often around London and would be a great way to show our product to our target audience, if we chose to distribute it at a student independent film festival; we would be able to gain our target audiences views however as our film is of much lower budget our product may not have great chance of being distributed. Looking into all of these different ways of distributing our film; I believe the internet is the most realistic and effective way of us streaming our media product to our target audience. Video sharing sites allow you to post any created film onto the net so the public can view it. The internet is the easiest way of gaining a wide range of viewers as millions of people each day use sites such as YouTube and MySpace and browse new media products, although there is little profit in distributing our film via the internet compared to the profit which would be made if aired in independent cinemas or on television, some sites such as MySpace there is a possibility of profit when users pay a small fee to watch different media products.

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

The audience we aimed our film at was the 15-25 age range and the male gender, the reason why we chose to aim our film at this audience was because we wanted to create a film that would appeal to those of our own age range, we found it easier to come up with a storyline that would appeal to them. The reason why we chose to aim our film at the male audience is because we chose the sub- genre action thriller, this is more appealing to the male target audience and as we wanted to bring the theme of knife crime into our film this instantly drew more favourable to the male audience. As we based the film on the inner city of London where crime plays a huge role in society, young adults of 15-25 are very aware of these problems. When deciding on what region to target our film at we chose the British more specifically London region, this is because we tried to make our film as realistic as possible to the everyday life of a teenage boy in London, the film is a British production and when it comes to distributing our film we aimed to distribute it in London cinemas, local festivals. The regularly contents of the BBFC 

for a 15+ film say that `the film must not use discriminatory language or behaviour, it must not show drug taking or promote drugs, weapons can be used however they cannot be glamorized furthermore the fact of death and sexual violence is unacceptable`. I think that our film passed the BBFC regularly contents, although we involved the use of a weapon which resulted in the death of one of the characters, we didn’t aim to glamorize the use of as knife, instead we brought a real life issue of teenage knife crime and put it into a film, this way we were setting a more serious message to our target audience- that weapons shouldn’t be used and the dangers of carrying one. The film had no form of bad language, showed no drug taking furthermore did not display sexual violence therefore overall I think that our film would stand a chance being distributed in the media to those of our target audience. The film creates a strong message of knife crime and the troubles of teenagers presently in London. I believe that those of our age range would approve of the product we have created, it is something they would al understand and the contemporary feel to it, I believe would draw them into wanting to see the film. Films like `Kidulthood` and `Adulthood` were a massive success when meeting the likes of the their target audience, we aimed to create a product along the lines of these films and believe that the issues that are brought up in our film, our big issues for teenagers today therefore would attract our target audience as much as films like `Kidulthood`.

1.    5 . How did you attract/ address your audience?

The film that we have created is a contemporary action thriller; it involves crime related to the life of teenage thugs. We constructed our film in a way that would most likely appeal to our target audience of 15-25 males. As the sub-genre is action thriller, this instantly is more of a male preference rather than of the female preference. Action thrillers tend to involve guns, knives and explosives, all of which aim to fascinate and grasp the attention of the male audience. The theme of the film is the life of young males in London city- which we have named our film after. We used young actors to play the roles of our main characters dressed in the stereotypical outfit of a teenage boy- hoodie, trainers and jeans. Through the characters appearances we hoped that we would attract the likes of our target audience, as we aimed at the London region of 15-25 males, dressing our characters in this street wise type of fashion seemed the most appealing way of meeting the interests of our audience. 

The opening sequence begins with a boy sitting in his room watching television and playing on his laptop, he then receives a text on his mobile phone; the reason why we chose these props was to display the everyday life of a teenager. These types of objects are generally necessities to young teenagers. We aimed to attract our target audience by giving this setting of in a bedroom with a television and laptop, as this is what we believed would relate to those of our target audience. In terms of sound we used upbeat contemporary scores, this made our film seem young and modern; the type of beat that a teenager would listen to. When the chase begins in the middle of the sequence we used a range of quick, sharp shots to show one character after the other. By doing this we addressed our target audience, we condensed the chase down into a very small time, however making it seem as though it had taken the characters much longer, we aimed to build up the tension for our target audience and keep them on the edge of their seats anticipating what will happen next. It gave our film a much more action feel to it, to meet the likes of our male audience yet by editing as if the whole opening sequence was a montage of short clips we always leave the audience clueless, not knowing what will happen next. Once we had filmed our media product and started to edit it, we decided to gain some audience feedback before our final version, we got a range of students both male and female of around 17years old; which is within our age range, to watch our product and answer a range of questions about it. It was ideal that we could get feedback from those within our target audience as it allowed us to find out exactly what they would like to see in the film and how we could make it as appealing to them as possible. The feedback gave us a range of good and bad points about our product. For example a good piece of feedback said `the product created has a storyline that shows the everyday problems teenagers face e.g. stabbings, being mugged and beaten up, which many people of your audience can relate to`. This allowed us to see that the storyline we had created appealed to our audience as it would relate to them somehow; also that if it was distributed in the media many teenagers may like the sound of the storyline and it would attract them to seeing the film. Bad feedback such as; `smooth out the editing as there are some rough parts e.g. the wind in the background`, `split up the titles and make them appear throughout the sequence` and `use a more suspenseful score`. All of the negative points produced from our target audience helped us to see what was wrong with our film and make it better. From the feedback we went back and made a range of changes to our product for example putting the titles throughout the opening sequence rather than the end. Also adjusting sound effects through reducing ambient sound and instead adding a range of suspenseful scores. By making these changes we have addressed the likes of our target audience and hope to have appealed to what they would like to see in an action thriller film.

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

We began our project by researching the thriller genre and opening sequences. We gained our background knowledge through looking into a range of differ rent websites this gave us in-depth information on the genre as a whole and the media industry looking thoroughly into conventions of different genre of films and the history of our given genre. By having the use of internet access we were able to gain a great range of information in order to start building up our own film, when analysing relevant key texts and looking into existing opening sequences; video sites and DVD's allowed us to visually see how an opening sequence could look, this helped us to gain ideas and consider the different ways we could make our own opening sequence. All of our research was then posted onto an internet blog. This form of technology is a fast and efficient way of keeping our work together. Each member of our group was able to have their own user name and password in order to access the blog; 

they could create blogs of their own and were able to look over blogs created by the other members of their group. This kept all work organised and safe, as if if we had hand written the research we may have risked losing some or not getting all of our groups work together and in the right order. The site was an advanced way of letting us manage our coursework, we could create a group blog and gradually once each piece of work had been completed it could be published onto the blog in order. The blog allowed you to add pictures, links and there was no limit to how much could be put on it. When going on to create our storyboard and script the blog allowed us to show photos of photocopied storyboards we had drawn and write about them, also when looking at location and characters we were able to add in photos of the location we were filming at and talk about them. I think using a blog was a great way of presenting the groups work as a whole, it looked more like a project, with images, links and textual pieces rather than if each person had hand written their work and then put it together with the work of other members of the group. New media has influenced the creation of our product in many ways, in order to put sound effects or some form of score into our opening sequence, we had to use copy right free music, this meant us looking into a range of copyright free websites where we could use a score or sound effect without having to gain the permission from the creator to use it. For example: http://freeplaymusic.com/

By looking into new media we were able to gain knowledge on the restrictions of what you can and can’t use within your media film and discover websites that have been set up to allow those who wish to use copyright music in films of their own, without having to create one. New technology such as the increased use in internet browsing is a good way for us to gain feedback and distribution of our film. For example sites such as YouTube: YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ ; millions of people a day use these sites and it is a great way for us to get our media product viewed by our target audience. Without such sites as these it would be much harder for us to reach a wide scale of our target audience. When editing our film we used a software package called `iMovie` this is a non-linear editing software, although it is not as advanced as the range of software programs used by much higher budget films such as Hollywood films, the software allowed us to make changes to what we had filmed in order to make it look like a seamless film. It allowed us to input titles, transitions and different effects over our footage such as the heart beat sound and the black and white effect used in our flashback. Without the software we wouldn’t have been able to re draft, edit or change our footage therefore this form of technology was vital in making our film. We filmed our film using a DV camera; 

the effect of using this type of camera on our film was that it gave the film a realism effect. This form of technology was ideal for displaying the theme of our film, set in London and based on crime using a celluloid camera would not have been as effective as the realistic effect we gained from the DV camera provided. Hollywood films tend to use celluloid camera to make the overall effect of the film look glamorous and bright, whereas the camera we used made our film look like an average day in London which we were aiming at.

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

When attempting the preliminary task our group had very little experience with the use of a DV camera,

it took us a while to come to terms with the positions we should hold the camera in order to gain a good shot, I think that I have come a long way since the preliminary task. When filming our own sequence we were able to plan out exactly what we were hoping to achieve. We knew how to work the camera and what types of shots and angles looked effective and which did not. I feel that I have gained a lot more experience in terms of filming than I had when filming the preliminary task. I was the main editor in our group; once we had filmed our range of shots we used a software program called `iMovie`, when using this for the first time when we edited our preliminary task, I found it a lot harder to cut the footage in order to make it as seamless as possible, yet when we edited the main task I found it easier to find the exact parts where there was a glitch or the footage jumped and cut it out, or work with it by covering it up using a transition or sound effect. During our main task we experienced a few problems, on the day we filmed the weather was not great, this created a dull mood in terms of lighting and setting for our mise en scene. However we learned that this was quite an advantage as it gave the film a more negative effect to hence the fact that something bad was going to happen that day, furthermore make our film look as realistic as possible. We used a closed set to film the beginning of our opening sequence this was much harder than when we had an open set for the chase scene. We had limited areas we could stand with the camera when taking shots of the bedroom and it was a lot more hassle to run outside and take the shots of the boy spying from across the road in order to have it all on order on the tape. We learnt that it was easier to film the different parts in bulks, for example all of the shots in the bedroom at one time, then all of the shots outside at one time, although this may be harder to edit and cut clips and put them where they should be; it saved time and helped us to manage our work better. When we had written our synopsis we described the chase as one boy after the other, jumping over fences and gates in an action like chase. When it came to looking into locations and then filming these sorts of stunts we had to consider the safety of those acting in our group, therefore we could only carry out stunts that wouldn’t put those acting in danger. We overcame this problem by giving the chase less stunts, yet still managing to give it an action feel through the pace and score we created. Our preliminary task had little range of sound apart from ambient sound; we have learnt that including different sound effects and using a score is what makes the movie. It is the main effect that gives you the mood you are trying to achieve in your film. We experimented with a range of different scores when creating our final version of the film, we aimed to find one that created a lot of tension and left the audience on the edge of their seats. On first attempt the ones we had chose were less suspenseful and gaining audience feedback we went back and changed them to a more thrilling and contemporary one. In terms of editing I think that we have come a massive way since the preliminary task, when trying to create `match on action`, our preliminary task showed a poor attempt of a boy walking through a door, the footage did not seem to flow and look realistic. Having used the `iMovie` software thoroughly since our first task I believe that we have had a great improvement in terms of `match on action` in our main task; for example where the two boys jump over a wall has much more flow than when the boy is walking through the door.

Also in our preliminary task we only had one title put at the end of the sequence, I think that when it came to making our main task by putting a range of transitions along with the titles throughout the sequence gave a much more professional finish; it looked more like an opening sequence rather than a short clip. Overall I believe that the members of my group and me have all come a long way since the preliminary task. We have picked up a great amount of knowledge in terms of filming and editing; we hope that our media product looks as professional and appealing as possible and that it would stand a good chance of distribution.

Roache's evaluation

    AS MEDIA EVALUATION

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

Before we began our media product we instantly had the idea to evolve our film around the genre of a action thriller. My media product challenges the forms and conventions of a thriller in a many ways. The key aspect of our media film that enables us to ad a greater effect to fulfill our thriller genre is the score. Our score is designed to add tension and suspense in order to leave the audience oblivious to what will happen next. The score begins slowly then starts to increase as the plot develops. Our score can be seen as a non thriller score due to the fact that It leans more to an urban action style, rather than a traditional thriller score. However it can be seen to portray traits of a thriller score because it's a mysterious sound that disguises the plot of the film, leaving question about the plot. It also can be seen as challenging the usual thriller scores as in doesn't incorporate sounds that match the actions of the characters on the scene at that time.

Another aspect used in our media product to ensure we met the demands of the genre was the Mise en scene. This factor was key in separating the antagonist from the protagonist. We achieved this by

 playing with the stereotypical views of the audience. As the antagonist is portrayed to be the black male with a hooded top all blacked out . from this scene the audience can already assume who the antagonist is going to be. we also used the aspect of lighting to separate the 2 characters. As high key lighting is used for the protagonist and low key lighting is used on the antagonist which is carried to to further play on what the audience are already thinking. This is normally typical for the genre as they always portray characters to fit stereotypical roles in order to make the audience guess at the nature and motive of the character. We purposely used the different aspects to keep the audience second guessing to what will happen next. As the antagonist was blacked out and in low key lighting which people can already assume that this character was going to be involved in a incriminating situation.

The location (London streets) is a typical setting for the concept of our media product. However it would not be the typical setting for a Thriller can be seen to be in a place that is mostly deserted ass the audience will not know what to expect like 28 days later.

Another convention of our media product is the Editing and Cinematography. We used a vast array of cross-cutting combined with close ups to reveal the characters emotions and reactions to tense situations.We also used the key editing effect of match on action to raise the tension during the chase sequence and intensify the heat of the moment. This can be seen when the protagonist first gets the text and his relaxed mood changes to confusion and fear. High and low angle shots we used to show the vulnerability of the protagonist.

The film that influenced us into creating our film was the suspenseful films of Casino Royal and Kidulthood. Which are both British created films. Suggested by accents and natures of main characters.

2) How does your media product/ film represent different social groups?

Our media product plays on the ideas of stereotyping in the aspect of age to raise expectation of certain characters and the plot of the film. Like when the 2 main characters are revealed, the audience can automatically assume that the two characters we be involved with a form of violence or crime. Which leads the film to represent males to be always engulfed in a certain amount of trouble, suspense and tension. The fact that males are more likely to be involved in this type of situation, it would be a great idea to incorporate males to give of this type of impression. Using teenagers is not typical age range to use for a traditional thriller, as thrillers like Hitchcock's Psycho uses older characters, like a pretty blond woman, and casino royal using a man physically fit to be pportrayed as an action character.

We used stereotypical views of ethnicity as it was a factor that everyone would have a view on. We played with the 2 ideas of a black character acting as his stereotypical traits, whereas the protagonist being completely different to what the audience would expect. As normal it should be an innocent white teenager not an Arab. We used these ethnicity's due to the fact that we want to keep the audience guessing at motives of these two characters. It can be said that one of our stereotypical views can be challenged in a way that the protagonist is seen as an Arab most like to be intelligent due to parents and siblings however this is not the case.

3) What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

In terms of defining our film, it would be classed as an independent film. This judgement would occur due to the a 

low budget and also the theme and how we didn't enroll any Alister actors. It will not be in the aspect of mainstream because we weren't involved with any Hollywood productions and high budget. it will not be classified as an art house because the clip is not experimental and its more conventional.

Mainstream and independent films are 2 completely different classifications of film. Mainstream films have a huge budget. Hollywood Alister actors. The quality of the film is extremely high. Whereas Independent films are low budget . More gritty . More realistic and challenging. Also Independent films normally only sell through Independent cinemas like the electric cinema in notting hill. Whereas mainstream films are distributed through mainstream cinemas like odeon and vue.

Another way of distributing independent films is through the uses of the Internet. This is a useful distribution channel for our product because its a free and quick way to publish your product for anyone around the world to view. Its a benefit as our product didn't contain any sort of budget. sites like facebook which is a good way of showing your family and friends first, myspace and youtube which are available for anyone to watch. Youtube would be the best site to distribute it on as its 

easy and fast with no charge and also popular links can be refereed to the film to allow more people to view our product.

Another way to distribute our product is through television.Channels like channel 4 is a key channel that could view our media clip because channel 4 is a public service broadcaster, which has a perm

it to provide programming for minority groups . As our film appeals to the younger generation. Whereas there would be no chance of getting our media product viewed on a channel like BBC1 because this channel only provides mainstream media footage that appeals to the majority.

4) After reviewing our media notes we decided that we were going to class our film between the ages of 15+. we decided to class our film in this age range because our product was based in an action thriller that was mainly aimed at teenagers. Also how action thrillers normally feature against the clock, containing lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist. These films usually involve large amounts

 

of guns, explosions, and large elaborate set pieces for the action to take place. This type of thriller is normally suitable for teenagers and young adults ranging from 15-25. this will be suitable for such age groups as they are interested in being tense and left in suspense, which our product is full of. It would be suitable to age rate the clip from 15+ because our film has elements of discrimination in terms of how we portrayed our antagonist. It also contains form of dangerous behaviour as at the end of the clip we see the Knife drop from one of the characters hands. Thrillers are accepted and shown under this age limit, at this age thriller genre can include much of its material but not too graphic. however the are elements of our product that could class the product as a 12+ as it doesn't contain strong violence and strong language or nudity. not all 15+ age groups would like the film as this film mostly applies to teenagers that are engulfed in these types of situations, as our film contains a tough theme evolving around knife crime which pushes the film into the category of 15+.

5)How did you attract /address your audience?

We tried to attract our audience by addressing issues relevant to their everyday lives. We tried to achieve this through the theme, scores and characters. We believed that this product was successful as our feedback pointed out. They like things like the flash back where we incorporated sound that would relate to a tense situation like the one portrayed on our clip. We was also commended on our use of match on action with we integrated into 2 scenes during our clip. however we also found out from our target audience that we could have used a wider variety of camera shots and movements in order to allow us to add greater suspense and tension.We constructed our media product keeping in mind our target audience and what would capture their attention. That's why we generated our theme around teenagers in London life. The score was also developed to fit the target audience. Which explains the reasons why our product contains an urban sort of tempo. which was a success as the feedback suggested that the score fit the different situations occurring during the scene. One audience member said that the score jelled the whole product together and added greater suspense and tension making it a key aspect of our film clip.

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

During the construction of this product we used a vast array of technologies to improve and fulfill our project. We used technologies like the Internet to distribute our research onto our blogs. We also used the Internet to find movie clips that could help influence our media product. We came in helpful as it crated the main base of our media product. 

 

 New media has influenced the creation of our product through the quality and effects we could include in the making of our project. we used DV cameras to film our thriller. these cameras were great in adding realism to our film to make it seem as it was someone witnessing the incident. How i

t was bad because we were unable to capture certain detail that would at to the whole plot of the film. Overall this camera was suitable for our film because it added the effect of true life and how we were trying to integrate this story of the protagonist to relate to the audience.

A key aspect that aided the making of our film was the non linear editing programme imovie . Which allowed us to alter sequences no matter the order they was in. It allowed us to cut of certain aspects and paste them in different areas, it also allowed us to play around with sound and alter ambient sound into certain areas you wouldn't expect to at to the mystery of the film. the fact that it was non-linear helped because we could add and remove scenes without changing the hole clip.

7) In our preliminary task there were definite floors in attempting to capture certain areas of our task. We had trouble on organisation as we picked a random room that looked good at the time and started filming straight away. Whereas in our main task we took the time to research certain areas that would be suitable in portraying our theme. We also planned before hand to know exactly what shots were going to take place at certain times as we would film all the exterior shots during the day and capture the interior shots when its dusk.We made sure to shoot our exterior shots during midday because that was when we could best use the sun light in terms of high and low key lighting. Furthermore we filmed at times were there wasn't as much wind so there wasn't a disruption of sound during the viewing that threw the plot of course. Also in our preliminary task we only knew basic things to edit our objective like cutting and pasting. Whereas in the main task we had a wider range of knowledge o editing to sustain the theme throughout. As a man problem in our preliminary task was continuity.