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.