Notes on Evaluation Questions

Thriller Evaluation Notes.

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

- Dark colour to invoke danger
- Cu of objects, such as photos and couples
- Dark and moody music in order to engage audience
- Smooth editing in relation to the music
- We challenge the generic codes by having our titles on separate clips
- Teen thrillers generally tend to use younger people; darker colours and a gradual build up in editing.
- Se7en was our inspiration- C+C for that is dark colours and predominantly close ups of objects. E.g. The photo in next and the hands in se7en.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups

- Lonely white male in his teens
- Male is framed at a lower angle predominantly
- Relation to our target audience is by invoking a dangerous dominance by the male gender.

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

-New line cinema as our product is closely based on that to what se7en is.
- Next is most likely to be a TV movie as most of our target audience is associated with a television set.
- Our media product would be released as we believe that our target audience has a major interest for this sort of thriller sub genre. It might offer opportunities for franchising and merchandising as there are many aspects of the movie that can be deviated off.
-The mise en scene is mainly books, water and very mysterious clothing as well as low key lighting.

4) Who would be the target audience for your media product?

- The target audience for our media product would be teenagers 15+ as it would be applicable to the male character shown in the film.
- Se7en is similar to ours media product. Se7en appeals to 18+ due to more violence and language misuse.

5) How did you attract your target audience?

- Our target audience is primarily white males aged 15+.
- The beginning of the film introduces a young male that identifies with the relationship problems in a teen’s life.
- There are some POV shots used in our opening. Such as the book and at the park when he is looking at the couple.
- The audience is made to empathise and sympathise with the character’s desperation for love. This draws upon the troubled relationships that teens have during their life. They are being allowed to witness the extent to which a person’s hatred dominates their life.
- This has a negative impact on the audience as they are watching people die, however it is applicable to the sub genre we’re creating.
- This draws back on to the generic C+C of horror thrillers which are to have gruesome ordeals within the context of the movie.

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

- Our strengths with the camera work is that we were able to hold our shots steady, however out weaknesses is that we had trouble positioning the camera correctly sue to faulty tripods.
- We did have a point where we had used zooming a lot and we had overcome that by our teacher telling us that we are banned from using it. This made it easier for us to focus in the task.
- We learnt how to effectively use a tripod along with its extensions and fixtures. This gave us stability throughout our filming processes.
- During the post production stage I became familiar with Premiere Pro and Sound booth as well as the overall operation on an Apple Mac. In Premiere Pro I learnt how to time the footage that we had collected, I learnt how to import footage and sounds and how to piece them next to each other. In sound booth I learnt how to record sounds, such as crunching of stones, this is evident in the animatic which I made for “terror in the night”.

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

­-The research into the thriller genre was extensive. Emily was in charge of the storyboarding. We had decided on taking photographs and using them to represent the action in the opening. This helped us organise our shot list and helped us visualise what we needed to capture. The animatic allowed us to see what sort of transitions we needed and how long each shot should last. This helped us understand what shots needed to go where and how to structure our editing.
- Our shot standard has improved immensely as during the preliminary task some of the shots were very uneven and unsteady. However, in our final piece all of our shots are steady. Also, our point of view shots have improved too. They were similar to our normal shots, unsteady and uneven, but now they are smooth and focused very well.
- I feel much more comfortable with using a camera and working with the Apple Macs as I now have fluent working knowledge with them.
- I feel that our final product will be quite successful in fulfilling the required task as we have adhered to a strict regime of what we can have and what not. We have included the titles necessary in the right order and have key footage that helps to establish the narrative of our thriller.