Evaluation

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

Our media product uses different techniques to real media products. Somethings that are the same about a real media product is the ecu shots this is the same because in real media thriller products they will use extreme close ups to maybe show the fear in someones eyes or the anger in someones face.

Another thing that makes our piece have different techniques is the way parts of our film uses flashbacks this is because during a thriller if you see a character, the audience may want to know what has this character done before that he might do again so to give the audience some knowledge of the character they might use a flashback so the audience has an insight to what the character is like, our group used these flashbacks to give the audience and insight in to what the character has done or been doing. We used the music we used, because it showed the character state of mind.

We also use conventions of thriller genres some thriller conventions we use is cliffhangers, cliffhangers is a thriller convention which is used to leave the audience on the edge wondering what might happen next in the film making them want to watch on to find out what might happen next.

The clip below demonstrates a cliffhanger it is a trailer and the film is also called cliffhanger but demonstrates a cliffhanger.

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

Our media group represents social groups such as young teens in relationships who may go to a certain length in order to be with the their boyfriend/girlfriend. In the piece we created young people are shown in a negative way as they are shown as extremists as they go to extraordinary lengths to be with or protect their loved ones.

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

One of the film that would most probally distribute our media products is probally rounders this is becuase it a romantic thriller also meaning it might appeal to audiences who watched rounders and may find gambling films appealing.

I would think our film could be viewed on DVD this will mean that anyone will be able to buy it when they want this will hopefully make money this way because people may not want to pay to go and see the film as they might not think it is worth the money, so by putting it on DVD and then gradually putting it on T.V. may result in making profit off the DVDs because people may be willing to pay for it.

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

Our audience for the media product would be people aged 15+ this is because this may then attract teenagers showing how they might be being portrayed. We also aged it 15+ because we believe young adults may also find it appealing to see how teenagers are portrayed and if they disagree or agree.

Also looking back at our audience research we found out that it would be found more appealing by teens and young adults who found thriller genres interesting and scary to watch, also thrillers which use a variety of thriller conventions like red herring and cliffhangers which might leave them thinking. All of this would make our film ideal for them to watch as it has conventions of a thriller i.e. cliffhangers.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract/address our audience we created a questionnaire which asked a few questions asking people what they like to see in a thriller film or what type of thriller genre they liked. We was then able to see what genre thriller people liked or what they liked to see in a thriller so that we was able to then create this thriller piece which would hopefully attract people. We used www.surveymonkey.com to carry out our questionnaire.

We also attracted our audience by using cliffhangers this will attract them as it may leave the audience having a desire to what might happened next will he kill her will he get his revenge or will it all backfire and might he get hurt in the process of getting his revenge. Also the use of the gambling scene creates an awkward situation as he is staring at him trying to intimidate him to being scared off him this may attract them as they might want to see more of it and how he might of found out.

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

From the constructing of this product i have learnt how to use a camera and how to setup a tripod. I also learnt various other things like how to import shots from the camera, i also learnt how to edit this was the most vital part as it had to be done correctly to make sure the piece was done properly otherwise it wouldnt have looked right, i was able to do transitions, cut the shots down and edit music into the piece. Some of the transitions I learnt from editing is dissolve, cross-cut, fade in and fade out.


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

From the progression of the preliminary task I feel i have made excellent progress learning much more like how to use a camera, how to edit properly and how to import and cut shots. During making the preliminary exercise I struggled to get the right shots and when I did they still werent right, but through continous use of the camera I have learnt more how to use the camera finding out things about how to work it just by playing about with it. I also feel that from the progression I have been able to make a film that would look good. Although I feel I have learnt to use the camera some of it is still hard to use like being able to successfully make the film through editing is complicated at times and very stressfull if you dont have an idea on how to edit.

Editing

We started editing the film using varied transitions throughtout the film, before we done any transitions we needed to cut down the shots to the appropriate length making sure that all the shots were at the right length to ensure it made sense.

We used varied shot transitions which allowed us to maybe sort out a jump shot if there were any and to make the film run more smoothly. Some of the shot transtions we used were cross dissolve which was used to maybe show 2 halfs of 2 shots to add effect maybe there starring each other out showing something might have happened between the two. Another shots transitios we used was fade in and fade out we used these transitions to make the shots smoother between one another rather than having a continuos film which would make it dull and boring.

Survey

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Health and Safety Risk Assessment

There will be rules that will need to be taken to ensure that the health and safety rules are applied by and that no one gets hurt during the making of a film.

Some of the health and saftey rules that will apply is - making sure you have permission if you need to go out and film something dangerous going from burning something to maybe wanting to shoot a knife related crime shot. Another rule is making sure that if dangerous shots are to be carried out that people are well prepared if something goes wrong so maybe handling the fire before it becomes out of hand.

Our group made sure that we were following all of the health and safety rules to make sure nothing went wrong. One Rule we applyed to our piece was the fire as we were going to get a shot burning a picture but in the end never happened due to changes in our thriller.

Finished filming

Weve finally finsished filming and can now begin to edit. When we are editing we will most probally find shots which may need to be retaken maybe due to it causing a jump shot to happen or maybe because the shot was wonky or the shot might not have worked with the thriller. We may also have to get more shots if they are needed.

Day 2 filming

As we are filming we are coming up with more ideas for shots and extra scenes which will give us a few more shots to film extending our film length. We are slightly straying away from our storyboard and developing new ideas to work around in our thriller piece hopefully extended the duration of our piece and increasing the amount of shots.

Timing, actors, props and setting

Our group struggled with the timing of the location this was becuase one of the locations we needed was in constant use throughout the day which left us with having to use the location when it was free to be able to get the shots we need. Another thing which slowed our group down was the actors, we needed actors for our gambling scene the gambling scene would be taking place in the location which had timing issues in which this caused problems because we needed the actors to be free when the location was available causing even more stress on the timing issues.

Day 1 Filiming

Our group finally began filming we didnt really know what to film so struggled to get any shots. We werent very organised, we hadnt organised were we were going to film and when we were going to film it.

Animatic

Here is my storyboard which we will use as a guide to help us to carry out the shots in our film. At first our group struggled to think of enough shots to make a film. Even though we got 21 shots i still believe we could have added a few more shots.

Preliminary exercise

Here is our preliminary exercise in which we followed a sheet as a guideline to create our short piece. The preliminary exercise consisted of different shots and helped to familirise us with the camera, how it works and how to use it correctly. The first time round we done the preliminary exercise we done it wrong so needed to re-do it in order to make our short piece, our group found it hard first time round as we struggled to use the camera and didnt fully understand what we were going to do. When re-doing the preliminary exercising I was not in as I was off sick so was unable to re-do the preliminary exercise with my group. when watching the preliminary exercise back we noticed that many of the shots werent straight which allowed us to learn from the mistake and make sure this mistake wasnt made during our two minute thriller.

Final Ideas

We finally came to the decision to keep the gambling idea and work on it in more depth we have yet to decide on the title but have come up with a few titles so far. we are yet to finish our storyboard but are nearly finished in which we will be able to use as a guideline to help us complete our piece.

Further Ideas

Our group began discussing more ideas going into depth about what our plot was going to be based about and what the settings might be. We decided to have the film set in a room in which there was a spotlight centered on a table and two men who are gambling at first you will think it is just a normal gambling game but as you move further in on in the film you begin to realise more is at steak than just money they are gambling for a woman in which the winner will get to keep her which we could see conflict arouse between the men.

Initial ideas

Our group began discussing what we could base our filming around.

we began deciding what sort of thrillers there were to do and we decided there was:

Sci-fi thriller

Gangster thriller

Spy thriller

Our group chose to do gambling thriller and to find a plot which we were able to work around.