Evaluation - Question 7

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

Looking back at my research as a result from my preliminary task and Planning
When we first started the preliminary task back in September, most of our group/class had little/no knowledge of how to make any form of short films, but by the end of editing together all of our final short films, I am able to say that I am confident enough with my skills that I have learnt and developed over this period. We organised ourselves into groups of four this, however were chosen who we would be accompanied by for this task. It helped that many of this media class who already acquaintances of mine so it was inevitable that I would have someone who I knew. I now understand why the preliminary work was so crucial as in the sense that storyboards, floor plans and shot lists are vital to a well-organised shoot. This meant that I was successful in getting our shoot shot promptly because I listened to my tutor advice of the planning being too ambitious so it's a good thing that we kept to our origanal shot ideas. Prior to the task I had no clue of what match on action and the 180 degree rule were, but these terms are now second nature to our work and we do not need to think twice about what the are.

For our preliminary task, I was chosen to be the main agonist in our film, being in the fair share of the shoot. The work we did for the preliminary task helped to inform us of what was to come on the thriller opening work; we learned that we must carefully plan the storyline of our shoot, shots and shooting days to create a technically adequate film that would be considered professional and believeable with the intended connotations.

Negotiating within the group and Shooting

During the thriller planning for our opening sequence which was to become 'Missing'. I had the role of deciding which of our group members would be involved and also suggesting the theme of a runaway, which the theme itself becoming the main influence for our opening in 'Missing'. We used the idea of apparel when deciding on costumes, linking back to the conventions of particular characters in Thrillers for minor details, such as the pearls worn by Eve in 'Once Upon A Time In America' to symbolise the tears of abuse played by Alicia. In terms of lighting, we were at an advantage filming in winter, kept to a limit of a few hours’ filming per shoot but provided us with a with a low key, snowy setting with the lighting which connoted the menace. We also used articifial lighting in the terms of using a drama room for a spotlight concerning our flashback. Whilst editing I learned that the repetitive image of Alicia's character Eve at the end of the film when looking at her stalker for the first time could be utilised to increase tension as well as show the antagonist's shadowing sense by following her but not being spotted.

By analysising real media products such as 'Once upon a time in america' we were able to create a character who symbolised tears in a way of abuse and having a poor life up until this point. We also used Sean Bean for Essex Boys for our male character in terms of him wearing a leather jacket to show his hard hitting nature and personality.

Casting

When casting our actor/actress, we had a group of three for this thriler task, accompanied with Alicia and Zoe. Our aim was to have one male and one female character so Alicia was the obvious candidate for it as Zoe was excellent when it came to the filming and angles that would make our film appealing with input/suggestions from everyone else. It only left myself as the only candidate to be the male character which I happily accepted. Having us three in a group meant we could trust everyone to be at shots and actually being able to execute our film.

Editing

At the editing stage, we seperated in two editing groups with me editing on my own, however we both stuck with the name of 'Missing'. We chose 'Missing' as the title due to the reasoning it links in well with the plot for our opening as a girl who doesn't want to be found. A title should be shown to be individual to the storyline of the opening sequence so it has relevence to the film itself.

Sound

When choosing an mp3 for our sound, I made sure I didn't choose one that was overly loud or distracting as it would take away the attention of the viewer; while at the same time keeping the tension building and suspence to the scenes it related too. I felt my film bared resemblance to an professional film as it, on viewing could be imagined to be a real thirller shown in cinemas.

The gradual dissolves and transitions intensified the inclusion of flashbacks which themselves would aim to make the film more ambiguous. 'Seth' having already abused Eve in these as it reflects on what has already happened so it can relate to what is actually happening in the sequence of events in the opening. After completing my film and recieving constructive criticism from teachers, I feel capable of editing to a suitable level of skill. The film, was given decent feedback from my first audience seen in question 5 and also others that have seen it.

What have I learned?

Over this period, I have learnt that the audience are the most integral part to any film as if they are not impressed by the film then obviously they are not going to want to watch the rest after watching the opening. After I received feedback from classmates and my tutor, I was able to adjust my film accordingly so that it became more satisfactory on improvement. Once you understand the audiences expectations it is easier to make the opening more successful as you understand what they want to see and also guaruntee some form of audience.

Making the deadline for the film was strenuous, but in the end manageable due to the fortuitous nature of how my timetable run out as I had a fre day to work on my film and improve it as much as I physically could. With practice I have been able to work well enough under the pressure of a deadline from the preliminary task to this thriller opening. I have learned that completing the work on a day to day basis can help to relieve stress and reduce the workload of the editing process as it is more spaced out and also gives less to do over a short period of time.

Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Throughout our film in the stages of planning and production, there are particular social groups in our film that may have been represented as traditional gender stereotypes.

Gender

There are various ways in which we represented  gender . For example the character Eve appears would be familiar to our audience demographic (16-18 year old girls and boys ) Thus if this demographic can identify with her the film will be more appealing. Firstly, her costume is in the style of contemporary high street fashion brands. It creates a sense of realism to the character.  Her jeans and leather jacket indicate add force to her character, unlike the classic femme fatale Eve in 'Once Upon A Time In America' and Gilda in the film of the same name.  Eve and Gilda are iconic and glamorous, and also victims. 

Eve (Missing) like Eve (Onc... and Gilda(Gilda) neverthelss is a victim of domestic bullying/violence.

There is another layer to Eve, (connoted in her  her contemporary costume) she is not totally passive, she has the courage to run away from as a result of some form of abuse which connates to her not wanting to be found.While it also adds realism.

We could also argue that the costumes used by the female and also the male can also show the realistic nature of the world that we live today. Using the girl in terms of the stereotype it can suggest her being vulnerable which is what is typically associated with young females. Similarly the male character is stereotypically seen as the predator and also the superior figure. This portrays the sterotype as we see nowadays that male following girls and being dangerous.

Age

When analysising the stereotypes concerning age, we can focus on what happens in our thriller opening compared with real life. If we look at this young girl who is running away from home, from the end shot above we are able to see that she is being stalked by an enigmatic figure. This links back to our lives where there are stories of young woman going missing or being kidnapped from their lives by predators; stereotypically men and it usually is.

'Eve' is considered to be the victim in our film; stereotyping her inferiority towards 'Seth' who is also considered to be the strong, dominant force between the two characters.

Ethnicity

When considering ethnicity in a stereotypical fashion; we hear things about people being taken but are usually of the white ethnicity. From Kill Bill where this girl has been injured it can be related to ethnicity because she has been hurt/taken.

We can also relate this ethnicity to a story that happened a few years ago when Madaline Mccann was abducted on her holiday in Portugal. The stereotype kicks in as she was a young white girl at the time and was taken with no trace which can relate to our opening as the cliffhanger leaves us wondoring if she has been taken away and will be seen again, or even the question of what has happened to her? This is also similar to the shot above in the gender where the male and female characters meet.

Secondly, we can also analyse our male character to the stereotype he represents. If we think of stereotypes concerning male predators, they, more often that not tend to be of the ethnic minority; perhaps being black or asian, however we do see a number of white predators or menacing figures in kidnap. For example the story where the chinese man killed a family of four. This perhaps doesn't exactly relate to our film in terms of kidnapping but gives the basic idea of the matter.

Our film goes against this stereotype of ethnic minority by having this white figure in our film. Here we can see the predatory aspect to him looking for this girl.


http://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2003/one-third-missing/

This website shows a study of men and women going missing. It suggests in "The study showed, that people of any age can go missing, from very young children to people as old as 90. Among adults, men (67%) were much more likely to go missing than women (37%), while teenage girls were more likely to go missing than teenage boys". This is a quoted from this website above.
"Reasons for going missing also varied widely but the vast majority, 70% for young people and 64% for adults, went missing deliberately due to the breakdown of family relationships, to escape accumulated problems, including domestic violence, and due to mental health problems."

This quote also comes from the website above which I have referenced.

It can also be said that it is unusual for girls to intentionally go missing but this is an issue not defined by my take on ethnicity for example. My film tends to focus on a girl who has intentionally run away from what appears to be as a result of an abusive relationship. The enigma of this is why she has run away and potentially put herself in more danger by wandering the streets on her own where potential predators could be lurking.

Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and coventions of real media productions?

Enigma

From researching different types of thriller, our group was able to create a plot which leaves on a cliffhanger and also involves different forms of mystery throughout. From this shot in our thriller, the question posed to the audience is 'Who is this mysterious man?'

We got the idea of having this enigmatic man from the opening of Kill Bill one. From this we see the hand of this man but throughout we cannot know who this man actually is. We also cannot be sure of what significance this man has in this film and this relates very closely to our film as we also are unable to establish what significance our enigmatic man has in our opening which leaves it open for the audience to debate and guess on their own.

This clip also presents us with another question. We used this clip after inspiration from the opening to Kill Bill one as seen above. It offers to questions to the audience of 'what has happened to this girl?' as she is bleeding and weak. This also shows the flashback from our film, being the same as Kill Bill.

We could also question 'What has this girl done to deserve this punishment?' During the opening to Kill Bill one we can't tell what the girl has done to be left bleeding and injured; which also relates highly to our film as the aim was to mirror Kill Bill and create that identical sense of the audience unaware of what this girl has done to be left injured like this.

Costume

When deciding on the costume for our thriller, there were 2 main aspects that we wanted to try and establish from observing this in other thrillers. The first aspect we wanted to focus on was what our male figure was going to wear. From analysising 'Essex Boys' I found that Sean Bean's character was wearing a leather jacket. This would show his hard-hitting life and him being a character which sticks to the shadows and away from others; with him leading his life of crime.

From our thriller, we were able to use the idea of the leather jacket. It helps us to symbolise him as being that man who stays away from civilisation in a sense and staying to the shadows. This is supported by the fact that the audience do not see his face and are still not knowing of who he is.

The 2nd aspect we looked at was the potential use of a pearl necklece. As seen in Once Upon A Time In America, Eve is wearing a pearl necklece which symbolised tears. It could also have been an insight to what was going to happen next; in this case, it could have portrayed that death or tragedy were going to occur in the not so distant future.

The use of a pearl necklece assisted our aim to create that sense of tragedy or danger which was going to happen in the future of the film. This shows the audience longer down the opening that she has been hurt and goes into danger after seeing the man in the leather jacket. In some sense it can challenge the conventions presented as we don't actually know what happens to the girl, hence the cliffhanger.

Location

There was some debate on where the thriller would be shot. We came to the conclusion that we should shoot in Norwich city centre. This was because of the many concrete streets that there are. In the shot below we can see the concrete street where our thriller took place.

In these two shots, we challenged the forms and conventions of media products ever so slightly. In the shot from 'Essex Boys' we can see the wet, shiny road where the car has just came from whereas in our shot above, the concrete is quite clearly dry. It only came down to the wrong day at the wrong time. However this challenges what this shot below shows as it shows that sense of nightmare or unreality which our thriller doesn't and only builds up to at the end of the opening.

Camera angles

After reviewing and analysising many different thrillers, I was able to put a lot forward when it came to deciding what shot and angles we would use at specific moments in the opening. For example, we used tilt shots to show a sense of confusion to the scene and make the audience seem disorientated.

We also used a variety of close ups when filming. For example this shot from a thriller (Witness) shows one of the various close ups that can be used. It helps to allow the audience to identify the main object within the shot. In this case it is the driving license of the police officer.

Similarly in our thriller, we used a close up the scrunched up paper and the foot from when the girl see's the wanted poster.

This challenge the use of close up because regularly the close up is used to show emotions of a character but in this sense and the two pictures above, it shows an object just so we can see what they are more clearly.

Lighting

 Lighting we used ambient and non ambient lighting, particularly how I used the convention of chiaroscuro lighting in our flashback to indicate nightmare. This lighting design that I used is also strongly developed in The Third Man. In my thriller we developed the use of ambient and non-ambient lighting by using for example, a spotlight for our flashback.

Titles

I also used conventions in my opening to my thriller film to include mt titles and cliffhangers.

Here in Se7en, the titles used are present for longer than normal which would show that obviously the director has more time to show them all. We can also understand how the titles are all over the place which is where I used them and put my credits in different positions and developed it by, for example, putting my 'Missing' at the end onto a black screen as it creates tha suspence.

Thriller - Final Cut

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?
For feedback for my media thriller opening, I decided to give out 2 questionnaires to one boy and also one girl so they could watch and then give me feedback on my opening. Both of them were of the white british ethnicity.

Questionnaire 1 -  Sam Kirkham       Male
Missing

1) Was the film easy to understand the narrative?

Sam gave a 4 out of 5 for the understanding of the narrative and said the reason being was because he could follow what the plot was setting out for the opening. He also mentioned that the reason for giving a 4 and not a 5 was due to the fact that during the middle of the action, he became a little lost as to where this girl was and why she was at this machine.

He did however, on second viewing become aware of where she was and what she was doing as he noticed that she was walking into the bus station. Although he hadn't noticed this the first time around. He did say that, that was the only thing he could fault with the opening production.

2) Did the sequence hold your attention?

Sam, for this gave this a 5 out of 5 as he said that he was swept into it and wanted to watch after the opening. He said the fade to blacks helped to keep him watching as it built the suspence of the action up and kept him on the edge of his seat. He also added that if this were the start to a film that he hadn't seen before that he wouldn't think twice about staying and continuing watching which I was extremely pleased with and actually didn't expect him to say.





3) How do you rate the camera work and editing?

Sam also gave a 5 out of 5 for the editing and use of the camera. The reason which he gave was he thought that the different angles that were present gave the film that extra tension and action; plus making it look professional.

With regards to the edit, he said that the fade to blacks were used brilliantly because as said above in 2, it created suspence which built up. He also said the use of the dissolve used here on the left was used well because it gave an insight to what was going to happen later in the opening while staying with what was actually happening.



4) How do you rate the standard of mise - en - scene?

Sam decided to give a 3 out of 5 for the use of mise-en-scene. At first he didn't understand what the question was asking but once I explained he gave 3 because he said he thought that we could have included the male character a little more which would have built up the tension even more. He also admitted that if we had a little longer of a shot on the girl when she discovers the poster then it would have been more understandable. He did however say the lighting looked and everything could be seen easily.

5) Is the production clearly the opening to a thriller?
This was awarded a 4 out of 5. He said because of the use of the titles and where they are located in the opening, it does look like one and not like a trailer. He said that he liked the idea of having the 'Night Fall Productions', a bit of action and then 'A Dean Morgan Production' at the start of the opening due to the reasoning that he has seen it in films he has watched. Another reason he gave was that he has seen trailers of films such as Life on Mars and Animal Kingdom compared to my opening, he said their was a disinct difference which was great to hear as an opening was the main aim.

6)Would the opening inspire you to watch the rest of the film?
The simple answer from Sam was yes. From one reason and one reason only and that was because it left him questionning what was going to happen after the ending of the opening.He wanted to know what happened to the girl but also what she had done; which was our groups aim in the first place actually.

7) Can you suggest anything that could improve the appeal?
He said No!

8) Were there any aspects that you find offensive?
Again, he said no.

9) Was there any part you found confusing or hard to understand?

Sam explained to me that there was one specific part he found a little hard to get his head around. In the middle of the opening to the film, he said there was a lot going on which is where he became a little lost as to what was actually happening. The main parts where he was lost was when the girl was entering the bus station and also when she was at the machine; both of these mentioned above so I don't need to talk about them again.

10) What is the best feature/features of the production?
Samuel said that there were 4 main aspects of my production that were the best in his opinion.
Camera work - The different angles that I used to show the action



Editing - The use of dissolves and fade to blacks making it look ominous and enigmatic/mysterious, plus having it increase suspence.


Soundtrack - How the soundtrack intergrated with the action was 'excellent'. He also added that he thought this soundtrack was the only one that could go with my action in his opinion after I played him my other options I could have used.


Cliffhanger - The mysterious man at the end after following this girl was a strong ending as he wanted to know what was going to happen after that but in terms of having it as an opening the cliffhanger worked brilliantly.

11) Does the soundtrack effectively reflect and enhance the mood and action?
Yes it fits in well with the action especially at two certain points of the opening. Firstly at 0:05 - 0:12 where he says that instantly you get the sense on the tension building up. He did also say that where the soundtrack is in this specific place it makes it seem that something is going to happen.

Secondly, he also points out the significant sound increase from the start of the film to the end showings of the opening which in his words 'makes me know that something will happen as the music get ever so slightly louder'

12) Rate the overall production
Sam said that he would rate my thriller opening a 9 out of 10 because he could see how hard I worked on it to make it look as professional and tension building as I could.

Questionnaire 2 - Hollie            Female


1) Was the film easy to understand?

From understanding the opening, Hollie gave a 3 out of 5. She said the only thing that was confusing her was that she couldn't work out why the girl was ripping this poster of a wall.

According to her she said that the rest of the narrative was understandable after this, it just why she was ripping it down.

After a couple more viewings of the opening she finally realised that she was running away from the 'Missing' on the poster and also at the end of the film. Perhaps the font on the poster wasn't big enough but once she saw it she couldn't believe how she could understand it first time around.


2) Did the sequence hold you attention?

Hollie said that the opening had her full attention and gave it a 5 out of 5 for this. She said it was mainly because of the female lead character as she found it easier to relate and also could imagine herself in that position.

Coincedentily, this may relate to 'The killing' as the lead who is a female character named Sarah Lund.






















3) How do you rate the camera work and editing?

She rated the camera work and editing as a 5 out of a possible 5 which I was absolutly thrilled by. after spending so much of my time working on it to get it right I am ecstatic that people are noticing it and thinking it works in my production. The reason for her high mark was due to the fact that the different transitions made it look like a proper opening to a film. She also said the use of the camera was used well as their wa a variety of different types of shots which kept her attention to the film.









4) How do you rate the standard of Mise - En - Scene?
This was given a 3 out of 5 for the use of mise-en-scene. She liked some shots, for example the shot above where the light just seems to bounce off her but some she wasn't as keen on such as the poster being found by the girl in the machine; ironically Sam also said this so if this was attracting audience then may not have been noticed. Other than that she said she couldn't find anything else wrong which I thought was good to hear but not being able to see something is understandably a 3 out of 5.

5) Is the production clearly the opening to a thriller film?

Hollie gave 4 out of 5 for this question. The reason being because of the titles which was the same as Sam so i'm happy in that regard. She also said the way sound built up showed her something was going to happen and it did with the cliffhanger. She did however say I could have put 'Edited by Dean Morgan' but from advise from our courses, i'm glad I didn't even if she thought it may have improved it.









6) Would the opening inspire you to watch the rest of the film?
Hollie said it would inspire her to watch on due to the simple reason that because of the female lead, it could relate more to her and to a female audience as well.

7) Can you suggest anything that could improve the appeal?
She said No which I was extremely pleased with.

8) Were there any aspects that you found offensive?
She said no.

9) Was there any part you found confusing or hard to understand?
She said that the ripping of the poster was confusing but because I've mentioned that above I won't talk about that. Other than this she said 'it was fine apart from that' which again was really pleasing to her.

10) What is the best feature/features of the production?
Hollie said there were 5 main features which caught her eye.
Action - There was always something happening so you cannot take your eyes away from what is being shown.

Performance - 'Both of the characters in the film, especially the female, performed excellently and her facial expressions were great and made it look as though it was a real life situation.'

Editing - She said the fade to blacks were fantastic because the seperated the scenes well and created suspence.

Soundtrack - Hollie said for this and asked me 'Where did you find this soundtrack?! It sounds absolutly brilliant and I can imagine in a real film!' As you can imagine I was over the moon because other audience may also think this if they heard it.

Cliffhanger - She said it left her wanted to see what happened to the female, whether she is dead or alive or not.

11) Does the soundtrack effectively reflect and enhance the mood and action?

Hollie said to me that the does work effectively and 'ties in well with the action' and also the eventual cliffhanger. She said it reflected the mood as being tense which is what she was feeling at the time of watching the opening. She also mentioned that it enhances the action to make it be more exciting to watch.

According to her, she said the best of the soundtrack happened nearer the end as it increased in sound which made her sit on the edge of her seat.

12) Rate the overall production
Hollie told me she would rate my film an impressive 9 out of 10 because she could imagine she this opening in a cinema.

After interviewing a male and female who represent my target audience, our film could attract our audience for females through the main female character; perhaps not as much for men through the isolated male figure.

We addressed our audience by focusing on a social problem of young people, particularly girls in foster care who go missing.

Evaluation - Question 6

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

In order to shoot our thriller, we had to use a camera. We used a canou SLR 1100D camera for this opening . This was a good camera in the sense it gave a clear outlook to the footage and we were able to experiment many different types of shots but it didn't lose the quality which was excellent as now we had different angles and footage which were of good quality which can be used. This also helped that as soon as we shot what we needed, we were able to check and see if it had to be done again or whether or not it was as good as we could get that specific shot.

Despite the positives, there were some stalls that we encountered. The main one being that if we used this camera, we needed to convert the footage and change it into the correct files so we could actually edit it and make it into a film which was time consuming. The other main problem was that of sound; once the clips had been converted, there was no sound with them so our diegetic sound had vanished but we solved this to record the sound using a voice recorder.

From using this camera, we've learnt that even if everything we shoot looks good and everything goes to plan, it can suddenly take a turn for the worse; in this case, us losing our sound so now we know to convert the sound or to ensure the sound has been recorded in the first place.

For our edit, we used the software Adobe Premiere Pro. Being introduced to Premiere pro for our preliminary tasks it was still relatively new in the sense that we hadn't explored every detail of it.

Through my time editing of opening sequence, I feel my skills have developed hugely. I now know how to create a film. I know how to upload soundtracks and how to change the pitch of the sound in times of mystery or times of excitement depending on the film. I have learnt how to input which parts of the footage I need and which parts I don't and also how to add transitions to perhaps build tension. Plus being able to add titles to make it look professional and a quality film.

Here is an example of a cross dissolve that I used in the making of my production. I also used transitions such as fade to black too.

                       

For our research into thrillers and having to produce case studies, we had to use Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB). This was a website which offered everything you need to know about any film you need including casts, ratings, reviews etc... you could also find trailers on there too.

Using IMDB I have learned many things about film in general. Firstly, films I may think are good are recieved in a completely different perspective to many other critics for example. They can be very harsh at the best of times and about very minor details so this taught me that the openings we create have to be spot on to look professional and entise people into wanting to watch them. Shadowed font for example will be picked up and said to be amateur.

It's all well and good using these technologies but without youtube; getting trailers and stills for case studies and work would have been a nightmare. For me, using youtube and seeing many different thriller openings opened my eyes when it came to constructing my thriller.

I learnt from this that my opening had to make people want to watch on and not have it turn into some sort of trailer advertising a thriller which can easily be done.

Youtube helped me dramatically when it came to case studies due to the fact it provided me with clips and for that getting certain screenshots. The screenshots that I used mainly were of many different camera angles showing how they show a scene/object. This helped me to realise that camera shots were very important and made me take more notice when it came to putting practice into an actual opening sequence.

There were also the simple technologies that I used, such as the memory stick. Without it, I wouldn't have been able get any sort of soundtrack onto my thriller. Without the sound, my piece would have turned into something which doesn't aim to provide suspence and any type of enigmatic feel so the memory stick is just as important as everything else that I used throughout this course.

Our group also used specific lighting for certain moments in our thriller; the flashback which used artifical light which in turn created a spotlight which was used to show that in this specific area of lighting is where the main action is taking place.

For our thriller planning, I had to use a scanner. This would be either to scan a piece of work from class or planning aspects, for example my storyboard which I scanned into my computer to put onto my blog.

Believe it or not, I had never used a scanner in my life so I actually learnt how to scan my work in so it was on the computer software.

Perhaps the most important technology out of the whole lot that I used during Media was my media blog itself. With all of my coursework ending up on this blog, it really was a major aspect of the course so everything we need is here in one place.

Using 'Blogger' I have learnt how to use a blog. I had never used any form of a blog in my life so it was all very new to me at the beginning but as the months progress you get the hang of it and understand how to use it and how to upload posts etc....

Blogger is also a benefit when doing work as I didn't need to lug around a ridiculously large folder as it is all stored onto this computer. Plus I could always look at what my classmates were doing on their blogs so I could use ideas on layout perhaps I hadn't thought of or potential ideas I hadn't thought of.

Tutor feedback also enabled me to revise posts that first time around I hadn't done right or could correct.

For our thriller planning, I needed to take location shots for possible locations my group could use; focusing on aspects of Mise-En-Scene and different camera angles so I could experiment different shot types so my stills camera was crucial for this.

When I went out and used it to take practice shots and shots of the location stating why this location could be where our thirller is shot, it helped me to learn that taking one shot from one angle isn't good enough as it just makes it seem monotonous. I realised that if I was to take multiple shots from various anlges, I could choose which one suited best and use that specific one. Being able to see what you have taken immediately after a shot is also a bonus as you can see if what you have taken has beem successful and if not try again but from a different angle. I took my location shots with this camera to help our group decide on what location to shoot in.

Evaluation - Quesion 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Audience in terms of the age group

For our thriller, it has been decided that there are specific aspecst towards target audience. The age for the opening would be around the teenage and young adult group (15 - 21). This would be because that the main character is portrayed as a teenager so it would relate more towards this certain age span. This would help the audience to understand and relate to the film better as they would be able to imagine themselves potentially in the position of the main character and know more about it.

This film could be compared with This Is England due to the fact that the main character is a young boy so would potentially attract the same teen/young adult audience.

                                                                                                                                                                     

Audience in respects to gender

Now that the age range for the thriller has been established, we can now decipher which would be the preferred gender to be watching the thriller. Due to the fact the lead is female and features more in the opening of it, it would be established that it's more likely that a female audience would go to watch it in comparison to a male audience who perhaps wouldn't.

We got the idea of a girl being the lead through inspiration from Kill Bill one, and the opening scene where the woman is vulnerable and helpless, but at the same time you can sense something bad in going to happen in the not so distant future.

Audience in terms of ethnicity

Due to the characters in our opening being white, it would be said that it is more likely that the white British public would watch this film. It wouldn't be expected other ethnic minority would want to watch this film due to the reasoning that there isn't any other form of ethnic minority in the film so it would only aim or target audience from the white british area.

If you were to compare any other films with the opening of our film, for example: Submarine.

This film consists of mainly white british characters who as a matter of fact have the two main characters being the leads so this would reinforce that only the white british are going to watch it.

This relates highly to our film too as we have in these pictures, two white characters being the leads in the respective films so have a white british audience is to be expected.

Media Interest

There is going to be media interest concerning the film made from us and also other films as well. If it looks at the different aspects of Mise-En-Scene, then if we take the flashback from Kill Bill one, it shows a woman being cleaned from blood using a hankerchief.
This helped to inspire our film as we decided to incorperate this idea into our film, using the black and white to symbolise the flashback itself and the wiping of the blood as well to show a form of abuse towards the character.

This compared to our usage of the scene...

 The wiping of the blood from the face of the woman character.

The aim from this inspiration was to create an intertextual reference between the film we created with the opening to Kill Bill 1 as this would help the audience, once they notice the similarities between them, to compare the two and to in a sense make them feel cleaver that they have realised they are similar. In turn this would flatter them thus adding to the appeal of our film and making them want to watch it because they have spotted this.






Another media interest could come from This Is England in terms of the costume used at certain times of the opening. In our opening, you see the use of a leather jacket at certain points in it, especially the last moment we see it for real.

 

 This can also link to this picture on the right of the hard gang who the main character joins. We can establish the link between the jacket used in our thriller to the leather jackets used here which portrays them as being hard-hitting and sometimes full of enigmatic feel towards them.

From the shot above and the shot from our thriller we can see the enigmatic feel, especially with our opening because this is the first time we witness the male character so we don't particualry know what he is about.

This in turn also applies in Essex Boys as the character on the left below played by Sean Bean wears his leather jacket which can show the enigma behind.

As mentioned the leather jacket also creates that hard-hitting character which is what we are trying to show our male to be as well as Sean Bean.

Social Interest

In terms of who would actually want to watch our opening sequence, we would hope that the blue collared workers (C1) and people who maybe haven't got excellent qualifications (C2) would watch this as they may be able to relate to them while still being relatively young.

They may also be able to relate due to the lifestyles they may share with films such as This is England; perhaps not exactly if we see the differences in what they do, but in vague terms.

Our film would consist of a small release perhaps in Cinema City for example towards these small niche groups as it is more of a focused film aimed at a specific audiences unlike more well known films such as Kill Bill maybe which has a much larger scale of people who would be interested in watching it.

However the small scale may include some people that know of some of these other films that can see aspects of them in our film.