Emma Lambert -Evaluation-

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

By using the technology available to us we were able to create a final product that develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products, for example; by using similar lighting techniques to the lighting experiments done in previous posts- 

http://foundationportfolio1271.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/lighting-homework.html

We had a lot of influence from existing films including 'Nightmare on elm street' 'the omen' and 'the disaperance.'  

Having the child’s face illuminated with hard light we were able to create an eerie scene so that the audience gains a bit of understanding about how our character feels. We were also able to create a realistic looking newspaper and showing it in an imaginative way such as in the film 'The Dissapearing' as seen in previous posts. Our Thriller uses traditional elemnts to this genre including susspence enigma mystery and tension.

Mistery is built very much around our child character, with a stare that resembles that of 'damion from the omen.' becuse our young character donesnt have any dialouge tension is created through his stare and body language, during the opening of our film the audience is unaware of why the teacher is imagining this child.  

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

Our final product does conform to a traditional stereo type; it represents a victimized female ‘in distress’ we chose to have a female main character firstly because of practical reasons, the location was avalible to us through her and her job as a teacher, but also to make our film seem more realistic, we found that over 75% of all primary school teachers are female.

however, because of our use of Meise en scene her costume does not conform to stereo types, she is dressed in black trousers and a purple shirt and not a dress or anything pink. by using a female we were also able to create empathy from the audience.
This representation is shown through close up shots of our main characters face, her facial expression and body language are nervous; as she turns off the lights of her class room she looks back, showing that something is not right. We dressed out child character in a typically school uniform to represent a school child and to confirm his young age.

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

A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television programs through broadcast syndication etc.). A distributor may do this directly (if the distributor owns the theaters or film distribution networks) or through theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors.

Our film was made on a very low budget but if it would be distributed by a company such as ‘ENTERTAINMENT IN VIDEO’; they are the UK’s leading film distributor and have worked with hundreds of thriller films. Our film will first be distributed internationally with large cinematic companies, we will also distrebute merchendise, posters, magazine articles and will arrangee interviews and press realeases for our characters to gain maximum publicity and media attention before our film is even released. Entertainment films has had further success with other big box office hits such as Gangs of New York, Hairspray, Sex and the City ,Saw, 17 Again and The Final Destination franchise and British films such as Stormbreaker, Run Fat Boy Run and St Trinian’s 1 & 2. (Entertainment Film Distributors operates both in the UK and the Republic of Ireland) 
After the release we  will then go to DVD and online services including online streaming this will give our film avalibility to everyone, people can watch it at home or on mobile devices through online streaming.

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

The audience for our thriller opening would be male and females between the ages of 18 and 35 years old, both would enjoy our film most.
Here is a link to a website explaining the guidelines for age certificates in the film industry- http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

Females because they can relate to our main character/protagonist and feel empathy for her as she becomes victimised. In 2009, 10% of adults aged 18-35 agreed that their favourite film genre was ‘Thriller.’
 

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

Our main focus was to engage the audience in such a way that they would feel that what was happening on screen could happen to them. Familiarity was key, we attracted our audience by using a familiar setting of a primary school which many people have connections with every day, whether they work in education, are being educated themselves or are parents. The issues raised in our film include the death of a child which will provoke questioning and opinions being raised and shared amongst the audience and public before and after they have seen the film, this will give our film media and press coverage and attract an audience.

We created a familiar atmosphere to the film by using every day props and settings including the newspaper article which will allow the audience to relate and empathise with our protagonist. 

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

We have learnt alot during the process of making out opening including:

-Camera use

-Final cut pro editing software

-Blogger

-Lighting

-Creating titles

These screen shots show how we fixed the 180 degree rule during editing.

Our title is important beacuse it adds to the narrative, becasue our lettering is juddery and incomplete it gives a sense of something being wrong within the narrative, the title also allows the audience to have an opinion and connect the information to our main character.The word 'paranoia' has been given and has connotations with aniexty and stress, two things that our camera techniques, meise en scene and characters body language help to portray successfully throught the film opening.

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

One of the things that I have learnt and improved on since the preliminary task is the use depth of field and focus pulls. During the preliminary we did not use many interesting camera techniques, whereas in the final film we used focus pulls, restricted narrator and creative camera angles because I was more confident using the camera to its full potential.
We used a focus pull during our final opening which made the film alot more interesting:

Compared to a basic over the shoulder shot from our preliminary:

During the preliminary task we didnt use any sound editing technology due to a lack of editing time but for our Thriller opening we were able to experiment with sounds using 'Garage band' software, we found that we didnt have to use original sounds and could add or increase volume of existing sounds to add emphasises on particular events during our opening.  

I feel I have progressed dramatically using editing software and camera equipment during the Thriller opening filming. We didnt use a tiltle in our preliminary film, so for the final film we decided to put a lot of effort into the title production, we were able to use software online to creatively produce an effective title that’s design linked to the story line of our film.