AS Media EvaluationCliona Martin-Brown

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

My media product ‘The Run’ has developed from mere ideas and notes on paper into an engaging and successful psychological thriller film. It has gone through 1 out of the 3 stages of the film industry process, of film finance production. There is a vast variety of conventions of a thriller genre for example: they tend to have obvious antagonists and protagonists, the film is revolved around a criminal plot which can be based on real life stories or situations.

The antagonist is usually racing against time, tying in with the fast paced atmosphere. Also involving various enigmas and cliff hangers with elements of mystery. The use of colour symbolically represents the overall theme expected throughout the film and any musical changes are also connected to this.

The opening scene I have created with my partner includes many of the conventions I have researched. For example the plot has a twist – one of the characters actually being wrongly accused of murder, which is similar to the plot twist in ‘Shutter Island’, where the audience is lead to believe the main character is investigating a missing person on the island when actually he is the insane character.

We also used non diegetic sound as another convention to create the biggest amount of tension possible – this is used to fit in with the pace of the film and the storyline as every shot is significant for the audience to understand and interpret. The sound plays a big part with encouraging this.

The importance of choosing the genre of our film was key as this is what it would be based around. From the selection of our genre we were able to establish the main conventions of a typical ‘psychological thriller’, this was fundamental to the overall success of the opening scene. Also, when we had made the decision of our genre, we were able to make suitable and relevant decisions towards the rest of our film i.e. the backing track and pace of shots.

The use of colour in the opening titles is very important as it is more than often, the first thing the audience will see. In the psychological thriller ‘Shutter Island’ the opening titles are shown in red with a faulty/broken look. The colour red is often used to symbolize blood and anger or love and passion, in this case it is clear that the theme was used to represent blood and anger. In our opening scene we decided to put white writing onto a black background, giving an indication of an underground world and a form of an enigma as it isn’t too revealing. This shows I understand what a psychological thriller is, as I have included a variety of conventions of real media products.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media film is particularly representing a teenage girl who is wrongly accused and seeks justice. I have shown the representation of gender through the fact the main character is a female, which in this genre of film (thriller) , isn’t very common. As a consequence of this, the representation of a female teenager is meant to persuade the audience to side with her and build a relationship as soon as the sequence starts, particularly with teenagers of this age range. Teenagers of today’s society are more than often portrayed in a bad light, my film challenges this as we see a teenager being wrongly accused and threatened by an older male character. This reverses the audiences original thoughts as we see the teenage girl as the protagonist and the older male as the antagonist – placing an interest in the audiences mind as this is contradicting the traditional portrayal of age and gender.

It represents how societies traditional opinions can be strongly opposed, especially in the category of teenagers. People of this age often feel pressurised into being a certain way or acting the way they are ‘supposed’ too, my film shows that although teenagers do not have as much experience as adults, they can still be independent and cope with pressures on their own. This is shown by Anna defending herself on the pursuit of her diary to prove her innocence and reclaim justice. Richard Grayson is used to show that an older generation can also be corrupt.

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

Ways of distribution for our product:• Television – access to a vast majority of people• Internet – easily accessible / free• DVD – a film distributed in this way can be played repeatedly and would be

available to an audience even after the film has reached it’s full promotional potential, therefore still generating a profit of some sort

• Cinema – High budget films with an institution that are distributed to a much wider range and amount of people with specialist advertising

As our film isn’t a very high budget film, I think the best form of distribution would be through the internet i.e. YouTube. This would allow us to promote our film and reach a wide variety of audiences as YouTube is free to access and watch videos on. For example, Paranormal Activity first previewed online to gather research as to if it became a success, after receiving phenomenal feedback; they finally distributed to cinemas.

Another form of distribution that may be accessible to us would be ‘The Film Collaborative’ as they allow people with low budget films to gain access to distributers. TFC offers independent filmmakers a full range of education about distribution, distribution services and marketing services including sales representation, service theatrical releases, hybrid distribution, grassroots marketing, traditional marketing, digital aggregation, distribution consultation and contract consultation. If we used this media institution to distribute our film, I think we would gain a more knowledgeable approach and maybe receive a higher rate of success.

As my film is small scale, I think it would more than likely achieve more success if it was distributed in Britain, as firstly, it was filmed and edited here and secondly because institutions such as Walt Disney or Warner Bros which are set in America are set for a much larger scale of success and budget.

If I had the choice I would like Warner bros to distribute my film as they are one of the few places where large scale productions can be made. Therefore this would guarantee that our film would include professional success. Also, Warner Bros have distributed many successful British films such as ‘Harry Potter’ and the first ‘Star Wars’ prequels – these are world wide successful films and would give me hope that my film could end up with the same publicity.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is question 2 of my audience feedback presentation and allows us to verify that the audience for our opening scene would be between 15-18. The age certificate we chose was a ‘15’ so this fits in perfectly with our feedback.

I am glad that we have set our age target accurately as this gives us the freedom to engage more action, violence, swearing and psychological themes within our movie. Without this freedom we would not of met the criteria needed for a successful sub genre of thriller.

After reviewing the questionnaire feedback, I came to the conclusion that the majority gender who preferred thrillers were females. I then researched if anybody else has had similar findings and came across information to show it has been proven that females within the age range of 16-35 enjoy psychological thrillers a lot more as it stimulates their mind and allows them to create enigmas and eventually if possible – solve them.

However, our film may appeal to a male audience also as we have created the character of a male antagonist, which could appeal to those males who enjoy violence and side with the bad guy in films. I researched that 78% of males in Britain prefer watching films that involve some sort of violence. This may entice more male based viewers to our film as it develops into more violence when Richard Grayson and Anna Dylan meet again after Anna runs away with her diary evidence. Our film may also be suited to an older generation of males between 30-50 as Richard is also within this age range. He portrays a deceiving man attempting to cover up his seedy affair by framing Anna Dylan and stealing her diary containing evidence against him.

How did you attract/address your audience?

From the questionnaire feedback I was able to establish the gender and age group that would more than likely appreciate our film – teenage females. The final scene where Anna Dylan is seen to be grabbing the diary evidence and escaping the car, was “one of the most captivating parts of the opening scene” a participant of the questionnaire said. The participant was coincidently, a female of a teen age group. This proves that the conventions we interpreted into our opening scene have been successful because we were aiming to attract this age group – due to 15-18 year olds enjoying this genre of thriller the most.

Also, the use of mise-en-scene within sound is used to attract teenagers as it is more modern. The first piece of non-diegetic sound in the film is Muse – Super Black Hole. We chose this piece of music as it tied in well with the atmosphere we were trying to create, as well as adding to the scene setting. We received a few comments from one student saying “I really liked the opening music as it is a backing track to one of my favourite songs”. This comment allowed us determine our choice of music was a success with the target audience we were trying to attract.

My target audience would continue to watch my film after the opening scene as they found the tension and cliff hanger appealing. These were created by the use of effective mise-en-scene i.e. non-diegetic sound, low key lighting, setting, costume and props. These costumes particularly add to the atmosphere as it corresponded with the characters personalities.

My film captivates the audience at the end by the use of cliff hanger which sets an enigma in the viewers mind as to what happens next… The fast paced scenes make sure the audience do not lose focus on what happens as each scene there is something different to look at. By doing this I have fulfilled the desires of the target audience I was aiming for. I have considered the aspects thriller genres excel at and interpreted them in a successful way.

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

Throughout this project I have learnt different technologies of the process of production. For example I have learnt how to use a camera, tripod, Blue Snowball microphone, iMac and Final Cut Pro software.

As a former Media Diploma student, I have had the privilege of already having experience with media technologies. From my experience I was able to successfully use the camera, tripod and iMac. However, I was new to using the microphone and final cut pro. I then developed my understanding of how to use these and complete our film.

The microphone was pretty straightforward to use as it was just plugged into the Mac and switched on. We used the microphone to record the voiceovers and also to touch up some of Richard Grayson’s lines.

The preliminary task originally allowed us to get an idea of how to use Final Cut Pro with more ease. We then took this to our film and personally I think, it was a success as we have a finished product and received good feedback.

I have used blogger for my coursework because the exam board requested it, I can easily upload films and photos showing what I have done. It is easily accessible. When told I would have to upload my work to ‘Blogger’ I was at first, cautious as I have no experience with this website. I then followed the instructions and was able to create a successful blog.

I also used SlideShare, I used by making PowerPoint presentations and uploading them to the site, then embedding to my blog. I used this technology as I know it will be more interesting for people to look at. It is also another form of media which I have used to present my work.

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

Throughout this project I have learnt a lot. Firstly, I learned that me and my partner work well together as a pair and because of this we have managed to create a successful product. Our teamwork has been a positive attribute to the development of our understanding of the media industry and completing this project.

As I have mentioned previously, the preliminary task allowed me to gain further knowledge of any equipment I hadn’t used before and the various amounts of camera angles and shots. Without this short task I doubt I would have been able to create a professional looking film. When putting together the preliminary task, we were also able to gain a further understanding on how to use Final Cut Pro. This was obviously a huge help towards the editing of the final film as we had previously very basic knowledge of this software.

Looking back on the preliminary task and my final product I can see how far I have progressed in both editing and filming. I have learnt how to achieve various camera angles and shots. For example the high angle shot which was taken by standing on a fence – an easier way of achieving this particular shot. For POV shots, we filmed from behind that particular character to make the audience feel as if they were in that characters position. We never thought we would be able to achieve this kind of shot or viewing experience until the preliminary task, we came to conclusion in our ‘camera shots and angles’ discussion that this would be a very good position to place the camera if we wanted our target audience to feel completely involved and intrigued in the film.

We learnt that a jump cut is the best way to remove any un-important scenes in our movie, this would not only shorten our opening scene time, but also give us extra time to add in more important situations such as the close up shot of Anna Dylan falling over the rock.

Although we did not use sound in our preliminary task, we took the time to learn how to put voiceovers and non-diegetic music into our film. This allowed our film to look and sound more professional, which is what we were aiming for.

The preliminary task also allowed us to become more confident with the transition of slides, we were able to make our final film look more smooth running due to the practice we endured form the preliminary task. I have learnt how to plan my film accurately as every detail counts. I researched in depth on mise-en-scene, costume, props, location, costume and health and safety. As from the preliminary I have learnt if you do not plan things then you have no control in production, you need to be in control to ensure you have a created a successful psychological thriller.

From my videos you can see the development I have made from my preliminary task. I have acquired long life skills and have learnt a lot, for example I know how to create effective and useful camera angles and shots. I have also learnt how to use lighting and sound effectively i.e. low key lighting to represent the atmosphere we want to create. Before the preliminary task I did not know how to use all of these aspects to their best abilities, I now feel more confident with my knowledge of these skills.