evaluation dan margerison

Foundation Portfolio-Evaluation

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

We have created an opening sequence to a crime thriller feature film, a classic media product. It is identifiable as a crime thriller with the crime being committed and a conclusion to it unresolved. We have used the classic thriller conventions of the genre. Using a young women victim and a tense score.

We created the tense score using the computer programme “Garage Band”. Our score consists of dramatic, percussive sounds that create a depressing, lonely atmosphere to underscore the title of the film “Alone”.

We use the classic genre convention of increase in pace of both this the action and the musical score to lure the audience into the plot.

We used extreme close up shots to elucidate the emotions of the characters and then longer shots to establish the setting and mood of the sequence. We used three different locations, South Bank, School, and a bathroom. In the bathroom scenes we used low key lighting to create the emotions associated with the characters flash backs to distressing events.

In the flash back scenes, filmed at the South Bank and in school, we used high key lighting to create a sense of realism.

Our casting challenges the forms and conventions of a thriller by using teenage characters, but complies with convention in the use of a helpless, female victim.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our characters represent different teenage stereotypes. The Emo is an emotionally sensitive youth, the bully is a big white guy with short hair (thoughts of skinheads), and the female victim is small and frail. They are all students as most teenagers are. We used stereo types to put across the role of the characters with out any back ground into them. If we had challenged these stereotype it may of confused the audience.

Friendship is a strong theme, especially the lack of it. Bullying is such a real concern for many teenagers today, as it always has been.

In general the teenagers in our film are portrayed as troubled. This follows the conventions of TV programmes over the years portraying teenagers-Grange Hill in the past and Holly Oaks and skins in the present.

Knife crime amongst teenagers is much more prevalent today in London than ever before, hence the inclusion of the stabbing. This is also a big stereo type of urban city’s in England having a very high knife crime rate we portray it as a cold harsh plays with no one looking out for you and no sense of community.

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

Our product is an independent feature film, made on a minimal budget and with a limited cast selection. compared to a main stream film which could have millions to spend on there film and all the greatest actors available to them.

The main distribution route would initially be the internet. Using website like YouTube. We would hope that the introduction teaser would generate viral interest from the public and also film festival organisers with the hope of getting film festival exposure. The creating of interest by free exposure of parts of the film is essential to the marketing plan.

We could start with more local media for instance Chiswick W4 website and local newspapers for the generation of interest. We could show it around local school 6^th forms and film clubs.

We would aim for final distribution in independent cinemas like the electric in Portobello theses show independent films not only mainstream which give a chance for my film to be seen to a wider audience. We could only have it shown in independent and art house cinemas because mainstream cinemas are there to make a big profit and can only do so on big name films.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience is 15 to 25 year olds, males and females, and all races. We think that the themes are universal to teenagers whether urban or not. We think that the BBFC censor would pass this as suitable for 15 year olds because there is no gratuitous violence or graphic sex.

I think the themes of the film, friendship, loneliness, bullying and death from stabbing contribute to the film appealing to our targeted audience. Also the age of the cast will help to attract the target audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We chose the themes of bullying, loss of friendship and murder to be appealing to teenagers because teenagers in particular experience bullying and frequently struggle with issues of belonging. They some times fear for the safety of there friends. The age of the characters was also chosen to appeal to the target audience as it is easier to empathise with the same age group. The urban environment and the school setting are used to draw in the audience to familiar territory. I think that we ought to have made our score more contemporary and exciting as this could have potentially attracted the youth audience more than our existing score does. We showed the film clip to our class and distributed a questionnaire to collect their feed back. From these questionnaires we found people thought that are film was mainly quite relevant or very relevant to the thriller genre, also concluded that it maybe hard to understand the idea of the flash backs so we changed the order of the sequences so it flows more fluently. On are flashbacks we used a effect which the audience did not like this was because they thought it was tacky but we used this to show the difference between the real world and flash backs if we had a bigger budget and better effects we would of used this to improve it. Every one thought it was very relevant to are target audience. We would hope to show it to other sixth form groups or film club groups. We would also like to take it in to local youth clubs. This would not only be a way of getting are film seen to are target audience and also to get feedback.

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

I have learnt how to use a blog website to post my research and planning into the thriller genre so that individual research work of our group can be shared.I have learnt how to use a video camera in order to make the film. The camera we used is a dv camera which uses dv tape. This gives the film a grainy realistic look paying homage to the famous horror film “the blair witch project”. And it was sutiable for the type of film we where trying to make.

I used I movies editing software to edit my footage in order to create a coherent product. We created the score using Garage Band software which is a sound database which takes sounds and puts them together to make a song. Youtube is a video sharing website which we used to post are film it is a free website which has millions of uses all over the world where any one can upload. I utilised the internet to research into the thriller and into age certificates also to find copy right free music but in the end we used garage band.

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

The preliminary task had little time for planning and research unlike the full product which had plenty of both. In the preliminary task we had a very limited selection of cast, location and lighting due to being restricted to filming in school. With the main task we could select from a wider cast and choose our subject, location and lighting. We had no score in the first task just dialogue. we learnt that the score is an essential film element when we used it in the second task. The problems we encountered in the preliminary task were problems of continuity due to the intrusions of the every day life of the school. The lighting had to be the every day school lighting. The mise en scene in the preliminary task was limited by the school environment and the actors in school wear.

In our second task we made sure that we controlled environment, lighting and casting where ever possible. We made sure when we could we would stop people waking past the camera when filming this was harder when we were filming in south bank but when in school and in the bath room we made sure we had a closed set. We used lamps to choose the lighting to create shadows where we wanted them and create a dark and tense atmosphere.

Not only could we control these factors we had a lot more time to pick are cast and had a lot larger rang of actors to choose from all these made a huge improvement to are main task compared to are first task.

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

My media product is an opening of a film, which is in the thriller genre with a subgenre of crime. The media product uses basic conventions of a real media product as it has its main characters; a boy and a girl, instantly recognisable as the innocent female victim and the male protagonist. The male protagonist is not normally a teenager, like in Die Hard, John Mcclane played by Bruce Willis. Most thrillers also contain a villain. Here is a photo of Anthony Hopkins playing the villain Hannibal Lecter in the thriller Hannibal. The film also follows the traditional mise en scene with conventional lighting, varying locations of different scenes, and actors playing characters who dress in fairly ‘’everyday’’ clothes. Within this come the performance of the actors, the hair and makeup and the appearance of the actors. The characters are teen age and are played by actors who fit the role well, as they are also being teenagers.  Also, the cinematography of the clip follows conventional decorum with the camera shots, camera angles and camera movements. Thrillers have pacey camera shots and movements and twisting plots so as to create a suspenseful atmosphere towards the audience. My film is a crime thriller so the camera actions are not as fast as they would be for an action thriller however the basic conventions are more or less the same from thriller to thriller, regardless of the subgenre.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The opening sequence of our film features teenagers and is ultimately about a teenager. Our soon-to-be protagonist is a young, white, male; not completely abnormal as this film is based in and around central London and centres around the lives of teenagers. London is often seen as a young-hearted place, where young ‘’hoodlums’’ can be found and so being set in London is not abnormal with the casting of teenagers compared to the countryside where the storyline would be abnormal to not revolve around teens or young people. He is dressed normally for his age and so this was not hard when filming as we had no trouble in getting the right costume. We have only been able to use a limited number of actors and so we couldn’t cast or not cast someone for their race or ethnicity but for their acting ability and so we haven’t tried to represent any one group of people in a certain light. However we have maintained the teenage theme and represented this age group in a way that shows that being a teenager in London can often lead to misery and tragedy. The victim was also a teenager. The story is based around the characters death however this character hasn’t got a big part to play. Not many thrillers cast teenagers as the protagonist which is where our product challenges forms and conventions of real media products. However we have used young a female as the victim as they are vulnerable to the antagonist or criminals. We have used a young girl to include the romantic-vengeance element into the film and this is where our film uses the basic conventions. If we had used a male victim then this would have been more of a film about brotherly love rather than a film about a heart-broken young man who has lost the love of his life. These two conventions both agree and disagree with the classic thriller conventions that the audiences would be used to. This, in turn, would create an unfamiliar effect on the audience.

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

My media product is an independent film as we had no budget and no cast other than our group and students who volunteered. This is different to mainstream films as these normally have a multi-million pound budget, a much sought-after cast and fully professional directors and film crew, the films are shown in international cinemas and are expected to make a large profit. Our film, however, can be distributed in a number of ways. As our media product is about young people made by young people, the expected audience would be young people too and so because of this we can allow people to view our product on the internet through social networking sites such as Youtube, Facebook, MySpace, etc. This would be an easy and simple way to view our media product and so people would be able to do it in the comfort of their own homes, thus increasing the amount of people viewing. Possibly our film can be distributed through private, independent cinemas and film festivals who celebrate low-budget films like ours. Low budget films are often not supported by large organisations and so tend not to be mainstream or shown in dependent cinemas which are very common on today’s high streets. Unlike mainstream films, our film had actors with little or no experience filming as there is no funding from big organisations to pay for top notch actors and it’s the same for directors and producers, however obtaining actors is the harder part. There are film festivals which are held specifically for independent films to be seen by a larger audience, like Cannes and Sundance, and so small, low-budgeted films like ours have an opportunity to be seen.

 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Teenagers are our primary audience as they would maybe feel some understanding towards the characters more than other age groups like those of the 40-60 class. However, thriller genres are enjoyed by all age group but specifically by males. We are not trying to make our product appeal to any one age, gender, ethnicity, region, sexuality or class and status. On the other hand we know that anyone below the minimal age of 13 would not enjoy our product as it is of the thriller genre and even more so as it is a crime thriller, making it even more difficult to understand. In general, thriller films tend to be classed as certificate 12 – 15 but crime thrillers, depending on their content, tend to be classed as 18. After the completion of our media product, I am proud with the concluding result and i do think that this would appeal to our target audience as hoped. However we could have appealed to a wider audience if we had used actors of different ages, genders, ethnicity etc. But this would not have achieved our desired affect and target audience when it came to filming.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our media product contained scenes filmed in and around school, something every teenager is familiar with and so we thought this may have had a positive effect on attracting our audience as our target is teenagers. Also, to audiences of the non-teenage age group, the scene being in school may be somewhat nostalgic and attract not only teenagers but people in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s as this is not a film about teenagers in school but a crime thriller about teenagers lives outside of school which may appear to a wider audience. Violence, revenge and romance were themes used throughout the film and are quite the opposite from each other, thus attracting the completely opposite people and making them meet in the middle. Our audience feedback from showing our product to our media class proved effective once we installed it into our film. We were told that the sequence of our clips seemed a bit confusing as they were not chronological and featured flashbacks which at first not blatant. However, we were quick to fix this solution by changing the colour effects and making the flashbacks and flash-forwards more obvious to the audience. Also, we were advised what sort of score would be most effective and we added this to our product.

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

I have never created a media film from scratch before so the processes involved were all new to me. To film, we used digital video cameras, supplied by the school’s media department. These cameras had all the credentials we needed in order to create our film; easy to use, good colour and picture and easy to upload onto the computer. However we were not allocated with a microphone of any sort so had to make do with the one integrated in the video camera which, in turn, affected the sound of the dialogue in the film. We felt fairly confident using DV cameras as they are used in the filming of the popular soap operas Hollyoaks and Eastenders. The point of using these cameras is that a dull, gritty effect is created which adds to the realism of the drama. This suited our film as the melancholic atmosphere and tragedy that is the death of the girl are complimented by the dull colours and gritty effects of using a digital video camera.

   Before filming, we researched the crime-thriller genre and decided to use this as a base for our media product. We learnt more about the conventions and compared films with this subgenre with films of other subgenres of thriller. This research helped us write the script as we knew how we were meant to write it. We also posted our research onto a blogging website, which was open to members of the public to view. Our film is non-linear and so features flash-backs and flash-forwards.

   The iMovie software we used in putting our filming together was easy yet hard to use making the editing part of the production one of the longest and complicated. This software is non-linear and so we were able to manipulate various scenes and clips very easily. We were also able to add scores, titles and other editing effects at the touch of a button which made the editing job that much easier. After using the editing software for a while, the process became a lot easier and we could move on to adding things to our media product; subtitles, colour codes etc.

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

Since the first preliminary task at the start of the course I have learnt a vast amount of skills I had never had before and used these skills and techniques in the filming and editing process and this helped my group and I progress. Before starting the preliminary task, nor me nor anyone else in my group had used a camera to film before, let alone used different shots, angles, movements etc. We used what we had learnt that lesson to film and as this was all new to us, this was evidently present in the end result which consisted of poorly timed editing and basic mistakes like different background props moving when redoing a scene or the camera being at a different height to before and is what is known as continuity.

When it came to producing the media product, we all had a basic understanding of the editing equipment and I had built confidence in myself to fully function the camera, using it to create the desired effects in our film i.e. the movement and shot and what effect this would have on the audience of our film. The preliminary task prepared us for the actual production of our opening sequence which proved to be hard work. In comparison to the preliminary task, our final media production contains proper camera work and editing up to a good standard.

 

 

 

Evaluation: Gary Salem

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

When we began planning the opening to our thriller it was important we researched the genre and look at key features and conventions in thrillers. Particularly, we used technical elements such as fast cuts and cross cutting, as well as close up shots and shadowy antagonists to help in establishing our piece as a thriller.
We hoped to include many thriller elements, whilst including an element of youth in our characters and situations, something uncommon in modern thrillers. We included a typical thriller convention with an innocent victim being caught up in a deeper mystery, creating a sense of sympathy for the protagonist and a sinister air and sense of dread about the mysterious antagonist. The hero is an unlikely one, a young teen who is investigating the conspiracy behind the death of his friend, is unlike the stereotypical crime thriller protagonist, usually a gruff and seasoned detective or private eye.

(Typical thriller Protagonists, Brad Pitt in 'Seven')



(Stereotypical thriller antagonist, Norman Bates 'Psycho')
Our Character types reflected thriller conventions with our victim being an innocent, and kind young female, who is murdered for seemingly no reason and the murderer a hooded figure who remains an enigma in our opening.
We sought to create excitement and anticipation, dramatic tension, uncertainty, fear, and anxiety, all key elements of thrillers which makes them not unlike the horror genre, however the latter often is more graphic, shocking and disgusting the audience rather than building up tension, we looked to reflect this by not showing violence in any great detail, or any gore, using different camera angles to shield the audience from any graphic violence.
We also looked to utilize enigma, another important aspect of thrillers. We did this by raising questions that are not answered in our opening, prompting the audience to keep watching, our main enigma was the reasoning behind the murder, and who killed April. In our initial edit, however, audience feedback told us the plot became difficult to understand through our use of flashbacks, however for our final edit we re-ordered the scenes making the story more coherent and improving the product as a whole, while keeping an element of mystery, a common convention of thrillers.
We broke away from conventions however by targeting a younger audience than a typical crime thriller. We aimed to attract at an audience of 15-24 year olds rather than an 18+ audience, we looked to do this using a younger cast, and incorporating themes such as bullying as well as a school setting.
It is a contemporary thriller, with a modern setting, reflected in our set and the dress of our characters, as well as the stereotypes portrayed reflecting those seen today.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our opening sequence featured few characters, meaning the importance of those featured was emphasised, although all our characters could be socially grouped as youth, they all fall under different stereotypes.
Our protagonist Michael, is an outsider amongst his peers, he looks to represent the ‘emo’ stereotype, wearing predominately black, with dyed, colourful hair, this reinforces his depressed mannerisms, and represents a key segment of youth culture in a positive light as he is the main protagonist. The audience should feel sympathy for his victimization for being different to his peers and support him as he tries to avenge his friend. This is also reflected in the rock tinged score, another trait associated with the emo stereotype.
April, represents various aspects of feminine character, she is seen to be kind and cares for Michael when no one else does, her youth is shown through her school uniform, and her out of school attire are common, fashionable clothes. Her bright demeanour should contrast Michaels depression, emphasising both.
The bully character also represents a common stereotype of the youth, his look and behaviour displays traits of the ‘ASBO teen culture’ a cultural representation which is common in today’s society, which should create a sense of dislike toward his character as he victimizes the protagonist. His appearance is that of a ‘geezer’ showing he is a common, possibly violent youth.
There is also a sense of regional identity, with sights such as the river Thames and the London eye being shown, this combined with the accents of the characters gives a sense of teen life in a busy city, showing the pressures and stereotypes living in the capital.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
In order to distribute my film, its lack of budget or known actors in the cast would mean it would be considered an independent film.
It would be distributed on the internet, through video sharing sites such as Youtube, Dailymotion and such. This would also enable feedback to be viewed quickly and easily in the form of video comments. If it were successful it may be distributed widely, perhaps in small, local cinemas showcasing local filmmakers, or at some sort of film festival, such as Sundance.

4. Who would be the audience of your media product?
Before producing our film, we considered our target audience, and chose to aim for a BBFC 15 certificate, in order to establish our film as a teen crime thriller. This meant we had to limit any violence, as restrictions stated we may include ‘violence as long as the film does not dwell on the infliction of pain’. We were careful to abide by this, showing violent scene briefly and with less emphasis on the action but more on the effects.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We looked to address our target audience throughout the film, and I believe we did this effectively as our feedback showed our piece was ‘very relevant’ to our target audience. The young cast, school setting as well as the themes reflect youth and this directly relates to a 15-24 year old audience. In addition to this the themes of loneliness and isolation are easily relatable to teenagers, creating sympathy for the character of Michael, also all the characters dress in teenage fashion or school uniform, meaning physically the characters are no different to the audience again meaning it is easier to feel a sense of empathy towards the characters, making our media product more effective.

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

In making this product, I have learned a great deal about the process involved in constructing even a short film. The internet was a crucial part in our research before production and ensured we could look at a wider range of films. Youtube clips gave us examples of thriller opening sequences from various films including ‘Seven’, a crime thriller.
In creating our film we used multiple programs on the computer, such as iMovie and Garageband. Garageband was used to create our original score and was useful as it allowed us to get exact timings and the score we needed to create the correct atmosphere. iMovie on the other hand was our main editing tool and was an easy and simple interface, allowing even inexperienced film makers such as ourselves to use it effectively, especially as it was designed to work with DV cameras, which we had used. This provided an advantage in storing footage over celluloid or other film types. iMove also gave us editing tools enabling us to use effects, particularly the black and white and high contrast effects we used to differentiate the flashbacks. I believe this went well as it is clear the film occurs in three different time periods.
The DV cameras themselves gave a gritty and realistic image, which was effective in making the film more realistic and relatable to our audience, especially the bathroom scenes which the gritty nature gave the impression of a video log, creating a personal connection with the character.


7.Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I think our final product is a great deal more developed than our preliminary task, I learned a great deal about editing, such as adding titles that fit the tone of the film, as well as adding effects and more complex cuts, such as the wipe and fade out, I also experienced making a fitting score and editing it to add to the atmosphere of the product in what I believe is an effective way.
We also had to adhere to a filming schedule, something we had not needed in the preliminary task, due to filming on location and needing correct weather conditions. The open set was useful to us as we were able to convey a sense of crowdedness through the busy nature of the place itself.
We also improved in our filming technique it’s self, taking more ambitious shots, such as our establishing shot of the river, taken from atop a high tower. We also used more interesting angles in the bathroom scene, creating askew angles in order to reflect the havoc of the situation Michael is in. This progresses greatly from the basic shots seen in our preliminary task.
We also progressed greatly in terms of editing using more advanced techniques including our effects used to convey flashbacks and some of our cuts. This again is a development on the basic techniques we used in the preliminary task.

Location:
Low-tide at southbank beach, waterloo bridge, miserable day and naked trees.
The low key lighting suggests a melancholic mood in which michael reflects on his life and ultimately the setting reflects his dull and miserable life. It is also a common London landmark, giving a sense of regional identity


Location: A school lobby, this is where Michael's bullying takes place, and relates to the school uniform he wears. It is a stereotypical modern school, which may cause apathy with an audience as it may look like a school they have or do go to.

Characters

Michael - A teenager who is a victim of bullying and sees a new light - played by Gary Salem.

i)Dressed in school uniform, scruffy dressed with scruffy hair. 

ii)Dressed in own clothes, all black.

April - Michael's only friend, her death motivates Michael to become a vigilante - played by 

Dressed modestly, nice clothes, makes Michael look scruffy.

Bullies/Students - Give Michael a hard time through school, bully him everyday - 

audience

all types of thrillers are normally classified as 15 or 18 on the BBFC this is because of the conventions of thrillers. we are making a crime thriller and the target audience for these films are normally 25 + but we are going against the norm with targeting for the late teens we are aiming for it to be classified as a 15 and will change it to suit the description. this means we can include the taking of drugs as long as we don't promote the taking of them. There may be the frequent use of strong language for example "fuck".Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction 

of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to 

be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also 

unlikely to be acceptable. 

There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence 

but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and 

have a strong contextual justification. 

Crime Thriller

The crime thriller genre uses a sub-genre of crime and is one of the most popular sub-genres used in film and television.

  The stories in these crime thrillers often involve twisting plots, murders, robberies, shootouts, double crosses and chases. as the name suggests, crime plays a big part in the film and so the majority of the time detectives, inspectors or other police roles are involved in preventing the criminals activities.

Thrillers in general can be classified from 12 to 18, however crime thrillers contain more confusing plots and so tend to not be suitable for an audience of under 15.

  The audience of thrillers enjoy suspense, cliffhangers, enigmas and other literary devices, all of which are common traits of the thriller genre, particularly the crime thriller.

There are many different sub-genres of the thriller, all with the audiences varying from film to film. the sub-genres of films with a less confusing story line and twisting plot like the disaster thriller or spy thriller attract a much younger audience than film with confusing plot like those with a conspiracy theme or a drama thriller.