Evaluation Task 6

Evaluation Task 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

We did this task in the form of annotations on the video itself;

Evaluation Task 5

Evaluation Task 5 - How did you attract/ address your audience?

Evaluation Task 4

Evaluation Task 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?


Up until now I have only been able to guess which type of people would be interested in my film. In this video below, I interviewed a varied group of people from ages 16 those in their 40's to understand what sort of films different people were interested and their own opinions on thrillers in particular.

The overall feedback was positive. What seemed to be a common factor was that the older age groups seem to prefer story and character over action and violence, where as younger audiences like to see action and impressive stunts. The main feedback was that the plot seemed cliche and that more needs to be added to the main female character in order to push interest in the film further.  One of the teenage interviewees also pointed out that he would watch anything a friend recommends to him proving that word of mouth is still one of the most influential methods of advertising. 

However with our film planned to be an action spectacle closely following the one main character our target audience is likely to be teenagers from 15-20. The film is aimed at both men and women, as women seem to really like strong female leads and men like action in general.

Some ideas of the interests of our target audience:

Football

Gaming

Fashion

Popular Music

Here is a short video summarising this

Evaluation Task 3

Evaluation Task 3: What kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why?

There are hundreds of media production and distribution companies out there. Our particular film is fairly British, set in England with British actors and actresses. However it has a mainstream story line: a character trying to live a normal life until their past sneaks up on them. The film will have a fair bit of action, as our main character is being hunted down by a secret government organisation.

Vertigo Films therefore may be a good company to approach as they make Hollywood style films that are 'commercially driven'. The plot of our film has been tested multiple times and seen to work. This puts it in line with other films that Vertigo have made fairly recently such as Monsters and Kill Command.

 However the film will hopefully be a classic British detective work style film, as our main character tries to connect the people dying around her together. A similar product is The Night Manager produced by The Ink Factory, with smart British lead characters abroad, undercover. It's slick, fast paced and psychological with a similar sized budget to what I would hope for with my film.

Evaluation Task 2

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

We have two people to focus on for this question. Firstly is Fran Lee, the actress who played to woman walking to her car. She is white, in her 20's and dressed smartly. This was purposeful to make her seem as normal and usual as possible. She clearly isn't poor as she shops at M&S and dresses smartly for her profession. However she isn't ridiculously rich either, as her car is dirty and is a vauxhall rather than a Lamborghini. She fits the average citizen well, she has no disability, she isn't very old or very young and she doesn't seem to live a unrealistic lifestyle like a spy etc.

The dead body played by Adam Grant is of a similar economic status. He's dressed well in a shirt and tie to portray is professional status, his hair is well cut, so we know he did not live rough. This makes it clear to the audience that the death was not brought about by gang warfare but instead something more professional. He also looks a similar age group to the woman.

Evaluation Task 1

Evaluation Task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product

The first widely used shot in our sequence is the long establishing tracking shot, showing our main character and their whereabouts from a long distance away. This can be seen in this shot from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Both shot have a similar purpose. They draw all the focus onto the one character whilst also making them seem alone and perhaps even vulnerable. I tried to develop on this convention by having the shot in a built up city area, which was made to look rough by the dirty buildings and pigeons placed beforehand in the sequence. This in turn was an attempt to make the walk back to her car seem more dangerous.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The shot at the very beginning of our sequence is also very typical, displaying a large grand building. However in contrast to the norm, the building I shot was ugly, with moss and rust throughout it. Usually shots this wide, showcase a grand elegant building to show it's elegance and importance much like this shot from The International. Instead the ugly, worn out mall showcases how rough the area is within the first 5 seconds. The pigeons that followed further emphasised this.












Our dead body was filmed very similarly to other films. The face was shot straight on, so the audience could see his bullet wound and his open eyes, creating a really unsettling vibe. This is much like the shot from The Goodfellas. It allows the audience to truly visualise the gruesomeness of the killing.

Finishing Editing

Finishing Editing...

Today I finally finished editing the thriller opening sequence. In the end the thriller name is 'From the Watchtower' which I chose as it sounds as if someone high up is watching your every move, much like the government do in this film. Sound was a fairly difficult part of the process. It was all about layering up so that individual SFX wouldn't sound fake but instead as if recorded on the day. I added various noises of city centers, pigeons flapping, a few eerie tones and some subtle music and heartbeats in order to create an overall atmosphere.

Colour grading was next. With no previous experience of this, a lot of trial and error went into this process. I went for a dirty, dark and slightly greener look, to give the film a grungy look. It turned out pretty well.

Finally I cleaned everything up, making sure all the shots ran smoothly and the sound wasn't jumpy. If it was up to me I would have spent more time refining it, but I had run out of time and the sequence was still very much good enough.

Editing the Thriller - Titles and Refining the Cut

Editing the Thriller...

Having completed the first draft of the sequence, I had two major visual issues to solve; to shorten the length of the sequence and to add the titles of the people involved. The first problem wasn't too hard to fix. I simply got rid of some more stair-climbing shots as they quickly got repetitive on watching through the sequence. The only other change I made was to the ending. Beforehand the ending was the woman getting in the car and only seeing the body in the next car along. However now the ending includes seeing a gun in her car, insinuating that she's been framed.



The titles were also fairly easy to do. Nothing was too complicated, all I had to do was drag and drop the title clips over the top of the sequence, just as you would do with a video, and then using the title window, move the text where ever I wanted it. Using the side bar it was easy enough to change fonts and their sizes also. I ended up placing and removing the titles as the woman walked through the shot, so not to distract either from each other.