Evaluation-Question Number One

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

Before thinking and planing out our 2 minute thriller sequence, as a group we had th think of what out thriller might include. So we reffered to the thriller convention codes that we were taught by our teacher in class and that consisted of:

1) A Crime of at the core of narrative.

2) A complex narrative structure with false paths, clues and resolution.

3) A narrative pattern  of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved.

4) A Protagonists who is systematically, disempowered and drawn into the complex web of intrigue by an antagonist.

5) Extraordinary events happening in an ordinary situation.

6) Themes of Identity

7) Themes of Mirroring

8) Themes of Voyeurism

9) Protagonists with a 'flaw' which is exploited by the antagonist physcological state

10)There are often a scene near the end of the film which the protagonist is in Peril.

11) Mise En Scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonists plight

As i've mentioned before, we have researched quite a lot on thriller conventions and also attempted to put them in practice;

The thriller conventions that we used in our 2 minute sequence were:

• A complex narrative structure with false paths, clues and resolution - This occurs when Theresa and Chanel is walking home but we think Theresa is going to go home and the next shot will be of Chanel going to the party however situation here is different because we then find out that it was Chanel that has planned the death of Theresa.

• A Protagonist who is systematically, disempowered and drawn into the complex web of intrigue by an antagonist.- This is shown when the two boys dressed in their hoodies attacked Theresa and straight after the murder they reported to Chanel about 'The work succeeding'

• Extraordinary events happening in an ordinary situation- This situation is pretty intimidating as in most common situations like this, Girls usually tend to end up in arguments and fighting each other however here the matter is exaggerated and instead the only way to get the boy Chanel likes was to kill her own best friend.

  two teenage based films made in the UK which is a product to show young teenages the affects and disfunctions of knife crime, gang violence etc. Just like my thriller sequence its target audience was teenagers just like Kidulthood/Adulthood film. My thriller sequence was also putting across the message of knife crime and violence that happens today within teenagers ruling.

If i had to comapare my 2 minute thriller sequence with another film i would say it has to be Kidulthood or Adulthood.
 These are wo teenage based films made in the UK which is a product to show young teenages the affects and disfunctions of knife crime, gang violence etc. Just like my thriller sequence its target audience was teenagers just like Kidulthood/Adulthood film. My thriller sequence was also putting across the message of knife crime and violence that happens today within teenagers ruling.
They both contain features of Mise - en- scene aswell. They way that they boys are dressed in my thriller are very similar to the way the boys are dress in Adulthood.


This is how young adults and teenagers are portrayed in todays society, this screen shot is from the film Adult hood, as you can see the male is standing holding a bat with his hood up and in our film, the bloke has also got his hood up and holding a knife.

Below are screen shots of how my thriller film and Kidlthood/Adulthood are similar.

Walkin down a dark alleway

and

Someone getting physically attacked

This is the tariler for Kidulthood

Evaluation -Question Number Two

How does your Media product represent particular social groups?

(gender,age,sexuality,ethnicity)

My media product consists a cast of 4 character 2 males and 3 females.They are all from an ethnicity of black afriacn or black british. The cast in my media product are all young but they are shown in a negative way which are decieving rude, ignorant and troublesome. I would put all this into a a group called being stereotypical "the typical scary hood",which is shown by the two males in our thriller. As a group we decided to use this stereotype beacuse we wanted to show how young people in todays societ really behave. We chose these actors to portray young boys misbehaving.The idea was to warn people that not always and everywhere you go you'll be safe and most importantly you cannot trust anyone, even if its your best friend. Because no matter how close you are, when it comes to thinking whats best for you even your own dear ones do tend to leave you. Personally I would say that this stereotype is conveyed in a negative way because in reality if you saw a group of young black boys in black hoodies at night time, staight you'd think that they were up to something. Other people are usually very wary of them and dont like to be in the same presence as them, so by linking both stereotypes together of the scary hoodie and ethnicity this creates a the visualisation that we wanted for our thriller. Sexuality was not really a part of our thriller, we didn't really think that it would be important for us to include this because our main attempt was to give out the message of not trusting anyone so blindly. And we really didnt feel the need to explore sexuality in anyway and to be honest i dont think it would have particularly made a big effect on our thriller.

These stereotypes within our thriller are definetly negative and could also set a good example for the viewers watching who might have some sort of involvement with these stereotypes and how they might come across to other people. You'd also think that they were carrying a weapon and causing trouble for no reason. 
Below is a picture of what young boys in hoodies look like today in our society, so i would say bcause of how they grew up and who they grew up with brought them tu behave and dress in suach a poor manner.

I think that class is explored but not quite, the two males in the hoodies seems to belong to the low social demographic class whereas the two females looked liked they belonged to upper class due to the fact of what they wearing.

Evluation-Question Number Three

  What kind of media institution might describe your Media product and why?
(Studio, TV, Web, DVD)

My thriller product could be distributed by FilmFour (In The UK). As a group we chose this media institution because our film is an amateur film and might not make a lot of money if we first distributed it in cinema, but if we distributed on FilmFour our film may still get the much needed attention it needs especially from our target audience, this statement has been proven to us by another amateur film.
The Most Resonable Media Institution is Film 4 which is a UK based media institution.Because our thriller here i think it is besst and more appropriate to have it distributed by a British based Institution. Another Reason Why I've Chosen Film 4 is because My Product is a low budget amateur film which is what the Film 4 Specialises in. If we did directly distribute this movie via a USA media instituition in the cinemas then it would have been such a great loss seeing that this film is low budget.
An Advantage would be that as this movie has been digitally filmed therefore it would be cost and time effective. It would be so much easier to transfer it to other formats and increase the publicity of this.

This is the Film Four Logo




If i had to relate my low budget movie to another realistic movie then of course it will be the same movie i've mentioned earlier on. 'Shifty'. Here is some extra information on the 'Microwave Sceme Which i have previously mentioned. "The Microwave scheme, which will produce 10 films in total, challenges film-makers to shoot a feature film for under $142,000. Since its launch in 2006 the scheme has now greenlit seven projects including Mum & Dad and Shifty .
Shifty received 5 British Independent Film Awards nominations following its world premiere at The Times BFI 52^nd London Film Festival and will be released on April 24 on at least 50 screens in the UK. Mum & Dad had a multi-platform release in December 2008 and will have a US release in March. The Microwave scheme, which will produce 10 films in total, challenges film-makers to shoot a feature film for under $142,000. Since its launch in 2006 the scheme has now greenlit seven projects including Mum & Dad and Shifty . Shifty received 5 British Independent Film Awards nominations following its world premiere at The Times BFI 52^nd London Film Festival and will be released on April 24 on at least 50 screens in the UK. Mum & Dad had a multi-platform release in December 2008 and will have a US release in March. "
The Microwave scheme, which will produce 10 films in total, challenges film-makers to shoot a feature film for under $142,000. Since its launch in 2006 the scheme has now greenlit seven projects including Mum & Dad and Shifty . Shifty received 5 British Independent Film Awards nominations following its world premiere at The Times BFI 52^nd London Film Festival and will be released on April 24 on at least 50 screens in the UK. Mum & Dad had a multi-platform release in December 2008 and will have a US release in March. "

The information of the microwave scheme was taken from the website below http://www.screendaily.com/uks-microwave-scheme-greenlights-two-projectsafter-shifty-success/4043356.article

  It would more than likely be a very popular and realistic film on DVD or in the cinema, Television in both the UK and USA like by real production companies like "Metrodome i.e. the Microwave scheme (Shifty - the film) or Columbia, MGM. As the ending and revelation at the end of the film would be a high shocker for the audience and would definitely draw people in watching it to want to know whats going to happen next.

                                                             

Evaluation- Question Number Four

Who would be the audience for your media Product

(Use Survey monkey)

I know that my intended audience are young adults/teenagers  because i have interviewed various people.
Here is another interview that i had done to ask students of our age what they enjoy in a good thriller.

Evaluation-Question Number Five

How did you attract/address your audience's attention?

For out thriller to attract our audience's, 2 of us made the use of the internet.  I didnt baecuse im not really familiar with craeting surveys and putting them on facebook. But by going online and creating a survey via survey-monkey.com, This was a quicker and more known way to do it, as most teenagers and adults are addicted to internet especially social networking sites like facebook or bebo.

My thriller is full of suspense and mystery. Even though the opening is short and lasts around 2mins long, it still consists of lots of action taking place and the suspense discovery raising as the thriller plays.The main thing that i'd say that attracts the audience would be the high pitched, scary soundtrack.

What really Kicks off the suspense is when both ladiesgo about their seperate ways to go home and you can see Theresa looking back in tension. This definetly builds up a tensing atmosphere for the audience.

 The reason why my target audience might want to watch my thriller sequence is becasue its got a contineous grip on the uadience for them to want to watch this thriller. It sends out a strong message to teenagers about the spoken topic of knife crime and the issues today with friendship and trust. Its a realistic kind of story line as this type of situation could occur and it sends out the message that the seriousness and affects that can be caused by knife crime and what occums from it, and where this is only a two minute sequence the audience can kind of finish the storyline for themselves. This thriller holds the attention of my audience by the ending revealing of the who done it gives them a shock and want to know whats going to happen next. They would want to watch more of my two minute sequence because the sequence hasnt fully finished and the audience will want to know whats going to happen to Theresa the victim.
I used a cliff hanger within my thriller by leaving the sequence on a ending that isnt fully finished, like the audience not knwoing whats going to happen next and what happened to the victim. If there going to get revenge, if justice is going to be justified etc. We used a specific location where there was a narrow alley way with two way endings and a turning where someone could come out from which was one of our actors 'Liam Clellland'. Also, it wasnt an obvious where there would be loads of people bothering around and disturb us in the making of our sequence. After my 2 minute thrille sequence it would leave them asking quesrtions like, why did her best friend set her up? Is she really dead? You would want to know whta happens to Chanel, is she going to attacked beacuse of what she did.

Question Number Six

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

These are the other types of technologies that i may have not mentioned in my video.

• Blogger
• Youtube
• Still Digital Camera
• Tripod
• Camera
• DV Camera
• Google
• Wikipedia
• Survey Monkey
• Wordle
• Final Cut Express
• Live type

The reason why I used these softwares are because they have dramatically taught me alot about certain things that i needed to know for this course. 

Evaluation-Question Number Seven

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

        

There were a few difernce into pro the makin of my film and our prelinminary task.

Here are two long shots of Chanel in the Preliminary Task and me in the actaul Thriller

Here are two screen shots that Chanel took from the preliminary task which is the first one and the second from my thriller sequence. Looking at them both you can see in my preliminary task the way the camera is  on the tripod and its slightly slanted to the side which isn't a good look and makes it obvious to the viewer that we didn't really know how to use the camera. Comparing that to the thriller sequence, even though looking at the screen grab i have made in my video, it is indeed very dark but you can see the difference as the camera it held up correctly and in the right direction for the actress walking.

The second screen grab is the difference between the preliminary task and actual thriller

This is another screen shot from both of my preliminary task and my thriller sequence. This screen shots are based on the angle of the camera, in both of these photographs there is a conversation proceeding and in my thriller sequence one you can see that the camera is on the tripod being held directly in front of the two people within a conversation. Where as, in my preliminary the tripod is clearly been zoomed in a little bit, so the actors are kind of screen.

The preliminary task helped me learn new things about using a camera and how you get screen shots and close ups in the right way. Watching my thriller sequence, i have definetly learnt the skill of using a camera. I would say that if i had todo it again i would know the rights and wrong about using the camera. I'm much more comfortable using the camera now then I was when i first used the camera in my preliminary task. I've learnt how to zoom in and out of a shot, hold a steady camera properly, using a tripod in the appropriate moment instead of using it and making the viewing awkward. I am  happy with the skills i have gained and the progression i have made in only a matter of months.