Evaluation

1)In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and media conventions?

Our media product is the two minute opening sequence of our thriller film called 'The Replacement'. To have a clear understanding of what we were expected to include in our film, we conducted research into the codes and conventions of the genre thriller. we found that the main codes and conventions are to do with the sound and editing e.g quick cuts and camera angle changes and music that gives tension. It can also be to do with lighting, scenes that take place in dark settings. We also tried to think of ways in which we could go against or challenge these conventions, however we decided that it would be rather complicated, in the end we agreed to stick to the typical codes and conventions of a thriller genre.


A film that did not play to the conventions of a typical psychological thriller was 'Phonebooth'. It avoids darkness, shadows and other obvious conventions. Initially we were given the choice between the genre thriller or horror to base our opening sequence on, we came to the agreement that we would choose the thriller genre. The way in which our movie develops some of the conventions of a thriller is demonstrated in the use of digetic music, which creates a sense of intensity when Jo asks Natalie to help her to the car park. The way in which the two met was a small indication that something might happen. Natalie hesitated helping at first, which is a small suggestion that trouble was ahead, however, a naive audience would not realise this - as it was so early on in the movie. the music also indicates that there is something ahead however it is not at this point clear what they should expect. Our product shows the stereotypical weak and vulnerable female protagonist, however it also goes against the stereotypical male antagonist who is in this case a woman.

Our film ends with a twist when the audience discover that Jo the antagonist is not in fact disable, it becomes apparent that it was just a plan to lure Natalie into her car. Our film can be compared to the inside man as it is also a physchological thriller that ends with a twist as Frazier gets home and discovers a diamond in his pocket that Russel, the man who robbed the bank slipped into his pocket when he walked pass him without him realising. The audience did not expect Russel to escape from the bank which was ironic because he promised Frazier that he would, he also promised that he would give Frazier a diamond.

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

Our film classification is ages 15+ as we felt that the scenes of violence and kidnap is not suitable for children any younger than 15. The main character represented in our film is a young, white female, who is an ordinary college student aged 16. She is also the innocent protagonist which follows the typical conventions of a thriller movie where by there is a helpless female victim. However our film also goes against the typical male protagonist as the character who kidnaps the victim is a female.

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

The type of institution that would distribute our film is likely to be the same institutions that have distributed similar products to ours in terms of genre and conventions, such films as 'What lies beneath', 'inside man' and the phonebooth. These films are all psychological thrillers that play on the mind, they also contain twists at the end. 'The phone Booth' is a 2003 thriller about a man(Stu, the publicist) who is held hostage in a telephone booth by an extreme moralist who watches his victim's every move through the scope of a high-power sniper rifle while speaking to the publicist via the phone booth. The caller prides himself on using force to punish corrupt people by forcing them to admit all their lies and sins throght mental games or by killing them. An example of a type of channel that might show this movie would be film4 or channel 4. These channels deal with movies from both commercial and independent film companies. Events that showcase amature movies such as the London Independent Film Festival or The Raindance film festival would also appreciate this production. If the movie later produced a Soundtrack album, depending on its success it could be found online or in stores that support independent acts such as recordstore.co.uk or Cd Baby, or in megastores such as HMV.

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

The audience for our film would be a teens and young adults from the age of 15+ as we strongly feel that some of the scenes in our film would not be suitable for children below this age.

This is a group of teenagers ages 16+, that i interviewed as part of my target audience research. I asked them what their favourite movie genre was and they all three out of four girls said that they preferred thriller because horror movies gave them night mares. If i had decided to do a horror movie, from my research i found that my certificate classification would have to be an 18+ judging by the responses i got from my target audience. The girls pictured above attend Barking college, which made it easy for them to relate to the victim Natalie.

5)How did you attract/address your audience?

We addressed our audience firstly by formulating a questionnaire for them to answer. We posted this questionnaire on our group blog in order for as many people as possible from our target audience to have access to it. Examples of the questions we asked is what is your favourite movie genre?, was our story line easy to follow and understand?, was the certificate we gave to our film fair?.
The answers to our questions helped understand a lot more about our target audience, also their crtisims will help us in the future. We also created a facebook group which really helped to interact with our audience as most teens and young adults spend alot of time on of the most popular social networking sites. I wrote a brief description about our blog, and also up loaded it for them to be able to view it and leave their comments.

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

I was first introduced to the different equipment when we done our preliminary task. Not only were we shown the different technologies and software, we were given handouts about different equipment, the names and the uses of each piece. As group editor i had to go used to the apple Mac software as i was going to be using it in the process of editing our final film sequence.

7)Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production?

The preliminary task was given to us in order for us to develop the necessary skills needed for us to be able to film our 2 minute sequence. We were notified that we would not be graded for the preliminary task, however it's absence meant that 15 marks will be deducted form the 60 marks that were available.

The preliminary was very essential to us as it was a mirror of things to come. Firstly it gave us a idea of what it would be like working as a media group, from there we were able to select the people that we worked well with, and figure out what role we would each like to take up.

However during the pre-production we were forced to replace one of our initial group members as we felt that his continuous lateness and absence would bring down the groups marks. Secondly before we begun filming our preliminary tasks, we were shown examples via the medium you tube.

The tasks demonstrated three technical aspects that we were expected to include in our film, the 180 degree rule, eye-line match, shot reverse shot and match-on-action. The preliminary was especially helpful when it came to editing as i had never used Apple Mac software,i was used to using an ordinary pc. This allowed me to practice using this technology and meet my editing the deadline that i had set for myself on my personal schedule.

Overall I feel that i learnt a great deal from doing the preliminary task, as I felt that our final 2 minute sequence was a success. It took alot of practice for me to get the hang of all the different technology and equipment however I managed to do it in the end.