Evaluation - Matthew Buckston


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

Our opening sequence follows the conventional format of a thriller by having an antagonist; however there is no real protagonist in our thriller which is where our thriller deviates from the usual thriller format. Our opening sequence follows the conventional presentational style of a thriller with flashbacks inserted into it and because of this it follows a non-linear structure. We used typical characters, for example, we have a stereotypical 'nuclear family' with a mum, a dad and two children, we also have a stereotypical very smiley and overly happy estate agent. We used these typical characters in our opening sequence so they would fit in with the story and the locations. Our opening sequence follows the conventional use of sound by thrillers because, we have a heart beat playing alongside the music which is cut to have the heart beat bridging across the cuts.

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

Our opening sequence portrays the middle class family as being slightly dysfunctional, yet still managing to get along with each other. In our opening sequence, the male characters are represented stereotypically being more dominant, for example, we have a ring leader of the cult being a male. Another example of this is having the dad driving, making decisions and having control of the children. However, the female characters are represented stereotypically as being slightly passive, and example of this is in the car when the dad takes the map from the mum. The younger people like the children are represented as being inquisitive and not knowing what is acceptable to say. An example of this is when Nathan asks the estate agent "why do you walk funny?" However, the older people like the parents are represented as being mature, looking after the children and not paying too much attention to what the children are saying, in a stereotypical family outing.

The main villain in our opening has a limp; the main reason for this is to help the audience connect that the estate agent is the leader of the cult, who killed the girl at the beginning.

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

Our thriller would be made for TV viewing and possibly DVD, it would be probably be produced and shown by channel 4 because of its national content. It might be released to tour independent British cinemas, and possibly released on DVD through an independent distributor if the reviews of the film were good enough. It would probably be funded by channel 4 because it would be made for them to show on their channel.Another film that was distributed this way was Billy Elliot, which was released to selected cinemas and then because word got round of how good the film was it got released into more cinemas and then it got released in America.

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

The chosen target audience for our thriller is 15-35; we didn't really try to target a particular gender for our audience we tried to make something to suit both sexes. We did this by combining the main elements that both sexes enjoy such as the violence, mystery ans drama. We decided to target an audience between the ages of 15-35 because our research showed us that the majority of people that watch thrillers are in that age range. Our research also showed that the majority of people preferred psychological thrillers, and either wanted a male leader or didn't have a particular preference about a male or female lead. it also told us that people usually associate violins and wind instruments with thrillers. We are hoping to get a BBFC classification of 15; I think it would achieve this rating because there is some violence but it doesn't dwell on the infliction of pain. There is a strong threat and menace in the film but it's not sexualised or overly sadistic.

5) How did you attract/address your particular audience?

Our representation of the middle class would appeal to our audience because the will like the way normal middle class people have been represented as being dysfunctional but can work together when they need to because they will like the positive element of the characters working together when they found themselves in this situation. the audience is placed in the position of the parents of the children who get kidnapped, this is so that they sympathise with the parents and get an idea of what it's like to have people taken away from them. Our audience liked the black and white flashbacks because they could easily tell that the black and white clips were flashbacks, we can see this in our feedback because only 5% of the people didn't realise that the black and white clips were flashbacks. They said that our camera movements were smooth and that everything was in focus however, 10% said that some of the things on the screen weren't level. The majority of our audience said that they could hear the dialogue clearly; they also thought that the music gave it an appropriate atmosphere for the events in the sequence.

All of our audience agreed that the costumes used were appropriate for each character and that the props used were helpful in creating the right atmosphere for the scenes.

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

The college camera, a Cannon XM2, helped enhance our ideas because of it being light and easy to hold, it enabled us to hand hold the chase scenes in our thriller. The tripod held us back during the second day of filming because we were given a tripod without a spirit level which meant we couldn't be sure that the camera was level. I think we mastered the controls for the camera very well because it was easy to get to grips with so it made it easier to film the shots we wanted such as the handheld chase scene in the woods. We encountered a problem on the second day of filming when the light changed so it meant the shots we filmed afterwards were brighter than the other shots, from this we learnt that we should have re-shot the scenes that we shot before the light changed so the light would be the same in all the scenes.

The college's editing suite helped us with our ideas because we had access to lots of different music and sound effects to choose from so we could find the right music to go with our thriller. I think we mastered the main editing techniques such as cutting and rolling, so we could edit our thriller professionally though I think we need to master the post production effects to enhance our final product. The desaturation effect helped us to show which shots were in the present and which were flashbacks. We also managed to find the sound of a heart beat and with the editing software we were able to cut it so the heart beat played over the cuts between the clips.

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

With the preliminary task, we didn't have a proper script and only a rough storyboard to use which meant we had less to work with so we didn't really know what we could add to it and how we should shoot each shot. However, with the thriller sequence we had a proper script that we went over until we were happy with it and a full and very detailed storyboard of the shots we needed to shoot, this meant we could see what the shots would look like before we shot them so that we would know what else we could add and any other ways we could shoot the scenes. We also learnt a few different ways to make our filming better like filming every scene from different angles so we had more to play with when it came to editing, another way we learnt to make our filming better is using the rule of thirds which means the side where the person is looking has more space than the other.

We also learned how to use the blimp microphone better and to get ambient sound so the background sound didn't disappear mid scene. We also learnt how to make our cuts smoother than they were during the preliminary task and how to balance the music with the picture properly.

We learnt from the filming and editing techniques that we missed in the preliminary task such as filters for the audio and picture and it gave us a chance to try and experiment more and to incorporate them in the thriller sequence, it also gave us the confidence to make the full product better than the preliminary task. I think we worked well as a team and this meant we were able to have a laugh while doing it instead of just getting annoyed with each other. I think our end product meets our brief and I think it stacks up quite well against professional products, though I think our end product is more natural compared to professional products because of the lack of reliance on special effects in our end product.