Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from that to the full product?
From the preliminary task to the full product I have learnt many things, for example how to handle the digital camera successfully (which camera shots are most effective for the opening scenes genre). In the preliminary task we learnt the 180 degree rule, something which nearly every film/TV product uses (like Eastenders for example), and this is where the camera shot is as if a character is looking at another in a certain direction when really all they are doing is looking at the camera. It gives the impression that they are looking actually at somebody as they would realistically, however if you move the 180 degree line and go across to the other side viewers would see a difference, they would notice that it looks as if the characters are looking in different angles to one another when really they should be looking directly to them.
I included some features in my main product that I used in my preliminary task, such as recording characters’ body rather than their face when first introducing them to the piece. For example in the preliminary task we shot somebody’s hand slowly opening a door handle and then their feet whilst they were walking. This feature was interpreted in my main piece as when one of the characters in the scene is running, the shot begins with the camera close up on their feet when they were running. I felt this would be an effective feature to include in the main product seeing as it would be appropriate to the genre of our opening scene. Being a thriller it helped in making the audience think and ask questions, such as ‘who is running?’ and ‘why are they running’ etc.
I included binary opposition, one feature of Levi Strauss’s theory. This is obviously where two opposites are put together (juxtaposition) to give impact.
The two opposites I have used in my piece were good and evil. The young girl is innocent, weak and naive whilst the male is manipulative, strong and harmful. These two personalities couldn’t be any different and this is what will also grab the audience.
Vladimir Propp’s theory was that in stories a person could play more than one person/thing, and I feel to some extent I have included this theory in my piece.
As the audience can see from the opening scene; the young girl is running away from a source that has frightened her. This girl plays both the victim, but yet from escaping she is also the person that saves herself (the hero/heroine).
Q6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When constructing my product I have learnt a lot about some of the software on Apple. Apple is more professional than windows is for editing and including features in a film.
A big difference between Apple and Windows is that Windows only focuses on office functions and uses whilst Apple Mac focuses on graphics and multimedia functions.
Mac is considered suitable for entertainment purposes, whereas Windows is best suited for business use. It is popularly used for photo editing and for playing videos and music etc. For this reason alone that is why it was very helpful using Apple to develop my opening scene as it has made the scene look professional and on iMovie helped me edit/include extra bits into it, for example including background music to make the opening scene just that bit more realistic.
Not only that but as Apple Mac’s are mostly used for videos and photos etc, it was really helpful how I was able to fade in and out of camera shots, and to make the shots blend together and refine them, rather than leave them how they were and make the scene look jumpy and unprofessional.
However this is a one point of view which could be seen as bias. There are some advantages to Window, that could be seen as better than Apple Mac and personally for me there were disadvantages to using Apple Mac, as I am unfamiliar with the programme and very much used to Windows as that is the programme I regularly use the most. It was hard to grasp the difference, and to get used to using such things as iMovie, iPhoto and Photoshop. For this reason, my opening scene suffered as it took longer to be able to finish the actual scene than with some people, as they are more familiar with Apple and able to refine and edit at a quicker piece.
Not only did I learn more about Apple Mac and how to use it, but I learnt how to handle a digital camera better and different uses it entailed for helping me and the others shoot the shots we wanted.
With the camera I learnt how to use it both manually and whilst it was resting on a tripod. Even the simplest things to some were difficult to me, for example zooming in and out whilst recording a certain point in the scene was harder than I had expected.
I also learnt a lot about the lighting. I learnt what brightness suited which lighting, and that was something I didn’t really take in to account before making this project.
Q5) How did your attract/address your audience?
There are many ways that I have attracted/addressed my target audience. Such elements were including camera lighting, sound and music, mise en scene and editing. By manipulating these elements helped me make the audience see and think what I want them to see.
Camera and lighting helped create the feeling and mood of the scene. By beginning my opening scene with a dark view of the surrounding scenery help the audience develop anxiety and suspicion. This will encourage them to continue to watch and therefore attract them as they will want to see what will happen after. The camera shots help the audience feel uncomfortable and awkward. An example of this is the final shot in the opening scene where mud is being thrown, makes is seem as though the mud is being thrown at the audience directly due to the extreme close up shot. Not only that but using the camera manually (hand-held) gives the impression that the audience themselves are looking through the characters eyes, and this alone attracts them into the scene. The mid shot I use in the scene where there is a body and shoes walking past in hard, slow footsteps makes the audience feel negative emotions which will draw their attention even more. As the persons identity is not shown in the scene will appeal to the audience yet again and keep them watching as they will want to know who this character could possibly be.
Sounds and Music is also another huge element that has attracted the audience. It creates the mood of the piece, for example a low dark drone which was used in the background or the deep quiet music helps the audience feel emotions such as tension, and then sudden loud sounds such as banging will shock them or even maybe make them feel jumpy. I have included such sounds and music to draw the audience in even more and making the scene more excited, and set the feeling of what a thriller tries to entail.
Mise en scene was also included in my piece, with objects such as a shovel and blanket. These props have helped make the scene feel more realistic and help in attracting the audience more. Using such objects in the piece give an eerie feel to what is happening. That with the background sounds generally will help in making the audience drawn to the situation and help in making them feel emotions such as tension etc.
Not only that but the characters clothes help in addressing the audience. The girl which is running in the opening scene is wearing a hoodie, and this not only helps the audience make assumptions of what the girl is like, but on how she looks. Her clothes are such as the hoodie aren’t ‘well’ dressed and she isn’t made to look nice and this alone helps gives a negative feeling of what is happening. The character we can’t see the identity of is wearing work boots, and with these we hear his loud, slow footsteps starting. This draws the audience in even more, and help them feel worried and think what type of person is he? What does he do?
By editing the scene it helped me portray what I wanted to be shown/seen. By cutting some parts out, or including effects into the piece has helped me refine the scene, and make it much more professional. By fading slowly in and out from the flashbacks to the present with effects such as darkening certain points gives the audience time to feel what they want. They will feel close to what is happening, and by the slow movements being used makes the piece all that more eerie.
Q4) Who would be the audience for your product?
My primary target audience for my media product is teenagers. The reason for this is that not only am I considering it to be classified as a 15 but the fact that what the story itself entails. It obviously is all to do with a young teenage girl which had been involved in a situation which concluded with the death of her mother. As the whole story revolves around this particular character it was only sensible to have teenagers as my main target audience.
However there is also a secondary target audience to my media product, and these are older people. Most likely up to their 50s as the film includes characters which are older (for example parents etc..) and this would appeal to people a bit older than teenagers as well. The plot of the film is also rather complex and would consider a ‘thinking audience’ and this is yet another reason of why older people are considered as the secondary target audience.
Not only that but the genre of my product being a thriller is one genre in particular where many aged and classed people enjoy. The audience of a thriller vary a lot, it isn’t like other genres such as romantic films or romantic comedies where there is much more of a small target audience it is aimed at. That being females generally rather than males. Sci-fi’s are generally more aimed at males as they include many things which only men (stereotypically) would want to see.
Thrillers aren’t like the two genres I have talked about above, they are much more open to a wider audience, however it is dependent on what the thriller itself is like. For example do thrillers appeal to men more than women? Once again this is dependent on what type of thriller the film is. Is it a spy thriller or a military thriller? And depending on the thriller will narrow down or widen the choice of its target audience. But traditionally thrillers are more appealing towards men. This could be due to the fact that men in particular like films to be adventurous, bloody and prefer to see films which include fighting or speed.
Q3) What kind of media institution might distribute your product?
From data I have received back from my questionnaires, the majority of people said they would most likely go see a film either at a cinema, or wait a while longer until it is distributed to television and certain TV channels.
My media product is likely to be distributed in either Cinemas or on the television.
I feel due to its story and what it entails it would be appropriate to show it in a cinema.
As our opening scene plays along side background music, some of which is eerie and goes well with what is occurring in the scene. For example when the young girl is running, and when we see somebody digging with a body along side. This would be very effective and with the speakers and surroundings of a cinema would be very good, and make everything so much more effective and possibly even scarier/jumpier. However whilst it would be firstly distributed in the cinema it could then move onto being sold on DVD and then after possibly on television.
It would be appropriate for DVD because not only would it make the film money and more profit than if it was just shown in the cinema alone, but at home on people’s surround sounds would be just as effective to give a better experience.
However the product as I say could be distributed on the television. For example it would be just as appropriate to be shown on channels which are dedicated to showing films alone, and thrillers in particular, (Film4 is a good example and gives funding to have a film be shown on their channel, but only after that particular film has been shown in cinemas).
Q2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I tried to represent social groups in my media production. As my primary target audience is teenagers in the opening scene we see a young girl running from something, and this alone could give many connotations. Audience could think many things, such as is she running away from a rapist, a murderer? However the denotation at that time just shows
her running.
She is a young teenager and later on the rest of the films story shows that she is one of the main characters in the film. Due to the fact one of our characters is a young teenage girl, I feel many children around this age will be able to connect to the films story much more from this.
The girls clothes/props (the mise en scene) are also a big feature in representing particular social groups. She wears up to date, young looking kinds of clothes (such as a hoodie). This also helps represent a picture of what this young character is like, what she likes and who she is for example.
Also one of the characters in the opening scene we cannot see, their identity/face is not shown. This not only makes the audience think who it is, but also makes them have their own interpretation of who they think this character is/could be. However the only sort of detail we see of this character is their boots, and these are working boots, for example that builders would wear. This may give away his class or occupation for instance and this represents a sort of social group in itself. This is a form of binary opposition as you can see right from the beginning that they are very much opposite. From the way the girl is running shows she is running from something and is frightened. She shows a form of innocence whilst the other character is strong and masculine (his build) and seems he could look after himself.
Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our opening scene was inspired by Vladimir Propp’s theory, where he said there were 8 main characters of any story. In Russian fairytales you have for example the villain, the prince (the hero) and the princess etc. These characters can be included in many stories, and thrillers can use this idea as well. From the beginning we can see that one of the characters in the opening scene can be seen as the ‘villain’ or the bad guy for example.
I have also looked at many thrillers to help me research for my media project, however the two main films i have analysed in detail were ‘No Country For Old Men’ and ‘In Bruges’.
They relate to my media product as I too have included similar features in my opening scene to the ones the films have used.
My product asks questions that the audience right from the beginning start thinking about. Who is the person running away? What have they done? etc.
Another similarity I have used which was ‘inspired’ by In Bruges was the way the opening scene shows a bit of the surrounding scenery that is around what situation is occuring. Static shots right at the beginning of our piece begin with a house, whilst the camera slowly is moving and zooming in closer to the building. This is what happened in In Bruges, however in that film the surrounding scenery is included nearly all the time in the opening scene. These shots are in between two characters which are walking to a certain destination.
No Country For Old Men also begins with the surrounding scenery being filmed. I feel this gives the audience a taste of the whereabouts and what it has to do with the characters in the film.
Another media product I have seen is ‘Memento’ where they use flashback, which is also a key feature. Although it doesn’t include flashback in the opening scene I felt I would adapt this feature in mine. (We soon find out the opening scene is also the ending of the film as well, however this is not known until nearer the end). I have included flashback in my product too, but it is much more obvious to see, so the audience aren’t as confused as say they may be with Memento. One huge difference between the two is that Memento goes backwards in its opening scene, whilst I haven’t included this, and left things much simpler.
Today I have done some extra research on previous films. The main film I have wrote about was In Bruges. I wrote out the basic outline of what the film entailed (the synopsis) and also wrote out a little paragraph of what occured in the opening scene. I then explained how this has influenced me and my groups decision to do similar things to In Bruges for the opening scene.
Also today me and Laura have outlined a questionnaire we are thinking of handing out to the audience that will watch our opening scene once we have completed it. Once we have done so, we will get feedback, hopefully on what we have done well and what we may not have done so good. Once all feedback has been received I will then write all the research I have got from it. For example include tally charts and pie charts etc.. I will also compare our opening scene to previous film’s opening scenes.
Today I finished off researching what primary and secondary research is, and gave examples of both.
Once that was completed I designed a Questionnaire that would be given out to people, so that when the results came back I could categorise the data and see from that research what people are drawn to when it comes to films. Once that is completed, my secondary research will be me finding other information that has been researched which is to do about Film analysis etc…
That was today. 
Questionnaire to people about films.
Name:
Age:
Gender: Male ( ) Female ( )
Preferred film genre: Thriller ( ) Romantic ( ) Horror ( ) Action ( )
Romantic comedy ( ) Comedy ( ) Sci-fi ( )
If any other please state…
What channel are you most likely to watch a film on, and why?
Is music good in a film? Yes ( ) No ( )
Would you watch a film if it had strong violence involved in it? Yes ( ) No ( )
What age certification are you most likely to watch? you can give more than one if need be.
U ( )
PG ( )
12 ( )
12A ( )
15 ( )
18 ( )
Does a film have to have romance for you to enjoy it? Yes ( ) No ( )
Are you most likely to watch a film before or after 21:00 when it’s shown on TV?
Before ( )
After ( )
Are you most likely to watch a film at a cinema or on the TV?
Cinema ( )
TV ( )
Reason?
Thank-you.
