Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 6

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

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

We used many specific devices in attempt to try and capture our target audience. The night setting that I have used in the opening is used to appeal to all ages. The night setting is typically labelled with mischief and troubles. So I have used it to portray that something will happen and I believe that this will appeal to many people as it is common Thriller.

I believe that the audience would continue to watch because of the clever use of the cliff-hanger in my film. The idea of using a cliff-hanger came from watching many Alfred Hitchcock films and it was quite inspiring. Also I watch a lot of soaps such as Eastenders and they commonly use a cliff-hanger on a Friday episode to literally force the viewer to watch the next episode on Monday. I used this idea and put it in my media product to attempt the viewers to continue watch the next one (if there is a next one).

Question 5 - slideshow

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product seems very limited but there are aspects in my media product that I believe are in most Thrillers and this could possibly widen my audience and viewers. The ages I have used are teenagers. I would have liked it to be more general and consist of more ages but in my product the only age that is present is teenagers. This consequently limits my audience, as the elderly are unlikely to watch a Thriller about teenagers. The gender and class are both quite broad. I have not specifically targeted a gender because in the Thrillers I have watched it doesn’t really seem to be very male or very female. However, in regards to class, I do not think the upper class would be entertained by a Thriller made by young students, so I believe it is aimed at middle class and perhaps lower class. I believe that teenagers would watch my media product as it is very modern and enticing. I think the appeal comes from the young characters; it is rare to see a scene of a girl being attacked by boys in a Thriller. It is usually men and women. Before proceeding with my media product, I conducted research with a focus group to attempt to identify what people like in Thrillers and also to see if my idea would be suitable to proceed with. However at the time we did our focus group, we were set to go with an idea that was in a graveyard. Due to miscommunication and the idea looking nearly impossible to film, I came up with a new idea and that is the one we used. I still took into consideration the feedback I was given from my focus group. For example, I decided to start with a night scene which was mentioned in my focus group and also, I tried to emulate an action thriller. From the feedback I was given after the film, it was apparent that the younger age category found it “fast paced” and also they commented on the good use of the cliff-hanger at the end which would make them want to continue to watch the Thriller.



http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6ZHN5HW

From the results obtained, it shows me that 78% of people believe the film is aimed at a young audience which is the audience I aimed it at.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3

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

A media institution is just a company that sells or offers you media products such as films, posters and articles. There are Film Studio’s that offer media products such as Major, Mini Major and Independent. These are very big Film Studio’s and it is highly unlikely that they will distribute a film made by sixteen year olds from Dagenham, they would look for something that is more likely to appeal to a wider audience because our media product would really only appeal to people within the ages of 9 to 18. However there are other media institutions such as Film 4 and BBC. These are well known institutions that appeal to a wide audience. However, it is still unlikely that these institutions are likely to distribute our film due to the lack of experience present in our group. None of us are really media experts and it would be very unprofessional for them to distribute our film as it may not be to everyone’s standards then the institution itself would be heavily criticised. In regards to our film being distributed, it is likely that a company like YouTube or Twitter may advertise, distribute or even promote my media product, as YouTube holds over 5 million videos.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product depicts teenage stereotypes and also gender and race stereotypes. It represents gender stereotypes at the beginning of the film where Sarah is conveyed as being a dumb female. She dropped her phone and did not even notice and this scene made her look fragile and careless. The stereotype that males are superior to women is also conveyed in my media product. When the Stalker takes the phone, it displays a mans dominance and that he is in full control of the situation whereas the female is naive and weak. This stereotype is used in a lot of films, typically in the 1900s where women where labelled as 'housewives'. Nowadays it has declined in society but it is still indirectly seen in many films. Moreover, another stereotype that was presented in my media film is the stereotype of  black males through myself. This is actually a very common stereotype that displays young black males with criminality and antisocial behaviour. This is seen in my media product when I initially take Sarah's phone and then do something to her. At first because I am a young black male and wearing dark clothes and have my hood up, I am labelled as a thief and also a criminal. By me having my hood up and looking rather dodgy, I'm portraying the typical stereotype of a gangster. I think by having these stereotypes present in the film it makes the product more believable and also more exciting.

Hopefully this mind map will aid your understanding of some of the stereotypes we tried to potray.

http://www.spicynodes.org/oembed/url=http%3A//www.spicynodes.org/db/nodemap/&id=2b349f9d1b6cb4f3865f94257195f98c&nodemapID=438602&width=640&height=360

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1

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

In the Thriller genre of film, it is evident that there are key conventions that make a Thriller. In many Thrillers, these conventions are shown and sometimes they are shown in a different way but still have the same purpose. Thrillers commonly include elements such as cliff hangers. A cliff hanger is a plot device used in films to engage the audience by cutting off a part of the film. For example a boy is being chased by a group of men; he wants to cross the road but cannot because of the traffic. What does he do? Does he risk his life in by attempting to cross the road or does he let the men catch him? Cliff hangers are extremely effective as they create the feeling of tension and suspense. The purpose of cliff hangers is to engage the audience and force them to want to continue reading the next series of a book or to continue watching the film to see what happens next. In my media product, we analysed many cliff hangers in Thrillers and found that it was highly common and also very effective as we all agreed that we would continue to watch the film because of the cliff hanger. This gave my group and I confidence that we could utilise a cliff hanger in our own product. In our product we used a cliff hanger at the end, we did this because when analysing Thrillers, we found that most cliff hangers came towards the end of the film and the end of chapters in books. I believe that our cliff hanger was very good. We see Sarah entering the house, completely unaware of the danger that she was potentially in. She walks in and the Stalker along with his friend grabbed her and we hear Sarah scream. This is very effective as we do not know what The Stalker and his ally did with Sarah but the audience should be eager to find out. We did not develop the use of the cliff hanger as we were not sure how we could take it one step further. In addition, in our own Media product, we used the typically love interest. We were inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock Thriller ‘North by Northwest’, in which Roger Thornhill falls for a dashing blonde haired woman. However we analysed this and changed it slightly. In our own product, The Stalker is actually in love with Sarah but because she cheated on him with the most popular boy in school, he does not know how to react as he has mental problems. The only way he wants to get revenge is to set out and kill Sarah. This shows in our product that we have looked into the idea of love interests in thrillers and have adapted it to our own. On reflection it may not be evident that the Stalker is actually Sarah’s boyfriend as we did not make it clear to the audience. In thrillers, you will often see fast paced action and cut scenes because Thrillers are about excitement and drive. The fast paced cuts make it seem as though the Thriller is moving at an incredibly high speed. This is very common in many Thrillers, particularly in chase scenes. In our own Media product, we tried to emulate the idea of fast paced cuts. However it was very hard as if we had used fast paced cuts the audience might not have seen the full surroundings. We did however use really fast cuts in the part where Sarah enters the Stalker’s house. There are many different angles and it was me who cut them up and placed them together because after looking into many Thrillers, I realised the fast paced action present in nearly all of them. The fast paced action does not have to be throughout the film but it just makes the film incredibly entertaining if it is present in one part of the film whether it is a chase scene or just a casual scene.