Evaluation
Q1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
After looking through our research results we noticed that the audience mainly associate crime thrillers with the tense music and the action they include, they also believed that the right use of characters can determine the success of the film overall, after noticing this we used an up beat soundtrack that plays behind the action taking place on screen to reinforce this, we used the same soundtrack throughout the opening so it didn’t confuse the audience watching as sound can represent moods so with different soundtracks being played they may believe that it is for a purpose. We initially got the idea of using tense and intriguing music from existing crime thrillers such as Taken, Limitless and The Bourne Ultimatum and after a long think we decided to use the opening sound track from The Bourne Ultimatum, this is because it worked extremely well in that film, it has a slow opening but then the pace picks up and it transforms into a very fast and intriguing piece of music, we thought this would be perfect as we wanted the audience to be concentrating on what is happening and by alerting them early on with this piece of music this would keep them intrigued and interested, we believed we did this. After looking at the music used in these crime thriller films we decided to look at the settings that are also used during the openings such as hotels, homes, the city, the streets, warehouses, abandoned buildings and other spooky unknown settings, we then decided to set our opening on the streets and at a open park, we chose this as this setting is used very well during the opening of Limitless where Bradley Cooper begins to walk the streets of New York city, it gives the audience a sense of realism as they have been there before and at times it can also be a mysterious and dangerous place, we filmed our opening during the day time so It is not as dark and mysterious as we intended but it still conforms to the codes and conventions of a crime thriller as demonstrated during Limitless. During Limitless Bradley Cooper walks through the city with pedestrians around him, this also shows a sense of realism, the city centre is also a motif during Limitless as it occurs very often during the film as it is an iconic landmark! In Limitless the main storyline is based around a powerful drug that allows the person to access 100% of their brain. We also used a similar idea and we chose to set our storyline based around a mysterious key that unlocks something secretive, this storyline would also keep the audience intrigued as they are stuck wondering what this key unlocks!
Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We have represented young teenage people as the characters that star in our film are within the age range of 17-18, we also have two males and a female character, this reinforces male patriarchy as the male figures are the more dominant throughout, with the involvement of more male characters this may be more appealing to young men as there is an aggressive character and then an everyday teenage student who enjoys socializing and sport, there are scenes of fighting and arguing so this may be more appealing to younger males then females as they would be more interested in this specific narrative, in may also appeal to young people who are involved with a relationship as there is a relationship in the opening of our film, the male student is in a relationship with the one female character that is involved and there is a scene in the opening when we are told that the couple have been arguing and he goes to meet her to sort things out and to make their relationship stronger but during the journey he is confronted by the other young male, this may appeal to young lovers as they would want to see them become a stronger and happier couple and it may intrigue them when he is confronted and attacked, they would more than likely feel to the male character and want him to be okay this may also give the audience a sense of realism as they may feel part of the action taking place, after this his phone rings at the end and it is his girlfriend wondering where he is this would interest them and keep them intrigued as they would want to know what happens next. The main male characters best friend is also in the opening of the film and we see him near the beginning when he is walking and having a conversation, both males are also dressed very casually wearing jeans and hooded tops, this also reinforces the appeal it might have to the younger generation as they wear very similar clothing. Our film opening is not stereotypical of genders as it appeals to both male and females. With the action and fighting scenes that occur during the opening reinforced the idea of it being a crime thriller and with it being more appealing to the certain age range, in terms of social groups the opening would appeal to young lovers and the current younger generation, boys and girls but mainly younger men as they would prefer the narrative and they may get a sense of realism from it as they could have been put in a similar position before hand. We have chose to set the age certificate at 15, this is because there are aggressive scenes that may not be suitable for people under the age of 15, it may also influence the actions of the audience in real life so by setting the age certificate at 15 we believe, is a good choice.
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Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Twentieth century fox will distribute our media product, this is advisable and relevant as they have distributed many other worldwide films such as Taken, Taken 2, Prometheus and Avatar. As we know the first and second Taken are crime thriller films and have similar narratives to the film we produced ‘The Seeking’, with twentieth century fox being a well established company promotion and advertisement would be very successful as Avatar made a total of $2,783,919,000 worldwide, this shows that many viewers expect extraordinary things from Twentieth Century Fox. With them distributing our product it would also promote our product highly and attract many potential and interested viewers, some people may want to watch our product purely for the fact it has been distributed by twentieth century fox as they have distributed many other high quality films! Twentieth century fox help promote films by creating film trailers, advertisements and posters, posters are placed in different popular locations such as city centre’s and large iconic landscapes for example, Empire State Building, they are positioned in these specific places because they will be noticed by many people who may be attracted and potentially interested in then viewing the product, we would have to make sure that the posters revealed inside information that would attract the viewers and we would have to make the posters also very attractive and appealing to the target audience. Millions of people watch television everyday so by creating a television trailer or advertisement that promotes our product would be very beneficial as it would be seen by people all across the world and this may also increase the reputation and the publicity of the product, this would also occur if we were to post a trailer online where many people view different social networking sites daily, I believe by creating and posting a trailer we would maximize the amount of interested viewers and definitely increase the reputation of our product!
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Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience for our media product would mainly be young people preferably men as they may enjoy the action/fighting scenes more than females may, it is aimed towards young males and females and also couples, it is aimed at young couples as there are scenes where you see the couple and the narrative is based around a relationship where things have not gone well so they try to sort things out. Our media product may intrigue and be appealing to older people also as it is a very mature and popular narrative that is used, the narrative we chose to use is very similar to the one in Taken 2 and that film specifically appealed to people of all ages and generations so I believe ours may appeal to them also. Looking at our questionnaire research results most of the people that answered the questions were within the ages of 15-21, this shows that the film may appeal to younger people more than it may appeal to older people, our questionnaire results also tells us that people mainly go to the cinema with friends or children suggesting that there is a higher majority of younger people than older. By using 2 young male characters and a female character we believe this may influence the thoughts of the viewer as it gives the viewer that relevant sense of realism as they watch the product. During the beginning of the film and near towards the end a soundtrack plays to create tension and interest, the soundtrack is used famously in the film ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ this may also attract fans of this film as they may believe that our product may happen to be similar to The Bourne Ultimatum or it may consist of the same codes and conventions as The Bourne Ultimatum. By using different features that appear in different successful crime thrillers I believe we are maximizing opportunity of attracting a wider target audience and by attracting more potential viewers. The more viewers the product receives then the more successful the product will become, this will happen by increasing reputation and by expanding target audience so it appeals to a wider variety of people making the product more successful! With Taken and The Bourne Ultimatum older actors were used to represent more mature and wiser characters appealing to older males and females, these films also appealed to younger people as the characters were within an age range that appealed to both younger and older viewers, with our actors/characters being aged within 17-19 this may not appeal to older people but we believe it will as it is structured and presented in the same way as current crime thrillers.
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Q5. What technologies did you use in making your film?
Before producing our final product we made a short film, our preliminary task. The aim for this task was for us to use the various camera shots and angles but to also to gain experience using the equipment. For the opening of our film we used camcorders and tripods to try and make it as professional as possible, the camcorder was used to film the whole of our product, we did this so the quality of the screening did not alter throughout the whole piece, the tripod was used to create a stable and professional final product. As we could choose the genre and plot for the film we decided to do a crime thriller as it appealed to us more than any other sub genre, with us aware that our final product would have to be a thriller we wanted to experience creating our very own. For this task we had to some background research on current crime thriller films, so we watched various clips of different openings, noting down what it is that makes the audience interested and intrigued (the music and characters used). We also made a storyboard to know the order in which our shots would be filmed to make it as good as it could be, This would give us a visual view of the overall product we wanted to create. We also needed to sort out the mise en scene, the setting, the props, the actors and the clothing they wore. Once we had filmed we had to edit what we had filmed, add effects to make the film smoother and to also add a sound track that would be in time with the action on screen but also a soundtrack that suited our genre. To do this we used the iMac’s and programmes such as iMovie and Celtx. After making our preliminary task, creating and editing our final product wasn’t as difficult as it would have been if we had never used the camera’s or known what type of research to do. It also saved on a lot of time, meaning that we had more time to shoot than practicing and wondering how to use the equipment and taking even longer time on our research. As well as saving time it made us more confident in creating and editing our final product as we knew that we had time on our hands and we didn’t have to rush, so by having plenty of time we made it the best we could and then we had time to go over any errors that occurred.
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Q6. How have your skills developed from the preliminary task?
My skills have developed since we created the preliminary task as I have gained experience using different equipment and different tools on the iMac’s. I have gained experience using iMovie and Celtx and also holding the camera in different positions and capturing different shots, with holding the camera and being able to capture different shots and different moods was difficult but after using it in the preliminary task it was not as difficult as if I were to have just used it the once, we also used a tripod to capture static shots that would make our product look more professional. We used iMovie to edit and develop our product so it were as good as it could be, we edited all of the filming we had done and created a product that we were happy with and a product that we thought would be very successful, without the use of iMovie we wouldn’t have been able to do that, using it in the preliminary task benefited drastically! With the use of iMovie we were also able to add effects and transitions to make our product more appealing and for it to reinforce the codes and conventions of a crime thriller. We believe that by using effects and transitions our overall product will look more professional and will attract a wider target audience, for example we made the colour of our film slightly darker to represent a mysterious and crime worthy mood and feel to it, we included soundtracks and transitions like fade in and fade outs to show that the product was continuous instead of different fixed shots making it more static. We added a title at the beginning of our product to also show the professionalism and to address the audience about what they are about to watch, it also shows that the product is well structured. The title is black with white font, the font looks very old fashioned and bold, this shows the mysteriousness of the product.
