Thriller Task - Evaluation

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

My opening title sequence fits many conventions of real media products. The opening scene in a film is probably the most important part of them film as they help set the tone for the rest of the film the audience can also decide if its going to be good film from the first couple of minutes. It needs to keep capture the audiences attention without giving away too much information.

My opening sequence follows the conventions of a real media product by doing the following:
It introduces the main characters
It gives a sense of ambiguity and mystery
It keep the audience watching
Use of music to create an atmosphere

Our opening sequence also goes against some of the conventions for a thriller such as ours uses natural lighting which is quite unusual for a thriller. We also included the use of shots which were filmed by a hand held camera e.g the shot of character A at the top of the cliff. This is also unusual for a thriller but we thought that it adds mystery and tension and helps to create the spooky atmosphere.

Our film is called ‘Absent’ and starts off with a mysterious phone call to a girl who is about to commit suicide. Our film can be compared to films such as ‘Die Hard: With a vengeance’ and ‘One missed call’ as they both include a mystery phone call with the people trying to figure out who it was that has called them.

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'Absent' 'Die hard: With a vengeance' 'One Missed Call'

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller is aimed at young teenagers so in turn represents a social group of teenagers being youthful and free to do whatever they want and rebellious. One way we have done this is with the casting of our actors. Character A is a young girl who seems to appear friendly and social who wears modern trendy clothes , young adults who are watching the film will be able to relate to her. The use of modern technology such as a 'blackberry' is also used within the opening sequence. This will also appeal to the younger social groups as most of them will own a mobile phone and maybe a blackberry so will understand all of the features and will understand what is going on when the phone is being used.

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

A distribution company that might distribute my media product is New line Cinema. New line cinema has distributed many popular films all from different genres such as 'Hairspray' , 'Friday the 13th' , ' Final destination 3' and 'Valentines day'. Since New Line Cinema Distribute many different types of genres including thrillers that our film will fit in nicely.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The ideal target audience for my media product would be Young adults of both genders even though the film may appear to older people as well. The reason why we chose this audience as it will be easier to target as we are around that age and we knew what people of our age like to watch. We chose quite a broad audience as we want as many people to be interested in our film as possible and not just a niche audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted and addressed our audience in many different ways to make sure they carry on watching the film. One way we did this was the use of music , even thought the music was maybe to the taste of our target audience it helped to create the atmosphere , tension and mystery which would keep the audience watching. Another way is the use of modern technology throughout the opening sequence you will be able to see a violet blackberry smart phone which are very popular at the moment especially with females , this use of this prob might attract the female half of our audience. The use of characters might also attract the audience as Character A is a pretty female who males might be attracted to and so might watch the rest of the film. Girls will also be able to relate to Character A as she is wearing trendy clothes and is a teenager. The opening sequence also deals with the topic of suicide which would interest our audience.

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

From the process of constructing this product i have learnt a lot of technology. Even though i have used a video camera before i never knew all the features and from creating this opening sequence i have learnt a lot more such as setting the white balance.
I also learnt all the uses of a tripod such as using it for pan shots to help make it smooth. I also learnt a lot about the editing programme Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 , even though i didn't use it much when editing i learnt a lot about how to cut clips and how to merge them together. I also learnt about the different transitions you can use to help the shots flow better together and how you can change the lighting and colour contrast to make everything look better and more professional.

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

From the preliminary task to know i have learnt lot , especially about working in a group. In the preliminary task i took more of a backwards role and occasionally chipped in where i felt appropriate but when planning and filming the main task i felt more confident and took part in everything and always contributed my ideas. I also learnt the time and effort and planning it takes into making a short 2 minute opening sequence for a film as at first it looked like it was going to be easy. I have also realised that i prefer working in a group rather than independently as having everyone's opinions ideas helped the opening sequence be the best it could be. I have also learnt how important a detailed storyboard can be when filming , during the preliminary task we only did a draft story board with not very detailed pictures and notes so when it came to filming we didn't really now what we were filming and interpreted most of it. When filming the task our storyboard was more detailed and clear making it easy to follow and saved time when filming as we knew exactly what shot we had to do next and what it should look like. I have learnt many skills and had experience with trying out different shots such as zoom , reverse zoom , pan , tracking shot and extreme close up. I also learnt how much transitions are used within editing to help make the sequence flow. Overall i feel that i have learnt a lot about planning , filming and editing a opening sequence from a thriller compared to what i knew when starting the preliminary task and that i have progressed since then.