Nicole Newman - Media Evaluation

 Evaluation

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


2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our project represents the main character to be a young adult around the age of 20-22, of the working class. You can see this by the clothes that he wears and the lack of hygiene within his room as you can see in the beginning of our thriller opening. We've created this character to be portrayed as insane, lonely and depressed. This was shown through musical choice and the blurred vision throughout the piece. There is also a female character who's briefly shown in the filming, she's 19 and you can see that also through choice of clothing but this is all the information gathered from this. 

Social Class- 
We used the idea of 'social class' in our thriller as we thought our male character would have been easily identified as a working class citizen. This is because of his clothing range - a white t-shirt and jogging bottoms which makes him look casual and carefree. This is also shown in the bedroom scene of the thriller. His bedroom; was unnecessarily messy and unsanitary, showing that he doesn't look after himself properly, showing the state he is in, yet still manages to have a roof over his head. The female character is unidentified, the audience would probably come to the assumption that they were companions (intimately) so it was likely that they'd be of the same social class. 


Representations of Male and Female characters-

The 20-22 year old male character is represented as a typical lazy messy guy who doesn't care about anyone or anything. We created this, not only through editing but whilst we were filming. I found it interesting trying to put my mind into someone elses shoes which meant that we could play around with the character whilst shooting the thriller opening. He's also represented as a depressed figure throughout the whole piece. This is created by the use of facial features, the glum look on his face in every scene shows that he clearly is not in the right frame of mind to do anything. By adding non-diegetic music, this helps the audience understand what's going on in his mind and also re-in forces his depression and loss of humanity.
Through the use of editing, we have made some scenes blurred which show that he's unstable and unfocused which is hopefully how the audience perceived this.

The female character has been made to look the opposite of the stereotyped girls I'm thrillers usually. Which gets the audience to ask questions as to who she may be and what she may be doing within the film as she only appears quickly, in the mirror as the male character puts his head into the sink to wash his face. As this moment was all in the male characters head, it creates an unsettling atmosphere.

By having an Asian play the main character, we have broken the stereotype as directors would usually stick to the normal white or black ethnicity.  I haven't seen many films where Asians have played a protagonist, they are usually perceived as the villain during films. Another example of an Asian playing the protagonist is 'Bend It Like Beckham' directed by Gurinder Chadha- the actress being Parminder Nagra was a main character and this was one of the only films I have seen that involves a good Asian character. Only I'm the last 10 years have Asians been seen as good rather than evil and villainous.

3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As our film is a low budget film, we would hope that our film would be released straight onto the Xbox as its more than one platform or straight onto DVD rather then going through the cinema. This is because we aren't a Hollywood or Blockbuster film, therefore we are unable to advertise as much as bigger films. The likely hood is that the advertisement for this film will be posters, internet and a trailer.

Film 4, are a company that air films that they have approved and been involved with throughout the ideas and the making of the product.
They also sometimes air low budget films, this way we would be able to send off our product and they would consider showing our film.

You could also put it straight onto Netflix for viewing which has become a very popular way of getting low budget films on air.











4. Who would be the audience for you media product?
Because our film is a certificate 15, this means that we would want mainly males with an age range from 15-18 year olds to watch our thriller. 

We made it a 15 as throughout the duration of the film, it becomes slightly more thought out and anyone younger than 15 would struggle to grasp the context of it. Usually, in a rated 15 film, graphic can sometimes be very high and violence and sexual scenes are included in many films which is not appropriate for anyone under the age of 15 as clearly it is unsuitable.

"No one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 DVD. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under the age of 15." - http://www.bbc.co.uk/.

This is a pie chart that has been done previously asking about specific films and most popular genres. Although thrillers aren't the most popular, you can see that a vast majority of people enjoy thrillers making it easier to gain a wider audience. I'd suspect that the age for thrillers ranges from young to old as there's more than one kind of thriller.


5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We hope to attract/address the audience by the use of our sound and editing work from the opening scene. We've tried to create a sense of mystery and enigma to draw the audience in by making it silent with non-diegetic music. The music is very depressing and gives you an idea of loss and sorrow, which could suggest something about the character.

When I asked a few people about what they thought of our opening scene, here's what some of them said:
-" I love the water scene, it looks so realistic."
-"I really want to know who the girl is and what she's doing."

After showing a few people, I asked what they thought we could have improved on. I asked this because it could have given idea's to us about what wasn't quite good enough. Some people said that the lighting changed throughout the piece, but unfortunately we were unable to fix this as there was no time to film any more.

This is the trailer for 'Silence of The Lambs' - the audience would probably be attracted by not only because of the genre, but possibly because of the actors fans. It is likely that if there's a popular actor playing a large role in the film, their fans will watch to see them. The music within this is also sinister which if you're into thrillers, it could give you an idea whether you would enjoy watching this particular film.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt a lot on the journey of creating this opening scene of a thriller.
- The use of the MAC, which before I found difficult to grasp, but after editing the film and putting things together, I now understand what's what and how things actually work now.

-  Using most of the camera and filming equipment, before this project, I'd never been left on my own in a group to successfully create an opening scene for a thriller without any help in class, it's helped me to become more independent with my studies during media.

- Green Screen, although we didn't use green screen in our piece of film, we learnt how to use it and edit it onto the MAC's and make it look realistic which before I would have found difficult.

- I was unable to use 'Blogger' before we started this project, I've never been sure how to use blogs but whilst learning over the course of working through the thriller, its become easy and I'm able to work much more sufficiently.

- Even though we did not use garage band in our actual thriller, we used it for our preliminary task which before doing so and practicing, I found it much easier to use and get the hang of, rather than struggling, i kept at it and eventually gained more experience.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progessin from it to the full product?

I have learnt to make sure at all times, that the head doesn't leave the shot unless its meant to or done for a specific reason.

I have learnt in much greater detail the camera shots such as close ups, medium shots and long shots to form a better product when we were creating our opening scene.

Also I learnt to manage the timing when we were filming, whilst we were doing the filming for the preliminary, we found it difficult getting it in on time and actually finishing up and editing, this time we managed to get the majority of it done in time rather then it all being rushed.

Before, in the preliminary, we did not check for our lighting, instead we used natural lighting which effected the outcome for our piece.

The preliminary was much more simple to create, it was three different shots:

-Shot Reverse Shot

-Keeping the 180 Degree Rule

-Match on Action

Still we found it difficult to complete as there was only two of us, whereas in our final production, there was three of us and it become easier to control who does what and when we would get things done. The final product was much more intense to finish and complete, there was more than just editing three shots together, it was two minutes worth of filming yet it all come together and looked better than expected.

Evaluation - Ziaul Islam

EVALUATION

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

Protagonist:
The protagonist is always the leading character for and drama or thrillers. The person that the whole story is revolved around. It is some times the character who speaks first making him the main purpose of the film. Most times the protagonist is the hero, heroine or champion. In the 'Taken' film the protagonist is Lee Neeson because the films revolves around him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCbDUREBwUg

Antagonist: 
The antagonist is usually the the villain who opposes the hero or heroine. It can be a single character or more a group of people. The antagonist is usually trying to stop and get in the way of the goal of the protagonist. In Taken the antagonist is the Albanians who kidnap the girl.

Restricted narration:
This is when the audience knows less or the same amount of information that the the character knows. Point of view shot is the main way the director gets this across because it feels like we see and feels the same as the main character.

Enigma code:
The enigma code is a mystery that is not answered straight away, it is used to keep the film intriguing and keep the audience engaged and asking various questions. A good example is in Inception with the spinning top, the audience doesn't know what it is tell much later within the film.

Suspense:
Arguably the most important ingredient for a good thriller film. Suspense in an uncertainty of what is going to happen, this usually creates a atmosphere of anxiety and doubt within the audience. These isn't many thrillers where you won't see this technique used.

Real life: 
Thrillers usually get mixed up with horrors but they're different. Thrillers are based on non supernatural events that could happen in real life time. Horrors are completely different and have a lower chance of realism compared to a thriller.

9 Shot frame

1^st  – this shot is setting the scene for the opening. It creates an enigma straight away  The audience is unknown to what has happened, is it a burglary or an act of violence from someone? The camera is panning upwards revealing not only the whole setting but also the extent of the damage caused. No characters are revealed within the certain shot. The props (clothing) being used can give a clear indication that the character is working class. The lighting being used is supposed to be from the moon light, conveying a dark scene. The main purpose is to set the scene.

2^nd  – The second shot is the identity of the character the room belongs to. The camera is looking down towards the character. It is however still unknown to the audience as to why the room is trashed. In this shot the character is perceived as weak because of the high camera angle.

3^rd shot – This is an interesting camera shot, the character is at eye level with the camera. The camera is now at awaken so has more power. The editing used was distortion. This was meant to show that the character was unstable and how he sees things. His facial features are emotionless; with the sound track it conveys the idea that the male is probably depressed. The audience feel a slight sympathy for him despite not knowing reasons for his depression.

4^th picture – This shot was made possible by the water proof camera. This certain shot has a clever purpose. When he goes down the female character appears. But the audience do not see this until the camera comes out the water and looks at the mirror. This has horror elements but it is the equivalent of a flashback you see characters have. Despite the character never seeing the through the mirror, it shows his lack of stability.

5^th – This is the appearance of the males girlfriend. The audience however do not know this and do not know that he killed her. This creates suspense and again, enigma. Just after this the light flashes because this is to exit the character from the scene swiftly.

6^th – The character is the leaving the bathroom. It a medium shot of the characters back and do not get to see his facial expression. I had to use lighting corrector because the scene was poorly lit.

7^th – Just after the exiting the bathroom,

the male enters the woods through transition. The lighting is natural sunlight so the scene is well lit and bright. The exit from the bathroom to this scene is supposed to be like the character went from the bathroom to the woods. The audience is introduced to some diegetic sound; the shovel being dragged through the woods, again questioning the sanity of the male. The non diegetic music is still playing through emphasizing the depression of the male.

8^th- Just before the credit scene, we see him putting down the shovel into the ground. The editing of his vision creates a spooky atmosphere leading up to this. It leaves the audience guessing as to what he is doing, in an isolated area with a shovel. The characters clothing is casual showing that he is working class.

9^th – the titling used completes the opening by concluding that the character is disturbed or distorted. The insanity is confirmed through the distortion used with the title ‘Disturbia’ and it is unevenly written as well as being blurry.  

In our thriller opening it is unclear if the main character is either a protagonist or a antagonist. This uncertainty of him people either good or bad is a riddle for the audience because he does not seem evil but the audience gets little hints. In the opening we wanted it to be unclear if the character was good or bad because it creates an enigma. We wanted the audience to dwell and want to find out if the character is good or evil. We wanted the editing of distortion on the character to show that he is a disturbed and how he sees the world.. unclear or distorted.

The suspense within our thriller opening is right at the very end, when the character puts down the shovel after looking round. Why is he there? Why is he dragging a shovel in an isolated location like the woods? Is he burying someone? These were the questions the ending of the opening was supposed to ask.

In other thrillers such as Inception, the main sounds are used to show where the character is. We do not have to see the location to know that the male is at the beach or ocean. The music is used to devastating affect during the opening of Inception, mainly because it creates huge amount of tension and more suspense. It is similar to our thriller opening, as the audience do not know what is happening and who the male character is in the opening scene. The low key lighting represents a melancholy atmosphere within the scene.

Inception opening scene.

The sound track to Inception which is deep and melancholy. Same as ours, representing the character, deep and melancholy.




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

In our thriller there is only one main character that features through out the whole film, (me) who is represented as a young adult at the age of about 20-22, Asian. He is also shown to probably be in the working class because of what he is wearing and the state of his room. The male character is meant to be insane, unfit and depressed; this is done through the sorrow music and the blurry editing of him and his vision.  Also there is a white female aged 19 who appears in the mirror for a brief scene. We do not know anything about her. 



Social Class: In our thriller we can tell that the character is casual and working class because he is wearing white t-shirt and jogging bottoms. This is also shown by his room; which is a mess with clothes all over the floor and rubbish also on the floor. The man is conveyed as someone who doesn't take care of himself but also does not care of his state. This idea is also obvious because he has a grown beard. The females social class is impossible to tell because she is seen briefly but the audience can assume it is similar to that of the male characters because they're associates of each other (in a intimate relationship).

Male and female represented:
Our thriller the male is not that of a stereotypical male during the first half of the thriller opening. He is represented has a depressed character because of his facial features. The straight face throughout the whole film shows that he is troubled. These are usually traits of women. With the non diegetic music is re-enforces the belief of the depression the character is going through and also creates an enigma of why he is depressed. We have constructed him mainly by his costume, he have made him look like a normal person because of his casual clothing. The audience do not suspect him to be distorted. However by the use of non diegetic music and the editing (distortion) the audience get a clear idea of instability and mental issues.

The female character is the opposite to normal stereotypical female belief. She is clearly and scary figure within the seen. Despite being just an illusion within the male characters head, she appears when he is not looking but creates a spooky atmosphere. It makes the audience curious as to who she may be, with the presumption she is his girlfriend.


Through editing however it is clear the male character is unstable as his vision is incredibly poor. The audience views him with distortion and that's his view in general. However it is unclear through out the opening if the male character is antagonist or protagonist until the end where he drags a shovel through the woods.

Our main character is played by an Asian, this is unusal in most types of thrillers because film directors usually tend to keep with people of White or Black efnicity. Asian people generally are precieved as a weaker efnicity or terrorists during films and not an protagonist. I have not seen many films where an Asain plays a hero.

Only since the last ten years have Asian people been represented in a better way. The hit 'Bend it like Beckham' was the first time where the main character was a female Asian. This was a huge stepping stone for more Asian, not just females but also males try to get more lead roles within big films. A poll BBC conducted shows that 78% of people think that ethnic minorities are better represented on television now compared to 10 years ago. A clear indication as to how far people for different efnicity have come in the world of film. Before 1980's, Asian people were never on T.V, during the 80's the slowly came on T.V, but they were not given major roles, only small roles and stereotyped as; corner shop owners; taxi drivers; restaurant owners.

On September 11th 2001, one thing happened that would change everyone’s perceptions of Asian people: suicide bombers crashed into the twin towers (in America, New York), causing total devastation and hatred between white and Asian communities. After that Asian people were labelled as terrorists, suicide bombers, being stopped by police just because they were Asian. On 7th July 2005 another attack happened but this time in London. 7 main stations were bombed in London and a bus which just fuelled the hatred for Asian people. There were a series of shootings and stabbings aimed at black people and they were killed. The media attacked it and made people believe that all Asians for at fault.


Shows that they're evil in this picture.

3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Because our film is a low budget British Film, we are hoping that we can release our film straight to xbox or DVD. This is because our film is not a blockbuster with millions of pounds so cannot afford to advertise as some big films do. Our advertisements are probably going to be billboards, posters and more commonly through the internet, but also trailer.



Film 4 release films made by themselves. They also air other films that are not made by themselves.









 These are films produced by BBC.

 Another option, putting it straight on Netflix for viewing, recently gaining huge popularity.

Vast array of films within this promo.


4. Who would be the audience for you media product?

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/, this is an understanding of what age certificate is and why it's essential for all films.

No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated DVD.  15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

-15 violence/horror

At a 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.

• Because our film is certificated 15, we are looking for males aged between 15 and 18 to be interested in watching our films.
• 

  

  Survey of 16+ year old males

• This is a clear indication that thriller films are incredibly popular amongst 16+ year old males. We are hoping that also females will have some interest because of a female in our opening. There would be curious as well as interested to what happened to her. We have really targeted our film for 15+ males and no other demographic.

  

  4th most dominant genre of film.

   

This is 'The house at the end of the street'. This thrillers target audience would be both genders at the region of about 15-18. This would be attracting males because there is an attractive young female who is the protagonist feeling empathy for the antagonist because of what has happened. This is intriguing for males who want to know why she feel these ways? Females in general could feel the same as her and be put in her position.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We are hoping to attract our target audience through the enigma caused through the use of editing and camera work. He is a mysterious character with a deep secret. The depressing music is supposed to make the audience feel sympathy for him. Because is he unstable we hoped that teenagers will find this exciting and want to watch it to find out what he does.

I asked some of my friends what they thought of my thriller:

"The water scene camera work was amazing and the best bit of footage of the whole opening thriller"
"It was mysterious and didn't know who the girl was!"
"Made me want to know what he was doing" 

Because that i show'd some of my friends, they seem'd to have taken interest because of the way it was produced and some of the interesting camera shots. I show'd them through the blog and told others to click on the blog and have a look. Unfortunately they did not own Gmail account, so had to tell me in person what they had thought of it. 

 
The general public gave it a thumbs up, with many saying it was intriguing throughout. 
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt an incredible amount during my processes of making this film. I had no idea how to use any of the equipment I was using and didn't know how to even use Blogger at the beginning of making my film!

This has been the best use and hardest task to use. I was a baby with this piece of technology and had no idea how to use it prior editing. I turned out having to edit the whole opening scene by myself. I am still confused at some of the uses but am confident when I use it and am a lot better then I was at the beginning.

I did not use garage band during the process of making my thriller but however it was key throughout the preliminary task. This video is a tutorial of how to use garage band.

This is a tutorial about white balance. Arguably the most important process during filing. If you get this wrong it can ruin the whole scene!

I had to start from scratch as my knowledge of the use of Macs in limited. Mainly because I don't own one and instead have a PC. I had to quickly get to grips with it however.

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

http://foundationportfolio1333.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/preliminary-task.html

Our preliminary task was a very basic piece of filming. The task was to use 3 shots; Shot reverse shot, 180 degrees rule and match on action. We successfully completed the task. We did not make sure that our lighting was good. We use diegetic music until the end, which in truth was poorly edited. The camera shots and angles were untidy. This was mainly because these aspects were unimportant for the task we were doing. In comparision we had to make our camera angles nearly perfect to give off the right idea. Same with the lighting, if this was not correct then our idea of the thriller would not have worked as well. We had to think much more carefully when deciding what music we wanted. In our group we played a sorrow non diegetic sound track throughout the opening to convey the idea of depression and used diegetic noise once, the shovel being dragged through the woods, this was also amplified for spooky effects.




We used thw 180 rule in our preliminary and thriller. If you did not abide by this rule, the scene wouldn't make sense. Shot reverse shot was also used a lot in the preliminary but less used in the thriller. 

Example of poor close up, the shoulder should not be visible, only the top of his head to the top of the chin. This was because of inexperience and the fact this part of the task wasn't hugely important.

Shay Nicholson Evaluation

Evaluation

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


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


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


4. Who would be the audience for you media product?


5. How did you attract/address your audience?


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


7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progessin from it to the full product?

Audience feedback

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK 




Enter comments (good and bad) about our film

Add comment.

Make comments on Charlotte (see Andys blog), Becky (Andrews blog), Gabi (Andrews blog),Kazumi (Andrews blog), Phil (Andy blogs)

Completed foundation task

Title and credit research

This is the opening for BBC one TV thriller Luther. This beginning is at the start of every single episode and it tells the viewers the names of the actors/actresses who will feature in it.

The text is usually white bald letters and the people who have made this usually put it over a darker scene so it is easily visible too read. The text is never in the same position which has to make your eyes move around to know where the text is. The text transition is quick, this makes it feel as if it is getting away.. because it is a detective drama this may be why.
 
The music sounds quite modern as well and may represent the main character. It is also quite mysterious.
The character in this is also in the title sequence, but we only see glimpses of his face behind the colours and writing. He is also made to look like a shadow, probably showing that he is sneaky. Luther is made to be mysterious in this sequence. Because this is a dark scene any objects within the sequence are just silhouettes.

This is the title sequence for 'Silent Witness'.

The names of producers and actors come after the name which is different to most thrillers or dramas. When the names do come on view they're no there for long and each one of them disappears behind the light which swoops across the scene. The writing is white and the background is quite light blue so it isn't incredibly visible. Also the writing of the names gets close towards the scene making it bigger as well.

At the beginning of the scene their is a clip of a skeleton, mainly the upper body. This shows that the drama is probably going to be around forensic science or about doctors. As like the writing this as well disappears with the swooping light.

The music has no real lyrical meaning and is just hums. The music it self creates an atmosphere and creates an enigma because there are no people within the sequence. It also ties in with the title 'Silent Witness'. This is because silent witness are people who witness something bad but don't say anything.. again mystery.

This clip is the opening sequence to Sherlock Holmes. 

The text is used so that it goes with the darker colours so that it is visible to see, it also need to stand out against the moving pictures and faces. The text is written in fairly modern style so it may represent a modern setting throughout the drama. Before most the names disappear, the text enlarges so it can possible grab the attention of the viewers. Like all the others thrillers/dramas I have written about, the music is a tension creator and the music does that very well.  

Through the images we can tell that the setting is probably in London. The writing and billboards within the scene can also suggest its set in a wealthier side of London. We mainly see outlines of characters in the opening sequences but there is a part where we get to see the main character and the 'side kick'. Most the moving images represent everything that a detective is supposed to do but from watching the show I know that this is not the case with Sherlock Holmes. The images are mostly of the settings within the episodes.

Ziaul Islam

Music Choice

Link to the song

This is the music we decided to use for our video, because it reflects the characters emotions. It links well with the story line and the non diegetic sound takes the attention away from the fact that there is no dialogue.
The music is called cloverfield and we got it off the copyright free website jamendo.



Shay Nicholson
Nicole Newman