Evaluation Questions

Question 1:
In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge conventions of real media products?

The production name titles at the start of our film (top) and 'Air Force One' (bottom) are similiar, as both are rather basic, granting no particular insight into how the film will pan out. Also, by making the titles less striking, the audience will be more impressed by the action in the thriller, due to the sudden contrast from plain to exciting.

Both our film (top) and 'Air Force One' (bottom) use superimposed opening credentials. This is pretty conventional with thrillers, as it means the audience can carry on watching the film whilst the credits are up, and are therefore never distracted from the action on screen.

A common stereotype in thriller films is the colour red, as seen in the film screenshot (bottom) and mirrored in our film, through the use of a vehicle. Red represents many things, nothing good; evil, aggression, violence, blood, etc. The fact that the vehicles above are red, suggest that the characters driving them are very aggressive, as is the case.

Both our film (top) and 'Fighting' (bottom) feature a strike (punch, slap, etc) in its content. Violence is a common convention in thriller films, hence the reason we put it in our film. This is because with a fight comes adrenaline, and with adrenaline comes the thrill.

Both our film (top) and 'Point Break' (bottom) feature a chase shot from a POV (point of view). This means a lot of shaky cam as the POV is supposed be from someone who is also running. It is somewhat conventional in thriller films, as a shot such as this shows you first hand, just how close the POV person is to catching the person fleeing.

A school is featured as a setting in both our film and 'Tormented' shown bottom. This is an unconventional setting for thrillers, as School is usually somewhere you should feels safe and secure. To challenge a convention and make school a place where you are not safe, either works brilliantly... or fails on an epic proportion.

Both our film and Prison Break feature a prison as a setting (ours only an exterior). This is conventional as it is a place where criminals, often murderers, armed robbers, etc, are locked up. When they are released or escape, the audience must ask themselves; "what will they do next? Commit crime again?"

 

Another thriller convention we use in our film (top), is a POV shot from the antagonist as he stalks or kills a victim. These are often used in thrillers, as they build tension in the audience's minds. The audience knows that the antagonist or whoevers POV it is is watching the protagonist/victim... but the protagonist/victim has quite often got no idea. And even when they do (such as in the bottom still), it is quite often too late. They are about to die. This therefore is very thrilling for audience members, hence the reason we see so many POV shots in thriller films.

Here we see both a similarity and a difference between our film (top) and 'F' (bottom). The similarity is the conventional use of a hooded jumper to represent modern teenagers, and also another convention is that we cannot see the teenagers identity clearly in 'F', due to the hood. Not being able to see an antagonist in thrillers is very conventional as the audience will likely fear the unknown.

A convention of thriller films that both our film (top) and 'The Butterfly Effect' (bottom) share is the use of a particular item, that when looked at a buy a character, triggers a flashback within said character. In our film, the fact that the real father is looking at a photo of the little girl our teenage girl used to be, triggers the flashback of that day. These are often used in thrillers as in grants further insight into the characters of the film.

Question 2:
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Within our film, there is really only one social group that is represented. This is because the entirety of our film is only supposed to be the first two minutes of a full length feature film. Were we to have actually made the full length film, we would of course represented many more social groups as well.
Anyway, the social group we have represented is 'modern day teenagers', if you will. We show this through 3 characters; 'Jen', 'Teenager 1', and 'Teenager 2'. They are seen as arrogant, trouble-making youths, which is a very common stereotype given to people aged 13-21.


This representation is shown early in the film, as the teenagers leave the school gates. They can be heard laughing about being in detention, even calling themselves the 'Detention Club'. They also state how they will be in detention tomorrow. Also, Jen is lectured by her stepfather about a referral letter that has been sent home from the school.


Another representation of modern teenagers is how the teenagers are attired within the film; hooded jumpers, neglecting school uniform, etc. Again, this choice of clothing is commonly associated with teenagers. Especially hooded jumpers, as some people believe that teens partially obstruct their identity by wearing a hood, purely so that they can cause trouble without being recognised easily. 


A third representation is how Jen speaks with her stepdad, not caring for his authority one ounce. This shows teenagers to be disrespectful and selfish, caring for no one else but themselves. She is also called a 'Rebel' by one of the teenagers, this is a compliment by implying that breaking a few rules makes you a freedom fighter. This shows Teenagers to be ignorant.


Films such as 'KidultHood', 'SHANK', and 'Tormented' also represent teenagers in this manner. Embedded below is the trailer for 'Kidulthood.' 

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

Before I answer this question, I would like to make it quite clear that although our films are only two minutes in length, our main task for the course was to 'Create the first 2 minutes of a FULL LENGTH feature film.' Therefore, I shall be writing as if I were trying to get our full length film shown, had we actually been able to produce it.

ICON Film Distribution

Icon Entertainment International was formed in September 1995 to handle Icon and third party film product internationally.
Icon Entertainment International has subsequently established itself as one of the leading suppliers of theatrical feature films to the independent film market establishing strong relationships with the best distributors in each territory.

The reason I believe ICON would distribute our film (were we to have the financial backing of an institution like 'After Dark' or 'Mandalay Bay', is because ICON mainly distribute films of the Thriller genre, which is what our film is. In the past, ICON have distributed low budget films, such as 'The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations', and 'Paranormal Activity'. This means that if our film was improved, and developed some small renown, perhaps ICON would distribute it.

Shorts International

Shorts International is a London based company with links to iTunes, which means that the films they distribute are done so to a wide range of people. 

When submitting a film, their form gives the option to state whether the film is a student production and if so, which school you attend.

This means it is highly likely that Shorts would distribute our film if we a) made improvements, and b) extended the film.

Question 4:
Who would be the audience for your media product?


Our target audience for 'Sins of the Father' is people aged 25+, as this represents the mature section of cinema goers. Both males and females can enjoy this film, though had we made the film as a full length feature,lots of gore would be featured so females may not enjoy that side of it as much as some males might. That is not to say that females CAN'T enjoy gore and blood etc, it just tends to be unlikely. Another reason we intended our audience to 25+ is because of our films genre. A thriller about paternal affairs becoming murderous is going to appeal much more to a mature audience such as the kind that go to watch 'Psycho', 'Taken', etc, rather than a set of teenagers, as they might view the film to be too uptight and story based, rather than scary or thrilling.


My main proof of this is my experience at Odeon Cinema in Tamworth, when I went to see 'The Butterfly Effect'. Only a handful of the audience appeared to be under the age of 25. The majority of audience members were mature adults. The only exception being me, but I'm weird like that.


Below is a picture of our typical punter:

Question 5:
How did you attract/address your audience?


Below is a short interview we conducted with a model target audience member. We did this to a) showcase a different way of presenting information, and b) to show how we attracted our audience as he explains what pulled him in.








Question 6:
What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


Since the start of this course I have learned many skills which have helped me to create our final film product. At the heart of it all, technological advancements in filming equipment, computers, etc - have enabled me to create an actual film with minimum funding and difficulty. Listed below are some of the technologies I have used in this course.

We have used a handheld digital camera in our film. It was essential as it allowed us to record all of our footage and put it onto the Macs by capturing it in Final Cut Express. The use of the digital camera has worked out very well for us as it is a lot quicker and convienient than waiting for non digital, proper physical film to be developed, etc.

The use of an Apple Mac has been very advantageous throughout this course as it has allowed me to use all of the software needed to plan, create and edit our film effectively. It can be argued that it is professional and practical to use Macs when creating films, as programs such as Final Cut Express can be accessed easier due to the fact that Apple design the programs themselves, and Apple Macs are often used by professionals in the film industry. The usage of Macs in this project has given me an enjoyable experience, that I will be sure to take with me in any walk of life.

Final Cut Express has allowed us to edit our film with less hassle than if we weren't using software. It used to be that when editing a film, you had to take the film strip out of the camera, cut it up, and glue it back together with the changes and shots that you wanted. This obviously left absolutely no room for mistakes. Final cut has allowed us to easily amend any mistakes made, simply by pressing the 'undo' key. This was a great help as we always bound to make mistakes, but thanks to Final Cut we easily corrected them.

Using soundtrack pro has helped us as it allowed us to add copyright free music and other sound effects into a soundtrack that could then be imported into our film through Final Cut to make the film sound more professional. Also the fact that the music is copyright free meant that we didnt have to pay a fee to feature the music within our film.

Storyboard Quick has helped with the planning stages of our product greatly as it allowed us to create a cartoon template of our scenes easily and saved a lot of time as we didn't have to draw out the scenes by hand and then scan to the computer. Storyboard also was vital in the production of our animatic, as we drafted it in Storyboard Quick, and then imported it into Final Cut to animate it.

Final draft has allowed us to create the script for our film with great ease as it is specially designed for convenience of script writing. This was easier than writing out a script by hand as everything was layed out for us, all we had to do was fill in the boxes.

Live type has helped in the making of the product as it has allowed us to put professional looking titles onto our film.

Youtube has been a necessity during this project also, as it has allowed us to upload and showcase our film, animatic, preliminary task, etc. This is a great way for independent film companies to gain renown and get their videos watched on a global level - completely free of charge.

Below is a screen cast Rebecca made to summarise the point I have just made:

Question 7:

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

• How to use and edit sound effectively

We have used themed music that would fit in with the genre of thriller and we have also edited the sound to try and minimise unwanted background noise and emphasize speech without making it unrealistic. We also had to edit the sound to overcome problems such as cameraman speech needing to be cut out because of words such as "action" or "go" being said too late therefore being in the shot we needed.

• How to use the equipment better (tripod) and learning how to use more equipment (dolly).

In the preliminary task we made a mistake with the tripod as we left the camera on a tilt and it effected the framing in our final product we made sure we didnt make the same mistake and we also learnt how to use a dolly system, a crane and how to use lighting equipment effectively.

• How to edit match on actions more effectively.

.We have used a match on action in our preliminary task our match on actions were a bit dodgy as our intruder walks through a door and comes running out on the other side. We looked at correcting rookie errors, and used several match on actions in our final product. We have managed to make the match on actions very well this time around, making sure our editing was sound to make sure nothing was repeated or missing, or that any movements were done wrong.

• How to get more interesting and creative shots.

In our preliminary task we have mainly used mid shots with little variation into a close up shot. In the final product we have tried to make as many varied shots as we could, we have used several mid shots, we have also used a close up and a long shot. We then used a low angle and a high angle shot for extra variety. For creativity we used shots from behind treelines and up trees to add effect.

• How to add idents onto the start of the film.

We had not put an ident onto the preliminary task so we learnt how to put one onto our final film and make sure that the titles came on and stayed on long enough to read and show the company name.

• How to use fades effectively.

We had not used any fades in our preliminary task. In our final product we had used several fades, some of them were used to cover mistakes and others were used to show a passing of time. Learning how to use fades has helped us with our editing capabilities.

Embedded below is both our prelim task and our final product, so you can see how we have improved.