Evaluation

Candidates will evaluate their work electronically.
This MUST contain an element of audience feedback and may be either integrated with the presentation of the research and planning material or may be presented separately.

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

My media product uses various conventions of real media products such as the fact that the introduction starts and ends in the same scene and explains how the character got to this state within the middle of the introduction. This is similar to other thrillers such as saw 3 in the way that a character is seen at the beginning, trapped or locked up before the film reveals how they got there. My media product also conveys a certain mood due to the fact it is in monochrome/black and white, this was partly done due to the poor lighting we had but also to obtain a dark eerie feel to the film. I also think that the music we used is similar to real films in the way that it creates a similar atmosphere to that of other scary films. Scary and tense music often has a repeated rhythm either in the background or as the main tune. This sometimes gets faster as well, making you think that something is creeping up on you or getting nearer. So the atmosphere created in our film from the background music is tense and scary. The titles in our film introduction are also used in the way real media products use them. The opening credits are both simple and successful with a plain text appearing throughout our introduction, ending effectively with the main title of the film ‘The Redemption’. The opening credits are similar to that of a real media film because they include directors, actors, editors etc.

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

In my media product, Amy and I have represented particular social groups through the use of clothing and acting. We only have two characters in our film introduction: a ‘baddie’ and a ‘goodie’ with clear evidence of who is who by the fact that the baddie is the kidnapper. This is shown by the fact he is wearing all black, with his hood up, stereotypically showing he is young and perhaps being in a gang or coming from a working class background. He acts suspicious spying and creeping around to exaggerate the social group he is representing. In contrast the other character that is getting kidnapped is dressed in smart clothes with high heeled shoes and drives a nice car thus showing that she may have a decent job earning a fair amount of money therefore setting her in a higher class to that of the kidnapper. These social groups I think are well represented in my film introduction as it is obvious what role the characters are playing, being an innocent character or one with bad intensions.

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

My media is more mainstream as it’s following the idea of many other films of its genre and putting a slight twist on it. The kind of media institution to distribute it would most likely be Universal or Fox. I think this because of the audience the product is aimed at, which is a wide one. There are references to real life and any audience would understand it causing it to be very universal. It wouldn’t be appreciated as much by audiences who enjoy a lot of violence and action as I think it’s a lot about the storyline conveying a message instead of action and fighting. I think these kind of institutions would be more drawn to my product because of its viewing durability and the wide audience it’s aimed at.

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

The audience I was aiming for were people who like a dark storyline but also a good bit of action. ‘Ransom’ and ‘Saw 3’ were my main influences when bringing ideas to the table for the storyboard and script. My kind of audience would be mature but younger than 40 because some of the content would probably not appeal to the older viewers. I expect that teenagers (over the certificate age of 15) to be the main audience for my media product.

5. How did you attract/address your audience? 

We tried to attract the audience with the kind of characters we might face in real life. A young person is depicted in the film and is really only applicable to a mature but younger audience. The main female character is young and pretty, perhaps being a role model for viewers and therefore causing them to feel sympathy when she is kidnapped, wanting them to continue watching and see what happens.

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

I have learnt a lot about different processes involved during my time working on my media product, mostly the importance of planning and constructive use of time. If I could change something about my media product it would be how I spent my time working on it. Things I liked about my media product was the production itself. I enjoy greatly the filming process and the editing sequences. I have also gained a lot of knowledge about equipment used during production and editing and similarly how they are used. 

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

Compared to the preliminary task, my full product has improved by the use of camera angles and editing, the cuts make sense in our final product and there are more cuts used keeping the continuity.  I learned a lot about time keeping and how strict you have to be on yourself if you want to succeed in making a successful product also about the different equipment involved which I believed helped a lot in the production of our main item. I also now have a good knowledge on how to use the editing software. Whilst organizing the acting I learnt that patience is the key as sometimes the actors are prone to laughing during the more serious scenes. You also have to learn to listen in order to progress keeping in mind everyone else’s ideas and suggestions whilst producing and editing so that it is satisfactory for them as well. 

 ,