My Final Media Product...

Music for final product...

http://freeplaymusic.com/
I selected music from the website above, so it is copyright free.

Evaluation...

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product uses forms and conventions of real media products, for example the film Control is black and white the whole way thorough the film. My group and I also thought this would add more suspense and that it might have been in the past or in a dream for example.

Codes and Conventions of a thriller:

• Crime at the core of the narrative (often Murder). For example my media product opens with a kidnapping this engages the audience straight away.


• Mystery. For example in my media product at first someone is watching Holly's character while she is receiving random texts from a private number. This is the enigma (an enigma is something that baffles understanding and seems hard explained.)
  

This is an picture from my media product of Dan's character watching Holly's character.

• A complex narrative (twists). For example in my media Holly's character hides in the bush and it seems like Dan's character doesn't see her so this makes the audience think he's going to carry on walking but then he hears her and sees her. This is a twist in the narrative and it also adds suspense.

These two pictures show how Holly's character hid in the bush then Dan's character just walked past. (Until she tries to run away).

• More true to life than horrors. My media product is very real to life, for example kidnappings happen all over the UK all the time. This is also why we choose to use a kidnapping as our crime narrative to attract our audience.
  
• False paths, clues. This does link with a complexed narrative. Also there is a clue given at the end of my media product, which is Holly's character's phone this could mean evidence for the police, etc.

• Thrill audience. My media product thrills the audience by the audience never seeing Dan's character's face. This adds suspence and enigma, which therefore thrills the audience.


• Popular genre. Thriller is a very popular genre but also a very hard genre to get right because the same codes and conventions can be used in comedys and horrors sometimes.


• Horror/ action. (sometimes) My media product does not have a lot of action accept for when Dan's character runs after Holly's character. The reason there isn't a lot of action because it's only the opening sequence and we didn't want to put too much action in. There is horror though like Holly's character not knowing who is texting her or who is following her this is very horror like that enages the audience by adding suspence.

This picture shows when Dan's character is running after Holly's character:

• A narrative pattern of establishing problems. My media product establishs the problem that Holly's character has not got away from Dan's character and is now in a lot of trouble. This lets the audience know that 'something' is going to happen to Holly's character.
  
  This link will show you the trailer of Control to show you how the film looks and what feeling it sends out to it's audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c2_B_cWK_M

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents women as a group that is vulnerable and that is targeted by kidnappers, etc.

For example in this picture of my media product I think Holly's character looks very vunerable with Dan's character watching her...

An examples of this in real medias are:

• Fargo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB4PmbfG4bw
The main character Jerry hires two men to kidnap his wife so he can get his rich father in law to pay the ransom of $1 million. Once the ransom is paid the kidnappers will get $40,000 and Jerry gets the rest and his wife back. Therefore with the wife being chosen to be kidnapped for money and also Jerry could of chosen his son to get kidnapped. This is an example of how women are stereotypically seen as vunerable and easy to be kidnapped.



• Man on fire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W9yoqs358c
  

The main character Creasy is a bodyguard for Pita who he gets very attached to. Then Pita gets kidnapped and Creasy vows that he will kill everyone responsible for the kidnapping. Therefore also because Pita the little girl gets kidnapped this shows that females are therefore again stereotypically kidnapped. This links to my media product by a young getting kidnapped.

• Rush hour.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4njaK_v4IMU
The plot of Rush hour is Jackie Chan is Inspector Lee, a Hong Kong Detective who helps confiscate millions of dollars worth of stolen Chinese artifacts from Crime Lord Juntao. Seeking revenge, Juntao kidnaps the eleven year old daughter of the Chinese consul when he moves to America. Chan is sent as a diplomatic advisor and finds himself paired up with a Los Angeles cop (Chris Tucker) - a man who works alone, and wants to stay that way. Therefore again it links to my media product by another young girl getting kidnapped.

• Deja vu. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d5l5lqqS2Y

The plot of Deja vu is When a bomb explodes on a ferry boat in New Orleans, special operatives from the FBI and ATF come to the scene, including ATF agent Doug Carlin. After viewing satellite surveillance, Carlin also stumbles upon a woman named Claire Kuchever, who has been murdered shortly before the Ferry incident. Carlin also finds out that he can use the surveillance systems to travel backwards in time. So, he time warps 4 days before the Ferry incident, so he can stop Claire's murder, and to stop the Ferry incident. Also Claire Kuchever was kidnapped this therefore links to my media product by the girl being kidnapped and killed.

Therefore my media product represents women as a social group that is targeted in thrillers as kidnapper's victims.

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

FilmFour is an institution that I think might distribute my media product because it is a thriller and thrillers are liked by a lot of audiences which will mean it'll be easily popular. Also the company is responsible for backing a large number of films made in the UK, and ours will be made in the UK. Therefore I think our film will be quite popular with a few institutions but there are a few examples.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

This picture is an example of an age group that would be some of the target audience for my media product.

There is a lot of choice for who our audience would be because thrillers are liked by all genders and mostly all ages. But our target audiences are teenagers and women this is because our main focus in our media product is Holly's character getting kidnapped by Dan's character who is male which is stereotypical of kidnappers in real life and in thrillers. For example in all the thrillers I named earlier the kidnappers are male and the victims are women.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by using actors around the same age group and gender of our target audiences. Also Holly's character wears what normal teenage girls would wear these days therefore this may attracted some girl teenagers.

For example this is a picture of Holly Costema:

My media also engages the audience by the enigma of who Dan's character is and why he's following and maybe texting Holly's character. This also encourages the audience to watch more of the thriller because they want to find out whose Dan's and Holly's characters are, they will want to know what happens in the end to them both. I know this by getting 5 people from my college (aged 16-18+) to watch my opening scene and they all said it encourages them to carry on watching the rest of the film. Therefore my media product must also hook the audience.

For example:

Megan Royce aged 17 watched my media product and her views were:

'I feel like I want to carry on watching the film to see what happens to Holly's character.'

Becky Rosser aged 16 watched my media product and her views were:

'I think it really hooks the audience, i'd give it an 8/10 because of the shakey shots but the audio adds good suspence.'

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

I have learnt a lot about new technologies from this process of constructing this Product, for example I didn't know how to edit a film before I started this project as well as being able to add effects and audio to the film. I have also learnt a lot more about using a camera to film a product. For example doing an long shot and making sure it is on a straight angle.

This an example of a long shot we used in my media product:

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel I have learnt in the progression from my preliminary task to my full product that there is a lot more you can do with editing and it's not just putting the clips in the right place but its making them look right and give the feeling you want it to give to the audience. For example if you use a dissolve when a clip is changing to another clip it can add suspense of the unknown, etc. Therefore I did not use any dissolves in my preliminary which i think may have helped if I had. This video shows how we use a dissolve at the start of my media product.


I also noticed that editing needs a lot of time and needs to be thought about properly. I think this because on my preliminary task I feel my group and I spent more time filming than editing. Therefore in my final media product i have used the editing more and discovered a lot more ways of how to use the effects, etc. For example when I used levels to change the look of black and white.