Evaluation Resit Word

8/14/2019 Evaluation Resit Word

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Evaluation AS Level Re-sit

Our AS level project was to create a 2 minutes opening to a thriller. The thriller opening must encourage a target audience to watch the rest of the thriller, including conventionsof a thriller as well as the production name and sub-heading titles. We researched in to

thrillers making sure our film opening was relevant to the thriller genre, looking intopopular narratives and generic signifiers.

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

The title and genre of the film is crucial to addressing and attracting the target audienceinto watching the film. The genre attracts teenagers, as well as the title ‘Entity’ aiming tothe late teenagers and making the film more mature, therefore to the teenagers, moreappealing.

We used techniques when editing to show different places within the film. For example,from the editing, the outside shots have a blur effectto show a blurry vision and the constant watching

from the murderer. We also have transitions used toshow the link form outside to inside the house, withthe shot from the outside of the door to the insidein the lounge.Our thriller has continuous tension building. Thisrelates to the film, ‘When a Stranger Calls’ whenlinking to the phone calls. The phone calls and thedoor knocking create a link between these twothrillers, presenting a mystery and secrecy to the

film.Our film has the expectations of a thriller, tension building, jumpy moments andincluding a real life situation. We also used a typical thriller event, using the mystery

character looking in and spying from the outside ontheir victim. As our thriller comes more under the Drama andPhysiological Thrillers, rather than the action thrillers,the conventions are very similar and appropriate. Thepace of the opening is slower, showing indicating theprotagonist developing emotionally. Like other Dramaand Physiological thrillers, the build up is slow,progressing to a fast paced ending. The opening of ourthriller can result in a twist within the remaining film. Italso develops the conventions of the female orientation,as the actresses and the real life situations aim towards a female orientated audience. We

also used high level angles, panning and tracking shots to build tension. We challenged the conventions by bringing the climax of the physiological thriller closerto the beginning. However, this can be left to develop in to a twist and build up toanother climax later in the thriller.



How does your media product represent particular social groups? We used the stereotypical girls, not focusing on race or gender though the main characteris a girl. The target audience ages between 16-19, with the typical situation for those of the social group. It is a situation many girls can relate to.

We haven’t placed any emphasis on the race of the characters, however asking about thepizza boy’s attractiveness suggests they are heterosexual.

The story is being told from the point of view of the three girls, home alone, with knockson the door from a stranger, then following to who looks to be the murderer. Thismeans the feelings and views are of the girls. It is being told to teenagers who may be inthe same age range and may have been or in the future be, in the same situation.It is aimed more at the middle class/lower class audiences with a sense for mystery andreal life circumstances as it shows real life situations for the class and at the generation of teenagers. Our movie is filmed from a “fly on the wall” point of view; therefore it hasbeen made to look as though the audience is in the scene watching as an onlooker.

What kind of media institute might distribute your media product and why?Our production would more likely to be distributed by the mainstream institute as thesituation can occur in a real life situation, it is familiar with masses, whether they have

experienced the situation or not, they are still able to feel empathy and become involvedin the drama. These institutes are popular and well-known by audiences.Fox Movies could be an institute that distributes our film. It is distributed films such asHide & Seek (2005) and Shutter (2008) both films, along with our film share the thrillergenre’s success. If we were going to publish our film we would hope to release it on thesame sort of scale as these films.Fox movies would be a beneficial distributer as the films released already are very popular and well known with audiences as well as relative to our thriller. With a goodbackground and solid audience, the thriller would be advertised well through social andpeer groups. With the success the previous thrillers have produced, Fox Movies, being amainstream institute, could afford to distribute another thriller, new to an audience, withthe knowledge of a high reputation.

Screen gems could be another institution that distributes our thriller. The institution hasalready distributed films such as When a Stranger Calls (2006), and The Step Father(2009), both similar thrillers to our opening.

Who would be the audience for your media product?My target audience would be late teenagers, young adults, the ages reflecting the girls andboys in the film. This would most appeal to males and females of around 15 to lateteenage years. This is because the girls that appear in the film are aged 15 – 17. With thisage group, it creates more tension in the film, and a more frightening experience for theaudience. It would be a female orientation reflected in most thrillers, appealing to a broadfemale audience, due to including real life situations and showing less gore and horror. I

would aim the thriller at an audience group D or E, showing a working class audience,

one that can relate and enjoy the thriller. With other thrillers a certain aspect or event in the film is most remembered and have aneffect on the audience, for example, ‘Physco’. Wee would hope to have this samereaction to our film with a sleepover or an event similar to the one in our movie.It is aimed at the middle class/lower class with a sense for mystery, tension and real lifesituations. It has no relation to race or any particular social groups.It would be a class D or E, aiming at working class audiences, with a feminine emphasis.

This was due to the research on thrillers, showing a female orientation for thrilleraudiences.



From my feedback, I have achieved this target audience, as the audience viewers askedgave positive feedback on the enjoyment for the thriller. Aiming the thriller at a targetaudience with a similar age or working class to those in thefilm itself help to promote the thriller, by reflecting on reallife situations and fear of that particular age and femininity.However, the thriller is similarly aimed at males, producing

fear and tension from a wider audience. This proves thethriller to be of an open target audience, appealing to working class males and females as well as females the same age as thecharacters in film itself.

How did you attract/ address your audience? We attracted our audience by using transitions and effects to enhance the genre of thriller, and keep the tension throughout the opening of our film.

We attracted and addressed our audience by introducing the movie production, thedirectors and actors to include them in the opening and make them aware of thecharacters within the film. We would also attract our audience through Face book or

MySpace as our main ways of advertising. This is due to our target audience and thesocial life of our target age group. We would also use radio and television adverts, or preadverts on the cinema to promote our movie, as well as simple billboards and posters.

The attraction of blur from the outside view and transitions of zooming in and throughand object kept the audiences attention and the build up to the ending of the opening.Our use of a range of camera angles, shot reverse shot and 180 degree rule created a

variation of shots to attract the audience. We addressed our audience through the genre our film represented. The thriller genreaddressed the audience and there personality by suiting their culture or personality of film. The use of the common themes in a genre, (a sleep over, knocking on the door, amysterious persona) is all included in our film to attract our target audience. It is more of a life-like thriller, in which the target audience would relate to it, as what could be, a

realistic situation being in the house on your own with mysterious knocks at the door. Itshows a moral to the audience through not handling the situation alone, when the girldecides to call her parents.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?I have learnt about both Hardware and Software technologies. The construction includesboth the planning, filming, editing and presenting the project. During the planning andpresenting I used Google tools to research in to the genre of a thriller. I also learned how to use Scribd whilst presenting the planning and other documents on the blog. This blog is another aspect of technology I had never used before; however, it was simple and easy

to use.During the filming of the project, we used hardware, including the computer itself as wellas one camera. This camera was used for both handheld filming as well as positioned ona tripod for stability. For the editing of the film footage, we used Adobe Premier 7. This

was useful software, enabling us to cut shots, adds music as well as adds transitions andtext. However, the computers struggled with the new software, making the editing process slow and time-consuming.Our editing produced a problem when finding and rearranging shots. The clips for ourfilm had to be changed into a different format to be able to use in the movie software we



were using. This meant, so some of our clips we needed to retrieve our shots from theback up folder in order to change the format before renaming the file.

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 the final product, I have learnt about planning andorganising time, camera angles to create effects and attract the audience, how the genrehas a massive impact or the target audience and how common things in a specific genreare expected to crop up. I learnt how effective shot movement and transitions can be,such as panning, tracking, and zooming and the effect of the blur, can show the audienceto primary actor, action or setting. As well as this, from the progression from my preliminary task, I was able to see the difference between the handheld filming andtripod filming, each having a different effect on the audience. The handheld is effective

when showing the film from the actor’s point of view,resulting in the audience becoming that specific actorand viewing exactly what and how the actor is seeing it.

The tripod produces stability for the camera, with a

much clear and steady shot.In addition, I learnt the importance of Continuity,making sure the film still flows well even thought thecamera position had moved. This is important for my thriller film.I have also learnt how to combine the credits with acamera shot or part of the filming to create a thriller effect as well as combining both tosave the timing of the opening. This is used in many films, showing the director andmain actors within the first few shots.I have also learnt how a group can be used to save time and move on with a task. Withina main task, there are sub-tasks all that need to be completed to produce the finalproduct. When in a group, these tasks can be done by different members of the group,

saving time as well as building the Gantt chart tasks people have done.Organising actors was challenging. However, when filming during the Christmas holiday,our timing for the date was accurate and our actors were able to perform and be filmed.

Although we were short of members in our group, members in our group were able tofilm and act as well as the other directors in the group and the actors around the scene.

There were a numerous differences between our preliminary task and the full product,including the transitions during the editing, the experimenting with the hand heldcamera, as well as the movement of the camera around a house and not in a stationary spot for a long period of time. We also used more credits and the movement of creditsover a longer period of time, overlapping several shots at a time.

Survey Results



To analyse the success of our opening thriller, we created a survey for the target audienceasking them a variety of questions to receive feedback on the full product. Our feedback

was very positive, resulting in most questions being answered optimistically on more thanone question. The only questions were to do with the editing of the movie, including better music and using various transitions. This is good feedback as we could improve onit if we had more time for our thriller.

The multiple choice answers yes and no provided a simple straight forward survey withthe text answers to get ideas and more information.

The questions asked were relevant to each section of our film to provide us with a widerange of results and opinions.



This survey helped us to view our film from the audience’s perspective. It helped us tosee improvements we could have made if we had more time, as well as changes we wouldhave made whilst filming and if we were doing the project again.

In conclusion the project has proved to be successful through the feedback of our targetaudience. The Thriller 2 minute opening produced uses and develops the conventions of

a thriller, including specific generic signifiers as well as narratives and characters. Thetarget audience has been addressed and attracted to the film, as well as includes variouscamera angles and camera transitions.

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Evaluation Resit Word