Final written evaluation

7/30/2019 Final written evaluation

1/23

Ryan Mills writtenevaluation

A Level Media


2/23

In what ways does yourmedia product use, develop

or challenge forms andconventions of real media

products?


3/23

We used titles to give important information about the plot to the

audience, this was then supported by a clip from our film. This is used in

many film trailers to help the audience understand the plot but also seesome shots from the film. For example, a film that we took inspiration

from was In time and this uses titles and then shows an image relating to

what the title said. The examples from both productions are shown below.

This shows the time that a man has remaining

in his life.

We tried to add special effects to show a city

in ruin.


4/23

Our trailer covers several forms and conventions from real media products. We

felt it was necessary to study the genre by looking at professional productions

to gain an understanding of what the audience comes to expect from us, as

well as rules that are generally followed. Our trailer shows the key moments

from the film to entice the audience and make them want to watch the film.

Our production also follows the 3 act structure which is used in most real

media products create an interesting and dynamic plot. The first act is used to

establish the main characters and the storyline so that the audience can

understand it. The second act is the equilibrium when the main character is

faced with a problem which sets an objective for the rest of the film. The third

act is a montage over fast paced music which shows the protagonist face the

problem head on and solve it to create a new equilibrium.

The three act structure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure


5/23

Our trailer also displays the name of the

film along with the release date at the

end, this is the last thing the audience see

from viewing the trailer so this information

remains strong in the audiences memory,

this is vital because the audience need to

know when they can watch the film and

could be the difference in the audience

deciding to watch the film or not. In

addition, we added more important

information at the end of the trailer suchas the directors name and production

company, this is so the audience can

relate to previous productions from the

director/production company and will be

more likely to watch the film because oftheir success in previous productions.


6/23

For the editing, we used fast cuts as this is very common in action/thriller

movies. Its purpose is to create excitement and focus the audience.

We added non diegetic sounds such as gun shots in the distance of scenes.

This was used to add to the excitement of the shot and give the effect ofmayhem in the town. Police sirens were added in the background of one of our

scenes, this was to make it realistic and to support our plot.

We used two soundtracks throughout our trailer to create two types of

emotion; our first soundtrack created tension and mystery because the trailer

was showing the main character being interrogated by police and drugged by a

scientist. Our second soundtrack was used to up the tempo of the trailer and

make it more of modern action thriller. As it was Act 3, excitement was

necessary as we put several clips into a montage trying to entice the audience

into watching our film. The soundtracks emphasised the emotions we were

trying to create from the plot.

Gun shot Sound: 1st soundtrack 2nd soundtrack


7/23

Different types of charactersDifferent characters are needed in all real media productions. I feel we achieved this in our production by

using a young child to create a dramatic murder scene, teenagers and a female. These characters were

important in making a realistic media production as the reality is there isn't just male teenagers inprofessional productions. The male character in an action/thriller genre is often a male, and we tried to

make him come across as powerful by telling Jack to perform the role almost emotionless (this also

relates to his mental state) as shown in the image below (far right).

Real media productions follow mise en scene and usually the main character wears smart clothes and we

also noticed that the villains, wear black. We used this in our production but also challenged the way its

used because our main character wears partly black when killing. This makes the audience question

whether or not he is doing the right thing or whether his killings are unjustified and therefore a villain.


8/23

We challenged the forms and conventions of real media products in several ways in

order to make our production unique. We did not have a large budget, which is why

companies such as Film4 create films which focus on the storyline and plot.

.

We added a sci-fi element to our production through the time travel plot. We tried to

keep this to a minimum however as we felt it was important to mainly target

action/thriller audiences. They are also expensive due to the amount of CGI needed.

As the production contained time travel, we feel we have made it unique ashaving

these three genres combined is a rare occurrence (Action, Thriller & Sci-Fi) so we

feel we have made our production unique by doing this.

We tried to combine several of the most historic events which has taken place

through time. An example of this is killing a child who later turned out to be Adolf

Hitler, which in the end has dramatic effects on the future due to his tests formedicine not existing.


9/23

Another way in which we have challenged the forms and conventions of real

media products is through the use of our main character; he is a protagonist but

may also be a false protagonist as he is shown killing people without the reasons

being explained by the secret organisation to the audience. An example of a film

which has also used a false protagonist is Psycho. Our main character also kills an

innocent child in our trailer which suggests to the audience that he is actually the

villain because the child is yet to commit any of the crimes that he will in the

future. The audience feel sorry for the child as he is defenceless and weak,

automatically changing the opinions of many viewers. The character also shows no

remorse for any of his acts, however the robotic state in which he acts make them

question if it is really his own actions.

We also show the main character being vulnerable because he is drugged by

scientists at the beginning and refusing to carry out the interviewers requests. This

is also a factor for the audience to consider when deciding if the main character is

the protagonist or if hes a false protagonist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(film)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(film)


10/23

How we used mediatechnologies in the

construction and research,planning and evaluation

stages of our film trailer


11/23

Apple Mac

Final Cut Express

Throughout our production process we used the mac during

the construction stage. There are certain

programmes that Microsoft computers can not run such as

Final Cut and iMovie. These programmes made creating our

end product much easier with tools used by professional

editors. The macs in our school also run much quicker then the

Microsoft pcs (which is our only other option. This makes

productivity much greater as we can get more work done in

less time.

This is the programme used during the editing stage of our

work. This was vital in getting the final product right as it

allowed us to polish the work that we had created by recording

and add our own creative twist to it. Sections of the trailer

such as the cross-dissolves between scenes and the black andwhite camera effect. We feel that we may have progressed

further by having Final Cut Pro however as it has been greatly

upgraded since the version we was using. Things such as

constantly rendering our work was very time consuming.


12/23

iMovie

Photoshop

We used iMovie during the construction stages of the process

to create the title scenes in between shots. We took

inspiration for the style of these titles by looking at several

examples of different action film trailers on YouTube. In the

end we decided to have a simplistic white writing/black

background style. This was also a useful tool as we could use

our mobile phones to download the app and perfect them

whenever we had free time.

This was another programme which allowed us to have the

best tools available to create exactly what we wanted for our

film poster and magazine cover. We used Empire as our

magazine template and tried to mimic a similar look to make

it authentic. For our film poster we took inspiration from

several different film posters, such as Inception and emulated

the main character starring in front of a meaningful setting.


13/23


14/23

Google is a global brand used by millions of people

world wide. This was our main source of gaining

information during the research and planning stages of

creating our film. We searched for things such as

camera shots/angles to try to gain an understanding of

how professional directors shoot their scenes. We alsoused Google to get our images and sound tracks when

creating the film and film poster.

YouTube was vital in every process of our task. For our

research and planning, we used YouTube to watchAction/Thriller genre film trailers to try to gain an

understanding of the codes and conventions that are

expected of a typical trailer of that type. We also used

YouTube as well as other sites to watch videos which

explain the 180 degree rule as well as other useful

media tips to refresh our memory from last yearsproduction. During the construction of our film, we

used YouTube to obtain effects such as gun shots and

flames to create the atmosphere that other trailers had

produced but with a much lower budget.


15/23

We used the blog through every process of the task to

keep a track of where I was individually as well as any

work that my colleagues had done from home would

be uploaded on here. Edublogs allowed us to keep in

contact with our teacher even throughout school

holidays, which gave us the best possible chance ofachieving our aspiration grades. We also gave other

groups constructive feedback on their work and also

received feedback ourselves. This allowed us to have

several opinions on a subject giving us a wider range of

choices.

The camera was not only used during the construction

stage of the film but also it was used while planning for

the location of our films, however the majority of our

images were taken off the internet. During the

construction of the film we used several different

cameras and tripods and we were asked to keep onememory card with all of our recordings on it

throughout the process. The camera quality was poor

and I feel that restricted us from certain editing tools

such as cropping a scene and zooming into a certain

section of a scene. This cannot be done as the pixel

quality is not good enough to expand.


16/23

Images taken for location scouting Brainstorm created during our planning stage.

Images taken for location scouting Our production company logo which was created inPhotoshop

H ff ti i th bi ti f


17/23

How effective is the combination ofyour main product and ancillary texts?When promoting a film it is important to

consider several things including; yourtarget audience and budget. This can be

done through several different forms of

promotion, in our case this was done via

a poster and magazine. This gives us an

increased chance of a large audiencefrom a wide range of demographics, it

would lead to more revenue brought in

from viewers of the film. The two

ancillary texts were a magazine front

cover and a film poster shown below.Continuity is vital, this keeps it both

professional and realistic. This was done

with the font and colours being kept

relatively the same.


18/23

PosterFilm posters play a pivotal role in promoting any production to a large audience. To gain a

large audience, a film company must have a good marketing campaign. This means that they

can have film posters plastered across the internet, on cinema billboards and on televisionadverts.

They have to appeal to the public visually otherwise people will be instantly put off watching

the film. The image we used for the film poster represented our film in a variety of ways as the

background shows the destruction that he has caused and his pose shows he is emotionless

and has no remorse. There is an element of synergy because of the image being used both onthe magazine cover and the poster we have created. The style of font and the size of the

writing was inspired by many real media products posters as it is bald and stands out

automatically to people viewing it. One of the most important parts of a film poster is the

details of the production itself. The information included are all the roles each member of the

production takes.


19/23

Magazine The magazine cover has a detailed background which relates to our film and

what it is about which is destruction. It also has an image of our main

character in a defensive pose which insinuates that he does not reveal

much of his emotion to the audience. The character wasnt dressed up in

costume, instead we chose to stick with casual clothing. We wanted our

character to come across as an everyday person which is linked to the plot.

Before this secret organisation influenced the way he thought, he was just

an average guy.

The magazine company we decided to use was Empire. After researching

the options available to us, we felt that it is one of the most recognised and

respected brands in the magazine industry which reports predominantly on

films. The film production company we thought would be most beneficial if

we were to create our film was Lionsgate. They are reknown for supporting

films with high budgets which I feel would be necessary for our film to be asuccess. By using a large company like Empire, we would have increased

revenue due to a greater exposure in the public eye. We based the style of

our magazine on examples of an previous Empire front covers as shown on

the next page.


20/23

We wanted a simple but iconic film poster so it is easily recognisable to our


21/23

We wanted a simple but iconic film poster so it is easily recognisable to our

target audience. The main character is plastered on the front as he is the

most recognisable character throughout our production and the

background relates to the damage he is causing, but the sun rising

represents a glimpse of hope. The final element of the poster is the release

date, this allows the reader to find out when they can watch the film in

cinemas, meaning an exposure to a larger audience increasing the revenuethat we gain from the film. We also wanted to add a quote to our film

which relates to what happens in our movie so they gain an understanding

of the plot, even if they havent yet watched our trailer. . The information

shown is all the cast and crew roles, this is a general item included on all

film posters. The title is much larger and brighter to attract the audience

straight away.

The poster to the left is the example we analysed when creating our

poster. They have used the concepts we felt were necessary to create

a simple yet effective film poster. The main character takes centre

stage, with clear but simple writing for the headline. The background

relates to the plot of the production with multiple images showing

important events throughout the film. They have also used a quote to

subtly hint at the plot, similar to that we used ourselves. Their

character also displays no emotion which is was we tried to replicate

for our own film poster. This leaves the audience guessing and

encourages them to buy a ticket or watch the trailer.


22/23

Throughout our whole production we have continuously asked friends and family members to

review our film to improve it as we worked. We picked up on certain errors such as the framing

of some of our shots as well as the scenes where certain items were left in the shot. To fix this

we reframed the shot in Final Cut Express, which would of easily took some of the authenticity

away from our production.

Audience Feedback

Several items of

clothing wasaccidently left in

the shot

When talking to our peers we also asked for constructive criticism to maintain a high standard

of work. The feedback for our production was mainly positive, but it was important that we

always found ways to improve in order to push ourselves to the best possible outcome.


23/23

During our planning process we created a questionnaire which fans of

the action thriller genre their thoughts and tried to gain a good

understanding of the film that we should produce. This question was a

telling point for us as we focused the majority of our time working on a

plot which was unique and would entice the viewers into watching our

film.

We already had an idea in our head where the villain that we was creating

was not necessarily evil. Instead, he thought the orders he was giving out

to our protagonist were for a better future without some of the most evilleaders of the world never existing. This was a controversial theme and the

results backed this up as no one was sure that it would be successful.

Again, this relates to the plot we already had in mind and we wanted to see

what reaction we would get from our target audience. This is a plot which

isnt used often in films and we wanted to incorporate it in our film

somehow, which we did at a later stage by having the assassin not only

following orders by killing people, but he was also travelling through time

to carry out these orders.

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Final written evaluation