Evaluation - Question 7

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

Hannah & Jazz produced this video which shows them discuss what they feel like they have learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to the full product. Myself & Caitlin have watched this and we agree with what the both say and discuss.

Unfortunately, myself and Caitlin did not have chance to film our own video discussing this question due to other commitments with school, therefore, we decided as a group that Jazz and Hannah would film this question and then we would all discuss it and myself and Caitlin would comment whether we agree or disagree with the points they have raised. 

Evaluation - Question 6

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

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our media product was created with the intention of attracting a generic teenage audience and this made clear throughout the casting of our film. 

Myself, Hannah & Jazz are all actors in the film and we are aged between 16 and 17, this helps all the teenagers who watch our film relate to it in a certain way. In my opinion, I would prefer to watch a film with people my age in it so I could relate to the story and the issues raised, rather than watch a film which features an older cast where I can't really connect with the characters. Therefore, with this in mind, we hope the audience who watch our film feel the same way. 

In terms of editing, I have used a variety of editing techniques to ensure the audience don't get bored whilst watching my thriller opening. I have used some fast paced and quick cut editing to conform to the typical conventions of a thriller and to build the tension for the audience. I have also used some slow pans and fades into black which further create tension and a sense of suspicion. This keeps the audience on edge as they do not know what to expect next. 

The narrative of my film focuses on the jealousy that may be encountered in a relationship along with slightly controlling aspect of relationships and being forced to feel a certain way and told to do things. These issues can also be incorporated into friendships, they don't necessarily just have to be in relationships. This is something else that they address my target audience as someone might be suffering or dealing with these issues that I have mentioned and highlighted in our film.

We have also incorporated the issue of control in relationships which is rather topical and prevalent between the ages of 16 and 19 and an issue that our target audience may face. Including this issue in our narrative was in hope that we could educate our audience in realising what a controlling relationship could look like and to stay resilient throughout it.

The non-digetic music that is used at the beginning of our thriller opening, "Jealousy" by "Frankie Miller" attracts the audience as it is not the typical type of music you would expect to hear from a thriller. The song is a rock/ballad played on guitar therefore, when when it is heard it grabs attention as it is not expected. This is then followed with a typical non-digetic 'thriller film' type soundtrack which also attracts the audience as it is eerie and provides the watchers with that 'scare factor' which entices teenage audiences.

We looked at our survey results closely to ensure we matched the needs of what people wanted, this was a way of how we attracted our audience. We carefully looked at what sub-genre our thriller opening would fall under as we wanted to ensure what had chosen the most popular choice, in order to attract and address a large audience.

Cinematography is a very large aspect of film and we have looked carefully over the process of making our film, how we can use camera work effectively and efficiently. The use of camera in our film was used to attract our audience throughout a wide range of both typical and non-typical camera shots and angles. We wanted to use a range of interesting camera angles to ensure our audiences attention would be maintained throughout the entirety of our opening. The 360 pan was a unique and 'stand out' shot in our film, this was because it was an alternative to what you would typically expect to see in a thriller film, therefore, serving the purpose in maintaining audiences attention and making the film interesting to consume.

via GIPHY

Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our intended audience for our thriller product would be a teenage audience of males and females. I have decided this based upon the results of my audience survey which I carried out. We also wanted to target a teenage audience so we could showcase our thriller opening within the school and get some feedback.

40% of the people who answered by survey were situated in the 16 to 19 age demographic and I received an exact 50/50 split for males and females. We felt that this age demographic was appropriate as we all fitted into the same age range, therefore, our audience could relate to our film more closely than if the characters in the film where older than the audience themselves. We also have both genders, male and female acting in our film, therefore, this makes the film more appealing to everyone in our age bracket.

                                 

In my survey I also asked the question "What is your favourite sub-genre of a Thriller film?". The results from this question is the reason why we decided to include a crime/psychological aspect to our thriller via only giving brief hints to what might have happened to Jazz throughout the use of camera and mise-en-scene. 

Did she commit suicide? Is that what the pills where for? Was she murdered? Is the death staged to look like suicide but its not?

These are all the questions we want our audience to be asking from watching our opening creating that psychological/crime feeling.

Myself and my other group members who are all aged 16/17 enjoy watching psychological thrillers and we also knew that our friends and other pupils in our school enjoy watching thrillers of this sub-genre too, therefore, this sub-genre was proving to be the most beneficial one for us to use.

Evaluation - Question 3

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

Production

As mentioned in an earlier post; we were interested in using Film 4 Productions as our production company for our film. As a group we have decided that this is the most appropriate decision therefore, this is the company we would like to use. Film 4 have a reputation for developing and co-financing many successful films, including ones of the thriller genre. 

Film 4 has produced and co-produced the thriller films: 'Black Sea' which is an adventure thriller and 'Dead Man's Shoes' which is a psychological thriller. 

 Film 4 which was previously known has Channel 4 Films, have produced/co-produced a number of films which have won a number of Academy Awards and BAFTA's, therefore, this makes us believe that Film 4 can produce successful films making them the best contender to produce our thriller. 'Slumdog Millionaire' was co-produced by Film 4 and went on to win a sweep of Academy Awards in 2009 for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography plus Best Sound & Editing.

Film 4 is an independent, British, film production company therefore, making it more accessible for us to use rather than the likes of 'Universal' or 'Columbia' which are a part of the 'Hollywood Big 6'. This production company tends to not deal with productions which have overly large budgets therefore, appealing to more independent films which do not have large budgets or spending margins. This was a reason why we thought Film 4 productions would suit best for our thriller film. 

Distribution

The way a film is distributed plays an important role in the success of the film. We were very interested at using online platforms as a primary distribution route for our film because of who are target audience is. The majority of our target audience use the internet on a daily basis therefore, making the internet the best place to distribute our film content. 

Hybrid distribution is something that we are very interested in and it is becoming more prevalent in its use my film makers (producers) to achieve success in the film industry. A hybrid deal would mean that we would keep the right to sell certain things such as, DVD's and digital downloads to our target audience if we wanted to whilst also using specialised distributors who have the ability to reach people that we cannot. 

Our film would be distributed onto various online platforms and movie streaming sites, the biggest and most popular one being, Netflix. From conducting some research into the viewing habits of our target audience, we found that the majority of them (aged 16 to 19 ) use Netflix as a way to consume film from the comfort of their home and on the go. 

Therefore, considering the popularity of online movie streaming sites with our target audience, I feel like this distribution technique would be the most successful for our thriller film. We also thought we could distribute our film online using BBC Three which has most recently become an online only channel, attracting a wider teenage audience than it did from being a TV channel. 

We did not want to distribute our film using main-stream cinemas due to the cost and the risk of being unsuccessful in attracting our target audience. We wanted to choose the most appropriate way to use money efficiently and target our intended audience to ensure success. 

Marketing 

Marketing is a vital aspect in ensuring that people find out about a media product and to ensure success in people viewing it. 

considering our target audience for our film, I believe social media and web based advertising would be the best way to market 'Jealousy'. Using platforms which are very popular with our target audience such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube would ensure the best possible knowledge and awareness of our film. 

If we had a budget that was quite high this marketing would be above the line, however, due to us not having a large budget we would use the benefits of below the line marketing such as word of mouth, and reviews to help us achieve successful marketing of our product. Below the line marketing is usually very successful in the marketing of smaller, independent films.

Whilst I was researching marketing techniques I found this interesting and helpful presentation on Slide Share. 

Marketing Strategies for Film Promotion - Film Marketing Services from Film Marketing Services

Evaluation - Question 2

How does you media product represent particular social groups? 

Evaluation - Question 1

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

AS Media Studies Evaluation Q1 from Joshua East

What we would change to our final edit...

As a group we are very pleased with our final product, however, there are a few things which we would alter slightly and change if we were to produce and film our thriller again. The reasons behind the majority of these aspects are to give our final product a more professional and 'slick' look.

The first thing which I would like to comment on about changing is the slight reflection of the camera lens in Jazz's glasses when the camera zooms in. The entirety of the camera can not be seen but there is a noticeable silver ring, which is the outer edge of the camera lens. We realised this slight error whilst filming but we did not change it as it couldn't be resolved unless Jazz was not wearing her glasses, we didn't really want this to be the case as we had used the glasses in previous shots used them in a way which made some of our shots more interesting and unique.

Furthermore, an aspect which I would be interested in changing is the zoom in to Jazz's eye and the zoom out of my eye. When watching our film back we realised that the camera was slightly off centre zooming in, creating a continuity error when zooming out of the eye as the camera zooms out in the centre position. Once again, we are aware this is only a slight issue but we feel it does take the professionalism away from our final product slightly. If we had better equipment, such as tracks, we could have made sure the camera was positioned in line with the centre of the eye before zooming in.

The photo montage at the beginning of our opening was very successful in portraying aspects of the narrative and highlighting character relationships. however, we have noticed a few issues to do with lighting and shadow. The light that was used for this shot was natural light which was shining through the door in my house. When the camera zooms out of one of the images there is a slight shadow which has been caused by light coming through the door at a slightly different angle, this could not be helped as it was natural light and we had tried to choose the best position in the house to film this part. If we had a bigger budget or more professional equipment once again, we may have been able to artificially light these shots to provide us with continuous lighting that matched in each shot.

At times, we felt that some of our shots, particularly in the garage were rather 'grainy' this was due to the lighting and equipment we were using. We were filming with a Samsung camcorder which did film in HD bur did have quite a low megapixel rate, therefore, the quality of our footage was not all to the level which we would have liked it to be at. We did try to film the shots outside the garage instead of inside, however, we found this to be slightly worse due to the constantly changing weather and light conditions.

Most of the aspects we would like to change are due to the equipment we were using or the weather and lighting conditions, these could not really be changed so we had to produce something to the best of our ability with what we have. We are extremely pleased with the outcome, however, these slight changes would make us feel we have a more polished and professional opening to a thriller film.

In the video below, Jazz & Hannah pick up on the aspects we said we would like to change and discuss how they could be changed; backing up the points I have mentioned above.

Audience Feedback from Final Edit

In order to receive feedback on our final edit of our film, we decided to show it to a number of pupils in our school as this age demographic was our intended target audience. We then created a survey using Survey Monkey to ask a few questions and gather peoples thoughts.

This PowerPoint presentation displays the results:

Audience feedback from Joshua East

Thoughts about our Final Edit

 After successfully completing our final edit on our thriller opening I am very happy with the overall product. I feel like our narrative is clear and our skills are shown throughout.

 

 Initially, as group we found it quite challenge to start off as we were slightly lacking in ideas for our narrative, however, after lots of research we had a solid idea of what we wanted to do and where we wanted the film to go.

Most definitely, our first draft of our thriller opening helped us in creating our final product. This is when we could really identify what bits we wanted to keep, any shots we needed to re-film, along with any shots which we felt were not needed. This was an opportunity for us to spot any continuity errors and be able to rectify them for our final edit.  Our final edit follows our final story board very closely which once again, could be completed in more detail and accuracy after we had completed our first draft as we had a more clear image and structure in our heads.

I really like the juxtaposition at the begging using Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposition between life and friendship shown through the photos, opposing then with darkness and death when the camera pans the body in the garage. I feel that these two opposites create mixed feelings for audience increasing the tension that is being built. I think the binary opposition in our film was really very effective and we used a range of camera shots and editing techniques to make it appropriate for the genre.

I also think another really effective aspect of our film and probably my favourite part of our thriller opening, is the 360 degree shot with the zoom at the end of our opening. This draws the audience in and creates the idea that the jealousy has consumed Jazz and it has been passed onto Josh (myself) as the camera zooms and fades into Jazz's eye and then zooms out of my eye. The only thing which I am not very pleased about with the 360 degree shot is that it is not very smooth; this is because we had to speed the clip up by around 'X100' but this couldn't be helped, as we did experiment with the 360 degree shot in slow motion but we found it to be not as effective, therefore, we choose to speed it up to create the 'consumed' and not thinking straight type of atmosphere and feeling.

I would also like to comment on the 360 degree shot not being central to Jazz's eye when zooming in. This was a difficult shot to film as we did not have the equipment which enabled us to steady the camera and centre it. If we had more money and more equipment such as tracks, the camera could of ran on the tracks to make it steady and level meaning that we could have centred it a bit better. These are the results that would happen if our opening was filmed professionally with equipment to match but for obvious reasons we did not have access to such equipment that would be used in the professional film industry.

There were not any communicating issues as we were filming our thriller opening therefore everything ran very smoothly. Being a group of friends outside school definitely helped as it meant there was no conflict and we were all confident enough to share ideas with each other. I believe that being friends ensured that we came up with the best possible ideas as we could critique each others suggestions without anyone being offended and this is something we did throughout the whole process to evaluate which ideas were best and more appropriate.

I feel that our film successfully portrays the narrative however, there are certain areas which I would like to focus on which I believe serve the narrative the best. I think the use of photo montage which was inspired by the BBC's 'The Missing' reflects the relationship of the characters and establishes the equilibrium at the beginning of the film.

The use of music in our thriller opening has served to be a vital aspect when we look back at what it reflects. The main theme song, 'Jealousy' by 'Frankie Miller' clearly denotes the main theme of our narrative to our audience and it is not typical of a thriller film. I think that introducing the song ('Jealousy') back in when the garage door slams is very effective and reinforces the signs and contrasts of innocence vs guilt which is being portrayed in the contrasting shots of myself (Josh) and Jazz. The re-establishment of this music also helps to reinforce the main theme of the film to the audience letting them infer that the theme of 'jealousy' is going to continue throughout the entirety of the film.

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Inspiration...

I also found this radio story based on the theme of jealousy taken from "The Whistler" called "Jealousy" . I haven't actually listened to the full story however, the description links very closely to the ideas we have for our thriller opening.

The image is too small to see, however, the description is :
       "A sick woman is sure that her husband is trying to kill her so he can be with another woman. She therefore decides to make the first move."

When I saw this it made me think of our narrative and how this radio story foreshadows what happens in our thriller opening with the murder/killing that had just taken place.

Casting

When we were considering the cast for our film opening we had to take into consideration peoples availability and if we would be able to get everyone together at the same time to film. Therefore, with this in mind, we decided that it would be easier and more beneficial to use ourselves as the cast in the film. That way, in meant that we could easily arrange filming dates and we would all be there to film.

Therefore, the casting for our film follows below:


  Hannah Martin cast as HANNAH


  Joshua East cast as JOSH


  Jasmine Greene cast as JASMINE


We took the decision to not cast Caitlin as a character in the film due to the fact that she was the director; this meant she would be able to direct easier if she was watching what we were doing rather than trying to direct, whilst being in the film herself. She was happy with this decision therefore it our casting worked out well.

Inspiration...

whilst we were researching ideas for the narrative behind our thriller opening we found inspiration in the the crime thriller 'Double Jeopardy' which tells the story of a woman who runs away with another man after being framed for the murder of her husband.
This film stood out to me as the woman was "framed" for the murder which is a similar path to what we were thinking of for our thriller opening.

The theme of "jealousy" is also evident in this film throughout the "framed" murder and jeopardy; the husband is set to have set up and 'faked' his own murder for the purpose of insurance and money rights.

My Role...

Throughout the whole process of making our thriller opening we all worked together as a group, however, as shown in an earlier post we all had our own roles. I was the editor and the main reason for this was due to the editing skills and knowledge I already had, whereas Caitlin had a very clear idea in her head where she wanted the film to go from the very start of the process. Therefore, this made Caitlin the best person for the role of the director.

It did help make editing run slightly smoother as I was aware with some of the software however there were some new techniques, such as, adding titles and speed of clips that I wasn't aware with therefore, I learnt how to do these whilst editing.

I enjoyed having the role of the editor as it is something that I have only experimented with before and have not actually made something at the end of it, therefore, having the opportunity to edit our media thriller opening was really beneficial and worth while.

If I was to do the task again, I wouldn't mind being the editor as I enjoyed it and felt like I had learned a lot from it, however, I wouldn't mind trying something different, such as being the director or producer, this would make me further aware of all the aspects which go into producing and making a film.