Evaluation of my media product

EVALUATION OF MY MEDIA PRODUCTMEDIA STUDIES AS: FOUNDATION

PORTFOLIO

Jake Charnock

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

The genre of my film sequence is a psychological thriller, there are many aspects about my product that are both similar and different to the generic conventions of this genre.

The differences and similarities...

My product did not use any dialogue, only an unsettling music score, this is not a generic convention of a psychological thriller.

The non diegetic sound of the sequence was very representative of the genre, this was achieved by having an unsettling music score

The diegetic sound was also representative of the genre as it was very shocking and brutal

Differences; Similarities;

I believe it is very important to keep exploring, and trying new things with genres or else they become less popular. This is achieved by always keeping the audience in suspense and guessing what will happen next.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? The media product that I have created

represent lower class, 16 to 21 year old males.

The sequence shows a young, lower class teen who is represented as the stereotypical “chav” or “hoodie” teen as they have become known within the media.

This particularly fits with the current zeitgeist of “hoodie hell” in which knife and gun crime are abundant. By having this character brutally murder another teen, this especially plays on the stereotype and really makes the film gripping.

The cinematography also reflects this, by using fast, handheld editing and jump cuts it makes the film feel more real and therefore, adds to the shock value for the viewer.

The prime example of a working class teen; angry, driving a “boy racer” car and wearing tracksuit clothes.

What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why? Small British independent film companies such as film4 are

very well known for producing very gripping psychological thrillers on a tight budget, Dead Man’s Shoes (Shane Meadows, 2004) is a prime example of one such case.

Most of the funding for the film would probably be acquired through the national lottery via a grant from the UK film council.

As the film would most likely not contend with it’s Hollywood opponents on box office figures, a high proportion of the profit would come about through the sale of merchandise, such as DVD’s .

Who would be the audience for your media product? I believe that my product would most appeal to males of

the ages of 16 to 25. There is not one specific ethnicity that my film would be

aimed at, it would be more aimed at lower to lower middle class people, thus covering a wide range of ethnicities.

This is a very good audience to aim for as they are a cinema going audience as opposed to say, the 50+ audience, therefore there is a great deal more potential for revenue.

As the average 16 to 25 year old still lives at home, it is fair to assume that they have a lot of disposable income as they tend not to have children and still live at home, this, again gives more potential to make profit of my product.

Feedback...

I asked a cross section of people from the age bracket of my intended audience to fill out a questionnaire after a viewing of my product. These are some of the results;

This Graph shows that the group could clearly tell who the main characters were within the sceneWhereas this graph shows that all of those who watched the film found it interesting to witness.

The results obtained through the questionnaire suggested that most of the group enjoyed the sequence and were thoroughly entertained by it.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The mise en scene of the scene is very effective yet simple, It is easy for example for the viewer to establish who the attacker and victim are just based on costume.The narrative is enigma driven, by not having dialogue, the scene opens a lot of enigmas and will keep the viewer gripped to what is happening.

I incorporated some shots of an attack dog trying to free itself from a chain as the brutal murder takes place, this breaks verisimilitude and shows a metaphor of today’s youth society rebelling against authority.The negative connotations of the dog are also brought about which reminds viewers of the news coverage of dangerous dog attacks and makes the scene more shocking.

Public Enemy Number 1.

A helpless victim, seen all over the media today.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? The most prominent form of technology I have used whilst producing this

product is the internet, from researching the media and keeping an up to date blog, to merely obtaining files from a different computer whilst editing. I used the internet to access Youtube, imdb and to try and find royalty free music to use in my sequence. By doing this I have learnt a great deal about what goes into producing a film.

Another key part in the construction process has been the use of editing software. I used Imovie HD, which is a piece of software that works on apples imac system, This allowed me to upload music and footage, edit footage that I had captured, upload the project to the internet and to write the sequence on to a DVD format.

Whilst showing the film to the group of questionnaire takers, I played a DVD copy of the film through a projector so that they could view it in full size, this benefited them as they did not have to view the film on a computer screen and could really enjoy it as a piece of cinema.

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

The preliminary task which I produced was very basic, the only good thing that can be drawn from it was that it stuck to the 180 degree rule, however that was more due to a lack of space whilst shooting rather that skill of the group. The editing was rough and jumpy and the shots were not varied at all.

I believe that it has been much improved upon with the final cut of the sequence, the shots flow very well and it is very smoothly edited together, it uses very effective invisible editing.

The shots used are very original and the film utilises diegetic and non diegetic sound as a tool to appeal to the viewer.

Shot from the original prelim task showing the boring choice of location and non actor appearing in the film.

Table showing feedback detailing how the group thought the scene progressed as it should.

Conclusion.

I believe that the project turned out how both Callan and myself had anticipated it to, as we were both very dedicated to producing a good piece of work. There are a few imperfections with the finished film, for instance, the shot in which the attacker leaves the car, a tripod can be acknowledged in the foreground, however cutting the shot would have prevented the scene from running smoothly therefore, we deemed it as the lesser of two evils and reluctantly kept the shot in.

Other than the tripod issue, the project ran smoothly and I believe that I would not change anything as the film became just how we envisioned it to. I believe that it is a great example of a psychological thriller.