Main Task Final video

Feedback on the Main Task video

Liam McDonald- I asked Liam McDonald to watch our film and give me some advice to improve it. Liam said that the film was gripping and the music worked well with it but he felt that at times i seemed a bit like a music video. This meant a change in the music or timing of the music will have to be made

Josh MacKenzie- Josh really liked the film and said he felt it was good but it was let down by a scene where Hannah in the film jumped a bit. Following the advice my group and I edited the part and the jumping no longer happens

Kieran Cresswell- Kieran said the film was OK. Kieran felt that it attracted attention but didn't hold the attention of the audience. This meant that we would have to find a way to keep the audience interested throughout the film. Perhaps by cutting the scenes a bit faster.

Evaluation

Media Evaluation

In this evaluation I am going to look at my finished media product and discuss different areas of it such as how it conforms to other thrillers. I think as a group we over came many challenges and set backs in order to get this final piece completed. The set location and the time we allowed ourselves for filming both presented us with problems. The filming location was not always available to use and we had to film most of our film again in a different location, we also didn’t start filming early enough to make sure we had a good amount of time to edit. Overall though I think we did well to get our film finished and edited to the standard it is at.

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

By looking at conventions of a thriller and making notes on my blog as to what they include my group and I were able to look at our film and use these ideas to create our extract from a thriller. The theme of identity is often used in a modern thriller and we have used this theme in our extract. This theme has been carried on using pictures of different people to create a shrine it shows the identity of the different characters in the extract. The film title usually represents an aspect of the characters mental state in a thriller and we have followed this by calling our extract ‘Addiction’, this is because the character is addicted to the people featured in the shrine, this character wants to be like them. In a lot of thrillers there are many sub plots and we have tried to use this theme in our extract as well with the sub plot of the main character following one particular girl. Our media extract does not challenge forms and conventions of a thriller, it’s based on these conventions.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our Media extract represents different social groups. The theme of loneliness is shown through the use of dark lighting and the shrine. The main character is represented as the villain through the mise en scene. The clothes the main character uses are dark and prevent most of the person being seen, this creates the dark and mysterious side to the character which leads the audience to believe this character has something to hide and is the villain. When the main character is in most shots the lighting is dark and this represents the mysterious villainous side to the character. There is very little sound made around the main character which can build up suspense and tension implying to the audience this character is a villain. This is different when Hannah is in the shots as the lighting is bright and far away, this shows the audience somebody is watching her. The audience will therefore fear for her safety making her a victim in the thriller.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media product would be anybody from the age 15 onwards that enjoy the twists and sub plots of the thriller genre. This is because our product was made to be a thriller and contains all the forms and conventions of a thriller and as with most thrillers will contain something sinister that would prevent young children ( under 15) being able to watch it. I came to the conclusion on the age based on the questionnaire, my group and I asked people aged 16 and 17 these results show thrillers are hard to understand and could not be understood by people below the age of 15. The audience we wanted were attracted through the use of mise en scene; we set the scene for a good thriller by making sure the lightening and clothing conformed to most good standard thrillers. Through using these conventions we were able to aim our media product directly at an audience that enjoy thrillers. They would be able to relate to what they see and become interested in the film straight away.

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

Warp X is a distribution company my group and I would aim to go through. This distribution company works on low budgets and our film would need to be distributed as cheaply as possible. This company has distributed many films over the U.K and is the ideal company to distribute ours.

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

Through doing this media work I have learnt that technologies can be complicated to use and can sometimes go wrong. I have learnt that it is good to always make sure that you can use a certain technology to a good standard before involving it with your film. It is also a good idea to check your equipment is working correctly, at one time the camera my group was using wasn’t recording and we lost 25 minutes of time due to the camera not being checked properly. I found adobe fairly hard to use and I had to practice a lot with a copy of our film, playing around to get the hang of using basic parts of the program. I did a fair amount of editing although I feel it was slightly less than the other two group members. I gained a basic knowledge of how to use the program and contributed and where and I could when editing the film.

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

The preliminary task that was completed before the main task helped me in many ways. Firstly it just generally got me thinking about different angles of filming and what lighting looks better and how sets can be improved. I learnt the importance of knowing your role in the film if you’re acting and knowing where the camera is. I also learnt how to evaluate the work that had been done and write about it on the blog, this helped me when it came to the final piece. Having the practice of already uploading a video and evaluating it helped me when it came to the main task because I was able to look back and see what I did well and where I went wrong. I learnt that I was not writing enough little details for example simply explaining different pictures, In the main task I made sure that everything I posted had been explained.

In conclusion I think that our media product went well but at times due to different reasons ranging from location setting and work ethic the work was not completed. Through the use of thriller conventions our media product conforms to what a normal thriller would be seen as and also helps us aim our product at a certain audience.