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?

Looking back at my preliminary task, I believe the purpose of creating it was to gather a better understanding of how to use the different equipment and how they function. It would also give me a better feeling working with equipment such as tripods as I haven't worked with tripods before. This was important as it gave me the opportunity to experiment with different camera techniques and angles so that after I could review it, I could see what camera angles and techniques were the most effective and would be ideal to include within my own sequence. Furthermore, it would also develop my editing skills further using Final Cut Pro X as I merged different clips together using transitions and filters. After creating the preliminary task I would then have the ability to identify my strengths and weaknesses. Due to the fact that this was my first time working with video cameras, tripods and Final Cut Pro X, it was vital that I identified my strengths and weakness so that I can work on and improve my weaker areas so that when it came to filming the final production I wouldn't struggle in these areas and wouldn't waste time.

From this preliminary task, I have learned a range of different camera angles and techniques such as the high/low angles, panning, zooming in/out and also mid shot. Also, after reviewing this different camera angels and techniques I learned about the effectiveness with the different angles and techniques. For example, I learned that using high angles made the characters look more weak and vulnerable which was ideal to use within my own final production as I could give the audience a different perspective. Furthermore, I also learned that it is vital to review your work in great detail as you may find mistakes in which could of been oblivious when filming. For example, when I was filming, it didn't come to my attention that the space that I was filming in would be impacting the audience as it makes the scene and production looks less professional and more amateur which means that the sequence won't be as effective on the audience resulting it to be less successful. In addition, I learned about different editing techniques using the software of Final Cut Pro X. From this, I learned about different editing techniques and filters that can cause a change in atmosphere and help the audience to become more engaged and build relationships. For example, I learned that involving a slow editing technique results in more suspense and tension being built up and helps to engage and impact the audience more and is more effective. Also, I learned about the different filters could impact the audience more by making the sequence more effective. For example, using a slightly blurred filter helps to make the frame look a point of view perspective therefore helping the audience to become more engaged.

From my preliminary task, there are various skills that I learned that helped me with my thriller film. Firstly, my knowledge that I gained about the use of various camera angles and techniques were very helpful towards my thriller film. This was because I wanted to include a variation in order to keep the audience engaged throughout, so using skills such as the zooming in helped my within my final thriller filler as it made the sequence more effective and impacted the audience more. Due to the fact that I had practice with this technique within my preliminary meant that I could deliver a better result within my final production meaning skills such as the zooming in and out were more smooth so impacts the audience more. Another skill that helped me within my final thriller film was the use of the tripod. I have not used the tripod before my preliminary task so it was important that I learned and developed new skills. Due to me being able to practice a range of shots with the tripod this meant that more time could be saved and also I could deliver a smoother result instead of a unstable one which was seen in the preliminary task. Furthermore, editing skills that I learned within the preliminary task such as speeds of editing, filters and transitions helped me within my final thriller film. Within the preliminary task, I had the ability to use the software Final Cut Pro X to experiment with a range of techniques and see what impact they each created. For example, my knowledge that I gained within the speeds of editing I learned that it would be convenient to include a fast editing with a chase scene as I learned in the preliminary task that the fast editing makes the sequence more exciting and keeps the audience eager to continue watching and also creates a high level of tension as the intensity level increases. From this practising it was very useful in my final production as I already knew what each technique created and what type of impact they each created so it saved me time instead of experimenting every single technique and wasting time whereas I could just get on with it.

Evaluation Question 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This is the link for my evaluation question 6 prezi presentation

http://prezi.com/spn8jca1caw1/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Evaluation Question 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Prezi link;

http://prezi.com/oisplozfocgk/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Within my sequence that I created, the main character is a female called 'Bettie'. Bettie is the antagonist who has a lot of power and dominance and can overcome any other character. Within her role as the antagonist, she has a hidden identity of a cannibal and murders people this way by eating them. This  gender role is subversive as Bettie is a female and this gender is stereotypically the weakest. Typically, male characters tend to overcome any female characters as the females tend to be more weak making them more vulnerable. Furthermore, Bettie is represented through the hidden identity throughout the majority of the sequence so that her identity is not revealed and so that she blends in with the characters. This means at the point where her identity is revealed, the impact on the audience will be bigger and better as the audience would be more surprised and shocked that she is not the vulnerable character they thought she was. She is dressed in a casual manner such as jeans, white converse shoe and a black jacket on top of a jumper so that the identity isn't given away and to look normal. Also, this will help create a more relatable relationship between her and the audience as she will look like any average teenage girl and our female target audiences will find that this appearance is similar to their own therefore resulting in a more relatable relationship. I have included this character so that the sequence creates a bigger surprise towards the audience and makes the sequence more unique as a female antagonist isn't common and would build better relationships. Betties representation only changes when the identity is revealed and at this point she now has the addition of blood around her mouth. This would appeal to the audience more as it would interest them more as it's something they haven't seen before so they become more engaged and build an alternative relationship. Furthermore, they become more interactive as the female is having more dominance than the males and this is unusual within any type of genre.This also appeals to the target audience as they are the same age range at 15-17 so they can find it more relatable as it can be a similar scenario to their everyday lives so it benefits them more and they have the ability to build a better relationship. Also, Betties character as a student can relate to the audience as the majority of the target audience will still be in school so this makes the character more relatable.

There are also two other characters who are both male however their role within the sequence isn't as big as the role of Bettie. Both of these male characters are very similar as they share similar characteristics. Both characteristics are represented in a subversive ways; Kane end up being one of Betties victims so this displays that he is obviously weak and not strong enough. This is subversive representation of this gender as males are stereotypically stronger than female however this male character appears to be weak and clearly was vulnerable. The other male seen within the sequence is Freddie. Freddie's character hears Kane scream after Bettie attacks him and then shortly after he discovers Betties true identity. Once Bettie reveals her identity to him, we see a view of him portraying a frightened facial expression which shows that he is clearly fearing this female character. Furthermore, just by the expression we can see that she is more mentally dominant. This is a subversive representation of this gender as this male is being cowardly towards a female which isn't expected of this gender as males are expected to overcome females both mentally and physically. Both these characters appeal to the audience as the audience automatically become more engaged as they are shocked that two male characters are both acting in a subversive way. Also, the feel more sympathetic towards this characters and build a more closer and trusted relationship because they are keeping the same identity throughout in comparison to Bettie who changes which causes a change in the relationship with her as she betrays the audience. This appeals to our target audience as they are the same age group as these characters and also are living the same role as a student as a 15-17 years old therefore they can find it more relatable. Also, the target audience would feel more engaged as they see two males being weak towards one female so they may change their opinions and views of who is the more dominant gender.

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Firstly, the brief was to create a two minute opening sequence for a thriller genre by researching into a range of elements in which would help contribute towards the planning of the sequence. Before we created our sequence, we were allocated to groups consisting of 3 group members. In my group there was myself, Elizabeth Cooper and Kane Faulkner-Wild. Within our group there were various production roles that were assigned to different members of the group. Firstly, the roles of 'Director of Photography' and 'MES co-ordinator' were assigned to me. This meant I was in charge of what the camera is filming exactly and what the positioning of the objects within the frame were. Secondly, Elizabeth's roles were 'Screenplay writer' and 'Music producer'. This meant that she was in charge of creating the base narrative for the sequence and creating the different types of music and sound effects to be included within the sequence. Kane's roles were 'Director' and 'Producer' which meant that he had control of gathering the group and controlling the different activities and what the different things to be produced were, Both Elizabeth and Kane took the roles of being the actors in which they were assigned to play the role of the two main characters (antagonist and victim). All three group members took the role of being editors as we all had different editing ideas and techniques that we wanted to include. Furthermore, the responsibility was to insert different editing techniques at different points throughout the sequence to build up different elements e.g slow editing when the suspense is building up. As mentioned previously, my roles of 'Director of photography' and 'MES co-ordinator', my responsibility was too control how and what was being filmed by including a variation of different techniques using the camera. Also, I had the responsibility of controlling what/how the actual scene was layed out. This was by how the characters and objects were positioned and represented and also the lighting of the scene. The layout of the scene was in my power. I believe myself and my group worked well as a group and we all took great power and responsibility in our different roles. Furthermore, our combinations of different ideas and techniques helped to make our sequence more captivating and conventional. I believe that we have created a very successful sequence as we included a wide of range of different thriller conventions and key elements such as tensions, suspense, shock and surprise being built up throughout which helped to engage the audience more which helped to contribute on how successful our thriller was.


Firstly, there are various conventions that are included within any thriller genre. Some of these conventions are the use of an antagonist and protagonist. This means that the films contains a villain (antagonist) and also a hero/good guy (antagonist). For example, these conventions can evidently seen within 'Batman' films. This could be by Batman himself being the protagonist as he plays the role of the hero within the film as he saves many lives. The role of the antagonist can be seen within the role of the Joker as he takes many peoples lives away and is seen as the villain. These are essential within a thriller as they determine the type of relationship that is built between them and the audience, resulting in the audience to engage more within the film. Within my sequence, we included the role of the antagonist and included it within Elizabeth's character as she murdered Kane's character.  Also, another convention is the use of hidden identity. This is conventional as it helps to create more tension, suspense and enigma which then helps the audience to become more engaged within the film as they want to know who the antagonist is. This conventional can evidently be seen in 'Insidious 2' as they do not reveal who the murder is. I included this for half my sequence as Kane's disappearance was a mystery until another character showed the audience that it was Elizabeth's innocent character. I included this convention within my own sequence as I found it contributes to the high tension levels and keeps the atmosphere mysterious which is ideal for a thriller film. Furthermore, another convention is the use of blood. This is conventional as it builds up a high intensity and tension level as it will immediately alert the audience that someone has died which would engage them more within the film. For example, this convention can be evidently seen within films such as 'Saw V' as when the victim is getting murdered the audience can see his blood within the camera frame. I included this convention within my sequence at the point where Elizabeth's character reveals to the camera the blood around her mouth suggesting that she has just eaten someone. This is ideal, as the audience are now finding out her true identity which is helping them to engage more as they want to know whether there is anything else they don't know.

In my sequence, we  have included a range of generic conventions such as the use of low-key lighting. This was conventional as it contributed to the high levels of suspense and makes the atmosphere more mysterious. This could be evidently seen within our sequence throughout the whole sequence as we felt if we only used low key lighting then the narrative would be too predictable and wouldn't impact the audience as much as it could therefore resulting in the sequence not reaching its full potential. We discussed that if we use the low key lighting  For instance, at the start when Bella goes missing the low key lighting suggest that this is mysteriously dangerous behaviour and as the light doesn't brighten as the sequence continues, this suggest that the danger is within the region. Also, it engages the audience more as it makes the scenario more dangerous and builds the tension. I also included the element of blood within the sequence at the point where Elizabeth's character turns to the camera to reveal the blood around her mouth suggesting that she has just murdered someone by eating them. This could be identified at the point where the close up camera reveals Betties true identity. This is conventional as it raises the tension that she has just eaten Kane and also states that someone has died which then builds up the suspense and intensity of whether there will be a second victim and engages the audience more by making them feel paranoid. Moreover, I have also included the element of an antagonist in which could be identified when Bettie faces the camera and the blood is shown around her mouth. This is conventional as it displays that she has killed someone and engages the audience more as the relationship has changed now that her true identity has been revealed. Furthermore, this can also be unconventional towards the genre as commonly the role of the antagonist is played by a male as they tend to be more dominant and powerful than a female, which changes the relationship with the audience as it builds a sudden shock. I not only followed the generic conventions but also challenged the conventions because I wanted to make my sequence more unique because if I followed a typical thriller storyline then the audience would be shocked and could easily predict what is going to happen which then ruins the impact that the sequence has on the audience whereas if I challenge the conventions by experimenting with a range of different conventions then not only is the sequence less predictable but the audience would be more impacted as they would be more surprised. For example, I included a female antagonist as it would be a bigger surprise towards the audience as they would typically predict one of the male characters to be the antagonist because of their characteristics.

My opening sequence defines the genre as it consist of a range of different generic conventions such as hidden identity, low key lighting, antagonist etc and builds up the key elements (shock, surprise, suspense & tension) throughout which is essential for this genre. Also, a small fright is included to give the audience a small scare and jump so that they do not lose interest. Furthermore, it states and displays the antagonist and victims and helps the relationships to be built. I can relate my sequence to successful thrillers such as Saw V. The different Saw movies are all famous successful thriller films as they contain a range of conventions and also give the fright that a thriller needs. In Saw, the antagonist is 'Jigsaw' which is a evil masked doll so isn't a typical antagonist. Just like in my sequence, I use a female that murders people which is unusual as female are not usually expected to take part in a role of a murderer, Also, Saw films consist of a low key lighting which makes the atmosphere appear more dangerous and mysterious as it includes a lot of tension and suspense. The use of low key lighting can also be seen throughout my sequence as it helps build the tension and engages the audience more. The title of my sequence is called 'DEVOUR' which is another word for 'Eaten'. This title is conventional towards a thriller genre as the word 'eaten' suggest that something has been murdered caused by it being eaten suggesting an animal or cannibal is the antagonist within the sequence which builds the tension up. We chose to use 'Devour'  has most people are unfamiliar with this term so the storyline wouldn't be predictable and ruin the impact on the audience which would then make our sequence more successful.