Evaluation Questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
 In our thriller opening we created a sense of confusion at the end where the policeman/detective barges through the door whilst the man attacks the women and she screams. However after aproxiamtely 5 seconds you see the detective open a door to and unknown room from what we have seen, and no one is inside the room which therefore gives the impression that he is in the incorrect room. It can also mean he was ethier too late arriving on the scene.
We created this by making the both rooms appear to be the same room the detective is trying to reach and where the man/killer and women is held. To achieve this we made sure when we were recording that you couldn't see what was outside the room when the doors were opening otherwise the audience would immediatly recognise that they are both in different places. We also had to take precautions of what the outside of the room we were going to film had a similar structure to match the rooms, to make it appear they were in the same area/building. In editing we included a variety of shots, in particular crosscutting e.g. crosscutting between when the detective was running from an low angled shot and the man walking up and down the room.
Our thriller opening does develop conventions I have seen in a film not an opening though. It was a scene from "Batman the Dark Knight" where Harvey Dent and Rachel were tied up in a chair in seperate rooms filled with explosives, whilst Batman and the police split up to search one building each. As the tension builds up it makes the audience feel more sympathy for Rachel, however when batman bursts through the room you see Harvey instead and seconds later the building Rachel is in explodes.
-Not making sense (The wrong room)


2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?


In terms of representation to particular social groups, our opening is more associated with a young audience and adults (ages 15-25) e.g. students. This is because the characters are seen as young adults which is represented by the actors appearance as shown in the opening, therefore relating to the audience as their ages are similar.
The way we represented the character of the policeman was a young male adult who appears to be a student, and at the same time a person who doesn't seem like a policeman but can seen as one.
The representation for character of the woman who was imprisoned in the room is represented as a young female adult and engaged, because she is wearing a ring. The impression of her is that she is fragile, weak as her posture of the way she is sitting down.
The representation of the man (killer, criminal) is an older adult wielding a weapon, and by not revealing his face it makes you curious of who he is. The impression given when  he casually walks up and down the room and fiddles with his weapon shows he is serious and isn't sympathic towards others.
In terms of representation for this film genre (thriller) this may and may not be typical, which is due to the characters are of a young age group, in compa

3. What kind of media institution might distrubute your media product and why?

I think an independent label would be more likely to distrubute our film rather than a main studio, which is due to the fact that the quality and of the film wouldn't be recognised as a big movie and would not attract a broad range of audience. It would be in an independent label because it has a limited of audience.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our thrilller opening was (ages 15-25) this was because the audience would feel more associated with a similar age group. However our actual audience for our opening isn't clear at first as our actors were teenagers and if they were adults it could build on the tension and be more serious.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted the audience by making sure that there were a variety of shots, such as the low angled shot of the police/detective running, and the high angled shot of him arriving at the door. Also the confusion of when he had bashed through the doorand he was inside the wrong room, is what we attempted in interesting and grabbing the attention of the audience. However we didn't incorporate mise en scene to well as we didn't have the correct props for some of the scenes, for example we didn't have a fake gun for the man and the police which is a downfall as it can lose seriousnes. We could have used a better location rather than the university campus, which would have appealed a more realistic and a better enviroment.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?


During the process of constructing this project I have learnt many things about technologies, one of them is filming. I have learnt how to achieve different angles and shots as I've never had any filming expierence, and directing the actor/actors what to do and advice. I have also learnt some basic editing on final cut pro, which is a new software to me. This includes editing like seperating audio with the video, adding audio/music, cutting the clips to make them shorter by scaling the video smaller, adjusting the speed of the clip by typing in speed and choosing the percentage (lower 100% is slower etc.).

Thriller Opening (:

Characters

Policemen:

Smart

shirt

ties ( not compulsory)

dark trousers (smart)

black shoes.

Man:

Must not reveal his face. ( won't have a mask on)

Dark long coat

Dark trousers

Matching shoes

Gun (toy but looks real)

Woman:

Casual clothes, dirty.

ring

messy hair

makeup down her face

Here is a picture of a dark room, the kind of room we want to film the scene in which involves the women and the man.

This is a good example

of how we want the room to visually look, or have a similar. The scale of the room is also important as if the room is too large or small.

The room has to not be too bright as it changes the atmosphere of the room, we want one focus of light which leaves areas of the room dark.

Here is an image of a dark alley/street. This is the kind of scene we want for outside because it looks dark and scary.

Donnie Darko Frame by Frame Analysis (Jackie)

1) Opening shot fading in, synchronised with a sinister rumble of thunder. There is a clear view of dark trees as the shot as it slowly pans to the left where you can see distant hills. The shot continues to pan left but slows down and focuses on a road, where you can see a figure lying in the middle of the road, slowly being the center of perspective the shot zooms forwards towards the figure. As the camera gets closer you notice that the figure is a young boy and near the side of the road is a bicycle lying across some grass. The Boy rolls slightly away from the shot and slowly slouches up, the shot still panning but which it reaches a medium shot it rotates around the back on the boys head to the left side of his face. As the shot reveals his confused face a piano starts playing, you can tell from his eyes that he doesn't know how he got there or doesn't remember. This opening shot makes the audience think why is the boy on the road and how did he get there, thus making them intrigued to knowing why or how.




2) A long shot panning to the left of the landscape, showing hills and mountains. You can notice the scene brightening up as the sun is rising slowing but still a dull misty blue colour that surrounds the sky giving a chilly atmosphere. Eventually the shot stops just when the boy gets up and you can see his back. He slowly turns around whilst the music gets slightly more dramatic once again revealing his face. His expression is still confused but suddenly he smiles and laughs walking off the left side of the shot. Then the title Donnie Darko appears in white text and you see a sparkle of light and it consumes the whole shot making it completely white.