Evaluation

Audience Feedback
I created a questionnaire to gather feedback on the final product. I have shown the results in the form of a pie chart.

What genre did you think this film is? (Horror/Adventure/Romance/Comedy/Thriller/Sci-fi)

There is a division between horror and thriller from these results. This is understandable as is a murder in the film and the main character does act as though he is a mass-murder which is a common theme found in horror films and in thriller films. Perhaps, from these results, my film shouldn’t be considered a thriller but a hybrid of thriller and horror.

At what part of the film do you think this footage comes from? (Opening/Middle/End)
From the results there is a good universal understanding that this was the opening sequence of the film. This means we followed the conventions of an opening sequence close enough that audiences can identify that it is an opening sequence.

Would you want to watch the whole film after watching this footage? (Yes/No)
Slightly disappointing but I understand, the short clip isn’t interesting and very slow paced. If more time had been put into adding music and using different types of shots to create suspense, perhaps more would have said yes.

Other comments?
"Slowed paced and didn't really thrill me." Arthur Cook

"I really liked it there was good acting, good camerawork and good mise-en-scene." Emma Horton

"The camera work wasn't done that well, there were some scenes where the camera was shaky." Callum Baker

"I found it slow, but I liked the ending." Jake Martin

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

The media product was aimed to fit the conventions of a Thriller movie. In the media product the convention seen in Thrillers of having a murderer and a victim was used. During the two minute footage we follow the killer as he picks out a victim and eventually kills him. We show the murder in an ambiguous way; it is not conclusive that the lead character we follow is in fact the murderer but it is heavily suggested. The face that someone was killed is also a convention of a Thriller.

We tried our best to leave the film open-ended and open for interpretation; by not directly revealing who the murderer was brings a kind of murder mystery element to the media product, which is found in most Thrillers.
When a point-of-view shot is used in real media products it is to stop the audience from seeing certain aspects of the scene. Point-of-view shots help create tension by limiting the view of the audience. As the shot is in first person, the audience also gets to feel the pace of the scene. In our media product we utilize both of those points. The last scene wouldn’t have been so effective if it was shot in a third person view. The fast movements in this shot reflect the pace we wanted the audience to feel; fast pace to replicate panic. In the majority of Thrillers the setting is normally an ordinary one and also involves common situation which later on become distorted. We’ve followed this trend in our media product by having a somewhat normal situation which then becomes distorted. We’ve set the media product in a school and start out with a fairly normal situation of a person walking into that school. The person sees a couple of students and picks up the rubbish one of them dropped. Based on those events alone, you wouldn’t expect there to be a murder after those events. We have taken a rather ordinary situation and distorted it.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Student
The students in this film are supposed to be bad students. This was done deliberately to add to the plot of the film. The stereotype we played on was that of the bad student. The students haven’t got their shirts tucked in, their ties and top buttons are undone and they’re seen to be littering. The very brief interaction with the teacher of the film was suppose to show a lack of respect for teachers and those in a position of authority in general. The whole impression that we wanted to portray of the students was that of not-caring about and not-respecting institutions. Hopefully this was achieved by using the stereotype of a bad student.
Teachers
Teachers are not shown in a good light, possible the worse light achievable as the teacher in this film is a murder. We followed the representation of a teacher by dressing the actor in a suit which is commonly worn by male teachers. However, the teacher in this film is unconvincing as the actor was too young and was dressed in a suit to big for him. Perhaps different casting could have added more authenticity to the film.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As this media product was made on a small budget the type of media institution that would distribute it would be a small company using a small budget. The media institution will want to advertise the film to as many people as possible using little funds. They will also want to primarily reach as many of their target audience as possible.

One of the cheaper options of advertising to a mass audience would be to use the internet. Advertising on the internet is relatively cheap compared to other means of advertising. It also reaches a huge audience. There are so many websites out there for all different types of people, with the correct research we could conduct our advertising in a way that it directly address the audience we’re aiming at.
The most notable film which has used the internet to promote its movie has to be the Blair Witch Project. The Blair Witch Project also had a small budget like our film and used the cheaper option of the internet to promote their film. The people behind the Blair Witch Project’s marketing created the illusion that the film was a real life account. The film was recorded using cameras that everyday people use and not big expensive Hollywood cameras. This made it more believable that the Blair Witch Project was real. People were fascinated by the concept and paid to go and see their movie. Blair Witch Project has gone down as one of the most profitable movies ever made.

By following a similar technique that the Blair Witch Project used, by taking advantage of the internet, could bring our movie similar success. Due to the low cost for the promotion and the possible high profits of the media product more companies would be willing to take the risk to fund the distribution.

Who would be the audience of your media product?
This is the top 10 from the imdb top 250.
Source: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

Rank	Rating	Title	Votes
1.	9.1	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)	490,586
2.	9.1	The Godfather (1972)	393,048
3.	9.0	The Godfather: Part II (1974)	232,811
4.	8.9	Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. (1966)	149,500
5.	8.9	Pulp Fiction (1994)	397,903
6.	8.9	Schindler's List (1993)	263,260
7.	8.8	12 Angry Men (1957)	110,360
8.	8.8	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)	203,323
9.	8.8	Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)	266,253
10.	8.8	The Dark Knight (2008)	437,765

By looking at this table from IMDB in the top ten all time best films X were voted to be the best thrillers and countless more can be found in the top 250 films. This suggests that thrillers are highly mainstream and highly acclaimed. According to this research, our film’s audience can be anyone who watches films as the thriller genre is very mainstream. However, because our film has a young cast this may restrict the film to the young mainstream audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?
For any movie to have a murder happen within the first two minutes is pretty interesting. If this was a full length movie this would keep the audience’s attention high right from the start. The media product makes the audience question the movie. Question such as, did he kill that student? Why did he kill that student? Who is he? What is he doing at a school? The audience have their questions and they want to continue watching to find out the answers.

It was quite simple to gather the audience feedback as I simply asked those from my sixth form to complete a short questionnaire after view the final product. I collected the results and presented them in a pie chart.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
1. 5.1 Mega pixel Camera
This is a simple digital camera which can be used to take photos. I used this camera to take photos during filming to contribute towards the blog. If I didn’t have access to this camera I could have used a camera phone.

2. Microsoft Word
I’ve used Word for many years now, so I didn’t learn anything new. An alternative would have been openoffice.org software.
3. Blogger.com
This is the website which this blog is hosted on. Due to blogger.com I didn’t learn anything new. An alternative to this could be another blogging website.

4. Tripod
I learnt how to set-up a tripod and how to attach a camera onto one. An alternative to a tripod is to simply hold it free hand.

5. Internet
I used the internet for research on different types of thrillers and other information. I could have alternatively collected the data by looking in books.

6. Adobe Premiere Pro CS3
I learnt a lot using this software. I learnt how to log files, how to move videos files onto a timeline. I leant how to cut and move around video files and I learnt how to sync sound levels (although it was done badly). If I didn’t have access to this software I could have used windows movie maker.

7. Adobe Photoshop CS3
I used this for various different image-editing throughout the project. If I didn’t have access to this software I could have used paint.

8. Camera (No image)
The camera was used to film the whole production. As I was acting I didn’t use the camera and thus didn’t learn anything. An alternative to this camera could have been a more expensive camera like the PD-150.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The most important thing I had learnt during the progression of the media product is how crucial time is. We had to film twice and do twice as much paper work. The original idea was scrapped because our external actors couldn’t be called upon on demand. Many times when we were ready to film, our actors were in lessons. This isn’t their fault and was merely an underestimation to how long it would take to film.

The original story was quite complex and was going to utilize flashback effects and had many different scenes. Ultimately what worked for us was a simple idea which was shown in a chronological order avoiding any complications. Sometimes simplicity is better. Some of the best ideas come to a group during filming. The last shot was thought of during the filming and is the best shot, in my opinion, of the whole media product. It really shows how you can’t plan everything and that it’s sometimes better to stray from the original plan and improvise.

We did learn the importance of taking multiple shots from different angles for the same shot. Once all the film goes back to editing it becomes very easy to edit as there is so much choice. This was a skill developed from the preliminary task.