Evaluation

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


One way our thriller product uses forms and thriller conventions of real media products is by using the Enigma Code. This is where the audience do not know why a character may be doing  something, or being uncertain of knowing what a particular part of the film is about. For example in our thriller piece the woman protagonist consistently takes the tablets- so the audience may wonder why is she taking the tablets? does she lead a stressful life? Or may be does she have an illness that needs to be controlled? We think that this works well, the more questions the audience answer the better because then it makes the audience member want to want more. It also represents the protagonist as stressful but mysterious as there is a reason behind the tablet taking. The thriller film that also uses the Enigma code is Se7en. The use of close ups with the fingers is something that the audience tend to find uncomfortable as we do not know why he is shaving skin off of his fingers- it also asks questions. 

Another way our thriller product uses forms and thriller conventions of real media products is by using Binary position. We have used a contrast between a school which is generally a nice environment with children playing and friends all being together. We used the opposite of this by filming scenes in a graveyard which tends to have a negative effect from people as we associate graveyards with lost loved ones. Another contrast of the school was the hospital scene which we also associate with sick people and not a very nice place to be. One film which included Binary opposition was Hard Candy as the screenshot shown has a contrast between the younger woman and the older man- quite an obvious contrast but still effective nonetheless. 


One way in which out media product develops the forms and conventions of real media products is close ups. We used a range of close ups which tend to be effective in actual thrillers so we developed this even more by introducing a canted angle at the end. This would be a strange angle for the viewers which they are new to. The film which we have got our screenshot from is from Phone booth. It has a typical close up of a gun which is similar to the effect of our thriller which is making the film tense. 


Another way our media product uses conventions of actual thriller films is by showing Isolation throughout the clip. We showed this clearly by having the protagonist go to the graveyard by herself and the majority of the clip is her alone. It seems as if the only person she actually has in her life is her son which the viewer may find quite sad and feel sympathy for her. The fact that she is also visiting the grave may be the reason why she's alone, because a loved one may have passed away- this also brings the enigma code into it as the viewer asks questions as to why she is so alone. 

One way our product challenges the usual thriller conventions is by using an extremely a-typical character type. The typical main character in thrillers tends to be males in their twenties. However our character is the opposite- a 37 year old woman, a mother. Although we have challenged this convention, we feel that it has worked remarkably well as our female character is relatable to many women in Britain so for this reason would have many viewers. 

Another way our media product challenges the typical thriller films is by actually putting the film title at the end, after all the credits. We feel that it would have a better effect as the woman is mysterious throughout and we do not even know the woman's name. For us it was a good idea to reveal bits at a time in order to make our thriller surprising for our audience. 


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

How does your media product represent particular social groups? on Prezi

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
 http://nfgsmedia.wikispaces.com/Lyra

4.Who would be the audience for your media product? 
Our ideal audience member would be as follows: 
- We would have an audience of mostly women because as it is quite a realistic setting and tried to keep the characters as down to earth and real as possible it will be easier for the audience to empathise with the main protagonist 'Elise'. 
- The audience would also be around 16-30 years old so we will have a variety of viewers.As it is family themed we imagine that many mothers would watch this or people that are interested in this particular topic. 
-We thought that because we are aiming for the typically British, small budget more realist setting, we thought that it would be best to have our film shown in less known chain cinemas and more independent cinemas such as arts picture house in Cambridge.  
- The class would be people of middle-class, possibly part-time working mums that earn money but still come back in time to pick up their children from school- more family orientated people. 
- We believe that their interests or pastimes would be spending quality time with families which would include going to the cinema, bowling and other typical evenings out for all the family. I also think that they would enjoy going out to restaurants and having quality time with other people not only their children.
-Money would be spent on children mostly and only things that they possibly need, so people that are quite wise with their money and are careful how they spend it in order to be able to have enough money to buy necessities.
- Due to their tiring working lives they aren't able to get down to the cinema often so watch movies on-line or buy them on Sky+ to watch in the evenings. 
-As they are film lovers, they would probably check frequently what is showing at the cinema and find out about new films through various adverts on-line.
5. How did you attract/ address your audience?
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6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the construction process of making our final piece, i came across many new technologies that i had never used before, so overall i think it was a success because of the different programmes we used. 

This photo shows me using an Apple MAC computer. It is so different to what I'm used to which is using a Windows computer however it wasnt the first time i had been on one. Before i'd only used one briefly for the internet but just by browsing on the different programmes made me realise how much i really missed out on.

This photo shows me using a HD camera. I learnt a lot just by filming our preliminary piece and our final piece. I found that the more confident i was, the less shaky i was and the better the footage came out. I learnt to do various different shots, for example a canted angle, cross cuts and even learnt the rule of thirds which made us conscious of the shots we filmed. This was useful because not only did i learn new techniques, but i learnt about how much work and effort gets put in making a real film and how difficult it is to get perfect- so it would mean taking shots again etc. I also used a tripod which attaches to the camera. I had never used one before so setting it up and adjusting it was all new to me, this is another thing i had learnt. 

This screenshot is of our Opening title which uses the programme called Live-type. Before using live-type for our title and fonts for opening credits i had never even heard of the programme let alone used it before. I didn't even think that there was such a programme that could make credits so i was surprised at that. From this i learnt how to change the different fonts, how to place them in different parts of the page, how to make them bigger/ smaller and even using effects on them to make them animated. 

Final cut Express played a massive part in the making of our piece as it was the programme we used most for editing scenes and cutting parts of our footage and so on. Like livetype i have never used Final cut express before and i went from not even hearing about the programme to knowing how to cut parts off of footage, how to add music in, how to add cross dissolves/ fades and how to lower saturation of the piece. 


I used the on-line website YouTube too. This came in very useful as by using YouTube we were able to find tutorials on how to do transitions on final cut express and even got ideas by watching other schools final thriller pieces to see what works and what doesn't. I learnt that YouTube can have useful videos to watch as well as music and other things i watch in my spare time.

Blogger was also one of the main online websites we used. I had never made a blog before so it was a first for me. I learnt how to not only post on the blog, but also linking in various videos and pictures which could be shared to whoever may view our blog. 

Another online programme i learnt how to use was Prezi. This was a very useful website as it used a more interactive and exciting way of sharing my ideas and was a different method of posting on the blog as well as normal posts. It came in useful as i made a presentation on there and it was very easy to pick up. 

An offline programme that we used on the macs was Photoshop. I had also never used Photoshop before but easily enough we made our 'LYRA PRODUCTIONS' logo. We learnt how to add layers and to type text on top of an image. 






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