G321 - Evaluation - Julio Rebello

G321 - Evaluation

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

Our sequence develops forms and conventions of real media products by following narrative formats of conventional thrillers. An example of how this was achieved was by the fight between justice and injustice, whereby the protagonist is up against the antagonist. We however challenged the typical convention of characters restricting themselves to only human powers and instead giving our protagonist supernatural telepathic powers. We also developed our presentation to follow thriller conventions by using fast paced and frequent action.

The use of typical and atypical characters in our sequence also helped to develop the forms and conventions of real media products by having a protagonist at the mercy of an antagonist. This helped to drive the plot, making the story more interesting as the protagonist had a way to outsmart the antagonist, without him realising.

Our use of camera work followed codes of thriller conventions. This was done by starting with an establishing shot to help set the tone of location of Camden Town, a place with a reputation full of drug culture, night life and serial killings like the Camden ripper. The image of the fast moving, urban life of Camden Town was connotated by the fast cuts between the antagonist and protagonist and also by the fast paced drum and bass soundtrack.


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

In our thriller, the representation of men is very somewhat stereotypical to the Ladism culture of the young, working class man. Our lead male character is someone who likes to drink at the pub and uses cheesy chat up lines on women. This is shown in our sequence, when he is having an argument over his phone outside a bar then when trying to gain the attention on the lead female character (Ameile) when walking passed him. His anger builds up as he does no gain her attention and looses his macho image.

With our lead female character, we tried to go against the stereotypes of women they as are traditionally portrayed as the weaker sex. This allowed us to have more control on how we could create twists to the thriller, for example, by creating female murderer we created a character with unpredictability. However, we still made her to keep in touch with her feminine traits. As we see in the beginning and the end of the sequence, she is a character who is emotionally driven and who is deeply in touch with her feelings. We have also portrayed her as a middle class female who likes to keep herself looking pretty, for example, the use of the seductive red trench coat. Red is a colour that signifies many things, for example, romance and danger.

We tried to represent real Londoners in real London by showing the not showing the stereotypical “merry London”, which overseas audience are often shown, as after all, this is a film that is targeted at a British audience. The fast cuts and drum and bass music helps to connotate the very fast life that many Londoners live. Also, Camden Town is very fast moving and vibrant place at night, with a gritty and urban scene, something that many Londoners are used to. Therefore, it is more so that our choice of location represents a regional identity, rather than just the characters.

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

Our thriller seems most likely to be distributed by a TV company as all the five major distribution companies, which are American owned, will prioritise Hollywood films over others. Almost nine out of tens films are viewed because of these 5 major distributors (United International pictures, Warner Brothers, Buena Vista, Twentieth Centry Fox and Sony). It will be easier to gain distribution from a British television channel as it can be screened to everyone in the nation and a UK distribution company will be interested in film with a British storyline, as their audience will be able to feel that they can relate to it. Half of the films screened in British cinemas are only shown to half of the country.

Funding will be used partially from personal investments and the UK film council as it is too small to be invested by a major Hollywood company and will need some sort of external funding for support. Support could also come from Working Title, who are a UK based production company that were behind UK hits such as Ali G In Da House, Bridget Jones’ Diary and Love Actually, which all have unique storylines, like our film. They are known for funding many of the UK’s best films. Success in the US and overseas may have been difficult as these types of films are films that only we, the British, can really relate to. Perhaps a storyline more suitable to a wide range of audience could help us get better funding, marketing and distribution to an International audience. However, as our film’s unique selling point is something mostly a British audience will relate to, it most sensible to target our film at just them.

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

We had decided that our target audience would be females between the ages of 15-30. We are not excluding out males or those who are over 30, but we feel that out thriller will be most enjoyable for those who fit that profile. Our target audience research showed that people found movies more enjoyable if it involved situation they the audience could relate to. Also, it is common for females to be interested in thriller films with emotions (for example, Sixth Sense) rather than males who tend to favour action thrillers (for example, Die Hard). We are hoping to achieve a BBFC (Biritish Boards of Film Classification) classification of fifteen, as we will be able to gain the full target audience of who we intended. Also, there is moderately strong language and bloody scenes used in the film, as well moderate sex reference. Although these are in our film, they may be considered as not explicit enough to qualify for an 18 and not too explicit enough for a 12A. Going for a 12A, could however make our targeted audience (of 15-30 years of age) feel that the film cannot be as gory/intense as it is portrayed, simply if it is targeted at a younger audience, which could therefore give a misinterpretation for our targeted audience.


5) How did you attract/address your particular audience?

Several elements were used to encourage our target audience’s identification with the characters. For example, the social class that the both of the characters held. Whereby the attractive middle class woman has caught the eye of the stereotypical working class male, looking for a one-night stand. The audience is asked to particularly put themselves in the position of Ameile as she is the character that will represent the majority of the audience and as she is the innocent victim, which was helped shown by the use of POV shots and establishing shots around Camden Town as Ameile eventually makes her way pass the man. This helps the audience to see the sleaziness of the man and how some women can feel in similar situations. Women feeling insecure and potentially sexually assaulted by random men on streets is something many would say who live in the Western world.



6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product

Using our camera (Cannon XM2) on our outdoor set was quite challenging at times as at different areas of our outdoor location, the white balance had to be altered to compliment the conditions of the outdoor lighting. Having the wrong setting caused white grains across the screen. Having additional lightings, such as red heads, was not possible to have for our outdoor scenes, as they were all public locations with no place to power the lights. But fortunately, out locations were well lit and so are our shots were still clear despite being shot during the night.

Mastering the editing software techniques for Final Cut Pro took a while at first, but became easier and the weeks went by. At first, it was very difficult to log and capture all our data, as setting up all the configurations had be right and this all was very confusing, especially as it was the very first task we had to do on Final Cut Pro. The more repetitive this came, the more easier it became yet it was still very stressful to use as it very time consuming to do.

Learning keyboard shortcuts helped to save time on repetitive actions that need to be exact, for example, trimming your captured shots so dialogue is cut at the right time when used in the final sequence. Video transitions were used to move from one clip to another in the final sequence. The cross dissolve was used several times for fading up, fading down, smoothly transitioning from one clip to another and to smoothly bring texts in and out. A drum and bass song was used as the soundtrack for a section of our sequence as it adds to the idea of the fast urban life and the fast paced cuts. There was difficulty when fading out the soundtrack at the end of the sequence, but manually opening the audio clip into an editor and clicking on points of the songs to fade down eventually did it.


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

Our preliminary task allowed us to become familiar with the equipment we would use in our thriller sequence, for example, the use of cameras, tripods and editing software. We had to become familiar with such controls on the camera like adjusting the white balance and manual focus. Furthermore, during the editing process, we became more familiar with bad editing techniques, which helped us to avoid during our thriller sequence. These were like cutting in the middle of dialogue and transitioning from one shot to another, which is in the same shot of the same angle.

Detailed planning helped a lot during our production process. The project schedule helped us to keep up to deadlines and delegate individual tasks to each person in our group. The research document helped us to understand thriller movies more in depth and the audience who watch them. This gave us an idea of how to develop our thriller towards our targeted audience.

To conclude, I feel that our end product has successfully met our brief as we have successfully researched into the elements of what defines a thriller film, researched an audience and created an end product that is suited to that audience. However, when comparing our product to a professional product, it does not seem to have the same professional visual impact. The quality of out camera does not seem as of good quality, compared to those of professional ones. Nevertheless, it may not be due to the camera, but to the lack of knowledge of configuring the white balance and focus properly. Similarly, having better knowledge of actually editing techniques could have made our sequence look more professional.