Media Coursework Evaluation.



‘Rouge’ (pronounced /ruːʒ/; French: Red)



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

Our Movie ‘Rougé’ is a psychological thriller which includes aspects of supernatural and horror movies. In order to create an effective opening sequence, we had to include substantial enigmas which portrayed a 'typical thriller’; we knew that there had to be mystery and a number of unanswered questions which would induce anticipation in the viewer.

Instead of delving straight into a action packed scene, we Opted to start off with our main character opening with a small narrative about herself as she is now retained in a mental institute undergoing psychoanalysis, In this scene we have her talking directly to the camera, Thus allowing our audience to know a little about our main character, she is seen up against a sheer white background connoting her vulnerability and her feeling of being bare and emotionally drained.. This would later evolve into the actual events that would directly affect her, as we then progress into a flashback. Unlike traditional thriller movies, we challenged the normal narrative sequence and decided to have our film running in non-chronological order (non-linear/disrupted narrative), starting with the ending of the movie first and then merging into the starting point. We have very much reversed the conventional thriller opening to make it more twisted. Our opening sequence starts with underlying intensity which gradually builds up and leaves the audience wanting more, As we see the our protagonist outwit the antagonist.

Our use of camera work in our production pursued that of typical thriller conventions. We filmed in Camden town, with our establishing shot capturing the edgy, urban, fast paced urban lifestyle. We used a drum and bass style music to accompany and compliment our shots.




2) How does your media project present particular social groups?

The two main actors which we chose to cast in our production were actors which we thought related to our fictional characters in order to maintain the feel of authenticity.

We have portrayed our main female character as Our Lead Female Character 'Amelié' is a sexy French psychotic seductress in her early 20s, who is mentally disturbed, this to some extent can be projected as psycho-cynicism. She could be seen as an amalgamation of such older films as (Carrie 1976 and Cruel Intentions 1999). The use of our atypical character challenges the 'norm', and gives the audience something new and exciting to work with. We kept her in very feminine clothes, enhancing her sex-appeal and had her wear a red trench coat, which come in conjunction with the movie title, signify things such as – sex, danger, blood and love.

Our lead male character is a typical representation of what we refer to in the UK as “Lad” culture, a young socially suppressed man whose forms of a good time consist of drinking-beer, crude language and “chatting up” any girl that happens to walk by ‘Tommy Johnson’ The Football Factory (2004), We can see this as Amelie is walking by, he attempts to chat her up but she resists, thus resulting in a bruised ego for him and his anger building up.

As our project is very much urban and consists of young actors in a well known place in London, I believe that it would appeal to many of the different social groups that we have.




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

As our thriller film is very much ‘British’, and features urban city life in London through the eyes of young people, as this may appeal less to the general public as our target audience only make up a small fraction of the UK population, I believe that it would be able to reach more of our target audience by distributing it through a television channel such as channel 4. Channel 4 is renowned for Edgy, Gritty, and Urban documentaries and films, Similar to skins, Misfits and the American thriller series ‘True Blood’. Through our initial channel 4 distribution, if it becomes a favour and highly sought after, we could then think about asking for external funding through one of the major companies.

Although our product is obviously small/low-budget to be invested in by major Hollywood companies, we could be partially funded by the UK film council and use personal investments.



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

As a group we decided that our target audience would be both males and females between the ages of 15 – 25, although we are not fully excluding those who are of an older age, we felt as though it would be more enjoyed by those who are younger as they would be able to relate to it in some way, whether it be through location or the characters. Females might however find the movie more interesting than males, as it obviously follows a woman who is anything but your average, controlling this man, which would give women a sense of escape from the stereotypical feeble role which they are usually portrayed as.

We gave the more a certificate (15) as through our research we found that it was this group of young people who would find fast-paced, psychologically challenging movies more appealing and as there is moderate blood and gore, slight hints of sexual reference, and slight strong language.


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

In order to attract our audience, we used very subtle ways in which we could help our target audience’s identification with our characters, Through our characters roles e.g. Amelie as a well to do good looking young lady getting harassed in the street by a rowdy young male, is somewhat seen as a regular occurrence in the western world, especially here in the UK, many females may have found themselves in this predicament on several occasions. The young man as a cocky, over-confident, stereotypical male.

Using the information gathered through our various interviews and questionnaires, we were better able to understand what people did and did not like. By using a familiar filming ground and characters which our target audience would be relate to, we were able to make a connection with our viewers. If we were to advertise and promote our product, we would use different medias to attract our audience. Social networks such as facebook, twitter and MySpace would be our first option as these are very popular amongst the audience which we are trying to reach.



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

After having been assigned our different roles within the group ( Producer, director, editor and camera person ), We attempted our preliminary task, this is where we all first learnt about the different types of technologies used within the media environment, things such as our Cannon XM2, premier-pro/final cut-pro and sound loading on the apple-Macs.

At first using our camera turned out to be quite a struggle as the weather conditions were not the best, heavy rain and sleet made it difficult for us to capture the shots that we needed to complete our project, but through adjusting the camera setting and understanding which lighting was best to use, we overcame that hurdle. Although we were unable to use professional lighting such as ‘red-heads’ as we were filming in such a awkward place, our location turned out to be very well lit considering we shot during the evening times, the contrast of dark and light helped us to maintain a sinister feel.

Mastering the editing software posed more of a challenge for me as I was not familiar with it, but as the weeks progressed I was able to familiarise myself with it, learning how to smoothly transition and dissolve different clips along with learning how to accompany a background track with the shots.



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

After looking back on what we had initial done when constructing our preliminary task, I feel that we progressed well from having our ideas at an early stage and learning how to develop them into our final product. Although it proved to be challenging at first, with a group of new people whom all had their own opinions and ideas, through compromise and teamwork, we were able to communicate properly and organise what we had to do.

Looking back on our preliminary task, I feel I have come a long way in regards to being able to differentiate between all the types of shots, how and when to use alternative camera angles, how to edit properly, adding sound and using mis-en-scene help contribute to making a typical thriller with all the needed conventions. Post production planning also helped us to understand how much work it takes to make a production and how to distribute our time efficiently. To fully conclude, I have much more experience in both the practical and other side of making a high standard production.



By Janay Hirani