In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kuykSicFq4&feature=youtu.be
Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Planning the target audience for our psychological thriller
opening sequence took a lot of thinking and research. We began by watching
other thriller opening sequences and analysing what kind of audience we believe
they were aimed towards. For example we discovered after reviewing the ‘Now You
See Me’ opening, the film was aimed towards an audience around the age of
14-30, with no particular gender and working or middle class families. We came
to this conclusion because the age range described are usually the ones who
enjoy the idea of magic the most, and more importantly they tend to be of the
age to explore new genres of film.
This is why we evaluated the resources we had available and
decided to aim our opening sequence at a similar audience. As within the age
group of 14-30 would be the correct classification for (media studies) students
and film enthusiasts. This was later confirmed by a survey created by our group
into target audiences of thrillers. We questioned viewers on their age, gender,
social class and how often they watch films, thrillers in particular. We knew
by this early stage who we were aiming our opening sequence towards which
helped with planning the sequence itself. As we then simply had to research the
kind of things this group liked and disliked.
Through the internet (social media etc.) and common
knowledge we put together a list of features liked and disliked by the target
audience we previously described. The type of things they enjoyed (within a
film) include:
- - Complex story lines (confusion, mystery, secrecy)
- - Romance
- - Violence
- - Weapons
- - Deep character backgrounds
- - Ambient music
Whereas they seemed to dislike:
- - Jump scares
- - Overuse of CGI
- - Explicit language
- - Use of inappropriate music
Using this information we looked at which positive features
we were actually able to replicate within our opening sequence. Advanced
weapons and CGI effects seemed a little out of reach as we only had a very
limited budget and filming equipment. However the use of complex story lines and
romance were integrated into our final product to help keep the audiences’
attention throughout the rest of the film. We specifically looked at a
technique called “The love triangle”. This is when two protagonists have/want a
loving relationship with another character. The competition between the two cause’s
conflict and this is where we decided to incorporate other techniques such as
violence and threats to our story line.
The idea of teens/young adults in the modern day and age is
represented with alcohol and drug abuse, laziness, always up to no good and
disrespectful towards adults. However this is not how we decided to represent
this sub culture. We chose to represent them as respectful, caring and responsible
young adults. This was used to create a conflict with the ‘norm’ of society and
consequently attracting more attention to the film.
In our opening sequence we chose to have younger, teenage actors
for a few reasons. Firstly, with our limited budget, we were unable to get big
name Hollywood actors. Therefore we had to compromise with the resources we
had. Secondly using younger actors meant we were targeting the audience of a
similar age, then consequently meeting our target audience as planned. As the
actors are younger, it means those of a similar age can relate to their actions
and feelings.
The main female character in our opening sequence is represented
as a typical “damsel in distress”. Being the central reason for conflict
between multiple other characters. Her actions are shown as a very loving and elegant
young woman with confident characteristics. For example, this stereotypical
view of women can be found in classic thrillers such as “Friday 13th”
whereby the main psychotic character named ‘Jason’ pursues an innocent woman.
One of the male protagonists in our opening sequence is
represented as a typical calm, family man. With a wife that he cares very much
about and is willing to protect with his life. Through the use of flashbacks,
we chose to reveal the background behind this man and the idea of his hidden identity
with the mask he used to wear. We got the idea of multiple identities from studying
the popular psychological thriller “Psycho”.
Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dViyPBba6ZE
Question 4 & 5
Who would be the audience for our media product?
How did you capture/attract your audience?
Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In our preliminary task we had only recently started out with learning media, meaning our knowledge on camera shots, techniques, and general aspects of genre was fairly limited to what it was when we had done our main, full product. One example of a certain progression we went through from the preliminary task to the full product is that we got to learn how to use editing software more efficiently, meaning we could fully edit our films, and even apply different methods of making the film using editing software. One example of how this was used is concerning the credits that pop up throughout the full product, whereas in our preliminary task we had no credits. These credits were implemented using two sources of Adobe software, one piece of software personally introduced into the task of editing, whilst the other was provided by the school.
Another progression that was made was the use of different camera shots. In our preliminary task we had made good use of camera shots already, making sure to confide to the 180 degree rule, and also add in medium shots, long shots, over the shoulder shots, eyeline matches and two shots. But in the full film we included a variety of other camera shots that were not knowledgeable from the first time around, such as more focused over-the-shoulder shots transcribing from seeing other sources of over-the-shoulder shots to influence our perspective. We also done close-ups that we made sure actually worked with the genre, especially after having other examples, detailed descriptions and practice helping us previously. Another example could be the low and high angle shots we introduced, which helped symbolise which characters were weaker, and which characters had more strength without ever actually having to plainly explain it to the audience. These camera shots helped us define the genre and atmosphere of the full product, and further made the storyline more comprehensible, which was a major problem with our preliminary product.
Furthermore, we also gained more knowledge about mise-en-scene in the sense of using more props, relevant clothing and location. With the location we chose gloomy looking areas in our full film, whereas in our preliminary task we chose a random area undefined of any relevant features to our film. With props, we used more relevant props and made sure they were set up in a way to contrast the genre of the film, and also show their importance. Whilst in the preliminary task we had props scattered about, we didn’t have them set in places that would define them and show importance, and just gathered random props that we could find. Investing our money into props made a better standard towards the film, and made sure what we use is only relevant. Clothing was a major factor in the chances that we done, as in the preliminary we wore whatever we could find, whilst in the full product we chose clothing that contrasted our characters. Throughout the time period between the preliminary and full task we realised how important mise-en-scene was for a film, and how it could be used to our advantage as well.
With the implementation of a better camera than the previous preliminary task, we also introduced several camera techniques that we didn’t originally portray. For example, for one bit of the full product we used a focus pull, which was a camera technique that we never used for the preliminary task. We found out how useful several camera techniques are when concerning portraying different scenes, and we used it to show the disorientated thriller feeling of the entire product. We also used techniques such as panning the camera alongside someone walking, which made the product have a more fluent and smooth portrayal to it.
A very important thing we learnt from the time between the preliminary task to the full product is punctuality and time management. Throughout the full product we made sure to be punctual with our filming, and manage our time excessively, which further helped keep things in track at a later date. With this, we also made sure to divide the work equally and give everyone a fair share of work concerning what they’re good at.
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