EVALUATION

How does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product uses some of the forms and conventions of real media products which are often used in thriller films. One use of real thriller media products which we have used in our product is the victim who is trying to escape the antagonist and is put in a dangerous situation which is a common convention found in thriller films. Another common convention often found in thriller movies that we have used is the element of suspense, drama and tension.

Our media product uses some forms and conventions of real media products often used in thriller films. One use is that we have the protagonist attempting to escape the antagonist. This is a common theme used within thriller films as seen in “Taken” when the girl (protagonist) is escaping from her kidnappers (antagonist’s). This was used to allow the audience to sympathise for the boy being chased. This is often the case that the middle/upper class boy is chased by the lower class character who is up to no good due to the split in society. This will also force the audience to feel anger towards the antagonist as he is chasing the poor boy. Another convention in which we have used is the disappearance of the protagonist. This was used to leave the audience in a state of wonder and curiosity as the opening sequence doesn’t reveal too much about the film. Furthermore we used the idea of the chase to start slow and build up into a much more action packed chase. We first saw this in “Casino Royale” ( https://youtube.com/watch?v=HNvzNWuzI9Y ) in which you can see the chase start as a walk to build tension, then they being running. This shows the transformation between feelings of being safe into fear. 

Our media product develops on the plot and theme usually found in real thriller media products. One thing that we attempted to do was input crime and drama into it by using dramatic chase scenes with the whole story being about the protagonist who commits the crime. Ours is also set in a rural location with a lot of thriller films being set in urban locations. However we could have developed on it more by using some more varied and ambitious camera angles such as a birds eye view shot.

Our media product develops other forms and conventions of media products as our film is set in a much more rural location. This is shown as most thrillers such as “Taken”, “Casino Royale” and many others are set in city and much more built up areas. However we believed that it would be good to set our thriller in a more rural location to show how things can also go wrong in places other than the big city, whilst sticking to the thriller genre. Therefore we decided to challenge this idea so our product would appeal to people living in more rural areas. This would be a huge opportunity for a larger audience as people living in rural areas would be more likely to relate to this film and sympathise with the protagonist more.   

This is an image from our final product showing the rural setting which challenges other media products.

Although our media product has not challenged forms and conventions of real thriller media products it has instead supports the forms and conventions of it. A way in which we could have challenged the commonly found forms and conventions in thriller films especially could have been by perhaps adding plenty of humour as there is never usually humour in a thriller film or little of it, and this would challenge real media products because this would usually contradict the idea of a thriller film.

Our media product has not challenged the forms and conventions of real media thrillers. As we have followed the thriller genre guidelines. we would have liked to added humour to this film, however this drains the effect that this is a serious thriller which is essentially meant to “thrill” the audience. it would be hard to create suspense if there was humour.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our thriller movie represents the youth’s social group as the characters in it are teenagers. They are both shown to be wearing the typical sort of clothes that would often be associated with them, these include casual and trendy clothing and also dark hoodies and trainers. Another typical representation of youths is that they are often associated with trouble in local societies. Our media product shows a chase scene involving youths which goes along with this typical association of creating trouble and an unsettledness. The character who is wearing darker clothing and the hoodie is shown to be the antagonist as they are wearing darker clothing which could show that they are trying to stay hidden and mysterious. That character is also depicted as being from a lower social class compared to the smarter dressed over youth who is perhaps from a higher social class.

This shows the difference in clothing between the characters, the hooded figure and the more well presented teenager.

What kind of media institution might distribute your product?

I believe the production company Studiocanal would be likely to distribute our media product. Studiocanal is a French production and distribution company, famous for thriller films such as Non-stop, Legend and Attack the Block. The films Legend and Attack the block are both set in an urban environment, and the latter being about young youths. This is where I feel our media product could be relatable to these other films. I believe this as our thriller also presents youths as being troublesome, due to the disappearance in our opening sequence. Also our product could be broadcasted after 9PM as it may be upsetting to younger viewers, due to our intense and mysterious storyline. Therefore this could be broadcasted on channels such as film 4. This is because this is a film dedicated channel in which is very popular and could broadcast our film.

How did you attract/address your audience?

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We attracted our audience by using various thriller theme techniques such as the mise en scene, lighting, sound and camera workings.

For mise en scene we used certain costumes, filming locations, actors for specific roles and props. The costumes we used were to depict each character as with the actors playing them. We chose Long Buckby train station because it is usually not very busy so it was a good location for a disappearance and there was also a dimly lit tunnel which was good to use to further express the thrilling theme of darkness, suspense and mystery.

For lighting we used the tunnel at the train station to good effect. We had a shot of the characters running into the tunnel and the sunlight reflected on the damp floor which made that scene slightly lighted but also still quite dark too. This enables the audience to still clearly see the scene but also adds an element of mystery which is often seen in thriller movies.

This shows the lighting within the tunnel to create a mysterious effect

For sound we used diegetic background sound so the scene is still connected to the real world as we want to make the scene as realistic as possible. The sounds that this included was the sound of cars, running in various places like the steps and the tunnel, the various noises from the train station such as the train and other sounds that may be heard in the location.

For camera workings we tried to involve quick camera changes to add to the pace of the chase scene and to make it overall faster and more dramatic. We also included an establishing shot which was used to show the train station and helps to establish where the chase is taking place. Another camera shot that we used was the point of view shot for the character being chased so that the audience are in the characters point of view and they can see the same thing that the character is seeing which adds suspense as the audience can have empathy with the character.

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

I have learnt a lot since beginning the project. I have learnt how to use a digital camera. For example I didn’t know how to even use a digital camera so it was all new to me. I found it easy to use the zoom slider to create a zoom in, zoom out effect. However it was particularly hard to navigate the cameras options, but I adjusted quickly to this. I have also learnt how to create exciting shot with just a digital camera. At first it was a big effort to come up with shot angles that will get across the experience we wanted. However we soon had some ideas that will enhance the viewers experience. I also had to adapt to editing quickly as we had never used the software before. I happened to find the software not too confusing and was soon putting our footage in, taking sound out, cropping video out and much more. Our most difficult task was finding the correct music as we felt that much of the music was too intense and didn’t fit the specification of what we believed would work. However we soon found something fitting after much debate and easily inserted it to finish off our product.

These show the challenges faced by us in terms of lighting changing fast.