Josh Godlington - Thriller intro evaluation

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

• The radio in our intro acts as part of a soundbridge which helps create tension through what is played on the radio
• The radio itself becomes part of the iconography as the music that is played from it goes along with the pace of the intro and therefore becomes more recognisable
• Enigma is created along with the music playing as there is no dialogue so it becomes the only thing we can truly hear except for any diagetic sound made by the pencil writing or the sound of the shower

• The shots where the unknown character is writing in the file is important as it creates enigma as to who is this character and what is he writing about
• This is an element used in many intro to thrillers
• The file shots also do not show a clear protagonist/antagonist 
• The shots also have a restricted narrative as there is no clear plot indication

                                                                                                                                                      

 

• The hallway Point of view shot uses thriller conventions by again creating and using enigma and restricted narrative
• The elements of mise en scene add to the shot like the clothes and other objects
• The scattered objects and clothes show the some type of antagonist had been there or that they were looking for something
• It adds enigma as it isnt clear why it is like this or what they were looking for
• The Point of view element of it is also creating mystery as it doesn't show clearly if it is the point of view of an antagonist or a protagonist

•  The shower shots ask the question why is she there, how she got there and if she is an antagonist/protagonist
• Because she is in a running shower, sitting in a a curled position she shows her self to be a protagonist but a more of a vulnerable protagonist
• This is where the soundtrack cuts as the atmosphere of the scene becomes integral

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

• Our media project would aim more for the early to late teen audiences due to the characters

The unknown character

• The unknown character who is imlpied through the file shots and the point of view shots in our storyline is meant to be a male character maybe around the age of 17 - 20 
• Although the forms dont really show what the character is about, they are meant to be medical forms which say what was wrong with the protagonist

The female character 

• The female character is shown to be a protagonist but a vulnerable one
• Her positioning in the intro shows her to be a victim of this unknown antagonist

  

• The way that the seen female and the unknown male characters are represented would attract the more early to late teen audiences as i feel it shows that people close to or even at their age are vulnerable and can still be affected by problems of their own minds 

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

• I think that a British film instituition would distribute our film but more especially an independent British film instituition as the independent film companies help get the more small homebased films get distribution
• I feel that because of its low production values, I think it would be harder to get it distributed to America because even their standards in the American independent market are very high
• But because of its low production values, it shouldnt mean that it wouldn't get distributed because i feel that it should get picked up more because of its plot elements and its "British" thriller elements.

4. Who would be the audience for your media project.

• Similar to how does it represent social groups, I feel that who we represent in the film would be our audience as they would be able to associate more with it.
• also, i think that the audience that independent british cinema brings in because as of more recent there have been more and more younger film makers and actors so it has become a market to the younger generation aswell as any one who prefers british film

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

• We attracted our Audience more through the use of mise en scene as it is of course what you see through out the intro
• The house- what our audience like about the house interior was the idea that some one had been there but had been there to do more than trash the place
• The clothing on then floor had shown appeal with our audience as they liked how it was more modern like jeans and t shirts.
• This shows that it would have appeal with a younger audience as it shows that it represents them.
• Sound - The sound of the intro is an original piece so in that the audience recognised it as something original and new instead of using a song that they may of heard on the radio over and over again.

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

• Sorry for no recording, audio on recording was very low but i wrote what i was going to say

• When we came to film our thriller intro, i feel i learnt a lot about how to actually film it through framing. One example is when we were filming the desk shots. We had underanticipated how close the desk was to the wall so it made the framing more close then i think we would of prefered. The point of view shots of the hallway were also a learning curve as they were probably the hardest to film. Editing showed itself more when it came to it especially during the final cut process where you can see how frustrating and slow it can become. The sound editing was perhaps one of the easiest parts as i had done it prior to the thriller project.

 

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

• From doing the preliminary which was purely just to show our knowledge of film techniques and how to do them, i don't think i have just learnt more but improved on techniques that were used prior
• I have learnt more about white balance and how even if you say you are going to fix it in editing by adjusting the levels, it can still have contrast problems and saturations in the final piece
• I have learnt more about continuity and how it can ruin the flow for an individual viewer watching it and how continuity also is more than what is on the screen but the flow of the story which our media thriller piece is more based on its back story
• One thing i think i have learnt is the use of the soundtrack and how it can tell more of the story where in our preliminary we used soundbites from garage band for our soundtrack where we have progressed where we have made our own soundtrack.
• We had also tried to become more organised. This allowed us to have a better workflow for example when two of us when off to edit the film, the other two went off to post on the blog.