Evaluation Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the whole process of constructing our finished film I have learnt a wide variety of skills and techniques when using the technologies provided. The first main technology which took longest to get used to was the Apple Mac computers as I had previously never used one before. I found it extremely confusing and frustrating at first, as well as using all the new software I had never used, for instance iMovie, one of the main programmes needed to create our film took a while to familiarise myself with. However, once I felt comfortable with using the Mac I could quickly learn more and more skills which would be vital in the process of creating our film.

     The Blogger website was also new to me. However, once I set up my account I quickly explored the features of the site and could enjoyably blog, posting my work and interactive content. I could now easily import and upload videos and pictures. Here I could blog all my current progress, and also the techniques and information I had learnt along the way. The use of Youtube was also very efficient, any specific clips from films or programmes we could import and upload onto blogger to help with our research. We also used the website to upload our own films, allowing others to view our work.

     When creating our final film we used our own camera instead of the schools as it would ensure better quality and more function - however, this came at a price; it took a considerable amount of time to get used to the camera when filming, and many attempts to get the features such as the zooms and focus pulls perfect in each shot. Despite this, we all had a positive attitude towards our progress of making the film.

     The editing process of the film was probably the most challenging. By using iMovie I could see it would take a generous amount of time to get used to using each feature, although once I was familiar with the programme I could achieve much more skilled and advanced projects, I was now able to create voiceovers and structure our film shots together to create drafts which could then be edited. I learnt how to create many different camera shots which could be combined to achieve effective and professional camera work techniques such as match on action, shot/reverse/shots, point of view shots and more.

     Overall, I think I have learnt something at every stage of development of our film and have been very successful in learning new skills and techniques when using different technologies, while also learning how to make a quality and professional film in general.

Evaluation Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Here are the social groups that are represented though specific characters within our film:

Middle class

• The middle class social group is represented by the first character seen in the film, the psychologist. He is an ordinary character who doesn't appeal to the audience in any way.
• By how the psychologist doesn't appear to be too interested in his patient we can see that he does not enjoy this job, however, he deals with it and gets straight to the point when asking questions. He doesn't want to waste time and feels that his patient, the protagonist, is exaggerating his problems.
• The psychologist looks down upon the protagonist as he clearly sees him as a vulnerable and petty underclass, however, he does not express his thoughts, he just wants to get on with the job. In addition, we can see by his tone of voice and even how he doesn't have the courtesy to look at the underclass character when talking to him that he feels greater and in higher social class than him.

Underclass

• The second character present in the opening scene of our film is the protagonist in the present day - years after the incident he is talking about to the psychologist.
• Immediately the audience can perceive him as an underclass by his sluggish form as he slouches over the desk, whereas the middle class psychologist sits in an upright position. By how he drinks spirits we can see he resorts mostly to alcohol due to his depression and anxiety. As the audience are told he has symptoms of paranoia we can understand his reluctance to tell the psychologist his story, however, this may be due to him wanting sympathy over what has happened to him in his life.
• The protagonist in this first scene is seen to be stereotypically represented, many underclass people are seen and portrayed as unstable and unequal. Here we can see the protagonist is vulnerable, lonely and empty.

MI5 Agent

• In the library scene we see the MI5 agent who represents the very high class social group. By how he is on the computer, uses his smartphone and is in percession of a briefcase we can see how he is tech savvy and also of very high importance. His urgency suggests he has no time to wait around and has important tasks to do.
• The agent views himself to be greater than others. We know by how he barges past the student without any assurance of the teenagers well being that he thinks he himself is more important and has bigger and better things to do.
• The agent is stereotypically represented in our film as he is dressed smart and slick, while having up to speed technology (smartphone, email, computer). His tone of voice is strong, the audience know hes got a job to do, and nothing can stop him.

Students/Teenagers

• The protagonist in our film is not of the stereotypical sense, but instead a determined and willing student, ready to sacrifice all to save humanity, whereas, stereotypically teenagers are seen to be very mischievous and rowdy.
• The protagonist is intelligent and sharp, as he is studying at university he is even smart enough to test the top secret theory of global warming. This would be considered extremely difficult, unless for a amazingly intelligent scientist like himself - he is unique and contrasts considerably when compared to a student his age.
• As teenagers and youths are stereotypically seen as bad behaved and ill mannered, the use of an anti-stereotypical teenager gives the audience a whole new view of the social groups - we can see that in this film the agents are the antagonists, while to the audiences surprise the teenager is the protagonist.

Scientist

• When the protagonist reads the top secret file and discovers the theory, he then goes to his university to begin testing. This is the first appearance of the student being a scientist which may be a surprise for the viewers watching; we no longer view the protagonist as just a hand-working student, but not as an experienced scientist.
• By how a real experiment is used, along with time lapse, we can clearly see this character is strongly determined to find out the truth about global warming; this demonstrates how focused he is throughout the long duration of his experiments.
• The scientist in our film is sterotypically represented. Almost all scientists in films are portrayed as being extremely intelligent, alike how we have presented our protagonist in our own film. Just from him experimenting with chemicals we can see how he knows what he is doing.

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

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

 

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Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I believe that from the preliminary task we have progressed extremely well to create a new and exciting film which consists of a much wider use of techniques and conventions of a thriller. From analysing the preliminary task we could spot the weaknesses of it and transfer the strengths into our final film. Despite the preliminary task being very rough and of low quality, I found the plot and general atmosphere that the film created to be very effective and powerful in portraying all the conventions of the thriller genre. In some ways I believe that we may have resulted in a better final film if we followed more aspects of our preliminary task, for instance, the great use of low key lighting and flickering of the lights effectively built suspence and tension while also adding a touch of horror (keeping the audience on edge and anxious).

     As the preliminary task was to create a film which required three main camera techniques, these being match-on-action, shot/reverse/shot and the 180-degree rule, I believe we chose too simplistic and bland props to use. The idea of using a hand opening a door for match on action seemed a little predictable and boring, while the use of the 180-degree rule was not as effective as we were filming in a small enclosed area. On the other hand, our final film involved new and interesting camera shots; we found that using the same techniques, however with different props, we could achieve a better quality shot with continuity which is essential in a film.

 

     If we were to improve our final film I would recommend using more low key lighting and also developing our plot to include more action. By doing this we could build much more tension, the low key lighting would work acceptionally well in certain scenes of our final film such as the laboratory scene or the opening scene in the counseling room. Despite this I think our film proved to be very successful overall; from looking at fellow pupils' final film I believe we produced an acceptionally well presented film which keeps the audience intrigued and interested to see more.

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

When trying to attract a specific audience - in this case our target audience age range from 16-25 - we needed to observe current trends and interests. Looking at our target audience profiling and research we could see that teenagers and young adults may be classed as tech-savvy and up to speed with technology. From this we knew we would need to include props that would interest this audience and therefore decided the use of a computer and smart phones would appeal greatly and attract our audience.

 Another aspect that may appeal to our target audience may be the age of the protagonist in our film. As he is a student studying at university the target audience age range is at a similar age as the protagonist; this allows the audience to feel more connected with this character as they know what it is like themselves to be at a similar age. Some may also be studying at university, making this film and a thrill and inspiration for them due to same lifestyle they have with the protagonist.

There are many ways to attract our audience through advertising if our film went public. However, the group decided there would be one main technique to draw in viewers: this was the Orange Wednesday scheme. The scheme simply allows the consumer to have 2 cinema tickets for the price of one every wednesday - for teenagers and student this would be a great bonus as some may look to be saving money or even have financial issues which would make it difficult for them to spend money on going to the cinema. This therefore would be a brilliant way to advertise and appeal to young audiences while giving them more reason to see the film.

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Target Audience: Age Group & Gender

I have decided the age group of the target audience would be around 16-25 years. Research and statistics show that this age group generally watch more thriller films than any other of the age groups (shown in the audience age range chart with the biggest percentage of 40%). In addition, I also think this because the scenes, conventions and general narratives of some thriller films may be overly brutal, dramatic and even involve a hint of horror within it; I therefore think anyone in the age range of 15 and below could be negatively affected by what the thriller film presents through its storyline - outcasting the 10-15 age group for appropriate reasons. From research I think the gender of the target audience would not need to be as specific as the target age group, however, it is still important nevertheless. We have decided that for our thriller film the gender of the target audience would mainly be aimed towards males, however, females could also be attracted to the film and its storyline as well. This was decided because in a stereotypical sense, along with statistical data (the majority of thriller film audiences being males at 59%), males seem to be more interested in on-edge, mysterious and frightful elements of films (therefore, thrillers), rather than the female gender. From this I presume that males find thriller films more exciting, spine-tingling and edgy to watch, achieving thrills by watching them, as opposed to females. By taking the audience gender and age groups into account, we have decided the majority of our target audience will be made up of male university students and other young adults.

                     Audience Age Range Chart                     Audience Gender Chart