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?

Whilst developing and creating our preliminary task, we had to learn about different shot types we had to use, different angles of shots had to be used to meet the requirements of the task. To most of us, this was a new thing so we had to adapt to the media environment when recording and creating our preliminary product. Looking back at our preliminary product compared to our final production, i can definitely see a major improvement as before, we didn't know much about effects, shot types etc, but i think learning throughout the process helped us to understand what to do.


180-Degree rule
We first had to learn about this rule as we didn't know what it was at the start. Our teacher told us to experiment and we found out we were doing everything wrong and breaking the 180-degree rule. He then explained that during a conversation, the 180-degree rule comes into place and that the camera should be on one side of the conversation at all times otherwise the audience will get confused on which person is on which side. We used the 180-degree rule into play when our protagonist was walking towards the cubicle where the antagonist was, and what made it easier for us is that we was not able to film on the other side of the protagonist because of the wall, so this made sure we didn't break the rule.


Shot/Reverse shot
During our preliminary, i think our shot/reverse shot was perfect first time round as we included close ups to show the person's facial expression and changed the shot at the right times. We didn't end up using the shot/reverse shot as there was no direct communication between our antagonist and protagonist but learning about the shot was an enjoyable experience.




Carl Close up, to Ahmed Extreme close up, to Carl Extreme close up

Match On Action
Match On Action is a shot that shows the continuity from one shot to another, in real time. so after a scene is cut, the camera is moved into a different position to shoot a different shot type and the actor would have to act the remaining part of the scene, then the clips can then be combined to make the whole film which includes different shots.

As you can see in our preliminary task, I (on the right side) am about to walk off scene towards a door, this scene is then cut after i'm out of the scene and is then repeated but this time the camera is seeing me walk towards the door.

As you can see the scene is continued as i walk off the 1st clip but I am then scene in the 2nd clip. To make the whole production we had to move our camera into different places for the best shot types. After this it was just a trial and error situation and learning from our mistakes until we got the shots we wanted. The clips were then edited on Final Cut Pro and were made to look as if the whole production was in recorded in real time.

We used match on action effectively in our final production when Mark (Carl) opens the cubicle door to find out no one was there. This changed from a point of view shot, to a medium shot.

Point of view shot to Medium shot

As a whole, i feel we did use most of the shot types effectively well and there was a major improvement from the preliminary task to the final product as we learned new things along the way of creating the product, and the outcome of the final video gained good responses and feedback.

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

throughout creating and constructing the product i had to learn and adapt to new technology, programs and sites i have and havent used before. throughout the process of filming i didn't really have much technology or equipment to set up such as the camera and tripod as they were set up by Ian Bukenya during the process, my main role during the process was just to perform to the best of my ability. Although i didn't record or film, i did manage to learn about different types of shots and shot angles that i could use for future purposes.

The first site and program i started to use was blogger. This was very new to me as i have never created a blog in the past and found out that this would be the way the examiners could view our coursework, so i had to adapt to typing up my work, updating posts, editing posts and also deleting posts. After learning how to use blogger i started to make my blog look stylish such as adding a new background and changing text fonts. Without this program i would not of been able to complete my coursework and also, this site is very useful because if i had written the coursework, being able to edit it would of been very difficult where as using blogger allowed me to edit my coursework and improve my work in certain areas to achieve higher grades.

Another program me and my group had to adapt to was scribd. We had to constantly use this when uploading pieces of work from word, powerpoint and others. What this allowed us to do was upload works to our blog whilst it is still in the same format and we were also able to edit it and also view it in full screen. This allowed us to make our blog look neat and professional and without this, the work we would of typed up would look messy and unprofessional.


I also used a software online called bubbl. This allowed me to create brainstorms online neatly and easily. without this, my brainstorm wouldn't look neat and tidy. Also using this software also allowed me to easily delete mistakes and make changes to my work and could also be something i can use in the future.




 Another software and website i used was souncloud. Soundcloud was a very useful software because it allowed me to upload tracks and sounds online, that i used in our final product. After uploading sounds to our soundcloud, this allowed Ian Bukenya to talk about them and it allowed us to show the audience what tracks and sounds we used, instead of trying to find and hear the right sounds in the finished product. This taught me how to upload and download tracks onto different softwares.



Youtube was another software and website i used and this was also very helpful. Youtube allowed me to upload our preliminary video and also our final products. This was a useful thing to do because we could then get feedback from anyone who viewed our video online, which helped us inprove our final product because of the feedback given. This could also be something i would use in the future as it is one of the main websites used at this present day.



I also used a program on the Macs called Final Cut Pro. I was already familar with programs like this as personally i do use Sony Vegas Pro at home. This was one of the most important programs we had to use because without this, we would of had to edited the video in a different way and the quality could of been worse. Final Cut Pro is useful because it gives you a wider range of effects and gives you a variety of things you can do to your video to make it a professional as possible. I had to adapt to this but even when editing our product it was very enjoyable and fun.



 I also used a program called Photoshop and this was really familiar to me because  i use this software regularly even at home. Photoshop allowed me to edit and crop pictures, and also create our production logo in the final product. The software also allowed us to change the pictures into cartoon looks and other effects for our posters so photoshop makes it easier to edit images.

Evaluation Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience? (Annotated)

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

due to the BBFC, the age certificate for a final product is rated a 15, so we targeted our product towards this age and above. Below are two pictures of people that would be possible to buy our final product, one 16 year old male and one 16 year old female.

16 year old male                                                                16 year old female

    

Both teenagers are most likely to shop at DVD and video stores like HMV so we would make our DVDs available in stores such as this so that if people were to be interested in the product it would be available to buy. These are just 2 normal teenagers that would probably listen to a variety of music from Hip-Hop to Rock, Punk, Pop etc.

Both teenagers generally do watch a big variety of T.V programs which could also include different types of genres such as Comedy, Horror, Thriller and Action. Channel 4, ITV1 and Film4 would be some of the T.V channels we could use to show our product to the audience. this would be a good idea because any typical person would want to see a film on a films channel.

These teenagers also tend to like the Thriller genre more than any other genre so these 2 teenagers would be the ideal audience for our video production.

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

The production company name for are product is called CSI Productions. We used this name because the people in my group were called Carl Caperina (C) Sharna Mandil (S) and Ian Bukeyna (I) and we thought we would use this because CSI also stands for Crime Scene Investigation, so it was generally a smart name.


At the beginning of our final production we put our production logo and we used red for the background to represent blood and and death which is common in thriller films.

group logo in final production

What a production company does

• Supervises the recording and creating the film from beginning to end
• Responsible for any financial or legal responsibilities that have to be payed or made
• Make sure they set their own objectives and target and keep within the budget they own
• deals with the schedules, scripts, marketing for the product, casting and pre/post production.

As the film progresses into its first opening shots, the credits are shown in a particular order, which is used in most films, first the director, then the writer, then the actor/actress starring in the film. We know that this has been used in this order because we analysed SAW as an example and they used this order.

Order (from top left to bottom right)

Titles used in our final production

What is a film distributor?

A film distributor is an independent company, which acts as the final agent between the production company, and a film exhibitor, to the end of securing placement of the producers film on the exhibitor's screen.


A successful film distributor within the thriller/horror section is Lionsgate, which has released many SAW franchises and the outcome of the films have always been positive which brings a good reputation to the company.

Lionsgate logo

The Lionsgate logo is also very similar to ours, with the sort of dark pink/reddish background and the writing in the middle of the logo.

Following the BBFC guidelines, our film was rated a 15 so our target audiences are 15 and above. Most teenagers do tend to watch many thriller and horror films which was why it was a good idea to create a film within these 2 genres. So if our film was to be distributed by the Lionsgate company, it would give us a good reputation as Lionsgate are known for distributing good thriller movies such as SAW, so viewers would be aware that our production is based on the thriller genre.


Channel 4 could also be another film distributor for us as it is a British film channel that also shows thriller and horror films and because our film is created by us (British) it will also gain us a good reputation.

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

I am going to compare the differences and similarities of the two images below. One of them, a real movie antagonist (Samara from the ring) and our antagonist from 'The Unexpected'.

Samara from the ring & our antagonist from The Unexpected

There are many similarities and differences between these two characters. We originally got our idea from the ring as we thought she would fit in our movie as the antagonist as some sort of 'lost or possessed child'.

There are many similarities that are visual such as;

• The costume worn on both characters are white which is common in thriller movies to give a 'ghost' effect. So dressing her as this makes her look scary and frightening and you wouldn't expect a normal walking body to be in a white costume with blood on. Also the make-up used for our antagonist to look pale made her look similar to the Samara and many other features such as the dark black hair which hides her whole face so that the audience wonders who she is, and the scary looking posture they are both doing as if they were both possessed.

• Another similarity between the two characters is their roles within the script/story. In the ring, Samara is not introduced to the audience so they are left wondering who she is and why she is in the film. This is classed as a good thing as it creates many enigmas and the only way to find out who she is, is if you watch the whole film. In The Unexpected, Our antagonist is not introduced in the film either, as she just appears out of nowhere and the first time the audience see her is when the protagonist wakes up with a blurred vision.

• Another similarity could also be, both antagonists succeed in capturing or killing the protagonist which is what usually happens in normal thriller movies, depending on how many protagonists there are. But in this case, in The Ring's opening scene, she does capture her victim and in The Unexpected, she also captures her victim.

• Both antagonists are of a young age, which goes against the stereotypical big scary male ghost or killer, as you wouldn't expect young girls to be scary as you would usually adore a young person or child. This is used in a good effect as it makes the movie more interesting not knowing what the antagonist could actually do to harm the protagonist.

• A difference could be, that the antagonist's roles aren't exactly the same because of the different story-lines. Samara appears from a T.V then captures the victim where as our antagonist in The Unexpected has somehow already captured the protagonist, and left him in a toilet. So both antagonists capture their victims in different ways.

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

Throughout the production of the film we have used many different forms and conventions that is common in thriller films.


TITLE









The title of our production is called 'The Unexpected'. My group chose to name our production 'The Unexpected' because we already planned that the tension and suspense would build up until the final moment, which would make the audience jump unexpectedly, which is why we chose this name. The title of the film is also simple and common as it begins with 'The' and 'Unexpected' is usually a common name for thrillers, so the title would be easy to remember.


FONT

Our font and colours also follow the thriller codes and conventions. As you can see we used red, to represent death and blood which is a common factor in most thriller movies. Also the font we used doesn't look plain as it has a style to it to make it look different and interesting. Most thriller films do use colours such as red to represent certain things in their films. This title is also shown at the end of the opening scene instead of the beginning as the audience find out why it is called the unexpected before they see the title. Because the opening scene is made for them to jump, so seeing the title after the scene would make more sense to them.


LOCATION

The setting and location of our final product goes with the typical codes and conventions of the thriller genre. The location of our film is a toilet/bathroom with dim lighting to make it look like a dark atmospheric area and when watching the film, there is literally no escape for the protagonist which is normal in most thriller/horror films. We were influenced by the toilet scene in SAW 2004, as within our story-line and SAW's story-line, both protagonists in each story are helpless and have no escape, which leads to death. This is why our decision was to use this location as it was suitable for our story-line and also it was a close location as it was in school, so no travel expenses or journeys had to be made.

Location of SAW in 2004

GENRE

Protagonist dazed and confused

Using SAW as an example, most of their thriller films do start with just a random room, usually with a victim set up in a trap, or just generally dazed and confused in an abandoned area. We thought this would be a good idea and decided to use this because it has been used before and has been proven to be very successful.

Our protagonist dazed and not responsive


This suggests that this is a thriller film as nobody knows how the person got there, the location of a toilet is unusual so why would he be there and why he is not responsive or awake also gives suggestions that it is a thriller film.

COSTUMES


The costumes used are very similar to usual costumes in thriller movies.

This is the costume we used for our antagonist and as you can see it is a white dress, with blood on it which is one of the most common costumes in thriller/horror films which suggests that this is a thriller film. We decided to dress our antagonist in this way because we were influenced by The Ring 2 as previously mentioned. Samara in The Ring is dressed similar to this and personally viewing The Ring myself it was frightening and scary. This makes our antagonist appear scary and somebody that can cause harm and this also presents thriller films.

The costume we used for our protagonist also follows the codes and conventions of a thriller film as the protagonist us usually a normal, general person living everyday live, going to work, having a family etc. We decided to dress him smartly in a black suit with black shoes and white shirt so he would look like a high class individual who has a good job and could be innocent. Although this doesn't suggest that this is a thriller film, when watching more of the film, it is easy to notice and compare the differences between the antagonist and protagonist, as the protagonist wouldn't be wearing a white dress with blood on it but then again in some cases, the antagonist is sometimes made to look innocent.