Media AS Evaluation

1. Freena Tailor Media AS Evaluation

2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The final edit of our film included some codes and conventions from the research we gathered, for example the story line of the film was influenced by films such as the Saw films, Taken and Hostage. In the film ‘Saw’ the character who keeps the victim’s hostage is anonymous; this is something that we tried to accomplish in our film. We did this by nicknaming the serial killer in our film ‘The Judge’, the ‘The’ in front of the name makes the character sound more important. The name is very mysterious and gives a high status due to the ‘Judge’ in the name. To further The Judge’s anonymous character we tried to keep his face hidden in the shots. This is displayed when he is walking to the hostage room and only show his full body is shown from far, plus once he’s inside the room only the lower part of his body is shown with his face cut at the top of the shot.

3. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Another convention we took from our research is the male dominance towards the female. This is seen in many action films where the men are represented as the strong and leading character, where as the women is seen to be submissive and most likely the victim. This was presented in the film ‘Taken’ where a whole group of men in a mafia kidnapped a female. This particular representation is shown in our film through levels, there is an over the shoulder shot of Sienna sitting down on the chair and The Judge standing up in front of her. Since The Judge is standing up and also doing something that she cannot do, this gives The Judge a higher status in the film.

4. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Finally, the whole storyline was inspired by the director’s cut from Saw II which is in our research here: http://freenat2014.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/second-meeting/ This has been shown in our product since Sienna wakes up in an unknown place and has no way of escaping, this is what happens to the character in Saw too. We captured all of these in our film as best as we could.

5. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Since most thriller films have white actors which target their audience to white people, in our film we have a diverse of race which is Indian people, this is not normally seen in thriller films. This is shown on the photo of all three girls, although it is in black and white and the colour of the skin may not show, there are other photos of the characters surrounding that picture which acts as a victim list to The Judge. As we are adding an unusual race into the genre that is mostly seen to include white people, it makes the film give equality to controversial social groups today and can be seen positively. However, in the film their characters are portrayed as antagonists from all the crimes they have committed without being convicted, this contrasts immensely but shows a great feature to a race that are left hidden in the dark when it comes to a thriller film targeted towards a wide range of different social groups.

6. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Something I previously mentioned before was the male gender dominating the female gender. We know that The Judge is male from the dark black costume he is wearing, which indicates death when in contrast with Sienna’s white costume, this represents the stereotypical innocent look which females are normally seen as, but not in this case. Also, The Judge’s long confident strokes he takes as he walks all adds a masculine aspect to his character.

7. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I think that an independent institution like Kaleidoscope Film Distribution may be able to distribute our film. They have distributed a few thriller films such as ‘Mine Games’, ‘The Seasoning House’ and ‘The Man Inside’. Since they have distributed a lot more thriller films, this company is ideal for our product. I think an independent company is better than a conglomerate company due to the budget that we are on and also since the content may not apply to a wider audience worldwide. This is due to the actors in the film; most of them are unknown which will not attract a big audience. Also, since our storyline is quite cliché is does not catch the eye of conglomerate companies to make a profit from a unique and unusual storyline.

8. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? It is likely that our film would be aired on TV such as Film4 since our target audience is aimed at British teenagers and Film4 is aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which is the ideal place for our audience. Furthermore, Film4 does have another channel that shows the same viewings again but an hour later; this increases the viewing ratings for us and creates a wider audience for our film too.