EVALUATION

1. EVALUATION

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? • It follows the conventions of a typical crime thriller film, in that one of the main characters is abruptly kidnapped during the opening scenes of the film. Typical of many crime thrillers, the kidnappers are disguised in black clothing and their motives are of yet unknown. As with many films, it follows Todorov's 'equilibrium theory' - where narratives begin a calm state of equilibrium which is soon disrupted into a state of disequilibrium - a period of unsettlement and conflict, before finally a renewed state of peace and harmony occurs for the protagonists and a new equilibrium occurs, restoring balance in the narrative. In this case, the original equilibrium is the main three characters playing a football game on the Playstation 3 in a living room, after Jake departs for Tescos, the disruption into disequilibrium occurs when he is kidnapped by the two hooded antagonists, and taken away in a car after being knocked unconscious. • It challenges/subverts the conventions of the crime thriller genre, in that the antagonists are introduced early into the narrative, although their appearance is disguised. As opposed to other crime thrillers such as David Fincher’s Se7en, where the main antagonist John Doe is not introduced until halfway into the film. Todorov

3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? • It features male teenagers in a rather stereotypical fashion. i.e. Playing video games, teenage clothing etc. • The characters’ social class does not play an important role in the narrative, but we would generally assume that the characters featured in the film are middle class. We would assume from their appearance that they are between the ages of 16 and 18. • The character Jake is shown to be on his mobile phone while walking down to the shops, before he is attacked by the two hooded antagonists, this could be interpreted as a reference to the stereotype teenagers being too interested in their phones and not paying enough attention to the surroundings.

4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? • Presumably an independent British film company, such as Coffee Films (http://www.coffeefilms.com) or Film Export UK (http://www.filmexportuk.com) given the film’s low budget. • It may be picked by a larger distributor such as Warner Bros. (http://www.warnerbros.com) or 20th Century Fox (http://www.foxmovies.com) due to cases of other films created on a small budget becoming surprise hits (such as 28 Days Later). • It would be more beneficial to find a large distributor, such as the two mentioned above, for the film due to the large advertising campaigns and distribution operations that they could undertake. • However it would be more realistic to assume that the film would be distributed by a smaller, British company given the lack of reputation amongst the cast and production team, as well as the aforementioned low budget and British origins of the film

5. Who would be the audience for your media product? • Many crime thrillers, such as Se7en and Reservoir Dogs are given rating certificates of 18 by the BBFC, due to their frequent use of violence and dark subject matter involving events such as murders and kidnappings. • And as such, many crime thrillers are deliberately targeted towards those who are over the age of 18 due to their mature content. • However, due to the film’s young cast and focus on aspects of teenage society, I thought it would be more appropriate to target the film to a slightly younger audience, one which only earn a BBFC certificate of 15. • Furthermore, the film does not contain any explicit violence that makes use of blood or other type of mature content, therefore it does not need to be certified as an 18+ feature. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) are responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom.

6. How did you attract/address your audience? • The main target audience for this film is males between the ages of 16 and 30, although there is more of an emphasis on the teenage market. • The crime thriller genre is popular among this type of audience, given its uptempo feel and themes of violence. • Given that the characters are teenage males themselves, then this would make them more relatable to the target audience then say middle-aged or elderly actors. • The soundtrack for the film contains influences of hip hop and drum ‘n’ bass – genres that are popular most amongst the target audience of the film. Therefore the music used in the feature helps contribute to the overall appeal of the film.

7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? • With iMovie, I've learned how to detach audio from various clips and extend them into others to make the transition more seamless, reducing the amount of sudden sound cuts and allowing me to mix different video clips over one audio file. • I've learned how to adjust the volume levels of video clips and of the soundtrack of the film in order to make sure the two complement each other well and not have one dominate the other when there it is not necessary. • I've acquired more information about editing the visual aspects of the footage: Changing the speed of a clip (such as the baseball bat sequence) in order to give it more impact, experimenting with various parameters such as brightness, contrast, saturation and exposure, to help enhance a shot.

8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Click to play

9. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? • To be more aware of aspects such as lighting and mise-en-scene when shooting footage. • How to incorporate music into the film and make it relevant/appropriate to the narrative. • Experimenting with different camera angles such as over-the-shoulder and POV shots, which I had not used or experimented with in the preliminary task. • Becoming more adept with software such as iMovie and GarageBand

10. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? • Being more aware of external, environmental factors such as natural lighting and being cautious shooting in areas where filming would be liable to be interrupted by members of the public, which could often comprise the continuinity in the film (e.g. a person walking in the background of a long shot, who is not involved within the film), and dealing with such problems using devices such as the crop tool on the iMovie.

11. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Click to play