Makeeha Ali- Evaluation Question Seven

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

The transition between my knowledge and understanding of everything from the preliminary task to the full product i would say was a major one. During the preliminary task i was unaware of many of the features on both the camera and iMovie therefore could not produce a product to the full of my ability. The learning process then started and i was able to use and work on our opening more easily. 

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Since our preliminary task  i feel i personally have developed new media skills, mainly my editing skills have improved. However this does not mean we did not have problems during the making of our full product, it just meant as a group we were able to handle them better. For example' after the filming of one of our scene's we realized that the sound was not working on our camera, after re-filming the scene 4 times we decided to cut it out of our full product due to continuity errors because of clothing, and limited time to re-film the scene.

• Our preliminary task did not consists of editing between shots to smoothly bring them together, this is something we change in our full product and used edits such as blacks fades to show the transition in time.
• The 180 degree rule was enforced in our preliminary task, although we did not feel it fitted into our opening well therefore did not use it, however it would have to be used later on in the film.

In the preliminary task we used limited camera shots, such as low angle. However in the making of our full product we used a variety of camera shots and angles, such as mid shot, long and closeup, this also added to the effect of our thriller genre.

Makeeha Ali- Evaluation Question Six

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

Through the process of constructing my thriller film, i have developed numerous different skills and learnt a lot about technologies and how to work with them productively.

• YouTube: We frequently used YouTube right from the beginning of our task, to research and learn about other thrillers shown previously in our blog. Eg. Donnie Darko.
• Facebook: As a way of contacting other members of the group outside school hours to share ideas or plan the day before hand to be fully prepared.
• Free play music: We used sites such as Freeplay music to find appropriate music for our thriller, initially we wanted the song by Marina & The Diamonds - Obsessions as we thought the lyrics and background music went well with out story line and genre. Although we were not able to use it due to copyright rules, so therefore as an alternative used sites such as Free play music. 

The video camera we used to film our opening was a new to me, something i had never used before, however during the preliminary task and trial and improvement i became familiar with its different functions and quite quickly was able to use it. It was a similar story with imovie, this is the program we used through out to edit our thriller opening.

Makeeha Ali- Evaluation Question Five

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract/address our target audience we carried out various kinds of research.
Including our audience research, which gave us a indication to what our audience expected from a thriller or preferred. After asking the question 'What type of genre interests you most?', we discovered that 'romance' was the most favorite followed by the 'thriller' genre. Using this information we came to a the conclusion of combining the two genres together, having an element of the story to be about love but also adapting the thriller conventions of real media products, resulting in a wider and more engaged audience.

Furthermore we were also inspired by a film with a similar narrative storyline, including a complicated relationship between a student and teacher, directed by Jordan Scott the film Cracks staring Eva Green.

The familiar setting of school environment, was used for the audience to be a able to relate to the character, a familiar setting also adds a sense of reality to the film again appealing to the audience in order for them to engage.  By making the lighting more dim and gloomy and the use of non diegetic sounds adding to the suspense and enigmatic atmosphere, it is able to relate to the thriller genre by subverting the typical appearance of a school.

Makeeha Ali- Evaluation Question Four

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our psychological thriller is targeted towards a audience ranging from 15-23 years. We decided to certify it a '15' film, meaning it can only be viewed by someone who is 15 years or above. We came to a conclusion that our thriller would best be suited a '15' certificate rather than a '18', our reasons being that although our film explores sensitive issues such as obbsession, love and death, it however does not show explicit scene's concerning abuse, painful death or illustrate any form of sexual activity.

We used a teenager in our thriller as the main character so our target audience could relate with the teenage life and surroundings, making or film more engaging to watch

Makeeha Ali- Evaluation Question Three

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

 

• Our thriller film is produced by MAD productions. The name was put together using the first letter of the groups last names, Haleema Minhas, Makeeha Ali and Sarah Dumay.
• ContentFilm is a film sales and finance company, specialising in high quality, commercial feature films. Fireworks International is ContentFilm’s international television distribution division, its distributes TVmovies, which would be suitable for our independant film.
• We decided to be a independant film company as we target a specific audience through the films we produce.
                                

Makeeha Ali- Evaluation Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• For our main character Lucy we wanted her to have a mysterious, dark and isolated look, in order to follow through with the thriller genre. We combined two looks together, a gothic style and of a lonley school girl. The two images on the right and left of the middle image, were the look we were going for, dark hair and black clothing giving them the stereotypical gothic image.

• For the character of the teacher Mr Collinson, we decided to have a more formal look to reflect his personality. Sartorial codes such as a shirt and formal trousers would fit the look perfectly.
• The appearance of Mr Collinson is a stereotypical look of how teachers are presented in films reflecting thier maturity and innocence.

Makeeha Ali- Evaluation Question One

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

The opening of our psychological thriller film ‘Education to die for’ adapted the conventions of a real media product, rather than challenging them. We decided to do this in order to emphasise the genre of our film, giving the audience a clear indication on what to expect from our film.

Title of our film

• The title of our film is 'Education to die for', we thought it would be appropriate for a thriller film as it subtly hints to what the film might be about but also creates a sense of mystery, a common convention used in various thrillers.

• The contrast of the black background and white font again indicates a sense of mystery and is similar to other thriller titles that i researched, such as The Prestige.
  
  
• We purposely made the font style of the title formal and in bold letters reflecting the genre of the thriller.

Conventions

• Our narrative plot was similar to a film called 'Cracks' which is set in school through lighting , editing and music we were able to adapt a innocent setting such as a school to fit into the thriller genre.
• The hall scene in our opening sequence creates an atmosphere of isloation and obbsession. As we slowly zoomed into Lucy putting up the picture of Mr Collinson in her locker. The lighting in the hall is very dim and gloomy, thrillers often use lighting as a way to convey thier generic convention.