Final evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media production was influenced by many media texts that we have studied over the last few months. We have looked at these and tried to use media that is old and more modern. We have tried to make a classic thriller, but have tried to use modern themes with the modern kitchen, and also have tried to add in reference to contemporary modern crimes, like references to drugs, fake bank cards, fraud and Identity theft. This has been the theme of some more modern thriller films like Essex boys and Lock, Stock these have more contemporary issues in them that would appeal to a younger modern audience. They also have dirty gritty locations like the wooded area are actress runs though, she also has to deal with the small enclosed places and also very claustrophobic spaces of the fridge. These films all deal with modern issues like shortness of money, greed, the ideology of being the ‘The Big Dog’ and death. We have tried to add these issues in are short opening to a thriller film, however they do have influences from classic thrillers with the soundtrack we have used ‘Firebird by Stravinsky’ this creates a less modern feel to the film as it is a classical piece of music. We have tried to use different types of camera angles in the opening we have used a verity of shots these include long shots, mid shots, close ups, over shoulder shots and reaction shots. We have tried to edit it so that it is very fast paced feel, when the soundtrack picks up and is louder. However we have tried to slow the camera angles down and slow the feel of the film when the music gets quieter and less fast paced. The character we have used is different from most other films in that are main character at the opening is a woman, this is very different as the woman is not normally the main dominate character in a classic modern film. However we have used the fact that she is very week minded, and not very bright. As she has stolen the briefcase with no thought where to go or what to do with it, as she is being followed by someone or something.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Are media product represents a difference between the classic Thriller and modern thriller, we have used some aspects of both to create are opening media product. The main character is not a man, which you would expect from a thriller, but a woman. The femme fatale is represented as a weak, and not very quick minded as most femme fatales like the femme fatale in Jackie Brown. Our character is not a quick thinker and does not know what to do in case of danger or even potential death, as she just cracks and breaks down under the pressure of the situation of being in the claustrophobic space of the fridge.

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

I think are film should be distributed to a art house audience. As the story line would appeal more to this kind of audience looking for a complex story line with many twists and turns. It would be hard to find the money to distribute this film in a multiplex as it is not just any classic main stream thriller. We would need to get the backing from major American distributors like Sony, to be able to get the funding to place this film in a multiplex and to saturate the media market to get the public to view this media production. I think depending on how well it does at the art house complex’s will decide if this film goes to DVD or Blue ray disk, this is because we as distributors and producers need to know if we will make enough money to make a profit or to breakeven. If we don’t decide to go to DVD we could place it on the Internet as a free film which is a very powerful way of getting the production company’s name out on the media market which is ‘In Depth Productions’.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our thriller film would be someone who is aged around 16 to 30. We are trying to appeal to a younger audience who are attending six form or who are at collage. We are also trying to get to people who are just starting out at work. However we found from are research that this audience only tent to mainly watch films about once a week, and prefer to watch it at the local cinema environment. So as long as our film appeals more then other competitors films we should pull in a good audience rating and overall more seats filled at local art house cinemas. In are research we found that are target audience preferred more modern thrillers like Lock, stock than more classic thrillers like The Third Man. They also prefer this with a psychological twist at the end of the film this works for the audience and us so we can add a cliff-hanger to the opening to our film. This will create a sense that the audience will want to keep watching the film to find out what happens to the main character.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience that we have tried to attract is students or younger film lovers aged around 16-30, we have tried to incorporate both aspects of a modern thriller and aspects of a classic type of film. We have achieved this by using a modern story line using factors of modern life and crime, compared with aspects of a classic thriller film like how the Femme Fatale is dressed. Also the classic briefcase that is seen in many classic Thriller films like at the start of the ‘The Third man’. However it has also been used in modern films like Lock Stock, as they are both used to conceal crime. By this we could attract many audiences from all sorts of backgrounds.

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

I have learnt a lot since the start of term, I had never used a digital camcorder or editing software before so this was a challenge at the start, however I now feel comfortable using and working with the software. I have learnt about the 180 degree rule which has helped us in are preliminary task, and our opening to our thriller film. In the practice shots we did we learnt how to keep the camera movement steady in a number of different shots, we tried new techniques and different ways to shot some of the scene in are film. Some shots worked well and others didn’t work so well, one camera shot I am very pleased with is were the main character is going to open the door to the fridge, I placed the camera on a moving trolley and followed the character in a 180 degree angle. This worked very well as you don’t expect the camera to do this and is a surprise to the viewer. I think the way we edited the music worked very well with the volume going up and down depending on how are character feels at that time.

A list of what I have learned in bullet points:

-We had to work in small groups to make are preliminary task, this was to practice are shots and angles in preparation to make are thriller film.
-We had to plan out are mise-en-scene to include locations, lighting, camera shots, costume, lighting and characters
-We had to also plan are narrative structure
-Casting actors
-Names of characters, name of film
-Finding a appropriate soundtrack
-Editing
-Responding well to audience feedback
-Working to a time fame and keeping to deadlines

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

I have learnt a lot since we did are preliminary task because are first one of these was awful and didn’t show more than one or two different shots. Once we realised this we completely re-shot our preliminary task again, this enabled us to add in many more shots trying different editing techniques. We also added more of a storyline to our task to make it more interesting. However we struggled, when it came to filming, because me, my partner and our actress all have commitments to school and work. But we managed to fine two times to shot are film were we were all free, so we managed to complete are shots in this time. I don’t think we have received much bad criticism for our film, however there was a lot of criticism over the name of our film which has changed many times, from Corriendo, which is a Spanish name for running. However it is a British film. We also had the name X-country, for x as a cross, so cross-country was one idea, however in the end we came to the conclusion that we would call the film ‘The Corriendo Case’. This is for the term running, and the fact that our actress is putting her life in danger all for the case that she has stolen.
Dominic Smith