Evaluation - Bradley Peppett

1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms an conventions of real media products?

The opening of my thriller movie ‘Under The Summer Low’ can be compared against other real media products due to the fact I have used many of the same media elements they have used. Some of the media elements are as followed:


Editing – (length of shots, transitions, continuity/parallel)

To edit our thriller into the movie it is, we used Final Cut Pro on Apple Mac computers. We used a wide range of transitions in the thriller, including; fades both in and out, dissolves which were used on the titles created in live type. Each shot used has various lengths, the start of the film has much longer shots of around 6-8 seconds, compared to the end shots which would last around 4-6 seconds. This was used in order to build tension, start from a slow pace and end with a fast pace. This helps to keep the audience hooked to the film and not lose any interest. The film included many match cuts throughout, nearly all match cuts were shot parallel to the next shot. As with most movies we had some continuity problems, such as having the knife in a different hand in one shot, and in a different hand the next. This was resolved in the end with fades and cutting some of the shots.

Sound - (Music, Dialogue, FX)

The soundtrack to the movie was created using Soundtrack Pro, which was also used on an Apple Mac computer. There was a small piece of dialogue used for the opening of the movie. Fades were used for the music coming in and eventually exiting. There was a problem with wind when filming, so allot of the audio had to be turned down to keep the noise down, but still have it there. When you hear the dialogue, the sound does not cut but gets lowed to a very low volume so you can hear the dialogue. No FX was used to create the thriller, the sound of the mobile phone ringing was digetic as it came from the actual phone. After all this, the music suddenly becomes louder with a new much more fast paced sound.

Camerawork - (Angels, distances, framing)

Many different camera angels were used in our thriller. They had a variety of close ups, extreme close ups, mid shots, longs shots and more. We used a variety of shots as the same camera shot would bore the audience. We had to work within a small space, so distances and framing we struggled with.

Mise en scene - (Location, props, costume, lighting)

The location for the entire film was set at a canal in central London near kings cross. This was a good location for the opening of the thriller because it adds confusion to why somebody would be at a canal at that time of the morning just throwing stones into the river. Props included such things as stones (for throwing into the river), a bottle of vodka, a box of cigarettes, a lighter, a carrier bag, a mobile phone and a knife. With the knife, we had to have adult supervision (a teacher) due to the fact it is illegal for somebody of my age to be carrying a knife around. Costumes included a blooded collared shirt with missing buttons and dirty. This costume was used in order to make the audience think as to why the character is dressed like this, and hopefully give the impression that the character has been wearing the same clothes for sometime and maybe involved in some sort of fight. No lighting was used, it was all natural sun light as it was perfect to film in.

Credits

The credits and titles were all created with the programme Live type, a professional text creator designed for titles and credits. We used many credits that would be used in a real movie, such as writer, director, music etc.

My title sequence helps to represent the main character and introduce you into his character, where as the title sequence from The Incrediel hulk shows how the charecter is getting turned into the monster that he is, were as with my title sequence, it shows you what the charecter is like.

My media product uses conventions of real media as it uses many of the same techniques seen in today's big time films.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?


Our thriller represents a particular social group, this social group would be aged between 16 and 21, an age where most want to party allot with friends, drink, smoke, have a good time and maybe cause trouble. This can all be compared to the main character of our thriller. He represents a typical stereotype view of an 18 year old boy, we presume he was out partying and got into trouble, and is still drinking and smoking. A movie that also represents the same stereotypical view is the movie Adulthood. This is based around substance abuse, violence and sex. Below you can see the trailer.

A character in the movie Adulthood that is similar to my character, is Jay. Here is a still of Jay.

Jay inspired my main character in the thriller. Here is a similar still in my thriller.

Both charecters seem to be in there own world, and if you looked at them once you would think that they are suffering from something inside there head and cant stop thinking about it.

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product

Since my thriller is a low budget student made movie, it would be highly unlikely that a distribution company would take on the movie. A distribute such as Paramount or Warner would probably defiantly not be interested. Instead, it would probably be distributed on the Internet, particularly YouTube, the worlds most visited video website. http://www.youtube.com/ is a website where people can upload there own content. Many other students like me have uploaded there media products onto the website for the world to view for free, it is a great way to share your products with others. To upload a video to YouTube, you must create your account and then upload the movie. YouTube has many features such as how many views you get, a comment box, people are able to like or dislike the product.

And here is an example of other students media products:

4) How would you attract your audience?

My audience for the thriller is British 16 to 25 year olds who like to party and have a good time. I am in the same age group, and so is my college. So to help gain interest from people, I could advertise the movie around my college, to my friends and over the social network website Facebook. My film was also viewed at a cinema in Islington, London, the cinema was called Screen on the green. Everybody who studies AS Media Studies viewed the movie, so people will already be interested and hopefully would tell there friends about it.



5) Who would be the audience for your media project?


For my thriller movie, the audience would have to be a male British audience aged between 16 and 21. Based on feedback received for the thriller opening, people also thought that this was the intended audience. The opening of the thriller is based around a 19 year old who seems depressed and upset, perhaps after a rough night out drinking and maybe doing drugs as he is looking rough yet smartly casually/smartly dressed. These activities many people aged between 16 and 21 do, especially males. So therefore they should be able to relate to the thriller.



This is a picture of what would be in my targeted audiences ruck sack. My typical target audience member for the thriller is Stephen. Stephen is 18 years old and is currently in his last year of college. He likes to take the bus everywhere as it is free of charge, or hitch a ride in a friends car. Stephen is both a drinker and a smoker, he likes socialising with friends at Irish pubs (due to his Irish heritage), but struggles to afford it as he is a student. He likes to cause trouble, so is band from most pubs particularly in Camden. He currently lives with his mother and father in Kilburn. He currently has a girlfriend, he prefers action/thriller movies where as she prefers romantic comedy's.

6) What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Here is a list of many types of technologies used in order to construct my thriller opening. And also how we use the technology.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I have come along way. A major issue I had with the previous task was focusing the camera. Most of the shots were badly focused and very blurry, compared to now the crystal clear quality. A badly focused movie would never get any attention, so learning this has made me come a long way. I am also much more aware of continuity, as of previous we did not take a care of this, but then realised it is vital for continuity to be perfect. I also learnt how to create my very own soundtrack and titles, as previous my exercise had terrible soundtrack and no titles at all. After all this I feel as though I have come a long way.

8) Audience Feedback and comments

The opening o the thriller was viewed by my current media studies class and by the rest of the media studies students in the year. We received verbal, written and video feedback of the opening of the thriller. Below is a word cloud made of words most commonly used from the feedback. Words in larger font are most used, whereas smaller words are used less.

In terms of written feedback, done by filling out a feedback sheet by another media group, this is what they though of our film.




AS Media Studies
Foundation Portfolio
Film Title Sequence
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK sheet

1) Choose one aspect of film language that has been used especially well in this movie an say why

-Mise En Scene is well thought of. Blood on shirt, phone, knife, vodka and cigarettes. Everything in the frame had been thought of, and was relevant for the film.
-They used excellent match cutting in the film between scenes such as the man drinking alcohol, taking out the knife and when the woman was speaking to him. They also had good continuation for the story with the drunken man being shown off first to then showing his actions with the alcohol and the knife.
-One aspect of film language that has been used well is the mise en scene. The costume used works really well because it gives clear evidence as to what the actual film is about. The shirt worn has got blood on it which suggest he has been in a fight, or murdered someone.
- One aspect which was used well in the film was the sound. The film had good diegetic and non diegetic sound as it all blended in with the flow of the editing. The diegetic sound such the phone ringing and the pebble dropping into the river went well with the acting.

2) Choose one aspect of film language that could be improved in this movie and explain how

-Camera, they used this generally well, especially for match cuts, however one or two more important match cuts, such as the knife being thrown into the water, would have had a better effect.
-One thing which could be improved is adding a match cut of the knife dropping into the water.
- The location of the film could have been shown more with more use of camera shots.
-The location of the place could have been shot in more detail so show where it is set in.

3) Can you recognise any stereotypes in this movie?

-White drunk man, being a danger to himself. Possibly on drugs.
- A drunken man has put his life in danger. Have a knife, alcohol bottle, cigarettes and a phone. He is unable to talk. Stereotypes a typical drunken person’s behaviour.
- He is an average guy who has been out all night and has been drinking. Wearing the same clothes from the day before.
- The guy is shown as an alcoholic who’s drinking in the morning who is dressed in dirty clothes which he has been wearing for days.

4) Can you think of any inter textual references with any other movies when you watch this movie? Explain.

-Possibly Accidental Hero. Where a white drunk man who is a danger to himself with relationship troubles, goes about drinking and smoking.
- Accidental Hero is a similar film which contains a drunken man trying to save people off a plane.

5) Who do you think would be the audience for this movie?

-16-26 generally males.
- I think the audience of this film would target 16-24 year olds.

6) Write down 5 words which would describe this film

-Suspenseful, attention-grabbing, tense, alcoholic, murder.
- Atmospheric, tension, dramatic, suspenseful, suicide
- Suspenseful, attention-grabbing, appealing, alcoholic, interesting.
- Interesting, Suspenseful, Modern, Calm, appealing

7) What sort of institution do you think would release this movie

-WT2 – Low budget film with a specific niche audience
- Working Title 2 is a low budget film company which would release this film to a niche audience.
- British Independent Film Company.

This is a video feedback clip, from people who watched my groups film in the cinema.