Richard Gough Evaluation

Richard Gough Evaluation

• 1.
  Media Evaluation RichardGough
• 2.
  Introduction For ourmedia coursework we were set the task to make the opening two minutes of a thriller film. The opening we (Alpha Team) made was called ‘ Lost and Found’ I will now evaluate the film using a series of questions
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  In what waysdoes your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our media product I feel challenges generic conventions. We do this by having the policeman as the antagonist and the teenagers as the protagonists. In real life I feel this is a very different story and this helps add another dimension to our thriller film and adds the element of suspense. These quite normal clothes gives the sense of an innocent teenager. One suspicious character develops the sense of a thriller With the “bent cop” the sub-genre could be mystery I feel the thriller has many influences. The rolling cameras at the start with very few static images I feel was an influence from ‘Bad Boys II’ and ‘Get Carter.’ Whereas I feel that the undercover character was an influence from ‘The Usual Suspects,’ when thinking about the film I was very keen to have one interesting, dynamic character.
• 4.
  How does yourmedia product represent particular social groups? The social groups that are shown In the film range from middle class teenagers to middle class adults. We tried to show the age and social class of the teenagers by the clothes that they wear. Simple, practical clothes I feel that gender is represented in a typical way. The policeman’s role in the film is very dominant and just by making a phone call he is playing with a women’s life as if it means nothing. Having the teenagers caught in the middle of the, murder enquiry is not stereotypical, however the boys are put into a dominant position as they witness a brutal murder and have full control of how to deal with it… Policeman shown as middle class and by the way he’s standing and the office he is in gives the impression that he is high up in the company. The clothes are also very formal as he is wearing a shirt and tie with a smart jumper, we can also see he is wearing black trousers. Having the teenagers in the middle of a murder enquiry is suitable for the target audience as it helps the viewers put themselves in their position as the target audience is 15 year olds. If we used older character I don’t feel the audience will enjoy it or relate to it as much as they can now.
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  What kind ofmedia institution might distribute your media product? I feel that this film could be produced by a major Hollywood studio as the story is, I feel, has the capability to be produced into a good, well made, dynamic film. There are similar products on the market at the moment, for example ‘Disturbia.’ This has the same idea of a teenager been caught in the middle of murder enquiries and adult activities. Disturbia became very popular amongst teenagers and I think this is down to the main character being a typical teenager. I think that the film would be made into a TV movie after being released into the cinema. I feel this would give the film some advertising, then when it is released into a TV movie it will become very popular among older families (with kids over 15). Looking at other films on the market there are always characters that form the trademark for the film. For this film I feel that the two teenagers could be a trademark, this would help with the merchandise for the film, for example posters. With this style storyline it could be very simple to make a sequence, this will yet again be an opportunity for profits and merchandise. In the film we tried to show the contrast between good and evil. To do this we made the visual style seem very innocent, with the sun and the park it was set up for a very innocent scene. Blue skies with the green grass makes it seem innocent. Relaxed Dark clothes, rolled up sleeves makes it seem stressful
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  Who would bethe audience for your media product? Our target audience is 15, I feel this is a suitable audience as the main characters are around that age. This will be better for the audience as they will be able to relate to the characters situations. ‘Lost and Found’ I feel is more suited towards the male audience, however some females may be able to relate to the story well and be drawn in by the story. I think the style of our film is quite similar to the film ‘Disturbia.’ I feel they are similar as in both films teenagers are the key characters who have to deal with adult issues. I collected a group of 6 people, 3 boys and 3 girls . After watching they gave us some feedback on the film, overall it was a good feedback from both genders. The things that the audience liked were; camera angles, music, zoom effect and the still images. The only points they thought could be worked on was the loudness of the music over the voice as they couldn’t hear the policemen very well.
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  How did youattract/address your audience? I think there are points of the film that would appeal to a certain audience, this is the scene with the policemen in his office. Although not a very action based scene, I feel that particularly the male audience will like this as it is mysterious and a pinnacle point in the film. This is a good shot as the audience is allowed to sit back and watch the story unfold right in front of them. This medium range shot tied in with some low angle shots gets the audience into the action and they don’t miss a beat. This low angle shot has an impact on the audience as it gives the sense that the characters are very dominant. As these shots are early on in the film, it will shock the audience s the action and suspense starts straight away. Important shot, memorable shot We were careful not to show the body as we wanted to make a thriller, not a horror. With this kind of shot the audience are forced to use there imagination.
• 8.
  What have youlearnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I thought the camera equipment was good, however, one aim of mine was to not make the film look amateur, but the image and sound quality were not good enough to make the film look professional. The camera was very good for doing quick shots as it was small and light. The filming process went reasonably well, however we could not do exactly what we wanted because half of our group were not available when we wanted to travel somewhere to film. This was a big blow to our film as I think the visuals could have been much better if we had the chance to go to other locations. We resolved this issue by filming at a closer location. The editing equipment we used was called ‘Final Cut Express.’ This helped a great deal compensate for the image and sound quality. I learnt many things about Final Cut Express while editing the film, one key effect that I really liked was the fading with both image and sound. This helped a great deal with the flow of the film and helped give that professional touch. The audio addition to the editing software helped a lot when it came to completing the soundtrack, as we weren’t allowed to copyright our song we proceeded to cut the song using the tools of Final Cut Express.
• 9.
  Looking back toyour preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product? For me the planning stages were the most exciting, as we had no limits and we were given a task to come up with a good story from scratch. To start off I went home and noted down three ideas of mine own, I proposed these ideas to the group. As a group we looked at the ideas and picked one and worked on it. After a few discussions we were ready to storyboard. Storyboarding helped greatly as when it came to filming we knew exactly what we wanted and we were not wasting time. During the process I became more confident with both the angles but also the equipment. This helped as when we were filming we had in our heads which shots give the right messages. So for instance we knew that the low angle shots give the impression that the characters are dominant. By the end of the detailed process I also felt myself getting more confident with the computer equipment as I knew what each tool did, this speeded up the process. Overall I think the product has been very successful. Although we may not have got the shots we wanted, we still got some good and clever images. Our task was to make an opening sequence to a thriller film and I think that is precisely what we have done, we were very careful not to make it a Horror In the planning stage, but with the right shots and storyline it is clear that the film is a thriller.