Media Evaluation In The Frame

Megan Grint

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products? My opening sequence is based around the genre Crime Thriller. I have used,

developed and challenged forms of real media products. Overall, we did meet the generic conventions of a crime thriller, however we came across conventions that we wanted to challenge. We decided to challenge certain forms and conventions because we wanted our audience to be exposed to something different but also to feel a sense of familiarity throughout.

Through research, I looked up the conventions of a typical Thriller film to get a sense

of what it is included and how much thought as a group we were going to have to think about. We used the four media components to develop and challenge the conventions of a thriller film.

Mise en Scene: In our final product, I think that we have certainly challenged the conventions of how a young, vulnerable teenage girl would be presented. Our protagonist is wearing darker colours, whereas stereotypically, in other media products they have used more pastel and feminine colours to heighten the sense of vulnerability to an audience. Moreover, we have developed a thriller convention as we had to adjust the lighting and brightness of particular shots to match it to previous footage, but to also set the mood and tone to our audience. However, we have challenged the conventions as we have chosen a very large, open and wide space as our main setting. This challenges conventions because in other media products, the settings are a lot darker and compact and even possibly set at night. Such an open space would be considered a safe area, however we were trying to connote that our protagonist is not safe where ever she goes, setting an eerie and dramatic tone.

We have presented out protagonist to look reserved and reticent through the use of her clothes and appearance. Our antagonists hair is tied back, connoting that she is withdrawn and unassuming. Leaving our protagonists hair down would connote that she is more wild and outgoing. Our protagonists coat also suggests she is introverted and keeps herself to herself. Stereotypically, our protagonist has not been presented how other young and vulnerable girls have been in other media products. Evidently, we have successfully developed and challenged conventions of existing media products, therefore, this has made our product look unique and original.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products? Camera: Camera played a huge part in our final product as we used certain shots to keep the identity of our antagonist hidden from the audience at all times. A recurring shot that we used was a medium shot, this is because we did not want the audience to see our antagonist in full length, only certain parts of him. We aimed to leave his identity a complete mystery as this reinforces the tension arising. In this shot, our antagonist is positioned right in the centre of the screen – this connotes that our antagonist is dominant and powerful in comparison to our protagonist which is positioned on the left of the screen, connoting that she is of less importance. Normally, a generic convention of a thriller film is a recurring number of close up shots of their protagonist to create tension and to show the emotions of a character. This is our only close up shot of our protagonist throughout our entire

sequence and it only lasts two seconds. We chose not to use a number of close up shots as we wanted to challenge the conventions to make our final product unique. We also wanted to show more of our protagonist’s and antagonist’s body gestures to reinforce our narrative.

Setting: In comparison to other Thriller films, our final product takes place in a very open and extensive area. Our setting challenges the conventions of a Thriller film because normally, the setting would be a refined and tight space, covered with tree’s so there is hardly any light showing. Additionally, our narrative would have suited the convention of a dark and refined area however we wanted to connote that our antagonist’s obsession over-ruled every aspect. Moreover, our setting is quite bright which contrasted with what our protagonist’s is wearing which also challenged the conventions of a thriller film as we have not followed conventions of a dark setting/space.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products? Editing: Firstly, we have centralised our antagonist in

most shots throughout our sequence to connote to the audience that he is more dominant and powerful over the situation in our narrative compared to our protagonist – she is marginalised in some shots within our sequence to connote that she is the weaker and more vulnerable character. Fast paced editing is used at the beginning of our sequence as I found out through research that fast paced editing is used to show that there is tension arising as the narrative moves on. However, towards the end of our final product, the pace slows down quite a lot which is different from traditional Thriller opening’s. We decided to slow the ending of our opening down because we wanted our audience to feel on edge after a dramatic and tense start to the opening.

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Sound: We have created tension and suspense throughout our opening sequence due to the type of music that we chose. Our sound is conventional as it makes the audience feel on edge and it also creates a tense atmosphere. We have also kept the diegetic sound of our protagonist and other characters, as well as the diegetic sound of the noises evident in the setting. If the non diegetic background sound was not put into our opening sequence, I feel that our audience would not be able to engage as much as our sequence would look very boring and un-professional. Whilst trying to find our diegesis for our sequence, through research, we found out as a group that predominantly in horror films, they use contrapuntal sound which is an effective way to engage and audience. However, we did not warm up to this idea of using contrasting sound within our sequence. We decided to stick to the conventional sound of suspense music. We came to this conclusion because the sound piece that we have used in our sequence sets the expected tone of our sequence. If we had used contrapuntal sound within our sequence, I do not think that it would have accompanied our sequence well. It would not fit correctly with our chosen genre and narrative.

How does your product represent particular social groups?

The predominant social group that we have displayed within our sequence is white British female(s). Due to our target audience being between the ages of 15-25 years old, our protagonist displays manors and similarities that are relatable to our target audience. Evidently, our opening sequence has a modern approach which automatically targets a key aspect of our target audience. Through the use of modern technologies, such as our protagonist using an Apple iPhone and earphones, we have portrayed our protagonist to look vulnerable and naïve as she is unaware of her current dangerous situation. The fact that our protagonist turns to a piece of technology after having encountered with a conversation with her friends displays her ignorance and lack of spatial alertness/awareness. Moreover, referring to the society we live in today, teenager like our protagonist, seek comfort from technologies such as a phone and using social media websites because it makes them feel safer as they feel they are more engaged with people due to how accessible forms of communication are. However, we have displayed within our sequence that technology does not protect you from what danger is around you, psychologically it only makes the individual feel safe and comforted. Through mise-en-scene, we haven’t used the conventions of how a young, vulnerable teenage is stereotypically presented in real media products. Nor have we displayed the protagonist’s friends to look stereotypically feminine. This connotes to our audience that our protagonist stereotypically does not look like a target that our antagonist would prey on. The main colour that is shown throughout our sequence is black which corresponds with our narrative.

How does your product represent particular social groups?

Our antagonist’s identity and age is not identified and it hidden away from our audience. We decided we wanted our antagonist to not be revealed in our opening sequence. This conveys a certain message to our audience that we have not stereotypically shown who our antagonist is in comparison to other Thriller films of the same genre. Conventionally, obsessive characters are normally displayed as a white middle aged man – seeming as we have not followed this convention, controversy could arise and audience may dislike our sequence as we have not followed some familiar conventions.

In this shot, our protagonist looks bewildered and on edge. Although this is not a close up or extreme close up, it is evident to the audience how our protagonist is feeling, through the use of her body language in this shot and throughout the rest of our opening sequence. We decided to portray our protagonist’s feelings more through her body language rather than her clothing and overall image. This could potentially draw our audience in and keep them engaged – however, as we have challenged generic Thriller conventions, this could be unsuccessful as an audience thrives for a feeling of familiarity.

We did not decide to include a variety of characters from different social groups, we chose white British. This is because we did not think that other particular social groups would have been suited to our narrative. Additionally, our group consisted of white British people and it was a lot easier to rely on members of our group instead of relying on friends or others who were not part of our group.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I think that if our opening sequence was to be made into a film, it would be distributed by a large company such as DreamWorks, 20 th

Century Fox or Fox Searchlight. I think this because I feel that our narrative could expand and a large distribution company would be a reliable source to do so as by the opening sequence being distributed by a familiar and well known company, it would automatically become more appealing to an audience as they have that comfort feeling of familiarity before even seeing the film. I think that our audience could potentially be quite large, this could be due to the fact that our narrative is original within itself as due to my own research, there are not a lot of crime thrillers that are based around stalking. This would put our film at an advantage because it means that an audience would be excited to see something new and would be intrigued to find out what the rest of the film is about. However, if made into a film, it could be left at a disadvantage because an audience loves familiarity and they have certain expectations, they may not be interested as our narrative is quite original.

Moreover, we have followed the generic conventions of a thriller film. We have presented these conventions through camera, editing,

sound and mise en scene. Some basic thriller conventions that we followed are: dark settings and surroundings, tense music throughout the sequence and quick, slick and fast paced shots. By sticking to and using familiar conventions, an audience would be kept happy as we are meeting their expectations of a thriller film. A sense of familiarity would be felt throughout the sequence as the four main media components are used within the sequence.

During the process of producing our opening sequence, I addressed back to these evaluation questions and considered would our sequence suit being a TV series. Along with research, I came to the conclusion that our sequence could not be distributed into a TV series, the reason why is because our storyline is pretty basic and straight forward, it is not actually complex enough to be divided out into a number of episodes. It would be dragged out way too much and an audience would most definitely lose interest very quickly. I feel that an audience would benefit from seeing the sequence in one go.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? In conclusion, from the three distribution companies that I have previously mentioned, I think that 20th Century Fox or DreamWorks would be

best suited to distribute my film. I have come to this decision from my research that I have previously collected, Fox Searchlight have not distributed many Thriller films and personally, if my product was to get made into a film, I would prefer it to be distributed by a company that has previously distributed the same film genre as my product.

As part of my research, I looked up Thriller films that would give me ideas of how we were going to present our antagonist. Particularly in this image, Taken’s protagonist is presented similarly like our antagonist in our sequence. Half of his face in this image is in the dark and he is wearing dark clothing. In my opinion, from this image I think that this protagonist is actually being portrayed in a negative way due to the dark clothes and the object he is holding is a gun, making it look like he is being portrayed as the antagonist. I found this image during the research process and I felt that it was significant and would benefit us as a group to decide how we were going to portray and present our antagonist. This image is similar to how we presented our antagonist in our sequence, our antagonist is dressed all in black and we never see the antagonists face.

20th Century Fox has distributed a large amount of Thriller films that I have previously researched. It distributed the film ‘Taken’ which has a few similarities to my final product.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Age: As a group, we decided that we think that our target audience would be ages from 15 to 30 years old. This is because our sequence features young people. The reason why our target audience is from the age of 15+ is because I think that they would be able to relate to our young protagonist in our sequence. Another reason why we decided that our sequence should be from ages 15+ is because there would be violence and potentially strong language evident in the rest of our plot. Additionally, all the characters that our evident in this sequence are approximately around the age of 15, this way we would be able to attract a large audience of young people.

Gender: From our title sequence, I feel that our product would mainly attract and is aimed at females more than males. Our title sequence is mainly dominated by females, this means that our target audience would be able to reflect upon and engage with our female characters evident in our sequence, especially the protagonist. However, there are conventions that we have used in our sequence that would attract and engage males also, such as: tense music, dark colours and our narrative includes a male antagonist which would appeal to males. Moreover, the posture and gestures of our male antagonist portray a very dominant role in our sequence, which could also appeal to males more.

Race: Although that our sequence is dominated by white characters, I believe that our sequence would appeal to any race. Moreover, our sequence is set in England and all of the characters within the sequence are English, this could mean that our sequence would appeal to a large group of English viewers as they would be able to relate to the characters and scenery.

How did you attract/address your audience? Whilst creating our final product, I kept in mind how I as going to be able to address our target audience and to be able to

engage them when watching our title sequence. Additionally, I reminded myself of our target audience at all times (15-30 years old). The two key media aspects that I personally think really helped us to target and address our audience was through our decisions addressing mise-en-scene and camera angles/shots. Overall, I think that we have addressed our target audience well – when the pace picks up, becomes more tense and we our antagonist is more evident in our product, I think that this hits the more male side of our target audience. Additionally, as our sequence is mainly dominated by females, we had to make careful decisions with how we were going to present our female characters which our female audience would be able to relate to.

In this screen shot of our protagonist, we have not gone for the stereotypical look of a vulnerable, teenage female. Due to previous research, I wanted to find out what was in fashion for a young female as we wanted our sequence to look modern. From my research I found out that darker colours were more in fashion rather than pastel ones – we wanted our protagonist to look fashionable as our audience would be able to relate to our protagonist from her style. However, it may not necessarily appeal to males because this is not what they would find ‘stereotypically attractive’. We have also not presented our protagonist in a sexual manor, minimal skin is shown, our protagonist is covered pretty much head to toe. This again may not appeal to a male audience as much as it would to a female audience due to our protagonist not being presented in a stereotypically feminine way, a male audience would not expect a vulnerable teenage girl to look this way. We do not match up to the typical conventions addressing mise-en-scene in a Thriller film, we evidently contrast it, however, I wanted our sequence to be original and I wanted to make it original through the four key media aspects as I felt that we would attract a large audience due to the fact that we have challenged the conventions of a Thriller film.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I think that our narrative really helped to engage out target audience. Additionally, through the use of camera work, we were able to present it as if the camera was the stalkers (antagonists) eyes and how the antagonists sees our protagonist from his point of view. This enables our audience to connect with our product as they were viewing the sequence from our antagonist’s point of view. Moreover, this will also help our audience to engage with our product and to become engrossed in the narrative. We wanted our audience to feel a part of our product, to feel empathetic towards our protagonist.

Another way we addressed our audience was through our decisions of how we were going to present our protagonist’s lifestyle. We used images for our pin board scene from social media websites which targets a more younger audience as they would be able to relate to the context we are portraying our protagonist in. Additionally, as our narrative is about stalking, we wanted to portray to a younger audience how easily accessible information is to gain. I think that this reaches out to a younger audience on a more personal level as they can reflect upon their use of social media, our narrative suggests that stalking can happen quite easily to anyone as information about a person is so easily found and they can use it to their advantage.

Audience Survey and Results

Lily created an audience survey for our audience to fill out. We asked specific questions, to find out whether our product has been successful or not. Below are the questions and results from our survey:

We decided to put this question in our survey because we wanted to find out whether our opening sequence appealed to our target audience of 15-25 years of age. Evidently from the results of our survey, we were able to engage our target audience as an audience ranging from 15-25 were the most to have seen our opening sequence are were able to give us feedback. Moreover, it was helpful to see that our sequence also engaged other ages too.

We used this question in our survey because I was interested which gender our sequence appealed to more/most. From our results it is evident that our sequence was viewed by more females than males. I personally expected this because our sequence contains predominantly females which does automatically attract that gender more – I understand why our sequence did not appeal to males more due to our sequence having a lack of males characters.

Our audience clearly enjoyed the opening sequence of our Thriller film which was a positive outcome for our group. We asked later on in the survey what it was that they enjoyed about our sequence and we did also ask if we could make improvements, what would they be. It is good to get feedback on if our product was appealing and we are glad that our audience thought that our opening was equally excellent and good.

Audience Survey and Results

This was one of the most important questions that we eagerly wanted to get feedback on because there is nothing worse than watching a film that you do not understand. We are relieved with the results that our audience understood our narrative clearly. It was not necessarily too much of a complicated narrative to begin with however due to cross cutting, our scenes did jump from one to the other which could confuse an audience, causing them to lose interest and not be engaged for the rest of our film.

If our opening sequence was to be distributed into a real media product, we were interested if our audience would come back to see the entire film. 50% of our audience said ‘very likely’ and 50% of our audience said ‘quite likely’ These are both very positive responses and we are proud that we have produced a product that has appealed and engaged an audience.

This questions we used in our survey because we wanted to find out whether our audience identified what sub-genre our narrative fell in to. Most of our audience chose ‘Crime’ which is satisfying news for myself and my group as we have succeeded in creating a product following the convention of a Crime Thriller. Part of our audience chose ‘Psychological’.

Audience Survey and Results

From our results, we can see that our audience felt that our plot/narrative followed thriller conventions compared to the other key media aspects. I think that this is accurate and fair due to our narrative revolving around a Thriller concept. I think what our audience has fed backed to is very accurate and what we aimed to achieve through our media product. I am relieved that mise en scene is relatively low because we did attempt to challenge the conventions of our protagonist to display her to look not as feminine. Overall, we have successfully produced our opening sequence and we have evidently highlighted key conventions that our audience could pick out.

This question regarded if we had to make any improvements to our opening sequence, what they would be. We asked our audience to write a few words, explaining what aspects we could change.

We asked our audience whether they could deduce any conventions that they thought we challenged throughout our opening sequence – as a group we are pleased with the results because costumes and mise en scene was the key aspect of media that we challenged the most. I am relieved that we were able to convey these in our opening sequence.

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

Throughout the process of making my final product, I have most definitely learnt so much during this process about the technologies during the process of constructing our opening sequence. Most of all, I have evidently progressed in areas I believed that I would never be able to expand my knowledge around – especially from creating our continuity task to now. Although I feel we were limited with what we could use for our final product, equipment, setting and narrative wise, I think that my group and I helped to encourage and learn from each other through every step of constructing our final product.

I was particularly unfamiliar with how to use a camera (the most important aspect of completing this task) Throughout our continuity filming, I did

not have much knowledge about how to use one which meant that it restricted how much filming we could get done as one less member of the group could not go and film due to lack of knowledge. However, during the construction of our continuity task, I got to learn how to use the camera through the help of other group members who were familiar with this piece of technology. When it came to filming our final product, I had progressed a lot since our previous task which meant that I was able to film a few practice shot to experiment with the camera. Although I did not film a lot during the process of producing our opening sequence, I feel a lot more familiarised with how to use a camera. In future independent tasks, I would be comfortable using a camera confidently. Additionally, along with camera work, I had to learn how to use the tripod to ensure that my shots were accurate and did not look messy. I familiarised myself a lot quicker with how to set up a tripod compared to my slower progress with learning how to use the camera.

Another aspect I learnt about technologies during the process of constructing our final product was how to use the software Adobe Premier. I feel

that I have learnt a whole new range of skills whilst working with Adobe Premier. This software enabled us to move clips, input sound and credits, adjust the levels of brightness and contrast on out pieces of footage – this particularly was useful to us as some of our clips were too bright compared to our other pieces of footage which made it look evident that they are two totally separate pieces of footage. Being able to adjust the brightness and contrast to the shots enabled our opening sequence to flow together. As I had barely any input with the editing in our continuity task, I was unaware how to use this piece of software which made it

difficult to adjust to how it worked. However, I practiced using the software and allowed myself time to experiment before handling our final pieces of footage. As we filmed footage of a few practice shots, that gave me a chance to use the software to edit those pieces of footage. When it came to editing our final product, I was confident in being able to add text (credits) to our sequence which is a skill I will remember for future tasks.

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

Looking back from the production of our preliminary task to our final product, I feel that I have progressed within a number of aspects, such as; timings, editing, camera use, re-shoots, key media terms etc. When we got set out preliminary task, I already felt panicked as I felt that I had not enough knowledge to be able to film and hit a specific criteria. Mostly, I felt that I was clueless about camera use and especially editing. Due to myself feeling this way, I already felt demotivated to complete the task set. However, due to my group, we all helped each other get to where we needed to be. We had many problems throughout the filming/shooting process of our preliminary task – such as not completely understanding what the 180 degree rule was. This slowed down the entire process of trying to finish filming our task as we kept breaking (or near enough) the rule due to lack of knowledge. However, editing went smoothly as others in my group were comfortable and knowledgeable about the editing process. Timing was I think our biggest issue throughout the task as we kept delaying when to re shoot and to fix what we had done wrong.

In comparison to now, from experiencing the task, I feel that it made myself more alert and aware about specific aspects, such as; timing and the importance of re shoots. I feel that I have got a lot better at planning out when I am going to complete things either individually or as a group. Tasks got done quicker however I did still face similar problems like in our preliminary task as we did have to re shoot more than enough scenes however for the right reasons. In contrast to the preliminary task, I found ways to motivate myself to want to succeed in this part of my coursework. This helped with not feeling as stressed as I did in the previous task. Moreover, I feel that I have specifically developed well within the technology aspect of media – before I did not know how to actually turn on a camera, now I feel comfortable using one and being able to film confidently. Our practice especially helped me to develop in this area as I was able to experiment with the camera and become familiar with it. In addition to this, my editing skills have improved hugely since the preliminary task – I did not actually contribute to much editing in our previous task due to having any knowledge and also our time frame was very limited, I did not have time to be able to sit and experiment with the editing due to leaving it so late. I got used to the layout and form of Premier Pro – I familiarised myself with the software before editing any of our clips for our final product.

I feel that I have improved my understanding of the four key media aspects and what they require. I barely understood or knew many camera angles until working on our final product, I made myself knowledgeable and understood why we were going to use specific shots for certain scenes. Moreover, I did not really understand the technical language of editing whilst filming our continuity task. However, filming our final product, I familiarised myself with the aspects and language used for editing. This will benefit me in future tasks as being knowledgeable about every key aspect in media will enable myself to be able to complete tasks to the best of my ability.