D.O.A and Expect the unexpected

1.In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product ?

In terms of thrillers. My thriller does not really challenge normal media conventions. It sticks to the conventions you would usually expect to see in a thriller, these are like. Violence, a protagonist, suspense and a crime which is committed. However I tried to put a twist on the thriller by rearranging events from back to front changing the core meaning. At the end I leave a cliff hanger to leave the audience in suspense and asking themselves “why ?” was the protagonist killed. My thriller has elements from the film D.O.A directed by directed by Rudolph Maté.

I used some of the shots from the film. I had emulated the whole Idea of working form back to front of the protagonist being poisoned first then seeing the flash back of how it happened. This is different from most other thrillers that have to do with the crime being shown first then finding a way to track down the antagonist.

2.How does your media product represent particular media groups ?

My media product portrays teenagers, although in a negative light it was not done to portray a stereotypical theme about teenagers. The film shows that there are a lot of people around you who may be humans but think very differently to one another, even if it is not evident to peers. The film is done to convey the question “how well do you really know the people around you, even if you see them everyday ? ”. My film explores this concept to make people ask themselves that specific question.

This can also appeal to adult because the situation and way in which he dies can happen to anyone and the moral of the thriller can be related to everyone. “How well do you know those people around you ? ” The film does not appeal to any specific ethnic group because this is something that could happen to anyone. As a film an amateur film maker I wanted to broaden my audience target so that it can be watch by many people.

My film is deemed British because of the actors and the whole foundation of the film is created by someone British. Film Four are a film channel who solely show films. Film4 seeks to broadcast a variety of films which are independent, old, new, art house, British films as well a foreign language ones. Our product is made by independent amateurs, media students, and is an amateur film, which is creatively done. Moreover, it could be used for media classes, who could use it as an example for students doing media, in which they could evaluate for coursework or project purposes.

Also institutions that are based on showcasing local talent may want to show my piece as an example of there target can produce. Places such as youth centres which have

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

4.Who would be the audience for your media product ?

My audience will be for mainly 15 plus because it does have some elements of reality and the action taken by the victim may not be suitable for anyone under this age so that they do bit get any idea's. As my thriller is for the audience I have to in cooperate some things that are a common issue and make it more disturbing. when thinking about my audience they would have seen, witnessed or have some knowledge of when someone has been bullied so I have to take those bits a make it slightly different by adding the psychological aspects it has not just the physical.

All my audience research was used to create this film so my questionnaire was just a brief viewing of information that I had gathered about my target audience. My charts showed the age groups for an audiences that I will appeal to. Similarly the other chart is self explanatory, it has the gender of which I asked a brief survey to complete.

5.How did you attract/address your audience ?

Well in order to attract an audience I had to know what my audience liked. So I produce a survey asking what they knew about thrillers and if they like and knew of any thrillers. I then used the feedback from that to take into consideration what type of thriller was best suited to my audience.

I decided to make a thriller involving educations students so there was some relationship between the film and the audience. However I made sure that my general concept of the thriller was something that anybody can relate to whether young or old.

I also understand that films are not always about dialogue Alfred Hitchcock said that when he makes films, he makes them so the images we see speak for them self. He also said a good film should allow the audience to be able to understand a film even if there was no dialogue.

My product also uses visual effects and creativity, which I mean that the film has a lot of techniques which will catch the eye of the .

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

I have learnt that there is so much effort to be put into when making a film, more than just creating a script and having good actors featuring. In the process of constructing our product we learn how to use the camera, iMac and the iMovie software. The first test of our skills was doing the Preliminary Exercise where I used the camera, in which it was the first time in using it. By doing this I learnt how to do different camera angles and movements. Whilst filming I learnt about using rules about filming and positioning like the180 degree rule and match one action. When it came to editing I found it slightly harder and to do all this all by myself was quiet challenging. However, later when working with iMovie, I learnt how to use different transitions such as dissolve cross and overlap, along with effects to use. At first it was like a job but after a while It actually became fun to use the different skills learnt.

Due to the fact that it was just me I had to make sure that I knew how to operate all basics of the editing process. I found it difficult with the sound adjustments because at times I would not fade in or out music, just simply remove and put sounds in. For this I had a bit of mentoring from my teacher who helped me to master it.

Overall I have learnt a lot about the work that the people behind the scenes have to do and the size of the task in which the face. I hope that these skills learnt will come in handy in the future and I can pass them on.

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

From the preliminary exercise to the filming I realised that I have come a long way. In both areas of actually filming and editing. When i first started, with the preliminary, it was a great opportunity to understand the works of the camera and editing. However, i only got the basics of filming and editing, which would later provide and useful understanding later in the process of our thriller.

I believe that I learnt more about filming not just the shots but about mise en scene because before I was just filming following a sheet and not exploring myself. Where as further down the filming process I learnt to incorporate things such as props and the costumes etc.

Within myself, I have learnt that I am no where near ready for Hollywood but have developed skills such as editing which was my favourite part of the process compared to at the beginning. Also, I work well under pressure and now understand that the work involved in creating such films and media products must be very stressful.