Evaluation of our main task

main task evaluationDylan Koolman

Psychological Thriller ConventionsIn what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products?Our media product contradicts many of the typical stereotypes associated with the genre of psychological thriller. This being, many of the movies within psychological thrillers are male orientated, whereby there is the typical female damsel in distress and the evil male antagonist who aims to kill or in some way harm the damsel, much like the scream movies whereby more often than not the character of Ghostface is portrayed by a man. This conforms to theorist Laura Mulvey who created the theory of the male gaze. However, we have an all female cast, therefore presenting a response against this stereotype and broadening the audience at which the movie opening appeals to.

Psychological Thriller Conventions ContinuedIn what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products?Ethnicity is one of the aspects that we haven't challenged due to the fact that the cast are all Caucasian and European. Therefore due to a lack of availability, there is an under representation of ethnicity therefore conforming the typical stereotype of having White characters.Additionally, the theme of romance is also prominent within this genre, being a orientated around a hetro-sexual couple and their relationship against the adversity that they face, such is the case within movies such as Final Destination 5. However, our opening doesnt contain a romantic sub-plot and sexualities of the characters arent specified.

Social Groups How does your media product represent particular social groups?As previously mentioned we have an all female cast due to limited availability of a more ethnically diverse cast. Through this however it combats the stereotypes of gender allocated roles whereby females are playing stereotypically male roles. The social status of the characters isnt out rightly stated, however, due to mise-en-scene elements within the production (such as the clothing of the characters and the setting of the garage) it is to be inferred that the characters fall within the social group of those within the working to middle classes.

Media InstitutionsWhat kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?Due to the age rating and psychologically disturbing aspects of the opening, institutions who are able to showcase this type of movie opening could distribute our media product. Due to the fact that we have created this on almost no budget except for make up and props, this opening could be distributed by independent companies, exhibited at events such as the Sundance Film Festival.Having said this, as we are British Producers, companies such as the BBC could exhibit our product as they have previously exhibited horror products such as Butterfly on a Wheel, a psychological thriller.

Media Institutions continuedWhat kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?Institutions could want to exhibit our media text due to the new and fresh approach that smashes the stereotype of the damsel in distress and the evil male antagonist. It also counters completely the stereotype of women being weak, as they are commonly portrayed as within media. In doing so, as Dyer points out, it creates a power stereotype, whereby women have less power due to their stereotype of being perceived as weak. In the case of our media production, we have created a piece that places women within the role of power and weakness, emphasising the fact that this is merely a stereotype created and not a real depiction of how real life is.

Audience SegmentationWho would be the audience for your media product?GenderWe have a female orientated cast with a female lead which is typically aimed towards females, however, the movie itself is not entirely specified in terms of the gender that it is aimed towards due to the fact that the genre of psychological horror appealing to all genders.EthnicityDue to the fact that our media text only contains credits in terms of material within the production that needs to be understood, and because there is no dialogue, this movie opening is aimed towards anyone with an interest in the psychological thriller genre.AgeDue to the guidelines of the BBFC ratings, through the use of the connotations within the opening and being part of a psychological horror, the target age range is for people that are aged 18 and over.

Audience Segmentation ContinuedWho would be the audience for your media product?Region/NationalityCast is Caucasian and European, but is not exclusive to this race. This was done as an unintentional occurrence due to not having females of other races able to be a part of the production.Socio-Economic StatusOur production would appeal to those from classes C1 to E due to the relations between the characters and the audiences being similar, adding to the element of suspense due to being in a position where events like the ones that occur in the movie are mimetic to those within these Social Classes.

Audience Segmentation ContinuedWho would be the audience for your media product?Decoding approachShows how audiences are activeAble to decode their own meanings from mediaOwn-thinkersFormulate own interpretationsOur media production adopts this theory for our audiences. This is because there are a lot of symbolic elements that cause the audience to need to decode fro themselves what the constructed meaning of them are, translating figurative imagery into literal meanings. This is how the element of a Psychological thriller are achieved, by ensuring that the audience themselves are able to relate what their prior knowledge of the world is against what they're being shown in order to create a meaning for themselves. For example, the inclusion of the wiping of blood on the third picture implies that that character is going to die. This however is not statedoutright, it is left for the audience to come to this conclusion for themselves.

AudienceHow did you attract/address your audience?The main factor within the production that grabs the audiences attention, offering our production a USP is the female cast. This shows that the audience is catering for all audiences, therefore allowing the production to cater for a wider range of audience types as opposed to the predominantly male audience that is associated with the genre of thriller.The way we could market our opening would be to share the link via social media. The casts age range is teenage and our target audience are people aged 18+, therefore social media within this age bracket is widely used and therefore could be very successful in terms of marketing out movie product. Similarly to how iLL MANORS (another British indie) was marketed with the #tweettounlock and how Starwars: The Force Awakens was marketed with the #ForceAwakens both with the purpose of ensuring the excitement for the movie increases, we could do a similar thing with the #THETHREE as well as highlighting our USP with the #FemmeFatal.

Audience ContinuedHow did you attract/address your audience?Maslows Hierarchy of NeedsThe creation of the 5 basic needs for people in order to be happy or satisfied.In order to convey the psychological part of the psychological thriller that we wanted to create, basic human needs needed to be taken away in order for the audience to feel fear when watching the production. The base element of safety is completely removed due to the fact that the killer preys on the victims of her choosing and successfully kills all three of the unsuspecting victims without being caught. This shows how the pyramid structure of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is very much incomplete. In removing this layer of basic human need, and through mimetic elements, the audience not only fear for the safety of the characters on screen but for themselves as they're watching an event that could happen to them.

TechnologyWhat have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?Since our previous production, we have invested in using a Nikon D5 300 camera for filming and a Canon EOS 450D camera for photography as opposed to the lower quality attained from the footage of the previous clips.We have also expanded our knowledge of techniques within Adobe Photoshop CC 2014, including the use of templates, layers, dodge, brightness/contrast and burn in order to create images where the subject looked dead, giving the audience a mimetic feel of what the person would actually look like if the production was real.

Technology ContinuedWhat have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?I was responsible for the editing portion of the piece. I have had some experience with using Adobe Premier Pro 2014 before when creating content, however for this production, I decided to do research into the different effects that could be used within the opening. For example, we wanted to create a negative image over another image that would distort the original image in order to create a thrilling effect, inspiration taken from The Call. I didnt know how to do this however I did some research into how this could be done and found many tutorials which outlined this process.

Technology ContinuedWhat have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?In the sequence window I had the original image and put the image I would want to make negative over the top. Then adjusted the opacity so that the image over the top was a little faded. Next I added the negative effect layer to the video. After I shortened the time of the clip and repeated the process a total of four times so that the image appeared to be flashing over the top of another. This alongside other effects such as Vignette, Fast Colour Corrector, Three Way Colour Corrector, Default Transition, Key Frames, Motion And Blur were also some effects that are included within the production.

Technology ContinuedWhat have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?During editing however, there were a few problems that I encountered. Namely due to the fact that there were multiple people on the same server it caused the server to crash and perform very slowly at times. This caused some of my work to crash and have to be recovered which made me have to re-do parts, however in the end the final cut was produced.

Progress From The BeginningLooking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it towards the final product of the main task?The value of a good group is crucial in making a media piece that not only will go smoothly but the audience will enjoy.Editing takes a very long time to do, especially when the scenes have to look the best they can. More often than not I have to seek help from the others in my group as well as teachers in order to see whether the scenes looked realistic and thrilling enough to gain the desired effect of fear within the audience that we wanted to achieve.

Progress From The Beginning ContinuedTransitioning sound between clips and different audio tracks makes a big difference when the goal is to achieve a smooth, seamless transition between clips. A lot of time had to go into this production, from the prop making, to the contract making, to the target audience research, analysis and application, to the production itself and finally, to the editing. The more time that we put into the final product the better the outcome.We have learnt the importance of continuity in creating mimesis and professionalism.Sometimes certain shots are better, in terms of effects such as zooming and panning, when they are edited in as opposed to filmed.

Progress From The Beginning ContinuedWe also learnt how to focus the cameras which allowed us to create the pull focus shot which was previously something we had no knowledge of. And conclusively, we learnt that planning carefully how we want the final product to look and sticking to it makes the whole production process much easier as we have something that we are able to stick to, therefore allowing us to focus our attention and create a media product we and the audience are happy with.

Final Cut Version One

AmendmentsHaving looked over the feedback from various audiences we created another cut for the video with little changes to the video. This is because it is important to comply to the needs of your audience members as this is what is going to make sales of media texts in the movie industry. A few of the changes include: having end credits as opposed to two different types of text on screen, ensuring the tempo of the music fit together better as opposed to drastic changes in tempo and using sharpen in order to make the images clearer.

Version two