CEVALUATION Imogen Parslow.

Continuity Task

Main Task

The Questions. • In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

• How did you attract/address your audience?

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

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

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

• I think that our media product represents the common codes and convention of a thriller genre, these being the tension and suspense, low key lighting and creepy music. Our inspiration was from The Blair Witch project. Incognito does follow the

common codes and conventions of a thriller film. It is about a main character being in danger and being stalked. However we also challenged convention along the

same lines as Se7en did .

Low key lighting. Point of view shot.

Being stalked.

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

When I began my research into thriller films one thing I focused on what the common codes and conventions are. I found a lot out and it helped us when we producing our title sequence. The conventions of a thriller film are; Low key lighting, quick cuts, shadows, tension music, changes in the angle of

shots, diegetic sound of breathing, black and white shots and a montage of shots.

In thriller films a male is almost always used as the antagonist and remains faceless until the end. The protagonist is also mostly always a male as well. We watched other thriller/horror title sequences like American Horror Story

and from this we also found out that the male is mainly the one that suffers.

The 4 technical areas. Sound.

We used sound in our sequence to make it more effective. Sound always helps the audience figure out what sort of film or media product they are watching and this is what we wanted our audio to do. We used audio such as whispering, this helped us to let the audience know how certain characters feel about the other. We used a variety of soundtracks to add a mysterious feel to our product.

Camera.We had to ensure that we made the characters come across in the exact way that we wanted them to. It shows that the protagonist is being stalked. We gave the eerie feel off and left the audience in suspense by using low angle shots, POV shots and prolonged shots, this built the fact up that something was coming.

The 4 technical areas. Mise en Scene.We immediately wanted the audience to know that the protagonist was alone. This immediately made the sequence a lot more tense and made the viewers worry about him. One typical convention of a thriller opening sequence is that they are normally filmed in the middle of nowhere and we stuck to this convention. We realised that when films are filmed in the middle of nowhere there is instantly a lot more suspense in it. Our actor is dressed very casually as we aimed for him to look like a detective. The antagonist is in all black which brings out how creepy he is meant to be.

Editing. In the beginning of the sequence one of the actors makes a call. Our editor Joe edited this in, the phone rings for a while and then it is cut into him being stalked. The sequence that the shot is edited into tells us that he is alone in the creepy woods.

Our typography. Our typography has come a long way from when we first began the production process of our main task. At first we wanted it to be white and red and give off a spooky feel but then we decided less is more and when for a more basic text and colours. Now that the title is black and white it looks a lot more modern than it did before and also it looks a lot more professional. The final title we used is a lot easier to read because it is more basic, but basic in a good way and the writing is the only thing there whereas before the blood like texture took away from the name of our media product.

What we came up with at first.

This is what gave us the inspiration to make it more modern.

Final typography.

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

• A social group is a collection of people who interact with each other and share similar characteristics and a sense of unity. A social category is a collection of people who do not interact but who share similar characteristics.• In incognito we have two main characters, the first one is the killer who is the main

antagonist and leaves the audience in suspense. We did this because we thought it would then be more gripping to the audience. The second character is the

detective, he shows the police and enforcement of law that is used in many different thriller films. We wanted to create tension by using different shot types such as a POV shot to show the ‘killers’ perspective, this made it look as if the

detective is being stalked. As of sound in this scene we used heavy breathing and whispering. These sound effects made our antagonist seem intimidating and the

audience may be scared of him. Although we have 2 main characters the detective is not the one that you initially remember, your attention is mainly on the

antagonist and what he is going to do to the detective throughout our sequence.

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

• In our media product I think we have stuck to the stereotypical ideas of a thriller film and title sequences. We have represented the male in our

sequence just as you would expect them to be presented. We presented him as dominant and determined. The protagonist is shown to the audience as an off duty police officer. This idea shows that he is

alone and solving the case without any back up. At the end the plot twists and he becomes the victim of the sequence and is the weaker male. We dressed our actor to meet the stereotypical representations of a police officer in thriller films. Both of the males in our sequence

represents different sides to the male sex and they massively contrast against each other. In many thriller films the antagonist is almost

always confident and powerful and we do stick to this stereotypical representation with their conversation at the end when he says “ Come

on, you know I’d never hurt you.” When producing our main task we wanted the antagonist to seem supernatural by using a point of view

shot and heavy breathing. We did this to add some creepiness to leave the audience in a massive sense of suspense. The protagonist is the main character in our sequence and takes up a lot of screen time but this is exactly what we intended. We wanted the audience to feel as if

they were involved and be so gripped that they wanted to find out themselves.

As a group we loved how Idris Elba looked in the TV series in Luther. We wanted him to look and be like Luther. We wanted him to be like Luther in the mannerism that he doesn’t give up on

solving a case and wanted him to look like him as he is professional

Class. • By him wearing a shirt, tie, smart trousers and a jacket he could’ve

looked like an under cover police officer. In regards to the class of one of our main characters. The smart dress portrays the sense of

money and that he is of a higher class. By him wearing a tie you can see that he takes care of his appearance. I tried to think about all the impression the audience may get of him after seeing the police like

character. We wanted the audience to think that maybe he is committing a crime or that he is trying to solve a case in his own

time. As a group we made sure they would think that he was solving a case in his own time and looking for the murderer whilst off duty.

We wanted this sort of storyline because it could show that the killer has become an obsession. This linked to the TV series Luther. In both thriller series and films the protagonist is in there own mind set and then does whatever they can to solve a case and in regards to the

common codes and conventions of a thriller film we wanted to reflect the sense of determination in the protagonist in our sequence.

Gender.• Incognito featured all male characters. The protagonist who is

an off duty police officer is typically male. In a thriller film you would stereotypically think of the police officer to be a male.

We used a male because we thought he portrayed the determination and stamina to solve a case on his own. We

stuck to this convention of a thriller film without meaning to we just thought a mail would definitely suit this role more.

Men are stereotypically stronger than women and throughout the title sequence you are left to think that he will find the

‘murderer’ and a male would be strong enough to bring him down. In our opening sequence we portray the male character

to have power and determination. This power and determination builds up tension throughout our sequence.

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

• Fast and furious 6 and 7.• Jurassic world. • Jurassic park.• Jaws. • Battleships. • Mama.• The Bourne identity.

Thriller films that Universal Studios have already distributed.

How we used Web 2.0. • When in the production process of our main task we used web 2.0. We used it to

mainly promote our video. We uploaded it onto Joe’s account on YouTube which meant people could watch it and give feedback. Web 2.0 helped us because it was

then easy to access for us and other people that wanted to view it. • We also used web 2.0 to generate ideas for things like typography, shot types and

editing technique. The web 2.0 helped us a lot in the production process as it gave us alot of ideas towards our opening sequence.

Question 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product

and why?

• I think that there are a few media institutions that would be suited to the distribution of our product. If we made Incognito into a full product it could be distributed by various media

institutions. Our product isn’t in one genre category it depends on the person watching and weather they put it into the horror genre or the thriller genre. It has parts of both genres in it. I think that the main companies it could be distributed by is: Universal, Netflix and The BBC. We got in contact with Lionsgate and Warner Bros for feedback, in some aspects I do think our product could be suited to suit many media institutions. We asked for feedback from Lionsgate and Warner Bros. I do think our media product could also suit these media institutions however I think that they are the biggest media institutions and smaller ones

may suit our product more. To narrow it down from these 3 I would definitely go for Universal Studios. I think I would choose them because after researching their thriller films they have

already distributed I can see they have all done well and I think this one is the media institution that will make our product do very well.

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

• We think that Incognito is most suited to people over 12 so therefore as a group we decided to give our main task the age rating 12 on the bbfc age ratings. We thought that people under the age of

12 may find the storyline to be scary so we decided it is most suited to people of 12 and over. Incognito is rated a 12 but as a group we think that the majority of people that will watch it will be teenagers from 16-19. These people will not find our thriller scary whereas people younger may. At the end of our sequence we bring in aspects from a physiological thriller because you would never expect both of the characters to be the played by the same actor. One thriller film that is also rated a 12 is ‘Rear Window’ this is a mystery thriller and is also aimed at our target audience. When we had completed our final draft of our main task we then went on to hold a focus group. This group

made up of 16-18 year olds, we wanted feedback from them on our final product.

Question 4.

Whilst in the production process we were ensure weather our sequence should be a 12 or 12A. I decided to

then research the difference between a 12 and a 12a, there wasn’t much

difference at all we just decided we would stick to a 12 because it wasn’t

scary or inappropriate and we knew 12 year olds would enjoy it.

Question 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

• When producing a media product what the audience have to say is one of the most important things. The main purpose of it is to find out what the viewers expectations will be. As a group we intended to meet expectations that the audience have from previous thriller films. We created a survey on survey monkey which we then asked precis questions so that we could be inspired by these answers and apply specific factors to our main task. When our first draft was complete we went onto hold a focus group so we could get feedback about it and go and make some changes

to it. Our target audience helped us a lot to realise who our target audience was and who Incognito was most suited to. We rated our sequence a 1 however is it more suited to

teenagers from 16-19. The common feedback we got was the end left them in shock and this is what we aimed to do and when looking into other thriller films this is exactly what they do. We used effective editing and camerawork to show both of the characters, because they are done by the same actor we had to use a variety of shots (mostly mid to long shots) to show both of the characters. We had to edit both shots together so that the ending shot looks up to a good standard. We came to a group decision as using quite simple typography. We still

think that our typography is effective because it shows modern thrillers. We broke conventions in the way that our setting was in the woods. This is not what a modern view of a thriller film would be seen as. We were more than happy with our setting because it built

the tension up massively and gets the viewer gripped.

Question 5. • On the next two slides I have included print screens of what we thought were the 4 most

important questions out of the 10 in our survey. As the producer I created the survey and I tried to include questions that would actually help us a group when producing our media product. From taking all the feedback into consideration it helped make our sequence to the best standard possible. In regards to question 4 in our survey the

audience said that the music is the most important thing to building up the suspense, from this feedback we went on to make sure the sound in our sequence was as effective

as it could possible be. We used whispering, heavy breathing and soundtrack. In question 6 of our survey they believe said that the plot and the setting are the most

important parts of a thriller film so we wanted to have am effective setting that gave off a thriller esc feel. We think we fulfilled this by filming our sequence in a woods because it builds up suspense and tension which is what a thriller film is meant to do and we have

done this. Throughout the production process we carried on looking back at our feedback so that we could ensure we took every single aspect into consideration.

To see our full survey please click here. https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/iElLkyvo5ShMlw69vBmq6vl8lP0JRQtJKgPthmlitUY_3D

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

• The first thing we had to learn is how to use the camera and how it worked. We needed to have a full understanding of this so we could film our footage to the best standard possible. In our group our editor knew how to use the camera and how to edit things. I personally haven’t edited footage before so it was a massive learning curve for me. All our filming was done on a Canon G16 and the editing was done on Pro X. We didn’t have the best equipment available however we improvised and we are all more than happy with our final piece and the quality of it. In regards to sounds there was a built in mic to the camera and this is what we used throughout the production of our sequence. Our sequence still has good sound and you could hear everything throughout. The camera was very good however it wasn’t specifically built for the type of filming we were doing with it. It made Incognito look very good. Our editor joe started editing on Premiere then switched to Final Cut. Joe learnt from scratch how to use Final Cut and you would’ve never guessed because the editing was done to an amazing standard.

Question 7Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product?

Question 7. I created a skills audit from term 1 to term 3. This was helpful because in term 1 I could see the

areas I really needed to improve on throughout the terms. In regards to my technical skills in term 1 I knew nothing about it as I hadn’t really used these techniques before. However by the end of term 3,

watching and helping with the editing I gained more of an understanding of technical skills.

Analytical skills were also a hard factor of media studies when I first began studying it, however

now I know about all of it. I may not be a green in all of them but I know the basic ins and outs of all those sections. With knowledge I feel like this is

the one I am now most confident with. In the beginning it had the most orange filled boxes

because I did have basic knowledge on most of these sections. My skills audit really helped me from the start to see which subjects in media I really needed to work on and look into further detail. I think that I have improved in all these

sections and the ones that are left in red after term 3 I am now working on.

Issues faced in the continuity task. • The close up shots we planned to do

did not all look as professional and effective as we thought so we decided to scrap those ideas and come up with

more close ups of different things. Overall this came out much better

than I anticipated and after facing a lot of problems with the shots I didn't

think we would produce something of this higher quality and good story line.

Our first close up.

Our second close up

Our third close up

Our forth close up