1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Here are some examples of shots from our media product and real media products, in this case thriller films, and how we have challenged the conventions of real media products:
Our main character is shown here pouring the milk into his tea in our thriller film. We have challenged the thriller conventions here because this is not usual for a thriller film as it can be a usual ritual of life at home, however, it gives an insight of what the lifestyle of our main character is like, therefore making it more unusual.
In comparison, this is a picture from the TV series "Dexter", where, similarly, the main character called Dexter is in the process of making coffee, which also challenges the thriller convention. The problem with this comparison, however, is that our media product is a film and Dexter is a TV series, so the two prospects should be very different, but they are similar in this case.
This scene is where we used food colourings to make it look like blood, which is typical in a thriller film.
As mentioned above, blood is an important feature of thriller films, especially in this iconic image from the famous Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Psycho" which shows the blood of the woman who has just been murdered in the shower going down the plughole
Here are two pairs of frames in which we have developed the forms and conventions of real media products:
This is a scene from a real media product, the military film, "Saving Private Ryan". Films which involve the army have made an impact on the media, mainly after Vietnam and especially in the 1980's and 1990's with films like "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) and "Platoon" (1986).
Similarly, we have used an army scene and have developed it by using an effect called "Desaturation". This gives the feel to the viewer that this scene is set in the past tense, and this should help establish that our main character's work in the army was in the past, as well as the scenes with him watching the news and making coffee.
In the film "Children of Men" (2006), there is a news report at the beginning like our film, helping establish the current events of when the film is set. This makes the viewer aware of what is going on without too much confusion.
We have developed our news report from this by making it appear on the whole screen, therefore the viewer will see just the news report and not the television that our character is watching the news report on. We considered the latter originally, but as it was difficult to film the news report on the television in the same shot, we decided realistically that it would be better to cut straight to the full screen shot of the news report.
In a lot of cases, many parts of our thriller film can be compared to the American hit TV series "Dexter", however, Dexter is the same genre as our film, thriller.
We have challenged the forms and conventions of real media products.
2. How does your media product represent particlar social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
1. An example of the sort of person who would be the audience for our film is a 38 year old male named Simon.
2. He has no children
3. He has a girlfriend he has been with for 3 months
4. He frequently goes to Sci-Fi conventions
5. He enjoys films like "The Matrix", and he has seen the trilogy 68 times. He is also into all the Simon Pegg films like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Paul.
6. He is middle class and lives in a small town near London, like Bishop's Stortford.
7. He is right wing and votes conservative because they tax richer people less and he is well off.
8. He likes the idea of our film because it was filmed and set nearby to where he lives.
9. In terms of money, he is doing well, because he stayed single most of the time and he likes to save his money.
10. He doesn't keep himself fit but is quite skinny and tall.
11. He moved out of his parents house when he was 25 years old.
12. He listens to 1970's progressive rock because that is the music he grew up with and doesn't understand the music of today.
13. His parents also had quite a bit of money and were middle class, therefore they paid for his university fees.
14. He went to a modest university doing a computer science bachelors degree.
15. He works as a IT technician in an office and has worked there since he graduated from University.
16. His favourite hobby is painting army figurines and his girlfriend doesn't understand why he does it.
2. He has no children
3. He has a girlfriend he has been with for 3 months
4. He frequently goes to Sci-Fi conventions
5. He enjoys films like "The Matrix", and he has seen the trilogy 68 times. He is also into all the Simon Pegg films like Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Paul.
6. He is middle class and lives in a small town near London, like Bishop's Stortford.
7. He is right wing and votes conservative because they tax richer people less and he is well off.
8. He likes the idea of our film because it was filmed and set nearby to where he lives.
9. In terms of money, he is doing well, because he stayed single most of the time and he likes to save his money.
10. He doesn't keep himself fit but is quite skinny and tall.
11. He moved out of his parents house when he was 25 years old.
12. He listens to 1970's progressive rock because that is the music he grew up with and doesn't understand the music of today.
13. His parents also had quite a bit of money and were middle class, therefore they paid for his university fees.
14. He went to a modest university doing a computer science bachelors degree.
15. He works as a IT technician in an office and has worked there since he graduated from University.
16. His favourite hobby is painting army figurines and his girlfriend doesn't understand why he does it.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
This is an image of the camera we used to film our material. We have learnt a lot with this camera, as, when we did the preliminary task, we were unsure what the buttons meant and the camerawork was shaky at times, however, now, we know most of the buttons and our film is in focus.
Here is another image of the camera we used to film.
This is the computer our group used in our blog work, and the website in this image is our blog on the Blogger website.
This is a picture of me and the tripod we used to make sure our filming was not wobbly.
This is another image of the tripod we have used. We have progressed with using this tripod because, at first, we found it difficult to use, a good example is the filming in our preliminary task.
This is another picture of the computer we did most of our work on.
This is an image of Ben's computer screen where, on the Music software "Logic", Ben created a thriller sound for the opening of our Thriller film.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at our preliminary task, we have learnt about how to film in a better way, an example of this is in the preliminary task, we have a low angle shot of Amelia compared to the high angle shot of me. Also, the camerawork was quite shaky and, at point, when cutting from Amelia opening a door to her entering a room as the camera angle changes, the screen goes black for a split second and it is still noticeable.
However, we have improved because now the camerawork is less shaky and, when cutting between shots, the screen doesn't go black for a split second anymore. Also, we have included the use of a reaction shot from Ben during the news report, to show the mood of our character.
However, we have improved because now the camerawork is less shaky and, when cutting between shots, the screen doesn't go black for a split second anymore. Also, we have included the use of a reaction shot from Ben during the news report, to show the mood of our character.
A screenshot from our preliminary task
