Evaluation (written format)....

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

I believe that my OTS uses many conventions of the thriller genre. Quick cuts and close ups on the actor's face are used when the mother is calling for her child - the quick cuts represent her panic and the close up enables us to see her emotion clearly so the audience empathise with her. Gaining empathy from your audience is such a key factor to ensure the audience want to find out what happens; therefore continue to watch the rest of the film.

A convention that I have not used in my OTS is a plot twist. Although it has not been used in my OTS, I fully intended to use it in the whole piece (as explained in the post "Main task preparations...").  My plot line, like many other thrillers, follows Todorov's narrative stages (equillibrium - disrupton - recognition of disruption - attempt tp repair - reinstatement of equillibrium). The mother and child are shopping (equib.), child goes missing (disrupt.), find out it's the father's fault and it was the loansharks who took their child (recog. of disrupt), father has to work for loansharks (attempt to repair) and finally child returns home (reinstate. of equib.). Also it follows one of the themes commonly featured in thrillers. These are escape, pursuit, kidnap and bank robbery; obviously mine fits into the kidnap idea.I have used discordant music to highlight key moments e.g. when the mother first notices her child has gone, there is a small musical motif which is then later repeated at tense moments. This little motif becomes a signifier of something bad/suspicious happening. A famous example of musical signifiers would be in 'Jaws' - we see a happy scene of innocent children playing on the beach (which creates a very calm mood) however the underlying musical motif (that we have come to associate with the shark attacking) notifies the audience that something bad is about to happen to these innocent little children. The audience feel helpless and tense because they know what's about to happen (because they can hear the music) but the children on screen don't. 

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

In my OTS the mother and child are middle class citizens living in an average town. (An audience would guess this from the way they speak – not Received Pronunciation but correct grammar etc suggesting average levels of intellect and also because they are filmed in a fairly nice location – no graffiti or tower blocks of flats, which are often signifiers of poor economic and class areas.) This would hopefully not be an offensive/unfair representation to/of anyone from this class because I tried not to portray anyone in a negative way. However some could argue that I've represented gender slightly unfairly. The woman and her daughter are both female and are out shopping which is a very stereotypically female activity. Some would argue though that using females signifies vulnerablilty (because they aren't as physically strong as men) and the female child is even more vulnerable because she's smaller, weaker and young. The fact that the antagonist is male may also appear stereotypical. This isn't obvious in my OTS; however some viewers may pick up on it because of the footwear he is seen wearing. Some would argue that because the protagonists are female and the antagonist is male, I have suggested that all kidnappers are males and only mothers and daughters go out shopping and spend time together. However I think that the audience would accept this as a fair representation because statistically in our society this is true.

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

I believe that a suitable distributor for my product would be Touchstone Pictures. They are an established company and try innovative ways of distribution which would be good from a producer’s point of view. In addition to this they have also been associated with many famous and successful thriller films (e.g. Armageddon and Deja Vu). I believe that they would be a suitable distributor and also they are associated with films of a similar genre to mine. From their point of view, distributing my product could be largely beneficial based on the success of similar prducts they have supported.  Touchstone Pictures is one of many alternative film labels under the control of The Walt Disney Comapny. Touchstone release typically more mature themed films with darker tones than Walt Disney Pictures. HERE is a link to their website which leads you straight to their campaign for a new film. The website is very interactive and engages the reciever of it - which is a good thing to be able to do for a distribution company!

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

‘Flight Plan’ which is the film I have based a lot of my research and planning around was given the rating of 12A. This was mainly for challenging themes and moderate violence. Looking at the constraints of what the BBFC think a 12A is (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/12a12) I believe my film would certainly fit to this bracket. I looked at all the headings (in terms of what sections classify films) and noted what content under these headings my film contained. My film would contain no discriminatory language/behaviour, no drugs use, no sustained/frequent horror and no glamourisation of dangerous behaviour - because it is the antagonists that use dangerous behvaiour, the audience don't aspire to be like them and therefore would not want to mimic their behaviour. It has a moderate use of language; some swearing but strong words are used very infrequently if at all - so this would be acceptable in meeting with the conformities of 12A. However for me, the criteria which could create some questioning about being a 12A is the mature theme of the film. Kidnap of a young child is something which children in the audience may not be able to cope with because they could imagine it happening to themselves and they are not mentally mature enough to deal with this. However some children are mentally mature and their parents would know this. Trying to determine my film between and 12 and 12A was a difficult process. I looked at the list of 'criteria' and decided I had not pushed them all bar one - the mature theme. However because this is simply down to inidividual differences in what people define as 'mature' or suitable for themselves/their child. So because a child has to be accompanied by an adult to a 12A film, the adult would have had to decided whether the child would be able to cope (or not) with this theme. In terms of audience not regarding age, the thriller genre tends to have a very loose idea of this. Some believe that there is a target audience within itself of thriller-watchers. So obviously I want to appeal to these viewers. But also because my film features parents and a key theme is their struggle for their child, this was a large factor when considering target audience. If a parent who has lost their child (even if only for a few minutes in a shop etc.) was in the audience, they would hopefully be able to relate to the emotions show in my piece and therefore be more drawn in, and this would result in more suspense being created. By creating empathy in the audience, I have engaged and immersed them in the story and consequently they want the victims to triumph. However from simply watching my OTS, women may be more drawn to the product because they are the main gender that features in it. This is simply because in the OTS, the whole plot shouldn’t be revealed and the father only comes into the plot after the child has gone missing.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attempted to do this by keeping to conventions of the genre and using a storyline which would draw them and play on their emotions. The first scene in my OTS features shopping in a typical town centre. This is an activity and location that audience are familiar with and there for can easily relate to. Because it appears it be such a 'normal' situation, they do not suspect anything bad to happen. However when we see the first shot of the feet walking, this is sinister and so makes them wonder who is it and why are they following the mother and child? They results in the audience being drawn in by wanting to know who is the 'walking feet' character and what's going to happen to the mother and child. As soon as the music and quick cuts start, they begin to suspect bad happenings again. Meeting with conventions is very important when addressing your audience because it's what they'll expect to see in a piece. Audience's have come to expect to see certain things (conventions) in a film, and if they do not do so then they would tend not to like it as much because it's not the 'norm'.


Also I did a focus group which allowed me to get audience feedback. The group contained people I selected who were in my target audience. I screened the piece and asked for feedback. I then went away and addressed the comments/criticisms made and screened it to them again. The feedback from the second screening was a huge improvement on the first. This demonstrated to me the importance of audience feedback and how to address your audience, you have to know what they want. A focus group really helped me do this because it was real people from the target audience telling me what they wanted from my piece.

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

One important factor I learnt about and put into practise was how to have multiple layers of sound in iMovie. This allowed me to have dialogue, background diagetic sounds, and music playing all simultaneously – and I could control the volume of all three. I had previously experimented with using two layers (this was unconfidently and unadventurous) but never attempted three in iMovie. I now feel confident with how to use three layers competently.



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

In the preliminary task we worked in groups, however in this task we worked individually - so obviously I have gained independence and gained self efficiency. In some ways this was good because it meant my time management had to be better and I had less restrictions to when I could complete tasks because only I had to be available - not pick a time which me and others where available for. Obviously the filming day had to be suited to me and the cast, but this was the only tasks in which I had to liaise with others on.

In the preliminary task, when working in groups, we all were assigned a task and stuck to that alone. So for instance because I was more au-fait with editing software, I was appointed ‘editor’ and therefore didn’t operate the camera. But because we worked individually in this task, I had to complete all tasks and jobs myself. I feel this has benefited me a lot because I now have a better image of what is involved at every step of making a film, than when I just stuck to editing.