Liam Ellis, Evaluation




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

A conventional thriller is made ideally to create suspense and dramatically entertain the audience in a way that keeps their eyes glued to the screen. A thriller can also combine with a number of other topics and genres such as action, sci-fi, mystery and horror. What makes a thriller good is how gripping and entertaining they are. Some main conventions of a thriller production are, enigma, restricted and unrestricted narration, protagonist & antagonist, use of camera, sound, & editing, typical elements of mise en scene, these points cover all the main areas of what a film should contain.

Restricted and unrestricted narration
Restricted is where the audience know less about the film the the actual charaters themselves, for example if a chase occurred and the characters would know why it is taking place, however the audience would not. Unrestricted narrative is where the audience know the same as or more then the cast and characters.
Thrillers mainly use a restricted viewpoint, this keeps the audiences knowledge well balanced and entertained. We used a restricted narrative to raise questions and suspicion. Not only does it then build tension for the audience, it also makes them think and ask about what is about to happen.

Sound and editing
Sound is a huge part of a thriller film, it can either create huge suspense or it can frighten the audience, then two main ways of creating tension are firstly, to play music over a particular part of the film, and secondly, silence. Silence can work really well if the character is hiding or trying to escape. Editing is also as important, because, the way in what camera shots and angles are used and how appropriately ordered they are. Each shot and angle can create the perfect viewing point for suspense and tension, or it can simply destroy and ruin it.
I think that our camera angles and shots have been used very wisely, we have used a very wide range of various shots, including an amount of different distances and angles. With sound, we have kept it very minimal, very little dialogue and at a few certain points, silence creates the perfect way to excite the audience.

Mise en scene
In our thriller opening, our setting is firstly, what looks like a rural public footpath. This then leads on to a fair sized bricked basement, this gives us an idea of the catcher/kidnapper, is of some sort of money, as most homes that have basements are rather large.
The clothing that the two characters wear in our opening are fairly smart, shirt, jacket, tie and trousers, this makes the chase feel professional and business like. It also sets a strong recognition of social class, giving the audience a tiny bit more information but still raising questions about this information given.
The only obvious props that are used is, the bag given to the kidnapped victim in basement scene. We used an idea from a film, Pulp fiction, to use restrictive narration and not able the audience to see into this bag.


Protagonist and antagonist
The definition of protagonist and antagonist in film production are, protagonist, the hero or good character and antagonist, the evil character know as the villain. In our media product the protagonist is established very early as he is firstly tied to a chair and then in the next scene is getting chased. The antagonist also is discovered very early on in the product as he is chasing the victim. Then at the end the villain emerges out of the shadows which gives a very evil judgement.

A perfect example of a protagonist and antoganist is in the film Spiderman 3, Spiderman being Protagonist and the evil villain being Venom, the antoganist.

Films such as casino royale have brilliant sequences of chase scenes, from the start of the film, you can directly tell it’s a thriller as the chase scene has you gripped to action, this works really well as you don’t know the outcome and it could determine the outcome of the entire film as well. Within the chase itself, so many different camera angles and shots are used to add more affect and suspense, the chase also gets more intense each time a new situation happens or evolves.The setting is also very suggestive that the social class is middle class, the chase takes place in what looks like a country side walkway, trees either side and a few house, but nothing to built up. Then as the next scene evolves, a small basement is brought into place, this gives us an idea of a hide away that’s close to the chase, most probably again being in a rural area.



2: How does your media product represent a particular social groups?
Our final media product represents particular social groups in a constructive way. The firstly the characters are dressed rather smartly and appear to be quite formal and important. Shirts, ties, tousers and jackets were worn and this fits our theme of a thriller perfectly, it gives out the impression of something to do with special forces and this also keeps the audience on the edge of their seat wondering what is about to happen.



3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that our film would be shown as a television movie, such as ITV or the BBC, this is because the definition and cinematics don’t live up to other top films such as James Bond, Men in black or The Bourne Series. The visual and special affects are also very amateur and not as good as serious film companies for obvious reasons. However I think our film has a great story line and enough potential to fulfil the standards to be made into a film fit for viewing at a cinema screening if the challenge is taken on by a big company.





4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Gender:
Our media product is aimed at any gender, however thriller are usually and stereotypically aimed more at a male audience, but we have tried to make it as gripping and entertaining to both genders. Both of our main characters are males and has a male theme for a story line, so it could also be argued that it is only aimed and directed towards male viewers.
Age:
As a thriller film, our targeted audience obviously is not going to be below the age of twelve years old. There is mild violence, but nothing above the protagonist being tied to a chair, this also only occurs in the basement scene. If we had to target it to one group of audience, it would fit into a category of 15-25, this is because our filmed has the same features and genres as something similar to, James Bond or the Bourne series.



5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted and addressed our audience in a number of specific ways, firstly, with usual features of editing, sound and camera work. Then moving on to how we aimed at getting the feature of a thriller, gripping and intense action.

Editing
We have used a number of different shot sizes and angle to keep the viewer entertained locked on the film, this is done by not using the same shot over and over as this would get very boring. One thing I would have suggested if we were to re-do our piece is maybe to use a few more different transitions, such as a dissolve or maybe a fade.





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

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?Looking back at our preliminary task, I think we have improved quite successfully. Firstly our continuity editing is much better and less mistakes were made, this could be because we spend longer editing and took more care or the idea of taking more then one take on each shot. In our preliminary we also had problems with lighting, in our final product this was all solved by either using artificial lighting or being outside. Being outside automatically fixed our lighting problems that could have occurred as we didn’t want any particular direction or amount of light. Our camera angles shots and framing our also much more better, this is most probably because of practise. Another reason that this could have better is the fact that we done 2 takes of everything, when this is done we just hand picked the best shots taken.