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Through Thick and Thin Evaluation: Aashna Jadeja
Through Thick and Thin Evaluation: Aashna Jadeja
EVALUATION
Aashna Jadeja
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
The opening title sequence that me and my group created mostly develops forms and conventions of real life media
products. This is shown in the sequence when we casted the main character as a male he is shown to be more
powerful and dominant as he is the one who goes and kills the female. This is a typical storyline of a thriller film as
the male character is typically stronger and more dominant over the female.
The axe presents strength and
power this choice of weapon
was quite typical for a thriller film
as it is gory and unrealistic in
everyday life.
Harveys clothes were also a prop that
developed the forms ad conventions of
real media products. His casual denim
jeans and hoodie represents him as a
normal ordinary boy, however as you
begin to watch out sequence you start to
realise that there is something wrong with
him and that he may have a disorder this
was used to trick the audience for a twist
as this was a typical effect most thrillers
have.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
For our character Jess, we also chose a stereotypical way to approach her in the video. She has a shorter screen time than
Harvey does which signifies his importance and dominance over her which is typical to nearly any film in which the female is
weaker than the male. We followed these conventions to make it clear to the audience what was going on in the sequence,
however we wanted to leave mystery and suspense so we added in the flashbacks to intrigue the audience .
Typography
After researching types of
typography used in thriller
movies we came up with this font
as it is bold but has little
scratches and dents in the
writing. We chose this as it gives
of the vibe of a thriller type of
movie. We chose for it to be in
white as we wanted to do be
plain so that it wouldnt take the
attention off of the actual title
sequence.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Other movies that have followed the stereo typical trait of a man being more dominant over a woman
and killing her are:
The perfect guy The male character; Carter kills and elderly woman Mrs McCarthy.
Gone girl Nick is accused of killing his wife Amy when she goes missing.
Scream Multiple deaths when the character playing scream is a man and kills a lot of people including
women.
Other common codes and conventions of Thrillers that impact the audience are:
Violence and fighting scenes This can be seen in the Saw franchise, these films can be seen as both
horror and thriller as they have a lot of gore and blood with thrilling, suspenseful scenes. Another well known
thriller than contains violence is Reservoir Dogs. This gives interest and action to the films so that the
audience stay watching it.
A problem caused by a villain that needs solving by a hero. An example of this is in the Batman movies.
Batman is the hero and the Joker is seen as the villain. - This makes the audience takes sides on the
characters and root for the hero.
Suspense and Tension A lot of these scenes are shot in dark rooms it emphasise the scare factor e.g. Rear
Window, Seven and Sinister. - This keep the audience on edge, giving them slight fear as well as intrigue.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Two well known institutions that distribute a lot of thriller films are Universal and Summit Entertainment.
Universal Studios was founded in 1912 and is owned by Comcast, it is one of the oldest studios in
America. Well known thrillers it has released are: Drag me to Hell, The Strangers, The last house on the
left, Unborn and Stay alive. Summit Entertainment is another large institution, which has distributed thrills
such as: Sorority row, Hurt locker and The ghost writer.
I think that Universal might distribute our product as they are one of the largest and most well known film
institutions of all time. It has distributed some of the most favoured thrillers such as: Jurassic park, Jaws,
The Purge, and Unfriended. These thrillers can be seen as similar to our sequence as they all follow most
or all of the codes and conventions of the thriller genre.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When starting this project with my group, one of my weaknesses was editing videos. During class we
learnt how to edit a clip on premiere using a step by step process. This has improved my knowledge a
lot, although I am not able to edit our whole sequence like Arthur has, I understand some of the
terminology and can add in my input when viewing the clip ready for the next edit if there needs to be
more done to it.
My skills audit is very handy to show how much I have improved and in which specific areas. It also
shows me what else I need to improve on. Its a very good way to keep track of my skills as I am able to
portray them in my work.
Survey Monkey
We used Survey Monkey to collate our target audience research to create our sequence. It was a very
handy website as we were able to ask our questions in many different ways e.g. multiple choice, list,
answer box etc This was really helpful when we wanted a range of answers. The multiple choice
allowed us to give out only certain responses whereas from the answer box we got a whole range of
different perspectives.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Planning stage
During the planning of the main task, we had to do a lot of research in order for our sequence to relate to
the chosen genre, fit our target audience and make sure we knew what we were going to do when filming.
The research wasnt easy, there was a lot more we had to put into it than I previously thought e.g. audio
research, typography research, location research, storyboard ideas, animatic, shot type list, and thats not
even all of them. Each section took time to try and perfect to the standard my group wanted them. We
each took individual tasks to take on so that the planning was done a bit faster and then put all of our
planning ideas together to create the sequence.
Creating stage
For the actual creation of the product I was unable to attend the filming but Mason and Arthur updated me
on all the things they had filmed or still had left to film, from my previous knowledge of filming the continuity
task, it takes a lot of patience and thought to make sure every single shot we needed was filmed and there
were not mistakes in them e.g. shadows on the wall of us filming able to be seen in the shot. It took a lot of
time and we had to go step by step to make sure nothing was missed out or that what we filmed all had the
right lighting and audio which Arthur then went to edit.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?
When creating our preliminary task Arthur, Mason and myself were new to working together in a group and
completing tasks together. From the preliminary task to the main task we have learnt each others strengths and
weaknesses in which we help each other out with. I have learnt that the whole process of creating these videos
take a long longer than I first thought. We have to re film many times to get the clip right, re edit a lot to get all the
cuts and transitions perfect whilst making everything look realistic as well. It also taught me that it doesnt all get
perfectly finished in one day, there are many obstructions that could cause us to cancel and reschedule such as
the weather, lighting or even the camera. Arthur had to re edit about 2 or 3 times to get each clip to look perfect
and smooth, even though it may have been frustrating for us all to keep re adjusting the scenes and having to
improvise as our first plan for the sequence had to have some changes, it was all worth it now to see the difference
between our first edit and our last and final draft.
During our preliminary task we were all new to using different ranges of shot types and camera angles, so we stuck
to the ones we knew instead of venturing out and trying out new things. However by the time our main task came
around, we had learnt new features that we could add to our sequence so we were able to expand our ideas and
use more creative techniques to put our idea across.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it
to the full product?
I created a skills audit which shows my progression from term 1 to term 3 and how much I have improved on certain
topics. It is evident that I have improved on my Knowledge the most from the beginning of this project to now and my
least improved is probably technical skills. This was a predictable result for me as Technical skills werent my strongest
point to begin with so I found it difficult to figure out how to do them. Although I may not know it all, I have slightly
improved on the technical side as I am more aware of Camera Lighting and Exporting file types.