EVALUATION

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 .

Being stalked.

Low key lighting.

Point of view shot.

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.

Final typography.

This is what gave us the inspiration to make it

more modern.

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

Asocial groupis a collection of people who interact with each other and share
similar characteristics and a sense of unity. Asocial 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 Id 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 doesnt 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 couldve

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?

Thriller films that Universal Studios have already distributed.

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

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 Joes 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 isnt 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 wasnt much
difference at all we just decided we
would stick to a 12 because it wasnt
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
/iElLkyvo5ShMlw69vBmq6vl8lP0JRQtJKgP
thmlitUY_3D

Question 6
What 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 havent
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 didnt 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 wasnt 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 wouldve never
guessed because the editing was done to an amazing standard.

Question 7
Looking 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 hadnt 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