THROUGH THICK AND THIN

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.

The fake blood and mud

used to rough up
Harvey's look were to
add a more realistic
effect to his character. In
nearly every thriller film,
there is some sort of
danger and blood we
wanted to copy this
stereotype into out own
sequence so that
anyone who watched it
would straight away
recognise the thriller feel
to it. The blood and mud
also gives the whole
video a dark and sinister
look.

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 .

This is the only time Jess

is seen in the title
sequence. It is filmed right
at the end for a few
seconds and then cuts off.
The idea that she is only
seen for a short amount of
time gives Harvey more
dominance. This is a
stereo typical feature to
add to films as generally
the men are more
powerful then woman in
these conventions.

This was our first initial idea of

how we wanted out title sequence
to end, showing Jess dying.
However after talking to our
teacher we agreed that we
needed to cut it when Harvey is
at the front of the house to leave
a cliff hanger into what will
happen next. This is because our
sequence has given too much
away and the audience shouldnt
know that Jess dies in the title
sequence.

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

After researching font types that are commonly

used in thrillers, we came up with a few of our
favourites to choose from. In the end we chose the
second font type and changed to writing to white.
We did this so that it was bold, but didnt take
attention away from the scene. We liked this one
the most because the little scratches and dents in
the writing gave it a thriller vibe.

On my blog, I have put up

the research of thriller
typography. As you can
see some are very similar
to the one we chose with
the dents and scratches,
giving the sequence an
imperfect look, which is
what thrillers are all
about.

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.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Vladimir Propp His character theory links to our sequence as we have used typical narrative characters
like he suggests. His theory suggest there are 7 main characters in all films. We have included some of
these e.g. a villain (Harvey) and a princess (Jess).
Uses and Gratifications (This is shown in the next slide)
This is how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy their needs.
Bulmer and Katz identified the following gratifications:
Diversion (escape from life)
Personal relationships
Personal identity (relate to characters) This identifies with the audience for our title sequence through
the relationship of Jess and Harvey - through the pain of heartbreak and love.
Surveillance
Laura Mulvey Her theory is that females play the victims in media, which is exactly what we have
captured in our sequence. This is a very stereotypical feature to give to a woman as they are seen as
weaker and less powerful than men.

How does your media product represent particular social

groups?
Our product can represent particular social groups in real life
situations. In the sequence it is obvious that Harvey and Jess
previously had some sort of relationship, we know this from the
flashbacks when he is on the phone to her however now we can
see it clearly hasnt worked out. This is something a lot of teens
can relate to (Uses and gratifications) as this is the time in their
life that they get in and out of relationships and get their
heartbroken by loved ones, however as this is a thriller we took
it the the extreme of a murder to follow the codes and
conventions. We stereotyped our sequence by making the man
more powerful and dominant as in the end he is the one who
eventually kills Jess. This shows his dominance as he is the
main character and is shown on the screen for a lot longer than
Jess, he shows his strength when she dies. In difference Jess is
the weaker female who gets killed by Harvey in addition Jess
is only seen at the end of the clip for a few seconds showing her
insignificance compared to him. This represents how we see
men and women in the media, and how women are seen as less
of a person compared to a man.

When the sequence cuts to this

flashback, we hear Harvey say
Honey please, I love you
This could represent teenage
relationships and heartbreak
now a days as we then see
Harvey wanting to kill Jess so it
shows how people arent
always what they seem and
that they can change in a
instant.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The clothing of both Jess and Harvey emphasise that fact that they are both teenagers. Theyre both
dressed in casual attire, but only really suitable for teenagers/young adults, so the audience are aware of
their age group immediately.
Jess has a very casual
outfit on, the top half
may seem to make her
look a bit older with the
jacket and scarf but with
the leggings and
converse, especially the
converse which give her
more of a teenage vibe
- this type of outfit can
be seen in other thrillers
with teenager girls so
the audience is aware
of their age.

Selena Gomez in the

movie Getaway She
is seen to wear a
hoodie and jeans which
is a typical teenager
outfit this is similar to
Jess as they both very
casual and comfy
clothes, something
which adults wouldnt
normally wear out of the
house or even in the
house, therefore were
able to identify they
teenage age group.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We got Harvey to wear an
outfit that he didn't mind
getting dirty from the fake
blood and mud. His hoodie
and jeans are very similar
to the girls outfit from
Getaway in the previous
slide, this could signify that
she is a tomboy. In this
case it shows Harvey as a
typical teenage boy with
blue jeans and a blue
hoodie, the colour alone
signifies his manliness but
the casual aspect to it gives
him that teenage look.

This outfit was taken from

Shia LaBeouf in the movie
Transformers. It is very
similar to Harvey in the fact
they are both wearing
hoodies, jeans and have
blood, mud and dirt on their
clothes and body. It gives
them a very tomboy vibe
which makes the audience
think they're most likely
teenagers as a grown man
wouldn't usually find
themselves in this state
physically and through their
outfits.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We rated our title sequence as a 12A as we believed that it was

suitable for most people but as there is blood and a bit of
violence which we didnt think was acceptable for a younger
audience, we also thought that it wouldnt appeal to a younger
audience as they may not understand the plot, as well as this,
stereotypically younger children prefer to watch animations or
comedy/family films rather than thriller/action movies. This
therefore means it is mainly aimed at teens and young adults.
The fact that the actors in our sequence are teenagers, it would
be logical that mainly teens would watch this as the young
characters may have aspects they can relate to within the film
and everyday life. We chose this specific target audience
because we believed that teens/adults would find interest in
this and understand the plot better than a younger individual.
Another reason we chose this is because we got teenagers to
answer our target audience survey, therefore our answers were
based on what a teenager would want to watch and we went
with the majority voted answer to use in our sequence.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

BBFC quotes on 12A films we used these guidelines to rate our own sequence.

We found it helpful to use the

BBFC guidelines when trying to
rate our title sequence, we had no
strong language, not too much
violence and no drugs seen in the
sequence, so we decided from the
little violence and gore to put it at a
12A.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by creating a survey in which they told us what theyd like to see in our
title sequence. We then proceeded to create this sequence according to the highest votes on the
survey. This was because of the majority vote in which we thought people would prefer it. We asked
a lot of questions so that we could get lots of feedback and detail to add into our title sequence. This
directly addressed our audience because the people who answered our survey were young teens
therefore going by what they say helped us direct the sequence specifically at them.
In this question we asked if
they would like to see the
main character in the title
sequence , 82% said yes,
therefore we listened to this
feedback and placed
Harvey in most of the
scenes.

The main character gender

role was a close vote, but
a male character won the
lead by just a few more
votes. We decided to
follow this typical gender
role of a more dominant
masculine and a weaker
woman.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The setting shows an

outdoor forest area, we
can infer this from the
leaves on the ground and
part of a tree near
Harveys head. The fact
that Harvey is on the
ground with blood on his
hand looking unconscious
the audience will
immediately want to know
what is going on which
attracts the to watch the
sequence

As our target audience research resulted

in wanting the lead character male and to
be seen in the sequence, we decided to
open the sequence with Harvey. The fact
that he is lying on the floor brings an
aspect of intrigue, the audience would
wonder who he is and because hes the
first character they meet he must be
important so it makes them continue
watching.

The way that Harvey is lying on the ground

shows that he isnt in a comfortable position
or is peacefully resting there. His uneasy
pose on the side shows he must have fallen
or hurt himself this is then reinforced with
the blood on his hand.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In this question, we asked How long do you expect

the title sequence to be? The majority vote was a
minute long, therefore we tried to stick to this,
however it was hard to fit all the scenes that needed
to be included and it ended up being 2 minutes 22
seconds, although it is over the limit that was
wanted, we hoped that it would still keep interest as
there is a lot of mystery and cliff hanger moments
that are meant to keep the audience wanting to keep
watching. This will be cut shorter as we are cutting
out the end of the sequence, therefore we ma be
able to meet the needs of the audience better.

This question asked What illness do you

most want the main character to have? and
the outcome was extremely close but
Schizophrenia, won the majority vote. We
found it hard to include this with Harveys
character but we still wanted to add an
aspect of something to him, so we tried to
make him seem almost disturbed by
dressing him in dirty and messed up clothes,
messy hair and the fact that he was going to
kill his assumedly ex girlfriend.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Sound wise, we wanted to use a soundtrack that

would build up suspense and entice the
audience as this is perfect for a thriller. After
researching as a group in class Arthur found this
Ambient Folk music. We thought it went
perfectly with the scenes of Harvey walking
through different landscapes and thinking back
to the flashbacks. The sequence starts with a
high pitched eerie noise which brings the scene
into focus this alone is an interesting sound
which makes the audience focused on the
scene.

After researching thriller typography seen on a

post in my blog, we wanted a bold yet simple
font to portray our titles. This was or final
choice. The white makes the fonts stand out
against the background but doesnt take the
attention away from the actual scenes. It also
has little dents and scratches it in to give it that
thriller vibe.

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.
Firstly we would want to spread awareness on social media as this is the most common form of where people get their
information on e.g. most teens are active on Twitter so this would probably be our first choice of advertisement, and as
this film is a 12A, teens are our target audience so we would want them to know about it first as thats how we would get
the film to become popular and well known. Using famous actors would also be another way to get their attention as if
they are peoples favourite actors/actresses they would want to see the films. And make an effort to go out to get it.

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?

Preliminary task

As you can see, we have followed

the rule of thirds to give the scene a
more dynamic look, however the
angle if it is quite plain and boring.
This is because we were all new to
filming and were just starting out
trying different things, therefore we
didnt want to try anything too
extreme in case it didnt look right.

Main task

This also follows the rule of thirds, however it

is at a slight slanted angle, giving the whole
scene a more interesting look. And the
setting and mise en scene included also
makes the scene look more intriguing to
watch, whereas from the preliminary task, it
is very plain and simple as we just were
trying to follow the rules to be exact.

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.