Media Evaluation - Sean Auchombit

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
1)My media product “kidnapped” does use and develop forms of conventions, it also does challenge forms of conventions too. Before the making of our two minute introduction, we had to film a continuity sequence, our preliminary task. By staying within the conventions it enables viewers to establish the sub-genre but in our film we also went against some of the conventions for example our target audience is both female and male, but stereotypically it’s known that female tend to watch thrillers. This did not intervene with establishing the sub-genre in our thriller which is an action thriller. By using the conventions it does allow viewers to be able to recognise other thrillers which have similar contents and throughout our thriller it indicates films that have influenced us. From the film “Taken” and the American TV drama “Dollhouse” they both revolve around the use of the same props for example the “Gun” but also both have a similar storyline which is finding people. We also was able to be influenced on the location setting, in the US Drama Dollhouse a particular scene is filmed in the men’s toilet, we took that idea from there and we used it in our film as the toilets is a very isolated and also mysterious setting. It’s mysterious as there’s no sound, its comparison to a deserted house. This helps us in aid of following the conventions of a thriller as it built tension, suspense and mystery. We also used the conventions of close up and extreme close up to be able to see the characters emotion and also the audience maybe able top relate to the characters in the film. The audience maybe thinking, “That what I would feel like if I was in his shoes”

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
2) To be able to establish whether our media product represents a particular social group, research had to be done to gain more knowledge about the genre our media product fits into. As our film was a thriller, several key elements occurred when researching about thriller genres, it clearly indicates that it is essential to have an antagonist as well as a protagonist but this is just a stereotype. Furthermore each thriller victim is stereotypically a female victim who is normally defenceless, but in our thriller, our group decided to stick to the codes and conventions of a thriller as we had a protagonist, antagonist as well as the victim who is a young female daughter of a man who on the hunt for his missing daughter. Our characters in our thriller are stereotypically gender represented stereotypically the men being more dominant over the female as in our storyline, a man has kidnapped another man daughter, but this also goes against it stereotype and representation as it shows in our thriller, one man can be more dominant over another male character. As a result this is where it represented as my media product challenging the conventions. For example in our thriller there is a scene in which a male character (Michael) is holding a gun to another male character (Daniel) head and ask for his daughter. At first Daniel is completely oblivious but then slowly become submissive and tells Michael where his daughter is. As a result from all the research, our group established that there was a particular social group represented for age and gender but not for another other type of social group.


What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?
3) Our media product definitely has the ability to be distributed by several different types of media institutions as new technology is a powerful element when promoting a film. Our media product would definitely be produced by a major Hollywood Studio, as our film has taken ideas from a film called “Taken” which has been success and been shown in cinemas worldwide. Even though our ideas are similar to the film “Taken” our production process is completely different as we have captured so many different types of shots and angles as well as the way we edited and constructed the film. Our film should be released as it has the ability to be successful as it’s a more contemporary/ up to date look to it. The ways in which our film would be distributed is through the internet i.e. Blogs, Youtube, Myspace & Forums which is a low budget method in distributing and promoting our film as this enables us to upload our film for viewers to watch and leave feedback. Another alternative method is through a newspaper ad which does have a little expense but is very beneficial if able to place an ad in a popular newspaper. Our final distributing method would be on billboards and posters, which could be place at bus stops and train stations as there are up to hundreds of thousands people that travel on public transport. Furthermore, posters can be placed at schools, colleges and even universities as it is a strategic way of attracting our target audience as they will be able to see it as its big and eye catching. There is potential for merchandising certain product from our film, for example maybe a fake gun which can be place in a frame that looks identical to the one in our thriller, other products can be models of the characters, t-shirts of the character name or even just the thriller name. There are so many ways in which our product can produce merchandise for our viewers/followers to gain more recognition, popularity but most of all revenue.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
4) Our target audience consists of young teenagers, young adults and adults aged from 12-21 and as I clearly stated that posters will be distributed at schools, colleges and universities and as our certificate rating for our film is 12A. I would personally have a higher certificate rating, I would certificate our media product 15+ but from BFFC which is the [British board of film classification] it clearly shows that our media product can be suitable for a minimum age of 12A as long as the 12 year old viewer are accompanied by an adult. From our research it shows that females tend to be more indulged in thriller whereas male like a more aggressive speedy action film. Our thriller goes against its stereotype as it attracts both male and female due to the storyline being about a man who daughter kidnapped, this will act as sympathy which will draw the female viewers but whereas as the dad is hunting for his daughter that can also draw male character who have a daughters in real life. Both male and female viewers can relate to the thriller emotionally as it’s a real life situation which has happened to many parents. Other films which are similar to ours are “Dollhouse” & “Taken” to which both audiences are females and males.

How did you attract/address your audience?
5) The way in which the audience was attracted was through the Blogs which we were able to post every step by step process in the making of the film. Scripts and synopsis where posted on our Blog for people to be able to read and give us feedback. We also handed out questionnaires for people to fill, the questions consisted of conventions of a thriller for example a question that was asked was “What do you expect to see in a thriller??? Suspense, Dark Colours Etc Etc” There is particular parts in our film which could have an effect on the younger audience, our certificate rating for our film is 12A, as long as children aged 12 is accompanied by an adult they should be fine. Any ages below will find the scene where the gun is at the back of the character head to the point where he gets shot very terrifying, this applies to both male and female. This scene could have a major impact for viewers under the age of certificate rating as it could effect the way they portray the sequence, for example as these children get older they may believe that it is perfectly innocent to put a gun to someone head so it can have a negative influence. As we kept a majority of our film within the convections of a thriller this fully justified that viewers know what they will get when they watch this but as we played with the conventions and went against parts of the conventions of a thriller, this will enable us to fulfil and surprise viewers expectations. The use of tension and suspension engaged viewers and made them want to find out what happens and watch the film till the end, unfortunately as we left it at a cliff hanger this plays with the viewers made as they try to figure out what’s going to happen. By using a cliff hanger this keep viewers engaged into the storyline. Even throughout the fast pace cuts between shots attracts viewers as our sub genre is action thriller the use of fast pace cuts helps in aid of our sub genre of action but also to built this tension and suspense for the audience.



What have you learnt about new technology from the process of constructing the product?
6) From using technology I learnt several new things just from the process of constructing our product. As I was the edited, I had to learn to use the Apple Mac computers to enable me to gain access to the editing suite software Final Cut Pro. I learnt that editing is the last component of constructing a film, I learnt how to add shots together by using different angles captured but also keeping a match on action effect. Sound effects were a crucial element to our film which I was able to download from Soundtrack Pro & Video Co Pilot. By adding sound effect it emphasised sound that could not be heard distinctly and by adding a soundtrack that played in the background of the film, it created suspense and tension for the viewers. One of the biggest challenges that I came across was, originally we captured footage from our original film but when trying to edit, established that we didn’t correctly captured the right shots on camera so we changed our story and captured good footage which I was able to edit. Even through editing the good footage, I came across problems with the dialogue, some of the dialogue was to low and as I had background music playing it would be more dominant over the speech. I had to make the dialogue higher and lower the background music so it would clash. The final problem that I came across as the editor was that sometimes the dialogue of the characters would come out of sync, so I had to move the dialogue about to match the visual action of the characters speaking. That problem occurred several times throughout the process of editing but was easily corrected instantly.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
7) From looking back at the preliminary task, I have learnt so much up to the progression of the full product. I have learnt that so much preparation is needed to produce an accurate but successful end product. In the production process I learnt how to produce a storyboard and annotate it step by step shots to be able to captured good footage. By having the storyboard it also help me edit my shot in the sequence of the storyboard, so I didn’t miss out any shot. When having a storyboard, you need a shot list for the cameraman to follow, I learnt how to be fully organised to make the whole production a smoother process. I also learnt about the 180 degree rule, even though I wasn’t the cameraman or director, it was good to learn about the rules in filming just as a basic knowledge background. From the 180 degree rule I was able to understand that when filming you cannot cross between a 180 degree lines which is on a vertical axis. I also learnt about the effectiveness of continuity, without continuity it allows the audience to see where the editing has been done, so by using the same type of editing effect for example cut, it makes the film run smoothly and realistically. By doing a preliminary task it helped me understand what I was doing wrong, these helped our group gain knowledge and develop our skills on the editing suite, using the camera and directing. As a result I’m very please with our end product and believe it went 100% successful as we were able to eliminate our errors from the start of the production by doing the preliminary task. If the preliminary task was not done, more errors would have been made and more time would have been needed to complete the film. I also learnt that a lot of preparation is needed to be able to have guidelines which needs to be planned and drafted out to make a success production.

SEAN AUCHOMBIT