THE EVALUATION
1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The thriller genre of movie is a very complex genre. There are many different elements that add to the feel and atmosphere of a thriller production, these are called the conventions of a thriller. Examples of conventions of thrillers are; enigma, restricted and unrestricted narration, Mise en scene, the use of a protagonist and antagonist, binary oppositions, camerawork and how the three stages of narrative are used. I will discuss how these factors are used to help create our thriller production. ENIGMA: Enigma is a term used for a puzzle in a thriller movie, in other words something that makes the audience think about the story line and what is going on. In our production, we used enigma throughout. First of all we used it when our character is talking about her dream, how she had a dream about “him.” This raises the question, who is “him”?
Then we see a shot where our Protagonist is seen reading a magazine on the sofa, she receives a phone call from an unknown number and starts screaming “Who is this!?!?” We wonder who it is, we later find out that on the other end of the phone is “him.” RESTRICTED AND UNRESTRICTED NARRATION: When it comes to restricted narration, our evidence of this is when we didn’t show our protagonists and antagonists faces at the beginning of our product. This creates intrigue for the audience. As for unrestricted narration, this is used when the point of view shot of the protagonist staring at the antagonist through the door. This gives us knowledge that the characters do not know. MISE EN SCENE: Mise en scene factors are very important in our production. Our production is set in a home which is supposed to have a warm and safe feel to it as this is the place where our protagonist is being looked after. We added pictures of our characters around the home to make it look like it was really her house. 
Another factor of Mise en scene that we paid very much attention to was lighting. We made sure that this element of Mise en scene was perfect in every shot we did to make the “Behind the Lens” experience more realistic. During the first part of the production our lighting is mostly light therefore set during the day. The best footage of lighting comes during the second half of the production where the story is set during the later hours of the day. PROTAGONIST AND ANTAGONIST: During the whole of the opening of “Behind the lens” it is very apparent that there is an antagonist and protagonist. Our antagonist is Christian Greeko played by Jack Storer, and the protagonist is Claire Adams played by Bea Ademujimi. The antagonist on our story has been put in jail for becoming a serial killer. Claire Adams is wanted by him. BINARY OPPOSITIONS: Within our product we has a binary opposition take place as we had a protagonist vs. our antagonist. CAMERAWORK: 
The camera work in our production, in my opinion, is the best aspect of our work. I feel that Alex did a very good job and this deserves recognition. We used a variety of different angles and lots of shot variety including; Extreme close up, close up high angles shots and point of view shots. 2.) How does your media production represent particular social groups?
In my opinion, our media production does not really represent many different social groups. The only ones that are visible are males and females. Our protagonist is a teenager whilst our antagonist is an elder man. The female in our production is the character who is under attack and is wanted by Christian Greeko. This may represent that females are more vulnerable and an easier target than males are. The fact that she is still a teenager is also a contributing factor as she is still not mature enough to fend for herself in this tough situation. The camera work used on her is usually at an eyes level all except for one part. The part where she is flicking the switch which doesn’t work. Here we see a high angle shot in which the audience looks down on her. This suggests insignificance and adds to the drama of the shot. The clothes that she is wearing in our production are typical of a teenage girl. I would say that they are casual and not too formal, which many teenagers like these days. Throughout our production there is a constant groaning noise which we added in during editing. We found that this made our production scarier and added to the shock factor.
The males in our production are represented as very powerful as one of them is Christian Greeko and the other works for him. The clothes they wear are all black except for a white shirt underneath. This goes along with their dark personality as they our evil. The only time we see our Christians face is when it is dark, we see his followers face from a low angle which may suggest power, dominance and importance. 3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
To create a film there are three main stages. These are production, distribution and exhibition. The film productions job includes making the film; the film distribution company’s job is to ensure the placement of the film on an exhibitors screen and for home viewing. Lastly the film Exhibition is the place the audience watch the film such as the cinema. The most recognisable film distributor’s names are 20th century fox, Paramount and Pathe. As ours is low budget, we would not be able to get one of these major distributors and so would have to look for a distributor that distributes independent films as well as mainstream or just independent. Icon film distribution is one of these types of distributor and so this is a possibility for a place where our film could be released. http://www.iconmovies.co.uk/
4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?
In my opinion, any person from any different age, gender, background and religion could be interested in our production. As we started to film our production we didn’t set out to target a specific audience, we wanted as many people as possible to enjoy our production. I think that the group who would enjoy our product the most is teenagers from both genders. I think this because many of my friends have shown a huge interest in the thriller genre of film. Some of their favourite thriller films include; Taken (2008), Donnie Darko (2001), Seven (1995) and The Bourne Identity (2002).
5.) How did you attract/address your audience?
In my opinion, our audience would enjoy our film because it is non stop excitement which is typical of the thriller genre. We tried to make our films plot as far away from any other thriller film to date, therefore creating something totally different from others which could contribute to the excitement and shock factors of “Behind The lens.” We believe that the opening sequence to a film will either make or break whether the audience would continue to watch it, so we tried to give it a “pull” factor for the audience, meaning this will entice them into watching the rest of the film. Within the first minute of our opening sequence, we had already included an enigma factor which also contributes to the “pull” factors.
6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the filming and editing stages of “Behind The Lens” I have learnt a lot about how to produce a short film with a good level of ability. For example I learnt more about how to use and control a camera. In the editing suite, we used a variety of different technologies to complete our production and make it as professional as possible. For example we used the editing software Imovie throughout our production. We all feel that this software is easier to use than the other option Final cut pro. I leant more about how to add effects to a product using this software and also how to add titles. We all had an input into the editing process and once we had completely finished the editing and we were happy with it, we copied our file into Garageband. In this software we were able to add our main sound effects and music to our production. Then we needed to add our voice overs to our production. This had many positives to it including saving us precious time. We used a voice recorder to do this. Then we imported this into the Mac and added it into our production. I believe that my individual input was good with a good level of ideas and ability. I think the group as a whole were brilliant and I think that our final two minute production proves this.
7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When the preliminary task was being performed, we had the same group plus one other candidate, I believe that our preliminary task was at a very good standard. But in my opinion, our full product is at an even higher standard. I personally have learnt a lot from the time our preliminary task was completed to the time our final product has been done. This includes how to control a camera with ease, being more open minded and adventurous in the editing stages and how to use all of the editing supplies to a good level of ability.
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