My Evaluation

MEDIA STUDIES AS LEVEL, FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO, MAIN TASK

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.

My Input

Throughout the filming and editing stages of our final media production, i had jobs which i was assigned by the group. During the filming i was assigned to play Christian Greeko's folower. This took a lot of work as we had to film on many seperate occasions and had to order parts.

During the ediing stages, I would provide my opinion and suggestions to how i believe our production could become better.

Textual Analysis of Superbad opening titles

As part of our AS media task, we have been asked to analyze the opening titles to a specific genre of movie. i have decided to choose the genre of comedy and therefore have chosen the movie "Superbad."

The opening titles start with the image of "Evan" who is one of the main characters in the movie. It appears that he is doing a dance to the sound of the music on a yellow background. This part of the opening is when the producers of the movie and the company behind the movie are introduced to the audience. The yellow may make it easier for the reader to see the writing.

Instead of just a boring cut from one character to the next, out if the middle of the shot appears a star from which appears the next main character "Seth." Now the background is green and the only part of the character we can see is his outline. This may suggest that he "isn't all there" in the head and we should watch out for some unusual behavior from this character. When Evan is dancing, it looks as if he is putting a lot of effort into it and therefore may give the impression that he is a hard working and enthusiastic individual. Seth just appears to be having fun, he may be the joker of the movie.

The next shot appears from the bottom of the screen and includes both characters. There is a blue background with the characters figures being filled in yellow. now, they are both dancing. The character of "Seth" is dancing in a completely different way to "Evan." This gives us a slight impression and insight into the characters personality. Seth has more of an attitude towards his dancing and appears to be mucking around more than Evan does.

The music in the opening titles is jazzy and makes you want to get up and dance. This is probably why the editors have used this music, because the movie is all about how teenagers love to party and dance. At the same time, the music is quite relaxing and is easy to listen to. So they may have thought that relaxing also is a very important factor in a teenagers life.

The opening titles of this movie all flow very nicely together and follow each other perfectly. This may also be a resembelence to the characters life, maybe they're saying that their lives all flow together.

Textual Analysis on Dog Soldiers Trailer

This short assignment will clarify the good points and bad points of the trailer to the movie "Dog Soldiers." Dog Soldiers was directed by Neil Marshall in 2002 and is part of the horror genre.

At first, we see some images of some reviews that certain magazines and/or companies have said about this movie. These words are slashed with claw prints which add to the tension of the horror movie genre. These sentences are over the top of some of the main images of the movie. For example, we see a man tentatively walking through the house with a gun and a flash light, which suggests that the character is not 100% comfortable with the situation and this makes the audience also feel scared.

Next, we see a shot with a slow zoom in focusing on the wooden door. This gives us the impression that something is going to occur at that location, and it won't be particularly good for the protagonists of the story.

One of the next shots we see is of a woman staring at the ground, suddenly from behind her we see one of the antagonists come up from behind her. Then we hear a huge roaring noise after it cuts to a black screen. This also adds to some restricted narration as we don't know what is going on in this shot.

After the black screen shot, the music in the trailor changes from some slow, deep and droneful music to some more upbeat drum and bass. In my opinion this does not fit with the horror genre and spoils the whole feel of the trailor.

The Script

We start on the picture of a bill board filled with pictures of celebrities. In the background, we hear screaming and shouting coming from Christian Greeko and his hostage Claire Adams.

Greeko: "Sit Down, Shut Up!!"
Screaming from Claire

A few more shots pass, until Claire awakens from her dream.

Claire: " Oh.. you frightened me. I had another dream about him last night."
Lisa: "Again? what was this one about?"
Claire: "The same one as always, i don't know what to do."

Planning of Location

We have come to decide that we will be filming in Turners Hill, a small, lonely village surrounded by views of the country side. The advantage of this is that Alex lives in Turners Hill meaning we can film inside his house. The rooms will include furniture that will need to be rearranged in order to give us enough space for lighting and props etc.

Producing a thriller and filming in Turners Hill will show the audience that crimes can take place anywhere including areas with many people around and homes, this will also help to create suspense and a thrilling atmosphere.

Our opening sequence we will be mainly setting our story in Alex's house as well as the road outside. With cars driving past at the time of something thrilling happening, this will show that our character cannot be helped and has no one on her side. It will create realism aswell, what we aim to include throughout our opening sequence is mundane realism, including every day activities such as the characeter getting up and getting ready for college. This is something the audience may do in their day to day lives, when the character comes to a problem, this is then frightening to the audience as it becomes realistic and could relate to their own lives.

Jack Sadler's Textual Analysis of 'What Lies Beneath'

This essay will examine the use of camera work and editing in the opening two minutes of the thriller movie “What Lies Beneath” directed by Robert Zemekcis. It will provide detailed explanations of how these factors create a certain mood and also, how they help hook the audience.


First I will discuss the ways in which the director has used camera work to help establish the situation and establish the characters. The first few shots are focused around a black space. This gives us the impression that the scene is taking place at night. This immediately causes a negative and possibly frightening feeling to the scene, making the audience scared. After a few seconds, we see some mist go past and it appears that the scene is taking place in a wooded area as there appears to be trees on the sides of the frame. The camera is zooming in, making it feel like the audience is moving through the woods and are actually part of the film. Suddenly, out of nowhere a close up shot of a young woman’s face appears. Her facial expressions look shocked and slightly frightened. The next shot cuts to an eye level shot of the lady in the bath tub from a side on angle. Again there is a slow zoom in to add to the tension. Next, it cuts once again to the next shot. This sequence of shots is the one where she has a hairdryer. First, the camera uses the technique called crane to follow the hairdryer around. When the hairdryer stops working, the camera uses a slight pan movement to show the woman’s reaction. Then it cuts to an image of the plug socket. The shot is an eye level shot, meaning that we can see what the character sees. Then it pans to the left and we see the lady using the hairdryer on the mirror. My first reaction to this was, why is she doing that to the mirror. So it added some enigma to the story. This makes me feel that maybe the character is slightly mad. Once again the next shot involves a zoom in. this gives the impression that maybe someone is sneaking up on her. Throughout these first two minutes I was on the edge of my seat, expecting something to happen to her. The last shot is when the woman is walking through her house just about to make her daughter some waffles. Another pan is used when she walks past the camera, this establishes the setting of the scene and provides more information to the audience.


Now I will discuss and examine how the director has used editing to help establish the situation, and characters. In the first shot, the one in the wooded area, the mist on the edges of the screen has been placed there or added in by the editor. This gives the impression of a spooky atmosphere and ties in with the rest of the setting, a dark wooded area. A graphic match is placed at the end of the shot when a face comes out of the woods. The graphic match takes place when the antagonists face turns into the protagonists face. This is not the only type of editing, as a Foley artist can also add sound effects. He or she will add sound effects like a man walking through the woods or the drop of a pin. They will also add background music. The example in this extract is the soundtrack you can hear in the background. It is a sort of spooky music which may add to the scariness of the dark woods. This establishes a situation of mystery and you are always aware that something scary may happen. When we see the lady in the bath tub, another example of a Foley artists work is revealed as we hear the water dripping off her and falling into the water. Once again the Foley artist would have added the effects of the hairdryer switch going on and off. When the plug socket bursts, the sparks would have been added in after shooting. This gives the impression that the sparks are realistic and dangerous. Not much editing is used in these first two minutes.


To conclude, there are many ways in which camera work and editing can be used efficiently, productively and effectively to help produce and establish the situation of a film, and also to help perceive character representation. Including, a variety of shot angles and sizes, which provide different effects, for example a shock effect. Camera work techniques such as a crane, and a variety of editing techniques. Such as Foley artists adding in sound effects after shooting, and the editor merging shots together in the graphic match.

Jack Sadler's Textual Analysis of 'The Usual Suspects'

This essay will examine the use of Mise en scene and sound in the opening two minutes of Bryan Singers 1995 thriller, The Usual Suspects. It will provide detailed explanations of how each of these factors creates certain moods and also, how they hook the audience.


First I will examine the ways in which the director has used Mise en scene to establish the situation. Mise en scene may include may features. For instance, it includes lighting/ colour, costume/ hair and makeup, settings and props, positioning of subject in the frame and finally body language/ facial expressions. The first factor of Mise en scene I will examine is lighting/colour. Throughout the first two minutes of this film, it is set at night, therefore under starlight. The only other source if light coming from this area is that of fire. The fire and night light both portray a spooky kind of mood as we can tell there has been some kind of conflict or war. Also, it makes it hard to see so this also adds to the tension. As the scene moves on, we see a man looking over the edge of a ship. There we see light, but this is a different form of light. This isn’t a form of fire or nightlight, its electricity which conveys that once there was life on that ship. Now there is only one man standing. Now I will examine costume/ hair and make up. In this first two minutes, there are only three people. So we can only talk about their costumes. All the men are wearing dark clothing, which reflects the lighting and also gives a negative atmosphere. It kind of gives a businessman like feel to the movie, as typically Thriller movies are gang cultured. The man at the top of the ship is wearing a long black coat. This may suggest that he is hiding something underneath it, and kind of gives the impression that he is more important than everyone else. Also, is suggests wealth, no other character is wearing the sort of clothes he is. Next is settings and props. The scene is set at a harbour. This is also conveying a sense of danger. The props in the first two minutes are used very effectively. For example, two of the men are both smoking cigarettes, one man has a lighter and the other uses matches. This also contributes to wealth factors and order of importance. Other props in this sequence include; all the ship equipment, the actual ship, the dagger in the mans back and the gun he shoots him with. All of these contribute to character representation in different ways. Now I will discuss positioning of the character in the frame. The first shot of the man sitting down is a mid shot, this makes sure you can see body language but isn’t too far away that you can’t see facial expressions. Other shots used are, low level of the dead male, and low angle shot of male on the ship. The low angle of the man looking up at the other man, suggests inferiority and that the man on the ship is more important than anyone else in that general area. These add to the situation and character representation as it tells you who is in charge. The final contributing factor to Mise en scene is body language/ facial expression. Throughout, we only really see one mans face. His facial expressions throughout are ones of exhaustion and shock. He says the line “I can’t feel my legs”, this is the reason why he is sitting down instead of standing which makes him an easier target for the opposing male. He keeps the same facial expression throughout just as his body language doesn’t change. The man on the ships body language is totally different. We see him first when he is putting out the fire with his urine. This shows immediately that there is a touch of arrogance about this man, and this arrogance continues as he casually walks down the stairs. We don’t see his face in the opening two minutes, so we can’t comment on his facial expression. Both of these factors add to establishing the situation and character representation as we can get a general idea of who is in charge.



Now I will discuss how sound is used to establish the situation and character representation. This may include background noise and speech. All the way through, we can hear fire burning in the background and water pouring out of a canister. This sound would have been placed there by a Foley artist after the shooting of the scene. This would also include the background music, lighting of the matches and the lighter clicking, the man walking down the stairs. The fire in this sequence suggests war or fighting in the harbour and so does the sound of the water coming out of the canister. This sort of sound contributes to establishing the situation by giving more of a feel and contributing factors that otherwise would not have been there. The other form of sound used in this clip is voices. Both characters have deep voices which contribute towards the gang culture of thriller movies. For example if a character in a thriller movie had a high pitched voice, it would not be as believable as if he had a deep one.

Final Evaluation 14th January

We have gone through the process of planning, creating our storyboard, filming and editing and have come to a final result. We came across few mistakes and those we did come across we found a way in overcoming them. We are pleased with the whole sequence, one example of what we are pleased with is the editing and the way it shows continuity, we are also happy with the music and the way it also helps create suspense. One thing we wish could be better is the storyline, this is something that won't be marked on though and therefore isn't as important as anything else at all. Overall we believe we were at successful, in future, we plan to make sure we will be free alot more together creating more opportunities in bringing up better ideas and taking part in more with eachother.

Evaluation of Editing 7th January

We have finished our editing coming across few mistakes in the process which was fortunate. We found that it was difficult to edit together as we found there were few free periods we were all together on. We overcame this by discussing what we wanted done to it, and then whoever was free would complete the tasks. We also found that the shot we used a free hand stick on was more wobbly than thought, we found it shook very little, but enough to notice, we also found it almost worked as a POV shot and created suspense also therefore we left it how it was. It was very difficult to do anything about it also as if we were to do it again, the weather would be different and not fit in. Overall the editing has finished off our piece nicely creating great continuity and a smooth running sequence.

Editing 16th December

We have finished our filming and are pleased with the final outcome. It shows the continuity methods clearly and does what we planned it to do cleverly. It is similiar to our storyboard with few changes involved, one change we made was to not include so much cross cutting at the beginning, we did plan in the storyboard that we would cross cut from the main characters feet in a walking motion (the tense shot), to a shot that was quiet showing closed doors (the peaceful shot). We chose not to do so many shots showing this as we felt it wasted time and would give us more time to show other things further on in the piece.

We will now edit our finished filming adding transitions, music and using the shots that are best and show continuity most clearly. We will edit using the computer programme: iMovie, this is found on the college computers in the editing suite and is perfect for what we want to do. We will also make the music ourselves in the end which will be done on a college pc programme also called 'Garage Band'. Alex Lloyd will be in charge of this.

The Story So Far - December 3rd

We have met our deadline at creating a decent enough storyboard that shows our plans for our 1 minute sequence.



The first few shots for our storyboard include cross cutting from one shot including an extreme long shot of a door, in this shot it won't be as alarming as the other shot it cross cuts with, in which includes a close up of legs walking,we hope to build suspence through this. Throughout our storyboard the main character wears a hoody covering half of his face, this will be used to hide his identity and to also create suspence it is not seen until the last scene.



Halfway though our storyboard theres a shot of the main character walking through a door this will be done especially for our specification asking us to include a match on action, in this match on action we will make sure that the characters hand will be hidden behind the door in order to create less chance of the audience noticing any faults.



Once the character walks into the interview room, confrontation will be used between him and a female character, during this scene we will use different music, more quieter including alot of percussion, it is made quieter in order to hear the dialogue and percussion will be used to create suspense. Throughout the last scene we will use the 180 degree rule, this is a line between the two characters at eye-level, we will make sure we don't cross this and record on both sides as this will only confuse the audience due to the characters changing positions. Other shots we will use include the POV shot, reaction shot and shot/reverse shot in order to create continuity also.

Throughout the sequence we will use little props including Pokemon cards, a hoody, biscuits, glasses of water, chairs, table and a briefcase, this is used to create a good mise en scene in the interview room.