Evaluation For My Media Project (Revenge) Media AS

By Monique Howell

In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge conventions of Real Media?
My film opening sequence Revenge develops the conventions of a
thriller film to a high standard. The opening sequence is filmed during the night making it less obvious for people in the scene to be aware of what is taking place within their surroundings. The use of low key lighting, dark settings and surroundings allow a certain amount of suspense to build up, encouraging the audience to become more engaged, creating audience involvement. characters within the scene alongside the viewer. Low key lighting is a necessary technique to conform to the thriller genre, and this is commonly used in film. Low key lighting is used to create the mood during a particular intense scene, it often creates shadows allowing characters to react accordingly to this (slightly shaken and nervous). During the scene the lighting is combined with a specific type of music, quite intense and upbeat as this helps to portray what the character may be thinking, allowing the viewer to imagine themselves in this situation.

The effect of low key lighting creates blurred vision for the

 The use of sound at the opening scene of a thriller sets the ideal

story plot that the audience are expecting to see. This type of sound is called non-diegetic sound as the cast cannot hear the music whilst acting. Sound helps to create suspense especially if the tempo of the music is slow and steep. movie with this name is most appealing to teenagers and young adults. Therefore the font we used for the opening sequence was common, with bold and sharp shadowy edges in a grey font colour as this shows that the movie is not a happy and jolly in contrast to the colour was pink.

The title of the film is Called Revenge. Research showed that a

The setting was ideal for a thriller. Most thriller movies are set in a
large house (preferably a mansion). The house used (Shannons) was quite big and this was shown as she was gradually and excitedly running down the stairs thinking a Chinese order had arrived, not knowing she was seconds away from being kidnapped.

 The location during the time of the day helped the opening

sequence to convey to the conventions of a thriller genre as it was dark and there were not many people on the road during this time. This could suggest to the audience that maybe the area isn't posh and busy compared to somewhere like central London where many people are visible on the roads during the day and night during the interesting ending of the opening sequence, however not fully as a mystery remains as to why the character (Shannon) got kidnapped. However due to Shannon being the person getting kidnapped from her own house this should suggest to the audience that Shannon has some sort of involvement with the person/people who kidnapped her or maybe she doesnt but there could be a deeper significance to why Shannon (the victim) was kidnapped. almost completely innocent during the time of her kidnap as she was completely unaware of the actual person at the door, and opened the door with her pyjamas on. We chose to wear pyjamas so that the audience were able to see what we were doing and how the kidnap actually took place.

The story and the opening of the sequence help to explain the

The props used helped to set the scene, making Shannon seem

 Larelle and I were unaware of the kidnap as we were awaiting for

Shannon to arrive back upstairs with the food she thought had arrived. We were also in our pyjamas as we were at Shannons sleepover watching a thriller movie. This helped to introduce the characters, making the viewer see them as innocent and slightly clueless.

The camera work was interesting as close-ups were shown on the

television with the DVD playing and showing a thriller movie. This helps to set the scene as me, Shannon and Larelle become shaken for a short period of time.

The narrative is made clear throughout the opening sequence that

what happens next is a mystery/cliff hanger. Therefore the audience would need to watch the movie to understand and gasp the full concept of the movie.

The genre appeals to thriller conventions and is evident that the

movie is a thriller within the first 45 seconds of watching the opening sequence.

Does the use of convention indicate what sub-genre of hybrid genre your opening is?
The use of conventions do indicate what sub-genre my film is as the opening sequence is filmed strictly throughout the night conforming to the conventions of a thriller. The editing is fast and snappy appealing to the audience making the events in each scene of the opening sequence highly appealing and very eye catching. The opening sequence of my film Revenge is set and filmed during the night with natural lighting. This conforms to the sub-genre of my film as a main thriller convention is darkness. This helps to set a specific mood for the audience so that they suspense is created whereas if my film was set during the day, the plot would not conform to the conventions as much as a thriller should do.

Shots and Camera Angles from the opening sequence

This shot is a close up of Shannon (the victim) who was kidnapped from opening her own door to her house by a stranger seeking revenge. She was then thrown into the boot of a grey car whilst two males got into the car and a third person drove off. There is a by-passer / look out riding pass on there bike to observe the surroundings of the kidnap. Close ups show emotion on peoples faces. This helps us to understand what the character may be thinking or going through. The audience are able to see if someone is in fear by the zoomed in lens on the camera showing there eye, whether they are shivering and how they look (scared/ nervous). is mid-shot showing the characters faces and half This shot of there body. You can see the expression of there faces in response to the scary movie that they are currently watching. The lighting used here is low key lighting to used which helps set an intense mood that something negative is soon due to occur.

This shot is a long establishing shot allowing the audience to see the driver drive off down into a long dark road at full speed with the victim in the boot of the car. This helps to build suspense for the viewer as everything is happening really quickly.

 My media project reflects social groups as it conforms to

How does your media product reflect social groups?

real life situations. Teenagers are most likely to be able to relate to this due to the plot of the opening sequence, however the intended target audience ranges from 15 to 25 years old. Parents could be interested in the movie due to what it says about youth and the fact that they may have children of a similar age group as the cast. range of people. I think that my audience will be interested to watch the film and enjoy it due to the mystery that the film brings. To understand what is going on throughout the film you have to watch it from the beginning to know why each events are taking place which can be quite intriguing for the audience. It is very important that you keep the audience interested despite the beginning events of the film being confusing as this makes the viewer want to know what will happen next. vulnerable. Males are often made to look dominant and powerful this is a stereotype in society despite the fact that males are naturally stronger than woman. Throughout many thriller films these roles are switched so that the male is the victim. However my film sticks to the general assumption as the woman being physically weaker as this helps to proceed the storyline as the teenage girl is quite nave and unaware of things in life as shown when she opens the door without asking who it is, she (Shannon Dwyer) just assumes it is the pizza delivery.

Different aspects of the film help it to appeal to a wider

The victim throughout a film is normally someone who is

This is an image of Shannon being thrown into the back of the boot conforming to the general stereotype of being slightly weak due to her being a female, and males being more dominant.

Production Logo
The production Logo, was finalized by Larelle. The process of creating this logo was sketching the image by hand and then scanning it so that the image could be presented in a clear white color against a black background.

What Kind Of media Institution might distribute your media product?

I feel that my film is challenging and will bring something new and engaging
for people to have interest in, going to the cinema to watch rather than downloading or buying a DVD. As cinema popularity is decreasing I feel that the majority of the intended target audience would prefer to watch my film in the cinema. compared to an American film directed by Popular directors such as Quentin Tarantino. Due to this I think it would be more suitable for a film institution such as the upcoming and popular British Working Titles rather than an even more we known institution such as twentieth century fox. As this is my first film I wouldnt risk my film being distributed with such a big company as the film may not do well as expected. Larger companies are likely to reject the idea of this film depending on the budget also as this could cause the institution to lose masses amount of profit if the film does not sell. However as Working titles is a growing company, producing films in the US as well as the UK, this could help recognition for the film alongside using the correct advertisement and synergy to advertise the film properly mainly aiming towards the target audience.

As my film is an English film I do not feel that it would get top recognition

Funding from UK companies and institutions would help the film to do well such as the UK Film Council as my film is a British film.

production company do?

Production companies need to ensure that they focus on there
target audience and what the audience would be interested to see. To do this they need to do pre production and research. This can be done by asking the general public questions through questionnaires, radio, polls online, or social groups and clubs. When focusing on the target audience production companies need to decide whether there new distributed film is going to be targeted towards male, females or both. This normally depends on the story line. If the film is an action based or a comedy type genre the film is more likely to appeal to males; whereas if the film is genre is romance and mystery the majority of people viewing the film will probably be females.

Production companies need to be able to analyse statistics from

previous films and compare it to the new film that they are creating. Looking at the story line of previous films, who the film attracted (age group, race and gender), the profit it made and how they can make the new film better.

 Advertising needs to be able to adjust to all age groups. This can be done
by using billboards and buses as this is eye catching for all different types of people to recognise, this mainly appeals to teenagers and young adults. However different locations appeal to different people. Places such as Central London will be more useful for higher working class people to acknowledge.

Other types of advertising is by the use of television and radio which is

extremely effective especially TV. This also helps to appeal to everyone, however over45s tend to respond to this the best depending on the channels that the advertisements are displayed on. TV advertisements normally have a duration of two weeks, people who have work commitments are likely to respond to this well by seeing the advert and planning to go to the cinema and see the film a week later organising themselves accordingly to see the film. However it is easier for teenagers to go to a cinema and watch a film that they are interested in without having to plan a week in advance. Therefore TV advertising is necessary for teenagers too.

Production companies have to think about how they are tailoring there
products to there target audience. Examples of this is trailers, advertisements on websites such as You Tube (along the side) in shops, billboards, cinemas.

Who is the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product are teenagers and young
adults as I believe they would find this story line more appealing and interesting to watch compared to someone who is in their thirties or middle aged onwards.

The target audience are much more able to relate to the film due
to the age group of the cast and society that we currently live in this links in with Realism. Also the use of stereo typical behavior and prejudice, stating that the majority of teenagers tend to be a nuisance to society or there local community.

Race is also an issue and young black people tend to be

associated with this pre judged stereo type. Also depending on what youth are wearing hoodies/ black clothing is also joined with this stereo type assuming you are likely to be attacked or verbally abused with people in this clothing.

 Due to Shannon being kidnapped by a youth that fits this

stereotype it becomes intriguing for the audience to want to see and know what is going to happen next, especially as the name of the film is called Revenge this indicates that the audience may be extremely shocked or overwhelmed with that they see as the Revenge throughout the film.

The movie appeals to both the male and the female gender due to
the storyline and it contains an equal amount of males and females throughout the film.

Other films that are similar to this film are UK based films such as
Adulthood where the main character Jay who plays Adam Deacon seeks revenge on famous movie writer and director Noel Clarke who plays Sam as Sam is the person responsible for murdering his best friend Trevor.

What did your product address to your audience?

My product Revenge addressed to my audience some of the real life
situations that exist in todays world. However as this is an English film created by English people I had to ensure that the movie was realistic and didn't include things that don occur in England e.g. Including issues that people recognise from America.

The audience are able to relate to the trailer when they view it on
television or in cinemas due to the appealing non diegetic sound being played on the trailer. The music sounds upbeat and quite fierce which teenagers should be able to relate to in some way, being able to recognise that they are the target audience especially as the cast are within the same age group as the target audience.

How did your product attract its audience?

Attracting the audience was slightly challenging, however the task
became much easier when the target audience was fully recognisable due to questionnaire feedback and responses.

After researching into the very popular British Working titles

institution film company who are also successful in the USA I realised that the promotion and marketing that goes into distributing a new and successful film enquires you to develop and research everything your audience are interested in. This includes things such as which may be classed as a minor to some people such as finding out the target audiences favourite colours, font styles, and what appeals to them the most. This is necessary to ensure that your movie has fulfilled its audience and that viewers are more than satisfied with the new distributed movie allowing sales to be made and a massive amount of profit for the film company.

Social Sites and Media

This is a popular social networking site
allowing people to recognize the advertisements of the new film release revenge. This is a brilliant way to attract the target audience as the majority of the target audience have facebook accounts.

This is a common site that people tend to go

on in order to access all other sites. Therefore advertising on this website will allow people to see this Globally, causing more awareness of the new film.

This is a popular site where many people

tend to access. Ranging from students, business people, and adults. Therefore this will appeal to many people and the spreading of word of mouth should also help to appeal with letting the product sell.

 Research showed that working titles has produced more than 100
movies since 1995 and that they have all been successful. However the most successful films had more thought put into them. This included the story line, the amount of synergy used to advertise and broadcast the film, technological convergence and cross media convergence. Also the cast that were starring in each individual film. Working titles used a different and specific budget on each film according to how successful they thought the film would be (due to planning, initiative and research). The most successful films had a higher budget and this allowed working titles to make even more profit and sales due to the marketing used and the idea of the film.

I think that the variety of things have been successful within my

production due to the effort made in the pre productions tasks and well planning. Some of these range from the success of the opening sequence, the gained knowledge in practicing and figuring out how to master after effects to the best of my/our ability. The props used were thought about carefully so that realism was applied to the video. The feedback we got definitely highlighted and congratulated our determination to produce an interesting thriller for people within the same group as my group and I.

Target Audience

 Ways I feel that we could improve is by improving our time

management making it essential that we start our planning straight away so that towards the end we do not have to rush whilst doing the filming, instead we can overview the video and have enough time to think of ways to advance the video whether this being editing or adding I certain props, adjusting the lighting to convey a different meaning or adding more characters onto the cast list to appear in the film.

What have you learnt about technologence of constructing your product?

Producing my product has allowed me to learn
about technologence as this is an extremely important convention, not just within the film industry but within the entire music industry ranging from film, music and magazines.

preliminary task what do you feel that you have learnt from the progression of it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that this helped me to
analyze the effects of filming correctly, knowing what to edit and most importantly following the rule of the 180 degree rule which shows the relationship with two people in a certain scene. the Match On Action Shot was perfect as I feel that this was the most challenging but interesting shot to film as the character Is entering through a door and then shown on the other side of the door entering the room.

As I was recording the preliminary task I definitely made sure that

I found that filming the Shot Reverse shot was easier and that this

was more dependant on the characters within the video clip as one character has to be shown looking at another (the 1st character) and then the 2nd character is shown looking back at the 1st character.

This is the beginning of our preliminary task. The name of the programme is Rush is evident in a purple font as the main target audience of this video clip is females. The screen shots above are the transitions used to introduce the name of the video. The text comes across the screen in a fancy and fast way as this appealing to the audience and shows and provides an interesting effect to the video before it has actually begun.

Match On Action

The Match on action shot is based on the continuity of cutting two different shots whilst filming. For example whilst filming Larelles match on action shot I had to record her entering through the door (pushing the door open) and then I had to stop filming and then continue recording as she had entered through the door.

This is an image of when Larelle entered Shannons hairdressing shop to get her hair done. She received a friendly greeting from Shannon with a big smile on her face and asking eachother how they are.

This is an image of Dmee (one of the workers in Shannons shop) washing a clients hair. The camera shows a mid shot of dmee doing this and you can see that she is also very welcoming as en employee in the shop despite doing someone elses hair.

This is an image of the camera moving down onto the customers face so that it is evident what Dmee is doing and what the customer is doing. Also showing hoe comfortable the customer looks in Shannons shop. She is also quite friendly as she has a smile on her face.

This is an image of Shannon engaging with her customer. She has seated her customer in a comfortable and adjustable chair in front of a large mirror showing her a selection of hairstyles.

This is an image of Larelle talking to Shannon. This is where I recorded the Shot Reverse Shot showing the back of Shannon, and Larelles face indicating that Larelle is the person talking and Shannon is listening.

This is an image of Shannon responding back to Larelle (Shot Reverse shot). This is Shannon responding back to Larelle, only showing the back of Larelle.

This is an image of both of the customers communicating, with the employees whilst getting there hair done. I have used a long shot here to show what is happening.

As Gianni finishes getting her hair done she leaves the shop which is the ending of the video.