Notes on Evaluation Questions

In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:
• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our opening uses conventions that are mainly used in real thriller openings. As a group, our intial story was a very typical psychotic thriller storyline, in which it would all be a dream and throughout the opening she was having flashbacks. We then realised that this was too typical and quite unprofessional, having a good storyline wasn't the main priority, but up until that point, it had been. Going by a streotypical storyline will not make the audience interested in what they are seeing, as they will already know what is going to happen. Also, because we had used so much footage of the actors, it was difficult to place the titles in the right areas, and so after watching real thriller openings, we realised that they were of real importance and so we changed our footage to having all the titles being shown at the beginning. This has also emphasised to us the importance of sound, as we needed to find music to match our chosen genre to be shown with the titles, as this will set the mood for the rest of the opening and is important to make that impression on the audience of the kind of thriller we are presenting. I don't think that our opening challenged the conventions in any way, I think that we stuck to them, as this proved to be the best way of making an opening.
• How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I do not think our opening represents any kind of social group, it was made to encourage different social groups with the same psychotic thriller interest to watch. It could represent abnormality, but it is over emphasised and exaggerated.
• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think the most likely distributor of our thriller would be Viacom, I say this because their film division has a wide range of companies, for example Paramount, that provide a wide range of films. As our genre is of a psychotic thriller, they could be interested as as a genre of thriller, they are quite popular.
• Who would be the audience for your media product?
I would say that my opening aims at a 15+ audience, men or women and of any culture. I think this is an advantage to us, as this will encourage a wider audience, and if this was apart of a real industry, that would increase the likeability of a profit to be made.
• How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract our audience, my opening made sound to be the key first feature, this is to lure people into the story, as the more unusual the music being played is, the more likely people will be drawn in to watch and see what is going to happen next. Then to tie in with the music, the right costume and dialogue was important and to make a certain pace, starting with a bold opening of having Tad Finney, ( our main actor), shouting at Maizie Cast, (our main actress), to keep the audiences interest, then to make the atmosphere intense by keeping the focus on Maizie.
• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt you can change a lot to what you have filmed to fit your own ideas. When filming shots, it is ok to have them that little bit longer, because they can be edited down, and effects help to create the atmosphere and intensity you really want to add to your opening.
• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that the opening looks more like an actual thriller opening, having the titles at the beginning, our editing has also progressed a lot as that was the area we struggled most in. The shots really work and I feel now the story runs more smoothly than it did before, as people said when evaluating it as a class, that it was a bit confusing. The sound also fits in with our story completely now and gives the opening the atmosphere we aimed for. I have learnt that the little things matter in a opening, slight details that are changed can go a long way. Also, going by the conventions that real thriller openings use really helped my understanding of how to make one and improved our opening to the standard it is now.

Rough Cut Completion and Presentation

The rough cut of our piece was finished and given in on time. This was then presented to the class along with every other groups and as a class we compared and commented on what we thought was the best and worst of the class. We discovered that even though our first minute was of A grade standard, it started to loose its appeal on the second minute, a common problem with the other groups also. To improve our footage, we have to make sure that our piece doesn't become too confusing, and so we will have to re-edit our piece again so that as an opening, it shall flow smoothly and still keep the audience gripped. To get ideas, we watched openings to thrillers as a class and noted down the conventions in which were used quite commonly in the thriller openings. Conventions most used were having all the titles sequenced at the beginning of the openings along with music to fit the genre of film being shown. Actual filming with characters were not the main focus and establishing the scene and main characters were vital for each opening. So, we have taken these conventions into account and will use these ideas into our own opening when re-editing.