Rhys' Media Coursework Evaluation

Media Studies Evaluation
For our project have done an opening sequence to a film. The film is about a woman who has killed someone and is running away from what she has done. In my group the there were four people, Myself, Bethany Eddleston, Rachael Manning and David Taylorson. My role in the group was to be the head of cinematography.The genre for our opening sequence is thriller. To make this a thriller we have used fast paced music and editing to help build tension for the viewer. The fast paced editing was done keep the sequence moving quickly and so that viewer can follow it easier and easier to see how it is a thriller. It was vital in our project to use typical elements because it makes the genre easily recognisable to the viewer and to make it similar to other thriller genre films. Nine out of the Ten people we surveyed said that our sequence does contain the key elements to making it a thriller. They said things such as, " the music really helped build tension and fitted in well with the mood of the sequence" .It was also vital in our media project to do something new to the genre because even though we wanted to keep it in the same genre, we wanted to keep it fresh and new, which will attract people to see it. Our choices that we made proved to be successful from our feedback from our audience. This is because in our feedback questionnaire people commented on how the music and the pace of the sequence, fit in nicely with the genre and the mood of tension and suspense being created.
In our sequence women could be portrayed as criminals and bad people. This is because we have shown a woman violently attacking a man with a knife. This image that we have created of women in our sequence is a negative one, as it shows them as being aggressive and violent. This representation of women differs from many representations of women in the media which are of women being weak and vulnerable, and in many cases, on the other end of the line when it comes to violence. One person we surveyed said that it creates a different view on women, than how they are usually portrayed as in media. The costume the protagonist in our sequence is wearing is a casual, normal outfit however smeared with blood. This is done to show how she is a normal person however has a dark side. Also the shots of the stabbing and flashbacks are shown in black and white meaning she is acting differently than she normally does. We have represented women in this way because it offers an alternative to the norm and shows that women can be portrayed in the same bad ways that men can be, in the media.
Our film is aimed at the 16 - 25 years old age group and at those who like thriller films. This means that we have a wide target audience meaning there are more people that will go and watch our film. Our film is also aimed at no specific nationality or ethnicity, due to the fact that the thriller genre is popular in
many different countries and has no specific referral to ethnicity or race. However it is specifically aimed at people who like the thriller genre. We see our target audience as being good, because it is a mass market audience meaning there are potentially more people to go and watch it. This would also be beneficial as the more people that go to watch there are, the more money we would make. All ten of the people we surveyed, said they would pay money to go and watch the rest of our film! However I don’t see there being a secondary market. This is because our film is specifically aimed at people who are fans of thriller movies. From our audience feedback I can see that who of the people we asked, like thriller movies did enjoy this sequence as it correctly showed the typical features of a thriller, fast pace music, fast pace shots and build up of tension.
During our media project we have used many different internet websites, such as, http://www.youtube.com/. We used You Tube to help us research and find other examples of thriller movies in order to compare them with ours. Also we used it find the music for our project. Another website we used is http://www.imdb.co.uk/. We used this website look for films that are in the thriller genre category. It was very helpful as it had lists of all types of films which made it easy to find the sort of film we were looking for. During the making of our project I have learnt many things about filming, editing and how to use the equipment. Such as, that there are many rules about filming, for example the 180degree rule, and the many shots that can be used to show certain things. For example extreme close-ups to show the emotion of the character and extreme long shots, to establish locations. One thing I have learnt about editing is that many different shots can be cut down and changed to fit into a small, smoothly running sequence. One thing that helped us a lot to achieve what we wanted is video FX. This helped us
as we cou
ld slow down the shot to build tension and to emphasise what was happening in the shot. It also helped us as we could add transitions into the sequence to help make it flow more smoothly and fit better. We have also used technology to do our audience feedback and the evaluation of the project. This is very useful as it makes it easier and more efficient and less time consuming.
Looking back at the preliminary task I realise that our final project is much better in many ways. One way is that the final project flows much better. This is due to us being able to work hard on making sure each shot fits and flows smoothly. I have also seen that with music in the final product it helps it to build tension and create enigmas as it is fast pace and up beat. Another way in which it is a big improvement is that the shots used in the preliminary task are boring and not varied. However in the final project we have used many different ways of expressing emotion and telling the story as it happens, such as long shots and close ups.
In conclusion the many different methods and techniques we have used through our knowledge of similar past and present thriller films have made sure our film fits in with the typical characteristics of the genre.
Rhys Meehan
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