Evaluation

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Our media product follows some of the forms and conventions of real media products within the thriller genre. We used a lot of close ups to conceal who our killer was until the last minute. The idea behind our murderer is that he is a serial killer and that the question isn't "who dunnit" but rather "why did he do it" because people will know by the end of the opening "who did it". This is why we have the unconventional shot of the character looking at the camera in both the murder and work scenes. It is so that the recognition is there and the real mystery is what drove this ordinary looking man to become a murderer and how will he be stopped. We also used a lot of shadows and darkly lit places to conceal our main character until the last moments. For example, in the shot of the weapons being placed in the bag, you can't see the person only his hand.


How Does Your Media Product Present Particular Social Groups?

The social group that our media product represents is accountants and the age group is late teens early twenties. We wanted our main character to be older, but we couldn't find an adult who had the time to appear in the film. Our main character is an accountant who is quite young and so probably new to the job. In the opening shot he seems quite bored with the monotony of life, this could be because of the stereotype that all accountants are boring. He is shown as a bit of a loner as well in later shots. For example, he walks through the town centre alone on his way to work and he is alone at his desk at the office and is being ignored by his co-workers. I think that because he is in fact a murderer it's giving a negative representation of accountants and young people, however he is the only character we come across so it doesn't suggest that all young people and accountants will end up being serial killers.

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

I think that the audience for our media product would be the 15 to 25 age range. Because the main character is so young I don't think it would appeal so much to older people. I think that the younger audience could relate more to circumstances that may occur later in the film. I think they could also identify with the idea of being the loner at work because you are still quite young and haven't established yourself yet.

How Did You Attract / Address Your Audience?

Younger audiences like for there to be action in their films. Our product has this to a certain extent with the shooting at the end of the opening.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

During this process I have used the Macs to edit the film. We used iMovie to edit the film (cutting, adding in transitions, title cards etc.) We used Garage Band, (and I saw how to use it for the first time) to score the film. We used iDVD to burn the film to disc and come up with the menu. During the making of this product I used Blogger for the first time, I had never really thought about creating a blog before. I also used my Facebook page to let my friends and family know that there were polls on the blog and to ask them to comment on our work so far (not many of them did). I like using the technologies available to us because I feel that it makes the whole process a lot easier after having seen the editing programmes used elsewhere, which look a lot more complicated.

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 we learnt the importance of a tripod after the preliminary task. Some of the shots in it were a bit shaking, so we tried to use the tripod a lot more in the full product, especially when filming the shots where he is putting the weapons into the bag. We also learnt to plan our time a lot better to incorporate the need for multiple shots if things went wrong, e.g. There is a shot in the preliminary task where George pushes my notebook off the table, we had to be able to place the items back in the right place if one of us laughed and ruined the shot. In the full production we couldn't afford to waste time on things like that so hoped we could get it right the first time. We also learnt how important it is to keep the continuity going, otherwise it would look silly.