Evaluation: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Thought-out doing our preliminary task, myself and Harrison only knew basics of filming and various camera shots. We only had the use of a school camera with no other extra equipment meaning our shots were sometimes quite shaky. While we were filming out final piece, we had use of a tripod meaning our shots were a lot more steady and professional looking.

While filming, we managed to use skills and techniques we could not apply while doing our preliminary task. We used such techniques as tracking shots going along while the character was walking and also various different angle shots in order to show power and status with the main actress. Something we have learnt along the way is what techniques can be used in order to give more power. We found that if you have one main character through the whole thing, by having them centered will single them out and make them seem more authoritative. Also by having low angle shots looking up at the characters gives them more power.

In our preliminery task, we only has use of one camera where-as in our main film I used a camera the school provided while Harrison used a better quality one from home meaning we could get the same shot through two different angles in order to see which one was better and gave off the best result.

Because the preliminery task was a practise to get used to the basics of camera work, we obviously need to do various different bits of editing to improve the quality of the film. We had to cut parts out in order to make it as close to 2 minutes as we could. We also did various different things such as making parts of the film slow motion and changing the brightness or colour. This was good as it showed our our skills and how much they had progressed frm when we first started.

All in all, I feel myself and Harrison were a good pair to work with eachother as we brought different things into the film and have made significant progress over the filming and editing process or our opening.

Evaluation: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When i first started thinking about what our film was going to be about and starting the filming process, the only thing i could do with technology was film a basic video. Trough-out the filming and editing process, we learnt how to blog our entries, edit our film and convert it. We used many softwares such as blogger, final cut express and MPEG Streamclip. It was also a new experience using the Mac's as myself nor harrison had used one in this way before.

Being in a partnership with Harrison was useful as he had done filming through-out GCSE last year meaning he had some basic knowledge in useful camera angles and how to use one effectively. I used a JVC camera which the school provided for me while Harrison used his own Sony Camcorder he brought from home. This was useful as we could film the same shot but from different angles to see which one was better - there fore giving us a better end result.

Once we had finished filming, we went onto editing using Final Cut Express. This was a completely new software for me and Harrison to use meaning it took us a while to get to grips with it. We have learnt to use such effects as changing the brightness of the clips, making things slow motion, changing the colour to black and white and also learnt how to render scenes meaning we could watch it on final cut.

Evaluation: How did you attract/address your audience?

Due to our film being a thriller, we had to attract an audience that would be mainly into thriller films, as well as people who are more into other genres that could enjoy the film also. In order to do this, we needed to use various different tension building techniques to keep the consumer interested. As well as doing something thriller watchers would be interested in, we also wanted to create something that they hadn't really seen before and would be intrigued to watch.

The first thing that was a counter type to a stereotypical thriller film is that the clip was filmed in daylight as opposed to at night - which the majority are. We used the music to build up tension, using a violin throughout and adding a funky strong beat to make it more upbeat. Through-out the whole scene, right up until the very end you are not sure are to what the main aim of the clip is, keeping the audience interested. The majority of the film shows her walking through the back roads and pavements making her way to the centre of town. By doing this and not walking along a main busy road the whole time gives the sense she has something to hide. Around the middle of the shot, we have added in some jump shots while she is walking through the battle ditches and past Audley End House. This creates a sense of urgency effectively making the audience wonder where the actress is going in such a hurry.


Another thing we used to build tension was a count down and ticking noise at various different points of the film. This made the audience wonder what the counting down was going to and what the point of it was - which the consumer finds out nearer the end.

Evaluation: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Myself and Harrison discussed the certificate of the film very early on in the production of it so that we could know roughly what type of thing could be included in the film and what would be suitable rather than deciding right at the very end who we would aim our film at. This worked better for us as we had a main focus as to what we could include in the film and what would be inappropriate for our target audience.

After looking at our finished product, we decided that we would label our film as a 15 as it didn't include any gore or murder scenes yet the main story behind it may have been too much for someone who was below the age of 15.

If the film was made into full length, i feel the age may slightly change in the sense of what is included, but not drastically. Different audience' would be attracted to the film in different ways. For example, both male and females would be interested in this film. The older viewers would be more interested in the characters, purpose and storyline of the film where-as people nearer to the age of 15 would be more drawn in by the action.

Evaluation: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

One way that myself and Harrison's film could be distributed is through things such as YouTube or various other different sites similar to this. These are sites where you are able to watch and download videos - so would there fore be a great place to promote our film opening and get peoples opinion's through commenting on it.

Another way we could distribute our video is through linking it to various different social networking sites. This would be very effective as many people use them and by linking the video on that or adding an advertisement down the side or along the bottom, people may click on the link and watch it. If they like it this may then lead to them passing on the video link to other people and so on.

Also, we could make copies on the video and hand it out personally, making people see the video and getting opinions on it leading to people buying the film.

Evaluation: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film, we have only used one main actress and the rest of the people in it are all in the background. With our actress, she is meant to subtly give the appearance of a terrorist while not giving it away to the audience that her main aim through-out the clip is to bomb the town.We wanted to get someone who could have a straight, emotionless look on their face. Sterotypically teenages are looked at as trouble. In some ways this is shown in the film, which you find out in the end, but over the whole of the clip you can't tell that the actress is planning something so challanges the stereotype.

Stereotypically, you would not expect a teenager or a girl to be carrying and planning on planting a bomb, hence us deciding to use this character type. We thought it would be more effective as the audience would not be expecting it.

Another thing we decided would be effective is when she was walking through the town, no-one looked at her suspiciously as if they knew something was about to happen. This what we were hoping to gain in our film as it was all about building suspense and tension. If everyone walking past her knew what was about to happen and were looking at her, this would not happen and the audience would automatically know something was going to happen.

Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For mine and Harrison's film opening, we decided to go with the genre of thriller. As well as meeting this specific genre it also challenges the typical conventions.

As we were aware, we knew that the conventions of a thriller film used suspense, tension, excitement as their main elements and will usually have a criminal or murderer. There is also normally some sort of main plot or chase scene. We have captured this through showing the police officer coming out of the police station as if something is about to happen. We have filmed flora walking through various different rural areas with not many houses as if she was trying to dodge any busy places, which you would kind of expect from a thriller film.We have built tension through the use of editing, by making things slow motion as well and using fast clips from different angles. Byhaving a police voice over and a helicopter sound at the very start of the clip gets the viewer interested as to what the film is about as opposed to having this sequence in the film where it is more obvious as to what the clip is going to be about.

As well as following the typical conventions of a thriller film, it also follows those of an action one. Conventions of an action film would include a hero, fights, chases, explosions and car chases. In our film opening we have included a selection from the list which make us think that the clip would follow an action convention as well as a thriller one. Its a chase when the helicopter at the beginning and police officer at the end are searching for the actress and you can expect an explosion when she drops a bag at the end.

You would expect a film following the conventions or a thriller or action film to be quite dark and mostly filmed at night time, but we have filmed it through-out the day. At the end when she is in the market square everyone is still lively and happy, not knowing what is to be expected.

Finished Piece

Now that myself and Harrison have finished our opening scene, we gave in the clip and had it analysed by our teachers. He was pleased to see we had taken his comments into consideration and re shot the end of our film in order to build up more tension. His only comment for us to improve our finished film further was to add more titles in. We tried doing this after school but unfortunately the programme would not let us edit the titles meaning we could not add any extras in. This was not too much of an issue as the teacher had said the film was at a good standard anyway, the titles were just to boost the marks up.