Evaluation Question 7

Q7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My preliminary task was not my best work but it did teach me one important thing. If you use the camera in such a way you can tease the audience with it. So you can show them a shot of someone’s arm but the audience then want to know who’s arm it is. This intrigues the audience and keeps them guessing throughout. I learned this as in our prelim we used a lot of over shoulder shots and came up with the idea of showing the character we’d already seen walk in from the mystery person’s perspective keeping the audience guessing.

As well as this I was first introduced to the camera during the prelim and since then my camera skills have significantly improved as the prelim was a sort of dummy run with the camera experimenting seeing what worked. I also experimented in the time of my thriller opening filming. So my camera skills have come on leaps and bounds since then.

Another that went much better in the actual project was the time it took me to complete everything. During the Prelim I had to depend on others and had to spend time chasing the up. An example of this is the fact that we split the editing into three but I actually ended up doing all of it. This time I did it all on my own so there was no last minute waiting for other people I completely depended on myself making life much easier for myself.

The big improvement since the prelim has to be my editing work, the prelim editing went terribly as I had never met the software before but when I got the hang of it, it became easier that is why my editing in my final draft is much more professional than that of my prelim.

Evaluation Question 6

Q6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In this project Ive had to endure and ongoing battle with technology, learning how to use new pieces of technology and new pieces of software.

The first piece of technology I had to learn turned out to be the most reliable and straight forward to use, the camera. The camera in question was a relatively recent canon camera which I had to learn how to manipulate in different ways to ensure I got the right shots, for example the lens and focus.

When speaking of software that was much more complicated, the Adobe premiere system was introduced to me on my prelim task and I’ll be frank it was a bit of a sham. I was very naive to the system making silly mistakes like accidently over lapping clips. But I researched in depth and got there eventually learning the tricks of the editing trade.

I also briefly had to learn how to upload to youtube which I didn’t have much experience with, that was fairly straight forward.

During the evaluation, I had to create presentations meaning I had to use presentation application and websites. The first one I encountered was prezi which looks like a labyrinth of doing things wrong but eventually you get the hang of it and produced a very good looking presentation. As well as prezi I used a cartoon presentation sight which was enjoyable and fun to use, complicated at first but really quite straight forward.

Evaluation Question Number 5

Q5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

My first draft of the film featured my lead character Adelaide having dreams/nightmares about a masked figure. The mystery of the masked figure driving a car would creep out the audience and intrigue them into watching. But in my feedback I was told the mask was’t work and just looked wrong the way I was using it. So with this I went back to the drawing board and came back with my final draft where I had re-shot some of the film. The way I decided to grip people time was mainly in the music it begins with tense soft piano music. Which dramatically changes to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” this change in music draws in the viewer giving them almost a false sense of security. When they we’re feeling safe watching the film, sound of a car crash hits shocking the viewer and causing them to want to continue watching. As well as this the added mystery and puzzle of why the woman is dreaming of herself driving stays with the viewer causing them to want to continue.

As well as the obvious curiosity through the music I have attracted the audience through the creation of a very clever and intriguing character in Adelaide. The young student sleeping alone in a very well lit room wearing what looks to be some form of engagement ring on the wrong finger, which then cuts to the same girl driving what seems to be her car late at night on an abandoned road. This character creates interest in the audience, making them want to know the answers to all the questions my opening creates like "why is she driving at night?".

Evaluation Question 4

Q4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

Above I have found some information on different ages and whether they watch thrillers. This is a rough guide line because each thriller is different and in some cases aimed at different age groups. An example of this is Se7en, a very well known thriller is definitely aimed at the higher end of the age barriers for its explicit and distressing content. On the other hand we have films such as Skyfall which is an all round thriller have the ability to entertain all ages from around the age of 12 up, this is because of its extravagant police chases and huge sets.  Then there’s films like Apollo 13 which is still a thriller and still a PG but may not appeal to all age barriers even though it fits all age barriers.

On to my thriller, Counterblow which is about a woman coping with the manslaughter of a child while driving home one evening. This film should not be to graphic but may contain some bad language keeping it at least a 12 this followed by the situation itself f manslaughter may make the film a rating 15 film. As the manslaughter of a child to some people can be upsetting. With this film being aimed at 15+ it may not entertain those people as people all have different views. This will be a tense thought out thriller narrowing my market. So despite the film being a 15 it may be aimed at 20-50 year olds. 

Another big thing that effects whether or not a Thriller will be successful and must be considered when figuring out a target audience is the gender it’s also being aimed at. An example of this is Apollo 13, a star studded thriller in it’s own right but very much aimed at man. The film being based on the real life Apollo 13 shuttle may be found boring by most woman. Another example of gender choice in thrillers is Hanna a sharp unique thriller with a female heroine instantly appealing to woman.

The final thing that has to be considered when creating a target audience is class, for example films such as Casino Royale are aimed at the middle and upper class audiences. But thrillers such as The Sweeney are aimed at The lower classes reasons for this would be the frequent bad language the fact it’s set in the London suburbs, etc.