Evaluation

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

Frame 1

This is a print screen of the starting of the film.

It shows the kingpin. We wanted the kingpin to be mysterious and shady, we tryed to show this by having low lighting.

The titles appears after the production logo, the titles are of all the people who contrubuted and helped make this film opening.

Frame 2

This is an establishing shot.

The opening shot are of someone calling the kingpin, and the kingpin conversation with the person who called him.

This print screen is of a exteme close up of the kingpin, showing his facial expression. You can tell that he is not happy about what he is being told.

Frame 3

This shot is of the main henchman who was talking to the kingpin. he is dressed in black, maybe indicating that he isnt a plesent person. In this shot he also calls another henchman, telling him to meet him at a certain location.

Frame 4

This shot is of the othr henchman driving a car, he is driving to meet the main henchman. In this shot we also see the main henchman walking to the location they have agreed to meet each other.

Frame 5

This shot is of the car being droven by the henchman. This shot is a good example of a continuity. This is a long shot so that the character can be seen. 

Frame 6

This shot is of the two henchmen meeting and running after a man across the road, the chase begins.

This shot is of the henchmen trying to catch the man who is running away from them. running away from the camera, so it was an medium shot which then became a long shot.

Frame 7

This shot is of the man who is being chased climbing over a wall because he is followed by the third henchman. We chose to use a long shot for this shot as then the character can be seen fully, and so the audience can see what the character is doing. The long shot is also used to show the audience that the characters are climbing a wall, and showing the height of the wall, this is effective because we can see that the man being chase is making great effort to run away and not to be caught by the henchmen.

Frame 8

This shot is of the two henchmen who were running after the man, they are surprised to see him gone. They split up to look for the man. Long shot is used so we can see them running to maintain consistency, and to see which direction the henchmen run. 

Frame 9

A long shot is used so we can see the third henchman running after the man, this shot is effective as it makes it realistic. Another long shot is used again for the next shot, this high angle shot is of the the man being chased running towards a wall as there is no where to go, but the man manages to climb the wall quickly and run away. I felt that this is effective as it is not expected and shocks the audience. 

 Our thriller opening sequence “Evasion” shows many conventions of a real thriller. Our thriller sequence sub genre is crime/ gangster.

When we see the kingpin at the start of the opening sequence, there is low lighting which was done to achieve a dark and gloomy mood, this is a typical thriller convention. This convention was also used in "Dare Devil", it was used when the kingpin talked to men or the people, and due to low lighting the king pin was seen as a shady character.

This an image of the kingpin in "Dare Devil".

This is an image of the kingpin in "Evasion".

A convention which I thought was important to have was the chase, many films such as “The Italian Job”, “Taken” and “The Borne Identity” has a chase. The chase is effective as it captures the audience from the start of the film. We challenged the convention by not having the chase taking place all over the world, but in a neighbourhood. Our inspiration was “The Borne Identity” and “Taken”,  in “Taken “ the chase takes place near to the end of the film, and the character being chased jumps over walls, fences and other objects, which similar to the chase we have in our thriller. 

Another convention would be the use of guns as a prop, guns are used in most crime/gangster thrillers. The group and I thought the use of the gun will make the chase realistic, as when the audience see the gun, they know they want to kill the man.

In other movies the man is being chased by a large group of gangsters/criminals or by the police .In our chase we challenged the convention by having a small group chasing the man, this was done to show the audience that the henchman are quite dangerous or that they want revenge.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The opening sequence of Evasion has 4 four young men who are criminals, and another young man who is the man being chased. We can tell they are all athletic by looking at the chase.  The five men are middle class, we can tell this by looking at the cloths they are wearing, the mobile phones they are using and the car. There is not a broad range of age or gender but there is a wide range of races, which is Pakistani, Indian, English and Jamaican. From the opening sequence we know that two characters speak English.

The behaviour of the characters could be as it is because they are facing problems or because they socialise with bad company. The characters in the opening sequence are 19 to 22 years old, the opening sequence does not give a positive representation of this social group, as not all 19 to 22 years old are committing crimes and are equipped with guns.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

An independent film company or an well-known terrestrial television broadcasting company such as BBC, Channel 4 or ITV would be expected to produce the movie, Channel 4 has produced "127 hours", "East is East", "Four Lions" and many more. Our movie wouldn't be produced by major studios such as "Warner Bros. Pictures", "Paramount Pictures", "20 Century fox" and "Walt Disney Pictures". It would be costly to be produced by a major studio, which we wouldn't be able to afford as it is a small budget movie. The movie would sell better if it is release over the internet and not in the cinema, as the movie opening sequence has had 345 views on 'You Tube', so an internet release would be ideal. After this there would be a DVD release, as alot of people would know about "Evasion" or would have seen it on the internet.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media product would be teenagers and adults, the film would be watched by everyone but due to the content (the use of guns), we decided that the age rating would be 12A.  The movie would be watch by people who like thrillers, and like a complex story, a story that needs the audiences full attention. More males than females would watch this film, males from the urban parts of the UK probably would watch the film they could some how relate to it.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Thriller enthusiast would be attracted to this movie as it includes many conventions.

Yes we have reached the target audience. When we were planning the production, we thought of some factors that would appeal to the audience. A factor that we integrated was the chase, the chase we thought would be liked by the audience, as it was rapid and exciting. The chase is stereotypical to have in a thriller, we decided to put this in as people can relate to this. We think the film can be improved by having more angles can be used with the chase and also with the conversation.  

6. What have you learnt about technologie from the process of constructing this product?

For the production, we used a HD canon camcorder. We used it 

  For post production, I learned how to use final cut, which is a software used to make professional movies. I used this software to edit the opening sequence, because  I also used GarageBand to make the soundtrack, I learned how to use the loops and how to edit it. The opening sequence needed a sound track to ease the viewer into movie and also to grab the attention of the viewer.

The technology helped us portray our vision of the movie, using final cut we edited the shots the way we wanted and weren’t bounded by limits.

Before we created our video we experimented with final cut, we recorded few shots and then edited them, we also did continuity exercises. We also recreated the juno opening, this gave us the chance to try different angles and shots, and also use effects on after effects. 

While we were recording the kingpin scene, we were finding it difficult to have a dim and low lighting in the room as we were shooting at day time, so we experimented with the camera settings and tried to change the exposure and the contrast.

After we made the opening, we decided to do make the opening again. We did this as we knew we could do better as we were more confident when using the equipment, and we also knew what shots were not so affect and which shots could be added to improve the film opening. At first the chase is plain and simple, but we improved it and made it look realistic.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to thefull product?
 I did 2 preliminary tasks, first one was call the accident and other one was the remake of Juno film opening. The point of doing the preliminary tasks was to practise my continuity techniques and to improve my editing skills. Some techniques I learnt and used was the 180 degree rule, reverse shot and match-on-action. 
To see my preliminary tasks click on the links below:
http://kevsthrillerblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post.html
http://kevsthrillerblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/juno.html

the survey

Today i made a survey using kwik survey. I then imbedded the survey on our group blog.

Production

DVD Production Company

• 10th planet
• Agenta Film

International - Production company

• cherry media limited
• Mindmaker Productions

Update

In the past weeks I completed the animation, i have uploaded it to the group blog.

Propp and Todorov

Narrative Structure

Propp  

1) Preparation
2) Complication
3) Transference
4) Struggle
5) Return
6) Recognition

Todorov

1) Equilibrium
2) Disruption
3) Recognition of disruption
4) Attempt to repair disruption
5) A return or restoration of new equilibrium

Propp - Character Types

Propp has seven character types which is:

• Hero - The central protagonist.
• Villain - Trys to defeat the hero.
• Helper - He trys to help the hero with his mission/quest.
• Mentor - He teaches the hero, or just gives the hero equipment or information.
• Dispatcher
• Blocker
• Prize - This is normally the heroine. The hero completes his mission/quest so he gets a reward.

Planning and Research

The planning and research was done on the group blog, click on the links below to view.
Plot
http://thrillergroupblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/plot.html

Shot list
http://thrillergroupblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/shot-list.html

Plan
http://thrillergroupblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/plan.html

Pitch
http://thrillergroupblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/pitch.html

Inspiration and Why
http://thrillergroupblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/inspirations-and-why.html

Inspiration/Research
http://thrillergroupblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/inspirationresearch.html

Props
http://thrillergroupblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/props.html

Similar Mise-En-Scene
http://thrillergroupblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/similar-mise-en-scene.html

Animation
http://thrillergroupblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/animation.html