1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
1.This clip is an establishing shot which shows the audience that there is an interview going on; this is also shown through mise en scene, for example there are lights and a boom mic in the shot, along with people manning the equipment. We have used three point lighting to make the room seem bright which creates a pleasant atmosphere. This clip, along with clip 2 and 3, show normality which is then disrupted with a tense atmosphere.
2.This clip is a mid-shot at eye-level, of the man being interviewed and he is positioned to the right side of the frame which suggests that this is an interview setting as it is typically set like this. One of the props we have used is a plant that is placed to the side of the man which reflects a calm atmosphere; it is something that you would relate to a home or an office.
3. This clip is part of a shot-reverse-shot which reinforces that idea of an interview and conversation, which gives a sense of normality, compared to the shot of the other man who is shot from eye-level it differs. This low angle suggests that the interviewer has authority over the man being interviewed.
4.This clip is of a two shot; the person bending down is silhouetted due to the dim lighting behind the camera (which was diffused with an umbrella) and the ambient light coming through the window. This has been done to create a sinister mood which makes the audience tense. The antagonist behind the door is blurred out and the audience can't see him which creates tension.
5.This shot is of a mid-close-up which enables the audience to see the case that was over the beaten man's head. The smile drawn on creates a chilling atmosphere as it seems creepy. This clip is taken from a steady cam from the beaten man's point of view. There is one light which is overhead and initially acts as low-key lighting which produces shadows. This means that it's dark and hard to see the antagonists in the room which creates tension towards the audience.
6.This shot is an extreme close-up of the protagonist's face and it is positioned to the right side; this leaves a gap which we have done in order to show the audience that someone might appear there. There is use of a shallow depth of field which suggests that his facial features are important and the fact that the audience can't see the person walking past increases the tension. The hard light from above is producing harsh shadows on his face which enhance his bruises and in turn enhances the brutality of the situation; this creates concern for the audience.
7.This is a group shot, shot from a slightly low angle which is tracked to show all the antagonists in the room and to show that they all have higher status in this situation, they have the power of the protagonist. This clip is also a mid-shot; this creates a claustrophobic atmosphere as they are surrounding the protagonist and the mid-shot suggests that they are close togther which causes great tension.
8.This shot is taken from a very high angle and is an establishing shot. We used editing to create the grey scale , the grainy effect and the clock; this editing has allowed us to create the illusion of a CCTV camera. The audience can see everything that is going on in this shot so when the interviewer moves to get his gun it creates tension as only we can see what is about to happen.
9.This shot is a close up of a blue/purple flower and it creates a contrapuntal effect while the shot of the gun is going off. It creates irony as the man has died but all the audience can see is a living flower. The colour scheme compared to all the other shots greatly contrast and this causes questions in the audiences mind.
2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?
- Gender - One of our victims is a male, who is being attacked by a female. This challenges the stereotype of women being passive and weak.
- When the women is standing over the man it is shot from a low angle which suggests that she has the power in that situation which is unusual due to stereotyping.
- Even though we have tried to break stereotypes we have kept to mainly male antagonists (the criminals) and even though we have one female antagonist, the man on the floor soon turns the situation around and the female dies.
Age - The man in the chair being beaten is older and is being antagonised by younger people - this conveys to the audience that the young people have the power over older people.- This is shown through lighting; the people who are attacking the old man are mostly in the dark (unseen) whereas the older man in the chair is lit up. This shows that he is vulnerable as the others are out of sight and this causes tension.
3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our product is a British thriller which means that there are certain film distributors who will take on our product.This is due to the fact that most of the time British thrillers are very low budget so big top distributors won't take on something so small.- An example of these distributors may be ones such as: Soda Pictures, Momentum Pictures, Icon and so on.
- The company to distribute our product would most likely be Icon as I think that our product is slightly on a small scale budget but it hits a higher budget slightly as it has action elements within.
Multiple platforms - cinematic release, to sustain a wider audience to our product; i want Icon to promote our product through the Odeon. On wednesdays there is a showing of a British film and I think that my product could be included in this viewing as it is also tied in with Orange Wednesdays.- Odeon - Back British Film This link takes you to the listings and information on British films being shown.
- Odeon is a very popular brand of cinema's, they're the 2nd most popular which means a wide audience which is why I want them as my exhibitors.
- Marketing our product - advertising can be expensive so we could probably use word of mouth. I found this method on this website and it was very helpful to use. Marketing ideas on launchingfilms.tv
- Using word of mouth can be helpful as we have a low budget so for example using a free screening to an audience will help spread around the product.
- It's a great way of doing it as the internet is the biggest audience as anyone can view the site.
4.Who would be the audience for your media product?
- The audience for our media product would be for a certain age group; from the age of 16 and onwards.
- Most likely aimed at males as it has elements of an action genre. But as it is a thriller genre men will most likely take a liking to it.
- On this website I found out that thrillers tend to be most popular with under 25's and are slightly more skewed to the female side. http://www.valmorgan.co.nz/nz/audiences/profiles/thrillers/
- Action statistics from the same website: http://www.valmorgan.co.nz/nz/audiences/profiles/action-adventure/ - men mostly like action genre's than women but there's not a huge significance.
- Our audience may like films such as Inception as our piece has a slight twist to the plot. They may also like Reservoir Dog's as we have used a tracking/paning technique that is similar to it in the opening.
5.How did you attract/address your audience?
- We acknowledged the conventions of a thriller and used them to attract our audience as they would recognise the signs of a thriller. Some of these conventions include close-ups, normally to intimidate the audience, also images of weapons are used. A lot of
- For example we have used action elements such as gun shots which will attract a male audience as it is exciting and it means that there will be violence.
- We have used some violence within our product as well as special effects to create dramatic tension, which will also attract the male audience who are our target audience. Things such as punching and and kicking the chair over will indicate to our audience that our product is a thriller.
6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7.Looking back at your prelim task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?
- White balance issues - We were careful with keeping the white balance and checking it every time we recorded a new shot to ensure we kept our film looking efficient. I've learnt this through our preliminary that we done earlier in the year where in one shot we forgot to check the white balance and it looked really off compared to the other shots.

- Doing complicated techniques have taught me to mainly keeping static light. In doing a 360 degree turn, we had to move the lighting around with us so the lighting would change drastically. Now we know we have the access to portable lights we will in future use them when needed. I've learnt that using static lighting is easier and it looks more effective, for example in the flashback scene of the interrogation.
I have learnt to keep the framing tighter unlike in this still image; we could have focused it more on the two males in the room as it's a two shot.

- In editing i have learnt a great deal; in this still image the breathing doesn't match with the movement and so i have learnt that you have to get the right pace, especially with footsteps in our new product as they are hard to keep in time.
- Light is an important part of portraying the right mood and i have learnt that if you keep changing it, it ruins the mood or changes it and has an impact on continuity editing. This time we made sure that the lights stayed the same to keep continuity. In this clip we used editing to create the effect of time going by faster; by using cross-fading in editing it achieves this. We have gone on to use this in our latest product effectively, and it eliminates unwanted time.
- In this clip we needed to use borders as the lighting was in the shot, and we were limited to how much footage we had to spare as we also had a limited amount of time in this room. I have learnt that we need to take more than one shot of the same scene as then it will prove easier to edit and pick and choose the best shot. Again I have learnt to have a tighter positioning on the subject.
We liked to experiment with steadicam shots which reflected this characters unstable condition. However I have learnt through using it that is is hard to achieve a good shot so we have used mainly static shots in our final product but we have still used a few.
- In this clip it shows that there are many shadows present and this is created through low key lighting which we also optionally used a fill light; this creates many shadows which suggests a creepy atmosphere. We have gone on to use this in our final product in the flashback scenes where we have used the same lighting.
In this clip I have learnt how to create questions within the audience; by leaving enough space to the right of Sayful, it has created the thought that someone is about to come in. (It's what the audience expect.) I think this is a good example of a shot with good positioning, and we have focused on this in our final product.


























