Adam Sculthorpe - Evaluation
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1) The document discusses an A-Level media studies coursework project analyzing a student-created mystery/suspense film. 2) Scenes from the opening sequence are described that establish mood through lighting, camera angles, and influence from other films like Se7en. 3) Analysis addresses representation of social groups, target audiences of 16-20 year old males, and techniques used to attract audiences like suspense and voyeurism.
Adam Sculthorpe - Evaluation
- 1. A-Level Media studies Coursework Adam Sculthorp
- 2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product? Death Mystery Suspense
- 3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product? Hidden identity- long shot of man at table The table is in low key lighting that doesn’t show much detail. The man is wearing all black and has his head dipped. because you can see his face your brain starts to think that he is untrustworthy. This thought is re-enforced by the fact that he is shifting through newspaper clippings that are full of murder.
- 4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product? Our thriller can be seen as being slightly on the side of horror because of the large hint of murder throughout the opening sequence. Though there isn’t anything to suggest that it has any part of horror within the storyline.
- 5. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product? We got the influence to cross out the eyes on the pictures on the wall within the basement from this shot of se7en.
- 6. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product? This shot, also from se7en gave us the inspiration to use overlay in parts of our opening sequence.
- 7. How does your media product represent particular social groups? In our film we represent both males and females, though these are all white, and aged between 16 and 17. There is no difference in class shown within the film as the majority of faces that we see are pictures that are stuck up on a wall with their eyes scribbled out.
- 8. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Gender is represented in a stereotypical way because our murderer is a male. This shows him as dominant, though our victims are both male and female so neither gender is shown in a particularly submissive way.
- 9. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I believe that this film could be produced by a major Hollywood studio because it has a good storyline and because it is an easy story to follow though it doesn’t give much away at the beginning.
- 10. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I think that this film would be a TV movie release only because the storyline and set up to the story is like a lot of other thriller films. Because of this I think that it would be more successful if it was released straight on to the TV movie scene because it would be the sort of thing that people would watch on the television when there isn’t anything else on to watch and because it can be viewed by a larger audience at once instead of people purposefully going to the cinema to watch it.
- 11. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? This film doesn’t offer the opportunity for sequels though it could offer the opportunity for merchandising through product placement from what the murder is wearing( shot of table shot) and from the newspaper clippings that he is sifting through.
- 12. Who would be the audience for your media product? The target market for our media film is males aged 16-20. The narrative for our film appeals to this market because it has a lot of dark area’s and places where the mind can imagine what it wants. This fits in with our target audience because the average male of our age range finds it very easy to imagine things when given a tiny bit of information. Also the use of quick cuts and overlaying will excite the mind of this target audience because it keeps the mind thinking and active.
- 13. Who would be the audience for your media product? Our film is similar to se7en. The audience that this film is most popular with is males, more specifically males under the age of 18. The films are similar through the camera shots used within the opening sequence.
- 14. How did you attract/address your audience? The majority of the shots in our sequence are close-ups ,medium and long shots. This helps to create suspense because you cant see much of the scenery around what we want you to see.
- 15. How did you attract/address your audience? The audience is asked to put themselves in the position of a voyeur as it feels and looks like they are spying on the “killer”. This is particularly emphasised at the beginning of the film when the camera pans across a wall and the audience can see the killer in the background.
- 16. How did you attract/address your audience? This gives an extra feeling of suspense and excitement because there is an adrenalin rush when the audience is waiting for something to happen or to jump out of the darkness.
- 17. How did you attract/address your audience? The suspense is generated by the low key lighting and shadows, as well as the music. This gives the audience the feeling that something is going to jump out of the shadows. This can be classed as a MacGuffin because throughout the sequence there is no sudden movements, all the movements flow together.
- 18. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? The strengths of the camera’s are the fact that they are compact and lightweight. This means that you can carry them in pretty much any position easily. They were also easy to operate. This was good for our group because none of us had a lot of experience using camera equipment so we were able to pick up the skills involved with operating the camera’s we had quickly.
- 19. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? The bad points about the cameras were that they didn’t have much battery life if the viewing screen was open. This was something that we had to overcome because we mainly used the viewing screen when filming so that we could all see what the shot looked like.
- 20. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?s We overcame the problems we had with the camera’s by switching the camera off when we weren’t filming but discussing, this meant that we saved battery power and ultimately meant that we could film for longer without having to look for a power supply.
- 21. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? From using final cut express I feel that I have learnt a lot about editing, mainly the fact that I can now identify editing techniques within films. I feel that the use of overlaying two shots helps to create the overall feeling of suspense and worry that fits in to our mise en scene. Also the blurring effect that comes up when the credits that we added are written on screen helps to build up this feeling.
- 22. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? From our original task that we did I feel that I can now picture how a shot is going to look like if someone mentions it to me. This has helped me to improve my use of specific shot types such as dolly shots and close up shots. I also feel that I am much more able to line up and use over the shoulder shots.
- 23. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I feel a lot more confident with the equipment that we used because in our preliminary task I didn’t feel comfortable when using the camera’s because I didn’t want to break it. Now I feel a lot more comfortable using them and handling them. I still don’t feel confident using final cut express. This would be because during our preliminary task the group I was in used a different editing software, so when it came to this task it was the first time that we had used final cut express. I do feel that if I could have a bit more time using the software I would become more confident in using it and more competent.