Evaluation.

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

In order for my group and I to produce an opening sequence which is both effective and professional, we can only begin by studying and comparing previous thriller openings; from these we can establish the conventions that thriller openings are characteristics of. The use of mise-en-scene in thrillers to create suspense is approached in many different ways. The locations included in the opening sequence can stand as a very important clue as to what the film is about.

I have chosen to compare my title sequence with Bullit (1968), directed by Peter Yates. Bullit's opening title sequence, creates a lot of suspense through the different camera shot angles and mise en scene. Bullit is categorized as a psychological action thriller, similar to 60 Minutes' psychological/political genre. Sound, camera shots and editing are combined throughout the two minute thriller to bring about the build up of tension and suspense.

Bullit's opening scene starts of with a pan of an established shot of a city at night. This similarly relates to our thriller, as our opening scene begins with a low angle tilt upwards; from when our main character (Gabriel Smith) picks up the phone and then the camera scrolls up to his face. By using a tilt, this helps builds suspense as the audience wait to see the identity of the character.

40 seconds into the Bullit title sequence, the title is revealed to us by fading onto scene, during a low angle pan, against a dark background lighting up the main characters, then it sliding off the screen in different directions. I think this connotes or foreshadows the characters as being up to no good - mischievous, which also creates suspense. Correspondingly, in 60 Minutes, the title was revealed straight at the beginning, fading onto the screen, against the black background, with flickering effects. The type of font used in 60 Minutes, looks like something you'll see on a digital alarm clock, which matches with the title of the sequence.The use of this is to give it the sort of psychological, governmental, M.I.5 feel, which sets the mood of the thriller - modern, hi techy atmosphere.

The use of a low angle tilt, looking up to the characters in Bullit, show the power and status that they have. This is a typical thriller aspect within the genre; revealing the characters status' through angles. Having them clouded in the dark, with their faces lit up just slightly, adds to the thrilling factor. It makes them seem menacing and evil. Similarly, in 60 Minutes, we have also have a low angle tilt of the antagonist, in the phone booth before he puts the phone down, to make him seem powerful and intimidating.

The types of shots used in Bullit vary (by looking at the 9 shots picture above), from close ups to long shots. I think that the shots used in 60 Minutes vary as well, from extreme long shots to close ups. The second shot on the middle row of Bullit, is similar to the close up we have of our antagonist in 60 Minutes (1st picture, middle row). By having close ups of the characters it reinforces the tension already created before hand. In 60 Minutes, our antagonist isn't revealed to the audience so soon yet. By showing them half of the foe's face, this creates eagerness and anxiety, as the audience wait to discover who the mysterious character is.

60 Minutes also uses binary opposites to challenge thriller conventions. Alternatively, the typical white character is portrayed as the villain this time, whereas the black character is the protagonist (hero) of the sequence.

Overall, I think that Bullit, produced by Peter Yates uses many different conventional attributes to deliver the feeling of suspense and tension building, in the opening. In addition, I think that 60 Minutes also consisted of many different features that contributed towards the conventions of a thriller.

- Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

A social group can be defined as: "Group of individuals or people residing in an environment to achieve a particular goal."
Eg: an organization who is working for the benefit of women in a specific area. Those who are a part of this organization will be able to give rise to a social group. Those who will be off the view to save women in that area will become a part of that group. All of them must work for the prosperity of women with one another. Social groups can be of many types and they can be ramified on the basis of their needs in an area.

I've chose to compare our thriller sequence with Marathon Man. In our thriller sequence, our main character (the protagonist) is seen running across iconic areas of London.
In Marathon Man, Dustin Hoffman who is also the main character (also the protagonist) is seen running around Central Park (New York - also a big city). As you can see from both the pictures uploaded under this section, you can

draw similarities from the both. In our sequence, our protagonist is running along a river bank in order to save someone, similarly, in Marathon Man, Dustin Hoffman is also running along the city bank.

Like Marathon Man, our main character played the role of a reluctant hero, similar to Marathon Man. Where he finds himself in an inescapable position, and has no choice but to save the person in trouble.


- Question 3 & 4: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

Since we produced our film on a low budget (assuming that we are going to release it), the ultimate aim is to have our film distributed in many independent cinema's over the nation, successfully. I have devised an online marketing strategy and this is a step by step account of how I'm going to construct the strategy.

1. First of all, I'd make a short trailer of my movie, making sure that I only combine the scenes that appeal to my target audience.
2. I'd then upload my trailer onto popular video sharing websites such as; Youtube, Vimeo or Daily motion and see how many hits I get. To maximise the popularity of my trailer, I'd also use social networking sites to advertise, such as; Facebook, Twitter or Myspace.
3. I'd upload my video onto these sites and send them to around 100 people. They would then send it to another 100 people on their friend list, and this in turn creates more popularity.
4. I'd then set up a Facebook, Myspace or twitter fan page whereby, people are able to join and comment on the trailer. Hopefully, on twitter, people who enjoy watching will re-tweet the video, and therefore resulting in the video becoming a "trend topic". This will verify how many people genuinely enjoy the trailer and the popularity that it has aroused.
5. If I manage to get many hits and fans on both social networking sites and video sharing websites, I would submit my trailer to different film festivals, such as; the BFI London Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival or Tribeca Film Festival, in New York. If successful, they would upload our clip onto their sites and hopefully this will try to promote my teaser clip even further online.
6. The ultimate aim of this strategy is to create a buzz around our film so that hopefully, not only would it be passed on from word of mouth, but will eventually end up, with us distributing the film for the viewers to watch in cinemas, such as, Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester sq., Curzon Soho cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue or Rio Cinema.


This is an example of an A Level students work, that was found on Youtube. It has received 13,608 views to date, with an average rating of 4.86/5. This method of advertising was highly successful as the amount of search results that appeared under the title name (Genesis - A Level Media Studies Trailer 2004), on google, was vast.
Click Here to see.
There is also another site that embedded this video onto their blog for viewers to see. The success of this advertisement has lead to not only growing popularity, but has also received many others uploading the same video onto other video streaming sites, making it even more of a buzz.

- Question 5: Who would be the audience of your media product?

The typical audience for our media product would be:

- Our core audience - Male skewed 67%.
- Aimed at 16-35 year old.
- ABC1 social grade - this consists of the typical upper middle class workers; managerial roles, administrative roles. Eg. Doctors, lawyers. - 60%
- C2DE social audience - this consists of the lower middle classed workers; secretarial, supervisory manual worker roles. Eg. Builders, students. - 30%

The typical contents of our core audience (a high middle-classed 26 year old) would probably consist of:

1. A Macbook
2. A Blackberry
3. A designer wallet, crammed with credit cards
4. A diary to note down important schedules
5. A passport for traveling
6. A fancy Parker pen
7. The Independent newspaper

Here is a quick profile of Chris. He would be one of our ideal target audience, that 60 Minutes is trying to aim at.

- Question 6: What have you learned about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

As a group, we put together a short animation to explain the process of constructing our product, and how it played a big role in the success of our finishing sequence.

- Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Click here to view the Preliminary.

Click here to view 60 Minutes.

By comparing both our preliminary and our final sequence, you can tell that there are some major differences in the both, in terms of technical progression. For example, in our preliminary, the type of shots were limited, due to the time restraint and location. On the other hand, the type of shots used in our thriller clip, were more varied. We were able to take the same shots at different angles, to portray different aspects of the character.

I also think that our use of the camera and tripod has really improved. At 0:29 of our preliminary sequence, there was an amateurish handheld pan of the confrontation. This made the confrontation seem casual instead of serious, which meant that the meaning of the shot was lost. However, in our final sequence, 60 Minutes, we learnt that the importance of using the tripod really made the scene feel serious and contemporary.

In terms of editing, I think that our knowledge of using the resources provided in Final Cut Studio (such as, Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Livetype), has improved alot. For example, we were taught how to add more effective transitions to help the sequence flow smoother and were also taught how to add a split screen in our sequence, to save time, to fit other clips in. We also knew fully how to use Livetype to make title sequences to match with our preview, in order to set different moods. We were also given a longer period of time to fully edit this piece, therefore, we were able to play around with the many different functions of the softwares and experiment with different angles on the camera. This helped us develop a wider variety of shots to choose from to shoot a particular scene to deploy certain aspects of a 'thriller' genre.

Soundtrack Pro was something that I, personally, haven't really been able to grasp my head around before, because in the preliminary, it wasn't required of us, that we lay down a track. But, after clicking around on the different functions, I soon found that it isn't hard at all to use. It was quite easy to place different sounds together to create a track, and after a sifting my way through all the different sounds available, I was able to compose my own piece to suit the sequence.

Another factor that I feel that has improved since the preliminary task, is our ability to work as a group. I feel that our co-operation with each other has improved vastly. We were more involved with the project and pitched our idea's across more effectively with one another, because we all listened. This lead to us producing a high quality sequence in which we were all proud of.

- Question 8: Audience feedback & comment.

As part of my audience feedback, I have constructed a word cloud using Wordle. I simply keyed in the feedback that I received from the audience, and then Wordle composed a series of words, together in a layout. As you can see, the words that stand out the most (in terms of being the biggest), are the words that the audience used to describe the most. EG. Booth and Suspenseful seem like the popular words among the audience.

I also gathered feedback straight after my sequence was screened in the cinema. I asked them 3 questions and recorded their answers.