Evaluation Questions (Elona Doci)

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

The title of the film suggests what the film may be about as from the opening sequence we find out a girl has been kidnapped however the actual title is 'The Missing' meaning mire than one person therefore the opening sequence hasn't given to much away. 

The location we used for our thriller opening was a shop and a cellar. These two locations contrast with each other as a shop is normally bright and busy, whereas a cellar is dark and is where things may be stored. 

When filming for our thriller we decided it was best to take a lot of footage for each scene so that we had enough footage to work with and around. This was something we did well as when it came to editing we were able to use footage from all different videos. 

The font used in our thriller is very simple but bold. We choose something simple as we didn't want the opening to be too dramatic or for the text to look out of place. 

The genre for our thriller is a mystery as we know nothing about who has kidnapped this girl or why she has been kidnapped; in addition the footage from 30 days earlier also creates more mystery as we are unsure of why the girl looks towards the camera at the very end. 

Our character is introduced at the very start and this is when she is actually filming herself talking about what has happened to her and how she is worried that she will die. 

We kept the special effects to a minimal as we didn't want the thriller to look like a presentation, so we used little things like fade in transitions for the titles.

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

The main character in our film Shannon (left) has many similarities to Mia from 'If I Stay' (2014). They are both:

Female

Teenagers

Caucasian

Middle Classed

Long Hair

The reason for why i think that our thriller would be very successful is due to the fact that we have used that stereotypical victim that some thriller use. The young blonde girl who's very vulnerable and doesn't really know much until something happens to her. A film that we can compare to is 'Taken' just like our film this film has a victim who is a young teenage girl who just wants to have fun and who doesn't really know the dangers that occur everyday. I think by conforming to thriller and using the typical victim it allows for us to attract many viewers and we know that people will be interested to watch our films as they are similar to other well known films out there that everyone loves.  

Stereotyping of a teenage girl through Mise-en-Scene:

-Clothing- She is wearing Jeans and a T-shirt which suggest she is quite laid back and doesn't care to much about looking really good.

-Hair and Make-up- She has long blonde hair which is flowing, this is a typical style for a teenage girl. She just like other teenagers is wearing make-up but not too much. 

Although our main character is a young vulnerable girl the music we used in our thriller was quite dramatic however we made sure the music started of quite calm and then became dramatic, this meant that the music emphasised that something bad is going to happen and it allowed for the audience to expect something major to happen. 

The fact that our main character and a character from a very well known film share many similarities means that our film may appeal to the audience of 'If I Stay'. In addition our opening starts with the young girl recording herself telling us that she has been kidnapped, as the audience for our film are young teenagers they will be able to feel sympathy towards the girl as they know that she too is young and the audience will probably question how they would feel if they were kidnapped and come to a conclusion that they to wouldn't know what to do. 

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

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? Include audience feedback. (collaborated with Jessica Fernando)

For our film 'The Missing' we decided as a group that the target audience would be for both males and females of the ages around 15-25. The reason for this is because through audience research we found that our film appealed to both males and females. When explaining our story line to the audience both male and female audience members were intrigued to know why the girl had been kidnapped and more importantly who kidnapped the young girl.
We decide that this would be a good age range as these are the ages where people are most likely to have free time and watch films.

Furthermore, we also did previous audience research in order to see what audience would be best for our film, the research included:
Film certificates to see who are film would be appropriate for.
Interviews with teenagers aged 16-18 asking them what their views were on thrillers and about what films they watch and how often.

We also researched thriller films to see the different story lines and to see what their target audience.

After getting all the information together we created an audience profile showing who our target audience may be.

Age Certificate research
Interviews
Thriller film research
Film listings

 To make sure that our film is successful we had to think about what our main characters would look like and how old they would be. We looked at some other thrillers some of which are above. In all 'Divergent', 'Lucy' and 'Black Swan' the main characters are all young women which would appeal to our target audience as we expect them to be of a young age. From this we decided that our main character would be a young teenage girl, we thought this would appeal to our target audience as they may find it easier to relate to a character of their age range. 

The way in which we have tried to really target our audience has been through creating a main character that the audience can relate to and like through out the whole film. We also decided that our film would be more modern and up to date so that our audience feel like they can relate to the timing and the content of the film, we have done this by using a corner shop as our main location within the first two minutes of the film. Furthermore we have made sure that our main character dresses as today's generation would and also acts and speaks the way in which the younger generation would. In doing all of this we are hoping that our film will really attract the audience from ages 15-25 but we also hope that they can relate to our films and the problems that occur. 

Audience Feedback on our thriller opening: We asked some young teenagers what they thought of our 2 minute Thriller opening:

Holly Clayton 17 - 'I liked the fact that the main character is a young girl as this gives me something in common with her and I feel i can relate to her, I also feel i can understand how scared she must be and I also feel sympathy towards her within the opening scene.' 

Cristina Barrasa 18 - 'I think the opening of the thriller is really good, it had me on the edge of my seat not only because i was worry for the girls safety but because i was also super intrigued to know who the kidnapper is!'

Aaron Richard 17 - 'One thing that really drew me into the film was the part were the young girl was explaining what had happened to her, it made me feel really tense and scared for her and when she then panicked because she heard her kidnapper coming, I also begun to panic and in my head i was thinking 'quickkkkk hide the camera comeeee on hurry up' I think the whole 2 minutes were really successful in creating suspense and mystery but also having me quite worried.'

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? (collaborated Jessica Fernando)

Overall i have learnt how to:
Use the canon camera and how to set the white balance so that the colour when filming is just right. Furthermore i know how to record using the camera and how to focus and zoom when i need to.

I have also learnt how to connect the camera and tripod together. I also know how to use the tripod when i am trying to pan to capture the someone moving from one area to another. 

I have learnt how to use the LED lights and know to be careful not to shine them in anyone's eyes and not to drop the lights as they are very fragile. 

I have learnt how to use many software's on the iMacs and how to upload onto my blog. Furthermore I have learnt skills on the iMacs like screen shooting and uploading videos of voice notes onto YouTube. 

Finally i am now confident in using Final-Cut pro and know how to edit as-well as add in images, videos and music weather it be to create a thriller opening or just a random video. 

Throughout the whole process there have been many things I have found difficult like using the cameras and iMacs but over time i really got used to everything and found it a lot easier. One of the main things i must remember is to make sure the white balance is always set and the camera is always focused. 

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