Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Malachi Khan:
To answer this question we produced a presentation in the form of a prezi, this shows the details on how we developed, changed and challenged conventions of existing media products from the genre of psychological thriller films.




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


3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Malachi Khan:
Our film 'Antidote' could be distributed by 'Metrodome Distributes' through the microwave scheme which gives small British films a budget of £100,000 to produce a film and gives industry guidance to the produce throughout the process, the advantages of using this scheme would be that the scheme links directly to Film London which is a film and media agency. Film London aims to help films be produced to give London and surroundings a strong film industry and market. By using this scheme it would not only help to produce the film but would also help to distribute the film to a growing film market.
Also by using the scheme the film would be directly linked to the BBC films producing and distributing company as it is linked to the scheme as well, this would give huge advantages to the film as the BBC is a well known media distributor and for our film to be linked to the media company it would help the film to be distributed.
A popular thriller film that used the micro budget scheme to produce the film is, 'Shifty' produced in 2008. The film is also based on drug use and distributed through Metrodome and linked to the film London agency for producing the film. The film much like ours uses the theme of drugs throughout the film, although our film differs in terms of it being a sub genre of thriller falling into the physiological thriller, it still uses many of the conventions of the genre like Shifty. The film also targeting a demographic of 15, received a fairly high rating for males and females on IMBD, showing that by using the distributor it is possible to reach a wide audience on a low budget independent film scheme.
This distribution company is ideal as its scheme is aimed for independent small British films to be produced and distributed like 'shifty' which is of a similar genre of our film 'Antidote' and therefore makes the Metrodome microwave scheme ideal to use for our film.

If Metrodome wouldn't distribute our film then another ideal film distributor is Revolver Entertainment, this company distributes mainly films from the genres of thriller and action giving the film a easy link to the market by distributing through DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download and on demand services which would help our film to be distributed easily to a growing modern market that prefers modern methods of receiving content such as online service instead of the traditional cinema and DVD experience. 'Closed Circuit' produced in 2013, is a similar film to our film and is distributed by the Revolver Entertainment and therefore may have an interest in our film. 'Closed Circuit' is also aimed at the audience of 15 and is of the same genre as our film. The film provides a thrilling and dramatic experience to the audience and uses similar conventions to our film such as tense music and fast cutting to do so. Therefore the distribution company may have interest in our film 'Antidote' as it provides a new form of the genre thriller and a new gap in the market as the genre becomes more popular.

Social Media and On-demand services

The use of on-demand services such as Netflix and Love Film Instant can be a more efficient way of distributing our film. This is due to a rise in a more modern lifestyle and development in technology such as faster internet speeds, with these two factors people may not be able to make TV or cinema schedules for films but can view the film on such services like Netflix which provide the film to be viewed at anytime when a person wants which makes it 'on-demand'. The development of these services makes the traditional methods of viewing content such as DVDs less popular way for a consumer to watch a film as they are less convenient to these services. This provides more convenience for the audience making it a popular way to view media content. Also within the target age of 15, people are more appealed to new ways to do things including viewing content, so therefore by using an on-demand service to distribute the film it would make it reach the audience more as said before the services are popular within the target group. Therefore by using an on-demand service the film will receive more views and may reach high popularity as it is reaching the target audience in a more convenient way.

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and Tumblr can be used to help advertise and raise popularity of the film, each of these social networks having a huge audience and can easily be used to help spread the word about the film. By putting the trailer on YouTube would help to raise the awareness of the film as YouTube is the worlds biggest video sharing sites, thousands of views on videos per day, so by uploading the advertisement it will help to spread the word of the film. Also advertising on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Google+ can be done for a low cost or free and these sites each come with there individual mass audience which will not only see the advertisement but would also spread the word about the film by word of mouth helping to raise the popularity of the film.

These institutions and methods of distributing our media film are ideal and suitable and will help the film reach the 15 audience in modern ways.

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

Jessica Hall (Me):

Script (in the event of audio not working):

The audience for our media product would be the targeted audience age of 15 and above. We made sure our content was suitable for this audience by researching the age ratings and what would be suitable to include.

From our research using surveys we also found that our target audience would be female viewers and the most popular choice for a sub-genre of a thriller film was both psychological thrillers and action thrillers.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
Jessica Hall (Me):

Script (in the event of audio not working)

We attracted and addressed our audience in different ways. As our product is aimed at a 15 rating audience, we made sure what we wanted to include in our product would be suitable. We asked peers what they thought of our first drafts and we improved it to attract our 
audience. We used a female main character as female viewers were our target audience. By doing this, our audience could relate to the character and get to know her. We chose to do a psychological thriller and considered different codes and conventions of a psychological 
thriller, for example Mise En Scene using shadows and for sound using eerie music. Social media helped hugely in our research to find out the needs of our target audience. 

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

Chloe George:

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

Individual Evaluation Jessica Hall (Me):

Script (in the case of video footage not working)

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

From the preliminary task to our final product, I have learnt many new skills. When we 

made our preliminary video we had limited knowledge of different shot types. We worked 

with basic video editing software and we weren’t very confident using better software. Our 

preliminary video was shaky as the shots weren’t held steady and when we look back on 

this video we can see how bad this looked. We didn’t use transitions in our preliminary

 video and the sound of the video wasn’t of good quality and background noise unrelated to our video could be heard. Also our preliminary video had bad lighting.

Our first rought cut of our film opening was rushed and straight away we saw what was 

wrong with it. Parts of the footage were cut off, and like our preliminary video we 

encountered technical problems. Different parts of the video went on too long and they 

should have been cut shorter. One good thing about the video was the chalkboard titles. 

One of the biggest problems is that we had no sound in the video and it wasn’t clear what 

was happening.

We had feedback from our teachers which was helpful and it made us realise what we 

needed to do. We completely scrapped our film opening idea that we used in the rough cut and worked together to come up with a plot that would work and be easy for our audience

 to understand. We realised we couldn’t rush our product otherwise there would be 

problems like there was with our original rough cut. We practiced using adobe software and set aside time for filming. We also came up with a shot list which helped us a lot as we 

could see what shots we were doing for each sequence in our film. We also learnt to

 communicate on what we did and didn’t like so that we could all come to an agreement on what shots to keep and what to take out. We added music and sound effects which hugely 

improved our opening.

We then got feedback on our whole new film opening, and we were very confident in doing so. 

We decided to refilm sound as background sound such as the wind was a problem in our 

footage. We re-filmed the characters voice and replaced the horrible wind sound with background noise 

appropriate to our video. We also weren’t happy with our titles so we changed these to a 

more simple font that wouldn’t look out of place.

On our final cut we adjusted some minor problems in the edited footage until we were 

happy with our product. Overall we have learnt a lot in our process from Preliminary video 

to our final product. We started off really basic in our preliminary video and tried something more complicated for our first rough cut and that really didn’t work out well as it became 

too confusing for our audience. This showed us that a basic film idea is the best, with 

appropriate editing, transitions and music. Our editing skills have also improved a lot as 

seen in our preliminary video as we became stuck on first using adobe and not having a 

clue where to start. Now we are much more confident using editing software.