In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product is constructed around the use, development and forms of conventions typically used in a thriller. In our product we did not really challenge these conventions, in hope of making our product an identifiable thriller. The uses of these conventions are very important in making our media product easily identifiable and successful. In our opening, close up shots were used. Close up shots were used. Close ups create suspense (a typical convention of a thriller), but were also used to give the audience an idea of the protagonist’s expressions and feelings, and focus all the attention of the audience onto him. Before the close ups of our protagonist, we also included long shots of him, to give the audience the full picture of the person who’s story they will follow when viewing our product, as well as his expressions and feelings. These shots proved important as they were going to give our product the conventions which make it a thriller, which is what we were going for when creating our product. We also included point of view shots as they help furthermore attach our product to the thriller genre, and then gives the audience a direct view of the characters viewpoint, to help immerse them more into our product. A lot of our camera shots and angles were used to build up to the confrontation in the end. In addition to our camera use, we also used sound in making it live up to typical conventions of a thriller. The score in the beginning of our product is at a very chilled tone, when there is no action. As the protagonist starts running through the garden, the tone of the score starts to become fast-paced. We wanted to give the beginning a James Bond feel to it, which is why we made the protagonist calm and collected, in relation to the score. The mise en scene was very accurate in terms of how we wanted to portray our character. The costume our protagonist is wearing is a smart, sharp suit. He is very chilled at the beginning, but changes as it goes on, which is what we were hoping to achieve with our thriller. As the film goes on, we try to implement an action feel to it, and implement a genre hybrid into our product, making it an action thriller. To do this effectively, we had to begin to change aspects of our film. We put in a lot of cuts to give the effect of ongoing action switching back and forth, a faster paced score is introduced, and a lot of long shots implemented to put a bigger image on the screen for the audience and show more. To challenge conventions, our protagonist was a very young male. In usual thriller films, the lead role is usually taken by a middle-aged male. He is also an Asian, in contrast to the typical white male that usually fill these roles. In a certain way, us using an Asian male in the end did live up to the conventions of him knowing martial arts. When martial arts and kung-fu style themes are implemented, it is usually associated with Asians, or to be more specific, oriental Asians. Another convention implemented was the white villain. The villain in our film was a young white male, and in typical action/thriller films with a hero and villain theme, it is a usually the other way around. Examples of this are films like James Bond and DareDevil, where the hero is white, and the villain is represented by an ethnic minority. In our media product, the incorporation of other things proved to be very significant. In our film, we included elements of pastiche of martial arts. A work is called pastiche if it is cobbled together in imitation of several original works (Wikipedia). We think our product has this when we look at the works of film director Quentin Tarantino, and her movie Kill-Bill (which is also an action-thriller), especially in the end sequence of our film. We also used many sound effects during the fight scenes, imitating Tarantino’s work and usual kung-fu action films.
Our media product is constructed around the use, development and forms of conventions typically used in a thriller. In our product we did not really challenge these conventions, in hope of making our product an identifiable thriller. The uses of these conventions are very important in making our media product easily identifiable and successful. In our opening, close up shots were used. Close up shots were used. Close ups create suspense (a typical convention of a thriller), but were also used to give the audience an idea of the protagonist’s expressions and feelings, and focus all the attention of the audience onto him. Before the close ups of our protagonist, we also included long shots of him, to give the audience the full picture of the person who’s story they will follow when viewing our product, as well as his expressions and feelings. These shots proved important as they were going to give our product the conventions which make it a thriller, which is what we were going for when creating our product. We also included point of view shots as they help furthermore attach our product to the thriller genre, and then gives the audience a direct view of the characters viewpoint, to help immerse them more into our product. A lot of our camera shots and angles were used to build up to the confrontation in the end. In addition to our camera use, we also used sound in making it live up to typical conventions of a thriller. The score in the beginning of our product is at a very chilled tone, when there is no action. As the protagonist starts running through the garden, the tone of the score starts to become fast-paced. We wanted to give the beginning a James Bond feel to it, which is why we made the protagonist calm and collected, in relation to the score. The mise en scene was very accurate in terms of how we wanted to portray our character. The costume our protagonist is wearing is a smart, sharp suit. He is very chilled at the beginning, but changes as it goes on, which is what we were hoping to achieve with our thriller. As the film goes on, we try to implement an action feel to it, and implement a genre hybrid into our product, making it an action thriller. To do this effectively, we had to begin to change aspects of our film. We put in a lot of cuts to give the effect of ongoing action switching back and forth, a faster paced score is introduced, and a lot of long shots implemented to put a bigger image on the screen for the audience and show more. To challenge conventions, our protagonist was a very young male. In usual thriller films, the lead role is usually taken by a middle-aged male. He is also an Asian, in contrast to the typical white male that usually fill these roles. In a certain way, us using an Asian male in the end did live up to the conventions of him knowing martial arts. When martial arts and kung-fu style themes are implemented, it is usually associated with Asians, or to be more specific, oriental Asians. Another convention implemented was the white villain. The villain in our film was a young white male, and in typical action/thriller films with a hero and villain theme, it is a usually the other way around. Examples of this are films like James Bond and DareDevil, where the hero is white, and the villain is represented by an ethnic minority. In our media product, the incorporation of other things proved to be very significant. In our film, we included elements of pastiche of martial arts. A work is called pastiche if it is cobbled together in imitation of several original works (Wikipedia). We think our product has this when we look at the works of film director Quentin Tarantino, and her movie Kill-Bill (which is also an action-thriller), especially in the end sequence of our film. We also used many sound effects during the fight scenes, imitating Tarantino’s work and usual kung-fu action films.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The main social groups represented in our product are gender, age and ethnicity. The two characters in our film are young teenage males, one white, and the other Asian. The choice of having the two males as the lead in our films fits in with the usual conventions of the hero and villain theme, as they are usually both male. Where the representation starts to become more important was in who played the roles of the hero and the villain. The role of the hero was played by the Asian male. The role of the protagonist is not typically represented by ethnic minorities in films, but we thought it would be a good idea to represent Asians in this light. The role of the villain was played by the white male. We thought that representing the white male as the antagonist in our film put a twist on usual conventions. At the same time, the way our product represented age is something we can take into account. The chosen age for our two main characters reflects the main target audience our film is projected at, which was the younger teenage audience.
What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
I believe that the most appropriate media institution to distribute our media product would be an independent institution. Even though our film has a very mainstream theme (action-thriller featuring hero and villain), our choice of characters, low budget, and target audience would push it towards the more independent genre. To distribute our product, we would use local film festivals, post on video websites such as YouTube, and social networking websites such as Facebook. This way we have a very good chance of getting it seen by our target audience, and it is very cost effective, as all of these methods are free. If our film was to generate more attention and become more successful, we could have a chance of having it put on show at small, local cinemas, and on low level television channels, such as Channel AKA, which promote a lot of youth media products.
Who would be the target audience for your media product?
Our main target audience for our product is teenagers, between the ages of twelve and nineteen. While producing our product, we had to constantly keep this in mind. This is because we could not implement scenes of hard or extreme violence, due to younger audience, however could not make the film too bland in these terms, as we were also going for an audience of older teenagers. This meant our film could have had a couple of setbacks in terms o content, as we could not include as much violent scenes, or threatening action, due to finding the equilibrium in content due to our target audience.
How did you address your target audience?
Our product is constructed to appeal to a younger audience, mainly from the ages of twelve to nineteen. To do this, we put our film in the action/thriller genre, a genre hybrid of the two genres that we felt that youth were more attracted to. We know that to keep youth interest in this film, we would have to implement have to create tension, to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. We did this at first with the opening scene, by our protagonist receiving a text, and him running off while the credits roll. We felt that this would create tension, as it will keep the audience wondering where the young male is running off to. We felt that by then putting in a fight scene right where the young male reaches his destination was good to keep the young audience fully immersed in our product. Also we believe that in terms of sound, that that we addressed our target audience. We put in a suitable score, and there is no strong language or dialogue.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?
To create our media product, we had low quality cameras to film with, which were the Digital Video cameras. This had an effect on our product. Because of the low quality of the cameras, we tried to keep dialogue and diegetic sound in our product at a low level, and instead added our own sound effects during editing. To edit the movie, we used IMovie, which is non-linear software. This helped us to keep our movie and storyboard very close on paper and on screen. To post our product and research online, we used a blogging website (blogger.com). This helped us keep up to date with showing the progress and how far we had come with our film.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what would you have feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at the preliminary task, I have felt that I have learnt a lot on how to develop and improve my product. We put in a lot more preparation, thought and effort into our final piece. Also I think the amount of research we did prior to our final product made it more successful. The main issues that we took from our preliminary task that we thought we would have to address in our final product were camera stability and continuity. We had a couple of continuity issues in our preliminary task, but made sure in our final product that we would smooth over such issues, to make it more realistic and less amateur product. We smoothed over the continuity issues by spending a lot more time on IMovie, and getting to grips with the editing software. This helped a lot as our editing and effects in our product are very smooth. In terms of mise en scene, we also progressed a lot from our preliminary task to our full product. We had a lot more time to plan, so we were able to acquire the right actors that we wanted in our film, and we were able to give them suitable costumes. Also, we were able to shoot our film at the most suitable times of day, which helped us get the right lighting and moods for our product. Due to the research we had put in which we had not done in our preliminary task, we were also able to choose a suitable location for our product. In doing my preliminary task and final product, I learnt how to use camera shots, angles and movements creatively, appropriately, and effectively. I also learned how to use the IMovie software very well, and how to use a blogging website to keep up to date with progress and research. I have also learnt how to upload videos on to YouTube. we have uploaded our Product on to YouTube. Here is the link:
I have also learnt how to embed videos, and have done so by embedding our product on to my blog.
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