EVALUATION QUESTION 7

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

When looking back at seeing how my preliminary task went and how I've improved since my time joining the course for the first time in year 12, I believe that I have improved significantly as my knowledge and overall use of the software and technical equipment has greatly increased during my time using the equipment and software, as using them regularly has helped me learn and understand how to use the equipment and software efficiently and in a professional manner.

The preliminary task did help me learn the basics of producing camera shots and being able to have a basic understanding on how to use premiere pro and the camera equipment effectively. As I had no previous experience however with any of the software or the equipment, and this put me at a disadvantage as others in my class and my group had previous work involving cameras and premiere pro.

The overall quality in my preliminary is poor compared to my final piece, however this is expected as I had never used any software or equipment before joining the media course at AS. The shots used at times are not needed, the focus on some shots is off and overall, the quality there is just lacking. The preliminary lacks any professional touch or quality to it as I was lacking the skill to understand what I needed to do to create a high quality piece. So when it came to producing my final project, I took note of all the criticisms and moments where quality lacked, and aimed to learn where and how to improve them and to make my final project a far more thorough and well polished video

What I had learnt from my preliminary and took into my actual AS project was how to do the basics of creating camera shots from various angle and how to do the basics, but also the important bits of editing and altering images in premiere pro. My preliminary had next to no moments of tension or creation of suspense. So I decided to alter the way in which I generate tension for my AS thriller, and added music and more sounds in editing in order to have more volume and sound involved in the video, so that it isn't a plain video with just a simple backing bit of music and only diegetic sounds coming form the actual video clips themselves. I learnt that by adding more sound depth into my video will increase the ambiguity overall in the sequence by having both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.

EVALUATION QUESTION 6

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

I used many different technology throughout the process of my coursework and have learnt many new skills from doing so. 

One of the largest forms of technology I used during the makings of my thriller was Adobe Premiere Pro. I had never used Adobe Premiere Pro before starting this project and was new to the whole editing and producing processing. After the initial introduction to the software and playing around with its features I began to get more comfortable with the software and knew my way around its features. 

At first I found Premiere Pro difficult to navigate, however when I began editing my clips together I found it much easier and smoother to use. I was able to successfully add each clip together and add the desired sound, editing and text to the scenes using the wide tools within Adobe Premiere Pro to achieve my desired product. This software made my thriller look much more professional than if I was to edit it together using Movie Maker or another editing software. 

I used Adobe After Effects to create my Logo for my thriller, again this was a software I had never used before and found very difficult at first to use, however I watched multiple tutorials on how to use the tools within the software and soon got the hang of it. This software was perfect for my Logo as it created a clean cut, professional looking logo.

I was not experiences with using a professional camera before starting A level media, however during the course I began to learn and adapt my skills behind the scene. I learnt how to record using a professional camera and also how to use different techniques such as long shots and zooms.

EVALUATION QUESTION 5

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

We as a group attracted our audience through the non diegetic music and the use of vague, boring music which heightens at points where there is something major happening on the screen. This created narrative enigma for the audience as they are on the edge of their seats wondering what may happen when the music stops.
We chose the characters carefully to attract the audience. Freddie was chosen because he has experience in acting and was able to stick to the roles and not be side tracked or anything that may make his performance less reliable. I felt he was right for the role he was given and therefore attract the audience with his suspicious character.

To interact and ensure my thriller targeted what my audience wanted to see I did some secondary research to enforce my ideas. Once I evaluated my feedback, I found that young adults are the highest audience for thrillers, I  then acted on this by shaping my thriller to appeal to the young adult age group, therefore attracting my audience. This age range tended to enjoy jumpy, tense thrillers that had a build up of music to represent a story within the narrative, and this is what I strived to achieve in my final product.

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

Generally, thrillers appeal to both men and women, typically those who enjoy the thriller genre. 
Many thrillers are not suitable for younger ages and are not viewed by this particular audience as the narrative contains explicit content unsuitable for viewers under the age of 13. My thriller would also not appeal to ages over 40 as it is not a high end product and has limited resources and facilities. This limits my target audience to the middle age range, most specifically targeted at 18-29 year old's as I believe that this is the age range that would watch my thriller. 

I think my thriller targets more of a niche audience than a wide one. This is because my thriller has not got the huge qualities needed to become a worldwide selling film.
Many thrillers will have age restrictions to stop people underage watching the film, this could be for any reason such as it holds psychological aspects unsuitable for young viewers, crime aspects, and graphic content. I think my thriller warrants an 12 as it does not include any graphic content other than the audible sound in the background, there is nothing within my thriller that would need a higher age restriction to be permitted.
People that are captivated and drawn in by the narrative enigma that is apparent at the start of my thriller are the perfect target audience.

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

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

Within the film industry, there are distributors and institutions that help develop and actually produce films to around the world, or specific areas. Distributors will get the produced version of the film, basically the final version and will proceed to distribute the form of media to companies who will give support and financial backing for the film, such as promotion and marketing.

With my project being on the smaller side, and not having much of  backing, if any backing at all, I'd need to find a distribution company which targets ad supports films of the smaller scale which possess smaller budgets. Smaller budget films can still gross a high amount of revenue for the distribution company and the film makers them selves, as 'Paranormal Activity' has shown that with a budget of an unbelievably small $15,000, it grossed over $190 million dollars around the world. Put into context, this shows that even with a small budget, films can easily gross an extortionate amount of money and be successful with both the box office and critics alike.

With this in mind, it gives me and other small budget film makers the optimism and belief that no matter the size of the budget for the film, here is still an opportunity for success when it comes to grossing a high profit.

A good example of a distribution company for my project would be the internet streaming company Netflix. Netflix have expanded significantly over the course of the past few years, by supplying and investing their own money into their own shows that they believe will take off and be a hit on their own service.Examples are House of Cards, Orange is the New Black and Narcos. With Netflix gaining more and more popularity by creating popular TV shows, and being able to buy the rights to already popular films and shows from other companies shows that Netflix is becoming a big name in the sector and films and tv shows, as they're able to generate such a huge amount of people and members signing up to their site.

By having a good distributor, such as Netflix, I'll be able to have a more of a platform and a much wider range of possible viewers to view my thriller as the amount of people who use Netflix ranges into the millions, therefore having such a high amount of people able to possibly view my thriller, would mean a higher revenue for both me as the film maker and the distribution company.

EVALUATION QUESTION 2

Evaluation q2 from J_Afford

EVALUATION QUESTION 1

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