Ashley Toplis - Evaluation

In what way does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?

In our film we use a variety of media products that challenge and conform to conventions.

Firstly, the name of our film is Isolation which already gives and insight into the theme of the film and also looks at the main character, played by Adie Grimbley. We also shot the start of out film in dark places which reflect on the theme of the film and again the character. Throughout the start of the film we build up the idea darkness by focusing on the story of the main character and why she is how she is. This convention gives the audience an idea of what the film will be about and why the main character acts like she does. This start is reminiscent to the beginning of the film ‘Taken’ which focuses on the main character and what he is like which is obsessive and paranoid much like the main characters of many other revenge based films.

Stereotypes of gender are also challenged in the start of our film as the protagonist is a strong, blonde girl who seeks revenge against a large group of people on her own. This is similar to the movie kill bill where a blonde woman single handily attacks and defeat a large group of people in order to get revenge

The music used in our film can be described as both a convention and a contrast to other films of this genre. At the start we use slow piano to build tension and suspense as we first introduce the main character. This is used in many other films and is part of the reason we used it because it works well to build up the tension. However, after about 30 seconds the piano fades and the music turns to a voice over in the form of a phone call. This is used in some movies but rarely at the start which I feel contrasts to the conventions used in this genre of films, Revenge.

How does your media project represent particular social groups?

Our film focuses mainly on groups of teens/young adults who have fallen into gangs and crime and people who have fallen on the wrong side of the law. I feel that our project shows these groups as very bad people who need to be dealt with. This is because the film focuses on the main character that is looking for revenge toward this group of people while she is part of that group. This also represents her as a criminal and also shows that revenge can turn someone into the thing they hate and ultimately seeking revenge on. The theme of teenage gang’s ad street crime is shown in the movie kidulthood and is a good example of what our movie could be like.

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

I think that because the movie is based on British gangs and the plot is based around the lives of British youths the movie would be suited for a small independent film company like Warp films which is based in the UK. Films released by warp follow British people closely and so I believe that this film would be well suited for them. However, the genre of the film is not one that is usually picked up by small film companies as they usually focus more on drama and less on action. Popular action/thriller movies are usually picked up by bigger film companies, which mean they can have a bigger budget to make them look more satisfying than small budget films. That being said this film closely follows one character and is more about the story rather than the action or visual effects so I believe it would be well suited to be released by a small, British film company like warp films.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

An ideal audience for a film is one that can relate to the people in the film. In our film our main character is a girl with a vengeance and a mission to kill the people that took the people closest to her away from her, not a character easily relatable to. However, the story follows her on her path to seeking closure and revenge, something that most people have felt at least once in their life. Because of this and the age range that would be presented on screen I believe that the film would be suited for any gender from the age of 15 to 30.  This is only a small age range but many of the people that go to cinemas and watch revenge films, I feel, would fall between this demographic and so is a good target audience. I also feel that because of this age range the film would have to be restricted to a 15 and that the things portrayed on screen would have to follow the guidelines laid down by the BBFC I order to attain that certificate.

Link to the BBFC website: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

How did you attract / address your audience?

The way in which we wanted to attract our audience was by showing them parts of the films that were exciting but not focused on the main part of the story which would be reviled later. In many trailers/teasers the audience is drawn into a film by being show the best or most action packed parts of the film and then when the audience sees it they feel as though the rest of the film is boring and is ultimately let down and leave the film feeling ripped off. Some trailers show completely unrelated footage that may not even be in the film which is appealing but doesn’t show specific things and thus people are surprised when they do not see this is the film and they can then feel like they have seen something they didn’t expect. This can be bad or good but in some cases the viewer is left thinking when is this part coming and when they leave can feel like they didn’t see a great part from the trailer. We didn’t want that either. So we took parts of our film that are exciting but don’t reveal much about the story or the reason behind what is happening, that way people would come to see the film and leave happy about what had happened because they saw what they wanted, they now know the story behind it and hopefully they also feel like not too much was given away in the 2 minutes that is pre-released in the trailer.

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

During our time filming our project we had to learn to use lots of new technology that many of us had not used before. Firstly, we had to learn how to set the lighting on our cameras that we were using and also we had to learn the different features that the video cameras we using offered. The camera we used had a very good focus feature and whilst filming we were able to change the focus very easily. This enabled us to use the feature to enhance our film and make it look better. We also had to learn to use the Macs and the video editing software installed on them, Final Cut. After we had learnt to use this it enabled us to edit our film and cut it to the shots we liked and looked the best.

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

I felt that looking back at the preliminary task we have a made a lot of improvement on the way in which we produced and shot our film. In our preliminary task we had a rough script and a rough shooting script that we didn’t follow as closely as we should have. This meant that it was harder when we came to editing the film and we had to compensate which meant that the task was not as good as we first anticipated. We learnt from this in our film by sticking to the shooting script and dialogue script which meant that it was much easier to edit than the first time and so we didn’t have to compensate for our mistakes. Because of this I feel that our group stayed on target and has learned from out first task and has made significant progress.