Research, Planning and Evaluation of Media Product

1. Research, Planning and Evaluation of Media Product By Khyati Patel

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Camera work : The movie that my group filmed keeps the conventions of a thriller movie, because our movie starts of with a close up rather than an establishing or a medium shot. The first scene of our movie contains a lot of close ups, then we finally have an establishing shot. The shooting does not break the 180 degree rule, this is because we didn’t want our audience confused to which side they were watching the film from. Mise en scene : Each actor dresses differently because of the character we wished to construct for the audience. The dead girl was dressed in a floral dress, which suggests her feminine personality. She has a missing shoe which will suggests the killer is interested in collecting shoes. On her thigh is a hole and her legs are positions in angle that suggests that she went through some sort of sexual assault. The serial killer is dressed in casual clothes like a checked shirt and black jeans which hang low, a stereotype for black youths. The criminal’s love interest is dressed in baby pink pyjamas which also suggests she is a feminine personality just like his victims. We attempted to find a middle class kitchen, which shows that the serial killer is a professional middle class worker who leads a normal life. This breaks the conventions of many serial killer as they are portrayed as they live a grimy house, which has the bed in the living room , with hardly any light etc. On the other hand our movie is bright and filled with ambient lighting making our movie more “realistic”. The kitchen was well designed because of the tiled wall which had a blue floral pattern, which shows that he is well paid to have designed tiles, however my group wasn’t so successful in finding a stereotyped kitchen. The criminal’s status is shown as middle class, because he has a dishwasher in his kitchen. He also smokes to repress his raging emotions. However in the ideal world where there would be more time, the kitchen would have more props such as a fridge, a micro wave or a washing machine. Editing: The editing of the movie is fast at the beginning of the movie because I decided to create a sense of tension as the first scene is a murder scene, the quick editing also influences the audience to raise questions about the murder. However in the sequence in the kitchen is slow and it shows that the killer leads a normal life. Where as in “typical” thriller movie the killer would lead a hard life, where the editing would be rough and wouldn’t fluent. Where as my editing is smooth with only a few jumps which is because I couldn’t find a piece of movie which would fit for the serious tone I am trying to set in that kitchen scene. Characters: Our main characters are black, or mixed raced which is against the conventions of casting in Hollywood movies, where the casting of white ethnicity is common. They fit their stereotypes. (Read slide number 6)

3. Who would be the audience for your media product? • The target audience for our movie would be 15-30 year olds because the actors chosen are young people. However the general audience would be everyone who is interested in thriller. • The filming is done is places where the audience may be familiar with in their own life e.g parks and a house. • We have casted the young people in our movie, because younger audience would want to see someone of their age. We have a multicultural cast, where our main characters are mixed raced and portray a younger audience, this is shown by their dressing, language and body language.

4. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? • I learnt a lot about Final Cut in the process of making this movie. I added effects to make my editing for fluent, effects such as “additive dissolve” which was used to show that time had passed in the movie. The effect “Fade in and fade out” made the editing more continuous. I learnt that I can use audio(s) that wasn’t diagetic to the movie that was shot. In my movie I included a voice over for a new bulletin, which was recorded after the movie was shot. I learnt how to produce a flash using Final Cut without having to screen grab it from a particular place. • During the process of making this movie, I was assigned the role of a camera woman, which I think I handled well as it was my first time recording outside supervised classroom environment. However I did shake the camera even though it was on a tripod. I also learnt to zoom without going out of focus or by making a rough zoom in and out. • At some stage in the shooting process the group decided to experiment their shooting with sound. During the scene where the radio is shown we played the radio out loud, which would have produce diagetic music, however after shoot a whole sequence the group realised that when there were cuts and gaps the music would be disorganized and wouldn’t comprehended. We also would have to ask permission from the radio to use it for our short movie. Instead we decided not use any music and just have a student produced radio bulletin. Which I personally think works better because it seems for realistic. I realised that during some sequences the sound would cut or sound as if there was static in the way, I later discovered that I didn’t attach the wire for the file pole properly. • I have never used Macs before, other than their use for media. During the preliminary task I struggled a lot but comparing myself then and now. I feel as if I have improved on my skills with working on Macs since I can use it more fluently as I know more short cuts than I did before. I know what to click to minimise the whole window rather than minimising a bit by bit.

5. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression it to the full product? • I feel as the preliminary task was very helpful to make me realise that I must use my time wisely and that I must organise in the manner that it is shooting process runs efficiently. • Comparing my organising skills since then and now, I see that I am a lot more organised on set and behind the set. I feel as if the use of the shooting scripts was very helpful because it showed me what I must get done in a certain time. For instance, when I was shooting the scene in the kitchen I didn’t have to structure the camera shoots in my head, but to follow my shooting script I created before the shooting process.

6. How does your media product represent particular social groups? • My media appeals to the younger generation who aren’t strangers to multi-cultural relationships. This is why the cast that the group choose was multicultural. Where the lead character, Aston is mixed race and the leading lady, Ruth is from a black background who is fully African. Aston is a stereotype which would appeal to the audience because he has his hair styled into a square afro style, which makes him look trendy. He wears his trousers quiet low, which is another stereotype for the black ethnicity, this just makes him look like a regular “Joe” rather than making him stand out. The audience wouldn’t guess that he was the serial killer in the first introduction of him. Ruth lives up to the stereotype of typical girls or female characters. Her dialogue suggests her stereotyped roles “Just stay home and clean” woman are still seen as if they should belong in the house. She is dressed in pink which is seen as a feminine colour, this makes her look girly but also appealing to the female audiences as they might see themselves in Primark brought pyjamas. • The target audience is 15-30 year olds, who are probably middle classed and follow fashion. Aston is wearing a checked shirt which were in fashion during summer, the time we are trying to portray is summer/spring because of the sunlight that helped with the “natural” light source. • Aston is stereotyped into the typical ethic minority where black people kill with knives because he kills his victims with knives and has a fetish for their shoe. This is shown in the first scene of the victim on the floor. • The dead girl was dressed in a dress, this showed she is rather feminine because of the floral dress. If she was in jeans, that would give her another stereotype.

7. Strengths • I personally feel as if the shooting process went really well because there were two different camera women working with the camera in different scenes. This would show their interpretation to filming, also showing a difference in their style of filming. The benefit of having two camera women is that it shows the difference in the killer’s life. • Despite the technical difficulties the group had to face, I felt as if they group was really organised in terms of the props, costume, make up and the way the movie was going to be shot, who did what to contribute towards the blog, the pictures and the way things were edited too, even though the editing process was to be done alone. • I have learnt about different shots to use to make the camera work look smooth and have a range of angles the movie is shot from such as have someone shot a shoulder length or from below to show they are powerful. This all would help my movie look more professional and interesting

8. Weakness • I think the only weakness the group faced was the time limit. If there was more time it would have made the shooting and the pre shooting process easier as each person would look into very small details and how to make them work for the movie. Things like mise en scene, camera work and certainly more on editing. • I had struggled working with the tripod, I think that during the shooting process that the tripod moved a lot and it made the actual film move a lot too, this was in my editing when I was zooming in on Ruth’s face. • I also used a lot of zoom. I didn’t realised until I showed other people my final product. They said that the use of too many zoom “make the movie look as if the camera man is on a rollercoaster” After keeping that I mind I realised that what they said I true, so next time I would cut down on the zooms and the too many close ups. • Being able to have the right shot. I used a over the should but it would have been helpful that the audience would see what Aston was saying. If could do this next time I would improve it by having the speaking actor in the shot rather than the one responding. I would use over the shoulder shot with a shot reverse shot.

9. Pictures from the shooting process of the Victim The location of the murder scene stayed the same during the shooting process, however the position of the dead body and the scene around the dead body changed. This was because Emma and I found a better place to shoot in the same park. If I had been given more time, I would have shot this place in a graveyard because then the atmosphere would look more sinister and give the pagan signs more significance

10. Pictures from the shooting process in the Kitchen The pictures were taken from one angle because the group wanted a quick idea of what the shooting process and location would look like. This doesn’t speak for our movie, because the movie’s camera angels varied across the room.

11. Pictures of the editing process From Left to right: The Establishing shot of the dead body. The titling of the movie(on a black screen between the flashes) The white flash of the camera. Additive editing(which was used to show some time had passed) Over the shoulder shot of two actors talking. A close up on a significant action.