This document summarizes a media evaluation for a student film project aimed at audiences aged 15-30 who enjoy thriller genres. It discusses how the film used conventions like shot types and music to build suspense. Research included questionnaires about audience preferences and analyzing successful thrillers. Feedback indicated the film succeeded in attracting its target audience through these techniques, though lighting could be improved. The students demonstrated learning about genre conventions, audience analysis, and technologies through completing this project.
1. AS Media Evaluation Suspicions Alex Swain, Tim Elliott, Adam Sims, Ryan Avery
2. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Q1. What are the forms and conventions of the medium genre you are working in?
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4. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
5. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
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7. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product? Describe your target audience? We decided to aim our target audience at a mixed gender aged between 15-30; for people who enjoy thriller films. Link to your medium and genre? Are target genre was thriller. By watching and researching thriller films we were able to use similar techniques (panning shots and shot reverse shot) and camera shots (point of view, establishing shots, close ups) in our films to create a more successful thriller. Like Alfred Hitchcock we had two stories developing at the same time and then brought them together for the final scene. We felt this was a very successful technique in building suspense and we were keen to include it in our film as well. By using the same camera shots and techniques we are hoping our target audience will be drawn to our film, like they are to other successful thrillers. Evidence for this? We carried out a questionnaire to find out specifically what our target audience wanted. We also showed a few people a selection of thriller films and asked them what their favourite was. We researched other famous thriller directors and producers and aimed to use similar techniques that they used, to make our film successful.
8. 5. How did you attract/address your audience? What research did you do to find what your target audience wanted? We did a questionnaire asking them their age group, their gender, their favourite thrillers from a selection, whether they prefer horror or action thriller and whether or not they wanted it to be filmed during the day (which one do they believe would create more tension) What decisions and revisions did you make about form and content based on these findings? We watched other thrillers, including films by Alfred Hitchcock which use a lot of music to add tension to scenes; so we added music which we thought builds tensions and suspense well. Our questionnaire allowed us to know what thrillers our target audience liked most and so we knew what films to base our films mainly on, in terms of mise-en-scene. We also asked if our target audience wanted the film to be shot during the day or night. They said a film shot at night would create more tension, but due to a lack of lighting equipment, it was shot in the day. Were you successful in attracting your audience? After completing our film we showed it to a selection of our target audience and got them to carry out a questionnaire we made. We got lots of positive feedback from our target audience, who all enjoyed the film. We also received some constructive criticism which will help us make a better film next year in media They all agreed the music chosen built suspense well and that camera shots used also built suspense; however they thought some of the scenes the lighting was too dark and could of been brighter.
9. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
10. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?