Evaluation

Louis Hyde

1- In what ways does your Product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?
In our opening sequence we used some of the key conventions of a thriller film such as the use of music to create tension and convey how dramatic the scene is meant to be. When our actor Daniel is doing press ups and practising his fighting the beat of the drum is partially in time with the punches making it far more dramatic as there is a loud noise. We also used a very dark location which is typical of a thriller opening sequence, other thrillers have dark openings such as inception. The main character in the scene has his face covered as he is wearing a mask. There are lots of camera angles that cut between each other of the character putting a mask which creates mystery, tension and curiosity because nobody knows who is under the mask and the audience begin to wonder who it is. Our film fits in into the thriller sub-genre of action thriller as there is plenty of action in opening sequence as there would have been throughout the rest of the film if a feature length version had been made. In the opening sequence, our credits come up in white writing on a black background which makes it stand out.

2- How does your media group represent particular social groups?

In our opening scene we only see one race represented which is Chinese. Daniel Yip who is our actor is Chinese and obviously plays a Chinese character. He is a ninja and represents a culture surrounding martial arts. He is perform martial arts in the opening sequence and uses classically Chinese weapons such as nun-chucks. Gender is also represented in our opening scene as our character who is male conforms to male stereotypes of being masculine. He is seen fighting and doing pressups, this is often a stereotype of men in action films who are tough, strong and good at fighting. Examples of this stereotype would James Bond or any film with Jason Statham. This would appeal to the target audience as I said they would enjoy dramatic thriller films that have a hero and plenty of action in them. Below is screen shot from our opening sequence where our hero is doing press-ups which fits the stereotype of a macho male hero.

3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media project and why?
A production company is responsible for producing films from the very start, they are in charge of the sets, actors, finalising scripts etc. One production company that might produce our film would be Working Title films, the reason they would be suitable to produce our film is because they are a British company who have produced small British films in the past such as Tinker Taylor, Soldier Spy. In our opening credits we have the names of our companies such as Specialist pictures and LGD entertainment. Then it is followed by the names of the people who played important roles in the making of our film such as the writers or costume designers. We used a font not too dissimilar to the one used in the opening credits of Panic Room which is quite a famous thriller. Having a dramatic opening sequence where there are lots of titles coming up one by one or in small groups with the actors or producers names being shown is typical of the thriller genre. When producing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Working Title films had to confirm the casting for the film and cast actor such as Colin Firth and Gary Oldman. A production company would distribute our film through advertisements and trailers, billboards and fan pages. Below is a picture of the Working Title films logo and a screenshot of some of the credits in our opening sequence.

4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our film would be young people and teenagers aged between 15 and 25 although he film would be suitable for most people. The opening has an action scene in it when the main character is training and practising his fighting skills. If we had made a full feature length film then it would have included quite a few fight and action scenes. With the results from our questionnaire we found that this sort of film is most popular with young people. Our film would be similar to the action packed Transporter films starring Jason Statham and Rush Hour films with Jackie Chan. This type of film includes a lot of excitement and thrill (being a thriller film) which would suit thrill seeking young people.