Evaluation 1

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

 When creating our film we took into consideration the conventions of continuity so that our film could go along with the chosen genre and the type of film it should be. In this consideration we looked at other similar short films and also films that had been created by other A2 students so that we could see potential weak parts of the film, that didn't fit the genre from a neutrals perspective.  

Firstly, when filming with our video camera we made sure that we maintained the 180 degree rule as this allows the audience not to become confused with the location/scenery of the shot that is taking place. There were many shots that we was going to film and use but then we realised that these shot did not maintain the 180 degree rule. We had many other techniques/shots that we made sure we considered the 180 degree line. Shots like shot-reverse shots and match on actions were thoroughly checked in order to make sure they maintained the rule as we had to move the camera numerous times in order to attain these shots. Another thing that we found in other A2 films was that the characters did not have the same clothes on in different shots even though it was meant to be in the same time period. Since we noticed this, we made sure that when the shots that were meant to be in the same time frame, the characters wore the same clothes in the same style. Although, we did notice this a couple of times during editing when I (Jamie) did not have the zip done up on my coat in which when I had done in the shot before, so by noticing this we had to re-shoot the scenes a couple of times in order to get it correct. However we did notice a fault in our film when it came to the clothes and this is shown below:

This is a point in the film when Jamie (me) is walking through college and going towards the lift. as you can see in this screenshot above you can see that i am wearing dark, skinny jeans. However, when the next shot comes on I am wearing some nike joggers and although they are different clothes it is not a major problem as you can only notice them when you focus on the change of clothes. If we had done the film again, we would of re-shot this shot again in order to make the shot look correct and with no faults.

Another aspect we found of student films was the difference in some of the sound levels in different locations. The quick change of sound, when the film went to a different location, did not work well and we made sure this wasn't the case in our film. Also, due to the nature of some of the genres of the student films, we noticed that some of the shots lasted too long and this therefore slowed the pace of the film down even though it is meant to be a fast paced genre. Since the genre of our film was a thriller, we tried to make sure that the length of the shots were short so that the film had a faster pace to it and kept the audience interested.

When coming up with the storyline for the film we decided that we wanted our film to be a drama/thriller. We decided that we should go along with the 'typical' drama genre and not try something different which would twist the conventions of the genre. So in our film we decided to have a 'victim' in which they felt like someone was stalking them and tried to face up to the stalker later on in the film. This is a natural occurrence in drama films that have victims in. By this happening it will thrill the audience, keep them interested and make them want to see more. This was the intention from the film and the drama genre is renowned for gripping audiences due to the fast nature of the films. 

During the research and construction stage of the film I had always been comparing our film to Abduction (2011) as I had researched this as a part of our film and I wanted to see how different scenes in the film/storyline relate to ours,due to it being a similar film to ours. In abduction, the main actor  Nathan (Taylor Lautner) is being stalked/followed throughout the film and then Nathan comes to terms with the stalker at the end of the film in a like 'showdown' moment. This is similar to our film as during the film, Jamie is being stalked throughout the film and finally tried to confront the stalker at the end. However, in abduction the victim survives and the stalker dies but in our film the victim dies. We contemplated many different endings to our film but we tried to leave it on a cliff hanger in order for the audience to be gripped and wondering what had happened.

In conclusion, I feel that our film provides the audience with intensity in order for them to be pleasured by watching the film. This is due to the fast nature of the ending which would grip the audience due to the drama/ thriller edge of the film and that the intensity of the ending would pleasure the audience. I feel that we achieved this at the end of the film but the start of the film lacked intensity and pace. This could be due to the nature of the storyline or due to some of the shots lacking drama or they are lasting too long but i feel this was achieved at the end of the film.