1. 'Precognition' Evaluation Jamie Sumner

2. Introduction The project I chose was to create a film I did this with one other person called John Burton. We worked together on this film and did equal amount of work on the project he worked mostly on the cinematography as I was an actor which means I didn’t have much time to do much cinematography however I did do a little cinematography. I did the acting as well as create the story together. We both worked on the editing together and the sounds and the soundtrack used. We both scouted for locations that would work well with the style of the film, and also worked together on the costume design to create interesting characters also how it would create stereotypes within the film.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The genre of my product is hybrid of a psychological thriller and horror the conventions of this genre that I have used are: having a killer, a Victim, Death, Isolated locations and the style of colour and editing used in the film. Also the conventions of Thriller that I have used are: the use of the camera shots are of point of view which is a convention of Thriller also the use of dim lighting that is used. This was vital to our film success as it would help bring audiences into the cinema to watch the film as they can identify well with the genre, however we did make slight changes to make it different to other films of the same genre we chose to have a male victim which is a little different to the norm as the genre usually features a female victim also we have chose to make the film up to date and relevant to today's society by having the killer wearing a hood over his head to hide his face as this is relevant at this moment in time. we thought our innovations would be successful as people could link with the relevance of the film and today’s society but also that the film was a little different than other films of the same genre. Due to our audience feedback we found that these innovations worked well, the use of the point of view shots that were used they thought were really effective and helped build the suspense one of the feedback said “there were some interesting angles and the angle from over the shoulder was effective as well as the point of view angle”. As our film is an opening sequence we made sure that we set the narrative and introduced the protagonist and other main character these two characters are predominantly seen in the opening and the audience is immediately shown who the two main characters are due to the shots that are used. Also we are to set the story as we film in black and white to convey to the audience that this is a dream that the protagonist is having which will later become true. They are shown this as right at the end of the sequence the protagonist awakens as we introduce the title of the film. This was done well as the audience feedback we got, one audience member said “Well it’s a dream isn't it”.

4. How does your media product represent particular social groups The first group of people that our film is dealing with is the stereotype of the people who wear hoods in the film this matches what is seen in the news and in the social environment. The costume that was chose was used to match what is seen on the news with the character wearing a hood, also in the sequence the character is shown as beating and killing a helpless victim in a remote area. And the use of the character in the film is to be the killer adhering to the stereotype that the media shows of this type of person the dim lighting also shows that this is the evil person in the narrative and also that the costume he wears is all black from head to toe.

5. How does your media product represent particular social groups Part 2 The other character that is seen is the victim in the sequence this is shown by him getting beaten up it also matches what is seen in the media stereotype of a young person but a little different to the stereotype of a victim. The costume that was chosen was to adhere to this stereotype of wearing blue jeans and dark blue with red fleece seen in the shot. However this is different as a victim as the victim in the sequence is male usually seen as a female in this genre. In the sequence he is seen as inferior to the hooded killer as is shown by him getting beaten up and killed. The victim is also the protagonist in the film in the film he has to go on a psychological journey to find who the killer was and stop it from happening. Due to him getting killed the light used is also dim seen in the clip as black and white to highlight the fact that it is a dream as well as making the clip look a little more menacing than in natural colour.

6. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why A distributor that would produce my film and get it into cinemas would DNA films other films this distributor has done is Last King of Scotland and 28 weeks later the reason why this would be a good distributor as they have experience in distributing horror and thriller genre’s and this is also why they would consider backing my product as it is a horror and thriller genre film it is also psychological. My film is also a little different that other films of this genre which would be a plus in trying to get them to distribute my film. I also think that the tile of my film would also help me get this distributor on board with my film as I think it would be a good at intriguing audiences into watching the film, also that it is made with a distinct genre and follows the conventions would also help make it successful at getting the backing of the distributor and making money in the cinemas.

7. Who would be the audience for your media product The audience for my film for this would be anyone 18+ and also mainly for the male audience, However it would also appeal for the female audience with a romantic subplot so this mainly would appeal to all audience types this is done to try and maximise profit and also help get the film distributed to cinemas. This would appeal to a mass audience as it for all audience types and that it follows the conventions that is seen in other films of this genre with slight differences. This is right for this audience as it would help create mass profit back, the male interest for the film is the plot and also the violence that is seen in the film also the romance would also help male interest with some scenes, and it would also appeal to the female audience due to the romantic subplot in the film and for some women the violence and action that is seen in the film. The film also gained a positive reaction from our audience in a test screening. The audience thought that the were not much work to be done to create the finish product they thought that the non-diegetic soundtrack worked particularly well with the onscreen action to create suspense among the audience one audience member saying “ I thought the music worked well to convey the genre to the audience”

8. How did you attract/address your audience In the opening sequence we created a disruption right at the start of the film this was done to be different from the norm and also thought that it was very interesting to do we did this by using black and white to show that it was a dream and also show what would happen in the film. This also created a sense of time in the film. We were able to set up enigmas in the opening sequence mainly who was the killer and also why had the protagonist been killed which would get answered in the course of the film. We created binary opposition by having the killer and victim the contrast is seen in the two characters how inferior at the start the protagonist is and how superior the killer is. We built tension with the use of cinematography and the non-diegetic soundtrack and also using single frame inserts this was done by using point of view camera shots and also over the shoulder camera shots and also using editing inserting single frame shots every now and then of eyes flickering. Ideologies that are seen in the film are of crime and life in today's society by having a hooded killer but also about gender and how men can also been seen as inferior by having a male victim in the scene. The mise en scene was effective as it created an isolated location which also helped build tension among the audience the costume was effective as it helped create character building that the audience could empathise with however the costume became a little continuity as the victim had different clothes on between shots but still helped create the character build. Also the use of editing of clips Helped show to the audience that it was a dream this was done by adding a blurry effect to the camera and also a shakiness to create the effect of a dream like status.

10. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product In the process of making my product I have learnt about how to create a blog on the internet and how to add stuff to this blog to track the progress of the work we have completed, also I have learnt about how to put YouTube videos onto the blog using an embed code which I did not know about before to put the videos onto my blog. Also I learnt how to edit my clips in the movie maker on the Mac computers I did not know previously how to do this I learnt how to cut sound bites and use only the selected sound that you wanted and how to place them where you wanted in your movie. As I got used to editing I was able to create more effects and also add fade in and fade out and add captions of who wrote it and starred in the movie. It also helped when the music soundtrack finished we were able cut the music to where we wanted it to start again. We also used this process to record audience feedback and put onto our blog this was done by recording then cutting a little bit of the feedback and then cut down the resolution of the clip and add to the blog.

11. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product From looking at the prelim task I can see that the editing in the final product and the prelim task are so much different and that in the prelim task the filming is not as smoothly edited as our final product also the transitions are smoother in the final product than the prelim task. We have also been able to use better use of film elements to create our final product and this was used in good effect in setting the narrative of the film. Using film language we have been able to create a better character build of our characters and also using costume to show off our ideologies of the film of modern society. We were also to create captions that suited our film in the style that we wanted and that suited the film. We were able to be more creative with the final version of the film using more stylised camera angles and effects and also create more interesting images and use of colour which was black and white to help convey that it was a dream, also the use of the blurred effect, shakiness and also slow motion which helped convey the story as a dream.

12. Conclusion Overall I believe this product was of great success I think that the editing that was used was used to create effect and helped set the narrative and introduce the main characters to the audience I also believe that the ideologies that we were trying to put across to the audience were also clear and the audience were able to understand the ideologies. With using black and white colour the audience were easily able to understand that it was a dream that the protagonist was having and also that the clips used centred around the two main characters the protagonist and the killer which are easily conveyed to the audience. If I had more time to work on the film I would have corrected two weaknesses that I saw when the film was finished I would have made the single frame insert clips more effective by adding sharp string sound when they would flash up on screen as when viewed by the audience they did not have the full effect intended. I would also liked to refill some parts of the film to sort out the continuity editing of the costume which changes a number of times in the film, I still think that the film was overall a success but could have been made a little better with these changes being included.