My AS Media evaluation for the opening sequence I created.

1. AS Media Evaluation
Cliona Martin-Brown

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product „The Run‟ has developed from mere ideas and notes on
paper into an engaging and successful psychological thriller film. It has
gone through 1 out of the 3 stages of the film industry process, of film
finance production. There is a vast variety of conventions of a thriller genre
for example: they tend to have obvious antagonists and protagonists,
the film is revolved around a criminal plot which can be based on real life
stories or situations.
The antagonist is usually racing against time, tying in with the fast paced
atmosphere. Also involving various enigmas and cliff hangers with
elements of mystery. The use of colour symbolically represents the overall
theme expected throughout the film and any musical changes are also
connected to this.
The opening scene I have created with my partner includes many of the
conventions I have researched. For example the plot has a twist – one of
the characters actually being wrongly accused of murder, which is similar
to the plot twist in „Shutter Island‟, where the audience is lead to believe
the main character is investigating a missing person on the island when
actually he is the insane character.
We also used non diegetic sound as another convention to create the
biggest amount of tension possible – this is used to fit in with the pace of
the film and the storyline as every shot is significant for the audience to
understand and interpret. The sound plays a big part with encouraging
this.

3. The importance of choosing the genre of our film was key as this is what it would be based
around. From the selection of our genre we were able to establish the main conventions of a
typical „psychological thriller‟, this was fundamental to the overall success of the opening scene.
Also, when we had made the decision of our genre, we were able to make suitable and relevant
decisions towards the rest of our film i.e. the backing track and pace of shots.
The use of colour in the opening titles is very important as it is more than often, the first thing the
audience will see. In the psychological thriller „Shutter Island‟ the opening titles are shown in red
with a faulty/broken look. The colour red is often used to symbolize blood and anger or love and
passion, in this case it is clear that the theme was used to represent blood and anger. In our
opening scene we decided to put white writing onto a black background, giving an indication of
an underground world and a form of an enigma as it isn‟t too revealing. This shows I understand
what a psychological thriller is, as I have included a variety of conventions of real media
products.

4. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media film is particularly representing a teenage girl who is wrongly accused and seeks
justice. I have shown the representation of gender through the fact the main character is a
female, which in this genre of film (thriller) , isn‟t very common. As a consequence of this, the
representation of a female teenager is meant to persuade the audience to side with her and
build a relationship as soon as the sequence starts, particularly with teenagers of this age
range. Teenagers of today‟s society are more than often portrayed in a bad light, my film
challenges this as we see a teenager being wrongly accused and threatened by an older male
character. This reverses the audiences original thoughts as we see the teenage girl as the
protagonist and the older male as the antagonist – placing an interest in the audiences mind as
this is contradicting the traditional portrayal of age and gender.
It represents how societies traditional opinions can be
strongly opposed, especially in the category of
teenagers. People of this age often feel pressurised
into being a certain way or acting the way they are
„supposed‟ too, my film shows that although teenagers
do not have as much experience as adults, they can
still be independent and cope with pressures on their
own. This is shown by Anna defending herself on the
pursuit of her diary to prove her innocence and reclaim
justice. Richard Grayson is used to show that an older
generation can also be corrupt.

5. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Ways of distribution for our product:
• Television – access to a vast majority of people
• Internet – easily accessible / free
• DVD – a film distributed in this way can be played repeatedly and would be available to an
audience even after the film has reached it‟s full promotional potential, therefore still
generating a profit of some sort
• Cinema – High budget films with an institution that are distributed to a much wider range
and amount of people with specialist advertising

6. As our film isn‟t a very high budget film, I think the best form of distribution would be through the
internet i.e. YouTube. This would allow us to promote our film and reach a wide variety of
audiences as YouTube is free to access and watch videos on. For example, Paranormal Activity
first previewed online to gather research as to if it became a success, after receiving
phenomenal feedback; they finally distributed to cinemas.
Another form of distribution that may be accessible to us would be „The Film Collaborative‟ as
they allow people with low budget films to gain access to distributers. TFC offers independent
filmmakers a full range of education about distribution, distribution services and marketing
services including sales representation, service theatrical releases, hybrid distribution,
grassroots marketing, traditional marketing, digital aggregation, distribution consultation and
contract consultation. If we used this media institution to distribute our film, I think we would gain
a more knowledgeable approach and maybe receive a higher rate of success.
As my film is small scale, I think it would more than likely achieve more success if it was
distributed in Britain, as firstly, it was filmed and edited here and secondly because institutions
such as Walt Disney or Warner Bros which are set in America are set for a much larger scale of
success and budget.
If I had the choice I would like Warner bros to distribute my film as they are one of the few
places where large scale productions can be made. Therefore this would guarantee that our film
would include professional success. Also, Warner Bros have distributed many successful British
films such as „Harry Potter‟ and the first „Star Wars‟ prequels – these are world wide successful
films and would give me hope that my film could end up with the same publicity.

7. Who would be the audience for your media product?
This is question 2 of my audience feedback presentation and allows us to verify
that the audience for our opening scene would be between 15-18. The age
certificate we chose was a „15‟ so this fits in perfectly with our feedback.
I am glad that we have set our age target accurately as this gives us the freedom
to engage more action, violence, swearing and psychological themes within our
movie. Without this freedom we would not of met the criteria needed for a
successful sub genre of thriller.

8. After reviewing the questionnaire feedback, I came to the conclusion that the majority gender
who preferred thrillers were females. I then researched if anybody else has had similar
findings and came across information to show it has been proven that females within the age
range of 16-35 enjoy psychological thrillers a lot more as it stimulates their mind and allows
them to create enigmas and eventually if possible – solve them.
However, our film may appeal to a male audience also as we have created the character of a
male antagonist, which could appeal to those males who enjoy violence and side with the bad
guy in films. I researched that 78% of males in Britain prefer watching films that involve some
sort of violence. This may entice more male based viewers to our film as it develops into more
violence when Richard Grayson and Anna Dylan meet again after Anna runs away with her
diary evidence.
Our film may also be suited to an older
generation of males between 30-50 as
Richard is also within this age range. He
portrays a deceiving man attempting to
cover up his seedy affair by framing
Anna Dylan and stealing her diary
containing evidence against him.

9. How did you attract/address your audience?
From the questionnaire feedback I was able to establish the
gender and age group that would more than likely appreciate our
film – teenage females. The final scene where Anna Dylan is seen
to be grabbing the diary evidence and escaping the car, was “one
of the most captivating parts of the opening scene” a participant of
the questionnaire said. The participant was coincidently, a female
of a teen age group. This proves that the conventions we
interpreted into our opening scene have been successful because
we were aiming to attract this age group – due to 15-18 year olds
enjoying this genre of thriller the most.
Also, the use of mise-en-scene within sound is used to attract
teenagers as it is more modern. The first piece of non-diegetic
sound in the film is Muse – Super Black Hole. We chose this piece
of music as it tied in well with the atmosphere we were trying to
create, as well as adding to the scene setting. We received a few
comments from one student saying “I really liked the opening
music as it is a backing track to one of my favourite songs”. This
comment allowed us determine our choice of music was a success
with the target audience we were trying to attract.

10. My target audience would continue to watch my film after the opening scene as they found the
tension and cliff hanger appealing. These were created by the use of effective mise-en-scene
i.e. non-diegetic sound, low key lighting, setting, costume and props. These costumes
particularly add to the atmosphere as it corresponded with the characters personalities.
My film captivates the audience at the end by the use of cliff hanger which sets an enigma in the
viewers mind as to what happens next… The fast paced scenes make sure the audience do not
lose focus on what happens as each scene there is something different to look at. By doing this I
have fulfilled the desires of the target audience I was aiming for. I have considered the aspects
thriller genres excel at and interpreted them in a successful way.

11. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
Throughout this project I have learnt different technologies of the process of production. For
example I have learnt how to use a camera, tripod, Blue Snowball microphone, iMac and Final
Cut Pro software.
As a former Media Diploma student, I have had the privilege of already having experience with
media technologies. From my experience I was able to successfully use the camera, tripod and
iMac. However, I was new to using the microphone and final cut pro. I then developed my
understanding of how to use these and complete our film.
The microphone was pretty straightforward to use as it was just plugged into the Mac and
switched on. We used the microphone to record the voiceovers and also to touch up some of
Richard Grayson‟s lines.
The preliminary task originally allowed us to get an idea of how to use Final Cut Pro with more
ease. We then took this to our film and personally I think, it was a success as we have a
finished product and received good feedback.
I have used blogger for my coursework because the exam board requested it, I can easily
upload films and photos showing what I have done. It is easily accessible. When told I would
have to upload my work to „Blogger‟ I was at first, cautious as I have no experience with this
website. I then followed the instructions and was able to create a successful blog.

12. I also used SlideShare, I used by making PowerPoint presentations and uploading
them to the site, then embedding to my blog. I used this technology as I know it will be
more interesting for people to look at. It is also another form of media which I have
used to present my work.

13. Looking at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
Throughout this project I have learnt a lot. Firstly, I learned that me and my partner work well
together as a pair and because of this we have managed to create a successful product. Our
teamwork has been a positive attribute to the development of our understanding of the media
industry and completing this project.
As I have mentioned previously, the preliminary task allowed me to gain further knowledge of
any equipment I hadn‟t used before and the various amounts of camera angles and shots.
Without this short task I doubt I would have been able to create a professional looking film.
When putting together the preliminary task, we were also able to gain a further understanding on
how to use Final Cut Pro. This was obviously a huge help towards the editing of the final film as
we had previously very basic knowledge of this software.
Looking back on the preliminary task and my final product I can see how far I have progressed
in both editing and filming. I have learnt how to achieve various camera angles and shots. For
example the high angle shot which was taken by standing on a fence – an easier way of
achieving this particular shot. For POV shots, we filmed from behind that particular character to
make the audience feel as if they were in that characters position. We never thought we would
be able to achieve this kind of shot or viewing experience until the preliminary task, we came to
conclusion in our „camera shots and angles‟ discussion that this would be a very good position
to place the camera if we wanted our target audience to feel completely involved and intrigued in
the film.

14. We learnt that a jump cut is the best way to remove any un-important scenes in our movie, this
would not only shorten our opening scene time, but also give us extra time to add in more
important situations such as the close up shot of Anna Dylan falling over the rock.
Although we did not use sound in our preliminary task, we took the time to learn how to put
voiceovers and non-diegetic music into our film. This allowed our film to look and sound more
professional, which is what we were aiming for.
The preliminary task also allowed us to become more confident with the transition of slides, we
were able to make our final film look more smooth running due to the practice we endured form
the preliminary task. I have learnt how to plan my film accurately as every detail counts. I
researched in depth on mise-en-scene, costume, props, location, costume and health and
safety. As from the preliminary I have learnt if you do not plan things then you have no control
in production, you need to be in control to ensure you have a created a successful
psychological thriller.
From my videos you can see the development I have made from my preliminary task. I have
acquired long life skills and have learnt a lot, for example I know how to create effective and
useful camera angles and shots. I have also learnt how to use lighting and sound effectively i.e.
low key lighting to represent the atmosphere we want to create. Before the preliminary task I
did not know how to use all of these aspects to their best abilities, I now feel more confident
with my knowledge of these skills.