:)

1. Media Evaluation
In The Frame
Megan Grint

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
My opening sequence is based around the genre Crime Thriller. I have used,
developed and challenged forms of real media products. Overall, we did meet the
generic conventions of a crime thriller, however we came across conventions that
we wanted to challenge. We decided to challenge certain forms and conventions
because we wanted our audience to be exposed to something different but also to
feel a sense of familiarity throughout.
Through research, I looked up the conventions of a typical Thriller film to get a
sense of what it is included and how much thought as a group we were going to
have to think about. We used the four media components to develop and challenge
the conventions of a thriller film.
Mise en Scene: In our final product, I think that we have certainly challenged the
conventions of how a young, vulnerable teenage girl would be presented. Our
protagonist is wearing darker colours, whereas stereotypically, in other media
products they have used more pastel and feminine colours to heighten the sense of
vulnerability to an audience. Moreover, we have developed a thriller convention as
we had to adjust the lighting and brightness of particular shots to match it to
previous footage, but to also set the mood and tone to our audience. However, we
have challenged the conventions as we have chosen a very large, open and wide
space as our main setting. This challenges conventions because in other media
products, the settings are a lot darker and compact and even possibly set at night.
Such an open space would be considered a safe area, however we were trying to
connote that our protagonist is not safe where ever she goes, setting an eerie and
dramatic tone.
We have presented out protagonist to look
reserved and reticent through the use of her
clothes and appearance. Our antagonists
hair is tied back, connoting that she is
withdrawn and unassuming. Leaving our
protagonists hair down would connote that
she is more wild and outgoing. Our
protagonists coat also suggests she is
introverted and keeps herself to herself.
Stereotypically, our protagonist has not
been presented how other young and
vulnerable girls have been in other media
products. Evidently, we have successfully
developed and challenged conventions of
existing media products, therefore, this has
made our product look unique and original.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Camera: Camera played a huge part in
our final product as we used certain
shots to keep the identity of our
antagonist hidden from the audience at
all times. A recurring shot that we used
was a medium shot, this is because we
did not want the audience to see our
antagonist in full length, only certain
parts of him. We aimed to leave his
identity a complete mystery as this
reinforces the tension arising. In this
shot, our antagonist is positioned right
in the centre of the screen – this
connotes that our antagonist is
dominant and powerful in comparison to
our protagonist which is positioned on
the left of the screen, connoting that
she is of less importance. Normally, a
generic convention of a thriller film is a
recurring number of close up shots of
their protagonist to create tension and
to show the emotions of a character.
This is our only close up shot of our
protagonist throughout our entire
sequence and it only lasts two
seconds. We chose not to use a
number of close up shots as we
wanted to challenge the
conventions to make our final
product unique. We also wanted
to show more of our
protagonist’s and antagonist’s
body gestures to reinforce our
narrative.
Setting: In comparison to other Thriller films,
our final product takes place in a very open
and extensive area. Our setting challenges the
conventions of a Thriller film because normally,
the setting would be a refined and tight space,
covered with tree’s so there is hardly any light
showing. Additionally, our narrative would have
suited the convention of a dark and refined
area however we wanted to connote that our
antagonist’s obsession over-ruled every
aspect. Moreover, our setting is quite bright
which contrasted with what our protagonist’s is
wearing which also challenged the conventions
of a thriller film as we have not followed
conventions of a dark setting/space.

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Editing: Firstly, we have centralised our antagonist in
most shots throughout our sequence to connote to the
audience that he is more dominant and powerful over
the situation in our narrative compared to our
protagonist – she is marginalised in some shots within
our sequence to connote that she is the weaker and
more vulnerable character. Fast paced editing is used
at the beginning of our sequence as I found out
through research that fast paced editing is used to
show that there is tension arising as the narrative
moves on. However, towards the end of our final
product, the pace slows down quite a lot which is
different from traditional Thriller opening’s. We
decided to slow the ending of our opening down
because we wanted our audience to feel on edge after
a dramatic and tense start to the opening.
Sound: We have created tension and suspense throughout our
opening sequence due to the type of music that we chose. Our
sound is conventional as it makes the audience feel on edge and it
also creates a tense atmosphere. We have also kept the diegetic
sound of our protagonist and other characters, as well as the
diegetic sound of the noises evident in the setting. If the non diegetic
background sound was not put into our opening sequence, I feel that
our audience would not be able to engage as much as our sequence
would look very boring and un-professional. Whilst trying to find our
diegesis for our sequence, through research, we found out as a
group that predominantly in horror films, they use contrapuntal
sound which is an effective way to engage and audience. However,
we did not warm up to this idea of using contrasting sound within our
sequence. We decided to stick to the conventional sound of
suspense music. We came to this conclusion because the sound
piece that we have used in our sequence sets the expected tone of
our sequence. If we had used contrapuntal sound within our
sequence, I do not think that it would have accompanied our
sequence well. It would not fit correctly with our chosen genre and
narrative.

5. How does your product represent particular social groups?
The predominant social group that we have displayed within our sequence is
white British female(s). Due to our target audience being between the ages of
15-25 years old, our protagonist displays manors and similarities that are
relatable to our target audience. Evidently, our opening sequence has a
modern approach which automatically targets a key aspect of our target
audience. Through the use of modern technologies, such as our protagonist
using an Apple iPhone and earphones, we have portrayed our protagonist to
look vulnerable and naïve as she is unaware of her current dangerous
situation. The fact that our protagonist turns to a piece of technology after
having encountered with a conversation with her friends displays her ignorance
and lack of spatial alertness/awareness. Moreover, referring to the society we
live in today, teenager like our protagonist, seek comfort from technologies
such as a phone and using social media websites because it makes them feel
safer as they feel they are more engaged with people due to how accessible
forms of communication are. However, we have displayed within our
sequence that technology does not protect you from what danger is around
you, psychologically it only makes the individual feel safe and comforted.
Through mise-en-scene, we haven’t used the conventions of how a young,
vulnerable teenage is stereotypically presented in real media products. Nor
have we displayed the protagonist’s friends to look stereotypically feminine.
This connotes to our audience that our protagonist stereotypically does not
look like a target that our antagonist would prey on. The main colour that is
shown throughout our sequence is black which corresponds with our narrative.

6. How does your product represent particular social groups?
Our antagonist’s identity and age is not identified and it hidden
away from our audience. We decided we wanted our
antagonist to not be revealed in our opening sequence. This
conveys a certain message to our audience that we have not
stereotypically shown who our antagonist is in comparison to
other Thriller films of the same genre. Conventionally,
obsessive characters are normally displayed as a white middle
aged man – seeming as we have not followed this convention,
controversy could arise and audience may dislike our
sequence as we have not followed some familiar conventions.
In this shot, our protagonist looks bewildered and on edge.
Although this is not a close up or extreme close up, it is evident
to the audience how our protagonist is feeling, through the use of
her body language in this shot and throughout the rest of our
opening sequence. We decided to portray our protagonist’s
feelings more through her body language rather than her clothing
and overall image. This could potentially draw our audience in
and keep them engaged – however, as we have challenged
generic Thriller conventions, this could be unsuccessful as an
audience thrives for a feeling of familiarity.
We did not decide to include a variety of characters from different social groups,
we chose white British. This is because we did not think that other particular
social groups would have been suited to our narrative. Additionally, our group
consisted of white British people and it was a lot easier to rely on members of our
group instead of relying on friends or others who were not part of our group.

7. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that if our opening sequence was to be made into a film, it would be distributed by a large company such as
DreamWorks, 20th
Century Fox or Fox Searchlight. I think this because I feel that our narrative could expand and a
large distribution company would be a reliable source to do so as by the opening sequence being distributed by a
familiar and well known company, it would automatically become more appealing to an audience as they have that
comfort feeling of familiarity before even seeing the film. I think that our audience could potentially be quite large, this
could be due to the fact that our narrative is original within itself as due to my own research, there are not a lot of crime
thrillers that are based around stalking. This would put our film at an advantage because it means that an audience
would be excited to see something new and would be intrigued to find out what the rest of the film is about. However, if
made into a film, it could be left at a disadvantage because an audience loves familiarity and they have certain
expectations, they may not be interested as our narrative is quite original.
Moreover, we have followed the generic conventions of a thriller film. We have presented these conventions through
camera, editing, sound and mise en scene. Some basic thriller conventions that we followed are: dark settings and
surroundings, tense music throughout the sequence and quick, slick and fast paced shots. By sticking to and using
familiar conventions, an audience would be kept happy as we are meeting their expectations of a thriller film. A sense
of familiarity would be felt throughout the sequence as the four main media components are used within the sequence.
During the process of producing our opening sequence, I addressed back to these evaluation questions and
considered would our sequence suit being a TV series. Along with research, I came to the conclusion that our
sequence could not be distributed into a TV series, the reason why is because our storyline is pretty basic and straight
forward, it is not actually complex enough to be divided out into a number of episodes. It would be dragged out way too
much and an audience would most definitely lose interest very quickly. I feel that an audience would benefit from
seeing the sequence in one go.

8. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
In conclusion, from the three distribution companies that I have previously mentioned, I think that 20th
Century Fox or
DreamWorks would be best suited to distribute my film. I have come to this decision from my research that I have
previously collected, Fox Searchlight have not distributed many Thriller films and personally, if my product was to get
made into a film, I would prefer it to be distributed by a company that has previously distributed the same film genre as
my product.
As part of my research, I looked up Thriller films that would give me ideas of
how we were going to present our antagonist. Particularly in this image,
Taken’s protagonist is presented similarly like our antagonist in our sequence.
Half of his face in this image is in the dark and he is wearing dark clothing. In
my opinion, from this image I think that this protagonist is actually being
portrayed in a negative way due to the dark clothes and the object he is
holding is a gun, making it look like he is being portrayed as the antagonist. I
found this image during the research process and I felt that it was significant
and would benefit us as a group to decide how we were going to portray and
present our antagonist. This image is similar to how we presented our
antagonist in our sequence, our antagonist is dressed all in black and we
never see the antagonists face.
20th
Century Fox has distributed a large
amount of Thriller films that I have previously
researched. It distributed the film ‘Taken’
which has a few similarities to my final
product.

9. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Age: As a group, we decided that we think that our target audience would be ages from 15 to 30 years old. This is because
our sequence features young people. The reason why our target audience is from the age of 15+ is because I think that they
would be able to relate to our young protagonist in our sequence. Another reason why we decided that our sequence should
be from ages 15+ is because there would be violence and potentially strong language evident in the rest of our plot.
Additionally, all the characters that our evident in this sequence are approximately around the age of 15, this way we would
be able to attract a large audience of young people.
Gender: From our title sequence, I feel that our product would mainly attract and is aimed at females more than males. Our
title sequence is mainly dominated by females, this means that our target audience would be able to reflect upon and
engage with our female characters evident in our sequence, especially the protagonist. However, there are conventions that
we have used in our sequence that would attract and engage males also, such as: tense music, dark colours and our
narrative includes a male antagonist which would appeal to males. Moreover, the posture and gestures of our male
antagonist portray a very dominant role in our sequence, which could also appeal to males more.
Race: Although that our sequence is dominated by white characters, I believe that our sequence would appeal to any race.
Moreover, our sequence is set in England and all of the characters within the sequence are English, this could mean that our
sequence would appeal to a large group of English viewers as they would be able to relate to the characters and scenery.

10. How did you attract/address your audience?
Whilst creating our final product, I kept in mind how I as going to be able to address our target audience and to be able to
engage them when watching our title sequence. Additionally, I reminded myself of our target audience at all times (15-30
years old). The two key media aspects that I personally think really helped us to target and address our audience was
through our decisions addressing mise-en-scene and camera angles/shots. Overall, I think that we have addressed our
target audience well – when the pace picks up, becomes more tense and we our antagonist is more evident in our product,
I think that this hits the more male side of our target audience. Additionally, as our sequence is mainly dominated by
females, we had to make careful decisions with how we were going to present our female characters which our female
audience would be able to relate to.
In this screen shot of our protagonist, we have not gone for the
stereotypical look of a vulnerable, teenage female. Due to previous
research, I wanted to find out what was in fashion for a young female
as we wanted our sequence to look modern. From my research I
found out that darker colours were more in fashion rather than pastel
ones – we wanted our protagonist to look fashionable as our
audience would be able to relate to our protagonist from her style.
However, it may not necessarily appeal to males because this is not
what they would find ‘stereotypically attractive’. We have also not
presented our protagonist in a sexual manor, minimal skin is shown,
our protagonist is covered pretty much head to toe. This again may
not appeal to a male audience as much as it would to a female
audience due to our protagonist not being presented in a
stereotypically feminine way, a male audience would not expect a
vulnerable teenage girl to look this way. We do not match up to the
typical conventions addressing mise-en-scene in a Thriller film, we
evidently contrast it, however, I wanted our sequence to be original
and I wanted to make it original through the four key media aspects
as I felt that we would attract a large audience due to the fact that we
have challenged the conventions of a Thriller film.

11. How did you attract/address your audience?
I think that our narrative really helped to engage out target audience. Additionally, through
the use of camera work, we were able to present it as if the camera was the stalkers
(antagonists) eyes and how the antagonists sees our protagonist from his point of view.
This enables our audience to connect with our product as they were viewing the sequence
from our antagonist’s point of view. Moreover, this will also help our audience to engage
with our product and to become engrossed in the narrative. We wanted our audience to feel
a part of our product, to feel empathetic towards our protagonist.
Another way we addressed our audience was through our decisions of how we
were going to present our protagonist’s lifestyle. We used images for our pin board
scene from social media websites which targets a more younger audience as they
would be able to relate to the context we are portraying our protagonist in.
Additionally, as our narrative is about stalking, we wanted to portray to a younger
audience how easily accessible information is to gain. I think that this reaches out
to a younger audience on a more personal level as they can reflect upon their use
of social media, our narrative suggests that stalking can happen quite easily to
anyone as information about a person is so easily found and they can use it to their
advantage.

12. Audience Survey and Results
Lily created an audience survey for our audience to fill out. We asked specific questions, to find out whether our product has been
successful or not. Below are the questions and results from our survey:
We decided to put this question in our
survey because we wanted to find out
whether our opening sequence
appealed to our target audience of 15-
25 years of age. Evidently from the
results of our survey, we were able to
engage our target audience as an
audience ranging from 15-25 were the
most to have seen our opening
sequence are were able to give us
feedback. Moreover, it was helpful to
see that our sequence also engaged
other ages too.
We used this question in our survey
because I was interested which
gender our sequence appealed to
more/most. From our results it is
evident that our sequence was viewed
by more females than males. I
personally expected this because our
sequence contains predominantly
females which does automatically
attract that gender more – I
understand why our sequence did not
appeal to males more due to our
sequence having a lack of males
characters.
Our audience clearly enjoyed the
opening sequence of our Thriller film
which was a positive outcome for our
group. We asked later on in the
survey what it was that they enjoyed
about our sequence and we did also
ask if we could make improvements,
what would they be. It is good to get
feedback on if our product was
appealing and we are glad that our
audience thought that our opening
was equally excellent and good.

13. Audience Survey and Results
This was one of the most important
questions that we eagerly wanted to get
feedback on because there is nothing
worse than watching a film that you do
not understand. We are relieved with the
results that our audience understood our
narrative clearly. It was not necessarily
too much of a complicated narrative to
begin with however due to cross cutting,
our scenes did jump from one to the
other which could confuse an audience,
causing them to lose interest and not be
engaged for the rest of our film.
If our opening sequence was to be
distributed into a real media product,
we were interested if our audience
would come back to see the entire film.
50% of our audience said ‘very likely’
and 50% of our audience said ‘quite
likely’ These are both very positive
responses and we are proud that we
have produced a product that has
appealed and engaged an audience.
This questions we used in our
survey because we wanted to
find out whether our audience
identified what sub-genre our
narrative fell in to. Most of our
audience chose ‘Crime’ which is
satisfying news for myself and my
group as we have succeeded in
creating a product following the
convention of a Crime Thriller.
Part of our audience chose
‘Psychological’.

14. Audience Survey and Results
From our results, we can see that our audience
felt that our plot/narrative followed thriller
conventions compared to the other key media
aspects. I think that this is accurate and fair
due to our narrative revolving around a Thriller
concept. I think what our audience has fed
backed to is very accurate and what we aimed
to achieve through our media product. I am
relieved that mise en scene is relatively low
because we did attempt to challenge the
conventions of our protagonist to display her to
look not as feminine. Overall, we have
successfully produced our opening sequence
and we have evidently highlighted key
conventions that our audience could pick out.
This question regarded if we had to make any improvements to our
opening sequence, what they would be. We asked our audience to
write a few words, explaining what aspects we could change.
We asked our audience
whether they could deduce any
conventions that they thought
we challenged throughout our
opening sequence – as a group
we are pleased with the results
because costumes and mise en
scene was the key aspect of
media that we challenged the
most. I am relieved that we
were able to convey these in
our opening sequence.

15. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the process of making my final product, I have most definitely learnt so much during this process about the technologies
during the process of constructing our opening sequence. Most of all, I have evidently progressed in areas I believed that I would never
be able to expand my knowledge around – especially from creating our continuity task to now. Although I feel we were limited with what
we could use for our final product, equipment, setting and narrative wise, I think that my group and I helped to encourage and learn from
each other through every step of constructing our final product.
I was particularly unfamiliar with how to use a camera (the most important aspect of completing this task) Throughout our continuity
filming, I did not have much knowledge about how to use one which meant that it restricted how much filming we could get done as one
less member of the group could not go and film due to lack of knowledge. However, during the construction of our continuity task, I got
to learn how to use the camera through the help of other group members who were familiar with this piece of technology. When it came
to filming our final product, I had progressed a lot since our previous task which meant that I was able to film a few practice shot to
experiment with the camera. Although I did not film a lot during the process of producing our opening sequence, I feel a lot more
familiarised with how to use a camera. In future independent tasks, I would be comfortable using a camera confidently. Additionally,
along with camera work, I had to learn how to use the tripod to ensure that my shots were accurate and did not look messy. I
familiarised myself a lot quicker with how to set up a tripod compared to my slower progress with learning how to use the camera.
Another aspect I learnt about technologies during the process of constructing our final product was how to use the software Adobe
Premier. I feel that I have learnt a whole new range of skills whilst working with Adobe Premier. This software enabled us to move clips,
input sound and credits, adjust the levels of brightness and contrast on out pieces of footage – this particularly was useful to us as some
of our clips were too bright compared to our other pieces of footage which made it look evident that they are two totally separate pieces
of footage. Being able to adjust the brightness and contrast to the shots enabled our opening sequence to flow together. As I had barely
any input with the editing in our continuity task, I was unaware how to use this piece of software which made it
difficult to adjust to how it worked. However, I practiced using the software and allowed myself time to experiment
before handling our final pieces of footage. As we filmed footage of a few practice shots, that gave me a chance to
use the software to edit those pieces of footage. When it came to editing our final product, I was confident in being
able to add text (credits) to our sequence which is a skill I will remember for future tasks.

16. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?
Looking back from the production of our preliminary task to our final product, I feel that I have progressed within a number of
aspects, such as; timings, editing, camera use, re-shoots, key media terms etc. When we got set out preliminary task, I already felt
panicked as I felt that I had not enough knowledge to be able to film and hit a specific criteria. Mostly, I felt that I was clueless about
camera use and especially editing. Due to myself feeling this way, I already felt demotivated to complete the task set. However, due
to my group, we all helped each other get to where we needed to be. We had many problems throughout the filming/shooting
process of our preliminary task – such as not completely understanding what the 180 degree rule was. This slowed down the entire
process of trying to finish filming our task as we kept breaking (or near enough) the rule due to lack of knowledge. However, editing
went smoothly as others in my group were comfortable and knowledgeable about the editing process. Timing was I think our biggest
issue throughout the task as we kept delaying when to re shoot and to fix what we had done wrong.
In comparison to now, from experiencing the task, I feel that it made myself more alert and aware about specific aspects, such as;
timing and the importance of re shoots. I feel that I have got a lot better at planning out when I am going to complete things either
individually or as a group. Tasks got done quicker however I did still face similar problems like in our preliminary task as we did have
to re shoot more than enough scenes however for the right reasons. In contrast to the preliminary task, I found ways to motivate
myself to want to succeed in this part of my coursework. This helped with not feeling as stressed as I did in the previous task.
Moreover, I feel that I have specifically developed well within the technology aspect of media – before I did not know how to actually
turn on a camera, now I feel comfortable using one and being able to film confidently. Our practice especially helped me to develop
in this area as I was able to experiment with the camera and become familiar with it. In addition to this, my editing skills have
improved hugely since the preliminary task – I did not actually contribute to much editing in our previous task due to having any
knowledge and also our time frame was very limited, I did not have time to be able to sit and experiment with the editing due to
leaving it so late. I got used to the layout and form of Premier Pro – I familiarised myself with the software before editing any of our
clips for our final product.
I feel that I have improved my understanding of the four key media aspects and what they require. I barely understood or knew
many camera angles until working on our final product, I made myself knowledgeable and understood why we were going to use
specific shots for certain scenes. Moreover, I did not really understand the technical language of editing whilst filming our continuity
task. However, filming our final product, I familiarised myself with the aspects and language used for editing. This will benefit me in
future tasks as being knowledgeable about every key aspect in media will enable myself to be able to complete tasks to the best of
my ability.