Evaluation Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product? - Joe Sheldon

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our film, being a psychological thriller, is intended for a more mature viewing audience. The movie would be rated as an 18+ in cinemas, and is meant for people that enjoy more mature themes. Upon finishing the draft of the film, we distributed a questionnaire to gauge audience reaction to the synopsis and learn preferences. Our target audience upon creating the film was 18-25; 63% of respondents to the early questionnaire fell into this age bracket. Of the sample, 20% enjoyed horror movies and a further 20% enjoyed action movies. Therefore, it confirmed the faith in our idea to write and produce a psychological thriller genre.

Questionnaire results from ashleighlovitt

Those who enjoy this film would enjoy general gore and films about murders, typically associated with goth and alternative culture. This subculture tends to be a dedicated fan group, so we decided to specifically target our film to dedicated cinema-goers who enjoy alternative and independent films that operate on a small budget.

Our film was formulated in response to both our findings of what kind of people would enjoy it and the statistics to back that up. To appeal to a young age group, our three primary characters are aged 16, as it is a more relatable and memorable time for them. We tried to combine elements of action and horror, following typical horror conventions of darkness and creepy undertones with the higher pace and intensity of a thriller movie.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience?

We, as a group, discovered that we had successfully addressed our audience as our post-production survey revealed that a significant majority felt the genre of our film was a psychological thriller. As a result, we have addressed our target audience successfully as our production can be successfully identified as the drama we initially intended. This is show in the graph as 8 out of 15 felt our film was a psychological thriller whilst only 3 people thought it was a horror film, this being a lower percentage of people than our last survey which demonstrates the importance of feedback and how we adjusted, making changes accordingly.

In terms of the certificate of our film, we received results that showed that a majority of people felt that the film was an 18+ as 8 out of 15 answered in this way. However, 5 out of 15 felt it was a 16+ but we were not concerned about this result as only a short amount of the clip was show and this particular scene didn’t reflect the certificate given. This is because showing this specific clip allowed us to ask a slightly younger audience on their thoughts on the clip to get a wider view in our questionnaire.

When asking the audience what emotion was felt when watching the clip, it identified that we had successfully produced our film as 11 out of 15 felt they were scared or anxious, which is our aim as the producers of the film. However, when we asked the 15 people whether they would go and see the film wasn’t as successful as only 7 said they would go and watch the film whilst 5 were undecided. As a group, these results are vital to analyse as they drive us to improve our project, this would attract and address our audience as the film would be more interesting for people to watch. Despite not having 100% positive feedback, we seek to improve our project such as adding darker filters to our clips as well as using a larger range of filming techniques, for example, graphic matches to create smoother and more effective transitions.

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? - Joe Sheldon

3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? by Joe Sheldon

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups? - Joe Sheldon

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media project has three primary characters; Charlie, Gemma and Tom are all 16 &17 year old AS level students. Therefore, the film mainly portrays and challenges stereotypes surrounding teenagers and the male and female genders. In the few scenes we see, young people are presented as responsible and well-achieving, a contrast to the usual negative portrayal of teenagers. Both men are presented in somewhat stereotypical lights, with one being wary of others and one being a scary character.

The character of Charlie is presented as a dark and shady figure who is not a good member of society, which mirrors the average societal stereotype of teenagers. In the first shots of the film, we see him alone in an isolated and black location flicking a lighter. The mise-en-scene is symbolic of his inner darkness and his future psychopathic actions and tendencies. His introduction begins scary non-diegetic music, indicating to the audience that he is not to be trusted. His long and dark clothes is an indication of his dark thoughts and inner repressed feelings. Combined, these represent Charlie as the stereotypical antisocial and scary figure of a teenager.

Gender is represented both in it's stereotypical form and challenged within the piece. The character of Tom is more of a stereotypical male than that of charlie; while Tom is more headstrong and determined, Charlie is often more submissive and is forced into walking behind the other characters through proxemics and movement. Tom shows his determination and leadership, stereotypical of men, by saying to Gemma that he "doesn't like him [Charlie]". Whereas, Charlie is submissive to them in not moving to get back in the conversation when they move in front of him to talk about him. Gemma is presented as a somewhat stereotypical female when she says that she invited Charlie without knowing him well, as it portrays her as kind and welcoming. However, a later shot shows her in front of Charlie being the first to see the body, which shows her taking a leadership role. The medium shot shows her facial expression and her reaction, which is shock. However, she swears upon seeing it, which is not a stereotypically 'feminine' reaction.

The above shots compare our movie to Stand By Me (Dir. Reiner, 1987).

Finally, the film stereotypes teenagers as having a group mentality and tending to stick together rather than be solitary. Gemma and Tom hug at the start, showing their closeness as friends and indicating the isolated nature of Charlie, highlighting how unusual it is for teenagers to not have close relationships and friendships. The first time all three of the teenagers engage in the same conversation, they are established in a wide three shot, which shows them as more 'together' even though they aren't close.

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation question 6 from NinaBalaj