Evaluation 1

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

 

As we planned our film, Low Profile we knew continuity would be needed in order to allow our film to be understood by our audience, giving a sense of believability. In order to keep continuity, when we filmed scenes on different days we made sure mise en scene never changed so once we filmed a scene in one location like the fountain scene, we took note of Hollies outfit making sure she wore the exact same thing the following day for the kidnap seen. 

 

These two shots were taken on different days at different times but you can't tell as we made sure the weather and outfit was the same.

As most of our scenes were indoor we did not have to worry about the time of filming, however for our kidnap and fountain scene we had to plan ahead what time of day we would film and decide how long we needed to film each scene to make sure the lighting did not get too dark. Throughout our film we have kept to the 180 degree rule, making sure that even when re filming or editing we did not change the 180 degree shot. During filming when using the large camera and tripod we found it hard to do shot reverse shots as we found the laptop scenes tricky to shoot when trying to get close enough to the laptop on the bed to allow us to see the writing however it made filming establishing shots at the start of new scenes easier allowing the audience to know what’s happening in the film. We also knew during editing that we would have to change the sound levels so that the changes in scenery weren't too obvious, so by adding music to our film it makes continuity better.

Our A2 5 minute film sticks to the conventions of thriller films rather than challenging typical conventions. In order to understand what our film needed to be classed in the thriller genre, we researched and looked in to other films. During research we found inspiration from a number of films like The Call where the villain is never seen until the end which we incorporated into our film to keep the audience intrigued to find out who it is. We also stuck to the typical convention of the protagonist being a young girl who finds herself in trouble which sticks to Strauss’ theory of binary opposition where there is evil vs good and men vs women where the man overpowers the woman. Using these conventions we knew it would give the audience what they expected. There are no elements within our film that uses parody or deliberate pastiche, as we were aiming for our film to be a serious thriller and comedic in no way.

The villains face is never seen until the very end in the kidnap film.

The main aim of our film was to entertain the audience giving them satisfaction and pleasure in what they were seeing, to do this we used an entertaining genre which allows us to use suspense and action in our 5 minute film. The plot of the film keeps the audience intrigued throughout, right until the very end. I feel we have achieved this as our film gives a range of emotions keeping it entertaining to watch. However, although it is there to entertain we felt our film could be used in educational ways to show the dangers of the internet. We aimed to show that no one is entirely sure who they are speaking to which we took inspiration from the Catfish series, and I am very confident that we achieved this by using the most dramatic way possible of showing Hollie being kidnapped as it gives a sense of shock and highlights the dangers.