Evaluation overview

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

For question 1 i analysed some other films similar to mine. I took inspiration from one of these movies mainly to make my media product as effective as possible. The movie i used for inspiration was Ratter.

I linked my product back to my media product back to the film i used, so i picked out similar characters such as an anonymous person hacking into a teenage girl's phone. I portrayed both of these characters. I wanted to create a tense scene in a very dark room with a lit up screen to show how the un-sub (a person of unknown identity) is completely focused on the victim he is stalking. 

The beginning of my opening was inspired by a scene in Ratter where the girl is just relaxing in her own room on her laptop, except in my film this is the point when her phone gets hacked into and that's why she hears a notification sound but sees nothing when she checks.

2. How does your media product represent social groups?

I felt i needed to represent the teenage social group of my generation to make a point about how easy it is to get your devices hacked (and what teen these days doesn't at least have a phone and laptop?) without knowing and then be in danger from that point on. Anyone could be watching us through our laptop if they wanted to and if they had the skills to get into it. I therefore decided i would make the main character in my opening a vulnerable teenage girl who is clueless that a creepy character is watching her every move.

The reason i used myself as this character is because it was simpler to just film in my own house, since i needed to be in that sort of environment for the film anyway.

The reason i showed clips of the un-sub stalking my Instagram and Youtube is because i again wanted to show how easy it is for any stranger to stalk teens on social medias, especially if their accounts are not private. 

3. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I needed to carry out research into ideal age rangers and the gender my thriller was aimed at. I decided that the ideal age range would be a '12' certificate because it does contain some features of stalking, '15' felt too high because it wasn't inappropriate or violent at all but 'PG' felt too low because of the creepy element of being stalked and vulnerable moments being seen by the stalker

The ideal audience for my media product would be teenagers aged 12-18 but it could also be suitable for older audiences if they are interested. I personally feel like females would be more affected by my film than males would, just because girls may be able to relate to the character slightly more than boys would.

4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I researched the main 3 movie companies, Warner Bros pictures, Universal pictures and Sony pictures entertainment. I decided to focus my research on Sony, because they produced the movie "Ratter" that my film opening is based on, as well as the well known thriller movies "passengers" and the Amazing spider man movies. Sony is one of the 3 biggest film companies in the world and they have produced very successful thriller and horror movies. I decided this is the company i would want to distribute my movie if it was released.

5. How would you attract and address your audience?

I asked some of my friends who were in my chosen "12+" age range for my film for feedback and they gave some important points on how they were attracted from the start.

"I immediately thought "what if this happens to me" when i realised that she's being stalked by her phone" - Alice

"The stalker's lair and change of lighting was intriguing" - Jose

6. What have I learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the product?

I already knew the basics of how to use a camera, SD card, tripod etc but i had to learn the basics of final cut pro and even though i'm not very advanced with it, i made do. I personally think my editing could've been better but it was okay for a beginner. I struggled with garage band as i'm not very good in terms of musical talent but again, i had fun learning the basics. I did learn how to keep up a blog, which was quite fun and probably was my favourite part of the whole process. 

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? 

I reflected back onto my preliminary task with my basic ideas for the film and I realised that my ideas have changed throughout the process. I had no experience with garage band or final cut pro, i had some experience with filming but not much experience with using tripods and the preliminary task helped me get a better idea of what to expect for the rest of the process.