Evaluation

Evaluation

During the planning and production of the media product, myself and my group found ourselves with general appraisal and some slight criticisms to how the product looked as the final version. Throughout there have been many obstacles to overcome but I feel that they have all been for the benefit of making the media product as good as it can be.

My media product develops forms and conventions of real media products in a number of ways. Once the four pitch ideas were made my group and I decided to stick with the idea of suicide that appeared in each pitch. The reason being that we felt people of our age could relate to it and that we can show the characters thoughts and feelings in many ways aside from the most obvious form of crying and panic. The idea of the fast forward motion technique in the opening developed from The Bourne Supremacy as it showed time moving on. For our media project the technique showed how Lucy was isolated from other people which linked to the idea of her feeling alone with no one to talk to. It also gave the effect that so much is happening around one individual situation. I thought that a reoccurrence of the speeding up of time was common in action films in order to show the action taking place or the building up to the major event. As for the voice over at the start, many dramas use this technique to allow the audience insight into the characters true thoughts and feelings so that they feel involved and can form a sort of relationship with them.

The main social group my media product represents is teenagers. The opening highlights teenagers dealing with events in life being unable to cope. In a way it shows the stereotypical side of young teenagers thinking of the worst result to their situations and in the case of the film, suicide. The opening shows how a teenager can be oblivious to the surroundings around them when in actual fact lots of things are going on everyday, everywhere. This is why we decided to use the opening effect of speeding up time in order to emphasize how much actually does go on aside from an individual’s thoughts and feelings.

I think that my media product might be distributed by a Niche (independent) studio for many reasons. First of all, it would have a smaller release and the film is different yet unconventional. The reasons being that the opening of the film is diverse and not a common way to go straight into the film. Also the themes within the film are not related to everyday films that are shown therefore; it would not attract many people to watch as some people find dramatic realistic films quite difficult to watch as the subject matter of suicide is complex. On the other hand it could be distributed from a mainstream studio as the events within the film could appeal to an audience of females who can relate to the confusion and emotions shown of teenage life.

This leads me onto my next point of the target audience for the product. The preparation of the product included many aspects of research and one factor considered was the target audience. From the circulated questionnaires myself and my group were able to come up with a specific audience we would like our film to relate to. We concluded that our audience was to be both male and female between 15-25 years of age, as they could relate to the issue of suicide, pre and post to the event. To address the audience a series of different shots were used. I feel that the opening minute gives the audience a clue to the possible upcoming events and the main message to the film. The opening long shot worked really well as it showed the characters isolation and vulnerable side. Also the audience were able to see the characters full figure which also gave an idea of the setting and where the character had come from. I feel that the transitions to each shot relate to the audience as people from 15 upwards mature from their younger years therefore they see life in a different way, taking issues like suicide more seriously.

From constructing this product I have learnt a lot about the technologies. Firstly, I became familiar with the computer as trial runs were taken before the real editing began. It was fairly straightforward to import what was filmed onto the computers however; I feel that I need to learn how to be more patient with the process as a lot of time was needed in order for what was filmed to run through. In terms of the editing process I feel that I experimented with a wide range of transitions and effects. However, once a few were used I tried to limit the amount of additional effects that were used in order for the product to look unprofessional with a series of fade ins and outs. Consequently, the few that were used worked really well especially the fade in and out as it showed that time had passed from the previous clip of Lucy running away from the scene to her running into her house. If I was to edit another film I think that I would consider using different effects that are not commonly used in other products. Also to allow more time for the preparation of editing at the beginning I did not realise how much time was used for trying new things that were then discarded as they did not fit in well. Otherwise, I believe that the editing went really well especially as I was not very familiar to the Imac system.

Looking back at the preliminary task I feel that I have progressed a lot in terms of ideas, techniques suggested and skills on putting the product together. My previous task was at a beginner’s level and I simply experimented with many factors that did not necessarily meet the brief. However, from then I think I have come a long way with my technique and thought process in the technical side. The feedback from the preliminary task obtained from my teacher and other members of the audience enabled me to take the criticisms and turn them into successful points.

The main idea that has remained in my thoughts for the final product is that less is better and this has shown in my media product.