Tom Verco - Question 4

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

The audience for our opening Dream State would be 15 year olds and upward mainly because the plot might be confusing and a bit complex for younger viewers. 

We decided to make our target audience 15 and upwards because ages 15 and upwards enjoy thriller films and action, therefore making Dream State perfect for teens. Also because the film has a plot which is complex it is enjoyable for adults and also older generation and they would enjoy this. 

we didn't want to make our film boring as teens have a lot of opinions when it comes to rating films. We didn't want to make it to complex but we didn't want to make it boring therefore having the right amount of action and suspense would keep the audience on their feet and hopefully not fall asleep. 

We didn't want to go for a younger audience as they wouldn't really understand what is going on because of the complex and hard to understand plot therefore not knowing what is going on and losing focus, and they would get board and ruin it for other viewers.  it is also hard to make a thriller without violence and a bit of graphic scenes. Also the film would be boring for older viewers as they would work it out straight away and would not be entertained. 

Tom Verco - Question 5

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

We attracted our audience through the use of camera work and crated an complex but understandable plot. We also made our piece flow and go from one scene to the next. This is good for the our older audience as they would like the quality of the film as well as the plot of it. Also by creating a lot of suspense throughout the opening it will get our target audience engaged. We tried to keep to the convention of a thriller and not go into the conventions of a comedy. To help us we asked a few people which story they thought would keep their eyes fixed on the screen and not make them want to fall asleep. Hopefully with good actors, camera work and editing it would make the opening a whole lot better to watch. The background music also helped us to create suspense for our audience as it builds and it will make the audience wonders what's going to happen next. Also through the uses of camera angles, acting and editing hopefully it will make the audience feel as if they are there.

Our audience can relate to our main character which helps them get more attached to the character and the story as things like this do happen in reality.

Tom Verco - Question 3

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

I think we would have a large distribution company distribute our product and they would create adverts to get our audience interested and therefore making more people go see it at the cinema. The film would first be shown at the cinema and be shown for as long as possible to maximise the amount of sales and get as mush people off the edge of their seats as possible.

it would then be sold as DVD's and Blurays soft and hard covers, as well as being sold to online distributers such as Amazon prime and Netflix. These companies would pay the distributers and the makers to have their films on their sites.

After a year or few years of the film being released it would then air on Television broadcasters such as ITV and BBC and at some point hopefully be put onto Sky Movies. This could increase sales therefore making more money for the distributers and makers of the film.    

Tom Verco - Question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We have 3 characters in our opening. The protagonist Carl he is portrayed as a high class working man. This is shown through the way that he dresses and the house that he lives in. The way he dresses shows he is a working class man as he is wearing leather shoes, black jeans and a smart shirt and this is typically what working class men ware. His wealth is also shown by his house as you would expect a working class man to live in a house like he does. Throughout the opening there are not really any close ups of Carl this is because he is not an aggressive person and that's what audiences think when close ups occur so we didn't want the audience to think that if an close up did occur. 

Carl is portrayed as a kind and brave person this is shown when he returns the package to its owner, and he is brave when he gets kidnapped even though he might be shaken up he is still keeping a brave face on and not showing any fear toward the other 2 characters. Bravery and kindness is something that you would expect from a character like carl as he is a police officer. We wanted to portray Carl like a stereotypical police officer to give that felling of suspense as he might have enemies because of who he is. 

    

The other two character are our antagonist and theses characters are portrayed as lower class people and criminals as they are wearing hoodies and hoodies and stereotypically warn by criminals. This then gives the audience the idea that they are criminals and then it is later on proven that they are by what they do to Carl. They are represented through mise en scene and the camera work. You only see the antagonist with a close up and this shows that they are aggressive people. Also the room is dark to show that the characters come from a dark background, this gives the audience and idea on what sort of people they are. 

Evaluation Q3 Samuel Storey Evans

Evaluation Q3

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

We would have our media product distributed by a large distribution company which would first advertise our film to get the public's interest and to entice the most amount of people to go and watch it in the cinema. 

The film would first start out in the cinema's, it would be shown for as long as possible to maximize sales and to improve the viewing experience of the film for as many audience members as possible. The film would then be distributed through hardcovers such as Dvd's/Blu-ray discs, as well as being sold to online distributors such as Netflix/Now-Tv, these companies would pay the distributors and makers of the film to have the film on there sites to be shared with all of there members this would make the film extra money, on top of the money the film would make through DVD sales, the distributors do this to maximize the money in which the film makes.

After about a year the distributors would release the film to be used by Television broadcasters, such as ITV, and Channel 4, the distributors do this because the film is no longer selling many copies and so they dont lose money from allowing broadcasters to show there film, in fact it could increase sales as there could be people who haven't seen the film yet that get an interest for it after watching it on tv and so buy a copy making the distributors and the creators of the film more money. 

In conclusion the distributors job is to market the film and get public interest, they also release it on formats at specific times to maximize the profit the film makes over the course of its life. 

Jordan Spencer Question 4

The target audience for our film 'Dream State' would be, in my eyes, teenage boys, this is because I think that teenage boys or maybe even men in there 20s would be looking for something exciting to watch with a lot of suspense to keep them on edge as appose to something like a romance where they wouldn't feel the same adrenaline rush that they would from a thriller film where they are put on edge with the character. However I think that it could also appeal to women as well of the same age if there was a group of girls because I think they could all go to see a thriller together but I don't think that they would feel the same intensity that a male would while watching the film, this is because men enjoy the intensity and feel of the film so could look for it and really get into it.

Jordan Spencer Question 5

We attracted/ addressed our audience which is men aged 15+ to about 25, by having a supernatural thriller which can add a lot of suspense. because its supernatural I think that adds an unrealistic features which would push away the older audience as they could be looking for something more realistic, however I feel this would attract the younger audience as they don't really mind what the story is or how its told just as long as its exciting and they can be put into the feel of the characters and ride along with the thriller feeling.


We also made the film very suspenseful with the background music and slow pace of the main character Carl; I feel like this was successful because the men will be wanting to feel excited with the film. The slow pace of the opening makes it feel like its building up to something and that will pull the audience in and hopefully excite them to get them pulled into the film and keep them on the edge of their seat. so we attracted the younger male audiences with a feel of suspense and danger which would get them excited and get their adrenenalane running.

Evaluation Q2 Samuel Storey Evans

Evaluation Q2

2.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The 3 characters shown in the opening to Dream State belong to 2 different social groups. We have the protagonist Carl who is a working class man, you can tell this from the way he dresses and the house he lives in, for example he dresses smartly, he wears jeans with leather shoes and a shirt typical clothes of the working class average man. He also lives in a nice house that would typically be too expensive for lower class but not nice enough for upper class people. Carl's social class and status are also shown through the way he is portrayed by the camera angles, the camera is never very close to his face this is because his character is not an aggressive character and close ups of people tend to make the audience feel as though that character is aggressive and dangerous, and that's not how we want the audience to view Carl, Carl is kind and brave, he is only aggressive when he absolutely has to be. Also he is mostly shown in a mid shot style this is so the viewers/audience can fully see his attire and can see his mannerisms, to give them a good idea of his social class, and his mental state. 

Carl is portrayed as brave and kind both of these traits are traits you would expect to see from a police officer, like Carl. His kindness is shown through his willingness to return the package immediately after receiving it. His bravery is shown through the way in which he handled being kidnapped, although he was shaken up by the whole thing he showed bravery in the face of danger and stayed much calmer than your average man, showing the audience that he is brave and has most likely dealt with a lot of life threatening situations, which will match his characters profession later on in the film as police officers need these traits. We wanted to portray Carl in this way as we didn't want to make him any different from other stereotypical police officers, as the story of dream state is quite complex, and making the characters back story's too complex would have made the film harder to follow and would have risked losing the viewers attention. 

The other two characters are the antagonists of the story and are represented only through camera work and mise en scene, They are shown to belong to most likely the lower class. This is shown through there clothing and mannerisms for example they both are wearing hoodies, hoodies are stereotypically warn by lower class criminals, and so the audience make this assumption, this assumption is then strongly reinforced by the actions of the two characters as they kidnap and attempt to kill the protagonist. As well as this the camera work is closer to the faces of the antagonists and they are often shown to be in the way of the camera and therefore blocking the audiences view of whats going on, this is to reflect the ignorance and aggression of the two antagonists so the audience knows without a doubt what kind of people the antagonists are. 

Jordan Spencer Question 3

I think the kind of media institution to distribute our product would be a cinema because it is where films are distributed and shown, however over the time of the films release this would change, for example for the first few months it would be shown in cinema because it is a brand new film, and then after about 6 months of release it would be on DVD/ Blu- ray because then it is far from new in cinema and people may be thinking after 6 months of seeing the film that they want to re watch it and the only way to do that would be on DVD or Blu-ray, then after about a year of release i would say that streaming services such as NOW TV, Amazon Video and Netflix would be a way to watch the film because then companies such as these would want to buy it and it wouldn't be as expensive because it has been out for a while so they will have them on there website.

Jordan Spencer Question 2

Our media product (Dream State) our short thriller opening can represent multiple social groups, for example the main character, Carl is a character who is quite particular i see him as a formal adult who does good but can be stern at the same time, however being that he is a policeman he always does right and must be brave, and i think that this is represented through Mise en scene because he wears a shirt and smart trousers, he has smart hair and lives in a nice house, so this kind of character or social group is represented in a friendly, kind way. When it comes to camera techniques he is represented in a way that is quite friendly as there aren't many close ups and are all mid shots which isn't intimidating or seen as threatening to the audience or viewer, this is the same with the pace of the editing because the cuts are quite slow with easy to watch footage, and also the background music is slow and it also brings you to his side a little bit because you feel the build up as he does so it puts you in his shoes and makes you like him.

However the other character 'Victor' could actually be seen as the opposite as Carl, this is because Victor is represented completely different to him. Victor is a man who seeks revenge for what Carl did to his dad, so driven by that i think that he fits in quite a badly represented social group of druggies and criminals, and threatening people, such as Victor, he is shown this way through miss en scene because he wears a hood and talks with a southern London accent, he also looks like he has been in a fight with dirty clothes and a rough looking face. also when Victor comes into the film the first thing he does is put a hood over Carl and kidnaps him, which instantly makes the audience believe that he is a bad guy, and after that all his scenes are quite fast paced when it comes to editing and there is a lot of close ups on him which can be seen as quite intimidating to the viewer so its obvious that he is stereotypically the bad guy.

Power and status also comes into play because you could say that between the two characters Carl and Victor one, socially is more powerful because Carl is socially expectable because he's polite and well mannered and a kind person who people would like, while people like Victor may be looked down up with a lower class and bad morals people could disagree on the way they act so i think that Carl would have more power and a higher status which is clearly shown to the viewers.

Evaluation Q5 Samuel Storey Evans

Evaluation Q5
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience threw use of comprehensive camera work that created a piece that flowed from one scene to the next, this helped to attract the older market as they believe that it is a quality product and feel as though it will be a good film. As well as this we attracted our audience by creating a compelling story that would both intrigue our audience and hold our audiences attention. We did this by making sure the story was clever and filled with enigmas, this kept to the conventions of the genre of film we were making as well as keeping the audience interested and on the edge of there seats, we asked people what there thoughts on various storyboards in order to know which story would be best to go ahead with an intern which story would hold the viewers attention for the longest period of time whilst entertaining them and transporting them into another world through good editing, good camera work, and good actors, which all helped to make the piece flow. 

As well as this we chose a story that had a some what relatable main character, which helped to attract our target audience as they could get more engrossed and more attached to the story as it would feel like that could happen in real life to them or someone they know. 

                                                                                                                                                     

Evaluation Question 4 Samuel Storey Evans

Evaluation Q4

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

The audience for Dream State would be 15 year olds upwards, this is because the plot would be too complex for younger kids to understand as well as the visuals being potentially too graphic. 

Teens from 15 upwards stereotypically enjoy thriller films and films including action this therefore means that our film/media product is perfect for older teens, as well as this, Dream State has a slightly complicated plot which requires thought and this therefore makes it perfect for adults of all ages, this is because adults stereotypically like films that have complicated plots mixed with action, thus making our film/media product perfect for that demographic of people. 

We have attempted to aim our film at the biggest demographic of people possible so that if it was released more people would watch it and more profit would be made from it. 

However we made sure that we didn't make the product boring in order to hit such a diverse target market, as it would have been easy to either make things to complicated and fill it with too much action, and or to go the other way and make it not complicated enough and not fill it with enough action, one way we ensured that we didn't do this was to have other people of various ages watch the product during the editing phase, and tell us what they thought, this allowed us to improve the product accordingly and not fall into the trap of over or under exaggerating key traits of our product. 

Also we chose not to go for young kids as a part of our demographic, as it is very hard to make a film thrilling without using violence or graphic images, also in order to create an enigma around the plot you have to have a complex plot, that most young kids would not be able to follow and would therefore lose focus during the film, and this in turn wold ruin it for others around them as well as not enjoying the film themselves. Also the film would be made too boring for older viewers as they would be able to figure out the plot easily and would not be entertained by the action as it would have to be made appropriate for younger viewers. 

Example of the type of action scenes that would not be suitable for younger viewers 

In conclusion we have chosen a very large demographic of people but have ensured that we have not made the product so suitable to all that it is boring, we have been sure to choose the ages carefully to ensure they have similar interests and so they would entertained by the same type of content.  

Evaluation Q6 Samuel Storey Evans

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

We as a group improved our abilities in using the technology necessary to film our main task, we did this by researching the technology we were using e.g. Camera,Mic, final cut pro this in turn improved our ability to use the technology and in turn improved our final piece. 

                                                                                    

Here are some video clip's which go through all the details of what we learnt about the technology and how that helped to improve our final piece:

Tom Verco Question 1

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

In our media product we tried to use as much forms and conventions as possible. We used different camera techniques to create a felling of suspense and mystery for the audience, for example we used a range of different angles, shots and establishing shots. This created suspense as the establishing shot was a shot of an abandoned house. At the very beginning of our product we have a close up of our protagonist sleeping to then be woken by a knock at the door and this foreshadows something later on to happen. For the scene where our protagonist was sleeping we used low key lighting. 

in order to build tension throughout our thriller opening we researched a lot of thriller openings in order to get a good idea on what works well and what wouldn't work as well. We got moat of our ideas from the inception and mad max openings.

In our product we haven't got much dialogue until the end scene when our protagonist gets captured, this is because we wanted to build tension and suspense till the end. 

in the Inception opening the use of camera techniques the the uses of not much dialogue is what we tried to use to build tension throughout the opening, i like how in inception they use a lot of close ups so the audience can see how the character is felling and that is what we tried to incorporate into our opening. This also gets the audience to focus on one key moment and this is what we did with ours when our protagonist is waking up in bed.    

   

Tom Verco Question 7

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

I fell that i have learnt a lot from the preliminary task to now i have learnt how to use a camera properly also how to edit and different ways of incorporating sound into your piece. 

i have leant all the camera techniques from White Balance to the different shots and angles and how to get them right. 

When we started our prelim we didn't really know what the techniques for the camera was until we looked back at the footage and saw things differently to when we were filming. For example the white balance in one shot wasn't right and it made that scene look blue and from that moment on that was something that we made sure we got right.

The sound quality from our prelim task to our final product is so much better i think this is because we had a better understanding on how to use the microphone properly and how to pick up the best sound. on top of this we have also found so much better sound effects and background music to incorporate within our product. The sound made a massive difference as it build more tension and suspense as the non-diegetic sound was much better.

Our editing skills improved so much between the two and this is clearly shown when you watch the two videos. This is mainly down to the fact that for our prelim it was our first time using the editing software so we were not that familiar with it. So when it came to editing the main product we all knew what we were doing and we got the editing done a lot quicker, this made time for us to create a title sequence that with research we found out plays a big part within a thriller opening. This made our final product look that bit more professional.

Overall i think that our editing skills and film skills have improved so much from the start, and we now have a much wider understanding of all the techniques of filming and editing.      

Tom Verco Question 6

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

I fell that i have learnt a lot from the process of constructing this product for example i have learnt that there is more to cameras than i thought. Also that there is a lot more to editing than i thought there was, image editing and sound editing.

We had two people in our group that already knew a lot about cameras so we were half way there with knowing how they work but even they still had a lot to discover:

The main thing i fell that i have learnt about cameras is the framing and white balance if these are not right when you film then your final product will not be as good as it could of been, and if you get these wrong you can't really solve it with editing. The thing i learnt with framing is that for example if it is a 2 shot you have to make sure that both of the characters are in shot (obviously) but also that if one person is more in shot that the other that it can make that scene look a bit rubbish. The White balance on the camera is one of the most important as if the white balance is off then you whole scene will look odd. If your white balance is perfect them the shot should look the same to what it looks like when you are filming and this will make you footage look crisp and sharp and more professional I also learnt about zooming and how that can help you get all the different shots you want for example a close up or extreme close up.



When it came to editing the Product i learnt that there is a lot more to editing than i thought there was, you have sound editing and image editing.

The pace within our product does change is starts of slow then speeds us as tension build then when the dialogue kicks in its slow paced again and this would of been a challenge to do as we had to get it right and not have it to slow but not have it to fast or it would kill the tension and suspense.

Image editing is something that was new to me as continuity editing is something that you have to be aware off when editing. The continuity editing that you have are: 180 degree rule, Shot reverse shot, Eyeline match, Match on action, Cutaway, Cross cutting, Parallel cutting, Graphic match Post production and Overlapping editing. if you don't use any of these techniques then you final product won't look as good as it could have been. For example if you don't get the 180 degree rule right then it will just be confusing for the audience.

Showing the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. 

When it came to Sound editing it wasn't all that hard as all we really needed was some sound effect and some background music. When we were searching for some background music we used a few non copyright websites but the one we used the most was Soundcloud and this is a good website of you looking for original music. We also had to try and get the levels right so that when there was any dialogue the music wouldn't cut up any dialogue.  

We didn't really have to edit the dialogue as we connected a microphone to the camera so the picture and the sound were one that made our life a little easier.    

Evaluation Q7 Samuel Storey Evans

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

We have progressed massively since the prelim task in all fields/aspects of media. For example our ability to frame shots has improved considerably, we now know to follow key conventions of framing a shot, such as following the Rule Of Thirds. These conventions are key to making the work look professional and to ensure that the opening flows nicely and comfortably on the audiences eyes. 

Here are screenshots of the prelim task framing vs the final task's framing.

Prelim Framing

Final Task Framing

These screenshots clearly show both the increased ability to frame a shot competently, and the increased ability to find interesting locations to shoot in, so to hold the viewers attention. This is therefore proof of both better camera work in our final task compared to the prelim, and better mise-en-scene in that we spent more time thinking about the atmosphere we wanted to create, and picked locations and props that suited that atmosphere (mise-en-scene) in order to achieve making it were as in our prelim task we didn't do any of that we just shot in the most convenient location with the most convenient props.

Another way in which we have improved our film-making abilities since the prelim task is by improving our ability to capture and find good sound, and  by improving our abilities in the editing suite.

The sound quality within the final task is much better than the quality of the sound in the prelim, this is because we had a much better understanding of how to use the equitment this time around and so the sound quality was much higher and so helped to improve the quality of the video 10 fold. As well as this we managed to find much better sound effects and non-diegetic music to play in the background to fill silences. We improved so much as we were not happy with the sound quality in the prelim task and so researched how to use the sound equitment before hand to help improve the final outcome.

We improved our skills within the editing suite for the final task as we were not happy with the way the prelim flowed due to our poor editing skills, however we refined our editing skills to improve the flow and continuity of the final task, which in turn lead to an improved final video, as well as this the improved skills allowed us to free up time to make a much better and more professional title sequence, which with research we learned is a very important part of an opening to a thriller film, and so helped to boost the
overall Mise-en-scene of the opening as well as looking more professional.

In conclusion we have improved our film making skills massively since the preliminary task, We have improved in all fields of film making in order to boost/improve every aspect of our final task, we did this by researching other thriller films, and analysing what it was that made the top thriller films better than ours, and improving those areas, as well as this we spent a lot of time researching key technical techniques. 

Jordan Spencer's Question 7

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

I feel i have learned how to edit my work a lot better as in the preliminary task i did not know how to edit the film, however i now now how to edit the film and could make one on my own.

i have learnt how to use the camera better thanks to Sam as he has taught me how to use the camera and how important it is to use the white balance feature and to set up the the tripod properly. 

i have also learned that time management is important as during our final film we ended up running out of time and had to have a few more days to finish our work, however this can be fixed in the future.

Jordan Spencer's Question 6

Jordan Spencer's evaluation Question 1

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

My media product, Dream State, our film opening develops conventions of real media products like other horror film by working on the theme of suspense in he opening. for example we used to idea of suspense in our horror piece by having music in the background to help build up tension and suspense, the crescendo music built up throughout the first half of the piece and then when it was getting closer to the part when Toms character gets kidnapped the music gets a lot faster and then comes to a stop and this makes the audience or viewer feel on edge because the beat of the music may pull them in and get them to feel like they're part of it. So, if i was to put our horror film against another like Mad Max: Fury Road, then you could say that we developed the convention of suspense because Mad Max's opening also includes the music build up too.

Another convention that i think we challenged was the use of enigma and mystery this is because there wasn't a lot that followed through the film other then the parcel and the idea that the audience don't know what it is or who it belongs to but other then that we didn't really include it or make the enigma a huge part of our opening and we focused more on the idea of suspense and being in the edge throughout the film, however a lot of thriller film openings do include enigma, like '10 Cloverfield Lane' for example, this has a lot of enigma because it starts off with the world ending and actually plays with the idea of mystery throughout the whole film as you wonder who in Hank and why is he keeping them in this bunker. so i think this is how we challenged the conventions of a thriller as we didn't really use much enigma like most do.