Evaluation Question 1 by Ollie and Sam

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

In a horror or psychological thriller film the conventions of opening sequences are credits with scary fonts and dark colours. In horror and psychological thrillers, the opening scene often dives straight into the action with a crime scene or a mysterious scene, such as the classic thriller 'Jaws'. This often creates enigma codes for the audience as psychological thrillers and a horror will often draw in the audience’s engagement and gives them questions they want answering. In comedy films, the opening sequence often begins by giving the audience a brief insight of what the characters are like, often emphasising their personalities. For example in 'The Inbetweeners 2' the characters are expressed to the audience as freaks with no friends when the turn up t a normal party wearing fancy dress. In the opening sequence you also hear all the characters personalities, which gives audiences first impressions on the characters.

What was conventional to a psychological thriller in our film?

The location we used was a dark attic. This is conventional to a psychological thriller because it is often where the psycho keeps their prisoner in hostage.

We used blood and wounds. This is conventional to a psychological thriller because directors often like using images to make the audience feel sympathetically towards the character, for example case 39 when the parents are burning her in the oven.

The choice of music we used was very gloomy and dark. We used this when the antagonist was following the 'princess and prize' home to emphasise the fact that something bad about to happen and to make it clear to the audience she is being followed. This is conventional because directors and composers often like to use scarcely and psychotic music in psychological thrillers to highlight the psycho or villains thoughts and feelings.

The camera shots we used were conventional to our genre of a psychological thriller. We used shots such as extreme close ups to highlight the victims wounds and bruises, and to create moral panic for the audience using a scary atmosphere. This is also used in classics such as the first 'Saw' film when the main character is stuck in the bathroom. 

The identity of the protagonist was not shown in the opening sequence. This is conventional because in psychological thriller films, the psycho tends not to be identified in the opening sequence to engage the audience and ensure they keep watching to find out the identity.

We started off with the title at the end of the opening sequence.

What was unconventional to a psychological thriller in our film?

We didn't show any violence towards the 'prize' kept in hostage. This is unconventional because in psychological thriller films, we normally see something happen to her in the opening scene. For example in 'Jaws' we see the girl get attacked and killed by the shark.

Showing jump cuts of the girl getting ready in the opening sequence is unconventional because it didn't really relate to the previous scene.

In a lot of psychological thriller films, they follow Todorovs narrative theory, starting with the Equilibrium before moving onto the disruption. However we challenge this theory by starting with the disruption and then moving to a flashback and going to the Equilibrium.

We used unconventional camera shots such as zoom. This is unconventional because jump cuts are normally used instead of them. However as we were using a phone we wanted to represent who was messaging whilst making it clear what the message was. 

The title was named at the end of the opening sequence rather than the start. This is unconventional because in psychological thrillers they present the title at the start. Instead, there is normally a black out before moving on to the next scene.

Evaluation Question 3 By Esme and Sophie

How Did We Attract/Address Our Audience? Evaluation Question 5 By Esme

In order to know if our planned audience liked our idea and if we chose the right target audience we conducted a questionnaire based on our initial idea.

• It really helped us get an idea of what the audience would think about our idea and if we had produced an idea that would attract the audience we intended on attracting. We asked them questions to do with themselves and what they thought of our initial idea for 'Concealed'. 

• When looking at the results we noticed that all the people we asked like our idea for the film opening. They liked the idea of Damien being obsessed with Anastasia and that he wants her all to himself, so goes to drastic measure in order to have her.

• They liked the fact that antagonist's identity is kept hidden for a little while, they felt it would be more engaging and it would encourage them to figure it out for themselves. Also they would feel like they want to keep watching to find the answers to all their questions.

• They really praised the flash forward idea. They felt it would instantly grad their attention if the film went straight into action.

• The younger audience that we asked said that they like the fact that the film is based entirely on teenagers. They thought it would make it more exciting and that they would be able to connect with the characters a whole lot more.

Our opening sequence slightly goes against Todorov's narrative theory because it starts with the flash forward into the 'Disruption' stage of the plot, our plot is non-linear. It will engage the audience immediately because it is not what they are used to. They are used to starting a film with an introduction to the characters and their lives etc. However 'Concealed' s unconventional beginning will intrigue our target audience because it is unusually and not often seen in films. It also instantly throws them into the deep end. They are introduced to drama straight away, but have no clue as to what is going on, so their mind will be engaged as they try to figure out what is going on and make sense of the plot.

The hidden identity of the antagonist will also highly engage the audience. It is very clear from the costume and the angles that the antagonist is shown in that he is a bad character rather than a good character. However they do not see his face or have any hints as to who he is. It will encourage them to keep watching because they would've seen Anastasia and what is happening to her, however they will not know who is doing it or why they're doing it. So they will keep watching so that they can get the answers to their questions, it will also give them a sense of pleasure because as the film progresses they would get more action codes to give them an idea of the antagonist's identity, so they will start making their own predictions. If they predict the right identity then they we'll start to feel clever and will provide them with that sense of achievement, which according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs will give them a boost in 'Self-Esteem'.

The main character: Anastasia was purposely constructed to fit in with our target audience, we really wanted to create a likable and relatible character that the audience can connect with and build a relationship with. We used close-ups and extreme close-ups to really emphasise how she is feeling to position the audience to connect with her emotions and feel a large amount of sympathy for her. As the audience are  given the chance to connect with Anastasia within the first minute of the film they will instantly start to build a relationship with her character, causing them to want to watch more because they can see in the beginning that she is in trouble and they will want to know that she ends up happy in order to gain a sense of catharsis.

When looking at Blumler and Katz uses and gratifications theory, 'Concealed' will provide entertainment to the audience. The audience will be entertained by all the events that take place in the film and also by the tense wait of finding out if Anastasia will escape. During the equilibrium the audience may be provided with 'escape' because of the romance between Anastasia and Dylan. They may not have any romance in their life so the relationship between the two characters will provide this sense escape for the audience because they will feel romantic.

When showed our end product our audience said that:

• They really liked the used of extreme close-ups and close-ups of Anastasia 
• Generally their favourite shot was the point of view shot of Damien walking towards them - they felt it provided them with a sense of realism and they felt like they were in Anastasia's shoes.
• The end shot on the street was highly praised - they felt it really created tension because even more of the antagonist was revealed to them but they still had no idea what their identity was.
• The voice mails impressed them, they thought it sounded really realistic and the fact that at first it was a blank screen whilst they were playing really built up tension.

Evaluation Question 6: What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Product? By Esme

Who is our Audience for Our Opening Sequence? Evaluation Question 4 By Esme

Who Is Our Target Audience?

The main target audience for 'Concealed' will be aged 17-28. This is because the all the main characters are of young ages, the audience may therefore empathise with the characters because they are young like them and may have similar interests or personalities to the characters.

The fact that the main character is a female will create more of an attraction to young girls. Not only that, but stereotypically girls are more emotional and the film, being a psychological thriller conflicts the mind. Also there are some elements of romance again appealing to a girl target audience. Males will be the secondary audience because they will be attracted to the small element of action, as the dominant ideology of males is that they are more physical than women and also more aggressive.

The social demographic of our primary audience will be students who fall into the 'E' group. This group will be the main target audience down to the fact that the main characters are students and they are at a similar age to the audience.

The audience will be extremely sociable, popular and like going out with their friends, just like Anastasia and Dylan because again the audience will like the main characters instantly as they can see that the characters are like them and relate to them. Not only that but it also instant creates dislike for the antagonist. The antagonist has the complete opposite personality and is very socially awkward and distant from others. Therefore the audience will find him very weird from the beginning, this action code will also suspect that he is the antagonist.

According to Young and Rubicam's audience type theory, the primary audience will be 'The Mainstreamers' as they will be teenagers that like being part of a group and like to fit in. It could also attract the group The 'Aspirers'. This is because our audience like the main characters want high status and have high status. They consider themselves to be liked or known by a lot of people and care about what people think. Although the characters are not like this, their group of friends are and the stereotypical popular group in school are very materialistic and care about what everyone think.

When looking at Blumler and Katz uses and gratifications theory, 'Concealed' will provide entertainment to the audience. The audience will be entertained by all the events that take place in the film and also by the tense wait of finding out if Anastasia will escape. During the equilibrium the audience may be provided with 'escape' because of the romance between Anastasia and Dylan. They may not have any romance in their life so the relationship between the two characters will provide this sense escape for the audience because they will feel romantic.

They may enjoy films in the thriller and horror genre, films such as:

'Saw'
The fact the characters are kidnapped is similar to the plot of 'Concealed', also they are then tortured. Anastasia isn't exactly tortured, however she does constantly have violence inflicted on her. Both our film and 'Saw' feature violence and action. Perhaps this film applies more for the secondary audience of males.

'Hard Candy' The main character is also a young girl, she is younger than Anastasia. In this film she gains dominance and tortures an older man after accusing him of being a pedophile. The primary audience of females could enjoy this because of the fact that the female character is taking the lead, therefore rejecting the common convention in media products of men being at the top of the social hierarchy and women being at the bottom.

'Se7en'
 Similar in the sense that the antagonist's identity remains unknown for a lot of the film, engaging their minds more and encouraging them to become an active audience and try and figure out who the antagonist is.

Audience Research

In order to know if our planned audience liked our idea and if we chose the right target audience we conducted a questionnaire based on our initial idea.

• It really helped us get an idea of what the audience would think about our idea and if we had produced an idea that would attract the audience we intended on attracting. We asked them questions to do with themselves and what they thought of our initial idea for 'Concealed'. 

• When looking at the results we noticed that all the people we asked like our idea for the film opening. They liked the idea of Damien being obsessed with Anastasia and that he wants her all to himself, so goes to drastic measure in order to have her.

• They liked the fact that antagonist's identity is kept hidden for a little while, they felt it would be more engaging and it would encourage them to figure it out for themselves. Also they would feel like they want to keep watching to find the answers to all their questions.

• They really praised the flash forward idea. They felt it would instantly grad their attention if the film went straight into action.

• The younger audience that we asked said that they like the fact that the film is based entirely on teenagers. They thought it would make it more exciting and that they would be able to connect with the characters a whole lot more.

We also did some research on the conventional target audience for thrillers. We found out that:

• The age is usually older, so 18+. Purely because there is a lot of violence involved and the characters can possess some serious psychological problems, which younger viewers may find scary or disturbing.

• There is usually not a specific gender that is targeted because of the varying characters, both genders have someone they can relate to. 

• Generally this genre has quite a widespread audience because there are many Thriller sub-genres. Although Psychological Thriller is one of them, audiences who enjoy one sub-genre of Thriller will usually like another.

Script for Directors Commentary Evaluation Question 2 By Whole Group

How Does 'Concealed' Represent Particular Social Groups?

Ollie: Hi! Today me, Sophie, Sam and Esme have gathered to discuss representation of social groups in our new film opening: 'Concealed'. Sophie we'll start with you.

Sophie: The only social group really shown in our sequence is teenagers. All of our main characters fall into this group. The fact that we don't have any adult main characters, supports the ideology that teenagers isolate themselves from adults and the two lead quite separate lives. 

Esme: Also indicating that teenagers like to keep things to themselves and keep their lives quite private from their parents or any adults for that matter.

Sam: Teenagers are represented as quite threatening too. Damien is a prime example of how society views teenagers. Like they're dangerous and violent. 

Sophie: In terms of gender, predominantly people view society as very patriarchal.

Ollie: We really wanted to take advantage of this dominant ideology. So we make sure we really communicated this hierarchy. The plot alone supports it. 

Sam: Laura Mulvey believed that women are often objectified in the media, Anastasia's role supports this idea. Due to the fact that she would be classed as 'The Princess'. 

Esme: Propp's character theory identifies the different roles that are often given to characters. The fact that Anastasia holds the princess role it supports the conventions of women being objectified by men. 

Ollie: Both the male characters are fighting for her to be theirs. Like she is a prize. 

Sophie: We also used a high angle shot when Anastasia and Damien are first shown together on screen to show that he is in control of her. He possesses dominance.

Sam: Dylan is the one to save Anastasia so it makes females out to be incapable of looking after themselves and like they need a man to protect them.

Ollie: To make Anastasia seem like a conventional teenage girl, we dressed her in a very westernized costume and she fits in with today's fashion trends, as you can see in the last reverse zoom shot she is wears popular brands like Adidas. We decided to follow the idea then teenagers are quite often seen as homogenous.

Esme: It shows that like most teenagers or like the stereotypical teenager, she wants to fit in by wearing the latest fashion and wearing well known brands.

Sophie: Also in the zoom shot of Anastasia in bed you can see that the first thing she does when she wakes up is go on her phone. Like its the most important thing for her to do when she wakes up.

Sam: It supports the ideology of teenagers being consumed by technology and social media.

Ollie: We used two over the shoulder shots of Anastasia looking in the mirror, which supported the idea that teenagers are obsessed with their appearence and that they are vain.

Esme: We dressed Damien in all dark colours to show the audience that he is the antagonist.

Sam: As his identity isn't revealed we didn't really do much else to represent him in a certain way other than using different shots and angles.

Sophie: In the wide shot angle of him and Anastasia walking down the street he looks a lot bigger than her, which shows his dominance.

Ollie: We also created this show of dominance in the over the shoulder, high angle shot of him looking at Anastasia. He again looks a lot bigger than her.

Esme: In the POV shot, half of his body isn't in it which could suggest to the audience that he is in a different world to Anastasia or conventional teenagers.

Sam: Which foreshadows to the audience that he keeps himself to himself, it is only until later on in the plot that the audience would find out that he suffers with the psychological disease: Schizophrenia.

Sophie: We wanted to represent Anastasia as a conventional teenage character so that the audience can relate to her and connect with her. They will be able to understand her so much more and may even see qualities they possess in her.

Ollie: It is a key factor in creating a likeable character, which we wanted in her because she is the main character. They will be able to empathise with her a whole lot more because if they like her they will begin to feel everything she feels and will begin to want her to return to her normal life.

Esme: Damien is made to be an unconventional character because it will bring more shock to him, which we wanted the audience to feel. It will make the wait for the revealing of his identity highly tense.

Sophie: The audience will feel shocked at the fact that a young boy could be capable of such things. Usually adult males are used as the antagonist.

Sam: It just really emphasises how much power and dominance he has, because he is only young but still manages to do everything that he does.

Ollie: And that is how our media product represents particular social groups, thankyou for listening! 

     

How Have I Improved From The Preliminary Material to The Full Product of ( Evaluation Question 7 By Esme)