Evaluation - How Effective is the Combination of your Main Product and Ancillary Texts

Final Product - Way Back Then

Settings and Locations

Throughout our Short Film, there will be alot of different scenery and an often change of location to create a certain atmosphere that represents our film. A major location that will be represented in alot of our short film is South Weald Country Park. The location is surrounded by a forest of beautiful flowers and trees that co-exist with each other to form an atmosphere that is somewhat untouched and disreguarded by the hands and tools of human beings. This atmosphere is perfect for a number of the scenes in our film because of the fact that it works well with the two characters that are in love and helps set that calm and romantic atmosphere without the need of dialogue or music. Although music will be used to add to the effect, South Weald is the perfect setting for parts of our film for the simple reason that it is an isolated country park that will show our loving couple alone in love with little interest or needs from the outside world.

Another Location where we will be filming is Southend-on-sea. We have chosen the beach in Southend because of the fact that is well known for its peer, and also because of the murky water that makes up the sea. Although a murky beach would usually be an unsuitable place to make a film, in the context of our short film it is very effective in setting the atmosphere and the mood represented by our charcter in the chosen scenes that we are filming down there. Our main character is represented in many of the scenes as being very miserable and upset because of the loss of his wife. This mood is captured very effectively by the beach because of how the cold winter day, shows the viewer of how a once prosperous and warm beach in the summer time is now very lonely and desserted just like the character in our film.

Costa coffee located in Shenfield is also one of our chosen locations because of how it is a very normal and common place where people go to socialise. We use the coffee shop to stage a place where our couple first meet and lay eyes on each other. It is very effective for our thriller because of how it makes the story seem more realistic and believable because of how it is such a normal place for two people to meet. This is very important because of how the viewers can relate to what is happening.

St Mary's graveyard is one of the chosen locations for our film for a variety of different reasons. One of the reasons is because of how it is where our main characters wife is buried. Another reason is because of how it is a very well kept graveyard with well trimmed bushes and plants all around. This is important because it leads the viewer to believe that our main character loved his wife very much and made sure she was buried in a garden surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees.

Questionnaire

We decided as a group to come up with a questionnaire in order to gain a greater understanding of how short films are perceived outside of media students. Short films aren’t watched by the majority of the general public so this questionnaire will help decide what a general audience’s view is to making a successful short film. By understanding what the general audience want from a short film we can make our short film more accessible and interesting for the casual viewer.

Demographics

Demographics, is the term used to describe the different levels of classes in society. Demographics are often associated with the film industry because of how it helps determine what the overall target audience is. An example of this is the film pride and prejudice. Although this is enjoyed by many different classes in society, it could be said to be targeted at the upper class because of the traditional British accents and the lifestyles that these characters are said to live. This is a prime example of demographics being involved in films.


The levels of classes are often described in a method called the social ladder. This so called ladder describes the people who live within society and puts them in an order relating to their wealth and standard of living.


A- Stands for the upper middle class. A class associated with the rich and often famous. They are placed at the top of the social ladder because of how they have a very high standard of living. The social ladder is also used for political reasons. A class citizens are often targeted by Political parties because of how their wealth, can be of great help to a party fighting to become the ruling party. This method of Politics is often used at the time of an election because of how advertisements can be very expensive to run.


B- Stands for the middle class. Traditional stereotypes of the middle class are often seen as well educated people who act in a proper and respectful way to make themselves seem more upper class. Although the middle class do not experience the same standard of living compared to the upper middle, they share the same values and opinions and also the same work ethic. This makes them relatively upper class, with their values and views on behaviour but their net worth is what puts them in a different category.


C1- This represents the lower middle class. The lower middle class are often represented as being exactly in the middle of the social ladder. They are wealthy enough to sustain a comfortable and economically stable life with their wages which they make holding careers in fields such as junior management, roles in administration and supervisory.


C2- Stands for the skilled working class. A definition of a skilled worker is someone who has required over time a special set of skills. These skills are often associated with jobs in certain trades such as plumbers and electricians but they are also associated with jobs in building and construction. The standard wages of the skilled working class are varied because of how they are jobs that reward you for your hard work. The more work you put in the more money you earn, this is very true in plumbing for example because of how each different plumbing job earns a different wage, meaning that the more jobs you complete the more money you get.

D- Represents the working class. People who fit into this group are often part time workers who recieve a very low level of income. They have little or no qualifications and are often employed for jobs in manual labour. A large number of the working class are young people who have come out of school at the age of sixteen or above and have applied for work wherever they can. They start out with no experience and few qualifications and are used as manual labour until they have more to offer.

E- Represents the lowest level of subsistence. They are people who are unemployed or work part time and live their lives unsupported. They are often state pensioners and widows. Unieversity students can also be put into this category because of how they dont recieve an income but are often left out because of their prospects in the years after University.

Evaluation of As Blog

Throughout year 12, our group had to carry out a large amount of research. Research that ranged from finding pictures on the internet to studying in detail films and programmes that related to our thriller. This Research would then be added onto the blog. Some of our research was very easy to add to the blog such as pictures and videos. We would download them from google and them move them to the blog. Other pieces of research such as finding out about related films and studying certain thrilling charcters was alot harder to blog. This led the group to the decision that for tricky pieces of research we would write into a small evaluation and post onto the blog. This made it easier for us to record all of our research which meant that the Blog was full of interesting and important information.

Throughout the planning of our thriller we were asked to make a textual analysis on a number of different thrillers. Our chosen thrillers consisted of the films se7en, Casino Royale and Cape Fear. These textual anlysis were key to our group achieving top marks. We knew this straight away because of the detail that was needed in each analysis and how important it was for us to gather an understanding of what a thriller should be and how they should be portrayed. This knowledge that we gathered from the analysis of the films played an important role in the filming of the thriller and helped us create the mood and atmosphere that made our thriller so successful.

One thing we learnt from year 12 and something we have a fair bit of experience in are Storyboards. We understand fully the importance of Storyboards because of how they were a big factor in the success of our thriller. We have just recently finished our stroryboards and being one of the earliest groups to have finished it gave us the time to re-do the storyboards on coloured sugarpaper with exact drawings and a clearer evaluation of each scene. This made the stroyboards more attractive and encouraged us to take a picture and post it on the blog. This gave the blog a splash of colour which made it stand it out compared to the pother blogs that we had previously written.

An important part of making any thriller is finding out your target Audience so you know exactly how you should carry out your advertising campaign. The target audience for our thriller was at first very tricky to make a decision. This was due to the fact that thriller's are often very clever films which are aimed to thrill the watcher. For this reason we were sure that are target Audience was eighteen years and above until our teacher at the time opened our eyes to the fact that all the characters in the film were under eighteen, meaning that this would attract other people under the age of eighteen to watch the film.

When it came to the layout of the blog, our group had a good understanding of how different media forms such as powerpoints, videos, pictures etc were the key way of gaining marks when it came to presentation. We used a huge variety of these different media forms in the blog not just for presentation purposes but also because of how it makes it more interesting for people to read. Pages and pages of text would of made the blog not just boring and tedious for the reader but also for us, the different powerpoints and videos we created made the whole experience alot more fun.

The organistaion of our blog was also very important when it came to achieving the higher grades. This was because of how the blogs had to fit into a certain order so the examiner would find it easier to track our progress throughout our time in Year 12. This made it possible for the examiner not just to mark our work, but also to mark us on how well we improved throughout the year. The technique that we used to make sure the blogs were in the right order was very simple, we kept track of the dates that we finished our blogs and then added them to the blog so that they kept a very precise and correct order. This also made the clarity and structure of the Blog very successful. It made the blog very easy to understand and also made it more interesting for the reader because all the blogs linked together. This made it very similar to a book in some ways because of how it made the reader want to read on.

All the credit for the balance of the blog goes to our teacher at the time, Mr Sheriff. He gave us a set of clear guidelines to make sure that we constantly mixed the blog up. An example of this is, when you look at our blog, it is very rare to see two of the same media forms one after the other. This was because of how Mr Sheriff drilled it into us that by using too much of one media form, for instance using only powerpoints to conduct our work, was a certain way of showing the examiner that we had little knowledge of the different media forms that could have been used throughout the blog.

You can probably tell from the way I have described our Blog, we were very happy with the way it went and the work that each member of the group put towards it. We stuck to the strict guidelines set by our teacher adding at times glints of our own humour and personalities making the blog a little bit lighter. Although the Blog was successful, there are still parts of it that could have been improved. We aimed to achieve the highest amount of Blogs compared to all the other groups in our class but we failed to do that because of how we lost our rythm towards the middle of the year. This is something that needs to be improved so our new blog that we are making this year can be even better than the one created last year

Evaluation of making our AS Thriller

Year 12 was a very long and interesting year especially when it came to our media class. We were asked for our coursework to create a thriller. There are many things that we learned from making our thriller, most importantly in my opinion was learning which jobs suited each member of the group for example we learned as soon as we started editing our film that lawrence was the best editor in the group because of how he had a great understanding of how the process worked and that matthew was the actor of the group because of his love for being dramatic. The information we learned about each other was so important because it gives us a head start in making our new film this year because we know exactly what we should be doing and how to do it.


Although our thriller was marked as an A which we were very pleased with, there are still many places we could have improved. There were a few shots in our thriller that consisted of our cameraman being in the reflection of windows and in one case the reflection of the car door. Although this was an accident, it insinuates that we were clumsy in our filming and did not plan it out clearly enough. This is a minor detail in the success of our film but without correcting these mistakes we will never improve. Another angle that we could have improved was our filming schedule. On a few occasions there were mix ups with what days we were filming which caused small but uneccesary arguments amoungst the group, it is important that we fix this throughout year 13 so we can work to the best of our ability without these problems arrising.


The small and insignifiacnt negatives in our thriller from year 12 were without a doubt overshadowed by the positives. Our thriller received an A from the examiners because of our hard work and our deep understanding of what our teacher had told us. We knew how important it was for the examiners to see that we had an understanding of the cinematography and mis en scene that was needed in the thriller so we decided as a group that we would make sure that we used them when possible. The cinematography consisted of things such as continuity editing which makes the thriller seem more realistic and helps the viewer understand what is happening. We also took alot of care in our mis en scene and made sure that the costumes worn would represent the characters in the best possible way, this also made the thriller seem more realistic.


Another reason why our thriller was so successful was because of the planning that went into the storyboards. There were very few occasions where we went to film and were confused at what parts of the film we were supposed to be filming. This meant that the filming of the thriller went very smoothly and lacked any major problems that could have wasted our time or the film time on our tape. The storyboards were planned so productively because of how we used our lessons in school to get together and discuss the exact routine of the shots and which order thay had to go in. Our thriller was also successful because of the way we carried out each scene with the correct preporation and took one scene at a time so we could keep track of where we were on the storyboards. One scene that our group was very proud of was where our antagonist was dragging our victim down a dark and lonely corridor. This scene worked well because of how the corridor had very low key lighting, this set the mood and also built up to the climax of the detectives finding the blood in the sink. The scene also worked well because of the music that we used. The slow beat of the drums which had very little rythm worked with the scene in the way that it was very unpredictable and left the viewer guessing. The mis en scene was also very important in the scene, the dark clothing of the detectives gave the scene a dark vibe and also made the scene seem more serious.

Evaluation of As Thriller