Saddef Anwar: Evaluation - Question Six

Saddef Anwar: Evaluation - Question Five

5. How did you attract/address your audience 

The use of psychological suspense and isolation is explored deeply within my media peace, attracting mainstream audiences.

We also tried to look at audience pleasures and incorporate them in our media product, we wanted to use consistent suspense and tension throughout our thriller, alongside many other conventional pleasures, such as gaining a thrill, being mislead, a sense of fear, and allowing the audience to engage and with the film and uncover clues working out the mystery alongside the main protagonist.

 

Saddef Anwar : Evaluation - Question Four

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

 

My Audience Research suggests that the main aspect of a thriller is suspense, without suspense a film cannot be called a thriller, this is because the idea of the film 'thrilling' the audience is through the suspense that holds the audience at end. However, our respondents also told us that without a good narrative, the suspense is meaningless. Suspense only works in a film due to is storyline, if it is clichéd and simple, it is very hard to include suspense, and even if we do, it may not be as effective. Other respondents also told us that without a good setting and characters, including suspense is very difficult. This is because good actors are required to take on these roles, for example, if an actor fails to act out something correctly, the audience will lose interest and get bored. Also intriguing settings are also a key aspect of showing suspense, and also using the setting wisely and unexpectedly.

 

Due to this our media product fits into a much broader audience because even though the characters may appeal to a certain audience, the actual storyline may appeal to others, therefore attracting a wider audience consumption. Our film is aimed mainly at 15+, however, it may attract fans of films such as Memento.

Saddef Anwar: Evaluation -Question three

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

 

I believe that my media product is very independent with some aspects of mainstream and therefore it will have low production values. Due to this it distribution is pretty difficult because a distributor is very difficult. Our media product may have to be released at local film festivals and wait for distribution companies take interest in putting the product out in the cinemas. We have also used generic stereotypes of the 'damsel in distress', despite our protagonist being the lead, she is still in need of support, she is shown as being stressed and passive like most conventional victims.

 

My Media product would best suit Lionsgate as being the best distributor. In the film industry so far it is one of the most commercially successful independent film distribution company located in the North of America. Though our product hits some mainstream conventions whereas the rest are niche, Lionsgate may work well since it is independent, yet its success will target a wider audience and may almost target mainstream audiences too. 

 

 

Liongates success is evident due to their revenues increasing within the last ten years to $1.6 billion.

 They’ve recently distributed a new phenomenon ‘The Hunger Games’, a big budget mainstream film which set the record for the third best opening weekend box office sales of any movie. They clearly have success with their films, which is why they would be the perfect distributor for our film in order for it to reach mainstream cinemas globally. following its great success, 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' is yet to be released.

 

 

 

 

 

Saddef Anwar : Evaluation : Question two

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

 

 

So what are the stereotypes of Muslim Women? Hanah Awwad talks about this In one of her YouTube videos whilst tacking prejudice and discrimination.

Our media product projects a Muslim girl as being responsible and independent which is typical stereotype of Muslim women, however, after about the first five minutes of the film we can see that this stereotypical women has started to evolve and start to subvert her own stereotype by becoming irresponsible and dependent on the western society.

 

Mise En Scene is one of the key concepts that we focused on most when creating this character. we looked at the codes of clothing along side the colour of them. We even played a close attention to accessories. For example the protagonist is shown to be wearing a ring with the Arabic calligraphy on it, however, it has a bit of blood on it, reinforcing the idea that the equilibrium is lost and that something is about to go wrong.

 

Saddef Anwar : Evaluation - Question one

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

After our product research on Thriller openings and analysing thriller conventions, we used our results to help us engage with our audience using presentation of the conventions.

We used the formal conventions for our title sequence which included using a few production logos and incorporating names for the credits. We used big bold lettering for our title with the colour scheme white on black. These colours not only look effective, but imply the distinction between link and dark, reflecting on good vs. evil. We times our 'smash' transition on our title to reinforce the sound of the crash of the car accident and evidently makes it look more effective.

 

 

Using our product research we further decided on props and locations for our thriller opening.

 

  The isolated setting that we used for our hospital room is conventional of Thriller openings as isolation provokes mystery, it is also used to show the distinction between them and society, this is done by showing them in solitude. The use of a hospital room reinforces the psychological aspect of our thriller opening. The use of a hospital room is also shown in the film Unknown who's protagonist is also in a search for finding there own memory.

 

we used a variety of different equipment and editing techniques in our piece for different effects.

 

 

we used camera movement such as zoom for when our lead protagonist is lying on the road. we used this technique to help the audience focus upon her. We were inspired in doing such due to the zoom used in The Broken.

 

 

 

Our media product looks at the story of a young Muslim girl who damages a part of her brain called the hypo campus which therefore does not allow her to make any new memories. This has also been used in the film Memento.

 

The use of flashbacks suggest the importance of memory for the protagonist. The audience automatically realises that the protagonist has lost her ability to make new memories due to the big bandage on her head and the term 'damaged hypo campus' written on her hospital application form. The high pitched eerie sound used throughout the clip emphasises on the mystery and adds a tone of suspense. The isolation in the hospital room foreshadows her separation from society further on in the movie. The use of the 'Adhan' at the beginning automatically shows the audience that the film is not mainstream and targets the Muslim society and the lives of a girl evolving around the religion of Islam

 

 

 

A young Muslim girl who originates from a strict upbringing walks out from the mosque after offering her prayers, she is shown to be walking alone in a busy street. This identifies her independent personality, and her distinction from the western society and her Islamic morals. She is dressed in white and black, the white highlights her innocence whereas the black foreshadows the darkness that will consume her later on in the film.

 

 

The use of dreams and flashbacks work well when presenting the theme of memory which is very conventional in many psychological thrillers such as Unknown and Memento.

Unknown uses a similar sequence to our opening sequence with the crash, followed by the hospital scene and the idea of flashbacks occurring through dreams.

 

Using a female as the lead, and her not being white, subverts the typical conventions of a thriller film, or in fact, any film. However, this helps us to establish a niche audience for our film, meaning that our film would be made by an independent production company.

Elaine Allotey Evaluation Question 6 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Elaine Allotey Evaluation Question 5 How did you attract/address your audience?

As my opening would have a 15+ certification, there are limitations in how far I can go with content such as sexuality, strong language and violence. Below are the guidelines :

 

We had to abide by the BBFC rules for 15+ classification in order to produce our opening sequnece.

Below is an annotated video of how I tried to target the audience:

This video highlights parts where we tried to target the audience and links with the BBFC classications for a rated 15 movie.

Elaine Allotey evaluation Question 4 Who would be the audience for your media product?

In order to find out and investigate the target audience and age certification, we carried out a questionnaire to ask people about their ages and the different conventions they liked in films which we incorporated in our films once we came to conclusion about who the target audience was.

 

We collated the results and came to a conclusion that the target audience for our opening was 15.

 

 

 

 

This meant that there had to be minimal use of violence, drug use and sexual content in our opening.

 

 

One limitation was the fact that we distributed the questionnaire in our school mostly to the students which meant that we didn't get varied responses to make an opening which is 18+.

 

 

We also gathered from our questionnaire that our opening would be a niche product target young Muslims girls as they are able to relate to what is happening and might not target all Muslim women as the older generations whether Muslim or not are seen as very traditional.