1. My Evaluation
In this evaluation I will answer a variety of questions about mine and my
teams (Woodland Productions) final media product called ‘Left Behind’. I
will look at what I feel I have learnt throughout the process of producing our
media feature, including technical skills.
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

2. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in
the progression of it to the full product?
I have learnt a range of things from the process of constructing our full product from our preliminary task.
Each section of the construction taught me something different.
Research and Planning section
In the research and planning section of the our media project we had to research a variety of films which
could influence ideas in our own media product. We also had to research the 4 audience theories which are
The Hypodermic Needle Model, Two – Step Flow, Uses and Gratifications and Reception Theory. These
helped me to see how an audience receives, reads and responds to a media product.
After researching a variety of films and techniques used in them we had to plan our own media product, we
done this by planning out a story board. Even though I feel that I have learnt how to plan out ideas, I still feel
I could improve on this because we ended up having to change our story board completely, I have to learn to
think about things that we can do not what I want to e.g. putting titles on the road signs (which we had
planned to do). Also by researching and learning about the BBFC rating helped me and my group when we
had to give our media product a rating.
Constructing section
In our construction section we had to learn about the cameras and its features, this was quite
easy however I still learnt how to use it and film our media product with it. In the preliminary
task we didn’t have long to explore the cameras so having time to look at what it did and how
we could use it was useful.
I also learnt that technology has its limitations because when we were filming one of scenes
it was a windy day and the camera was moving around on the tripod which didn’t make it a
steady shot so we couldn’t use it. We also had to be very organized and good at time
keeping because we had to follow filming schedules as we only had a certain time to film.
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

3. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to
the full product?
Editing Section
I learnt a lot in the editing section, in the preliminary task we got to look around the editing software –
which is Adobe Premier Pro – and I learnt a few bits however in the full product we were able to explore
it more and see what editing styles were best for our media product. I learnt about the video transitions
and video effects (e.g. dip to black, brightness and contrast).
I also learnt about the limitations of technology, when we came to looking at our shots on the computer
we noticed that some of the shots that we had taken had some wind and car noise in the shot, and we
couldn’t take it out so we weren’t able to use the shot in our media product.
Feedback section
In your feedback section I learnt how much this section can help with the finally media product, it was
really interesting to see how our audience read and reacted to our product and it really helped us with
producing our final media product. By making sure we do this market research/ feedback we can make
sure that our media product is what our target audience want to see.
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

4. What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our media film uses a lot of similar features as films such as ‘Cloverfield’ and ‘The Blair Witch
Project’ like the hand held camera shots and the cast we have used within our film.
Pathé is a distribution company – run
by the Pathé Brothers - which
distributed The Blair Witch Project; they
Cloverfield have also distributed other films similar The Blair Witch Project
to ours such as In The Cut, so I feel
that they would be interested in
distributing our film. Pathé is a medium
sized company, it is known by the
majority of the public, this is why it
would be beneficial to us if we were
Our media project – Left Behind able to get them to distribute our media Our media project – Left Behind
product. I feel that they would be
interested in distributing our film
because the thriller genre is very
popular amongst younger ages and
they are an audience they aim towards.
Same with Paramount Pictures – owned by Brad Grey - who distributed ‘Cloverfield’ and they have also
distributed other thrillers such as Paranormal Activity, considering this I feel that Pathé and Paramount
Pictures would be interested in distributing our media product. Paramount Pictures is a large company
who distribute a variety of films with a range of genres. It would be good if we could get Paramount
Pictures because it is a big well known company and is known by a range of potential viewers.
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

5. Who would be the audience for your media product?
I feel that teenagers will make up most of our audience.
I think that this is because people usually like to view films with characters which are in their own
age range or have similar characteristics to them, they are more likely to be focused to a feature if
the characters are similar to themselves, enabling them to relate to them.
However, The Blair Witch Project – a film that is similar to
ours – managed to gain a worldwide audience of all age
ranges. If we could create this appeal through our own film
then maybe it will find a greater audience of a range of
ages. However usually 15 – 25 year olds are the
audience for thriller films.
An image of the age ranges we think would be drawn to our media
product. The reason we believe this is because when we were
collecting our market research, this age range 16 – 20 seemed to be
more interested in watching the film.
We decided that our film was a rating 15, meaning our
audience will defiantly be above, around 15 - 25 however I
feel that people above 25 may also enjoy this film.
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

6. Who would be the audience for your media product?
There are many elements that our target audience will have, certain characteristics in which
we group them in, these include age, education and gender.
Age: People
aged between
16 – 25 years.
Whilst
Gender: researching
Both Males thrillers for our
and Females. research and
Our media planning
product has section, we
both female found that
and male people that
characters, so usually watch
both genders thrillers are
could relate to aged from
the film. around 15 – 25.
Education: College and Sixth Form students. Our media product has
characters who attend college/ sixth form students. They are also the
age of people that would so viewers could again relate to the cast.
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

7. How did you attract/ address your audience?
We have attracted the audience towards our media product by making sure we used suitable, attracting
music to the film We done a variety of research into types of music and chosen carefully the music that we felt
created a tense atmosphere, by doing this it should attract our audience into watching our media product.
Also when researching thrillers and collecting our market research we looked at audience expectations, which
are things like keeping the audience guessing what is going to happen next and understanding the product.
In our previous rough cut, we felt that So what we have done is cut out
because there was so much footage and that section of footage and
so many images for an audience to replaced it with a shot of the
watch, the atmosphere that we wanted to woods. By doing this we could
create wasn’t created, so audiences could over lap the titles and add music
become bored and lose interest in the film. into the shots, making them a lot
Also by including too many shots, we gave more atmospheric. In the case of
to much of the story away for an opening our media product, less was more.
of a film, no enigma code was created for I also feel that because we have
the audience so they would have lost used titles over lapping
interest in the film. film, people will watch the film to
read what we have put in the first
two minutes of our film. Also by not
Towards the end of the two minutes we have used 4 clips of different including a lot of shots in our first
pieces of clothing and a character walking, these clips contrast with two minutes, the audience will
the shots before – the hand held night shot – which are dark and want to continue to watch the film
confusing, where as the clothing scenes are brighter. We also enter to see how the shots we have
the clips of clothing with a dip to black, this way audience can see used relate to the rest of the film.
that there is a different scene coming up and become focused in the
film and will want to continue watching our media product.
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

8. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Within our media product we have made sure that it includes and uses the three convention
types - technical, symbolic and audio.
How we have used real media conventions within
our media product.
We have used a variety of We have also used a We have also used dark lighting, which is
camera shots which show variety of distance shots – commonly used in the thriller genre to create
different objects in a close ups/ long shots – to suspense because the audience can’t see
different perspective. In represent who in the film what is happening in the scene as clearly.
thrillers, certain camera they should become close
shots are used to represent to and trust. Thrillers commonly have a protagonist and an
a person or situation. antagonist, which we have used within our
We have used a dirty shot – film, Lewis being the antagonist and
one which is used often – so Verity, Hayley and Callum being the
that the character isn’t seen protagonists. This is one of the areas where
clearly and can make the we have developed the convention of their
audience feel uncomfortable being only one protagonist.
about the character. Long shot of Lewis
Extreme close up of hoodie Close up of hoodie The antagonist
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

9. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
How we have challenged real media We have also challenged the convention that the
conventions within our media product. protagonist is feminine as we have two females and one
male being the protagonists and a male being the
antagonist.
We have challenged conventions of real media
features by the fact this piece is filmed When we looked at sound conventions, we looked into
primarily by a hand held camera. Hand held music to layer with the shot. Music is an important part
camera shots aren't used very much within of attracting an audience into a feature, so we done
thriller films however we felt that it was one of some research into music to see which type we thought
the best ways to engage the attention of the was the most effective in our media product. We have
audience as they feel they are in the situation used the thriller genre convention of sound by choosing
of the character within the film. With the hand music which builds tension and makes the audience feel
held camera effect you aren’t seeing any of nervous.
the characters including the person who is
holding it, so viewers will put themselves in
that situation to try and understand what the
film is about.
Hand Held camera shot Mid dip to black and shot
In order to challenge convention, we have
given no information away to the audience by Thrillers are usually move at a fast pace and include a lot
character spoken dialogue in the first two of straight cuts to make the story move faster so the
minutes of the film. In traditional thrillers audience are more alerted, however we have challenged
dialogue is key to moving the plot towards a this convention by using transitions in between shots and
series of incidents within the narrative. by using quite slow shots including the hand held
camera scenes.
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

10. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The social group that our film is representing is teenagers.
Even though throughout the two minutes of our thriller teenagers aren’t really seen apart from Lewis, we
still have the threat of a male at the beginning, which is a thriller convention as it is usually a male who is
the antagonist. Also by having shots of only Lewis and then clothing of Hayley, Callum and Verity gives
the audience a hit that Lewis has a lot of power over us.
One of the reasons we chose to represent the social group teenagers is because in
our research we found that people ages 15 – 25 years are usually the audience of
thriller films. So by representing teenagers, our audience could relate to the
characters in our media product or situations that they are in. Also by including a male
The antagonist as a protagonist, it makes a male audience relate to a male character easily as many
viewers would relate themselves to the antagonist.
The protagonists
Our audience who can relate to the
characters in our media product.
Candidate Name: Verity Easton Candidate Number: 4050

11. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
When we begun to film our media product, me and my group explored the camera and looked at the features
that it had that we could use in our film. We decided to use the night mode on the camera for a few scenes in
our product. So one thing that I learnt was how to use the features on the camera and how do use it in the
shot to make it a good shot.
When we got to the editing stage of the production of our media product, we had
A night shot to learn a lot about it. The editing programme that we used was Adobe Premier
Pro, which we also used for our preliminary task however we didn’t have a long
time to look and explore it so we didn’t really get to learn everything. I looked at
the video effects and transitions and I also learnt some extra things such as how
Adobe Premier Pro
to flash words and overlap titles with a video, which was really helpful.
I also learnt about how certain situations can effect the filming that it done.
We planned to film on a certain day, however we didn’t notice how windy it was. When looking back at the
video which we filmed there was so much wind noise that we couldn’t use it and the camera was also moving
a little bit from where the wind was blowing it. So from this I have learnt that even technology has limitations.
I also learnt a lot when editing the film, this is a huge part of film making and I really learnt why certain
transitions or techniques are used and if they are the wrong ones to choose, how it can completely change the
piece and what it means.
In our rough cut, we used a lot of scenes and different shot types, but when we sat down with a group of
people, we realised that we had tried to pack in so much that we lost the atmosphere we wanted and how the
audience just got confused, so I learnt that sometimes less is more, in our final piece we used around 5
shots, but the atmosphere created by it was what we wanted for our film. From this I have learnt that the
editing process is a series of stages, when making differences each time, the media product can have a
Candidate Name: Verity Easton completely different effect. Candidate Number: 4050