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

My media product is about a woman who is an assassin in a school. This conforms to conventions of real media products as thriller movies are known for being ‘different’ and subverting typical conventions of normal films. It develops the idea that women aren’t quite what they perceive to be. They are perceived to be weak and vulnerable compared to the strong and quick male. This can relate to a thriller movie from the 2011 movie called ‘Hanna’ where a young girl is set out to kill the people who killed her mother. The idea that my media product has quite an upbeat background soundtrack to it, I think, is atypical of a real thriller movie of today as the idea of a thriller movie is to disorientate the audience which is normally shown by slow and eerie music.

The fact that my media product is clearly set in a school also subverts to conventions of normal thriller movies as most thriller movies are set in an unknown place so as to get the audience to question what is actually going on and that they should feel a sense of self-affiliation towards the movie. However, I think the fact that the characters stereotypes’ are opposite to those which they normally are, the audience can relate to the characters in a way that they do not normally. By this I mean that the male audiences can relate to a more victimised male character but also relate to the strength of the female and the female can relate in the opposite way. This creates mystery to the plot of the film and therefore applies the Barthe’s Enigma y by presenting the audience with puzzles to solve and questions to ask.

Images- props

 In these images you can see pictures of teachers which I will use as props to set the scene of my film.
The image with the words are the titles to the pictures that I am using which allows the audience to understand the plot of the film and how it conforms to conventions of a thriller movie in that the woman who is presented at the beginning of the clip is not directly linked to the unknown villain.
These make up a typical faculty department images and how they are typically represented. I researched these teachers through the internet and I found it difficult to find images which are typical. I tried to find images of both male and female teachers however I had trouble finding an image of an asian female. This tells us that it is atypical, perhaps for asian women to be teachers. I made sure that the image of the head teacher was an older male as they are the dominant characters and seem more intimidating which links in with my film.

Shot list table

This is a table of the shots I will be using.

Location	Shot	Camera movement	Characters	Length of shot	Sound
Outside school building	Establishing shot	Zoom into school doors	N/A	15 secs	Clicking of heels
Inside school- hallway	Long shot	Pan around characters in scene	Dead man	10 secs	Clicking of heels
Along the hallway following a trail	N/A	Tracking shot following a trail	N/A	25 secs	Clicking of heels and increasing volume of whistle
Another hallway	Close up shot	Tracking close up of woman’s feet	Killer	20 secs	Increasing volume of whistle
“ ”	Mid shot	N/A	Shot of cleaner	5 secs	Maximum volume of whistle and noise of man being knocked over
Board with images of teachers	Close ups of different images	Zoom into images	No specific actors	20 secs	Whistle becomes slower
Head teacher image	Close up	N/A	N/A	5 secs	Whistle slows down and fades out

Shot list

Shot list:

·        Establishing shot of outside school building.

·        Zoom into building’s doors.

·        Pan around man.

·        Tracking shot following trail of blood.

·        Two shot of woman and the cleaner.

·        Tracking shot (still following the woman).

·        Arc shot followed by close up shot of image on the pin board.

Audiences of my film

From my film I hope that the audience will feel a sense of the unknown but also a sense of self-accomplishment in that they will have figured out themselves which characters conform to each part of Propp’s character theory and that they will have fulfilled the need for self esteem. The fact that the characters role of men and women have been reversed will make male audiences consider their stereotypes of physical strength against the stereotypes of women’s strength of mentality. Conversely it will make female audiences question their perceptions of male strength and that mentally, they also may not be as strong as women might think. I will also be providing a strong female role model which one could argue, is uncharacteristic of most thriller movies. A typical convention of the thriller genre is that there are a wide variety of camera angles, used to convey narrative and atmosphere within the scene. However, my film will contrast this convention in that we have chosen to use more camera movements than camera angles as it follows the character through her ‘journey’ through the school giving the narrative a sense of momentum and movement. This will also allow the audience to discover the setting of the film and understand why the film has been named ‘MI Sixth form’.

Certificate of my film

We have decided to use a 12A certificate rating in our video so as to attract a wider target audience and so that there is mystery as to what has actually gone on in the video. We will conform to this in that no violence is directly seen however it is implicated by the props in the film.

The name of my film

We have chosen to name our film ‘MI Sixth form’. This links in the idea that the our film is about a school full of undercover agents and set in a school. It also links in with our target audience in that the target audience is15 year-olds and older which is around the age that people in Sixth forms/colleges are in. It might not, however, attract an audience much older than this. It does not give away the idea that the film includes violence, thus taking the audience by surprise when the implication of violence and death is put into the movie. Other names that were discussed in the group are 'MI 6-teen' however we did not feel that this links to the idea that the film was set in a school and that 'MI Sixth form' made it clearer.