Evaluation

Media Death3 Evaluation - Jordan Sanderson

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of real media products?
Death3 challenges the real forms of media by breaking and changing conventions, we showed this in a variety of ways, for example, excluding shots such as establishing shots, which are usually essential to films; this was done to represent how the characters themselves did not know where they were. Death3 also challenges the typical post apocalyptic genre with the fact that the main characters are in fact; teenagers, this contrast from the original convention makes Death3 stand out from the typical scientist versus nature/aliens scenario which we see on cinema screens today.

The film focuses around the characters trying to survive for as long as they can without the standard alien invasion which is seen in many films, e.g. Independence Day (1996) or War of the Worlds (2005) both films include alien invasions, but still show the human race fighting for survival.

How does your product represent particular social groups?
Death3 represents teenagers as able beings who are capable of surviving on their own two feet. This is demonstrated right at the start of the film as they had already survived the apocalypse, we tried to keep the characters as real as possible, for example detailing they had exams to sit in the scripts dialogue, the characters also had a sense of realism with the fact they talk about their families before the end of the world. It shows them in a way that we would not see them in day to day life, it is clear that our characters all come from different backgrounds and the way they talk to each other shows they have not known each other long, however, they deal with the situation and plan to what they should do.

What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?
I believe our film could be distributed by Columbia Pictures as they have released various blockbuster titles throughout the years in the post-apocalyptic genre, some examples are 28 Days Later (2000), Terminator: Salvation (2009), 2012 (2009). Each film shows the apocalypse in a different way, for example 28 Days Later Shows the world overrun by zombies, a typical zombie thriller in the idea that the world is taken over and returned to a primitive state because of the unfortunate outbreak. Terminator: Salvation depicts the fall of man to the hands of machines who once worked for humans; the film itself is unique as this idea has only been used in a small amount of films. Finally 2012 is a real hard hitter with cinemas bringing a now well known conspiracy theory to an audience of millions, because of this the film was able to bring in the audience because of their interest of what is really going to happen in 2012, all three films show the end of the world and have been sold or marketed by the distributer well, I personally would choose Columbia Pictures because of how well they manage to sell films of the post-apocalyptic genre.

Who would be the audience of your media product?
Considering the main characters are teenagers I would say that the audience would be teens or young adults, this is because through our research we have found that most apocalyptic films now contain a wide variety of action or horror scenes to make the film more interesting, it is because of this it could attract our target audience, for example the use of teenagers being forced to brave a new environment could make our target audience wonder what they would do in a situation such as this. Ironically, the only way to find out would be to watch the film, thus pulling in our target audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?
Death3 attracts the target audience because of the ages of our main characters, they are all teenagers, this already creates a connection between them and the potential audience, this will entice the potential audience to actually come and watch the film for themselves.

Another idea of how Death3 could attract the audience is because of the fact it is a post-apocalyptic film. Wide audiences seem to take an interest with what the world could be like in a post-apocalypse situation, it is because of this that they are compelled to see the films. Post-apocalyptic films are also noted for their special effects, with this research we decided to include an image of a skyscraper which was photoshopped to look ruined and burned, this process only took a few minutes to achieve, the image was then ready to import into the product, because we utilized this convention, I feel that Death3 will appeal more to our target audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During my time on this product, I have learned how to correctly structure the opening sequence to a film, this includes titles, sound and visual effects. I have also learned about technologies such as green screening to help create scenes which would not have been possible without the technologies, scenes such as the news rooms in Death3 show this effect off to its full potential.

Another technology I have learned about is Adobe Elements and Adobe Premier, the programs allowed you to edit your film professionally, but easy to understand way. We were also able to fit in images which were created from Photoshop especially for the product, images such as the ruined building and the background to the news rooms. We were also able to fit in the bars which detailed the latest news to create the more authentic news feel.

Not all new technology we used was software, we used special microphones to record certain parts of the film, this was to get a clear, clean sound which would not be possible to receive with a standard camera, it was also easier to use this for editing as there was no video to get in the way.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?
In the progression from the preliminary task, I feel I have learned a great deal in how to present a shot and how to select the camera shot or angle it would be appropriate to move to afterwards to create the essence that the film flows and fits together flawlessly. All aspects of how to structure the film were covered, for example, my group went through a plethora of audio to find the appropriate sound to create a desolate and isolated scene. We then had to structure the visual side of the film to compliment the audio in a way they either helped us build tension, or set the scene.

Titles and credits were another area I have now learned how to correctly use and place, to create the essence of a flowing film with no distractions, credits should not be placed in an area that distracts the reader enough to miss the action from the film, but just enough to read them, they must also transition smoothly with the film, almost to look as if they are meant to be there to create the illusion that everything fits together.



This is the opening shot of our film, we chose to start with a shot that slowly revealed the environment. To give the audience the same feeling as the characters in the sense that they do not kow where they are. The landscape we chose suited this idea because it looks desolate and inhabitable.




This shot shows all three characters together talking about what they should do next. It also shows how out of place they are in the landscape around them.



This shot was created using greenscreen and adobe after effects. The idea of this shot is to show an emergency news report urging civillians to stay calm. During this the camera breaks up and gets distorted as shown in the shot above.



This shot is prior to the event that distorts the camera. In the shot we can see the anchorman and the news studio created within adobe after effects. The two images were put together using this program and greenscreen.



This shot shows what the viewers at home would see after being disconnected from the broadcast. This shot also has meaning in the sence they are now disconnected from humanity and are on their own.




This shot is used during the opening sequence of the film. The scan lines overlapping what the audience is seeing represents the idea that this has already happens and was filmed. This shot was created using adobe after effects. Acompanying this is music which creates the feeling of uncertainty because no one knows what will happen next.