Year 13 Media Studies

Three CD covers, three music video evaluations and productions.

Not Alone Group Evaluation of Our Final Production

The above is the evaluation that we did as a group, featuring Alex Phillimore (myself), Ellis Greengrass, John Upton and Ian Berry. We watched the film through and commented on specific parts, mentioning how we incorporated anything from camera angles to lighting effects in order to create Our Final Production, and noting some points that you may not have realised whilst watching the film. We talk about how we created a sense of foreboding by incorporating specific shots, and why we made certain choices in the filming, and give an entire overview of the whole film, before reaching a conclusion in the end on what we acheived in making Our Final Production.

Media Conventions within Our Final Production

Media conventions covers everything from Mise-en-Scene within Our Final Production, to how we tackled issues such as gender, appearance, clothing, low-key lighting, and many aspects that essentially made Our Production represent The Thriller Genre. During the video, I discuss how we used particular shots and effects to represent the genre in question, and show how, through use of lighting, camera angles, credits and narrative, we made Our Final Production part of the Thriller genre, and localise it as being this genre above any other.

Media Institutions within Our Final Production

Media Institutions incorporates information on how we would advertise, fund and distribute Our Final Production. The main idea here would be for us to seek financial aid from private distributers and pioneers for British film. We would initially begin with the UK Film Council, and show them our production, and receive feedback based on their suggestion. If we impressed them with what we have accomplished, we would then hopefully be given a grant to provide funding for the production. Based on this grant, we would create our entire film, possibly within a 90 minute maximum, as British films tend to start small when working with new and upcoming film makers. Following this, we would try and get feedback at film councils and conventions for showing British film. Our next destination would be small-scale cinemas, and if enough positive reception and public awareness was received, we'd continue proceeding further until we could show our film to the greatest possible number.

Technology within Our Final Production

Technology within Our Final Production covers how we used varying forms of technology to both film and present our finishing piece. I discuss how we used everything from cameras within the filming process and the iMac computers during editing, to methods of broadcasting such as Blogger or Youtube. I mention every form of technology within Our Final Production, and also how it even helped during the evaluation (hypercam is a life saver!), and from this we show how Media Productions nowadays are far more accessible than they perhaps were in the past. Through the medium of the World Wide Web or broadcasting sites, it is now very simple to get yourself and your message broadcast to a large amount of people, and this is the underlying message within the above video. I also discuss how websites such as www.freesoundproject.org acts as a way to download sound effects, which are incredibly useful in media productions, and then through user-specific programs, such as Audacity of Garage Band, intricate music and soundtracks can be created to accompany a film. Technology ultimately played a large role within Our Final Production, and I go into detail in the above video on how we used these forms of technology to better our production.

Target Audience and The Audience Survey

Target Audience was an important area for discussion within Our Final Production. We decided that our final piece would be rated a 15, as it features heavy shots of gore and violence, though doesn't contain any direct attacks. You never see a victim getting stabbed, for example, only the victim after he had been stabbed, and therefore, we believe that a 15 would be a suitable rating for Our Final Production. In terms of who it is aimed at, we would personally say that a teenage demographic would be a viable source for viewing Our Final Production, though as we have created a Psychological Thriller, a more mature audience could find aspects to our production that could entertain them. The idea behind our production is that there are shifting alliances and feelings of betrayel and mistaken identity, so that there's plenty to both confuse and to work out within the overall production for a large audience. That said, we wouldn't target children at all with this piece, and the appeal probably would not be as large for an older audience, for example those in their middle ages and older. Though the storyline would be mature, the film itself still remains a Thriller, and so not everybody would benefit from watching it. The film would probably be more engaging to teenage males than females, due to violence and cursing, and so we would pinpoint the ideal age for watching our film around that of a 16 year old male teenager. That said, others could most certainly enjoy Our Final Production. However, to find out if the demographic we had predicted was reflective of an actual audience, I decided to ask real people who were outsiders to Our Final Production to comment on specific aspects of the piece, to find out which sort of person enjoyed it the most, and who found it to be less appealing.

I created an eight-question survey for people within our media class to fill out, in order to receive feedback based on the scores they gave us. When we all watched the Final Productions together a class, I gave ten questionnaires (five to girls, five to boys), and asked them to comment on Our Final Production, and to rate it in different fields. The following is the survey I created:

Do you think our production represents the Thriller genre well?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The marks we received in this field were: 4, 5, 5, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 5. Our average in this field was 4.7/5

How effective was the music in creating an ominous atmosphere within the production?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The marks we received in this field were: 5, 4, 4, 5, 4, 5, 5, 4, 4, 5. Our average in this field was 4.5/5

How would you rate the variety of camera angles used within the production?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The marks we received in this field were: 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 5, 3, 5, 5. Our average in this field was 4.3/5

Do you think we used our time effectively within the filming and editing of the piece?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The marks we received in this field were: 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4. Our average in this field was 4.7/5

How professional did the production look?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The marks we received in this field were: 5, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4. Our average in this field was 4.5/5

Did the production have good continuity?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The marks we received in this field were: 5, 4, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 5. Our average in this field was 4.5/5


Was the narrative/storyline easy to follow within the production?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The marks we received in this field were: 4, 3, 5, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3. Our average in this field was 4.1/5

How original would you say the production was?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The marks we received in this field were: 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 5, 4, 4, 4. Our average in this field was 4.2/5


Scores were measured as 1 being poor, and 5 being good. Therefore, if people felt that we had incorporatad a good variety of camera shots, they would circle 4 or 5, but if they felt that we did not represent the Thriller genre well, they would circle 1 or 2.


The two highest ratings which we received were on how well Our Final Production represents the Thriller Genre, and how effectively we used our time in filming, which I personally agree with. It is also interesting to note that the area in which we scored the weakest mark based on audience feedback was the area were I personally feel the weakest part of our production was, showing that generally, the audience opinion matched our own. The main things we would change in the future based on the audience feedback is to continue with aspects such as low-key lighting, but also to create a narrative that's easier to follow. Though part of the mystery of the piece was deliberate, we understand that people watching the film may struggle initially to understand exactly what is going on, and from this we would work on creating a tighter, more coherent storyline in our next production.


From the results, we also found that, as we predicted, teenage males within our class seemed to have the biggest interest in Our Final Production. When asking questions about filming and editing, and about particular scenes, it was mainly male members we observed who were asking the questions, and in the audience surveys, the lowest scores were given by females, showing that males would probably enjoy Our Final Production more than a female audience. That said, all results, both male and female, were still positive, and so we must assume that a large audience would still enjoy Our Final Production.

Comparing Our Final Production to Our Preliminary Task

The above is the video where I talk about Our Final Production, and compare it to the Preliminary Task, in order to see where we have advanced and how we have incorporated conventions of our last production within our final one. I mention how we have used camera angles (particularly the over-the-shoulder shot) within Our Final Production based on how well they worked within Our Preliminary Task, and altogether we owe many of the production values in Our Final Production from our Preliminary. I believe that we took feedback and problems that we initially had with the Preliminary task, for example recorded speech, and found a way to tackle them and improve on our earlier work in order to create the best possible Final Production.

The main example of this is the speech, which in the Preliminary Task was recorded alongside the shots. This lead to interference and sounds that we did not wish to have within the production, and based on this we decided to dub the sound in the Final Production, to create the best possible effect that we could. Several other comparisons are also made within Our Final Production, such as varying camera angles (low angle, long shot), but these shall all be discussed within the above video.