Evalutation 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

We feel our ancillary tasks have an effective combination with our main product, firstly the final poster design creates a scary effect for anyone who happens to see it, therefore fans of horror films will have the urge to go and see it, making the poster a success.


The font on the poster matches that of the titles and credits on the film, both of which use capital letters and a bland font, representative of the main antagonist because he is unknown to the viewer. The shot of the protagonist is a long – mid shot, showing that she is very much alone and that her outlook is bleak. The neutral colours of the photograph and poster are also equivalent to the production because no bright colours are used, it is a mysterious, unnerving film which reflects itself in the poster. The poster would be used to advertise our film in places such as bus stops and cinemas. Although the colours are neutral the poster is eyecatching because of the disjointed picture, which has good effect on the overall look of the poster, and yet again representing the antagonist and his weird nature.



As the magazine review is very similar to the poster, as in the same colours are used, the same font and style, the layout is also alike because there is a picture of the poster at the top. It gives an overview of our production, describing the chilling tone, again appealing to the same audience. It goes on to say if people enjoy suspense in films, then Acquisition is for them, this combines with the psychological genre film very well as it is a detailed, accurate description of the film.

Evaluation Task 4.

In this evaluation task I had to use pictures of each program and website we used during the making, researching and evaluating of our Media A2 coursework.

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback- part 2

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback

After using a questionnaire initially research people’s views and opinions of short films we decided that would be a good idea to again use a questionnaire to find out people’s response to our short. It enables us to gather quantitative data that we can easily compare and display. It is cheap and doesn’t take a long time, its therefore practical. However, some people may feel indomitable giving there age which may cause them to lie or refuse to answer it which will cause it to be less reliable. People may also not be able to understand the questions and then misinterpret what we are asking thus giving us a unreliable answer. Some of the Questionnaires went to friends as well, this could have hindered their answers as to not hurt our feelings, then just putting what they think we would like to here.

Below is a copy of the Questionnaire.

We decided to use our initial questionnaire as a pilot run. From it we have learned from our mistakes and decided to give the questionnaire to a large sample which will be decided randomly. This will hopefully give us results from a different range of ages and genders to make our feedback more valid. We gave the Questionnaire to a total of 35 people, over the age of 15 as it has content within that may not be suitable for younger.

The aim of the Questionnaire is to find out what a sample of people think of our short film after watching it. We want to discover there responses towards the following subjects: Mise en Scene; Music: Interest: Composure.

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

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

A member of our group, Justine, found out that Film 4 offers a support programme for young film makers, this is why we decided to have the opening credits to show their name.

The next credits show that a company called McCarron productions made the film, this combines two of our group members’ last names, Justine Carron and Rachel McClure. They used this name in their production last year and it had a very professional feel to it, so we decided to use it again this year. The very first shot is a point of view shot, showing a hand scribbling on the face of a girl in a picture, then circling another girl. This becomes relevant later on into the film.

The music which accompanies the opening compliments the tense tone to which the film begins with. The montage of credits and eerie shots, along with the tense soundtrack makes an interesting opening, enticing the viewer, making them want to watch more. The main protagonist of the film, Francesca Thurston, takes her dog out for a walk, all seems well in her apparently luxurious life, the big house and the expensive car parked outside suggest this.

The viewer realises that she is being plotted against in the first shot, but a point of view shot from behind the bushes shows that she is being followed by someone. The tense music gets louder at this point and carries on after the shot to show the girl is in danger.

Several continuity shots of both characters are intertwined via parallel editing. As the girl walks her dog, the antagonist runs towards her house, shown through another point of view shot, the soundtrack at this point becomes fast paced and creates yet more tension.



He then changes the girls pills, the shots of this are very jumpy, and skip slightly to show his urgency, as the same soundtrack continues. It then cuts back to the girl, who is completely oblivious to what is about to be done to her, she walks through her front door and goes upstairs, entering her room she pauses for a moment, then closes the window. This suggests that the antagonist may have come in through there, she then goes over and takes one of the pills that have been changed. All the way through this, the same, repetitive tense soundtrack creeps up in moments of anxiousness. As she brushes her hair in the mirror parallel editing show the man downstairs stealing her car key, it cuts back to the girl and as she moves out of the way of the mirror the antagonist is briefly seen in the reflection, creating an extra sense of mystery around the character, sound sting accompanies this shot, as the girl turns round, he is gone and there is an eerie silence as the music fades out. The girl then goes downstairs to make a cup of tea, she feels queasy and feints, this is shown through a blurry point of view shot, her dog walks over to her as the camera fades out, showing she is out of consciousness. It fades back in to see a man’s feet walking towards her, it fades out again as he draws closer.

Several rapid editing shots show the girl in the boot of the Aston Martin, and the antagonist getting in hastily and pulling away.

No music is played during these scenes, silence works better for when the girl is on the floor as the footsteps are very distinctive. The plan was to play a fast paced soundtrack over the car scene to emphasise the urgency of the antagonist, but as it was extremely loud, we decided against it.

The next scene is where the girl is taken to a small room and placed in the corner, next to another girl, this comes as a shock to the audience and also explains one of the opening shots where he is shown scribbling out the face of a girl on a picture. The man places a bag over the protagonists head and scribbles out her face on the picture, showing that the girls are linked in some way, and that he has acquired his target. As he circles the face of another girl the never ending cycle idea comes into place. The music for this part of the film is tense once again and as the antagonist slams the door on the way out, exciting loud music suddenly plays for a sense of excitement. The ending credits we feel, make the film end a very professional note. The titles and credits have all been used in the same font to retain the element of proficiency, the font is also quite bland, representing our main antagonist as little is known about his character.

Overall our film represents the form and convention of a psychological thriller very well because it creates enigmas for the viewer, making them want to find out more, it keeps them watching. Also, character selection and personality was important because the protagonist seems like a normal girl living a luxurious life, then taken away by a madman, which is similar to the storyline of many big name films such as Taken, where a normal teenage girl is kidnapped by a group of fanatical men. The music chosen also fits as it creates a sense of mystery and fear.

Film Review

Ancillary task research (Film review)

The above pictures are representatives of the film magazines "Total film" and "Empire magazine" for my ancillary task I am writing a magazine review on our film "Aquisition" although I feel i have a general idea on how a film review should be written and set out, I decided to brush up on my knowledge by doing some research on how the professinals review. "Total film" and "Empire" are two of the biggest film magazines in Britian and are recognised within society.
   I've learnt how magazines set out the reviews for films and have realised that the reviews are rarely negative towards the films. This is because if the magazines criticised the films, marketing would not allow there films to be reviewed by them. As these magazines are so popular, if they were negative towards the films people would listen and would, prehaps, be influnced into not seeing the film. Taking this into consideration when I review "Aquisition" I shall review it with a positive frame of mind and take a biased view towards the film.

Ancillary task: Final poster design

Above is the group’s final group poster. As you can see there are some major changes to that of some of the first drafts. We felt that other were more like an advert as it had the release date and coming soon across the bottom. We realised this once we looked over similar film posters and realised none of them did the same. Instead this final poster has just mentioned the awards that it has one which help its recognition and secondly I have added the slogan that has been used in Pauls initial poster. This is to again give a sense to buyer of the poster as to what the film is about and give it that extra touch.

Apart from the bottom of the poster everything has remained the same and has the same purpose and meaning as I mentioned earlier in the initial poster designs post. Every colour, text, picture and font has a meaning to it all to psychologically interest the viewer.

As a group we decided on this poster out of the two as we felt that it best gave indications of what our short film was about, and suited the Psychological Thriller genre better. We mixed the best of both posters’ to create one that we felt was best. By designing two posters we were able to illuminate mistakes and share ideas to create a pleasing end product.

Ancillary task:poster design

This is my second draft of our poster design. I have decided to make another one as the first image I used as seen below was one from the internet so I’m unable to use that design. As I have said before, ‘my poster design an initial thought was the importance of the recognition of the cast. The reason being Is that many film fans associate certain genres with certain actors. A film fan would recognise the name of the actors, associate them with Thrillers. Furthermore the font used is nothing over dramatic which infers to the audience the genre, Thrillers aim around a story that could seemingly happen in real life which is the reasoning behind the simple font. I have also used black as the font colour as the connotations include danger, death and suspicion. Psychologically we want the audience to think that they are in for thrills and suspense, where as if the writing was pink they would be expecting some sort of romance due to the connotations.’

This middle section is the part of the poster that was necessary I changed. As you can see, I have used the same font and colours of that of my first poster because of the connotations of black, and the influence of the font which infers it’s a psychological Thriller. The simple font is something that people use generally, thrillers are supposed to be about real people in situations that could happen.

I chose a still from our short to make this poster. I thought this was a good still because it shows her isolated in a small cramped space.  She is in frame facing away from the camera, this could mean that she is being followed, or someone is watching her? I have also chosen a shot were you are unable to see her face, hopefully creating a sense of mystery. I have distorted the image slightly, to signify that something is broken or being destroyed, this could mean that something in her life is about to go wrong. Also during the film we see the girl taking pills, the gaps could show that she isn’t altogether there in her head, and what happens is just in her imagination.

I have used white again as the background as wanted to portray her innocence. Usually white means either insanity or purity. In this case I want it to mean both. Is she a victim or is she insane?

Again I have used the same part of my last poster, the only difference is the change of the background colour. I did this because I felt that black in the font was enough and didn’t need black as the background. As I have said before, ‘this is a vital part of the poster. It shows all the important information that is relevant to the audience. It advertises by the mentioning awards which show that is has been recognised by film makers and viewers for excellence. This will help increase our global reach. The release date is important in letting the audience aware of when they can view it. Lastly, it’s important that the details of companies, actors and crew are mentioned to again advertise the film and show its professionalism. This all keeps to the same colours and fonts.’