Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For this piece I decided to do a slideshow because I thought it would get across my answer in a clear and simple way.

Evaluation Question 2 by Amber Mobbs

Question 1

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

Question 1 Plan

We have six questions to answer in order to evaluate our main task. The first question is 'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?' This means 'How is your opening sequence different and better than others in the film business?'

I think the best way to answer this question would be with an interview style.

This would involve the interviewer asking questions and the actor answering them about our piece. I think this would be effective because it gives the opportunity to be as creative as we would like with the questions being asked and with the answers. Here is an example of a similar interview style.

This is particularly effective because it clearly shows what film is being advertised and has the main actor in it which gives a real sense of the movie. It is also a two person interview which gives the actor a chance to elaborate on their answers and can therefore include a lot of detail.

In this interview I will get the interviewer to ask questions about editing, costume, location and camera shots and angles. It will be a good, simple way to be able to get the information about our opening sequence across.

Costume

The main character in our opening sequence is a district nurse. This means she needed a nurses uniform to show the audience she is professional and is at a normal day of work.

For her costume we used an old nurses top and black trousers and added small details such as pens and a pocket watch to the pockets which gave it  a realistic look. We also used a coat for when she was outside as it was a windy winters day so looked cold outside. This meant it wouldn't have looked right if she looked cold and wasn't wearing a jacket because a district nurse would usually wear one to work.

We thought this was effective because it makes it clear to the audience that she is at the house because of her job as a nurse and it also makes it realistic because she is wearing what a district nurse would usually wear. Here are some examples of a typical district nurse in her uniform.

Location

For our opening sequence we needed a normal house with a basement and various rooms for the character to look around. We decided to use Meg's house because it fit this criteria.

This is a screenshot of our opening sequence showing the front of the house. This was good because it looks like a normal house on a busy street where nothing bad would usually happen. This means the audience wouldn't expect anything to go wrong.

This is another screenshot of our opening sequence which is in the hallway just after the main character has entered the house. It gives the effect of an old house and shows how the house appears to be empty.

This is the main room in our piece where the character looks around. She goes into various rooms in this scene and this one shows how it is an ordinary house where nothing strange should happen and it also shows where she is going when she goes up the stairs and into the basement and other rooms. It highlights the fact that it is all happening in a small area so it is obvious there is no one else there.

This final screenshot is of the basement and is where the final scene takes place. It was a perfect location for our piece because it is dark and has a creepy atmosphere. It shows that it is dark and big so anything could be in the room and the nurse would not be able to see it which adds to the tension.

Props

In our opening sequence we needed some props to get across the atmosphere we wanted. One of these was a folder. This gave the idea that the nurse was professional and was there with work. It was simple but made a big difference because we felt that without it it wasn't clear that she was there on a job.

Another prop we used was a car. This was to show how the nurse had just arrived and was pulling up outside the house. It also gave the idea of a professional adult woman doing her job. It worked well because it showed that it was just an ordinary day at work.

The final prop we used was a candle. This was effective because it gave a creepy atmosphere because it was darker than if there would have been a light bulb. It was effective because it gave the idea that the character was vulnerable due to there being little light so she couldn't see very well.

Actors

In our piece there is just one character. It is a district nurse who is going to visit an elderly woman. This character is played by Danielle Garden. We chose her to play this role because she looks old enough to be a nurse and she was a good actress.

This is a screenshot of her when acting in our opening sequence. We think she looked effective because she fit the part well and she was good at showing emotions which we needed for our opening sequence because the character was scared and we needed this to come through to the audience.