Criteria

Understanding the criteria
Good or bad video
Techniques you liked


Recently our group as well as all of the other groups watched a few selected thriller openings previously made by AS media students. We was given a mark scheme which would be similar to what the examiners would have when assessing our thriller openings. We would watch a thriller opening and give it a mark out of 60 and a grade also giving reasons.


The first thriller we watched in my opinion was good because you could tell there was a lot of thought into the pre-production, the voiceover was kept louder than the rest of the audio so that made you focus more on what was being said. There was a variety of camera shots used, the editing was smooth and the opening as a whole made sense. Personally I gave this piece of work 44 marks out of 60 which is a grade B, however this thriller opening got around 52 marks and received an A.


The next thriller opening we watched was good but had a few issues which were raised numerous times, this issue was that during this opening as the protagonist character was walking to his garage there would be a jump cut of what I was led to believe was a doll or parts of a doll. This was an issue because you couldn't actually see what was on the screen and irritated me because it seemed just like a flicker on the screen. The sound I felt was a little misleading because it is supposed to be a thriller the music made it seem distant from that. Although apart from that there was different camera shots and the mise-en-scene was unique in the way of how the character was dressed in his lounge clothes/pyjamas. This piece of work I gave 36 marks out of 60 which is a grade C, however this thriller opening gained a grade A and 54 marks.


After that the rest of the thriller openings that were shown to us was to a lower standard than the previous two openings, there was poor editing so the opening wouldn't make any sense and the lighting would be poorly lit making it look unprofessional. Yet these got good grades such as C's and B's.


In the end I feel as though me and my group can do well for our thriller opening if we do not make small mistakes and ensure that our opening goes smoothly. I look forward to making our thriller opening and succeeding well at the same time.

Audience Theories

Audience Theories

The Cultivation/Culmination – Any one media text that does not have too much effect, years and years of watching more violence will make you less sensitive to violence. This is a process called desensitisation.

Mass vs Niche – Mass targets larger audience and have a higher budget to prove a film that will accommodate all audiences, niche targets are more specific audiences with a lower budget.

Two step flow – Says that most people form their opinions under the influence of opinion leaders who in turn are influenced by the mass media. Ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders and from them to a wider population.

Hypodermic Needle theory – Theory that media messages are injected directly into the brain of the passive audience and that everyone responds to media messages in the same way.