Evaluation: 1.

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

Our opening sequence includes our names, and footage of the killer preparing for his next victims, the image to the left shows the killer looking at photos of us and the knife makes it look serious. This high angle represents the girls in the photos to have less power than the man holding the photo. The title sequence also gives a clue to what the plot is as you can see it will be about the girls in the photos and he is some kind of stalker/killer with a knife, which he is cleaning, this could mean that he has used it before. Similarly to the Cabin In The Woods title sequence, we used text over the clip to set the tone.

It also looks like the start of a horror film as the audience can see the man putting the mask on and preparing to go out, to possibly kill. Throughout the title sequence there is an even pace and tense music which gets faster till the end, where it ends quite suddenly on the name of our film, the music is used instead of diegetic sound as there would only be silence.



The props used during the title sequence include: a knife, chloroform bottle, cloth, a buff, and photos. These are all used to create the illusion of mystery as it is meant to make the audience guess what will happen in the film as the sequence tells a short story.

The opening sequence ends on our title as we need to tell the audience the title of the film, which is similar to The Cabin In The Woods. It is centered in the middle, in all capitals and red as this is a convention of a horror film, it is seen as dark and ominous and tells the audience that the film isn't going to be a happy one. The rest of the font is in white and is over the top of the action so there is still something to see whilst reading.

Evaluation: 3

Evaluation: 2.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The stereotypes we used in the film are the three teenage girls who are seen as stupid, weak and vulnerable as they go out to play a childish game of hide and seek when they shouldn't. This makes the man who kidnaps Amy look more powerful and be in control as he takes her so easily and kills her.




However, Kelsey does also take control of the situation when she realises Amy isn't coming, she tells Darcey that they should go look for her as Kelsey takes on a worried motherly role. She is the strongest girl out of them and if the film had carried on, Kelsey's role may have developed and challenged the stereotypical role of the male serial killer and could have beaten him to become the one in control.

This wide angle shot of Amy, represents how alone and vulnerable she is as she has no one to help her.
This high angle shot at the end also shows Amy to be dead, as she was weak and couldn't fight off the killer who had all the power.

The clothing worn also represents who they are to the audience as some can relate, such as the girls, who all wear teenage clothing such as converse and jeans making them relatable to other teenagers. The killer seems to wear working clothes and a buff which covers his identity, creating a character that the audience are clearly meant to fear, (a stereotypical murderer).


The heavy breathing used at the end is also meant to frighten and shock the audience to make them fear him as it is clear that he hasn't finished killing, and the darkness is also used to portray the mystery of who he is.

Evaluation: 4.

I have created a powerpoint and have uploaded it to Slideshare for this evaluation question.

http://www.slideshare.net/darceyhiggins9/4-who-would-be-the-audience-for-your-media-product-18403228

Evaluation: 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Our target audience was aimed at 15-35 year olds, so our film had to include features/conventions of a horror film that would be enjoyable for teenagers as well as adults. Using the BBFC website i researched into the contents of 15 films to see what our film is allowed to include and not include- 'Many horror films are rated 15. At 15 there can be strong threat and menace'

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15

We have also reached out to our audience and used appealing techniques for our audience by making it as realistic as possible, so we didn't use any special effects, we used a local normal location, wore outfits that teenagers would wear, used appropriate props and used conventions that would also scare our audience.


In the feedback sheet we created on what they thought of our 2 minute storyline we discovered that these realistic features appealed to our audience as one person put 'it sounds thrilling and scary', and another also put 'it sounds reasonable, and true to life'. They put this, as our description tells the audience that it is set in a local field, uses 3 normal teenage girls and uses a stalker, this could occur in real life.

In our second feedback sheet that we created after we had finished our film, people have given good feedback and have commented with things such as that they liked 'the part when Amy was killed' and when 'Amy gets thrown into the van', they also thought the sound effect of the breathing was effective in scaring people.

However they have also given creative criticism of our film on what wasn't so successful and also given us ideas on how to improve. For example 'the blood could have looked a little more realistic' as we had to use fake blood from a shop and also mix our own using food colouring. We could have improved this by making sure the colour of the blood was more realistic coloured and looked better.

Evaluation: 6.

Evaluation: 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The brief we were working to for our preliminary task was to create a short continuity task that included the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot-reverse-shot. In this task we filmed and edited scenes of a character walking down a corridor, opening the door, walking in and sitting down opposite another character, a short conversation and finally walking out again.

The brief for our main task was to make titles and the opening of a new fiction film that lasts a maximum of 2 minutes.

The skills we have learnt in our prelim exercise we have used in our 2 minute film: We used match on action in our prelim exercise for when Kelsey opened the door and then walked through, we also used it in our 2 minute film as shown, as i am holding the phone and then put it to my ear.

We also used shot-reverse-shot in our preliminary exercise so we also used this in our film, as in our first exercise we used over the shoulder shots when Kelsey and Amy were talking to each other. We then used these shots in scenes in our film to show when conversations and their facial reactions are important such as when Kelsey and I are worried about Amy. This scene also uses the 180 degree rule as the camera didn't go over the line; this makes sure the scene looks right.

Improvements: We have got better at editing our film, as in the preliminary exercise we couldn't make the match on action flow properly as there were a few jump cuts when the action didn't match correctly. But then in our film we managed to edit it smoothly so the action flowed and we used match on action.

Other methods: We used a split screen when we edited our film so that we used something different and the phone conversation looked like it flowed. We changed the way Kelsey was looking so that it looked like a proper phone conversation and the girls seemed like they were looking/talking to each other.

Pick Me Up Form

Now that our film is online we have made a response form so that our viewers can tell us what they think.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1e3quorfadLCHKPKyQQuqAXh2d0sDHV7lJAKA8GOSTRY/viewform

Progress Report 15/03/13

Time management:

We have now finished our filming and we are undergoing out editing, the blog is now finished as everything that needed to be included has been.
The filming took longer than we thought it would, it took us about three weeks due to weather conditions and timing issues as not all of our group could work at the same time due to commitments.
Next we will be complete our editing and will start paperwork for the evaluation of our film, and also finish our blog as we need to upload our finished film and a few other bits, like our evaluations.

Analysis Of Phone Booth (First 15 min)

As we have to analyse the first 15 minutes of a film i have decided to look into Phone Booth. This is because in this film there is a mystery killer which the audience, as well as the characters, are trying to figure out who he is and so this makes this film similar to ours. This film also has a 15 certificate which is, again, similar to ours.The title 'Phone Booth' is simple and so the title alone already gives the audience a clue as to what the storyline of the flim involves.

The film starts with a shot of space satellites, which then moves onto the earth and then begins to zoom in. However as it zooms into earth it fades into some kind of micro chip, rather than looking at towns or cities. As this is not what the audience are expecting, it stands out and so they will notice it. Whilst this is happening there is a non diegetic song added onto the scene with the word ‘operator’ being repeated multiple times. On top of this there is also a walkie-talkie sound effect. All of this together tells the audience that the film will have something to do with phones and so it therefore gives the audience clues to the storyline. The main reason it does this is because each of these things are very noticeable.

The microchip fades into a shot of a man’s phone which is then zoomed out, to reveal the location of the film. This also reveals to the audience what the microchip was from and so once again gives hints more hints to what the story-line of the film involves. The next shot is a long shot of New York which, again, reveals the setting.

After this the camera zooms in and out of random things happening on the streets of New York. At this point the audience are not sure about what/who they should be focusing on.  However all of these shots involve phones (for example on this screen shot 'Verizon' is the a company logo for an American phone network). Also there is no diegetic audio at this point (instead there is only non-diegetic music) which also does not help the audience to understand what is happening.

A voice over of a man begins to state facts about phone booths. As the random shots stop we are left with this long shot of a phone booth. The voice over then reveals facts about this particular phone booth rather than general facts. This then signals to the audience that this is the phone booth that they need to focus on and so gives them another clue towards the story-line of the film.

The voice over then says that you (the audience) are about to see the last man to occupy the booth. In this shot there are two men shown in the centre of the shot. Centered characters are always the characters that the audience are supposed to focus on and so this would suggest that either of these two men are who the voice over is talking about. However you can only hear one speaking (the one in the red shirt) and so the audience should understand that he is the one who is being talked about. 

In the next few minutes this man participates in multiple phone calls and every time someone picks the phone up they are shown on screen talking back. This currently does not seem important but later the murderer, on the phone, is not shown and so the audience go from being able to see who the man is calling to being as clueless as he is. This alone helps the audience to empathize with the character due to them being on the same journey. 

Once the man gets into the booth, the next shot is a long shot but from a high angle. This is an odd and random shot because the previous shots of this man have been mostly medium shots. Due to it being an odd shot the audience are more likely to notice it. This shot itself would suggest that someone is watching the man from a high angle. 

Later there is an eye line match from the man's point of view. As this follows his point of view the audience should have realized by this point that he is the main character. Also, the man is searching for the unknown person on the phone just like the audience. This again helps the audience to empathize with him.
The final shot i will discuss is an extreme close up of the mans face. This puts emphasis onto his frustration (his current emotion). The audience can therefore see how he is feeling and so have the chance to empathize with him again.

From analyzing the opening of Phone Booth i have noticed that in order to make our audience empathize with our girl characters, then they need to be on the same journey as them. To do this we could use eye line matches and only reveal things that the girls can see (such as the text message). In our film we are wanting to show the murderer preparing to kill the girl and so in order for us not to reveal too much the the audience we could avoid showing his face. That way neither the audience or our girl characters would be able to recognize him (the murderer).

Another thing i have noticed is the simplicity of the title and I feel that it reveals the majority of the plot. I think that this is both a good and a bad thing. For example i think that the audience would be able to guess what the film is about and so would be likely to be disappointed. However, i also think that it may give away too much of the plot. If the film was to be called something relating to a phone, a phone booth or a phone line/network (but not too obvious) then this would leave a gap in the audiences mind which the film would then need to fill. I therefore think that the title of our film should be something clever which relates to something significant from our film.

Tricky Shots/Edits/Effects

Tricky Shots:

Tracking shot- If we decide to do a tracking shot that could be difficult as we wouldn't have any track to put it on to make sure the camera stays in the same position and doesn't wobble.

Over the shoulder shots- could also be tricky if there is no room to set up the tripod behind the character, for example if the character is sat down in a chair and the chair is against the wall, this would mean that the production team who were filming would have to hold the camera on the tripod in a difficult position.

Tricky Edits:

Split Screen- This could be difficult as you need to make sure that the conversation flows and matches, it could also be difficult to make the characters look right on screen, as they might not be filmed facing each other, meaning we would have to turn them around.
Overlapping- This is if the sound and film overlap, this could create problems if it isn't meant to overlap as it will be two different sounds over one another, such as someone's voice.

Tricky Effects:

Change the pace- This means slowing the pace down or speeding it up to make the scene go faster or slower.
Flashing Images- This could be difficult as you have to go through phases to make the images or clips flash on the screen.

Our Group Logo

Our group has chosen this logo for our film because we feel that it is the best option to represent our film production.