Evaluation - What have i learnt in the progression from our preliminary exercise to our film?

Our Final Film

Evaluation - How did you attract/address your audience?

Once we had decided that our film genre was horror and that our film would have a 15 certificate we decided that our target audience would be aged between 15 and 35 and both genders. We also decided that our film would be set in Yorkshire and so we thought our target audience would be mostly from Yorkshire.



This picture is from The Lovely Bones scene that i analysed.

We then conducted research into similar films which we thought our audience would enjoy (for example i analsyed a scene from The Lovely Bones). From this we noticed things such as that they used loud sound effects to make the audience jump or feel tense and so we used this in our film (we used drone sounds in our film). I think that this was a more succesful element of our film.




Softboxes for articifial light.



However a less succesfull element of our film was the lighting. Making it dark was something that our audience suggested that we did. This was because we had to film in daylight in order for the camera to pick us up. To improve this we could use softboxes when filming, however these are expensive and we did not have a large budget.

 

Generally our feedback was good and so i think that our film did please our target audience and therefore appealed to them.



Some of the responses from our feedback questionnaire.



feedback from main film, pick me up

Evaluation - What have i learnt about technologies from the process of constucting this product?

Our Preliminary Exercise

This is our Prelim Exercise that we made before our film. This taught us about the 180 degree, match on action and also shot reverse shot.

Evaluation - Target Audience

As a group we decided that our target audience were aged 15 to 35 and were both male and female. As the characters in our film were very simple (they showed no signs of hobbies or subcultures etc), our film was not targeted at a more specific group of people. We felt that the less specific our target audience was then the more likely our film would be successful because it would be relevant to more people.

During pre-production we made an online form to question our audience about themselves, our story line and other things such as where they think our film would be shown. After gathering the responses we understood that our audience liked our story line, thought our chosen certificate was suitable and also would watch our film at the cinema. A few people also said that they would expect to see our film on TV, which we did not expect.

From this we decided not to change our story line (we had previously been worried that it was too childish) and also work with a 15 certificate by putting a swear word into the script and showing a bloody injury. We also found that the majority of our audience were from Yorkshire and so we decided to keep our Yorkshire accents, rather than try to hide them, when acting. The main reason that we would have changed our accents would have been so that people from other areas would have been more likely to understand us.

Evaluation - Who Might Distribute Our Film?

Evaluation - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

To answer this question i have made a video and voiced over images/screen shots to show how our two social groups (men and young girls) have been represented.

Evaluation - Codes and Conventions (for our Genre) In Our Title Sequence

When doing my research into title sequences (from our genre of horror) i found the film Crave on artofthetitle.com.

From this i noticed that they used their title sequence for 3 main purposes; to inform the audience about who was involved with the film (e.g actors, the director etc), to set the atmosphere of the film and to give the audience hints about what will happen in the film.

To the right you can see that we used our title sequence in the same way as Crave. This is because we have shown a knife being cleaned and also revealed who edited the film. The knife is an important prop in our film as it is the weapon used to kill Amy. The knife therefore gives a hint to what is going to happen in the film. Other important props appear within our title sequence (e.g photos of the girls) and so i believe that it is important to include these to help engage the audience.




Crave used music to create a tense atmosphere for their audience due to it being a horror/thriller film. The music that they used was quite up tempo and had unique sound to it. In comparison, the music that we used was also upbeat however it was a piano solo and so was not very unique. Our choice of music did set a tense atmosphere though, due to it being mostly high pitched. Both our's and Crave's music faded out to silence at the end title which also added to create a tense atmosphere. I therefore think that a tense atmosphere is a general convention of horror films.

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

Our opening sequence was mainly influenced by the opening sequence for the film Se7en, which relates to ours as it focused on one main character and the credits.
It includes the casts names and the directors etc. The footage shown is that of the murderer cleaning his knife, and preparing his chloroform. It had to be suitable for the horror genre and therefore included athe clothing of a mask on the man and a knife, the main features were the props used that held significance as they were going to be used later on in the film. The role of an opening sequence is to introduce you to the characters, via introductions that can be shown through dialogue and text. Each character spoke and had a fair amount of screen time to introduce you to them and the text showed their names and who they played.
The narrative was straight forward and concentrated on Amy being kidnapped and the other two girls being left to fend for themselves. The credits appeared first, and this gave you a chance to understand the murderer and it gave you an insight on what's to come.
The extreme close ups of the murderers hands allowed the audience to focus on every detail and investigate what he was doing. The editing showed his actions in slow motion and each shot lasted around four seconds to give the audience a chance to read the credits.
The music is tense and non-diegetic and builds up tempo until the end where it stops abruptly to make the audience focus on what is to come.
The typography of the title was red which is a symbolism of danger and horror and definitely represents this through the idea of blood.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The three girls represented teenage girls to be vulnerable; Amy becomes lost and kidnapped, she can be seen to be weak and vulnerable. The other girls stay together and Kelsey takes authority when she decides the two girls should search for Amy therefore Kelsey may represent a stronger and wiser Teenage girl.  The stereotype in a horror film for a teenage girl is weak and vulnerable and Amy portrays this but if the film had been longer, possibly one of the girls may have been stronger and challenged the stereotype.

The girls represent teenagers with their clothing, of jeans and trainers and they can be seen to represent Yorkshire teenagers with their accents.

The camera angle of a wide shot of Amy on the field, shows her to be alone and represents her vulnerability.

At the end there is a high angle shot which shows Amy to look small against the killer once again representing her to be weak.

The man can be seen to represent men to be strong and powerful against women. The stereotype typically for the murderer in a horror film is strong and scary and he portrays this but if the film had been longer maybe the stereotype would’ve been broken and the girls may have won against him. The man’s clothing is that of a working man, therefore he represents a working man but him being a killer goes against this.

The mask he wears makes him mysterious, it covers his identity and with the props of the knife and chloroform he is dangerous and fits the stereotype of a murderer.

The camera angle of the man throwing the girl into the van is a wide shot, this shot shows his power and strength against her.

There is a heavy breathing sound effect at the end is used for his voice and this represents him to be dangerous and scary.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Via PowerPoint presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/amybassinder7/what-kind-of-media-institution-might-distribute-your-18352852

4. Who would be the audience for your media project?

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

How we attracted from Amy Bassinder

6. What Have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

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

Brief

For the preliminary exercise we had to produce a continuity task that involved filming and editing of a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite a other character, with whom she then exchanges a short conversation with. This task had to demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. 

For the main task we had to produce the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. 

Using the skills we learnt in the preliminary exercise for our main task

• We used the match on action technique- In our preliminary Kelsey held the door handle and then there was a close up shot of her opening the door. We used this technique in the main task for Darcey's phone call, Darcey picks up the phone in a wide shot and then there is a close up shot as she holds the phone to her ear. 

In our preliminary Kelsey and Amy had a shot/reverse shot conversation over there shoulders. We used this technique several times in the main task, once when Kelsey and Darcey are searching for Amy.

• In our preliminary Kelsey and Amy had a conversation with which they used the 180- degree rule, the camera didn't go over the line as otyherwise it would have caused confusion. We used this technique in the main task, for when Kelsey and Darcey are speaking to one another.

Improvements

We seemed to improve on the match on action as in the preliminary task there were many probems when editing, we couldn't get the shots to match and there were jump cuts. But when we edited the match on action in our main task it matched precisely and ran smoothly.

Other Method

We used a split screen in our main task for when Amy and Kelsey are speaking to one another on the phone. We edited the shots so that the two girls are facing one another and look as if they are speaking to each other.