Our finished film and comments are on our youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NJJDProductions
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Monday, 3 May 2010
By Jasmine Pearson
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?Generic conventions are the things that you think of when thinking of a certain genre, and can help to define that genre. In our film we use many of these. For example, in the scene where Lee Richardson discovers the bag, blood drops onto his cheek. The blood is a generic convention of a thriller/horror genre. Also our setting can be classed as a generic convention, because the woods is an isolated place, perfect for a killer to take their victims, and is also associated with thriller/horror films. In this sense or film is not challenging the typical generic conventions that are closely tied with the thriller/horror genre, but developing them. Our use of conventions does not really indicate what sub-genre our film is, so this is something that I would improve on if we were to do this again. Our use of conventions shows that similar thriller films have been an influence, mainly ones such as ‘The Shining’, ‘Blair Witch’ and ‘When A Stranger Calls’. The opening to ‘When A Stranger Calls’ is very similar to the opening of our film. Dead bodies are found at both starts of the films, so this is a similarity. Our film is also similar to this film because of its title sequence. The titles are on plain black screens with film in between them, and the titles in our film are set out like this. Also during the opening sequence of the film, a phone conversation is audible to the audience, and in our film a radio broadcast is played throughout our opening sequence, which are similar.
How does your media product represent particular social group?
Our film uses a syerotype to represent the teenage boys at the beggining of our film. They go into the woods and start drinking, which is something a lot of others view teenagers as doing, so in this aspect we are representing a male teenager in a sterotypical way. For the killer we go against the sterotype of a typical male killer, and in our film 'The Hanger' is a woman killer. Usually in films the killer is not a woman, so this is challenging the steroetype and I still think it works because it is unexpectd and thats what makes up a thriller film. One way we conform to a sterotype is by having the victims as teenagers. Usually the victims in thriller/horror films are teenagers, and you don't normally see an old lady being killed off in a film. We did this in our film because the teenagers add vunerabilty to the killings, making the audeince more shocked. Also our target audience is of a simular age to that of the teenage boys, so this would appeal more to our audience.
What kind of media Institute might distribute your media product and why?
Our film would be something that could be produced by a major Hollywood Studio. I had already researched into major film distributors, including Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox and Universal. As a group we decided that Universal would be the idea distributor choice for our film because, it could promote our film to a widespread area globally, so that we have a better chance at success rate in more countries. Also it would be a good distributor choice because they also distribute a lot of thriller/horror films, including The Strangers, Wanted and The Unborn. It would be released on dvd and blue-ray, and available to purchase on iTunes. By widening our release range, we would create bigger profits, and enable our audience to enjoy the film in a variety of ways. With our film being a thriller film, there is not many opportunities for merchandising, as say there would be with an action or anime film.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our film would be 15 – 30 year olds, of both genders. I think this age range is suitable because it is not a too big gap to target, but not too small that we would be cutting out possible audience. Also our film rating is a 15, so that is why our target audience must start at that age. Our full film contains a lot of thrilling/suspense senses and graphical horror images, such as the dead body that is hanging in the first scene. This is why we have picked the target audience we have. Any body younger or older would be disturbed by on un interested in this type of film. My group and I also decided on our target audience by looking at other similar films and seeing who their target audiences were. From the questionnaire we did on our film genre, the people who took our questionnaire had to state their age. We found that the majority of the people who said they liked all of the common features that were used in a thriller film were aged between 16-24, which also helped us decide on our target audience. Looking on the website http://www.bbfc.co.uk/general/ gave descriptions on what features are included in the age rating of films, and this helped us decide that our film was going to be rated 15.
How did you attract/address your audience?Our target audience was people of both genders, aged 15 – 30. This age group of people would be expecting something quite thrilling in a thriller film or else they would get bored of it. To try and make this true to attract them and keep their interest, we included a lot of point of view shots. This meant that the audience saw what Lee Richardson was seeing, and gave them a feel of being closer to the film, as if they were actually seeing this. If we were to film the rest of the film and not just the first 2 minutes, we would have included a lot of close up shots. This creates suspense and increases the thriller effect because the audience can not see what is around the victims, and cannot see until the very last moment is someone was to attack them. Also throughout our film you never see our killer’s face. This unknown element increases the thrill of the film, because people are scared by not knowing who are people is. We included these techniques to create a good thriller that would be interesting and thrilling enough for our audience.
What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
As we were filming our second scene in a woods, the ground was very uneven and it was very useful that the tripod included a spirit meter that enabled you to adjust the tripod legs so that the shot was straight and not at a canted angle. Final Cut was the editing software we used to edit our film. During this process I learnt how to import film onto the Mac and into Final Cut, then drag into the film bar and trim it and rearrange the order. I also learnt how to separate the sound of the film so that it could be dragged out and cross faded to smooth out the sound. One problem we had during the editing was that we had made a mistake when filming and shot our first scene in widescreen and our second scene we didn’t. We resolved this problem by enlarging the first scene shots so that it then played over all parts of the screen. This cropped off the sides off the film slightly but did not crop off anything important and looked a lot better compared to our second scene of filming afterwards. In the editing process is where we added our radio broadcast to the beginning of our film as well. We recorder the broadcast ourselves and then uploaded it onto Final Cut and dragged it over where we wanted it to be placed. We found that there was a useful effect where we could change the texture of our voice over broadcast to make it sound more like something off the radio.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the procession from it to the full product?
I learnt that the planning stage of making our film was very important. When presented with the task, the first thing we decided to do was to discuss and mind map our different ideas. This was useful in deciding upon an initial idea, because we could separate each idea into a genre, beginning middle and end, among other things, so it made it very clear and easy to decide. After we had decided we were doing a thriller film we researched into that genre. We watched clips from other thriller films and analysed them. This helped us identify what common features were used in thrillers. We then tried to include these features in our film to get the same feel. We created detailed storyboards and shot lists, which helped us know exactly what shots we needed to capture and then the order to edit them in. This process was very smooth and we had few difficulties because of this detailed planning. Nancy and I took turns in filming the scene in the woods while Joseph and Daniel were acting. While using the camera I found that because I had rarely used this type of camera, I took some time getting use to how to operate it. By the end of the almost 3 hours we filmed, I was a lot more confident operating the camera, and knew exactly how to change the tripod to enable us to pan, tilt, and adjust to the right height to get low and high angle shots. I think I also improved with my knowledge of specific shot types, particularly point of view shots which we included a lot in our woodland scene. A lot of the shots were from the point of view of Lee Richardson so we had to make sure these matched the shots previous so that everything looked right. I feel that one thing I could improve my understanding of is the 180 degrees rule. I understand the basic concept of it, but do not feel I would be confident enough applying it without advise from others. So this is what I will put more focus on learning in the next project like this I have. Overall I think our end project fulfils our preliminary task and is quite successful. There a few things that I think could be improved if we were to do this project again, but I am happy with our outcome. I think our group had good initial research and smooth editing, combined with good non-diajetic sound. To get another point of view on the success of our film, we did an audience feedback, where we asked a number of people from our target audience questions and they commented on our film.
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?Generic conventions are the things that you think of when thinking of a certain genre, and can help to define that genre. In our film we use many of these. For example, in the scene where Lee Richardson discovers the bag, blood drops onto his cheek. The blood is a generic convention of a thriller/horror genre. Also our setting can be classed as a generic convention, because the woods is an isolated place, perfect for a killer to take their victims, and is also associated with thriller/horror films. In this sense or film is not challenging the typical generic conventions that are closely tied with the thriller/horror genre, but developing them. Our use of conventions does not really indicate what sub-genre our film is, so this is something that I would improve on if we were to do this again. Our use of conventions shows that similar thriller films have been an influence, mainly ones such as ‘The Shining’, ‘Blair Witch’ and ‘When A Stranger Calls’. The opening to ‘When A Stranger Calls’ is very similar to the opening of our film. Dead bodies are found at both starts of the films, so this is a similarity. Our film is also similar to this film because of its title sequence. The titles are on plain black screens with film in between them, and the titles in our film are set out like this. Also during the opening sequence of the film, a phone conversation is audible to the audience, and in our film a radio broadcast is played throughout our opening sequence, which are similar.
How does your media product represent particular social group?
Our film uses a syerotype to represent the teenage boys at the beggining of our film. They go into the woods and start drinking, which is something a lot of others view teenagers as doing, so in this aspect we are representing a male teenager in a sterotypical way. For the killer we go against the sterotype of a typical male killer, and in our film 'The Hanger' is a woman killer. Usually in films the killer is not a woman, so this is challenging the steroetype and I still think it works because it is unexpectd and thats what makes up a thriller film. One way we conform to a sterotype is by having the victims as teenagers. Usually the victims in thriller/horror films are teenagers, and you don't normally see an old lady being killed off in a film. We did this in our film because the teenagers add vunerabilty to the killings, making the audeince more shocked. Also our target audience is of a simular age to that of the teenage boys, so this would appeal more to our audience.
What kind of media Institute might distribute your media product and why?
Our film would be something that could be produced by a major Hollywood Studio. I had already researched into major film distributors, including Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox and Universal. As a group we decided that Universal would be the idea distributor choice for our film because, it could promote our film to a widespread area globally, so that we have a better chance at success rate in more countries. Also it would be a good distributor choice because they also distribute a lot of thriller/horror films, including The Strangers, Wanted and The Unborn. It would be released on dvd and blue-ray, and available to purchase on iTunes. By widening our release range, we would create bigger profits, and enable our audience to enjoy the film in a variety of ways. With our film being a thriller film, there is not many opportunities for merchandising, as say there would be with an action or anime film.
Who would be the audience for your media product?The audience for our film would be 15 – 30 year olds, of both genders. I think this age range is suitable because it is not a too big gap to target, but not too small that we would be cutting out possible audience. Also our film rating is a 15, so that is why our target audience must start at that age. Our full film contains a lot of thrilling/suspense senses and graphical horror images, such as the dead body that is hanging in the first scene. This is why we have picked the target audience we have. Any body younger or older would be disturbed by on un interested in this type of film. My group and I also decided on our target audience by looking at other similar films and seeing who their target audiences were. From the questionnaire we did on our film genre, the people who took our questionnaire had to state their age. We found that the majority of the people who said they liked all of the common features that were used in a thriller film were aged between 16-24, which also helped us decide on our target audience. Looking on the website http://www.bbfc.co.uk/general/ gave descriptions on what features are included in the age rating of films, and this helped us decide that our film was going to be rated 15.
How did you attract/address your audience?Our target audience was people of both genders, aged 15 – 30. This age group of people would be expecting something quite thrilling in a thriller film or else they would get bored of it. To try and make this true to attract them and keep their interest, we included a lot of point of view shots. This meant that the audience saw what Lee Richardson was seeing, and gave them a feel of being closer to the film, as if they were actually seeing this. If we were to film the rest of the film and not just the first 2 minutes, we would have included a lot of close up shots. This creates suspense and increases the thriller effect because the audience can not see what is around the victims, and cannot see until the very last moment is someone was to attack them. Also throughout our film you never see our killer’s face. This unknown element increases the thrill of the film, because people are scared by not knowing who are people is. We included these techniques to create a good thriller that would be interesting and thrilling enough for our audience.What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
As we were filming our second scene in a woods, the ground was very uneven and it was very useful that the tripod included a spirit meter that enabled you to adjust the tripod legs so that the shot was straight and not at a canted angle. Final Cut was the editing software we used to edit our film. During this process I learnt how to import film onto the Mac and into Final Cut, then drag into the film bar and trim it and rearrange the order. I also learnt how to separate the sound of the film so that it could be dragged out and cross faded to smooth out the sound. One problem we had during the editing was that we had made a mistake when filming and shot our first scene in widescreen and our second scene we didn’t. We resolved this problem by enlarging the first scene shots so that it then played over all parts of the screen. This cropped off the sides off the film slightly but did not crop off anything important and looked a lot better compared to our second scene of filming afterwards. In the editing process is where we added our radio broadcast to the beginning of our film as well. We recorder the broadcast ourselves and then uploaded it onto Final Cut and dragged it over where we wanted it to be placed. We found that there was a useful effect where we could change the texture of our voice over broadcast to make it sound more like something off the radio.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the procession from it to the full product?
I learnt that the planning stage of making our film was very important. When presented with the task, the first thing we decided to do was to discuss and mind map our different ideas. This was useful in deciding upon an initial idea, because we could separate each idea into a genre, beginning middle and end, among other things, so it made it very clear and easy to decide. After we had decided we were doing a thriller film we researched into that genre. We watched clips from other thriller films and analysed them. This helped us identify what common features were used in thrillers. We then tried to include these features in our film to get the same feel. We created detailed storyboards and shot lists, which helped us know exactly what shots we needed to capture and then the order to edit them in. This process was very smooth and we had few difficulties because of this detailed planning. Nancy and I took turns in filming the scene in the woods while Joseph and Daniel were acting. While using the camera I found that because I had rarely used this type of camera, I took some time getting use to how to operate it. By the end of the almost 3 hours we filmed, I was a lot more confident operating the camera, and knew exactly how to change the tripod to enable us to pan, tilt, and adjust to the right height to get low and high angle shots. I think I also improved with my knowledge of specific shot types, particularly point of view shots which we included a lot in our woodland scene. A lot of the shots were from the point of view of Lee Richardson so we had to make sure these matched the shots previous so that everything looked right. I feel that one thing I could improve my understanding of is the 180 degrees rule. I understand the basic concept of it, but do not feel I would be confident enough applying it without advise from others. So this is what I will put more focus on learning in the next project like this I have. Overall I think our end project fulfils our preliminary task and is quite successful. There a few things that I think could be improved if we were to do this project again, but I am happy with our outcome. I think our group had good initial research and smooth editing, combined with good non-diajetic sound. To get another point of view on the success of our film, we did an audience feedback, where we asked a number of people from our target audience questions and they commented on our film.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NJJDProductions#p/u/0/wACEI2abRJ0
In the video linked above, most of our audiences comments were positive. They commented mostly on the setting of our film, and the music, saying that the music fit the genre of our film, horror\thriller well. They also commented saying that we included good camera shots, and we had good continuity editing. See the full comments in the link above.
Reactions to our film
By Daniel Richardson and Jasmine Pearson
This is the video reactions to our film, we asked three peers to give their reaction by asking them questions such as
What genre would you say our film is and why?
What was good about our film?
What was bad about our film?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wACEI2abRJ0&feature=related
This is the video reactions to our film, we asked three peers to give their reaction by asking them questions such as
What genre would you say our film is and why?
What was good about our film?
What was bad about our film?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wACEI2abRJ0&feature=related
Evaluation
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Our film incorporates many generic conventions that you would normally see in a horror/thriller film. For example, an eerie soundtrack used throughout the opening scene in our film, and that would appear throughout the rest of the film in order to be instantly recognisable to an audience, which is similar to the soundtrack to say the SAW franchise, which uses the same soundtrack at various points during all of its 6 films. When the soundtrack plays, with it being an eerie scary soundtrack, this then indicates the genre and sub genre of out film. Also, we use a deserted setting, for example we use woods in our film, influenced by the film ‘The Shining’ which opening scene is also set in woods. Our film starts with the title sequences jumping through the opening scene. This is similar to the film, which also does this, in order to split the action up and disorientate the audience, a typical convention used in a horror/thriller film. However you could say our film challenges some conventions, as in recent horror/thriller films such as ‘When a stranger calls’ , the protagonist is a woman in order to give off a damsel in distress feel, however in our film, a boy is the protagonist, hence challenging conventions of other horror/thriller films.
Our film incorporates many generic conventions that you would normally see in a horror/thriller film. For example, an eerie soundtrack used throughout the opening scene in our film, and that would appear throughout the rest of the film in order to be instantly recognisable to an audience, which is similar to the soundtrack to say the SAW franchise, which uses the same soundtrack at various points during all of its 6 films. When the soundtrack plays, with it being an eerie scary soundtrack, this then indicates the genre and sub genre of out film. Also, we use a deserted setting, for example we use woods in our film, influenced by the film ‘The Shining’ which opening scene is also set in woods. Our film starts with the title sequences jumping through the opening scene. This is similar to the film, which also does this, in order to split the action up and disorientate the audience, a typical convention used in a horror/thriller film. However you could say our film challenges some conventions, as in recent horror/thriller films such as ‘When a stranger calls’ , the protagonist is a woman in order to give off a damsel in distress feel, however in our film, a boy is the protagonist, hence challenging conventions of other horror/thriller films.
How does your media product represent particular social group?
The main protagonists in our film are male, around the later teenage years (17) and are of a white British race. Gender is not represented in a stereotypical way in some cases, for example it is the men who are the victims of the Hanger, rather than the women, however, it is a woman who has been murdered at the start of the film, and therefore you could say that the gender is stereotyped in this sense. This links to the target audience, as the film certificate is a 15, and the target audience age from 15-25 in my opinion, so therefore the characters are of a similar age. Therefore the audience can empathise more with this age group, thinking what they would do in a similar situation, hence creating a more thrilling atmosphere. The characters in our film can be compared to those in the horror film Jeepers Creepers, when (although not both male, instead one male and female) the characters are of a similar teenage age, therefore also comparing to the age of the target audience of that film which is again similar to ours.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our film would be produced by our own production company, NJJD Productions, as we would like our film to be made by ourselves, making all our own decisions. However, we would like our film to be distributed by Universal, as they would be a good distributor choice looking at a big scale picture, because they would be able to promote our film globally. They also distribute a lot of thriller and horror genre films such as “The Unborn”, so they would be our ideal film distributor. They are a big company with a lot of funding, therefore making more profit for us and themselves, on the basis that our film would be a success at the box office. Our film would therefore be released in the cinema, then onto DVD/Blue Ray, followed by a television premiere on say a movie channel PPV channel such as Sky Box Office, in order to generate more profits. Our film does offer limited merchandising however, as it is a 15 certificate and a horror film, therefore figurines, and free merchandise in food outlets such as McDonalds is an unlikely prospect. However, a video game could be made of our film similarly to that made about the film franchise SAW, and our films antagonist; the Hanger’s costume could be made for Halloween and his weaponry for the same purpose also, making The Hanger a cult icon. Also our film could be open to sequels in order to span the series out and explain the storyline fully, again like SAW.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience would be a horror liking audience of both genders from the ages of 15-25. This is a young audience in terms of horror/thriller movies, seen as our characters are also young, therefore the audience can relate to the characters. Also, we found from our audience research that the ages of 16-24 year olds preferred the thriller and horror genres (6 people and 5 people out of the 20 people asked) compared to any other, therefore we aimed our film at this age range, and also created a horror/thriller hybrid genre film because of this research. Films similar to ours include “The Blair Witch Project” “Saw” “The Shining” and “When a Stranger Calls” all of which appeal to a similar target audience. The classification criteria most appropriate to our film would be a certificate 15, which would contain frequent strong and abusive language, strong violence and mild adult themes, which would all contribute to this classification, as our film would contain all these criteria, with it being a horror/thriller film. The film website bbfc helped us classify our film on this way. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/#
How did you attract/address your audience?
Particular points in our film would appeal to our target audience, for example the violence and the dead bodies, gore etc would appeal to the male gender more than the female, and therefore you could say our film is aimed at males rather than females. Also, the beginning scene where the boys drink larger would also appeal to the males, and particularly of this age range, as a common social activity is to have a drink of alcohol, and also as the boys appear to be camping out, this is also a common social activity, hence appealing even more to this age range and gender. At one particular point in our first scene, one of the boys in our film is shot from a bird’s eye view angle, which appears to be an angle from a dead body hanging in the trees. At this point, the audience get a full scale view of the boys reactions, been allowed to witness these. Therefore, this puts them in the same shoes as the boy, as, providing they can figure out it is a dead body they are looking down from so to speak, they also know there is a dead body, when no one else bar the boy does. This could make them feel in the know, and hopefully not confused, showing they will be in the know for the rest of the film, hence hopefully grabbing their attention. 
What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
The camera equipment has a few different strengths and weaknesses. For example, the camera we used (a GVC-DV Camcorder) was compact, easy to use and provides us with good quality shots. However a big weakness is the audio recording quality, which did not match our shots and seems unclear at times. However, this can easily be rectified during editing. During the filming process, there were a few slight problems we faced. For example, whilst recording our footage we found it difficult in some cases to position the camera correctly, which cost us time, however once we got used to it, the recording process was fine. Other than that, the only other slight problems we faced were finding the right props in the woods, but that was easily resolved. When editing, we used Final Cut Express. I personally learnt how to edit, as although I done some editing on the preliminary task, I was still unsure of what to do. However I quickly learnt the skills needed. The programme was an excellent program to use, as it made the editing smooth, and it was easy to use. It also gave a professional look to our film. 
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The planning stages to our film really helped us organise and create our film efficiently. Without the planning, our film and everything about it would have been spontaneous, and although some of the factors would have been efficient, most of the film and our coursework portfolio would have been a mess. The research into the genre via questionnaires and research of other films helped us to decide what genre of film to produce and the storyline to our film. The storyboarding helped us plan our shots, and along with our shot list, helped is film smoothly. Compare this to our preliminary task, where we didn’t really plan anything, therefore the process took far longer, and the task was to be frank boring, compared to our actual film which was brilliant fun to make. My personal use of specific shots has improved, for example I helped shoot matches on action, which really helped me understand continuity, and improved my ability as a camera man, something which I would pursue in the future. I know about sound bridges, and how do edit successfully. I feel more confident with the equipment, feeling able to use the equipment quite easily now, whereas for the preliminary task I was unsure and not relishing the task at all, whereas now I look forward to filming.
In terms of the group, I believe we worked extremely well together in order to create a great project. However in some intstances, I believe we could have made more decisions as a group, and shared the workload evenly as we found our selves having disagreements at times. However, personally, I would happily work with the same group of people again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wACEI2abRJ0&feature=related
Above is the video of our audience response, we asked a cross section of our target audience to evaluate and to give us feedback on our film. Most of the comments were largely positive, although few gave us constructive criticism. Some of the positive comments that were made were
"good continuity editing"
"camera shots were good"
"the acting was quite good"
"the music"
Some of the constructive criticisms were
"could have been more use of certain shots''
"the acting was slightly unrealistic"
But overall, i was happy with the critical response of the film in general.
Overall, I believe our end product is extremely successful. Our film looks professional, it was a lot of fun to work on, and was a helpful experience, something I would quite happily and probably will do again. It has been brilliant.
Nancy Smith - Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Generic conventions are the initial thought that you think of when thinking about a certain genre of film, and often define the particular genre. In our film ‘The Hanger’ we have used many typical conventions to tell the audience the genre of our film. For example, the opening title sequence in our film shows a masked figure in a dark room. The figure switches on a radio which then plays the report of a missing girl in the area. The masked figure is a generic convention of a thriller/horror film. The radio report or voice over is also often used in horror films to give the audience underlying information about what is about to or had happened. Another film that uses this technique in its opening is ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ which plays an old police report and video over and within its opening title shots to ideally inform and scare the viewer. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXagxQRVkeE&feature=related)
Also, the setting of our film is a generic convention as the woods is a place that other thriller films have used in their stories. The films ‘The Blair Witch Project’
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZu1cTg-xUM&feature=related) and ‘Cabin Fever’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEMgegxLVS4&feature=related) which can be easily set in the that this gives the film a isolated and thrilling feel, which is one of the reasons we chose to use it as the location for our film. I believe that our use of generic conventions shows how similar thriller films have been an influence on our film. Personally, I believe that ‘The Shining’ is one of the main influences on the shots we used when filming our film, which, helped to give our film the overall thriller factor.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In some aspects our film uses stereotypical thriller/horror film characters, such as, the two teenage boys who are the main characters we see in the opening. Most films of the thriller and horror genre use individuals or a group of teenagers as the victims in their films as it creates a bigger sense of vulnerability, as they are younger. The film ‘Jeepers Creepers 2’ uses this stereotypical feature and focuses on a group of teenage school
kids stuck and in fear on an American highway when their bus brakes down and a mysterious figure appears to be taking them one by one. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj1rwFz_ffY) On the other hand, our film has branched away from the stereotypical movie killer idea, as the murderer in our film is a woman. I believe that this challenges the forms and conventions of o
ur film genre, although, it still works in terms of creating that thriller atmosphere as in the opening scene and throughout our film we keep the identity of our killer unknown.
What kind of media institute might disturb your media product and why?
Our film could easily be produced by a major Hollywood studio such as, 20th Century Fox, Universal and Paramount Pictures. As a group, we decided that our production company NJJD Productions would produce our film and the best distributor for our film
would be Universal.
We believe that it would be able to promote our film globally, to a widespread audience, so that we could achieve success in more countries via box office and DVD/blue-ray sales. Universal is also well known for distributing horror/thriller films, such as ‘The Unborn’ and ‘The Strangers’, which is another reason we believe it would be the right distributor for our film. After box office release we would release our film on DVD/blue-ray and then on iTunes. By releasing our film in as many media ways as possible, we will be able to reach a wider audience, creating bigger profits.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for our film is people aged 15-30, of both genders. We put an age rating of 15 on our film as it contains mild horror/thriller aspects, that may scare some people.
I believe that our age range and certificate is ideal for our film as it caters for both sexes and a variety of ages, allowing more people to enjoy it. When deciding the target for our film, we looked at similar films and their target audiences. We also looked at the results of the questionnaire we created and found that the majority of people who said they liked all of the common features of a thriller film were aged between 16 and 24. This enabled us to choose a suitable certificate for our film, which would allow the widest range of people to view it.
When we had decided and researched our target audience we knew that we would have to create a film that would thrill them and keep them interested in order for success. The shots we used in our film play a big part in attracting and keeping the audience interested. A lot of the shots in the first two minuets of our film that we created were eye view shots. Part of the reason we chose this type of shot was to make the audience feel as though they are part and present within the film. To keep the audience interested we would carry this type of shot on throughout the rest of our film, keeping the thriller aspect present at all times. Another thing we used in the opening and would use throughout the film is the masking of the killer. This means that the audience never sees the killers face, creating the element of the unknown. Many other thriller and horror films use this technique to attract their audience which I believe would make this expected of our film. By doing this, we have addressed and created the needs of our audience.
What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
Personally, I believe that in terms of technology, I have learnt a huge amount about filming, editing and recording whilst creating our film. One of the things I have learnt much about in the process of creating our film is the use of the editing software Final Cut Pro, which we used to edit our film. Before creating our film I had a basic knowledge of the software from previous media tasks. Upon creating our own opening to a film, I have learnt a huge amount more about the software, such as how to record and add a voice clip to our film and how to add effects and titles. I found learning about the software very challenging but now feel confident with the use of editing software. Another thing I learnt during the process of filming was the correct use of a tripod. When filming our scene in the woods we had to deal with a lot of uneven ground. The spirit level built into the tripod helped us to get a level shot, even though the ground beneath was extremely uneven. I also learnt that for some of the shots in our wood scene, such as the final high angle shots that looks down onto the character Lee Richardson as he discovers the mysterious object in the trees, we would have to try and achieve a still shot without the use of the tripod as it was impossible to set up the tripod in particular areas. Having to improvise with shots like this was very difficult, although as a group we managed to achieve an effective shot. This has taught me that sometimes you cannot always rely on technology and have to be willing to improvise.
Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the procession from it to the full product?
Looking back at our preliminary task, I have learnt that initial planning is one of the most important processes in creating a film. As a group, we planned our film thoroughly before filming to ensure we knew exactly what we wanted to achieve in our final product. We started planning by bringing together all our ideas of film storylines as a group. After about 40 minutes of discussion we had come up with an initial storyline for our film which helped us to move forward onto storyboarding and researching. Because we planned and researched our task properly we were able to move forward with our filming with full confidence that we knew what we were going to do. Another thing that I feel I have learned during the procession of the task is my knowledge of shot types. We used a range of shot types in the opening to our film, which enabled me to try a range of different filming angles, lengths, etc. Before going out to film, we created a detailed shot list so that we knew exactly what we had to film. This process of planning helped us to easily and efficiently film our shots. I feel that one of the things I could improve on is creating a further understanding of the use of the camera we used to film. I feel confident with the use of filming a single shot, but struggle to rewind and review previous shots confidently, without the fear of recording over previous filming. This is one of the things I will focus on improving in the next project I am given that requires me to use a camera of this sort. Overall I feel that our end product fulfils our preliminary task, and has been successful. In terms of improvement, there are a few things I feel could be improved if we were to do the project again, although I am extremely happy with the final outcome of our project. I think that our group worked well together throughout the project which helped us to complete the task efficiently and to a good standard.
When we asked a cross section of our target audience to view our video and give us feedback their comments were mostly positive. The audience we asked commented mostly on the setting and editing on our film. They thought our film had good continuity and camera shots, which made it look professional. Another thing our audience thought was particularly good about our film was the music we used. They felt that the music used fit in well with the genre of our film, giving it the Thriller/Horror feel we intended. The full video feedback is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wACEI2abRJ0
Evaluation
Joseph Beardsall
Evaluation
Media Evaluation
1,) In what way does media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
In the making of our film we decided to create a thriller film and to stick to the conventions of a thriller we used conventions such as blood, scary woods, and dark rooms and so on. We set our scenes in woods and in dark rooms to highlight the fact we are doing a thriller, horror hybrid film. We also used fake blood, rope, black gloves and other props that have a sense of fear about them. Are film is a hybrid genre of a thriller horror film I would compare it to the blare witch project, as both have similar conventions but mainly are both set in the woods for the majority of the film. As for the opening of our film I would compare to “I am Legend” as the opening scene starts very innocent and then builds up suspense before revealing the monster later in the film. Are film starts very innocent and also builds up suspense and reveals something is not quite right before revealing our monster, which in this case is a person. The difference between the two beginnings is “I am Legend” is a large budget film, which means they were able to use larger more effective sets wear as in our film we had to settle for a less productive environment but they both fulfil their purpose of been scary.
2,) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In terms of gender representation we have not used our characters stereo typically. The reason for this is because usually you would find that female characters are the victims of the killer wear as in our film we use males as the victims and a women as the killer. We did this to try not be stereo typical and to make our film different to most thriller horrors which usually use men as the killers as they are considered as been dominant were as women are redeemed as been passive. In another sense we stereotyped in the age of our characters, as they are teenagers, which is a popular aspect in thriller horrors to use teenagers as the main victims. This attracts our target audience of teenagers over the age of 15 as the staring characters are portrayed as been a similar age to the audience will are trying to attract.
3,) what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our film will be distributed by a large Hollywood studio such as universal were as the production company is NJJD productions. The reason for this we will be able to attract a wider worldwide audience and increase our profit margin. It would be released as a T, V movie after a period of time but only after the releasing of DVDs and blue ray so we can make as much profit as possible. As for merchandising we could sell various posters and extended additions of the film but the film does not leave many opportunities for certain merchandise such as action figures.
4,) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our main target audience as I mentioned earlier is teenagers over the age of 15 the reason for this is because the certificate for our film is 15. We decided this based on the information on the BBFC website is linked here http://www.bbfc.co.uk/. The violence and language and horror content are the reasons we have decided our film should be a 15 certificate. We did a questionnaire to find out which age range would be most interested in our film.
5,) How did you attract/address your audience?
We tried to attract our target audience by making the characters a similar age of the audience we wanted to watch our film. We also featured connotations of a horror film that most teenagers would find scary and terrify the majority. To keep suspense we try not to give too much away, so we used match on action shots to help the audience understand the conversations that go on and we also used high angle shots to imply something is up above our characters and also our character is not as powerful or as significant as the other characters and helps portray him as been vulnerable and weak. We decided not to reveal what the person can see as we want to have our audience’s hearts beating strong but also keep the suspense. We attracted our audience by using a genre that would interest them and tried to stick to the conventions of a horror to keep them entertained.
6,) What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
I have learnt how to set up the camera, how to get the correct white balance and feel confidence will all the equipment. The only weakness I found with the cameras was the audio was not very good. We did not really face too many problems, we planned two dates filmed and edited in the time scale that we had been set. We used final cut pro to edit our film, which we found easy to use, and has some very effective tools. We used it to crop some of our clips and added music in places and get rid of any other unwanted sounds. We put our clips into order and clipped a lot of them to fit into the film and to add good continuity to our film.
7,) Looking back to your preliminary task, what did you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Evaluation
Media Evaluation
1,) In what way does media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
In the making of our film we decided to create a thriller film and to stick to the conventions of a thriller we used conventions such as blood, scary woods, and dark rooms and so on. We set our scenes in woods and in dark rooms to highlight the fact we are doing a thriller, horror hybrid film. We also used fake blood, rope, black gloves and other props that have a sense of fear about them. Are film is a hybrid genre of a thriller horror film I would compare it to the blare witch project, as both have similar conventions but mainly are both set in the woods for the majority of the film. As for the opening of our film I would compare to “I am Legend” as the opening scene starts very innocent and then builds up suspense before revealing the monster later in the film. Are film starts very innocent and also builds up suspense and reveals something is not quite right before revealing our monster, which in this case is a person. The difference between the two beginnings is “I am Legend” is a large budget film, which means they were able to use larger more effective sets wear as in our film we had to settle for a less productive environment but they both fulfil their purpose of been scary.
2,) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In terms of gender representation we have not used our characters stereo typically. The reason for this is because usually you would find that female characters are the victims of the killer wear as in our film we use males as the victims and a women as the killer. We did this to try not be stereo typical and to make our film different to most thriller horrors which usually use men as the killers as they are considered as been dominant were as women are redeemed as been passive. In another sense we stereotyped in the age of our characters, as they are teenagers, which is a popular aspect in thriller horrors to use teenagers as the main victims. This attracts our target audience of teenagers over the age of 15 as the staring characters are portrayed as been a similar age to the audience will are trying to attract.
3,) what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our film will be distributed by a large Hollywood studio such as universal were as the production company is NJJD productions. The reason for this we will be able to attract a wider worldwide audience and increase our profit margin. It would be released as a T, V movie after a period of time but only after the releasing of DVDs and blue ray so we can make as much profit as possible. As for merchandising we could sell various posters and extended additions of the film but the film does not leave many opportunities for certain merchandise such as action figures.
4,) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our main target audience as I mentioned earlier is teenagers over the age of 15 the reason for this is because the certificate for our film is 15. We decided this based on the information on the BBFC website is linked here http://www.bbfc.co.uk/. The violence and language and horror content are the reasons we have decided our film should be a 15 certificate. We did a questionnaire to find out which age range would be most interested in our film.
5,) How did you attract/address your audience?
We tried to attract our target audience by making the characters a similar age of the audience we wanted to watch our film. We also featured connotations of a horror film that most teenagers would find scary and terrify the majority. To keep suspense we try not to give too much away, so we used match on action shots to help the audience understand the conversations that go on and we also used high angle shots to imply something is up above our characters and also our character is not as powerful or as significant as the other characters and helps portray him as been vulnerable and weak. We decided not to reveal what the person can see as we want to have our audience’s hearts beating strong but also keep the suspense. We attracted our audience by using a genre that would interest them and tried to stick to the conventions of a horror to keep them entertained.
6,) What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
I have learnt how to set up the camera, how to get the correct white balance and feel confidence will all the equipment. The only weakness I found with the cameras was the audio was not very good. We did not really face too many problems, we planned two dates filmed and edited in the time scale that we had been set. We used final cut pro to edit our film, which we found easy to use, and has some very effective tools. We used it to crop some of our clips and added music in places and get rid of any other unwanted sounds. We put our clips into order and clipped a lot of them to fit into the film and to add good continuity to our film.
7,) Looking back to your preliminary task, what did you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wACEI2abRJ0&feature=channel
This is the link to a video of members of our target audience reviewing our film.The comments made were quite positive their said we used good continuity editing and great music.
When we planed our preliminary task we started by deciding on our genre of film. After brief discussions we agreed a thriller horror would be the best genre to do as it would entertain our target audience and we all like thriller, horror films. We created a storyboard and a shot list before filming so we would be organised when coming to film. This helped us to film quicker and more effectively. We improved on how to film certain shots such as match on action, panning shots and high angle shots. I feel much more confidant with all the equipment now and believe I would find it much easier to film again know I have the knowledge I require to use the equipment efficiently. Overall I believe our film is very successful as it sticks to generic conventions of horror/thriller films.
When we planed our preliminary task we started by deciding on our genre of film. After brief discussions we agreed a thriller horror would be the best genre to do as it would entertain our target audience and we all like thriller, horror films. We created a storyboard and a shot list before filming so we would be organised when coming to film. This helped us to film quicker and more effectively. We improved on how to film certain shots such as match on action, panning shots and high angle shots. I feel much more confidant with all the equipment now and believe I would find it much easier to film again know I have the knowledge I require to use the equipment efficiently. Overall I believe our film is very successful as it sticks to generic conventions of horror/thriller films.
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