Evaluation - Question 7

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I have progressed and advanced a great deal. I have learnt many more skills such as camera, sounds, and editing. I have the ability to do all of these aspects on my own rather than being spoon fed it all, I am much more confident with all the equipment, in especially editing.

In the preliminary task, I learnt the basic and essential camera rules, and editing methods. Examples of the camera skills/rules are such things as the 180˚ rule, shot reverse shot, action match etc.

I found the majority of the preliminary task relatively easy, I found that editing threw in some difficulties with continuity but other than that I had no major troubles. Knowing that I hadn’t had many troubles meant I felt more confident when thinking up ideas for the main film opening task, therefore I could be slightly more ambitious with my ideas.

Research – This progressed slightly from the preliminary task to the film opening in only one way really, I researched in more depth for the main task to try and achieve better results by getting as much background knowledge as possible.

Construction – Again there was only one real way in which this developed between preliminary task and film opening, I was more confident with the tools, and slightly better skilled as I had, had more practise. 

Evaluation – The only way this has differed from the preliminary task to the film opening is that I am doing the evaluation in greater depth now.

Evaluation - Question 6

In this whole process, I personally have learnt a great deal in the way of technologies, not just in hardware but also in the software I used.

Planning – In planning and researching, I extended my knowledge with various different forms of technology, whether this is with blogger or YouTube or any other sites I used. I had knowledge on how to use YouTube, but I was taught how to use blogger. I learnt how to, update, customize, follow and post on blogger, all very useful skills.

Construction – In this part of the whole task, I learnt most in this segment. I have gained extensive knowledge on, camera equipment, sound equipment, tri-pods, dolly’s, premier pro, and the record suite. I have been taught how to use all of this equipment to the best of my ability and so that I can gain the most out of the equipment.

Evaluation – In this section, I haven’t used any real forms of new technology, just re-using parts I have already used and learnt, e.g. blogger and YouTube. Uploading video clips and photo’s onto my blog.

Learning these different skills I found was relatively easy, I find I can do a great deal when I put my mind to it and I am also used to forms of technology. Although I did find it quite simple to do, I found the premier pro was sometimes quite awkward and could infuriate sometimes.

In the past I hadn’t used blogger but now I have used it I feel totally confident with the site. I had used digital cameras before the task both video and still cameras.

Other technical aspects such as lighting and sound, I found was much the same as camera equipment. There isn’t much to go wrong with it, getting the right levels of light can sometime be tricky but once I got used to it I had very few problems.

Evaluation - Question 4

Our film is aimed at the 16-24 year old age group.  This is due to many reasons, one being the popularity of our genre in this age group. From our demographic studies, we have found that people in this age bracket find the genre interesting and entertaining. Also in our film we have included characters in these age bracket which I likely to make it more popular for this group. We found that gender was relatively equal, there wasn’t a great difference between male and female there for our film is not aimed at any one gender. Another figure that cropped up in our demographic research revealed that there is a social class that find our genre particularly entertaining, this social class is C2.

The reason that we aimed at this group is because it is easy to associate with and would make the making of the film easier as it is familiar territory. This meant that we could make our film to something we know and to a better result.

For our film we gave our rating a 15, this seemed appropriate after the research we have done. As we have aimed at the teenage age group this rating is the right balance of restriction and availability to the public.

Our film would be released into a multiplex cinema rather than an independent one. This is because of our audience. We are targeting a mainstream audience, there for by using a multiplex cinema we would reach this audience in greater quantities.

Evaluation - Question 5

We used a small questionnaire to find out what members of our audience like to see in a film. We did this so that we could find out valuable information on trends that select people from our audience/target market liked and disliked, so that we could possibly and include these in our film to try and produce a better end result.

Examples of the questions that we asked are as follows. Do you like horror as a genre? What types of horror, e.g. sci-fi, gory, and paranormal do you like? Where do you see these films advertised? Are there certain things you like to see in a horror film? Etc.

After receiving the results to our questionnaire, we used some of the information to help us attract audiences. We used things such as familiar things to the audience. In this instance, we included teenagers as the characters, this is instantly familiar to the audience to try and intrigue them into the film.

As I mentioned earlier, we used the teenage characters to try and intrigue the audience. This was planned in such a way that the audience (teenagers) would see it and instantly recognise it, and possibly relate to it.

I feel the best place to promote our film would be on such things as social networks and popular internet sites. This is because our target audience spent a great deal of time on this websites, and would see the adverts more frequently than in any other place. 

Evaluation - Question 3

A film distributor is a company that gets the film to be shown in cinemas and then gets the film to be put onto DVD’s and blu-rays so that it can be sold as a product, and they also plan when the film will be shown when it comes to being shown on TV. They also take care of marketing a product and makes sure t generates as much money as possible.

I feel that that our film would need a major film distributor. This is because it would need the maximum amount of promotion and advertising as horror is a very popular genre. With it being a very popular genre, it will be very hard to stand out from the other films in the genre so if we used a major distributor, they would be able to offer greater promotion to get the most amount of attention to help to gain the largest possible audience.

If I had the choice of any film distributor I would use 20^th Century Fox, purely because it is so well known and has a reputation of good films that it has distributed. 20^th Century Fox are part of a major conglomerate and so have large amounts of money at their disposal which is important to get the marketing right. They haven’t produced many horrors but the one I have found which is very popular is Predator. This has large amounts of horror within its content and has been very successful.

An example of a distributor that specialises in horror’s, is a company called Hammer Film Productions. This company distributed and produced many of the early horrors such as Frankenstein and Dracula. The company seemed to go into hibernation until the early 2000’s. Hammer has been a major part in the production and distribution of the anticipated The Woman In Black, which is a blockbuster for 2012. I would rather use 20^th Century Fox as they are much better known, and reach a wider audience.

An example of a small budget film that has become successful is, Paranormal Activity, it was film and produced on a very low budget, using only basic camera equipment and editing. The film was made for a total of $15,000 and made around $194 million worldwide, and is the highest profiting film ever made. The reasoning for the success was a combination of a few things. The distribution was very successful, the advertising was very good. The adverts on TV left an enigma, it wasn’t clear what was happening so it 

made people want to find out by going to see it. The film used two very large distributors, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures. These are to of the largest distributors so these will have very large amounts of money to their disposal which will be key for good distribution and marketing.   

I would expect that our film would be shown in a multiplex cinema, this decision is largely based on our target audience. Our market is very large, one of the highest that we have found in our research. So if we are showing to a mainstream market it will be a sensible idea to show it in a more popular form of cinema so that the most amounts of people can view it. If it was shown in an independent art house then not a great deal of people would view it and would not make a profit on the film. As we have chosen that we would use a major distributor, they would make sure that the film reached multiplexes.

In the marketing sense of things I would expect our distributor to choose a mixture of methods to advertise our film I feel that one of the most effective methods of advertising is using technology so my advertising would be along these lines. I would use YouTube due to the sheer amount of people that access this website meaning more people would see it. I would also use social networks and sites where a huge amount of target audience goes when online. I think that other forms of advertising such as billboards and posters are now out dated, they cost large amounts of money and I feel they are not as effective now, compared to the technological methods of advertising. If we used this method, I feel it would be worth while to advertise in cinemas and on TV. In cinema’s, when there is another horror film showing, before the film starts and you get the credits and other film trailers, I would hope for the distributor to advertise us there as it would be aimed directly t the target audience.

Evaluation - Question 2

In our media production we represented the typical college student teenager. This representation is constructed by the stills in our opening which include the stereotypical objects associated with a college student/teenager. At the very beginning of our opening, it is the end of a party and the stills highlight these objects. These include empty alcohol bottles, condoms and a pair of pants. These are all connotations of the stereotypical, college student teenager. 

In our production we represented the average college student, stereotypical teenager, we represented this with the still we used that I mentioned earlier in the texts which are all connotations of the characters stereotype. We chose not to challenge these conventions so that it is familiar territory to the viewer so they can concentrate on what is happening rather than trying to figure out the plot of the film, at this early stage.

There are certain situations where characters have been placed to represent their stereotype. For example, the teenage girl, coming out of a house where a party has been in progress and the teenage boy is also outside after the party. This is what most people associate teenagers doing, more specifically, college and 6^th form students around that age group. The ways the characters act are also connotations of this stereotype. The boy appears drunk and trying to attract the female, which most people associate males of this age group doing. The girl is quite defensive, seems a bit “bolshy” which most viewers would recognise as a characteristic of teenage females. The characters are represented as being typical white and middle class, the average every day person. This is shown by the normal size house in an average sub-urban location and the characters dressed in smart/casual clothing. This was all done for the same reason as before, it’s so it is familiar to the viewer.

The technical choices we made in some cases show the emotions and emphasise what the characters thoughts are. An example of this is the close up on the male character after he has been rejected by the female. It’s very low key lighting and casts a silhouette over the characters face, this is made more obvious by the low angle shot. By using the low angle shot it shows the male to be more powerful, this is a stereotype of the male gender. This shows he’s suspicious and seems quite disturbed and his facial expression shows his thoughts and anger. When the female comes on screen and is walking away the, eerie music starts to play, which shows that she could be in danger, and because of her stereotype of being vulnerable the music emphasises the fact that she could be in danger.      

     

Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I feel that it would be valuable to run through the conventions of a film opening before answering the question, to ensure there is no confusion of about the conventions.
Enigma – Often a question is raised by the end of the 2 minutes, which leads into making the audience think and pay attention for the rest of the film.
Introduction of characters – Main characters are often introduced in this period of time, to give the viewer an idea of who is who.
Establishing shot – Often a pan, or extreme long shot is used to show the surroundings to set the scene/tone of the film.
Credits – The producers, directors, film company, production company and main actors are often introduced at this moment in time.
Information – If there is any necessary information needed such as date, time, or location it is often shown at this point.
Our film opening does mainly comply with the conventions of a horror film opening. For example, there is an enigma. The enigma is ‘what happened to the girl’ and ‘who was it chasing her’? Also there is a lot of low key lighting, and credits, which include the producer the director, production company, cameraman and main actors. There is also an establishing shot, which in our case is a zoom of the location. There are some conventions that are challenged in our opening, for example, the way that we have the inside shots of a party scene, which has no relations to horror. This isn’t normally the sort of thing that you see in the genre we have chosen. In our opening we have had a mix of using, developing, and challenging conventions of a horror, so that we have a unique twist in our film.
As our film is a horror, it will be worthwhile to show the connection between our film and the real movies. Examples and evidence of the conventions that our film opening comply with that I have found is in American Werewolf in London. In the opening a lot of low key lighting is used, this gives a sense of suspense. Our opening includes this low key lighting in the majority of the external scenes.

In our film opening a convention that we have challenged, is the way our film opening has the internal shots of the party. This isn’t a normal convention of a horror but I feel it gives our film a little USP.

The conventions that our opening complies with include the following:

Editing – The way we have edited the film complies with the conventions of horror opening, it’s very fast paced, as the suspense builds.

Sound – In our opening, there is an eerie sound track to help build suspense, this also complies with the conventions of a horror film opening. 

Characters – We use a main character which is a young, teenage female. This is the stereotypical damsel in distress which is vulnerable to an attack. An example of this in a film, is paranormal activity, the main character who is a female is targeted by the paranormal happenings.

Mise-en-scene –

C – Our main actors are just in casual clothing nothing to raise suspicion, and it’s familiar to the viewer.

L – We have used a lot of low key lighting, a convention of a horror film.

A – Our main actor is a young teenage girl, the stereotypical vulnerable target.

M – No make-up was used in this production

P – We used some old bottles, cigarettes, and a condom, these are all connotations of a teenager.

S – The setting is in a urban cul-de-sac which is a non-suspicious environment, and a familiar setting to the viewers.  

Past student analysis

The past student film opening that I'm analysing is called Invidia. I will run through the things i feel work and things that don't, and also the technical aspects.

The things that I feel work include. The hand held POV shots, Establishing pans, the voice overs (when the words come up), the low key lighting which is appropriate for the genre, and the out of focus POV shot.

The things that I feel don't work so well are as follows. As the music becomes more intense to show an element of danger and suspense, the characters are out of sync with it, they don't move any faster or react with the music, and it appears wrong when watching it.

I will run through the mise-en-scene for the opening.

C - The characters are supposed to be around the young 20's, casual dressed. I think this is because it will appeal to the target audience.

L - Low key lighting which is appropriate for the genre.

A - Casual young, male, not clear who the suspicious masked character is (enigma). I feel the mask is a bit cliché and doesn't work very well.

M - No make-up is used in the opening, I feel that this is to make it seem more realistic.

P - A mask has been used on the suspicious character, this is to try and create a more sadistic feel to the film.

S - In a woods, this is a scary setting, appropriate for the genre. Although I find this a little bit cliché.