Evaluation Question 8- Helen

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

As a group we all feel that our final piece (the horror film) is a vast improvement on our preliminary task - which we were to re-create a piece of an existing AS Media students work. We believe that the final piece is better as we now have a better understanding of the filming equipment (cameras, tripods) and of editing equipment ( Mac Suite). Also we feel more comfortable with the equipment. We also believe that the final piece is better as we were able to be more creative, as we were not copying another film - we were able to choose what shots and angles we wanted and what we could and couldn't film was not already determined for us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=&feature=player_embedded - This is the link to our preliminary video.

During our preliminary task we learnt that Mise-en-scene was a very important thing to get right, as if it was slightly wrong the narrative and sequencing of the film would not really make sense. Therefore during the filming of our final piece we were extra careful to ensure that mise-en-scene was correct. Also during the filming of our preliminary task we learnt that the way in which shots were framed and what angles they were shot from was very important- so again during the filming of our final piece we payed close attention to these details.

If we were to do the preliminary production again I believe that we would pay close attention to and scrutinise every single detail until we were completely happy with the final product. Although I believe we wouldn't actually do much differently as we were quite pleased with how it turned out- especially as it was our first production  in AS Media and in our group.

Evaluation Question 7- Bronwyn

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of editing our film on imovie the technology on it helped us through adding effects to some of the clips and audio. On the programme it has an audio affect, which was useful for us as we needed to alter a voice to make it more childlike and for it to echo with the child rhyme to get a creepy girls voice making a well known rhyme and making it scary. The technology worked really well as you would think it’s a child’s voice and the echo makes it more mysterious.

Using imovie to edit our move was a successful piece of technology as it was easy to use, was accurate when you wanted something cutting e.g. scenes and the use of using the effects helped us change some clips to make it suit the genre more. It helped us make some of the lighting the same by adjusting the lighting balance and using a shaky movement in one of the clips to make it more creepy.  

The technology of using the Internet helped us to be more creative as we used sources like youtube and google to look at other student’s previous work to see what worked and what didn’t and professional horror film to get an idea of what to include in a horror to make it our own. And research of what some of our props needed to be like, like the voodoo doll and the criminal cards. By using Blogger we could keep track with our previous posts to help us develop ideas.

Garageband was a big help of technology to us as it help us to get our sound track feeling scary and atmospheric with the use of sound effects like the child’s laugh and example of music to create the sound track. It was easy to use which meant more time making the sound track instead of exploring how it worked.

Evaluation Question 6- Helen

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

Some examples of production companies that may produce our films are:

-          Hoya Production.

                  -          Warner Bros.

-          Hawk Films.

-          Image Ten.

We would use them as these companies would help our project by helping to raise funds, advertise and help with the physical production of the film. These companies would use our film as it fits in with the target audiences of other films they have produced. All the films fit in the same age group, genre and social group.

Our film relates to many British films at the levels of Distribution, Exhibition and Production. We- like many larger productions- have gone and found a specific target audience for our product and have then designed our final piece to fit these criteria. By doing so we were able to pick actors and settings that would better suit their tastes.

The way in which our film was produced can be seen as both different and similar to the way in which larger media institutions produce their pieces. It is similar as we had to choose a location and suitable actors and then we had to go and physically film our piece, after this we then had to edit our footage into our final production. However, the ways in which ours is different to a major production company is that we do not have the budget that they have and therefore we are unable to get the same level of special effects and high technological aspects, so this is a major difference between a production of ours and one of their productions.

Evaluation Question 5- Jade

How did you attract/address your audience?

As we had little choice but to grant our film an 18 certificate rating – as a result of the disturbing and horrific content, our initial target audience began there (18 and older) Aware that we were now targeting adults interested in horror films, we had to consider this when creating our film. I believe that we were effective in the way that we reached our target audience, as we used a narrative as to which such an age group could relate. Using a convict as our protagonist may chill the viewers as everyone is aware that crime is an ongoing and increasing problem, therefore our narrative almost coincided with contemporary times, however the twists it has using visual effects such as our mise en scene and editing add a further scare – our initial intention for the viewers. Our actor although under the age range himself, played the convict, whom is imaginably over 25, but was dressed in an ordinary tracksuit as we wanted to constantly reinforce the idea of realism. We didn’t want to exaggerate costume/make up and as a result detach ourselves from our attempt to create a realistic atmosphere. Most of the horror elements came from our use of props (such as the voodoo doll) lighting, sound and editing. For example, the entirety of the film consists of dark colours - stereotypical of the genre, a part of the film contains a child-like rhyme which was actually inspired from another film (Dark Water - video on this separate post - http://bilborough445566.blogspot.com/2011/04/evaluation-question-2-bronwyn.html) as we believed it increased the horror and felt intensity within the film. Such aspects are believed to interest our intended audience, as films similar to ours in the past have done well (such as the Ring (certificate 15))

(IMAGE FROM THE RING)

Evaluation Question 4 - Jade

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Horror genre tends to generalise women as a stereotypically ‘weak’ gender. In most horror films both old and contemporary, the victims tend to be women, reflecting them as the weaker, less dominant gender. However in our film we decided to challenge this, making the protagonist (eventually also the victim of his own crimes) male. Like in most films of the same genre (such as The Ring), we have portrayed the age of the protagonist as between 18 and 25, which was also our target audience, meaning that they could possibly relate and therefore find the narrative more chilling.

As our main character was a convict, we thought it important to support the stereotypical attire of a realistic world. Mise en scene/costume included a plain tracksuit, and shaved hair – much as you would expect a young convict to appear. This again as a hope of boosting the realism of our film. We didn’t want to exaggerate costume/make up and as a result detach ourselves from our attempt to create a believeable atmosphere.

Having had our audience feedback returned, it was stated that we did well in representing the included social groups within our film. It was noticed that we used our mise en scene positively to achieve this, and people commented upon our good use of camerawork such as framing and composition which allowed this clear presentation of social groups - such as high camera angles making the protagonist appear isolated thus reflecting his current social group and position in society as a convict.

Evaluation Question 3- Helen

Who would be the audience of your media product?


We used IMDb to figure out what the best target audience would be for our film.

	Votes	Average
Males	186,251	8.7
Females	34,241	8.7
Aged under 18	2,790	9.0
Males under 18	2,239	9.0
Females under 18	537	9.0
Aged 18-29	122,154	8.8
Males Aged 18-29	102,504	8.8
Females Aged 18-29	18,987	8.7
Aged 30-44	77,590	8.6
Males Aged 30-44	65,540	8.6
Females Aged 30-44	11,202	8.6
Aged 45+	17,859	8.6
Males Aged 45+	14,497	8.6
Females Aged 45+	3,111	8.5
IMDb staff	67	8.7
Top 1000 voters	875	8.6
US users	71,383	8.8
Non-US users	120,286	8.6
IMDb users	274,031	8.7

	Votes	Average
Males	60,408	7.2
Females	12,275	7.3
Aged under 18	950	7.4
Males under 18	661	7.4
Females under 18	282	7.4
Aged 18-29	43,871	7.2
Males Aged 18-29	35,555	7.2
Females Aged 18-29	8,080	7.3
Aged 30-44	23,714	7.2
Males Aged 30-44	20,287	7.2
Females Aged 30-44	3,158	7.3
Aged 45+	4,044	7.0
Males Aged 45+	3,377	7.0
Females Aged 45+	608	6.8
IMDb staff	18	7.2
Top 1000 voters	746	6.9
US users	22,266	7.2
Non-US users	42,789	7.2
IMDb users	91,574	7.2

We looked at the user ratings of films such as:

- Silence of the Lambs

- The Ring

After looking at ratings such as these, we decided that the most suitable target audience for our film would be 18+ and people of either sex that are interested in psychological horrors.

This group is assocaiated with psychological horrors as they enjoy watching films that make them think and get the involved. Also many people at this age generally enjoy horror films no matter what the sub-genre is.

After deciding what our target audience was going to be, we chose to start watching the opening of films (like the two mentioned above) to see what conventions of psychological horrors we could make use of that would fit in to our target audience. Whilst we were watching these films we payed close attention to Mise-en-scene and lighting so that we had a good idea of what to make use of in our final piece. For Example, after watching these films we chose to make use of the stereotypical convention of dark lighting to create suspense and fear.

Evaluation Question 2 - Bronwyn

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

In a horror film you will generally see elements of blood, death, murder, darkness, victims and other gory elements, we explored these conventions that are needed in a horror by studying the films 'Saw', 'Halloween' and 'Nightmare on elm street'. The research was important as we discovered what we could challenge and it helped us to distinguish and to include in our horror film to make it scary. We have demonstrated these conventions well through out our production, you mostly notice this by having the focus on the Voodoo doll which included us having a weapon for the villain to stab the voodoo, victims getting murdered and showing a lot blood especially with our title sequence. Because of the conventions we used, you can distinctly recognize that it's a horror. We have challenged the conventions of a horror by the realism of the narrative. We decided that the idea of a prisoner realistically escaping from prison is going to be more believable and therefore hopefully more shocking- as the majority of horror films are instantly recognized as unrealistic. We developed stereotypical convention such as the colour schemes, music and stereotyped our villain who's a young male prisoner with the use of clothing being in a tracksuit.A film that inspired us was 'Dark Water' which use's a rare convention of a horror, is a little child's voice singing a children's rhyme for  horrific effect, with the use of voice being creepy. We thought this was effect as an innocent child voice can be haunting so we took that idea and made it fit with the other conventions in the story to make it more scary.


This is the child's rhyme that inspired our film - 'Dark Water'.