Evaluation

As media Studies – evaluation programme (22^nd March – 15^th April 2011)

1. How does your media project:

Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Me and Steph both think our film looks more professional since we have added in the studio logo, background music and titles. It looks more professional as if it has been done by experts rather than actual students. We asked my(Imogen) brothers band if we were able to use their name (Fyreon) and their music for our film because since we know them we are able to have their consent without any copyright issues and we also created our own title credits, we did some research on actual titles used within the films and most of them used what we would call 'simple' fonts and colours. We researched real film which are classed in our particular genre, to see how they used colour, font and placement to great effect. Most of these films use really simple styles, this makes the titles featured stand out but not so much that it will draw the attention away from the actual scenes that are going on in the back ground. The titles are significant due to the fact that it presents who is in the actual film its self and this could in potential boost the film, baring in mind actual produced film like 'The Dark Knight' has used Heath Ledger and Christian Bail to great extent to boost the film and create more of a 'Buzz' about it.

Represent particular social groups?

The teenagers we have decided to use within our film are portrayed as very weak and vulnerable compared to their killer and the male detective featured in the beginning. We have chosen to do this because it is the typical stereotype of teenager girls within most films. They are more open to danger than adults are, this is because they are seen to not 'understand' danger that much and more carefree then most adults. This helps our video out more, because they are we are keeping in with the general stereotypes. Our film has a very strong sense of patriarchy, which is shown by the interview at the beginning of our film,the detective (played by Mr.Ward) portrays him in a very high authority position, he is presented in very smartly and is in a plain room, this draws all the attention to him and makes him seem more important.

We have decided to base all of our film around teenagers e.g. the youth, which are seen in a negative light within media in general. They are represented as to be 'yobs', unintelligent and carefree. This makes them more prone to danger.

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

 At the beginning of the project me and Steph did some research into distribution side of film, and we thought at first the best institution to use for distribution our films was 'Twisted Pictures' since this institutions specialises in horror films which features a lot of gore within the film, such as 'Saw'. We thought this would be suitable because initially our film was going to produce a lot of gory shots, but due to lack of time and fake blood we were unable to do so. We then thought our film would be more suited to 'Ghost House Pictures, which produces and distributes more horror/thrillers than gory films. They've distributed films such as '30 Day of Night' and 'The Bogeyman' which are more similar to our film on the bases of content.

3. Who would be the audience for your media product?

 We originally thought that our film would just be targeted to the older teens due to the use of all the blood and gore within the film, it was originally going to be an 18, but it soon changed after the issues presented in the last question. Since the change in the sub genre, our film is now targeted towards 15 to 18 year old's. The rather older teenage generation, however there is a secondary audience of 15 to late 30's this means that there will be a more of an age range who will be able to come to our see our film and are able to enjoy it. We would extend our age range to a high audience , however there will be foul language within our film which most older people wouldn't like, this is because they grew up with their traditional values and most likely still have them, which one of them was that 'Swearing' was classified as a 'Sin', and therefore dislike it.
Our film is the sort of film that you wouldn't go to alone, especially when you are easily scared. So in addition, this film gives off the impression that you'd rather go and see it in a group, either if it's just for a laugh or even if you can be easily scared and there's safety in numbers. Out of all of the genres created the favourited choice of genre within film, is horror/thriller, especially with teenagers, this is because once you are 15/18 you are able to see most horror and therefore feel a lot older and therefore a lot more 'responsible'  
Due to the contents of the film, and the characters being so young, parents may restrict their children from seeing this film because they may think that their child might 'end up' like this.

Also it is debatable whether or not the parents would like their children seeing a film such as this because of the idea's within the film would create a knock on affect and may cause the child to aspire to be like the killer. But this happens in very rare cases like, Jamie Bulger and the Child's Play killing.

Also, as it is to be rated at least a 15, the elderly may be put of it will include foul language and maybe gory scenes. 

4 how did you attract/address your audience?

To attract the audiences attention from the very start, we used a animation for our production logo, which didn't look boring and this was a way of keeping the production name in there head because they can remember it by the logo. We also used ery music in the back ground which kept the audience interested whereas without the music or music that would juxtapose the scene completely would make the audience loose track of what is happening therefore not increase the interest but instead lower it. Also to keep their attention, after certain lines that is said by the detective(Mr Ward) in our film, their is a sort of gong noise, which makes what the detective say's sound more important. Also this sort of music resembles a clock, as if time is ticking away and the killer is moving on to his/her next victim. Another factor that helps draw and keep the audiences attention is the use of the actors, this is because of the age of the actors within our film, they are roughly the same age and therefore the target audience we have chosen can relate more to the actors, so they can understand the film more and hopefully like it more.

5. What have you learnt about technology from the process of making your product?

 From our time we have spent using the cameras and the editing software on the computer. We never realised how hard it actually is to make film, but further more making a film look professional. The camera we were using lacked in clear audio, which therefore changed our original plans, this is because we would either have to make our actors shout(which would make our film look rubbish unless shouting was appropriate for the scene) or we had to move the camera closer to the actor, which we did do in the end but we were limited on shots in our film with this change of plan. However we believe that this wasn't a major issue within our filming. The biggest issue with our product, was that we were going to film while it was gradually going to get dark, however due to the lack of quality of the camera when it's dark, therefore we had to change our time to mid day on a dull day(really cloudy). Another thing we had to work with was Premier Pro, at first we had complications with this because of what clips we had, and the cutting down so it didn't have any continuity errors, however we worked through these complications. The only real problem we had with this program was the affects we were putting in place, and fitting the music to the appropriate parts. A positive part of using this editing software was that we could test out different affects and see which ones fit and which ones didn't, also it could be easily deleted(the affect) and changed to a different affect without deleting any of our work. Also we were going to so some hand held shots, one being on the horse, but considering the camera is not ours, we though we better not because of the damage that could have happened if the camera was dropped. Also, some of the hand held shots were rubbish and worked a lot better on the tripod. The tripod made the film look more professional, however there is a part of the film that was done on the tripod but doesn't look that steady to how we wanted it, but it created a great affect, it looks like the killer is looking from the bag to the dead girl in the trees.

6. Looking at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the process of making this product?

We have realised how hard it is to create a professional film and we don't take this into consideration that much. Also it's really time consuming and you need to put in a lot of effort  to make the film look really professional. Also we have realised that you can't 'mess on' with the camera, especially when it doesn't belong with you. At the beginning of the whole project, me and Steph didn't think planning was that serious because we end up going off track anyway, but further into the film, we've realised how crucial planning actually is, because without it, nobody will know where to be, what time, and what to do. Also we needed to plan out all the dialogue, shot and scenery, this took some time, especially when me and Steph has a disagreement on how we were going to kill both of the girls, however we over came this when we decided to shoot both ideas and see which idea came out best. Comparing this film to our other films, it has came out a lot better, we have realised this, when we can actually watch this more than once and actually think it is good, when with the other ones we can barely sit through the first few seconds.