EVALUATION - Question 7

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

Preliminary Task:

Opening Sequence – Hostility:

Both our preliminary task and opening sequence were embedded as shown above. I have learnt a lot of things about the media industry including camera work, editing, research and distribution.

I feel that I have gained many skills in both camera work and editing work from my preliminary task to my final opening sequence. Establishing camera shots and using all the cameras facilities was very much a challenge in the opening sequence and took a lot of time to perfect many shots taken. The use of the boom microphone, handheld camera shots and more props and actors gave a more realism feel to the opening sequence compared to the preliminary task were a tripod was used with very few camera shots. The use of basic facilities on Final Cut Pro which we used for our preliminary task was taken on board for our final opening sequence and improved upon which the use of a soundtrack, more sharper shots, timing of the soundtrack to be matched with the footage, transitions on titles and colour correction was all very much used to make our opening sequence as effective as possible. Below are examples of improvements from our preliminary task to our opening sequence:

PRELIMINARY TASK	OPENING SEQUENCE
Our titles for our preliminary task were of a very basic standard. We used scrolling texts to show our cast in our preliminary task. I felt that this was more like credits then titles so changes would need to be implemented for the opening sequence. Time: 0:01-0:04 seconds	An improvement was made for the titles of our opening sequence. We added an earthquake effect to both our logo and the names of all our cast. The cast description was kept consistent throughout all cast titles with a white coloured font. The cast names were in a red coloured font and kept consistent throughout all cast titles. Time: 0:01-0:07, 0:13-0:15, 0:20-0:22, 0:30-0:32, 0:51-0:53, 0:57-0:59, 1:02-1:04, 1:08-1:10
Establishing the location was used in just one shot of the character walking with no soundtrack creating no suspense for the audience. Time:0:05-0:09	Establishing the location for opening sequence was achieved by having a variety of shots of the character showing a high angle shot, a long shot, a foot shot which was mixed in with the ambient soundtrack. This created suspense for the audience and was a much more effective way of grabbing the audience attention. Time: 0:10-0:36
A basic match on action was used to show the character walking through a door into a media computer room. Time: 0:10-0:12	The match on action used was to show the character walking round the corner to find a dead body on the floor. A sense of realism was shown when we see the character almost walking into the camera with a shocked reaction when he sees the dead body. Time:0:37-0:40
A point of view shot was not used in the preliminary which didn’t show the character from the audience perspective. This would have meant that the audience would not have been able to engage with the character.	A point of view shot was used in many parts of the opening sequence which gave a very real effect with the shaking of the camera and showed the raw emotion of the character e.g. the fear of the character as he looks around for the killer or the toughness of the antagonist as he looks at his victim. Time:0:54-1:25, 1:29-1:40, 1:58-2:11
Over the shoulder shots were used in the conversation between the two characters with a lack of movement from the characters. Time:0:21-0:31	We made an improvement when making an over the shoulder shot for our opening sequence by creating more movement for the character looking at the dead body. Time:0:42-0:46
There was no soundtrack in my preliminary task which didn’t build up any tension for the audience. There was a lot of diagetic sound used in the preliminary task.	We made improvements to our opening sequence by adding a soundtrack to follow the typical genre of a horror. The soundtrack emphasised the suspense of the story of the film and we hope would make the audience jump.
There was no colour effects put into our preliminary task. We left all the lighting natural which gave a plain look and feel to the video.	We used the sin city effect which is a colour correction method to make the blood on the body stand out. The white and black colouring throughout the opening sequence is a typical convention in a horror movie and was used to effect in my film
There were continuity issues in our preliminary task from around 0:15-0:17 seconds. This could have been due to the clip not getting cut properly in Final Cut Pro.	We made sure in our footage for our opening sequence that we had continuity editing throughout the whole of the opening sequence.

EVALUATION - Question 6

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Final Cut Pro

                                    

Apple Mac

YouTube

Camcorder

Boom Microphone

Blogger

EVALUATION - Question 5

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

The screen shot above shows the earthquake effect on our logo at the start of the film. The earthquake effect was used to grab the audience attention for them to gain focus on the film and to make the film very mysterious. I felt that this would appeal to the audience as the audience would not know what to expect.

The screen shot above shows an establishing shot in our opening sequence to show the audience what type of environment the characters in. This type of shot would appeal to the audience as there are a lot of successful films such as Jeepers Creepers, Ted Bunting and Scream which have a character walking down a street as if they are being stalked then getting attacked/killed. The black and white effect is used in my horror film which would represent a horror when displayed. This would attract the audience because the black and white effect used in today’s technologies would give off the affect that a murder is about to take place. The black and white effect has been used previously in films such as psycho, Sin city, devils on the door step etc.

The screen shot above would appeal to a teenage audience as this is an up-to-date mobile phone. The close up of the phone shows the vulnerability of the character as he’s listening to music unaware of the noises in the background. This could imply that he did not here the killing over the over side of the fence so effectively he’s walking into danger.

The screenshot shows the protagonist in the opening sequence, he's in fashionable clothes with the in-fashion hat and stylish coat, this gives off the vibe that teenagers would relate better to the clothing. The character would attract the over 18 female audience which in turn we hope will gain more female viewers.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack we used in our film was of a very jumpy and tension creating nature. For example we used a very ambient soundtrack of when the music dropped the next major shot appears. We hoped this would make the audience jump and keep in suspense to make the audience want to watch on. We had another track right at the end of the clip where it was a very loud and screechy track to emphasise the death of the protagonist as the killer walks over both dead bodies on the floor. We hoped to send a shock factor and jumpy effect to our audience.

EVALUATION - Question 4

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

For our film we put a first draft on YouTube to see what the age range our film would be.  We found that the main male audience was aged 18-24 and the main female audience was aged 13-17. We put the age range on the film for 18+ but for YouTube we couldn’t block anyone under the age of 18 to watch this video. Because of these results we feel that our male audience of 18-25 will be main audience for our film. I think we gained this audience because of the mysterious killings and male teenage actors which may be similar in dress sense or style sense.

We gained feedback from our film from the comments of our YouTube first draft, some comments were as follows:

The following comments above were comments I picked out as being very positive feedback which gave a great motivation to the group in getting our opening sequence even better for the final draft. Part of the first comment in the picture of “The ending made me want to watch on to see how he got killed at the end” was excellent feedback for our because it means that we kept our audience in suspense and successfully made them want to watch on. . Part of the second comment was cut out with a black box because it contained swearing language.

The audience which we intend to have for our film would be ones that are interested in films with gruesome killings and jumpy shots. This could be compared to Films like Friday the 13^th, Saw, Halloween, Freddie vs. Jason etc. All these films have very scary/horrible murders which draw the attention of the audience.

Also, viewers who like videos game that are of a murder/killings nature will be interested in this type of film, these games include Resident Evil, Deadspace 2 or Call of duty. These sort of video games would go with my film as their will be blood and fast and scary murders. This will go well my film because people who like these sorts of games will be interested in other media formats such as films, magazines, television etc.

EVALUATION - Question 2

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Below is webcam footage of me answering part of the question: 

The two pictures below represent the protagonist of our film and a character named “Trey” from “Freddie vs. Jason”:

The dressing of the two characters above are very different but still have things that represent them as teenagers. With the picture on the left this is the protagonist for my film, he’s wearing an in-fashion hat and jacket, he also has earphones plugged into his ears which a typical teenager usually does when on their own. Comparing this to the picture on the right, this teenage character is in a film called “Freddie vs. Jason” and it appears that his in his room having a can of an alcoholic drink and is lying on the bed in his underwear, this could be something which is associated with teenagers. Both pictures are just before the characters death, this shows the vulnerability and unawareness of the characters as they are doing what teenagers do but have no idea they are going to be murdered. I feel that my media product is very much representing teenagers and as a teenager myself I feel that my film is portraying mainly the teenage social group.

EVALUATION - Question 3

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

PRODUCTION:

DISTRIBUTION:

---> Description of a film distributor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_distributor

---> Description of my chosen distributor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension_Films

The media institution that I have chosen to distribute my media product is “Dimension Films” and I have reasons behind this choice. My first reason is that the distribution of some of their films is of a similar serial killer storyline. These films include scream, saw, Halloween etc. Even though this company produces all types of genres including action, comedy, science-fiction (sci-fi) etc I feel that this company is right to help my film maximise its profits and popularity. My second reason is that the codes and conventions of the horror movies that this distribution company releases are similar compared to my film. For example, the use of dark clothing and a mask to establish the antagonist in “Scream” is similar to my film’s antagonist. My third reason is that even though this is an American distribution company I feel that this movie will appeal to people in both the UK and America. The main reason behind this is that films have done well in the past under this company where both American and British audiences enjoyed their films. I feel that this would be the perfect distribution company to use as the storylines will appeal more to these types of audiences.

Here is a list of the films that have been distributed by Dimensions Films:

HALLOWEEN:

---> Description of the Halloween Film: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_(2007_film)

 

I felt that this film was very similar to my film as it had a main antagonist as a physic serial killer in a mask and very dark clothing. This film always kept the audience on the edge of their seats and made the audience jump in parts. The unexpected timing of the deaths was a very key convention in this film along with the gruesome killings.

Below is a clip from the Halloween Film:



Other films which have been distributed by Dimensions Films:



Distribution opportunities/promoting:

Social Networking:

By using Dimension films as my distributor i can take advantage of the social networking that they produce to promote all types of films. Facebook and YouTube are the predominant social networking sites in this current society this will help promote the film and gain feedback via Facebook Comments and YouTube comments. This a very effective way of promoting films as most 18-25 year olds use the websites on a regular basis. Dimension Films would be able to distribute a trailer that would need to be made for our film which will be put on YouTube. This we hope will drive the audience to watch our film at the cinemas to increase sales and maximise profits.

DVD, Video games and Soundtrack

Dimensions Films would be able to distribute a DVD for the film which will have an age rating of 18+ this would be due to the gruesome killings and swearing. Another distribution opportunity would be to make a video game based on Hostility. This could be a way of promoting the film to reach the widest possible audience. The soundtrack for my film could be downloaded on itunes and would be another way of promoting the film.

EVALUATION - Question 1

Storyboard for my opening sequence of Hostility:

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There were many parts in our opening sequence of hostility which used, developed and challenged the forms and conventions of real media products. To follow the general conventions of a typical horror film we decided to use black and white colouring throughout the whole of the opening sequence. This gave off a scary looking feel to the atmosphere of the scene which in turn created tension which we hoped would grab the audience attention. The black and white affect meant that we could film at any time of the day which worked at an advantage for our group as we could film at a time that would be both suitable for all of our cast. We also used the sin city affect for our colouring which would also draw the audience in to identify a dead body. For the sin city affect we used a black and white background and made the blood on the body stand out by colouring the body in bright red.

Picture below shows the sin city affect in our film compared with another film:

We decided to challenge the general forms and conventions in a horror by using a male protagonist instead of a female protagonist. In a usual horror you would have a female protagonist who gets attacked or chased which shows the weakness of the character in scenes. We decided to use a male protagonist which is less common compared to a female protagonist. We used a high angle shot at the beginning of the clip to show the weakness of the character and to identify this person as the protagonist.

As a group we decided that we would follow the conventions and forms of a general horror when it came to music. The music was used as the main feature in our opening sequence to make this opening sequence as scary as possible. The editor for our opening sequence made sure that the music and the footage was timed and in correlation with the next scene, e.g. if a new title appeared or if our actor went round a corner. Towards the end of the clip the main soundtrack changes to a more fierce and screechy track to show the protagonist laying on the floor showing suspense over how he died.

The location/setting of our opening sequence was in a typical type of horror location which was developed to follow the genre of our choice. The location was an empty looking road where the character was uncomfortably looking behind him which created suspense for the audience where something dramatic could happen. It was also set in a forest looking setting with trees and bushes which would be very common in a horror. When our antagonist was running through the forest we used diagetic/ambient sound to hear the rustling of the leaves when our antagonist was running through the forest with heavy breathing to establish his character. Our non-diagetic sound/soundtrack was used throughout most of our clip as we felt this would have been the most important sound to use for our opening sequence.

In relevance to all the camera work that was produced, as the cinematographer I believe that the camera shots and movements were executed very well with a variety of shots. At the beginning of the clip we used a high angle shot to show the protagonist walking down a less busy road, this followed the usual conventions of a horror this shot showed the weakness of the character identifying him as the protagonist. We followed the conventions of a typical horror by using a P.O.V (point of view) shot for the antagonist showing him looking for his victim. The point of view shot is also used for the protagonist looking around with fear, which would usually be used in a horror so the audience can feel tension and be put in his position to show his fear. The P.O.V shot is a classic shot in typical horror films and complemented well with the making of our opening sequence. I do feel as the cinematographer that my shots could have been professional looking but I did feel that there was a variety of well grafted shots which made the opening sequence as scary as possible.

We decided to challenge the usual forms and conventions of horror by disguising the death of the protagonist. At the end of the clip we used a feet shot of the antagonist walking over both dead bodies to give off a suspense effect to the audience to how the protagonist died. This would be uncommon compared to famous horror films like “scream”, “Freddie vs. Jason” and “jeepers creepers”.

In terms of editing, I helped with our logo for our film. Firstly, I helped with the special affects which was used on the text and filters of our logo (MTJ productions), for example I applied an earthquake effect on the logo and text at the beginning of the opening sequence via the video transitions/distort and adjusted the settings. This added a distorted theme to the sequence which has previously been done in horror movies; this effect is used to disorientate the audience’s expectancy of the film.

When it came to the titles our opening sequence it followed the conventions of a typical horror film with a black background with the titles appearing throughout the first few minutes. Our title colours and fonts were consistent throughout the opening sequence. The job description e.g. “Filmed by” for the group member/cast remained in a white colour and very readable font with no movement on the screen. This can be compared to the group member/cast name which was in a red font and used as the same font as the job description name, however this title shook in the same manner as the logo giving off special effects.

Description of the two pictures above:

The two pictures above represent differences and similarities in the clothing of the characters. The picture on the right is “the killer” from the movie “Scream” and the picture on the left is the antagonist from my opening sequence of Hostility. The clothing of “the killer” is very dark cape with black gloves and black boots with a ghost mask and a knife in the killer’s right hand. The description of the characters clothing identifies him as the main antagonist in the film. There are some differences and similarities with my characters clothing description which would usually be in real media products. My character has dark clothing, a mask and boots which are the main similarities, however the main differences are that “the killer” has gloves on and a knife in hand compared to my antagonist who didn’t have any gloves or any prop of any kind in his hand.

In relation to the title our opening sequence we decided that we would follow the conventions of a typical horror name and call our opening sequence “Hostility”. This is a spooky name which identifies that this film would be in the horror genre. The title of this film we hope will draw the audience in and the name doesn’t really give away what’s going to happen in the film. We decided on this name as a group as we feel that this title goes in well with our opening sequence.