Evaluation

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

In the 2 minute extract of our film we use many generic horror conventions in the typical way horror films usually do. Our film shows the main character and villain to be confident and strong. He is able to carry a heavy weapon with ease and his strides are long and powerful yet he still seems to remain calm and in control. Instead of wearing a mask like in most horror/stalker films our villain always has his head bowed low so the victim cannot see his real identity until he moves in for the final kill. He also has his hood up to mask his identity slightly. This challenges the normal convections in most horror/stalker films. Because of the absence of a mask our villains face can only just be seen. This points out his angry expression and even suggesting he has no mercy for his victim. This explains the film title to the audience and helps them to understand what the victim is thinking. This would make he audience more scared of the villain. At the start of the 2 minute film these convections are made obvious along with other generic horror conventions such as dark colors and not many bring vivid ones. The main color scheme for the 2 minute extract is black, green and grey. This is seen in most horror films such as "Saw". It is also in a similar stalker/horror film like ours called "Halloween". This makes the audience feel more scared and intrigued. The setting for our 2 minute film is a typical horror movie convention. Films such as "The Blair Witch Project" were filmed mostly in woods. Some of our inspiration came from the film. Other films such as the Halloween series often cut from a chase or death scene to an open dialogue scene between different characters. This is seen in our film at the end of the extract and some inspiration came from the Halloween series.

Our film is a Horror film however it branches out into other sub-genres such as a stalker film or a thriller. It becomes clear in the first scene when the victim is seen sprinting away from something that does not become apparent until the next scene. Even them the stalkers face or body is not seen only his hands and arms are visible. This links to the first scene in the original Halloween film when Michael is about to kill his sister with a knife. However in our film this is changed to a large and heavy log.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film characters are all within the same social group. They are mostly of the same age apart from the villain who is slightly older to portray his dominance over other characters and mostly his victim. In our 2 minute film gender is represented in the stereotypical way in some parts but in others it doesn’t. The villain is a large male suggesting his power and overall dominance. However the victim is also a male but is seen as weak. The other characters in the film have no significance apart from our film portrays the male sex to be both strong and weak. The target audience would be mostly male as this would not appeal to females much as they do not have any female characters to relate to in any way.

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

Our film would not be suitable for distribution by a large media company such as Warner Bros. because of the many similar types of film already out there ready to be viewed. A major Hollywood studio could not produce this kind of film as it does not fit the criteria. Hollywood films are mostly action films, comedies or films suitable for family viewing. Such as "Die Hard 4.0" and "The princess and the Frog". Our film could be produced by a TV company such as "Channel 4" and displayed on national TV. The film would not be too graphic as it only has a 15 rating so it would be suitable for a TV release. However it could also be released on DVD to create more revenue and also over the internet as on-demand video. The film does not offer much chance for merchandising but this would depend on how good the ratings were and how many viewers I received on first showing. If it was popular a sequel could easily be made as the end of the film does not show how the main villain dies. At this point the sequel could be taken up by a large film company such as Film4 productions and be released in cinemas throughout the UK and then eventually worldwide. If the film were to do well T-shirts and posters can be produced to promote the film and to create more revenue opportunities.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

After researching age certificates for other horror films we decided that we would make our film within the age 15 certificate guidelines. We chose this because it allowed us to have some violence and gore and frequent horror scenes however it still allowed us to appeal to most teenagers and young adults. Similar films include the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series and also the "Jason" series. Most of these films have the age 15 certificate but still maintain the horror factor in them. We chose a mostly male audience between the ages of 15- 32 to be our target audience. This is because our actors are mostly male and around the same age as the target audience so the film would appeal to them a lot more. We did not want to go up to the age 18 certificate as we felt that this would put some of our target audience off because they might think it would be too violent and scary for them to watch. This is clear from out audience research as most of the people we interviewed said they did not like to see extreme violence and gore in horror movies.

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How did you attract/address your audiences?

We did not want to appeal to younger audiences because this would limit us to what we could do with our film and mean we would have to not include some of the horror and chase scenes we wanted to film. Also younger audiences would also be confused by the storyline as it is complex in places and we wanted our target audiences to be able to follow the film easily.

We also used setting as a key factor in attracting an audience. Some of the scenes in our film are shot I a school and the target audience can relate to this and make them think that the situation is believable. The chase scenes through the woods would also make the audiences become more engaged in the film and attract more people to watch. In the wood scenes we used different camerawork to appeal to the target audience a lot more. We used fast paced hand held shots and point of view shots to engage the audience and give them a better point of view of what the characters are seeing and experiencing. The audience is asked to put themselves in the shoes of the victim creating a terrifying atmosphere. This would also make the audience care more for the victim so when he eventually dies the audience's feelings are stronger towards him. This would make the audience want to watch more and hate the villain more which it they key to the horror genre and why it is so successful.

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

I have learnt a lot about working with and around cameras. I have learnt how to confidently set up a tripod and securely fasten the camera to it. I learnt how to level the camera out using the in-built leveling device on the tripod. The camera we used was suitable for creating a good quality short movie for our project however I do not think it would be good for creating videos/movies on a larger scale as sometimes when we were recording the sound altered in quality and there was a lot of wind which interfered with the sound at some times. We took more than 1 battery in case our main battery ran out because on our preliminary task the battery ran out very quickly. The camera was small enough to carry out good handheld and point of view shots. We did not use the zoom feature on the camera as we found is distorted the picture quality. The editing software I used was Final Cut Pro. I found this software to be very good and easy to use. At some stages during adding title sequences it got very difficult because I had never used the software before. I found the fade in and out effects useful for adding in the titles. We encountered a problem near the end of the film when we edited the last section as we found that the characters hands were not in the same position when we changed shots. We used the fade in and out effects again to create a flash forward effect.

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

I have learnt a lot more during the production of the full product than I did during the production of the preliminary task. The full product required much more research than the preliminary task. I learnt what it takes to create a successful horror movie within the competitive genre such as using dark colors and creating the perfect villain. I was not familiar with the horror genre before I started this project and now I feel I know a lot more about the genre. The detailed planning helped us to create our film without much problems and it shows that planning always helps. However during the preliminary task we were only required to film indoors. During the full product I found there were a lot more problems with filming due to location and weather conditions. I learnt how to deal with these problems and progress further with working with cameras and learning all the different camera angles and shots. I looked at the different shots used in some horror movies and then suggested they become incorporated into our final product. I think our best feature in our final product is the match on action shots as they are a major improvement from the preliminary task match on action shots we filmed.

I think that our end product fulfilled the task that was set. However I think more shots could have been filmed as we came across some continuity editing problems at the end of the film. I also think that more research could have been done to help us create a better victim in the film as our victim was just a normal person. I am happy with the overall end product and would feel comfortable using the equipment again to film.