Final Draft - Final Draft 2

Horror Film - Final Draft

Evaluation Activity 7 - Looking back at your prelimiary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

When doing the preliminary task I had no idea how to edit the footage properly and looking back at the footage you can clearly see that it is not edited smoothly as it jumps. We didn't use any special effects to make the footage better, we just had what we filmed. It was also the first time I'd heard of 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot. Since doing the preliminary task I have learnt a lot more about shot types such as I now know all the various shot types from extreme close up to high angle shot. We wanted to use a variety of shots and we achieved this by using a close up on the killer blowing out the candle and using a mid low angle of a character on the phone. When filming I wanted to make sure we used 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot. We used a shot/reverse shot when the two characters were on the phone to one another. We used a match on action when our character was writing a card. We used a variety of effects in our film which we would have never been able to use or know how to use without doing the preliminary task. We used effects such as adding music to our film and fade to black and the end of frames. One of the special effects we used was the dripping blood we used in the title.

                                          Horror Film                                    Preliminary task

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

We used a HD Camera called Panasonic HDC-SD80 and it was the first time we had ever used one at first we didn't know what to do but we got use to it after using it for a while. Using this camera allowed our shots to be in a higher quality than a standard camera. We used a tripod so that our shots were steady.

We used the Mac to edit our film at first it was difficult because we had never used one before and we didn't know how to use it properly but after using it a few times we learnt how to use the effects and transitions. Using the Mac has helped improve the standard of our film as we had so many things to use on the Mac that would help to make our film better such as the fade to black transition. We learnt how to edit the pitch and frequency of sound clips, add lighting effects to the shot and adding distortions to the shots. These were an example of some of the things we used and learnt, we used plenty more transitions and effects in our film.

I used youtube in one of my evaluation task and I used it to upload my videos on. At first I didn't know how to use it but now I know how to annotate on it.


I used google as my main search engine to look for images and for our research for our character and horror films.

When we first started using blogger I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but over the process of using it I have learnt how to make new blogs and how to use it properly. I learnt how to change the layout of my blog and change all the fonts to whatever font I wanted it to be. I found it easy to use blogger and never had any problems when using it.

Evaluation Activity 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Activity 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience would be both male and females ages 15-24 and they would either be in full time education or have full time/part time job. They will be middle class and shop at high street shops such as New Look and Burtons. They will earn around £100-£400 a month as they will be either working full time or part time. They will like typical things that male and females like such as video games and football, and make up and clothes. They will listen to music that's in the charts such as Pop, R&B, Hip Hop and Dubstep. Their favourite programs will vary from things such as The Big Bang Theory and TOWIE. They would watch my film as they like to watch horror movies and it is aimed at their ages. They will like the film because its appealing to them.

For my target audience research I made a survey that consisted of 10 questions, I handed them out to people in 6th form. I gave it to people aged 16-18 and found that the most favoured genre was horror and comedy. The questionnaire showed that 7/10 people preferred to watch films at night especially horror as it creates a better mood to watch it at night and 7/10 watch it in their own homes. This was good for us as it showed we was targeting the right audience. I also found from my survey that the opening sequence is important as it provided them with an idea of what was going to happen in the film.

Demographic

The demographic of my film is 15-24 year olds both male and female but may interest a male audience more. It is aimed at middle class people that like to go to the cinema with friends or family. It is aimed at all races and will be aimed at mainly teenagers within the Cambridge area. It is aimed at teenagers because I we feel it isn't really an adult based film.

Psychographic

The psychographic of my target audience is that their interests are going out and socialising with friends which may include going to the cinema every so often. We think that teenagers will like our film because their are two teenage boys in our film that they may relate themselves to. We want our audience to think the film is believable and realistic as we don't want no monsters in it that are unrealistic.                                                                                                              

1.    Does the film represent the genre well?                                                                             
2.    Have we used a variety of camerawork?
3.    Does the music suit the genre?
4.    Is there a variety of characters used?
5.    Does the title sequence give you enough information?
6.    Have we edited the footage well?
7.    What could we improve?
8.    What have we done well?

I received 5 responses from my questionnaire, 2 said we represented the genre well whereas 3 said we didn't.3 replied that we used a variety of camerawork and 2 said no. All 5 said the music didn't suit the genre because we had no music in it but we have now added music to it. All 5 also said we used a varity of characters as we had 4 different characters who all played different roles. 3 of the respones said we didnt give enough information in the title sequence and 2 said we had so we have now added in more information to the title sequence such as the directors and who is starring in it. 4 out of 5 said we edited the footage well whereas one person said we didn't so we decided to add some more affects to it and edit it more. We asked them what could we improve and they all gave different answers, one said to make the storyline clearer so we took one of the shots out as they said it didn't make sense. Another said to remove final scene so we have removed the final scene. We also asked what have we done well and they all replied roughly the same thing they said the first scene was edited well and it was very creepy.  

Evaluation Activity 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Activity 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our killer is similar to different killers from films as he is different from any other killers but similar to some in a certain way such as he is similar to Jason from Friday The 13th as he has roughly the same motives as him as he kills because he lost a family member and also he wears a mask like Jason when killing. Our killer is also like Freddie Krueger because Freddie also kills due to losing a family member and our killer kills because he lost his sister. Our killer is also like Jigsaw because he gives his victims a chance to live like Jigsaw does with his victims. Our killer kind of plays mind games with his victims just like jigsaw does, they are also similar because they are both masked killers but then they are different because our killer works on his own whereas Jigsaw works with a group of people to kill his victums.Our killer is also like Seven killer John Doe because they both kill people who have done wrong and they are both psychotic but he is also very different from him because John Doe doesn't wear a mask whereas our killer does and also our killer is a lot younger than John as he is in his 20s and John is in his 40s. Dexter is able to hide his identity without wearing a mask which is different to our killing by they are similar to each other because they both murderers and psychotic.Our killers motive is centered around revenge for his sister and other children, he kills parents in which he believes to be bad parents. He is masked because he was burnt in a fire when killing his parents, the bandages hide hideous scars that he doesn't want people to see it. By being masked our killer believes he can do what he wishes to people without revealing his identity and being caught.

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

1. The title of the film - As a group we had to plan a plot in which after we had to come up with a name. As our plot was about a memory we wanted the title to be either another word for memory or something along the lines of memory. Using the date in the title makes the audience want to watch the film as they want to find out why we have included a date and what the date has to do with the film.

2. Setting/location - The setting for our film is one of the most important part to our film as it sets the scene. We wanted a dark dingy place for our title sequence and we wanted a normal household for our opening scene so that it didn't give too much information away. The setting and location helped to build tension in the title sequence.

3. Costumes and props - The costumes of the actors didn't matter that much as we wanted them to look casual and wear something simple such as jeans and a t-shirt. What was important in terms of mise en scene was the murderer's props and costumes. We wanted him to have a distinctive look so we put bandages around his face so that his face was disguised and you only ever say one of his eyes. The props and the costumes helped to illustrate the film.

4. Camerawork and editing - The camerawork in the title sequence was very important as we wanted it to be shaky so that it looked onto the murders point of view. We also wanted to make sure we used different camera shots like close up and mid shot. So when filming we had to make sure we used these different shot types. When we edited it we added on a distorted affect to make the scene look like a videotape footage that he had recorded himself. The camerawork and editing of this scene made the scene look a lot better and made it more realistic and eerie. When filming the news report we wanted to use different kinds of camerawork to make it look good, whilst editing the footage we had to make it look as much like a real news report as possible, so we added a jingle to it and used different affects to create the news report look.

5. Title font and style - The font used on our title was a chalk board effect as it connotes childhood memory, we chose this because it looked good on the red blood and black background and as a kid we all remember blackboards so it fitted in with the memory theme of the film. Using a white font made it stand out and we made it quite a big size so it was easy to read and see. We used a plain font for the news report as we didn't want to use something too fancy. Also news reports use standard fonts.

6. Story and how the opening sets it up - The way in which we set up our opening scene doesn't really tell you much about the story as we didn't want to give too much away or jump straight into a murder, so we chose to do an everyday thing but with a little twist. The title sequence gave the audience little hints about what the film could be about as we only showed them little snippets of things to keep them on edge and wanting more.

7. Genre and how the opening suggest it - The opening of our film fits with the genre because of the storyline. Our opening scene consist of a phone call and someone speaking in a scary voice this fits with the genre but then you find out its a joke and it creates a mystery of what genre it is.

8. How characters are introduced - The murder is introduced in the title sequence but he is only shown for a few seconds so he is introduced mysteriously, he also is introduced in darkness by doing this it creates tension. The two main characters are introduced in the opening scene by a phone conversation between the both of them.

9. Special effects - We used several special effects to make our film look better such as in the title of the film we used an effect of dripping blood which made the title look better than just having writing. We also used it because blood connotes to death and horror. We did all the special effects by using a programme called Final Cut Studio X which is on the Mac laptop.

Horror Film - Second Draft

Horror Film - First Draft