Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our film develops the genre of horror as it is similar to some horror movies involving torture as ours had various weapons in it, and also of kidnap movies as ours obviously has me kidnapped in it. It develops it by further showing an insight into what kidnaps may be like and what can happen during a kidnap. Our film uses these genres and shows how a low budget film can still create a sense of tension and suspense as to what is going to happen. It also helps challenge the motives some people may have for doing things like this in real life because at 1st there is no clear motive to the kidnap.
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How does your media product represent particular social groups?
As our film only has three characters in it and two of them are kidnappers which isn't really a stereotypical social group the only one being represented is the one that I play of a teenager. Although it isn't the situation nearly all teenagers would be in, it shows how a teenager can be forced into a dangerous situation and how they handle it. In this case it cannot be handled or done anything about as my character is tied up and blindfolded, but this would be developed further if the film was produced fully. We also dressed me in fclothes you would expect to see a teenager in, trainers a plain shirt and shorts to make me look as typical a teenager as possible.
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What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As our film is a low budget uk based film it could have been funded by companies like UK Film or Channel 4 Films. As they could have funded the film, they could also exhibit/distribute the product through companies they work with that show alternative films. This could mean places like the cornerhouse in Manchester or the Showroom in Sheffield which both exhibit alternative and low budget films. Another place we could exhibit the film is Youtube by uploading it there. This could attract it various views and popularity and can also get you spotted by film companies who may see it on there. The last places the film could be distributed to and exhibited by are film festivals for short films. Examples of these are the London, Bristol or Sheffield short film festivals where our product could be shown.
http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/funding
http://www.filmfestivalworld.com/festival/London_Halloween_Short_Film_Festival/
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Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our media product would be people around our own age. I say this becuase the research and polls we carried out was on people our own age which showed horror/thriller movies to be popular, meaning if our research well represented 16-19 year olds on a wider scale that our film would be successful and enjoyed. I say there that it would be successful if our polls represented our age well but i think the full range our film could appeal to is anyone from 15 upwards to around 25 maybe, as it is unlikely that favourite film types would suddenly change over a few years. I also chose an audience of around our own age because this includes me, and the film genres that turned out to be most successful are also my favourite genres, meaning that as they were my favourites and also those of the people in my group that we could produce and opening in the style that would appeal to us as well as other 16-19 year olds.
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How did you attract/address your audience?
From looking at film openings it was clear that the best way to attract attention from the start and hook the reader into wanting to watch the rest was to include either lots of action right from the start or to have some kind of mystery or cliffhanger. The obvious action to put into our film would be the actual kidnapping of the person, but as a group we thought this might be a predictable so we decided to have the opening showing him already kidnapped. As the guy I was playing has already been kidnapped this makes you wonder why he's been kidnapped, how and when. (hence the mystery/cliffhanger.) We also gathered from watching other film openings that something that makes you jump or shocks you hooks you into the film. To create this we used longer shots to make the opening seem kind of slower paced, then at the start as i wrote about in editing we put in flashing stills of me kidnapped. These are intended to shock the audience, but at the same time creating suspense I guess as to what is happening in the film opening. however to make it seem real the costumes had to be good and how you would expect. For this we used the stereotypical kidnappers outfit, all black with something covering the face, which also creates mystery as to who they are. Then we also dressed me in the typical sort of clothes you might see ateenager wearing, trainers, shorts and shirt. To make it look more like a horror/kidnap film we knew the lighting had to be dark to make it seem more grim and edgy. To do this we found a room where the light was very bright, as the cover over it was opaque, and to increase this we partially covered up the window with old bits of cardboard and paper we found around the room. This is also added to the mise-en-scene, something we thought about a lot before we started filming. We knew we already wanted the room to look old an unused, and the room we found was, and was also full of old random objects. We left most of these in place as the added lots to the background of the main room, and made it look as if the kidnappers had just founda random place they would use to hold the hostage. To enhance it we moved some of the objects around to make ceratin things more visible and accessible like the table the weapons would be on, and also put the chair in the middle of the room to make it more prominent. We even used bits of old cable we found in the room to tie me to the chair, which makes it look more like the kidnappers may be slightly desperate and possibly didn't plan it out straight away. (the effect we were going for.) There isn't much dialogue in the film as the we didn't want the kidnappers to interact with the hostage that much, as this would keep the hostage on edge as to what was going on more. The sound we used I created myself in soundtrack, and application that ties in with the editing software we used. For the bangs and clashes that you can hear when the flashes happen i used symbol sounds and random bang loops. From the start when we decided on the kidnap idea I also had an idea for some kind of plucky violin or something in the background through the film as this is the sort of thing you find in kidnap/horror films as it helps create suspense. To do this i found a violin loop in soundtrack and then cut it down to just the kind of plucky part which I then copied and pasted through the parts I wanted it to be in, and that was the non-diegetic sound for the film opening.
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What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
By creating this and the preliminary task I have learnt how to use a video camera and the different techniques and ways it can be used to create a good effect in a film. For example: a technique being something like tilting the camera upwards from a lower angle to create and impression of the person in shot being big and powerful. I have then also learnt how to use editing software on a iMac and all of the different effects you can put in in the software to change how your film looks and runs. e.g. things like fades and dissolves, playing with the contrast and brightness of the shots, (bleeding the colour.) and also things like putting shots in slow motion or speeding them up depending on what you are trying to do. I then also leanred how to create and maintain a blog, the very one I am writing on now. I've learnt how to create headings, make posts, edit posts, and organise my blog to include things like pictures and graphs. All of these skills I have learnt I can further use when creating media products in the future and may also use for other things in life.
.....................................................................................................................................................................Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt a lot from the change from the preliminary task to the main product. The main thing i've learnt is that a lot of planning and research has to be done to get a film or even just a film opening like ours to a decent standard. When filming our preliminary task I worked with different people and we didn't work well as a team, didn't plan it all well and therefore the task turned out pretty bad. The task had to show someone walking through a door, closing it then exchanging dialogue with someone on the other side of the door. We did all of this but as we planned it badly it took so long editing that there wasn't enough time to get it to a decent standard. Therefore making it patchy and inconsistent. So from that I learnt everything must be planned out well to make the production of the film run smooth and easier.
The second thing I learnt as I said then was about the amount of research that has to be done. The main difference between the two tasks is that the preliminary had noe media context, meaning it didn't have an audience, and wouldn't be exhibited at cinemas or festivals as part of a full film or short film. But as the main task was, we had to research audience preferences as to what films they like, what type of audience we would aim for and then also film openings of similar film genres to the one we would pick. The research helped a lot as it gave us a good idea of the sort of things people our age liked, as we chose our age around 16-19 as our target audience.
