EVALUATION

How are you using media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluating strategies?

Media technologies have been a constant and the most dominant part of my media production work. I have used many different programs for different elements of my work and I couldn't have possibly finished without them.

When I decided that the genre for my short film will be horror, I was quite happy with my choice, as I already knew quite a bit about it. Being a horror film fanatic, I had already watched many, so I knew what to expect. For my research and planning, firstly I had used the DVDs I already had at my house. I watched the horror films on a Playstation, which was easy and quick to do. Using some DVDs I already had was a good idea as it allowed me to re-watch the scenes that caught my attention and I could pause to annotate, too. After watching the films I had, I decided that I needed to expand my range a little, and so I had to use different types of video streaming websites in order to look up videos that I could use as examples for my own work. My main online source had been YouTube, where I watched different openings to horror films, after I had decided that my short film would be an opening sequence. Using YouTube had proven to be a good idea, as it has a lot of material, and most of all, is free, allowing me to watch anything I wanted. YouTube is a quick and easy website to use, also allowing me to annotate the film and even take screen caps if needed. That’s all for my main task. For the ancillary tasks, which were a movie poster and a film review page, I just used Google to look up some images of already existing material and took notes on them.

For my planning, I mainly just used a camera to take pictures for my storyboard, and since I didn’t have an actual camera, I just used my phone, which ended up working perfectly well, since the resolution on it is pretty good, and it was much quicker and easier to do than working with a camera would be. After taking all my pictures, I had to upload them onto my computer and put them all together into a storyboard, which was a PowerPoint presentation, which was also quick and quite efficient, as it didn’t take a lot of time and was simple to make.

After all the planning was done, the actual shooting had to take place, but the only thing used for that was a camera which we rented out from college. The microphone was already installed in the device and the only other thing we used was a tripod.

The post-production part was the one that took the most time and effort. The main software used for this was Adobe Premiere Pro, which was what we used to edit the whole video. At first, my partner and I weren’t sure how to use this program as neither of us knew it, but we quickly figured out its strengths and used them to the best of our abilities. To complete our film, we also had to use other sources from the internet, such as www.dafont.com, to get fonts for our production name and the title of our film, as well as using Google to find an image that we could use as the logo for our production. These ways proved to be very useful as both sites are free, quick and easy to use, making the task pleasant. To edit our production name and the title of our film so that it would look good in the video, we used Photoshop to crop out the background of the text, then placing it in the video. Photoshop is a software that we’re both familiar with as we already had to use it last year, and also for the ancillary tasks this year.

The ancillary tasks themselves didn’t involve too many media technologies. The only things used were a camera to take the necessary pictures for the film poster and review page, as well as Photoshop in order to edit the images and add any text that was needed in order to make the tasks seem as professional as possible. Google was once again used here in order to find an ‘18’ sticker for my film poster and looking up examples of professional film posters and film reviews to take some ideas from them.

For the evaluation, I am using Microsoft Word to write it all out, and www.blogger.com to upload it onto. I’m also using the print screen function of my keyboard to take pictures of things I may need to include in this. Blogger is a very easy website to use, allowing quick uploads and possibly instant feedback.

In what ways will your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For this whole project, I had to do three tasks; the main task (a short film) and two ancillary tasks (a film poster and a film review page).

The main task, which is an opening sequence to a horror film, is firmly based on the movie Scream. I had decided to do a re-make of the opening sequence of that film, since it’s one of my favourites. I knew that doing a re-make of a film can be dangerous, as it can end up looking too much like the original, but I had a few good ideas on how to change it for it to look more modern, at the same time keeping the same plotline and the main story.

My media product doesn’t challenge any forms and conventions of real media products. Whatever films I have researched for this (Scream, The Strangers, etc,) I have used the conventions from them to my advantage, only developing on them. I used the main codes and conventions for all horror films; dark settings, eerie sounds, slow paced action at the beginning, and building up on it to a dramatic climax. My film production reflects real media products in a positive way, making my film look quite professionally done. I had used the conventions which I thought were the most interesting to audiences, and ones that I knew would keep the audience interested in seeing more.

Most horror films portray the victim as a woman and the killer as a male figure. Scream does the same, and my initial thought was to change that stereotype around and have a male victim with a female serial killer. The idea seemed great to me, however I lacked a male actor willing to play the protagonist, making me stick to the original stereotype and keeping the victim a female and the killer a man figure. The female victim in my opening sequence is an innocent looking blonde woman, who once again fits perfectly into the stereotype of the female who usually gets killed off first in a horror film. The killer is a masked figure wearing a large hoody and a white mask, keeping the idea similar to the one in Scream, however changing the attire a little, keeping the look more modern and something to keep the teenage audience tuned in.

For my ancillary tasks one and two, I had also strongly based them on already existing media products, not challenging any conventions, only adopting them to my own work. For the film review page, I looked up different review pages using Google, looking at some interesting ones that stood out to me most, like a review of Avatar in the Cineworld’s Unlimited magazine, or the Empire review for Chinatown. I had used these examples to model my own work, keeping it simple and elegant, while at the same time making it look professional and kind to the eye. I chose colour themes to match the genre and general feel of my film, though keeping the main parts, such as a few lines, naming the main starts of the film, the director, the length of the film, and the rating of the review the same.

For my film poster, I used the poster for Scream 4¸as my main influence, liking that one best as it was quite simple, yet still made an impression. I also liked the poster for One Missed Call and The Silence Of The Lambs, as they were all quite dark and stood out to me most, as they look really mysterious, at the same time getting the message of the genre of the film across perfectly. All the posters portray a face partly in shadow, which is what I did in my own ancillary task two. Looking at different posters, I knew I had to include the film title, production, directors and producers names, etc, in a small print at the bottom of the poster, along with a tag indicating what age you have to be in order to watch this film.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When doing my media project, the main source of constructive criticism I had been getting, was from my subject tutor. Since I wasn’t the editor of the film, most of what has been said was directed towards my partner, as she was the one making all the changed, but I always helped decide what she should do, or how she should do something. Whenever we got a comment from our tutor or any other teacher who looked at our product, we always took the comments to heart, thinking them over and deciding what we should do.

Since the primary audience of our film was people ages 18-25, we couldn’t really get direct feedback from that very age range, but we weren’t far off, and the feedback we got from people either a little younger or a little older still suited us perfectly and we adopted whatever was being said to us. The reason we mainly used the feedback of our tutor and teachers for this task was because they knew what they were talking about, since they know the film business well. However, when we received any feedback from our peers, it was always positive.

For the ancillary tasks, I had to change quite a bit under the influence of the feedback I was getting. Overall people seemed to agree that my pieces were good ones and the feedback was positive, however when I showed them to my subject tutor, he gave me a few pieces of advice that would make them even better, making me re-draft them.

With the film review, I had originally done only one page of work, only to find out it needed to be a double page spread, making me add an additional page, which got positive feedback when I shared it with people later. The same this happened with my film poster. When showing it to my peers and people outside of my class, I got very positive feedback, with people agreeing that the poster looked very professional and smart. However, when I showed it to my subject tutor, he gave me some constructive criticism about the font at the bottom of the poster being too big and the fact that the age restriction for the movie was missing.

With the help of peers and teachers and their praise and constructive criticism, I made some crucial changes to my work that only helped to make it an even better product than I had originally hoped for. 

How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary tasks?

My main project and the two ancillary tasks link very well together. I have continued a certain theme through all of my projects, linking them in a way that lets the audience know they’re supposed to go together. The overall colour theme of my main task, which is mainly dark with some red lighting when the scene is taking outside, is continued in my two ancillary projects as well, with the two of them being predominately made up of only dark colours with some red, which in turn represents the blood which is to be shed in the film.

Another thing linking all my three tasks together is the simplicity of them. All of them are really simple in their design, even the film, which is very slow paced at the beginning, then getting faster when the killing takes place. The two ancillary tasks are also the simplest they could possibly be, as I’ve noticed that the genre of horror is mainly quite simple in design.

Seeing as the target audience for my film is 18-25, I’ve noticed that people in that particular age group don’t like it when things are too complicated, that’s another reason why I decided to go with the simplicity option. If the review was longer or the film poster with a more difficult message to understand, the audience would probably get bored and wouldn’t want to continue reading it, or try to figure out what the film might possibly be about. The poster and review are supposed to be attention catching and easy on the eye, and that’s exactly what I think they are, and they go perfectly with the film which is also very pleasant to watch, despite its genre.

Overall, I think that the three tasks go really well together, complimenting each other in all the right aspects.

PowerPoint Presentation

A2 media studies (1)

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Post production

Seeing as editing wasn't my role, I didn't have too much to do with this. My partner was better with this kind of technological changes to the film, and so we decided it would be best if she edited our film. However, for almost every session that she edited, I was there, making sure to give her advice and my opinion, letting her know whether I didn't like something or if I thought something should be done differently.

At first we had a bit of difficulty with the editing software we were provided with, Adobe Premiere, because neither of us has ever used it for anything before so we didn't exactly know how it worked, but in the end the programme turned out to be quite simple to use, and we managed very well in learning all its functions.

We had to use different transitions in between clips in order for the film to run smoothly, as well as making each clip a bit darker, giving it more of a horror film feel. We had decided to keep to my original idea when editing, so we kept the film in a linear form, only needing to put the clips in order forint all to make sense.

We used a slow motion effect on the most important scene of the film, which is the actual killing at the end.when the victim is being stabbed, we slowed the scene down in order to give the audience a more detailed vision of what was happening, as well as putting the most importance onto that particular scene. The editing an adding effects such as this one, creates meaning for the audience, as it shows them which parts are of particular importance and what exactly they should be focusing on in order to take the film in fully and understand it properly.

The audience feedback we received was great, with people genuinely enjoying our work, and some actually getting scared which is a great bonus, as we managed to do in one scene what horror films are meant to do in general.

If I were to do this again, I'd probably re-shoot the ending stabbing scene and the one leading up to it, as that scene had caused a few of the audience members to laugh, and that wasn't what we had planned. Other than that, I am happy with the work me and my partner have done.

The opening sequence is going to be exhibited on YouTube, which is a site tha many young adults and adults visit daily, which is great because that's our target audience and the film is going to be exposed to them.uttimg it on YouTube is a cheap way to get your work out there, for it to be noticed by people.

Assessing my own work

Whenever we made any mistakes in our production, be it in the way we filmed something, or the way we chose our props, lights or settings, when we knew we did something wrong, we always worked to correct it. If we made a mistake, we always tried to take a valuable lesson out of it, so that if we were doing something similar in the future or in a different scene, we would know how we were supposed to do it.

I think that all in all, I worked great with my partner. We always discussed everything thoroughly and whenever we had any misunderstandings, we would talk them out and settle it all before it would get to us. We did however have some problems in keeping with our own deadlines, but in the end  we made it on time with everything, so it all worked out.

I undertook my role very well. I treated this seriously, knowing that a lot was going to depend on it. I had the role of camera woman and producer, so I had to put everything together as well as film it later. My partner and I have already worked together on a production before this one, so we knew how to split our roles well, so that each would be happy with what she got, and that we would know what we were doing.

As we were filming, we didn't view the footage back after every single scene, but instead we waited until we got it onto a computer to watch it back, just so we wouldn't mess anything up with the tape. I realise it might have been a little bit risky as we didn't know whether our scenes were okay until it was over, but it all worked out in the end.

If I were to do this whole thing again, I would do it all the same way, except I would know to manage my time a little better, so I wouldn't end up being stressed out about deadlines. Everything apart from that, I would keep the same way.

Production

Mise-en-scene


The mise-en-scene we have chosen for our film, was my house. I live in Wimbledon, which is a really quiet are where not a lot happens, meaning there wouldn't be many distractions when we wanted to work and we most likely wouldn't have any problems with shooting there. The fact that my are is so quiet, makes the place a bit eerie, especially when it starts getting dark, which is when we were planning on starting to film in the first place. In the original movie, Scream, the opening sequence was also shot in a quiet place with nobody around, as the house there was quite secluded.

Shooting in my area allowed for some interesting ideas, as the place in which I live is quite modern but everything is made out of reddish-brown brick, giving it a more antique-y feel. This allows for the movie to have a more serious tone, as the setting looks more professional and well thought out. For example, the place in which the killer is hiding at the beginning of the film is a bin house, which is a quite creepy looking place as it's mainly covered by shadow and with very little lighting. This gave us an edge as it proved to be a perfect location that went great with our idea.

Costume & props


For our costumes and props, we had a lot of thinking to do. We wanted to make the film a modern version of Scream, so we knew that the costume would have to be quite current (the kind of clothes teenagers and people in their early 20s, which is the main target audience, would most likely wear).

With the victim, we settled for a pair of trousers and a jumper - quite casual as she's just sitting around at home and watching TV. However with the killer, we decided to have someone wearing tracksuit pants and a hoodie, somewhat representing today's youth and gangsters.

For the props, we decided to use a plain white mask, as we decided that it will have the most effect, as it leaves quite a lot to the audiences' imagination. For the knife, we had to go out and buy a plastic one, as we weren't allowed to use a real one, for reasons such as it wouldn't be safe. We also knew that we would be needing blood in our film, and as we were in the costume shop where we bought the mast and knife, we considered buying fake blood, but later we settled on trying to just make some ourselves, which worked out really well for us as the blood looked very realistic.


Technical aspects - lighting and sound

When we started filming our project, there were many thing which we had to consider. The main things we had to focus on in terms of our genre, were lighting and sound, as those were some of the key things to making a good horror film. Since the are in which I live is quite quiet and generally quite dimly lit, this also seemed to work greatly in our favour. What we had planned in the beginning, was just to shoot the area as it is, and then add special sound effects in the editing if needed. However, as we started shooting and then watched the film back, we found that the sounds we caught on camera were already perfect for what we wanted to do - for example, the rustling of leaves in the establishing shot, or a creepily red light above the main door to the victims house. Those were some things we were lucky enough to find by accident, though the whole process of trying to find the right position for good light and sound (eg, waiting till cars go past so there wouldn't be any extra noise) was carefully thought out.


Cinematography


I was the camera woman in this production and I had to think of how to shoot all the scenes, where the camera would look best and how I should proceed from one scene to the other. I also had to think about whether what we shot was good enough, or if it needed re-shooting. I had to think about not using the same shot for ever scene and think about variety in general. I also had to make sure to count every one in and start and stop filming around five seconds after each scene was done, in order to avoid any dialogue or movement being cut off by the camera starting or stopping.

Representations and Ideologies

The way I decided to represent the characters in my film is quite stereotypical. The way females are usually represented is in an inferior way, and I have done things pretty much in the same manner in my film, by having the victim be a woman. At the end of the opening sequence she is killed by the superior character which is a male. In my opening sequence, the female however is shown to be smart, as she first tries to hide from the killer, and then when they meet face to face, she tries to fight him off.

The use of a mask and a knife in our films is quite significant to both relating back to the main idea behind the film which is basing it on 'Scream' as well as being able to tell that we don't need to see the mans face, because in the end, all men are the same. For a simpler explanation, the man is wearing a mask to keep his identity hidden from the audience and other characters in the film.

As well as people, in our opening sequence we are also representing London, which is shown as a quite dangerous area, where anyone can find out where you live and stalk you. The particular are of London in which the film is shot, which is Wimbledon, is actually a very calm place, and shooting something like this here was a very weird experience as it went against the general feel of the place.

The main message shown in this opening sequence is to always have your eyes open for possible dangers. As it's the female that's the victim here, it goes a little against the stereotypical views of a woman, as she doesn't notice the small details, such as someone hiding in the bin house or someone creeping at her window. As females are usually represented as showing a lot of attention to details, this goes against that, showing that no matter who you are, you could always easily be in danger.

Genre and Codes & Conventions

The genre of my opening sequence is horror, and this particular genre has many generic elements and conventions that go along with it.

Horror films are mainly created in order to build fear and agitation in its viewers. In order to do that, horror films often try to concentrate on things that the directors know will make the audience panic and get their imagination working in the worst way possible. Horror film directors will mostly use things that many people are afraid of, such as darkness or loss of a certain kind.

In these type of films, we often see dark rooms and scenes mainly take place during night time or late evening, because that's when it gets dark and there's many places in which the audience can't see, often ending up in them getting scared when someone or something randomly jumps out of a shadowy corner.

There are many codes and conventions associated with horror. Some of these include:

• eerie sounds
• dark surroundings
• creaking doors
• heavy breathing
• dim lighting
• howls of wind
• etc

In my own film, I had decided to use some of those conventions, in order to keep my film as realistic as possible, and as close to real media texts as I could.

As for character conventions, there is always a good guy, which is most often the main character, and the bad guy, who is the villain that murders people in the film. In my opening sequence, even though the woman doesn't end up being a main character as she dies first, she represents the figure of the 'good guy' as she is innocent and gets killed for no reason that's apparent to the audience. My opening sequence is quite formulaic, as in horror films, females are often the weaker characters that get killed, which is what I have also portrayed. The villain in the opening sequence is a man, which also follows the generic conventions and formulaic structure. If the roles of male and female were to get reversed, the film would become subversive, as I would have been representing something that the audience wouldn't expect.