Evaluation for media product

Evaluation for Media Product

For my media product, my group did a horror film about a teenage girl who is being followed by a boy and then gets attacked by him.

The genre of the film opening is horror. There are many conventions in this genre one being the use of certain camera angles. In the film we used close ups. Close ups are used to show emotions of characters as the tension builds up in the opening, this makes the audience see what emotions the character/s are going through at a certain point in the film. Also point of view shots were used to create tension and to also introduce the character to the audience in some way. This camera shot also lets the audience see what the character sees or how the character sees it. Establishing shots were used to set the scene of the film. The mise en scene of the film is set in a typical London road and park. However, the opening was filmed during the day, if it was filmed in the evening it would have followed a typical horror convention.

The film was originally supposed to be filmed in the evening, but due to some members of the group not being organised enough we had to film during the day, with the time we had. The titles that introduced the actors and director etc were in white, this does not follow horror conventions. This happened because, we did not think about what we were doing properly and if done again we would have considered these little details more. Where as if it was red or black, which symbolises blood and death, it would have suited the genre a lot more. The title for the name of the film was done in red and had a very horror themed font. But it was a slightly over the top, if the font had been less “bloody” looking it would have been a lot better, as the film opening wasn’t gory.

The sound for the film stayed the same throughout and suited the horror genre as it built up the tension. However, it could have started slower and peaked in the middle, as this would have created greater tension. Also the use of silence was used. In The genre of horror, silence is used to build up the tension for the audience, as the audience do not know what is going to happen next. The characters fitted the horror genre as they are all teenagers and there are many horror films that are based around vulnerable teenagers e.g. “the ring” and “scream”. For the end of the film opening we saturated the colours to add an effect. We did this because we couldn’t edit the end to run as smoothly as we thought. By saturating the colours it made the jumps/ sudden cuts in the opening look like an effect and that we did it on purpose/ wanted it to look like that.

My media product mostly represented typical teenagers, aged around 16-18, male and female. Living in London and mostly working class. The product is targeted at any ethnicity group within London. In the film the white teenage female is the victim. This is a stereotype as in a few horrors the white female is always seen as the victim e.g. films like “Scream” (drew Barrymore), “The Eye” (Jessica Alba). The villain in the film is a black teenage male. This is a stereotype as black males in London do not get good press and are mostly represented in the media as bad. They are also associated with dangerous things such as, gun crime, knife crime, drugs etc.

My media product will be a British independent as it’s more targeted towards British teen culture rather than American teen culture. It would also be a British independent because, the film would be on a low budget as it doesn’t need lots of special effect and other things that most Hollywood films have. The film would go on to TV, as cinema ticket prices are going up, so working class teenagers might not have enough money to pay for tickets. It would be shown on channel 4, as they show loads of programmes and films targeted at British teenagers, e.g. “Skins”.

The target audience would be teenagers around the ages of 16-19, of both genders and working class. They would be in college or sixth form at this stage in their life and live in London, but mostly within the area of west London as that is where the film is based. The film would appeal to a small audience more, as the film is based around British culture. If it was to appeal to a bigger audience such as Hollywood, American teenagers would not understand as they don’t live in London and would not understand the culture. The film may have a secondary audience and those maybe working class adults, both male and female, from the ages of 20-40 years and also living in west London. They may watch because they want to learn about teenage culture in their area or may be interested in what goes on in teenage life.

The film opening will hook the audience as the opening has a slight build up and this will increase the tension for the audience as they do not know what to expect or they won’t be able to predict what will happen next. However, our build up could have been longer as we did not have enough footage. If I did this project again, I would have shot the opening when we had loads of time and made sure we had all the shots we needed. The sound also helps to build up tension as the music builds up throughout the whole opening. When the girl is running there is no music. Silence is used to create tension, as the audience will not know what to happen, as people use sound from films to predict what will happen. I got the idea to use silence from the film “scream”, while I was researching it.

By doing this media product and using certain software for each task, I have learnt many new skills. While doing my research for the media product and evaluating it I used two Microsoft offices; Word and PowerPoint. While using PowerPoint I learnt how to use animations to make my text and pictures enter the presentation. I also used animations to make the slide transitions more effective/interesting. To do the research I used various search engines like, Google, yahoo etc. I learnt that when using search engines to only use certain keywords to get the information I needed, e.g. horror, films, genre, conventions etc.

After the research was done me and my group then started to plan our film, meaning when it was going to be filmed, people who would be acting etc. Our group did have some problems with the planning, as we didn’t have set actors and actresses, our location wasn’t confirmed and we also couldn’t figure out who was doing what. However, by having planning documents, this helped to develop the skill of being organised and managing people and time. This can help me in life and can be used in future, e.g. knowing when deadlines are, being on time etc. While filming I learnt how to use a camera, tri-pod and microphone. We Used a microphone even though there is no dialogue in the opening. However, someone spoke while we were filming and we tried to lower the sound. It ended up fitting in with the scene as it is slowed down. By using these various things I built up certain camera skills and an understanding of how the camera works. I also learnt how to attach all the filming equipment together, which I didn’t know how to do before. When editing I used the programme final cut express. I used certain tools to cut pieces of footage (razor blade) and to add text with animation e.g. fading in and fading out. For the sound, me and all group members went through the programme, sound track and then picked music to suit our film opening. Finding music took longer than we anticipated and it slowed us down, but once we found the right music our film opening was complete.

Throughout this whole project I have learnt many skills that will be very helpful to me in the future. The first one is learning to work in a group. By having to work in a team, it has helped me to learn to cooperate with others and consider other peoples ideas, as well as my own. This was hard to do seeing as I am quite a bossy person and like having things my way. But after listening to their ideas and adding my input, everything worked much better. I also learnt how to deal with arguments and how to handle them in a certain way, to get a good outcome. The group dealt with arguments by talking things through and gaining an understanding of where others were coming from.

Another skill I have developed while doing this project is learning how to be organised, how to manage things in certain way and how to plan things. By being organised I will know what to do and I will never be confused/ lost. I learnt how to manage things such as, time and people. Managing time is a useful l skill, as it will enable me to never be late for deadlines and not to waste time of others and in general. Planning things is apart of being organised. But while planning I learnt how to consider other peoples ideas and how to combine ideas. Throughout the project me and my group have had many disagreements, which were time consuming. The disagreements were little things like, colour of the writing, what font was going to be used, whose name was going to be put for director producer etc. However, when we combined our ideas, everything came together. These skills can help me later on in life.

Editing was very time consuming and very difficult for my group. While we were editing, there were bits footage of film missing. Bits were missing because we didn’t think some of our storyboard through properly and made the shots too simple, so when we needed certain footage to break up certain parts of the opening, we didn’t have them. This then made it difficult for us to edit around as some bits were very crucial. We then had to go back out and shoot additional shots, which took a whole lesson out of our double lesson. This was very time consuming, but once we had the shots, everything fit in. However we could have had a bit more shots to prolong the opening a bit more, as it is shorter than 2 minutes. Once everything was edited we then had to pick music to go along with the film opening. This took even longer and then once we finally found the music to fit in, we then had to work on the titles.

The titles didn’t take up that much time. Even though they weren’t the right colour to go along with the genre we were trying to do. A Member of the group choose this and by then it was too late to change them. When the editing was done it turned out to be more like a thriller than a horror because of certain conventions that were used and how it was filmed. If we filmed in the evening it would have been more horror than thriller, also if the person attacking the girl was a monster, ghost, mythical creature etc. Then it would have been more of a horror film opening. The film opening looked slightly like a trailer rather than a film opening as it showed the girl being attacked. If the girl wasn’t shown being attacked, then it would have been more of a film opening as it would have kept the audience in suspense and wanting to watch more.

Throughout the whole project there were many different problems my group faced and it was a very stressful process, but after we got through them everything eventually came together. I have learnt many skills and I have enjoyed every bit of this project.

By Leah Busette