Monday, 23 March 2009

Evaluation

Introduction

Our initial ideas came from brain storming our ideas on all different types of genre. We decided that we would create a film with the horror genre. We then storyboarded our ideas and the variety of shots we were going to use. Then we cast our actors, decided on a setting and wrote a script. We tried to stick to our script and storyboard where it was possible however we did adapt it on the day of filming as we thought that it would be best.

Working With Existing Forms and Conventions

At a micro, technical level we observed the continuity of the editing to quite jerky, as we thought that this would add to the horror genre, making it scarier and more realistic as if a home-filming. This makes it easier for the audience to relate to.


Our film does challenge the genre as it does not use background music which is commonly used in horror films to build tension and suspense. We also did not use music as did not want to breach any copy right patents.


We have not used any intertextuality in our film, one reason for this is because it is only the opening 2 minutes however if we were to continue with the rest of the film we might.


The type of audience pleasure that we are trying to provide is suspense, the enigma of the unveiling of the unfolding story. We are confident that we have fulfilled the expectations of an opening.


Representation


We have represented a very stereotypical blonde, young, naive girl who was murdered. The murderer is also very stereotypical with him being big, butch and wearing a scary mask to cover his face. The location is represented as being a dark place where bad places happen. The weather in the woods is also represented badly compared to the nice weather in the cul-de-sac; this is also a very stereotypical view of the weather.


Teenagers are included, old age pensioners and child are excluded because they are not the target audience.


Our film is quite realistic because the film is set in woods which automatically have negative connotations also the weather makes pathetic fallacy as you expect something to happen. It is not very realistic in the way in which we used a tennis racket to murder someone, which would be quite difficult. We would have used a bat/fake gun but we did not want to look to conspicuous or scare anyone.


The mise-en-scène is very important as the racket that killed the young girl makes people feel that they came relate to anyone because it is a common object. The acting is very important as it makes the audience believe that it is real. The camera work is very important because it shows the vulnerability of the characters, it also keeps it diverse.



Institutions


The kind of media institution that might distribute our product is working title - as they produce new talent and British films.


Audiences


Our target audience is teenagers. We came to this decision because horror genres generally appeal to teenagers.


Our analysis of films with the horror genre was very useful. We found out many techniques that are used to scare audiences and ways that different shots are used to disorientate the audience for example the hand held shot and canted shot.


Our meaning is very clear. We made sure that everything was very clear and easy to understand eg lots of ketchup was used so we know that Lucy had died. Also we made it clear to the audience that someone was following her in the woods scene. We did by having the point of view shot of the murderer and hearing him breathing. We also rehearsed each film before we filmed it, this made sure that both the actors and the camera person knew what exactly was happening. We also made sure that the shot were we saw the murderer was not to long otherwise this could add a comic element that we did not want.

When we trialled aspects of our to our target audience to get their opinions and views of the film. As you can see from our comments our target audience like our film but they were a bit confused by the jerky camera and lack of movement however this is one of the effects we wanted as it put our target audience on the edge.


Using Technology

The camcorder allowed us to film the film anywhere we wanted as it was portable. We also used a tripod to allow us to make shots that are not wobbly. The editing software also helped us overlay the whistling to the film and fit all the different shots in way that flows. The only trouble we experienced with technology is that we shot our film in the rain and we were scared of getting the camcorder wet so we had to hold an umbrella above it and this obstructed into some of our shots.

Progression from the Preliminary Exercise to the Main Task:
The preliminary exercise helped us with the main task greatly as it allowed us to learn how to use the editing software and the camcorder. It also helped us as we made errors in our preliminary that we learnt not to make in our real film. These errors were to make sure there were enough light and when adding music makes sure that no-one is talking/get rid of the background noise.

Final Verdict:

We are very pleased with our final product. If we were to do it again we would make sure that you could not the umbrella in any of our shots and that there was less background noise.

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