Media Evaluation

In our media production our opening sequence was to create the convention of a modern horror film, we applied it to be suitable and aim for the target audience of teenagers of the ages 15 and above. Our sequence has been aimed for the time of 2 minutes and 30 seconds to makes it more appropriate and intriguing for the audience to watch a continuing footage, and enjoy the makings of our film.

1.     In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and  conventions of real media productions?

In our opening sequence, we went with a horror supporting feature of a supernatural killer, however we went against horror conventions as we chose to make the killer a female child. This links to the film ‘Exorcist’ who used a female child , who has been possessed by the devil, creates that sense of supernatural, however we developed this convention as Regan- The girl- doesn’t kill. Furthermore, the supernatural convention relates to the horror film ‘Candyman’ as The Candyman is a supernatural killer, who came through walls and killed his victim with his hook. We used a supernatural killer to create suspense to the audience as a supernatural killer is more fearful for some as they are an unrestricted quality for the horror film.

The music in our film is eerie and dramatic with a slow tempo to add tension and suspense. We used music in the majority of the filming, such as in the pub, and in the forest chase scene. This builds up a climax for the characters and the audience. However, we spent much time editing the sound as we didn’t take on board how the ambient sound may affect the film; therefore we had to try adding the ambient sound in the quieter sound adding the eeriness effect.  
The camera angles used were two shot to show both characters, we used this in the pub to show them both walking in from a side view and in the forest of them walking down from a front view. We used point of view in the forest when Reece ran away from Iris which creates tension for the audience as we see from the characters perspective. Long shot was used during when the characters walked into the pub this was to show their surroundings. In the forest scene an extreme close up is used to show the eyes of Iris this is to create suspense to the audience as they don’t know what may happen next which draws them in to the film. Adding to this, it gives the audience a chance to take I the smaller details of the girl which makes them want to know more about her and give them that sense of tension. In addition, this is a common convention of the horror genre as it is also used in Se7en while in the photo room for the audience to get a better look and get more detail. In the chase scene both side tracking and back tracking is used this is to show the characters running away from the Iris which causes the audience to become on edge, and close ups are used during the filming, such as in the forest scene when the boys are talking combined with the two shot and with Iris showing her turning around and her face.
In the ending scene the jacket is used as a prop to create suspense for the audience as it is shown flowing in the wind hanging on a tree, which shows that Reece is now alone, the audience nor Reece know what has happened to Matt which create tension as the scene before Iris attacks Reece making the audience think he is the one being killed.

The editing processor used for the film was Adobe Premier we used to our benefit, in the editing we used seemless editing to make the film flow. We also used titles to show the times to add tension for the audience and to add that sense of time. Also, we used dissolves to make this film flow and to show the change in time or location.
The costuming for the characters is a modern, Matt and Reece, the two main characters, both wear jeans and jackets to show the timing of year but also the modern aspect of the film this also reflects them being 18/ 19 year old boys. Their costumes relate to that they are going on a normal boy’s after Uni road trip. However, they didn’t expect it to go wrong. This is to help the audience relate to the film and to add that tension that this is recent. The old man’s Costume is older, worn and scruffy to make him look ragged, to add that olden sense to the film but to also create suspense to the audience as this old man is there and could make it seem like he knows more than he lets on. But it also shows that the pub they have entered is olden and worn itself. Iris white dress shows her innocence which is a contrast to her as she kills Matt. This adds the tension to the audience and they know that she is not innocent or trust worthy, this also goes against conventions of horror as the audience would expect the killer or villain to be wearing dark colour such as black or red.
Development towards the filming, we created step by step photos of the making of Iris. This shows our understanding of the character and the how we developed and made her. We had taken several photos of the same make-up and hair to show that we have created these ourselves and has not been a copy of the ‘Exorcist’; we have only used her as inspiration to create Iris.

In the process of our film we made the logo for our production, The Night Owl, the logo reflect the name as we used a still image on an owl as it is a creature of the night which adds the horror aspect, we had drawn of the owl by hand and scanned in out images to edit on Photoshop, we kept the owl white to add that ‘innocent ‘look as a contrast to the red eyes. We then added the still image to a night sky background – which we took form the convention of other logos as DreamWorks and paramount both use skies in their logos, we developed this as we were a horror convention which we used a night sky- on Flash; we then added the title, The Night Owl Productions in a red and old fashioned font. We then made the still image of the owl slide down from the moon in the left corner fly down to the font in the lower right, above the title.

2.     How does the media production represent particular social groups?

In our filming we chose our characters as they are conventional to our genre of Horror, this is so that it becomes more recognisable to the target audience, which is that we chose the character ages of 18/19 and that they are both male characters.
We chose 2 male protagonists, with modern culture as it relates to a gap year before Uni guy road trip. This is presented in the clothing, being jeans and chinos which are in the fashion today, and their speech. Their age is around the ages of 18/19 Years as they are Uni students and this is also shown by their buying drinks at a pub. We chose 2 male characters as it is conventional towards the Horror genre; they also linked well to our story line as it wouldn’t work as well with female characters. The characters are middle/ working class; this is shown as they go into the pub which shows the work and middle class stereotypical environment.
We chose the old man in this as they are portrayed as being very innocent in horror films and to not know what is going on, we have made this character be very mysterious as it adds to the tension created throughout the film. We made him a middle class Elder as he is based in a pub. His clothing is an old jacket and worn jeans which shows his working class.
We used Iris in the filming as she goes against the conventions of horror we did this as we found it easier for the story line to have a female killer, however it has been used that supernatural villains are females,  rather than a male and it also gives it more tension and mystery.

3.     What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

In our media convention of horror, the institution that might distribute our product would most likely be Warner Brothers. They may distribute our film as they are the presenters and distributers of ‘The Exorcist’, this shows close relation towards our film as we were influenced by to create our film. They also distributed ‘I am Legend’ which is another supernatural horror.
Another institution that might distribute our film would be Paramount pictures, who distributed ‘Paranormal Activity’ which is another supernatural horror based in a house where only the female seems to be possessed or harmed by this ghost, which could relate to out film as out female killer seems possessed.
The third institution that may distribute our film would be Sony Pictures. Sony Picture distributed the horror film ‘The Grudge’ which is based on a female supernatural killer linking to our film. DreamWorks would also be another institution that may distribute our film as they created to film The Ring, which is a horror about a TV tape, which holds a supernatural young girl. Who kills whoever watches the video.
In my opinion I think Warner Brothers would be the best institution to distribute our film, this is linked to my previous point as it distributed ‘Exorcist’ which links well with our film.

4.     Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience for our film would be based on the rating of the film which we chose to be a 15. Therefore, we’d base our film on the ages of 15 and above, making it suitable for teenagers and young adults as it includes terror and it includes less violence which is convenient for the younger views which makes it suitable for 15 years of age. Our target audience is for both genders as it uses both genders within our film and doesn’t include any humour towards another gender, we have used the stereotypical boy which makes it suitable for females as well as males. We have made the film sustainable to a middle class as it contains scene with a pub atmosphere and drinking.

5.     How did you attract/ address your audience?

We have attracted our audience through are storyline by using the element of mystery for the audience. We used this as it keeps the audience engaged and wanting to know what may happen. This addresses the audience as it would make them think their own endings to the clip as we used a cliff hanger and keep their own imagination to keep them interested.

The characters attracted the audience as they are a stereotypical boy character, which makes them more relatable to the audience, also using them form a modern era makes it more interesting to know what may happen, and would make it more fearful for the audience.
The music creates tension for the audience and the change in music creates the sense of knowing something it going to happen, to keep the audience aware of what’s going on.
We would address the audience through marketing and advertising as we try to engage the audience with posters, interviews, magazine ratings, merchandise and adverts- This would be more successful by using viral marketing as our audience is 15 to 25 years which in this modern era would suggest that the majority would use the internet where we would advertise our film, using pop ups, trailer and adverts on websites.

6.     What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of the constructing this product?

In the process of our media product the technologies we has learnt about were; Mini HD Camera. We used the Mini HD cameras to film our clips for the filming. We used these as they were light weight easy to take anywhere and they recorded in HD which made the film better quality. Apple Macs, we used these to edit and import our clips. Tripods, we used these for hold the cameras to create a more steady camera shot. We used this for panning shots or longshots.
The software we used was; Adobe Premiere, this for the editing of our film. We used this to cut clips to add to our film sequence, add sound, edit and combine the logo and credits. We used Adobe Flash, this to create our logo. We did this my importing a still image and then making it fly down from the corner and adding a back ground and text. We used Photoshop, this to edit our still images for our logo; we did this by making the outlines thicker and adding colour. We used Incompetech, this to import music for our film. We used this to import scarier, eerie music to add to our films to add tension and create atmosphere. Facemaker was used to make our character avatars for our profile to add the understanding and the look of them. Lastly, we used Blog.com- Blogger. This was used throughout our project to help record our process during research and the making of our film.

7.     Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

On my preliminary task, I have learnt about how to use an Apple Mac and the editing soft wear and the editing software; Adobe Premier. As the starting stages of making our preliminary I didn’t know how to use any of the equipment applied, this had helped me understand the basics of the editing software and the angles used in a film. There weren’t as many clips to use as the film in the preliminary this helped to just be able to apply the basic editing of the 180 degree rule and the seemless editing towards the clip, by cutting part of clips to a certain other clip, which could help us delete bloopers or errors. I had also learnt about using basic editing of fading to black and white and transitions of dissolves. I have also learnt that from filming my preliminary task that I have developed a better relation with my co-workers in media. This is because we become closer by listening to each other’s ideas and productions plans, based around the group.
As I swapped classes I came into this group in the editing stage where I learnt how to used match on action and two shots, adding them to our later filming. We used a match on action in our later film where we changed places from one side of Reece to the other whilst he taps the girl on the back.

Issues with our filming were that we recorded many scene outside which left us with very noisy ambient sounds. We then spent a lot of time trying to figure that either removing the ambient sounds may take away or add to the effect whist with the music. We then decided that the abient sounds worked in our favour with the music adding more eerie effect. We will then take this on board in our A2 filming.