Evaluation

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

Throughout the product, the aim we wanted to create was to constantly develop the forms and conventions of a real horror/thriller opening sequence. The way we tried to create this was by using as many different conventions without making the product look silly. One of our focuses was to make the audience scared of what they were about to see but however want to watch the rest of the film because it was enticing them in! The main part of the opening sequence which is also my favourite part is the fast cut montage of horror/thriller shots, as this engages the audience and gets their heart racing to what is going to happen next. This is very typical of this genre, so therefore that is why we decided to try and include it in our own way within the 2 minutes. We included it at the start as many other films we researched also used this, where it is almost like a flash back and it shows you what will happen at the end of the film.

There is also a rough storyline which replays throughout the whole of the two minutes that the audience will be able to pick up on easily. There are two main locations in the sequence, and this is the same since our last improvement. We chose to stick to these two locations as they were totally different to each other, the first part where it’s dark and outside and isolated, makes the female character look very vulnerable as well as makes the audience scared for her and want to help her which makes her seem weak. Whereas in the second location it is meant to be seen as if it is in the teenage girl’s bedroom, the colours are bright and girly and she is just minding her own business, in casual clothes, listening to music, being chilled out! This is a massive contrast from the other location but this helps the audience to see how things have changed from scene to scene.

On our first final product we just instantly went from one scene to another with just a transition that blurred from one to the other.  This worked but for some of the audience may not understand why the girl has gone from one place to the other without any meaning. So therefore when editing the second time round, we looked and had to try and improve it. We saw that in our research a lot of films used this method of showing a flash back then text appearing on screen saying “one day later”, “one year later”, “one week earlier” etc. We then included this just as the shots changed from one to the other and when asking other students in our media class, they said the improvement helped them to understand the storyline more and gain more understanding of why the girl was from one location to another.

Another convention which was used within our media product was the use of voiceovers which was used only one time in our first edit and twice in our second. With the same quote of ‘Trust that the worst is yet to come, Horrors and terrors and then yet some, Beware of the curses that await your mind, for the master is coming, Turn and face behind’. This is scary in itself, but the way we included it into our product was by whispering it over the fast cut montage. This gave the effect that the female character was hearing the voices in her head. When coming to edit again we then decided that because the voice over worked so well at the beginning of the sequence we would then include it again as it had such a good effect on the audience’s reaction. We decided that when the girl receives the text from the ‘unknown’ that instead of the audience having to read the text of screen the same spooky voice would be there reading it out as the camera shots hover over the female characters shoulders. This then gives the effect that she is being watched or she is still hearing voices inside her head. This is scary and when asking random students from around our school to watch it and give their opinion they agreed with us and said that it was effective.  

We also tried to include different conventions even through the shots that we used, one of the main shots which was frequently used within films that we watched during our research was a point of view shot. This makes the audience believe they are seeing exactly what the character is seeing so instead of just watching them on screen, it then starts to give you an incite of how the character is feeling and how you may feel if you were to be put into the same situation as her. This was used throughout the whole of the fast cut montage of shots at the start of the sequence

The music used at the beginning of the sequence which is used to build tension and to make the audience feel as though they do not know what is going to happen next. This was also common in horror/thriller films which we watched throughout our research. As well we also included the mysterious unknown caller who was ringing the female character; this received a reaction to the audience as they didn’t know who the caller was. This adds suspense as it is a mystery.

A few things which are known as conventions of a horror/thriller movie would be blood, weapons and violence. We decided against showing and including any of these throughout our movie as we believed we could create the same feelings of suspense without violence being included.

2.       How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The media product that we created does not represent any particular social groups, the audience does not really know much at all about the character. We wanted to leave it this way as therefore as the audience carry on to watch, they would then see the characters personality and then form a connection of getting to know her story and who she is. That is part of getting the audience hooked and wanting to watch more as they are not given to much or too little of the story and the character at the start of the sequence.  Also the girl is seen to be not what like teenagers are shown today in the media. \she seems to be innocent and quite, as like from the shot in her bedroom where she is getting on with everything herself, doing work and listening to music. She is not out partying, getting drunk or being disruptive or rude like many teenagers are shown to be like today.

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

We looked into lots of different media distributors when carrying out our research and then we started to look at different distributors and institutions which we would use to distribute my own production. When looking we decided to use New line Cinema which is the subsidiary of Warner Bros. The reason for this was because they produce films of the same genre which we looked into when filming and these films have been a massive success with the public.

The way I would like my product to be distributed would be through many different ways including the cinema at first. The reason for this is that these days people wait to watch something in the cinema and then through word of mouth and advertising it get spread and more people go to pay to watch the film at the cinema. This would increase the publicity of my movie as well as add to sales through the sales of tickets. It would then eventually go to DVD and this therefore allows the film to be watched whenever, even if it is years after the film has been released. Also I would distribute my movie through legal film sites and TV as this is a cheap and easy access way of the audience  being able to view the movie. As well as it being easier for the audience as they can access it in the comfort of their own home, without having to leave their house, It also makes it available to a wider audience as then more people will be able to get access to the movie through download and TV.

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

Target audiences were the main focus of my product and the decisions that were made in order to create the product. We needed to grasp a great understanding of who the target audience was in order to be able to market the product properly and what to include within the product. The target audience that was chosen was both males and females through an age range of mid-teens at 15 to mid-twenties of 26. I was aware that the movie was more likely to be watched by more females than males are they are more sensitive and would be more sympathetic and more emotional to the feelings of the character. However most males would be more interested in blood, weapons and violence which are not at all included.

The age rating of my production was to be at 15 and the reason for this was so that therefore it would not be too explicit but may still contain some strong language and some scenes of violence.

5.       How did you attract/address your audience?

One of the main ways in which I tried to attract my target audience was trying to build a relationship between the main character and the audience throughout the whole of the movie; we tried to do this by having the main characters roughly the same age as the target audience. This would therefore make the viewer have an attachment to the characters as they can relate to them.

Also I used the technique of the fast cut montage at the beginning of the sequence which when asking random students from my school within the target audience they said that it got them sitting on the edge of their seat as they didn’t know what was going to happen next. This is including the fast shot changes as well as the suspense of the music and the whispering voice over which adds to the tension. This therefore leaves the viewer’s wanting to see more and know what happens next. This is the way we tried to keep the audience interested throughout the whole of the sequence as not everything was every given away which keeps them wanting to watch as they want to know what happens, as well as allowing their imagination to build whilst watching.

Another way in which I attached the audience was by including point of view shots which showed the audience how the it would feel to be in the main characters view as the victim and this may help to build a relationship between the audience and character as they can see how they would feel if they were in that position.

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

We have learnt lots about the different technologies throughout the whole of the product as well as from improving the product from the last final production. Some of the different technologies that I used were a HD camera, an IMac and IMovie.

The reason I used a HD camera would so therefore the production would be at a better quality as well as it being more reliable than other cameras as it is newer and has better functions. With the HD camera I made sure that I used a tripod when needed so therefore the shots were steady as well as being of good quality. The reason why I used an IMac was because it had the software I needed in order to do the main part of creating my product which was editing. I did this through IMovie which is advanced software which helped us to edit to our best possible ability and make the product look as good as possible.

I have learnt from using the technology that you cannot always rely on it and should always have a backup plan and save your work elsewhere in order to not have lost your work completely. We learnt this the hard way as everything on our computer got lost after our first edit so therefore the only way we did get it back was by going onto YouTube and downloading the video through that way. Yes, we had got our work back but it meant that it was extremely hard when going to edit again. IMovie was our favourite technology throughout the whole of the production s it allowed us to be able to use all the available features such as text, sounds, voice overs, effects, transitions to help to make our product look more professional.

Technology has had a massive advantage on our work in order to get it to the best and we were lucky to have the range of technology available to us otherwise it could have been very expensive.

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

From the preliminary task we did before our first main task we learnt different techniques which gave us a good idea on how to use the camera and use a different range of shots which we didn’t necessarily use in the production, such as shot reverse shot , match on action and 180 degree rule. It was good for us to get use to the technology and the software we were going to use on the IMac so therefore when it came down to the main task we were prepared to just get on and complete it. We got to play around and look at all of the features on IMovie and see what they all did, and because it was a preliminary task it didn’t matter whether it didn’t work as we were testing it all out. I believe that the prelim was a good idea when it then came to doing my final task as I felt more in control and knew how to use the equipment available. It would have made it very hard for me if I had not learnt what I had done through doing the preliminary task. Comparing the preliminary task and my final product together you can see the difference in quality as we had gone from a normal video recording camera to a HD one and the quality difference is significantly noticeable, as well as the improvements of use in the software such as IMovie, these improvements were better due to the practice I received on the equipment due to the preliminary task.

Improvements from our final cut

we decided to improve our final piece further and here is the final edited piece below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LetIzTRkFk

(the video would not load onto the blog, so above is a link to the final product on YouTube)

Strengths, Weaknesses and Improvements

Strengths

One of the strengths in our opening sequence is the first 30 seconds of the whole piece, i believe that the product would not be very good at all without it. It is personally my favourite and what i believe to be the best part of the media product. It is a mix of many different shots which are very short and put together using the technique of jump cuts. This looks very effective and helps to create the tension I was planning on building up the the action of the eye opening. It is fast and with all the different shots and angles it shows of the main character you get to see a lot in a very short period of time. The sound over these shots are, the heavy breathing which is created through both the character when we were filming and through a voice over. The other sound which is previewed is my most favourite bit, is the voice over of the curse being whispered out loud. It adds a sense of spookiness as we do not know if we can only hear the sound or whether the character can too and she is hearing things? This is not made clear to us, so yet again our imagination is put into place, as mystery arises. I really like the shot in the girls bedroom when she is reading the curse out loud and the camera follows behind her head. This gives the effect as if someone is watching her and she does not know, but we are in the point of view of the 'watcher'. It is different to just any other ordinary standard shot and i think this a reason to why i like it so much. I also think that the shots where the close up of the Ipod is shown is effective as it shows how well the clips were edited as they are all shown from different angles but they all however flow automatically with no awkwardness. 

Weaknesses

I  would say that one of the initial weaknesses of our product would be that the beginning bit may of been a bit too heavy, although it built tension and looked good, I do not know whether the opening should have gone straight into the rush of all of the clips together. This may have given the impression that the first cut had more of a trailer-feel than an opening, however when the second scene starts this changes, but I still had doubts on the first part being mistaken for a trailer. But no one did pick up on it in my audience feedback. Due to having to cut the whole piece down to two minutes some major cuts were made and not a lot of the narrative that originally I wanted to be included could be. So therefore to make sure that the piece fit within the two minute time frame the second scene had to have a basic storyline to make it all fit within the time i had left to show the narrative to the audience. So one of the weaknesses may be that the there was a lack of story behind the curse because of the time frame.

Improvements 

If I were to do this project again, I think that I would introduce the story in a much more calmer way and then get into the jump cuts and build the tension up from there. As well as this i would want to have more time to put more narrative in about the curse so the audience could see what the effect of the curse would do to the main character.Also i would of improved our institution introduction, as i think it did not look as professional as ones that are successful today look, as well as it did not have a theme tune to start off with. It was more like a moving image with a title. 

Overall

I think that overall, I have created a successful product. I like the end product that we have worked on, and even though there are some improvements that I would make if I were to do it again, I think that our product looks really and we have some very positive feedback to back this up with. 

Feedback : Final Product

1) Could you identify that the genre was horror?

All of our feedback suggested that the audience knew the opening sequence was based on a horror/thriller genre.

2) Do you understand what is going on in the opening of 'The Worst Is Yet To Come'?

Again, our audience felt that there was a 'very clear storyline to follow' and that they all suggested they understood what was happening throughout.

3) What did you think about the sound effects and voice overs? Do you think they are used well?

The feedback for this was very positive, with the audience commenting on how it 'creates spookiness and terror', 'it sends a shiver up your spine' and 'it creates tension well to the build up of what is going to happen'.

4) Do our transitions work well, going from scene to scene?

Our audience believed that they were effective and added tension to our opening, 'the jumpy bit with all of the fast, short clips at the beginning is choppy but still flows really well together and you can follow what is happening with no confusion, its scary!' is one comment about the transitions.

5) After seeing 2 minutes of the opening would you stay and watch the rest of the film?

The feedback that we received suggested that our opening sequence was interesting enough to watch more of, as every person from our audience said that they would of like to have seen the rest of the film and how it continued. One response said 'i would like to know whether the girl lives or dies', this is one of the questions we hoped would go through the audience mind as the eye never opened when she fell to the ground. 

6) Do you think that we have used the right camera shots/angles to show what is going on?

It was shown by our audience that our 'editing and shots show a clear focus on the main character' and 'in the first shots the different angles the character is shown by lets us see everything without having the camera focusing on her for a long period of time.'

7) Do you think that we have contained the necessary information to make the opening interesting?

The responses to this were yet again positive, with people commenting on the 'detail of the story line shown' and how the 'props were included in an interesting way'.

8) Do you think that the cut from the two very different scenes, work well together?

The feedback to this question were mixed as some commented on how 'the screen jumped too quickly from an eye to a girl in a bedroom, the tension was built up and stopped at nothing, to then carry on a storyline' while others commented saying that 'it worked well as when the eye was opened and it faded into the girls bedroom it was almost like she was having a flashback  or a dream, which gets the audience imagining'.

9) Do you think that the locations fit well with the story line?

The response to this question was again positive as they said 'in the first scene the location was scary, dark, rainy, stormy, spooky which with the quick shots made you even more scared whereas the second scene was bright colours and set in the daytime which makes you think of a positive environment, a big contrast to the first location, but works well!'

10) Additional Comments?

Lots of comments seemed to say that our product was 'very well done' or 'very good' or people telling us that they would 'watch that film in the cinema'. This was really good news to hear as it made us feel positive about our product and that we did well.

Overall, the feedback that we received was highly positive which suggests that the audeince did enjoy our product that we have created.

Codes and Conventions

I am going to identify all of the codes and conventions that we have used in our opening sequence.

The institutional logo at the beginning - this is a convention as the majority of all films have the institution information at the very beginning of any film, including horrors and thrillers. This helped our product look more professional and realistic, and also if using a good institution it would draw attention because of the good reputation. However because we created our own institution called S&M Productions it may not be well known but it still helped to make my product more professional.

Red Typography - This is a typical convention in horror films and has the connotations of blood, death, murder, danger etc. We used this in our institutional logo which was shown at the beginning of our product.

Mysterious Location - The first location that you get to see is a dark, outside area that is not to obviously labelled or shown to what it is, or where it is. It is exactly like a typical convention of a location in a horror film as a dark, shadowy place which scares the audience as they cannot see everything clearly, and makes them believe that something may be around that they do not know about. 

Characters - The types of characters, even though I only included one character in my opening sequence it was still on that is in a typical horror film. The vulnerable girl who panics at the first sign of strange things and gets into trouble even though she is shown to be a positive friendly person.

Mystery Phone Calls - Two times in the whole opening sequence, the character receives missed calls from unknown numbers as well as a text repeating the curse which is also from an unknown number. This scares the audience because, not only does the character not know why she is getting this phone calls and who they are from, neither does the audience. It also gives them a sense of reality as this could happen to anyone, as I'm sure humans get prank calls and calls from unknown umbers all the time, but however this is something far beyond just a "joke" or a phone call for "fun".

Progression from the Preliminary Task

We have progressed a lot since the preliminary task. The preliminary helped us as we learnt some thing on what looks better and what not to do. It helped us to see how long a piece of film would take to shoot and plan as well as edit and finalise all in time to meet a deadline. 

When looking at the final piece in detail I realised how important the voice over of the curse is to the media product. It helps to build up tension through the short, fast jump cuts at the beginning to the action that we do not get to see towards the end. I tried different ways of saying the curse to find out what would be more affective and then came to a conclusion that whispering it would give more of a spooky feeling to all of the clips as what you could see matched the terror of what you could also hear. 

We never actually included shoulder shots in our final final piece, but in our first idea that we did film they were used in that. It was a conversation between two school girls between a skeleton talking about the same curse. The 180 degree rule was used and worked successfully as well as making sure that the shots from over the shoulder were edited well and flowed to show the conversation was happening naturally. This actually worked out very well and looked better than the conversation that was taken place in the preliminary task. 

During the preliminary task, one thing that i learnt was to check what could be seen in the shot before shooting and not filming enough. So that when you came to editing, if a shot was of bad quality or not exactly how you wanted it, if you had not filmed it a numerous amount of times you would have to just go with that one shot and it brought down the rest of the film. So therefore when filming for the opening sequence we made sure that we filmed every little piece of shot from every angle at least 3 times or more so we had a choice of clips to choose from when it came to editing. 

Audience?

Who will our audience be?

Age: The age I am aiming to are people between the ages of 15 and 25. This will be the most appropriate age because the age of the character would be between this age so therefore they will have more to relate to and therefore this may lead to more enjoyment of the film. Also, as most horror films are given a 15 or 18 certificate because of the BBFC guidlines relating to the content, I believe that 'The Worst Is Yet To Come' could be classed as a 15, as it is scary enough, hence the minimum target age.

Gender: The film is aimed more at females because of the main character being a female, they will have more to relate to and interact with the feelings and emotions of the character.