The Final Product

Evaluation - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout this project my knowledge of computer programmes such as 'Garageband', 'LiveType' 'iMovie' and 'IDvD' have all improved. 
'LiveType' was used to create our company idents and also 'The Moors' title screen which comes at the end of our opening. 
'Garageband' was used to produce a soundtrack which is used frequently at different points throughout the film opening
'iMovie' was used to burn our product onto discs and give them title screens.

At the start of the project I have knowledge from editing the preliminary task, therefore I was able to roughly edit clips together using 'iMovie' to produce film.
However I had no knowledge of how to work on the sound, or edit the clips, Throughout the course of creating our final product I gained this is knowledge, and this improved our final piece and made it look more professional. 

An example of how I edited the clips is the change of the contrast on the killing scene to accentuate the blue colour filter from the camera, this helps to make the scene look darker and also fits with the stereotypical horror film production. 

An example of how I edited sound is the extraction of the audio from certain clips, such as footsteps which I then repeated and changing the volume to make the actress sound further away.

As well as my knowledge of computer programme technology, I have improved my knowledge of camera equipment use. Previously I only knew how to use a camera and tripod, whereas now I'm able to alter camera setting such as adjust the focus. Other camera equipment we learnt how to use a was the boom mike, which allowed us to achieve a higher quality of sound in our final product. Whilst shooting our earliest footage we realised that the sound quality was poor, especially seen as our location was very windy. We resolved this problem by using the boom mike and now our audio sounds more professional.

Evaluation - Looking back at yout preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In our preliminary task there are many glitches such as; sounds in the background, actors smiling or talking when they shouldn't be, poor lighting, the verisimilitude of the costume, props. However in our final product we had to avoid these glitches being a part of it. 

In order to prevent sound problems we learnt how to use a boom mike which produced a higher quality of sound, although we also need to learn how to edit the sound one our footage was uploaded into iMovie. We learnt how to extract the audio and lip sync the footage, we also learnt how to add additional sound such as ambience, footsteps and music. Over all this meant that our product sounded much more profesional than our preliminary task.

The production of our own music, is again another aspect in which we developed our skills from preliminary task to final product. We used a programme on the macs 'Garageband' in order to produce our own music. This was a necessity as we aren't allowed to use other people's copyrighted products in our film without permission. When producing our preliminary task we didn't know this, although we didn't use any music anyway which hinders its quality and makes it sound amateur. The addition of music to our product helps us to create atmosphere as well as making it sound like a professional piece of work.

We learnt whilst editing that variety of shots and cut away shots were very important, compared to our prelim which uses only one or two shots within any one scene. However I think our product would be improved if a few more cut away shots were used. As well as this we also realised that in order to make our product more visually interesting we needed to shoot the same shots from different angles, which again is something we didn't do in our preliminary task and therefore the editing looks very basic.

With our real media product we were able to gain audience feedback, which helped us improve our film as they gave constructive critisism on which parts were less believable. Whereas with our preliminary task we produced it very quickly which meant that our first draft was the only one we submitted, the opportunity to draft and re-work our final product meant that scenes such as the killing scene were viewed by others and their feedback made it possible for us to improve them drastically.

For the preliminary task the group did not plan or organise the production of the film. When producing our final product we began by drawing up storyboards, and filled in production schedules. We also drafted and re-drafted our idea until it was as good as we could make it. This shows how we progressed from the preliminary task as we made the effort to organise what we were doing in order to produce a better product.

For the production of our final product we always planned in advance to ensure we had all the right props and our actors were in the same costume. For example, before shooting our killing scene we came prepared with the props which included fake blood and a large kitchen knife. As well as this we also stained the white top our actress was wearing with the blood and this meant we had to find another similar one for the next shooting. Though this does slightly damage the verisimilitude and if I were to re-do this in future I would remember that any drastic changes to costume should be the last scene to be filmed. However when producing our preliminary task we weren't as well organised and frequently made use of whatever props were available to us, therefore achieving verisimilitude wasn't possible.

We learnt the difficulties of shooting in the dark whilst producing our preliminary task, there are numerous shots where the lighting is so poor, it is hard to make out what is on screen. We had to learn from this whilst producing our final product however poor lighting was still a big issue with the final product production, because as a horror film the scenes would have looked better shot in the dark, but as we were unable to get hold of the right sort of lighting equipment, shooting in the woods in the dark was an impossible feat, so instead we shot in the daylight and edited the colour on the computers to make it look darker.

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

The horror genre appeals to young audiences aged 15-24, this is because youth audiences typically enjoy the atmosphere created by tension and fear as well as watching graphic violence, more so than the older audience.

Also an older audience will typically prefer a more complex and sophisticated plot lines to a film than the horror, and especially slasher genre, provides. They may instead prefer psychological thrillers which are more cleverly written and are less predictable.

Another reason why our product will appeal to younger audiences is because our cast are all aged 17 which means it is unlikely to appeal to audienes much older than they are. 

Because of the violence violence within the film opening means the film would be rated 15. Teenagers younger than 15 will still typically find the horror genre appealing, this is because they aim to act like their older peers.

 

Male audiences would also enjoy our product because of the 'Scream Queen' we cast. She is blonde, attractive and wears a 'low-cut' top, it is also signified that she is sexually active, and all this applies to the male gaze theory, drawing in male audiences. For example, films such as 'Sorority Row' have cast an almost entire female cast, and all are attractive and wear revealing outfits, in that way we have used existing products and copied them to attract similar

audiences.

Our film is set in Yorkshire and our cast are all from Yorkshire, which means we do not have any cross-over appeal to the US and even other parts of the world such as Australia. In order to achieve cross-over appeal we would of had to set our film in a well known UK location, and/or used a famous actor or actress to achieve successful advertisements which would attract the attention of world wide audiences. The most likely audience for a film like ours will be British, similar audeinces to films such as 'This is England' and 'Dead Man's Shoes' which like ours are set in northern locations and have not cast very famous actors/actresses.

Evaluation - What media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As our media product is very low budget we would look at production companies who works with low budget film production companies. Throughout our AS year we have studied the production company Warp Films. They have produced several low budget digitally produced films such as 'Dead Man's Shoes' and 'This is England'. Just like ours, these are set in northern locations, because of this their work is usually within the social realist genre. This genre is growing more popular with British audiences but this also means the films have less cross over appeal as foreign audiences tend to only be able to associate England set in the capital city London.

As well as the similar locations these films were also produced with a very small budget, figures from IMBD show that 'This is England' was produced for just £1.5 million. Though this is far more than our film budget; consisting of a few pounds which we spent on tapes and props, £1.5 million is still far smaller than Hollywood blockbuster horrors such as the recent 2010 remake of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' produced for $35 million.


Warp X themselves have produced a slasher film 'Donkey Punch' which was filmed in Majorca, Spain then the set moves to a boat, although it isn't set in the same typical northern England location, there are cast member, such as, Nichola Burley who is from Leeds. Their budget was around £1 million which also makes the film a low budget production. Due to a lack of famous cast, they were able to produce the film so cheaply, despite the role of Kim played by Jamie Winestone who has since 2008 grown in popularity.


Warp Films distribute their films with the company Optimum Releasing, They are a company based in France, and are owned by a larger conglomerate distribution company, Studio Canal. Despite this Optimum Releasing have been responsible for distributing some very successful Hollywood films, one of the most recent being 'The Tourist' starring Jonny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Though mostly their repertoire features low budget production; many by Warp Films. 

Optimum Releasing would be the kind of Film distribution company that would distribute our media product if it was a full feature length film, as our horror film isn't dissimilar to those produced by Warp Films and WarpX. Our product is a digitally made film, it is very low budget, it features northern characters set in northern England and is a social realist film. All of this means our film, just like theirs will lack cross-over appeal, therefore Optimum Releasing would target British audiences only. It also means our product would be unlikely to achieve a box office release, just as many Warp Film productions are released straight to DVD as the promotion of the films cost substantially more than the production and would be likely to lead to a loss in profit overall.

Evaluation - How does you media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group that we are presenting in our media product are teenagers.

In the media teenagers are stereotypically presented as antisocial 'yobs', news articles are frequently written about how the young generation of today spend their time illegally drinking and taking drugs resulting in violent crimes and underage pregnancy. This is an extreme view of teenagers however our representation of the teenagers in our text does not challenge this view, it just portrays it in a milder manor.

This meant incorporating in our narrative that our characters are sexual active, drinking and smoking into our plot. We had originally planned on inputting drug references as well however we found achieving verisimiltude with that rather difficult so instead we left it out. 

Another typical label of youths is the term 'Hoody' which we also incorporated into our text through the costume we picked out for the cast, the males as well as one of the females, in only one shot, are seen wearing hooded tops. The countertype for this typical teenage image is our final girl, as she is seen wearing wearing a smart black blazer. This helps to anchor the preffered reading that she is the final girl and doesn't partake in typical teenage activities which are seen as immoral.

Yorkshire as a region is steretypically represented as being an area full of eneducated working class farmers, this has come about from television programmes such as 'Emmerdale' and 'Heartbeat'. Also some well known films such as 'This Is England' have been set in Yorkshire, and once again the predominent class seen in this film is the working class which isn't renouned for being very intelligent. In effect we did nothing to either match or reject this stereotype, other than the fact that the characters are camping in an rural location which is more typical of teenagers northern regions than perhaps those in the south or living in inner cities. Our cast were not nessessarily given lines which would protray them as being unintelligent, however it is possible that this could be picked up by an audience as a negotiated reading.

Because we have used a local cast from the region of Yorkshire we avoided casting our characters as 'AB upper class' as this would have been less believable that they were upper class with yorkshire accents.

As well as this if we wanted a wider target audience appeal so we needed to widen the class bracket we worked with, therefore having middle class characters allows more people to be able to relate with their characters.

Evaluation - 'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?'

Our media product conforms to the codes and conventions of the horror genre because, we input a lot of the stereotypical horror and slasher characters, locations/settings, props, music and story-lines into our plot. 

We cast a 'final girl' who has short blonde hair, despite this being a slight counter-type as it is usually blondes cast for 'scream queen' roles, the short length of her hair would liken her more to a boy than a female which signifies a lack of glamour in her appearance, it also helps avoid her appealing to the male gaze. She is also dressed conservatively which signifies she isn't sexually active.

We could compare our 'final girl' to Laurie Strodes character in 'Halloween'

We cast a 'scream queen' who is killed off in our opening, she matches the stereotypical image of a 'scream queen' as she has long blonde hair, and she is wearing some revealing and tight fitting clothing, this is seen in existing media products such as the opening scene of my bloody valentine it is also signified that she is sexually active, and also, unlike the 'final girl' she is drinking, which all adds to image of somebody who lacks morals and therefore is one of the first to die. As well as her visual image; as the title 'scream queen' would suggest, the girl we cast was made to scream a lot during her murder scene. 

We cast our 'scream queen' a 'Jock' type boyfriend, he is portrayed as a rebellious character by smoking, drinking and being sexually active. This would match the conventions of existing media texts such as the film,'Scream' and 'Sorority Row'.

There is also a psychotic character stalking and killing the characters which is stereotypical of the narrative in most slasher movies, for example 'Friday the 13th'. Also in keeping with the conventions of existing media texts our killer has similar motives for killing the people he does; for being sinful and immoral.

We have composed some music for our film which fits in with the horror genre, using the method of interfering with the heartbeat. This is an effective method of creating tension and a 'jumpy' atmosphere amongst an audience and is therefore an aspect of every horror film ever made, without it a scene would be bland and the audience would not be able to take the same enjoyment out the film.

                

We have set our product in a desolate location, which is the moors. This signifies horror as a location out in the wilderness such as a moor, or a wood/ forest or deserted lane is very commonly seen in horror films. It can be seen in the classic horror films such as 'Friday the 13th' and the more modern films such as 'Severance'.