Mr Judge one to one tutorial

After our one to one tutorial on the 2/02/15, it was evident that you are making steady progress for your research and planning, unfortunately there are still some outstanding tasks that need to rectify as soon as possible. Please refer to the SMART targets that we set up previously and have them completed for my next session. 

Final Film

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

In our preliminary task we were originally given a storyboard. It had a breakdown of the different scenes that we were to film and the basic camera shots we were to do - like a close ups and long shots. We were to tell a story using visual language about a bomb or explosion going off at our sixth form. They gave use a sony handheld camera and we had access to a tripod too. When we went to film it it was a windy day and you could hear it on the recordings. I originally filmed zoe doing the scenes but found they were out of focus or we would laugh and have to cut it short. When we actually filmed the video we made sure that there was no noise in the background of us talking or laughing as it would have ruined the footage and we would have had to film again. We also used Zoe's camera this time as she didn't like the schools camera. When we edited the preliminary task we didn't know how to edit or to piece the footage together and so we learnt how to do this. We also learnt how to put music on top of the footage for extra detail to create effect for the task. Another thing we didn't know how to do was an animated title and we created this for our film as it looks professional.

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

I have learnt how to use an iMac and how to use premiere pro which I didn't know how to use before and that it is fairly simple to edit an film - everything is either in the menu,on the footage line or in the bar in the corner, allowing you to make your changes. I also learnt how to use a DSLR camera as we used Zoe's camera to take the footage. We found that the footage was sometimes blurry so we either cut down the ones that were and put a filter over it or sped it up,or completely disregarded the footage. I had also never used a blog before,but it was simple to add photos and videos and YouTube links.

4. Who would be the audience for your project?

The audience for my project would fall into three different categories -
Horror Movie Fanatics
18-30 year olds
30-50 year olds

These three categories are there because they are the typical audience for a horror movie. The 'horror movie fanatics' are the people who go to see every horror movie that is in the cinemas and actively blog and talk about them. They are often a critic too - they can write good or bad things and people will listen to them so you want to impress them.
18-30 years are the prime target audience as they will pay to see this film through morbid curiosity. They'll take family,friends or a second half with them to see the film as they don't want to watch it in the dark on their own for fear of the unknown.
30-50's would also come to see it but they will either make it a night out or will again come see it out of curiosity.

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

A corporate sponsor get to see the pitch for films and then decides weather or not they want to give the funding to the smaller company to make the film. I think I would approach Warner Brothers as that would allow us to get to a bigger audience. They can help with the marketing and distribution side of films, like films such as Annabelle. Annabelle earned $84,273,813 in North America and $171,000,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $255,273,813. This is the kind of profit I am hoping to make and Warner Brothers make a lot of horror films so I would hope they would take my film on board as they can distribute it through the cinemas that they own, the adverts and trailers they can get onto TV through the channels Time Warner own and others that they work with. They also can get money from the DVD release whereas if I released it independently it is very unlikely I would make any sort of profit.

2. How does your media product represent certain media groups?

The audience for my media product would be mostly 18-24 year old people. We chose this age range as we think they will be the ones most interested in  this genre. I think that they would like to see my film because it has elements of their lives that they would relate too - for example the film follows a punch of teenagers as they slowly get into trouble with a bad spirit which relates to the teenagers as they may know what its like to get into a situation that is hard to get out of.
I went onto Yougov and researched the film i based mine off - Se7en. It came up with this -

The first thing I noticed was that mainly 40-59 year old's seem to watch this film from east England. I am hoping that my film will appeal to this age range too because they understand that actions have consequences and like to watch films with people making this mistake.
In this film we have done both retold and challenged the stereotype of a bad spirit which may draw younger and older audiences. Because of the nature of the film we had to put the lowest viewing age at 18 which I think will draw in the 40-59 year olds as they will see it is made for an older audience.

Coursework Feedback

Research and Planning - 14

Planning and research work is complete and at times detailed. The work is proficient, with elements of excellence. The work into similar products is wide-ranging and detailed and the work into potential target audiences shows promise, although I would have liked to see more work on demographics here. There is some understanding of who the audience is through secondary research and even some primary research. The organisation of actors is excellent, with shot lists, storyboard (that needs updating to reflect the changes made) and props list etc. Overall there is a good level of care in presentation and time management was good.  

Main Task - 43

Excellent care and detail in the mise-en-scene, and also the use of props. The titles are in keeping with the genre and well positioned, care has been taken with choosing fonts etc. On the whole there is a good level of camera control, but on occasions this slipped and there are one of two issues with focus and camera wobble. The opening doesn’t necessarily set up the whole of the film, but it is clearly an opening and does clearly set up the main character and his intentions. 

B-

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

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

   

We started our film off with this scene as we wanted to show the beginning of a ritual. We did this through the use of mise-en-scene with the use of candles and blood. Both of these are in the normal conventions of a horror film and especially when a ritual is involved. We also show it through the use of makeup - Zoe made me up to look like a demon or spirit in line with the legend that our film was based on. We used the mirror to reflect me because we wanted a over the shoulder shot because mirrors in legend show a persons true soul. You can see the end of a voodoo doll in the background which also are used in many rituals. The blood on the table is there to show that this is a regular ritual and that their was a sacrifice of blood used before.

We used a couple of shots of candles in our film because the red candle represented infinity and the black candle was spirit. We used shots of the black candle more because the ritual was commenced by the baron samedi who was originally a spirit. We also used the shots of the candles because in horror movies these are seen as almost creepy because of the connection they carry to rituals.
The screenshot below as uses the character to portray the sense of eeriness as the candle is in focus but most of me is blurred.

The mise en scene we used for the mirror shots what the natural light shining on the wall but on the end of the room we put up a black sheet to make it look endless or lost. We also used the brick wall to show this is an almost human spirit - that the spirit would appear human until you angered it.
We also used a shot of me blowing out candles as we felt this represented peoples lives and how easy it is in horror films that people die - literally as if their candle was blown out.

We also used the element of voodoo in our film as Baron Samedi was believed to be involved with voodoo and we showed this by the voodoo dolls been covered in blood and one was set on fire and ripped apart.

We used a lot of blood in our film as this is a generic horror thing. We show it dripping down a wrist to show that this is a blood induced ritual and that the Baron mixes the blood in with the voodoo dolls - This is shown thrown the knife which also shown in voodoo that gets ripped apart.

The makeup we used in the film was designed to be creepy - this looked most effective under the candlelight as it reflected the creepy marks of the makeup. We used cracks around the mouth and eyes to show that this individual isn't a good spirit and
that it also shows how the spirit feels.
It also makes the audience uneasy as they can see the makeup is heavy and reflects the spirits attitude towards the ritual and life.

Movie