Evaluation

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

In terms of research for our opening, we made a questionnaire for the public to answer to see how many people liked the genre horror and what sub-genre they prefer, etc. We chose to do our questionnaire using Survey Monkey. My group and I then shared the questionnaire using social media to receive responses.

 Most people enjoyed supernatural films. After finding this out, we wanted to include some supernatural features. We also asked where people liked to watch horror films so we knew what size audience our opening would be suitable. Most people said at home on the TV. The second highest result was Netflix. We then decided that our film would be better for a smaller scale audience.

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

A question in our survey asked what age each person that took it was. Most people were aged between 15 -20. We knew that we should make our opening so that it appeals mostly to teenagers. This makes our audience a niche one. We also asked for gender but we then decided that it didn’t really have an impact on what gender we should aim our opening at.

          For filming, we used teenage actors because our target audience is teenagers. We dressed them in warm casual clothing because we filmed outside. We decided to film in the woods because it creates a thrill and makes the viewers sit on the edge of their seats as something could jump out at any moment.

          The way our actors behave isn’t very formal but they dressed well; they sat and talked as any other teenager would while they were in an adventure in the woods. After talking for a bit, they decided to tell ghost stories. From a previous survey we did, we asked the question “are you interested in a film set in the woods/forest?” 90% of our data from that question was “yes.”

 

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

Previously, Warner Bros. Pictures have distributed many horror films. Most of these have been supernatural movies, just like the same genre as our film. We feel like this media institution would be best to distribute our film because they have done it well with popular supernatural films like The Conjuring, Annabelle and The Exorcist. Movies like The Exorcist and The Conjuring are some of the most popular horror movies and have done really well. A lot of teenagers watch these sorts of films which have been distributed by Warner Bros.

          They have very popular films, including the Harry Potter films and superhero films like Batman and Superman.

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

Our target audience are people aged 15-20, making it a niche audience. We have chosen this as our target audience because our survey was taken mostly by people aged 15-20, which indicates that they are more interested in horror movies and are more likely to watch our opening. For us, it made it easier to make our opening as Kelsey and I are both teenagers.

          We asked what people liked to do you while watching the film. Most people said eating snacks or going on their phone which is typical for a teenager. Also, most people would rather watch a film on the TV then go to a cinema. With technology improving and teenagers going out less, people can watch movies from their phone or tablet and stream them to connect to the TV. This also adds to why our audience is niche.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

One way in which we made our opening appeal to our target audience, was to make teenagers the stars of it. Our audience can then relate to the film and absorb the characters emotions more, making them uncomfortable and creates a thrill. Making the characters act in a way that normal teenagers would, creates a connection between the characters and the audience because it’s what the audience would do in their everyday life.

Putting our opening sequence of our film on YouTube and then sharing it on different social media sites is something I did to advertise it. I then asked some of the viewers who watched it if they were interested in seeing the rest of the film, and they said they would. A lot of people are on social media sites and they are easy to access using their mobile phones. The teenagers today enjoy spending time on their gadgets and interacting with people everywhere they go. Adverts are displayed everywhere on social media, making it a great way to advertise.

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

Working on preparation and the filming of our opening, we realised how important camera work was. By taking our own pictures and describing what each camera is used for, we knew what type of angles to use in our film. Sometimes, trying to get the perfect angle was difficult because we wanted to use a variety of different angles and make each and every one affective. We found that when something is serious, like when James was telling the ghost story in our film, a close up is the most affective. Also, using a tracking shot can be good because you get to keep a close eye on the characters every move. If the camera is positioned behind the characters when there is a tracking shot, the audience are put in the perspective of the characters.

          The part in our opening that I’m most proud of is our time lapse at the beginning and the close ups. I think the time lapse was affective because in horror movies I have watched previously, very rarely do I see a time lapse. We wanted to bring something new to our film and something that is unique. The close ups on the other hand made things intense. The music and sounds in the background added to the effect and therefore made it more uncomfortable, but at the same time interesting to watch.

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

I think that the preliminary task was mostly a good way for us to practise our use of camera angles and sound. Knowing which camera angles were best used in different situations was helpful. Also, playing around with the music and sound for different situations was good because we got to see the effect of how music changes everything and to watch something in a new way.

          The prelim task, I think was a lot more dramatic I would say and unrealistic. Our final cut looked more realistic and would appeal to more people. In my opinion, I think we played around with angles more in the prelim task and it would have been good to use more angles from that in our final.

          After doing our prelim task, I felt more confident using a camera and especially for Chloe who was our camera person. However, she left the group before we could finish the final cut so I tried to use whatever skills I had learned from the prelim task to help Kelsey with camera work, which in some ways, worked well.