Evaluation

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

When we were editing our final product we noticed that at the end we had a series of jump cuts and at one point we noticed that we broke the rules of’ crossing the line’. We crossed the line because of the limited space we had in the area we was filming. To overcome this dilemma we chose to shoot our scenes in a different more spacious location. To overcome the jump cuts we decided to re-shoot the final scene and re-organise the script making sure we kept to the conventions of continuity. We also kept to the continuity of every detail from clothing to the positions the characters where placed. We took pictures of each other in our costumes and of the area we were after each scene was shot (Just in case the scenery changed).

This is the location where we didn’t have enough room to shoot the scene. As you can see the fence was a major issue with us trying to get close ups of the characters.

This is the new location where we shot the ending to our film. As you can see the location is more spacious and easier for us to use more camera angles.

The film which we have produced is of a horror and thriller genre. We each watched films which suited the genre of our film, this being a horror that included vampires. I watched 30 Days of Night and after watching these horror films we each had input on what we could interpret into our film from something off the films we watched, for example, a first person prospective with someone running with the camera, this is shown a lot in horror films to get a sense of claustrophobia and loneliness and it shows the character does not have a large field of view, so the audience do not know where the danger is coming from. Thus giving them a thrill of not knowing as to what is going to happen. We wanted to interpret this shot in our film, to inject a spooky, scary feel. We also added lots of close up shots to show the characters emotions and feelings.

After researching into horror films I tried to find audience feedback and what they enjoyed about these kinds of films. Many people said that it was either not scary enough or too scary or possibly that the ending was too predictive. We tried to make our film less predictive and I am sure from the feedback we got that we achieved this by giving the audience some suspense and a total twist to the story at the end. We also wanted to create a horror and thriller film that would not necessarily scare the audience throughout, but try and keep the audience on the edge of their seats. We tried to provide the audience with role models such as an, un-lucky male character who was caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, and now leads a hidden life, who wants to get revenge on those who made him like he is. We also constructed a female character for our audience, a female who is strong willed and confident who turns out to be neither the good person nor the villain. We made our film an action film because it would reach out to a wider audience, but also those who watch it may be bored and want a buzz by watching an action film that contains fighting scenes.

How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?

In our main production we tried to create a sense of horror and suspense so the audience would not get bored but keep those watching and guessing what will happen at the end of the film. With this in mind we created a poster that showed horror (With blood splatter marks and the red eye of one of the main characters, also with the background being dark and mysterious) but also we wanted to make the audience question what this film is about (The tagline being ‘He had a secret...but so did she’). Also with our media trailer we used snippets from our film, to create a bit of suspense and mystery about the film.

I think the poster and trailer for our film will attract a wider range audience. Our film is of a horror and thriller genre and we wanted to show this in our poster to attract the audience but also tell them something about the film.

This is a poster advertising the film 30 Days of Night. We chose this poster to get inspiration for our own because it is of a horror genre. It shows us the characters, weapons and the setting for the film. It also shows us the vampires in the background. After looking into this poster we decided to add some of its elements into our poster. We added our characters, the background (to show the setting) and added blood to show the horror elements.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When we were going through the process of thinking up a storyline and script, we decided on making a short vampire film as it was unique and different. To try and get a sense of what we should include in our film with the audience opinions being vital from our own. We constructed a questionnaire asking “What they liked about vampire films they have have watched”, we had a mixture of views and we tried to convert their views and interpret these into our film.

When we constructed and edited our film we linked it to the website YouTube so a wide range of people could watch it (The comments on our film can be seen on blogger). We got a couple of views and comments, some positive and some negative with the negative views we took these on board and tried to re-vamp our film to make it more satisfactory. For example “The film is confusing at the end. Who is the female character?” we thought about this person’s opinion and decided at the end we would add a voice over explaining a bit about whom the girl is and her role in the film. There could be a variety of possible interpretations of our film depending on the situation of the viewer. In our film we tried to limit swearing so not to offend the audience, we also have quite a lot of violence and blood in our film which some people may not approve of. However, we used both sex’s female and male and in this film and it turns out the female is stronger and not a damsel in distress like most films, so our film appeals to both genders. When we trialed our film we didn’t get any negative comments on the swearing or violence. Our film will be shown after 9.00 after the water shed.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In the construction of our film, we used a Sony HD 1000 camera to capture most of our footage, this camera is perfect for the shots we needed, for example the shoulder pad so we could do the first person shot comfortably, it is also good at zooming in and out and provides a good picture when converted onto the Macs. We used a Digital Cannon 350 D to take location and character shots. We used a DV 100 to convert shots on the tape onto a Mac and used ‘I’ movie to piece together our film. To add voice over’s and music to our film, we used Garage band and audio license for the music, audio license gave use a wide range of music options so we was able to find the appropriate music. To construct our poster we used Photoshop Elements as it is an advanced programme that helped us advertise our poster more professionally.