Evaluation - Lisa Clayton

Media Coursework Evaluation

1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Our media product incorporates generic conventions by use using flashbacks to the give the background of the storyline. The flashbacks link to the film The Hole, we used this as inspiration for our storyline. Through the research of our media product I looked at the film The Ring, this is a horror. Throughout the film they have used a lot of medium shots and medium close ups to outline the characters facial expressions; we used this in our film in scene two as the tension was building to further the impact. The flashback shows an example of films which have influence our work. It indentifies what Charlotte and Laura have gone back to the snooker room for. Our work has a sub genre of a thriller this makes it different to the generic convention we have looked at because of them being ‘gory’. Ours is more subtle even though it is a horror, this is because we had to make it appropriate to the purpose. The film indicates its sub genre through the first scene this establishes the setting. In comparison to The Ring both works uses similar shots. We have used a lot of close ups through our work to make the atmosphere in the film tense and nerving, The ring uses this shot for the same effect. The Ring has a lot of changes of location inside the house; this is similar to our film because we used tracking with the camera to show the characters moving. However, our work doesn’t use many long shots to build on the tension; The Ring uses this shot to signify the distances when they have changed location. This isn’t a symbolic feature in our film because we had to obey the 180 degree rule.

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

The product represents women stereotypically because they are portrayed as the victims in the film. The male in the film is the attacker; this gives the character a symbolic quality because this is typical of a horror film.

Men are seen as the dominant role because of them being more powerful, this is identified in our product thro

ugh the flashback. The male drags the women across the floor this outlines his characters powe

r in the scene. This links to the target audience of the film because of its classifica

tion for 15, this is an expectation in which genders are portrayed

in horror film.

3) What kind of media Institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our media product is a low budget film, through the research process we looked at

distribution companies, which were small. Our film

would be a TV movie because of the

storyline being common. Through our research, we looked Lionsgate and paramount pictures. Lionsgate would have the preferred co

mpany to distributor our film

because of it being low budget, it would be release because of the thrilling factor of the work. Due to the film including pacing and frequent action it would make it worth the release. The film would be best suited as a TV movie because it would be able to get further distributor as horror films are a popular genre, this was identified through the results of our questionnaire. The target audience of the film would also make

it suitable to be released as a TV movie because of being aged between 15 – 25, this is a popular age range for watching films a home rather than cinema. The flashback in the film enables opport

unities for the product to be merchandised because of the male character

being in a black cat suit, Lego could be suited for creating acti

on figures. The costumes of the other character would make it difficult to create figures for due to it not being p

ersific. Lionsgate have now combined with Sony Pictures Entertainment and T

he Walt Disney company this will make the merchandising cost effective.

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

The genre of the film is a horror, through our research we decided audience would be best suited to a 15 – 25 male group due to th

e storyline featuring action. Female audience would also be suited to our product but it would mainly preference males due to our film stereotypically matching thei

r gender. The Grudge is a similar film to ours, it has a film certificate of 15 due to their being scene of violence and menace. We felt the classification of the film would

be a 15 due to none of the scenes containing strong bloody violence or nudity, the work only includes moderate threat. We went onto decision of further classification by watching clips of 18 films and felt that these would have too violent to pursue. The language used in our film isn’t strong nor violent so this wouldn’t have the expectation of an over 18 audience which made it be more suited to a 15 classification.
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

5) How did you attract/ address your audience?

Scenes in the film which would appeal to a 15 certificate are, the violence in the flashback where the character is dragged across the floor and, the girls walking down the stairs shows some moderate threat. The use of camera shots used i

n the flashback is an establishing shot to outline where the characters are in the club; this allows the audience to understand the change in location. The camer

a is put on a high angle as it is looking down at the character; this is to emphasis the distance. We have used a lot of frequent close ups in the film to give impact of their fear and also medium shots so the audience can identify the gestures between characters. This appeals to a 15 audienc

e because of it being two girls who are

victimized through out the product, a young male audience would find this more entertaining. The audience would be asked to put themselves in positions of the two girls walking down the hall way, as the characters are of

a young age this would also make it more appealing to a 15. Through this they are being allowed to witness how the girl was snatched. The phone call at the beginning of the film makes it more appealing to the audience because it builds up the

tension and it allows them to sympathize with the characters, it also creates suspense. The Ring is example of a horro

r film which creates suspense; it is a symbolic feature throughout the open

ing sequence. The build up through having a long shot of the girl standing in the corridor looking at the phone ringing, creates a suspense because of what they have been told about the video. The characters are wondering how much ti

me they have got left until the ru

mors come true. For the audience this makes a high range of tension because they are put into position of the characters so that they understand their fear. The

suspense in the film

is also established through the audience’s realization that the girls are alone in the house; this is also a feature in our media product.

6) What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?

Through using the Song HDV camera it has made our shots look m

ore effective due to t

he camera being able to establish more of the setting. Problems w

e had with the camera was being able to understand the

setting, this was solved within a few minutes of looking at setting list on the menu in the camera. Through using a Song HDV camera it has made the editing process

easie

r because of it being able to be done much quicker due to not having to change to shot. The software we used for editing created useful effects for our film, we were able to include a torch light through the title sequence which matched with the torch light in the film.











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

The finial product took a lot more planning and research due to us having to have a full understanding of the expectation and also, understanding of different film genres so that our product would include the elements which matched the specific genre. This helped to produce the film because of us knowing information about horror films we were able t

o include red herrings and cliffhangers so that it would be suited to it target audience. The preliminary task helped in the progression because we knew which shots we were doing due to writing them down this helped the transitions through each scene look smoother. It was also more effective to make create a shot list as we could refer to it throughout the shooting process. The preliminary task helped to develop our use of shots because we were told what shots had to be included, e.g. match on action, this is developed throughout our film because of us using it more frequently to show what the characters were looking at. This had to be a recurring shot due to our film being a horror, the characters are scared of the surroundings, by having this shot it helps the audience to understand their anticipation. Shot reverse shot has also being developed through the preliminary task because it has been used to empathize were the killer had Kirsty tied up but also it helps to give a realisation to the audience. A sample of our target audience were asked to review our film, they were asked if they like the film, elements which they like and how the film would be improved if it were to be released in the cinema. The answers they gave were, "scene on the stairs was good", "continuety was accurate" they also said that our film could have been improved by the music being at a lower pitch so that our voices were easily heard.