Evaluation; Amy Mcmahon

‘No escape’

My contributions
My media practical assignment was a 2 minute opening sequence to a film. I joined with Hayley Stanley to create this product. My contributions to the project start with thinking of the ideas of genre’s we could use. Hayley and I wrote down a few of our ideas and then finally decided on a hybrid of teen horror/ thriller. Before making a story board we had to first do some research. This enabled us to make the product as realistic to a real product as possible. I did some research on a blog to find out whether our film genre generated money or not in real life. I findings suggested that it did. I also did research on props, popular settings and then looked at some film openings and noted some interesting shots. Once we had done enough research Hayley and I practiced using the camera and completed a preliminary task. Hayley and I made the story board for this and also filmed it. I then evaluated this and found a couple of things wrong with it.

We then came to write our story board. We decided that doing the film in our college was the best option, as we both live far apart and my research suggested that this was a good idea. We then thought of some good shots. I filmed our film opening and also took the film home to shoot a scene. After we had filmed most of the shots I decided that some of them we’re not professional looking as it was quite difficult to film in a canteen and busy corridors. We tried to make the most out of the shots we had and came up with the idea of the beginning of the film being from the perspective of a stalkers still camera. I took some photographs of the screen and printed them out at home in order to shoot the final shot. Hayley and I picked some suitable music to enhance the tension of our product. I then edited our film to fit in with the music.


Genre and Key conventions
The genre of our film is a teen horror/thriller. To make this obvious to the viewer we used a few conventions. I think one of the main conventions is the music as it is quite dramatic. Music in an opening sequence is one of the main techniques used to set the mood of the shot. It helped add tension of our film and helped foreshadow the girls well being later on in the film. If we didn't use dramatic music, the genre of the film and the reaction of the audience would be very different from what we were aiming for.

I think another convention is the ‘venerable college girl’. This is very typical of a horror movie and therefore it helps the audience, again, identify the film as being a thriller/horror hybrid. I think one of the main reasons why most horror films use a young college girl is because of the vunerability that comes with them. As a female, this character is automaticly seen as more likely to be victimized. Being old enough to attract men, who are usually used as the evil character, but still young also increases the likelyhood of victimization.






The titles used in our film add to the key conventions. The black background and white text is a typical convention often used. It adds to the synister feel of our film as it looks very dark. The formal font tells the audience that the film is not happy and light hearted.

However the main convention throughout this opening is the black clothing and knife at the end. The colour black on its own is a convention of horror, and somebody dressed in black in a film is usually used to represent a 'bad' character. Another convention of black clothing is crime. Robbers and other criminals are seen as often wearing black. When showing the knife, I tried to make the shot a short one in order for the audience to question it a little more. The shot of a knife straight away gives away one of the enigma's and so making the shot short makes the audience question what they have just seen.

Uniqueness and Enigma's of our film

Although my film still has the conventions in order not to confuse the audience, it is very different from all the horror movies I have watched. I think the idea of the photographs has never been used before. Two 17 year old girls said that they had never seen the ‘Black and white effect/pictures’ used like that before. This is vital in a real production to keep audience interested in the films. If all the films in a horror genre were similar and without twists, enigmas would not build and so neither would tension. Personally I think the uniqueness of our opening sequence is quite intriguing, however some of our shots could have been made to look more effective. My feedback backs this up. One 17 year old female made a comment saying ‘the idea of this film is excellent; however a few of the shots could have been better’.

I think our film does keep to the rules of an opening sequence by introducing the protagonists and setting up a few enigmas. I think we did reveal the enigma of who was taking photo’s, as it could have been the police, a bit too early but the tension would have been held for too long otherwise. Other enigma's set up were; who's taking photo's of the girl?, why are they taking photo's of her?, what is their intension?, is the photographer dangerous?.

Audience and Representations
In terms of representation our film is aimed at the age range of 15 – 25. Using Hayley was a good idea. People would be able to relate to her as an ordinary college girl. We tried to make her seem like an ordinary college girl mainly through her appearance. Each shot we did, we tried to make sure she was dressed ‘ordinarily’. I tried to make it so that it looked like just an typical and believable day for her. I did this by filming during college and in different places such as the toilets and outside the shop. This would help add to the realism of the film, and show her in her everyday life. Showing her in her everyday life makes it so the audience would relate and sympaphise with the character so that they show concern when something goes wrong for her.

I think either males or females would enjoy this film. I think females especially as they can relate to the girl in the film, but I think males also as they are known to prefer horror films. I think age’s 16 – 25 age range would particularly like this film as most of them will be able to relate to the girls college life. This is a great audience to aim for as the average 16 – 24 year old goes to the cinema’s once a fortnight and so there is a wider target market. I think any socio-economic group would enjoy this film, however I think mainly group E as most of the people who would go to see this movie would be students.

Lighting and Camera shots

We did do a shot of Hayley with her friends however we couldn’t do this because the lighting was wrong. We tried to make the lighting high key and natural to add to the realism of the shots. However when the photos were taken, the pictures were shown in a dark black and white which showed maybe her day wasn’t quite so typical. We created this effect by making the shot a still image, then adding 'black and white effect' to it on the mac.

We made it so that the shot looked as if it was a handheld camera. This gave the illusion of somebody taking a photo. We filmed hayley and then made it freeze when the photo was to be taken. Seeing the shot from the camera's point of view, shows the audience that somebody is taking a photo of the girl without having to reveal who it is. This adds to the mystery and tension of the film.

When I then moved on to film the stalker character, I tried to make the lighting change. I tried to make it very low key to show he was a bad character. I achieved this by filming on a cold, winters night. I first did a long distance shot to set the scene and then did a long shot of the house, with a light on in the porch to show that the man is about to leave the house. The next shot is pictures of the girl that the audience have seen being taken and then a close up of the stalker putting gloves on. Finally a shot of the stalker picking up a knife. All this suggests he is about to leave the house to visit the girl. I made sure that the clothes the stalker dressed in were all black. My dad acted in this for me as I thought the film would be less effective if a more petite person posed as a stalker. A more built figure seems more threatening and therefore more concern for the girl is felt from the audience. The way the stalker put the gloves on was to crunch his hands. This worked out to be quite effective as it helped reveal some of his bad intentions. My feedback agreed as a 16 year old male said that ‘the most effective part of the film was the man at the end. He looked quite scary’.

Distribution

I think a film company such as vertigo entertainment would be likely to back our film. I think this as they have produced films like ours. For example; the grudge 1, 2 and 3, the uninvited, the eye and the ring 3. This shows that they have experiance in this type of film and so would know whether the film would be popular. They would also have a good idea of how to effectively produce and market the film.

Continuity
In terms of chronology we could have improved our film a little more. I did however try and set the place by showing the girl dressed in different clothing in order for it to show that it is a different day. I also think putting titles helped as it wasn’t just skipping straight on to the next scene.

I think I have built up enough tension and suspense. The music in particular has helped this. I think also the black and white effect creates suspense. The last scene, in my opinion, is the tensest. As we have viewed this girl in her everyday life the audience would become concerned for her wellbeing and therefore the end scene would be especially tense.

Technology
I have learnt a lot from doing this project. I have learnt to use the editing programme better and also how to use a camera. I have learnt which shots work and which don’t. However, I do think that I could have improved a few of the shots I did. For example, the one in the toilet was a bit shaky. I wasn’t too bothered at the time as it is supposed to be from the stalkers camera’s point of view, but when watching it I do think I could have improved this as it does look unprofessional.

Looking back I my preliminary task I have improved my filming a lot. Things such as using more shots help the film run more continuously. In my preliminary the character goes out of the shot at the end. This taught me about how I have to take time filming and redoing things.

Conclusion
I think the best part about my film is defiantly the uniqueness. I have never seen this done before in another film. I also think the last scene is the best out of the whole film. In my opinion the film opening looks almost the same as a real product. I do, however, feel that it is quite confusing to the audience in some places. Overall I am happy with this project.

Evaluation ; Hayley Stanley

My coursework is an opening sequence to a film and to complete this I worked with Amy McMahon and we both contributed to our coursework. While we was doing our pre production which was our research we both posted information on our blog and both tried to split the work evenly. We started on our story board together then I finished it off at home. When we did our preliminary task, I acted in it whilst Amy filmed it, We used the same roles in our final product. Amy did one scene without me in our final product because she filmed a scene with her dad in it. We both contributed to our post production which was our editing, we both did it together on the computers and both helped each other out. We both chose the music together and chose what order it should go in.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The genre of our film is a thriller/horror and we used conventions to suit our genre, for example we used black costumes for our killer which is how a killer is usually represented in horror films. We used different shots like our close up on our victim which was effective for our genre because it showed the fear in her face and this made the audience feel sympathy for her. Our film title was ‘No Escape’, and our film was about a girl that gets stalked, I think our title suits our film because it shows the girl has no escape from this guy. For our feedback we asked if our title suited our film and they said it did. Like all opening sequences, we made sure our film set up enough enigma for the audience to keep on watching, for example in our film we didn’t reveal the killers face or anything about him therefore the audience didn’t know who it was or why he was doing it.

Also we didn’t give any information about the girl he stalked therefore the audience didn’t know any background information. We asked a couple of people if our film set up enigmas and they said yes. I don’t think we used different things in our film but I think the idea of the pictures were rather different. We used a black and white freeze frame throughout our product which showed that the stalker was taking pictures of his victim. In our feedback questions we asked “do you think we have use any features that you haven’t seen in films before?” Both people we asked said the picture taking feature.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our film we used a teenager as the main victim, this give a sense of realism because a lot of stalking situations have happened to teenage girls. We used a man to be the actual stalker, men are usually represented as the main criminal. We dressed our stalker in a black coat with the hood up so it didn’t reveal his face. Black is a scary colour and usually represents danger and fear.
Also horror films frequently use black for costume of a killer. When we filmed the stalker, the lighting was low key lighting, this made the scene dull and frightening, this made the audience realise who the stalker was in the film. When we filmed the teenage girl, the lighting was high key lighting and the clothes she wore were usually quite bright.

Our film adheres to stereotypes that we usually see in the media and in our feedback we asked if our film was realistic and people answered yes, this shows our characters fit into the usual stereotypes in media.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think American companies such as Alliance, Newmarket and Original films would be good companies to distribute our film because they are all production companies and have all distributed the film “Prom Night”. This film is a similar film to ours because it’s about a girl who gets stalked, however, a major difference in the films is that ours is a British film whereas this is an American one. I think these companies would be a good company to be distributed by because they distribute lots of films all different genre’s therefore I think they will be popular companies. Also, I think our film does have universal appeal but it can be debated because it is a British Film and universal often includes films that are American.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our film targets a teenage audience of both genders but I think it is more for a female audience because the victim in the film is a female and a female audience would have more sympathy for the victim than males would. Also our film targets audiences that like to watch horror and thriller films. In our feedback we asked, “what audience do you think our film best suits?” and people said young adults/teenagers. The socio-economic status of our film is E because it targets students. This was our intention because teenagers are a good audience to target because on average people ages 15-24 pay the cinema a visit at least once a month, therefore they are the main film lovers and spend a lot of money on watching films. However, we have to consider others groups, I think horror is a popular genre and people all ages enjoy to watch this genre but the reason we have chosen to target a teenage audience is because it is a teen genre and it appeals to teenagers more. The victim of the film is a teenager and a teenage audience can relate it to real life situations of their age. Also the setting in our opening sequence was a college and most teenagers attend college which creates a sense of realism.

How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience by using many techniques, firstly we used enigmas, this makes the audience wonder what is happening and makes them watch on to find out the answers. We didn’t give any information about either of the characters therefore the audience don’t know why the stalker is stalking this girl. Also we don’t show the stalker’s face so the audience is wonder who he is and what he looks like. We didn’t use narration in our opening sequence but the music we used was non-diegetic and it added to the tension of the plot. Even though we didn’t use narration, our film was simple to understand and easy to follow and the audience knew what was happening. We built up suspense in our opening sequence because we didn’t reveal what was going to happen to the girl and the tension makes the audience want to keep watching to find out the climax of the film, where the action happens.
We used binary oppositions to contrast both of our characters, the victim in our film was innocent and was a normal girl and college and the stalker was after this girl and had a weapon at the end which shows violence and murderous. Ideology is commonly used in films and it is to create a message to the audience, we tried to use an ideology in our opening sequence, stalking is a common thing that happens all over the world and we tried to show this in our film, this is effective in our piece because it will make the audience feel sorry for the girl and the pain she must feel if she finds out she is actually being stalked. Also to show the contrast of the characters we presented them at different times in the day. The victim was shown during the day where the lighting was high key whereas the stalker was shown at night where the lighting was very low key. This is a shot of the stalkers house or hide out and it is presented at night which gives a sense of mystery

We used different shots to make the film effective. We used close up shots when the stalker was talking pictures. The last picture that was took of the girl was very effectual because it was extremely close up on her face and it showed the fear when she turned round.

Also we used a point of view shot when the stalker was looking at the photos on his wall, this was very effective because it showed his obsession with this girl.

We used a long shot of the girl walking down the corridor, this was effective because it showed the stalker was watching her from a distance so the girl wouldn’t notice him.

The pictures on the stalker’s wall shows the obsession he has with the girl and the wall the pictures are on is a plain brick wall which shows dullness and coldness. This could represent the character of the stalker.

Also the black clothing shows a mysterious character and he puts gloves on before he picks up the knife which shows he is clever and cunning because this way, his fingerprints won’t be on the knife.

We used continuity editing and in our feedback, we found out that people had said our editing was continuous. We didn’t change the pace of our editing, it was at a constant pace but when the pictures were taken, we speeded up the freeze frame to make it more effective. We used a fade out and fade in the change the setting, after seeing the girl at college it faded out and then faded back in to show the stalker’s house. To make the pictures more effective we used a black and white effect to make it stand out from the rest of our film. Also when the picture was taken and the shot froze the music we used went louder and quicker, this showed that the picture taking was a main part of our film and that is was being used to build up tension.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
For our research we used many sites on the internet to get ideas for our final product. We used you tube to find clips of films the same genre as ours to analyse the techniques in it. Examples of the clips we used are ‘The Strangers’ and ‘Prom night’, these were both good examples because they both build up tension in the opening sequence. Using these examples from you tube was very useful because it give us ideas for our opening sequence. In our research we also looked at props that were commonly used in horror films and this helped us make our film more realistic because we used a weapon which is always used in a horror film. We used facts and figures of different genre’s and this helped us choose which genre to do. We thought filming this opening sequence would be easier but using the camera can be quite difficult to use because it was quite hard getting the angle right on the camera also the editing was quite difficult to get things right.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Our preliminary task wasn’t perfect but it was useful to film so we could practice using a camera. We did make a few mistake whilst filming, I performed in it and I looked at the camera a couple of times. Also when we moved the camera it wasn’t very smooth. When we came to editing it, we didn’t make is completely continuous but we hadn’t had a lot of experience using the editing. We didn’t put sound on our preliminary task, we just used speech also we didn’t really take the lighting into account. When we filmed our final product we looked at all the things we could improve on and we improved on these weaknesses. We used the lighting to make our film more effective and we used sound to add to the tension in our film. Our editing was more continuous and our movement with the camera was smooth and not edgy. In our feedback we asked if we had improved since our preliminary task and we got the answer yes.

In conclusion, I think our film was a good piece of work and I think we worked well to put all our research together and our final product worked really well. Our editing was very continuous and it didn’t look like it changed from one scene to another sharply, it had a smooth flow to it. Also our idea of a freeze frame to make it look like the stalker had took pictures worked really well because it was different and it added to the tension. We did have one weakness whilst filming our final product, we had to avoid disruptions around college and people walking in the shot but it was hard so we had to cut the people out when we were editing it. I think our film was realistic and it included a lot of techniques used in actual films today. We tried to make our film as close to a real film and I think we did a good job.

Problems That Occured

Even though we were very pleased with our film we did have a few minor problems when filming and editing. Firstly our first idea of our film didn't work so we had to change our idea to make it work better. Also it was hard filming it in a college environment because of the distruptions, for example when we was trying to do our corridor scene, people kept walking up and down so we had to stop filming. When we filmed in the canteen we had to take the noise into account because the noise was just a lot of people talking, we took this into account and when we was editing it we put tense music over our film instead of narrative.

When we was editing we did have a few minor problems at first but that was because we had never used the programme for real and we was getting use to it. However, after we was comfortable using it the editing seemed pretty simple. It was hard trying to make the editing continuous and cutting out things that weren't necessary but we did a good job and our film looked good. At first we couldn't find the right music to fit with our film but after a long hard search through lots of different soundtracks, we found the right one and it worked really well with our film.

Hayley!

Comments on our Final Product

i think our film worked really well and i am very pleased with it. Our final product is different from our story board because on a neagtive note when we filmed our shots on our storyboard they didn't really work so we decided to change our idea. However, i like the idea of the pictures and the black and white effect worked really well although we could of cut some of the pictures out because we had quite alot. We stuck to the same end shot as we did on our story board of the stalker looking at the pictures and this shot worked really well, however i think we should of made this shot a bit longer because it ended very sudden. Overall our product worked well and it set up alot of enigma's and it had the conventions of a real media product and i think it was realistic.

Hayley!

General comments on film

I am quite happy with this film. It wasn't what i pictured it to be like as we had to change alot from what we originally planned on doing. However I do like the uniqueness of it. I think that the black and white effect on the pictures was particularly effective. I also like the end scene. I made sure my dad was the charracter as he looks more threatening than if we used a more petite person.

On a more negative note, i do think that the pictures shots do get quite repetitive. If i could redo this film I would still use this but i think i would have extended the final shot rather than have lots of short picture shots as the sence of time and place could be quite confussing for an audience.

Amy :]

Final Product

Problems with editting and sound

Editting
We didn't have too many problems with this once we had got used to it. At the start however we hadn't used the programme before so it took us quite a while to do everything. Once we hads got the hang of it we didn't come across too many problems.

Music
We did have qute a few problems with finding appropriate music. There was so many disc's to look through it that it look a while before we found the perfect one. I think the music we choose is good and helps create a lot of tension.

AMY :]

Problems with story board

A few problems occured once we began filming. We discovered that our some of the shots we had set out to do were too hard to film in a college environment.

The Corridor shot
Idealy we would have done this again to improve it. It would have looked more effective if the girl would have walked directly down the center of the corridor. However we struggled filming this due to the amount of people walking up and down the corridors. It took us many attempts in order to get this shot.

The Canteen shot
We did attempt this shot many times and in different places in the canteen. We then decided that the lighting just wouldn't work and it was very hard as most people kept looking at the camera. We decided that we would get rid of this shot all together.

The Photographs
This worked very well for us. After I had gathered all our footage, during editting i decided that making this shot happen repeatedly was very effective and quite different from all the horror movies i had watched.

AMY :]

Story Board

      

Feedback 3.3.09

Hi girls,

There's a lot missing from here! Where's your storyboard? You also haven't been blogging during production to show who's doing what - you need to add this retrospectively. You also need to post your finished product here. Please see Rachel or Nikki if you're struggling wiith this and ensure you bring in those DVD's (+R DVD). The one for the examiner is the most important! I also need to see evidence of audience testing! Show your film to members of your target audience and get their response - this wil help in your evaluation.

Mrs A