Further thoughts

After receiving feedback from audiences who have watched my film, I have been thinking of ways to improve on the qualities of the movie to make it more appealing to them. After completing my project, I showed the film to a range of people who then evaluated backs on it. I considered the fact that not everyone would prefer my film and I could not please all audiences so I thought up the idea of trying different things and editing several things to see what was liked the most. I had many suggestions but with the strict time plan of filming and having no snow left to film on, I felt it would be hard to change parts of the movie which could achieve me a better performance overall. If I had more time to plan, edit, and rethink the filming I could redo parts of the movie which were poor such as the ending.

Since I've been progressing towards my final piece, I have constantly looking back upon my research to keep in track with my theme and style of film to achieve me what I want. Also along side my prelim I have managed to improve upon my techniques and improve on my camera qualities which I believe has changed how my movie has been shown. Getting to grips with the camera was not hard to follow and finally editing it on Windows Movie Maker gave me the chance to explore things which I did not know before such as merging clips. Another feature I learnt about in my project was the use of blogger and keeping up to date whilst continuing with my research and filming. Blogger has made it a lot easier to produce my work and keep it updated all the time.

Film Final Edit

Here is an edited version of my final project but with an editing on the opening to add credits to the start throughout rather then at the end. This idea came from feedback I recieved which could improve the quality and style of the film in the range of my target audience by using up time at the start of the movie. This edit also has no static at the end which leads to a more unyielding ending.

 

Evaluation Slideshow Presentation

This is a slideshare presentation of my evaluation which makes it easier for viewing quickly.

Evaluation

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Update

I am now editing my blog and its layout to make it look more aesthetically pleasing and more attractive and hopefully allow more people to view it easily.

Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My thriller film incorporates generic conventions from other action/horror/thriller movies such as slow tension building scenes along with mysterious music to build suspension. Also a variety of different angled shots with the right time frame makes them effective in different ways and builds the movie up. Different scenes incorporate this and are spread throughout the movie. The film beings to develop these conventions and challenge them by changing them throughout the film and by going further into detail. There is no dialogue used and this focuses on the sounds happening around the characters and what could possibly be going on so that they can be more at the attention of the audience. Also by keeping things simple the conventional plot of the film is made is not too cluttered and is easy to follow which develops on other conventions. The use of conventions indicates that the hybrid genre of the thriller is faced towards horror where the creepy and unwillingly mysterious music is bought in with a dark sense of fear from the light levels. My use of conventions does show on what other thriller films has influenced on my work such as the fast cuts to show someone teleporting or the watching of the monster through the trees and bushes. These sort of conventions can be seen in zombie or creature movies.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The social groups represented in the thriller are shown as female, teenager, middle class, white which are seen as common. Gender is represented typically as the girl being alone and running away and not aggressive up until the end where it changes. This links into the target audience by relating it to them and making them feel the same as it is the same target audience as that of the character.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
This thriller could be produced by a major Hollywood studio just at a higher quality. As what has been on the market has been produced by good studios, I think mine could match them with the same intensions. My thriller is similar to existing films as the conventions and techniques used can be related together and noticed. I believe the plan for the movie would be to sell it as a internet film as it is not well known. It could still attract a big audience but could be a better start rather than going on the TV when there are similar movies like this. It would be released because it would be unique and it could be easily watched anywhere from the internet and downloaded. It could be franchised by any company to grow bigger. In conclusion the mise en scene of my thriller can be seen through the way it follows out the story and how it turns at the end. The film is unique and the visual style is different to others.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Linked to the narrative and style of the movie, I consider the age and gender of the target audience to be from 12-25 due to the age of the characters and the simplicity of the movie and I expect male and female genders as it does not singularly focus on one. Other films which are similar to mine are 28 days later with the alone factor as well as predator with the watching and hunting of the prey.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I managed to attract the certain target audience as I am from that target audience and I knew what had to be put in to influence them to watch. I believe the music in the movie and monster could scare small children as they would not understand it and that is why they are not in the target audience. I believe male teenagers would appeal mostly as they would be interested in the horror sense a lot. I also used different camerawork so that the audience could get a good feel of what was happening and almost if they were there by using point of view shots. I think by using lots of camera shots it gave a variety and didn't make it get boring. The audience is put into the position of both the monster and the girl but also witnessing them both alone. The impact of that gives that the audience can follow exactly what the characters are doing but at the same time watch them do it. This links back to the conventions of the thriller and that the techniques of the camera which create the thriller bring it suspense which in turn attract the audience by doing these things.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product? Strengths of using the camera equipment have been that its very mobile, light weight, easy to use and set up. Weaknesses of the camera equipment were its lack of sound quality and video detail when it came to filming. Before the filming process we would set up the camera after choosing the location and plan and go through what we had to do. Problems we had were uneven parts of the land but we resolved this by adjusting the tripod's legs accordingly. Also snow got in camera lens so it would make the shot blurry so we decided not to film on days like those. From editing the movie with Windows Movie Maker I have learnt how effective it is to cut a shot up to speed the scene up or how effective it is to use fast motion to show super strength. Certain effects such as the fade mixed in with a blur changing scene made it look like the monster was blinking or waking up. This gave the film more detail and made it just abit more in depth. Other effects such as the white noise at the end created a whole better visual effect by cutting the film off at a cliff hanger and leaving it in mystery and leaving a question in everyone's head.

7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From the planning stage, the research into the genre, storyboarding, I was able to find out what to do to produce the thriller movie. Things identified in research from what other films have done and put onto my storyboard I was able to know what angled shots and effects I would need to do in order to make it a thriller film. By capturing the film in the right order I was able to edit it in that order and this made the production smoother. All of this came down from planning and helped me figure out what to do. My use of specific shots has improved by using a variety, it has given me the oppurtunity to explore different shots such as Dutch tilt in order to make my film more complex and developed since I started my media project. I do now also feel more confident with the equipment used to create the film as I understand it more and have used it more. I now feel successful that my product has fulfilled my task and has followed out and has achieved a good film which in turn is what I wanted.

Final Film Commentary

Here is a second video of me doing an ongoing commentary over the film. I appologize for the poor speech quality as I have a cold.

Final Film - Its Coming

Here is my final product of my planned film called "Its Coming". Filming was completed a few days ago over 3 days with a total of 49 clips filmed. Correct feedback has been given to me along the way and adjusted to the film to make it more suitable for the target audience. Along the filming certain changes were made such as, the title font being changed to SimHei as it was made easier to use. Also the film differs from the storyboard but still has scenes from it. This was chosen to be changed as it was easier to do, seen as better from feedback given and gave more freedom to film. Other problems I encountered was the time we had to film on some days and this lead to the amount of day light we had on some of the scenes. I was also unsure whether the snow would be around the next of filming but luckily it was. One final problem was remembering to wear the same clothes and although this was carried out fairly well, on scenes near the end the monster is wearing different shoes which I hope is not too noticeable and can be shown as a blooper.

I chose the title because it is unique and even though "its" should be spelt "it's" I wanted it to be unique. Music from the film was taken from appropiate sources to fit the genre and sound effects were also implimented.