media final evaluation

What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Our film Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff highlights the horror but at the same time brings in conventions such as humour, sarcasm and mockery. Our film has stuck to generic conventions held about spoofs; people can tell that our film is a spoof film from some of the iconography we have included. The audience can tell what the genre of our film is after approximately 20 seconds into the film. This is because the ghost comes out as Tom is taking pictures of it, it poses for the camera. If it was a horror, it obviously wouldn’t be posing or anything as it would be a serious, scary atmosphere. The iconography such as the blow up hammer reflects the similarities typical to this genre. Our opening part of the video was a full body shot on one of the main characters, Tom. We then changed this to a point of view shot (POV), we did this to symbolise an unknown force following the characters lead. At the beginning of the 2minute sequence the conventions are also backed up by a mysterious underlying tone to grab the audience’s attention into finding out what’s going to happen. The techniques used have been used to introduce unique and original ideas into the film by not having a narrator but replacing this with two omniscient main characters to see their spin off of the story.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represented both male and females, primarily around 20-25 years of age. I feel as though this does not necessarily represent that particular group in a stereotypical way, as it is aimed at audiences of both sex and from the age of 15 and above. I think that the video portrays an obvious dominance for of the ghost which shows the vulnerability of the characters living in that house. This shows a typical feature from the genre of our film. I feel this links to our audience as they are in the age group of our target audience. I believe that our film is stereotypical as we have used both male and females to act on our film and used so many different aspects which referred both genders. I believe this will help and link to our target audience because i believe that people would rather see an original film rather than a film based on stereotypical conventions.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Based upon our distributor research, we have clear prospects of what would be the ideal media institution would be best suited to distribute our product. If our film was to be produced it wouldn’t be a big Hollywood blockbuster film. However, it wouldn’t be a small budget film. It would have a moderately large release because it is a quite popular genre of film and uses some unique and original ideas, which makes it more unique than other films. After doing research into some distributors we decided a good company would be Metrodome Distribution who distribute smaller budgeted films to cinema and DVD although they have distributed award winning films such as ‘The Counterfeiters’ and ‘Water’. As our film is for young adults and above, and lots of humour involved, there’s a really good opportunity for merchandising. We could have T-shirts, inflatable hammers, calendars’...etc as it would be good to use as advertising for the film. As it is aimed at both genres and for most age ranges, it could be advertised in newspapers, magazines that are unisex and also have TV and cinema trailers.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Based on the conventions used in my product, the audience for my product would be for both genders for the age of 15 and above. Comparing our age and gender to our target audience, it links well to our film because the main two characters, Tom and Jade are in their young twenties and they one is male and one is female. This links well to our audience as our target audience is for both genders and for people at the ages 15 and above as I have mentioned previously. We carried out a lot of research to find out our target audience. Our certification is similar to films such as drag me to hell, airplane and meet the Spartans as they have a certificate rating the same as ours and the audience is very similar. These have all become fairly popular so our film may appeal to that kind of audience as well.

How did you attract/ address your audience?
Linking back to our audience profile, there are points that would appeal certain audiences, the main aim was to create a film that was exciting, humorous and unique. We used sound effects to match the humour and the mysterious sounds to highlight the scary parts. We used lots of different shots to make that we hoped would include the audience and make them feel more involved in the storyline. An example of this is when we had a point of view shot in the beginning of the product we made. This was to make the audience feel as though they were actually Tom and that it was them that was there. We thought there should be a certificate of 15; this is so that the amount of violence/ language need not be limited too much to allow really young people to see the film, as e would like the film to be seen in it i entirely how it was imagined.

What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
There are some strengths on using a small camera, such as they are portable and really easy to use, so they are good to use in houses and tight areas. On the other hand there is the lack of a sufficient microphone for noise recording. I found that using the tripod as well obviously kept the camera steady when we were filming which caused the film to look a whole lot better than if we would have had to film free hand. A problem that we did encounter whilst we were filming was bouncing focus, where the camera would keep going in and out of focus; this was due to the colour and the background of some objects being too close to the camera. This could be resolved by doing the shots in manual focus. However, we altered the shot slightly so that this problem didn’t happen.

Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
During our planning stage, researching the genre and the detailed planning helped us to produce the film efficiently because we knew what we wanted to do. We put a lot of work into the planning stage, we all came up with the ideas, at first we seemed to be stuck between doing a horror and doing a comedy, but then we thought why now combine the ideas together and make a spoof? From this we were able to research into the genre and find out about the iconography and conventions of spoof films. We made a storyboard of what we wanted our film to look like and a shot list of which we wanted to include. This meant that on the day we came to film we were prepared and organised and we didn’t have any problems. During the filming we have used a lot wider variety of shots than we have before, such as establishing shots for the setting and point of view shots to involve the audience. We have also experimented with using slow zooms and tilts which helped to add more of a range of shots. Overall I think because we have become a lot more confident with the equipment it gave us the confidence to experiment with our film by including these shots. I feel I am more confident with the equipment because I have learnt how to use the cameras’ and the iMovie software. I feel that the final product was quite a success, it flowed well. It shows some scary but humorous parts and makes people want to see more.

Our finished film

this is our finished film published on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwVvupLK4WE

Evaluation

Evaluation
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Our media film project incorporates generic conventions by adapting certain techniques used in horror films that we looked a for our research.
By making our media project a spoof of horror films, this allowed us to adapt techniques used in horror films. These thechniques helped us the incorporate generic conventions by associating it with professional filming techniques. Close-up camera shots and zoom were used in certain shots to focus the audience onto that character. We used a plain white sheet to define the ghost and put a humours spin to themain part of the film.
When researching our chosen genre, we discovered that spoof films chose an element and exaggerated this, managing to twist and give it a comical factor that makes a mockery of their chosen theme. Looking into spoof horror films, it was found that this area of spoof films exaggerated the stereyotype e.g. the blonde woman with the big breasts was not intelligent and the person to die first, yet the bruntette was the strong one who discovered who the killer was and survived.
The background side effects added to the comedy factor of our chosen genre. The special effects used on the ghost added to the horror element, giving the ghost and immortal presence. They help highlight the comical ideas and make them stand out among the rest of the film e.g. when Tom is on the phone to the exorcist , the background sounds ‘ring-a-ding’ help the phone call stand out among the film.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents not just one particular social group, but all social groups. Because our characters are average people who live ‘normal’ lives, they are able to represent the majority of society. Tom Redfeild is an average male and Jade is an average female, living normal lives except the fact that Jade is being haunted by a comical ghost. Gender is evenly distributed in our film as there are four characters in total, two girls and two boys. Jade and Tom are steryotypical characters: in her scenes, jade either cries/ whimpers or screams while Tom is very assertive and takes control e.g. phones for the exorsist. By representing them in this way, we are able to appeal to our target audience (adolecenes).
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that a high budget institution would be interested in distribution in our film. This because our film is would attract a large audience as it does not have a specific specific field of interest, this enables our film to appeal would to the majority or the general public. Because our film would have a large interst from the majority, the more money it would make and gain from the people willing to go see it.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Because our film does not contain explicit language, indecent exposiour and very mild violence, it is suitable for the majority of the general public, although the jokes may not be understood by under the age of 12 as some knowledge is needed to understand the storyline. This is why our film mainly targets adolecense or teenagers as they would appreciate the majority of the comedy elements.
How did you attract/ address your audience?
We distributed a survey/ questionnaire to the general public and posted our film on www.youtube.com to broadcast it to a wider audience. Posters, leaflets/ flyers and visual/ television adverts could’ve been used to improve the circulation, distribution and publicity.
What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
I have learnt that there is a long complicated process to go through to produce any kind of media production. There is a lot to consider when producing media articles: the script beforehand, filming the right shots, editing, making the film fluent and shit changes undetectable, background music making the music fit with the subject and the completion of the whole product.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full products?
The preliminary tasks were fun to film and i realised the relevance when it came to the full product. The preliminary tasks enabled me to learn how the programmes worked and how to use them. I then used the programmes to produce our film. The tasks helped me practice and improve for the full product and gave me room to improve for our end product.

FInished film.

Our finished film on Youtube:

Shooting script.

Shooting script- ghosts ‘n’ stuff

SHOT 1-
In scene one it starts pitch black then zooms in to a long shot- see the full viewing of the house from the outside. Slowly it starts zooming in untill the house covers the screen.

SHOT 2-
The start of scene two there is a long shot of Tom in the main room of the house getting out his camera to takes photos. Looking eager to take his best photos, as he’s wanting to sell the house. Zoom in to an extreme close up of him putting the camera to his eye till it flashes as he’s taken the picture.

SHOT 3-
As he cant seem to see much there’s a point of view shot and a panning of his view. Where it is pitch black and you can only make out a few outlines of some objects.

SHOT 4-
Theres a flash of the camera to where Tom sees the ghost. There is a long shot of the ghost.

SHOT 5-
Its pitch black again, until tom takes another photo, where theres another flash of the camera and you can see another long shot of the ghost but closer to the camera than before.

SHOT 6-
There are many long shots taken as the ghost strikes its poses as its getting closer. After another picture is taken, there is a medium shot of the ghost as its got a lot closer. It then switches to a close up on Tom which shows his shocked and scared face as he looks upon the ghost.

SHOT 7-
Scene three, theres a two shot of tom and jade talking. As tom tells her about the ghost which he saw when he took the pictures. There is a zoom in of an extreme close up of jades face. This exaggerates the shocked and horrorified face of her.

SHOT 8 –
It then zooms out onto a medium shot where jade admits her past about the ghost to tom. This establishes to see some of her body language.

SHOT 9-
There is a close up of Jade ringing an exorcist. Theres then a two shot of tom and jade when Jade is on the phone to an exorcist. It also shows Tom comforting Jade with a concearned look on his face.

SHOT 10-
Theres a long shot of the exorcist and then the panning of him walking towards the door of tom and jades house.

SHOT 11-
As the exorcist knocks on the door there is an extreme close up. As there is a knock on the door theres a two shot and long shot of tom and jades face as they eagerly looked up.

SHOT 12-
Theres a panning and two shot of Tom and Jade both walking to the door to welcome the exorcist. Theres also a high angel of the Tom and Jade looking down at the exorcist whos looking up at them as he’s stood outside.

SHOT 13-
As Tom opens the door there is an over shoulder shot, and he greets the exorcist.

SHOT 14-
As the exorcist stops dead at the house without entering it there is a long medium shot of him. Where he tells them both the bad news that he cannot enter as the evil forces are too strong.

SHOT 15-
Scene for theres a long shot of Tom seeting up the camera. Theres determination on his face as he wants to video the ghost so badly.

SHOT 16-
A two shot of Tom and Jade in bed asleep, then a panning of the ghost entering the room.

SHOT 17-
A close up of the ghost grabbing Jade’s leg. Then a close up of Jade’s shocked and scared face as it was unexpected.

SHOT 18-
Zoom into a close up of Jade screaming, then a panning of the ghost dragging her down the hall.

SHOT 19-
A two shot of the ghost dragging Jade in the hall as she helplessly tries grabbing objects. Still a two shot of Jade hitting the ghost with a blow up hammer.

SHOT 20-
Scene five, a tilt movement of the ghost knocked out on the floor of Jade’s bedroom. Then it moves onto a tracking shot of Jade running downstairs in the pitch black. There is another tracking shot but of Tom running down the stairs in horror to find Jade as he just realises what’s going on.

SHOT 21-
A tracking of the ghost steadily walking downstairs into the darkness, then switching to a two shot and a full body shot of Tom and Jade holding eachother looking horrified. There’s then a black scream for a few seconds which is when you then hear the dying screams of Jade and Tom.

SHOT 22-
An establishing shot in the bedroom mainly focusing on the bedroom door. Theres then a long shot of the ghost just stood there at the door. Theres then a body shot of the ghost walking towards the camera with the ghost getting bigger with every step it takes. Until the ghost hits the camera with its face and falls to the floor.

Then the credits are played.

The Production Company Name

Music For The Film

We've chosen to take the first few seconds of a song from 'Deadmau5 feat. Rob Swire'

this is for the opening scene of the GHOSTS 'N' STUFF film project.

Risk Assessment page 3

Risk Assessment page 2

Risk Assesment