Chris's Evaluation

Evaluation.
I personally feel that our two minute film introduction we produced was very successful and met both out standards and our target audiences standards two. we know this as we presented our film to our peers. They were quite complimentary, they agreed that our beginning chase scene built tension and had some quite good camrea shots involved, such as the birds eye view shot of the characters running. My group and I did a lot of research and established that to make our introductory sequence great we would need to develop forms and conventions of a typical media product we would need to mimic as many generic conventions of typical Horror/Thriller genre film. Our film was heavily influenced by real media products and so to make ours just as good we used their techniques, such as multiple shots that you would expect to see in a typical media product, for example we used many shots from a higher point of view or a 'birds eye view' shot. We used this shot as it makes the victim seem more vulnerable and builds tension as we are waiting for something bad to happen. We also used a point of view shot, this helped the audience really connect with the clip. These shots also make the victim seem more vulnerable and open to attack. These shots combined with our soundtrack help build a dramatic opening sequence.

The soundtrack we used was a very basic very daunting acoustic piece of music, this combined with some modern techno and faster tempo during the flashback put a modern twist on the soundtrack which helped raise the tension extremely well, where it hit its climax as the victim was murdered. We used some more unique shots, for example one shot was looking into a closed window at the victims running, this helped us show the victims where enclosed and in danger, many media products use techniques and shots similar to help create atmosphere and effect. We also challenged some idea that typical media products used, for example for a short clip, we filled our introductory sequence with a lot of plot, for example we used a fast beginning of a chase scene, followed by the informative and action packed flash back to end on a calmer but still chilling end when the death is announced. This quick changing plot help us keep the audience hooked. I personally believe that by putting a lot of different plots into our film should be imitated by real film producers and directors.

Our film was designed to make the audience ask questions, for example by starting our film with a intense chase scene and ending it on a cliff hanger by finding a dead body, the audience would be left asking questions like 'what happened?' who has done this?' and 'why is this happening?' that would make them want to watch the entire film. The audience where given the chance to make there own assumptions about the characters backgrounds and why they were being chased. They should later find this out in the rest of the film if we had the chance to make it. We capture the target audience by proving how young adults can be mature and clever enough to escape but still have their extreme childish emotions that will make the atmosphere of the film more intense and extreme.

Our Film is a combination of both horror and thriller genres, as our film portrays typical conventions of these types of film. Because of this we will be aiming for a wide audience, our target audience would be ranging from 15 (as this would be the certificate we would be aiming for) to 30. We feel this age band would be most desirable as like our target audience our cast also fit right in this category. Furthermore our film is going to be based on students, this social group fit perfectly and take up a huge portion of our target audience. Our audience will be able to relate to some of the characters and can get more involved in the film as they are represented by the young student based characters who all attend school/college.

I feel that with Modern technology and our film being aimed at students the prime media institution would be television, as statistics show that television's biggest market is teenagers and the middle aged, as our film is based on and aimed at teenagers young adults our media product would fit perfect into this category. Also The internet would be a terrific media institution, as students will have to do a lot of work for their chosen career courses the internet and computers would be vital, so advertising on the internet would be a very efficient way to publicise our product. As almost every house in the country has a television or computer then these would be perfect. Also billboards and other live media would be useful as well as millions of people use their cars everyday. A billboard would be perfect to advertise. I also believe that small time media companies may be quite interested with our production and online video hosting may welcome our product.

My group and I have used a range methods to attract our audience, for example our audience can relate as it is aimed at students and school pupils. Our target audience age band will also be able to relate as they are the same age as the cast in the show. Our opening portrays many generic conventions that, horror/thriller Film lovers would be attracted to. We presented a pitch to our target audience of students at Dover Grammar School for Boys. During the planning of our production, we received alot of feedback about how to manipulate our film to their standards. For example, our proposed font for our tittles did not suit the film in their opinion so we changed them. They also informed us about the many good points of our film such as the point of view shot we proposed we used, taking this advise into consideration we decided to keep this shot and make it longer.

The group and I have learnt many things about technologies since we have started constructing our product, for example we have learned how to use the digital video recorders in such a way that we can now produce very effective, efficient and dynamic shots. We have learned to manipulate the iMacs in a way that has enabled us to edit multiple clips to such an extent we can make a free flowing film out of very rough shots used, we even learned how to overlap music onto our product using microphones and computer software to convert music into our digital footage. We have also used digital cameras to help enable us to understand the dynamics of shots and what makes then work best and what doesn't. I have also learnt how to appreciate how much effort and time needs to go into a film for it to be developed and how complex these ideas can be.

Looking back on my preliminary it is here were we practised and perfected our techniques used in our main. We have learnt a lot much that needed changing for our main for example, there is a quick break of the 180 degree rule in our preliminary. We were aware of it but we feel that this breaking of the rule helps add confusion and drama to our short film. However the clip is in a CCTV manner. We saw this mistake and did not carry it on in our main. We did however carry across some shots that we feel are unique and very complimentary, such as our running over the camera shot, or the point of view shots, both of which helps keep the audience on edge and get them involved. Some things could have been different on reflection however, if they were then the film would not have the same effect it has now. I learnt how to make clips flow smoother without drowning them in transitions. Also while filming our preliminary our camera had a fade in and fade out mode on. We got rid of this when filming our main.