Media Studies – Evaluation
In what ways does
your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions of media
products?
As a group, we
tried to make several changes; a main factor we tried to change however was
placing atmospheric shots and TV static sound and visual effects into certain
places throughout the movie to stop constant walking shots since this would not
appeal to the conventions of a regular horror movie, neither an exciting movie
too due to the lack of interesting events happening within the movie opening
itself. We had attempted to do this in order for the purpose of the audience’s
enticement into the movie; it would be boring to watch if it was a bunch of
walking shots to still create the unstable atmosphere from the horror movie,
yet supplying this with very simple shots and editing.
Shots-wise
(individual shots) were relatively successful, though they were near to all the
same, which is already one negative point; we should have used more and a
variety of shots to still make an unstable atmosphere. Coming to the plot
(which composes the shots all together) I feel as if the movie is quite bland
and generic as all it is, is teenagers investigating a neglected house. We
could have done more with the story board and planning and used more of a
creative structure due to the scenery and things that were available to us on
the days we were able to film.
We had several
shots in which we had to decide to not use as it clashed with some of our story
board and/ or disagreed with some of our members as they were not a part of the
shot in which we planned to do. Along with changes, we had also changed our
filming locations as we started filming outside of Manor Green School,
alongside the outside of Cox Green School too. Due to film and story board
changes being made and tweaked, we decided to not use this footage as it did
not collaborate well with the rest of the film we produced.
I would
consider a lot of changes. One being the storyboard as a whole due to the lack
of creativity used in development; it seemed too generic in order to attract a
big audience. Another change I (personally) would consider would be removing a
lot of the walking shots as we have way too many of them, and since we had to
place more atmospheric shots to show some diversity within the movie’s walking
shots. We also had placed TV static to switch them up a bit too.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my opinion,
I wouldn’t say our media product doesn’t show the stereotype for one particular
social group; however I believe it shows the curiosity side of the teenagers of
today. The plot of the film is generic however it’s about a group of teenagers
who set out to venture into an abundant bay known as Lillibrooke Manor. Though
with this story being the same as most horror movies to date, I believe it
still captures the element of the curious teenagers, to show that some to most
have broken the common stereotype of being moody and grumpy all the time.
Though with
the characters shown to be curious (which got them to the site in the first
place), the horror movie conventions are still the same; one by one, each of
the characters will die in a series of horrible yet unique deaths throughout
their exploration of the house.
However, at
the start, we thought our particular was meant to be shown for older teenagers/
young adults but due to the lack of communication we had as a group (to be
honest) we somewhat drifted away from a specific idea on what the film should
be suitable for (under BBFC ratings, meant to be a 15).
Why kind of media institution might distribute your media product and
why?
I believe
cinemas will be willing to distribute our media product for several reasons.
One factor would be the date; due to the nature of today’s society, it would be
best for horror movies to be distributed in cinemas at around Halloween time
(end of October, start of November). This gives the audience an anxious feeling
whilst watching the film.
This film is
also like a regular horror movie, with the same conventions, story line and
conventional characters. For example, Final Destination; each character was
slayed off one by one; depending on their role: the girly one, the silly one,
then all ends on the final girl – like we had planned in both our research and
in our story board.
The BBFC
rating is also a key factor upon our movie. For example, our product is aimed
at older teenagers (15 +). We have chosen an age range due to the somewhat
strong language used alongside the gory imagery and scenes shown throughout the
movie itself.
What audience are you targeting for your media product?
Going back
onto the BBFC rating, we are mainly focussing our target audience at older
teenagers (15+). We have chosen an age range due to the somewhat strong
language used alongside the gory imagery and scenes shown throughout the movie
itself. Also, analysing previous and successful media products, we as a group
have come to the conclusion as for this product to be shown to at least 15yr
olds or older teenagers as a whole.
How would you attract and/ or address your audience?
Keeping up
with today’s society; getting into with what people our age group (ages 15 to
19), older teenagers are heavily into horror movies; which works perfectly with
distributing our films out to the public via distribution companies. With many
teens becoming horror film fans themselves, this will get our film out and
viewed a lot by the masses fairly easily; though more popular in the Halloween
holidays due to the season of our specific movie genre.
In order to
get our movie more out into their masses, we would need some aiding of social
media: when I say this, I mean twitter and Facebook pages. With likes and
followers on both social Medias, we can keep our specific audience on track of
the development of the movie and the company itself – to attract more of a
bigger audience for future filming products; such as movie trailers to deep
descriptions upon our movie product(s).
What have you learnt about the technologies from the process pf
constructing this product?
Throughout
working as a team in order to distribute our media product, we have learnt a
lot on the way. For example, the way in which media is distributed throughout
then making to showing process. Our movie company analysed was Four Lions.
-
Produced by Warp Films.
- Worked alongside Film 4.
- Distributed by Optimum Releasing.
- Worked with Wild Bunch for international sales which are a division of StudioCanal, a French company owned by Vivendi.
- Showcased at Sundance Festival.
- Was shown in some larger cinemas (Odeon, Vue).
- Worked alongside Film 4.
- Distributed by Optimum Releasing.
- Worked with Wild Bunch for international sales which are a division of StudioCanal, a French company owned by Vivendi.
- Showcased at Sundance Festival.
- Was shown in some larger cinemas (Odeon, Vue).
The example of Warp Films
‘Four Lions’ show how Synergy has been used throughout the process of
production to consumption. The low-budget film company employed the help of other
companies for use of studios, sales and distribution. One of Warp Films key
financial backers is Optimum Releasing who is involved closely with the
development and distribution of Warp Film’s products. Synergy is used in both
independent and large-scale film companies in order to create the best quality
film that will attract and reach the mass market where independent film
companies target as specific group.
What do you
feel you have learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to the full product?
Through the progression of
the preliminary task to the full, graded media product that the group and I
have produced, we have through a lot about the specific components in order to
create a successful film; in both practical and theoretical attributes.
For example, camera shots,
mise-en-scene, sounds and editing. Camera shots however have been somewhat
basic; walking shots, but staying in line with the 180 degree rule, nothing
wrong, but personally could’ve done better and a lot more with the scenery
itself. Mise-en-scene was more professional; both lighting and props were
effective throughout the movie opening, in contrast to our simple preliminary
task as we didn’t make it up as we went along. Sounds or mainly music in our
case was effective as it links with the images displayed on the media product. Editing,
a lot more editing was put into our final media product in contrary to our
simple preliminary task. Though one change from this would be our movie-editing
software entirely; Sony Vegas Pro. V.11 was used for our preliminary task as it
was easier to use, though this time, for our media product, we used Adobe
Premiere Pro; where we encountered a couple of problems, such as rendering and
increasing screen size.
Though overall, I have to
say that I, personally, have learnt a lot in the progression, on the way from
our preliminary task to our final media product. I feel as if my contribution
to the group has also paid off; some of the planning and acting too. The progression
from our preliminary task, to our final media product has changed and developed
a lot, in all camera shots, editing, sounds and mise-en-scene in comparison.
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