In what ways does your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To begin, I researched more generally into film openings to see what they included. However, when I decided to make a horror film, I began looking at films within the same genre, most specifically, werewolf movies. I found that very few were graphic and intense in the first opening minutes, but there was a focus on building tension, so I took this into account when making my film.
Equally, many werewolf films don't show the audience the monster immediately and just make suggestions about its presence instead. In our film, we developed this idea further by using Point of View shots. In order to help the audience differentiate between these Point of View shots, in editing, I suggested that we used colour effects to make the Wolf shots a more yellow colour, something I found in a few other werewolf films.
Normal shot:
Wolf shot:
How does your media product represent particular social groups?Mainly, we had to create visual representations of normal teenagers. The male teenager takes on the dominant role, by keeping calm and continuing on. The female teenager draws attention to the danger the two characters are in, and her anxiety creates tension and atmosphere for the audience.
In order to make the characters realistic, we kept their costume simple and normal, clothes that the actors would wear all the time.
What kind of Media institution might distribute your media product and why?The film could be made in many different institutions. It could be both a Hollywood Blockbuster or an Independent Film made on a small budget.
On the one side, it could be made in the style of films like Blood andChocolate, The Wolfman (2010) or Van Helsing. With a Hollywood budget, famous actors could be hired and theproduction would be on a larger scale, with more effects and better locations.
But I think our film would be better as a low budget films, like the American B Movies. It would give the film a gritty edge, rather than being polished and use real aesthetics rather than CGI.
American Werewolf in London - a make-up and effects transformation.
Twilight: New Moon - a CGI transformation
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The main demographic for the audience would be both males and females between the age of 16 - 40. Horror is a genre that generally spans over both genders, but the age is slightly different. Our film is rated 18 by BBFC certificates, but teenagers under 18 may watch the film at home with their parents' permission and still enjoy it. At the other end, although those over 40 can easily still enjoy the genre, out film is more contemporary, featuring many elements that may not appeal to an older audience, such as the soundtrack or the age of the characters, as they may not be able to relate at all.
Geoffrey William Eric Parsons - It was a good film and I liked it. Made me excited for more!
Marcus Kinsey - It had nice camera work to it.
Thomas Mcnamara - The song makes it! Black and white effect is a bit confusing.
Jordy Waring - The music's a good juxtaposition and the car lights are very effective and help it to flow well, but the yellow wash on some of the filming was a bit strong.
Jake Wilson - Music really fitted with the intro, it set the scene nicely. Lots of camera angles which gave a different perspecitve of the scene. And the yello
w tint on some shots clearly identified a different pair of eyes on the scene.
Annelies Onderka-Lang - I really like it. Lots of atmosphere and tension building.
Tim Astley - Very well lighted, gives an eerie sense!
Overall, audiences seemed to like the film, but they were divided on the colour effects - some liked the black and white, whereas others didn't. I think that perha
ps with better lighting and higher quality filming, it would work better.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Mainly, I've learnt a lot about using the Apple Macs. A lot of our film is based around the post-filming effects, especially lighting, as we wanted to film at night but it wasn't practical - so we made the film darker in editing.
Here are some examples of some of the levels we used on iMovie:
For the 'Wolf Eyes' effect:
For the black and white effect:
Also, we had to learn how to loop the soundtrack, as we only wanted the beginning of the song - for this we used the Cubase software.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel I have come far from my preliminary task. In my final product, I mainly had to use the skills I learnt about editing, as they were vital for the final film. However, continuity was an important element and I what I learnt about it in the preliminary has helped make my final better. The shots are steady when they should be, but of course, the Point of View shots aren't supposed to.
Directors' Evaluation:
