EVALUATION

MA MEDIA:

AARON HAGGAS AND MICKEY CATELIN

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Our media film conforms to the conventions of real media

products, in the way that it effectively shows its thriller-psychological-horror genre.

This is conveyed through the location of the film being filmed in

an unusual, uncommon setting.

Similar to ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (left)

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

It is traditional for films of this genre to have quite a creepy, threatening atmosphere and mood, and we feel our film

coincides to this, and other works such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’

(right), successfully.

Through creating this atmosphere, the audience are able to sense the mental and emotional troubles the main

character experiences.

Our film may be classified in the same genre as established productions such as:

• ‘Black Swan’

• ‘Se7en’

• ‘The Silence of the Lambs’

• ‘The Sixth Sense’

• ‘Dark Floors’

As seen on our online Tumblr blog, we stated in our final production proposal that

our aim was “to make the audience feel intrigued by what the rest of the film is

about and how the plot unravels”.

We feel we have thoroughly achieved this by using, developing and challenging forms of the conventional psychological-horror film genre.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Through our main character wearing typical teenage clothes (simple

jeans and a t-shirt) we feel we have successfully represented our target

audience.

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

Universally, teenagers will enjoy this genre of movie. Films like ours

usually involve a teenager being the victim- for example

‘Scream’ (above, right).

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

By having our protagonist as a distinctive teenage figure, our

target audience are able to identify, to a certain extent,

with her, and therefore sympathize with her and her

horrendous situation.

Films such as 'Scream' (left) and 'I Know What You Did

Last Summer’ (right) conform to these genre

expectations, as they both involve young people being made to suffer in some way.

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

The demographic of our target audience would be young adults and teenage males and females. This is because enthusiasts of the horror-thriller genre are mostly of the younger generation and are both males and females.

Both sexes would enjoy the fearful and horrendous

storyline, and would also sympathize with the young

female character.

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

We used a simple, yet effective, marketing campaign to entice our target audience.

Through the use of posters, in a variety of languages, we were able to spread the positive 'word-of-mouth' about the film and raise awareness

about our product.

Our film is similar to 'The Blair Witch Project' (right) because they are both of the psychological-horror film genre.

Each of the films use handheld cameras and have amateur footage

techniques.This ‘documentary’ feel is similar to ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Chronicle’

and ‘Cloverfield’ - all very popular film amongst our target audience

Both ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and our film depict young people who are trying to find out what is going

on with their lives.

Through the good times and bad, their journeys entice the audience

to want to watch the rest of the movie to find out what happens.

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

In our opening sequence, the various people are named in the titles, using a simple typewriting

font.The titles that are credited in the

opening sequence are, in chronological order:

- the production company- the starring actor

- who the sound was by- who the costume and

makeup was done by- the producer

- the directors and the writers- the title name of the film

This specific order was chosen because we feel it coincides with a lot of other (real) film credits'

order.It is incredibly important for a

film to give credit to those who are responsible for each job of

the film, so those who are accountable for each job are

acknowledge.

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

A production company develops and co-finances feature films that are smart and

distinctive.

The distributor brings the film to the market place and gets audiences aware of the film.

A small, low-budget, independent British company, such as Film4 or Warp Films,

would distribute our product for the reason that our movie had a low budget.

We would initially begin marketing our film by posting small film snippets on websites such as YouTube and our fanpage on Facebook.

This effectively would lead to a viral marketing campaign that would spread the ‘word of mouth’.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

Our product would primarily be shown in independent cinemas in the UK, such

as:

• The Electric Cinema

• The Lexi Cinema

• Prince Charles Cinema

• The Phoenix Cinema

The film could be shown at certain film festivals that showcase smaller,

independent films.

These festivals may include:

• Raindance Film Festival

• Zero Film Festival

• Sundance Film Festival

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

We recognize that we probably would not have distribution in the US unless it had success at film festivals in the UK.

We would have to get help from various different production and distribution companies, such as Film4 and Pathé.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

We would need help financing our film so perhaps would need to initiate innovative methods of earning funds.

We could possibly follow the approach Danny Boyle used for ‘Slumdog

Millionaire’ and attempt to receive sufficient funds from the National

Lottery.

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

In order to get our film noticed, we uploaded the clip to YouTube,

Facebook and Twitter.

Viral marketing was a significant element to getting our film the

awareness it received- Facebook helped spread the knowledge of the

film.

It increased the 'word-of-mouth' for our movie and led to a large number of

views on YouTube.

AUDIENCE STATISTICS

This graph shows that for our first edited film clip, that was uploaded onto YouTube, the majority of viewers are discovering

our project through the use of social media sites and through their own general interest, as they searched

for it themselves.

AUDIENCE STATISTICSThis image of a map

conveys that the most of our views (for our first edited video that was

uploaded onto YouTube) have come from the UK;

as well as a small amount of views from Serbia, the US and

Sweden.

This data implies that the ‘word of mouth’ of our production has helped

spread the awareness of our work beyond the UK,

where the film was created and produced.

AUDIENCE STATISTICSWe have used a variety of plug-ins and Web apps to increase the ‘word of mouth’ and overall success of our production:

• Tumblr Blog: http://ma-media.tumblr.com/

• YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperMAmEdIA

• Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/MA-Media

• Prezi: http://prezi.com/qr3vf-juiqq6/present/?auth_key=m2duy9p&follow=qqtdaxemibtd

• SurveyMonkey

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

To raise awareness and receive feedback about our film, we uploaded the clip onto YouTube and spread the ‘word of mouth’

via Facebook (as shown below) and Twitter.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

To construct our final product, we used a variety of technology and equipment.

We learned how to use editing techniques as well as how to use the technology that

enabled us to create our product.

We learnt how to use the programs Motion5 and Final Cut Pro X.

Motion5 helped us to develop our credits to make them a higher standard and

integrate them within our opening sequence.

Final Cut Pro X enabled us to produce the film with ease, learning how to use it

through the help of YouTube tutorials and making full use of Web2.0 to promote and

market our film.

Social media was key in this with Twitter and Facebook.

With Facebook being one of the main ways that we communicate with our friends it

helped us establish and confirm our target audience.

We figured out how to work the technology of YouTube, which meant we could

showcase our production to many people and share valuable information with them.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

As well as this, we had to learn how to use ‘Colour Corrections’ in order

to make the film flow.

We learnt how to use a tripod and learnt the best and most effective ways to use it to our advantage.

One problem we faced was the lighting. Filming in low light caused a problem, as the sensor was not

strong enough in the camera, which made the light create an effect that

we did not want.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

TASK RESPONSIBILITIESAs we are working as a team, we thought it would be fair to each take responsibility for the same amount of work.

Planning/Pre-Production

For the planning and pre-production stage, we predominantly worked together because we felt it was best to create a detailed proposal that we were both happy with.

At the beginning of this project, we brainstormed all the possible ideas for the production.

Together we came up with two detailed concepts and after lots of deliberation, we made a decision to go with the ‘Rewind’ idea as we were the most passionate about it and we feel we could use our already acquired skills, as well as gain a huge amount of knowledge.

The only section of this stage that we worked separately on was when we researched and analyzed the established films of the genre that we wanted to create our film. We had to answer questions about how the opening sequences for these films can influence our decisions.

Production

For the actual production, we divided the responsibilities equally. We both contributed to every component of the this process- by each filming segments of the production.

Evaluation

We worked on the evaluation together and to ensure that we worked an equal amount, we decided to split the tasks, using our strengths to help out with each other’s weaknesses.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK (THE CONTINUITY EDITING TASK), WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

Reflecting back on our preliminary task, we feel we have made a significant progression when comparing our continuity editing task to our final production task.

Due to our gained knowledge of the new technologies we have used, our filming and editing skills have improved.

We have developed the ways in which we employed the sound and music to our film.

We used sounds and music in our product that we would not have used had it not been for our experience in creating our preliminary task, as well as further research into films of the same genre.