G321 Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

Clothing

Casual clothing makes the film seem more relatable as the characters are not in complex or over the top costume. Also, the villain of the film is wearing a costume that almost looks like it was

simply put together (mask, coat etc.). This may make him seem more frightening, as if anyone

could put such a costume together. This links to us wanting the film to seem as realistic as

possible, as if this could happen to anyone etc.

Sound

Suspenseful music is a popular convention in horror films. We did not have any form of

dialogue in our film. Even without dialogue, the plot is simple to follow.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film, we have 2 characters. A teenage girl (unnamed), and the villain, a mysterious

characters(appears to be male) wearing a mask and dark clothing.

The teenage girl is an average teenage girl. She is a wearing a simple yet slightly dressy outfit consisting of a dress and a leather jacket, with leather shoes. This suggest that the house she leaves at the start of the film may have been a friend’s where there has been a gathering of

some sort. This is average behavior for a teenage girl, which makes the character seem more

relatable.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film would be distributed by Blumhouse Productions. Blumhouse Productions have released films such as Sinister, Paranormal

Activity, and Insidious. The films this company release are similar to our own, and all films have

grossed highly when released.

Our movie would be aimed at a mass-market audience, not a niche audience.

Our film is primarily aimed at teenagers. One of the characters is a teenager, and the film is

made to be as relatable as possible.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Whilst planning our film, we decided that our audience would primarily be teenagers. We

decided to give the film a 15 certificate, as the film may be slightly too mature for younger

teenagers, yet not enough so for an 18 certificate. Giving the film an 18 certificate would also eliminate a large amount of our

target market.

At the same time, the film will be enjoyed by those of an older age (18-30) as horror is an

enjoyable genre for most ages.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The main character is a teenage girl, so it’s more likely that the character will be easier to relate

to seeing as our target market is mainly teenagers.

The film is inspired by several ‘teen horror’ films ( where the cast are primarily teenagers) such as

Scream and Friday the 13th.

These ‘teen horror’ films are as popular as ever. The plotline isn’t too complex, but provide

enough mystery and suspense to be enjoyable.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Filming

Using the camera was fairly simple, as we already knew how to use it from our preliminary task. We also found using the tripod simple, as

we also used one for our preliminary task.

Sound

We did not feature any dialogue in our film, but we did feature a piece of music in the

background. This was edited (mainly cropping it) in Garageband, which was fairly easy to use. We encountered a slight problem transferring it over to Final Cut, but managed eventually with some

help.

Editing Software

Using the editing software was difficult. We struggled using it in the preliminary task also.

None of us had used the software before, so we often had to ask for help. We encountered a

problem where the software would not let us place a clip onto the timeline, which was solved

after a lesson or two.

Looking back to your Preliminary Task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression

from it to the full product?

Filming

We found using the camera equipment easy in both our preliminary task and our final film. The

equipment is easy to use, and we had had previous experience with using video cameras to film. Our skills with the camera improved as we

worked with them more.

Filming

The shots we use in our final film look more professional and not as shaky in our final film,

although this may be due to using a slightly broken tripod in our preliminary task. We also have more of a variety of camera shots in our

final film.

Editing

As aforementioned, we are still fairly unfamiliar with the editing software (Final Cut). The

software is complicated to use, as we had never used it before our preliminary task. The editing in our preliminary task was rather basic, but as we progressed to our final film, we used a lot more of the editing software and it’s effects.