Evaluation

Tom Dale

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When producing our film we had to take into account the conventions that our audience would be expecting as this would affect their appreciation of the product. Our film was a physiological horror so we thought about the conventions of horror films as well as the basic conventions of film and narrative. We followed the conventions that our audience would expect as we thought this would make them enjoy the film a lot more. One convention of narrative that also fits Horror is the Enigma code. This is where a mystery is set in place by the film and makes the audience think about the narrative. We looked at films like American Psycho that use this in a similar way that we did to construct a false reality within the film. We used the idea that the main character thought he had murdered people when he had not but we withheld this from the audience, making an enigma code in the film we hope this would make people think about the film and talk about it attracting more audience.

Another convention we thought about was Todorovs theory of Equilibrium, Disruption, New equilibrium. We used this code in our narrative with the main character starting out seeming normal this is our equilibrium, then our disruption is when he believes he has killed the others and the hauntings and our new equilibrium is when he realises that it has all been in his mind. This serves to help the audience appreciate the film. We noticed that many psychological films had quite a dark tone so to fit in with this we applied a filter that drew out the colour and made it a bit darker. We looked at other short films such as Spike Jonzes how they get there, we looked at what we thought made a good Short film, we though this included good cinematography and an exciting and original idea. I believe that we met these criteria and the other conventions. As we began our production we decided that good cinematography would be a main value in our work. We also think that our idea was original and interesting. By sticking to these conventions, we can aim to make the audience appreciate the film a lot more. As when an audiences expectations are met they will enjoy the film a lot more.

I used this image as I looked at some other posters and noticed that many short films used head shots of the main character for their poster I followed this convention. It also allows the audience to see who the protagonist is this means that when they see the film they are already aligned with this character.

POSTER
Title- identifies the film and can serve to draw in an audience.
Awards and critics comments, attract an audience Main imageattracts an audience and gives them an idea of who the protagonist is, aligning them before they see the film the knife also suggests to them the dark nature Star/ Director names to attract people to the film Tag line- sugests the nature of the film, whilst possibly producing a viral effect as people talk about it and it spreads.

House colour unifies the article and links the ancillary tasks together

I super imposed a Knife onto the image to add a sinister element and suggest to the audience that it was a Horror. Many film posters also use comments from critics so I also did this. I also found that white featured on many short film posters so I used a white background. I used dull colours to hint at the darker tone of the film. I used this red tone to produce a house style as I used this on the article, the dark colours and toned down colours also carry across all 3 products.

When producing a double page spread I had to think of magazine conventions, that I developed in AS media. I had to consider the rule of thirds, for this I divided each page into three columns. I used an indirect mode of address but also a personal tone. I used a heading to tie the article together with the magazine. The title at the top addresses the article and takes a slightly comical and informal approach to the magazine and links with the personal tone of the article. It also ties in with the film as it his some dark humour in it.

Double Page spread

Heading Title Pull Quotedraws the reader to the article highlights a main point

Main image- draws the reader into the article.

This is a double page spread from empire magazine, I looked at this as an example of real media when producing my work to get a idea of what an audience would expect

House coloursunifies the article and links the ancillary tasks together

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

When producing my ancillary tasks I kept my film in mind so that I could produce an overall house style. I tried to carry the dark style and drained colour over into the poster and article. Through my ancillary tasks I carried a dark red colour between the two, this complemented the dark style of the film and also reflected the sinister tone of the film. When producing the content I looked at existing media including films, posters and film magazines. I used this understanding of the conventions of these products to make my content so it will meet their expectations. I looked at how films carried themes or styles across their products such as the Dark Knight, that has a very distinct style that was mirrored in the posters and other images. I think that the film was our strongest product and that my article piece was my weakest. If I made it again I would like to have better photography as I feel it was not as good as I thought it could be.

3.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Research is extremely important to any product , especially so in the media industry. If we do not get audience feedback and think about the results, if not you would risk not meeting the audiences expectations. Our target audience was 15-25 year olds, as this is the main film audience they are also the largest audience for horror films so by targeting this audience we would be targeting the largest audience. I uploaded our footage onto Facebook a Social networking site, this allowed me to distribute our work to a much larger audience, this is an example of how web 2.0 helps film makers especially Short film and independent film makers. It shows how people across the web can converge to work on a product through feedback. From our audience research we can see that those that watched it enjoyed it. Most of those that watched and enjoyed the film were between the ages of 15 to 25 which was our target audience. Whilst one was in the 26 to 50 group and one was in the 50+ group. The fact that this wide group of people gave positive feedback though a comment or like shows that our film may have a larger target audience than we first planned, this shows how audience research can be extremely useful to a film producer. This also shows how web 2.0 has benefitted the film industry.

An example of how audience research is used to great effect in a film, would be Snakes on a Plane. This film used large amounts of audience feedback from the very start. Many elements of the film were influenced by audience responses . Including the famous line that was used due to audience demand. This shows how audience research is very important to film makers, especially in short film where audience is smaller and if the film wants to be successful it must meet the audiences expectations or challenge them to make an enjoyable film.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Digital technology has had a great impact on my coursework, firstly our film itself. We filmed the footage on a HD camcorder, and then uploaded the footage onto a pc. By doing this it allowed us to easily edit the footage through Final cut pro, this programme offered a simple way to manage and alter the footage. By putting it on the computer it also allowed us to add music that we had produced on garage band or the music we had requested the license for from MobyGratis.com, this site has music that people can request licenses for to use on solely non profit productions, This is a good example of convergence on web 2.0. the pc element also allowed us to upload the footage onto the internet, where we could get audience feedback on a much larger scale than we could ever achieve. This is another example of how web 2.0 allows convergence on a huge scale when people can work with people around the world. Through our blog and YouTube we have been able to distribute our work this is an example of how the internet especially web 2.0 has allowed people including short film makers to distribute their work without the backing of a studio or other financial help. The poster and double Page spread also used digital technology. We used Digital cameras to take the pictures, this was then uploaded onto the computer from here we could manipulate the pictures and produce the products through Photoshop and InDesign. This was extremely useful as it allowed us to use many varied effects to produce the content. The theme of our film did not have much bearing on technology, as it dealt with psychological issues and print media. One way the themes did make us use technology was the dark theme as this meant we had to use technology to give the desired effect on the footage. Over the course of producing the content, I think that my IT skills have developed massively, through editing my footage and producing my poster and double page spread. Throughout the production we have encountered several problems, the main being that we lost some of our footage due to some others mistakenly deleting our footage. This meant we had to retrieve footage and re-edit our work.