Evaluation: Question 7- looking back at your preliminary task, What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Through the development from the first preliminary task, to the current final project, I have learnt a great deal, from the filming, and editing aspects of the film making. These have all contributed to the outcome of the final product.

Through the development of the task, as a group we moved on to premier pro, from iMovie. This was a much more sophisticated and industry based software, which required practice, to be able to produce a quality product. This was one of the more significant learning curves which greatly contributed to the project.

As part of the editing process, we learnt how to create titles, which would match the genre of film we were making. This was key as it contributed to the Mise-en-scene of the opening therefor we had to make the titles so that the audience would collate information from them relevant to the film and story. 

looking back on the titles they were not extremely difficult to learn how to make, however they were pivotal to the opening, so it was key that we, had a clear understanding of them, knew how to make then to a high standard.

During the preliminary task all the filming was completed in a light concentrated environment, meaning it was simpler to edit and we had no need for much light adjustment, this also meant we needed limited knowledge on how the exposure on a camera works. In contrast; in the new project it was going to be filmed in darker conditions, as we were following the conventions of horror films, because of the group had to familiarise with camera settings, for filming in the dark, and controlling the exposure in our shots. We found this difficult to start as some shots have more light than the others, meaning when editing, we had to further have to change the lighting. Eventually we adapted to the camera, and we started to get the shots which were adequate for the film. 

When editing we also had to learn how to adjust the light settings there for some of the shots which were not exposed correctly, this came useful when we didn't have enough time to re film, and we needed clear footage. This was not that difficult once we learned how to do it, and this was very effective in improving the quality of the opening. 

While filming we learned various things which we did not predict. One of these where the camera shots which were originally in the story board, did not always turn out to be what we had envisioned, and we learned that, the story board can easily change once the filming and editing has started for the better of the film, meaning a lot of the scenes would be cut out. During this we also added extra shot which were not planned, as these where taken as precautionary, in case there was a problem with the others, like bad lighting, or unwanted props in the shots etc.

During the planning of the opening, we also learned how to write, different methods of presenting out opening idea. We used things like screen plays and treatments, things that we were not accustomed with before this. This meant researching and learning how to write them clearly so the rest of the team could understand them, so there was no confusion when filming or editing.

Overall I believe that the things we have learned during the process are very significant to the outcome and development of the project. I also think that these can be used in future projects, as we now know what to do, if problems like lighting occur. In the future editing and filming will also be quicker as we have learned how to use the cameras, and we are able to premiere pro with a manor of ease.

Evaluation: Question 6 - What have you learnt about Technologies from the process of constructing this product?

As a group i think that we have learnt quite a large amount about technology to do with film, especially in two specific areas and these are; the use of the camera and editing software.

I think as a group we gathered that without technology not just for us but  the whole film industry would not exist as they would wouldn't be anything to film with or to edit with. So therefore we learnt that technology was one of the main parts of constructing our final product.
 To begin with we learnt to use the camera using a standard iPad which  was alright but would prove to difficult to use for our final product because its functions were to basic for what we had aimed for. 
The camera that we used was a canon legria. This was your ordinary HD camcorder that you would take on holiday and use in standard mode to film those precious moments. However we got to grips with this camera knowing about all of its functions and what they did and whether we could use those functions to our advantage for our film.

To understand the canon legria a lot more we searched on YouTube to find out how to use the legria for best effect and they were countless videos explaining to us how to use the camera. So we gained a lot of knowledge in a ten minute video as appose to reading the manual for instructions. In these videos we were able to work out how to use manual focus, exposure and contrast, these are just a few of the things we learnt online. We then had practice runs with the camera to make sure that we knew how to use it and from that we gathered the few functions that we needed to record our project with. 

When we had captured our footage on the iPad we used iMovie to edit the footage and that's how we created our preliminary task. Like the iPad, iMovie was a basic editing software. We resulted to using Premiere Pro which is an advanced editing software to iMovie. This software to begin with was quite complicated as it had a lot of functions but once after messing around with it, it began to be easy to use.Especially as i was the one on titles i learnt how make the titles flicker and how to make them faded in and to fade out at the point i wanted them to.

In conclusion the use of technology has enabled us to take footage we have gathered from a camera and edit that exact footage into a short clip that makes sense and can be easy accessed via YouTube or on Blogger

Evaluation: Question 5-How did you attract/address your audience?

Attract and address audience from Panashe Charamba

Evaluation: Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

When creating our film we spent plenty of time on deciding on what our target audience should be for our film opening. In the end, we came to the decision of our horror film being aimed at those in their teenage years preferably fifteen and over as they will be mature enough to go watch it on their own. Also, they will be earning money from their own part time jobs which means they have a higher chance to go watch our film in the cinema instead of those who don't have the money. As the majority of our target audience will be a student within the higher education they will be able to access all the discounts including the cinema which will encourage our audience to go watch our film in the cinema. Even though our audience will have the money from their part time job they will be needing all their pennies so discounts will benefit our target audience.

Whilst discovering as a group who we thought would be best appropriate for our film opening we created a brainstorm of a typical member within our target audience. 

The typical member of our target audience is quite confident and socially active. Like I said before, the age we are focussing on is from 15 to 17. This male enjoys sport activities and plays quite a masculine character. Alternatively with this in mind, he doesn't have a dad and plays the protective brother towards his little sister who lives with him in his mother's house. We thought we would give this character this specific family lifestyle as it is quite common for a teenager to live this lifestyle in this day and age which would mean our target audience is very realistic. Even though he likes the classic horror genre of movies, he carries a great sense of humour. 

In his spare time he likes to watch old classic movies at home from his DVD's or any film's shown on television. He also prefers to go on dates and watch new released horror films so he has someone to cuddle up to and not show his weakness. He is a student and to earn extra money he works a part time job at ASDA which involves him working on the tills and talking to customer's because he has excellent communication skills. He takes pride in his appearance with his nicely styled hair and good fashion sense. As well as taking care of his skin, he is also well-groomed with a good hygiene. 

Evaluation: Question 3 - What kind of media institute might distribute your media project and why?

Momentum pictures is one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland. So therefore having a well known distributor company will mean that they have more links with other companies in ways that would help distribute our film vastly. An example of what i mean is Sony. Sony is a major media conglomerate which means that they have a lot of links with other companies that would help distribute their film. Lets take Sky Fall for example Sony did everything they could to help distribute that film for example the Olympics when Daniel Craig jumped out of a helicopter as James Bonds onto the Olympic stadium that was one way of advertising Sky Fall to people all over the world. This worked out effectively because the Guardian newspaper stated that roughly around 95% of the British population watched the opening ceremony. That's a very wide audience that Sony would have reached with that short clip of James Bond jumping out of a helicopter onto the stadium.

To begin with our media project was a small budget film which meant that being in connection with major media conglomerates would be off the table. We would have to result in smaller media distributors that may not be as big as Sony, Walt Disney Company and News Corporation . These small distributors include Momentum, CBS, and Alliance Films. Distributors such as these would be the ideal ones for our media project because although they are not big media conglomerates they still distributes high standards of films. for example Momentum pictures has distributed some of the big blockbuster to hit the film industry; films such as the Woman In Black starring Daniel Radcliffe, Sinister, Insidious, The Kings Speech and Law Abiding Citizen starring Samuel. L Jackson. these are just only a few of films that they have distributed that have had great success. If we had to choose one main distributor for our project it would have to be Momentum pictures 

Another way Sony distributed Sky Fall is by Adele singing her Hit record titled 'Sky Fall' this song was the theme song for the film. However "Sky fall" was released on 5 October 2012 as part of the Global James Bond Day, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first James Bond film. The song quickly went to the top of the iTunes chart, and reached number two at the UK Singles Chart and eight on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was released 18 days before the actual film was released and with in that lapse of time the recognition of the film Sky Fall grew vastly.

Momentum pictures may not have that sort of power within them to distribute a film as well as Sony can but they are still worthy contenders. A recent and similar film to ours that momentum have distributed is Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe. Momentum used Daniel Radcliffe to their advantage by that he was in Harry Potter and that Woman in Black would have been his first film out of the Harry Potter sequels. Momentum made sure that Daniel was in all the posters to make sure the audience knew that he was the main character and mainly to draw in all the Harry Potter fans to come and watch the film. Momentum made sure that Daniel Radcliffe was in all the popular talk shows that people watched to help advertise the film, this worked out very effectively for Woman in Black because once people heard about the film it was all word of mouth that advertised the film even more. people would tweet about the film some people would tell their family and friends and word about Woman in Black would have spread in a matter of hours.

In addition to that Woman in Black was also advertised in Comic Con which a major event nowadays that attracts all sorts of people and they all come in numbers. This was another effective way in which Momentum distributed Woman in Black.

I think that Momentum would be a perfect distribution company for our film because they work hard to make small budget films into big blockbusters films such as Woman in Black. They help small independent companies such as Hammer films gain recognition within the film industry and i think that working with Momentum pictures would gain us that recognition. Another reason is that they aim to get the best out of the film they are distributing; like in Woman in Black. Originally it was going to be a 15 certificate but Momentum thought it would be better to cut 6 seconds to make the film into a 12A certificate. they did this so that they could draw all age ranges.

This obviously worked well for Woman in Black and i think that with the guidance and driven power that Momentum have they could help our film be distributed as effective as Woman in Black was.

Evaluation: Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

Our opening begins with a plain background which already makes the audience question what is happening. The audience start to feel uncomfortable as they can start to hear a voice but no image - this shows the common fear of people who are scared of the dark. The girl who sings the lullaby would sound sane if the presentation was displayed differently however because the audio is played over a black background it makes the audience question her emotion and reasoning for singing this lullaby. As the song goes on the woman becomes more aggressive towards her lyrics, whilst this occurs the titles start to appear with a constant flicker which starts to build the tension towards our target audience. 


The titles are displayed using both lower and upper cases incorrectly which for most people this would cause plenty of discomfort. This convention will start to irritate the audience as they will not be used to the presentation of the titles. A lot of horror films tend to alter their titles in some way to make their audience feel uncomfortable. In 'Dead Wood' the title of the film production is shown at the beginning in a bold, white font which is presented on a black background to make the writing stand out to the crowd maybe this is a symbolism of warning which is making the character feel aware of the message coming across to them. This links back to our opening as we have presented the white font onto a black background to address the same warning to our target audience. Another example of titles which relate to the use of upper and lower cased letters is 'The Wrong Turn'. This film displays their titles in only upper cased letters to show danger is ahead. This proves that the use of the lower and upper cased letters are very effective towards the audience.


The establishing shot is a typical convention used in any films so the audience can identify where the camera shots are held. The way the establishing shot is presented is what is most obvious about what genre the film is and the way that our establishing shot is presented shows a typical shot you would expect in a horror film. The house being separated in a dark area with only minimum light and only the quiet diegetic sound is an obvious convention.


When our character Matthew looks outside the window it shows he is cautious of any intruders as he is on his own. This convention shows he is quite vulnerable which does not match the usual convention of horror movies as there is usually a girl who is left to be vulnerable just like in 'Dead Mary'. In our opening their is a male who is vulnerable which is odd to have in a film however the male is on his own in the house and is a teenager so not as dominant as a male adult would be portrayed in a horror movie.


The scenes are quite simple with just a bed and Matthew which builds more tension as to what could happen. The non-diegetic music is another convention in our opening as the loud bass echoes build plenty of tension just like any other typical horror movie who would aim to reach this objective. The small doses of electricity played throughout the non diegtic sound creates a larger impact as it could suggest the danger and warning of what's to come. 


The convention of the lighting becoming darker when the camera is on Carrie shows that she is tha bad person in the film. The short shots of Carrie along with the non diegetic sound build up tension towards the audience. The followed on close up shot of Matthew's face shows that he has a lot of room behind him which shows him being vulnerable and lonely.