Thursday 1 March 2012

Evaluation

Now that we have finished our title sequence, I am going to write and overall complete evaluation commenting on things such as:




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

Our media product which in this case is a film or more specifically a horror film. The codes and conventions of horror films include:
Good Vs. Evil,
Victims are normally young and innocent,
Killer has a trademark,
The main character survives.#Often filmed in a dark and sinister place
Quick shots during editing
Dark music
Plot frequently involves death
Usually involves good and evil

Are film challenges a lot of the conventions listed above. First off our theme has very little of the good vs. evil theme as no one in our film is innocent the killer is not good, for obvious reasons, however his victims were not good either as they bullied the killer as a child verbally and physically because of his appearance to the point that he wants revenge. Linking to this point is the second convention as our victims are young, around 20 years old, but they are not innocent in the situation, for the reasons that I have stated above. The third convention, the killer has a trademark, this is true in our case in fact our killer has two trademarks, the first being his appearance, his face his horribly burnt and disfigured and also that he does not were a mask and he is completely open about his identity to his victims. The second trademark is the way he kills, he beheads his victims and burns their face so that they are burnt and disfigured like him. The fourth convention is also not true for our film as the main character, who is Damien and that in its self is unusual as the main character is usually a potential victim. But at the end with everyone that bullied him disfigured Damien kills himself by burning himself to death.   

Titles sequences must be done in a certain order.
Studio
Director
Cast
Crew
Editor
Writer
Producer
Director

 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film doesn’t really represent any social groups, nor was it really meant to, it is not true that every person who is disfigured or has been burnt and has been bullied for it would go and kill the bullies later in life. But I believe that there could potentially be a message for the bullies in there that if the tables were turned at it was you being bullied that you would feel the same way and want revenge, not to the extent shown in the film however. Damien is in no way supposed to represent disfigured people as a whole, he was just supposed to be shown as a young angry man wanting to get revenge on those who bullied him and made his life hell.

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

We decided that Hammer films would distribute our film because it is a British film company, and we wanted a British film not an American one, and because they specialise in making horror films. And because they specialise in making British horror films we thought that they were our best option as our film is both British and a horror film



Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our film we decide would be rated 18 and this is because it would be a very graphic film with graphic imagery used after Damien is burnt and after the murders. However we do realise that just because a film has an eighteen rating that it will be viewed exclusively by people over the ages of 18. Also we decide that the film would be released on Halloween with a midnight screening, to add to the tension. With the timing of the release and the graphic images the film is really aimed at adult males probably between the ages of 18 and 35. The secondary audience is likely to be teenagers below eighteen but will see the film anyway.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The main actors and that we used in our film are:

Freddie Highmore--Young Damien


Shia LaBeouf—Older Damien


Alan Rickman—Damien’s Father



The reason we casted Freddie Highmore as young Damien is purely because he looks young and innocent, and that is what we wanted Damien to look like before he went through horrific injuries. Shia LaBeouf is cast as larger physical and can act quite darkly he is the complete opposite to Freddie who’s young and innocent compared to Shia who’s older and has a darker persona. We casted Alan Rickman because after the fire Damien’s father becomes and alcoholic and Alan can act like the scary, obnoxious rude person, similar to Snape who he played in Harry Potter. These actors could attract people as chances are people who fall in our target audience will probably be fans of series like Harry Potter and Transformers in which some of these actors star.  

Also the fact that oour title sequence is quite mysterious, and doesn't really reveal what he is actuallly goping to do, the fact that he is burning a school photo creates tension as he is cleraly a older teenager/man and the audience do not like to see children get hurt. And that could potentially happen

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

In this project I used tow technologies that I had never used before; those were Final cut pro and Garage Band. I had used other editing software such as iMovie but nothing as complex. We used Garage Band to make the song for our sequence we made the song completely from scratch and I think that it turned out well it really added something to the sequence it got tenser as the sequence went on. Although when we assigned roles Harj was supposed to be editing we all had a turn at editing, none of us had ever used final cut pro so it took us a while to get used to it but once we got the hang of it editing the sequence didn’t take us too long. Also this was the first time that I had ever blogged regularly, I think that it is a good way to keep up with what you are doing and also it is good type way to show who has done what in the group.     

Since my continuity sequnce i have learned many things. Firstly in the continuity sequence we broke the 180 degree rule, and also the editing wasn't great, however i felt that we learnt from these expieriences, and overall it meant that our title seqwunce came out better than it woudl have been originally.




Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?


In this task I have definitely improved my editing skills have learned to use final cut pro and have improved my knowledge with garage band. Also I have learned that the most complicated idea is definitely not the best thing to do. Our title sequence was quite complicated and as a result did not turn out as good as it could have done, a simpler idea would have been easier to film and to edit, the most complicated ideas take so much more work to film and try to get right that in the future it is probably easier to settle on an easier idea.   



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