1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Our Chosen film Ellipsis is a horror movie, based on the typical stereotypical concepts of what we as a group felt was represented throughout the majority of horror movies made today.
As the more effective sub genre horror movies made today are "slasher horrors" we decided to go with this genre because the blood, guts and gore are expected by audiences of today. However, a small minority of films such as "Blair Witch Project" still manage to create fear and captivate the audience just by suggestions of horror with the audience never actually seeing any blood. As such, we tried to encompass both genres within our film Ellipsis to reach maximum audience enjoyment.
I feel our film challenges the typical use of characters in sub genre horror movies as we have tried to represent females as stronger characters. We do not have any of the typical male macho heroic characters who manage to save the day.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We filmed Ellipsis with a target audiences in mind of 15-30 year olds. To help us achieve this we used characters on our film aged 17-18 years old. This was to ensure our target audience would be able to emphasise with our characters more and understand where they were coming from. The older of our target group would still consider themselves young enough to remember what it was like to be a teenager/younger person.
The teenage age group are often viewed as those who would be more likely to participate in risk behaviours and putting themselves in risky situations without much thought about what they were doing. This is Probably why movies such as "Friday the 13th" and "Blair Witch Project" show teenagers going to places where they end up in danger.
In addition to this, we continued with the stereotypical approach of what is perceived by some as the typical "weaker sex" (female) being in danger. This image is quite often used in horror movies where the "stronger, macho sex" (male) is both the hero who saves the day and the "monster" who perpetrates the horror. Our first scene follows this stereotypical approach where a teenage girl is alone, and helpless in an old abandoned house in the woods.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I feel that using a distribution company such as Warner Brothers for our film would be the best way of ensuring our film hits the largest target group as possible. They are an extremely well known distributor for not only horror movies such as "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Friday the 13th", but have a reputation for delivering quality popular films in all genres of movies (for example the Harry Potter films).
They appear to work with a whole host of films with different budgets and work closely with independent companies. Over the years Warner Brothers has had distribution and/or co-production deals with a number of small companies such as ours. these have included Virtual Studios, Castle Rock Entertainment and Spyglass Entertainment. as such, I feel they have the appropriate contacts to take our film to a wide ranging audience.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience is the age group 15-30 years old. To assist in ensuring we appeal to this group, we have used teenage characters to allow the audience to understand and empathise with the characters in our film. We have also tried to ensure our female characters are stronger than is normally portrayed so that they appeal more to the female population. The blood and gore aspect we felt would appeal to the male population.
We also produced a questionnaire which allowed us to gather the opinions of people in our target group, to ensure we were right to aim our film at their age group. All those we asked felt the film was appropriate to their age group, and they would watch it.
In helping us decide what certification our film should be, we examined the certification of other similar films. These included Blair Witch Project (15), Friday 13th (18) and Texas Chain saw Massacre (18). We felt our film should be certified as a 15, as we didn't include any images of torture, sexual activity or explicit images of violence.
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
We have attracted our audience by using characters from our target group. we feel this will allow the audience to emphasise and better understand our characters.
In addition, we have used typical sub genre horror themes of suspense, tension and the usual blood and gore to attract those of the audience who will watch our film just because they enjoy watching horror movies.
We have used the scenes of a dark room, where the camera slow pans to increase the feeling of suspense of what is to come.The sudden scream is intended to pierce the air and make the audience jump and thereby increasing their anticipation of what is to come also.
We have also chosen non diegetic music, because it allows us to create a further depth to the feeling of tension and suspense, especially as it becomes louder and louder. The audience are made to feel more is to come and encourage to carry on watching.
6) What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
Before undertaking this project, I had very little knowledge of the technology used in making film productions. As the making of our film progressed, so did my understanding of the technology needed to ensure the end product was as professional and polished as possible.
I have learnt how to use the following equipment/technology;
- Sony HDV 1000 camera and tripod - specialist media filming equipment.
- Tungsten lights - to enhance the visual effects.
- Final cut express editing software - to assist in the final editing of our film.
From using this equipment I have developed my skills in;
- shooting different shots, for example smooth shots of different scenes and locations.
- techniques such as zooming in on characters and panning shots.
- how to edit films effectively.
- how to create simple visual effects such as shadowing with the tungsten lights.
The problems I encountered included;
- Ensuring the camera stayed in focus.
- Allowing time for filming when we were hit with bad weather.
7)Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Through undertaking the activity of producing a 2 minute film, I feel I have gone through a steep learning curve. Probably the biggest lesson learnt was the importance of team work, and how working effectively together produces better results.
I have also learnt how to effectively research my projects. It is important that this is undertaken thoroughly and commenced before you undertake the project to ensure it then runs smoothly and effectively.
My ability to understand how technology works and be able to implement it into any project, has also increased. I have improved my skills and confidence in handling a camera and tripod. I understand the different effects a camera can create to improve the overall effect of your film. in addition, I am now able to use programmes to edit and cut to create different visual effects.
Finally it has given me an understanding of how film making is hard work!
After making our film we held a audience feedback session, which consisted of a sample of our target audience giving us feedback on our film. These are a few of their comments:
"Editing was continuous"
"Had a Dark Begining which showed it was a horror"
"Could have made it a bit longer"
Overall, i think the feedback was helpful as there was a mix of different opinions on what was good about the film and what we could have done better.
Here is the link for the rest of the feedback session:
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