EVALUATION - LUCINDA CONNELLY

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

My film is a horror film and I have tryed to keep it generally like a classic horror, for example, a group of teenagers in a wood is a common story line and is used quite often in a horror movie. Horror also usually includes some mystery,suspense and a monster/bad guy. I have tryed to use all of these conventions in my movie.

I didn't challenge forms of former products of the same genre because people usually expect some form of monster and suspense so I gave my audience what they'd expect from a horror movie. I also just wanted a simple story that isn't too complex so my product would be easy to produce.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My product represents particular social groups by having all the actors between 18 and 21, this is because the audience i'm aiming for is around this age and will appeal to our audience if there is people in the film of a similar age. My actors were all pretty casual and normal which represents students as a social group, they're pretty laid back. Which makes sense because most horrors are 18+ which is the age of students. The characters are not really from any particular "click" eg. Goth, punk, plastic, emo this makes the movie more open to a wider audience and if it was full of goths for example it may put some people off because they don't like them.


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

For the UK I would try to get distributed by Blue Dolphin and in USA, New line cinema. This is because "The texas chainsaw massacre " was distributed by these and it was an independant film and had a small budget, I chose this as an example because my film would be an independent film as it is shot in the UK and also had a small budget so we couldn't include things that take masses of money like famous actors and locations that are far away. It's also a good example because they had a tiny budget and made loads from it.


4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience would be for those 18 years and over, especially to younger adults. This is because the horror genre is usually too scary for those younger than 18 and most are rated 18. Also those who are older may not be used to watching movie full of realistic blood and gore and slasher movies usually excite those who are younger.


5. How do you attract/address your audience?

My film is for 18 years and older, so to attract this young adult audience I would use flashy posters and trailers with gorey images that look scary. I would also advertise on things like facebook and myspace.com because younger people use alot of social networking sites.
It is also for both genders and not really for any perticular social group. This opens up opportunities to do alot with the film because you don't have to keep it pg. 13 for children, you don't have to keep it butch and manly for male audiences and you don't have to have a soppy romance story line for the women. I have attracted my audience by producing a classic horror story, which should keep old fans of horror movies happy and the actors who are young are relatable to people who havn't been a fan of horrors that long.

6. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?

I have learnt alot about technology from the process of constructing my product. I had to learn how to use the equipment, which i've never really properly used before.
I have learnt to not rely on one copy of something, as it could be erased/deleted. As our previous blog work was and we had to re-start it all over again. I have also learnt that when using a camera you should keep checking the footage to see if it has actually recorded something so that you're not left with nothing at the end, like what happened with me. I also know now that you should make plenty attempts at a shot because something could go wrong when editing. I also should have used a white balance because some shots in my product had different lighting.
I used imovie to edit the film. I cut the film up into separate shots and put the into order to create the film. I learnt how to change the volume of the different shots to make the wind noise lower and the voices louder. I also learnt how to add music to it and cut that up and fade it in and out between the shots.
I have learnt from editing with imovie is to save work every couple of minutes as technology, as great as it is, can be unreliable.


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

I have learnt alot about filming by working on my product. I knew what I wanted to get out of doing this film and tryed to shoot as much as I possibly could in the short time limit we had left after complications (having to start again, not enough actors, tripod broke and camera not working properly). I have learnt that working independently can be difficult but it has it's benefits including freedom to shoot when I want and what I want. I have learnt how to use a camera, which I didn't know anything about before this project. I have learnt that making out a big plan at the beginning and going into fine detail was a wrong way to go as it wasted alot of time and just lead to conflict between the group, from this I learnt to adjust and change as the project went along and to keep adding details to make the film better and to suit the needs of my cast. I learnt how to edit a film and where to add music to create atmosphere, I also learnt that you need to research into the chosen genre in order to know how to fulfill my audiences needs.
I have also learnt that it is important to think about location more into detail as there could be different hazards and complications, for example I kept tripping over branches in the woods, to rectify this I would choose a location that is a little safer where there are less hazards.