Sunday 20 March 2011

Evaluation- Q7.

Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Since completing our media product and the preliminary task I have learnt how hard it is to create a film with no budget while maintaining a sense of realism. From having this low budget we have only been able to shoot a small range of shots where as if we'd of had a budget we would of been able to buy or hire specialist equipment. 
We have also learnt the rule of shot reverse shot which we challenged in the preliminary task and now I understand the idea of it and we've seen without using this method the text wont make sense because it doesn't look as if the two participants are sat facing eachother, I have also learnt that it is an effective way to show binary opposition of two characters which is what we should of done in our film opening coursework task but didn't have time to change.
I have also learnt all of the semiotic terms:
Signifier - A detail we pick out of a text that the audience sees has a significant meaning for example a blonde busty woman is a signifier of your typical 'screamqueen'
Denotation - A description of what you can see or hear e.g. we can denote from the high pitched scream that a female is being killed.
Connotation - What is signifier carries a specific meaning.
Binary opposition - Two opposite charcters shown in a text together which can be shown in shot reverse shot for example a scream queen and a final girl an example of this in a text would be in Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.
Polysemic - An idea given that carries many possible meanings although the preferred reading was intended by the producers although an audience may not take it in and instead go for a meaning close to this (contested reading) or the opposite of what the producers wanted to signify (oppositional reading) 
Commutation test - Changing a key item on scream e.g a character clothing choice to see if there is a significant change to the audience reaction for example if James Bond wore a Pink bikini on an advertising poster or billboard it would change the who genre interpretation of the text from an action film to a Gay film.
Narrative enigma - A hidden element within a text to add an element of mystery used to engage the audience or hide a killer in Horror genre films.
Intertextuality - Meanings from another text being tied into a newer one to show a similar meaning or imply the same thing will happen again for example if we'd of had our killer Katie filing her nails at her desk it would have intertexual connotations of the killer in 'A Nightmare on Elms street' 
Verisimilitude - Creating and achieving a sense of realism by what you apply to a text on screen and example of this would be Katies beauticians outfit that she wears in out opening.

Evaluation- Q6.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the production of our coursework productions we used a series of new technologies ranging from Garage band to the Apple software on the school computers.


From the very beginning, the basics have always become more advanced, for example turning a camera on and to be able to shoot a product based on genre, storyline and for it to actually make sense, does take alot of preparation but the outcomes great if you know how to use the programs available to you.



Apple mac computers had the variety of softwares we used to complete our two minute product. These included iMovie, LiveType and many more. IMovie was the main and most involved application that we used on the mac, it helped us edit clips, uploading the footage, adding transitions and sound effects as well as the soundtrack itself. Once you know what to click at the right time, the software is automatically a very simple friendly way to creating a product.
Blogging was the main source, when it came to research and planning, so we added posts, followed other blog's to look at existing work etc. Also we watched films based on our genre, or key ideas, so this also was included towards adding new posts on our blogs, to explain what we saw and if it effected our product through other ideas, cast, mise en scene etc.
For further research on specific genres, films, working titles, or even actors,IMDBYouTube and  Wikipedia, were the obvious, mosty used sites for this kind of information.


Watching a Horror/Slasher, we can all agree that the more intense the music, the more predictive it makes out that someone is going to get killed or a false scare may occur, so the soundtrack played an important part for our media production. 

To conclude, the softwares, and resources we had available to us we used although obviously if we were a professional production team we would of been open to use more, professional resources if our film wasnt low/no budget (indie production)

Evaluation- Q5.

How did you attract/address your audience?
Our production will attract teens our target audience because some people say 'teens will watch anything involving blood, violence and sex' our opening contains blood and violence but not sexual references because there wasnt enough time to fit everything in in the opening two minutes. We chose our cast specifically to make the audience be able to relate to the charcaters we chose them in the same age group although we felt Katie looked older which was appropraite because we also needed to create a sense of realism (verisimilitude) for example you wouldnt have a teenager playing a manager of a salon origionally we had the actual owner of the salon playing the role of the killer but unfortunatly she was busy on most of the dates on our filming schedual. We also took advantage of the idea of the male gaze using Katie to our advantage to attract our male audience because as everyone knows the powerful women in society are often seen as the most attractive for example Betsy Palmer in Halloween (in her day, see left) and Laurie Metcalf starring in Scream as Mrs Loomis (see left) we also worked really hard on the idents relating the Bricolage productions one to be urban and fresh to attract younger audience types although we see that people outside of our target audience category may view the film such as just general horror lovers.

Audience feedback of final cut

by me emily moore and melsss tell us what you think.. x
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Evaluation- Q4.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our production would be given a BBFC rating of 15+ and the core age range for our target audience would be approximatley 15- 24 with the majority of horror and slasher films in this rating. As even if the film is an 18 rating it is certain that under 18's will watch the film. Also people older than 24 out of the target audience will watch the film too
The target audience for our film opening was between the ages of 15-24 both sexes to widen the audience because we thought we would be able to appeal to both sexes due to the storyline. Females because of the feminist spin on the genre and males because of the killers features and males tend to be more attracted to horrors in general because they love the gore and the element of male gaze as there is always a blonde busty female in them althought teens all together are the main viewers of horror and slasher films the secondary audience. Someone who wasn't in the target audeince may also want to watch the film because of intertexual links such as if we'd of had a shot of Katie filing her nails this would have an intertexual link to A nightmare on Elms street. We went for the 15 rating on our production because we knew if had gone for an eighteen we would of had to of used more explicit images and language which we wernt confortable with using linked with school also we couldn't put our rating at a twelve because of the violence used and the language 'Times up b*tch' which wouldnt be appropriate for children at the age of twelve also the soundtrack is quite spooky which was the way we wanted it because of the genre.

Evaluation- Q3.

3. What kind of media institution might distibute your media product and why?
Because obviously we are not professional film makers we have no budget often known as Indie film makers or Independant film makers our film would never be distributed by any major studios in Hollywood especially when we have had no budget finding our own location to film with permission but even outside of the hige distribution companies some distributors wouldn't distribute horror and slasher films especailly with murder and violent connotations. Our production would never be mass marketed and wouldnt make it to cinemas probably, it would be released only on dvd because of the fact there is no money to promote or market the film.