Friday 4 March 2011

Part 8- Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full project?

Overall what was successful about your preliminary task?

What was successful was the outcome of our opening title sequence. The technology we used helped toward our final project. It did not fault at any time during production. I think the ideas that we came up with worked well and out of them came a well finished production.

What was least successful?

There was nothing pre or post-production that was not successful. Maybe a little more research could of benefitted us.

How did you improve upon each of these areas when making your title sequence?

There were a few mishaps with the syncing of the sound and images. Though this was only minor and was dealt with straight away.
Part 7- What have you learnt about techniques from the process of constructing this project?

What key decisions did you make about technology during pre-production/production/ post preduction?

The main decision that we made about technology, would of been to use iMovie over Final cut pro. We believed that this would be more effective for us, as we have all used it before. There were not any other decisions that we had to make during and after our production. This made everything a lot easier.

Why were these decisions made?

We made these decisions as non of us had used Final cut pro before. So sticking to the basic iMovie, made things a whole lot easier. We were about to get editing done quickly and effectivley.

What technology did you use at each stage?

For the filming, we used the camcorder for this stage. For the editing portion, we used the iMovie on the apple macs. We used Garage Band on the macs to do the soundtrack.

What have you learnt?

I have learnt that you need good technology to help get the best for your sequence. It helps with the smallest of things.
Part 6- How did you attract/ address your audience

Do you think you have reached your target audience?

I feel that we did reach our target audience. We used many techniques and characteristics that helped create horror films. This means ur film will have the same effect on it's audience that other successful horror films has had in the past.

What did you include when planning your production that you thought would appeal to your audience?

For our planning, we thought of a horror genre. This lead to a zombie film straight away. We blieved this to be a good idea as zombie films are always big hits in the box office. This gave us many ideas to chose from and with a load of zombie films to help research, we knew we could come up with a good idea for our story. We thought of, like many other films, to leave a cliff hanger. This would lead into more intrest for a sequal.

Using quotes from the audience feedback address how these did appeal and why?

The feedback that we got from the audience that watched the sequence was mainly good points.
Feedback Quotes:
'I want to know what happens next!'
'Good sound'
'Good selective shots'
'Good narrative and typography'

What this tells us, is that our film did appeal to the audience. I believe it went well beacuse we did not give too mush away. We left the audience guessing and leaving them to want to know more. As we had good feedback, we did not have to improve our films that much.

Overall what else has been successful in your production according to audience feed back?

What was successful was the way we all worked together. We all picthed in, this leading to good response from the audience. We all helped in one department or the other, that's why our sequence worked out really well. This is why i believe that the audience the opening sequnce.

What was least successful?

Our main problem in our sequence was the fact it looked like a trailer more than a film. But help from teachers and audience feedback, we were able to fix this problem. After removing the text that caused this, our sequence became more a film, than a trailer.

How could the work be imroved?

If we were to imrove anything, it would be to maybe show a zombie. This gives the audience something to be scared of. Though when looking back at the sequence, not much would need to be imroved.
Part 5- How does your media product represent particular social groups?


Camera, Angle, shot movement and Position

The opening of our sequence focuses on one young man. We wanted him to be the focus of our social group, this is hy we have a close up of his face. We wanted him to bring in the young crowds. We also wanted to show what young kids could achieve by theirselves. We also used because it strikes a bigger impact of fear into the audiences eye and makes them think about what is there.

Sound

We created our own music for the sequence and that worked really well. It was a slow sound that worked well with the long scened we used. It gives the sequence tension and makes it scary. It fits in perfectly with the scene, making it work really well. This could also help with young social groups that are into music and sound. As we created our own, it could inspire them to want to do similar work.

Editing

In this seqeunce, we have a mixture of different cuts. This helps keep the young majority of audience indulged as they like fast paced action. This is why we used a mixture of cuts. Longer taking cuts, build up the tension and keep the audience guessing. Quick cuts keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Part 4- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?



Narrative

In our opening sequence, we establish the narrative of the story from the beginning. This is because we used text to help the audience understand what has happened so far. In doing so, this helps the audience have an idea of what to expect. We got the idea of this from other films that have done the same. These films included Terminator Salvation and Bladerunner. These were both effective when used.

Genre

Our sequence is not meant to give a lot away, but you can still see the horror genre that we have chosen. This is shown by the music that's played over the top. It gives the sequence an eary and edgy feel. This is typical in a horror sequence. Music like this used in horror films such as The Shining. This was really effective as it made a simple looking sequence scary. We also used a scary type of text. This works well as it suits the sequence. This overall creates an effective horror opening sequence.

Camera, Angle, Shot movement and Position

We used many long shots in our sequence. These shots help show setting. These shots were also a good way to help introduce characters to the scene. We used tight shots to help create a sense of understanding in the audience. This helped create the tension needed to give the film a scary feel.

Continuity and Editing

 There were many cuts throughout our sequence. We used long scenes to help create tension. We didn't want to use many quick cuts, as it would ruin the long eary feel we wanted to create. Overall, it worked really well.

Sound

We created our own music for the sequence and that worked really well. It was a slow sound that worked well with the long scened we used. It gives the sequence tension and makes it scary. It fits in perfectly with the scene, making it work really well.

Mise-en -Scene

When we look at the mise-en-scene, there's a lot to talk about about. We gave the actors very casual clothes to wear. This shows that they are average, normal day, kids. Also shows us that this zombie outbreak was unexpected. We used different props throughout our opening title, guns and a fake hand. The fake hand was used in many scenes. This helped as an indicator to show that the area is dangerous. This goes for the guns as well. The lighting in this sequence varies. This is because scenes are in and outside. What helps is that the outside is quite gloomy. This is because it had been raining and the sky weren't as bright.

Typography

The text we used throughout was effective. This is because it has a broken effect. This suits the sequence as our film is violent. The title is different as it is blood red. This suiting the film as zombies are drawn to blood. Also the effect on it gives the sequence an edgy feel.
Part 3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The media institution we wanted to distribute our film was Columbia pictures. We chose these because they have released many horror films in recent years. One of the films was Zombieland. Other horror films by Columbia include The Grudge and 30 Days of Night.

Part 2- Who would be the audience for your product?

The audience that we are aiming for is 15-21. These ages were chosen as horror films are mainly aimed at these particular age groups. We did not have a specific gender for our film. This is because we know girls and boys are into zombie films. Also with the young the characters, young people could relate to them. We would also like to the reach the zombie fans and people who enjoy zombie games. This would be a film that they would enjoy. We would hope that our film would be just as good as other hit zombie films. For example: Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days later and the recent comedy hit Zombieland.  These films were a hit with the similar age groups we have chosen.