Evaluation

Serena Rossi

Evaluation

To produce a film opening to include titles no more than two minutes long.

As part of our media AS course, Christy and I had to produce a short, two minute opening of a film. We have produced a thriller/drama called ‘The Unexpected’. Our media product involves a number of various different shots to make our opening of a film more affective. Our first shot is a long tracking shot of a young women walking into her drive way and into her house. The camera switches to the inside of the house so the audience see a close up of the young women entering her home and slamming the door behind her. This gives a chance for the audience to see the innocent young women and how she is represented. High angle shots are used to make the film interesting so the viewers are curious and want to watch more. Whilst mysterious panorama things start to happen, extreme close ups are used to focus on the young girls emotions and reactions which creates a scare to the audience. Long/medium shots are also used of the television and the young women sitting down reading a magazine. A title appears on the television before anything happens so the audience are focussing in the correct place before it switches itself on dramatically. Diagetic sounds of the television create an uneasy atmosphere that is very realistic. The camera switches to hand held shots looking through the house windows through the film to give a sense that someone is watching her with breathing noises and footsteps. Through these shots, they emphasises the scare in the film as the young girl becomes venerable. The last couple of shots that are used are an over the shoulder shot of when there is a knock on the door creating a question to the audience, who could it be. We feed a nervous vibe of the young girl as she steps back and gasps in a medium shot, as she wasn’t expecting the knock at the door.

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

Our media product develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products by the various shots that are used to create a thriller/dramatic atmosphere and theme, also by the original music we created and added to the product.  Christy and I used ‘Hammer Film Productions’ as it is a film production based in the United Kingdom, known for distributing hammer/horror films. Therefore we thought ‘The Unexpected’ would fit in well. In our research, we found films similar to the one we produced the most involving to the audience. We noticed a number of them used powerful extreme close ups of the persons reaction and emotions making it clear to the audience how they are feeling. The sounds we used gave a mysterious feel to the product and stood out to people who gave us feedback that particularly enjoyed the music and felt it made the film. We liked the affect the extreme close ups gave to some films; therefore we incorporated it in our own. The titles we developed in our media product were carefully placed over shots that we thought could give a gesture to the audience on where to look, for example as I explained above about the television. We used art of the titles to gain ideas for originality and what ones stood out for us. It is important to get the correct font and size right depending on the genre of a film and we thought ‘Times New Roman’ created a formal approach and suited it best. We planned our titles before hand on a digital storyboard so we knew where they had to go but not all of them stuck to the original plan, as they didn’t look correctly placed. We came up with number main titles but chose ‘The Unexpected’ as we thought it described our media product and was suitable and relevant to our finished product.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

‘The Unexpected’ is based in the outskirts of London located in a middle class house. The first long panning shot reveals the middle class house so the audience get to see the location and an idea of where it is set. We can also tell by the Mise En Scene by looking at the young woman’s clothing which is casual and nicely dressed. Particular shots during the film reveal the sizes of the rooms and the furniture, which the audience would associate with the middle class.

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

Christy and I thought the best production company suited for the genre of ‘The Unexpected’ that would distribute our media product would be Film4 productions. Our research found that Film4 distributes many Dramas and thought ‘The Unexpected’ would fit in and be shown on television. Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel 4 Television Corporation. The company has distributed a large number of films made in the United Kingdom. An example that film4 has distributed is a Thriller called ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ that was released in 2004. Hammer is a London based production of exclusive media and a successful British film brand. Since it re-opened in 2007, Hammer has released 'Let Me In', 'The Resident', 'Wake Wood' and 'The Women In Black'. Moreover, we decided that Hammer films was the best company to use and Film4 was the best distributer because of our genre and its relation to films they have produced and distributed.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our media product’s target audience is aimed at sixteen to twenty one age group, as the genre is most appealing to teenagers/young adults. This is because the young women starring in ‘The Unexpected’ is located in that age category. Primary research has also been found to show that sixteen to twenty one year olds are most likely to watch thriller/drama films. We asked opinions from a number of people in different age groups and a 30 – 40 year old said “I rarely watch thrillers these days because I think I’ve grown out of them. I am not scared by watching them like I used to be.” We asked a 16 – 21 year old the same question that replied, “I love thrillers, horrors and dramas! I have probably watched more scary films than any other category”. This made Christy and I feel that young people would most likely enjoy this film, as it is realistic and dramatic.

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

I have learnt a number of things about technologies from the process of constructing ‘The Unexpected’ on Final Cut Express from creating titles and sounds and how to address them onto shots imaginatively. Creating the titles, firstly we planned them on a digital story board over particular shots and when editing the final product on final cut express we could move and drag the titles around on the specific shot and change the font size to make it fit in. Some of our shots have changed in our finished product compared to the digital story board as some of them were cut out and didn’t look that effective whilst we were editing. We produced the music by asking a girl who studies music for A Level to play and develop sounds on an electronic keyboard that was plugged into garage band where we could alter and add sounds. The repetitive feel it has to it creates a sense of suspense throughout the film drawing the audiences’ attention, making them want to understand what is going on.

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

The Preliminary task gave us a preparation of what we could use in our full product. We learnt how to film on an 180degree line with a shot reverse shot. Because we only had one character in our media product we could not use the shot reverse shot. However, we had to plan and storyboard the shots and speech we would use in the preliminary task which prepared us for how to plan our opening of a film. Our film also a linear structure with continuity editing that relates back to the preliminary task. Although ‘The Unexpected’ opening does switch back to a hand held movement from another person’s point of view which could be classified as parallel editing.