Evaluation 7

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


Looking back at the preliminary task, i can see an improvement in how we have all worked together and taken more time to produce an effective media product. I feel that i have also improved my knowledge of using a camcorder and the editing process when putting our film together. 
In the preliminary task, we had to include match on action, 180 degree rule and shot/reverse shot. At first i was unaware as to what these termed meant, therefore i learnt about them which improved my knowledge. Also we were restricted as we had to use these shots, we also had to include a conversation of some type between two people, to demonstrate these shots, therefore when doing the main task we were able to experiment with more angles and shots, which we feel improved our main task. 
One of the main differences between is that during our preliminary task, we used Microsoft PowerPoint to keep track of our work and to present our work. This is obviously very different to keeping track of our work on a blog, the blog is more technical and allows us to do more activities like post clips. 

The blog is also a lot more organised and detailed compared to the PowerPoint of the Preliminary task.

During the Preliminary task, we were very new to using the software Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0 and the camcorder, therefore we needed to familiarize ourselves with the software. This was  a chance for us to make mistakes, learn from them and ensure that they would not happen when doing our main project. 

During the preliminary task, we did not spend a vast amount of time on the editing, which is evident when watching our film for this task. Each frame does not flow into the next smoothly and it is very jumpy. Therefore we knew this was something we had to work on during our main task.

 This frame was one of the first within our preliminary task, this would of led to a match on action shot. As you can see we have also included the title in this first shot. 
We have used white and red for the title, but we did not think as to why we have chosen these colour's. For our main task, we looked into the meaning behind colour's for example, red is associated with blood, anger and danger, therefore it works well when associating it with the genre horror. Here we did not think as to why we were using these colour's. 

We also did not think about editing the lighting, we pretty much kept it the same and did very little editing to it. where as in the preliminary task, we made it so that the setting was much darker to ensure that it looked how you would expect it to when watching a film of this genre. 

This frame demonstrates the adjustment of the lighting, it also shows the variety of shots that we used, in this shot, we used a long shot, which we were unable to use in our preliminary task. These various shots i feel contribute to making this film clip a successful Horror opening scene. 

I feel that my editing skills have improved a lot, because we spent a lot more time and effort on editing during our main task than the preliminary task. Also we had to re-edit our whole film due to technical difficulties. Therefore i feel i have learnt a lot about the editing process and this may help me with future projects. 

Evaluation 6

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

During this process, we have used various technologies to assist us in creating our media product:

- Sanyo Xacti Camcorder - to actually film our opening scene


- Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0 - to edit our opening scene
- Blogger - to keep track of all the work we have been doing through out this project
- YouTube - to do deconstructions of existing footage and we uploaded our video to youtube. 
- Microsoft Excel - to create the data graphs for our audience research tasks
- Microsoft Word - for creating questionnaires
- Paint - print screens of the editing process, the graphs and storyboard
- VLC player 






Most of these technologies i was very familiar with, but during this process i have learnt a lot more about Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0 and Blogger which i was not as familiar with than the others

Evaluation 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by uploading our clip to YouTube, therefore our audience could easily access our video. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSaZ7jjjD8o




Here is the link to our annotated video, we have used the annotation tool on YouTube to explain how we have attracted and addressed our audience. We've refered to how our film is simillar to the normal genre conventions of Horror, use of music and othe factors.        

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The Demographics of our product are those aged between 15 - 20, and we have chosen this age range as we are within this age range. Therefore we have a very good idea as to what our interests are, therefore when creating our media product, we are in the same mind frame as our target audience, allowing us to create a more successful and suitable product. 

Evaluation 3

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

A Production company is a company that is responsible for the physical production of new media, performing arts, film, radio and television program. The company can either be small or large, they sell its products to a film studio or presenting it at a theatrical venue.

A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing (e.g. DVDs, television)



An example of a production company is Paramount pictures which have distributed films like 

• Shutter Island
• Paranormal Activity
• The Lovely Bones

In this context, the production company could be considered to be our group, our teacher and the ICT office as we have all been involved in the making and editing of our media product. 

                            

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The key character i have chosen from our media product is the little girl that has been traumatized by the death of her parents, and abuse by a stranger, she later ends up murdering the man that abused her. This character can be compared to various characters like the grudge, orphan, and the ring. Comparisons can be made with the character Samara from the 2002 film The Ring.

The Ring is about a cursed video tape that when you watch it, you die seven days later. The creator of this tape was a girl called Samara. Samara was pushed down a well by her adoptive mother Anna Morgan and died seven days later, creating a cursed videotape to show the world the misery she suffered from in her life. Although this is quite a different story line to our film 'Distorted' they do share some similarities.

Both these characters share similarities and differences in there character and how they are portrayed:

Similarities:

• They are both young girls and in terms of costumes they both wear white dresses which makes them look quite innocent which is ironic and contrasts to their actions.
• In both films, they turn into the villian, under similar circumstances which is to do with their parents.
• In terms of appearance, they both have dark hair that often covers their faces.

Differences:

• They have different reasons as to why they have been traumatized therefore why they have committed their actions. In our film, the girl has lost her parents, where as in the ring, the girl was pushed down a well by her mother. 
• Differences in how they hurt/affect other people 

Evaluation 1

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

We decided to add the title of our film "Distorted" is placed nearing the end of the opening scene, so that it does not distract the audience of what is happening within the scene. The font used for the title is 'Papyrus' and is in the color red. We decided to use this color as many people associate it with anger or blood, therefore linking to the genre of our film. When researching into opening scenes of the Horror genre, we found that red was a popular color. As we can see from our previous deconstruction of the Horror film 'The Grudge', red is the color used through out the opening scene. This color font is used to display the opening credits of the film, and is the main background color on the shot that is introducing the film title. 


The setting that we used is most evident in the 3rd and 4th shot. As we can see in the 3rd shot, it is the character walking down the church steps creating a very enclosed space to film within, therefore we did not use a tripod. Although the steepness and small space of this shot creates an eerie atmosphere for the audience. 
The 4th shot illustrates the setting of the woods, it shows the victim of the little girl within the film, lying on the floor after being stabbed. We would associate lonely and isolated areas and places with the genre of horror as it does evoke a creepy atmosphere. 


The 7th shot best illustrates the costume and props that were included when making this product. It shows clearly the use of the fake blood that we used to make a wound on the victim.  It also displays the costume of one our our characters which was the rain jacket, which we had to make look very rough and torn to illustrate the struggle between the girl and her victim.

Through the editing process we were able to adjust the image so that it created a more frightening atomosphere and eerie feeling for the audience. Before we began adjusting the brightness of the image, it was much brighter than it is now, we have now made it much more gloomy and dark which people associate with this genre.

We feel this opening sets the story up very well as it causes confusion for the audience as they are unsure as to what is going on in this specific point in time of the film. The opening scene is a fast forward of what has happened as a result of the events within the story. The rest of the film illustrates what has happened to cause these events and therefore the audience can watch the story unfold. If you had just seen this opening sequence, you would not understand why the girl it in a church, what she has got to do with man who is lying down, wounded in the woods.

The opening scene suggest the genre of Horror in a number of ways
- Blood & Gore
- Colour scheme
- Setting

From our audience research, we can see that Blood and Gore is the most favoured element in a Horror film, therefore we can safely assume that this is what the audience think makes a horror film. In our opening scene, we've included blood and gore as you can see one of the main characters in the opening scene is wounded, and a bloody wound can be clearly seen.

The coulour scheme within the opening scene mainly cosists of dark coulours like black or greys. This is continues through out the opening scene until it reaches the title where a bloody red colour is used. Both black and red are associated with Death or blood, therefore these colours work very well within our opening scene.

The setting is key to our genre, firstly the woods is a very isolated area, it is often hard to see through all the trees and leaves and therefore there is a sense of the unknown, which is often what a Horror film is required. Secondly, the church is a very dark and claustraphobic place. Both these settings help add to the factors that make this opening scene fit in with the Horror genre.

The two main characters are both introduced in this opening scene, but in a way that would lead the audience to question their current positions, For example Why is that man in the woods wounded? Why has the girl got blood on her? etc.