Evaluation Activity 7 - What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Editing

During our film there was a certain scene/part that was cut more fluently. We thought we would do this as it really built up the suspense and fitted in well with those specific shots. Although it cut from shot to shot really quickly you were still able to catch a glimpse of what is happening in each shot. We used a range of different shots to make sure our film looked effective. For example the shot that had really effective editing and really and you feel anxious was when the antagonist was following the victim down the staircase. Even though you only see the antagonist for a split second it still makes the film feel creepy and really gives off that horror vibe. In our preliminary task we didnt plan what shots we were gonna cut to and from, we thought we would tackle that obstacle when we came to it. When we started to edit our film we came up with so many ideas of how to cut which shot to make sure it looked professional. We tried out a couple of different cuts to each scene/shot to see which one looked best. We thought by doing it this way it would give us more option and we were able to see our film in many different ways/styles.

Mise - en - scene

In our preliminary task we had planned to film our film in a totally different location. We were going to film it at one of the actors houses, something came up so we were not able to film at this location. We did not have much time left before we had to start filming so we had to think quickly. This is when we came up with filming it at school. This was very practical as we were all in school every single day during the week so made filming our film a lot quicker.We think having it turn out like this and having to film at school was the best for us and our film as we were able to film it a lot quicker and have more time to focus on the editing and making sure our film was the best it could be. Also as we were at school during the day it meant lighting was not an issue. This was helpful in many ways as we were able to film whenever we wanted and not have to worry about if it will be getting dark soon. Although we had a set back at the start of this project we managed to over come it and produce good quality work. We did not spend much on our costumes or spend much time thinking about them, this was because we wanted to focus more on the camera work for our film. We spent the most time thinking about Harriet's costume and make up, seeing as she was the main character. The thing we spent the most time thinking about was Harriet's special effects make up. We really wanted to get it right as this was one of the main things that was going to stand out in our film. We thought it really showed off the fact that it was a horror film and was a typical convention.

Camera

In our film we used a range of of different camera shots. In our preliminary task we drew out a story board and included what type of shots each of those scenes would be filmed. However because we had to change the location we had to draw out another story board and decide what camera shots/angels we were going to use for our new opening 2 minutes. We included close up's, long shots, medium shots and over the shoulder shots. This was a wide range of camera shots and we felt it really brought our film together as their was a variety of shots which mixed it up a bit throughout the opening 2 minutes. We also included some match cutting in our film. We thought this would be effective because it really shows off our skills and how we showed and understood them.

Sound

In our film we included 2 different sound tracks. One of the tracks was played throughout the film and the other one was used for the 'booms' and for the last scene in our film. We thought we would have a sound track playing throughout our film because it built more suspense and gave it a creepy feel. Although many people may think its not that creepy we thought it created the right vibe for our film and fitted in well with the scenes we had filmed. The second sound track was a lot more harsh sounding and was dark. We thought this was the perfect track as we wanted to include some booms into our film to make people jump when their not expecting it. We also included this track at the end of our film as it became a lot more scary and haunted throughout he track and we thought it would fit in nicely right at the end of our opening 2 minutes. With both of these sound tracks we had to cut them down to certain minutes and seconds so we could get the right part of the track and so it went well together with the music that was playing before it. We had a bit of dialog in our film but not much, we thought it would ruin the whole feel of the horror movie if we included too much. The dialog was simple, we wanted to keep it simple because there was not much for the characters to say. The dialog that was used was showing that one of the other characters was worried about their friend, who was the main character. During our preliminary task we did not include any sound. We wanted to get all the filming done before we thought about adding in any sound. After we had filmed all of our scenes and were moving onto editing we were then able to start looking for sound tracks to fit over our film.

Evaluation Activity 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Equipment 

We only used three pieces of equipment, these were a tripod, a camera and a video camera. These were the only three items we needed. We used the camera to take photos throughout our filming so we could put together a filming diary showing people what we had managed to do in the time period we had. We used the tripod to hold the video camera as we wanted the camera to be as still as possible and finally we used the video camera to film our film with. We knew how to use each piece of technology but we learnt more stuff along the way for example we learnt how to put the tripod in different angles to achieve the best looking shot.

YouTube

During the process of making our film and doing our course work, we have had to use a lot of YouTube. We have had to upload certain videos and annotate one. We were familiar with having to upload videos to YouTube although it became a bit complicated the first time we had to upload a video as it was in the wrong file format, but we overcame this very quickly. On one of our videos, which was our finished film, we had to add annotations. This was a challenge as we had never done this before. However once we were shown by someone who knew how to work it, we managed to do complete the task quite quickly.

Adobe Premiere Elements 10

This piece of software was one that i have never used before. When first started to use it to edit our film we really struggled to get to grips with it and figure out where all the tools were that we needed and how to actually use the software itself. However once we had a few lessons using Adobe we were getting the hang of things pretty quickly. There were some obstacles along way, such as the software crashed a few times on us and did not save the work we had completed so we had to re-do it. But we managed to deal with it and get on with the rest of the work that had to be done. One problem that i found was quite frustrating was when we had to keep rendering the film so that it would ruin through it properly, we had to keep doing after we made each change. Apart from these things we managed to produce a film that we are both proud of. I would use this software again as it has so many different tools and features on, you will be able to create some really good videos.

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Evaluation Activity 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Our horror film included things in that our audience will be able to relate to. For example if teenagers came to watch the film they may be able to relate to the characters as they are the same age. It really gets the audience thinking about how they would react or how they would be if they were in this situation. This attracts our audience because it makes it more interesting when the characters are near on the same age as you and makes the film more realistic thinking these events could happen to you.

Even though all our characters were teenagers, young adults still might be able to relate. This could take them back to when they use to go to school and what they use to do. This older audience may feel sorry and worried for the characters in the film. This may attract the young adults because they do not know what they are going to expect and they want to remember what it was like being back at school and what they would have done if this had happened to them.


This is our annotated video;

Evaluation Activity 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Teenagers and young adults would be our target audience for our film. This is because they are always up for a scaring themselves and their friends. They are also the ones who are most likely to go to the cinema and watch this genre of film.

We have created a questionnaire to find out more about what our target audience get up to and enjoy. Our questions are;

• How do you normally spend money? 
• How would you describe your music taste? 
• What are the last 3 films you've seen? 
• If you could only watch one genre of film, what would it be? 
• Describe yourself in 3 words. 
• Where is your favourite place to go on holiday?  
• What scares you the most? 

We created a short video that includes all the answers to these questions;

Evaluation Activity 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What do production companies do? 

Production companies produce the film. They are in charge of all the titles and making sure everything is included in the film that needs to be and making sure the film has been edited properly. With our film we had to make sure all this was done as we were the production company along with being the directors. We had to make sure all the titles were included and were in the right positions and make sure the film looked good enough to publish. The studio provides the money for the production company to produce the film.

The idea of a distributor and who that might be and why. 

Distributors are responsible for taking the product itself to market - for providing the audience with the content itself.  Today Netflix is a popular online content distributor and films like ours are popular with them as younger, technologically aware audiences, are downloading content on a range of multi-platform devices.  Netflix buys the rights to films from producers and them distribution takes place online.  Our film is also a low budget film, so selling the rights to them would be a sensible move because we will not make a loss. Netflix has a such a big audience people will be wanting to see our film and we would be guaranteed a profit.

Where the money came from for a film such as yours. 

It would be a low budget film is it was produced professionally. This is because there was no many elements included in the film that were that expensive. We did not need money to make our film look good, so we stuck to the basics and just made them look like they were produced by using an expensive budget. Also props and clothing would not be that expensive as they were just simple and basic as that was all we had to work with. This was enough for us to produce a good film that looks like its had an expensive budget.

Why the various people are named in the titles - which jobs appear in the titles and in what order and how have you reflected this? 

The people who are named in the titles tend to be the main characters that will be seen the most throughout the film. They are usually the actors/actresses that are very famous and well known. This is good for both the film and the actor/actress and they will become noticed for being in this certain film and if people are fond of these actors/actresses they will be drawn to come and watch this film. The jobs that usually appear in the titles are the people who produce the music, the producer, the director, production company, special effects eg props and make up, editor and the writer. Our film reflected this because we included all the main characters names in the titles along with having the production team, who it was directed by, the people who produced the music for the film and the special effects make up. This makes our film look like it was professionally made because we included most things that other films have.

Evaluation Activity 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This is a key character from our film, the Victim. Harriet Austin (this is who plays the victim, see above picture) is the stereotypical victim. This is because she is totally oblivious to what is happening, She has no idea that she is being followed and carries on like everything is normal. As you will see in the film she is quite popular and has a close circle of friends. She is conforming to the typical horror movie victim as she is needing help but is unaware of it. As you can see Harriet is in casual clothing as she is at school. By having the character in casual clothing it takes some of the attention off of Harriet so that the audience can focus on more important events happening around her.

A character like Harriet in another film is the women out of scream. She is also totally unaware that she is being targeted. She is also represented as the popular one as she thinks that her friends are prank calling her. This is not the case. Th scream character also wears casual clothing as she is just lounging around at home this represents a natural setting like our setting in the film. This is the same as Harriet, they do not want to draw much attention to what the woman is wearing as they want them to focus on other things, such as the phone ringing in this case. A difference between the two is that the actress in scream becomes aware that something is out to get her and is very frightened but in our film Harriet is never aware so gets on with her day to day activities. However another clear difference of these two is that one is filmed at night and one is during the day. It makes it more scary when it is dark so this might explain why the scream character is more scared than what our victim is.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Special effects

We did not use many special effects in our film. However there were a few which were subtle but really made our film look just that bit better.

One major special effect that we used was the make up on Harriet's head. We thought this really made our film as it represented the way Harriet would have been killed. This was all done with special effect make up. We had one of our friends do this for us as she has had experience doing this sort of thing before and knew how to make it look very realistic. We thought this was one of the best things in our film as it really represented that it was a horror movie.

Horror films don't ofen tend to have big budgets and therefore rely on clever uses of small budgets to appeal to their audiences.  Make-up and costumes tend to be key to successful scenes in horror films and we think that what we achieved with our small budget was realistic and lifelike.

In the production of our film we used subtle effects with the text. We choose to use a smear effect on each of our titles. We felt like this really gave it a scary effect as it is like it is being dragged away. It fitted in perfectly with the creepy vibe that was in each scene. We put them on all of the titles to make sure they all looked the same and gave off the same effect.

Evaluation Activity 1 - How characters are introduced

All of our characters were introduced in different ways. By having them introduced in different ways it really tells you what type of person their character is and what role they will have in the film.

Harriet's character, the victim, was first seen in a classroom. She was introduced as a hard working student, who is quiet and does not want any trouble. Harriet's character is given prevalence throughout the whole film. We know this because she is the character that the camera focuses on the most and who the story line is based on. This is an unconventional character as the victims in horror movies are usually very ditsy, unintelligent and clueless. However Harriet subverts to all of these conventions.

We chose to have an unconventional character killed off in our opening.  In Jaws the first characters to be killed are a teenage couple who split off from the group to swim naked in the sea - the risk-takers are the first ones to die and the more conservative characters who are sensible tend to be the only survivors, with the genre reinforcing conservative values to the audience.  In Scream the first character to be killed off is the typical dumb blonde. We know that this character is unintelligent and clueless by the way she is represented. She flirts with the killer on the phone, not having a clue that she is going to be killed by this person and doesn't realise the danger she is in as she is naive. We thought by having an unconventional character killed off it would shake things up a bit and stand out from all the other horror movies which are all the same with the conventions.  Harriet's character is conscientious, hardworking and conservatively dressed - to kill her off early on in the film suggests to the audience that no one is safe and would make the film more challenging, original and tense. 

Sammie's character, the antagonist, was first seen in the classroom as well as Harriet but you only saw Sammie's hand.  When you first saw a part of Sammie you instantly knew she was the antagonist in the film. This was because she was in all black which connotes darkness and mystery. Throughout the film you only see snippets of Sammie Jo's character as we thought this would build suspense. Sammie conforms to the typical conventions of a antagonist as she is creepy and you do not see her face for a while, her identity is hidden to create more tension.

Alex's character, the best friend, was first seen socialising with some other students. Alex was introduced as very calm and always up for a laugh but at the same time really cares about his friends. You do not see much of Alex in the film but its enough. When you do see Alex he is always asking about Harriet's character, this shows he is worried about her and this really shows off his caring side. Alex is also dressed in casual clothes as he is representing a student. Alex's character conforms to the conventions of a typical best friend. This is because he is very laid back and is up for joking around and getting o with everyone, however he still has that caring side that best friends have.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Genre and how the opening suggests it

The genre of out film is horror. We have included many conventions and cliches of horror movies in our opening two minutes.

One major feature that stands our for being a horror movie is the victim being followed. This is a typical convention of a horror movie because they want to make the audience feel uncomfortable. We thought we would do the exact same. We felt like this was a really good idea to include in our film because it really catches your attention, especially when the target audience for the film is the same age as the characters in our film so it really gets them thinking what would they be like if that was them in the victims shoes.

Another cliche that we in our film is the music. We include some creepy music all the way through our film. We thought this really brought our film together. We had two different types of horror music included in our film, one was more tonned than the other. We used the first one, which was played all the way throughout the film, and the second one which was only used at the end. This was because it was more dramatic and was really gripping. With the first horror movie music we made it different volumes with different scenes, this was because we didn't want to get rid of it completely but we didn't want it to overpower some of the events that were happening in the film. We decided to use the more dramatic one at the end because that is when the biggest event in the film takes place, which is the most shocking event as well. This was when the victim was killed and we really wanted to grab the audiences attention.

This takes us on to the make up that was on the victims head. This was another typical cliche because it was a bit gory but not too gory at the same time, as our film was only rated a 15. This really highlighted the fact that this was a horror movie as only things like this happen in horror/crime films and TV. This was the last scene of our film so it is left on a cliff hanger.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Story and how the opening sets it up

The opening two minutes to a film tends to either introduce the premise for the wider narrative or simply introduce a key character to establish a relationship with them and the audience.  We chose to introduce the set-up for the wider film - which involves a friendship group being killed, one by one, by an outsider in a college setting.

The opening of our film established setting.  The first shot after our production credits was a classroom with one of the main characters doing some work. We chose to do a long shot for the first scene as it shows the audience where they are and who is in the room. We then moved onto an over the shoulder shot to see what she was doing on the computer, this shows her doing some work, the audience could relate to this main character because they are also still at collage or are in some form of education. At the very start of the film you find out who the main character is. This is because the camera is mainly focused on her. You catch a glimpse of the antagonist, but this is only their hand. We also used quite a few close ups in our film to really get the audience focusing on a specific thing. We thought these were effective because it gets the audience thinking why are we just seeing this item. As you can see it is set in a school but what makes it stand out is there is no one there except the friendship group and the antagonist. This really sets the scene because schools are usually filled with students but this one is not so this gives the film and edgy feeling as to why no one else is there.

Later on in the film we find our victim dead on the floor and the film ends, this leaves it on a real cliff hanger. Throughout the rest of the film the antagonist goes on a killing spree and ends up killing each members of the friendship group. There will be one person left and this is when we will find out why the antagonist has killed all of them and people may start to sympathies with the antagonist and understand why she has gone and done such a horrible crime.

Our film has a lot of horror film cliches included in it. One being the creepy music we put over the top, this music really makes it feel like a horror movie because its always there and throughout the film gets louder and quieter. We also added in some booms to shock the audience and to make them jump. We thought this would make the film more exciting and interest the audience to make them want to see the rest of the film. We also have the typical antagonist where they follow a certain victim. This may make the audience feel uncomfortable and anxious for the victim as they do not know they are being followed but the audience do. This could make the audience feel sorry for the victim as they have no clue what is going on.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Title font and style

For our font we chose a simple/classic type. This is because we didn't want to take the attention off the scenes in the film but we still made sure the titles were seen. We made the titles all in bold, capital letters. This is because it helps them stand out and is conventional. We made the titles white because black didn't look as nice and would have stood out way too much and as i said earlier we didn't want to draw lots of attention to the titles. White also went with most of the locations we used. All the titles were faded in. We done this so they wouldn't as sharp coming onto the screen and it looked more professional. On the end of each title we put a transition, this was called smear. We thought this would fit perfectly with the horror movie conventions because its quite creepy but looks good at the same time.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Camerawork and editing

During our film we used many different camera angles/shots. The first photo shows a close up. We used quite a few of these in our film. This was because it shows it in more detail and really gets the audience focusing on one thing. We thought it would be effective to use it on the phone scene because it lets the audience know something that the victim does not and makes them feel sorry for the victim. In the second photo we used an over the shoulder shot. We had to think very carefully about where we placed the camera as we didn't want to be able to see it in the mirror. This shot is very effective because yet again the audience are able to see somethings that the victim cannot. This creates a lot of tension because of the way the angle of the shot is placed. This was one of my favourite shits out of the entire film because it was so well thought out and think it really shows off all the hard work and effect we put into making this film the best we could. Lastly in the bottom photo you see the victims hand pushing a door open. We used match cutting for this shot. We thought this would be very effective because it makes it seem conventional and creates a dynamic pace. We thought by using this type of shot it would make it look like a proper film and really get the audience gripped.

One major scene that stands out in the film because of the editing is the scene where the victim is walking past the tennis court. This is very fast pace, it cuts from one shot to another in just a few seconds. This makes the film become more interesting and tense as it builds up adrenaline and gets the audience thinking why is it speeding up whats going to happen. Another part in the film where the editing stands out is when the victim is on the toilet floor dead. This time it is slow pace editing as we were trying to build tension and really get them on the edge of the seats. We done this by slowing panning up from different limbs of her body and then cutting straight to a close up of her head wound.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Costume and props

Harriet's costume was very casual. We wanted her to wear a casual outfit because she was at school and we wanted it to represent day to day life. Alex was also dressed in casual clothes, this is so they both represent students. Harriet's outfit fits her character. This is because it is very tonned, no bright colours going on, and is very covered up. It also shows us that it is a cold/rainy day. We can also see Sammie - Jo's outfit in this picture. We dressed her all in black because it creates mystery and darkness. You immediately know she is the antagonist by the way she is dressed because of the dark colours and the way where you cannot see her face.

This was our prop, a phone. We did not use many props because we didn't feel like we needed to use them but the props that we did use played a big part in the film. This prop is very relate-able for our target audience as near on everyone of them will have a mobile and will be on it constantly. This really gets the audience thinking how would they survive if they had there phone taken away and what would they do. 

Evaluation Activity 1 - Setting/Location

The location we used for our film was Therfield School. We wanted our film to represent everyday life and carry on with the things the characters would usually do. One setting that we used was an ICT classroom. We thought this was a good idea to have in our first scene because it would show that the film was being filmed in a school and that the characters were students. We thought by filming it in a school in would fit more to our target audience as they will mostly be in collage or doing some sort of education.  In this setting we saw Harriet doing some work on a computer. This represents a hard working student. This is unconventional for this type of character to be killed as it usually the ditsy blondes who are generally killed first. We wanted to represent the characters as students because our audience would be able to relate and empathise with the characters. We thought this would be a good idea because it would really interest the audience and make them to carry on watching as they will be thinking this could happen to me. This setting would usually be full of students but in this case it is not so this gets the audience thinking about why is it empty? Why is it so quite if they are in a school?
Another setting we used was the toilets. Yet again this is another setting that would usually have people in. This instantly makes the audience wonder where everyone is. We chose this setting because it was a small and quite place where you have a bit of privacy. The females watching the film may be able to relate to Harriet as she has gone into the toilet to check she still looks good and to probably touch her make-up up. Another reason to why we wanted to film this part in the toilets was because at the end of the film you see Harriet dead on the floor. This is obviously classed as a murder so would have to be investigated but as it was in the toilets no-body saw anything. This makes the film turn very mysterious and frustrating as the audience may have figure out who done it but the people who find Harriet will not have a clue.

Evaluation Activity 1 - The title of the film

This was the title for our film, as you can see our film was called 'REGRETFUL SINS'. We put the title of the film at the end, we thought this would be effective because it makes it more dramatic and people will also be wondering throughout what the film is called. We chose to do it in a spooky font to really show people that it was a horror movie and not just another drama or thriller. This font shows it is a horror because it is it is all uneven, disjointed and mysterious. We also chose to do it in white so it would stand out from the black background and make a statement. It is in capitals to make a point, its bold and will grab the audience's attention to make sure they know what it is called. We thought this font was also quite a quirky one and people will remember it as it is not just your average plain/boring font style. Also on our title we put a white glow at the end of it which hints at the supernatural film even though we were not creating a supernatural film we wanted to incorporate some of the conventions as it make our film just that little bit better.

This is the 'DRAG ME TO HELL' title. As you can see it is the same concept as ours juts in a different font and bigger. The font in this title is quite simple but also tells you that is is a horror movie. This is because on the letters there are little scratch/crack marks on them. They have also used white font and a black background to make the title standout just like we did. We can also see that they have made 'drag' and 'hell' bigger than the other two words. This may be because the 'drag' and 'hell' words have more meaning to them and tell more of a story than the other two. We are able to instantly know this is going to be scary because of the choice of words and the capitals. The title to this film is at the end of the opening two minutes just like ours. It builds up some tension as the audience are wanting to know what they film they are watching is called.

Presenting our production

Audience feedback

Our film ; Regretful sins

Editing Day 7

This was the last day of editing. We finished off adding in all the titles and made some minor changes such as making the titles longer, checking everything flows smoothly etc.

Editing Day 6

On the sixth day we added in all the titles. This was quite straight forward but became a challenge when we only had a few left and didn't know where to put them. We also made a few extra changes to the cutting to make sure our film runs smoothly and looks professional.

Editing Day 5

On the fifth day we started to edit the sound. We wanted to have some creepy music over the top of Harriet's part to create tension. We found the sound clips on YouTube. The only problem we faced was the clips that we had found were very long, so it took us a while to find the parts we wanted to use for each section. We also needed to find the correct places to put the 'booms', this took a while as it was difficult to fit them in the places we wanted them.

Editing Day 4

On the fourth day we managed to input the rest of the scenes that we had filmed as we managed to film the last scene the same day. we cut all the scenes together to make our film look neat and added in the title of our film at the end.

Editing Day 3

On the third day we started to cut some of the sound. We were able to do this because we were able to get some speakers. We mainly focused on Alex's part as his scene had the talking in. We had to cut some of the speech out as it was not relevant to our film, this was the start of the scene so it was easy enough to cut out as it did not interrupt the part we needed.

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Editing Day 1&2

On the first day of editing we had to input all the clips that we wanted to include in our film. We had never used the software before that we were editing on so it took us a while to get use to it and how to use it. Another problem that came up was that we had not finished filming so we were not completely sure where we wanted every clip to go. We over come this by working with what we had and then once we filmed that part we would put it in to where it would fit in.

On day two we started to cut some of the clips to how we wanted them. This included us match cutting some of the clips together. We took our time editing as we wanted it to look professional and to make sure we were cutting the correct parts. 

  

Behind the scenes - Costume

These are the characters outfits for our film. We had to make sure the characters wore the same clothes every time we filmed, this was because all the events happened in one day. Harriet and Alex costumes had to be every day clothes. This is because they are in a school so would be wearing plain simple clothes. Harriet had to wear a hat in the film because she was planning on dying her hair whilst we was filming. We were not able to had some scenes with brown hair and then another scene with pink hair as all the events happened in one day and no one is capable of dying their hair at school!
Sammie - Jo's outfit as you can see was all black. We wanted her dressed in all black because it creates mystery and it is the typical colour antagonists wear. This was so we could contain her identity.