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

     We used Youtube to look at other peoples media films from around the world and looked at what worked and what didn't. Youtube is also free so we could do this free of charge. We also used Youtube to resolve problems that we encounted on the Macs. Without the use of Youtube we would not have been able to look at other peoples film openings which would hve slowed down the whole process.

We also used Google to find out about genres and audiences and what people want. Google made the whole the process a lot faster and easier and I realised just how accessable Google really is. Without Google we would have  not been able to access pages that we desperately needed.



Blogger allowed us to post our progress and keep a diary on how things were going. It also allowed us to look at how other peoples film openings were going and allow us to look at other peoples progress. Without Blogger we would not have been able to post our progress or look at other peoples progress.





iMovie allowed us to edit our film and upload all of our clips. Without iMovie our opening would have looked pathetic. We could cut the bad things and put music and sound effects in to dramatically improve our film. iMovie was by far the most important program that we used.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for our media product would be a teenager. Even though the age rating may resrict most teens, they  will always find a way around restrictions.

The typical audience for our film would be a 17 year old who has a passion for films and spends most of their money on films and film festivals. Due to the amount of money spent on movies our teenager would dress cheaply and would not be too fussed about their personal apperance. Also, our teenager does not go out much and would rather sit on the sofa and watch a few films. If the teenager has a true passion for horror films they may be slighty gothic or emo. This means that our teenager may be dressed in all black and not fit in properly with society. This is what I imagine our teenager to look like.

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

I feel that our film would be shown in a top flight cinema around October time. It is a horror movie and I have found that most horror films are sold around halloween and that peak sales are at halloween. I compare our film strongly to 'The Strangers', it was rated 18 and sold worldwide in the cinema this is what I would want for our film. I would first show our film at a horror film festival, just like the strangers was. This would give people a taste for our genre and allow them to get a taster. Our film would be eventually be released on DVD. 

How does your media product represent particular social group?

In our film we represent a typical teenager. We showed this through the character George. George is seen lounging on the sofa and giving his Mum one word answers, these are very typical ways of teenagers. He is very much like 'Darren Shan' from the 'Cirque Du Freak' series, he is perfectly normal but when put in a scary situation will perform.

George and Darren share the same dress sense and are just typical teenagers. I would say that the differences between our two characters is that Darren is shown to quite brave and a bit of a fighter whereas we made George come across as quite timid. We tried to show this through close ups of his face with a scared expression and the way that he went straight for a knife when he was scared.

In our film George is the main character, however, we tried to make George not to stereotypical of teenage horror stars. Throughout the film George is shown running off and not staying and fighting. Darren out of the Darren Shan series, stays and fights and is portrayed as a hero. We didn't want our film to be too stereotypical of the teenage horror genre so we made George the opposite of what the audience would expect

Overall, George is a normal teenager not to unlike Darren, he has his good tiimes and bad times, we focus on both in our film however we get the teenage social group through nicely.

Dark Knight film review

Films that I took inspiration from.

The film that we took the most inspiration from for our plot was 'The Strangers'. We liked the suspense and not knowing feel that the film carried and thought that we could apply it in our own way. We also took inspiration from 'The Shining' because we liked the ghostly and scary feel that the film had. Our film was not very representitive of The Shining' because our film is not a ghost film. Overall, we took inspiration from mnay ghost films but mainly from The Strangers. Amen

Members of my group

Me (Jack Evans): I played the part of chief editor and promoter of our film. I did not act due to adverse weather conditions. I added the music to film and in a way I was boss of our film. I came up with the basic outline of the plot. I would say that I based our film on 'The Strangers' and would also say that our film worked out quite well.

Mike Terris: Mike helped out a lot with the editing of our film. He played the part of the camera man and also acted as 'Nut' in our film. He applied his past experiences to help the plot of our film. He was very helpful and a good all round worker.

George Stephens: George helped with the plot of our film and also played the lead role in our film he also helped with editing our film.

Horror Film Comparison

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

Here are the screenshots from the opening of our film 'knock, knock who's there?'.

The first screenshot is introduces the type of genre of our, horror. We show that it is a horror film through the use of a white mask which hides 'Nut's' identity and hidden identity is a technique used very often in horror films- for example in 'The Strangers' there is a masked figure. The first screenshot also introduces the character 'Nut' to the audience. We tried to make 'Nut' mysterious and scary through the use of a white mask and all black clothing.

The second (top right middle) screenshot introduces the props to the audience through the use of a close-up camera shot. This camera close-up of the props gives the film a horror element because the props consist of a knife blade and a mask, these props are linked to the theme of horror. We also used a piece of paper with crossed off names becuase we thought this again was linked with the theme of horror and death.

The third screenshot introduces the inocent and nervy character 'George'. We tried to make George a normal teenager by giving him very little to say and a relaxed posture to begin with. We felt that a teenager would get very defensive and scared in the siuation George finds himself in, we tried to show this through the use of close ups.

The fourth screen shot gives the impression of a relaxed atmosphere showing George just relaxing on a sofa. We then change the mood with a knock on the door. This puts George on edge and is a contrast to how the scene began- it gos from relaxed to on edge. The knock on the door sets up the story for the horror genre.

The fifth screenshot is just a zoomed-out view of the props giving a better perspective on what the props are.

The sixth screenshot shows the location of the film and where it is set. The opening of our film is based inside George's house, this gives it a creepy atmosphere because there are many hiding places in a house. Almost all of our scenes are filmed inside the house and the rest of the film is based inside the house.

The seventh screenshot shows our use of edting on iMovie. We needed to make the sound of a lightswitch flick so we recorded one via a mic and added it to the film.

The eighth screenshot is showing title font and style we wanted to show that our film is from the horror genre from the beggining so we chose a chiller style font that gives away the type of film.

The opening of our film suggests the horror genre through the use of music and font of title.








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Film comparison: 'Insomina' and 'Memento'.

Both films suggested they were from the Thriller genre by staring with  fast paced strings and opening sequences were the viewer is confused with what has happened and why it has happened, for example 'Memento' begins with a man getting shot in the head the audience have no idea why it has happened. 'Insomnia' started with  fresh blood drenching a recent corpse. Both begginings leave the viewer feeling disorientated and  very eager to find out why what has happened has happened.
Both films use technical camera shots and editing which give the films a watchable feel.

Both films have a classic thriller feel to them and have very simailar beggining.

The Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

For the preliminary task we were asked to film the opening sequences to a film we created. We prepared for the task by creating a storyboard and creating a few props.

Filming
             We mainly used over shoulder shots and 180 degree shots because we felt they fitted in with our film perfectly.
My role in the task was camera man, I had learnt the varoius camera techniques and felt that I shot the film well, I knew what angles would suit the film best so being camera man worked out well.

Editing
             After we edited the film it look good and almost professional. We cut out mistakes and added fitting music.
We could have made the task better by working a bit on the camera movement and camera shot types because the camera movement and shots can look quite bland.
As a group we worked efficently and fast achieving satisfaction when finished. Moe and Hens acting could have been better and their dialogue could have been improved, but, overall we worked well together.

Christopher Nolan interview.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/christopher-nolan                  Home work