7. Looking Back at Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt in the Progression From it to the Full Product?

I feel that in the continuity exercise we learnt the 180 degree rule and i learnt how to operate a tripod and how to arrange the cameras. We got a chance to practise different camera angles and editing techniques such as the match-on action slap me and Chelsea did. This also developed our knowledge of continuity editing and we felt much pride at being able to finish a perfect sequence, on the first take. A problem we found with our continuity work was the diagetic sound so we tried to make this a priority when filming our 2 minute opening. We were able to change the volume on the Macs, when we did our main film, and this enabled us to play around with the sound, adjusting it to fit each part of the footage - for instance turning down the music as she is running towards the log to create more tension and to enable the audience to hear the diagetic sound we picked up of the wind. From our final task I felt we also learnt a lot about organization and how important it can be to be on time for filming, as well as being prepared (with props and such). I think with more preparation our work could have been better but it was probably for the best we didn't do the teenage part as the cut into the park was like a train derailing.

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

The more professional use of a Digital Camera.
What my group used it for; we used this digital camera for filming our 2 minute opening and our continuity. It is a great little lightweight camera, it uses a memory card which enabled me to easily upload the footage onto my computer, and is complete with 12 mpx . Because it was a digital it was really easy to use, and functioned also in allowing us to take digital stills whilst filming.
Problems; The main problem was having to convert the footage to Quicktime so we could upload the videos to the Apple Macs.


Apple MAC Computer
What my group used it for; We used the Macs for uploading both our continuity and our final 2 minute task onto, to edit and to burn onto disc.Problems I think the Macs are harder to use than Windows PCs but that is mainly to do with the one button mouse and the command/control buttons - instead of "shift" you have to use the Apple button.





iMovie
What my group used it for we used iMovie editing software to edit both films. We used it to add transitions, jump shots, titles to both and to edit the CCTV black & white colour in our continuity exercise.Problems The main problems we had were cutting the footage, which was sometimes tricky and frustrating because of the arrows you have to drag to select the bit of the clip you want to delete. However I think this was the only problem we really had with the software. It was easy to add the music to and to add titles too, but it takes quite a long time to save your work. It was also really hard to remove transitions or credits, which was especially relevant when we had to change the credits.




Youtube



What my group used it for; we used Youtube to research films in the same genre and style of our own, to inspire our work and help us to see genre conventions being used in actual film. We also used it to upload our interview with our target audience and to find music for our film. Problems didn't have many problems with Youtube really, as I have an account and have used it previously but I would say finding music and researching other films was difficult when you had to use key words to find what you wanted.

Blogger

What my group used it for; I used Blogger for keeping an up to date diary of how we created both films from both tasks and keeping track of all decisions/changes/problems made and experienced during filming. We also were able to put up our research, storyboards, film openings analysis, questionnaire and other work done during both tasks.Problems; I found Blogger quite easy to use, it is easy to change fonts, backgrounds, add photos and videos. Probably the hardest thing is keeping it up to date and remembering to add things as you go along the projects.


Google
What my group used it for; We used Google search engine to research our genre of horror and its genre conventions. We also used it to gain pictures to put onto our blogs and to choose our target audience.Problems The only problem with Google is having to find and select the information you are looking for; filtering through all the other images/pages it gives you.


Scanner
What my group used it for; Ana used a printer's scanner to scan the storyboard onto the computer to enable us to upload the image onto our blogs.Problems; She didn't have many issues with this piece of technology but it apparently was quite frustrating to position the paper to get all the annotations and notes to be seen on the web image.



Portable Hard Drive
What my group used it for
We used it to back up our work after saving onto the Macs to ensure that our work was safe from being accidentally deleted/removed/changed without consent.
Problems; The only problem once again was time, and having to wait ages for it to save. But it was worth it to make sure our work would be safe.


Fire Wire Cable
What my group used it for
We used cables like this to upload our footage onto the Macs and to connect the portable hard drive as well.
Problems
We did not experience any problems in using this equipment, except some of the wires didn't work and we had to swap through them.

Evaluation Question 5. How Did You Attract/Adress Your Audience?
Genre conventions; in this respect our film is similar to Halloween in the seemingly motiveless male, black-clad psychotic who appears as if from nowhere, but then as it progresses (which it never does) it becomes closer to The Grudge, The Ring with an undead, young, female killer.

In narrative order it is closer to Ms. 45 or the Grudge as the woman(or girl) being wronged at the start and then the killing begins. If we had the chance i would try and steer it more in the direction of ALIEN having the monster never totally seen but it was far to light and Ashton park closed way to early.

Music, sound; This is a very obvious comparison. Dead Silence. Because it is the same music. But it does go well with both because they both feature younger evil. Dead Silence is about killer dolls which are of course associated with childhood and ours features a child prominently. The nursery rhyme feel really goes with both the atmosphere. There is one of the few bit we kept the diagetic sound for, when the girl is running up the hill we kept the rushing wind as it gave the sense a pursuit was in order.

Mise En Scene; As i have already compared Aidens killer to the like of Christopher Lees Dracula and Micheal Myers a lot I should probably talk about the girl. We tried to make her not only look younger but also more innocent by giving her knee socks, pink clothes, some kind of girly shoes that i forget the name of. This sounds stereotypical of a young girl but we have seen so many female protagonists reject this role (Kill Bill, Cat woman, Ripley from ALIEN, Sarah Connor from The Terminator, Whatever the girl from Once Upon A Time In Mexico was called..) and become martial arts masters, kicking men in the crotch ( Men who always come to rape them, which has become an incredibly common scene now. Men come up to Heroine looking evil and nasty and she either gets saved by a man or she beats them all up. This or a very similar scene is almost every recent action film with a female character, it is a cheap way of them showing off how tough and independent they are in a clear win over an enemy no one could sympathise with.) and spouting girl power one liners, to the point where this has become a far more prominent stereotype in modern cinema, not unlike the ethnic minority cop who is in there only to make it more PC, than the vulnerable woman. If this applies then our really girly Mise En Scene is actually defying stereotypes and conventions.

Evaluation Question 4. Who Would Be The Target Audience For Your Media Product?

This is in my mind our target audience. The old-school horror fan. We have nowhere near the budget of SAW or The Ring to attract the younger teenage audience looking for blood. this kind of fan is a regular at his local independent art house cinema. The kind of man who has shelves and shelves of bad 70s slasher films but still enjoys watching them. Our film would be good for these kinds of people because it is not only a very tried and tested horror formula, no well known actors, and an incredibly low budget and that's is just what he likes. We need the kind of person bitter toward modern cinema and all its CGI and want some old fashioned sugar water and red dye. This kind of person being trapped in the past as they are wouldn't bother with any trendy shops and would just wear the same dark colours, music would be along the same lines; The Who, Hendrix, The Bee Gees and a bit of The Jam i would think. Their favourite TV would be a short lived 70s-80s TV series the obscurer the better. We also have a clip oif some of the reactions of our audience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3PG3fdEsp4

I also made a written questionnaire for an audience and asked three people what they thought of the film.

1/ what did you think of the film? was it realistic?

Cat: it was really good and made me want to watch more. The props + costume made it really realistic (:
Chloe: it was good as the camerawork made it look real.
Sam: it set up the storyline well and had good props and colours.
Sophie: yes it was really scary

2/ any negative points about the film?
C: didn't see many negative points other than the random shot of people I didn't know :P
C: there were a few bits that could have done with being shorter - like the shot of the leaves.
S: I didn't really like the ending, the scream was a bit short.
S: the part with the leaves was too long. other than that is was really good!

3/ did it make you want to watch the rest of the film?
C: yes it really drew me in with the plot.
C: yes it was good.
S: the plot was good, I suppose I would want to watch the rest.
S: yes, it was good :)
4/ did you understand the relevance of the balloon?

C: yes, i think it was the little girl's life? because she held it all the way until she went into the log and was killed and then it floated up to heaven.
C: yes, the red was supposed to be the blood from when the killer killed her.
S: yes it was the murder of the little girl.
S: yes, it was supposed to be scary. it was a pretty colour against the sky (:

5/ what genre do you think the film was?
C: a horror/thriller :)
C: horror
S: scary/horror
S: horror/thriller genre

6/ Any specific good points?
C: the music used was really effective, it fitted well with what you could see.
C: the balloon, it was a clever prop. also the sound of the balloon squeaking as the girl went into the log.
S: the sound of the wind worked really well with the music
S: the colours were really good (: really bright. also the camerawork when she was running was all jaunty as it moved feeling like she was being chased.

7/ what did you think of the title? does it sum up the film well?
C: it is good because it is mysterious and it makes you want to find out who/what is "Uninvited"
C: I thought it was clever and looked good next to the balloon in the sky.
S: I liked it. It's effective because it is simple.
S: it's good because it reminds you of parties and links with the plot.

8/ what did you think of the music?
C: it was really scary and created atmosphere. it also made the balloon and the party feel more sinister.
C: I thought it fit well with the beginning where it seemed all nice and then suddenly became more scary.
S: it was good as it was different, and really fit with the wind as she was running, the pace got quicker.
S: it was really good! very scary and appropriate for the genre.

9/ did you notice any issues with the continuity or filming?
C: nope
C: not really. more to do with random shots.
S: no
S: no

10/ did you sympathise with the little girl by the end of the opening?
C: yes, it made you scared for her when she went inside the log
C: yes but I didn't understand really why she went in the log anyway
S: yes I felt sorry for her
S: yes! she was really cute

Evaluation Question 2. How Does Your Media Product Represent Other Social Groups?
We have the white, female, presumably heterosexual, upper-middle class and the black, male, heterosexual, upper working class aggressor. This was perhaps slightly stereotypical of a male minority attacking a white female but we didn't consider such a problem at the time. The little girl dressed in pink her girly presents and clothes and her pink birthday cake is a very common stereotype of the middle class, young female like Ophelia form pans labyrinth.The image of a woman being vulnerable and alone is very common in horror if slightly stereotypical. However the plot of our film dictates that the girls spirit or whatever starts its own murdering spree which challenges the stereotypes we have followed. The female revenge flick was very common in the late seventies with films like I Spit On Your Grave and Mrs. 45, these follow a similar format to our film. That being starting of very stereotypical having a man doing something unspeakable to a woman and then she becomes stronger begins to take revenge and gradually goes insane. However we brought in a supernatural element of the girl coming back form the dead but the reversal of the roles of victim and villain (even if we couldn't do it in 2 minutes) this only not challenges convention of the revenge exploitation film but also the stereotypes of male villain and female victim.

However Aiden's all-black clad psycho is closer (as i have already said) to Micheal Myers or Dracula. As a purely evil male aggressor. We tried to male this more apparent by dressing him all in black and concealing his face to generate a feeling of dread in the audience (hopefully). Both of these roles are very tried and tested in not just in horror but all kinds of films. They each represent different ends of the spectrum with innocence and evil (respectively) and are well suited to the roles of victim and villain.

Question 3: What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Mediua Project and Why?

The film we are making is a very low budget film, which would be very realistic and edgy which very little to no special effects. The director of our film would be unknown and not credited to give a more realistic feel, and so would the cast. the production budget would be from £2000 to £10,000 and would be funded by Film Four (because they fund British films regardless of budget) and would be compared to the likes of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. The distribution company we would use would be Optimum Releasing (Which did shifty which would be on a similar budget to our film) which also distributed Pan's Labyrinth which received many good reviews and awards. The main marketing campaign would be via posters due to low budgets and a viral marketing idea would be the main villain in full outfit roaming the woods. Our film would be released in February (which means our film wouldn't have to compete with big releases) time and shown in Art house and Independent cinemas as it is for that audience and genre.

Evaluation Question 1. In What Way Does Your Media Project Use, Develop, or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products.








Screen shots;

These screenshot represent some of the more focal points of our film.

The mysterious figure in black (Aiden) is a very traditional aspect of our film. As the unexplained, murdering, antagonist he is modeled very closely on people like Micheal Myers (Halloween) and Jason Voorhees (Jason). The same goes for the girl (Adrienne) playing the innocent, vulnerable heroine (for now). The idea of a female victim goes back as far as all horror films and has been common even to this day. Similar to the old Christopher Lee Hammer Horror Dracula films there is always at least two female protagonists. This is until however when one of them gets bitten and turns into a vampire (Ours being the latter). This idea of a evil (once good) younger female is the focal point of films like The Ring, The Grudge and Let The Right One In. We based our character on these kinds of girls by Catherine and Anastasia dressing her in more innocent clothing to illustrate this fact. This kind of Mise En Scene (the all black clothing for Aiden and the schoolgirl look for adrienne) is very traditional and makes sure the audience knows immediately who they are in relation to the plot.

Less conventional aspects of our film are the focal prop (The Red Balloon) and The Tree. It must be said the idea of using The Tree to obscure her death/murder came about more from low budget than artistic inspiration but in my opinion too many modern horror films (Saw, Hostile, Hills Have Eyes) are too keen to get some blood on screen in the first five minutes. This is at least one way our film defies convention. Our recurring prop being a balloon came about only because it was supposed to be a birthday party but we lied the link to childhood and the slight mystery in only having one balloon and incorporated it with the film as much as we could while trying to remain subtle. Having a recurring prop is not uncommon in horror (sack mask in The Orphanage, Chainsaw in The Evil Dead, The Cat in the ALIEN films.) but ours, to our minds has never been used in horror before, as well as being very distinctive.