Activity 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Title- big white letters, black background. This is slightly different to many other films which generally have the title put on top of the action on the screen. (Directed by and starring are big white letters, black backgrounds as well.)
Names of actors are small white letters against their faces. This is similar to other films.
Narrative: good guy is being chased and frightened by the supernatural guy.
This storyline has been used before but it is still a good one.
The genre is a supernatural thriller.
Supernatural guy moves from one place suddenly to another place. This makes people feel scared, alarmed, and startles them. Anxiety, nervousness, worry.
A supernatural thriller has to try to set some tension.
characters-
Supernatural guy- see his feet walking along the road. Makes people feel intrigued but also a bit scared, tension, suspense.
Good guy see him running. Scared, looking behind. Screenshot, running, looking scared.
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Activity 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our film Jack is the victim. In a film called ‘The Frighteners’ Ray is also a victim (as well as many others). They are both white males. One of the differences is that Jack is a seventeen and Ray is about mid twenties.
Ray is well built and likes to exercise. He has short hair and cares about his belongings. For example when his garden gets driven over and when his fence gets broken. He pretends he is tough but really he is scared such as when the bed lifts by itself. Ray’s clothes are set in the nineties. He is wearing typical clothes for the era. Jack is not really as well built and he has longer hair. In the film Jack doesn’t pretend he is tough but looks really scared. Jack wears typical modern teen wear.
Ray is a husband, he is one of the people to show the deaths in the film and he is shown as someone who tries to keep fit but is killed by the bad guy. I don’t know why he has been killed which is similar to ours because I haven’t shown why jack is being chased.
The target audience for ‘The Frighteners’, is 15 to 19. Our target audience is alike, it is 15 to 25.
Activity 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Voiceover on final piece
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Activity 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our film is aimed at 15 to 25 year olds. This is the age group that normally like supernatural thrillers.The fonts do not go with the theme of supernatural thriller. The music genre is rock and roll.
These are all films or t.v. series that are similar to our film, Twilight, the frighteners and doctor who. They appeal to my age group.
The genre of our film is a supernatural thriller. It would be mostly popular with men stereotypically but it could attract some women.
I have found some pictures of faces of a stereotypical audience that i think would like our film.
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Activity 6
The cameras were low cost. They broke easily and so there were not many left to film with. The cameras were easy to use. One of the problems we had was that the cameras got wet easily- the cold weather didn’t help.
We used imovie to edit our film- effects- fade, titles.
We found a track from a download free play music site put in Mac and used I movie to edit and shorten the track.
Activity 7
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
For me the planning helped it made the film easier to make. Without all the planning (storyboard, mock ups, genre research) I would not know what to film. The planning helped clarify my ideas and gave it all a structure.
Compared with our preliminary film task we have used one better actor in our final film and we have used a proper setting for our final product. Our final piece has more shots and better quality shots, such as close ups, long shots, midshots, 180 degree, reverse on shot, a high angle, a low angle, point of view and the blackout technique. Our Preliminary only had midshots, long shots, close ups, pan, reverse on shot, match on action and 180 degree. The final piece has smoother camera work.
Editing is quicker for the final piece and better because it creates more tension. The continuity is a bit better. I would like to have used the iris shot but we didn’t have any time. For example, in Chicago, the camera zooms into the girl’s eye, and out of the C in the name Chicago. Neither our prelim nor our final piece has this. Our final film uses Jump cuts but not cross cuts. There is no music or titles on our Prelim.
I feel I have become more used to the equipment and more confident in using it.
Enigmas:
Why supernatural guy is chasing good guy?
What he is after?
Who or what is the bad guy?
What happens to the good guy at the end of the opening.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Title of film is RUN. The title is creating tension and an image that make people think that they have to run away from something.
Film titles are often one word, trying to sum up what the film is about.
Set in a graveyard – thriller movies are often set in a spooky place. People immediately think of graveyards as spooky. E.g. Dracula could be set in a graveyard.
Costume- supernatural guy in smart shirt, trousers and tie (normal clothes) but makes him look strange and makes us feel uncomfortable looking at him. Victim is dressed in normal everyday teen clothes.
Using conventions for real media where good guys are dressed normally but bad guys are dressed normally but with something slightly unusual about them.
Camera work and editing have been designed to create a feeling of suspense and tension and of being frightened.
Title- big white letters, black background. This is slightly different to many other films which generally have the title put on top of the action on the screen. (Directed by and starring are big white letters, black backgrounds as well.)
Names of actors are small white letters against their faces. This is similar to other films.
Narrative: good guy is being chased and frightened by the supernatural guy.
This storyline has been used before but it is still a good one.
The genre is a supernatural thriller.
Supernatural guy moves from one place suddenly to another place. This makes people feel scared, alarmed, and startles them. Anxiety, nervousness, worry.
A supernatural thriller has to try to set some tension.
characters-
Supernatural guy- see his feet walking along the road. Makes people feel intrigued but also a bit scared, tension, suspense.
Good guy see him running. Scared, looking behind. Screenshot, running, looking scared.
------------------
Activity 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Ray is well built and likes to exercise. He has short hair and cares about his belongings. For example when his garden gets driven over and when his fence gets broken. He pretends he is tough but really he is scared such as when the bed lifts by itself. Ray’s clothes are set in the nineties. He is wearing typical clothes for the era. Jack is not really as well built and he has longer hair. In the film Jack doesn’t pretend he is tough but looks really scared. Jack wears typical modern teen wear.Ray is a husband, he is one of the people to show the deaths in the film and he is shown as someone who tries to keep fit but is killed by the bad guy. I don’t know why he has been killed which is similar to ours because I haven’t shown why jack is being chased.
The target audience for ‘The Frighteners’, is 15 to 19. Our target audience is alike, it is 15 to 25.
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Activity 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Voiceover on final piece
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Activity 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our film is aimed at 15 to 25 year olds. This is the age group that normally like supernatural thrillers.
These are all films or t.v. series that are similar to our film, Twilight, the frighteners and doctor who. They appeal to my age group.
The genre of our film is a supernatural thriller. It would be mostly popular with men stereotypically but it could attract some women.
I have found some pictures of faces of a stereotypical audience that i think would like our film.
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Activity 5
How did you attract/ address your audience?
Annotated final piece
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Activity 6
What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the product?
The cameras were low cost. They broke easily and so there were not many left to film with. The cameras were easy to use. One of the problems we had was that the cameras got wet easily- the cold weather didn’t help.
We used imovie to edit our film- effects- fade, titles.
We found a track from a download free play music site put in Mac and used I movie to edit and shorten the track.
We used Photoshop to create our ident.
I used youtube to add annotation for activity 5.
I used windows movie maker to add the voiceover on activity 3.
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Activity 7
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
For me the planning helped it made the film easier to make. Without all the planning (storyboard, mock ups, genre research) I would not know what to film. The planning helped clarify my ideas and gave it all a structure.
Compared with our preliminary film task we have used one better actor in our final film and we have used a proper setting for our final product. Our final piece has more shots and better quality shots, such as close ups, long shots, midshots, 180 degree, reverse on shot, a high angle, a low angle, point of view and the blackout technique. Our Preliminary only had midshots, long shots, close ups, pan, reverse on shot, match on action and 180 degree. The final piece has smoother camera work.
Editing is quicker for the final piece and better because it creates more tension. The continuity is a bit better. I would like to have used the iris shot but we didn’t have any time. For example, in Chicago, the camera zooms into the girl’s eye, and out of the C in the name Chicago. Neither our prelim nor our final piece has this. Our final film uses Jump cuts but not cross cuts. There is no music or titles on our Prelim.
I feel I have become more used to the equipment and more confident in using it.
I think that our final cut was very successful because I believe it successfully raises audiences’ expectations and it contains an enigma which will later be resolved.
Enigmas:
Why supernatural guy is chasing good guy?
What he is after?
Who or what is the bad guy?
What happens to the good guy at the end of the opening.
