When i first heard about what we had to do for our preliminary task i thought it would be a quick, easy and simple process. I now know that i was very wrong. It was a lot harder than i thought it would be, from seeing it look so simple when other people had done it, to actually attempting it myself, came as a big shock to me. We learned about the main shot types and i thought it would be fairly easy to get shots with them and to get the continuity (reality within the media product) correct. But it took us many takes of each shot to get it how we wanted, both on the preliminary task and the main task.
I have learnt greatly from this that it is not simple and easy to film shots. It takes lots of attempts to get it right and to make it look good. Also i have learnt that if the film looks simply made then you have done well.
Sunday 18 April 2010
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I did already know a bit about some of the technology we used throughout the making of our media production but i have learnt many things.
For example:
• Cameras
i thought it would be very simple to film with the cameras, to get the perfect continuity and angles. But i was very wrong, it looks so simple when you see it on the television, but when it came to actually filming it was very hard to get the angle and continuity correct. It took many attempts to get the shots we needed because of the angle being wrong, an actor corpsing, the length of the shot was too long or short and so on. Almost every shot we did we used a tripod; this was because it kept the camera straight and prevented shaking.
• Adobe premier pro(for capturing and editing video files)
When i first saw this program it looked very complicated to use, i was correct to a point. For what we were doing it was fairly simple, adding in effects and transitions etc. But the further we got into it the harder it was to use. I managed to make one of the titles scroll across screen slowly at one point, but when it came to doing it for the next one I could not remember how i did it and i tried many things. Also even after being showed how to do some things, we found it hard to copy how it was done. When we first loaded up this program we had to use a fire wire to capture the video data on the camera onto the computer, with this i found that the fire wires were very sensitive and it was rare that it would work without having to hold it firmly in the fire wire slot in the computer.
Basically from doing this product i have found that the technology and technique used is alot harder than expected.
For example:
• Cameras
i thought it would be very simple to film with the cameras, to get the perfect continuity and angles. But i was very wrong, it looks so simple when you see it on the television, but when it came to actually filming it was very hard to get the angle and continuity correct. It took many attempts to get the shots we needed because of the angle being wrong, an actor corpsing, the length of the shot was too long or short and so on. Almost every shot we did we used a tripod; this was because it kept the camera straight and prevented shaking.
• Adobe premier pro(for capturing and editing video files)
When i first saw this program it looked very complicated to use, i was correct to a point. For what we were doing it was fairly simple, adding in effects and transitions etc. But the further we got into it the harder it was to use. I managed to make one of the titles scroll across screen slowly at one point, but when it came to doing it for the next one I could not remember how i did it and i tried many things. Also even after being showed how to do some things, we found it hard to copy how it was done. When we first loaded up this program we had to use a fire wire to capture the video data on the camera onto the computer, with this i found that the fire wires were very sensitive and it was rare that it would work without having to hold it firmly in the fire wire slot in the computer.
Basically from doing this product i have found that the technology and technique used is alot harder than expected.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Well, basically, to attract our audience of late teens we used ideas that scared us. We did this as we though whatever we were frightened of; our target audience would be frightened of. One thing we did was to make the victims in our product a similar age to the target audience so that it would freak them out. Also to make the murderer just seem like a normal person.
Another film which does this is scream
Scream also makes the victims in the film a similar age to the target audience and the events they are killed in to be just an every day happening.
So we used similar aspects to this to attract our audience.
Another film which does this is scream
Scream also makes the victims in the film a similar age to the target audience and the events they are killed in to be just an every day happening.
So we used similar aspects to this to attract our audience.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience was late teens, this was mainly for the fact that we are in the criteria and we know what does and doesn’t scare us. Moreover, we took into account who are target audience was before and during filming the piece. Each part we planned and filmed, we thought about what our target audience would think of it. We mainly thought about the:
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Gender
of our target audience. We used murder and horror as teenagers love watching those types of films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074&feature=fvw (as you can see from this trailer) a lot of the time young men take young women to see these types of films as it makes them seem brave.
So we used aspects such as murder and kidnapping because it is a common thing in today’s society and it mainly happens to people around our age and youths generally enjoy watching films which represent real life happenings.
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Gender
of our target audience. We used murder and horror as teenagers love watching those types of films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074&feature=fvw (as you can see from this trailer) a lot of the time young men take young women to see these types of films as it makes them seem brave.
So we used aspects such as murder and kidnapping because it is a common thing in today’s society and it mainly happens to people around our age and youths generally enjoy watching films which represent real life happenings.
What kind of Media institution might distribute your media product & why?
As my media production is one in the horror genre, I would use a distributor which specifically works with films in the horror genre. A production company such as Twisted pictures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisted_Pictures would be a good start as they have done the saw films and many other sick horror films alike. Also as I would like to spread this product world wide I would like to use a company such as Warner Bro’s as they would easily be able to do this.
Furthermore, I would release my product in cinemas and in theatres to greatly advertise my film. The television would help a lot as the cinemas and theatres would want to show the trailer of it to attract viewers to go see it. Once the trailer is on television there would be billboards up around the world and pictures in magazines, posters around everywhere etc. The trailers sometimes show peoples reaction to watching the film, such as paranormal activity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074 This would greatly attract audiences to see the film as they can see the reactions on people’s faces who are watching it. Also trailers show quotes from news papers and famous people. If people read and trust these newspapers or are inspired or like these famous people then it would urge them to go see the film.
Furthermore, I would release my product in cinemas and in theatres to greatly advertise my film. The television would help a lot as the cinemas and theatres would want to show the trailer of it to attract viewers to go see it. Once the trailer is on television there would be billboards up around the world and pictures in magazines, posters around everywhere etc. The trailers sometimes show peoples reaction to watching the film, such as paranormal activity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_UxLEqd074 This would greatly attract audiences to see the film as they can see the reactions on people’s faces who are watching it. Also trailers show quotes from news papers and famous people. If people read and trust these newspapers or are inspired or like these famous people then it would urge them to go see the film.
'How does your media product represent particular social groups?'
A social group is any set of persons within society that differs from other sets due to demographic, economic or social characteristics such as age, ethnicity, sex, education level, race, religion, income level, lifestyle, beliefs, etc.
Our media production represents the social group of white youths being more sick and twisted in the head than young black youths. As the killer we use in our production is a young white male and is no ordinary killer as he uses a butcher’s knife to kill his victims. This idea also conforms the fact the most famous horror film killers are in fact white males.
Continuing on, Our production, although it does use females as victims, challenges the dominant ideology that most murderers are generally men and that most victims in slasher films are generally females, as the majority of the victims in our piece are men. A film which greatly challenges this dominant ideology is ‘I spit on your grave’.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Spit_on_Your_Grave_(film) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKCys3sd8Bw
In this film it is a female murderer and all of the victims are male.
We challenged the ideology that women are more vulnerable than men by making the majority of the victims in our film, males.
Our media production represents the social group of white youths being more sick and twisted in the head than young black youths. As the killer we use in our production is a young white male and is no ordinary killer as he uses a butcher’s knife to kill his victims. This idea also conforms the fact the most famous horror film killers are in fact white males.
Continuing on, Our production, although it does use females as victims, challenges the dominant ideology that most murderers are generally men and that most victims in slasher films are generally females, as the majority of the victims in our piece are men. A film which greatly challenges this dominant ideology is ‘I spit on your grave’.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Spit_on_Your_Grave_(film) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKCys3sd8Bw
In this film it is a female murderer and all of the victims are male.
We challenged the ideology that women are more vulnerable than men by making the majority of the victims in our film, males.
In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our main task, my group decided to do an opening title sequence for a film in the horror genre. The main reason for doing this was because all the members of the group have seen many horror films throughout our lives and felt it would be safe if we worked with this.
“Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain.” – Wikipedia
My group worked with this quote to create our title sequence, but we mainly used the theme of death and mental illness. Furthermore, we developed such existing openings like ‘The devils rejects’. http://timeldridge.blogspot.com/2010/02/devils-rejects.html This opening title sequencing is very similar to ours, it uses the missing pictures which is one of the main signifiers we used throughout our piece.
From doing research into the horror genre we discovered what the best age boundary to aim at for our target audience – 15-19(late teens). Purely for the fact that this is what we are and we know what does and doesn’t scare us. This was a benefit as it greatly helped us to plan and work on our opening title sequence and to conform a lot of common elements of modern horror films such as murder and kidnapping.
“Horror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness. Many horror movies also include a central villain.” – Wikipedia
My group worked with this quote to create our title sequence, but we mainly used the theme of death and mental illness. Furthermore, we developed such existing openings like ‘The devils rejects’. http://timeldridge.blogspot.com/2010/02/devils-rejects.html This opening title sequencing is very similar to ours, it uses the missing pictures which is one of the main signifiers we used throughout our piece.
From doing research into the horror genre we discovered what the best age boundary to aim at for our target audience – 15-19(late teens). Purely for the fact that this is what we are and we know what does and doesn’t scare us. This was a benefit as it greatly helped us to plan and work on our opening title sequence and to conform a lot of common elements of modern horror films such as murder and kidnapping.
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