question 3

Q3 what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why ?

We are aware of the fact that our film is certainly in no position to compete with the likes of many productions of a similar genre which are churned out of Hollywood on an annual basis however, we would like our film to reach these heights therefore, in order to achieve this, we would like to air our film in various independent film festivals such as the ‘raindance ‘ festival and similar events simply due to the fact that it is low budget and averages a very high attendance rate which increases the likelihood of a great deal of people recognising our film.

Once our film has gained the recognition that it deserves, we would like to sell it to major film companies such as Netflix who- have approximately 29 million subscribers  would help distribute our film across the globe and dramatically increase our revenue.

Everybody involved in production strongly believes that our film is being overshadowed in favour of  films such as ‘Halloween’  who have less special effects,  fairly basic and revolve around  storyline which has been used a countless amount of times but get the coverage simply due to the fact that they have been distributed and co-produced by the Warner Brothers  company.

Our production company ' bullet proof productions' preferably seeks to employ a London based independent film distributor such as Universal pictures UK because we feel as if they best suit our preferable target audience due to the fact that a high percentage of Londoners have gone on record saying that Horror films are in fact there favourite genre of film.

I challenge the most experienced of movie professionals to scour the internet to find a horror movie as sick ,  as well written and as mentally debilitating as our own. Our target market will soon realise this fact and will be rushing into their nearest VUE or ODEON to see this fantastic production which is guaranteed to be a success.

We also feel that our film would be a success because we believe that it is a perfect blend of arguably two of the highest grossing horror films in recent memory in the form of ' The ring ' - due to the presence of the young female and the 'blair witch project' due to the utilisation of the hand-held, found footage camera skills 

After researching similar independent films ( such as afflicted, stage fright and mile marker 7 ) we have discovered that they are all due to be screened within a short period of time are at the stage where we strongly believe that our film should be in order for it to reach its full potential.

In order to ensure that our film is seen by as many people as possible, we could attach it to websites such as : 

http://www.youtube.com - High amount of users- cheap viral advertising 

http://www.shortfilmdepot.com- Free publicity , wide range of movie fans 

question 4 character profile

Question 4 - ideal target audience member profile 

Age  : Around the 18 mark- similar age to protagonists 
occupation:  student- may have a part-time job
likes : Horror movies, sport , spending time with his friends, going out , and the cinema
dislikes :Waiting in queues, chick-flicks, romantic comedies and adventure films.
interests :  playing games such as Call Of Duty , watching horror films, paint balling , going to the cinema

Mark is from London so he has been exposed to various different cultures and ways of life which means that he is more willing to try something new in the form of our horror movie
Mark will be able to pay for the tickets due to the fact that he has a part time job and would ideally buy games such as Call of duty because of film does include similar material so he would be familiar with the type of storyline and the feeling we are aiming to get across to the audience.
The fact that he enjoys paint balling demonstrates the fact that he has a very vibrant personality and enjoys the air of uncertainty that comes with it Mark would enjoy our film mainly because we aim to create the same sort of feeling which thrills the audience whilst simultaneously making them feel as if they have to watch their backs when the film suddenly changes scenes.

Storyboard

Here is the animatic storyboard that we have created for our short video this clearly shows us what events are meant to be taking place in which scene this enables up to accurately plan what we will include in each scene before we shoot it which improves our organisational skills by a great deal as well as simultaneously decreasing our shooting time due to the fact that we already know exactly what scenes to film during any specific shot.   

question 2 

For this particular question, I have chosen to focus on Luke, the only male in the group.
I have chosen Luke because he is meant to represent the modern day teenager who shows signs of innocence and naivety and eventually pays the ultimate price.
Luke's clothing demonstrated this his vibrant  green coat emphasised his energy and youth but his darker inner clothing suggests that there is more to Luke in terms of emotion and feeling towards the audience. The fact that his jacket was unzipped showed his vulnerability

I would compare Luke's character to someone like `Liam Butcher from Eastenders because his heart is in the right place , but is unable to positively represent himself in terms of his feelings and emotions.

The only clear diffrence between Luke and Liam seems to be the fact Liam has had some darker moments in terms of his behaviour wheras Luke has been a consistent character who has always behaved in the same manour regardless of the situation he had been placed in.

I strongly believe that many members of the target audience will be able to identify themselves with Luke due to the fact that he appears to have the most common characteristics associated with teenagers ( vulnerability/naivity) but also shows signs of maturity and leadership skills which are qualities generally associated with slightly older people which would mean that Luke is a character who  appeals to the wider audience which is very good in terms of the audiences character- relationship. The main reason we decided to add such a Luke, who appeals to the wider audience was solely to allow as many of them as possible to build a relationship with him which is then suddenly torn away when he dies which adds to the horror film affect.
This is something that we have never seen in any horror movie prior to the creation of our own so i feel that if this is marketed in the correct way,it could act as our USP which would draw more members of our target audience in and generate a great deal of revenue.

question 1

question 1 

Our production both conforms and subverts the general horror movie conventions
The movie conforms to the conventions in terms of the fact that the movie was shot at night and was set in an isolated location whereas it subverts the general stereotype when the male protagonist goes missing and the viewers are led to believe that he is killed by the girl ( women are generally shown to be weaker and a  lot more vulnerable )  later on in the sequence.
We based our production around the film named the " cabin in the woods" because we liked the debilitating effect that the handheld, point of view shots had on the audience because it really made them feel as if they themselves were next in line to go missing We also liked the effect that the film allowed the viewers to build a bond between themselves and the protagonists before it is suddenly ripped away and destroyed as soon as they go missing.
Along with using the above techniques, we decided to add appropriate files of Foley sound to our production in order to increase tension and assisted us in manipulating the audience to feel the feelings we were trying to create through our production.

question 7 

Question 7 : Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? 

If I had not taken part in the preliminary task, I would have lacked a great deal of confidence when it came to camera work and I would have been very unsure about the whole film making process and the amount of effort and preparation is required in order to actually reach that stage.

For the task itself, we were requested to make a short production including a variety of camera shots ( such as a low angle and a point of view ) as well as including various different editing techniques. We also incorporated extra functions such as music and frames within the task.

By doing this, we had the ability to play around with the program and experience how it works whilst simultaneously fulfilling the task in hand and earning  marks this boosted our confidence both on and off camera.

However, because this was only meant to be a short production therefore, we only had a limited amount of time which meant quite a few shots were rushed and done quite badly which we were not overly concerned about because we knew that we would get a chance to rectify these mistakes in the next shooting which we knew would run a lot smoother, be a lot clearer and include much more detail in terms of storyline.

I found the planning for the next shooting to be a lot easier than the planning for the preliminary task simply due to the fact that I already had prior experience working both behind and in front of the camera and I already had a clear idea of where the storyline was heading and where we would like it to end up after the shooting.

I found the aftermath of both productions to be very laborious due to the fact that it simply consisted of cutting and manipulating various frames and involved very little in the way of practical work this  could have had a very negative impact on the film and the overall grade because it may prompt certain individuals within a team to try and finish this particular stage as quickly as possible without giving much thought as to what is expected and what will give them the highest grade possible. 

The first hand experience that I had picked during the course of this stage has been  critically important in terms of my development as an AS Media studies student and has built my confidence in aspects of the subject by a great deal.

Question 6 

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

By using various forms of technology such as the internet, various different camera’s and websites such as Youtube and Google blogger I have experienced the synergy that is present within these forms of media which ultimately helped me to fulfill the tasks I was given.

By using various pieces of technology ( such as Final cut pro ) I was able to experience first hand exactly how films are made and the many different functions available in order to alter a particular shot or scene. These functions were indispensable, and without them, the production of the film would simply not be the same for example, during the course of production, many of the cast spoke out of turn therefore some of the dialogue was inaudible but through the use of Final cut, we were able to chop and change the scenes as well as reduce the background noise.

In addition to the above, the final cut program enabled my group to play non-digetic music over any clip we desired, we found this particularly useful because we were only fairly new to the course and were novices when it came to using this particular type of new technology so we found it quite difficult to communicate with our audience in terms of manipulating them into feeling a particular emotion through our actions on screen so the utilization of the music option   enabled us to convey a particular feeling or mood to our audience by making it slightly more obvious by communicating to them verbally rather than through action.

I personally believe that I learned the most during the post production of the film due to the fact that I had learned more- in terms of terminology and how to physically use such programs which really enabled me to spot any mistakes or anomalies that may have appeared in film and blog about them through the use of Google blogger- another program I have recently discovered and learnt how to use efficiently.

I found the Google blogger site to be very useful because it keeps track of all my work and strengthens the communication between me and my teacher in terms of homework and general feedback. This enables me to better myself in terms of my work  and increases my efficiency

Horror film final copy 

Here is a link to our final take which has been amended in accordance to the feedback we received

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4CVl4-PLjI