Evaluation - Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Do you think you have reached your target audience?

At the beginning pre-production of our film we had scripted our first 2 minutes of the storyline an researched upon what people thought of it and there ideas around it. We did this through a questionnaire asking a number of teenagers as they were our target audience which was suitable to accumulate as much useful ideas and feedback.

What did you include when planning your production that you thought would appeal to your audience?

Our target audience was mainly aimed at young teenagers and young adults, we decided to make the main character a teenager with symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia so that the audience could feel involved and relate to the character. We thought that it would be suitable for our character to wear clothes that are classed as casual and trendy, we believed that this would allow the audience to feel aware and stereotype what they think of the character.




What has been successful in your production?

I believe that a key part to the success of our production was time management, we had organised our time effectively before hand for every day of shooting. It only took us 3 days to shoot our film, we always referred back to our plan if we had ran out of ideas which helped us stay on track and finish everything on time. We used a total of three different types of locations which were; Barnsley College, Dearne Valley Park and an abandoned industrial estate. These locations were chosen as we thought it would give us the best output and sense of feel for a psychological horror, this relates to our research where we had found out that the film is expected to be filmed near a lake, park, etc. The lake we chose was in Dearne Valley Park and was mostly busy during times we went out for shoot so we had to go during early hours when it's less busy. I also believe that another success in our production was filming and how the characters were shown, the main character in our film, 'Chris', is shown at the beginning climbing out of a lake and to make this realistic we had poured water all over him to output the best effect. Another would be that the injured, desperate man on the floor had blood on his t-shirt which was self-made for our filming. The characters were shown from different perspectives by the way we placed the camcorder, this created a unique effect and relates back to our research of psychological horror films containing shots taken from different angles and views.

What was less successful? How can it be improved?

A minor problem that we had throughout the filming process was that the camcorder's, these weren't efficient enough to remain on standby for long hours, this meant that sometimes we had to leave shooting early. Once we had collected a camcorder and all other relevant equipment  and found out that the camcorder had no charge which meant we had to go back to college and find a replacement. This can be lack of preparation and just the camera's being left without being put on charge.

Evaluation - Question 4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Gender: 
The audience that we have aimed to be for our film are both; male and female. This is because our genre isn't gender specific to be based on being a psychological horror, the film we researched into such as the shining is also based on the audience of both genders. Although the first two minutes of our film only show two males as leading characters, we have thought about getting a female to play a role for our full film so that it appeals to both genders.

Age:
After researching into similar films that were psychological horrors we found that most films contained disturbing scenes, violence, etc had age ratings of 15 and over. We thought that our film also contained disturbing scenes with slight violence so it would be best to keep the age rating at 15+ because if a younger audience were to watch certain scenes they may find it distressing.

Habits and Lifestyle:
We have decided that it would be best for our film to be screened in the cinema during late viewing times. This is because our audience are mostly best suitable for late screenings having the age rating of 15, our audience are most likely to be busy during the day such as work, school, and other things they have responsibility over. Taking this into consideration we thought that this would be most convenient and suitable for our target audience.

Pre-production Research:
Our pre-production research was to find out what it takes for our target audience to want to watch a psychological horror film. We did this through the use of a questionnaire where we had interviewed three teenagers, we found out that most teenagers watch films on television or computer which came to the discussion around screenings for our short film. Our interviewees also claimed to have understood the storyline clearly and mentioned expecting the film to be set near a lake or park, this was an advantage for us pre-production of the film.

Evaluation - Question 3

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The media institution that we chose as a possible distributor for our film was; Warp Films, this is a local film distributor based in Sheffield. After some research we found out that they’re an independent producer and distributor who have produced typical British films such as; Submarine and Four Lions. Warp Films have distributed films that are of drama and comedy genres, with our film being a psychological horror it will be a chance for them to experience a different theme. We noticed that Warp Films have produced their films with low budgets compared to other distributors and conglomerates such as 20^th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros, etc. These production companies have a large target audience as their films are aimed at a wide range; Warp Films however are aimed at a niche market in the UK whom is teenagers and young adults, this is the same target audience we are aiming for from our film. We researched into similar films such as Submarine and Kill List that had story lines relatively similar to our film.

Evaluation - Question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Age:
Our film challenges many stereotypes of particular social groups through the use of cinematography, sound, mise en scene and editing. In the first two minutes of the film it mainly focuses on two young teenagers and throughout the full film will have adults; both male and female. Typical stereotypes of young teenagers are portrayed as vulnerable and in our film we fit this convention by using high angled shots facing down at 'Chris' to create a sense of danger which worked well along with diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. We made use of fast paced editing in the chasing scenes to attract the attention of the audience to ensure they are focused which will output a thrill to the audience and also present Chris more vulnerable and in danger.







Gender:
In the first two minutes of our film, we mainly focus on the two young teenagers and the voice of another person. Despite, seemingly looking androcentric within the first two minutes, we had planned to add many more female characters throughout the rest of the film. The two main characters in the first two minutes of the film were portrayed as vulnerable people in danger which subverts typical conventions of men as they are shown more masculine and strong, brave, etc.











Mise-en-scene:
Mise-en-scene was portrayed in the first two minutes of our film through clothing and props. We used stereotypical clothing on Chris of a modern teenager such as; joggers and trainers.We had produced home-made blood to use for our filming on the Desperate Man as he was portrayed as to be injured and vulnerable.







Editing:
The use of editing on our film allowed us to filter the colors which helped output a better look to the woods and street scene as these were clear and helped add to the sense of realism. The brighter color tones on the leaves and grass allowed the scene to look more dream kind and that it happened a while later than the home scene.

 


Camera:
The types of shot were particularly chosen in order to portray vulnerability to Chris so we decided to use high angle shots and make the audience empathize with Chris. We had also made use of two dolly shots that were put into the first two minutes of our film in order to create a sense of realism and make the audience feel like they were in Chris's perspective which helped to create a sense of fear and questioning of what was going to happen.


Sound:
In order to create a sense of suspense and portray the characters as vulnerable in our film we used as little dialogue as we could in order to make our audience question what was happening. We relied on ambient sounds like the wind and the tweeting of birds to create a sense of isolation, especially in the woods scene. We had to edit the sound of the phone call, in order to make it sound like it was a legitimate phone call that would happen if somebody was calling 999.  

Evaluation - Question 1

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

Forms of Conventions:

Our film is based as a psychological thriller and typical conventions that we used to form this was speed of continuity, close ups and fast paced editing to show emotions of the character building a tense atmosphere for the audience. These typical conventions used for our genre will help build the audience to follow our theory by reacting and feeling how we expect them to.

Narrative:

The film was scripted after we had researched into our genre, the films we mainly focused on were; Submarine and Kill List. We created a whole different character to fit our storyline, our lead character 'Chris' suffers from schizophrenia and puts himself and others in danger which was suitable for our genre. Our film begins with Chris crawling out of a lake which reflects directly onto our genre and making the audience feel confused as to why he is doing this.

Iconography:
Typical conventions of our genre are mental issues with the characters, to help portray this in our film we decided to use visual conventions such as the setting and the characters regular behaviour to represent its genre.

Camera:
After researching into psychological horror films, i realised that there's always a scene that builds up tension and false alarms before the event occurs. Having known this we decided to use close up and extreme close up shots to show emotions of the character to build tension and keep the audience focused. We also used a number of different techniques such as shallow focus, point of view, dolly, and over-the-shoulder shots to create a better view and affect to what's happening. I also noticed that in horror films, the characters are usually shown in high angle and low angle shots to portray each characters authority, in our film we decided to show Chris from a low angle point of view when the person on the floor's asking for help.

Typography:
The title sequence at the beginning of the film was set in a font that suits its genre and also plays transitions of where the scene's set, this gives the audience a slight hint of somethings about to happen.

Continuity & Editing:
Typical conventions of continuity and editing in horror genre's are expected to be of high pace and build up tension before an event occurs. After some research we decided to follow this and make certain shots to be high paced so that different views are shown ensuring the audience stay focused and a slight insight of something about to happen.