How are you using media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluating strategies?
Media technologies have been a constant and the most
dominant part of my media production work. I have used many different programs
for different elements of my work and I couldn't have possibly finished without
them.
When
I decided that the genre for my short film will be horror, I was quite happy
with my choice, as I already knew quite a bit about it. Being a horror film
fanatic, I had already watched many, so I knew what to expect. For my research
and planning, firstly I had used the DVDs I already had at my house. I watched
the horror films on a Playstation, which was easy and quick to do. Using some
DVDs I already had was a good idea as it allowed me to re-watch the scenes that
caught my attention and I could pause to annotate, too. After watching the
films I had, I decided that I needed to expand my range a little, and so I had
to use different types of video streaming websites in order to look up videos
that I could use as examples for my own work. My main online source had been YouTube,
where I watched different openings to horror films, after I had decided that my
short film would be an opening sequence. Using YouTube had proven to be a good
idea, as it has a lot of material, and most of all, is free, allowing me to
watch anything I wanted. YouTube is a quick and easy website to use, also
allowing me to annotate the film and even take screen caps if needed. That’s
all for my main task. For the ancillary tasks, which were a movie poster and a
film review page, I just used Google to look up some images of already existing
material and took notes on them.
For my planning, I mainly just used a camera to take
pictures for my storyboard, and since I didn’t have an actual camera, I just
used my phone, which ended up working perfectly well, since the resolution on
it is pretty good, and it was much quicker and easier to do than working with a
camera would be. After taking all my pictures, I had to upload them onto my
computer and put them all together into a storyboard, which was a PowerPoint
presentation, which was also quick and quite efficient, as it didn’t take a lot
of time and was simple to make.
After all the planning was done, the actual shooting
had to take place, but the only thing used for that was a camera which we
rented out from college. The microphone was already installed in the device and
the only other thing we used was a tripod.
The ancillary tasks themselves didn’t involve too many
media technologies. The only things used were a camera to take the necessary
pictures for the film poster and review page, as well as Photoshop in order to
edit the images and add any text that was needed in order to make the tasks
seem as professional as possible. Google was once again used here in order to
find an ‘18’ sticker for my film poster and looking up examples of professional
film posters and film reviews to take some ideas from them.
For the evaluation, I am using Microsoft Word to write
it all out, and www.blogger.com to upload
it onto. I’m also using the print screen function of my keyboard to take
pictures of things I may need to include in this. Blogger is a very easy
website to use, allowing quick uploads and possibly instant feedback.
In what ways will your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For this whole project, I had to do three tasks; the
main task (a short film) and two ancillary tasks (a film poster and a film
review page).
The main task, which is an opening sequence to a
horror film, is firmly based on the movie Scream.
I had decided to do a re-make of the opening sequence of that film, since it’s
one of my favourites. I knew that doing a re-make of a film can be dangerous,
as it can end up looking too much like the original, but I had a few good ideas
on how to change it for it to look more modern, at the same time keeping the
same plotline and the main story.
My media product doesn’t challenge any forms and
conventions of real media products. Whatever films I have researched for this (Scream, The Strangers, etc,) I have used
the conventions from them to my advantage, only developing on them. I used the
main codes and conventions for all horror films; dark settings, eerie sounds,
slow paced action at the beginning, and building up on it to a dramatic climax.
My film production reflects real media products in a positive way, making my
film look quite professionally done. I had used the conventions which I thought
were the most interesting to audiences, and ones that I knew would keep the
audience interested in seeing more.
Most horror films portray the victim as a woman and
the killer as a male figure. Scream does
the same, and my initial thought was to change that stereotype around and have
a male victim with a female serial killer. The idea seemed great to me, however
I lacked a male actor willing to play the protagonist, making me stick to the
original stereotype and keeping the victim a female and the killer a man
figure. The female victim in my opening sequence is an innocent looking blonde
woman, who once again fits perfectly into the stereotype of the female who
usually gets killed off first in a horror film. The killer is a masked figure
wearing a large hoody and a white mask, keeping the idea similar to the one in Scream, however changing the attire a
little, keeping the look more modern and something to keep the teenage audience
tuned in.
For my ancillary tasks one and two, I had also
strongly based them on already existing media products, not challenging any
conventions, only adopting them to my own work. For the film review page, I looked
up different review pages using Google, looking at some interesting ones that
stood out to me most, like a review of Avatar in the Cineworld’s Unlimited
magazine, or the Empire review for Chinatown. I had used these examples to model
my own work, keeping it simple and elegant, while at the same time making it
look professional and kind to the eye. I chose colour themes to match the genre
and general feel of my film, though keeping the main parts, such as a few
lines, naming the main starts of the film, the director, the length of the
film, and the rating of the review the same.
For my film poster, I used the poster for Scream 4¸as my main influence, liking
that one best as it was quite simple, yet still made an impression. I also
liked the poster for One Missed Call
and The Silence Of The Lambs, as they were all quite dark and stood out to me
most, as they look really mysterious, at the same time getting the message of
the genre of the film across perfectly. All the posters portray a face partly
in shadow, which is what I did in my own ancillary task two. Looking at
different posters, I knew I had to include the film title, production,
directors and producers names, etc, in a small print at the bottom of the
poster, along with a tag indicating what age you have to be in order to watch
this film.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
When
doing my media project, the main source of constructive criticism I had been
getting, was from my subject tutor. Since I wasn’t the editor of the film, most
of what has been said was directed towards my partner, as she was the one
making all the changed, but I always helped decide what she should do, or how
she should do something. Whenever we got a comment from our tutor or any other
teacher who looked at our product, we always took the comments to heart,
thinking them over and deciding what we should do.
Since the
primary audience of our film was people ages 18-25, we couldn’t really get
direct feedback from that very age range, but we weren’t far off, and the
feedback we got from people either a little younger or a little older still
suited us perfectly and we adopted whatever was being said to us. The reason we
mainly used the feedback of our tutor and teachers for this task was because
they knew what they were talking about, since they know the film business well.
However, when we received any feedback from our peers, it was always positive.
For the
ancillary tasks, I had to change quite a bit under the influence of the
feedback I was getting. Overall people seemed to agree that my pieces were good
ones and the feedback was positive, however when I showed them to my subject
tutor, he gave me a few pieces of advice that would make them even better,
making me re-draft them.
With the
film review, I had originally done only one page of work, only to find out it
needed to be a double page spread, making me add an additional page, which got
positive feedback when I shared it with people later. The same this happened
with my film poster. When showing it to my peers and people outside of my
class, I got very positive feedback, with people agreeing that the poster
looked very professional and smart. However, when I showed it to my subject
tutor, he gave me some constructive criticism about the font at the bottom of
the poster being too big and the fact that the age restriction for the movie
was missing.
With the
help of peers and teachers and their praise and constructive criticism, I made
some crucial changes to my work that only helped to make it an even better
product than I had originally hoped for.
How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary tasks?
My main project and the two ancillary tasks
link very well together. I have continued a certain theme through all of my
projects, linking them in a way that lets the audience know they’re supposed to
go together. The overall colour theme of my main task, which is mainly dark
with some red lighting when the scene is taking outside, is continued in my two
ancillary projects as well, with the two of them being predominately made up of
only dark colours with some red, which in turn represents the blood which is to
be shed in the film.
Another thing linking all my three tasks together
is the simplicity of them. All of them are really simple in their design, even
the film, which is very slow paced at the beginning, then getting faster when
the killing takes place. The two ancillary tasks are also the simplest they
could possibly be, as I’ve noticed that the genre of horror is mainly quite
simple in design.
Seeing as the target audience for my film is
18-25, I’ve noticed that people in that particular age group don’t like it when
things are too complicated, that’s another reason why I decided to go with the
simplicity option. If the review was longer or the film poster with a more
difficult message to understand, the audience would probably get bored and
wouldn’t want to continue reading it, or try to figure out what the film might
possibly be about. The poster and review are supposed to be attention catching
and easy on the eye, and that’s exactly what I think they are, and they go
perfectly with the film which is also very pleasant to watch, despite its
genre.
Overall, I think that the three tasks go
really well together, complimenting each other in all the right aspects.