2. EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1-In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
• The title of the film of the film is called venator; this is the Latin name for hunter. My opening is
based on a stalker style film; therefore the word hunter is a stereotypically associated one. Also
when I researched into animated titles typically the title will give away the theme of the film/opening
for example se7en (about the seven deadly sins) although it may not be completely obvious. In this
respect I also believe my title “venator” buckles to this trend. Setting/location many horror and thriller
films are set in abandoned alleyways and I tapped into this in order to attempt to make my opening
in an obvious genre. Genre and how the opening suggests it- the opening also suggests typical
aspects of a thriller genre by the lighting (usually low key) the increasing tension and the intermittent
threat of an unknown protagonist. Costumes and props- Most of the supernatural thriller title
animations I researched included a paper/scrapbook based media detailing a plan of some
sort, when I looked into props that would be needed to tie into this idea I brought , note
paper, scrapbooking equipment and empty space around meaning that the main focus of the
opening is on this plan/hidden agenda. One of the questions to ask is “ is this scrapbooking medium
typical of supernatural thrillers” . i think no as the company's that produce films with this media in
them target nice audiences, meaning that the props/plot of my opening is typical for a nice market
but not for a global market.
• Camerawork and editing-stalker camera work focuses on the unseen element , lots of shots out of
view of the characters as if hiding, my opening displays many of these .
Title font and style-the text font used in my opening sequence is mainly handwriting and with a dark
red like blood this makes people associate it with a personal noting and killing indicating a stalker-
typical.
• How characters are introduced-little is known about the stalker and main character-creating tension
3. • EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Pick a key character from your opening. Take a screengrab of a reasonable sized image of them.
Think of one or more characters from other films with some similarity to them (but maybe some
differences too!), find an image on the web of that/those characters and grab it as well. Drop the
two as a split screen. Export this split screen image as a jpeg then drop onto your powerpoint and
write about the similarities and differences in terms of appearance, costume, role in film etc.
So for example if you have a lone cop type character, look for other lone cops to compare him
with...
• My media opening to the film was aimed at the demographic of 18-24 year old age group, the
film reflects this by using familiar situations.
• The main character in the film opening is the female lead. She is similar in character to the
character Laurie Strode in Halloween II.The two characters are similar as they are both the
female protagonist in the films, both wear fashionable clothing and are the societies of their
social groups.
• There are also a few differences in the characters as the lead character in the film opening not
much I known about them and their background until the end of the film whereas lots is known
about the character Laurie Strode in Halloween II.
4. EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
For this question, you could to do a 'director's commentary' style script explaining some of the key features of your opening,discussion of your production
company name and logo and the role of such companies
What does a production company do?
The idea of a distributor and who that might be and why.
You will need to script the voiceover which deals with institutional issues to include:
money might have come from for a film such as yours
why the various people are named in the titles- which jobs appear in titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
what your film is similar to 'institutionally' (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
You need to refer to actual company names and processes so you will need to go back to the early posts on film companies and maybe do a bit more research
• The key features in my film are the alleyway scene and the book scene, these have been
carefully mixed together in order to create juxtaposition. This also makes the viewer think
that there may be a link between the planning within the book and the alleyway making
them also think if something will happen. This would be key when distributing my film as the
two separate scenes would have to be combined together in any advertising. A production
company helps with certain parts of the films process including budgeting scheduling
scripting and casting. They will in tern find a suitable director for the film and the genre
along with suitable or distinguished actors/actresses .The production company logo that I
chose was Lilly productions. The logo was designed to look like an independent company's
logo and one that also had the potential to be recognisable. A distributor of the film will
make sure that your media will reach certain places, send it out to byers (such as cinemas)
and will organise payment options. This will be one of the last stages a film will go through
before it is available to the audience to view.There are titles on every film including the
producer, distributer, writer, editing crew and cast. My film consequently reflects this.The
four audience members that I interviewed all said that they would continue to watch the film
due to the tension created from the opening and in order to find out what happened.
5. EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
You should have a drawing of your target audience member and an explanation of what kinds of taste they might have-
where they would shop, what music they would listen to, what their favourite TV programme would be, etc
The typical age group that would view the film would be 13-18 year olds. The image bellow is a
group of 17 year olds-the target audience for the film opening. I interviewed one of the member
in audience to get an audience profile.
1. Her favorite shops are h&m, jack wills, superdry because she loves the feel and quality of the
clothes.
2.Her favorite MUSIC: vampire weekend, erik hassle, gotye, the civil wars, bombay bicycle
club, friendly fires, two door cinema club, nizlopi, the paper kites etc. 'cause they're all just such
sweet, quirky songs. you don't find them mainstream, like on the radio or in films.
3 favorite tv programs criminal minds and new girl, mainly because they have matthew gray
gubler and zooey deschanel in them. they're my absolute favorite actors. i'd have to go for
criminal minds in the end 'cause i'm fascinated by forensic psychology. it's what i want to do at
university
6. EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
These annotations will highlight the ways in which your Film Opening links to other similar films in order to attract the particular
Audience you have previously identified.
Your annotations will refer to genre conventions, use of music, similarities with other movies and what you have identified as the
Unique Selling Point of your imaginary film.
The audience would be attracted to this film mainly by the marketing, this would be done
through cinema advertising, TV advertising and advertising online. The advertising should be
aimed at the target audience of 13-18 this could be done by tailoring the advertisement to
sites that are commonly used by this demographic and in particular social network sites such
as twitter and Facebook. Google advertising would tailor the adverts to a certain target
audience by only appearing on some peoples screens that view similar sites or videos.
The opening should appeal to both male and female but it may be particularly appealing to a
female audience as there is a female main character, this will allow the female audience
something to relate to. When engaging in audience research I interviewed four people that
had viewed the film opening two male (16 and 18) and two female (16 and 18).The film
opening proved more popular with the younger audience members as they said that it
seemed more relatable for them. The film appealed to both groups and both said they would
continues watching the film.
7. EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In pairs, take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and your computer but there
may be other things you want in the shot.
Drop the image onto your powerpoint and annotate it, adding all the programs and other technology you have used as screengrabs and
what you learnt about it/from using it. You could include reference to all the online and computer programs you have used such as
iMovie, garage band youtube
To make the film there were many pieces of equipment used to make the film
including a cannon camera: (this was used to film the opening once it had been filmed the clips could be
transferred onto an apple mac in order to edit.
A tripod to steady the camera : (this will
in tern reduce the camera shake making
the shots more realistic)
And an apple Mac to edit the film: (programs used to edit included I -movie
and garage band)
8. EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression
from it to full product?
Concentrate on editing and camerawork.
Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you know about shot types, edit terms and techniques.
Make sure you mention the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot
Within the continuity editing task many areas of improvement were highlighted
(this was probably due to it being the first as level piece of media that was
atempted-filmwise).These areas included the continuity and the composition
of shots. For example within the clip there is a clip showing someone sitting
down, there is a small jump from clip to clip meaning that the continuity editing
and match on action was not quite right here. Also within the clip there is
another figure that enters one of the shots this is bad composition as this
would majorly detract from the finished piece. Some of the shots attempted in
the preliminary task were correct including the two shot, and the shot reverse
shot these still could be improved by reducing the camera shake by using a
tripod to film. In order to achieve a realistic scene in the film opening most of
the shots were edited together seamlessly using a cut but to add dramatic
effect one was edited using a jump cut.The 180 degree rule was abided by
(stay on one side of the person) so that it does not confuse the viewer or
detract from the realism.
