2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our short film has the conventions of a typical horror/thriller. It has a twist to the narrative. Typical camera shots such as close ups, high and low angle shots and point of view shots. Uses both fast paced and slow paced editing throughout different parts of the film in order to build tension. Ends with a cliff hanger so they audience can interpret how the film really ended. Post modern – Includes a film within a film. This is a screenshot of where the twist in the narrative occurs. This is an example of an extreme close up shot we used to emphasise the emotion on the character’s face.
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4. The layout matches the film through elements such as the images of the candles which are used within the film. The colour scheme of black and orange supports the theme and genre of our film.
5. The pull quotes used make the reader want to read the article to find out more about the film.
6. The film roll of images down the side of the page are screenshots from the actual film and give the audience a hint at parts of the film.
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8. What have you learned from your audience feedback? The twist in the narrative surprised the audience and they liked the fact the film ended with a cliff hanger so they could interpret their own ending. The camera shots and angles used were effective such as close ups to show emotions and hand held camera work made the film feel more realistic. The sound could have been improved by it flowing together more rather than jumping from sound to sound and more enhanced sounds could have been used to emphasise parts of the film. The lighting could have been controlled better so that less editing was needed on it and so the film looked more like it had all been filmed at the same time.
9. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? As a group we have learned to use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit our film and create it. We have learnt how to use a digital camera and tripod effectively to create a short film. We have improved our Photoshop skills in making the film posters and the double page spread. This is an example of us editing our film on Adobe Premiere Pro altering and adding sound. Here is an example of us editing on Photoshop to put a glowing effect and shadows on our heading.
Editor's Notes
It contains close ups to emphasise the emotions of the characters and show that they are scared like in typical thrillers and horrors. Point of view shots are used to show the film from different character’s points of view. High and low angle shots are also used to make characters and objects look more powerful or weaker. A mix of fast and slow paced editing are used to create tension and build suspense for the audience at the scarier parts of the film. It has a twist to the narrative like most thrillers as what the audience think is the actual film is only really a film being watched within the film and at the end they are left with a cliff hanger so they are left wondering how it actually ended and also our audience research proved that audiences prefer endings that are cliff hangers. Our short film could also be described as being post modern as the twist of the film involves a film being shown within a film.
The magazine article includes a film review supporting our short film. It encourages the audience to want to watch the film through ways such as talking about the actors and the storyline in a positive way. The layout and colour scheme portray the genre of horror and the candles give an eerie feel to the look of the article. The screenshots of parts of the film used in the film roll down the side of the page were deliberately used to show the audience different parts of the film so that they want to know what is happening. The five stars are used to convey the idea the film is a high quality short film and influence the audience to make them believe it must be worth watching if it has been rated this highly.
Both ancillary posters we created gave us the incentive to research into our target audience and other horror film advertisements and films further to find out what the is and is not effective when choosing the correct way of portraying our short horror film. A strength of both ancillary posters is that the image on each grabs the audiences attention. As the focal point is the flame on the candle, we chose to put the title above this to attract attention and so it is one of the first things you see when looking at each. This is a strength as the name of the film is then out there, as even if just passing the posters, the title is clear and readable.A weakness of these posters is that they are both very similar so don’t get much contrast or different ideas on how to approach attracting audiences through advertisements.Over all, both ancillary posters helped the group to improve in understanding of the advertisement of horror films and how to attract the right audiences.
The audience feedback was overall positive about our short film. The audience said that the storyline was interesting and the twist in the narrative kept them wanting to know what was going to happen next. They said tension and suspense was built well through the sound we did use and the camera angles and shots. They told us that our horror film contained conventions of what a horror/thriller film should include such as blood, a twist to the narrative, camera shots such as close ups and high and low angle shots and also eerie sounds that build tension. Our audience said our film could have been improved by a bit more work being done on the sound throughout it such as more enhanced sounds could have been used to build even more suspense and more of a variety of non-diegetic music could have been used. They also pointed out that at some points throughout the film you could tell that it had been filmed at different times and edited together so we could have stuck to filming in a consistent lighting condition so that less editing was needed to be done to make it look continuous and it would have flowed better.
