Evaluation questions

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

The media product I have created is a horror movie. The media product I have created develops many conventions seen within many professional and high budget horror films. The camera shots, angles and movements I have used have been seen throughout many horror films within the past as they convey important messages within the film itself and are essential features that create the fear factor within every horror film, therefore I have used these camera shots, angles and movements as inspiration within my personal film as I have used the shot reverse shot camera work as two of the characters are having a conversation. I developed the use of the shot and manipulated it allowing it to help me. The shot allowed me to save time as I filmed the character dialogues at separate times therefore having much more time focussing on the lighting and emotion from each character individually. Within my camera work I also tried something new and something that rarely been seen before within a horror movie. During my personal research sessions I decided to watch a movie named ‘the revenant’ within this movie they had camera shots where the camera would begin with the character in frame and pan to the left consequently revealing something that the character has already seen and is shocked at. Whilst watching this I the camera shot did everything it intended to do and could also fit within a horror film as the slow pan built suspense and even though the audience may get prepared the slow suspense and build up to the eventual climax which did frighten me. Therefore I decided that this would be an excellent shot to experiment and use within my media product.

Question 2: How did you find the filming process?

Within the film I focused on camera shots, angles and movements. When I decided to take on the role of camera work I decide that I would pay attention to detail. As I decided to do this I researched many camera methods and watched many videos that give tips that allow the filming process to be done with professionalism. The first thing I decided was not going to happen was unsteady camera work. An unsteady camera can be used to a person’s advantage to a certain extent as it causes a fear factor and a panic within the audience. However scenes such as conversations and during the beginning of the movie when we’re setting the scene unsteady camera work could put the audience off the film generally as they would like to see something professional but also force them to be distracted by many other things. One thing that was much harder than expected was the control of lighting within the camera. Even though the lighting was good, many scenes required more and many scenes required less as we decided to manipulate the emotion that high and low key lighting can make the audience feel. For example many scenes using the doll have low key lighting this is to show the audience that even though this is a doll there is darkness that follows it and evil is just around the corner. Before we decided filming we [planned out everything we needed through props and costumes, I also planned out every camera shot and angle I intended to do within each scene of the film itself. However I did change some as once I started doing them I felt a certain angle would look better than the one I initially thought. We also rehearsed our lines during meetings we had and altered the script many times. If there was anything I believe I could have improved was the use of certain camera equipment such as a camera cage that would allow even smoother movement when I moved the camera into certain potions. This would have also allowed the movie to flow a bit better.

Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

During certain points within the process of creating my movie I used the power of social media to show my ideas and product for feedback. One thing I have learnt from my audience feedback is that many people that are within the same age category are attracted and are into the same ideas and sub genres of a horror movie. I decide to split my audience feedback within age groups as my initial target audience was teenagers. When I received my feedback I decided to stick with teenagers as my target audience as they were the age group that had chemistry and consistency between them. Things such as the sub-genre of my horror movie were chosen due to the overwhelming attractiveness towards that sub-genre and the demand by my target audience.

Question 4: How did you research using different media technologies? 

Throughout my research and planning stages many different media technologies were used. I used the word processing document for many of my pieces of research and planning but have tried to incorporate them in other ways such as using a software called i movie to indicate how my location and props of my horror movie