Evaluation (Maisie Walker)

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



The Frames are in order in rows. Row 1: Frames 1-3 Row 2: Frames 4-6 Row 3: Frames 7-9

1.The very first picture is of the company which were associated with the film, in this case it is Universal Studios. This is at the beginning to acknowledge the company and make sure the audience are aware of the company which the film was made from. This occurs at the very beginning, specifically from 0-24 seconds. Usually, major film studios present their logos at the beginning to keep awareness of their studio. This is a simple convention of a major studio film. 

2. The second picture is also a company which the film was associated with, again, this is to make the audience aware of the company to encourage them to remember the company logo to then associate it with other films. This time frame is 24-38 seconds. This is also quite a long time for a company logo therefore it gives the audience time to recognize the logo.

3. This is a final film company logo for the audience to see at the beginning of the film. This has already taken up a lot of time however, they are beneficial as the audience can associate the logos with other films in the future. The timing of this company logo starts at 38 and ends at 52 seconds.

4. Starting at 54 seconds is a small paragraph of text explaining crucial facts for the film therefore  the audience are able to grasp the context in greater detail and the film will make sense. This particular text is on a blank screen and is very plain. The colour of the text is an off white colour and is quite dull and boring. In addition “America. 2022” this is a very specific use of time lapsing to achieve the time period for the audience without any dialogue. This makes it easier for the audience to understand the context of the film and understand when it was set. This clip ends at 1:02.00 which gives the audience enough time to read the text thoroughly before skipping to the next clip.

5. After the first bit of text, there is also another piece of text simply stating their motto for America. This is very important to the film due to the fact that the audience have to believe that no matter who disagrees, the Purge is always going to happen every year. The text for this picture is also on a blank screen with off white text which is also in a boring, normal font. This is effective as the font it clearly stating facts, this forces the audience to read the text as it is made to look important. This clip starts at 1:03.00 and ends at 1:12.00. At the same time as this, there is very faintly played music in the background which sounds like breathing and a faint sound of something dropping and making an echo. This is effective as it creates a sense of an unsafe place and a very quiet place which indicates that everyone is hiding away from the purge.

6. Picture 6 is another text filled clip which indicates, again, what the studios are for the particular  film.They are in the same font as the other text which links in with the theme of the film. This clip begins at 1:19.00 and ends at 1:21.00, this is a much shorter period of time because it is only reiterating what the other logos had put across in the previous clips. On the other hand, the music contrasts with the atmosphere and the genre of this film a lot on this particular clip due to the fact that it is very happy, tranquil music which would usually be played in a film that was meant to be happy. This is effective as the audience are put on edge due to the awkward contrasting music to the built up feel of the horror/thriller genre.

7. begins at 1:22.00 and ends at 1:24.00. This is a very short period of time for a clip that first shows the action within the film. This is a vital clip due to the fact that it shocks the audience as already it is jumping straight into the gore and gritty realism of the Purge. The calm, peaceful music is still playing in the background which makes indicates that the Purge makes all human being happier in the long run even if it does mean committing crimes on the night of the annual Purge. This clip indicates random people at the start of the film, this is unusual due to the fact that it usually shows the main characters at the beginning of films. This makes the film mysterious and unnerving for the audience therefore they would want to find out more. The numbers and location in the top right hand corner signify that the camera is a security camera on the street, this exaggerates the fact that the citizens are committing crimes and no one is doing anything about it. The name 'Ethan Hawke' is in the middle left hand side of the screen at this point and stays on the screen until the clip is finished. This text is white and the same font as the security camera text in the top right corner. This is effective as it makes it more serious. The name is small so the audience are able to focus predominantly on the film footage instead of the writing. There is no specific camera work on this particular clip because it is meant to be a security camera stuck in the same place throughout.

8. The next clip is in black and white, also shown on a security camera. The black and white camera gives the clip more of a mysterious feel and puts the audience on edge as they are unable to identify the people in the camera footage. The name 'Lena Hedey' comes onto the clip at the same time as the clip starts and comes off at the same time. Much like the previous clip, the font is boring and the same as the text on the security camera. The fact that the film is showing lots of action, killing and gore at such an early stage in the film sets the audience up for what is going to happen next. In addition, this shocks the audience and makes them wonder why the people are being killed so brutally and frequently. This clip starts at 1:24.00 and ends at 1:26.00. The same tranquil, contrasting music is still playing in the background, in addition, you are unable to hear the sound of the gunshot as it is covered up by the music, this makes the crimes less dangerous and more for a good cause as you are unable to hear the threatening noises of people dying and people being shot. Much like the clip before, the camera is stuck in the same place and filming from above for the whole of the clip. This is a high angle shot to signify to the audience that they are watching through a security camera. This also makes the audience feel as if they are hiding away behind the camera and that they are safe away from the people attempting to Purge, much like the main characters within the film.

9. The names 'Arija Bareikis' and 'Chris Mulkey' are on the screen in this particular clip, this is in the same colour and font as all of the other credits on screen. This is different to the other clips as the other clips only had one credit at a time. You cannot see the credits too well due to the fact that they are faint, small and white and are playing off a dark yellow colour of a fire in the background. This clip starts at 1:4700 and ends at 1:50.00, this is only 3 seconds for the clip. This is effective as it leaves mystery and doesn't show any identity of the people who are committing the crimes. The usual music is still playing in the background and in the top right hand corner there is a text in the form of a security camera saying 'Purge Feed' this is the name of the film however, this gives the audience an indication as to what happens within the Purge therefore instead of giving the audience characters to start with, they base the film around the overall context and put the characters in after.

Each credit has no transition, it just turns up on the screen as if it has been cut onto the screen. On the other hand, when it leaves the screen it fades out ready for the next credit.

The Frames are in order in rows. Row 1: Frames 1-3 Row 2: Frames 4-6 Row 3: Frames 7-9

Frame 1- Begins at 00:01 and ends at 00:08. Within the first frame there is a production logo named 'Earth Productions' this follows the conventions of the influential film as 'The Purge' also has a film logo in the first frame which is 'Universal Studio's' a major film production company. Earth Productions suited the theme of my film quite well due to the eeriness and mystery. It reminds me a lot of the Universal Studios logo that is at the beginning of 'The Purge'.

Frame 2- Begins at 00:09 and ends at 00:13. Within the second frame I have also used another Film production logo 'TimeHop Studios', this is following the conventions of the typical film due to the fact that it uses another company logo named 'Blumhouse Productions' 

Frame 3- Begins at 00:15 and ends at 00:17. Finally I used another Logo called 'Reel Quality Productions'. This is the same as the similar film because they also used 3 logos at the beginning of their film. I believe this makes it more professional due to the fact that it follows conventions of a real similar film and the names sound real, as if they would have been used in a real film. 

Frame 4- Begins at 00:18 and ends at 00:22. "TimeHop Studios Presents..." This challenges the conventions of the similar film due to the fact that it is not used. On the other hand, from my research into 'Definitely Maybe' I came to the conclusion that using "TimeHop Studios Presents..." at the beginning would be a good idea due to the fact that it introduces the film and makes it more mysterious as the audiences are waiting for the film to begin.

Frame 5- Begins at 00:23 and ends at 00:27. "An Earth Productions and Reel Quality Productions Film" is used to introduce the Production companies. This is used by the similar film therefore it follows the conventions of a typical thriller film. I wanted to use this as it was a typical convention and it was professional.

Frame 6- begins at 00:29 and ends at 00:32. This frame consists of a blank screen with the title spread across. This isn't used in the opening of the similar film therefore it contrast with The Purge. On the other hand I feel that the title works well at the beginning as it introduces the viewer to the film. I chose to keep the title plain and simple, also it is in the same font as the credits. This is important as it relates to the conventions of our film and looks more professional. 

Frame 7- Starts at 00:28 and ends at 00:31. This frame includes an over the shoulder shot of me running away in the woods. I believe this works well because the low key lighting links to the similar film when they use low key lighting to make the atmosphere mysterious and eerie. On the other hand, the camera work within our film contrasts with the camera work in the similar film due to the fact that the camera work in The Purge is filmed through a still camera which represents a security camera. I feel that this gives the audience more perspective of the film and the people within it instead of reducing their view.

Frame 8- Starts at 00:32 and ends at 00:35. This frame is simply a blank screen with a credit saying 'Kennedy Overton'. I chose to use a blank screen for the credit as it builds up tension due to the fact that the viewer knows that something is going on however they are unaware. The credit consists of a dull font and a small font size. I feel like this is very professional due to the fact that it follows the conventions of the similar film which is a small, dull font. I believe this puts all the attention on the actual film itself instead of focusing so much on the credits. The dark colours on the credit screen links to the theme of the film which is dark and mysterious.

Frame 9- Starts at 00:35 and ends at 00:38. Finally this frame consists of a point of view shot of my legs whilst running through the woods. Firstly, the lighting is very dark again and almost black and white. This is effective as it links to the similar films dark/low key lighting. On the other hand it can affect the way the viewer sees as at times it can be difficult to see. The fact that it is a point of view shot reduces the viewer's ability to see anything other than what the character can see. This is effective as it puts the viewer on edge by simply taking away their view and making them more vulnerable like the character.

Question 2-How does your product represent particular social groups?

Within our opening the only character introduced was the young, vulnerable girl. This is because a lot of typical horror films have a young vulnerable girl which encourages the audience to look out for that particular character. Through research we found out that most stereotypical vulnerable characters are either very covered up or showing a lot of skin, there is no in between. In addition, they are very beaten up and dirty. Therefore to show this we put the main character in very little, dark clothes with cuts all up her chest and face. On the contrary, this doesn't look anything like the main character from Carrie due to the fact that she is very covered up. One similarity would be the dark clothes, she wears dull colours such as grey and within our film and the main character wears black.

The fact that the main character is a vulnerable female is very stereotypical due to the fact that a woman is usually represented as small and vulnerable within most films within this contemporary era. Despite the vulnerability of the main character in our film, the whole film is revolved around one man that causes the girl a large amount of distress. This is also stereotypical as men are usually represented as the more dominant character within situations such as this. 
Our films target audience is older teenagers which range from age 15-20. This is because younger teenagers would not understand the situations that go on within this film such as; abuse, torture and mentality. Our intentions for the reaction to this film would be that the older teenagers are more cautious when they go out of the house and more cautious around people that they aren't familiar with. We created this film because not many films focus predominantly on the mind of the main character, they usually focus on the mind of the attacker/the antagonist. Considering this, I believe the film will affect teenagers as they will relate to the age of the character and will stay within the same mind set as the character. 
Carrie was released in 1976 which is a large difference to what 2014 would be like. Our interpretation of vulnerability is being stripped down to the bare minimum. To secure our decision on vulnerability we researched the internet definition of vulnerable "Exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally". The word "exposed" lead us to the idea that the main character had to wear a small amount of clothes to signify that she had been injured and was in a bad place.  The black background in both pictures is similar, this is because I wanted to stick to the conventions and keep the dark background for a sense of mystery. Additionally, the facial expressions in both pictures are very alike. This gives the audience a chance to compare the films which will encourage them to watch our film as it would be an obvious identifier. 

Question 3-Which kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

Here is a link to my institutions and audience video 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i72QS2BQA7o&feature=youtu.be

This is also an animated vide to show the institutions involved with my similar film which is Taken and to showR who would produce, fund and distribute my film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo3uX_nsSI4

Question 4-Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Bethany Youren. Beth is 18 years old and usually lives in Medway however she is currently in University. Bethany enjoys going out in the evening to clubs and socializing with her friends. She also loves spending time with her boyfriend and cooking for all of her friends. Bethany's favourite films are Taken and Insidious as she enjoys being scared by films instead of watching romantic comedies as she believes they are boring and a waste of time. Bethany prefers to go to the cinema to watch thriller/horror films as it gives off more of an effect compared to watching it at home on a DVD. Bethany's favourite TV programmes consist of; The Walking Dead, Brooklyn nine-nine and Silent Witness. These programmes are on E4, Fox and BBC One. 
Finally Bethany's music taste is very different, she listens to music ranging from Drake, Mumford and sons and Kanye West. 
I believe that Bethany would be our ideal audience member because she enjoys thriller/ horror films and is not a stereotypical girl. I also believe that she would enjoy our primary target audience was teenage girls therefore she would fit into our audience category very well. 
 If this film was shown at the cinema I think that Bethany would definitely attend and enjoy it. I have chosen an 18 year old girl because the film is rated 15 therefore young teenagers and adults will usually be most attracted to the film. Additionally, Beth enjoys thriller TV shows and films therefore she would be the type of girl to enjoy watching the film.


Question 5- How did you attract/ address your audience?

These are questionnaires I handed out to my class to get some opinions on what films are liked within the class, what conventions are enjoyed the most and where the titles and main title should be placed.
These questionnaires tell me that the audience prefer the credits to be on a blank screen, this is what we had originally planned because we felt it looked more professional and fitted with the conventions of a typical horror. In addition to this, we used the low key lighting comment in our film. This is evident throughout the film to create mystery and suspense. On the other hand, when we showed our rough cut it got some bad feedback because the lighting was too dark. To improve this I brightened up the darkest video and our audience agreed that it was better and they were able to see the actors feet more.

Here is a link to my attract/address the audience video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps0NqOSZKLs

Question 6: what have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Picture one is of my memory stick, I have used this throughout the making of the film for things such as; saving pictures, rough cuts, music etc. All of my work was saved onto my memory stick therefore this was hardware that I has particularly reliant on throughout the process. I used this mainly in the editing process of the two minute opening because I had to save the progress on my memory stick as well as the video clips that I had to edit. The memory stick also helped me because the computers are public so it would have been easier for me to put my work onto the memory stick.

Picture 2 is of the HD camera that I used to film my main task with.This was extremely useful to our group because without it we wouldn't have been able to film as well as we did. The camera was effective to our piece as, with a steady hand, it produced videos. This camera was only used for filming the main task and rough cut. 

Picture 3 is a picture of the USB lead that we used to connect the camera to the computer with. This was very helpful as it was the only way we could put the pictures onto the computer from the camera. I used this predominantly in the editing process to transfer the pictures. 

Picture 4 is the microphone that I have used for this evaluation to do the voice overs over the top of my film. This was very helpful as I wanted to create a more inventive way of talking about my film than writing about it. Without this I wouldn't have been able to show my creativity on my blog.

Picture 5 is a picture of the tripod that we used when filming our piece. This was used particularly on the scene when I was running on the other side of the road past the camera as we needed a straight pan instead of it being jolted. This helped our group a lot as it made the camera work look a little bit more professional. 

Picture 6 is a picture of the memory card that was inside the camera at the time of filming. This was used for the whole time that we filmed. The memory card/SD card was helpful to our group as it gave the camera more memory so we wouldn't have to delete anything beforehand. It also meant that we could take more videos giving me a range to choose from when editing. 

Picture 7 is a picture of my IPhone 5 charger cable, this was used mainly for this particular evaluation question when taking the pictures. In addition to this, we also used it to take the pictures for the storyboard as we thought that the picture quality was quite good on the IPhone. 

Picture 8 is the ear phones used to listen to the film and its sound. This was very helpful to me when I edited because I was able to listen to the sound and edit it accordingly. I only listened through ear phones when the room had other people in because I didn't want to distract them whilst they were editing,

Picture 9 is of the speakers I used when editing. This was used when there was no one else in the room and I wanted to listen to the sound out loud. The speakers also helped me when I wanted an indication as to how loud the film was when it was played through speakers. 

Picture 10 is the monitor that I used. This was extremely significant to me as I used it to: edit, get onto the blog, edit pictures and transfer pictures and to get into my documents. Without this monitor I wouldn't have been able to do any of my work. I used the computer the most whilst editing my piece as I was on there for long periods of time. 

Picture 11 is the computer that I used when I needed to do editing, picture editing, getting onto my documents etc. This was significant because without the computer i wouldn't be able to use the monitor and do my work. 

Finally picture 12 is of the pod-casting that was connected to the microphone, this was also used to record the voice overs for the evaluation. This particular device was used to turn the sound up and down, this was important as It made the sound clear and easy to hear. 

Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the main task?

JLMG: Preliminary Task

Here is a youtube video with annotations on both my preliminary and main task. Here i explain the improvements i have made. 

editing progress (Maisie Walker)

Firstly, before editing, I looked at a few videos on YouTube to teach me how to use Sony Vegas effectively. I needed to know how to add effects onto my videos such as a blurred shot effect and slow motion. After watching this video I was able to understand the basics of effects. On the other hand, I wanted to know more about editing therefore I carried on watching videos.

The second video I watched was 'overlaying videos'. I needed this due to the fact that I was unaware of how to put the text onto a video whilst it was playing. I used the overlaying effect to overlay two videos onto each other so that they faded into each other.

I watched this YouTube video to find out how to delete/mute audio from an imported video file. I found out that this was very simple and quick to do, I needed to delete the audio from some of the video files that I had. One of which was the first video of  the over the shoulder shot of' 'Becca' running. I did not want sound on this as it did not make it effective, in addition, I wanted weird, ambient sound on top of the video instead of normal sound.

 

 

 

 

This is a video that I searched to find out how to add background music into my piece. This helped me a lot when cutting and editing the sound for my film. I used this video because it was a quick, easy and simple way to learn how to editing and add in music.

 

 

This is a video I watched to help me understand how to add effects onto the video that I edited together. I decided to do this after I had edited all of the videos together so I knew exactly how I wanted it to look. On the other hand, I tried this and because I kept messing up in the learning process I decided to scrap it all and re add the videos, putting the effects on first so that I didn't have to change it all again.