5. Evaluation Question: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?


We wanted to create a creature feature opening (see here research into what genres)
We chose this because it's a not a well known sub genre of horror and we felt it would appeal to our target audience of the 15-25 year olds.

We used a teenage boy, similar age of our target audience making it easier for them to relate and sympathise with the character. (Click here for the potential actors for the part)
When originally planning the opening we wanted to use a cast of young teenagers that found their way to the house to really appeal to our audience, we've seen this used in films such as 'House of Wax' and thought this would be perfect for our target audience but using one actor resulted in being more convenient and vulnerable.

We predicted our secondary audience would be aimed at an older audience, 45+, after looking at the results for the ages of the audience attending the well known horror films 'The Number 23' and 'Secret Window' both showing that people over 45 went to see the film.

 Due to our low budget we used a lot of social network sites and other free promotional sites available to us such as Youtube and facebook to get our media product known. We posted the final media product onto Youtube (Which can be watched by clicking here) allowing anyone to see the footage and give feedback using the 'like/dislike' feature on Youtube. By uploading the media product onto a video sharing website, it has the potential to go viral becoming available to thousands of people globally.

Social media sites such as youtube, twitter and facebook are popular amongst our target audience giving us access to make users of these sites aware of our media product for free.

 

Including a dog in the opening helped provoke a lot of sympathy from the audience, as dogs are seen as man's best friend and they wouldn't want to see the animal harmed.
In all feedback we received  the whimpering of the dog was featured frequently showing just how much attention the dog gained in the opening.



The horror film genre is very popular amongst young adults, and the opening is left on a cliff hanger helping, enhancing the suspense for our audience.
Desolate challenges contemporary conventions of the genre as we went against the stereo type of a typical horror film, in that we used a male protagonist and an animal.

4 Evaluation Question: Who Would be the Audience for Your Media Product?

Who Would be the Audience for Your Media Product?

After research, we found that the genre we wanted to create (creature feature) appealed most to 15-25 year olds, this is because of various aspects of the opening.
We chose a male actor to appeal to the female audience as they would sympathise with him and his dog, it also challenged regular conventions of a horror film, with a female victim as women are seen as more vulnerable.

 We were influenced to release the media product around the October holidays as this the Halloween season and our target audience would be more available to visit the cinema.
The media product is not biased to males or females, both genders could go and see the film.


We chose to use a average, teenage boy that the audience could relate to. It's a realistic situation, which could be possible for anyone to be in.

We decided on the certificate to be a 15, it appeals more to the audience
15 is an age where the cinema is seen as a social event, teenagers 15/16 aren't old enough to go out at night and drink and also can't drive

2 Evaluation Questions How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Our media product featured a number of social groups, an example of this is evident in the first shot, showing a middle class teenager taking his dog for a walk. We thought this would relate to our target market of teenagers. The abandoned house used in the opening scene resembles a squat, it's deserted, abandoned and dirty, these features can be associated with lower class.
The teenage boy is not seen as a stereotypical dog walker, usually mother or father take the responsibility, his loyalty is later shown when trying to find the missing dog, sympathy can be felt for both the dog and owner as both are in a vulnerable situation, contrasting with the being of the opening.

We purposely filmed the opening, excluding the houses surrounding the location, to make the house look even more desolate than in reality.







Kieran's costume

The house appears to be vandalised, which helps set the scene for our target audience of young adults. It also make the house look like it's been inhabited before, and the risk of something/someone still being inside.





The dog helps to make audience members fond of animals feel engage more in the opening and feel sympathy.

6. Evaluation Questions: What Have You Learnt About Technologies From the Process of Constructing this Product?

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product.

Garage Band( here is the link to the page where the processes of garage band are fully explained) Garage band is a programme that has music already stored onto it, as well as instruments such as pianos, strings, drums and guitars. We used this software and chose instruments and sounds that would sound eary and fit well with our genre- it was used for the start during the animation

Incompetech ( here is a link for the page where incompetech is fully explained) Was also used this programme to create the non-diegetic sound throughout the whole opening- this fitted well with the genre because its high pitched and uncomfortable to listen to.

 

iMovie- This is iMovie that we used for editing our movie and adding the wash over the top of the lense so that the lighting of it seemed more in keeping with the horror genre.

We also added a faded border around the edges to make it seem like somone was actually filming him.

Lastly the dog with green eyes at the end was decided to be kept from the feedback( here is the link for the page where you will find all the feedback) from the showing to the target audience, which we edited using iMovie



Youtube- We used youtube to search for tutorials on how to use garage band and imovie during the editing stages. This helped us step by step to use it and learn for ourselves.
We also put our media product on youtube so that to get viewers and responses

Photoshop ( here is the link for the page where the processes of photoshop are fully explained for this animation)- We used photoshop to create the animation at the beginning of the opening.

 We made our own so that it seemed more personal to the opening and fitted to our genre and opening.






Hardware ( here is the link for the hardware page, we have fully explained what we used and how we used them within our media product)- We used a handheld camera to film our media product with because, this was simple to use and came with a tipod which it fitted onto the top and this kept it stable for shots which we didnt want to be jolty. We decided this after our preliminary task was completed and edited because we thought that the use of the tripod and camera was the most appropriate method of filming.

3 Evaluation Questions: What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The kind of media institution that would produce our film would be Lionsgate this is after researching companies that produce similar films and this fitted well because, theyve produced films with same aesthetics and conventions  as our opening.

Lionsgate have produced films such as ‘cabin in the woods’ and ‘SAW’ these are from the same genre as our opening therefore would encourage the fact that they are aware of how to produce and know what conventions should be within the film.

We also looked at the film company Momentum who produced the film 'The women in Black' and 'Insidious' they could be a potential producers for ours concidering it has the similar aesthetics and genre. They are a well known British company and this would help have a high demand for the film in Britain because of the loyal fan base, but they arent as big as American film companies who have high budgets and a-list celebrities to be in their films.

Overall we've decided that Lionsgate would be best suited because we researched into their company and they have a low budget division that produces films with budgets as low as $2m and this is low for an American company, because they are very popular they would increase the demand for the film.

 We would show it firstly at a film festival because our actors arent very well known and our budget is low this would be to create a buzz and get people talking about it, the twitter page would then be used to attract viral viewers. 

Through our twitter page, we will have a similar way of marketing our product by advertising for people to post there screams aswell as also being able to demand it in their area so that its shown in places where the demand for it is high. Also having a cookie on the page would then advertise the company and product on adverts around the sites they were on for example facebook.

We have also taken into consideration that students, our target audience, don't have the money to meet the high prices of some cinemas, therefore we would want to offer deals such as student discounts, days where prices are lowered or promotional deals are offered to encourage more viewers for that age group. An example of a similar promotion we would use is 'orange Wednesdays’

7 Evaluation Questions Looking Back at Preliminary Task What do Yo Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product

Question 7: Looking back at preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

We have come on a long way, from the preliminary task in both our creativity and our technicality.

Firstly in our preliminary we made some technical errors, for example at one part, the panning shot we attempted was jolty. This was because our equipment was partly broken and was impossible to use. However we rectified this problem in the real media product, by buying a whole new set of equipment. This new equipment allowed us to make sure that every shot was crisp and most importantly smooth. We ended up using the panning technique frequently, which helped us to show the dog and the man running, heightening the suspense and tension of the clip. 

Example of where we went wrong:

Example of how we improved it:

Another example of some of the errors we had to consider was to do with the continuity of the film, we had filmed the actor walking up the stairs, and then mid way through we changed the angle. We then realised that when we were in the editing suit we couldn’t combine the clips to make one smooth transition, as she was leading with a different foot each time going up the stairs, so it looked odd. It was then we had to go back and film the whole thing again, which was time consuming and if we were a profit-orientated business, it have been very costly. We then learnt to film more then enough footage to make sure we didn’t have problems with continuity again, but to also, help give us options on which footage to use and which footage not to use, when in the editing suit. We applied this logic to our real media piece.

We have also learnt a great deal in terms of our creativity. For example in our preliminary task we used a small range of camera shots, as we only used a mid-shot, panning shot, and an over the shoulder shot. With a small range of camera shots, it is difficult to develop any real suspense, and this was why our preliminary task felt quite boring. In our real media product we used a range of camera shots, like long shot, point of view shot, medium shot, over the shoulder shot, tracking shot, close-up and a tilt shot. This helped to develop the suspense throughout the opening. Also another way we made the opening more exciting was by adding a animal, which was another technique we used to attract the audience.

In this, we only used an over the shoulder shot and a mid-shot:

Heres an example of how far we have come as media students, as here we have used a range of shots, mid-shot, panning shot, point of view etc.

To conclude the steps we have token form our preliminary task to our real media product has been huge, in our filming style, techniques and knowledge of the film industry.

Our final product:

1 Evaluation Questions: What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products

Question 1. What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

• Frame 1 & 2: We have used a male protagonist, which is unconventional for a horror film, as people tend to prefer a girl as a protagonist because her vulnerability can be clearly shown as opposed to a bout, therefore the thrill of the movie is enhanced. However we have used a male because we are playing around with the cliché ‘a dog is a man’s best friend’. This explains why the male goes after the dog when the dog runs off, whereas realistically a female wouldn’t do this. Therefore the audience will still be able to see the vulnerability of the boy, and it will still be able to deliver that same thrill.. An example of how this has worked in the past is ‘I am Legend’, where the audience got attached to the dog and the male, and felt how vulnerable they are.

• Frame 3 & 4: Again we have challenged the typical conventions of a horror genre. Firstly the     watermarks on the screen were decided in our planning stage. We’ve done this to add that natural feel to the film, it is effective, as the audience will start to question that if the filming is natural (unconventional), then this production company might be slightly more unpredictable when it comes down to the fearful parts of the film- this will already start to ooze into the audience. We can’t take all the credit for this idea as we did take the ‘natural’ filming concept from a film called ‘Easy Rider’ in 1969; it was a very good film partly because of the unique filming style. Furthermore this filming style is what separates us from other films within the industry, this is our USP. So we’ll be attracting more film fanatics as well as the horror fanatics who want to see something different, but still deliver that same thrill of a horror.

The watermark discussed above is evident here.

There is no filter on the camera, so the sunlight is exposed to the lens, giving it that natural effect.

• Frame 5 & 6:  However in order for our media product to fulfil the genre of a horror we had to include some of the classic conventions. Our location was particularly disturbing, it looked very hostile due to the shattered glass, graffiti and the fact that the house was submerged in darkness with no light entering or leaving the house. This location was perfect for the story of our film, and was very effective in displaying the eeriness of the site. This makes the audience anxious as to what is lurking in the house.

• Frame 7,8 & 9: The non-diegetic sound (music), was high-pitched and sounded very mechanical, which produced an unpleasant sound. This created an uncomfortable viewing experience for the audience. The music added to the tension and suspense of the film opening, this is very important, as it is critical to capture the audience’s attention in the first seconds, in order to make them keep watching. The music played a big role in the later stages of the opening when the dog enters the house, as the music is what heightens the suspense and makes the audience aware that something is going to happen.