Group 16: Philippa Revitt.

1.In what way does your media product us, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?

We started off by brainstorming different ideas about what sort of film we could make, we thought about films that we're already out in the cinema at the moment and which ones we found interesting, and also what films we found good in general. After having this discussion we came up with the concept of making a zombie film, this then expanded into a more twisted plot so that the film had solid content. Our final genres were horror, thriller and psychotic.
We looked at recent films that had come out that were mainly zombie oriented. We came up with things such as Zombieland, and Shaun of the Dead, however we also looked at Hot Fuzz because of its chase scenes and sinister feel to it.

Still from Shaun of the dead.

Still from HotFuzz

Still from Zombieland

We included Long shots, Close ups and Medium Close ups, we made sure we followed the 180 degree rule. We involved close ups so that the view could understand what emotions were going on in the characters, for instance we had a close up of the zombie to show anger, and also to show it was a zombie.

Using final cut pro we edited the footage together, however we found that we weren't happy with some of the shots and sequences so we refilled some close ups so that the clips would flow better.

We tried to constantly think about how different zombie films used miss-en-scene in their footage to create a scary atmosphere, so we involved empty corridors, alley ways, and dark rooms to create a similar feel. We also used dark coloured clothing to keep the dark feeling with that was to be associated with the film.

Empty corridor.

Empty alley way and street.

Dark room.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our product mainly represents angry rebellious youth. This is mainly a designated stereotype for teenagers, (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hoodies-louts-scum-how-media-demonises-teenagers-1643964.html) so worked quite well. We used costumes to try to create this feel by using dark clothing, we mainly used the darkest clothing on the bad characters, and the more weak characters still were quite dark but wore greys. We also used a lot of fast editing to represent the ideas of energy, we also included a sudden science when the confusion began so that it gave a sinister feeling.

Zombie/good twin costume

Evil twin costume

Human (beth) costume

We also represent the idea of teenage youth through other aspects of miss-en scene, for example, we use fast paced music throughout two of our scenes the music is fast paced therefore representing energy which is found in youth, also the sinister music throughout the middle scene helps represent societies views of teens being scary. Also we apply different camera angles so that we can show the dominance of teens for instance when Evil twin finds the note, the camera is looking up at her showing that she is in charge of what is going to happen next. The typography is simple so kind of represents the laziness of teens.

3. What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

I think that our film is more likely to be distributed by an independent British company, such as the UK film council. I think this because they mainly aim to make sure films are seen by people that would be specifically interested in this type of film.

http://industry.bfi.org.uk/distributionandexhibition

Another company that could distribute our type of film would by Metrodome. This is because the are very good with low budget independent films, also they recently distributed Juan of the dead, which is a low budget independent spanish film. This shows they have an interest in horror/ zombie films meaning that they would be good with our film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1838571/

Although due to its history of distributing high profile zombie films, Universal could be a good distribution company as it would then be added to its already successful zombie creations, such as Shaun of the dead.

http://www.universalstudios.com/

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience I assume would be appropriate for this film would be people who range from the age group of 15-26, either gender, and with a history of likeness towards other horror films such as zombie land, or people who enjoy mental illness stories like girl interrupted. Also film makers might want to watch this film as it is based on a psychopathic film maker, therefore they might find some sort of connection with the characters. Due to the extent amount of violence aimed to be put into our film we would rate our film as a 15 because of the guidelines specified by the BBFC.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2/

Our research on the target market came mainly from the questionnaire we sent out. We did this so that we could ask regal people what the thought about our film, and also what the thought it would be rated as. Most of the people who responded to the online questionnaire responded by saying it should be a 15, meaning that out target age group was right.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We addressed our potential audience by sending out a questionnaire so that we could receive feedback and also so that we could see how people responded to our plot and if they though it was interesting enough for them. We posted the questionnaire onto Facebook so that we could see what people we knew thought about it.

The results of the questionnaire showed us that we we're right about our research, a lot of the people questioned preferred out genre of horror/thriller over other genres, also that quite a lot of them gathered zombies over other super natural creatures.

After our film has now been edited i think that we should have listened to the people we questioned, a few people said that they thought it needed to be more violent, and i think that we have definitely not included a gory mess which is a main aspect of zombie films.

6. What have you learnt about the technology from the process of constructing the product?

The colour wheels to alter colour correction.

After using all the different equipment and software I have learnt a lot. Throughout the process of editing on final cut pro i managed to learn lots of different techniques on how to edit professionally. A few things i are, how to use a colour corrector on clips to add affects, or to bring out different colours. I used this on the last scene of our film mainly it was so that the clips looked bizarre, so that the audience would be able to tell that something was wrong, however i also did this because there was a mix up with the camera's. I also learnt how to put text over the moving image so that i didn't have to black out the footage to put in the names of actors and the movie act, which would have halted the suspense if it kept stopping and starting in a chase scene. Also i learnt how to import music over the footage and kept it at a level that was loud enough to be heard but also didn't wash out the essential background noise of the actual clips.

The edit windows on Final cut express.

HD camera.

Durning the filming of our project we happened to use two different types of cameras, this cause a lot of problems when editing due to the alterations in quality between the two. This is because we used a HD camera to get our extra shots in the alley however we had unfortunately been stuck with a tape recorder camera at the beginning of the project. Not only was the quality of the original footage shoddy, we didn't have to time or man power to reshot the entire film at such an imminent deadline. So we had to make do with what we had.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you fell you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Our Preliminary task was to create a scene that involved a person walking through a door sitting at a table, having a conversation, and then leaving. The task must include a match on action, dialogue and follow the 180 degree rule. We then had to edit the footage so that it had continuity. Our preliminary task did all this.

After our preliminary task i think that everything became a lot more serious within the group, we managed to plan and assign roles to each other and got a lot of the work done to a high standard at a fast rate. We all worked really well as a team i think, and managed to get along well enough to make sure the film was at a high standard.

Our final task worked really well however if i could do it again i'd make sure everything was planned to a schedule so that we were't panicking to get everything filmed at last minute because it caused a lot of stress with in the group and especially with me, also i'd make sure we got a lot more shots then we needed so that we had plenty to work with during editing and didn't have to re-film bits.

Due to difficulties with production, one of the cast members who was playing Vince has been ill in hospital so there has only been 3 members in the group able to film. As a result of this we have decided to change the synopsis of our film, from Vince the possessed director who becomes obsessed with the way zombie work, who in the end kills one of his leading actors. It is now that the the actor who plays the zombie who becomes obsessed and kills her costar. Also, due to this we have changed the story boards to fit with the new synopsis.