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

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

Preliminary task photos

In our preliminary task we struggled with the editing and there are some messy cuts. In the first 2 shots it shows both of the characters but I think it was better when we filmed our horror film because we had had practice and knew what to do better. In our horror film we used more shot types such as a high angle and tracking shots. We used neither of these in our preliminary task which meant that it wasn't as interesting as if there had been other shots.

We didn't use any type of editing in our preliminary task except cutting but in our horror film we used several different editing techniques. For example we used Colour offset which is like ghosting but with colour and it also comes out better on your film when you have exported it. We tested the colour offset to make sure that it wouldn't be too much when we exported it and we did this by just exporting a clip before we exported the whole film. We also used our own made up techniques. There are parts in our film where the screen is red. We managed to do this by holding a piece of red asitate in front of the camera lense. This helped our film have more personality than our preliminary task did. We put much more thought into our horror film because we had longer to film it in which meant that we had more chance to think about how we can change our film to make it better and think about what camera shots would be best to use.
We did use subtle shots using the 180 degree rule in our horror film. They aren't obvious to the audience but we wanted to keep a sense of mystery. I think that it has worked quite well within our horror film.

Horror Film Frames

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

 What have you learnt about technologies from the proccess of constructing this product?

Whilst making this film there are a few things that I have learnt about technology. One example of something that I have learnt is how to use adobe premiere. At the start of the project I hadn't used adobe before but I had to learn how to use it because we were going to use it a lot. We used adobe premiere to edit our films to how we wanted them to be. As this was the first time I had used this programme I struggled to understand how to do some things and it took some time for me to discover how to do it. I had to ask for help sometimes but once I knew what I was doing then I didn't need any help.
To edit our film we used tools such as the cutting tool to get rid of the parts that we didn't want. We also had to learn how to unlink the audio and moving picture so that we could overlap the moving picture with music where we wanted. This also enabled us to slow down either the sound or moving picture depending on what we wanted. The effects in our film are the red filter and colour offset effect. We had to find all the different effects and then we had to choose which ones we wanted. We were going to choose ghosting but after exporting a section of the film with ghosting to see how it would export we found that the ghosting became too much and you couldn't see the film very well. Colour offset was a lot better when exported so we settled on that effect because it was similar to ghosting but much better after being exported.

We also had to use adobe photoshop to edit any photos that we wanted to use in our film. We were advised to use photoshop instead of a programme like paint because there are a lot more things that you can do than you can on paint. We also made and edited our logos on photoshop. To make the ideas for my logos I copied a picture into photoshop and just added some effects and text to make it how I wanted it.

We were required to learn about all the different effect tools that were on adobe photoshop such as the cutting tool and filler. These tools helped to make our logo look better. I didn't know how to use adobe Photoshop when we started this course but using the programme has helped me to learn about all the different tools, some of which have been mentioned.

After we had finished editing our film we had to use Windows Movie maker to compress our films so it would be easier to get it onto our blog. We had to import it as media and then drag it to one of the boxes at the bottom and save it as a movie file to our area so we would be able to reach it from our blogs.  

We also used programmes such as Google to research everything that we would need to help us make and edit our film. Google enabled us to access websites about logo's, storylines of films and props from films.

Photo 1

This photo was taken on the first day of filming while we were waiting for the light to fade. Rowen is sitting on the floor by the camera whilst I am standing by the camera. Just before the photo was taken I was examining the camera and what I could see through it.

Photo 2

Lauren took this photo of Helen. You can just see all the things that come up on the screen which is good so it gives you an idea. You can also see how the camera makes the screen lighter because the background is very dark compared to the screen.

Photo 3

Our last photo is again of Helen. This photo shows her looking into the camera. When it was taken she was adjusting the camera getting ready to start filming. 



Who would be the target audience for your media product?

Who would be the target audience for your media product?

Steriotypical Target Audience:Female >

To determine the target audience for my film I distributed a small survey to a group of 10 people of different ages, background and gender. The questions basically asked them what genre of films they watch and why they watch that specific genre. We based our film on the results that we got so more people would enjoy watching my film. Half of the people who took my survey were male and the other half were female so it would be an even survey. All of the people who took my survey were between the age of 15 and 19 because we wanted to aim our film at teenagers.

I found that the answers that I got back from the females were a lot more helpful overall than the answers received from the males because some of them gave inappropriate answers. Based on the answers that we used to help us with our film, I would say our film is aimed more at females than males because it is more of a psychological horror and males tend to prefer full on horror, as our answers show.

All of the people who took my survey said that a good opening sequence requires tension and anticpation because then an audience would be persuaded to stay and watch the rest of the film because their first impressions of the film is good.

< Target audience profile : Male

The age of my target audience would be around the age of 15 because although it is just a psychological horror if we had made more of the film it may have been inappropriate for 12 year olds and it may affect 12 year olds more than expected because they have the chance to interpret the mystery.

We aimed our film at both genders because we wanted to give both genders to have a chance to watch our film and not just aim it at one. 

Our film isn't aimed at any particular race or anyone from a certain country. We just want our viewers to enjoy what they are watching and feel the tension and emotion like the characters do. 

We know that most people at our age want to be scared but some don't want to as much so that is why we made sure our film would be appealing to everyones interests. We made sure that it wasn't to 'bloody' but there was a sense of fear and something that our target audience could relate to; - a group of friends just hanging about and having a good when things start to get strange because that could happen to anyone...

How did you attract/address your audience?

This is the link to my annotated Horror Opening. I have called it Incognito Horror Opening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exwH4iFEtso

Some of the annotations may be too fast so it is hard to read because there is too much information in them but I tried not to include too much information that wasn't needed.

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

Voice Over

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Similarities

Helen and Jill Johnson from When A Stranger Calls are both wearing casual clothes which shows thatthey haven't got anything important going on. They both have similar features such as medium length, brown hair as well as expressions. Helen has a look of confusion on her face and Jill has a look of worry on her face. They are both lead characters and something bad or scary happens to them. Finally both the films have scenes in a house where you see the outside and inside.

Differences

In this split screen Helen is opening the door whereas Jill is on the phone. In When A Stranger Calls she is on the phone quite a lot where Helen only opens the door once in our film. Although Jill and Helen both have brown hair Jill is a lot more tanned than Helen which suggests that she lives somewhere hot and with lots of sun. For the second scene Helen is in her own house and Jill is in a different house. Helen is at a party which means it must be her house and Jill is baby sitting. A big difference between the two films is that the main part of When A Stranger Calls happens in the house whereas in our film it happens outside. Although the point is that things start to happen in the house the main part happens outside. One last difference I noticed was that Helen has a friend with her most of the film however Jill doesn't and has to stay in the house on her own which makes it scarier.

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

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

1.The title of the film

2. Setting and location

3. Costumes and props

4.Camerawork and editing

5. Title font and style

6. Story and how the opening sets it up

7. Genre and how the opening suggests it

8. How characters are introduced

9. Special effects 

These are 9 frames from our title sequence:

1. Our title is Incognito. This is different from the typical title as many have a title that is more than one word but we have decided to use just one word. We decided to do this because it makes the audience think more about the film and what Incognito means which will lead them to watch the rest of the film to find out the answer.

2. We decided to use a typical location for our title sequence, a forest. We knew that we wanted to film somewhere dark and enclosed to build up the atmosphere. We had the characters run over a bridge into the forest hoping that it would cause panic in the audience, making them wonder what was so scary as to make them run into the woods so late at night.

3. A lot of horror films have their characters wearing torn clothes with blood all over them. We wanted to follow that idea so we threw ketchup and bbq sauce over the characters and let it dry to make it seem like dried blood. It worked quite well when it came up on camera. We also rubbed mud and leaves all over them so that it looked like they had been running somewhere else before they got to the forest.

4. We tried to use all the different camera shots that a typical horror film would use. They use shots as the bird's eye view, tracking and eye level, the typical shots. We wanted to go a bit further so we used a high angle shot as well. We wanted to make the audience feel like they were preying on the victim and more involved instead of just watching it.

5. Most horror films title uses a font that would convey fear in the watcher. To go against this convention and use a basic title font. We did this because we wanted the focus to be on the actual characters and the story line. We did use an effect on the last title screen and made sure the music went with it to bring attention to it. This does go with the convention of a horror film.

6. This frame sets the story up because when you see it you know that they are running from something but you dont know what. This makes the audience think about what could be have happened and what is going to happen. A few horror films have similar things to this but prehaps slightly differently, such as a car chase or someone running through their house. We tried to develop this convention and have them running somewhere that creates fear.

7. To help people understand that this is the title sequence of a horror film we have included pictures that we have edited that would convey the genre of horror. We liked the idea of having a photo flash up that says 'Danger' as we want people to think that there is dangr coming but they just dont know it yet. We also included a photo of arrows pointing different ways hoping to creat confusion. I dont know a horror film that does this so we wanted to challenge these horror films and make ours seem better and more inventful.

8. The first time you see the characters they are running towards the camera and seem fearful. In horror films you usually see the characters going about their daily lives and then they get attacked. We wanted to be different so we also challenged this convention. We wanted the fear to sink in right away and then give the audience to calm down before the fear styarts to build up again later in the film. That is why we have the scenes in the order that they are in. If we had the characters in their normal lives at the start it wouldn't have been as effective.

9. To link the different parts of the film we used the same effect which is Colour Offset. We used this effect on the slow-motion bit at the end, the title and the photos. The typical horror film doesn't do this but we wanted to be different and again challenge the conventions of real media products.