Media Evaluation

Media Studies Evaluation
Our media studies piece both challenges and maintains conventions common in horror movies. In our filming we used many techniques which are used in existing media products. We used a combination of freehand and tripod mounted shots depending on the mood and pace of the scene. This technique is used in real life, especially in films like the Blair Witch Project where the whole film is done freehand. We also had scenes where the mood changes suddenly to build up tension, like in the scene with the missing signs. This shift from a happy mood to a more serious and scary one complies with conventions of horror films. The editing also complied with existing conventions within the horror genre. In most horror films the pace becomes quicker as the piece comes closer to the climax of the tension that has been created. This was true with our piece as well as we edited our clips to get shorter as we came progressively closer to the climactic scene of the lone biker being dragged off at the villains mercy. This created the gathering pace common in many horror films. We also used foreshadowing with the missing signs and Matt’s practical jokes to foreshadow Georges’ grisly demise. Our piece also employed sound to the same effect, with the start having happy, upbeat music and the suspenseful scenes towards the end having an eerie, tense sound. We also replaced the happy music at certain critical points, such as the missing signs and the shot were they enter the woods (leaving their equipment behind) to make it clear to the audience that something bad is going to happen to the characters. We challenged conventions slightly through our usage of P.O.V shots. These, whilst not a complete rarity amongst horror films, are not very common and we used them to highlight the plight of the biker who is left behind and the murderous intent of the villain.
I felt that mistakes in our piece were few and far between. Some scenes could have been better but there were no disastrous mistakes. The scene were the colour changes and the villain begins to stalk the lone biker (George) could have been better as the part where the villain makes his move is not as dramatic as it could have been as the camera drops down and films the ground rather than George. There was a minor continuity issue with Matt’s gloves and hat, which are left behind in one scene and he is then wearing them in a later one. This was not perfect but was barely noticeable in the grand scheme of things. We improved on a lot from the preliminary task. One of the things that proved detrimental to our preliminary task was the lighting which was sometimes too dark. In our actual piece we filmed in bright light and then made the scene darker when we edited it so as not to lose anything important from the shot. This also meant that we could control the lighting better as there are levels of darkness on the editing software rather than just on or off. We also capitalised on special effects more in our actual piece than in the preliminary task to give a supernatural feel to the bad guy. We also used match on action much more effectively in our final piece than in our preliminary task.
The shot to the left highlights some of the personalities of our characters.
At a macro level our film represents values which may normally be absent from a horror film. The fact that George may not have been captured if the rest of the bikers waited for him makes the audience perhaps feel resent for the selfish bikers. This challenges conventions of many horror films where the victims are always innocent and the audience is expected to sympathise with their choices. Also our opening sequence focuses on the collective values of the bikers rather than their individual personalities. All four of the bikers represented a facet of youthfulness; My character (Adam) being headstrong and naïve, Josh being outspoken but more friendly, Matt being the joker to whom everything is trivial and George who is easily suppressed by the others. This combination challenged convention as there was less to like individually about the characters but as a group they were diverse and likeable for their character. We would have liked to perhaps introduced the characters more in our sequence but we did not have sufficient time to do so, and it could be done later in the film. The villain was another challenge to convention as well. Our choice of having a villain whose identity is a secret was a challenge to convention because in many modern horror films the villain is introduced early on and the audience knows what they look like. Our film deliberately changed that because we did not want a bloodbath horror film so the mysterious identity of the villain was more our style. This may subvert some expectations but it would fulfil other expectations of suspense and terror. This is intertwined to the sort of audience pleasure we want to provide. We felt that we could create an intense atmosphere of tension better than one of sheer violence and that our audience would find this more entertaining and would remember it better. I am confident that our group delivered the expected suspense and terror our audience would want to experience. Our usage of special effects, sound, camera angles and pace are popular in the film industry and so our audience would be pleased to see them, although they may not know any of the techniques used.
We managed to work together well as a group. We all brought different skills to our group which helped greatly. We had to use an extra from outside our media group (Matt) to be the fourth biker. The group worked well as we all came up with different ways to film a shot and we were able to pick the best ones. This gave us a dynamic and entertaining final piece. Equipment was relatively easy to manage as our camera was compact and we could all carry something each. Our bikes were the largest logistical problem as we had to get them and all our equipment up a very steep hill. Fortunately we managed get driven up to the top of the hill with two cars carrying our crew and gear. Our group also worked out deadlines and we organised exact dates to do things by or on. This helped massively with organising people and equipment as we could plan ahead and highlight and remove any logistical problems. We also worked out our location from this process as we considered where we would go to film our piece. We thought from an early stage that it should be set in a forest so we eventually decided that Pitch Hill in Cranleigh was the best place to shoot because it had very dark, creepy areas and bright sunlight ones. In places of our film we decided not to use a tripod to give a more realistic first person perspective. This worked well as the people we have shown our piece to clearly know when it is a P.O.V shot and from the feedback we got they liked it. We felt that this decision added personality and feeling when they are used and makes the audience feel as if they are that person. Our storyboarding was very helpful as we could use the storyboard as a guide to refer to for each shot. This eliminated any randomness from the shots we did and ensured that they were coherent. Although we tried to stick to our original shot list, we ended up replacing some scenes which in practice didn’t come out as well as we intended. Despite this, having a storyboard prepared was a great help to our group and made filming much easier. I felt that our time was managed very well. We allocated a day for each element of the film to be done in and for the filming we did a practice shoot before the real thing to work out what would work well. This gave us time to prepare in advance and allowed us to better plan alternatives if something went wrong. Without our time management I doubt our piece would have been as refined as it was.
Digital technology was a large part of what made our film work. We learnt a lot about the usage of digital cameras and how to acquire a more professional look by using a tripod. We used two different editing software packages; 'Pinnacle studio’ and imovie hd. Though pinnacle studio was only used to gain a rough idea and convert our hd work into AVI it was useful to experiment with different editing software and I felt it was interesting to see how different software works. We also used the microphones of the imacs and camera to add effect. The black screens towards the end of our piece were where we covered the camera lens up and made sounds of the bike falling over using real bikes. During the stalking sequences we used the imacs microphone to record the heavy breathing of the stalker and thus create a scarier atmosphere. Our lighting for the majority of the start of our piece was natural to give a happy feel and add impact when the effects change. The lighting got darker as the mood did, although we filmed in the light and edited it to be darker on the imac. The editing was as important as the filming in our piece so we took great care to do everything that could be done in the editing stages. We used the aforementioned Apple imacs to edit our piece. We would not have been able to create the gathering pace and effects without our editing software. I found that technology did not limit our creative process and if anything it improved our ideas as we discovered new effects we had not thought of before. We probably would not have used the dramatic lighting changes if we had not experimented on the imacs.
Our audience for our media product would be teenagers and young adults. We chose this audience because they can identify with our main characters and their actions.
Our research into existing films and our questionnaires had a large impact in our pre production. We saw how effective the creation of tension was in existing films like ‘The Blair Witch Project’ so we decided to use this familiar formula but with our own feel and input on it. We also found the P.O.V shots in ‘Predator’ very effective so we decided to adapt them for usage in our piece. Our questionnaires also showed us that people expect suspense and tension before violence in a horror film. We therefore planned our storyline with the creation of tension in mind. We found that the foreshadowing in films like ‘Dawn Of The Dead’ was very effective and thus we employed it in our piece. I found it effective because it was a good way of increasing tension slowly so that when the villain actually comes into the film the audience is already exited that something will happen. We made sure that we included foreshadowing in our storyboard so when we filmed we had already made the missing signs.
When we filmed and edited our piece we had an idea in our minds of what each shot would say to the audience. We used sound to great effect in this respect as the happy scenes have an upbeat soundtrack whilst the eerie ones are silent or have unnerving sounds to show the audience that the mood has changed. The colour and lighting of our film also reflected the mood as the happy scenes are typically bright whilst the scarier ones are darker and have more unnatural colours. This plays on peoples fear of the dark and they would naturally associate the dark with terror. These things made the meaning of each scene apparent to the audience.
We decided on our characters traits with our audience in mind. We wanted Adam to be the character the audience would love to hate. His personality could create conflict later in the film and the audience would want him to be captured, not George. Seeing as George would be removed early on in the film we wanted the audience to have sympathy for him so George was made into a much more quiet and innocent character than Adam. Josh was created to give someone that the audience could agree with, and as such was brave but not brash or arrogant and was presented as being more intelligent than Adam. Finally Matt gave comic relief to the audience to make the experience more entertaining in places.
The audience will become more involved because of the loss of a good character and the survival of the foolish and bossy Adam.
This shot is an example of how we wanted to create characters the audience can identify with. These bikers are only human so we used shots like this to show that they have personality.
The audience responded well to our film. We found that they found the changes in mood effective and enjoyed the whole piece from start to finish. The scenes with the missing signs were particularly effective as our audience gained a clear image that something was very wrong and enjoyed the gradual increase of tension. The only criticism was the lack of personality with George. However others said that George didn’t need to have a large role beyond being the person that gets captured. Despite this the final scene received tremendous approval and was universally enjoyed by viewers.
Despite being aimed at young adults, our piece would not suffer many, if any misinterpretations from people of different cultures. The generic signifiers we used appear worldwide like the usage of darkness and scary music to illustrate a scary scene. This means almost anyone can watch our film and understand and enjoy it.
As I have previously mentioned the characters we have used are youthful to relate to our target audience. We chose a forest to be the location where the more scary events take place. As such we represented heavily wooded areas as being terrifying and dark places to be. Themes we represented include friendship (between the friends at the start) selfishness (where George is abandoned) and mystery (the unknown villain).
The main macro levels created through mise en scene were the scenes were there are missing signs and the equipment being left behind. This makes the audience feel that the bikers are doomed because of the important items in the shot.
To conclude this veritable journey of creation and work I have learnt much. I have used different editing software and found which software works best. I have dabbled in the usage of different cameras and the complications and quality of hd over normal cameras. I have learnt a lot about time management and the importance of practice as well as planning ahead. Before the project I had little idea of what works on a film with regard to camera angles but now I am confident with creating moods and dynamics using camera angles. I feel I have achieved much and I am over the moon with the final result, and I hope you are too.