AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio Evaluation
Also as well as in one of the Saw films, one of the main characters joins up with ‘Jigsaw’ who in there is the brains and the main culprit in all of the obstacles they have to endure. Similarly in our film the girl seen at the beginning has joined up with the man in the mask who is later seen throughout the film pestering the other characters. In some sort of way our film can be shown to be similar in some ways as to Paranormal Activity as in there something is tormenting her and in ours the characters aren’t being as tormented and not as strongly but are being harassed by this caller on the phone, which in any professional film the story would develop and something like this would surely happen. Also in both films one of the main characters gets dragged by something or somebody. This shows many similarities based within our film to other ones.
However our film is different to other professional films as ours is set in the day time whereas others would be set in the dark to give it that more scarier effect. We thought making it like this it would show the audience clearly what is happening and doesn't give away too much information as the film would about to progress.
Our film can be aimed to any gender as there is a mixture of them in there and is not just based on one particular gender. Putting it into a social class and having created a stereotypical film our film would really come down to the high school generation going out to parties, having trouble with friends and sometimes even seeking revenge which our storyline is worked around. However this film does have a negative impact into it as the film is based around a girl who has been troubled earlier on and is now seeking revenge towards the other characters with the help of an unknown person and the main obstacle being the phone. We put the troubled character as being a girl being bullied because girls are weak and would have trouble getting their own back. Also the girl who is friends with guy and is going to a party, her hair and make up is done which suggests normal stereotypical ways in which everyday girls do. Being a boy and a girl together may somehow suggest that some sort of relationship is involved as they meet up both days to talk about what they are going to do. Having someone wanting revenge is what people of today’s society would do if someone was to go against their way and if they didn’t like what was happening to them.
I feel that the beginning of our film could be featured on any American or British film institute because it does have that mysterious effect to it and could work around either an American or British film institute. However it may need to be set in night mode as it would really give the scary feel to the film that the beginning of any horror film would have. But having produced ours in the day you still get the effect of something bad about to happen and you can understand that it is a horror film. I also think that it would be distributed into main stream as it is a type of story that can be adapted to and isn’t just based around one person and doesn’t have a efficient storyline, many different things are occurring at one time and a story to follow up would make it even more effective about what’s going to happen next. If it was produced I would see our film being published on to the sky horror channel as it shows scary films but also films that you have to work around to get the full understanding of it. Also channel four films is the channel in which a lot of films are shown and if it was given the chance to make a full length film it would make a suitable film to be seen by many different audiences.
For our film project it is mainly aimed towards the younger generation ranging from 12-18 as it is not inhabited with any swearing but does involve some sort of violence such as one of the characters gets dragged into the bushes, but doesn't show anything to serious. But other than that it doesn’t really inflict any wrong behaviour. I think it can be seen by most teenagers as they go out and have parties, meet up with their friends and do tend to find someone’s phone whilst being out and would initially just keep it and think nothing of it. This film can be watched by both genders as there is a mixture of characters in there and isn’t seen to be a violent or too scary of a film that girls wouldn’t want to watch, and it isn’t a chick flick for boys not too and initially when we started preparing for our film we were told that having romance in their wasn’t their total idea of a horror film. Our film does depend on other tastes in film, because when we was gathering information about which horror films people most liked we thought of how we could adapt to a similar storyline but make it our own and different in some ways. And having it set around a group of teenagers makes them feel as if they could put themselves into their position and rein act what was happening. Most of the following target audience that we have shown seem to get the idea of what is happening in the story and going through it in their heads to get the whole plot. I feel with the film that we have produced we have created something that attracts our targeted audience as our feedback that we do get is all positive and encourages us by telling us how good it is and how well they understood it and would want to see some more.
For the opening sequence we had the first scene showing an establishing shot of the park in which we located most of our film, just showing the trees bushes which endures an mysterious out let you would have in a horror film. This depicts to the audience that is going to be a mystifying film which would need to be solved at the end. We have attracted our audience by using similar age ranged students to participate in the film and have a normal life activity happening such as two friends going to meet up in the park, and then also walking to someone’s party and discussing what should happen. Also the actors used are just normal female and male characters so there is a mix for both genders to enjoy the film. We also took the advice of other students by asking them what they would like to see in a horror film and what they didn’t and having showed the few people who we had asked they had said that they would enjoy this if it was a full length feature film as it introduced something that they would want to watch.
I have learnt how to use a camera effectively and efficiently because at some stages it was hard for us to get a shot that we particularly like as we may have taken a zoom in too fast or too slow and we just had to get it perfect. Especially when we had the two characters talking to each other and behind is the killer and then when both characters walk of a zoom is formed into the killer in the bushes, this may add an effect as people may not have seen the killer in the background and then at the end the focus is on him. We also had to judge our distances well from in front of the camera so we wasn’t cutting heads off or not getting characters in the actual camera, and had to set it on the tripod correctly so that if we wanted to move it to a side or down it wasn’t screwed on to tightly so that we couldn’t move it. I have also learnt how to use iMovie on the Macs to actually finally create a movie with all our edit input. I learnt how to edit shots and fit them together so that they looked realistic and well created so we don’t get any glitches between shots. I also learnt how to put music onto our piece and if we wanted to lower the music so that we could hear the dialogue I am also now capable of doing so. By using the Macs and iMovie I also learnt how to put our credits up firstly with the title at the beginning making an appearance onto the first shot and then on to the credits towards the end telling the audience who did what. Having a close up on the phone saying 'I can see you' gave the suspense and a mystical feeling that something was about to happen. Also when we had a couple of shots of the character holding the phone; a shot of the killers face and again of it ringing then a close up of his eye to show that he is watching them as they walk and listening to them speak. For the title of the film we made it sliding across each other in red to show the deadly effect of a horror film. Finally I can also add effects to our film to make it look as if a professional film has just been conducted for example having a fade out so that we can see the next scene enter differently, other than just our normal editing.
Compared to our preliminary task we have adapted and progressed well and made a much better short piece film. We made a lot more planning into our film than a preliminary task such as we drew out the shots that we thought that would work well and added a lot more angles to get the full effect and make it look more effective. We discussed as a group what we thought would work well and listened to each other’s opinions rather than getting stuck in. We increased our filming skills by using the tripod more appropriately so that we got still shots as well as hand held to receive different emotions and feelings as to why we have put them there. We had only used the tripod when we felt that it would be easy and more suitable to leave it still. In other times we used a range of different shots such as high angle shot, we used a pan around one of the characters face just to add in some new skills. We endured a couple of zooms, medium shots and using the camera in different positions to get the full effect of the film. You can also get an insight into having used long shots when the two main characters are walking through the park and then the killer in the back this shows the different types of relationships between each other. We edited our film very well compared to our preliminary task because we were new to it then and didn’t really understand all t
he different ways we could change, add and throw away bits of film that we didn’t need. To make it more effective we also had music in the background to give it that full effect, as we don’t have to listen to background noise and being a horror film adding that mystical piece of music gives it the end result and final touches needed.
