Joseph Marshall Media Evaluation

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Ahren Hughes – Final evaluation of our finished film.

Evaluation of film – ZOMG

1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a media project?

Our final product in media, is a horror film. Or more specifically a zombie, it uses and challenges the boundaries of other zombie films as ours like many starts “in the thick of it” as if to typical zombie fashion it doesn’t take long for the zombies to appear and start reeking havoc. Also the use of the fog effects live up to the zombie film success checklist as most great zombie films have at some point a scene that quilts and drowns the characters in the creepy abyss of foggy weather. We also used a very forested area as this also has mystery about and gives a certain addition to the suspense as it makes the audience feel like there is something more. The forested area was also well used in the Blair witch project(1999) which was a very successful film in the aspect of it really creeped people out and kept the audience watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D51QgOHrCj0 . The unique thing about our final project was the way that we combined the opening credits, eerie and suspense music with the action. We also try to shock the audience or as it is sometimes known we add a feature called “Screamer” this is where something pops up on screen after a loud screaming sound. We altered this a little bit in the part of our film where Joey grabs the zombies shoulder and it turns round really quick and screams. This is used to make the audience jump out of their seats and get the blood pumping.

Forested area in The Blair Witch Project(1999)

2. How does your media product represent a particularly good social group?

Our media project singles out women in the film as always getting into trouble as there are only 2 female characters in the film and one of them is a damsel in distress and the other a child. This is sexist and in a way through use of the child’s role projects the assumption that if the child were attacked by a zombie it would be helpless, this is not necessarily representative of all women as other films from other genres shows strong powerful women such as Lara Croft from Tomb Raider(2001).

 Although in every film there is a certain typical feature of representative, in our project it shows men to be the heroes and rescuers. But every film is different and has different aspects of representative. The women characters are vastly outnumbered in this film also as most of he main characters are male.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your film and why?

I highly doubt our film would make it big and I have some doubts are film would make it small time with someone like Film Four. Zombie films are in decline, simply because all the good ideas are seemingly gone. Whether it’s a pandemic such as in 28 days later(2002) or mutation like Resident Evil(2002) all these ideas have been used and people want originality but how can it be brought to them as there is only a handful of believable theories as to how a zombie apocalypse could happen. (And even they aren’t that believable). Our film didn’t have a massive budget and if it did go somewhere small like Warp Films it would be hard to make money from as there would only be limited room for merchandise such as a DVD, Soundtrack and a Poster.

 There isn’t any real room for further merchandising as there could be some sort of sequel but as far as a game goes there would be no chance as there would be know means of making profit if they put it into production.

4. Who would be the audience for your media project

The audience for my media project would be mainly males aged 18 and above.

This is down to the blood and gore. The graphic scenes in our film certainly suit a more mature film rating and could be offensive or unsuitable for younger people.

 The reason our target group is aimed more at males is because it has more males in it and going back to representation most males would rather see some guys save girls to make them seem and feel more masculine then to see women kill a load of zombies and save the day and a man. Our film was originally intended to be a 15 as mid teens find zombie films quite cool and it would improve grossing if it went to cinema or to DVD but with the amount of bad language and mental trauma the film has and projects 18 was the only real suitable option.

 Here are the necessary links to see how we classified our film.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

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

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/18

5. How did you attract/address the audience?

We attracted the audience through use of blood work, films these days seem to have an over use of blood where it is not needed. We tried to only use as much blood as needed. Although yes a zombie film needs a hell of a lot of blood we tried not to oversell any points and make it all seem necessary. This seems a little bit like a contradiction but it isn’t. Most people actually lose interest if there is a lot of blood and the point and use of the blood is over sold, it makes films seem more like a laughing stock and stops people from taking it seriously. And we tried to keep the film as serious as possible.

 We didn’t address the audience really as we didn’t want to directly make the audience view the story from a singular view point as each of the characters have there own individual differences and are unique. Although the audience can guess who the main character is, we tried to make the bias and focus on him as little as possible so everyone got a decent amount of screen time and got to be seen by the audience for there differences.

6. What did you learn about technology from the process of constructing the product?

I never actually got to film or have a real part in the editing, but the HD1000 cameras we used were very high tech for a short film and did a superb job, and the final cut program used on the MAC computers seemed very professional and taught me that if I want to make a film its really not all about Hollywood productions and its not as hard as most people think. I had never used the technology that I had to use making the film and therefore had no experience but I think now if I needed to I could edit with final cut and assemble and film a piece if I was called upon to do this.

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

From the preliminary task I learnt that there is a 180 degree perspective that cannot be crossed and I also learnt the value of filming from different camera angles.

 I also learnt that the editing is just as important as the filming as if the piece is not fitted together correctly it makes the film look unprofessional and rather silly.

The only thing I would change is that I would have liked to spend more time on costumes and maybe got more F/X included. And maybe to even make the film a little bit longer. I would also like to try directing the film as I we all had a lot of good ideas we couldn’t use. But that being said I am relatively happy with the way our film turned out and I would be delighted to do it again, the team have all been terrific and id like to think I’ve pulled some of my own weight also.

Final Evaluation. Michael Herbert.

ZOMG! Media Evaluation: Michael Herbert 2131666

1.       In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?

Our film is a horror film. To make this obvious in the first two minutes, we use common, well known conventions, and/or references to other horror films. By this, I mean we chose a foggy day to film, as this links in with the film ‘The Fog’ (1980/2005). Fog is a common convention for horror films which the audience will be able to recognise,, such as when most people think of a haunted house, they think of bad weather, such as fog.  Our title sequences are very similar to those of ’28 Days Later’ (2002) which was a very popular horror film, and is still watch nearly a decade after it was released. We have included a similar shot to one in ‘Resident Evil’ (2002), where the farmer and Harry are walking and talking.  We also use shock tactics, as this is used in 99% of horror films. An example of our shock tactics is when Joey grabs the zombie, and it turns round and screams, this is intended to make the audience jump. Another horror film that uses shock tactics would be ‘Scream’ (1996), when the killer appears on screen without the audience noticing.

2.       How does your media product represent a particular social group?

You could say our film is slightly sexist or just upping the stereotype of men being the heroes, and women staying at home looking after the home. You can say this as our treatment only outlines two female characters, one being a child, and the other, a damsel. So you could say our film imposes the idea of men being heroes, but that’s just interpretation. Our characters are similar age to our target audience (except the farmer) so this could help the audience relate to them.

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

I very much doubt our film make it to Hollywood, but certainly a good chance of making it into a small British production such as Warp Films or Film Four productions.  ’28 Days Later’ was also made in a British studio.  This film didn’t have a massive budget, but still made a massive impact in the film industry.

There is very little to work with to make merchandise from our film, the most you could make from it would probably be a poster. There could be a video game made from it which follows the storyline from the film, but if it was made in a small British studio, its very unlikely they could afford to put a game into production.

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

Here is a link to the BBFC website, showing the classification we think suits our film: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/18-2

We believe our audience to be males aged 18 or more, as our main characters around the same age, and gender, also because men tend to prefer horror films such as ours. Some women may want to watch it though, but it is aimed at a male audience. We wanted our film to be a 15, and we wrote it with that in mind, but the constant blasphemies and foul language throughout the film, never mind the blood, gore, and psychological breakdowns make a classification of 18 more suitable.

5.       How did you attract/address your audience?

Our audience are mainly males, aged 18 to 21. One section of our film which would appeal to this audience would be when the zombies attack the farmer, and blood squirts out etc. We also believe women may be interested in watching our film, as the safety of the child may appeal to them, but we more focused on grabbing the male’s attention. Anyone under the age of 18 shouldn’t really watch this film as it could scare them within the first few minutes, as there are scenes of death, Zombies, and psychological breakdowns. It wouldn’t be advisable to let them watch it.

The camera work used our first two minutes doesn’t really show any points of view, but we also didn’t show a lot of what was going on, i.e. we cut to titles in between shots. This was to let the audience keep guessing whilst watching it, and hopefully, build tension for the rest of the film.

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

I didn’t learn a lot from actually filming the product, as I was acting throughout, but I know that HD1000 is a great camera to use for a low budget film, and is easily transportable, but what lets it down is its shear lack of quality for sound. But hey! Can’t have everything! We didn’t have much sound recorded with the camera; the main speech is the radio broadcast, which was recorded using Pro Tools in Barnsley College Music studio, which I had never used before making the film. But I learned how to make new tracks, and record, and use effects make it more like a broadcast.

When we got our first ideas for the film, we decided to make our own composition, so we could show a range of different Medias made by us, but due to the lack of time and resources, we scrapped this idea.

We used Final Cut to put our film together. I have a lot of experience using this version of the soft ware from my GCSE studies, and using Final Cut: Pro, from my Work Experience. Therefore, I found it relatively easy to put our ideas onto the film, and with Joe T’s experience, we stormed through putting effects on such as the filter to make the film seem darker.

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

I’d say, overall, our finished product came out pretty well! As a finished piece, it turned out a lot better than we had planned, the editing compared to our preliminary exercise was out of proportionally more professional. I think in doing a preliminary exercise, it gave us a chance to get used to the different machines, and put us back in the zone to work with this type of technology. This time around we knew what we wanted to achieve, we researched and practice what we wanted, and we had the time to go out and do it, and we didn’t have to rush like we did with the preliminary exercise, thus, having a much better, more imaginative, better quality final piece.

With us researching into genre and similar films such as ’28 Days/Weeks Later’ and ‘Resident Evil’, we had a rock. What I mean is, we had something to compare our film to, and to use ideas from, thus allowing us to ask ourselves “Could we use that shot in our film?” or “I wonder how they did that? Let’s look into it.” This gave us ideas to use when panning out and storyboarding our piece.

The editing/ camera angles on our piece were in my opinion, outstanding. With the match on action shots making the film flow more easily and the range of different types of shots used just made the film, interesting to watch. Once the filter had been added, it really just, finished our piece.

I feel like if we had to do it again, we could spend a little more on costume? As the fake blood didn’t look brilliant, so that could be one improvement. Also, use a boom pole and microphone to record sound with better quality.

Except from that, I am happy with our final piece, it turned out great, and would be happy to show it to my friends and family.

15 Minute analysis.. Michael Herbert.

15 minute Analysis: 28 Days later                     Michael Herbert 2131666

In the opening sequence of 28 Days Later, you see scenes from a television news broadcast. It shows mass panic of what seems to be across the world. Most of these shots seem to be done by using a handheld camera; this is why the screen seems to wobble. This is good for setting the mood for the rest of the film, the side on angles of the camera could suggest disorientation, or that something isn’t quite normal.

Then, we see a chimpanzee strapped to a table, which is being forced to watch these scenes of mass panic. The chimpanzee is established using a horizontal pan of the table. This gives the audience’s brains a few seconds to register what is on the table, before it is fully shown. After this shot, it cuts to a wide long tracking shot of the room, focusing on the chimpanzee. We then can see a screen of a security camera as we track past. This could suggest that someone is watching the chimpanzee because the shot makes it feels like a point of view shot of someone watching and hiding.

The scene then cuts to some men/women in thug masks walking into this lab type area. It then has many close ups and stills of pacing chimpanzees. This gives the audience a chance to register what they are seeing.  The camera is again tilted to one side to show that something is weird is going on. The Thug dressed characters walk in to the laboratory, and remove their masks. They seem to have cameras with them; this could suggest they are the authorities or reporters investigating the research in this laboratory. The camera freezes to show what the photographer is taking photos of. These freeze frames of the deranged chimpanzees create shock tactics for the audience, as these chimps are clearly under a massive amount of stress and anger, and the audience should feel sympathy for them.

We then follow the characters into the room with the chimpanzee strapped to the table, and a point of view shot of the screens that the chimp can see. The camera moves quickly in this shot, to show that the chimp is scared and/or stressed. Then we cut to the scientist. He is apprehended by the other characters. He explains what has happened to the chimps, the more he explains, the more quickly each shot of the camera changes. This is to show the uprising panic of the scientist. Also, whilst he is explaining, the level of non-diagetic music rises, to increase tension for the audience.

Once one of the ‘infected’ chimps is released, it attacks the female, and the camera shots become even faster paced, to show that the situation is frantic and out of control.  The camera then focuses on the Chimps which are still caged, but with screams of the characters in the background, contrasting what we can see, to what we can hear.

It then Cuts to black, and just has small white text in the bottom right corner saying ’28 Days Later..’ this is similar to what we plan to do in our two minutes.

We then see a close up of the Protagonist’s eye opening. This could be a reference to an ‘infected’ after changing waking up. This could hint that the infection has spread onto humans. It then changes to a long shot, showing the same Protagonists, lying naked in a hospital bed, wired up to many machines. This could be making a link to the Chimp we saw earlier, and maybe suggesting that when it comes to the ‘infected’ Humans, and other species are all the same. He then attempts to stand up, knocking over and breaking equipment along the way, this probably suggests he is disorientated, and most likely, a little confused.

He goes for the door, which is locked. He sees the key on the floor, but we see it from underneath the other side. This could suggest that someone slide the key under the door, for him to use. The camera then pans up, from his feet, to see his whole, dressed, figure, much like we wish to achieve in our two minutes.

The camera follows him walking through this hallowed hospital, he finds that he is alone. He checks the phones, but they aren’t working, and he leaves them dangling. This suggests that he is all alone, with no one to help him.

It then goes outside; we can see that the city of London is completely deserted. There are many establishing shots of main attractions/monuments in and around London, with only the protagonists showing, with Non-diagetic music building the more he walks, building up further tension.

He then finds a notice boarded, with hundreds of notes saying that someone has gone missing. The background music builds up and up as he looks at them all, to just show the sheer realisation of the pandemic that has gone on without him.

Joseph Tomkins - Evaluation of "ZOMG"

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1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media project? 

Our short film is a zombie horror film, the horror genre is established in the first few moments of our film,  the title sequence credits which overlap the film are eerie and establish a tension from the start.  Our use of setting and simplistic style echoes that of 28 days later and other zombie films such as ZMD, we then developed these styles into our own film by adding pans and credits similar to the film Seven, Our use of horror, tension and reanimation puts our film into a sub-genre of Zombie Horror films. Our use of make-up on the characters and Fog/FX in the scene also indicate this and the opening set is similar to that used in other Zombie horrors, for instance: 

Our opening sequence mirrors the opening to Resident Evil (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GyOYaDHquE) A group are in search of their companions/associates,  and one member finds evidence of their deaths and is attacked, then the rest of the group is assaulted.  

Our main focus on the film is on Joey, Harry and Mikeys disappearance followed by their escape to safety, This is similar to the focus of the small collection of characters in the film used for my fifteen minute analysis – Shaun Of The Dead, where Shaun and his companions are joined in a group trying to find a safe house and in the other film I used as a previous example – Resident Evil, the set of characters are lucky to escape from the attack and are looking for safety.  Our use of make-up on the characters and Fog/FX in the scene indicates our film as being part of the horror genre, the opening set being similar to that used in other Zombie horrors. 

Our Film(Zomg)Resident Evil Original 

The two opening sequences very slightly, our film incorporates black text screens and different lighting which is similar to the effect on resident evil with the set being enshrouded in Darkness and fog covering the location, however our overall effect is different as our overall film focuses on the psychological fight for survival more than the blood and gore and our film makes it quite obvious that Harry is having a psychological breakdown throughout. 

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

In our film, you could argue there is a gender bias as the only woman seen in the film is being attacked by the zombies and then the small child – a girl, the damsel in distress – is rescued by Joey, showing Men as the heroes, as in the stereotypical action film.  This links into our target audience however, as we believe our target audience to be Males from around 18 – 21.  

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

I don’t think our film would be produced by a major Hollywood Studio, I think it would be more likely to be produced by a smaller studio, perhaps Warped or Film 4. However I do think it could be released as quite widely available across the UK as, even as a low cost production, I think it could be at least entertaining to the majority of the British public. In some ways, our level of production is similar to that in a low cost film such as Paranormal Activity, which though only a small production still is one of the most popular low production films to date.  

I think at the very least our Film would be a popular indie release, and it would most likely be released for the story line and the developing relationship with the characters, making the film more relatable. I think there would be a possibility for a Game production from the film, however a franchise or too much merchandise would be unlikely as the characters have no specific costume and are wearing casual everyday clothing, making merchandise such as toys/action figures or play sets generic and dull, and hence won’t sell. 

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

I think the audience would be males from 18-21 but of course it will appeal to some women,  though my reason for thinking males from 18-21 is because the main characters are all male, roughly 18-20 years old, there’s  a lot of gore in the film and the personalities of the characters will be stereotypical of action films. Another reason for my belief of the age is because the idea is similar to dawn of the dead and 28 days later and their audience is around this age.  Our audience research shows that the film is popular with teenagers around our age of both male and female gender. I think our film would be classification 18 due to frequent strong language and scenes of violence and gore, although it was written with cert.15 in mind. 

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/18-2 

5. How did you attract/address your audience? 

I think particular points in our film such as when Joey saves the small girl would appeal to the female audience from 18-21 and the section when the characters are fighting for survival against the cannibalistic police would appeal more the male section of the audience and perhaps scare some of the younger audience members, I also think that the first part of the film, which we recorded, would scare some audience members and appeal more to the male part of the audience. The camera angles used in the first part of the film, which we filmed, don’t really follow the characters points of [Picture]view but show, what is believed to be, their last moments. I think this gives the audience a sense of despair because they think that’s just what happens, that the characters die not knowing of the fate of the world, where as it’s the opposite. Which then gives the impact of hope when they survive and by the time they see them struggling again they will feel more aligned with the characters which will give a stronger emotional response.  The still image to the right is Joey finding blood and showing the others, however this blood is never shown to the audience giving a sense of suspense and also the misty set gives suspense as anything could be hiding in it.  

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

I have learnt that the HD1000 camera has very low quality inbuilt sound capabilities but records video in very high quality. The filming process was actually quite simple due to the tripod being easy to set up and very stable when panning the camera from left to right and up and down however it did take a while to get the camera on a level surface at the correct height due to the nature of a tripod and we worked on rough terrain in a woods in Barnsley.  When filming the main trouble wasn’t with the equipment it was with the mud and wet terrain, whilst filming several times I slipped and panned the camera up when I grabbed to steady myself.   

The editing software – Final Cut – is very easy to use and most of the work I did on the editing was just remembering the processes I’d used in School for my GCSE Media Studies. I found the effects used for colour correction useful for the editing of the forest scene at the opening as it made the film look more eerie and scary.  Our initial intention was to record the music ourselves at a studio owned by a friend of ours but unfortunately time was short so we had to use some royalty free music provided by the College.  

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

I think compared to our initial preliminary task this product was much better carried out as we storyboarded it, planned the camera angles, researched into the genre by watching similar films such as Dawn of the Dead and 28 days later, this helped us produce the film because we had inspiration from other popular Zombie films and therefore knew we wanted the editing and story to be similar to them.  And this, obviously, helped the editing process to run smoother.  Our use of match on action shots has improved because before the action was quite ill matched in the video, where as now the editing is correct down to a millisecond, this is shown with the two images from our film where one of the characters is drinking tea whilst listening to a radio broadcast where the coming zombie infection is underrated by the broadcast.  

I think we felt more comfortable using the equipment during filming because we had more time to become accustomed with it during our practice shops. And we also became more accustomed with the editing software and its shortcuts during the editing process and I became accustomed to using “Livetype” which I made use of to create the title sequence. 

I feel that our end product fulfilled the criteria and I’m very proud of the editing used and the timing of the music which was used in the final product, I think the final product worked very well and I would be proud to show it as it is to an audience.