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.