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Evaluation Questions 2,3,4 and 7 (on Youtube)
Question 2:
Question 3:
Question 4:
Question 7:
Evaluation Questions 1, 5 and 6 (Others have been filmed)
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product, “Madness”, uses a commonly used idea of taking something unthreatening and mundane, and making it scary. In my case, that’s using a teenage girl (Who’s almost 18, but she once was asked for ID to prove she was over 12…) as a murderer, which adds an element of fear, which achieves the desired genre of ‘horror’, a similar idea is used in the 1961 British horror ‘The Innocents’ where some children are possessed by evil spirits.
Another convention I’ve used for my film is one used in almost every other horror film known to man (slight exaggeration there) is where the murderer lurks in the woods with the murder weapon of choice. A good example of this is the British 1982 film “The Forest”, in which a cannibalistic murderer terrorizes campers in a forest.
I think the use of these popular conventions will help to reach the target audience, as these conventions have been used in previous popular films, which suggests to me that the ide works in the film genre and style I’m aiming for.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
My target audience are young adults/older teens, depending on the age rating. The cast is mainly made up of teens around 17 years old, the target audience for my film. I chose this age range as I thought that if the audience was a similar age to the characters it would be a more effective film, and so a more successful film.
This may be the target audience based on the main characters and plot, though later in the film, many people (who the main character feels caused her madness) become victims to the main character, and these are people from all ages, so a wider audience can be advertised to, and a more popular and successful film is achieved.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In the making of my film opening I used iMovie, a programme I have never used before the preliminary task. So a lot of the early editing process was experimenting with different effects, sounds and other techniques. I used most of the effects I found while experimenting in my film, such as colouring clips, removing sound and adding music.
I also learned how to use the camera, and how tripods affect the final project, whilst discovering many problems with using such things. For example, the refilming of one particular scene had to be stopped because the tripod managed to pick up every bump on the uneven floor and this rattled the camera, creating excess sound and camera shake, though this wasn’t all bad, I found some recordings which worked well with the shake, all I had to do was remove the sound.
The camera was easy to use, and all I needed to learn was how to zoom without making the camera shake, and how to set out scenes so that the camera picks up the scene I wanted, without glare, blurring or other problems with the resulting image.
Filming
Haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I’d better put something up.
Okayy so my filming is almost done, we shot a few clips last night, but some might need refilming. Theres one shot I’d really like, on the edge of the woods there are two trees with nothing between or in front of them, I think that would be a great framing shot, it would be from a distance, and if it was shot from different distances I could edit it together to make it jumpy.
I realised I haven’t used any long shots in my opening so far, I don’t think I will use any, because I want it to be quite hectic, showing the state of mind the character is in.
Panic!!!
Oh my good golly gosh! I may have lost my work!!! Stupid school with its stupid technology and stupid techy people!!! Grrrrrrrr….
Last minute thoughts…
Because things aren’t going so well at the minute, filming wise, I’ve decided to change some parts.
Instead of being hated then being murdered then coming back wanting revenge, I’ve decided that Skye is hated, this hate leads her to a loneliness that drives her to madness, and in her madness she decides to go after everyone her caused her pain. She could take them to an old abandoned house, which works because then I can call it ‘Mad House’, and have the 1 minute 30 seconds long song ‘Mad House’ by Rihanna as a backing track, there aren’t many words in the song so it would work well as a background tune. Then the song then lets me be a bit more creative with shots, angles and different scenes.
This should solve the problems I’ve had. It’s quite a good job my wordpress won’t upload my story board, it gives me chance to make a new one.
So this time, the montage can be quite dark, edited into alot of little clips, experiment with angles and techniques, and I think I’ll get a better mark with this. It’s the same genre as before I changed it, just a different plotline. I might even be able to use some of the shots I have now.
Can’t wait to get started!
In the last 30 seconds that won’t have music, I’ll record this and edit it in, and make it sound crazy 
“Madness: noun: The quality or condition of being insane.
Insanity: Noun: Relatively permanent disorder of the mind.
Mind: noun: the element, part, substance, or process that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives, judges, loves, hates, wants, needs, believes, lies, listens, speaks- speaks…
It’s all in your head…
I hear voices…”
Film name poemy thing!!!
Okayy, so I’ve changed the monologue to a poem type thing, partly because I hated the firdecided to call it ‘From the Hart’, it’s the perfect cheesy film name for a character with the second name of Hart. Wheyy!
And, you might have noticed I’vest monologue more and more everytime I read it, so I changed it to something I could get more creative with
Here it is, I might change it yet, but then again, I might not:
“This is a story straight From the Hart,
A tragic tale, right from the start.
A story of murder, despair and fear,
Which made Skye grin, from ear to ear.
She’ll get her revenge, before the end,
But what will become of her so-called friend?
Who left Skye alone, without a friend in the world,
That’s the whole reason this story unfurled.
Skye was hunted down, killed by a stranger,
Never knowing, never sensing the danger.
You thought she was dead? Oh, you thought wrong,
She’s coming for you; it’ll be over before long…”
Mixed up a bit
Okayy, so I’ve just switched things round a bit, instead of having the montage/monologue randomly in the middle, I’m going to start with the monologue and fit the production logos and film name and everything into that, then refilm the sections I’ve filmed (for a better quality that’s less shaky with louder speech) and film the lovely happy murder scene, I can then add those afterwards, as the real start of the film. I still need to record a scream… to end the monologue though, instead of ending the whole opening. I can’t wait to record the scream, it should be an interesting experience…
Day one.
planning
Okayy, so I’ve been making scripts and camera plans for about an hour, because I start filming this afternoon. It’s a bit cloudy and the floor’s still wet so I brought a black bin bag to rip up and make a waterproof sheet for me to sit/lay on, if we get to the scene where there’s a POV shot of someone walking through the woods and finding me a bit dead laying up against a tree. If we get to that scene I’ll need the fake blood too.
Camera shots and angles for two scenes
Argument scene – different shots/camera angles
Two shot shows Skye and Becky walking – shows the pair from front.
Shot-reverse-shot of conversation, with some two shots, over the shoulder shots and different angles edited in.
When Becky walks away, shot over Skye’s shoulder of Becky walking away. Cuts to shot from in front of Becky, her walking past the camera leaving Skye on her own further away from camera.
-End of Scene-
Chase scene – different shots/ camera angles
First shot – shows Skye leaning against something on her phone, then Rob steps into shot close to camera, can only see his leg and knife he is holding.
Cuts to closer shot of Skye, noticing Rob she turns and walks away.
It then cuts back to previous angle to show Rob starts walking after her.
Shot shows Skye looking over her shoulder, noticing Rob following her.
Shot from in front of Skye shows Rob suddenly running after her, Skye drops her bag and runs.
Shows Rob running past, angle from feet.
Cuts to Rob grabbing Skye, pulling her backwards round a corner.
-End of scene -
