Draft of the 4 Evaluation Questions

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

My media product has been aimed and influenced by real media products mainly consisting of the popular horror movies of IT and Paranormal Activity. This is an evident use of real media products which will help aid in the use, development and the challenging forms of conventions and where they will be identified from. The use of jump scares within our media product was the generic format of which most horror films consisted of already, which is where we ‘used’ the conventions within our movie from real media products. Furthermore, the use of sudden sounds such as the knocking on the door was used but developed by increasing the sound to make it a more substantial horror effect for the viewer. The use of sounds was also developed where the character was hearing sounds of Whispers when dropping down the stairs and also the sound of glass breaking, and the sound of the creaky door, all led to the way of which our media product uses and develops conventions of real media products, as these are seen as generic required elements to make a ‘horror movie’ a horror movie. The way we challenged the forms of stereotypes is through the ending of leaving a cliff hanger. Usually within horror movies, at the end the equilibrium is destroyed and fixed, or just fixed. However, in our media product, the equilibrium isn’t restored and continuously remains disrupted leading to the challenging of conventions as most horror movies don’t follow this pattern. I decided to implement this challenge of conventions through the consistent disruption of equilibrium because it allows this horror movie to be unique and significantly different from the others allowing a sense of new expectations for the viewer and new sense of excitement when viewing the media product as it will follow a new pattern of equilibrium which the viewer won’t expect.  Lastly, the main form of challenging of conventions is the length of the film compared to the real media products. My film is only 5 minutes long while real media products such as IT and paranormal activity are 1-2 hours long, leading to my media products requiring all the features of a horror movie into 5 minutes, which is an evident form of challenging existing conventions of real media products.

Additionally, as stated before, the opening and ending challenge conventions and have evidently been presented in a different manner which can be considered as unique as not any other horror movie follows the same equilibrium structure as ours, as majority or not all horror movies have/follow a similar pattern of the Toderv theory of the Equilibrium which our film challenges by having a contrapuntal version from the  Toderv theorists view, ensuring it works and isn’t repetitive for users as it will be a new unexpected horror movie, making it more unique and catchy to watch and remember.

Particular effects used within the movie consisted of the first section of the film where one of the main characters are walking towards their house, with the credits alongside. The effect used included a glitch effect where the screen evidently glitches, gradually building up as he gets closer to the closer suggesting there is something wrong with the house. Furthermore, once the character closes the door, the clip transitions to the next scene by a continuous glitch effect with a sudden loud ‘glitch static’ sound to ensure the user are on edge when viewing. Moreover, colour grading effects were used for the darker scenes to ensure the scenes are remotely dark but still visible for the viewer, so they can easily acknowledge what is clearly happening. Lastly, another particular sound effect added was the sound of souls when Umar drops down the stairs, in combination with the dark colour grading ensured a scary and horror feel. Overall, these effects used have followed similar patterns from IT and Paranormal Activity evidently as these effects are significant and directly functioning as the correct type to use due to the high rating and reviews of the existing horror movies. Overall, these effects ensure an effect horror movie as it allows the user to be scared with sudden jumpy scenes and transitions, reinforcing the true meaning of ‘horror’.

2.    How has your film transformed from your initial ideas to the first draft? 

From the initial ideas, I was able to use real media products to help me base ideas, evaluate the elements and features worth using and not such as more than a certain number of cameras or the use of dialogue and high-key lighting. Put simply, it allowed me to improve the initial ideas to formulate and produce my final first draft. Through doing research of existing horror movies and their products used, it allowed us to gain an insight of what elements are needed for mise-en-scene to be portrayed clearly. Furthermore, through researching the exact products, it allowed us to identify a good range of cheaper products to buy. The research formally allowed us to identify cheaper products and ensure all of them were used from the initial idea and remotely added to the first draft to aid in the transformation as it is easy to write the elements and products down than actually using them.

The plot generally started off with the storyboard ideas of the 3 characters walking home and finding a tape which they later listen to and be affected and all die. However, this was adjusted to the characters meeting up for a Halloween party later that same day in Umar’s house, which is when the friends all listen to the tape and Umar then forgets his wallet at home once they have left for the party and once he returns to the house, the power cuts and Umar put simply dies. This is clearly adapted for the first draft as from the initial ideas, the characters were all meant to die, but Instead of killing off the characters, we thought it’ll fit more of a horror effect to ensure one of the characters die and as the other characters enter the house, the film ends on a cliff hangar, as it then leaves the viewer craving more, leading to a squeal and increased engagement with the movie. As also due to the mysterious effect of the cliff hanger idea, it is also used in the movie of Paranormal Activity to ensure a squeal as well and a mysterious effect of a horror tool as it leaves the audience to asking questions of What? Why? How? When? – evidently being interacted and engaging with the movie. Moreover, the movie initially revealed the identity of the antagonist, but however due to the generic structure of horror movies and audience feedback, for the first draft, the identity of the antagonistic was revealed to increase the mysterious and ‘craving to know more’ feeling for audience. Also, if the audience know how the antagonistic looks like, it defeats the purpose of the horror movie as the audiences aren’t as frightened when viewing or scared by the antagonist as the audience knows what to expect and the identify.

Whilst filming the first draft, we encountered may different problems such as lighting, background activity noise and speech. The background noise was the main issue when filming the outside scenes, so we had to amend this by ensuring the time of day is different from the peak times and go to the off-peak time of the round. The speech was changed by decreasing the level of dialogue from the characters and ensuring the microphone was closer to the character which was speaking first so it seems like the character is talking loud or shouting when in reality, they’re just speaking verbally in a normal manner. Lastly, the lighting was the main issue during low-key areas. This was due to the IOS level of the camera and was amended by simply using a low lighting effect from the external camera light and then colour grading in post production.

3.    What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I received audience feedback from the teachers and peers through a viewing premier night. I recorded the audience through my iPhone Microphone to allow myself to listen to it verbally, playback the audience feedback instead of noting it down there and then in case some feedback was missed. Furthermore, it also allowed me to ask questions openly without worrying about writing the feedback down. The audience feedback given consisted of first, adding something on top of the tape which makes the characters wanting to go back to pick the tape. This will be further developed by adding a £5 note on top of the tape so when the £5 note I picked up, the tape is also identified. Furthermore, the feedback was also given on the long walking scenes which prolong the duration of the movie and aren’t needed, which will be developed by simply removing the length of the scene. Moreover, the audio levels in some of the clips are quite low leading to the volume not being in sync throughout and requires to be turned up and down constantly. This will be improved by simply re-doing the audio and to ensure before moving on, the audio is played back and the audio comes across clearly and fluently. Lastly, the final criticism of the film from the audience feedback was the end scene, where the film instantly cuts off. This was told to be improved by simply prolonging the black transition at the end or somewhat something happing to the remaining characters within the film as the ending is quite abrupt and sudden leading the viewer to be quite confused. Put simply, the questions asked within our questionnaire provided us feedback on our film from our target audience on a detailed and valid scale as this is what the majority of viewers within our audience category would expect.  However, after all the critics were given, the positives were also stated such as the teamwork evidently shown, the high professional level of sound, mise-en-scene and editing, followed by the superb camera stabilisation portrayed allowing a professional viewing experience for the audience which was commented upon too.

What I have learnt from the audience feedback is that there is always room for improvement no matter the circumstances and it is better to keep getting feedback upon making it unbiased and allowing the media product to continuously be improved and further developed leading to an ideal final media product. The feedback provided consisted of some of these comments such as ‘Put something on a tape to divert their attention naturally instead of forcing them to look at the tape’ which we adjusted and improved but adding a £5 note, making it more legit. Followed by another improvement stated was ‘add a black prolong scene at the end as it ends abruptly’ – which was simply improved by adding a prolonged black scene of a few seconds towards the end. This clearly shows that the audience feedback has improved our film through implementing the changes and feedback provided.

During the October Half Term, I attended the Horror Convention which I recorded as a vlog and uploaded it onto my blog. The horror convention allowed me to gain the opportunity of interview some existing horror authors and film actors. I allowed me to gain an understanding of what the audience want from a horror film and what we should do to always keep the audience gained. The feedback provided was somewhat like ‘Be different and don’t copy other horror films’, ‘Make the plot unique and which has never been seen before’, ‘Look at existing movies but only adapt ideas, but not use them.’ – This can be considered as feedback as we asked the questions regarding our film, through explaining the plot to them and what they expected and wanted, through expressing, which consisted as feedback. The horror convention also allowed me to gain an insight of which and how to do make up, editing techniques and props to be used. This all allowed me to ensure when producing my film, I can reflect back to the horror convention and acknowledge the thinks and elements which are good, what can be used as a prop and how to do the make-up, which was evident throughout our movie, through the make-up, costume and editing techniques used.

4.    How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning evaluation stages?

For filming the media product, I used a Cannon EOS 1300D combined with a iPhone 8 Plus camera on a tripod and a Rode Microphone. This was the generic set up for when the filming of the horror movie was taking place. The Cannon EOS 1300D camera was used for the clips of when the camera was going in and out of focus as the camera had more manual control over the lens and the focal lengths. Moreover, the Cannon EOS 1300D camera was also used under-low light conditions in combination with a Camera light allowing the darker scenes to still remain dark but somewhat naturally brightened to allow the frame to identify the characters and when falling down the stairs.

The iPhone 8 Plus camera was used for filming the majority of the film due to the quality of the clips and the stabilisation of the camera allowing for a smoother and more professional seeming experience. Due to the camera, also being able to record in 4k24fps. It allows the film to have a natural film and cinematic view effect to ensure the media product was professional seeming and mature as possible to meet the expectations and needs of the audience and the horror genre.

The Rode Microphone was used to capture the audio from further away and ensure the audio was crystal clear with minimal background noise allowing the audience and viewers to clearly identify and listen to the audio.

The software used to primarily edit the clips and produce the overall movie was Final Cut Pro X (FCPX). FCPX is an Apple based product which has built-in plugins to ensure the movie can easily be edited promptly and smoothly. FCPX had all the basic and advanced pre-sets when editing the movie which allows me to easily drag and drop the effect and take control over the side-panel. Furthermore, due to it being an Apple only based product, it allowed the software to be fully optimized for the MacBook Pro allowing the rendering and production of the movie clips prompt and rapid.

The overall use of Hardware covered a variety of different elements such as audio, video, editing and so on. However, before choosing the correct and specific equipment for me to use for the main production of the film, I ensured that the equipment was the best possible value for money and quality. The way I tested the products were through doing test runs of example clips and recording using the Camera and Microphone and recording under different scenarios and environments to ensure it is a well-rounded camera and microphone ensuring it can handle all sorts of scenarios. Put simply, the camera and microphone were well-rounded, other than in rain as the camera equipment would get wet, leading to malfunction and lead to it breaking and being damaged due to water.

Without a doubt for the editing source was a MacBook Pro, as the machine itself was an editing ‘king’ as Apple describes, being able to deal with quick rendering and exporting times, high real-time playback and reviewing footage easily. The software used and tested consisted of being Adobe Premier Pro and Final Cut Pro X. However, after testing the software’s for post-production and editing, Final Cut Pro X was more superior due to the editing, flexibility, simplicity and optimisation for MacOS of the software, lead to it being more efficient to use. The tests were formally conducted through editing the clips recording prior when testing the camera and microphone.

The research was predominantly done through YouTube and trial runs within myself (Self-taught). After spending several hours on how to record cinematography and effects used for filming the film correctly (FPS, FOV, ISO and WB of the camera settings), It allowed me to gain an insight of the do’s and don’ts when filming and through adjusting certain methods to my own liking, it allowed me to trial run and test techniques before the production primarily began of our Horror Movie. Furthermore, through the course and duration of the production of the film, Prior to that I have my own Photography business, alongside with a Videography Internship, which allowed me to gain an insight of these elements of Media Studies before studying A2, allowing me to gain advantage and use the skills I had and further develop and adapt them. Moreover, it also allowed me to gain the knowledge and practical aspect of the equipment to ensure which camera, microphone, laptop and editing machine to use for post-production prior to this. However, more learning and developing was doing through YouTube, as I learn information visually better than reading heaps of information.