Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We decided to film our film in black and white, similar to Sin City doing this helped us achieve a feel of antiquity and ember this feeling of events happening a long time ago:

Sin City:

A Widow’s Death:

Also, we tried to add in the accentuated colour into our film; however we were not able to do so for our finished product. Instead we used colour in the beginning of the film, this also meant the black and white scenes made the audience see that part as being a flashback or from the past.

Also, we looked at Watchmen to find inspiration and we decided to have a ‘narrator’ character. We also looked at the film ‘The Name of the Rose’ in which we found the medieval-theme and the murder mystery genre. Also 'The Da Vinci Code' was a source of inspiration as we were able to produce a murderer that looked similar to the monk in the film, showing intertextuality and we could attract the audience with the look of him, and remember the film.

A convention we include from this genre of film is that the audience is only shown the victim at the beginning; this gives the film a sense of enigma, a mystery that will be solved in this film, this will also create a hook that will want people to continue to watch the film.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The questionnaire we wrote and gave to friends, family and people in the street showed us that people thought that a murder mystery/horror film should consist of murder, suspense and frightening the audience. For what we had to achieve we thought that the set for our film should be suitably ‘creepy’ and old looking, so we decided to film at the church, a convention of horror films, such as ‘The Omen’, in Great Missenden as this was an accessible place to all of use, without too much hassle.

The Omen:

A Widow’s Death:

Also Great Missenden church looks like an old traditional church, with a path covered in moss and grass and the graves are covered in vines, making it look old, and a creepy and eerie atmosphere to be surrounded by. We were going to shoot late at night to add to the atmosphere, but could not due to a lack of light meaning it would be difficult to see what was happening. We had the writing in an old fashioned style so that it would fit the look of the film. We also applied make up so that Alice’s face was pale, which fits with a higher class person of the time period. We also had George, the murder, wear a long shawl looking like a cloak and this also fit in with the monk look we had thought of, also creating an enigma behind his character as no one could figure out who it was.

For our mise-en-scene we used an axe as the murder weapon as it seems a primitive and medieval weapon to use as a murder weapon and gives the film the older look. Also the rose placed upon her chest symbolises the love the murderer has for the victim, something the audience is yet to find out about and the audience will want to watch to find out. Alice spoke in a strong old fashioned English accent to make it sound old timely and of the period. We added singing in the background to represent the innocence of the victim and her childishness, even hinting at her schizophrenia.

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

An institution that may distribute our film could be 20^th Century Fox or Touchstone pictures, because 20^th Century Fox released The Omen, a film of similar a similar genre and they often distribute murder/horror or suspense genre based films. As our film is part of a popular genre it is very likely that cinemas will want to stock out film and show it as it is part of the here and now, many films released recently have been in these kind of genres, such as the Saw films.

The film can be easily translated to TV as although it has adult themes, it is not as close up and in-your-face as films such as Saw, which means that our film will most likely be placed as a 15 certificate and then can be shown early after watershed hours and not have to be shown late into the night as most 18 certificate films would have to be. This could prove popular with people who watch such murder mysteries as Midsummer Murders or Poirot, as these people usually like to guess who the killer could be and find mystery intriguing.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our film is aimed at the 15 and above age group as these kind of films do not seem too popular with the age group below and the mystery may not intrigue them, whereas more inquisitive adults. As there is not too much blood this certificate is certainly achievable and it would mean we can get the film to a relatively large audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We wrote a questionnaire for people to answer so that we could get criticism, constructive or not, about the ideas we were having about our film. We found that most people agreed that a church was the right place to set our film as it would set up the right atmosphere. We obviously had to think of the death scene as the scene to start the film off as it would hook people into the film. We then had to decide upon what our characters may wear and the old fashioned style seemed to appeal to the answers to the questionnaire. We decided to find things from that sort of time period, or things that looked like they were, so we chose the axe as the murder weapon and dark cloaks and dresses as the costumes as these seem old timely and look old fashioned. We also tried to attract people to our film with our poster, of which there were two designs;

Design 1: Original

Design 2: Revised Version

Link to larger version: http://imgur.com/L7QmF.jpg

We also thought that a foreign name would intrigue many of our audience and so La Muerte De La Viuda seemed to fit well and we would have a small translation under so that people could still know the basic story from the title of the movie.

Here is the questionnaire we used to obtain the necessary information for creating our film, we asked 30 male and females, of varying age and social-economic groups

1.Do you like murder mystery films?

We asked this as it was a vital question to see if this age group really did like murder mystery films, as if they didn't we would have to completely change our story or aim it at an older age group.
2.Do you prefer an intense scary film or a more light hearted film?

Most boys preferred intense scary films, and many girls said they did not mind but would rather see a light hearted film if they had the choice.
3.Have you ever watched Sin City, Sherlock Holmes or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

We asked this as we were basing our film on these films and others and so if our participants said they hadn't watched them we knew our target audience was wrong, or that we shouldn't base our film on them. Most people said they had seen Sin City, some had seen Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and many said they really wanted to see Sherlock Holmes.
4.If so did you enjoy them?

Many said they loved Sin City as it was different and exciting, those who had seen Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde said the book was excellent and they love the storyline so they film was just as enjoyable even though sometimes novel remakes aren't as successful. Those who had seen Sherlock Holmes said it was exciting and surprisingly good. We knew then to definitely consider these films as an influence for our film.
5.Which would you find scarier:

-a knife
-a gun
-an axe
Our participants said it depended on the film and as it was horror they said an axe, as it wasn't something they were particularly familiar with so made them feel more insecure, and also an axe as it was bigger and more intimidating.
6.What location would you find more scary and eerie?

-a church
-a wood
Most our participants said the woods was to cliche but the church and graveyard although a convention could change and be something new, whilst with the woods you are stuck with just trees and leaves. However some said the woods as it can seem never ending and as if you were trapped, which is why we included the shots from behind the trees in our film.
7.Do you enjoy a black and white film as much as a coloured film?

A few said they didn't mind but colour was what they were used to. However some said many great films have been produced in black and white such as Sin City, and so said they were happy to have black and white.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Digital Camcorders

We used an HD Panasonic camcorder so that we could attain a very good quality picture, once we got the hang of it, the camera was easy to use, and was detailed enough for the writing scenes we had to produce. The camcorder was limited in the way it would shoot in low light conditions and could not record later at night, meaning we could not get the darker sky, which would have created a scarier tone to the movie. The darkness also had to be considered, as it being a very large convention of horror/suspense films. Also, during outdoor scenes, it was too windy for the camcorder to pick up any sound so we could not have any dialogue outside of the church that was not added in later.

Apple Computers

Apple’s computers made the editing process very simple and we had learned how to use them from our preliminary task. We used Final Cut Express when editing out film and also used Photoshop when I created the posters that we would use for our film. Final Cut Express was a very simple program to use, being able to cut, add/reduce contrast, make black and white, all within a few drop down tables or a few clicks of the mouse. Also to record the singing in the background to the film we used Cubase SE and a professional microphone plugged into the computer to record the sound. All of these programs were simple and easy to use and helped us in the production of our final film.

Live Type

We used a programme called Live Type to produce our credits. The programme was simple to use, and the program helped us to make a suitable introduction, Live Type contained a variety of fonts which allowed us to experiment and see what fonts would suit a horror, which was quite an important part to our film as it introduces the film so needs to be attractive to our intended audience. With the right style of font and it could also enter into frame in a way that seemed eerie.

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

As we did out preliminary task very early in the year, we had much to learn about how to use the macs and the software provided upon them, we first used Final Cut Express to edit and we would slowly learn what each function did and how we could go about using them in the final film. When we first started filming, we did not know what we were going to film, and this showed a clear lack of planning or any brainstorming on what we should have been doing or filming to get the preliminary task done. We created a storyboard, and actually recorded two preliminary tasks, but one did not meet the requirements for the task and so we adapted the storyboard and made it work.

There was also a learning curve on how we were to use the camcorders as sometimes we may accidentally record over something or forget to actually press record. Also, with the final film, we would use more variety in our shots and learn how to make shots look more interesting and how setting it up differently can make a large difference, as our preliminary task was a very one or two shot kind of deal and not much variety in the way we shot and edited the final cut.

As we had become more proficient at Final Cut Express, it meant the editing on our final film could be done faster than in our preliminary task, and we could experiment as well, resulting in our black and white type of film, which proved very popular among the people we asked about it.

All of this added together to mean that we could make our second film more enjoyable, not only for the audience, but for us as well, as we could see how much we had learned and how the preliminary task had benefited our skills in the areas I have discussed.