Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 1 media

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Questionnaire on our opening.

After the film was complete I had someone to answer a few questions.
I am pretty shocked about what she commented about it, saying
that she thought our camera work was amazing! and that she would
love to watch the rest of the film if it was made. The rating on the sound
was just as I expected as we didn't really have much time to work on
that. I am very pleased with her feedback though. =D

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Preparing my evaluation

Today in class we went through the upcoming evaluation questions. We sat in our video groups and started brainstorming ideas for these questions. We also all noted down our own ideas for the evaluation.

There are seven questions that you must answer using multi media software,for example a presentation etc.
This meeting was tough, but we discussed each question thoroughly but not detailed.

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Feedback after first showcase =D

There were a lot of positive comments on our camera movement from this group. They also commented on the fact that the storyline is confusing, after getting this feedback it's fine as our group hasn't put our sequence into its actual proper order yet. They also commented on the black screens in between our sequence, but obviously my group and I are going to edit it so our storyline makes sense, and so there are no gaps in between our sequence.











There were some comments on the lengths of the shots, and some people commented how they thought they were too long. My group decided that we might as well cut the walking shot out completely, as it's not very important to our sequence and it would just drag on and make the audience lose interest.















Most people from this group commented on our lighting. Of course my group are aware that we need to do something about this. So I guess using final cut and the colour balance tool, we could use this to adjust our lighting, but we are going to make sure that the realistic feel is still there. We don't want to take away the realistic looking lighting, but obviously as for the nigh time scenes, it is quite challenging to get the lighting to be proper clear.







Someone in this group commented how we had no sound and that we should put some in, this is fine for our group, and this feedback is ok and understandable, as my group have not yet produced our sound for our opening sequence. We have many comments saying "good shots" .."good use of camera angles" and we are pleased with this at least, as we worked hard on our shots and getting them to look interesting.












From all of the classrooms feedback, we have decided as a group that cutting out the long walking forest scene would probably make a huge difference to the length of our sequence, and the overall understanding. It's pretty clear the walking in this sequence would just lose interest in the audience pretty quickly. We were happy with the rest of the feedback though,and I am very glad that there are no major changes needed. ^^
Our group are going to work our absolute best to cover all these areas, and to hopefully get a more positive feedback next time!

Bloody prop.

We used red food colouring to create
realistic looking blood stains onto the
victim's shirt. As you can tell the killer
tried to aim for her heart but instead
took a launch at her chest to murder her.


Here is a picture of the victim's shirt after the
stabbing. As you can see we decided to
create a hole in the centre of the t-shirt
to show the damage caused by the
roughness of the killer's stabbing.

Research into camera movement for chosen genre.

                                    POV examples

Extreme Close-ups create an intense mood and provides interaction between the audience and the viewer. Extreme close ups are common for horror movies. In a lot of scary movies, you have a handheld camera... Everything feels really still and uninteresting when its on a tripod. Also in horror movies it's better to have the camera a lot closer to the action / actors. Most people use camera movement to create a "calm,horror,calm,horror" feel to the film. Also in Halloween and Friday the 13th POV shots are used which allows the audience to 
see through the eyes of the killer/character.For our opening sequence we're going to use a variety of shots, to set this "calm,horror,calm,horror" mood a long with the fee
l of crime and suspense. We're not just going to use extreme 
close-ups the whole way through, only for the best/most affective parts of action.

Research into sound for chosen genre.

Sound is a very key thing in horror movies, if you were to turn down the audio on a scary scene the effect on the audience would decrease dramatically. Sound creates atmosphere and feelings, and can be either diagetic or non-diagetic. 

Non-Diagetic: Non-diagetic music is music which is not part of the narrative, not attributable to a source in the film, and is unheard by characters in the film. This type of music is usually used to add affective colour to the film, and play on the emotions of the audience. 

Diagetic:  Diagetic music is music which occurs within the narrative of the film. It is attributable to some source seen in the film, such as a radio, a record player, a musical instrument, a juke box or an orchestra in a concert hall. The characters of the film can hear this music.

Music in a horror film is all about adding tension and to often make the action seem more gruesome than it really is.

Most people will probably agree that orchestral music is the most characteristic type of horror film music (and perhaps film music in general). It has been used since the birth of the genre and even today is the most popular type of music used in horror films, thrillers, and adventure films. As it is easy to convey emotions and set up a certain mood. Music can help the film maker to impress the audience and make them think a certain way.

There is an audio sequence in horror films that most people recognize. A long eerie musical build-up of strings or horns as the victim approaches a closed door (for example), followed by a violent orchestral hit as the victim opens the door to encounter whatever is hidden behind it. The effect of the music rising helps to increase the audience's heart beat and excitement, it also gives them the feeling that something has to happen and will happen.

This research has helped me to understand the kind of instruments used in horror movies. In the scary parts of my opening sequence I think it would be a good idea to use eerie,music which speeds up when something is about to happen.