Progress Assesment

At the very beginning, when our coursework task had been explained to our class by our teacher, i was very half hearted and i wasnt too sure whether id be able to carry the task out to its best ability. Considering i hadnt taken Media for GCSE and some of my fellow team members had, i was convinced that this was going to be really hard for me. I felt I had insignificant knowledge about what our design could be for the task, although i felt i could eventually develop effective skills time was a big matter that had to be dealt with to enable my success in the subject. Thinking on my feet and feeling positive about my ideas was working well, and as we worked on our animatic i felt positive and enthusiastic with the work, and generally enjoyed coming to the lesson. This then helped me alot when it came to producing the opening title sequence media product. From being so unconfident with myself to working really well now i think is really significant progress. I am confident with working on the software and i generally feel as though im part of the task, as before my team member Andy was taking alot of responsibility which was unfair as it is a group commitment not just and individual piece.

Rough Cut

The views back from our teacher were not to how I expected. He said it was good footage with effective shots which came to a suprise to me as i didnt think it was very good. Although a couple of our shots didnt work well before we went back previously and changed them, and he thought that they were much better this time.

The way in which we arranged our titles to the sequence made our media footage look scatty and unorganised. We arranged them to be at the start of the opening and at the end of it too. Our teacher commented on how this should be changed and where it may look better. So we changed our thoughts and timing and then decided to introduce titles over footage where the audience wont really need to focus on, we thought this would be effective because if we situate the titles where their isnt any main eye catching footage the audience wont miss any suspense produced.

Evaluation Notes

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

If you compare our media product to another media product you can see that there are similar ideas used. As a group we've tried to design a product in which focuses on real life issues in which men are represented to be the more dominant type to either 'rape' or 'kill' the other sex in this made up circumstance. The media on a whole has demonstrated these issues into peoples minds, and whenever you hear about real life cases about rape on the news the majority of the time men are shown to have been the culprits. Women on a whole are always demonstrated to be the 'weaker' victim who are always abused and drawn into this subject. In our media product we focus on a man who seems not to care what happens to a young girl and who casually after murdering her gets on with life like nothing has ever happened. This is portrayed in media products all the time as we all know to make something look not obvious you stay calm and act like everythings normal.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents youths becoming particularly jealous over someone or something, leading onto violation and being out of control of the situation. It's often seen as when someone has an 'obsession' for someone they would go to lengths to try and make them be obsessed or involved aswell. In other media products you see more older/experienced people taking over womens lives and being violent towards them, and by younger people seeing these actions on TV programmes and on the news so they follow others footsteps. Our media shows how it can be done by younger generations too.

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

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our media product would be 15 + just so that all ages of people can recognise the consequences you will face when taking actions like this. I think this is an effective audience to aim our media product at as we havent got state of the art studios and expensive equipment and enough experience to make a top of the range media product, but people our age will engage into what we have designed which is important for us as we want it to be successful in some ways.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by clearly finding out what are the best themes to include in a horror based film. By watching other films also gave me ideas to include in our planning which influenced visulisations in which i thought i could change and mix around to create an effective idea in the filming piece.

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

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

From the preliminary task I have learnt as an individual that progression is a key skill you need to develop whilst performing tasks. From the very start with the shots on paper I have understood that we may of needed to make additoinal changes, therefore thinking about what will be best for the final product was essential from my own ideas and group ideas. Whilst editing we have done a series of changes where if it looks good anyway, what will make it look that little bit better. By going that extra step further into developing ideas weve made good editing and effective footage.

SHOOT 2 - Saturday 24th January

Our filming went well again. All the shots that were required to be changed and improved on were completed aswell as shots outside. As a team team we worked well again with dominant filming skills from Andy and input with 'what worked best and not so good' from Charli. However outside lighting conditions made shots impracticable as a result to this as a group we need to re-alocate and find a more of an effective place to shoot due to the inadequate scenary of the wood like area.

SHOOT 1 - Wednesday 21st January

As a group we managed to shoot all shots. The filming itself went well, and as it was our first proper time of shooting, all of the shots were very steady and a combination of different shots were taken. Andy, Charli and I communicated efficiently and effectively together, this was important as it made our time worth while. Although it was a good first time of shooting changes were then needed to be made.

Feedback from the teacher was that;

1. The slow zooming effect we used at the beginning, needed to be improved in terms of speed flowness. To make this better for next time we decdided to use a different camera to enable better quality. At the start we inclined to use a still pciture of the door and zoom in on the image, as we thought many films use this effect and usually is very effective, however this wasnt the case for us so we then decided not to use this effect.

2. The group's directing of the actor wasn't quite effective, as the shot that needs a little work on would be when our character is ferociously trying to scrub blood aways and off of his hands. He didnt look scared enough and frightened that he had just murdered somone. Therefore this was picked up on.

3. The positioning of camera during close up of the villains hands wasnt quite right for the response we wanted. We needed to make it clearer and more realistic.

4. The tilt wasn't effective it was needed to hold for longer for the audience to get that sort of anxious feeling that we had hoped for. Instead tension was built then cut off to quickly for the audience to engage with the directors interpretation.