Audience feedback

Evaluation question 7

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

Evaluation question 7 from Matt Lloyd

Evaluation question 6

Evaluation question 5

How did you attract/ address your audience?

My film holds the audience’s attention due to the fact that it is a very simple premise for a film and it seemingly has never been done before in another film, only such films are similar but not the same as seen in Scream as well as the Blair witch project. The audiences attention is held throughout the entirety of the opening sequence, due to the fact that from the beginning of the sequence we hear a suspense building non diagetic soundtrack, this is used up until the group start to talk and is resumed right after they start to walk away. It is effective, due to the fact that it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and lets them know that something is happening right from the very beginning, making them stay on to watch the rest of it, in order to find out what that may be. We also didn’t identify the characters by name and decided to let them do that over the course of the conversations in order to let the audience piece together the information surrounding each character. To further attract people to our film we had an enigma at the start with the use of a typewriter sound effect, compiled with the text that is our title. This makes it seem as if someone is telling the story and or recalling events, so it leaves the enigma of who is doing so and why they might be doing it, further engrossing audiences into the film.

Many horror films start off in the stereotypical way, a group of teenagers doing something in an abandoned area. We got this idea from the target audience as we did a questionnaire on this and decided that it would attract more people if it was set in the woods as that what was seen on the questionnaire results. We challenged the stereotypical gender conventions by having Alice seen on screen as more boyish and less as a proppian princess who needs saving, while we see the main males as somewhat moronic and helpless which shows that the roles have reversed and the fact that Alice is the protagonist makes it push the boundaries and go into new depths with horror films. Another method of attraction that we did, was making the actors/ actresses similar ages to the target audience in order to create a rapport between the two making it more engaging for a younger audience.

During the planning stage we had a focus group, where we asked a select from the target audience about our film idea and they gave us critiques and ideas that we could have put in our film and we decided that it would be best to reach a wider  target audience by adding some of their ideas to our film.

I think overall we could have improved upon the fact that the start is a bit slow with the longer shot lengths and if we were to do it again, I would go back and change the length of them, in order to make it faster pace from the very start in order to keep the audience hooked from the beginning as it seemed to run a little slower than I intended but it still worked well in building suspense.

Evaluation question 4

Evaluation question 3

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

Due to the fact that our product was created by an independent smaller production company, we would have one of the big six distributors to distribute our film due to the fact that as an independent production company we would not be capable of affording the distribution costs. I think that it would be beneficial if we distributed with Universal due to the fact that another British company, (Working Title) are also using Universal as a distributor and contractually have a £35m budget with them. It would be beneficial for future projects if we had such a budget. As well as this, Universal have the largest market share in film distribution at 21.6% and in 2015 released 44 films which grossed $283.5m. This is a major distribution company, so may make a wider audience view it and watch it due to their wide fan base of their films.

We would also distribute it on DVD and Blu-ray with a delayed release on such Films streaming sites as Netflix and Amazon Prime video. Having it released on DVD and Blu Ray will give a wider platform for people to view it on as well as gaining a larger amount of income as home entertainment is a massive part of distribution as people want to watch films in the comfort of their own homes.

 Upon release the Universal logo/ animation would appear at the start of the film in order to recognise it as Universal pictures. It could be advertised on YouTube as well as the fact that Twitter could gain a wider audience due to the vast amount of people of our target audience, using that as a major platform so it would be a smart idea to place the film/ trailer there. The benefits of using a British company is the fact that it will get the name out of our company which will most likely be EON production for production, due to the fact that it had major successes with the Bond franchise and it would further advertise it due to the associations with the successful production company, more people would want to watch it as it in partnership with the company that made the Bond films. It would also be useful, due to the fact that the BFI would give a grant of money due to our company being the majority of British so it would get a large sum of money for further distribution with the amount of money given.

We would distribute our film in 3D as well as 2D due to the fact that Universal have the funding to be able to do both of these. We would put it in 3D due to the fact that the main two genres that use it are horror and action, due to the fact that it makes it seem like a more immersive experience, which will overall attract a wider audience to watch the film.

As well as this, Universal have been credited as being a successful distributor with it being a household name which funds majorly successful films. There are many successful films by Universal, some of them being Jurassic World as well as Fast and Furious 7. They have also had experience with horror films as they distributed Psycho II as well as The Watchers which are both credited horror films.

Evaluation question 2

 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The product features: middle class, white males who are portrayed as dim witted as well as useless in social situations, this is seen when Alice asks Callum for the fake blood and the tripod as he seems lost for words as well as rather slow/ forgetful, as well as this, all 3 males within the product are seen as inferior to Alice which breaks a stereotype. This is not stereotypical due to the fact that in many media texts we see them being the key protagonist as well as more powerful than any other representation, so we challenged this by having them as the background characters to a more intellectual female lead which breaks conventions, but also represents women in a more positive light, where in other horror films, they are secondary characters.

 Our media product overall represents particular social groups in both a positive and negative way. This is see with the men within it who are seen being rather intellectually incapable as well as on the contrary being independent as seen with Alfie being left on his own to be independent. Alice is a white, middle class female who is represented well through The Final Girl theory as she is seen as asserting dominance from the very start as well as being more intellectual than the males by having more dialogue and having further character development compared to her male counterparts who aren’t given the dialogue, making her seem more powerful as well as smart. We put the audience in a position where they felt sympathy for the males in the film as they seem to be secondary characters which do as they’re told and the feelings towards Alice being one of trust as well as safety due to her being of a stronger and more confident nature as the character. We based the representation upon the main protagonist in Split due to the fact that she is seen as strong and independent and it represents her in a positive way. We built the representation of Alice by having her character have more confident and forward body movements, this represents her eagerness and she was seen as more dominant in her movements.

We used a normal style of clothing for the characters which is worn by a middle class person, this presents them as stylish as well as linked in socially. We can see this through the up to date fashion style of the characters which also makes them seem like they are popular as there are more than 3 of them and they all seem to get along quite well which gives the representation of the middle class as happy and seemingly socially content. This can be challenged as the murderer could make it seem as though the middle class lifestyle is dangerous, which challenges normal representations of the class.

Evaluation question 1

Cast feedback

"I really liked the fact that you edited the "recording" box when the video was taken from the murderer's point of view and the fluency of the shots, especially when you pointed where you were pointing to where the characters needed to go, i think that it's really good editing and develops a sense of excitement and anticipation for the viewer"- Alice Buckton-Perkins

"The editing was intelligent and well done, with a clear sense of style being shown via the directors input. Each shot was clearly crafted to look the way it does and the music is used at the perfect times., evoking feelings of panic, stress and oxymoronically claustrophobic which creates antithesis with the idea of being in a vast forest yet feeling like there is nowhere to run. The use of multiple different camera angles helps to back this idea up with the many close ups of actors and the aftermath of the murderer, and yet they are balanced perfectly with long shots and other shot types that give the impression that the group of young film makers are being watched. The only criticism that i would have is the continuity errors when matching up shots, for example different levels of background noise and the position of the actors, various props and surroundings between takes."-Alfie Bryce-Clegg

Audience feedback

"I thought that the opening sequence was very entertaining and gripping. I really liked the use of different camera angles and the effect that it had on the sequence. I thought the best bit was the close up of the blood dripping from the tree and the clips of the characters walking towards the scene of the murder in between each blood drop and the tension that it created. I could easily tell it was a horror film from the soundtrack and the eerie camera angles such as looking down from up on a tree, following behind  and through a gap in a tree creating the sense that the characters are being watched."- Dan Campin

" I like the way it's filmed mainly using a hand held camera because it makes the viewer feel in the action. The use of lots of different angles (especially those taken from above) makes the characters seem more vulnerable which is good. You can tell it is a horror film because of the music used, use of what i mentioned (Handheld camera and lots of angles) and how the shots are quite short to build tension. Also, the use of blood shocks the viewer and is a telltale sign that the film is horror."- Joseph Cardoza

"I think the sequence is really effective and leaves you feeling suspenseful and is effective because it makes me want to watch on and find out what happens. I really liked the creative shots and felt the music really fits well and makes us feel tense"-Leah Robinson

Final opening sequence

Editing session 6

I tweaked some of the smaller final audio problems. I removed the typewriter sound from the all credits throughout the video due to the fact that it messed with the audio levels of the dialogue so it would have been best if it had gone. As well as this, the heartbeat sound effect was too loud, so i had to try and find the perfect pitch for that as if it was too loud it would overpower the entire scene, but if it was too quiet the audience wouldn't understand the significance of it. I began to change the titles at the start of video in order to let the audience know what the purpose of the group being in the forest was as before that, there was no indication so i added an edit upon the text so it looked like it was being typed, i then added "Based on a true story" but there was still some more work to do on that. The music was too loud in the wrong parts so i had to lower the pitch as well as build up the music to the crescendo which was when Alice touched the blood so i made it fade out and then build back up until the final bit of Alice actually touching the blood, then it goes to silence

Editing session 5

We seemed to overall have a problem with the sound, due to the fact that it was silent for the entirety of the opening sequence. Me and Ewan sifted through different types of music that we thought would fit in with the idea of our film and i cut them down and started to put them into a place that would build suspense at the very start and when the group starts to come back. I bladed the clips and broke them up into the two parts and it spanned out for over a  minute in length. As well as this, as a group, we weren't fully done with the first credit scene with the text and i wasn't happy with the current font that was used so me and Ewan looked for a different one, where i pointed out the older looking typewrier styled writing, Ewan put it in and then had a look for a sound effect that could accompany this and i found the perfect one and me and Ewan both agreed on that. I inserted it into the video and it worked perfectly, first time with the editing to fit with the letters being put on screen and we attempted to do this for the rest of the credits. As well as this, i had the idea for a heart beat sound to be used when the blood is on screen, so Ewan and i put it in there just loud enough to hear over the soundtrack.

Editing session 4

I had the problem with the only medium shot of the audio, due to the fact that the audio was slightly muffled as well as the fact that the colour contrast was too great and lacked continuity, so i used the colour correction effect to change the contrast in colours and messed around with the contrasts in order to make it work and to an extent made it flow with good continuity. I also changed the audio of this shot, due to the fact that i used the enhance edit on it, in order to hear the dialogue clearer and remove some of the ambient sound which slowly was dominating the shot. As well as this, i added a very short shot of myself and Alice walking between two medium shots in order to add a variety of diverse shot types so that it looked more professional. As well as this, we still had a problem with the length of the clip, due to the fact that the entire thing was too long so i shortened some of my shots in order to save a few seconds. The problem with this was the fact that it shortened the audio which made it seem like characters were interrupting each other so i had to make it so that it was just long enough to make it flow as a conversation but short enough to cut the length of it down.

Editing session 2/3

In the second editing session i pieced together the dialogue and as a group we decided that the shots were too short and that we hadn't included the 90 degree rule, but we had come too far and there was no time for a reshoot so we had to go along with what we had. As well as this i attempted to put together the first few shots of my 30 seconds. I had to try and include a sound bridge by combining my own dialogue and had to spend a few minutes trying to get the continuity errors out of my shots. In the third editing session i removed any of the problems that i had with sound bridges due to the fact that the way that they had been pieced together, it left a large margin for error with their placement and length, leaving many shots overlapping and audio being cut out. In this session i removed the problems with these and removed any audio cutting. I also included a medium shot of the group, which was previously not in there, which caused problems due to the fact that the entirety of the dialogue was made up by close ups which had little continuity as well as showing little skill so i attempted to include that, the problems with that were that the audio was muffled and it didn't show continuity so i tried to change the audio to try and make it clearer. As well as this, i used a black screen into a 'fade to colour' well when Alfie put the bag down in order to get the black from the bag effectively, due to the fact that a previous problem that we had was that when he put the bag down it didn't go fully black on the screen, which we had hoped, so i put the black screen and 'fade to colour' to solve this problem. To try and make it within the two  minute boundary i had to shorten quite a lot of shots to try and make it go from 2:40 to 2;23.

Filming Journal 1

On the first day of shooting, we tried to get quite a few long shots and these didn't seem to work with our final editing so we had to cut them. We had a good idea  of the shots that we needed, yet we seemed to get through them too quickly and realised that it wouldn't take up the full 2 minutes.I directed the walking scenes and laid out for the actors a direct route for us to walk down by taking them through it on some practise runs of it in order to get them up to date as well as this on our first few attempts i told the actors and actresses the tone in which they should speak their lines. As well as this me and Ewan had a clash of ideas as he said that it would be beneficial for us to have a long shot. Me and Callum conversed about the flow of  the dialogue and how we could make the group seem in more cohesion  

Editing Session 1

In the first session we put on the first set of clips. Once we had done that we had the realization that the establishing shot took up 1/4 of our time so we had to change them to jump cuts in order to cut the timing down drastically for those shots. I edited the first few shots and attempted to piece the pan and dolly shot but it seemingly didn't flow too well. As a group, we realized that we didn't have enough shots for the first few scenes so we had to go back and re-film some of the crucial shots so that the opening sequence would flow. We decided to add an edit where Alfie put the bag over the camera and it cut to a black screen. Due to us having a lack of shots for the first scene, we moved on to this dialogue in order to get something done while having less shots than before. We need to edit the new shots down into the 2 minute time slot and do 30 seconds each. We used the splice tool to cut the first few shots down and worked to attempt to make it work but it proved to be a challenge for us. Me, Scott and Callum acted as advisors to Ewan's first few shots and we talked through what he did as a group and then he went a pieced the shots together.

Filming Journal 2

When we arrived, the crew (Myself, Callum, Ewan and Scott) had a short meeting where we discussed what angles would be better for the first few shots and i brought up the problem that . I thought that it would be a good idea for Ewan to do a medium follow shot from a side angle through the brush. I was stood with the other actors and actresses and told them what they had to do vocally, the movements that they had to do as well as the direction of actions. We had to do the first establishing shot multiple times for different angles and me and Callum told Alfie and Alice where to look and the tone of voice needed. As the shoot went on, i acted as a director to some of the more complex shots and me and Ewan talked about our different ideas for certain shots and in the end worked it out as to what we should do. After every shot, i would go back to Ewan/Scott with Callum and we would look at the shot and overall decide whether it needed re filming. I filmed over 20 extreme close ups of blood dripping to attempt to capture the necessary emotions from Alice as the blood poured down the side of the tree, due to the fact that it was a zoom transitioning into a short pan. I had to reshoot due to the fact that it was shaky in the first few and the audio was poor in a few others and i felt that we had to get it right for the ending. As well as this i filmed the close up of Callum and Alfie talking, this was filmed over the course of 10 shots which was narrowed down to 4 after Callum and i reviewed the clips afterwards. I also filmed the  As me and Callum were with the actors we worked especially with them to try and adapt and make the character specialised to them by adding their own feelings and tones into these characters. Me and Ewan decided that it would be beneficial for us to use a POV shot when we had the dialogue to give a false sense of security through power. When it came to setting up the mise en scene for this shot, we had to make it flow due to the continuity of the previous shot so we had to place the characters reasonably close together and we had to direct their movement in order to achieve this. At the start of the group walking in me and Callum told Alice and Alfie to start improvised speech in order to make it seem more realistic through their conversation even though it wasn't heard, it was their mouths moving as well as their body actions. We had to wait for the rain to stop and this caused it to rain heavily, we had to work around this in order to make it seem like it was shot over the course of one day.

Updated script

I rewrote the script for the re-shoot and changed it to fit the new ideas and theories that we wanted to test.

*Walking to the location*

Alfie: How much further is it?
Alice: Shut up... stop whining we have been walking for 5 minutes
Alfie: Yeah I know but my legs are tired
Alice: Should start exercising then
Alfie: Why would I do that- 
Matt: It's just up here watch out for the mud 

*On location*

Matt: We will be filming here, here and here we just need to set up 

<Group agrees through certain grunts and words>

Alfie: What I think we should do is *places bag over the camera*

*Setting up* 

Alice: Matt pass me the fake blood

Matt: I thought Callum had it...

Callum: Erm I may have left it in my other bag

Alfie: Well wheres the other bag? 

Callum: In the car...

Alfie: *Gets angered* 

Callum: Calm down i'll just go get it

Alice: I need to get the tripod and camera, Matt give me a hand

Matt: Alright

Alfie: Don't leave me to set up on my own...

Alice: What... Are you scared? *Joking*

Alfie: No... I'm not scared of anything

Alice: Yeah whatever you say big man. Alright let's go guys

Schedule for filming