Evaluation 5

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

Evaluation 4

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

We took ideas and conventions from real media products when making our product. One example being when India holds the camera to her face while running, an idea which was inspired by The Blair Witch Project. 

Ouija shot

Blair witch project shot

 

We attempted to improve the shot from 'The Blair witch project' and adapt it to suit us and place our own style on it. We achieved this by setting this shot in an area with sufficient light but also a chilling background of trees surrounding the character. 

We used a lot of action in the start of our opening sequence with little dialogue to build a tense atmosphere, as when we watched other films the opening sequence there is usually a small amount of speech between the actors to show the tension between them. In our opening sequence we used this so that the only dialogue there is, is when India starts to panic and starts talking into the camera, portraying her emotions, this also builds the atmosphere. We also put an effect over the darkness to make the screen fuzzy and to bring out the small amount of natural light in the surrounding area. Some horror films also use this technique and we believe it suits our opening sequence very well. 

These are four frames that we have put together from our opening sequence 'Ouija' which is a thriller/horror film that we made. We filmed from various different angles to achieve the best quality and express our ideas without breaking any filming rules. We used lots of close up shots to build tension and to express the feelings of the characters without directly using words. We believe this works well as we are able to create an atmosphere of fear for the viewers simply by showing the expressions of the characters. 

Frame 1

This frame was taken from the end of the opening sequence. This title was created in final cut pro by using some of our footage from the forest. We then used a text tool over it to create the effect of the text being a small section of changing forest. We decided to use this technique as we see it to be unique from all other film titles. We have also kept a dark background to keep an atmosphere of mystery by blocking out all light colours and only allowing the viewer to see what we want them to see.

Frame 2

This frame was taken from the second half of our opening sequence with all of the teens sat around the Ouija board. In this frame we see all of the key characters surrounding the board with a background of darkness behind them. We believe that this builds tension and allows the audience to make a connection with the characters as they are not distracted by anything in the background and must place all of their concentration on the characters. We used a wide shot to include everyone into the frame and show their connection as a group.

Frame 3

This frame was also taken from the second half of our opening sequence when the teens are sat using the Ouija board. We used a mid shot here to get in all of the characters hands around the board but kept the Ouija board in the centre to keep the audiences focus on it. We also used the rule of thirds here to bring the audiences focus to the glass used on the Ouija board. 

Frame 4

This frame was taken from the start of our opening sequence and is taken from when India was talking to the camera about how scared she is. In this frame we used a close up to portray India's fear and to help build a connection between the audience and the character. This close up was used early on to set the atmosphere for the rest of the opening sequence and we believe it successfully makes the audience empathise with the character.

In conclusion we believe that we have taken and used conventional approaches to media but also developed them to create an original piece of work.

Evaluation 3

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The characters we chose to be in our opening sequence all had a particular role to play, but this role was also to represent a group or situation in society. We aimed to ensure that the characters all portrayed typical teenagers, except for one who was scared and uncertain about taking part in the Ouija board. We used plenty of mise-en-scene to represent real life scenarios; including bottles of alcohol, rugs and an Ouija board. The props helped build up the story line and the scene was then more realistic. 

As our story line was based around an Ouija board, we thought it would be best to cast teenagers in this, as they would be more likely to participate in an Ouija board. Our main target audience is also teenagers. By using teenagers aged 16-17 in our opening sequence the target audience would then be able to relate to what they are feeling.

The costumes we used were also typical to those of teenagers. With two of the boys wearing suits and all of the girls wearing jeans. To make sure India stood out at the main character she wore a typical outfit for a teenager, jeans and a cardigan. This portrayed the fact that she was still young, and didn't want to participate in the groups activities of the Ouija board. 

In the scene where India is running away from the sounds in the woods, her make up has run down her face. This gives the impression that she has been crying and panicking, as you can tell by the sound of her voice. It tells that audience that something bad will happen, or already has happened. 

Evaluation 2

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation 1

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

By enrolling on the media studies course there are many things we have learnt about the process of constructing all types of media products, from a simple preliminary task exercise to learn about continuity in a sequence, to creating the final product that is our opening sequence for 'Ouija'.

Preliminary task

Opening sequence

To film each of these we used a sony camcorder, this itself was new to us as we had never had any experience with this level of filming, with each of us only filming minor things on smart phones or webcams. With the use of a sony camcorder we were able to learn about correct framing of shots and the importance of it. The use of the light on the camera also became very useful when filming some of our dark running shots. This allowed us to film later in the day and gain a better effect from the darkness surrounding the character.

Sony camcorder

Tripod

Strengths of using the camera equipment that we had were that with the tripod we were able to film shots that were steady and not wobbling all over the place. This improved the quality of our film by a significant amount, making it look much less amateur and so nothing distracts the audience from the narrative, as a wobbly camera may remove focus from the plot.

However, there were plenty of problems with using this equipment too. As we were filming in the forest we struggled to get the tripod to stand correctly on the uneven ground, so as a result we had to keep re-adjusting the legs of the tripod. We also struggled with filming in the dark as the light from the camera was inadequate for most of the shots but offered some support. To create better lighting in some of our shots, we used flash lights at a distance to provide a good amount of light without being obvious.

To edit all of our footage we used final cut pro. We learnt from the very start of the media studies course how to edit footage as well as great effects and video transitions such as fading in, altering the lighting, overlapping sequences, avoiding jumps and blurring the motion. As the course proceeded we improved on all these skills, gaining the ability to edit our opening sequence and add in necessary lighting effects to create a better atmosphere to our opening sequence. Using the apple macs, we learnt ho to import footage from the camera and work on several projects at once.

All this technology helped us to build our knowledge and we learnt a significant amount throughout the process about creating and editing film. We were able to see the effect of storyboards and how when on location it is difficult to execute some shots the way we intended, provoking improvisation. However we learned after that we are also able to manipulate our raw footage to suit us further with effects. For example when we realised that our footage was too dark we used the balance colour tool to make the shot lighter and more viewable.