The Woods - commentry.

This is our running commentary for our film 'The Woods'. In this we talk about our production, institution (MJC) and how we linked up with JAK Productions to create a synergy and allowed us to get the money to be able to produce and distribute our film. We talk about the variation of shots and say which is our favourites. We also tell you about the special effects we use and how each shot makes the audience feel (mostly feel scared) and how it conforms to usual Horror films.

Evaluation 5.

 

We have added notes to our final film 'The Woods' to show people what the effect was meant to create within the audience and tell them how it conforms to
horror films. We also say which horror films some of our shots links to and how the mise-en-scene, camera work and editing all links into certain films (where we got some ideas from).

Evaluation 6 - Equipment.

The picture we have taken to the side is of the equipment we have used throughout our production. We have used Kodak 900 to enable us to take the underwater shoot, this was a great special effect that we used within our film as people are constantly amazed with how we filmed it and said it was one of the main best parts of our film as it created suspense with the diagetic sound that the movement of the water created and made a good effect on the audince. We also used Cannon 9000, this was a great feature in our film becasue it mean we were able to get the out of focus shot turning into focus for our establishing shot, it also meant we were able to focus on the water when we filmed the tap in the bathroom. This meant it showed our techniques with the camera and allowed us to create a better effect within the audince and make them feel like they are watching something proffesional. We also used the phone that i am holding in the picture. This allowed us to create video diaries throughout the film which is a good marketing campaign becasue it allows our audince to see what we are doing and find out certain bits of the film without ruining what happens. It also gives of some enigmas as we didn't show what the antagonmist fully looked like in our diary which made our audince intruged and want to watch it even more.

Evaluation 7 Preliminary task compared to Final film.

Preliminary task compared to my final piece "The Woods"

 

When we were first set to do our preliminary task, i did not know much about different types of shots and editing processes however, we were told to include the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot reverse shot. These are all the key shots to make your film flow naturally and keep the audience intreuged into watching the film. We included close ups, extreme close ups, over shoulder shot, low angle shot and high angle shot all in our preliminary task. When we showed two people talking in our preliminary task we made sure we stuck to the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. This made sure the characters did not look like they are talking to themselves and makes it seem professional. We found match on action quite difficult when we were filming our  preliminary task as we found it hard to make sure we made the character stay in the same position to make sure the shot flowed and didn't jump from one to the other. This meant we had to take

a few shots at once to make sure we chose the best ones when we came to editing all the different shots. We weren't too sure at first how to work the editing software however we quickly were able to get used to it and make sure we use it to the best of our ability.  For our final film 'The Woods' we were able to use the techniques we had learned from our preliminary task and other techniques that we had researched to enable our film to be the best that we could do. We added more shots like, high angle, POV shot, underwater shot, low angle shot, close ups and many more. This made our film look very professional and allowed our film to flow well. Although we did not get a chance to use the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot as we focused on only having one character the whole way through the opening two minutes apart from the end where the antagonist come in; this meant we were unable to show this skill through a conversation that we would on had if we put another character in and had a script in the film. When it came to editing our final film, we found it a lot easier than we did when we were filming our preliminary task, this is because we had researched different techniques that you can use on Adobe to make our work as good as we can make it. The diegetic and non-diegetic sound that we used in our final film also made the shots look a lot better as they linked into one another and made the shots seem more extreme than they would without the sound or music in the background. We have also used match on action in our final film, although we were able to do it better from our preliminary task. We did this by making sure we made the camera very steady and making sure we kept the character I the same place and position so it flows and links the shots together well.

 

Evaluation 8 - Next project.

For my next project (G324) which I will produce next year I will set myself a few targets to make sure nothing goes wrong and I keep up to date on all the wok that I get given. Next year, as we will be making a Trailer and not the Opening two minutes, I feel that it will be slightly easier because you are able to give away more of the story through a trailer compared to what you are able to give away through the Opening two minutes. I feel like we will be able to get a very good Idea for our trailer because we will be able to use and exiting storyline and make it look even better than the opening two minutes that my group and I made this year.  Next year I don't think we will decide to go for a different genre other than Horror because I feel as if it is a very easy and exiting film to be able to produce. It also allows you get lots of effective shots involved within the film which makes the audience feel different emotions throughout the trailer and will allow them to be drawn into it even more. In order to make progress next year I will make sure I keep up to date on my blog, and post something each day to make sure I don't fall behind and make sure my posts stay detailed throughout the year. I will post more video diaries to  allow the marketing for our film to do even better as our fans for our film will be interested in what we do behind the scenes of our film. If I were to do anything differently this year,  I would change the time that we filmed for the part where the girl is walking through the woods. This is because as it is very bright, it does not seem that scary which can give the wrong effect that we wanted upon the audience. However, as the first time we tried to film it was too dark, meaning you couldn't see much, and the second time we filmed I felt it could have been a little darker. This means that next year, if we decide to plot our film outside, I will want to make sure we time it right to make sure the lighting is correct so that it creates the right effect and emotion on the audience. Another thing I would have done differently this year was make sure that I kept up on blog work and not push some of the activities until last minute because his meant that my storyboards didn't properly get finished until the second day of filming. This meant that we didn't have a full outline of what shots we wanted to do making the filming stage take a bit longer than it should of. However I don't think it effect our final performance as I am very pleased with how our film turned out. It just meant It was a little more time consuming than it should have been. For our filming in our next production (next year) in order to improve our film taking and making, I think we will use a tri-pod to ensure our shots are not shaky and make sure that the camera stays in focus because if it is shaking just the slightest bit the camera tends to go slightly out of focus making the shot less effective and professional. I think we will defiantly use the camera we used this time round because we found it gave clear and effective shots making our film overall extremely good just from the shots that we took, without including the angles that we put on the shots. During the editing process next time, I think I will try to include more effects and transitions to make the trailer more exiting, I think transitions will suit the trailer because we can use different techniques to make the trailer exiting and make the audience drawn in to finding out more about the film and to watching the actual film when it comes out.

Evaluation 4 - Target audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

For our film 'The Woods', we are aiming to attract teenagers from 15 years to around 25 years. This is because it is a horror genre and this age group is usually the ones that the film makes most of its money from through the distribution. They are the age group that uses hardware with multi platform devices such as smart phones. This means that the marketing campaign can target them easier as they can post things on social websites such as Twitter and Facebook where they can easily access and become interested in our film. The type of audience we will be attracting will be into a range of music from Topshop or Topman, River Island, Urban Outfitters. These are all very popular shops within the age group that we are aiming our main audience to be. The clothes that are sold in these shops are known to be 'fashionable' this shows that the people that shop here could be considered to conform to majority influence which would mean that if they know friends that go and watch our film they are more likely to watch it so they have conversations with new people allowing them to create a wider friendship group which is what teenagers are always trying to do. The types of music that our target audience would be into is the hit 'pop' music that is played on famous radio stations such as; Capital, or Kiss. They play a range of different music from pop, house, and occasionally they play some rock music such as Kings of Leon. This shows how our target audience will also be into different genres which means we would need to make sure we use the marketing campaign well so that our film stands out compared to the others. The TV programs that we would expect our target audience to be into would be things like, Friends; this is because it s relaxed  program to watch however is also funny which would allow them to relieve some stress that they would be having as they will be going through either GCSE's, A-Levels or even might be at University. Another program they might be into would be things like Ghost hunters; this is because it links and reflects into our genre 'Horror' because it is about people hunting ghosts and visiting haunted houses which would get the audience adrenaline going which gives off the same effect as our film does. Certain films that our audience will be into would be things like Insideous and Sinister and many more. This is because the age rating for them is 15. This means the teenagers will be able to go and see it. They are also very creepy and frightening films meaning, if they went to see those films, it is likely they would come and watch our film 'The Woods' because they have similar effects on the audience and although the storyline differs they all include a protagonist and antagonist which is what audiences in horror films want to see.  My target audience will be able to relate to the characters in my film because the age and interests will be very similar. This means they can relate into each others lives and creates a sense of realism into one another's life. They will be able to link into the characters situation because there is a very high chance that they would have felt scared that someone is following them even if they aren't. This means that can get the emotions they felt when they were being followed back into the film and make it feel like they have something in common with the character. We decided to set our film in a rural setting  because we thought that it came across to our audience as being a lot more creepy compared to if it was set in a urban setting because rural places are known to be a lot more deserted meaning if anything went wring within the film (which it does) no one would be round to hep. Therefore this makes the audience feel a lot more scared. It is a very conventional setting as typical horror movies use rural settings in order to create a creepy and frightened atmosphere within the audience. The setting is in the woods which means it is quite recognisable because most people who live in rural areas usually live near woods or near alleyways which can be linked into the woods. We decided to not take risks and go fro a non - conventional because we thought that whenever we watched the films ourselves we tended to get a lot more frightened whilst watching it which meant we wanted to reflect our emotions as an audience onto our own film so we wold hopefully get the same results on our audience. We wanted to appeal to a broad audience within the ages of 15 to 25-30 or anyone who is deeply into horror films, this meant that they would instantly recognise the symbolism within our production.  

Evaluation 2 - Protagonist comparason.

The picture on tye side shows the main girl (protagonist) from our film 'The Woods' and the main girl in Scary Movie. They show some similarities because both directors have used mise-en-scene to make them look innocent and vulnerable so that the audience feel sorry for her and know that she won't be able to take care of herself if something bad were to happen. The way the directors have made this effect on the audience through mise-en-scene is by using stereotypical features of people. For instance, 'Blondes' are know to be dumb and have no common sense, therefore they have chosen blonde girls for the protagonist act because it means the audience will automatically think they will not cope and deal very well in bad situations. Another way directors will use in costume to make the audience think this way is by choosing light and girly coloured clothes. This is because white, is known to be pure and innocent, therefore the girls who are wanted to be shown fr being innocent will wear white clothes. The girl in our film 'The woods' and the girl in there film 'Scary Movie' both have blonde hair, both wearing white and pure tops to relate to her being innocent and vulnerable. Another actress that conforms and subverts to the stereotypes of a female protagonist within horror films. Buffy the vampire has blonde hair which is meant to make her seem vulnerable however she is the one that saves the day. The way mise-en-scene has subverted the stereotypes of her being vulnerable is by making her wear dark makeup and dark clothes. In this picture she is wearing a black strap top which shows that she isn't innocent and vulnerable. The age of all the girls that are staring in these films (The Woods, Scary Movie, Buffy the vampire) are all late teenagers. This means that even young girls will look up to them as when you are little you always want to be older. This means that our product represents social groups by mise-en-scene as we have made sure that teenagers will be interested as we have made the main protagonist within the teenage social group meaning the audience we attract will be mostly teenagers.