Podcast Evaluation;

An evaluation on how me and my group worked.

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

Our film has tried to challenge the horror genre with the use of lighting which is rarely used within a horror film. We have also used a bit of thriller in the start to with the mystery of who killed Nicholas. We also challenged conventions by not using the usual red/blacks and other dark colours on credits. We used bright bold colours that stand out, this goes against the normal horrors opening sequence conventions. People may also think it was a Romantic Comedy because of the scenes where Nicholas and Jennifer are talking. At the start of the film all the characters are introduced so you know that one of them has killed Nicholas and then the story unfolds from then on. We have chosen to keep certain conventions of the genre such as, murder, red (danger), bad guy and blood. We have also got a good soundtrack at the start which builds up well to the action but is no the usual instrumental classic music normally used within horror films. The camerawork used as well is pretty simple and quite effective as we have choose to use easy shots to help keep the film going


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

In our media piece it is about a college class. So there are all different types of students within the class, like bully's, popular, geeks and the normal ones. It also shows the normal issues that may or will occur when at college like bullying and romance.


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

If we were to use an American film company then we would use Twisted Pictures because they have produced all 6 of The Saw films and are making a 7th now. They are a successful horror production industry.
Because our film is based on the normal British college students it would be best if a British film company was to make our film.
British National Studios or Pinewood make our film as they are very big in helping make British films great. Also for British is Film 4 or BBC because they produce a lot independent films. Other companies such as Pathe and Paramount as they are quite big on the horror genre.


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

From our questionnaire we have found out that people aged 15-18 would watch our film or maybe older people too because or film is a certificate of 15 no one under the age of 15 can watch or buy or film.
This helps the audience relate to our characters cause they are both of the same age. Oir ideal audience would be 15-25.


5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

When attracting our audience we had to think about the most common conventions of the horror genre as we had to make the audience want to watch the film and enjoy it. So from our questionnaire we found out what people actually wanted to see in a horror film, from using what the people who answered said, i think they will want to watch it because it is what they wanted to see.
The people in the film are of a similar age to our target audience so we hope this can go to our advantage. We are also trying to attract both genders so we hope having a mixed sex/race cast this can help.


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

First we learned how to use the tripod and camera. Setting up the camera and tripod was easy but i kept on hurting my hands on the tripod. The camera was quite straight forward to use, but there was a point in filming where we didn't know how to the get fades of so that held us up in our filming schedule.I find it easy to use the blogging website because it is better then having to hand write up all our work because it is all saved in one place and is easy to get to and edit if we need to. Final Cut Pro was the best to use. It was fun editing and trying all the new things that were available to use. I do think i hogged the computer ab it and never gave Matt and Karl a chance, but we all had our say on what happened when editing.


7. looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the finished product?

I have enjoyed working with Matt and Karl on our film because they are easy and fun to work with because we get on so well. I learned how to use the camera allot more because i filmed most of the film because Matt and Karl were the main characters in our production but they still had their say on the angles and the setting up and what to film. I feel i have become allot better at editing, because i can find and edit quicker now and i don't need to keep asking for help.
From our continuity to now i feel have become more able to work independently with my group where as before i was unsure what to do.
If i could do this work again i'm make sure that we didn't film in college because thats what held us back this time. People who said they would be in the film and that never turned up, or when we had a full cast no one would let us use a classroom to film in. It was hard trying to get all the shots done because everyone needed to be wearing the same clothes and filming over a few weeks and in 45 mintue breaks it was hard.
I feel i have have learned alot while making my film.

Editing;

After we filmed all the scenes we needed to use to make our film it was time for us to start using the editing suite and Final Cut Pro.
It was fun learning how to use the Final Cut Pro software because it was different from anything i had ever used before. I liked learning how to use it. It was fun an interesting. From editing the Star Wars piece at the start of the editing process it shows has much more we had to learn to get our final production finished.

It was hard trying to find all the work we had recorded on the DV tapes because we could never find it when we needed it. After we had put everything we needed on the computer it was easier from there because we could just concentrate on the editing.
I am proud of myself and Matt and Karl and the end result of our production. We worked really hard to get it finished.

Actors

Main Charaters;
Nicholos JT Abdul - Matt Cozens
Lynn Hartley - Kat Holden
Shelly Took - Elisha Barnett
Casey Lube - Karl Barrett
Corey Long - Jospeh Rooke
Dean Lebean - Leroy Lo
Jennifer Harte - Laura Porter

Other Charaters;
Martin McFly - Kevin Vroom
Eden Cook - Raj Ajimal
Amy Cozens - Blaise Elsmore
Luke Harris - Steven Garrett
Betty Sue - Shannon Bull
Mick Lancaster - Jack Daly

Filming;

Filming Schedule;
Monday;
12.45pm - 1.30pm

Wednesday;
1.30pm - 2.20pm

Thursday;
1.30pm - 2.30pm

Friday;
10.45am - 1.30pm


Charater List;
Nicholos JT Abdul - Matt Cozens
Lynn Hartley - Kat Holden
Mick Lancaster - Jack Daly
Jennifer Harte - Laura Porter
Martin McFly - Kevin Vroom
Eden Cook - Raj Ajimal
Casey Lube - Karl Barrett
Corey Long - Jospeh Rooke
Dean Lebean - Leroy Lo
Amy Cozens - Blaise Elsmore
Shelly Took - Elisha Barnett
Luke Harris - Steven Garrett
Betty Sue - Shannon Bull

The Pitch.

For our pitch we had to do the following;

• 4 ideas outline
• Main story outline in more detail, showing good development and discussion of events leading to final scenes
• Main character outline - you should know them as well as you know yourself. detail personality, likes, dislikes, appearance, job, etc
• Ideas for location to use.
• Rough idea of opening sequence structure.
• Discussion of how genre can be identified through the opening sequence.
  

Main Idea.

Our chosen idea was 'Idea 4'

Characters;
Lynn Hartley - Young, brown hair, medium length, hates her job, divorced, drinks alot, is new to teaching and doesn't know how to control the students.

Nicholos JT Abdul - Tall, dark, rugged, muscly, nice, charming, can have any girl he wants, very popular and is always surrounded by friends.

Mick Lancaster - Secretly gay, tall, skinny, pale, well dressed, mysterious. He is in love with Nicholos but know one knows.

Jennifer Harte - Brunette, attractive, clever, insecure. She is Nicholos' girlfriend.

Martin McFly - Fat, stumpy, stupid, loves football and girls. Is lost without Nicholos and his other friends. He follows the crowd.

Eden Cook - His short and fat and lookd like Martin. Also bestfriends with Nicholos. Fights for his attention. Has a big mouth and thinks his better then everyone elses.

Casy Lube - Nerd, quite, clever, looks like a girl, not taken seriously, wears geeky clothes and glasses, gets bullied by the class because of Nicholos.

Corey Long - Big hair and big glasses, he also looks like a girl and is never noticed. He is Casey's best friend, they are always together. He enjoys maths and solving problems.

Dean Lebean - Emo, quite, never noticed, dark and mysterious, odd, loves emo rock music. Enjoys reading about black magic.

Amy Cozens - Long blonde hair, abit of a bimbo, eye candy, stupid and dopey.

Francis Jones - Ginger, freckles, loud, idiot, loves pulling pranks with his friends.

Shelly Took - Blonde, beautiful, not as stupid as people make her out to be, Her dad is in the Army. She follows Amy around. Enjoys shopping and boys.

Luke Harris - Tall, skinny, idiot, thinks his funny by always taking the piss out of people. Thinks his amazing. Follows everyone around.

Charles Dimond - Inspector, tall, charming, good looking, good at solving problems. His married with 2 children. Loves hi job and playing golf.

Will Scarlight - Charles' sidekick, the complete opposite to Charles. He is short and fat and doesn't know what his talking about. He likes women and beer.


Main Idea in full;
Its a typical Monday morning at college for a normal bunch off students. They are waiting to go into there class but they all start arguing as they don't really get on.

The teacher Lynn Hartley turns up and she is not in the best off moods because her husband has left her. She breaks up all the fights that is going on and tells the kids to go inside the class. The decides to put a film on for the kids as she is not in the mood. The students are still not happy with each other. While the movie is being played there is a murder in the class and it is one off the most popular kids in the class Nicholas Jt Abdul. The scene end in all the class shocked and scared and a big police line going across the room.

The police are called into investigate it is young rookie Will Scarlight and his role model Charles Diamond. They take statements from all the kids and let them go home. The students are all devastated but start to head home. Two off the students are class bullies Casey Lube and Corey Long. They start talking about all the time they were bullied by Nicholas. They say there goodbyes and when Casey is walking down the road a shadow moves in the corner and we get the feeling that there is going to be another victim. The suspense is starting to build up for Casey as he keeps hearing things behind him but when he shouts out nobody is there. he carries on walking then suddenly when he turns round he says its you and then a knife comes out and stabs he though neck. The screen goes black and then it is the next day.

The next day starts with the two police officers trying to sort though all the statements and trying to discuss who is telling the truth and who is lying. Then a call comes in about a new murder in the town and it is one off the students in the class they set off to investigate. Mean while back at the college the kids are back trying to forget about the horrors off yesterday. But it all gets too much for one off the students Amy Cozens and she decides to go to the toilet. While she is in the toilet she gets her phone out and is about to call somebody till the door off the toilets creaks open it stops her in her tracks and she is waiting for this person to leave. But while she looks though her phone a knife is dropped from above her and goes though her head. Meanwhile Caseys body has been taken back to the station and the two officers headback to the college to ask more questions. They also have there first clue Nicks phone and it has texts from lynn. They were having an affair behind there partners backs.

Amys body has been discovered by one off the teachers and lynn decides too call a class meeting with her students. They all get there feeling nervous as they have found out two more kids have died. In the meeting the class starts agruging and accusing each other off the murders. The main one is luke harris who is winding everyone up and is trying to get someone to get angry and it works and one off nicholas best mates Martin Mcfly tries to punch him but eden cook stops him. Lynn makes the students walk home in twos and she tells them to keep in contact with her. When the students leave they aren't happy but agree.

When lynn starts lighting up a cigarette and then two shadows pop -up behind and she is about to tell them to go home then she is stopped when she is stabbed and is left.
This shows that there is two killers. The police turn up to arrest but they now find her dead. They need to find the students as they are in danger. On the way home all the students get a text from "lynn" to meet at the woods near the college.

They all seem non the wiser to what is going to happen. But Corey is very wary and decides to walk off when he sees the woods to try and find the coppers but luke carries on cocky as ever calling corey a loser for walking off. As he carries on into the woods he treads on a pile off leaf and falls into a bunch of spikes and he is left to bleed to death.

In the other part off the woods Mick Lancaster and Shelly Took enter the woods. They start to head towards the shed were they all used to hang out in. While they are talking Shelly trips over. When mick goes to help her up she wacks him in the face with a log.

Ideas.

Idea 1;
Business type guy, late 20s gets home after a months business trip abroad and comes back to an empty, cold, dark, desolate house (so cold he can see his own breath). Noises start to emanate from the kitchen and so he walks in (lights aren't working in kitchen) and he can see its been trashed and food from the fridge is all over the floor. He ventures up stairs to find his room light on with the television on and the shower is running. He then hears a noise coming from the landing so he runs out and looks into one of the spare rooms. Then its a close up of half his face and the landing and the stairs. The camera angle then changes to the persons point of view coming up the stairs, so the camera is wobbley to imitate movement whilst walking up the stairs and walks up behind him and wackes his round the head, but just that instant the screen goes blank and credits start. The we cut to a flash back of him leaving his house where its all warm, cosy and lit up well (complete contrast to the house at the start, but still the same house). He is leaving the house for his sister to take care of. After he leaves she locks the door and walks up stairs and turns the television on and turns the shower on. thirst getting ready she hears broken glass at the front door. Panicking, she runs into one of the spare rooms and waits till what ever it is comes up the stairs. When the thing is not on the landing she runs up to the bedroom on the top floor (convention of a horror where they run up the stairs instead of down) when the person is in one of the other rooms she manages to creep down stairs and grab a weapon to hit the thing with. She then makes her way up the stairs with it and wake the person with it and the screen goes blank once again.

Idea 2;
A boy and a girl are having an argument in a park, and the girl ends up dumping the boy. He is upset and walks off though the park and into the woods.
When he is walking he walks past some odd looking old people sitting on a bench, they are all staring at him.
Then he treads on a news paper, with the words 'INMATES ESCAPE FROM ASYLUM STAY INDOORS'
Then he walks back to the way he came to see if his ex-girlfriend is okay. Then he hears he her scream. He starts running. He runs past the bench and the people have gone. As he s running he can hear his ex-girlfriend screaming and crying, and he can hear people laughing. When he gets to her she is dead on the floor, she has been cut up. As he bends down to her he is hit over the head with a baseball bat. He then awakes in a dark room tied to a chair.

Idea 3;
Bomb hits a village in war using nuclear bombs. The radiation turns most the villagers into zombies with gas masks. They get their revenge by killing survive rs from the village by sucking their blood in true zombie style and taking their souls from their body.

Idea 4;
It starts off as an average school day, students are outside the classroom waiting to go in. They are making a lot of noise and are arguing. The teacher (Lynn Hartley) arrives to class on time at 9am. In the first shot we see all the students walking into the class room and sitting down at their desks. The teacher says they're going to watch a 10min film on the projector. The lights go out. Once the lights have been put back on, one of the characters (Nicholas JT Abdul) has been murdered by being stabbed in the next and is lying in blood on the table at the back of the class. The whole classis in shock and are being questioned by police, there is no trust among the class mates as it could of been any one of them, but then the students start dying and there are only a few students left. The story is revealled when they all get a text message from their teacher (who has been killed at this point but has not yet been found) telling them to meet up in a shed to talk about whats going on and all the weird murders that are happening at school. Then the murders are revealed to be Dean Lebean and Shelly Took after some more students have been killed.

We have chosen our 4th idea :)