Evaluation Task 4 : Who would be the audience for your media product?

Audience for our Media shoot:

Our film is dealing with the isolation of a single person in the whole world. Our main character is a teenager girl, who wakes up one morning to find out that everybody has gone except from her. But because she is a teenager that does not mean that our film is only made for teenagers. It is a general thing which could have happened to everybody in any age group but because she is still so young it increases sympathy and fear by the audience. Also the genre is more into a horror/ thriller direction which shows that our film making is not fitting for children.

The type of person, who would watch our film, is probably interested in horror, thriller and psychological films. Our story is dealing a lot with psycho effects and the natural human fear. Our audience should be interested in the miraculous incidents and supernatural happenings. The age group would probably be between 16 and 22 or maybe even older. I do not think that the preference is mainly based on girls, just because our main character is a girl, I think even the fact that the story is a bit spooky and our character is attractive, it attracts boys as well as girls, who could identify with the character. On the other hand I am not sure if there will be many youngsters who would watch a movie like that because general speaking there is not much action and the story could tempt to become boring because she is all alone all the time, just from seeing the first sequence. If there is a guaranty that there is action it might drag them in more. But actually our main aim was to keep everything very realistic and natural. We did not want to have aliens or monsters in our film so that we might have a problem with the fact that it might get boring after a while. Honestly, we have to admit that we did not really think any further, and just liked the idea of having a single person in an empty world, but we did not think about any reason or any plot or how the story could continue. The first title sequence shows that our main aim was to make the audience feel sympathy with the main character who is suddenly all alone in this world. But apart from that we did not have any other plans. But because we wanted to stay quite natural and realistic the type of audience that we could drag in is probably interested in other horror/ thriller film like ‘28 days later’ or ‘the day after tomorrow ‘as well.  

Our audience should be also interested in creepy and weird experimental things. The music is almost not noticeable but is creating an uncomfortable feeling. It is more the modern, experimental type, almost like in ‘Shining’ but not as obvious as it was there, but still some people have got problems to accept this kind of music.  

• Main theme – isolation
• Most audiences could identify with this
• British teenage girl lead

    

Evaluation Task 3 : What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

There is an institution that is called Vertigo  and they are based on low budget projects but they are aiming for a Hollywood standard and try to make their movies look as well made as for example Warner Brothers. They try to get the best actors they can afford with their budget and they try to make the best special effects they can do by doing everything themselves. If you look at ‘Monsters’ made by Gareth Edwards, who did everything on his own; script writing, directing and edition, you cannot see that this is a low budget production. The film was done with pretty much nothing, but the final result looked almost like a Hollywood production. Vertigo films are aiming for a high concept with a low budget. I think that out first sequence that we shot would be aiming in the same direction. We do not need a very high budget to make our film look seeable and effective. Also we do not need many special effects or expensive props or stands. The things that we would need to make our film are very simple and cheap. But never the less we are aiming for an international audience and want to make our film looks as good as Hollywood standard. Our institution would be therefore Vertigo Films.    

Our film product is a not a Hollywood production and we do not need a lot of money to realize our film. Therefore it is a low budget production with a high concept. All we basically need are a couple of actors and empty streets or places which are easy to find, so we do need to spend lots of money in creating a whole studio city.  Also we are not dependent on famous and well-known actors.  But because we do not need a lot of special equipment our film does not have to look like a low budget production. The modern technology made it possible to make simple places look scary (or whatever).   We have a high concept with low budget.

Evaluation Task 2 : How does your product represent particular social groups?

Our project should be a particular for an age group from 16 up to 24. This is depending on our actress who is quite young and the audience group that we are looking for can sympathize more easily with someone who is in the same age range like themselves. If we would have picked another actor with another sex or age, then the whole case of social audience groups would have changed. Our film is not particular an action film and therefor it is not a typical boys’ movie but on the other hand it is also not really a girls’ film. Our genre is going more into the mystical, thriller until horror league, which offers a large variety of audience members. Youngsters can imagine being in the same situation like our main actress with more facility.

Our actress is a representation of a middleclass teenager who had grown up in a peaceful environment and without any pressure. So therefore the negative effect that this could have on our film piece is that the audience from the working class would not be so interested in themes like that, because it is harder for them to sympathize with the person, her background and behaviour.

Evaluation Task 1 : In what ways does your media product use,develop or challange forms conventions of real media products?

The media product that we wanted to produce was aiming to adapt a professional status. It is quite unreachable in our working experience level right now because we do not have much experience and it was our first real shoot we ever did. Therefore it was clear that our first film experience will not look like Hollywood block basters. But never the less we were aiming for something that can be taken more seriously and professional. Films like ‘I am legend’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da0g7zui0S4) were a good inspiration source for us but even though we looked at some similar film pieces; we tried to create something very unique and new.  In general it is not easy to make up something that is completely new because there are too many ideas that are similar and already on the market.

Differently like in some opening scenes of proper movies, we decided not to have an animated opening trailer, which introduces all the actors and contributors. Because of our simple structured story with just one main actor we do not need to introduce a whole cast in the beginning because that would destroy the illusion of the film and would take away the plot. In our case it is better not to let the audience know what is going to happen and leave them in the belief that there is really just one actor and no one else.  It takes away the excitement and curiosity. Some films even show their actors in the beginning and have a short sequence or a cartoon of them in the beginning, but because we only have one actor we wanted to let the audience find out who she is. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcRr-Fb5xQo) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYHw_h1YdkA&feature=related)

The only challenge that we had with our credits on the opening was where to place it and in which colour tone and which writing style. It is important to make the clear to see and readable but at the same time not distracting for the audience because their main attention should be happening on the happening and not on the cooperators.