KM - Evaluation Question Four

Who would be the audience for you media product?

Scream Queen

Our production would be given a BBFC rating of 15+ and the core age range for our target audience would be approximatley 15- 24 with the majority of horror and slasher films in this rating. As even if the film is an 18 rating it is certain that under 18's will watch the film. Also people older than 24 out of the target audience will watch the film too, so I would need to ask both male and female's for their feedback on what they would expect to see in a slasher, which they have seen and enjoyed previously, and how we could improve ours.

The target audience for our film opening was between the ages of 15-24 both sexes to widen the audience because we thought we would be able to appeal to both sexes due to the storyline. Females because of the feminist spin on the genre and males because of the killers features and males tend to be more attracted to horrors in general because they love the gore and the element of male gaze as there is always a blonde busty female in them althought teens all together are the main viewers of horror and slasher films the secondary audience. Someone who wasn't in the target audeince may also want to watch the film because of intertexual links such as if we'd of had our Scream Queen as the typical blond, 'busty', 'slutty' type.

We went for the 15 rating on our production because we knew if had gone for an eighteen we would of had to of used more explicit images and language which we wernt confortable with using linked with school also we couldn't put our rating at a twelve because of the violence used and include explicit language.

KM - Evaluation Question Five

How did you attract/address your audience?

For our audience feedback, I have asked both male and female for what they thought about all three rough cuts of our film. All titled 'No Hiding Place', but gradually as we carried on asking their ideas, and what they thought could be improved. We asked teenagers, between the target age, this was because if we were going to actually distribute the film we would like to make sure people would see if it and be interested.



Untitled from katie mallows on
href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo.



The Girls we asked above includes, one of the actors, and three other girls who I had picked at random, some may say I have been gender bias for the feedback, but because my media product includes only one boy but two girls, I would like to check and and see if I was including and portraying the female characters in the right way.


Seen as we could not complete the whole product and had to narrow it down to two minutes, we would include and focus more on the sound, to create tension, and also take on more of the audience feedback and ask a lot more of a variety of age ranges seen as I have only asked the girls between the ages of 16-17, so I would spread the age range to 19-24.

KM - Evaluation Question Seven

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

When completing our Preliminary task, we were asked to create a film with no budget while maintaining a sense of realism, which i have found very hard. This is due to the fact we have basically no budget, so if we were to have a budget, there would be vast improvements in the locations, cast, and there would a variety of added shots, that would come across as better quality.

Also we have learnt the rule of shot reverse shot which we challenged in the preliminary task, and now understanding the idea of it, without using this method the text wont make sense because it doesn't look as if the two participants are sat facing each other.

We were also taught that there is an effective way to show binary opposition of two characters which is something we never had time to show in our coursework, but if we were to develop our media product further then this may be something we would progress and work on.

Semiotic terms I have learnt :
Signifier - A detail we pick out of a text that the audience sees has a significant meaning E.G. a blonde busty woman is a signifier of your typical 'Scream Queen'
Denotation - A description of what you can see or hear e.g. we can denote from the high pitched scream that a female is being killed or a false scare has occured.
Connotation - What is signifier carries a specific meaning.
Binary opposition - Two opposite characters shown in a text together which can be shown in shot reverse shot for example a scream queen and a final girl an example of this in a text would be in James Bond, Casino Royale.
Polysemic - An idea given that carries many possible meanings although thepreferred reading was intended by the producers although an audience may not take it in and instead go for a meaning close to this (contested reading) or the opposite of what the producers wanted to signify (oppositional reading) 
Commutation test - Changing a key item on scream e.g a character clothing choice to see if there is a significant change to the audience reaction for example if James Bond wore a Pink bikini on an advertising poster or billboard it would change the who genre interpretation of the text from an action film to a Gay film.
Narrative enigma - A hidden element within a text to add an element of mystery used to engage the audience or hide a killer in Horror genre films as we did so in 'No Hiding Place'.
Intertextuality - Meanings from another text being tied into a newer one to show a similar meaning or imply the same thing will happen again. 
Verisimilitude - Creating and achieving a sense of realism by what you apply to a text on screen and example of this would be Amber's birthday, Cards, cake and diagetic sound was used.



Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.


We have included our very first film to show how far we have progressed through shots, camera angles, casting, and the storyline itself.

KM - Evaluation Question Six

What Have You Learn't About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

From the very beginning, the basics have always become more advanced, for example turning a camera on and to be able to shoot a product based on genre, storyline and for it to actually make sense, does take alot of preparation but the outcomes great if you know how to use the programs available to you.

Apple mac computers had the variety of softwares we used to complete our two minute product. These incuded iMovie, LiveType and many more. IMovie was the main and most involved application that we used on the mac, it helped us edit clips, uploading the footage, adding transitions and sound effects as well as the soundtrack itself. Once you know what to click at the right time, the software is automatically a very simple friendly way to creating a product.

Blogging was the main source, when it came to research and planning, so we added posts, followed other blog's to look at existing work etc. Also we watched films based on our genre, or key ideas, so this also was included towards adding new posts on our blogs, to explain what we saw and if it effected our product through other ideas, cast, mise en scene etc.

For further research on specific genres, films, working titles, or even actors, IMDB, YouTube and  Wikipedia, were the obvious, mosty used sites for this kind of information.

GarageBand logo

Watching a Horror/Slasher, we can all agree that the more intense the music, the more predictive it makes out that someone is going to get killed or a false scare may occur, so the soundtrack played an important part for our media production. Our final girl, gives the impression to the audience that she is traumatized by her best friends death, so she starts to show the obvious symptons of Schizophrenia. This may become obvious to the audience when the 'bedroom scene' takes place, hearing a small childs laughter, we used this because part of our main theme is 'clowns', we associated that with clowns at childrens birthday parties, and enjoyment, but also included it because with the slow echo effect it makes out that it is in her head. At the beginning of the two minutes a slow-like heartbeat backs the footage, this is too include tension and we then repeat this 'heartbeat' during the 'bedroom' scene. To create our own heartbeat noise, GarageBand is great for that, with its wide variety of instruments, music typing, and varied pitch noises, you should get the right sound for your product.

To conclude, the softwares, and resources we had available to us we used well, and now have opened up ideas to improve on using the applications for further use, into our future media products. Personally I feel, as a group, myself and Ellie, could have widened our resources, into research and gained more for our film, but this is useful to know now for future products.

Audience Feedback On The Second Rough Cut

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

Our Second Rough Cut

Untitled from katie mallows on Vimeo.

BBFC - Rating Criteria For Our Film

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2

 We have rated our film as a 15, below is the criteria given by the BBFC for a 15 rating. 


No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work. 
Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
For the Horror side : Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised, Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. 
The language used can be frequent use of strong language.


The acceptable use of  violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. 
However The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.