Question 2-

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


My media product mainly represents the vulnerability of young teenagers/adults, because it is based on a group of teenage friends who go on a camping trip together, but then everything takes a turn for the worst!


I think that because me and my group are of a teen age we found that this is an easy group to target because we are aware of what teenagers want nowadays.

Props

The props we used were a mask similar to this one:

The Music

The music used was music we found on Freeplaymusic.com

Music we used:

• Demented Dreams - this is the music used at the start, at scene number 1
• Domestic Disturbance - this was used from numbers 5 - 7

Samples of these tracks can be found on the links below:

http://freeplaymusic.com/search/keyword_search.php (Demented Dreams)
http://freeplaymusic.com/search/keyword_search.php (Domestic Disturbance)

This is an image of our Story board for our film opening:

There wasnt really much of a script in our story board because there are no dialogue parts.

Technology

The video camera we used:

This is a Panasonic NV GS500 mini-DV video camera

An example of the tripod we used:

This is a Sony VCTR640.

We also used mobile phone to communicate to each other throughout the film making process:

For example:

We have also used Adobe CS3, specifically Photoshop and Premier Pro to edit our film opening.


The computers used were Apple iMac:

Typical Audience Member

This is Harry. Harry is 17 years old and lives at home with his Mum, Dad, Little sister Charlotte and his little puppy called Bruce. Harry is your average teenage boy, he likes to go out with his friends. His favourite hobbies include hanging out with his band mates, going bowling, shopping and especially going to the cinema to catch the latest releases! Harry enjoys movies that captivate the audience soon into the movie, he enjoys movies that keep the audience guessing and take a turn at the end for example Fight Club and Inception are a couple of his favourites.

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Previous research on film openings:
One film opening that inspired me and my group to make a horror/thriller type movie as Wrong Turn



This inspired us for the theme of our movie, because it has eary music which creates a sense of mystery and danger, it also has an establishing shot over woods which makes the audience aware that this movie is set in a forest.

All the forms and conventions that are in this film include the titles, like the actors and the directors and producers. Most of these are featured in our film 'INVIDIA' in our film opening we make the audience aware that someone is in danger by the fast paced camera shots of a person running away from something.

Construction Issues

The filming issues, problems and solutions we had are as follows:

The first filming issue we came across was that with the first part of our film opening being in Wickenby woods we had to try and gather all the cast and crew members there, but this was not possible so to solve this issue we had to finish the filming in Willingham Woods, but when we got to willingham woods we lost some filming time because we realised that we had to get permission from the forestry commissioners office which we did get in the end. This means that we had to send off all footage that we got that day.

Location skills, featuring camera, tripod, actors ect:
Finding the best location for our filming wasn't difficult because we live in the countryside, therefore we knew we would have a wide access to forests so we decided to produce a film in a wood would be suitable.

Editing issues and solutions:

During the editing stages of our film making we noticed there were some clicking noises created by the tripod at one point. So we told our teacher and he told us how to remove the clicking noises so that problem was easily solved. 

Music issues:

Becuase we used two different types of music we had to think of a way to make a smooth change between the two without a massive jump we did this by fading out one and a zoom in to the villains face with a quick scene change:

Titling issues:

The main issues with the titles was getting the whispering in the background to match with the words at the right times.

Timing issues:

The main timing issue was finding the right days to film where everyone was available to shoot the different parts. For instance at the beginning pan of the movie during the title scene me and Gemma filmed that part because Megan was unavailable. The weather was also a big issue as far as timing was concerned because with it being the middle of winter and in England, the weather was very unpredictable.

Weather/ illness ect, and solutions:

The weather was the main issue we had with regards to shooting, because it was so unpredictable because we would make plans to shoot on a day but then we were unable to because the weather would be different.

Illness wasnt really a major issue really.

All in all i think we were able to fix or cover up any issues that were put in front of us.

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

The BBFC British Board of film classification)

The BBFC has the resposiblity to classify all films, DVDs and video games released in the UK.

In April 2011 The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) will take over video games classification.

Every four years the BBFC publishes a set of guidlines these guidlines are produced after extesive public consultation. The BBFC is independant of both the government and the film industry.

Film classifiers have to work within the law. There are two main laws.

The 1984 Video recordings act -  It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office.

and the 2003 Licensing act, this gives local authorities the power to decide what they what to show in the cinema. It also gives them the ability to change the classification. For example West Minsters county council banned the showing of 'The Life Of Brian'

They determine exactly what is acceptable for the age catergories. (U PG 12a 12 15 18 R18)

 U- Suitatable for all


PG Parental Guidlines - General viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children

12A - Suitable for children or 12 years accompanied by an adult.

15 - Suitable for 15 years and over

18 - Suitable only for adults

R18 - To be shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sec shops, and to adults of not less than 18

Violence:
-The public are concerned about young children seeing:

• Violence
• Blood
• Visual Content
• Violent sounds

For a 12 film there must be no specific concentration on blood.
A quote from Ros Bates "The main concern of the BBFC is the prevention of harm. Our aim is not to cut films but to get the right audience to see the right film."

Sex and Nudity:
12- Sex may be implied.
15- Full body nudity
18-Full body nudity and sexual movements

Taste and Decency

Bad language:
Context is everything.
It used to be the case that with more than one use of a swear word the movie would be moved to a 15 straight away. but that rule doesnt apply anymore.

The BBFC guidlines state there are 3 main considerations for any film.

1.Legal

• Obscenity
• Equality
• Incitement
• Protection of children.

2. Protective.

• Is it likely to harm anyone?

3. Societal

• Is it in line with present public opinion?

The introduction of 12a classification shows 2 things:

1. BBFC have got tougher with childrens viewing
2. An acceptance of the success of cinema gatekeeping and the failure of home gatekeeping.

The classification of our film will be:

Because of this our main target audience would be mostly teenagers

My perspective of a typical audience member would be: 

Question 5 How did you attract/address your audience

This is the invitation we sent out in order to attract our audience:

We also sent out questionnaires about different film openings, this can be seen in another post.

This is the questionnaire before our premiere

Questionnaire.

Are you:

Male                                                            Female

How old are you?

0-5                6-10                  11-15               16-20              20+

What is your favourite movie genre? (circle up to 3)

Horror	Musical
Romantic	Drama
Comedy	War
Suspense	Western
Action adventure	Chick Flick
Thriller	Historical

Other: (please explain)

­­

What do you think makes a good movie opening?

What titles do you think should be included in a movie opening?

How important is music in the opening in a movie?

Least                                                                                         Very

1         2         3         4         5         6         7         8         9         10

Please explain your choice:

The results of the questionnaire after the premier

Question 1: 

This was asked to see the amount of people who enjoyed the film opening.

From this questionnaire we found out that everybody who watched our film enjoyed it.

Question 2: 

We used a likert scale to see how effective the audience thought the music was. 

(1 being not effective - 10 being very effective)

With highest the score of effectiveness from the responses being 9 this shows that music as quite important in a movie.

Question 3:  

This was a personal opinion of which classification rating the audience would give our film.

This graph shows that most people gave our film opening a classification of a 12:

Question 4: 

 How well did you think the setting went with the story?

(1 being not at all 10 being very well)

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

We used another likert scale to do this (1 being not at all - 10 being very well) 

From these results most people thought the film went quite well, but from looking at the results, we could of perhaps chosen a better setting.

Question 5: 

5. What type of genre do you think this film opening was?

(Circle up to 2)

Horror	Spoof
Thriller	Drama
Comedy	Action adventure
Romance	Historical
If other please state :

As you can see from the pie chart below the most popular genre circled was horror and thriller was the second most popular, we were pleased with these results, because it shows we were right in choosing this genre because it was a favourite among our peers.

Question 6: 

6. On a scale of 1 to 10 how much did this opening scene seem to be scary to you 

(1 being the least 10  being the most)

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

This graph shows that a varied responce towards the scariness of the film.

The lower responses could of been due to the lack of violence and gore in generic horror movies, but the higher score show that we were doing the right thing.

Question 7:  

7. Did this film opening make you want to see more?

Yes □             No □

Our results showed that everyone invited to the premiere and that answered this questionnaire wanted to see more. 

The questionnaire we used after premiering to see what the audience thought about our piece.

Questionnaire

1.      Did you enjoy the film opening?

Yes □           No □

Please explain your answer (i.e. what you liked and disliked about the it)

                       

           

2.      On a scale of 1 – 10 how effective did you think the music was?

(1 being not effective and 10 being very effective)

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

3.      Based upon this clip, what classification would you give this movie?

(Circle only one)

U         PG      12A     12        15        18       

4.      How well did you think the setting went with the story?

(1 being not at all 10 being very well)

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

5.      What type of genre do you think this film opening was?

(Circle up to 2)

Horror	Spoof
Thriller	Drama
Comedy	Action adventure
Romance	Historical
If other please state :

6.      On a scale of 1 to 10 how much did this opening scene seem to be scary to you ( 1 being the least 10  being the most)

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

7.      Did this film opening make you want to see more?

Yes □             No □