Reflection/Evaluation

On reflection, I think that with our price range and technology and prop limits that we created a successful Sci-Fi/apocalyptic film opening as our genre is extremely hard to make realistic without special effects and a large budget. If I were to do it again, I think that I would spend more time on make up and special effects in order to make them more realistic and I would attempt to use a different camera of better quality. I think we would also spend some more time on sounds and music as this could be improved. For example, the climax of the score could end on a lower note to make it more sinister as the high note makes it seem more light-hearted. However, I think that the creation and the use of slow pans and music creates a clear atmosphere of a thrilling film.

Final Film Opening

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

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The reason for carrying out the interviews were to show who our target audience would be for our film ‘Cold blood’. In the interview we use two people one a 16 year old female and the second a 17 year old male. These people were our perfect target age within the age range through teenage years and early adulthood.

Over the top of the interview recordings there are clips of the programmes and films, which were mentioned throughout the interviews. Each of the clips has relevance to our film.

We expect our audience to have watch similar things to what our interviewees have said in ‘teen wolf and walking dead’ these are both TV programs which entice the audiences through the horror aspects of things. We target this group of people by using certain aspects of things that appeal to this kind of people. 

The secondary audience would be the people accompanying these people for example friends, family and partners.

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Also, the use of the unrecognisable pile of dead bodies could indicate that there are people there who belong to many different social groups such as children and middle aged adults.

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

Special Effects

Lack of budget, equipment and technology.

Used slow motion and sped up some scenes.

Relied on editing software – Final Cut Pro

Altering of colours using filters.

Enhancing green eyes using editing software colour wheel.

Most sci-fi and horror films use special effects like green screens and have higher budgets to work with.

Title, Font and Style

Black and White, Bold, Decaying 

Sense of Importance

Catches your attention

Ominous

Font similar to apocalyptic films but also can be very different to horror and sci-fi genres.

Setting up of the story

Audience feel disorientated at the beginning, only to be clarified when the film will go back in time after the opening.

Dive right in to the middle of the story.

Main characters introduced.

Ends on cliff hanger – what is going to happen next?

Doesn't start from the beginning like most films - challenges expectations

Costumes and Props

Contact lenses and scale make up, fake blood and injuries help depict genre.

Baseball bat – links to life of a teenager.

Not many props unlike many films - shows lack of belongings in circumstances.

Genre

Use of blood, dark colours and unnatural make up.

Solidifies the violent and unnatural themes.

The font and depicted devastation clarifies the genre to include violence, sci-fi themes and horror.

Unlike horror because it is focusing on the plot and the cure and disease more than scaring people which makes it more sci-fi.

How characters are introduced

Straight into middle of the plot

Uncertain position to be clarified later on

Tense and hectic atmosphere, hard to make a judgement, especially since the opening lacks speech – the relationship with the character comes later on

Camerawork and Editing

Use of quick cuts

White Noise to add suspense and tension

Failure of civilization

Audience Feedback and Subsequent Alterations

In the weeks running up to our deadline we had a viewing of the First Official Draft of our 2 minute film opening.  We showed it to people in our class, in the year above and the teachers, this gave us an invaluable opportunity to receive feedback from our target audience on how our work can be improved. The most popular piece of constructive criticism was that the fight scene looks slow and unnatural, which we definitely agreed with. We were able to improve this slightly with the addition of our score but we found that the only foolproof solution was to film addition shots that we could interject into the scene to speed it up and make it more manic and chaotic.

This was a relatively simple task, which just required us to meet the lead actor again to film some extra footage. We were able to film some very interesting and unique shots which, when we added them to the film opening, greatly increased the speed of the fight scene and how exciting it was to watch. This was because we made the cuts quick with flashes of movement and violence.