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

In the preliminary task we had to film a quick match-on-action task, focusing on not breaking the 180 degree line. In this task we had to come up with a quick script, format it like an actual movie script in CeltX (a program I hadn't ever encountered before this) and then get into our filming groups to choose the best script to use as the basis. For example, this is the script that I initially wrote however Brandon's was more suited and so we used his script in our preliminary task. CeltX was tricky to use as you have to change the type of formatting for each new line that you do but the final result of using CeltX looks very professional and far better than making a script on something like Microsoft Word.

               Match on Action

For the filming we learnt how to use a basic filming technique called 'Match on Action'. A match on action shot is where the footage is edited so that one shot cuts to another matching the first shot's action and is generally used to cut out unnecessary time as in this case, it would look boring if I were to just walk away from the camera and through the door - the close up shot of the door looks far more interesting.  We had to try a few takes for this as people would walk down the corridor at the same time or the other various distractions such as noise. Doing this shot was useful as we then knew how to use it if we wanted to implement this editing style into our final film.

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        180 Degree Rule

         The 180 degree rule is an invisible line that no character should cross as this would disturb continuity as the rule states that two characters should maintain the same left / right relationship with one another. If not, it would look as though the characters had switched seats so it's incredibly important not to break it unless it's to infer that something is off with the characters / 

world and so is only used in eerie situations such as horror. This was a new rule that I'd learnt as I'd never come across it beforehand. In addition to this 180 degree rule we used a type of shot called 'shot-reverse-shot' which basically means that the shot is reversed to the character with the speaking role. I'd already used this technique in my GCSE film so it wasn't new although it was incredibly useful as we ended up using shot-reverse-shot in our final film and altered things slightly by zooming into the characters face as speaking because more tense.

Additional features

We played around with sound effects and found an appropriate 'bang' sound to indicate Brandon shooting a gun at me as I dramatically fall to the ground. This was a new technique and showed us how sound effects can be used to paint more realistic scenes through the usage of simple diegetic audio sounds. 

I think that all in all, this preliminary task was incredibly useful in helping us learnt how to do basic editing and filming! 

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

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

After finishing and exporting the film I put a link to the YouTube video on my personal Tumblr blog and asked my followers if they could view it and send me their views on the project and to fill in a modified version and retweaked version of the original questionnaire I created here (x).

 

The majority of people who filled in the questionnaire with positive feedback were adolescents ranging from 15-19 in age.

Comments from the older demographic involved things such as;

“The protagonist, Nick looks too young.”

“These plot tropes have been overused.”

But other more encouraging comments included;

“This is a good attempt at creating the introductory scene of a movie – I’d watch it.”

In order to address these dissatisfactions, we would probably have to refilm and shoot everything again but with a better suited actor to fit the role as well as better make-up / costume design to give the impression of a more mature in-depth character rather than stables of youth culture such as hoodies... However, the audience feel that Faye’s character was well constructed mise-en-scene wise and I feel that Faye is a good character. Other things that people liked in particular was the overall tone and feel of the film but wanted to see better camerawork and more angles.

In future productions I will take all of this into consideration and add more interesting, variant editing such as a graphic match to convey meaning such as in Psycho’s famous shower scene. I think that Enslaved can be heavily improved and as I have a perfectionist mindset I feel as though everything is deeply flawed and I struggled a lot during editing and shooting in trying to get everyone to understand my perfectionism. I feel that my inexperience with camera equipment, time schedules and editing software held quite a few drawbacks in these aspects.

- Pictured here is the graphic match used in Psycho

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

The target audience is the psychological horror-loving genre that primarily consists of young males however there is a blur in gender lines as women are also becoming more interested in the genre. As the finished product of the film will contain a multi-diverse cast this will appeal to all races and not just Caucasian.  The majority of people who watch this film will be people who have interests in crime, psychology and mysteries due to their nature to solve a puzzle, as this film is a large enigmatic narrative. According to Maslow’s study in the Hierarchy of Needs, there are seven types of people in the world, this media product will appeal the Mainstreams. The mainstream love everything that is popular and focused on big established brands, Enslaved will be published by Blumhouse which is a major lead producer of horror films – resonating with this audience. By releasing Enslaved during the October half term as October is treated as the month for everything spooky with the traditional Halloween festival.  Choosing to release a film during half term is a great idea as many teenagers over the age of 15 (as this is the certificate) will be bored and looking for something to do - a cinema is a great and trendy way of entertainment!

In order to gauge what kind of audience we're looking for we did a preliminary questionnaire before the shooting asking participants on the streets to read out a plot summary and give us their thoughts. In this survey we also questioned people for additional information such as their age, media consumption rates and favourite genre to get a wider feel as to who would be the audience for our media product. Most people felt uncomfortable with us filming their responses to our spoken questionnaire however a few didn't mind and YouTube evidence of this is linked down below.
 

                

We used took all of this feedback very seriously and make a few tweaks to the plot such as making Nick more sinister and shady to please the audience more. The survey also helped us in deciding female cast members to appease the male gaze as the majority who were interested in the future of the film were predominantly male.

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

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

Our media product endorses stereotypes but parodies them, as because the lead woman is the typical ‘woman-next-door’ type she ends up getting snared in the trap of the lead protagonist, Nick.  However, the third character Rose is a deconstruction of female archetypes as instead of being submissive and harbouring idealistic feminine traits she’s ruthless and imposing this is prevalent through her usage of dialogue “Kill her, stab her”. Faye is dressed from head to toe in hyper feminine clothing alluding to stereotypes.  Although the opening sequence only contains Caucasian adolescents and gives hints that the characters are only heterosexual the full film would subvert and challenge these ideas by having a multi-diverse cast.

Due to limiting factors such as the story, as well as the group of people who I was elected to work with we were not able to construct a valid representation of minorities. Young people, in this case Faye, are represented as being free spirited and reckless. This is highlighted by her excitement from meeting a guy for the first time offhand despite only talking to him through the Internet. This is a highly dangerous and risky thing to do yet despite this she still goes through with it by notions of ‘romance happening’ as young people are typically portrayed as being reckless for love. This is shown through the body language and expressions in Faye’s face as she smiles and the long shot of her walking to the café in excitement.

On the other hand, Nick is portrayed negatively and shows parallels to the adolescent male. In media, young men are seen as being sociable, hanging around in big crowds and again, being reckless. However, Nick subverts this as he’s the ideal face of an introvert and faces many terrifying ordeals such as his mental illness, Schizophrenia. Mentally ill people are seen as crazy, loose-cannon balls and Nick fits this cookie-cutter archetype, this is to fuel the plot as his illness and delusions is partly a cause for his actions. However this does not condone or justify them in anyway, the audience feels pathos for him.

Whilst the female to male ratio of cast involved is higher, the male dominates the majority of screentime. This creates a basic representation of sex as women are usually dormant and seen as background figures.

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