Magazine

 Above is my annotation of a magazine front cover by Four Four Two. Below is my annotation of a contents page of a magazine. 

This is my magazine front cover. 

Original Story and script

                                   Original Plot

As this was the original plot, it was clear that it would change by the end of making the final product. In the original plot, the protagonist is a girl as this would be a convention of the horror genre. Like in Scream, a girl dies in the opening scene which was what is intended for my film. 

A girl is in a forest on her phone with her friend, who she has just been at her house in the local village. She is getting followed from Nafferton and she puts the phone down. She hears a noise from behind so she turns around. She turns around and sees a figure; she starts to walk faster and then eventually turning into a run. The figure starts running after her as she runs into the main forest. When she turns around there is nothing there, she starts slowly walking backwards looking for the figure and accidently falls over. The killer then stabs her and runs away. The body is lying on the floor. A man walking with a torch finds the dead girl and calls for an ambulance.  

The Film Title

As a group, we decided to call the film The Wrong Tracks. This was due to the fact that the killer kills his victim near a train track. Also, the protagonist walks across a train track which suggests that trains are significant in the film. 

The Wrong Tracks Final Cut

This is my final cut of my product. The film is called The Wrong Tracks and the genre is horror. 

Evaluation Question 6

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

I     In the preliminary, the camera shots were very basic as we weren't experienced with the camera and making a film. The shots that we did use were predominately mid shots through the corridor, close ups of Jack's face and the door handle, a two shot of the two teachers and shot reverse shot of the three people engaging in a conversation. As the location was in a little room and not the woodlands like for my final product, it was difficult to accomplish a good film in the space that we had. 

      

       The editing software that we used for our prelim was Serif Movie Plus. The software was very basic and it was easy to edit the film, it took us around an hour considering it was new to us. We just needed to drag the shots together to create the film. We didn't use any effects or transitions during the film and we also didn't have any sound to go to the film, although we didn't think we needed any. However, for the final product we used Adobe Premier Pro CS3. This was a lot more better to use because in my opinion it was better to use. Premier Pro gave us what Serif Movie Plus had but more advanced as it was more professional compared to the "GCSE style" Serif. The availability of transitions and effects for our film were at our fingertips and with the help of sound improved the film enormously. We could also create effects like slow motion that we couldn't use on Serif.   

Evaluation Question 1

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

As my film is in the horror genre, I decided to use the woodlands as a good place to use as a setting. This is very like other horror films especially Friday the 13th (1980) as the woods are secluded and the killer can easily kill someone without anyone knowing. It also gives a sense of tension for the audience and the woods have always been a scary place, as you don't know who is watching you. 

Like in Friday the 13th, we use many shots from the perspective of the killer to show that the character is being watched, so that it creates tension for the audience. I also used many wide shots to give the audience a sense of what surroundings they were watching the character in. 

Near the end of the film I used some fast cuts which heightens the tension for the audience and helps to build the climax at the end of the scene, where the hooded person kills the boy.

To challenge the horror film conventions I decided to give the killer a change of clothing. This was to show and go against the normal convention, which is seen in the Halloween and Scream franchises. Michael Myers for example wears dark clothing and a mask to hide himself and Ghostface does also. However, for my killer I didn't want to make him create a mask, as it was typical of the genre. As many horror movie killers are remembered for their mask I needed my killers clothes to be memorable. I decided to give him a blue jumper, jeans and white trainers as it was very unique in the genre. The clothing is also typical of what a person between the age of 16-25 would wear. 

Another horror convention that I developed was the fact that the killer kills someone in the first scene. Like in most horror films including Scream and Halloween do this. This means that the makers of the film want the audience to go straight into the film as the action has already started. Horror films need to start going from the very off and my film does that. 

The Wrong Tracks Final Cut

The video is the final cut for my final product. My film is called "The Wrong Tracks". 

Prelim Video

This is my video for my video preliminary. It is 36 seconds and consists of four characters. As an audience we follow Jack, who has been told to go see his teacher, and he doesn't know why. He then walks past a boy who had also been and is very unhappy. Jack is nervous as he walks through the door. Inside are his teachers, Mr Ibbetson (who he refers to as Sir) and his assistant Mr Sizer. They discuss Jack's grades in English. The film ends on a cliffhanger, with the final shot of Jack in a extreme close up of his face asking "my grades?". This was to show his emotion to the audience at the end, and to suggest to the audience what will happen next to Jack.  

I chose to do this film as it was a very simple story, which could be very easily shown onto film. I used a range of shots including an extreme close up of the door handle when Jack walks through the door and a two shot with the two teachers. As it was my prelim, I think that I did a good job considering it was the first time I had ever filmed a film before. 

Evaluation Question 7

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

I have learnt a lot of things while completing my full product. Comparing my two videos, my full product is much superior to my prelim video. I have made a lot of progress from the first time that I did the prelim because I have learnt about what is the right thing to do and what is the wrong thing to do. I know what makes a shot what it is and I can successfully deliver a range of shots shown in my finished product. 

The script on my prelim was very simple and very small, as my film was very short. Comparing that to my final product, the script was very thorough as it was a longer film and also because I knew what I was doing more because of my experience on the preliminary.

As I starred in both of my films, I feel like I have made a lot of progress in my acting skills. On the prelim, I couldn't stop laughing as I never really acted before. My lines weren't the best and my face wasn't in proportion to the film that I was in. On the other hand, the final product I thought that my acting was a lot better. Although I was hooded and didn't speak, I thought that my body language was significantly better and that I focused on the film in hand. 

In my preliminary I used very basic camera angles which included extreme close ups of the door handle and Jack's face, a two shot of the two teachers and also a mid shot of Jack walking through the corridor.

There is also no credits in my preliminary which showed how basic the film was. Comparing that with the final product, the credits are nicely embedded on a black screen with one being on the shot of the train going past the killer. Also, when the killer starts hitting the boy, the text of the film appears. You can hear the boy screaming, but the title of the film "The Wrong Tracks" is in red and not white. This is to show the red of blood and danger and that the boy has died. This is very effective in the final product which wasn't evident in the preliminary. 

Overall, I think that I have made substantial progress in AS Media after looking back on my preliminary. The skills that I have gained since the preliminary has been shown in the final product that I have created. 

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 3

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

Hammer Films

Hammer Films was founded in 1934 and are based in the UK. 

The company was best known for their Gothic horror during the 1950's and 60's. Although they made their films on a very tight budget, usually with the same actors and directors, they dominated the horror film 

market during the 50's and 60's. 

Hammer's first significant horror film was The Quartermass Experiment (1955), which was the adaptation from the television series. Hammer then adapted Universal's old monsters from the 1930's, Frankenstein and Dracula. Both starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, (who were Hammer icons) The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958) would become big successes from the company, as they were made on a shoe string budget. 

After relevant success in the 1960's the company went into decline during the 1970's and production ceased in the 1980's. 

However, in 2007 the company was back and started to make new films. These included The Resident (2011) and The Woman in Black (2012)

I think that my film would be perfect for Hammer films to distribute it because my film is a low budget British Horror film which Hammer specialise in. Although the film has unknown stars and, it could still make a profit from limited release. As the film has a very small budget, if it wasn't very successful at the box office then it wouldn't be a big deal as Hammer wouldn't lose much money anyway. With the budget of The Wrong Tracks and a production company like Hammer, I think that they have nothing to lose. As the main target audience of the film are for teenagers, like Hammer's The Women in Black (as it was a 12a) it is relevant to their other films. Also by using social media to increase the anticipation of the film can also bring in profit for the film. Release the trailer or several trailers onto YouTube and then the film will be talked about on all the social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. As the film is low budget has a lot of action, it will bring the audience in as teenagers like to see these type of movies. If the marketing for the film is outstanding, then it will make a huge profit at the box office.