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.  

Movie Classification

Every film that gets released at cinemas have a classification (shown as a symbol) to tell people if they can watch the film or not.
These include: U, PG, 12, 12a, 15 and 18

15

The "15" symbol means that no one under the age of 15 is allowed to watch the film that is shown.

What makes a 15 stronger than a 12 or a 12a include:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (e.g. f***)
• portrayals of sex and some sexual nudity
• strong verbal references about sex
• some scenes of sexual violence or verbal references about sexual violence
• some drug taking
• discriminatory language or behaviour

The majority of horror films have a 15 certificate. In most horror films, they have or a set around teenagers, this means that they are more likely to have a lot of sex and taking drugs. This is because there are some sexual nudity and sexual scenes in the majority of horror films. This is also because the film makers target a teenage audience for the film, as there are many teenagers in them. They have also got a lot of strong language as there is someone going around killing people. However, there can be some gore but not an exceptional amount, this is inappropriate for a 15 certificate film and is used for a 18.

What certificate did I use for my film?

For my film, I decided to give the certificate of my film as a 15. This is because there is a lot of violence in my film as the killer goes on a killing spree. There will also be some strong language and sexual references like in other horror films like Scream (1996).