Friday 30 April 2010
AS Media Evaultaion Claire Pagett
As Media Studies Evaluation
Claire Pagett
The film that we have worked on was intended to be a horror film that has certain aspects of some movies that have been created already. It has been called “GRACE” because that is the name of the main character in the film and the plot of our story has included her in almost every scene.
We decided that our movie would come underneath the horror genre because it involves paranormal activity (visions and possession) and also it involves a young girl li
ving in a house with her alcoholic dad, who tends to get drunk and use violence, which is very angry and slightly twisted. We see this happening when “Grace” hears her father shout her name just as she has woken up, and we see a shot of him stumbling down the stairs towards the camera. We see him again as Grace runs down an alleyway and shouts her name for the second time. We also see him with a bottle in his hand which gives the audience the impression that he drinks a lot when coupled with the fact that he has stumbled down the stairs as if he is drunk.
Our Film is very suggestive in the sense that it can confuse the audience because it doesn’t show a lot of the plot in the first 2 minutes of the film. When we see a shot of Grace lying face up in the bath, it can confuse the audience because it has transitioned from grace (as a younger girl) ly
ing 
on the floor, to grace lying in the bath. The reasoning behind this is because the scene where Grace is knocked backwards is intended to be her dreaming of herself, when sh
e was a young girl, and seeing her mom in the distance. This scene then transitions to one of grace’s visions and then to a scene of her waking up in a cold sweat slightly in shock.
Our film is similar to films like the shining, The Sixth Sense and also a Haunting in Connecticut. In the sixth Sense the plot is based around a young boy (Cole) who claims to see people who are no longer living. This links with our film as our main character, also sees things that link slightly with the paranormal. The differences between the two films are that in the sixth sense, the plot is mostly about a child who sees something that is really there, whereas in our film Grace is seeing something that hasn’t actually happened yet. It is also similar to the shining as the little boy in the film also has visions about certain things, (the past and future) and also shows that the father (jack) in the film can be very violent as he tries to attack him and his mother. This is similar to our film because in our media product is a parent who can be violent. It is also different in some ways as in The Shining; jack becomes violent because of uncontrollable causes whereas in our film Grace’s father becomes violent because he is an alcoholic. It is, again, also similar to the Haunting in Connecticut as in the 2 minute sequence of “GRACE” as the main character in Haunting in Connecticut (matt) doesn’t properly understand what is happening to him, the whole way through the film and works out what is happening to him at the same time as the audience. This is like our two minute sequence as Grace doesn’t understand why she wakes up in her back Garden or why she has the visions. Also in our media product grace is possessed by her mother which is similar to this film as halfway through a boy is possessed by a spirit. Our film is different in the sense that the film “GRACE” did not contain angry spirits or ghosts as much as The Haunting In Connecticut did and “grace” isn’t just about one topic whereas this film is only really about spirits and ghosts. Also the main characters personality and home life is different as he has a loving family compared to Grace who dosen’t.
The type of horror films that this is different to would be horror films such as saw or the descent. This is as both these films have a lot of gore involved within them and have a story line that is more about either monsters or murder. Also those two particular films don’t relate in terms of the paranormal.
The sequence of “GRACE” shows quite a few different social groups. At the start of the film we see a girl, who is not very old, skipping along th
e grass. We then see her stop as she spots another person standing over by a tree. In this sequence there are two types of social groups, which were a young girl and her mother. In this scene the young girl slowly walks towards her mother and when she touches her you hear a loud scream and the girl falls backwards. This gives the impression th
at the young girl isn’t as powerful as her mother because a simple touch knocked her backwards and didn’t affect her mother at all. It also shows a difference between the ages as the clothes that the girl is wearing is completely different to what the mother is wearing which insinuates that they have different opinions and tastes which could portray that people who are more mature like different things, to people who are less mature. We also get the impression that the older generation are more powerful over the younger generation, as in the next scene Grace is running away from her father. This shows that she is scared of him and she doesn’t want him to find her as we see her run, open a door and blow out a candle. we see from her facial expressions as she blows the candle out that she if frightened. Also she looks around before the candle goes out which shows that she does not want to be seen as, she wouldn’t look around to see if someone was watching her unless she felt scared or uneasy. This partially involves binary opposition (two forces in conflict with each other) as there is a massive conflict and contrast between Grace and her father. We know this because they have so many differences between them, such as, they are of different genders, ethnicity and age, which can also suggest that males have a power over females as Grace’s father is a male and overpowers her. With regards to the ethnicity, in our media product there are only 2 types of ethnicity, so we do not have a wide range of ethnicity in our media product, showing that no single race is supreme over othe
rs in our film. But with gender and age we see that the older generation and the males suggest to the audience that they are more powerful than the younger age and women in our media production, as the dominance over the two social groups never differs throughout all of the 2 minutes of the film.
I think that if this film were to be distributed it would be by companies such as Anthem pictures. I think that they would do well if they decided to distribute our film as it has effects added to it which make our film seem eerie and unpleasant, and has used different camera shots and skills to make it look successful and effective as a horror movie. Anthem, pictures have been successful at producing horror movies such as “blood shed” and “dead moon rising”. As Anthem continues to grow as a leading and independent distribution company so does its popularity. It has already distributed over 100 films and TV programmes their recognition is starting to soar which is why I would like my film to be distributed by Anthem Pictures.
I think that this type of film may appeal to all audiences but mostly teenage girls. I think that because the main character in the film is a teenage girl so it will automatically appeal to them more, but also it is a type of horror film that does not contain gore which is stereotypically what males are more drawn to. I also think that this may be drawn to a little bit of every audience because even though there are more girls in this movie than boys, it is still a horror film which is what a lot of boys like and it is still eerie . Also older generations may enjoy this film as well as the younger generation because they may prefer these types of horror movies instead of movies that contain a lot of gore and blood. Also people may be more interested in movies with a good storyline behind it instead of just mindless violence. This movie may not appeal to all girls though as stereotypically girls may not like horror as much as males do or they could be totally opposite and prefer horrors that are scarier instead of deeper. I do think that the younger age range on the whole will enjoy this film more because horror movies are known to appeal to younger audiences because of the maturity level. I do not think that this will attract a certain ethnicity as your appeal to certain types of movies do not predominantly come from what type of ethnicity you are as all sorts of ethnicities like horror movies. The feedback I have gained from friends and family have proved that the audience that I have targeted are the people that enjoyed my media product and would enjoy watching a film that had the storyline that we have created. The feedback that I have gained that was positive has been nearly always from teenagers and always from females. This proves that the way I targeted my media product (towards teenage girls) has been successful as every teenage girl that has viewed my media product enjoyed it and thought that it was a good storyline and idea.
I addressed my target audience (teenage girls) by entering scenes in the film and characters in the film that would appeal to them more than it would to other audiences. For example Kristie was used to play the main character “Grace”. We decided that a teenager would play the main part in the film because she would mostly appeal to the same age range as herself, and even ages that are slightly younger or slightly older. Also we used two different types of ethnicity so it may appeal to those two racial groups more than others. This film would not appeal to the male sex as much as it would the females because it does not contain that many males. Most of our main characters are female and quite young.
I have learnt that to make a successful media product I need to use certain types of camera angles that are not always the same, so that certain types of effects are created by different types of camera angle For example, when “Grace” was running down the alley we use a handheld shot which was very shaky and not smooth to give the effect that we were seeing things from her perspective. This was effective as it made the atmosphere seem a little more uneasy and scary as we could see things as if we were enduring them. Also when “Grace” runs through the door we get a shot of her walking through the door from above her head. This gives the effect of someone watching her as it is a high angle shot. I also learnt that to make the film seem realistic we needed to make sure than when we cross cut scenes that they can not overlap each other. For example when Grace’s dad is walking down the stairs at the same time that she is we need to make sure that he is at the bottom of the stairs around about the same time that she is at the bottom of the steps. We do this by putting scenes of Grace’s dad in certain places of the film so that it gives the effect of him walking down the stairs the same time as her. I also learnt that you need to add the right sort of effects on to the film to make the feeling of the film different, as you cannot add effects that have a cold feeling to them, if you are trying to make your film a happy and uplifting one.
With our finished media product I learnt that you needed to plan every scene fully and in detail to be able to make the film more effective. If planning was not as in depth it would be hard to make a good media product as it would not have any structure within it and filming would be a lot more difficult. I also learnt that you need to have a variety of angles and shots because if not then the film can seem a bit too repetitive and boring because the same thing is being shown constantly. I also learnt that if time was not organised and scenes were not prepared then we would not have been able to finish our film as quickly because it would have took us longer to do all of the takes. In our preliminary task we used very few camera angles and shots and the sound on the film was very quiet which let the end product down slightly.As Media Studies Evaluation
Claire Pagett
The film that we have worked on was intended to be a horror film that has certain aspects of some movies that have been created already. It has been called “GRACE” because that is the name of the main character in the film and the plot of our story has included her in almost every scene.
We decided that our movie would come underneath the horror genre because it involves paranormal activity (visions and possession) and also it involves a young girl living in a house with her alcoholic dad, who tends to get drunk and use violence, which is very angry and slightly twisted. We see this happening when “Grace” hears her father shout her name just as she has woken up, and we see a shot of him stumbling down the stairs towards the camera. We see him again as Grace runs down an alleyway and shouts her name for the second time. We also see him with a bottle in his hand which gives the audience the impression that he drinks a lot when coupled with the fact that he has stumbled down the stairs as if he is drunk.
Our Film is very suggestive in the sense that it can confuse the audience because it doesn’t show a lot of the plot in the first 2 minutes of the film. When we see a shot of Grace lying face up in the bath, it can confuse the audience because it has transitioned from grace (as a younger girl) lying on the floor, to grace lying in the bath. The reasoning behind this is because the scene where Grace is knocked backwards is intended to be her dreaming of herself, when she was a young girl, and seeing her mom in the distance. This scene then transitions to one of grace’s visions and then to a scene of her waking up in a cold sweat slightly in shock.
Our film is similar to films like the shining, The Sixth Sense and also a Haunting in Connecticut. In the sixth Sense the plot is based around a young boy (Cole) who claims to see people who are no longer living. This links with our film as our main character, also sees things that link slightly with the paranormal. The differences between the two films are that in the sixth sense, the plot is mostly about a child who sees something that is really there, whereas in our film Grace is seeing something that hasn’t actually happened yet. It is also similar to the shining as the little boy in the film also has visions about certain things, (the past and future) and also shows that the father (jack) in the film can be very violent as he tries to attack him and his mother. This is similar to our film because in our media product is a parent who can be violent. It is also different in some ways as in The Shining; jack becomes violent because of uncontrollable causes whereas in our film Grace’s father becomes violent because he is an alcoholic. It is, again, also similar to the Haunting in Connecticut as in the 2 minute sequence of “GRACE” as the main character in Haunting in Connecticut (matt) doesn’t properly understand what is happening to him, the whole way through the film and works out what is happening to him at the same time as the audience. This is like our two minute sequence as Grace doesn’t understand why she wakes up in her back Garden or why she has the visions. Also in our media product grace is possessed by her mother which is similar to this film as halfway through a boy is possessed by a spirit. Our film is different in the sense that the film “GRACE” did not contain angry spirits or ghosts as much as The Haunting In Connecticut did and “grace” isn’t just about one topic whereas this film is only really about spirits and ghosts. Also the main characters personality and home life is different as he has a loving family compared to Grace who dosen’t.
The type of horror films that this is different to would be horror films such as saw or the descent. This is as both these films have a lot of gore involved within them and have a story line that is more about either monsters or murder. Also those two particular films don’t relate in terms of the paranormal.
The sequence of “GRACE” shows quite a few different social groups. At the start of the film we see a girl, who is not very old, skipping along the grass. We then see her stop as she spots another person standing over by a tree. In this sequence there are two types of social groups, which were a young girl and her mother. In this scene the young girl slowly walks towards her mother and when she touches her you hear a loud scream and the girl falls backwards. This gives the impression that the young girl isn’t as powerful as her mother because a simple touch knocked her backwards and didn’t affect her mother at all. It also shows a difference between the ages as the clothes that the girl is wearing is completely different to what the mother is wearing which insinuates that they have different opinions and tastes which could portray that people who are more mature like different things, to people who are less mature. We also get the impression that the older generation are more powerful over the younger generation, as in the next scene Grace is running away from her father. This shows that she is scared of him and she doesn’t want him to find her as we see her run, open a door and blow out a candle. we see from her facial expressions as she bl
ows the candle out that she if frightened. Also she looks around before the candle goes out which shows that she does not want to be seen as, she wouldn’t look around to see if someone was watching her unless she felt scared or uneasy. This partially involves binary opposition (two forces in conflict with each other) as there is a massive conflict and contrast between Grace and her father. We know this because they have so many differences between them, such as, they are of different genders, ethnicity and age, which can also suggest that males have a power over females as Grace’s father is a male and overpowers her. With regards to the ethnicity, in our media product there are only 2 types of ethnicity, so we do not have a wide range of ethnicity in our media product, showing that no single race is supreme over others in our film. But with gender and age we see that the older generation and the males suggest to the audience that they are more powerful than the younger age and women in our media production, as the dominance over the two social groups never differs throughout all of the 2 minutes of the film.
I think that if this film were to be distributed it would be by companies such as Anthem pictures. I think that they would do well if they decided to distribute our film as it has effects added to it which make our film seem eerie and unpleasant, and has used different camera shots and skills to make it look successful and effective as a horror movie. Anthem, pictures have been successful at producing horror movies such as “blood shed” and “dead moon rising”. As Anthem continues to grow as a leading and independent distribution company so does its popularity. It has already distributed over 100 films and TV programmes their recognition is starting to soar which is why I would like my film to be distributed by Anthem Pictures.
I think that this type of film may appeal to all audiences but mostly teenage girls. I think that because the main character in the film is a teenage girl so it will automatically appeal to them more, but also it is a type of horror film that does not contain gore which is stereotypically what males are more drawn to. I also think that this may be drawn to a little bit of every audience because even though there are more girls in this movie than boys, it is still a horror film which is what a lot of boys like and it is still eerie . Also older generations may enjoy this film as well as the younger generation because they may prefer these types of horror movies instead of movies that contain a lot of gore and blood. Also people may be more interested in movies with a good storyline behind it instead of just mindless violence. This movie may not appeal to all girls though as stereotypically girls may not like horror as much as males do or they could be totally opposite and prefer horrors that are scarier instead of deeper. I do think that the younger age range on the whole will enjoy this film more because horror movies are known to appeal to younger audiences because of the maturity level. I do not think that this will attract a certain ethnicity as your appeal to certain types of movies do not predominantly come from what type of ethnicity you are as all sorts of ethnicities like horror movies. The feedback I have gained from friends and family have proved that the audience that I have targeted are the people that enjoyed my media product and would enjoy watching a film that had the storyline that we have created. The feedback that I have gained that was positive has been nearly always from teenagers and always from females. This proves that the way I targeted my media product (towards teenage girls) has been successful as every teenage girl that has viewed my media product enjoyed it and thought that it was a good storyline and idea.
I addressed my target audience (teenage girls) by entering scenes in the film and characters in the film that would appeal to them more than it would to other audiences. For example Kristie was used to play the main character “Grace”. We decided that a teenager would play the main part in the film because she would mostly appeal to the same age range as herself, and even ages that are slightly younger or slightly older. Also we used two different types of ethnicity so it may appeal to those two racial groups more than others. This film would not appeal to the male sex as much as it would the females because it does not contain that many males. Most of our main characters are female and quite young.
I have learnt that to make a successful media product I need to use certain types of camera angles that are not always the same, so that certain types of effects are created by different types of camera angle For example, when “Grace” was running down the alley we use a handheld shot which was very shaky and not smooth to give the effect that we were seeing things from her perspective. This was effective as it made the atmosphere seem a little more uneasy and scary as we could see things as if we were enduring them. Also when “Grace” runs through the door we get a shot of her walking through the door from above her head. This gives the effect of someone watching her as it is a high angle shot. I also learnt that to make the film seem realistic we needed to make sure than when we cross cut scenes that they can not overlap each other. For example when Grace’s dad is walking down the stairs at the same time that she is we need to make sure that he is at the bottom of the stairs around about the same time that she is at the bottom of the steps. We do this by putting scenes of Grace’s dad in certain places of the film so that it gives the effect of him walking down the stairs the same time as her. I also learnt that you need to add the right sort of effects on to the film to make the feeling of the film different, as you cannot add effects that have a cold feeling to them, if you are trying to make your film a happy and uplifting one.
With our finished media product I learnt that you needed to plan every scene fully and in detail to be able to make the film more effective. If planning was not as in depth it would be hard to make a good media product as it would not have any structure within it and filming would be a lot more difficult. I also learnt that you need to have a variety of angles and shots because if not then the film can seem a bit too repetitive and boring because the same thing is being shown constantly. I also learnt that if time was not organised and scenes were not prepared then we would not have been able to finish our film as quickly because it would have took us longer to do all of the takes. In our preliminary task we used very few camera angles and shots and the sound on the film was very quiet which let the end product down slightly.
Claire Pagett
The film that we have worked on was intended to be a horror film that has certain aspects of some movies that have been created already. It has been called “GRACE” because that is the name of the main character in the film and the plot of our story has included her in almost every scene.
We decided that our movie would come underneath the horror genre because it involves paranormal activity (visions and possession) and also it involves a young girl li
ving in a house with her alcoholic dad, who tends to get drunk and use violence, which is very angry and slightly twisted. We see this happening when “Grace” hears her father shout her name just as she has woken up, and we see a shot of him stumbling down the stairs towards the camera. We see him again as Grace runs down an alleyway and shouts her name for the second time. We also see him with a bottle in his hand which gives the audience the impression that he drinks a lot when coupled with the fact that he has stumbled down the stairs as if he is drunk.Our Film is very suggestive in the sense that it can confuse the audience because it doesn’t show a lot of the plot in the first 2 minutes of the film. When we see a shot of Grace lying face up in the bath, it can confuse the audience because it has transitioned from grace (as a younger girl) ly
ing 
on the floor, to grace lying in the bath. The reasoning behind this is because the scene where Grace is knocked backwards is intended to be her dreaming of herself, when sh
e was a young girl, and seeing her mom in the distance. This scene then transitions to one of grace’s visions and then to a scene of her waking up in a cold sweat slightly in shock.Our film is similar to films like the shining, The Sixth Sense and also a Haunting in Connecticut. In the sixth Sense the plot is based around a young boy (Cole) who claims to see people who are no longer living. This links with our film as our main character, also sees things that link slightly with the paranormal. The differences between the two films are that in the sixth sense, the plot is mostly about a child who sees something that is really there, whereas in our film Grace is seeing something that hasn’t actually happened yet. It is also similar to the shining as the little boy in the film also has visions about certain things, (the past and future) and also shows that the father (jack) in the film can be very violent as he tries to attack him and his mother. This is similar to our film because in our media product is a parent who can be violent. It is also different in some ways as in The Shining; jack becomes violent because of uncontrollable causes whereas in our film Grace’s father becomes violent because he is an alcoholic. It is, again, also similar to the Haunting in Connecticut as in the 2 minute sequence of “GRACE” as the main character in Haunting in Connecticut (matt) doesn’t properly understand what is happening to him, the whole way through the film and works out what is happening to him at the same time as the audience. This is like our two minute sequence as Grace doesn’t understand why she wakes up in her back Garden or why she has the visions. Also in our media product grace is possessed by her mother which is similar to this film as halfway through a boy is possessed by a spirit. Our film is different in the sense that the film “GRACE” did not contain angry spirits or ghosts as much as The Haunting In Connecticut did and “grace” isn’t just about one topic whereas this film is only really about spirits and ghosts. Also the main characters personality and home life is different as he has a loving family compared to Grace who dosen’t.
The type of horror films that this is different to would be horror films such as saw or the descent. This is as both these films have a lot of gore involved within them and have a story line that is more about either monsters or murder. Also those two particular films don’t relate in terms of the paranormal.
The sequence of “GRACE” shows quite a few different social groups. At the start of the film we see a girl, who is not very old, skipping along th
e grass. We then see her stop as she spots another person standing over by a tree. In this sequence there are two types of social groups, which were a young girl and her mother. In this scene the young girl slowly walks towards her mother and when she touches her you hear a loud scream and the girl falls backwards. This gives the impression th
at the young girl isn’t as powerful as her mother because a simple touch knocked her backwards and didn’t affect her mother at all. It also shows a difference between the ages as the clothes that the girl is wearing is completely different to what the mother is wearing which insinuates that they have different opinions and tastes which could portray that people who are more mature like different things, to people who are less mature. We also get the impression that the older generation are more powerful over the younger generation, as in the next scene Grace is running away from her father. This shows that she is scared of him and she doesn’t want him to find her as we see her run, open a door and blow out a candle. we see from her facial expressions as she blows the candle out that she if frightened. Also she looks around before the candle goes out which shows that she does not want to be seen as, she wouldn’t look around to see if someone was watching her unless she felt scared or uneasy. This partially involves binary opposition (two forces in conflict with each other) as there is a massive conflict and contrast between Grace and her father. We know this because they have so many differences between them, such as, they are of different genders, ethnicity and age, which can also suggest that males have a power over females as Grace’s father is a male and overpowers her. With regards to the ethnicity, in our media product there are only 2 types of ethnicity, so we do not have a wide range of ethnicity in our media product, showing that no single race is supreme over othe
rs in our film. But with gender and age we see that the older generation and the males suggest to the audience that they are more powerful than the younger age and women in our media production, as the dominance over the two social groups never differs throughout all of the 2 minutes of the film.I think that if this film were to be distributed it would be by companies such as Anthem pictures. I think that they would do well if they decided to distribute our film as it has effects added to it which make our film seem eerie and unpleasant, and has used different camera shots and skills to make it look successful and effective as a horror movie. Anthem, pictures have been successful at producing horror movies such as “blood shed” and “dead moon rising”. As Anthem continues to grow as a leading and independent distribution company so does its popularity. It has already distributed over 100 films and TV programmes their recognition is starting to soar which is why I would like my film to be distributed by Anthem Pictures.
I think that this type of film may appeal to all audiences but mostly teenage girls. I think that because the main character in the film is a teenage girl so it will automatically appeal to them more, but also it is a type of horror film that does not contain gore which is stereotypically what males are more drawn to. I also think that this may be drawn to a little bit of every audience because even though there are more girls in this movie than boys, it is still a horror film which is what a lot of boys like and it is still eerie . Also older generations may enjoy this film as well as the younger generation because they may prefer these types of horror movies instead of movies that contain a lot of gore and blood. Also people may be more interested in movies with a good storyline behind it instead of just mindless violence. This movie may not appeal to all girls though as stereotypically girls may not like horror as much as males do or they could be totally opposite and prefer horrors that are scarier instead of deeper. I do think that the younger age range on the whole will enjoy this film more because horror movies are known to appeal to younger audiences because of the maturity level. I do not think that this will attract a certain ethnicity as your appeal to certain types of movies do not predominantly come from what type of ethnicity you are as all sorts of ethnicities like horror movies. The feedback I have gained from friends and family have proved that the audience that I have targeted are the people that enjoyed my media product and would enjoy watching a film that had the storyline that we have created. The feedback that I have gained that was positive has been nearly always from teenagers and always from females. This proves that the way I targeted my media product (towards teenage girls) has been successful as every teenage girl that has viewed my media product enjoyed it and thought that it was a good storyline and idea.
I addressed my target audience (teenage girls) by entering scenes in the film and characters in the film that would appeal to them more than it would to other audiences. For example Kristie was used to play the main character “Grace”. We decided that a teenager would play the main part in the film because she would mostly appeal to the same age range as herself, and even ages that are slightly younger or slightly older. Also we used two different types of ethnicity so it may appeal to those two racial groups more than others. This film would not appeal to the male sex as much as it would the females because it does not contain that many males. Most of our main characters are female and quite young.
I have learnt that to make a successful media product I need to use certain types of camera angles that are not always the same, so that certain types of effects are created by different types of camera angle For example, when “Grace” was running down the alley we use a handheld shot which was very shaky and not smooth to give the effect that we were seeing things from her perspective. This was effective as it made the atmosphere seem a little more uneasy and scary as we could see things as if we were enduring them. Also when “Grace” runs through the door we get a shot of her walking through the door from above her head. This gives the effect of someone watching her as it is a high angle shot. I also learnt that to make the film seem realistic we needed to make sure than when we cross cut scenes that they can not overlap each other. For example when Grace’s dad is walking down the stairs at the same time that she is we need to make sure that he is at the bottom of the stairs around about the same time that she is at the bottom of the steps. We do this by putting scenes of Grace’s dad in certain places of the film so that it gives the effect of him walking down the stairs the same time as her. I also learnt that you need to add the right sort of effects on to the film to make the feeling of the film different, as you cannot add effects that have a cold feeling to them, if you are trying to make your film a happy and uplifting one.
With our finished media product I learnt that you needed to plan every scene fully and in detail to be able to make the film more effective. If planning was not as in depth it would be hard to make a good media product as it would not have any structure within it and filming would be a lot more difficult. I also learnt that you need to have a variety of angles and shots because if not then the film can seem a bit too repetitive and boring because the same thing is being shown constantly. I also learnt that if time was not organised and scenes were not prepared then we would not have been able to finish our film as quickly because it would have took us longer to do all of the takes. In our preliminary task we used very few camera angles and shots and the sound on the film was very quiet which let the end product down slightly.As Media Studies Evaluation
Claire Pagett
The film that we have worked on was intended to be a horror film that has certain aspects of some movies that have been created already. It has been called “GRACE” because that is the name of the main character in the film and the plot of our story has included her in almost every scene.
We decided that our movie would come underneath the horror genre because it involves paranormal activity (visions and possession) and also it involves a young girl living in a house with her alcoholic dad, who tends to get drunk and use violence, which is very angry and slightly twisted. We see this happening when “Grace” hears her father shout her name just as she has woken up, and we see a shot of him stumbling down the stairs towards the camera. We see him again as Grace runs down an alleyway and shouts her name for the second time. We also see him with a bottle in his hand which gives the audience the impression that he drinks a lot when coupled with the fact that he has stumbled down the stairs as if he is drunk.
Our Film is very suggestive in the sense that it can confuse the audience because it doesn’t show a lot of the plot in the first 2 minutes of the film. When we see a shot of Grace lying face up in the bath, it can confuse the audience because it has transitioned from grace (as a younger girl) lying on the floor, to grace lying in the bath. The reasoning behind this is because the scene where Grace is knocked backwards is intended to be her dreaming of herself, when she was a young girl, and seeing her mom in the distance. This scene then transitions to one of grace’s visions and then to a scene of her waking up in a cold sweat slightly in shock.
Our film is similar to films like the shining, The Sixth Sense and also a Haunting in Connecticut. In the sixth Sense the plot is based around a young boy (Cole) who claims to see people who are no longer living. This links with our film as our main character, also sees things that link slightly with the paranormal. The differences between the two films are that in the sixth sense, the plot is mostly about a child who sees something that is really there, whereas in our film Grace is seeing something that hasn’t actually happened yet. It is also similar to the shining as the little boy in the film also has visions about certain things, (the past and future) and also shows that the father (jack) in the film can be very violent as he tries to attack him and his mother. This is similar to our film because in our media product is a parent who can be violent. It is also different in some ways as in The Shining; jack becomes violent because of uncontrollable causes whereas in our film Grace’s father becomes violent because he is an alcoholic. It is, again, also similar to the Haunting in Connecticut as in the 2 minute sequence of “GRACE” as the main character in Haunting in Connecticut (matt) doesn’t properly understand what is happening to him, the whole way through the film and works out what is happening to him at the same time as the audience. This is like our two minute sequence as Grace doesn’t understand why she wakes up in her back Garden or why she has the visions. Also in our media product grace is possessed by her mother which is similar to this film as halfway through a boy is possessed by a spirit. Our film is different in the sense that the film “GRACE” did not contain angry spirits or ghosts as much as The Haunting In Connecticut did and “grace” isn’t just about one topic whereas this film is only really about spirits and ghosts. Also the main characters personality and home life is different as he has a loving family compared to Grace who dosen’t.
The type of horror films that this is different to would be horror films such as saw or the descent. This is as both these films have a lot of gore involved within them and have a story line that is more about either monsters or murder. Also those two particular films don’t relate in terms of the paranormal.
The sequence of “GRACE” shows quite a few different social groups. At the start of the film we see a girl, who is not very old, skipping along the grass. We then see her stop as she spots another person standing over by a tree. In this sequence there are two types of social groups, which were a young girl and her mother. In this scene the young girl slowly walks towards her mother and when she touches her you hear a loud scream and the girl falls backwards. This gives the impression that the young girl isn’t as powerful as her mother because a simple touch knocked her backwards and didn’t affect her mother at all. It also shows a difference between the ages as the clothes that the girl is wearing is completely different to what the mother is wearing which insinuates that they have different opinions and tastes which could portray that people who are more mature like different things, to people who are less mature. We also get the impression that the older generation are more powerful over the younger generation, as in the next scene Grace is running away from her father. This shows that she is scared of him and she doesn’t want him to find her as we see her run, open a door and blow out a candle. we see from her facial expressions as she bl
ows the candle out that she if frightened. Also she looks around before the candle goes out which shows that she does not want to be seen as, she wouldn’t look around to see if someone was watching her unless she felt scared or uneasy. This partially involves binary opposition (two forces in conflict with each other) as there is a massive conflict and contrast between Grace and her father. We know this because they have so many differences between them, such as, they are of different genders, ethnicity and age, which can also suggest that males have a power over females as Grace’s father is a male and overpowers her. With regards to the ethnicity, in our media product there are only 2 types of ethnicity, so we do not have a wide range of ethnicity in our media product, showing that no single race is supreme over others in our film. But with gender and age we see that the older generation and the males suggest to the audience that they are more powerful than the younger age and women in our media production, as the dominance over the two social groups never differs throughout all of the 2 minutes of the film.I think that if this film were to be distributed it would be by companies such as Anthem pictures. I think that they would do well if they decided to distribute our film as it has effects added to it which make our film seem eerie and unpleasant, and has used different camera shots and skills to make it look successful and effective as a horror movie. Anthem, pictures have been successful at producing horror movies such as “blood shed” and “dead moon rising”. As Anthem continues to grow as a leading and independent distribution company so does its popularity. It has already distributed over 100 films and TV programmes their recognition is starting to soar which is why I would like my film to be distributed by Anthem Pictures.
I think that this type of film may appeal to all audiences but mostly teenage girls. I think that because the main character in the film is a teenage girl so it will automatically appeal to them more, but also it is a type of horror film that does not contain gore which is stereotypically what males are more drawn to. I also think that this may be drawn to a little bit of every audience because even though there are more girls in this movie than boys, it is still a horror film which is what a lot of boys like and it is still eerie . Also older generations may enjoy this film as well as the younger generation because they may prefer these types of horror movies instead of movies that contain a lot of gore and blood. Also people may be more interested in movies with a good storyline behind it instead of just mindless violence. This movie may not appeal to all girls though as stereotypically girls may not like horror as much as males do or they could be totally opposite and prefer horrors that are scarier instead of deeper. I do think that the younger age range on the whole will enjoy this film more because horror movies are known to appeal to younger audiences because of the maturity level. I do not think that this will attract a certain ethnicity as your appeal to certain types of movies do not predominantly come from what type of ethnicity you are as all sorts of ethnicities like horror movies. The feedback I have gained from friends and family have proved that the audience that I have targeted are the people that enjoyed my media product and would enjoy watching a film that had the storyline that we have created. The feedback that I have gained that was positive has been nearly always from teenagers and always from females. This proves that the way I targeted my media product (towards teenage girls) has been successful as every teenage girl that has viewed my media product enjoyed it and thought that it was a good storyline and idea.
I addressed my target audience (teenage girls) by entering scenes in the film and characters in the film that would appeal to them more than it would to other audiences. For example Kristie was used to play the main character “Grace”. We decided that a teenager would play the main part in the film because she would mostly appeal to the same age range as herself, and even ages that are slightly younger or slightly older. Also we used two different types of ethnicity so it may appeal to those two racial groups more than others. This film would not appeal to the male sex as much as it would the females because it does not contain that many males. Most of our main characters are female and quite young.
I have learnt that to make a successful media product I need to use certain types of camera angles that are not always the same, so that certain types of effects are created by different types of camera angle For example, when “Grace” was running down the alley we use a handheld shot which was very shaky and not smooth to give the effect that we were seeing things from her perspective. This was effective as it made the atmosphere seem a little more uneasy and scary as we could see things as if we were enduring them. Also when “Grace” runs through the door we get a shot of her walking through the door from above her head. This gives the effect of someone watching her as it is a high angle shot. I also learnt that to make the film seem realistic we needed to make sure than when we cross cut scenes that they can not overlap each other. For example when Grace’s dad is walking down the stairs at the same time that she is we need to make sure that he is at the bottom of the stairs around about the same time that she is at the bottom of the steps. We do this by putting scenes of Grace’s dad in certain places of the film so that it gives the effect of him walking down the stairs the same time as her. I also learnt that you need to add the right sort of effects on to the film to make the feeling of the film different, as you cannot add effects that have a cold feeling to them, if you are trying to make your film a happy and uplifting one.
With our finished media product I learnt that you needed to plan every scene fully and in detail to be able to make the film more effective. If planning was not as in depth it would be hard to make a good media product as it would not have any structure within it and filming would be a lot more difficult. I also learnt that you need to have a variety of angles and shots because if not then the film can seem a bit too repetitive and boring because the same thing is being shown constantly. I also learnt that if time was not organised and scenes were not prepared then we would not have been able to finish our film as quickly because it would have took us longer to do all of the takes. In our preliminary task we used very few camera angles and shots and the sound on the film was very quiet which let the end product down slightly.
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