Evaluation Question 7 - Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task. What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Your Final Product?

The preliminary task was set up for us to get a feel of filming different types of shots and then using these shots to practise using Final Cut with a continuity exercise. I have uploaded my preliminary outcome on a past blog.

Final Cut Editing Software.

From this i have a learnt a large variety of skills and techniques which have been with me through the whole process of filming and editing of our production "Red Run".  Since this task at the very start of the term we have learnt a great deal to get us to where we are now. The final cut.
In our first rough cut, the main criticism we received was that we lacked shot diversity and continuity, this was because we used a small number of long takes on each scene. This is bad because long takes make the scene or shots less believable, especially on a film where the doll is a serial killer. These longer shots were also not advised because it was a bore to the audience, and most modern horror films consist of a large number and variety of shots on each scene to keep the audience hooked on the screen. Another piece of criticism we gained from this was the shaky camera work and un-wanted background digetic sound, by this we worked out that this had to be changed as it has a very negative effect on the final outcome of the film as it influences the overall quality, the film could also be represented as social realist.
By doing all these things I feel i have a lot better knowledge of media and how it's done and run, as every shot can tell something about the film or character using semiotics, for example, if you say there was a low angle shot of a doll with a knife inside a messy males teenage room you will think to yourself that, this doll is more powerful and in control than everything else because of the low angle, the knife suggests it's a possible slasher as that is usual weapon of choice for a killer in a slasher and that is known throughout the slasher audience. The teenage room may suggest that, well, the scene is in a teenage boys room. But there ways you can emphasise this and make this clear, such as adding posters of models or sport icons to the mise-en-scene. This can also tell the characters personality as well, models could be sign that hes straight and possibly sexually active & the sport posters can conote that he's active/sporty and could be a possible "jock" character referring to the slasher genre.

We have tried to take all these into consider when planning and filming and have always re-filmed shots that we weren't happy about. As you can see what we are accomplishing now is a much higher standard than of what I did for the preliminary course, editing, filming and knowledge wise. To ensure the highest of quality also, we took on all feedback from the rough cuts and changed and improved things to get it right for the next rough cut and finally the final finished product.

Also, Since my Preliminary task, i feel as though i am a lot more organised and definitely more efficient with work and deadlines, at the start of the year we didn't take the blogging as serious as i should which got us behind, since catching up again however i have had a dramatical change in my organisation and time keeping and me and Dillon more or less stuck to every rough cut deadline.

Evaluation Question 6 - What Have You Learnt About The Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

As a individual i learned a lot about the processes of making a film, such as how'd they come up with a storyline and put it on screen as well as filming techniques, shot variations, location and appearance etc, all vital and represent characteristics in a film. For example the shot variations; a Low angle shot will tend to be used to make the character in centre frame powerful and in control and the opposite for Low angle shots, a dutch angle (tilted frame) is also used to signify thats something isn't quite right, they are in danger and something may happen to them. I am also going to use the location and appearance as another example, the location being vital as it needs to be known global if you want it to appeal to a world wide audience such as the US, therefore it will need to be in the countryside, southern england, London or have a Castle/Mansion as this is what the global audience think of England. Wherever we are not trying to appeal to a global audience so ours is set in Northern England, West Yorkshire in a average semi-detached house. We are appealing to a UK indie audience so they know how England  actually is, they would see the location used in "Red Run" as a typical average home which also has the ability to place them in their shoes as this event could happen to anyone and add to the scare effect. The appearance is important because it adresses specific audiences / times or genres. Ours being a average appearance of a male and female teen. 

Ellie; The "Scream Queen" Character in "Red Run"

Dillon; The "Jock" character in "Red Run"

The female teen in this film would be thought of as a Scream Queen because she is Blonde and shares other characteristics of a typical Scream Queen, and we used her for these reasons.

The male teen, is thought to be a Jock in a slasher film, very much like the scream queen, however they are sporty, often have a unique appearance in american slasher films and tend to be sexually active. Dillon's cap and sweater emphasise these points.

Now for what i have learnt about the technicality side of producing our product. First off iMovie, Final Cut and Garage band. Before i took this course i had no experience at all with these programmes but now however i am able to use them happily with little guidance and i have done throughout the process of making "Red Run". We used Garage band for the soundtrack for Red Run, and i was pleased with the result. For the editing however was done on Sony Vegas 10 as i am very familiar with the software and by doing this we also had more editing time as if we were to edit on the school computers it would have to be at lunch times and in free's. I have also learnt a lot making mine and the company ident, these were both on Cinema 4D and After Effects, i had also used these programmes many times before but i learnt a lot watching tutorials and making these final idents.

Evaluation Question 5 - How Did You Attract/Adress Your Audience

We planned to attract our audience through the originality of the film but also the intertextuality with Childs Play as we used a doll coming to life, as the killer. Childs Play (1988), which had a budget of $9 Million, and as of March 1989, made around $33 Million in the USA only, this received a massive global audience and we could use this to attract a audience to our film. People also may be attracted to this film because they may have not seen something like this film before if they haven't seen Childs Play before, and even they have this film has something different about it, that we are using as a unique selling point, as we have twisted the role of the scream queen character (blonde hair, busty, etc) and made her into a final girl character, but the "jock" character dies so not all Slasher rules have been changed.
 Audience, the characters very much relate to the audience as they are similar and inside the 15-24 target audience, They are also casually dressed  and in a average house, this could make the audience think this could happen to anyone or someone in the audience as well, this adds to the emotional factor of the film and increasing the effect of the scares and events in the film.


We also attracted the audience through the female character like most films do, using a attractive (scream queen) female as a main character. This attracts male audiences because of the female attracting the "male gaze", meaning men like to watch films to watch "hot" female's/actresses.

The other character, the male is considered to be a "Jock", the male version of a "Scream Queen", these males tend to be the boyfriend of a scream queen in which this case that is true, they also tend to be sporty and subjected to the "female gaze."

Stereotypical "Jock" in a US Slasher

Typical Scream Queen

Dillon and I also added a touch of narrative enigma and increased suspense in the film opening, we did this by hinting that the doll is going to come to life, "Its not going to kill me, is it?" this was spoken by the male after the doll was given to him by the female. This narrative enigma adresses the audience well by playing with them, the audience know that the doll coming to life is inevitable adding to suspense as they just don't know when or who the doll we strike.

We were also able to address the audience with the help of digitization by using the social networking sites facebook and twitter, by using these we're enabling ourselves and our production to be accessible by thousands over the internet, mostly family and friends, but they are also open to give us feedback on how to improve the media product and get a good insight in what the audience are looking for and want.

Evaluation Question 4 - Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

I feel that our target audience should be around 15-24 (BFCC) years of age. Our film matches such criteria of a 15 film after doing some research, our film includes sex references, violence and gore, But not as extreme enough to move it onto 18 film which would also change our target audience in a way.
The "guideline" for a 18 film is as follows,

• where the material is in breach of the criminal law, 

or has been created through the commission of a 

criminal offence 

• where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to 

risk harm to individuals or, through their behavior, 

to society – for example, any detailed portrayal of 

violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, 

which may cause harm to public health or morals. 

This may include portrayals of sexual or sexualised 

violence which might, for example, eroticise or 

endorse sexual assault 

• where there are more explicit images of sexual 

activity which cannot be justified by context. Such 

images may be appropriate in ‘R18’ works, and in 

‘sex works’ (see below) would normally be confined 

to that category. 

This would also be the same with a 15, but less extreme and smaller references.

Therefore I think our film should be rated a 15.

I have also chosen the target audience to be from 15-24 because the actors played are 17, this can then relate to the audience, adding to the thrill/scare effect, a teen is also more likely to want to watch teens in a thriller than adults, being a teen myself. We also chose this target as it's a well known fact that horror/slasher films are more popular with the teenage audience. Although adults may want to watch this as it has intertextuality with Childs Play therefore fans of this franchise may be intrigued to view our film. But older adults will not tend to watch these kind of films, being as its a horror with a what you could say childish story, having a doll as the killer, older adults are also more into more serious or fictional films. With our film being a similar story to Child’s Play, we can relate our audience to theirs and I know that Red Run will gain a big audience as Child’s Play (1988) grossed $6,583,000 in its opening weekend on 1377 screens and $44,196,684 (Worldwide).

Evaluation Question 3 - What Kind Of media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why/

Our company Ls29 Productions produced our working title "Red Run" with virtually no budget and would be considered/classed as a indie company.
Our production, Red Run is a low budget film because it has no "known" or professional actors, little props, a already allocated free located (dillons house). And for these reasons no big distributor would be interested in this film, as it would be classed as a too bigger risk, as they may lose reputation and make no profit.
Therefore the audience for this film would be people who enjoy watching indie films, like at Uk film festivals etc, and the distribution company would also be Indie, as they are more likely to take the risks as there only dealing with small amounts of money and little reputation, it is also to make profit on these films as there is next to nothing budgets compared to Hollywood productions with films ranging to over $200 million.

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So I reckon Red Run would be suited to a low budget indie company such as Optimum Releasing or Warp X , a company that produces cheap films such as Dead Mans Shoes (2004) which had a budget of £723,000 and went to box office. Present digitisation also allows us to promote our production cheaply and easily using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter therefore increasing profit by spending less and getting it out more. Another useful way to keep distribution cheap is that now, instead of spending thousands on producing film reels, you are now able to transfer the film on a hard drive for less that £30 which you can now put in cinemas because of the massive investment to make it easier and more accessible for low budget unknown film producers to compete with bigger production and distribution company's, such as Universal, Columbia, Paramount etc. 

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A likely company to distribute our film Red Run would be Warp X, the subsidiary of the indie British producer and distributor  Warp Films. Warp X was created to enable new film producers to come out with the help of digitization, new technology enabling producers make films with small budgets as well as distributing with smaller budgets using the power of social networking sites.

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