Evaluating my film!

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I believe that our media production uses similar techniques to other films as it uses music to fit with its particular genre. The genre of our film is a horror/thriller. The sound effects at the very start set the scene and introduce the genre to the audience. This happens in most films, they set the scene and then the main body of the film begins. Our film can be compared to those such as ‘Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets’ and ‘The Others’. They are both non-fiction and ‘Harry Potter’ is a fantasy, comparable with the storyline of our film, ‘The Others’ however fits with the same sort of genre making it similar in many ways (e.g. the use of ghosts and myths). Our film fits very stereotypically into the genre of a thriller and a horror. There are many stereotypical characters and scenes that conform to these particular genres within the film.


How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There are many different social groups with our film. One of these is South African- the teacher who is talking to the intrigued young girl, Grace (played by Naomi Zetter). He represents South African teachers and can also be representing middle aged men at the same time. Others social groups that are represented in our film are teenage girls, the young girl Grace in the film represents the girls of her generation. We were hoping that the audience would be able to relate to Grace in terms of the way she is dressed and the language she uses (the vocabulary she uses) when talking to her friends. Another social group that is represented in one of the shots is Grace’s peer group. This social group represents the peer groups as a whole; the other students who are the same age as her and many share the same interests, also representing friendships.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A very well known institution such as Paramount Pictures could distribute our film to the cinemas such as the Odeon. They would also advertise our film on other institutional channels such as the BBC or Film4. By advertising the film on channels such as these it is more likely to be more popular as these institutions are so popular.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
As the genre to my film is thriller/horror the traditional audience would be late teens. Teenagers aged around 16-18. This film can appeal to both female and males as there are segment that would entertain both sexes.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt many different things, such as how to use the editing software on the Apple macs; I found it particularly difficult when saving our film as it would only let us safe it as a finished file, and then it would save it automatically to the computer system. This was frustrating as I couldn’t save the unfinished (unedited) film to my external hard drive as a back up. We had to share the Apple mac computers so it was lucky that our work didn’t get deleted. I have also learnt how to put the shots together neatly so they flow nicely and how the shot transitions are important.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from the full product?
I have learnt how to film different shots with a video camera, how to use a video camera in terms of zooming in and out and pausing it to change shots and many other technical things to do with the video camera and the editing. Personally I have learnt how to work well in a group and share responsibilities evenly, improvise and use time wisely when the actors don’t turn up to shoot a scene.


For my AS Media project Sam Johnson and I created and produce the first two minutes of a film. The outline of the film is that a young girl called Grace Cullen comes across a myth of a late school professor. The professor is rumoured to be haunting the school grounds. One by one Grace’s family and friends are found dead and the story come to a close with Grace discovering the true murderer.

For the required first two minutes of this film we set the scene and introduced the main Character Grace. The background story is told to help the audience in understanding the idea of the myth.

After showing our class our film they gave us their opinion on things they felt we could have improved on and things they thought were good. Some of the negative feedback included not being able to hear the girl (Grace) as she was talking to her friend outside the gate. We had noticed that the background noise for that particular scene was making it difficult to hear what was being said but we couldn’t determine how to fix that particular problem. The audience also commented on having some different angled shots of the teacher whilst he was talking. We felt that this would have been a good idea although we were pressed for time.

Some of the positive feedback we got from the class included the beginning of our film, the ghostly shadowed figure standing in the corridor, and the shots zooming in on it. They also commented on the panning shots and the credits at the beginning flowing well. Also ‘The Black Rose’ title was commented on as being effective and that the use of the bell (sound effect) was a good way to juxtapose the dark shot and the light shots of the corridor.

We tried to use many different techniques whilst filming the different shots in the film. For instance we used match on action, over the shoulder shot and the 180 degree rule. We thought very carefully about our shots, from the angle of the camera to the mise-en-scene. The mise-en-scene of the teacher talking was an important shot as the audience needed to be able to understand that he was a teacher. I think that we established this well as the whiteboard in the shot can connote a classroom environment and so can the desk. This should have been clear anyway though as we established that setting at the very beginning with the panning shots of the school.

Over all I felt that our film was a success and we achieved a lot during our experience of producing, directing and creating this short piece of film. If I was to do it again I would make sure the people who I choose to act in our film, have a lot of free time for the filming.