Scratch - Evaluation

(Mrs Eveleigh - we had internet problems all day yesterday, so haven't been able to upload my final blog until today. Sorry)

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

Our thriller is a very standard thriller-based film, that could lead in many directions. By covering the killer's face, we can incorporate many different suspects, and make it a serial killer too. There is also a fairly long build up to the killing, with it happening very quickly towards the end. We wanted it to come across like this to give the audience a very small amount of background into the male character, and making the killer enter as swiftly as possible. We also decided not to use any red herrings in the opening scene, so as to keep it very standard, very simple and keep it so we can evolve upon the idea in a number of ways if we develop it further. We also created the whole of the action section of our opening as a flashback, and this seemed to work really well with the sepia tone we added in at the editing stage. We think our thriller would best suit a drama-type thriller, as this would enable us to use the material we have to its potential.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social groups represented in our opening are very few, due to the fact that we only have two characters – one main character, and a suspicious character. Our male character is depicted to be a while, middle-aged British male, who is middle-class. The female character is a white, middle-aged British female, who is also middle-class. We don’t directly want to represent our target audience – certainly not in the opening anyway. Doing this makes people want to know what is happening, and how this relates to the rest of the film, specifically the scratching.

We chose to reverse the roles of men and women, with the man being dominant throughout the opening until the woman walks into the room. She then becomes the dominant character, and the male becomes the passive.

Our questionnaires show that our prospective audience is relatively equally split - with 14 of our 25 people being male, and 11 being female. Our film is a 15-certificate, and the age range we're aiming for is 14-18, and our questionnaires came back with 13 being aged between 14-16, 8 aged between 16-18, and 4 were 18+. This proves that we were correct with our social group predictions.

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

I believe that ‘Scratch’ would be developed by a small, independent company, which could then be distributed to a selected number of cinemas, and become a ‘cult’ DVD. I’m basing this decision on the film ‘Paranormal Activity’, which was released to a very few number of cinemas, gained a massive following across the US, and then was distributed by Paramount across the globe, becoming one of the most profitable film ever made, grossing over $140million.

Of the 25 people who took our questionnaire, 5 said the film should go straight onto TV, 13 said into a cinema, and 7 straight onto DVD, so this furtehr backs up our view.

I think it could also interpret new technologies that would give it an upper-hand on the competition. By streaming it over the internet, limiting the viewing to one per IP address, we could advertise the film as the first internet-streamed film, and if people enjoy they could pre-order the DVD straight after.

Along with this, we could write the remainder of the script in a way that it could spawn a sequel. It may not be a direct sequel (i.e. not starting where the first film ended), but could develop another characters story, or follow another killer using the same techniques as in ‘Scratch’. Along with this, a whole brand could be set up, involving video games and merchandise. It could involve the film having to be a major success, however.

Who would be the media audience for your media product?

Ideally, the film is aimed at a 15-25 audience, but there is plenty of flexibility in this. As we know, there are plenty of under-15’s who watch 15-rated movies, and for that reason, we have to look at 13 and 14 year olds as well in our target audience. The gender tends to be male, but females are also prone to watching thriller films.

In the initial idea, the thriller didn’t have a target audience. We designed the storyboard and developed the plot before picking an age rating and a gender, mainly so we could get them right. We felt that picking a target prematurely could result in the wrong film being produced for the wrong age range. Picking our age range gave us an idea eventually of what we wanted to do, and how to edit the footage to appeal to the target.

We have created an opening, mainly consisting of flashbacks, and if we were to create the rest of the film, it would be aimed mainly at our target audience, to keep them enticed. Currently, I don’t think we do appeal to our target, but we appeal to everyone.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Based on our questionnaires, the typical audeince member is male, between 14-16, andwould like to watch the rest of our film. We aimed our film towards the age range, as we think that the likes of James Bond films, and the Bourne Trilogy are all aimed towards a similar audience.

We’ve tried to keep our opening quite subdued, and have the main action straight after the titles. This way, we can try and appeal to other audiences through our opening, and then hone down what we wish to do with the main film. Unfortunately, doing this means we haven’t displayed anything that would appeal to a specific type of people, meaning we have a blank canvas to begin with if the film were put into development.

We have used the camera shots to develop the story, and have chosen to keep them all within the third person to keep some continuity throughout the film. The corridor scene where the male is walking is slightly jerky, but this adds to the effect of the man being flustered and worried. This gives the audience a sense of what the man is feeling, but also adds another dimension by keeping them in the third person.

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

We were led to believe that the cameras would give us professional quality film, but the shots are grainy, and include a muffled sound throughout. Naturally, we were disappointed with what we ended up with, but were able to come to a quick conclusion and decided that using the Macs could lead to a better result. After shooting the first day of film, we decided that using some of the effects on the computers would give us a better outcome than turning it into old footage via the camera. This allowed us to use the grainy footage to our benefit.

We were probably the least fortunate of the groups with technology – we had plenty of days where we couldn’t edit because there was one of three groups using the same computer; the cameras we needed used different film from each other, so there were occasions where we couldn’t film; we also had a couple of days where nothing could be posted to our blogs, because they kept crashing. We had a chat with the other groups, and came up with a rota so we could all edit and finish our films on time, and we filmed after schools and at lunchtimes to ensure we could edit in the slots we were entitled to.

Editing led to us using iMovie, a programme both Naomi and I were new to. It could a bit of getting used to, but we were quite careful with the shots we used, so little editing was needed, and we completed it all in 2 hours. Adding music was relatively simple, as we had chosen a piece from very early on, but changed when we heard something different. This made the process a lot easier, as we could fit our music to the film, rather than the film to the music.

iMovie gave us the ability to create what we wanted, using effects such as sepia, and image stabilization. Doing this enabled us to steady the whole film, giving the illusion that the handheld shots were based on a tripod. It also added to the atmosphere that we wanted – quite suspicious and sympathetic, but then the sudden shock of the man dying.

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

The planning for ‘Scratch’ was quite a simple process, as we had already developed the storyboard provisionally used for the preliminary task. Using this allowed us to begin planning for the film straight away, giving us a head start over the other groups who had to begin from scratch. We drew up an original storyboard, brainstormed ideas for the title and credit typography, and then had the capabilities to begin what we wanted to do.

Research was quite difficult, as the research we did didn’t correlate with the quality of our films. Researching directors like Tarantino and Scorsese didn’t directly link to what we created, but gave us a rough idea of what we were looking at. Looking into things such as small, independent thrillers would have been more beneficial, but the problem is that there is little commercial success in them, so they are very hard to track down.

The script was very straightforward, as the original plan was to have no speech whatsoever, adding to the inquisition. The film developed over the 6 days we spent filming, and adding the small amount of dialogue gives a better look into the female character, as she now sounds like she has killed before. We changed the storyboard to correspond, which made the storyboarding a lot easier too, as we had a basic plan just to keep updating.

Our shooting schedule was changed twice due to the weather conditions, but doing this allowed us to have some extra time to plan and update our blogs, and to correct the mistakes in our planning for ‘Scratch’. Our shooting schedule didn’t really help aid our film, but made the process slightly easier, as we had shots grouped together. This way, even if we didn’t keep to the day, we could keep to the shot selection, and this helped us keep the time used to shoot to a minimum.

Shot selection was quite difficult, as we had to portray the changing moods of the male character. Using the 180° rule allowed for the continuity to flow throughout the film, and the match on action gave us the opportunity to show off what we learned during the preliminary task. This was made easier by the use of technology throughout the process. Since the preliminary task, we have learned a lot about the cameras and equipment we were using, so things became a lot quicker to set up, and a lot easier to use as well.

The task brief was to create ‘the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes’. We believe, with the materials available to us, that we have done a very good job with ‘Scratch’. We have come up with an original idea, that has the capacity to be developed into a successful film, and we did this with efficiency and in the quality that we could. Our preliminary task gave us a good start, and the planning and changing of our storyboard, script and shooting schedules enabled us to show how we work under pressure.

We showed that we can create something good out of very little, and displayed our media knowledge in the ways we filmed. We kept to the continuity principals, and stuck to the brief, giving us a product we can certainly be proud of.