Evaluation

We started to answer the evaluation questions to create part of the main evaluation.

These are the critical evaluation questions:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During the filming we thought about the continuity and did not need to edit it to abide by the rules. There is a minimal amount of dialogue in our sequence, which means we had to work harder to build suspense through the shots, mise en scene and acting. The language of the film therefore reflected this and was also minimalistic, using only enough to start to introduce the character. For example, the dialogue is the main character speaking to her mother on the phone. This allows the audience members to put her into perspective and form a closer bond with her because they can relate to her in some way – i.e. that she has a family, and people that care about her, as do they. Therefore the thought that something bad will eventually happen to her is more foreboding.
It fulfils the contractual nature of the horror genre as it is ‘jumpy’ and there is a lot of suspense. It is left on a cliff-hanger which makes the audience want to watch on and find out what happens later on. From the beginning the suspense is built on.
The narrative conventions we have set out are in chronological order as we thought in a 2 minute sequence this would be easier for an audience to follow, whereas any jumping around this early on would be too confusing.
We used props to add to the feel of the sequence and enhance the idea of it being a horror film. We used a phone half way through which made the character jump, and gave her some books to drop which made a loud sound when they hit the floor and added to the idea that she was on edge, and added to the feeling of the piece.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience we are aiming our product at are teenage thrill seekers, probably ages 12 and up.
We were trying to provide a thrilling viewing experience for the audience, and we felt that mostly we delivered on this promise. There is a lot of suspense throughout our sequence, which continues to mount, finally coming to a head at the end where the cupboard door is slammed shut as if someone is pushing it, even though the house is supposedly empty.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In the preliminary exercises our main mistake was continuity, which meant we had to cut out a considerable amount of footage in order to correct this. In the main task therefore we kept a closer eye on the continuity of the shots so that we would not loose any footage when it came to the editing. In the shot involving the main character walking up the stairs we only discovered when it came to the editing that there was a crew members’ hand in the shot which we had not noticed or planned for before. However on reflection we decided that this could be used to show that there was someone else in the house of whom the main character was apparently unaware, and so instead of loosing valuable footage in trying to correct this, we decided to leave it in and let it add to the audience’s tension.

Are there any ‘intertextual’ moments where you hint at a reference to another film?
Our original film idea was based on Gothika, merely because of the reference to someone being possessed to bring someone to justice (although there is no possession shown in the sequence we shot). However there is no reference in the sequence which is particularly noticeable.