Semiotic Analysis

The Film Opens with a long shot of the young woman walking down the hill and over the fence. I did this to show how small the woman was compared to how big the woodlands is and to show that the woods had power over the woman because it would be so easy for her to get lost. No birds are singing which signifies that something unnatural/ bad is going on as normally birds sing and they dont when something bad is going to happen. I then cut to a close up shot of the womans face looking around her as if to say she thinks someone is following her and i did this to create a feeling of uneasiness. The shot from behind the wall is again to make the woman look small but also to make it seem to the audience that someone is watching the woman from behind the wall as well so it makes the atmosphere tense. There are several more shots from various angles which also make it feel like the woman is being watched which again increases the tension. There is a shot with the machete stuck into a fallen tree. The machete signifys that there is violence coming up but also the woman is the only person in the shot so it means that the blade is intended for her.
The woman hears a sound and turns around and catches a glimpse of something behind a tree. I did this so the audiences heart rate would increase as they know that something is now following the woman. She turns around and walks away quickly and then there is a point of view shot of her Red shoes. I used this shot to show that the girls walking pace had quickened but also that you could get a good shot of her shoes which are red which signify blood and violence. Also the red colour is jarring to the eyes compared to the darker and plainer colours surrounding the woman. The fast shots cutting between the feet of the lurker and the point of view of the lurker chasing after the woman make the audiences heart beat faster and increases the tension as the audience want her to realise that she is being chased and to get away. I ended the clip before the woman got caught to make the audience want to see more and find out what had happens to the woman. I chose the music for the media product because they had a lot of long notes in them which makes the audience hold there breath sub-conciously which therefore increases their heart rate too adding to the tension even more.

Final Synopsis/ The Pitch

I think that my film would be 'The Village (M.Night Shyamalan, 2004) meets Friday the 13th(Sean S. Cunningham, 1980)'.

Group Scenario

Currently my group consists of just me.

I was going to work with my friend Sam White but we both had different ideas that we wished to try so we both decided to work seperately.

The idea i settled on using was the one that i described in my initial ideas.

See: http://conormedia.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-initial-ideas.html

After the first two minutes i would probably develop the film to have some more characters (mixed ethnicity to attract other audiences), Ihave already shown part of the central antagonist in my film opening so i would develop his character and also introduce the central protagonist (probably a girl with brown hair to fit the stereotypes) to eventually combat his evil.

Evaluation

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

• My media product uses a number of forms and conventions, for instance the setting of the product is in a big isolated patch of woodland, the character who gets stalked in my media product is a Woman with blond hair who is sexually available which is a convention of Horror films. Also the music which i used has long notes which make the audience hold their breath and also makes the atmosphere tense and in the chase scene i incorporated a heartbeat into the background of the music which makes the product tense too.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• My media product represents the C2 social group as my character is from the C2 social group but i expect that my product would appeal to the C1C2DE social groups too but this shouldnt exclude the A and B social groups as they may want to watch it, for instance if they were big horror movie fans but if they were not im not too sure it would be likely for this type of film too appeal to them. The female character is a C2 class public school pupil who is wearing uniform signifiying that she is somewhere between the age of 11-16 meaning that she could be in year 7-11.

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

• Although I would like my product to tap into the mainstream, UK-wide or worldwide audience most films that depict the North of England are limited with their box office success. There are some exceptions to this with some films such as Billy Elliot and Trainspotting but this is mainly because they are very unique movies and appeal to quite a lot of people for many various reasons. I would expect it is most likely that my product would be distibuted by a smaller company or an Indie company as these do not strictly apply to a mainstream audience and take on films from relatively unknown directors. Some of these companies are Warp Films, Working Title and Film4 and if they thought that my media product was good i would hope that one of these companys would distribute it for me.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• The audience for my media product would be 15-34/18-34 depending on whether i decided to take it down a more brutal and gory path. But mainly it would be 15-34 because the media product would be unsuitable for younger audiences but maybe not interest older audience members . Having a teenage actor should heighten the appeal to a teenage audience.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

• I attracted my audience by using a white female actor which should appeal to a white and male audience. Later in the movie i would also introduce more actors/ actresses of different ethnicities which should help bring in a wider audience. I would also try to publicise the movie by getting advertisements on social websites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter which many people use every day and also maybe in popular magazines too so my media product would be advertised to as wide an audience as possible.

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

• Since starting this project i have learnt a lot about various media technologies. For instance the iMovie HD program on the school Apple Macs. I used this program to edit my media product but before starting this project i had limited knowledge of how to use the program (from the preliminary task) but i used the tutorials on the apple website to increase my understanding of how to use it. I also learnt how to use the camcorder and tripod during the actual filming of the media product which i had never used before before the occasion. Even though i didnt use any of my own music in my media product (all from copyright free websites) i had a look on Garageband and leant how to us the basics of the program.

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

• I have Learnt that even though working in a large group is hard because of many conflicting opinions and ideas it would probably have been easier to work in a pair than on my own as the workload was greatly increased and due to this my organisation for the project was greatly below standard so i ended up having to do a lot of it towards the end of the time given for the project. Taking this information into account i think that the quality of my final media product could have been better but i am quite happy with the final cut anyway.

Altogether in my opinion the project turned out good but i should have worked in a pair so the workload would be less and the work i completed would have been of a higher quality and also i should have been more organised at the start of the project and i think this would have increased the quality of the work that i have produced too.

Audience Feedback

I showed my production to my media class and some of the feedback i got was:

'The music is good'

'Red Shoes are a good idea for a Signifier'

'Liked the heartbeat because it goes in time with the music'

'The stalking shots were great'

'The music helped add to the tension a lot'

'The setting for the production was good because its a stereotypical horror scenario'

'The machete Camera shot was Imaginative and good cinematography'

'It made me want to continue watching and see what happened to the woman'

In the end i got mainly positive reviews but in my opinion there was a couple of things i could have made better.

1. As the film builds up to the part with the stalker the shots could have become much shorter and quicker to increase tension and also some of the shots at the beginning were very short and switched to very long which when i watched it i felt was quite annoying but something that i could not change as it would ruin the whole of the clip.
2. Because i filmed it on a number of days the lighting was different in a couple of shots which meant it switched between lights and darks alot so i would try and film it on days with about the same amount of light.
3. In the scene when the woman starts to run the speeds of the feet point of view shot and the speed of her running in a mid shot didnt really match so i would try and correct this.

Target Audience & BBFC

My Initial rating for the film is 15 - 24 as there is a sense of violence in the opening of the film indicated by the Machete so it definately would not be suitable for minors but it also may not appeal as much to older audiences as much as there doesnt seem to be much of a storyline and they might just shrug it off as a horror - flick. I think it might appeal to horror movie fans but also to children under the age of 15 may try to view it by illegal/ legal downloads off the web, Streaming or Pirate/ legal DVDs because they may think it can give them credibility among their peers as they have seen a movie with a high age rating.

I may change the rating from 15-24 to 18-34 as if i decided to use more violence and unsuitable materials it would become unsuitable for 15-17 year olds as well and also i could add more of an exciting storyline which would appeal to older veiwers as well.


In my produuction so far i have no actors of a different ethnicity other than white so i would lose soem of potential viewing from the different cultures but later on in the movie there is the potential for actors f different cultures to be introduced into the story so i could regain some viewers then.


The production will mainly be viewed by males as its a horror movie but there is a girl in the opening minutes of the movie so that might appeal to a female audience but also i could have a tough, resourceful girl/women as the final character which would draw still more females to wards viewing my production. This would also help out with the male viewers as if i hired a pretty actress to play the tough, resourceful girl/women it would keep the males interested (Male Gaze Theory). The movie could also be used for dates so that would appeal to still more people.

It think that my production would appeal to C1C2DE audience as most of my characters are middle class - upper middle class and also im a relatively unknown director so i wouldnt have enough credibility yet to appeal to an upper class audience.

The actress i used has a northern english accent which means the film would have a harder time at the box office but because she does not speak in the clip this shouldnt be too much of a problem.Also you cant really identify the location of where the film is set so i could say that the film is set in southern england which would probably make it more popular.

here is the guidelines for 15 year old age rated movie by the BBFC: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/c_15.php

here is the guidelines for 18 year old age rated movies by the BBFC: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/c_18.php

Final Cut