AS G321: Evaluation - Attracting the Audience

How did you attract/address your audience?

For this question, Sophie and I asked a group of people what they thought of our main task production and what they disliked in a Questionnaire. We did this so that we had enough feedback to make a valid conclusion that our film attracted our target audience (15+).

	What do you like about our film?	Do you like the sound used?	What do you dislike about our film?	Would you watch the rest of the film?
Person 1 (Age 15):	Ambient Sounds Allows the audience to meet the main character.	I like the ambient sounds as it creates a real atmosphere.	The typeface could be more horrific by special effects.	Yes, I would watch the film because the tension slowly builds up which draws the audience in.
Person 2 (Age 19):	I like the narrative so far in the opening because it is creepy and alarming. The dip to black transitions.	Yes, I like the suspenseful music in the back ground, it work well with the scene.	Some of the shots don’t work smoothly.	Yes, I would because I particularly take interest in stalker related films.
Person 3 (Age 25):	Interesting storyline presented with little dialogue.	Yes, the music is very soft yet creepy and unsettling.	There aren’t many special effects or unique aspects.	Yes, I take interest in horror films.

We asked three different aged people a range of questions to see whether their answers met our expectations. 

Interestingly, Person 3 (aged 25) took much interest into the film and understood that it were in the horror genre. We decided not to tell the group what genre our film was in order to see if we incorporated horror conventions. The sound certainly helps make this assumption as it is very low pitched and disquieting. 

Overall, from this Questionnaire we gathered a more specific age group that would be attracted to our film, and this was ages 16-28. This was because younger ages would understand the themes more thoroughly, since it applies to technology and young women's vulnerability. Tension builds up soon after the opening, and this would attract to most young ages such as 15+ (person 1). Being scared and frightened is part of the horror movie 'experience'. If we had a more fast introduction to the movie, it would reveal too much causing the audience to make an initial decision whether or not they would want to watch the rest of the movie, which could possibly decrease the amount of viewers.

Fortunately, a lot of the audience we talked to, said they would be more than happy to watch the rest of the film in their local cinema and would suit most people's interests.

AS G321: Evaluation - Distribution

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

Our horror film would be distributed by 'Loinsgate films' which was founded in 1962 in Montreal and their headquarters are in California, US and Santa Monica. This institution has distributed various horror films including The Cabin in the Woods, The Last Exorcism and The Abandoned. 

In particular, The Cabin in the Woods had a budget of $30 million and earned a worldwide total of $65.9 million where the highest grossing countries were the United Kingdom ($8.5 million), France ($2.4 million) and Russia ($2.3 million). The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 92%, based on 253 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. 

From this data, it is clear to say that 'Lionsgate films' would be a great to distribute our film as many positive reviews are given to the movies that attracted a mass audience. However, realistically our film was created on a very low budget and uses no special effects therefore, is most likely to be an independent film such as Ex Machina which grossed $25 million on a low budget. 


Furthermore, we could release the film on different platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. This is because we will have limited distribute costs therefore, these are cheaper platform for the target audience to watch it rather than going to the cinema. 

AS G321: Evaluation - Representation

How does your media production represent particular social groups?

In our final media production both genders are represented, however, the male stalker is not identified at this point in time. We decided to keep the primary character female because most likely in horror films, a male is considered the most important as they will end up being the 'hero' of the 'damsel in distress'. Therefore, to contradict this, we used a woman to represent the film and themes that are involved. 

Women are usually sexualised within this genre which is one of the reasons why horror movies are rated 15/18. However, our media production does not include any sexual references, as our target audience is for young teens and it may be inappropriate to show our main actress this way especially since her lifestyle seems very professional. 

We decided to present female representation and social class through a video where we use a whiteboard and marker to simply show why we chose a character of colour and what statistics were shown for black actors/actresses. 

The female stereotype of being innocent and vulnerable is emphasised within the film as she does not yet have a 'hero' to protect her from danger, which could possibly represent her weakness at this point in time. Whereas the stalker in the film is already portrayed as a dominant and tough character who is a danger to 'Ava'. 

Gender stereotypes goes back to the 1800's, it was only in the 1960's feminists made movements and gained supporters and questioning the female stereotypes. Women are often objects of beauty and domesticity, often appeared as seductive or as mentioned above sexualised. Most films especially of the horror genre don't acknowledge womens strength, power and independence, in fact they are usually portrayed as unrealistic and hyper-attractive. However, it is becoming more common especially in the sci-fi franchise such as the Hunger Games and Divergent to include women of courage and force.

Therefore, within our film we wanted to show the independence of women especially in the middle class who are of colour. This is because, the audience do not have to feel empathy for an unrealistic female, as this wouldn't add realism or horror over a everyday hard working woman. Overall, we are happy with our choice of character because it challenges the female representation in current horror movies. 

AS G321: Evaluation Using, Developing and Challenging Media Conventions

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

In this section I will be discussing whether our final media production is similar to those already dispatched or if it challenges/develops the typical horror conventions.

A horror movie would generally follow this criteria/guideline:

Setting

• Isolated places - Dark woods, abandoned houses, subways, lakes, cabins, fields etc.

Camera

• High and Low angles, POV's, slow tilts/pans, handheld shots and extreme close ups.

Iconography

• Visual style - red and black connote fear, darkness and danger.
• Iconography of monsters connote extreme fear, disgust or terror.
• Lighting - Dark, low-key lighting and shadows. Lighting is usually natural such as bonfires, fireplaces and torches.

Themes

• Good vs Evil - Religion - Depression - Revenge - Insanity - Madness - Death

Once we had finished editing our final film opening, we decided to do a Directors commentary discussing the production and why we decided to film it this way. We talked about the lighting, sound, colour and camera techniques and those of which worked well with the horror theme. 

Film Annotations

I used Microsoft Powerpoint to illustrate my annotations because it is quick and easy to use as well as it being a good way to present my points to other viewers and peers.

This porcelain tea set that we used in our media production similarly is used in The Woman in Black opening which I deconstructed. I discussed how it is very fragile and delicate which is considered creepy, as in most horror movies little girls in particular are 'playing' with them.