Evaluation: Reuben.

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

Our film intro follows most of the conventional forms of a J Horror film. We have included asian actors, dark lighting and heavy make-up to follow these conventions. Many J Horror films may film outside to get a spooky and scary setting whilst using nature to help out. However we have challenged this horror convention by filming entirely inside. The place we have filmed cannot be clearly made out as it is predominately dark. Which is good because we don't want it to look tacky or like a school or something we have not thought about. Our characters are also very typical of a J Horror, as we have used both Asian actors. I think it is important to use Asian actors when doing J Horror otherwise it can seem cheap and tacky and people will not get it if certain conventions are not followed. Certain conventions must obviously be followed to attract your audience.

Often in horror films the evil character is distinctive because of the costume he/she is wearing. We have gone with an all white dress (albeit a dressing gown was the original idea). The white dress indicates purity and angelic features, marred by the evil that is apparent in her face. Most successful J Horror make it clear what a character represents by how they are dressed, this is usually white or black so you could say we have followed the conventions in most part.  

In regards to out intro alone, it might not look as dramatic or as horrific as conventional J Horror films try to portray at the beginning of their films. As our background setting is basically pitch black, with a spotlight focusing on the action, we are unable to really create a horror feel in regards to the background and creating a setting that shows horror. Before the pitch black room, we film from the library which is in daylight. However most J Horror films may try and create a mysterious background, whereas our background looks pretty normal throughout. Certainly nothing that suggests horror at least in the library scene.                      

Lots of films in general, including Horror and J Horror decide to use a narrative at various points, including the intro. In the end we decided against a narrative, although we had seriously considered it for a number of weeks. Eventually towards the end of the film making and editing, we decided against it. Partly because we couldn't come up with a good narrative. Also some of us, including myself, felt the music would be better throughout as apposed to a narrative. This is because music often shapes the story and the images that are being shown, it also allows the audience to interpret in their own way and doesn't give too much away so early on in the film.

Our product appears to fit in to the typical genre of J Horror and doesn't really include any other genres or sub genres. Our idea is slightly similar to 'The Ring' where there is a mysterious Asian girl dressed in white with scary make up, and she is haunted. We have tried to replicate  this idea in our own way and have used the idea of wearing white and the make up have been added very effectively. In 'The Ring' the girls comes out the TV, and we had originally hoped to have in our version, Yuki (Jamila) coming out of the comic book. However this was very hard to produce and reflect convincingly on camera so we had to alter this and make something that could be shown clearly and professionally.

As explained  'The Ring' had originally been the main influence behind our film idea, and although we didn't go with Jamila coming out of the comic book (similar to The Ring but instead the TV) we were still influenced by the film in regards to costume and make up. We were not specifically influenced by any particular directors however having looked at Spike Lee in earlier coursework and done research on him we were motivated and encouraged by some of the work he had produced.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As our film is a J Horror the characters are not really represented in any sort of social background.  You could say Natsuko (Zainab) is the normal school girl, from an ordinary middle class family and of course Yuki (Jamila) is some sort of evil spirit and cannot be represented in terms of social class.

We do not have any male actors in our film intro, and it is likely that we wouldn't of had any in the entire film, unless perhaps brief appearances/cameo roles. There are just the two characters in our film intro, both female and Asian, and both are represented very differently. We have the innocent and normal Natsuko and then the very evil, mysterious and supernatural human being Yuki.

The only ethnic group that has been represented is Asian as it is a Japanese Horror it would appear to make the most sense to have Asian actors, otherwise the film may not have been taken seriously, and some may regard it offensive if the chosen characters or actors are not appropriate. This is also why we didn't include any other ethnic groups, and we felt that the two characters we have shown in the intro were sufficient and we didn't need anyone else to be shown.

As mentioned there are only two characters in our film intro, and these are both female teenagers. They are represented in two different ways, despite being of the same social background. Good and normal contrasting with evil and supernatural.


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

The oldest film company in J Horror is Nikkatsu ,founded in 1912. Our film would be a Major Studio based Japanese Horror film. Major film studios is a movie production and distribution company that releases films annually and consistently. Both might be interested in distributing our product because they are open to new ideas and new propositions and our very highly rated and successful which is why they would interest us. They would allow our film to be shown universally and spread the film as far as possible. We have also researched into Toho Ltd, a Japanese film and theatre production and distribution company. They look at all sorts of J Horror films and would be interested in our ideas, and might look to distribute it. As well as studio Ghibli who make Anime films. If ever we were interested in animation based films we would look to get involved with studio Ghibli. We have researched these particular Japanese companies, in making sure we know what production company we are looking for.


Who would be the audience for your product?

Our target audience is people aged 15 and over. This means our film is mainly aimed at teenagers from 15-21 either male of female. However there is no limit, anyone over 15 can watch, or may be interested in the film.This is because we have some conventional horror scenes in our movie, however there is nothing inappropriate and or too gory to show young teenagers. There is no sexual scenes or that which involves drugs and alcohol. A film can be scary without being an 18, and we felt by making it 15+ it would allow for a greater audience to watch our film. The audience are important because they determine the impact of many forms of media. In the film industry the target audience of a film affects all aspects of how a film is written and portrayed. If the audience does not like the film then it will have no chance to succeed. A film must interest your chosen target audience to have any chance of success. We have insured our film intro appeals to teenagers and horror fans by including most of the typical horror conventions, using actors around the same age as the target audience, and trying to make it come across as current and original.

We have reflected our teenage audience by making the film a 15+ therefore allowing most of our target audience to watch it. Some people may suggest a successful and scary horror film should have an 18 certificate, but it does not necessarily work like that. We also decided against making it 18 as it is not extreme violence and we feel we would benefit more from allowing 15,16, and 17 year olds to watch, and get a greater audience watching.

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience by including most horror conventions, and using camera techniques that would interest or attract our viewers. We tried our best to make it original and although following the conventions adding our own twists. We tried to imagine we were the audience and think about what we would look for in a film and specifically in a J Horror film. We also referred to our questionnaires. We used the results from our questionnaires to see what people were interested in and looked for. This allowed us to aim for this in our film, thereby appealing and addressing our audience and their demands. The questonnaire results also helped us choose an appropriate BBFC for our film, and what people thought was an appropriate age.

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

When we started the preliminary we were all very inexperienced as filmers and actors, bar a few in the group who had done some drama work. However none of us had done anything of this scale and it was a major learning curve for all of us. However when faced with the proposition of a film intro we felt more confident as we had made a preliminary and although there was a lot that could have been improved, we knew this was our chance to learn from our mistakes and make all the necessary ammenments from the preliminary. There is no doubt that the film intro was much more effective and enjoyable than the preliminary. This was partly down to the fact we had a lot more freedom as to what we wanted to film and how we wanted to film it. On starting the preliminary we all felt a little phased and daunted by the prospect and began clueless. It took us an awfully long time to get all the filimg down. This was due to inexperienced filmers and the actors weren't so sure about how to position themselves and be fully aware of the camera. My role changed drastically from the preliminary, where I was one of the actors. This involved repeating a lot of scenes and going over things time after time, and it got quite tiring. Sometimes we as the actors weren't 100% accurate in what we were doing, other times the filimg wasn't up to scratch. We also had certain guidelines to follow which didn't allow us to express ourselves in the way we had hoped. For the film intro, as I said I had a very different role, I was in charge of filiming along with Diamond.

Filming is certainly no easy thing, and having wanted the freedom to film as we wished, once we were given that freedom it became a bit tedious to begin with, because there were so many possibilities and we weren't entirely sure where to start. However ideas began to come to us and we used some clever shots and initiatve to make a good film in regards to both filming and acting. We were also in charge of the actors as to where they had to stand, walk and move to and there was a lot of responcerbility on our shoulders. If we had not done the preliminary we would have been totally lost and probably given up. Despite the experience from the preliminary it was still difficult for us to pull everything together in time for the deadline (filming, acting, editing) and we had to race to the finish line, with practically no time to spare.

Overall I would say most things were improved from the preliminary to our film intro. Having said that we finished in good time with our preliminary, and this wasn't the case for our film intro. However the filming, editing, and acting were all much better, and this was because we were able to express our talents a lot more effiiciently. We were able to use our knowledge and understanding from the preliminary to improve and impact our film intro hugely, and hugely for the better. So without a doubt the preliminary task helped us a lot and we are thankful we were given this opportunity before it came to the real thing (the film intro's).

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

During this whole process of making our film intro we have come across a range of new technologies as well as existing ones that we could improve our understanding of. Before we even got to filiming we had to make storyboards on comic life. Most of us including myself had used this before, and I had used it earlier in the year as well as last year it was one of the programs we used. Comic life is good because it is a very simple and fun way of getting your ideas down without it feeling like an overwhelming task. It also allows your work to stay organised and neat, and you can improve on it easily without having to erase things all the time which you might have to do if it is drawn and written out.

We also used iMovie after filming to edit our work and make all the necessary tweaks to improve our final product. Agsain, I think iMovie is very efficient and effective. It saves a lot of time and allows you to experiment and try out different things without having to do too much. It also allows you to make small but effective changes which can make a big different to your overall film intro and your eventual grade..

During the whole build up and aftermath to our film intro I used a lot more of comic life than iMovie. This was because I was responcerble for making some of the storyboards. I also didn'u use iMovie much because that was where most of the editing was done, and I am not so good at editing, so I let the more capable take over and didn't interfere too much with editing or iMovie. However I did enjoy filming and was good at it. Between the two of us we did most of the filming and we had to agree on what to do and what shots would be best. There were times when there was just one of us filming and we then had to confirm and check it out with the other member of the group who also is responcerble for filming to decide whether it was good enough and we agree on it.

Next time I would like to improve my skills on iMovie as well as Garage Band which we used only briefly when trying to find some music. However as a group we found the program quite complicated and eventually gave up on it, and got a nice suitable piece of music from youtube. However I feel comfortable using Comic Life now, as I polished up on knowledge from last year.