Evaluation First Draft

1.       Our media product uses the tried and tested methods of creating atmosphere such as a dark setting for the pieces that build up suspense or a long shot to show isolation. I think that we challenged the conventions of media products by filming using two cameras, one that the characters are obviously aware of as they are filming using it. We referred to this as the amateur camera. The second camera was the conventional film camera that the characters are unaware of. We used this to get in the shots that the amateur camera couldn't feasibly do. We referred to this as the pro camera.

2.       Our media product represents only one social group as all of the characters are members of the group; Caucasian w/c. They are however part of an adolescent subculture. We represented this group as friendly but always aggravating their friends. We also represented them as slightly rebellious, out wandering the streets at night.

3.       We feel that the best media institution to distribute our product would be the social network YouTube as it is only around five minutes long and YouTube would allow us to distribute to a large amount of people, free for both parties, and potentially reach more members of our target demographic, which is people between the ages of 15 and 30 who enjoy horror/suspense films.

4.       We showed whoever we could during our free periods, posted the video on Facebook and YouTube. We received mostly favourable feedback with some constructive criticism from a few people, mostly those who also do Media Studies or Moving Image Arts.

5.       We have learnt a great deal more about software than hardware though we did all learn how to efficiently operate two cameras at once and a tripod. The software though was a different story. We were using iMovie for the majority of the editing, but we used Final Cut X to include the viewfinder effect in the amateur camera shots. We also tried to experiment with GarageBand to come up with a song that would fit our piece. I made an energetic piece that was unfortunately too long to include though it fit the tone of the piece quite well.

6.       The preliminary piece was of a much lower standard than our finished product. We weren’t sure what we were doing. It was definitely a learning experience. We learned that even when finished filming to hold off on the haircuts for a week or so in case you need to re-film a scene! We also learned how best to get certain angles and how to look out for possible continuity errors. We learned to be mindful of the setting and whether other people are going to use it. We applied all of these lessons to the final piece and I think it shows.