Presentation and Audience Feedback

Presentation

Audience Feedback

Evaluation Activity 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

From our research and planning, we realised that our most important age group for our opening two minutes should be aimed at was 15-24. This age group tends to have the largest variety of tastes and interests, meaning that our film had an opportunity to have a wide appeal, we also researched that this target audience enjoyed films that increase the suspense slowly, as did our opening scene. We thought it would be the most successful idea to sue a target audience from 15-24 year olds as it would give us a realistic chance in appeal to as many people as possible. Usually, it is the actors which capture their attention before the plot line, so when planning our film, we decided to follow the stereotypes as best we could and use two main actors, rather than lots of equally important actors, as it would take away the enigmas we planned to use as with lost of actors, it may be difficult to keep track of what is going on. Due to our limited sources, we could not use well known actors for our film, so we decided that it would be realistic to follow the conventions of a horror as close as possible. By doing this, we decided that using two main actors, a victim and an antagonist would suggest that the plot of the film would be successful.
Similarly, I think our film would work well with this target audience because it helps to take them away from the stressful work of everyday life at school and at home. the sense of escapism from the world going on will appeal to our audience, as our thriller and suspense will act as a selling point in our film. To ensure the success of our film against other competitive genres such as thrillers or action, we would need to take advantage of the social networking sites which are popular amongst our target audience to advertise our film, however our opening scene has provided elements that this demographic would want in a film, and with our limited knowledge I am quite proud with what we have produced.

Evaluation activity 3

Director's Commentary

Evaluation Activity 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When looking at our main victim, Charlotte, we tried to think of who she was most similar to compared to other characters from other films of similar genres. We chose to compare her to the female victim from Taken, who was kidnapped by unknown antagonists. Both characters are stereotypical to the role of a horror/thriller genre.While Charlotte wears a school uniform, the victim is shown to be wearing comfortable clothing, the audience would recognise these characters as teenagers, unexpected of what is to happen next. Both characters are portrayed as young, vulnerable females who are oblivious to the danger they are under, the audience would feel sympathy for these young girls as they know they have the potential to be taken. The female audience especially would recognise and relate to the two female characters, as they can relate the characters experience to themselves forcing the audience to feel sympathy for the victims. The male audience would also be interested in the film due to the Male Gaze Theory, if men find the main female characters attractive, they maybe influenced to watch the film as they would view both characters as eye candy or be persuaded by their beauty to watch the film. Other similarities between characters are that they both are involved in dramatic events, both being the main characters, action revolves around them and without them, the film would have not plot and would not be able to follow the structure of a film. Both characters are placed in recognisable settings, one in the space of her own homer and the other in a forest leading to her house. The only slight different between this is that our character Charlotte would be classed as in a more vulnerable space, the dark and ominous forest could possibly foreshadow the later events of Charlotte's kidnapping compared to the other who is in the comfort of her own home but it still vulnerable to the dangers around her. Despite all of the similarities, both characters are set in different genres, our character being placed into a more horror based genre, whereas the other girl from the movie Taken, is based on more or a Thriller film. This could suggest that Charlotte, from Follow Your Tracks is most likely to face a more severe fate compared the other other main character from a Thriller film.

Evaluation Activity 1

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

The first frame shows a low angled shot which introduces the scene to an ominous and gloomy setting, straight away the shot conforms to the conventions of a horror as the dark forest setting makes the victim look vulnerable and under potential threat from danger. The low angled shot creates mystery and a suspense as the audience cannot get a full view of the setting or what is going on. As it is the first shot of the opening scene, we are shown a glimpse of the main character who is walking home, creating the enigma as to where she is walking from and where she is walking to. The audience are given a clear view of the sky creating pathetic fallacy, as the sky is cloudy and gloomy,it can link to the conventions of a horror as it creates a negative atmosphere, connoting the power of the antagonist.

In the next frame we are shown a close up of the victim, as the audience, the victim is introduced completely vulnerable and innocent to the events that are soon to be taking place. Close ups allow the audience to understand the emotions the character is feeling. At this point in the opening scene Charlotte is shown to be angered and oblivious as to why she has been pushed out of her way, her facial expressions connote frustration and anger. Although her body language subverts the conventions of a horror genre victim, later on in the scene, close ups of the victims face will connote terror which will be conforming to the stereotypes of a victim in a horror genre, as they are usually screaming or scared due to the actions of the antagonist. In the bottom left corner of the frame we are shown an opening credit introducing the actors name.We used a fade in and fade out transition to make the credit flow well with the opening scene and create a clean shot so the audience will not take focus away from what is happening in the scene. Just before this shot is introduced we are introduced to the antagonist as he is the character who frustrates the victim by budging into her while walking opposite directions. The audience are faced with the enigma as to why the character has done so and whether he is to play a later part in the scene as it is not yet obvious he will be the main antagonist. For the audience, this could foreshadow the victims kidnapping at the end of the scene.

In the third frame, we used the technique, Match on Action, to complete this technique we used three different short close up shots of the victim putting on headphones. also this was successfully shot, the actress was quite clumsy when trying to complete the action. In the future we could develop this technique further by practicing the shots before hand and filming several versions of it to be able to finally chose the most successful shots to create a cleaner match on action.

The fourth frame was one of our most successful shots. It shows a high angled shot behind the trees causing the background to have a shallow depth of field, leaving the victim to be out of focus and the trees to be in focus. This conforms to the conventions of a horror as the dark forest shows to be consuming the victim making her look weak and vulnerable as she is far from any sign of help.

The fifth frame presents an over the shoulder shot, presenting the audience the setting of the opening scene. our setting is based in a creepy forest where the victim will be isolated from life around her, this conforms to the conventions of a horror film, as the victim is not even more vulnerable than she was before, powerless to the strength of the antagonist. By using an over the shoulder shot, the audience are able to watch what is happening through the eyes of the actor, building the tension for the audience as well as for the character.

Frame six is one of our most iconic shots, as it is the first time the antagonist is presented as his scary and villainous personality. The shot will hopefully be unexpected to the audience, introducing the scary, jumping moment which will increase the thrill factor. The antagonist is shown in the distance to be wearing all black, this can conform to the stereotypes of a horror film as black can connote death and negative power.

Frame seven shows the victim to have fallen over and dropped her bag,presenting her to be weak, vulnerable and helpless. The low level medium shot helps the audience relate to how the victim is feeling as the medium shot helps the audience focus on her body language. The audience are also given the enigma as to why she has left her bag on the floor and who will later find the bag and hopefully save the girl through the film.

Frame eight presents one of our actions shots where the antagonist meets the protagonist, the male antagonist is very dominant which conforms to the stereotypes of a horror but the girl screams to try and getaway which also conforms to the stereotypes of a horror as her innocence lets her getaway for the first time. When editing we used two shots to film this action sequence, one medium shot from side on and then a low angle shot to show the antagonist falling and the protagonist getting away.

Frame nine presents a long shot of the protagonist running away the long shot allows the audience to capture everything that is going on in the scene. The audience are giving the idea that she is now safe and away from the potential dangers of the protagonist.

Frame 10 is a close up shot of the victim screaming, the close up shot allows the audience to get an insight as to what the character is feeling as we focus on her emotions and body language. The shot shows her to be scared and frightened by the antagonists actions.

Frame 11 shows the title of the film, the title conforms to to the conventions of a horror as we have used white writing on a black background which is what most modern horror use nowadays. The thin, ominous writing creates a horror and unnerving effect.

FOLLOW YOUR TRACKS

Diary of Filming

We have planned in advance as a group the dates we are going to film our opening scene. By planning in advance it means we will be organised and efficient. giving out roles will make the process of filming a lot more easier and fun.

Day 1: 28th December 2014

Today will be our first day of filming, we plan to start filming at 3.00pm and will try and film as much as possible before it gets dark. Before we start filming we will give our actors details on what to do and how to act. We plan to film shots more than once to give ourselves options of choosing which shot is the most effective. I will be in charge of using the camera, Carly will be in charge of the storyboard, and Lydia will be in charge of organising props and the actors costumes.

Day 2: 3rd January 2015

Unfortunately my camera battery ran out of charge and so we had to film again. luckily we had left this date open in case filming extra shots was needed for our opening scene. We all met again at around 3.30pm and filmed the remaining shots. we were all given the same roles as before and managed to work efficiently and successfully. When going back to class we will have more than enough shots to use for our editing process.