Our media product called, ‘Out Of Signal’ uses, develops and challenges the forms and conventions of real media products. Similar to other films, our film consisted of a predictable story line, which is prevalent in most horror/thriller genre films, in which characters were developed, so the audience had a greater understanding of them, which hooked them into our film. The film was developed as the story line prevailed from an anti climax opening to a climax at the end in which the characters died chronologically in retrospect of the way that they were introduced at the start of the film. ‘Out of signal’ challenged the forms and conventions of other real media products as I feel we achieved to create an original film. We challenge other areas of this because in the horror genre you associate darkness and mysteriousness, however ‘Out of signal’ challenges this because the strange happenings happen in broad daylight, lulling the viewer into a false sense of security.
We used points of view shots when shooting the film so that the audience could share the same experience in which the ‘killer’ was observing whilst stalking its victim, this created a sense of suspense as the audience could predict the fourth coming scenes that followed. Pan shots were also used, so that the audience could see the mise en scene, in which the film was located, therefore the association of woods had a direct link to the horror genre as it creates an ominous atmosphere. A news report at the beginning of the film, acted as a retrospect scene in which the story line unravelled. Other than the establishing shots, a tripod was not needed as this would take away the sense of realism when shooting, instead we hand held the video camera so that the audience could integrate into the film, and relate to the characters, whilst the story line developed. In addition to creating realism within the film, natural lighting was used to add to the consistency of the ‘realism’ of the film, and as we were limited with the resources we had, we made use of what we were given, therefore we scheduled shooting times, so that we could have the specific lighting to compliment the time and setting of the film, so that it became more believable. We used eerie non diegetic soundtracks to furthermore create an ominous tone to the already melancholy atmosphere created. It was also used to create tension, which would put the audience on edge and follow the codes and conventions of a horror film.
Our film is just over the time limit of 5 minutes. For a short film of this genre I believe this is a good time to help build up a basic plot and a good ending. If I had the chance to make my film again I would take the time to get all the shots perfect rather than rush the last few. The ending I believe is the weakest point of our product and if we had taken a little extra time and care I believe we could have got a free flowing film. After creating a questionnaire for my audience to fill in I gained a valuable insight into what worked well and what didn’t.
My product also can be easily linked to my poster and magazine review. The font I used is easily recognisable and is sort of a logo for our products. The colours I used for poster really connotate well with the themes of my product. Red is linked with murder and the way it is splatter over the characters helps create a sense of mysteriousness of what is going to happen. In film review I compared my film to others in the group this makes the magazine seem more believable and realistic as in the real world magazines often compare films in similar genres.
We used many different media technologies. The main one was our video camera and this coupled with Sony Vegas the editing software we used we were able to create a professional looking film. Naturally using Vegas it took our group a while to find its feet. After we had familiarised ourselves with it, it became easier to make an efficient film. I also used Photoshop in creating my poster. As I had experience using this from my AS course I quickly made mock ups of my poster and added different effects to get the desired final product I wanted. Throughout my course I have been keeping an online blog on Blogger. This has helped me represent my work and made it easy for me to evaluate what I have done well and not so well.
I did a lot of research into my film. I watched a short film called wireless which I found out to be pretty terrible. I looked at the parts of the film that didn’t work well and thought of my own ideas that could have work well. So in my film I looked at the parts that didn’t work well and changed them for better ideas, I also watched a trailer for Paranormal Activity which is similar to our film in the way it builds up tension. Like when the killer is following the boys into the woods is reminiscent of when the entity is inside the house. It the reality that you now something or someone is there but the conclusion of what will happen is unclear. I also did a lot of research into my ancillary tasks. One poster I looked at was one of the ‘Blair with project’ which like Paranormal activity is similar our film. The poster itself reveals very little about the film so I took this idea and made indications about what could happen like with the blood splatters.
We also put our film on YouTube, this also helped with audience feedback although we didn’t involve it in our questionnaire results we received generally positive reviews. We also put our ‘bloopers’ on there and there turned out to be very popular in Canada receiving an award for top 100 in comedy. Our film had also been watched in many places across the world and this gave us confidence in our own product as the reviews were very positive.
Overall on this project my skills have greatly developed using different media technologies however I still feel there is room for improvement. If I could I would change the last scene of our as I believe the car is just going to slow for what happens, also I would take more time in the planning as we did jump in at the deep end and not think all the variable through. This project has been extremely fun and I have had a lot of fun making the film.
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