Evaluation of my post production

1) In our piece we decided that the most effective way to portray Elizabeth’s and her feelings in the scene would be through a one shot sequence. This meant loads of planning as we were constantly having to come up with different ideas on how we were going to be able to keep the audience gripped through one shot lasting two minutes. This meant we needed to find interesting objects that we could track the camera along which would keep the audience thinking. On the day of the shoot we spent the whole morning trying to make this work without actually shooting the piece. One we thought we had set the set up and the tracks up properly we tried to film the shot, only to find that everything was set up to high on the wall and so we had to start over, moving every single prop down the walls and the tracks further back.

2) We decided that because we wanted to do a one shot piece we needed to make the shot slow paced. This was to create as feeling of suspense and horror for the audience. This was one of the main reasons that we spent so mush time on the set, as we needed the mise-en-scene to keep the audiences attention, and create the feelings of suspense and horror which are pre-requisites for the genre and our target audience. However, this made the editing stage easier for us as we only needed to choose the best shot and then add the sounds to this. This made the post production element of non-diegetic sounds a vitally important component.

3) Because we only decided to do one shot, the most important element of the post production was the sound stage. We took all of our sounds from the sound track pro application. We wanted to use the sound to build up the suspense in the scene and use the sound to work off the mise-en-scene, to create the horror aspect. This took a long time as we wanted to time everything together. An example of this is in Jaws, with the way that they repeat the two notes becoming louder and faster as the shark is approaching. In this the music builds the tension and we wanted to re-create this in our scene. Another source of sound that we used were the ambient sounds that we took on the day in the studio. However these sounds were not too effective as they had a fuzzy noise which appeared when we put them into Final Cut Pro. Because of this we couldn’t use the ambient sounds, so we used the non-diagetic sounds from sound track pro.

4) We decided that we wanted to keep the titles and the graphics to a minimum. This was because we wanted to keep the audiences attention on the mise-en-scene rather than distracting them to look at the credits. Because of this we only had credits for the production company and the directors name. We kept these credits as simple as possible, using a plain font with white writing over a black screen. We then faded the credits in and out using the opacity option. The final credit was the title card. We spent lots of time on this as we wanted the scene to end on a high, and this was the last thing that the audience would see. To do the title card, we made a basic outline of 'Elizabeth’s Diary' on Photoshop and then imprinted some of the pictures from the diary into the letters. This really caught the feelings already created by the scene.

5) From the feedback I have received, the choices we have made were very effective. Most of the feedback I have received has said that they enjoyed the parts with the more disturbing images, for example. From this I feel that we could have put in even more disturbing images, and gory moments to create an even more horrific scene. We also received positive feedback about the pace of the scene, however I do not feel that we could slow the pace down any more, otherwise the audience may lose attention and the scene could become boring. This tells me that the piece appealed to the audience, as I haven’t received any negative feedback. Overall I feel the decision that I made were a good success.

Audience feedback to our thriller

The comments I received from my friend and others were all very good. I am very pleased as I am yet to receive any criticism, however my father did notice that some of the camera work could have been smother and that the wall was a bit shaky at the beginning. My dad isn’t the target audience, so he may have been looking for mistakes rather than being embroiled in the narrative, like my peers who all enjoyed it and gave me favourable responses as they enjoyed the horror factor. However I am very pleased with the outcome and what people have thought of it. Below I have shown some of the comments I received from facebook and you tube.


hurtwoodhousemedia = The doll hanging is my favourite part...well planned and thought out video love it!

hurtwoodhousemedia = that's sooo creepy!! I really like it!

LegasyOleg = Very creepy opening. I've jumped on the chair when heard this knock-knock sound! Awesome and really thrilling piece!)

stephaniemareen = I really like the pace of editing and the titles. Great Thriller.

William Twigden = Mate, I really liked the piece! Very tense and great sounds used. Well done buddy! ;)

Richard Oxely = Scary stuff bruv, nice one. I liked that messed up bit with the doll!

Task 1: The way in which our media products challenges, develops and uses forms and conventions of real media products

We started off our opening sequence introducing our production company. We got this idea off the films made in Hollywood and the way in which they introduce the production companys (the money people) at the beginging of the title sequence of each film.


The second credit that we showed was the director name. The reason for this was because we decided to keep the amount of credits used to a minimal, in order to keep the viewers attention on the sequence rather than the writting on the screen. It also makes the sequence more powerfull and effective as there is nothing to distract the viewer. This is also conforming to the Hollywood style, as the directors name is always shown in the opening sequence.


This image was one of the most important images in our whole title sequence. this image sets up the whole film, with the diary being the reason for Elizabeths eventual death and the series of events that lead up to her death. We also wanted to start the sequence with an important image which get the viewer thinking. This conforms to the Hollywood style as in some films they use a legend, where as we give information about the film away through the diary.


Once again this was an important part of the opening sequence. This was the moment that we first introduced the character of Elizabeth, yet only through a shadow. We also wanted toshow off the set and the distraught immages that we had purposly placed in specific places. This image was suppose to hint to the audience that something bad was happening but without giving anything away. Once again this conforms to Hollywood as in the opening sequence of a film you always see the main character, however we have subverted this by showing her shadow but not her face.

We needed to emphasise this section of the sequence as it was the first obvious time we saw the intention behind Elizabeths thaughts and the more darker, less comical side to her thaughts. We decided that this point was the start of the darker part of the sequence, so we wanted to make it as strong as we possible could. This conforms to the usual Hollywood horror as in the opening sequence they use powerfull gory images, to create a feeling of tension.

This was the part of the sequence where we really expressed Elizabeths thaughts and emotions, through the set and the camera movement. This was the first clue as to what Elizabeth was going to do and it is also one of the most graphical pointsa of the sequences, using the disturbed image of a baby hanging. This once again conforms to the Hollywood style of horrors, as you can see hanging, and mutilation.

These last two images were by far the most important parts of the scene. This is the climax of the scene, what the whole sequence had been building up to. We wanted to make this section as effective yet almost realistic as possible. To do this we built up all of the music to its peak, so all of the sequence (music, images and ambient sounds) ass peaked at the same poing, creating a strong climax. After this the sequence fades. This area of the sequence subverts from the Hollywood style. Usually in Hollywood you would see everything wher she was being hung, where as in this scene, we only see the girls feet which leaves her identity hidden.

This was one of the hardest parts of the sequence to do. We decided that we wanted to photoshop a title card, which would be the same title card we used throughout the whole process of the film. This included the advertising, the dvd case, the cinema and everything else which includes Elizabeths diary. We got this idea from Hollywood, how all of the films have their one logo, which is used for everything. For example, Batman has the black bat with batman writter underneath it. We spent the most time on this part of the sequence.

Task 2: How does our product represent particular social groups

Our film represents social groups through teenagers and the common case of bullying in a school environment. We also represent the mentally disabled through our main character, who is autistic. An example of a film which deals with the social group of autistic people is Rain Man. Whereas Rain Man deals with happier sides of aspergers ours deals with the darker side of it, in a way more like the book ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight’. However, another program that represents teenagers and bullying is the common E4 television programs such as Skins, Glee and 90210. These all deal with the common situations of bullying in a minor scale, compared to our film which deals with harsher bullying, reverting to deeper consequences and worse punishments. Whereas skins shows bullying and consequences on a very small scale, we wanted to show what could potentially happen and what does happen in some cases, at an extremists point of view.

Other films that are similar to this, and that we tried to base some of our characters on are films such as Girl interrupted (including Angelina Jolie), The Ring and The grudge. These films all include one aspect which connects them together. This is that they all include a psychopathic maniac as their main character. We actually based Elizabeth, on the girl out of The Ring. For example, the ring is a film which is based on a young girl who kills every person who watches a video take 7 days later. This is similar to Elizabeth’s diary in the way that she is responsible for the killings, and the killer is a little girl.

They all represent their group by having characters that are constantly alienated, lonely and have mental health problems, and eventually end up doing terrible things to both themselves and others around them. For example, in all the film people around them either suffers similar illnesses (girl interrupted) or death.

Girl interrupted is is a film that was made in 1999. It is about a girl called Sussana who is supposedly forced by her parents to check herself into a mental hospital because of she tried to commit suicide by an overdose of aspirin. Throughout the film Sussan inflicts self harm on herself and is constantly trying to hurt herself. She does this due to being depressed and troubled but ends up being unable to leave, after her (voluntary) check in. This is alike Elizabeth’s diary in the way that Elizabeth attempts to commit suicide.

Suicide and self harming are represented in our film. this was also represented in the media reporting of the group of Bridgend teenagers who commit suicide. The media represented the Bridgend teenagers as being part of a cult and victims in a communtiy driven to dispare through drinks and drugs. Through the space of 13 months from 2007 to 2008 seventeen teenagers committed suicide by hanging themselves. They were all driven to this through being bullied, and fights between a group of friends. The media failed to represent the issues of mental health preoblems and self harming that afflict teenagers. In our film we attampted to adress the issues of mental health and self harming surrounding them eventually leading to our characters susicide.

Task 3: What kind of media institution might distrubute our media product and why

Characteristics of Hollywood Thrillers include stories that employ suspense in order to maintain interest, but thrillers exploit that particular narrative quality as much as possible. Main characters in thrillers are placed in menacing situations from which escape seems impossible. Themes often include terrorism, political conspiracy, love triangles that lead to murder, etc. Often the heroes are ordinary folk who are drawn into danger unknowingly or unwillingly. More often than not, the heroes of these movies are men, but occasionally women take a lead roll (think Linda Hamilton in The Terminator).In Comparison to the stereotypical characteristics of Hollywood Thrillers. Our thriller depicts some similar traits such as the fact that the main character can be juxtaposed to be a woman ( as Elizabeth Carter is the protagonist of our thriller), our themes include student relationship towards each other that leads to murder, and our main character is placed in menacing situations from which escape seems impossible leading to her death, thus i think our film has the potential to be produced by the Hollywood industry if developed further and have a-list professionals star in it.

Lionsgate Films are the sort of film institution that we would look to work with. There are many reasons for this. The first are the previous films that Lionsgate Films. They have been successful with several films, including the horror sequel, SAW, and also My bloody Valentine. All of these films were worldwide success stories earning millions. Lionsgate tend to make films which are either low budget or medium budget horrors. For example My bloody Valentine had a budget of 15 million and made a revenue of 100 million. This was a low to medium budget film. Lionsgate are also known for making good quality films with the money that they have. There are several reasons as to why Lionsgate would be a good Film company for our film to work with. The first reason is the fact that we are making a low to medium budget horror which Lionsgate have done many of. Ours is also a high quality product, and Lionsgate are known for their high quality outcome. We also have no stars involved, and Lionsgate tend to do films with no well known stars, enabling them to spend more money on the film itself. Lionsgate will also be able to advertise our film easily, as they are a well known company. Lionsgate own their own television channels showing horror films and would therefor allow us the oppertunity to advertise our film on their channel to get extra publicity. Lionsgate are also aimed at a male audience which would appeal to our film as it is mainly aimed at a male aidience. They also have their own website which would enable us to promote our film online and they also have distribution links with many countries allowing our film to have worldwide distribution oppertunities. By Lionsgate owning television channels and networks we would have the oppertunity to broadcast our film on the networks increacing our chances of making money. They will also go to lots of film festivals to play their products, so they would be able to advertise ours whilst doing so.

Task 4: Who would be the audience for our media product

I feel that the most obvious target audience to us are people in their late teens and early adult years. We thought that the target audience with the most money to be made out of were 16 to 25 year males, firstly because they are the most likely people to want to watch a thriller and the most likely people to want to watch a gory, chilling film, which ours is.

If I was to be more specific about our target audience, I would say that the social group of people we would aim our film at would be Emo's and Goths. There are a few certain reasons for this. The first is because the character of Elizabeth is based on various different characters from films, who are related with Emo's. Throughout the film Elizabeth is bullied, and so reverts to being an Emo, and dressing like a Goth, inflicting self harm on herself, and also on other, eventually leading to her hanging herself. This means that teenagers in this social group would watch the film in order to relate themselves to Elizabeth. Although Elizabeth is at the extreme end of the spectrum, there are people in this social group who feel the same feelings as Elizabeth and have become Goths and Emo's due to the same reasons that Elizabeth did.

I also feel that although the Horror genre is most commonly watched by boys, I feel that our film would also have a large teenage girl audience. This again is because of them being able to compare themselves to Elizabeth, and her strategies of being able to cope with bullying and peer pressure in a school environment. Also because of the diary. This will attract a female audience as it is mainly teenage girls who write diaries, and again it is a way for them to get their feelings and emotions out, without having to tell anyone about it.

The social group of emo’s do a lot to keep themselves to themselves. They have a very particular style of clothing and makeup. They are stereotypically known for wearing skinny jeans, tight tops, dark clothes, dark make-up and metal toed boots. They are into very different thing to the standard person. For example they listen to bands like Paramour and My chemical romance. They tend not to socialize with anyone who is either different to them, or someone who is a different age to themselves. They are stereotypically known for doing horrible things such as inflicting self pain and doing dangerous amounts of drugs.

As you can see, we have tried to make the film an open film, including many different aspects to attract a variety of different audience members, from all different social classes, social backgrounds and social groups.

Task 5: How our film attracted/adressed the audience

How Did we Attract And Address Our Audience RG

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Task 6: What i have learnt about technologies from the construction of Elizabeths diary