1. George Piggott - 40398
Evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The horror film genre has been a successful genre for hundreds of years, which is why
that there are so many of this specific type of film around today. As with every genre,
there is a set of conventions that help to determine if the film is actually of this genre.
I felt that in many ways, my film used many of these conventions seen in real media
products. I used a setting of a large isolated woods, and a dimly lit house as my setting
which is very conventional of this genre as it signifies a ‘fear of the unknown’, my
characters were also conventional of other real media products as I used two teenage
girls, as this is regularly used for this genre as it signifies a sense of vulnerability.

3. I also followed the conventions in terms of shot types, I used several over the
shoulder shots, to give a sense that the character was being watched, again
conventional of real media products in this genre.
The media product I created challenges the conventions of a horror genre in the
sense that none of the characters are murdered, and that all characters survive.
Conventionally at least one of the characters is killed, which generates more fear
amongst the audience, where as all of my characters survived, which could have
affected my film by making it less horrifying.

4. I feel my media product developed the conventions of real media products in the horror
genre through the way I didn’t use typical horror creatures or males as what is conventional,
I developed the conventions by using a female character, and someone who is actually the
friend of the victim, yet still feel I made my film successfully scary and horror like.

5. How effective is the combination of your main product
and ancillary texts?
The two ancillary tasks that I chose to do are the radio trailer and poster, to accompany
my film. The radio trailer was to be a 30 second conventional radio trailer, and the poster
again a conventional horror film poster. I worked on all of these alone as I was working
individually.
This is my finished poster to go with my film, ‘The Red Cloak’.

6. I created this poster using Photoshop, and an Apple Mac computer. I feel that this
poster is very effective when used with my main media product. The poster retains
some elements to the story and keeps the audience from finding out anything to
important without actually seeing the film. The poster is successful in it’s goal which
would be promoting and advertising, making the target audience watch the film. It
gives a taste of the film. One problem that I did experience when working on the film
was that I created the poster, before I had actually finished my film. I then changed the
actress’ in my film, so the actress’ in the poster are not the actual actress’ in the film.
Which is very unprofessional and highlights to me the importance of completing the film
first when doing future tasks similar to this project.

7. I feel that my radio trailer is also very effective when used with my film, I feel that the
trailer is more effective than the poster as the trailer uses real sound clips from the film,
and also, thirty seconds of sound can signify more than just one picture usually. I used
several different sound clips in my radio trailer, mostly taken from the film. I used heavy
breathing sounds, screaming sounds, and footstep sounds. I also recorded my own voice
using Garage Band and editing my voice to sound more deep and conventionally scary,
as most radio trailers use a deep male voice.
The three, film, trailer and poster, all work very well together and create a very genuine
real media product together. Very few films are released without trailers and posters to
accompany them, so by creating these I have made my film even more conventional.

8. What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
I obtained audience feedback from many places, I played my film to my media class, and
then asked them for their feedback, I asked friends to watch the film and feedback and I
also put my film on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and asked my friends on social
network sites to give me feedback.

9. Of the 3, I obtained more critical responses on social networking sites, which is likely to
be due to the lack of face to face contact. It is easier to speak your mind online, than it is
to someone in person, for this reason online feedback was the most important to me as
it was the most honest, and less sensitive feedback. I received overwhelmingly positive
feedback regarding my storyline, and many thought that the idea was original and
unusual. However a few people around 10% of the group said that the shots that I used
were not always fully fault through, and sometimes a different shot type altogether
would be the better option.
In my media group, the feedback was mixed and my setting and props were
complimented, however this time sound was picked on as being too basic, something
that I would aim to improve in future tasks.

10. I then asked my friends who said that they thought the film worked very well, and the
sound effects that I had used were very successful in building tension and generating fear.
I then asked my actress’ to watch the film and give me some feedback on how they feel
that the editing and sound and overall product has turned out compared to the individual
scenes that were filmed, they felt that the way that I had edited the film and placed all
the sounds and clips together to create the overall product was very well done, and very
similar to what they had in mind when thinking about the outcome of the films they had
shot.

11. How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research and planning and evaluation
stages?
Throughout the whole construction I used of my media product I used many different
media technologies. The main technologies that I used were a Panasonic HD Camera and
an Apple Mac computer, which allowed me to shoot my footage then upload and then
edit and manipulate the footage into the final film. Without these technologies the task I
was given would have likely been difficult.

12. On the Mac I used several different software to create my products, I used Final
Cut Express to upload and edit my film, I used Photoshop to edit my film poster,
and I used Garage Band to create my trailer. Final Cut Express allowed me to crop,
edit and place together different clips that I had filmed and make a ‘timeline’ of all
the different scenes, making it into one big clip, which is my final film. Photoshop
allowed me to edit the pictures I had taken of my actress; and change the colour
and contrasts to make the image look more eerie, and to add different layers to
the pictures and Garage Band allowed me to place together different sounds and
edit the speed and pitch of these sounds. All these programmes have several
different tools on them, so there was literally hundred of different options to
experiment with and use when creating my film.

13. I used a Panasonic HD Camera supplied by the media department at my school. I used the
camera for both my clip footage and also for my still photographs used to create my
poster. I feel that this camera worked very well and would not have been able to do the
project without it, or at least one very similar to it. I used the camera with only natural
lighting and feel it looks very realistic. Garage Band helped me to create my trailer and a
piece of soundtrack for my film. Garage Band was very helpful as it allowed me to create
music with the track only. If I Garage Band wasn’t there for me to rely on then I would
have had to create my sound in Final Cut Express by placing the sounds together, then
blacking out the image and extracting the sound using a different piece of software. For
this reason Garage Band was very useful to me. I regularly used the Internet to help me
with my project. I used the internet to help me with research and planning by looking at
different posters and trailers on line on Google Images and YouTube. I also used the
Internet to get different sound clips for my film, from www.freesound.org, without this
website I would have had to record all sound effects myself, rather than relying on these
royalty free and free to use sounds.
I also used Blogger to display all my work on my Media Blog.