Evaluation -Question Seven -Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

At the start when we were set the task it seemed fairly simple to do but after finally finishing it seemed like it would never end making us realise how hard it must be to direct and shoot major blockbuster films. It wasn't very hard to create the idea for the film but to actually implement our story was quite hard, We all found it fairly simple to get enough people for the shoot and while filming we found out how easy it is to work with a camera today, as we began to understand how literally anyone can make film now. Although our camera work was fairly shoddy in some places given the chance to shoot again it could be easily fixed after learning how vital it was to repeat shots again and again, even after filming our problems had only just started.
When we took the footage on to iMovie we realised how truly hard it was to edit shots together, after many painstaking hours of shortening shots and finally fitting the music to the correct time we realised how frustrating it can be to create 2 minute video, after the entire process we've all learnt how to use iMovie editing software and how to frame a shot fairly well.

Evaluation -Question Six -What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

We learnt how easy it is to operate a high quality camera and then produce a fairly high standard short film using software that is included for free on a apple mac showing us that technology today can be used by almost anyone with little experience. Although iMovie was our first choice we could have also used Adobe Premiere Pro but it does require alot more experience as it far more complex, but the software showed us that literally anyone can make a decent film for almost no money although the software can be quite expensive.
Less than ten years ago the process would be almost impossible but now its very easy to shoot a film even a child could make a film as editing software is getting easier and easier to use as tutorials are also available, even we used the tutorials just to understand how to correctly use transition effects.

Evaluation -Question Five -How did you attract/address your audience?

to attract the right audience, we checked out other films that had a similar storyline or genre. We used a setting that was noticeable and could be recognised giving the audience a connection to the film giving them an external view on the film, using Heygate estate in Elephant & Castle as the setting was a good way of making the zombie scenario come to life because its an abandoned, run-down estate with broken windows and boarded doors showing a tragedy thats happened. When people have lived on the Heygate Estate in the past or visited it you feel trapped but alone because of the large size and long roads. This gave them an understanding of how the actors felt. Instead of using people who would be seen as a person/ people of higher authority we used characters that were civilians giving the audience another connection to attract their attention.
Another way we attracted the audience was by using the genre of 'horror' and using the idea of a zombie invasion, The thought of a zombie invasion gets the audience to use their imagination to picture what they'd do it that situation. Whether they'd run or stand their ground rebel against the zombies. With this in mind people are more attracted to the film and they are eager to see it. Zombie are wired creatures and hard to understand making the audience excited to see what the director has done with the situation.
Using a rating of 15 addresses the audience and warns them of whats ahead this could also be a way of attracting the audience whether they are younger and yearn for a piece of the action or older and they want to be involved in a film that isn't going to be predictable or have a happy ending and have a caple living happily ever after it will give them a change and take them to sit comfortable zone giving them a craving therefore attracting them to see the film and films of the genre and of the same director.

Evaluation -Question Four -Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our piece is mainly targeted at teens seeking a cheap thrill from a typical cliché filled zombie movie, since horror films are generally aimed at teenagers. The audience really depends on the plot of the film as teenagers are just looking for a quick shock while adults generally look for deeper plot which is often found in thrillers which can be counted as horror flicks, while our piece simply relies on the creepy atmosphere of a deserted area. Although our piece could appeal to a wider audience as it starts with shots of the main character walking around with eerie music playing which could appeal to adults or couples while the second 'action' part features quick intense shots with fast paced music playing which could then appeal to teens.
Since the end of the piece leaves the main character running away alone it adds an intriguing twist that makes us think what's going to happen next which appeals to teens looking for the next zombie attack and leaves adults wondering how she'll survive alone and if she'll find anyone else to help her, since a more mature audience looks for relationships to build with others and wonders about her mental state while teens are just waiting for the next gorey mauling of someone, given the chance to develop the character further we would be able to appeal to both types of audiences.

Evaluation - Question Three -What find of media institution might distribute your media project and why?

A good example of a media institution that has the potential to distribute our film is a short or independent film label such a dazzle film. They are a company who are an independent short film label, who help to distribute films out into the world.

Another way is to distribute or film by adding an advert to certain magazine companies, this is because we used an instrumental audio tape for the beginning of our project and then it went into scream music, we used a scream song because its a up beat song and would get the audiences pumping to see whats going to happen. We could distribute it into a scream magazine such a karrang, this could include an advert which would have the official website of your film on the advert. 

Producing an email or webpage, which can be sent out to a range of people, to the audience we are trying to get out to and this may include a note about the film, the day in which it will be coming out in cinemas or on the television, a competition and most definitely have a trailer or a link tot he trailer on it. 

We could also use cross-media convergence, where we can upload our film piece of the 2 minute opening of the film that we have done for our project and add it to the internet using youtube, which we then can use the link from youtube and add it onto a social networking site such as facebook or twitter. This would help because if we are an independent film, so we have a low budget to work with and the social networking sites to be free this would help a lot and save the money we dont have. 

Evaluation - Question Two - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The way in which our media product represents social groups is that all of our characters were teenagers aged between 16-18 year olds which is very similar to the characters in a movie which is newly released called ‘Attack the Block’ which is about a teen gang in South London defending their block from an alien invasion, this puts these characters and teenagers in a positive light because in the current society young adults and teenagers are put in a negative light because of anti-social behaviours, crime and other factors. Therefore this is one of the main reasons why we used teenagers as the main characters on the movie because it will hopefully add a positive effect on the way this social group is represented.

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

We looked at a range of real media products such as the film "28 Days Later" this used special effects in which they used to change the colour effect of the film that they shot. We also done this as we wanted to show that our project of the film we are making had a similarity with a real media product such as the film "28 Days Later".
The Film "Sean of the Dead" was a funny remake of the film "Dawn of the dead" made in 1978. This was a film that included zombies, like our project. their zombies were in their own regular clothes, we got the idea of our zombies in their own clothes from this. Although we didn't want our film to be a funny zombie film in some scenes of our project with the zombies, they came across some what funny, it was hard for it all to be very serious, but then the female actress Charleigh came across generally scared when she was being chased by the zombies, we can tell this because of her facial reactions.
We started filming early in the morning & midday. This gave us the day to film and only this day to film as we took our camera out of the school premisses and were only allowed it for the day. As we were filming during the day we got the natural day light, which was good for us as we wanted this effect so we would then be able to add special effects o colour. although, this is different to real media products as they would normally use other sources of light such as the "kino light".

Final Film

Filming- Rough Cut.

Filming- Colour

After shooting most of the clip it seems that the colour must really be changed to add an overall drab tone by washing out most of the colour similar to the picture on the left taken from Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later' which was shot with a fairly average budget of £5 million, which then earnt almost £40 million when it became a surprise hit in the US which continued to earn many awards and give Danny Boyle such a high status.

 The desolate streets that appear in the film gave me the idea to film in a deserted area as the shot alone of an empty place is quite haunting......

Filming - Colour

A rough pan just to test the colour effect.

Filming- Day One.

We had one day to do filming. In which we had to film from the beginning to the end, in one day. Making sure we get all different shots of the area we are filming in & to make sure that we had the people who were meant to be in the shot; to make sure that they are actually in the shot.

We started filming at an early time in the morning:

At Erin's house to get everyones make-up & fake blood done for the filming:

At Heygate, about to start filming, every zombie & main character Charlie:

A photograph of everyone in action.:

Preperation, Research & Planning- Location.

Our location will be an empty housing estate, called Heygate location in Elephant & Castle, London. The area was deserted and no one was around the location but us; this was a possitive as we were able to shoot without any one in the shots.

Preperation, Research & Planning- Costume Plot.

We decided as a group that we wanted everyone in their own clothes. This was because; the main characters are going to be in their own clothes, and as a part of the film; the other actors will also be in the own clothes so that the main characters think they are just like them.
Some of the actors will have blood over them & then the girl main character Charleigh, will have blood only on her face. The main boy Charlie will have no blood on him at all.

Preperation, Research & Planning- The Items.

Preperation, Research & Planning- More Zombie film research

The main inspiration for our piece was essentially the gloomy style of '28 Days Later' which was somehow a big hit in the US despite it's lack of income in the UK, the craze in the US lead to sequel '28 Weeks Later' which was actually directed like a US blockbuster with a far larger budget with a spectacular marketing campaign.



A Biohazard sign was projected on the White Cliffs of Dover a week before the movie was released, the sign is very relevant to the film's plot, possibly intriguing people to find out why the sign was there?








Viral marketing was also used by grafting the films website all over London, using removable paint to avoid any lawsuits. Props were also given away and a graphic novel was also released linking the two films. The marketing alone shows the total hijack of the original film despite that it is actually a very good film but it lacks the horrid feel that Danny Boyle created in '28 Days Later'. '28 Weeks Later' actually earnt almost $90 million  in the US box office with DVD sales which just shows the sheer impact of a successful marketing campaign.

Preperation, Research & Planning- Theme- Invasion.

Our theme is Invasion.

Our project is to do a short film to show the first 2 minutes of a film with titles. Having our project as this we will jump straight into the 'invasion' of the 'zombie's' coming after the two main characters we have, that think they may be the only ones left alive.

The invasion of a new species whoa re capable of taking over as there is no one left to be seen around the location.

Preperation, Research & Plnning- Sound.

We looked at different sounds that we may be able to use within our work, if we wanted to put music over the top of it. As our genre is horror we would need quite 'scary embrace' music, so we looked at:

Scream:

Dubstep:

Preperation, Research & Planning- Camera Work.

Practising with the camera, getting more comfortable with using it so we will be ready to take it out and film our project, so we can have little more knowledge on using the camera. Making a little film just to show how we can chance the colour of the film we have done, and to see what effects it can give us.This video shows this:

Preperation, Research & Planning- Rating.

As we looked at different genres and done a questionnaire and chose our genre. Which will be 'lite' horror. Knowing this we have to think about what age we can put our final piece out to; too the audience. As we are planning on not doing so horrorfic. We looked at the official uk film/ video classification:

We all agree that we are looking at for our film to be a 12A or a 15. This is becausewe don't want our film to be scary and not to have loads of gruesome scenes. 

Preperation, Research & Planning- Storyboards.

We chose the most interesting pitch out of all the three ideas we had. The most interesting one was probably the most challenging too; this was good, so we were able to put a challenge up against ourselves.

Preperation, Research & Planning- Getting the right people.

Finding the right people to come out and be involved with our filming, we chose people who had a different side to them and able to act in different environments.

The email was sent out and many of people replied. We accepted most of the people to help us with ou filming as the actors.

Continuity Piece Final

Preperation, Research & Planning- Audience.

Looking for the right audience. Different people of different ages to watch different types of films. We done a questionnaire, who we asked a different range of people from different ages, from 5 years to 50+ years, this questionnaire included of 4 questions.

The results showed that 16-25s go to the cinema most often and that they prefer the genres of Horror and Romance films. This was equally ranged between males and females.