Evaluation Question 6: Technologies I've Learnt About Prezi

Media Evaluation: Technologies on Prezi

Here I have created a Prezi detailing the different technologies I have learnt about and used throughout my media course to create my film, logo's, posters etc. 

Evaluation Question 3-Harrison Lee

After the production of our film we can begin the distribution of our film, to help it reach our target audience. There are multiple ways which we can consider distributing it, we are of course not expecting our film to catch the eye of a major film industry but we could still use some other methods of distribution to reach an audience i.e. uploading it to social networking sites and facebook, entering into short film festivals, trailers, posters etc.

20th Century Fox are a major film distribution company:                    

28 days later is a british, zombie film which was produced by fox searchlight pictures and distributed by 20th century fox. The poster shows isolation of the main character making the threat greater as he is alone, the red background connotes death i.e. he is surrounded by death (the zombies) It also shows parts of London, this emphasizes the scale of the pandemic, the biohazard symbol behind the title also hints towards the dangers and origins of the threat.
The trailer shows the build up towards the pandemic up to the introduction to the present time in the film, this builds tension in the trailer.




Hammer films is an independent film distribution company:

The terror of Dracula, was distributed by independent film company, Hammer  films. The poster shows the threat over the victim, the victim is smaller than the threat showing his power, the dark colours and red writing connote evil and danger the threat is also covered mostly in shadow to make him look scarier. The victim is wearing a light coloured dress making her look more pure and innocent in comparison to the threat. The trailer introduces the threat and the victims in the film and emphasizes the threat of the villain. In the trailer the victims are also portrayed as weaker and more helpless in comparison to the threat who is confident and powerful.

Another way of distributing my film is entering into short film festivals like the Bang! Short Film Festival. This is a good way for unknown film makers to get their work seen and to increase publicity for their short films.

Reflective Evaluation, Question 1 (Harrison Lee)

Here I have made a compilation of images that I have taken influence from while making my horror film.
We have planned for our film to be a largely generic example of the zombie genre and to include many of the main convention of this sub-genre.


Logo:

For this logo the colours of the original Warner Bros. logo have been changed to red with a darkened background, this colour combination connotes fear, death and blood. I have chosen this logo because the colour scheme is concordant with our films theme.

                                                  Title:

This is a shot of the title from Dawn of the Dead, the title uses a dark background, which connotes evil/darkness and fear, to make the red coloured font of the title stand out more. The red font has been used probably due to it's connotations of blood. The words DAWN and DEAD are in larger fonts than the rest of the title, DEAD being the largest over all emphasising the zombie threat in the film, elements like this could be used in the making of our title to emphasize our sub-genre.

Existing Sub-genre:

This image shows zombies in a conventional 'undead horde', zombies are portrayed as gathering in this way in many zombie films as it increases the danger in the scene because it is harder to escape such a large threat. I our film we're going against this common convention as it begins with only one immediate threat, this shows how dangerous the threat can be even alone.

Establishing Character Shot:

The shot shows the main character with his weapon (a cricket bat) showing that he is a strong character also he is covered in blood which is one of the main connotations of the horror genre. The other characters are also holding weapons but are standing behind the main character showing that he is the leader. This picture advertises the effectivity of blunt objects and tools against zombies, characters seen without a means of defense are seen as allot weaker and more helpless.


Mise-en-scene:

This shot zooms out to show the destruction left by the zombies, common conventions of the zombie genre can be seen i.e. blood, abandoned streets etc. It builds the tension up to the zoom out, not showing much of the scene till the final shot of the film. The lighting is rather dull this could be to connote that apart from the main character there is no life visible in the scene and is reflecting this.

Key Images:

Film: 28 Days Later

This is one of the first scenes in the film, in this image the aftermath of the spread of infection can be seen. The character is alone in the shot and the abandoned bridge can be seen, the long road in the background enhances the feeling of loneliness in the scene.

This image is a scene later in the film during Jim's first encounter with the infected, his pursuers are then set alight by other survivors. This scene establishes the zombie threat to create fear as it portrays them as fast runners and are eventually only stopped by blowing up and entire fuelling station. This scene 'sets the bar' for the zombie element in the film, they're fast and they're hard to kill.

In this scene one of the characters is infected by the virus and begins to turn. He is subsequently shot by soldiers. What is important about this scene is that his daughter is left with a group of people she doesn't really know, and though they have been travelling together she now has to go through the death of her father relatively by herself. I feel that this contrasts with most films of this sub-genre as zombie horrors are usually more concerned with the gore and fear elements and so lack more emotional scenes like this.

This is an image of an infected persons eye's. The zombies in this film do not follow all the usual conventions of the genre, they're fast, they're nor all necessarily dead/undead and they even exhibit a level of intelligence. The biggest giveaway for the zombies in 28 days later is the eye's, all the infected have red eyes, sometimes 'crying' blood. On the other hand they do exhibit all the main qualities of horror zombies i.e. a hunger for flesh, covered in blood and can survive most mortal injuries.

Comparison to 9 Images from our film:

 This is the production logo from our film, We've used a font and image that reflect the genre and themes of our film in the same way the warner bros. logo used colours that related to the genre of the film.


 For for our title we used a red font to connote death and blood, similar to how the titles for dawn of the dead used colour to reflect the genre, and included the silhouette of the threat in the film to create fear and anticipation.

 This image establishes the sub-genre by show in the threat but not directly to build tension, the audience can tell they are zombies because of the human form but animalistic gestures made by the shadows.

 This shot establishes one of the possible victims in our film as his expression of fear can clearly be seen, this also makes the character look more vulnerable as he is hiding behind a wall.
 This image clearly establishes the mise en scene of our film giving a clear establishing shot of the environment in which it takes place.

4 key images:
 
 
From top left clockwise: The victims realizing their way out is locked, the victims hiding from the zombie, the zombie looking for it's prey, the zombie biting one of the victims.

I have chosen these images as they basically sum up the narrative of the film, the victims are trapped with the threat then one of them gets bitten and subsequently becomes a zombie too.

Evaluation Question 4 & 5 Audience & IMDB user ratings (Harrison Lee)

	Dawn of the Dead Votes	When creating a film it's important to know your audience and their like/dislikes, therefore we have researched what audience we would like to aim our film at by looking at the ratings given to similar films on imdb.com and looking at what we are allowed to actually use in our film according to the official bbfc ratings. Average
Males	38,496	8.1
Females	3,470	7.3
Aged under 18	444	8.6
Males under 18	397	8.7
Females under 18	44	7.8
Aged 18-29	21,283	8.2
Males Aged 18-29	19,476	8.2
Females Aged 18-29	1,698	7.7
Aged 30-44	16,920	8.0
Males Aged 30-44	15,540	8.0
Females Aged 30-44	1,243	7.5
Aged 45+	3,232	7.2
Males Aged 45+	2,751	7.3
Females Aged 45+	443	5.8
IMDb staff	6	8.6
Top 1000 voters	651	7.5
US users	17,477	8.1
Non-US users	23,505	8.0
IMDb users	52,222	8.0

            

                           Day of the Dead 

Votes	Average
Males	20,977	7.1
Females	1,504	6.9
Aged under 18	188	7.8
Males under 18	178	7.8
Females under 18	10	7.2
Aged 18-29	11,560	7.3
Males Aged 18-29	10,737	7.3
Females Aged 18-29	769	7.3
Aged 30-44	9,312	6.9
Males Aged 30-44	8,683	6.9
Females Aged 30-44	560	6.7
Aged 45+	1,380	6.4
Males Aged 45+	1,207	6.5
Females Aged 45+	152	6.2
Top 1000 voters	549	6.6
US users	8,670	7.0
Non-US users	13,341	7.1
IMDb users	27,700	7.0

                         Shaun of the Dead 

Votes	Average
Males	136,726	8.0
Females	21,506	8.0
Aged under 18	2,892	8.5
Males under 18	2,366	8.5
Females under 18	507	8.3
Aged 18-29	100,908	8.2
Males Aged 18-29	86,580	8.2
Females Aged 18-29	13,892	8.2
Aged 30-44	46,854	7.9
Males Aged 30-44	40,942	7.9
Females Aged 30-44	5,547	8.1
Aged 45+	7,500	7.1
Males Aged 45+	6,022	7.3
Females Aged 45+	1,392	6.1
IMDb staff	37	8.1
Top 1000 voters	779	7.5
US users	50,996	8.2
Non-US users	101,692	7.9
IMDb users	181,501	8.0

                       28 Days Later

Votes	Average
Males	104,035	7.6
Females	15,475	7.8
Aged under 18	1,371	8.0
Males under 18	1,108	8.0
Females under 18	253	7.8
Aged 18-29	72,675	7.8
Males Aged 18-29	62,403	7.8
Females Aged 18-29	9,913	7.9
Aged 30-44	39,686	7.5
Males Aged 30-44	34,857	7.5
Females Aged 30-44	4,454	7.7
Aged 45+	5,723	7.1
Males Aged 45+	4,942	7.1
Females Aged 45+	716	7.3
IMDb staff	22	7.9
Top 1000 voters	747	7.3
US users	35,811	7.8
Non-US users	79,543	7.6
IMDb users	142,264	7.6

                      Zombieland

Votes	Average
Males	118,162	7.8
Females	17,607	7.9
Aged under 18	4,503	8.4
Males under 18	3,489	8.4
Females under 18	971	8.3
Aged 18-29	91,098	7.9
Males Aged 18-29	78,246	7.9
Females Aged 18-29	12,439	8.0
Aged 30-44	35,196	7.5
Males Aged 30-44	31,500	7.5
Females Aged 30-44	3,419	7.6
Aged 45+	5,088	7.1
Males Aged 45+	4,375	7.1
Females Aged 45+	657	7.2
IMDb staff	25	7.6
Top 1000 voters	609	7.1
US users	40,075	8.0
Non-US users	87,475	7.7
IMDb users	146,322	7.8

From these ratings we can see that the target audience of our genre is mainly males, aged 18-29.

It also shows that the audience it least appeals to are females aged 45+.


A 15 is the lowest certificate of the films i've chosen, a film with a certificate of 15 cannot be viewed or purchased by anyone aged under 15.
The content of films rated 15:

• Must not endorse discriminatory language or behavior.
• Drug use may be shown in the film but must not promote or encourage drug use on a whole.
• In terms of horror films, strong threats and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualized.
• There may be frequent use of strong language but excessive or violent use may not be permitted.
• Nudity may be shown but without strong detail in sexual contexts.
• Violence may be strong but must not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury i.e. torture

An 18 is the highest certificate of the films i've chosen, a film with a certificate of 18 cannot be viewed or purchased by anyone aged under 18. The content of 18 rated films is similar to that of 15 rated films except that it can be much more explicit in violence and nudity.

Our Film Rating:

We would give our film a rating of 15 as it does not contain explicit content but does include strong threats, elements of fear and gore. Our film will be mainly aimed at male teenagers and young adults as our findings from imdb.com show that the majority people who saw similar films were male and aged from around under18 to 29.

Attracting our target audience:
We decided to attract this audience through the use of tension in our film, it starts with the victims hiding from the zombie and eventually being chased this creates a build up of suspense to when they are found by the zombie this, will build excitement and fear in our audience.