Peer Assessment

Student Name/s:

Production title:

1. How would you rate the production in terms of the following codes and conventions of horror/ thriller/ romantic comedy?

Excellent Good Average Poor Very Poor


2. On the evidence you have seen, how well planned was the production?


Excellent 1 2 3 4 5 Poor


3. Would you say the production showed evidence of:


No imagination Little Imagination


Some Imagination High Imagination and Creative flair


4. The following refers to the technical aspect of the piece. Please rate the following on a scale of 1-5 (1 being excellent, 5 being poor)


a) Shot composition 1 2 3 4 5

b) Mise-en-scene 1 2 3 4 5

c) Editing 1 2 3 4 5

d) Sound and music 1 2 3 4 5

e) Use of Titles 1 2 3 4 5



5. How could the production be improved? Please make all your comments constructive and as specific as possible.






Above is the questionnaire we constructed. We each had a questionnaire for each production, answered it and gave it back to the owner of the production.
Overall i feel i got a good reaction. People thought the soundtrack was really appropriate and complented my prodution nicely. Others thought that the acting was very good, in fact i think if i didnt have a decent actor the piece wouldn't have worked at all. On the other hand many people thought my production was in need of much more "scarier" titles, in which i agree with. Others also thought that it was to short.
While 70% thought it had a high imagination and creative flair, 30% thought it only had some imagination. 60% thought that i followed the codes and conventions of the thriller excellently, while 30% thought is was "good" and 10% thought it was average. In terms of how well planned my peers thought my production was 60% thought it was "excellent" and 40% thought it was "good". In terms of the technical aspects of the piece 70% thought my shot composition was excellent leaving 30% thinking it was good. With mise-en-scene 40% thought it was excellent, while 50% thought it was good and 10% thought it was average. In terms of editing, 90% thought it was excellent while 10% thought it was good. Sound and Music showed that 70% thought it was excellent while 30% thought it was good. The use of my titles showed me that 70% thought they were good, whereas 30% thought they were excellent.

Evaluation Podcast

Our evaluation Podcasts were uploaded to youtube, then we embeded them from there on to our blogs. We were asked seven consecutive quiestions, in which we has a few days to prepare for. I did several drafts in order to try and memorise my answers, so i wouldnt need 2 keep reffering to my draft throughout recording. Unfortunatly i feel my nerves got the better off me and i refered back to my draft more times then i planned to. However i found that condensing my draft and just using certain key words really helped me, as each word stemed to something i could talk about.
I think most the questions went well and were very relavant to what we had been doing. The second question, "How does your media product represent particular social groups?" i found the most difficult to answer. As my production didn't really incorporate much representation or many stereotypical tendancies in society, (there isnt many schizophrenic teenagers who kill there families.) I decided to concentrate more on the clothes she was wearing and the surroundings such as the working class area. Question 3 was also quiet challenging, as my original idea was the go with an independent institution but couldnt find any that i thought would distribute a thriller, some i found i didnt feel was well known enough fpr the examiner to distinguish therfore i chose a Film 4, a well known production company.
If i had the chance to do it again, i would incorporate it with more detail and wouldnt rush it as much as i did. I also think recording yourself before hand would help as you would be able to see what your like on camera and correct any negative points before the actual podcast.

Behind The Scenes

This is how we made my fake blood. With food colouring, water and baking power.

Getting her ready to play the part!

Replacing my old shower curtain with a cheaper one, so my actually shower curtain wouldnt get all stained with the fake blood.

Murder scene!

Death scene!

Character Profiles

Name: Margaret Pringle

Character: "Mum"

Occupation: Nursery Nurse

Age: 39

Starsign: Pices

Interests/hobbies: Reading, socialising

Name: Brendon Pringle

Character: "little brother"

Occupation: Student

Age: 13

Star Sign: Libra

Interests/ hobbies: Football

Name: Stephanie Billington

Character: "Schizophrenic Teenager"

Occupation: Student

Age: 16

Star sign: Leo

Interests/Hobbies: Photography

The Pitch

Idea 1- (thriller)
Teenage Girl.
Schizophrenic.
Kills her family when her other personality has awoken, but wakes up in her house the next morning not knowing what she has done.
Runs away but gets caught and sent to a mental institutuion.
Newspaper articles establish to the audience what has happened to the girl.

Idea 2- (horror)
Middle aged man.
Just left the army, and beleives his mission is to kill all the people that are "messing up" the counrty, Eg. tramps, prostitutes, drug users etc.
He dresses in his army uniform when he kills and hides the bodies under the floor boards in his house.

Idea 3 - (rom- com)
Couple are getting married in a church.
When the priest says "does anyone object?" A man runs in screaming "noooo"
Instead of the women running to him, it is the man, revealing to everyone he is homosexual.

I have decided to choose idea 1. I chose this because it is the most realistic and i believe i could get it done in the time i have. It allows me explore a more psychological theme and will enable me to experiment with different editing techniques as i can reflect the main characters mind through my editing. It will also enable me to use a range of camera angles as it is being shot in a house and then outside.

Casting

The character of the "schizophrenic tennager" will be played by Stephanie Billington. She herself is a tennage girl therefore making it more realistic. Props this character may use include fake blood, a knife and a phone.

The character of the "mum" will be played by Margaret Pringle. She herself is a mum and in her thirties again making it more realistic. She will use no props.

The character of the "little brother" will be played by Brendon Pringle. He is 13 years old therefore fits the criteria of "little brother" . Props this character may use include fake blood.

Role allocations

As i am working on my own i will adopt each role. Director, Editor, Writer and Camera person. I prefer this as i have only myself to rely on, therefore nobody can let me down.

Filming Schedule

Preliminary task

In the Preliminary task we filmed a short sequence involing an object being passed to another person, to practice the concepts of match on action and the 180 degree rule. I found this very useful as it introduced me to the camera and the equipment you can use with it. During this task we also discovered how to edit whilst filming.

Genres of all film releases- Table 1

In 2007, comedy was the top grossing genre in the UK earning £206.6 million. This proves that comedies are overal more popular than thrillers. However, only 28 thriller films were released while 127 comedies were relased. This suggests that is 127 thrillers were made it would make more money at box gross office.
The table shows horror had 24 releases, which is similar to Romance and thriller. Due to its 18 certificates, its audiences are narrowist. Horrors made £28.8 million at box office, less than what thrillers made but more than romance.
Only 4.1% of films released are romance. whereas 23.1% of films released is adventure, suggesting adventure is more popular. It also makes more money at box office. making 5.0 million hile Romance only makes 1.7 million.

Halloween

Mise en scene
1963 Halloween

Title sequence- colours such as orange, yellow, red- these colours could signify death.

Pumpkin- traditional Halloween prop.

- it disapears when directors name appears,

draws attention to the name.

Black Background- so coulours stand out? signifys death and darkness.

"Boy" and "Girl"- Teenagers, babysitters? They look like a cuple.

Suburban area- quiet. large gardens, white houses. Not a place you would expect to find a murder.

Small boy- clowns outfit- hidden identity. Maybe with the mask it creates another character. Split personality?

Camera Angles

Zoom in of house- subjective point of view (empty vision)

Forward tracking- become more involed, you can see things through their eyes.

Pans on a vertical axis, looking in the window, pans right to left.

Camera tilts from the floor to the top of the house- seeing it through the characters eyes. Almost as if you are their eyes.

Close up of knife- signifying its danger.

Hand held when in the house- sense of uneasiness, still doesnt reveal identity.

Throughout the sequence the camera is at an adult height, certain things are blurred such as his arm n hands, - makes people beleive it is an adult.

In fact it is a small boy- medium close up of him at the end, which than pans out using a crane shot.

Editing/ Sound

Incidental music during the titles- piano, builds up and gets louder as the camera zooms in on the pumpkin- builds tension.

Diegetic sound- children singing- reflects innocence? something the murderer doesn't have. He isn't like other children.

Piercing sounds- out of tune- could reflect his state of mind ( non diegetic sound)

Clock- diegetic sound, could suggest her time is up.

Seamless editing- fluid. not noticable.

Blurred when the boy reaches for the knife- reflecting his state of mind, he may not understand what he is doing? Also could be a way into fooling the audience into thinking it is an adult.

Cuts when perspective is changed.

Cuts to the top of the house - Wolf noise- reinforcing the time of year, Halloween.