Final Evaluation (no Images)

                                                      Evaluation of Shinigami Film

1)     In what way does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and convections of media products?

The ways in which our film incorporates the generic conventions of a Mystery/Thriller film in specific scenes are, firstly we used effects and POV shots to symbolize an unknown force following the lead character. The conventions are also backed up by a mysterious eerie underlying tone throughout the introduction, heightening during the POV shots.

Our film challenges and the stereotypical views of the Shinigami, God of Death, and turns it on its head by inevitably making what would normally be the villain, now the hero.

The use of conventions indicate the sub-genre of our film could also be fantasy, they do this by using the concept of the Shinigami being almost a fairy god mother figure.

Comparing our film to other thriller films is quite difficult. I believe our film is so different from any other film, as it takes so many different conventional ideas from different genres that comparing it to any intro of a film would be pointless. The only film that could be compared to our film, is the film ‘The Blear Witch Project’. The reason for this is that, like our film, the blear witch project was completely original.

 The only way our film is similar is to some stereotypical film introductions is that it starts right in the heart of the action and would go on to explain what is going on.

2)     How does your media project represent particular social groups?

We took our main idea of the presence following the main character, and also the name of the film, from Japanese cultural beliefs of a Shinigami, which roughly translates as “God of Death.” The film is also based mainly around an 18 year old college student, we would hope this may help the film appeal to that sort of age range too.

           

Our film was produced entirely by and only stared males aged 17-18. The reason we chose all male actors is that we hoped by doing this we would attract this sort of social group.

I believe our film is not stereotypical, because we use so many different aspects in it, and one of our goals was to make a completely original film. I believe this will appeal to and help link to our target audience because we believe people would rather see a completely original film, rather than a film based around stereotypical conventions.

3)     What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I  believe the best production company to film our film would have been independent American movie studio Artisan Entertainment. The reason I believe that this company would of the best institution to distribute our production is because it specialized in films with original concepts, like ‘the blear witch project’

  

In my opinion our film could be produced by a major Hollywood Studio because it is an original concept, but it would depend if they were willing to take a risk on a totally original concept.

There aren’t many similar products to ours, that’s because when we were creating our film, we tried to make it as original as possible

Our film would hopefully be released nationwide, to get as many people to see it as possible

We believe our film has little opportunity for merchandising as it is an original concept and may be a risk to merchandisers.

4)     Who would be the audience for your media product?

Comparing the age and gender of our target audience, it links well to our style of film because we have used all male, teenage actors, we hoped by doing this that it would attract a late teen, to early 20’s audience.

A similar style of films to ours would be blear which project, the reason this may appeal to the same target audience is because both were completely original concepts.

We believe that they should class our film as a 15 or possibly an 18 depending on the outcome of the rest of the film, but from just the clip alone, the classification would be a 15, this is because the introduction to our film didn’t contain anything to make the film an 18, but it has an eerie feel to it which may discomfort younger children.

5)     How did you attract/address your audience?

We tried to attract our target audience by using actors in there same age range. This is why we think there should be a certificate of 15 to 18

The audience are put in the position of the Shinigami, as it is in POV. They witness what the Shinigami would be able to see.

insert POV shots

6)     What have you learnt about technology from constructing the product?

There are some strengths of using small camera, these are that we were able to do POV shots with minimal hassle, it was also easier to take the camera to and from locations. One of the camreas we used was a JVC video camera

On the other hand, the weaknesses are that the bigger cameras had superior video quality, with better zoom

During filming we encountered one or two problems, but we managed to resolve these problems quite easily with minimal problems

Our editing software was a weakness because of the difficulty to use before we got used to it, also the lack of effects and some features, also not being able to add additional audio layers, I would of preferred to use Final Cut Pro, as it is a more comprehensive and all round better editing software.

On the other hand, iMovie made it easy to crop clips and had a clear, well laid out display with a big preview section.

7)     Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

During our planning stage, researching the genre and storyboarding, the detailed planning helped us to produce the film efficiently because it helped us organize what films we could film when, it gave us the ability to start filming the scenes in the woods before the rest, as at that time we did not have all the necessary props.

Since learning more about different types of shots, we can say that our film is a lot more interesting and professional with the use of panning, POV and match on action shots.

I feel I am more confident with the equipment because I know have lots of firsthand experience of how to use the equipment and have experimented with it to find how to get the most out of it.

I feel that the final product was a really big success, and I am extremely pleased with how it turned out.