Finished Product!

Scream: Cover Analysis

Denotations: in the background of this cover there is a pale-faced and blue eyed woman looking scared/shocked with a hand over her mouth (it is not clear whether this is her hand or someone else’s). In the foreground there are four young adults, two males and two females, and then one older looking woman. They are all wearing black and have rather calm expressions. In front of these people is the title of the film, Scream, in white, bold writing. The ‘m’ of Scream has been pulled down slightly. Around the edges of this cover there is a blurred, black border.

Connotations: the scared woman represents the fear that will be experienced by so many of the characters in this film. The black and white colour scheme may be there to show that she is cold and lifeless, and, as black and white are boring colours, it could also mean that she is unimportant to the killer, possibly because he has killed so many already. The young adults and the older woman are on the cover as they are the main characters and will be involved in most of the action that goes on in the film. I feel the girl with the blond hair is right at the front as she is the person who is killed first, and is also an iconic element of the film (most people are aware of her death even if they haven’t watched the film). They are wearing black in order to compliment the horror genre of this film (which is rather dark and bleak) and the black also hints that this film is not going to be bright and cheery, but instead sinister, possibly with bad fates for these five characters. The connotation of the calm expressions is of a calm and peaceful time, but, as the storyline does not treat these characters well, I’m not sure why they have this look. However, these expressions do create a rather eerie effect (considering the fact that most of them are killed) which works well with the scary and unnerving genre. I feel the white writing is there in order to represent the killer, Ghostface, as he wears a white mask for the majority of this film. It may also represent the innocence of the characters on the cover, or it may just simply be there as a contrast against the black background. I think that the sunken letter ‘m’ may represent the long and lingering screams of the characters that are killed in this film, and the sunken part of this letter also looks very sharp, possibly signifying the sharp dagger that is used to kill in the movie. The black border is indicative of the bleak and gloomy nature of the film.

Is there anything missing from it that would make it better?: I feel these five characters should have more frightened expressions, due to their unfortunate storylines. The calm expressions are very confusing if you are in the know of the plotline of the film, as it is not as calm and as peaceful as these expressions suggest. Additionally, whilst I think it is clever to have white writing in order to represent the killer in this movie, white is usually associated with goodness and purity, and so is again confusing considering the plotline of the film. I think the title would be best in red, which has much more to do with the horror genre and has connotations of blood and gore.

Evaluation: Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task, and then looking at my finished product, Slaughter School, I feel that my media skills have improved widely. One main improvement is that I have learnt to hold a camera steady and how to use a tripod, allowing me to get a professional shot. Also, during the preliminary task, I didn't really experiment much with the features on the camera, such as the zoom in and zoom out button, which I used a lot in my final production in order to create suspense or to focus in on something. Another big improvement is the variety of shots that I used in Slaughter School. In my preliminary task, I only really used the shots that we were instructed to use in the question, so I didn’t really get to be very creative, but in Slaughter School, I made sure that I used a variety of different shots in order to establish different things, rather than just giving the same, single shot to everything, which wouldn’t really be very interesting. I didn’t use editing a great deal in the preliminary task either – we had to cut the shots so that they would fit together smoothly and we added a title, but we didn’t really add effects or transitions to the shots, unlike in our final production (where there are black and white shots, cross dissolves, etc). The final thing I feel has improved since we did our preliminary task is continuity, as in the preliminary task, we didn’t really pay much attention to this, but in Slaughter School we were constantly checking to make sure that the mise-en-scene was exactly as it was in the last shot, in order to make the film flow, making it look more realistic. 

Evaluation: Question 6 (Pt. 2)

Mac – I had never used a Mac before I started working on this media project, but I found it relatively easy to use and get used to as they are very similar to normal computers, apart from the fact that they lack certain programs that can come in handy (such as Paint).

Pros of Macs:

Easy to use, as they are very similar to normal computers

They contain programs such as iMovie, which are very useful for video-making projects such as this, as they provide a simple way to edit creations

Cons of Macs:

Lacks useful programs, like Paint and Word

iMovie – I had never used this prior to the project, but I learnt that this is an incredibly useful and easy program to use when editing videos. It allows you to easily cut down clips, add titles/sound/music and place effects/transitions, which really enhance the final product

Pros of iMovie:

Easy way to create professional looking videos through the tools provided

Cons of iMovie:

Often crashes when overloaded with information/actions

It is sometimes complex and annoying to add titles and change clips (for instance, when trying to revert clip back to original, you have to go back through all of the changes you have made to it)

Computer – I use computers all the time for school work and for personal use, so I did not have to get used to using this whatsoever.

Pros of computers:

They make life a lot easier (instead of writing out work, we can type it up in Word, we can download music, send emails to keep in touch with friends, etc)

Very easy to use

Provide entertainment (games, music, programmes and films)

Cons of computers:

Sometimes crash

Viruses

Can sometimes go slow/need updating often

USB Microphone: I use this for my own personal use so I am rather used to it, and didn’t have to learn much about it. We used this to dub over my voice in our film.

Pros of USB Microphone:

Easy and simple way to record voice/music/sound

Can create audio tracks to add to videos, which is helpful when doing a project such as this, as we needed to record a few sounds again that weren’t picked up very well in the actual film. Also means that I was able to create the distribution video.

Cons of USB Microphone:

Have to get distance from microphone right, or the sound can crack/go fuzzy

Scanner – I don’t use scanners very often, but I do know how to work them, so again, I didn’t need to learn an awful lot about this piece of equipment. However, on the scanner we were using, we needed to take a memory card from the scanner and then connect that to the computer so that we were able to get the images onto our blogs, which I had to be shown how to do.

Pros of scanner:

Quick and easy way of getting images/photos onto computer

Once the image is on the computer, you can enhance it by adding text/colour/images to it

Cons of scanner:

Images sometimes do not come out in the best quality/dark areas on images

Evaluation: Question 6 (Pt. One)

What have you learnt about technology in the process of constructing this product?

Video camera – I had never used a video camera properly prior to this project, so that meant that I learnt a lot about video cameras throughout this process. I learnt how to keep a steady hand when filming (and also how to use a tripod to enhance steady filming), how to control lighting when filming, and how to transport film from the tape in the camera to computers/macs. In fact, prior to this experience I wasn’t even aware that there were tapes in some video cameras.

Pros of video cameras: 

Quick and easy way of creating your own media visions, even if you haven’t had much experience with them before  

With a tripod it is possible to film in a very professional way, meaning that it is possible to create something very similar in standard  to what is shown on the television and at the cinema

Cons of video cameras:  

It is very hard to continuously control the lighting when filming  

As the video camera is handheld, it is very hard to keep a steady shot without the help of a tripod 

The low quality of the camera (not suggesting that all handheld cameras are low quality, but in this case, ours was)

Blogger - I had never used Blogger before this experience, but I found it very simple to use and quickly figured out how to upload videos and images, create posts, change fonts and colours, order my posts, etc. 

Pros of Blogger:  

Very simple to use, easy to work all the tools  

Allows you to create a personal area for your own thoughts/visions/work/etc

Cons of Blogger:  

Hard to place videos and images in the place you want them

Youtube - I use Youtube frequently in my everyday life, for other subjects and for personal use, so I found it easy to use this item of technology in my project, and didn't really have to learn anything about it. I adjusted quickly to uploading links from Youtube to my blog. 

Pros of Youtube: 

Quick and easy way of finding videos for inspiration, information and for blogs  

Wide range of videos  

Easy-to-use filtering system when searching for videos

Cons of Youtube: 

No notable, huge cons, apart from the fact that some videos take a while to load before you can watch them

Tripod – I found the tripod very easy to use, and didn’t need to learn an awful lot about it before using it. However, I did have to get used to the controls of the tripod (such as the tilt control and the rotational device) to get the best results possible.

Pros of the tripod: 

Fairly easy way to capture high quality, steady film

Cons of the tripod:

No huge cons, but the user must get used to the controls before using it

Evaluation: Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract and address our audience during this project, we firstly gave out a questionnaire concerning films and the horror genre (here) to people of various ages in order to see which age group our horror film would be most suited to, creating our target audience (males aged 16-24). We chose to use a questionnaire as they are quick and easy to create, and we were easily also able to get them out to a wide range of people via the pigeon holes in our college. Our film appeals to that audience (or so we assume) as they answered the questions in the questionnaire accordingly (see here), also, the actors in the film (or the intended actors, if it were to be made into a full-length production) are of a similar age to these males, meaning that they would be able to relate strongly to the characters and the location around them (school/college). The directors are also of similar age, meaning that the vision they wish to create may be very similar in taste to what the 16-24 want to see.

Evaluation: Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Thomas Brown. He is 16 years and 3 months old, and he lives in the suburbs of Nottingham.
He dresses casually, usually donning jeans and a printed t-shirt with trainers. He enjoys hanging out with his friends, playing video games, going to the cinema and listening to music.
He likes to watch films such as Harry Potter, TRON, Shutter Island, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Inception, Happy Gilmore, The Big Lebowski, Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and he will usually go to see these at the cinema before buying them on DVD to watch with his friends.
He watches television programmes such as Family Guy, The Simpsons, Friends, Top Gear, The Big Bang Theory and The Inbetweeners, so mainly comedy.

The music this boy listens to varies, but the main genres he enjoys are indie, rock, techno and dub-step. He doesn’t listen to popular music very often, as he feels that this type of music is overrated, the songs sound too similar and the lyrics are superficial.  

Thomas is a stereotypical boyish-boy, who enjoys male orientated programmes and music, and therefore he would most probably like the male orientated and “manly” genre of our film (horror, which we discovered is a genre favoured mostly by males from our questionnaire). However, he is also a little less mainstream, due to his choice of music, and consequently he would probably appreciate the unique quality of the location of this film (a school), which is not very conventional or usual of the horror genre. Also, due to his age, he attends school, which means that he would be able to relate strongly to this location, increasing his fear when watching and also making him anxious during future trips to school.