Evaluation of 'Westwick'

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


Our film ‘Westwick’ challenges the conventions of a horror film in that it starts with the death of the characters, showing that the film will inevitably end with their demise. However the purpose of the film is to discover the way that they died, so this pre-emptive scene does not ruin the film.
Another way that our film challenges the conventions of a horror is that there is no ‘final girl’. By removing this element, we challenge the audience’s expectations, adding to the scary side of the film, as although the end is known; this element shows that the methods would also be unknown.
To adhere to Todorov’s theory of a new equilibrium at the end of the film would have been a predictable turn to the movie, so in the decision to follow films such as 'The Blair witch project' we have removed this equilibrium.

This is the ending to 'The Blair Witch Project'

One film in particular that adheres to Todorov's theorys and ideologies is 'The Dark Crystal'. The equilibrium is introduced, thre is a disruption, they attempt to fix the problem and the movie ends when a new equilibrium is created. Here is the trailer for the film:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


Our film represents the naivety of young adults, as this is both the target audience and the subject matter of the play. It doesn’t represent the entire demographic, just those that would go camping in woods they did not know. This idea was based loosely on an episode of Skins, where a group of teenagers went to get drunk in a forest. Whilst both of these media concepts end differently, this shows that these naïve and falsely confident groups of teenagers are present in society.


This is the trailer for the second series of Skins




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


It is more likely that an Art House would distribute our film. The Metropolitan Film School (for a link to the Met Film School click here) has distributed films such as ‘Little Ashes’ and would fit to our more stylistic film. Having made a decision at the beginning of production to make a film that challenges the conventions of a horror, we have created a more arty film.

This is the trailer for 'Little Ashes'




Who would be the audience for your media product?


The audience for our media product would those in the 16-24 demographic, more likely to be female than male, as that is the subject matter to the film, and teenagers are more likely to relate to that which they know and understand. Also because the film would require the use of the imagination, and has scare but not gore, it is less likely to appeal to boys within the 16-24 age range.

We also used music that would not normally be associated with horror. Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’ had previously been used in films such as ‘Ocean’s thirteen’ and ‘Twilight’ showing that it is popular, but original within this genre.

Clair de Lune - Debussy





How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract/address my audience I would create a trailer for 'Westwick' and get it played in a multiplex. I would also create a youtube and facebook page for the film,in order to advertise it, as word of mouth is one of the most effective forms of advertisement. I would also get a radio trailer made as this would increase the audience. Whilst we have created our film for art-house, advertising it for that medium would be difficult, so we would advertise it as a normal film aswell. As a final marketing technique, I would get it posted on the lovefilm envelopes. When you recieve a film from the company it has a film on the return envelope. This would be a good advertisent technique as lovefilm caters to those looking for a more sylistic film.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


To create the two minute opening to this film we had to film numerous times and ended up with about 2 hours of footage. This has showed me that whilst the technology we have used is excellent, we would have to be more careful and have planned better to get a more productive use of equipment. I have also learnt a lot about the process of editing, and become proficient in the program LiveType, creating clips not just for use in this film but in other media convergence products. I have also learnt that when something looks good in the storyboard, it won’t necessarily turn out how we wanted. We had to redesign our storyboard and by proxy our film as it just didn’t fit in with out concept and vision for the film.

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


Having rewatched our preliminary task I can see that whilst the basic were present in our preliminary task it lacked the penache and originality of our full product. I also feel I have learnt a lot more about the editing tools on the computer, as our preliminary was basic and quite boring. I also have learnt to better see the mistakes that have been made, and not to feel worried about having to making seemingly unending changes. I have also learnt to see that whilst you have to watch the product many times to check for mistakes, using an audience to see it helps to understand that it is just as effective as in the beginning, even when you lose that insight after too many watches.

Here is our preliminary task: