CHROMAKEY - EVALUATION QUESTIONS

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

The genre of my Chromakey – Green screen technique short film is horror. Horror film is a genre that aims to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm, and dread for the audience. These films are often unsettling and rely on scaring the audience through a portrayal of their worst fears and nightmares. Horror films usually center on the arrival of an evil force, person, or event. Many Horror films include mythical creatures such as ghosts, vampires, and zombies.

The themes found in horrors are used to scare, thrill and entertain the audience. The theme of my film is Revenge.

Some of the horror movies to which my film can relate to are Sabrina, the teenage witch and Snow white and the seven dwarfs.

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name. At least one episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch has her on a flying vacuum cleaner and my witch is also flying on her broom in the film. The black cloak which the witch in my film wears is also similar to Sabrina’s.

Where as the witch in Snow White and the seven dwarfs wanted to poison Snow white. Hence, my film share similarities with it, because the witch is evil and wants to destroy the happiness of the royal couple.

The target audience of a horror movie is usually teenagers who are mostly curious and daring. Men and women are also a target audience though. And, my film also targets teenagers mainly.

My film follows a set of codes and convention which every horror film does. I made use of all the elements of the mis en scene e.g. Settings, Props, Sound, Lighting and Editing techniques to help my audience recognize the genre of my film and the antagonist.

The art of camera work is an important element displayed in horror films. Through this convention, the audience can easily be understood to what the film is trying to say. Weird angles and canted cameras are most common within horror films. Also, they of often use extreme close ups and point of view shots in order to make the audience feel more involved, to build tension or even to express fear. Just like that I’ve used close-ups to show the evil face of the witch and her expressions especially when she says “I’ll destroy their happiness”. Long shots have been used when the witch is flying on her broom.

The visual styling of horrors is what easily identifies the audience with its genre. For example: Dark colors used, such as black and red. I’ve also used these key colors in my film which connote danger e.g dark cloud’s background, the witch’s dress, make up and nail color.

Props are one of the main indicators of the horror genre. When it comes to identifying a certain character or villain/antagonist, props such as costumes, machetes, knife, chainsaws, rope etc, are used where as I’ve used a broom since the witch is flying in my film.

The typical settings for a horror film are usually isolated, abandoned or locations with a hidden past. But I’ve used black and grey clouds background because it’s a live/animated action film. This also tells the audience that it’s night time.

The reason that people get scared during horror films is the music and sound effects that help create tension music Therefore I’ve used such a scary non-digetic sound in my film which creates a dark and mysterious mood.

As far as the editing techniques are concerned, I have used Dip to black after the opening credits to give my film a mysterious touch. Even the font of my film signifies that it belongs to the horror genre.

Usually in horror movies, the antagonist has some powers using which he can destroy other’s happiness. But the witch in my film can only fly and doesn’t have any other powers. This is how my film challenges forms and conventions. Though the witch has an evil mind and tries her best to destroy the royal couple’s happiness using normal ways e.g. poisoning, hurting or killing them.

2) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I took the audience feedback for my film by posting it on Facebook. This is what the people had to say about it.

I’ve learned that my audience really like my film but the audience expected me to use a more scarier music, which it would have given a more scary and mysterious feel to my film.

3) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Technology plays a major part in making any media product. I used new media technology during the planning stages of my video, particularly Google and YouTube. I searched about the character of a “witch” from Google.

From this I was able to get a better understanding of the “witch” character and the codes and conventions of the horror genre.

I also learned how to do better editing on Adobe premiere through YouTube as my skills are limited and the video tutorials helped me a lot in the editing.

To shoot the entire thing, I used Nikon D5100 which helped me to make HD videos with clear sound and bright color as compared to ordinary cameras. Its LCD monitor made it easier for me to compose shots from difficult angles.

Royalty free music was a site I used for the background score. It’s a very good site and I easily found a good background score which goes perfectly with my horror genre. Alongside, I downloaded the cloud background video from YouTube too.

The program I used to create my main task was Premier Pro CS6. I had some skills that I picked up from AS but I needed to improve my skills dramatically if I wanted to produce some good quality work. The area I feel most comfortable with is shot duration and cutting shots appropriately, editing the footage was something I got a lot better at as time went on as I could see more clearly where things needed to be changed. Towards the end I decided that I needed to add some better transitions so I used “fade effect” and added some audio transitions too. Alongside, I also came to know about ultra key and matte generation. It helped me to adjust shadows and transparency.

HAMNA IQBAL BAIG A2