Evaluation Activity 1

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

The title of the film

Trapped; If you feel trapped, you are in an unpleasant situation in which you lack freedom, and you feel you cannot escape from it.'

I chose 'TRAPPED' as my final choice for the title of my film as it was bold and summed up the whole summary of the story in one word.  I feel that with alot of horror films, singular words are used to make more impact. For example 'The Unborn', 'The Strangers' and 'Phsyco'. In the past the title would be edited and shaped to seem more interesting but in modern-day films, the background and fonts used are very basic and leave the film itself to the viewers own imagination. I placed my title at the end of my opening sequence as I feel that the title brings the 'opening' to an end and at this point lets the viewer decide if they want to watch more or they may feel that the film is not what they expected..

Title font and style

I chose a simple, white, large font together with a black background to make the title easy to read and so the audience has no distractions to look at other 5than the title itself. I decided to put a hyphen at the end of the word to create an effect as if the word is being extended, I also felt that it made more of an impact than leaving it without any punctuation whatsoever. The whiteness of the lettering also gives it a 'glow'. I chose a centered alignment for my title so that it was immediate and the audience wouldn't need to focus their view to a certain point of the screen. As you can see in the title examples above, this effect is used numerously to make sure that the audience is not distaracted by the 'quirkyness' or amount of design put into the background, it simply pulls together what is going to be seen in the film and the wording giving clues into what may happen in the journey ahead.

Setting/Location

I knew from the beginning of my planning where my location for the filming was going to be. I chose the Darenth Pavilion on Green Street Green Road. From passers by it looks like a deserted field and an empty building and so I felt that it would fit perfectly to the plot of my film. I had to adapt to the weather change as it snowed during the period I was going to start filming, but when I viewed the end product I felt that it added to the 'eery' effect as the colour scheme only consisted of darkness and the backdrop of snow. The lighting from the building also helped to create shadows from the characters onto the walls and made the characters themselves a shadow too. I liked the fact that the snow was in some places untouched which showed the footprints of theopening character to show she was alone.

Costumes and props

During my filming I had to make sure that my character had the same costume each time she was filmed. For the 'enemies' costume I wanted to use a balaclava to hide the majority of her face so that only her eyes were seen but I could not get one in time so I compromised and used a scarf to cover her face which gave the same effect. 

I only used one prop in the whole of the filming and that was the knife at the end. I felt that I couldn't pretend to stab the knife and that the clip needed to be as realistic as possible. I used the biggest knife I could that would be stereotypical 'killer's knife'. 

Camera work and editing

Before I began filming I created a storyboard of the shots I was going to use and how they were going to be shown in my film. This helped me to know exactly what I wanted in the frame and helped me chose which would be the better shot.
I feel that at the beginning of the scene I should of used a tri-pod to make the shot steady as I thought that the 'shaking' camera effect would make it eery when infact I don't feel it was an advantage at all. I feel that at some points the audience lost themselves and had to wait for the camera to adjust back to a steady focus. I feel that the wipe between the following shots were not a good choice of cut as they jolted the clips too much and rushed the clips into eachother. I also feel that where I had cut the clips the film ran smoothly at points, for example the frame when the character is being followed around the corner into the frame of her rushing past the camera. 

Story and how the opening sets it up

The film is about a girl who is being followed by someone, although no one else can see this person but her. She creates illusions in her head of images and noises that to others are quite disturbing. She gradually pushes herself to her limits and finds herself wondering whether life is worth living whilst being stalked by an 'unknown'. 


- what audience may feel? 
- talk about the story of the opening. 
- how it will help the film open..
- what i could do in the film? 

Genre and how the opening suggests it

I chose to use thriller/horror as the genre of my film as I felt that I could use alot more varied shots to keep the clip moving at a fast pace and to keep the audience 'anticipated in their seats'. I also felt that I could experiment more with my editing and horror films are very popular in the modern day industry. The opening to my film has an audio in the background which I felt had an eery feel to it and also blended with the zooming towards the actress. I purposely filmed when it was getting later in the evening to reduce the brightness of the surroundings to give it an eery/spooky effect.  The setting of the opening also suggests this by the secluded atmosphere and the audience knowing that the characters are alone and cannot escape their situation. 

How characters are introduced

My film opens by introducing the main character and using a following shot showing her walking towards a secluded building. There is no dialogue throughout the opening to keep the audience's attention on the transitions and editing to build up tension. 

Special effects