How did you attract/address your audience?

After finishing editing our film, we uploaded it to YouTube [click here to view] and by doing this, it allowed other people to comment on it, giving us constructive criticism for our work. As we asked members from our class and school to comment, we actually succeeded in aquiring the opinion of our target audience. Their criticisms allowed us to found out what they thought was wrong and needed changing (such as the titles moving too fast and the transitions disrupting the flow of certain parts) and so we could fix it marginallt before burning it to disk.

However, their comments [click here to view] were mostly very positive. They liked:

• The panning around ellie at the end.
• The dramatic irony that we knew the girl was being followed, whilst she innocently skipped along
• Black and white effect made it look 'professional' and 'dramatic'.
• The sounds of the radio tuning along with the announcement let the audience know what was going on without giving everything away.
• The varied camera shots and angles
• and the music, especially the tune right at the end.

Our audience surveys provided us with results which helped us develop the plot of our film and sequence so that it suited their needs. We first said that the villains were to be zombies, but that idea wasn't preferred so we changed it to mutants which seemed to be appreciated.
We also made sure to keep in as many action/horror/sci-fi conventions as action, fear factor and sci-fi were all aspects of thrillers which were enjoyed the most by our audiences.
Links to the questionnaire and the analysis.

What have you learnt about technology from the process of onstructing this product?

I-movie is a programme used for editing film. With it, you can rearrange clips, add titles, add transitions, alter colours, levels and hues of the shots as well as adding sound and effects.

We used I-Movie to edit our opening sequence. Here, I have edited some of the first section of the sequence in order to show just a small section of what I have learnt on I-movie in comparison to my complete lack of experience and knowledge on it before.

ONE:
The first edit i did would not load onto YouTube.

TWO:
[Click here for the YouTube link]-I recommend watching with high volume.

This change in music was used to add tension and suspense. The low hum, and slight change is constant, much like their movement. In the last part, just as he gets closer, the music gets louder and intense so as to show the danger approaching. The sound is reminiscent of the low, for boding music in Jaws.

THREE:
[Click here for YouTube link.]

This scene had the music altered to a louder, more repetitive acoustic guitar sound. The intended effect was to add more tension to the clip as the sound only starts when the mutant appears to show that there is some meaning behind his presence. Also, it's continuous, cyclic nature is almost annoying as it feels like it should change soon, which is much like the nature of this scene with the girl skipping for a long time and the mutant is following, but not doing anything to her, though you know he will.

FOUR:
[Click link to watch YouTube clip]

For this, I decided to change the colour of the mutants point of view to deep red, so as to show his animalistic, vicious, blood-thirsty nature.

To conclude, digital editing helps to add, and accentuate, the emotion and connotations within the shots. The varied camera shots and editing with colour and sound hint at future events, atmosphere and add even more tension than the film produces on its own.
By doing these testers on IMovie, I really learnt how digital editing creates even deeper meanings and adds to complex plot lines. Without digital editing, most films, including our opening sequence, would be much less effective and so it is highly important to have the knowledge and skills to be able to edit digitally for work in a media career.