film eval

I am starting this evaluation by restating what my aims and context were since these are what I was supposed to stick to when I was making my film. The context of my film was originally to have two friends travelling through the woods together.
But to save time and in my opinion to make my films horror aspects stronger I cut it down to the antagonist and the protagonist, this keeps the film simple and removes the temptation for lengthy dialogue. There are more important aspects such as stylistics of the film, the editing and how it conveys its meaning.
The aims of my film were to have an intended audience of an age group of 18-24 and people who are looking to be scared. I think that I have achieved this specific audience although I am not sure that I have met the conventions of horror. Because of the rapid change in the horror genre it is hard to keep up the conventions.
The horror genre adapts itself year by year making it harder to make a horror film, so it’s best to choose them from the year you are starting your film in to keep up with them. The horror genre keeps changing because people are becoming harder to scare.
In my opinion my film does almost fully meet the aims of my film although there are some areas were my film deviates from this such as removing the idea of two friends and just making the main character more of a loner which helps to isolate the audience since my film is called the lonely wood and in my opinion should be a recurring feature the element of loneliness throughout the film. By isolating the audience it is easier for this film to meet its specific aims.
I am not entirely sure that my film did actually meet the context of the film, because from the start of making it I removed ideas to make it easier to make and in retrospect maybe this is something that I should not have done. By removing a character the film deviated from the script, although I did the storyboard after the script which the storyboard did not have the same features in it as I had originally planned for I am not entirely sure if this in the end mattered or not.
I think my film does not achieve its audience aims because it does not feature the conventions which would help me meet those aims that are common throughout horror films which means that the film can’t have achieved its audience if it did not meet the conventions which is a crucial factor in getting the correct audience.
The main problem with the film is that it worked fine in planning but sometimes something that works in planning does not work for the final product. This is most likely what the problem is with my film although it is better to at least have a finished film rather than it being up the best quality because I do not think that we are expected to be professional film makers at this point in time.
The planning of the film in my opinion worked out better than the actually finished film. That is most likely because it is easier to plan something than it is to create something I found out that some of the features that I wanted to do did not work out the in which I wanted them to. I am not sure my self how good my film is although I have not taken a high opinion it is. I think that it is still good for an amateur film which is not at the top of the list in my opinion.
If I were to create a short film again I would not go for the horror genre because I found that the conventions of the horror genre have much higher demands than other genres. I would probably go with a genre that I can create another film out of without having to meet such high expectations that the horror genre seems to have it would be much easier to go with maybe an adventure film. I would go with a genre that while being easy to create a film out of is also popular because in my opinion if it is not popular than it makes it much harder to target the correct audience.
I am actually disappointed with my film because it did not turn out the way that I wanted it to, I had hoped that it would follow as closely as possible to the horror genre conventions but in the end it strayed too far from them for it to be in my opinion a horror film. I am not sure what sort of film it has turned out like but it should still be okay for an average audience. When I first edited my footage when played it would be jumpy I found out it was most likely the conversion of the footage that I did.
I ended up redoing most of my shots because they did not turn out the way in which I wanted them. In the end I chose to cut the sequence earlier because it would have taken too much footage and made it too complicated, this would most likely have reduced the quality of the work and I was looking for quality over length. A film can be 1 hour long and not make sense or having it 5 minutes long making it have more quality to it, in the end the quality is more important.
I believe that the jaws theme provides the needed tension for my film sequence. Tension is also created through shots watching the main character from buses this also adds a voyeuristic quality to the film it also makes the audience know that something is watching the main character and this is another good tension building technique.
Horror films work best when they create a lot of tension which opens up the audience to the actual fear inducing techniques in the movie. The reason that I chose to leave my film at where the main character happens upon the figure is because as well as making the audience want to see the next scene it also makes them want to know what happens to the main character.
Usually people do not like sudden endings to a film but because this is a film sequence I did not actually need a resolution because if there was then the rest of the film would not interest the audience. The tension throughout a horror film helps to support the conventions of horror, and the conventions are an important factor in achieving that ability to scare the audience.
Tension seems an important factor mainly because it creates the needed build up in the film. Which is a deciding factor on if you are actually going to scare the audience, without this then my film would not be able to induce fear within the audience.
I think that with the amount of planning that I did for my film is a decent amount because I made sure everything was prepared for creating the film. Some people don’t like planning but without the planning it is harder to create a structure to the film. Without the structure in a film there is a guarantee that no audience will like it. The most important elements behind a film are done in the planning stages; this is an important factor in how the audience will like my film.
If I hadn’t planned my film then there would be no guarantee that it would even turn out remotely in the way I wanted it to. It would make no sense to an audience and if it does not make sense to an audience then no matter what you do to it nothing would make it good.
This is why the planning to my film was crucial it is an important deciding factor in the audience’s opinion in the film. This is why professional film makers make their films to be tailored to the audience, although they chose the audience so they have control over the film in that point much like I have that same control over my film.
If I had of chosen to make my film more complicated then I would have most likely have deviated from what I planned to do. Although moving from the plan by little amounts is okay, a total deviation from the plan would have most likely have left my film looking like it was thrown together. It is better to have it shorter and not have every shot originally planned in the film so that the audience likes it rather than trying to get every shot in and it turning out not like you expected it to.
Although I would have liked to actually follow the aims and context it turned out simpler to follow them the best I could because that way it makes it easier to keep the film quality up. It in my opinion is more important to keep the film quality up rather than trying to follow something that turned out to know be realistic for a set of aims. I am not sure if I have met my audience aims fully but I hope that I have if not then at the very least have gotten as close to them as possible.
Films are always judged by the audience and that I also how the film industry decides if they are going to continue making films in certain ways because of the box office ratings. This is why I made sure to do more than enough planning for my film so that an audience would be impressed by it.
I tried to make my film using a fair amount of stylistics but only stylistics that I actually need for my film because this way at least I can use the stylistics that work best in horror films there would be no point in using stylistics in the same way that they are used in a horror film because it would not be fit in with the audiences expectations for the film.