EVALUATION QUESTION 1

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

We as a group agreed that 'Hidden' is a suitable and  title for our film. It is short and catchy therefor it is easy to remember and will stick in the audience’s mind. The word ‘hidden’ is like an enigma, there are hidden puzzles in the film that need solving. We chose this as the title because when people hear the word ‘hidden’ they become curious about the message behind it. They want questions to be answered such as what has been hidden? Is it a person or a valuable item? Has it been found? Why is it so important?.. This is the effect we wanted to create when the audience hear the name of our film, so they are interested and want to know what happens. Our main inspiration for the title came from the action film ‘Taken’. This was the type of title which creates tension and suspense and wanted that for our title. The title instantly implies the genre is action and creates an image in the mind about a kidnapping or fight scenes.

The location we chose was Hainualt Forest, we thought this would be an appropriate location to film as it is an open area so there is plenty of space for the actors to run. There are also big bushes and large trees, so the actor was able to hide behind the tree trunk to create suspense. This was an ideal location as any ‘war’ films are in forests and have chasing scenes.

The day of the filming, it was a gloomy day and looked like it was about to rain, so when all the filing was done we had to edit the lighting so it went with the genre, but also, so all the clips link together and flow. We tried to use a lot of close up’s and extreme close up’s to express the mood of the film. The extreme close up’s allowed to convey the feeling of intensity of the threat of life. There are also fast motion clips to reinforce the genre.

The costume was a typical war costume, with a gun. This was perfect for the film because having both, the fake gun and the army costume made it look more professional and realistic, whereas, if the actors were wearing casual clothing, it would not have looked realistic and having the costume and props makes it more interesting. Having both of the characters wearing the army uniform suggests maybe they were both in the army and something went wrong as they are now opposing forces.

In the opening sequence, the genre is introduced immdiately through the costume and prop, and setting. This was done to let the audience know of the genre, as we have found in our audience research that majority of them prefer to be established to the genre in the opening sequence otherwise they may find it a bit confusing. The genre was also conveyed through the fast past action and the characters.