"In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"
Previous to making our
media project we had watched many thriller opening scenes such as 'Panic Room', 'Jaws, Ring 2', 'Children of Men' and The 'Ring2'. This was done so that we could all
get have a rough idea of how a thriller opening scene would start and also the
mise-en-scene that was needed within this scene. The thriller opening and the
idea of ‘Se7en’ was useful to us as this film had helped us with the storyboard
of our opening scene, which is based around a stalker. We recognise that our opening
does not contain the exact scenes as ‘Se7en’ but we tried to blend the plot
into our storyline so it could appear similar to the way that ‘Se7en’ had
opened. This was so that we had more of a thriller convention happening
throughout our thriller opening scene. Our thriller opening scene had many
typical generic conventions that would happen throughout a thriller opening
scene. Firstly our opening contained quick cuts which are similar to ‘Se7en’
this is so that tension and suspense is established. In a thriller there are
many typical generic conventions that take place e.g. most thrillers have a
protagonist, there is always an anonymous person which helps create the mystery
of the certain person’s identity, also there is a build up of tension at the
end of a thriller opening scene to help draw the audience in the film. During the process of our
film we had tried to represent as many thriller conventions as possible. We had
also had a protagonist who was an innocent victim who is a teenage girl who is
being stalked by her friend who causes tension and suspense; this is where the
two characters meet but the audience is not shown it. This is a typical generic
tension where the scene is left off with a build-up of tension and suspense.
This mise-en-scene also helps challenge thriller conventions as it helped us
decided on what costume we needed to use. We decided to use basic clothes for
the teenagers because we wanted to attract a younger audience, as someone aged
15 watching the film would not want to watch a film of young girls dressed in
costumes of the 80s therefore we had to maintain their cultural experience.
Gender in our opening
sequence may have an impact with the audience that would attract the film. In a
film gender has a major role as some films represent gender and age in a very
stereotypical way which will affect the audience. In our film we had tried to
make it very broad so that it is not represented in a stereotypical way. On the
other hand the audience may feel that our film is stereotypical because in our
film we have the antagonist a female which suggests that she was the victim.
This is a typical stereotype as most females are seen to be vulnerable which is
a typical thriller convention is.
There are many different
ways that our film could be distributed e.g. through the internet, through a
television movie or through a major British studio. This suggests that there
are many different options a film can choose from depending on how they would
like their film to be released. Before making our decision we had to look back
on the disadvantages and advantages of each distributer by basing each
conclusion on the target audience and what would be the best way to distribute
a thriller convention film.
Once discussing how we would like to distribute our film we had decided to distribute our film to just a British audience and once that does well we would want to distribute it worldwide. Our film could be distributed by a British studio as the film has potential of becoming a major film that everyone wants to watch. Our film is very similar to se7en which was also distributed through a major studio which had help us come to the decision of how we want our film to be distributed. Although we have looked at the ways of how our film can become very successful by using this way of distribution there is also the worries of how this distributed process may not work with our film. We had thought that as we haven’t got any known characters that people love worldwide the film may not be as successful to go to a studio level on its release. This may suggest that this method of release would become unsuccessful.
Distributing our film through a television movie has been one of our groups least favourite of distribution. We had all discussed that our film would not reach to its full potential by releasing it through this way of distribution and this would mean that we lose a lot of our audience. This is because releasing a film that has a rating of 15 on television would mean that our film will not be shown on TV depending on the time as television is supposed to be appropriate for the certain age groups watching it. This would mean that our film would be shown at a later time which may cause a lot of loss in audience on our film as the showing times may not be appropriate as people may be sleeping at this certain time. Although there are disadvantages that we had realised there is also a positive which is that most people who are interested in watching a thriller film are mostly interested in watching them at night which may help gain a wider audience.
In our opinion the most successful way of distributing our film was through the internet. This is because the main target audience of our film which was 15 rating who use the internet a lot which would help us reach our aim and goals of this film of targeting our target audience that we had chosen for our film. Distributing through the internet has many advantages as they can view the film any time they want which is very useful as most people of our target audience are very likely to use the internet a lot as technology is becoming very wide and popular in today society especially in the age group we have aimed to attract, which was mostly teenagers.
"How does your media product represent particular social
groups?"
In our media convention
we have represented a certain social group, this being teenagers. Our media
production consists of two teenage who are friends and one of which is a
stalker. This helped represent the social group of our production and had
helped portray the thriller convention. Our media product doesn’t represent many
social groups which shows that we had limit ourselves a lot with what audience
would attract the opening scene. In this opening sequence we have two females
one of which is an antagonists and the other a protagonist.
Gender in our opening
sequence may have an impact with the audience that would attract the film. In a
film gender has a major role as some films represent gender and age in a very
stereotypical way which will affect the audience. In our film we had tried to
make it very broad so that it is not represented in a stereotypical way. On the
other hand the audience may feel that our film is stereotypical because in our
film we have the antagonist a female which suggests that she was the victim.
This is a typical stereotype as most females are seen to be vulnerable which is
a typical thriller convention is.
Our film was targeted
mainly at people aged 15 and above. This was because of the other films that we
had researched and because of the age of the characters in the movie. This film
would mostly attract males, and as the film has British characters it is mostly
likely that the most popular audience would be a British audience as they could
relate to the film much more than an American audience would.
"What kind of media institution might
distribute your product and why?"
Once discussing how we would like to distribute our film we had decided to distribute our film to just a British audience and once that does well we would want to distribute it worldwide. Our film could be distributed by a British studio as the film has potential of becoming a major film that everyone wants to watch. Our film is very similar to se7en which was also distributed through a major studio which had help us come to the decision of how we want our film to be distributed. Although we have looked at the ways of how our film can become very successful by using this way of distribution there is also the worries of how this distributed process may not work with our film. We had thought that as we haven’t got any known characters that people love worldwide the film may not be as successful to go to a studio level on its release. This may suggest that this method of release would become unsuccessful.
Distributing our film through a television movie has been one of our groups least favourite of distribution. We had all discussed that our film would not reach to its full potential by releasing it through this way of distribution and this would mean that we lose a lot of our audience. This is because releasing a film that has a rating of 15 on television would mean that our film will not be shown on TV depending on the time as television is supposed to be appropriate for the certain age groups watching it. This would mean that our film would be shown at a later time which may cause a lot of loss in audience on our film as the showing times may not be appropriate as people may be sleeping at this certain time. Although there are disadvantages that we had realised there is also a positive which is that most people who are interested in watching a thriller film are mostly interested in watching them at night which may help gain a wider audience.
In our opinion the most successful way of distributing our film was through the internet. This is because the main target audience of our film which was 15 rating who use the internet a lot which would help us reach our aim and goals of this film of targeting our target audience that we had chosen for our film. Distributing through the internet has many advantages as they can view the film any time they want which is very useful as most people of our target audience are very likely to use the internet a lot as technology is becoming very wide and popular in today society especially in the age group we have aimed to attract, which was mostly teenagers.
"What would be the
audience for your media product?"
The target audience that
would attract our media product would be 15 year olds. This is because we had
created a thriller which may threaten children under the age of 15 so we felt
that targeting an audience of people the age of 15 and over was suitable. This
would mean that the rating of the film would be a 15. We felt that this rating
was suitable for our media product because during the process of our research
of thriller conventions we had researched on a film that was very similar to
ours which was ‘se7en’ which also had a rating of 15. Although we wish to have
a broad audience we feel that our media product will mostly attract males as
males prefer to watch a thriller then a female would. Also whilst researching
thriller openings we had chose another film which is a film that is also very
similar to the media product that we had produced. This was ‘ se7en’ which was
also given a rating of 15 which is why we had chosen to use a rating of 15 so
that we have an appropriate audience. With the help of our research of both
films we thought that 15 was an appropriate rating for our media product.
Although we have set target audiences for our film we hope that we get a much
wider audience for our film to become popular and successful.
The target audience that
would attract our media product would be 15 year olds. This is because we had
created a thriller which may threaten children under the age of 15 so we felt
that targeting an audience of people the age of 15 and over was suitable. This
would mean that the rating of the film would be a 15. We felt that this rating
was suitable for our media product because during the process of our research
of thriller conventions we had researched on a film that was very similar to
ours which was ‘se7en’ which also had a rating of 15. Although we wish to have
a broad audience we feel that our media product will mostly attract males as
males prefer to watch a thriller then a female would. Also whilst researching
thriller openings we had chose another film which is a film that is also very
similar to the media product that we had produced. This was ‘ se7en’ which was
also given a rating of 15 which is why we had chosen to use a rating of 15 so
that we have an appropriate audience. With the help of our research of both
films we thought that 15 was an appropriate rating for our media product.
Although we have set target audiences for our film we hope that we get a much
wider audience for our film to become popular and successful.
To help make our final
decision of what audience would attract our final media product we had asked
many of our classmates what age would be appropriate for a thriller film. Most
of our classmates had said that 15 was an appropriate age for our film. This is
because in a thriller people tend to fear the thriller conventions that are
used which most people get scared of and by targeting at and age any lower than
15 can be inappropriate. During our research of thriller research we had also
discovered that thrillers are mainly enjoyed by a male audience. Also the
characters and the plot of our media product would mostly attract teenagers as
the plot was filmed around house and the characters were teenagers. This would
help a teenaged audience relate to our film.
Through using a lot of research
by viewing horror films with a similar plot to our film and searching on the
‘Pearl and Dean’ website we had finally made our decision that our thriller
should have a rating of 15, as the main films that we were comparing our media
product too both had a rating of 15 and is both very similar to our final
piece. In addition, we had created a questionnaire and distributed it to our
classmates which showed us that 15 is the right age rating to choose for our
film. Therefore, as our film is a 15 rating it will not be suitable for younger
views as it contains violent scenes also because there is unexpected scene that
may shock the viewer.
Furthermore, the film is also suitable for both genders, despite the fact that this genre mainly appeal to the male gender 15-24. The characters that were in the final piece helps attract our target audience as they are within the target age boundary; also our characters are British which appeals more to the British audience.
In the final piece we included a variety of camera shots that will grab the audience’s attention as it includes conventions of horror. In particular, the close up zoom in of the antagonists face immediately captured the audience attention, due to its mysterious and creepiness on its face. In addition the switch over of scenes whilst the antagonist is flicking through its victims pictures, whilst the countdown of the life can be seen is effective in creating tension as the rapid pace creates curiosity. We also created dramatic irony in our film as the antagonist can be seen in the background carrying out the suspicious act of scanning through its victims pictures who is her friend.
The use of the location adds to the conventions of horror as all these events are taking place in a mysterious unknown house, as the antagonist can be seen in the house.
"How did you attract/address your
audience?"
Furthermore, the film is also suitable for both genders, despite the fact that this genre mainly appeal to the male gender 15-24. The characters that were in the final piece helps attract our target audience as they are within the target age boundary; also our characters are British which appeals more to the British audience.
In the final piece we included a variety of camera shots that will grab the audience’s attention as it includes conventions of horror. In particular, the close up zoom in of the antagonists face immediately captured the audience attention, due to its mysterious and creepiness on its face. In addition the switch over of scenes whilst the antagonist is flicking through its victims pictures, whilst the countdown of the life can be seen is effective in creating tension as the rapid pace creates curiosity. We also created dramatic irony in our film as the antagonist can be seen in the background carrying out the suspicious act of scanning through its victims pictures who is her friend.
The use of the location adds to the conventions of horror as all these events are taking place in a mysterious unknown house, as the antagonist can be seen in the house.
"Have you learnt about technology through producing your media product?"
The filming equipment
played a significant role in the filming which consisted of many advantages and
disadvantages. The tripod was used often in certain scenes as we needed to
capture actions taking place in a smooth motion, also it enabled us to turn
easily turn the camera to capture certain shots, this was especially useful as
we were able to get a smooth and still zoom in on the antagonist whilst they
screen through images of their stalker on the social networking site ‘Facebook’.
On the other hand, we had to ensure that the tripod was in the correct position
and the camera was secure to ensure a still shot, which was often difficult to
achieve. We also used the hand held camera to enable us to capture the antagonist
facial expression, and maintaining the focus on the face. Each technique was
useful for use capturing the shots that were needed In the film the tripod was
very practical as it enabled us to capture smooth shots and the hand held
enabled us to create the effective of fear which is part of our horror
convention by the use of the panning. 
During the first take
(original filming) of our filming we faced a lot of problems. For example, we
were unable to book a camera for the first take which restricted the amount of
days we had available for filming. The second problem we had was due to our
lack of experience with the camera our first take look unprofessional as we did
not capture the appropriate shots correctly and therefore, the only way to
resolve this issue was to retake the filming. 
‘Final Cut Pro’ which was
the editing system which we used was very useful as it had a variety of editing
effects and transitions to use which we used to edit our final piece. When we
originally used the software we were not originally aware on how to use it but
as we experimented with the effects in with other different shots we eventually
understood how to use it professionally. For example, to enhance the imagery of
our ending scene we should have played about more with the ‘night mode ’ to
establish the right mode . In addition, the importing of our footage was
difficult due to the fact we had a large number of shots which took time to
upload onto ‘Final Cut Pro’.In addition, to add sound to our final piece we
used 'GarageBand' which was very helpful as there was a variety of sounds for
us to apply, with this we found the suitable sound to use which was practical
and professional. 
"Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you
feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?"
The preliminary task is
very different to our main task in many ways. With the main task we had to do a
huge amount of research so that we had enough information to produce the main
task. Once we had chosen the genre of our main task which was ‘thriller’ we had
done a lot of research on the background of this genre so that it would help us
have a better understanding of how a thriller is produced. We extended
our research by viewing different movies with similar genre to our main task
such as Deep Water, The Ring and One missed Call, se7en; as well as plot. This
enabled us to have a clear and detailed understanding of how to construct our
opening sequence. It is necessary for us to establish an understanding into the
importance of thriller conventions of thriller enabling us to create an opening
to have a thrilling opening recognizable to the audience, using this
information from our research we included this into our final filming as well
as creating our overall plot.
Furthermore, we had done
research into target audience to gain knowledge of the age groups and genders
that will be attracted to our opening thriller helping us create an opening
appeal to this audience through conventions of the genre. Moreover, we created
a storyboard but failed to create a script; the storyboard we created was
detailed enabling us to have a visual image of how our opening should appear by
including the variety of shots, It also enabled us to coordinate the actions
taking place by each character in the opening of our film. As a result, we had
a well detailed and developed understanding of how our filming should appear to
the audience. Due to the lack of planning and organization we were unable to
create a much detailed script if our finally final. As we had created a
detailed working script and storyboard for our preliminary task as we had more
time to do so. We also filmed our opening film a number of times until we
finally got it right. Due to the fact we experimented with different shots in
our film, we are much more confident when using a variety of different shots.
During the editing of our final piece we took away scenes which was not
appropriate either because of the lighting which was the main issue we faced or
the filming technique.
We also found it difficult with
establishing the right lighting as it was a bright sunny day and we were
filming outside, therefore we had to wait for when it was less bright so we
would be able to film our establishing shot more effectively. As well as having
a problem with having moving cars road and walking pedestrians on the street
whilst we were filming, which meant we had to take shots again at times. In addition, we realised when we were filming
the high angle looking up, we had to ensure that the camera was steady. This
also was an issue in our preliminary task, when doing a point of view shot so
we had to ensure that someone was holding the camera near the actor while they
were in action.
Overall we believed that our final product was successful due to the good camera techniques and the variety we
used when filming such as, tracking, zooming, high angle looking down and over the
shoulder shot; however there is room for improvement as we faced problems with
the lighting. Despite this, we believe that piece appeals to our target
audience of males 15-24 and we have included a variety of thriller conventions.
