1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Our media product uses forms and conventions similar to most horror movies.
We had watched opening sequences such as ginger snaps, insidious and the ring
and each one gave us similar ideas in the best way to present our Opening
Sequence as a thriller. For example, we used the slow motion filming to create
a creepy and disturbing atmosphere similar to that of insidious' opening credit
sequence as well. Another thing we did similar to insidious' opening sequence
was the slow and suspenseful music. We felt this best created the 'eerie' feel
we wanted to present. Another similar form and convention we did was that we
introduced clips of different objects just for a short period of time, to
suggest they meant some meaning. This also happens in the opening credits of
'the ring'. For example we used the tree, the candles, and the dripping knife,
to symbolise each one had a different meaning in the film and it would make the
audience want to find out more.
What we developed and challenged in forms and conventions is that the
'death' scene at the end was quite different from death scenes in typical
thriller movie openings for example in the first scene of 'the posession'. Even
though it wasn't an opening credit sequence we liked the idea of how it opened
up the movie and make the audience wonder. It had a death scene during the end
which was loud and very disturbing. We also involved a death scene but to
develop and challenge this we treated it as if it was dream-like and
unrealistic. Instead of the loud music and sped-up footage, we did the complete
opposite. We kept the music eerie and mysterical, and we continued to use
slow-motion. Just to create this unrealistic but at the same time disturbing
vibe.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
For age, we believe that mostly teenagers and young adults would enjoy our
film the best. The reason being is because during this age, you're most likely
to want to feel a thrill or a buzz out of something and something to keep you
on your feet. This is why our thriller would be suitable for the age range of
16-25 as it does just that.
For gender we believe it would most appeal to female audiences as females
are portrayed in most thriller films as innocent and vulnerable, and this could
relate to our opening sequence involving the possessed girl who is walking
disturbingly around the house and she portrays innocence. Men would also enjoy
this film as the girl is also portrayed as a sexual object for example the
towel dropping round her ankles and the slow scene where shes massaging her
hair in the shower men may find this enjoyable to watch. Not only that, but men
also may enjoy the thrill of watching our film because the male gender is
stereotyped to be more attracted to this genre of film.
For ethnicity, we believe that this is a typical film to attract a white
middle class audience because it involves white middle class actors so
therefore this could possibly give them something to connect with because it's
similar to themselves. Other ethnicity's would probably like this just as much
but the white ethnicity may be able to get more involved with the film.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?
We were very interested in the Paranormal Activity movies however these
movies don't have any opening sequences so we were unable to analyse them. The
media institution that distributed the Paranormal Activity films was
'Paramount'. We feel that Paramount would distribute our movie because it is
very similar with Paranormal Activity like how it is filmed for example the
hand-held cameras and tripods and it was only made for $15,000. Paramount would
distribute our movie because it has the same feel as the paranormal activity
successes and we feel they would be interested in distributing it because it is
a good home-filmed thriller. Another media institution that might consider
distributing our product is Lions Gate. Lions Gate has distributed a lot of
films similar to our chosen thriller genre such as Saw, Night of a thousand
screams, the descent, and serial killer. We feel Lions gate would distribute
our film because it is a thriller and because it has a different identity to
the other films distributed by this media institution. It has it's own
uniqueness that lions gate may be interested in.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our media product would be both male and female audiences
of the ages ranged from 16-25. Possibly also up to the age of 30 years. The
reason why we target at this audience is because it is stereotypically known
and researched that this age is most interested in thrillers as they are most
up for the idea to feel scared and tense over a film and are less likely to get
psychologically scarred from it afterward.
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
We used facebook to attract and address our audience. When our Opening
Sequence was complete, we posted it on facebook to see which of our facebook
audiences were most likely to 'like' and 'comment' on our production. Within
hours we recieved many likes and comments stating that it looked 'really good'
and 'really professional' and that they 'wanted to watch more of it'. For
further research, we went through each comment and like and came to the
conclusion that it was mostly all teenagers and young adults who liked our
opening sequence and wanted to see more. Some even said that they 'watched it
more than once'.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
Every piece of technological equiptment we have used in the process of
constructing our final opening credit sequence we have learnt from. From the
start when we begun to use the nokia camera we were given we learnt how to do
the simple things like zoom in and out, we learnt how to get the best outcome
when using a tripod and we learnt how it all works in order to actually get the
footage. By the time we were editing the opening sequence we went through a lot
of technological progams such as Adobe after effects, lightworks, windows movie
maker, and muvee reveal 11. Only 3 became successful in using for our end
product which were adobe after effects, windows movie maker and lightworks. The
muvee reveal 11 was too complicated for us to be able to learn in such a short
period of time. Windows movie maker was easy to control however lightworks was
a bit more difficult and adobe after effects seemed almost impossible to
navigate through. However after watching many youtube videos on how each
program worked, we were able to pick up the techniques very quickly and were
able to make the opening sequence outcome we have now.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt
in the progression from it to the full product?
My preliminary task was not in the same group as Sophiyahs so we might have
different views on this question. But for me, our preliminary task had very
little skill in editing, the shots were basic and shaky and there was a very
little variety of them. The music wasn't taken very carefully into consideration
so it didn't go well with the overall feel of the preliminary task. A lot about
our preliminary task suggested that it was just basic and rushed and looked
messy. All of these negatives about our preliminary task i feel we completed
and took into consideration when creating our opening sequence. Now everything
looks more mature and more movie-standard. I feel i have learnt a lot about how
important the different shots are, the editing and cuts into different scenes.
Also the music choice can make or break a film so this needs to be taken into
serious consideration as well. However, the most i've learnt about is the skill
of editing and all the different effects and techniques you could use in
editing footage to make it look professional.
