Evaluation for OCS

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.