In what way does your media use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Camerawork
We used various camera shots in our film opening such as an establishing shot. This is used to give the audience a clear perception of the environment and setting of the shot in which the character is in. For example the setting in which we used was a woodlands to highlight the isolation that the character feels. This adds to the horror genre and reinforces the horror theme.
Furthermore, the high angle shot of myself (the young possessed girl) suggests that the character I play, is being watched and maybe even "spied" on by a mystery character. This creates the typical conventions of a horror story.Editing
The editing techniques that we used are very similar to other horror genres. The main technique we used was slow motion. This was used during a close up of the characters feet walking with blood stained knee high socks. The slow motion heightens the anticipation of something horrible soon to happen, whilst simultaneously forcing the viewers to wait for it. This adds mystery and fits in again with the horror genre.
Costume
The costume we chose for the character I played was a white dress with white knee high socks. These were covered in fake blood. The costume defines the character individually. We chose the colour white only as it symbolises purity of the soul. However, as parts of the costume is covered in blood, it also represents how the character may appear pure and innocent on the outside however on the inside the character is possessed and the colour of red can symbolise anger.
Props
The first prop we used was red tape. This is at the start of our opening sequence when the character is making a satanic pentagram out of the tape. The colour of the red tape, once again, represents blood and death. The pentagram is used to worship the devil. This creates the base for the film and gives the viewers an idea of what the film is about. This links in with our possessed character. Another prop we used was candles. These represented light and happiness. However these suddenly are blown out and turns into darkness. This adds mystery to our sequence and suspension.
2. How does your media product present particular social groups?
Our film focuses on one character. This character's social status is of a low class, falling into social class E. This is because she is a possessed young, teenage girl that suffers from depression due to losing loved ones in her life. This is similar to the film Paranormal Activity. The social class of the young boy is the same social category of the character in our opening sequence. This matches the conventions of the stereotype and can be seen through the use of costume and mise-en -scene.
3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our primary production company that we used in our opening sequence was Universal Pictures. This is because our opening sequence is a Hollywood film but has the horror genre.Universal Pictures have created and distributed some horror films before such as Dracula, Dead Silence and The Strangers.
Our secondary production company we used was Twisted Pictures.
This is because they mainly create films of the horror genre. They are best known for producing the saw films. Similarly, our film is also a horror genre.4. Who would be the target audience for your product?
Our media product is aimed at a niche audience, these being teenagers and young adults. The rural location in our opening sequence produces a sense of horror and isolation which would attract this particular audience. The primary audience are most likely to be of a lower class because they are most likely to enjoy the type of film we have produced. The primary audience are most likely to be students in college, doing A-Levels or in university. Our secondary audience would be adults which are most likely to be the parents of the teenagers. This is because if the primary audience watches the film at home, the adult is most likely to be watching it too . Our target audience is similar to films that we used as our influence of our production. These are: Insidious, Se7en, Annabelle, Paranormal Activity and Ouija. Our age limit rating for our product is a 15 because it contains some violent scenes which can be scary for young viewers and blood and gore. We have not rated our film as an 18 age certificate because it does not contain any scenes of sexual violence and does not have strong language.
5. How did you attract/address your target audience?
In our opening sequence we attracted and addressed our target audience through the use of mise-en scene, location and sound.Firstly, the costume we chose was a short white dress for the main character. This is a convention that the audience would expect from the film. In addition, the location we chose was a forest. This attracts the audience as it adds a sense of isolation and makes the audience more intrigued.
Furthermore, the sound track we chose was a voice over of a young girl. This adds mystery and makes the viewers more attracted to the movie rather than background music or noise. However at the beginning of our editing we decided to use the soundtrack from the TV series, American Horror Story. We thought that this would attract the American Horror Story fans. However, after a while we came to the decision that we wanted to make our opening sequence different to everyone else's and instead use a unique voice over.
6. What have you learnt about technology during the process of constructing your product?
Throughout the process of making our opening sequence I have gained knowledge and understanding about different programmes, devices and editing.
Planning and research
Firstly, to plan and research for our opening sequence, I have used blogger to do production updates, gather ideas, notes, storylines, etc. This enabled us as a group to see what else we needed to do and how we could make improvements. It also meant that we could organise when to film and where. We used our phones to communicate with each other to arrange days to film. During our research we looked at different film opening sequences as an inspiration for our production. To do this we used the website 'Art of the Title'.
Production
Throughout our production we used a 'Coolpix L810' camera. This was the best quality camera we were able to use.
Post-Production
After we had finished filming, we began to edit our footage and add music. To edit our footage we used Adobe Premiere.
Evaluation
I believe that the most important piece of software that we used was Adobe Premiere. This was because we edited all of our footage on it and put music onto it which gave us our final product.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt a lot about editing. I first didn't know how to use the software and now I am much more confident. Furthermore, in my preliminary task I didn't use as many ideas as I did for the opening sequence I made. For example, I didn't think about props, location or dialogue as much.
Overall I have learnt to widen my ideas and to be more creative. I have taken more consideration into other factors such as conventions of the genre and stereotypes.
