- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My product uses conventions of similar media products in the sense that the location and setting is dark which his often the case in horror movies. We filmed in the dark and also at a remote place with very little to no people around. Our film titles develop conventions used in horror movies as we used a blood splattered background to the lettering in our titles however we made sure that our titles were bold, making our genre (horror) clear. We have also followed conventions of horror movies by using a girl as our victim which occurs often in horror movies however we have challenged conventions initially by having the girl bullying the boy, not the boy bullying the girl. This is almost never the case in real horror movies as boys are always portrayed as the more dominant gender, such as in the movie Halloween (1978). We also used atmospheric eerie music in a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound developing conventions used in horror movies. We further challenged conventions by crediting the female actress’ name before the male actor’s name as conventionally in horror movies; the male actor’s name typically comes first.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my teaser, the antagonist (Matt) is from a lower social class. We tried to depict this by setting the location in a dark, cluttered garage. Our antagonist was also dressed appropriately to fit the role, wearing a hoody and a balaclava which conforms to the stereotyping given to younger boys. I believe Matt’s character represents the working class as releases his frustrations and takes vengeance upon Henna for what he did to her in the past. Conventionally, in horror movies there are older characters playing the antagonist however in our teaser we have a younger character playing the role of antagonist. By doing this, we have challenged conventions as it is understandable that it is typically older people who are playing antagonist as they had the time to experience something which has influenced them in the way they act, however I believe that by creating a film idea that includes the reasoning for Matt’s actions, we have been able to challenge this convention. Henna’s social group is of middle class and we have represented this by keeping her relatively covered up. It is stereotypical of lower class women to expose more flesh or wear “skimpy” outfits however we ensured that the actress that played Henna remained covered up to show this.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our film did not have a large budget and thus cannot be distributed through major media institutions such as Time Warner or News Corporation. The reason for this is that major media institutions will not spend the time and effort looking at a low budget film as there is not as much profitability in smaller, low budget films like mine. Furthermore, as our film would have been a horror, it would have to be pitched towards specific production studios/institutions, as organisations may specialise in one genre of film. For example, the studio “Working Title” primarily releases films of the Romantic-Comedy genre, such as Love Actually. For this reason, we would look to pitch our teaser towards a smaller institution such as Hammer Film Productions. Hammer Film Productions have been in existence for quite a while and thus have experience in their specific genre. The movies they release are known to be horror films, such as the iconic “Frankenstein” and “Dracula” series of movies. More recently, Hammer Film Productions have been releasing films shot on a lower budget, which ours would be. This may result in our film being able to meet the criteria due to the fact that Hammer Film Productions has both the fundamentals of our film; low budget and also horror.
4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
The target audience at which my teaser would be targeted at would generally be those in their teens. I have found from research gathered from my questionnaires, that teenagers like to watch horror films as they are considered to be “exciting, on the edge of your feet” films to watch. I also found that boys tend to prefer horror movies to girls for which reason I would pitch my teaser towards the male population more than the female population as I know that I will be spark more interest in males than in females. I have found that ethnicity, social grade or class are generally irrelevant as there are no differences that could be found between each variable apart from the upper classes. I also imagine that adults aged between eighteen and thirty would also be interested in my horror film as I do acknowledge that there are many that were once teens and did not grow out of watching horror movies. I believe the rating for my film would be a 15, as there are depictions of a beheading/murder in my teaser along with the disposal of a body, something which the upper classes may not approve of and may believe it is wrong to include such depictions of violence in horror movies that teenagers watch.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I believe I have attracted my target audience by including characters that may be familiar to them. By using younger characters, my target audience who are primarily teenagers may feel that they bear some relation with the characters and that the film could somehow be relevant to them. Teenagers may also believe that the characters are similar to them and thus may talk in similar ways making the film seem much more relevant to them.
Whilst shooting the movie, we specifically shot in the dark to help create the perfect atmosphere and lighting we needed to shoot the scenes. We also did this to provoke thought amongst the audience as those who see a clip of the film may wonder what is going on in the scene which may result in them watching the entire film. The specific scene we chose to shoot also played a role in this as the scene we shot is actually the ending of the movie which leaves the viewer wanting to know what happened before Henna was killed and what Henna did to Matt.
The music used is very typical to horror movies and is conventional in the sense that it is eerie atmospheric music with the music being synchronised with key events in the teaser such as the dumping of the body, etc to help create tension.
I would also use viral marketing campaigns such as interactive pop ups which may require you to play some sort of game that is linked with the story line of the film. TV advertisements on the specific channels most watched by teenagers (my target audience) would also be beneficial as it would help directly attract my target audience.
I would also use viral marketing campaigns such as interactive pop ups which may require you to play some sort of game that is linked with the story line of the film. TV advertisements on the specific channels most watched by teenagers (my target audience) would also be beneficial as it would help directly attract my target audience.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the entire process, I learned a quite a few things about cameras, editing and also blogging. Being a complete novice to filming, I found that it was remarkably easy and recording decent quality footage was not that difficult. We learnt how to do a variety of panning shots and with the benefit of an adjustable tripod; we were able to record our shots very well. The tripod came in as a great aid as it meant that our shots were very steady and any sequences that required movement of the camera could be done in a slow and fluid manner. By use of the camera, I learnt how to correctly insert and remove the MiniDV tapes, and appropriately record our production.
We used a Sony MiniDV capturing device to capture the footage recorded on our camera, and then imported it into Final Cut Pro, which we used to edit our production. The quality of the footage was not too bad considering the age of the technology used to record our footage.
At first, we put together a trailer for “Star Wars” to learn how to use the basics of Final Cut Pro such as trimming clips, adding music, etc. We experimented and learned how to use many things within the Final Cut Pro editing suite including video transitions, audio transitions, speed of the footage, white balance, colour balance, importing audio, importing images and more. We also learned how to create music on Garage Band. We created the music using the pre-set tracks of pianos and organs and then through experimenting, we learned how to save the music as an MP3 file and then import it into Final Cut Pro to add to our production.
We also had to create a blog to demonstrate the thinking process of creating the teaser. During this process, I learnt how to create an account on BlogSpot and also add posts. I fiddled with the HTML code to change design of my blog and also the font.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
During the preliminary task, my knowledge of filming was very basic as I barely knew how to use the camera to record anything. I now know how to conduct a variety of shots including low and high angle shots. I now understand how to use a tripod on a level surface to create a very stable and professional shot.
Our ability to shoot match-on-action in the preliminary task was rudimentary however through filming the actual production, I was able to shoot more complicated match-on-action and ensure that it fits into the context of the movie.
When shooting our preliminary task, the clip was very short and very straightforward however we learned throughout shooting our footage how to create much longer productions that consist of a much larger variety of shots. Additionally, we learned how to suitably shoot shots to ensure that the viewer can see the action and understand what is happening. We had to take into consideration the 180-degree rule, to ensure that we did not break it constantly throughout filming as our production comprised of a lot of movement and a lot of different camera shots.
