1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When we started planning for this project, we had already decided we were going to stick to the conventions of a horror film. We included an antagonist but it challenges the conventions because the antagonist isn’t who he audience think he is. We didn’t incorporate a hero or heroine because we felt like it didn’t fit the plot but if we had to say then the detective in our film would be the hero because he finds out what happened. We used some of the typical horror movie stereotypes with the girl going out to meet someone she hadn’t met before. This didn’t challenge any of the conventions of a horror film.
As well as this, we challenged the conventions of a horror movie because we didn’t use a white Caucasian male for the Detective, instead we used an Asian male as the Detective.
- How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents particular social groups in the style of ethnic groups. We included an Asian Detective who is older than all of the other actors/actresses in the product. We also included a teenage antagonist who is (insert ethnicity here).
This is unconventional in horror movies because typically there isn’t an Asian detective in horror movies or any thrillers/crime films. The class of each of the characters is unknown to us but we can assume that they are all of a similar class which again is unconventional in horror movies because the main character, in our case the victim, is usually of a high social class.
Another aspect of typical horror films that we avoided was the location. The teenagers were in school and usually in a horror film they are on a break from school or the characters don’t actually go to any type of school.
- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
We believe that a studio like Hammer Films might distribute our product because it distributes many horror movies that have audiences similar to ours. After editing all of the footage, we think that this film would be a big budget venture because the plot is that of a typical horror movie which is what audiences these days stick to. It’s likely that if it wasn’t a typical horror movie plot then it wouldn’t generate as much profit as many people would be rather sceptical about going to see a film with a different plot. Most audiences like to predict what is going to happen in the film which is what we tried to aim for in some ways. However, we did try to venture from that aspect of horror films so that it wasn’t as predictable as most horror movies now-a-days.
- Who would be the audience for your media product?
This film doesn’t have any explicit scenes or language in it so it wouldn’t be categorised as an 18. We are certain that is isn’t a U, PG, 12 or 12A because we feel that children of that age wouldn’t watch horror films and wouldn’t like to watch our movie because it is a horror film. Most horror films are based around teenagers so the suitable certificate rating for this would be a 15. We think this because we used teenagers as the main actors/actresses and many teenagers today watch horror films that are like this or films of an 18 certificate rating.
- How did you attract/address your audience?
We would attract our audience to our film because of the story line and the characters that we included in it. The title would attract our audience because it holds a mystery that the audience will want to solve. We believe that most teenagers are the same when it comes to horror films because they all like to predict what is going to happen in the end of the film. By leaving a cliff-hanger on the end of our film and having the title as ‘MISSING’ this allows the audience to use their imaginations to find out what will happen next.
The best option for attracting our target audience in terms of marketing is by social media. If we promote our product on social media then we are more likely to get a bigger audience than if we reached out to them using billboards or adverts on the TV. Another way we believe would be a great way to attract our audiences attention is by having a premier of the film in a big city like London
- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of contrasting this product?
One half of our group learnt how to use the camera for close-ups and long shots. They we aware of how to use the camera before hand but working on this project has taught them more about how to use the Sony HD Cameras. They also figured out how to import footage from the SD card of the camera onto the Mac computers. Each of us has learnt more about how to use Adobe Premiere including all of the transitions and effects and music put into the film. Previously we were somewhat aware of how to use Premiere but this product taught us in detail about how to use the software. Before this product, we didn’t know how to use the BlogSpot for blogging however, after all the research we had to do and planning for this, we learnt lots about how to use the site for what we needed to do.
- Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Even with the preliminary task, we struggled to work as a group. This time we struggled even more because one member of our group left us halfway through leaving us to struggle to get the work completed in time. By the time that person left, we hadn’t filmed any footage yet, although we had all of our research completed. After they left, we changed much of the product up; we used the storyboard as a basis for our film and we changed the script still incorporating some of the original script from before. We still struggled a bit with just the two of us in the group because we had times where one of us were off so we couldn’t film or we didn’t know what we were doing. However, by the end we had worked everything out and managed to get the product done and finished on time.
In terms of operating the camera, only one of us needed to learn how to use it for this project. We both still learnt how to operate the camera to incorporate different angles and shots. However, one of us learnt more from the preliminary task to this product. With the filming sequences and the different rules, we didn’t break any of the rules when it came to filming and the filming sequence was fairly good by the end of all the filming we had to do.
We applied all of this knowledge to this final product by filming and re-filming different scenes to make sure we had all of the shots we needed and to make sure we didn’t break the 180-degree rule. As for the camera, we both made sure that we each got a chance to film and direct the cast so that we could apply whatever knowledge we had to the film. We both helped each other in terms of what angles and shots we had to use.
We believe that we have learnt lots from the preliminary task to this major production, be that how to work in a team and how to operate the camera.
