1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
Our final media product was based on an idea similar to the one used in the film The Hole. This idea is that the story is told including a series of flashbacks to show what happened in the past event. The flashbacks build up along with the present story to eventually reveal the identity of the "Snatcher". The inspiration to use flashbacks came from the film The Hole. When we decided we would use Thriller/Horror as our genre we realised that this would be a good way to build tension. We also looked into the way The Ring build tension in their film and found that using close-ups and medium close-ups is a good way to show the expressions of the characters at points of fear and anxiety so tried to incorporate this into our film.
We used a variety of close-ups and medium close ups throughout our film. Mostly in the third scene of the film when the most tension is needed. The film The Hole starts out as a girl talking to a pshyciatrist. It then goes on to show flashbacks of the girl and her friend planning to have a priivate party with two boys in an old bomb shelter where they would stay for three days. It follows on having flashbacks of how their plan went wrong as they find themselves locked in the old bomb shelter as two of them try to leave. She continues to tell the story of the events that took place as the story starts to unfold of how her friends were killed. This is shown in the link that follows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfb-KmKpC6U .In our film two girls are seen having a conversation when one of the girls' phones ring. To their horror it is their friend who got snatched by an unknown person from a club months earlier. It then shows how the girls go to look for their friend and flashbacks appear of the day when their friend got took from the club and the story unfolds of what happened on that dreaded day.
Our final media product was based on an idea similar to the one used in the film The Hole. This idea is that the story is told including a series of flashbacks to show what happened in the past event. The flashbacks build up along with the present story to eventually reveal the identity of the "Snatcher". The inspiration to use flashbacks came from the film The Hole. When we decided we would use Thriller/Horror as our genre we realised that this would be a good way to build tension. We also looked into the way The Ring build tension in their film and found that using close-ups and medium close-ups is a good way to show the expressions of the characters at points of fear and anxiety so tried to incorporate this into our film.
We used a variety of close-ups and medium close ups throughout our film. Mostly in the third scene of the film when the most tension is needed. The film The Hole starts out as a girl talking to a pshyciatrist. It then goes on to show flashbacks of the girl and her friend planning to have a priivate party with two boys in an old bomb shelter where they would stay for three days. It follows on having flashbacks of how their plan went wrong as they find themselves locked in the old bomb shelter as two of them try to leave. She continues to tell the story of the events that took place as the story starts to unfold of how her friends were killed. This is shown in the link that follows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfb-KmKpC6U .In our film two girls are seen having a conversation when one of the girls' phones ring. To their horror it is their friend who got snatched by an unknown person from a club months earlier. It then shows how the girls go to look for their friend and flashbacks appear of the day when their friend got took from the club and the story unfolds of what happened on that dreaded day.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Gender and age stereotypes are portrayed in our film. As young female women help each other to try and find their friend. They are seen as being quite defenceless and vunerable. Whereas the male character is seen as dominant and powerful as he has control over the female characters' actions. In the scene of recieving the phone call and going in search of their friend Kirsty many expressions are shown of them being scared and withdrawn. If these characters were male they might appear to take a more active role within the situation. Our film is mostly aimed at the teenage population. As our character are of a similar age it would be likely that they could relate to the characters thoughts and feelings.
The Characters on The hole and the characters in our film appear to be around the same age.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Because of the genre of the film it could attract a wide target audience which i believe would make it suitable for release. We found using our questionnaire results that horror/thriller films are a popular genre. However our film is a low budget production. Which means that it would be most suitable for release at a small chain of cinemas and a TV movie. Because it is a low buget production we decided that the best company to distribute our film would be Lionsgate as it is a low budget distribution company. One of the probs used in our film is a Morph suit which is a possible idea for merchandising. This could also be used a halloween costume as it is used by the "snatcher". Other merchandise could include T-shirts, mugs and posters.
4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
We decided that the target audience for our film would be 15-25 year olds so we decided to certify our film as a 15 as most horror/thriller films contain strong language and scenes of a violent and graphic nature. We used the http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ to help us decide the right certificate for our film. Other films that are certified 15 and similar to ours include The Ring and The Grudge also, the SAW collection and The Hole which are not too dissimilar to our production but is certified at 18. If our film would have contained more graphic scenes we would have certified it as a 18. However, as the scenes that are used are more violent than graphic we decided that a 15 certificate would be more suitable. From carrying out our research we found that most people that enjoyed watching horror/thriller films expected them to contain violence and like them to leave them unexpecting of what is going to happen and have unexpected twists. They also said that they like the film to be able to make them jump. After carrying out the research we tried to fit our film around these characteristics as much as possible.
Gender and age stereotypes are portrayed in our film. As young female women help each other to try and find their friend. They are seen as being quite defenceless and vunerable. Whereas the male character is seen as dominant and powerful as he has control over the female characters' actions. In the scene of recieving the phone call and going in search of their friend Kirsty many expressions are shown of them being scared and withdrawn. If these characters were male they might appear to take a more active role within the situation. Our film is mostly aimed at the teenage population. As our character are of a similar age it would be likely that they could relate to the characters thoughts and feelings.
The Characters on The hole and the characters in our film appear to be around the same age.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Because of the genre of the film it could attract a wide target audience which i believe would make it suitable for release. We found using our questionnaire results that horror/thriller films are a popular genre. However our film is a low budget production. Which means that it would be most suitable for release at a small chain of cinemas and a TV movie. Because it is a low buget production we decided that the best company to distribute our film would be Lionsgate as it is a low budget distribution company. One of the probs used in our film is a Morph suit which is a possible idea for merchandising. This could also be used a halloween costume as it is used by the "snatcher". Other merchandise could include T-shirts, mugs and posters.
4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
We decided that the target audience for our film would be 15-25 year olds so we decided to certify our film as a 15 as most horror/thriller films contain strong language and scenes of a violent and graphic nature. We used the http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ to help us decide the right certificate for our film. Other films that are certified 15 and similar to ours include The Ring and The Grudge also, the SAW collection and The Hole which are not too dissimilar to our production but is certified at 18. If our film would have contained more graphic scenes we would have certified it as a 18. However, as the scenes that are used are more violent than graphic we decided that a 15 certificate would be more suitable. From carrying out our research we found that most people that enjoyed watching horror/thriller films expected them to contain violence and like them to leave them unexpecting of what is going to happen and have unexpected twists. They also said that they like the film to be able to make them jump. After carrying out the research we tried to fit our film around these characteristics as much as possible.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract our audience we used the results from our research and tried to incorporate their ideas into the film. We also used characters of a similar age to the target audience as to make it possible for them to relate to the emotions and thoughts of the characters, therefore they can put themselves in the characters' position. In our film we used close-ups and medium close-ups to build tension and show the expressions that were being shown. We also used long shots to establish the location, which could be seen as a spooky location. Some shots used are of Laura and Charlotte looking around and having to walk around corners. This will build suspense for the audience as they will not know what could happen next or who is around the corner waiting for them.
One thing about the storyline that could terrify the audience is the fact that it is not far-fetched. Knowing that the storyline could be realistic could really increase the intensity of the fear.
One thing about the storyline that could terrify the audience is the fact that it is not far-fetched. Knowing that the storyline could be realistic could really increase the intensity of the fear.6. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing the product?
We used a Sony HDV camera to make our film. One strength we found with using this camera is that it was really good quality compared to other cameras that we have used during our media course. However we did find it quite complicated to use. One problem that we faced during filming is that the people that had used the camera before us had changed some of the settings which we found quite hard to change back. With a bit of patience we managed to find the right setting to change it back to what we needed. 
We used the software Final cut to edit our film. We found this really easy to use and it was really good for matching the shots together and to get our match-on-action shots close to perfection with timing. It also allowed us to change the shape and size of shots as to cut out any parts of the shots that we didn't want in the film. We did this on the Flashback of kirsty getting dragged across the floor as there was some carpet visible that we didn't want to be there.
We used the software Final cut to edit our film. We found this really easy to use and it was really good for matching the shots together and to get our match-on-action shots close to perfection with timing. It also allowed us to change the shape and size of shots as to cut out any parts of the shots that we didn't want in the film. We did this on the Flashback of kirsty getting dragged across the floor as there was some carpet visible that we didn't want to be there.7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When we first got told what the task was we had a good idea of the genre that we would like to cover. We also had a good idea of what we would like to include in our film. We then set down to research the genres horror and thriller. The group then came together to decide what the film would actually be, where we would do it and other details such as the production company name. Research was done to f
ind films that fit into the idea of our film which helped us come up with a few more ideas of what we could use in our film.
ind films that fit into the idea of our film which helped us come up with a few more ideas of what we could use in our film.We were then able to draw up a rough storyboard which we were able to to finalise once we had seen the location. The best shots were chosen to fit the genre of our film to build the tension anxiety that we desired. When Filming we tried to do the shots in the order they would be in the film, as to make it easier when editing it. I believe that our shot types have improved alot since starting the course as we were able to use match on action shots and different camera shots such as long shots and medium close-ups in order to get our required expression. I do feel more confident with the equiptment and i think as a group we arre more confident using the equiptment as we were all able to help out with using the different equiptment when needed without any problems. Overall i feel that our end product was successful at fulfilling the task as the final product turned out jst as we liked it to and got good feedback from the audience. Some of the comments we got were: "The lighting used in the staircase was good", "I really enjoyed the title sequence" and "continuity was accurate" However it was said that it was hard to hear the voices because the music was a bit too loud. All feedback can be seen at this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ980QRQ2qo
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