David 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

http://prezi.com/zleihuzmzmlc/conventions-of-thrillers/

Lucinda - 7.Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have in the progression from it to the full product?

In our preliminary task, we had problems with continuity and match on action. This was due to a lack of experience with editing, so when cutting scenes we found it difficult to make it specific enough for match on action to look realistic and the cuts were not quick enough when there was a conversation so there were pauses and it didn't flow continuously.

An example of where match on action was used in our preliminary was when the door was opened, you can see the same action of the door first being opened is repeated, and therefore you can also hear the sound of the door opening twice.

An example of where match on action is used in our final product is when the victim falls over, and the action of her falling is well matched with the second cut of her falling so the fall looks believable. This is because we had learnt from this mistake in the preliminary and our editing skills had improved since the preliminary as we became better at using IMovie.

However, in our preliminary we did manage to keep to the 180 degree rule and used shot reverse shot to show the expressions of the characters during their conversation.

We did not keep to the 180 degree rule in our final product, but this was something we had decided on as it made it easier for us to get a high angle shot of the victim when she was on the floor to make her look vulnerable. It was also not as important for us to keep to the 180 degree rule in our final product as the focus was on the victim Alice for the majority of the opening so it was not as confusing for the audience for us to break the 180 degree rule as it would have been if we had broken it during the preliminary which showed a two way conversation. Breaking the 180 degree rule also added to the feeling of panic when Alice was running because it makes the situation come across as more out of control, which also helps convey Alice's mental instability.

Lucinda - 6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During construction of this product we learnt how to use the following:

• Camera
• Tracks
• Tripod
• IMovie
• Blogger.com
• Youtube.com
• Freesoundproject.com

Firstly we learnt the basics of how to use the camera, such as how to record, pause and rewind the tape.
We then learnt how to use the camera to create different moods and atmospheres for our opening, how to make character's come across in a certain way and how to film in order to make our opening look well presented and not to confuse or distract the audience. To do this we learnt about the following:

• High angle shots - we found this useful when filming the victim as it made her come across to the audience as more vulnerable.
• Low angle shots - we used this to shoot the villain, as it made him appear to be more powerful and intimidating.
• Wide shots - we used this to help establish the setting of the opening.
• Close-ups - we used close-ups of the victim's eyes in the beginning to help convey the genre of the opening and of chloe's face when receiving a text message from the villain and when running to show her facial expressions to the audience, which reveal a lot about the emotions and state of mind of the victim. Close-ups can also be used to make a character look powerful as their face is dominant on the screen.
• Long shots - We did not use a lot of long shots for our opening as it is very fast paced and the action starts quite early in the opening and we wanted the viwer to be able to see what was going on. Long shots can be used to establish the setting and make a character look helpless or insignificant as they will appear very small in the shot, but we felt we had already established the setting and made the victim appear vulnerable using other techniques. 
• Checking the camera is level was important in making sure the product looked professional and so not to distract the viewer from what was going on.
• Checking the camera lense was cleaned before we started filming was also important in making our product look professional and not distracting the viewer from what is happening. In our opening we had problems with this because although we had cleaned the camera lense and it looked clear during shooting, when we uploaded the video onto to IMovie and saw what we had filmed on a bigger screen we could see that there had been water marks on the lense of the camera. We took this into consideration during the rest of our filming and ensured we cleaned the lense thoroughly and checked it a few times before filming.
• 180 degree rule - we learnt that the camera should stay within 180 degrees, unless there is good reason not to do so. This is to prevent the audience from becoming confused or disengaged. 

We then learnt how to use a tripod so that the camera would be stable whilst shooting, which is very important for making the film look professional and not distracting the viewer. We also learnt how to use tracks with the tripod so that the camera moved steadily and at a constant level whilst we filmed our victim running.


We used IMovie to edit our opening. We learnt how to import the footage onto IMovie, how to cut and reorder the footage, and then add effects and sound.

We published our ideas on blogger.com so we had a record of them which all members of the group could access easily. We also used blogger.com to evaluate our product.

We learnt how to upload onto youtube.com as we put our preliminary task and our final product on this website. We also learnt how to access and use un-copyrighted music from the website freesoundproject.com, which was useful for finding the sounds for our opening such as the text message  and gun shot sound in our opening.

Lucinda - 5.How did you attract/address your audience?

There were many things to consider when trying to ensure that our media product would attract our target market. The first thing we had to decide on for the opening was the narrative for the film which our opening would be based on. We first decided that we wanted to include a social theme to the film because social networking sites have become increasing popular among young people in recent years, and advances in mobile phone technology has made it possible for people to communicate more easily and in new ways. Therefore, we decided having a social theme to the film would be beneficial in targeting our audience because the film would be seen as more modern and current by keeping up with changes that our happening in society, which we believe will be our interest to our young target market. We showed this in our opening by featuring the main female actress with a modern mobile phone.

We also wanted to include both a teenage male and female in our opening, because although our main target audience is female teenagers, we also wanted to try and target some male teenagers as well as this would give our film a greater chance of being successful  if we could appeal to both genders. We chose a teenage girl to be the main character so our audience feels this is a film that would be suitable for their age range and gender from watching our opening. We then considered the setting of our opening, and although our filming was limited to within school, this worked well because our main target audience is aged between 15 and 18 so this is a setting that is likely to appeal this audience as it is a location they can relate to.

Lucinda - 4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our market research showed us that our main target audience was going to be white females between the ages of 15 and 18, so we made our treatment and opening to appeal predominantly to this audience. We decided to aim our product at this audience because the majority of people who answered our questionnaires came into this category, showing that this market exists and therefore that there is likely to be demand for our product. It also meant that we have information about this audience from the questionnaires which would help us construct our product to appeal to them.

Lucinda - 3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

An independent institution such as Momentum pictures or Film4 might distribute our media product. This is because our product is aimed at a niche market, so is unlikely to be distributed by a more mainstream institution. To money for our film will therefore be likely to come from an independent distributor, or we would have to raise the finance ourselves. This may mean that our film does not have as big a budget for production as some more mainstream films, but as technology has closed the gap between consumers and producers it has become easier for people to produce and distribute films themselves.

The film Slumdog Millionaire was originally released in a similar way, as it was originally produced to be an independent film but became more mainstream across cinemas as it proved very popular. Another film which would be released in a similar way is Kidulthood because this film is also aimed at a niche market, similar to the market that our product is aimed at as both are aimed at teenagers and young people.

Lucinda 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents teenage students and people from middle and working class backgrounds. The main female actress in our opening is conveyed to the audience to be a middle class teenager because she is dressed in an outfit which is conventional of a people this age and from this background. The setting of the opening is in a school which also implies that she is a student. The fact that the victim is shown to be a teenage girl is significant because it encourages the audience to feel sympathy for her as our main target audience is teenage girls so they will feel like they can relate to this character more.

Middle class teenage girls are conventionally portrayed as one of two extremes: either rebellious, outspoken and sexually promiscuous or innocent and vulnerable. In our opening we chose the convention of the innocent teenage girl, and this is portrayed through her white costume and we took this into consideration during the casting process.

Working class teenage boys are conventionally portrayed as mischievious trouble makers, and our villain conforms to this stereotype. This is shown in his costume as he is dressed in black and he is wearing a hoodie which is stereotypical dress for teenage working class males. The iconography of the gun alerts the audience of the genre of the film as well as suggesting he may be criminal and a threat. The picture on the bottom right shows a similar representation of a villain in the film Kidulthood. The villain is also wearing a hoodie over his head and a knife is used as a prop.