evaluation

1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our aim for our production was to stick to, and adapt, the conventions of the horror-thriller genre as much as possible. I believe we did this successfully by adapting all factors of the film in order to achieve this.

The use of dialogue throughout the film helps build tension; as the tone is fearful, and questioning of the situation. This worked well for us, due to the fact it would get the audience hooked and asking the same things the character was.
We also wanted to use the editing to help create suspense; we cut between the two characters very suddenly to keep the audience on edge.
The characters themselves were typical of horror victims, as they appear defenceless, scared and know little about their situation. This again hooks the audience, as they want to find out more, making it perfect for the beginning of a film.
The setting was very secluded and dark, which is stereotypical of the genre and represents fear to the audience
The killer appears as mysterious, which is conventional of the beginning of a thriller, as it keeps the audience wanting to know more

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The victims represent young, Caucasian persons; which is the majority in the UK, so the audience could mainly relate to them. The audience we were aiming for was younger, so that also means they can imagine that they are in the same situation, building an interest with them.
Because the victims are both male and female, it means that the product can be related to by both genders; appealing to a wider audience
We didn’t want the killer to be representative of anything more than a ‘mysterious killer’, as this is conventional of the opening sequence of a thriller. This makes him an outcast as the antagonist, which makes an enigma as to who he is and why he is killing people

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I believe our product would be shown at cinemas, simply because the darkened atmosphere would play a part in building tension for the production during the opening title sequence. This is because the sequence itself is set in a very dark, unknown place with younger victims; so the audience will feel part of the product, making them tenser.
However, because of the quality of the film not being to a professional standard, it would be more likely to be set in a cinema as a local film; this would keep the expectations reasonable, so people could focus more on the plot rather than the quality of the filming.

4) Who would be the audience of your media product?

I think our film would be more likely to interest a younger audience of older teenagers-young adults. It wouldn’t apply to younger than that due to the explicit death scene during the title sequence. It would appeal to a more local audience, who are interested in watching films produced within their area.
I also believe the film would appeal to both male and female audience

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

We appeal to our audience through a direct relation to the characters of the thriller. The victims at the beginning are of a similar age to those of whom the film is trying to grab their attention. The mysterious feel of the film gives the audience a chance to really get involved shortly after it starts, which helps keep their attention; as a younger audience need to feel involved.
Also the explicit deaths in the sequence attract a more gore-loving audience, which is mainly a younger audience. Most within that age range want to feel the film is pushing the boundaries of explicitness, and by using a very realistic death scene, I believe we are achieving this.

6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

I have learnt a lot as far as editing is concerned. The experience has allowed me to learn how to use a new program. As a result of choosing not to use ‘Imovies’, we ended up with a much better product by learning to use ‘Final Cut’.
Another thing which we learnt through the process of trial and error is how lighting may be different when uploaded onto programs on a computer. This ended up being our main reason for using ‘Final Cut’, and also taught us to be more aware of the conditions and factors of filming; and how they may also effect or editing.
One type of program which I used which was completely new to me was ‘Idvd’. I found this very interesting to use, and it helped us portray a mood, to the DVD audience.

7) Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I learnt a lot about how camera angles can be vital to mood of which you want to portray to the audience, and a change can make a big difference to the effectiveness.
I believe one factor I drastically improved with, which will be important to any future projects is time management. We were very disorganised when we were filming and editing our preliminary task, however when I came around to doing the same with the main task, we organised our time to work around everyone so we could use time to its full potential.
I think we all improved in how much we contribute to the group effort. At first we were very restrictive with how much of our ideas we felt confident to put forward; but as we progressed we were giving as much to the project as we could, and trying to reasonably fit in everyone’s ideas as much as we could.