7 evaluation questions

- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We attempted using forms and conventions from horror/thriller films by the use of camera angles that we used that are often used in this genre of film. For instance close ups and over the shoulder shots so the audience could get the prospective from the stalkers point of view. A way in which we challenged the conventions was by having the main character who's story we are following (Karly) and the character of Sam being murdered whereas it is common to have the main character or the protagonist defeat the antagonist character or at least be the sole survivor of the action. We tried to use a realistic setting and location as possible to show that this is a possible situation which many films of today use as well. Another way in which we challenged the conventions was by filming it in daylight whereas most horror films are filmed in the dark to create more shadows.

- How does your media product represent particular social groups?
With our two minute opening we were aiming to represent common teenagers that the youth of today could relate to. The 3 friends we created, Karly, Dannii and Sam, could easily represent any group of friends from any social stereotype. The particular stereotype we were aiming for though was indie/mod. This is because the way they dress, act and the social activities they participate in is that of a common teenager or what most teenagers of today would consider 'cool'. This helped to show the popularity of the characters. We tried to base our characters around the actors themselves as they were the typical teenager.

- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that we would be able to get an institution such as film4 to distribute our product as it has a strong storyline and characters that film4's audience could relate to. Our target audience is the same sort of audience that film4 itself aims at when making there own films. Film4 films are of general low budget such as ours but as we tryed to make our film of the highest quality possible I believe that it could be accepted by this institution.

- Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience we were aiming for was 15-40 year olds and a certificate of 15 as we wanted to add as much violence and gore as we could to bring about the right amount of fear we thought our storyline would create. We felt that choosing an adolecent audience we would use our own knowledge of what type of things make a horror/thriller terrifying and add them to the piece. We avoided making a piece under the certificate of 15 as we felt personally from watching films bellow that certificate they were not terrifying enough. Also some of the scenarios and themes we look at in our piece would not be suitable for a young audience to watch as there is an excessive amount of violence and weapons shown that people of a young age would not be able to look at in a mature level.

- How did you attract/ address your audience?
We tried to attract our audience as best as possible by making our film seem a realistic situation as possible. We portrayed the characters as typical teenagers to try to relate to our target audience. We felt this would create more tension and fear with our piece as having the characters at the same age range as the audience would hopefully make it seem more real and the fear would be created because it is a situation they themselves could unfortunately find themselves in. Another way in which we attempted to attract the audience to our piece was if this was a full fetaure length film we showed the end at the beginning. By doing so the audience would hopefully continue to watch the piece to see how the story progressed from the beginning and see what could of possibly caused something like this to happen.

- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From filming this piece i have learnt how to use a handheld video camera recorder. I have also learnt how to correctly edit a film and add a soundtrack and edit the sound levels of a piece of film. I learnt how to cut pieces of the film and move them to the correct place. I have also learnt how to use certain camera angles in the correct way to create a certain atmosphere.

- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
From making our preliminary task I felt we have realized that a great deal of planning is involved with making a film, even a two minute piece. Every aspect has to be overlooked such as props, costumes, locations, and dialogue. I've realized that it is also highly important to create story boards so the actor and crew know exactly what they are doing for each shot. Continuity is of high importance to keep the atmosphere and emotions you are trying to create for the audience stable and on going. If there is a slight change in costume or setting this will distract the audience from what you are trying to portray. Another thing I personally realised about making a film is you have to have the right amount of enthusiasm and belief in your ideas because if you don't this will come across to the audience.