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

Here is my post with my preliminary task on it.

I think that I have improved a lot in both the filming and editing sides of production. As shown below, in the preliminary task, some of my shots could have been framed better, in this shot of Gemma, I have accidently cut out her feet, whereas in my film, all of the shots were planned so the framing emphasizes what's happening in the scene. In the screen shot below Emily and Jay have been placed in similar positions in their frames to show they're of a similar status and to reflect their similar positions, the audience cannot yet tell who has the power / who is the antagonist. Also, the lack of a tripod in my preliminary task made the shots looked unprofessional and rushed as they were a little shakey, in my main piece, I always used a tripod to ensure the opening looked controlled and of a high quality.

In my preliminary task, editing was minimal and simplistic, with basic cuts and transitions. However, I progressed on to using various ways of cutting to create atmosphere and tension (for example, jump cuts) as well as using transitions to suit the music. The preliminary task didn't include anything too complicated, but in the film I tried to use techniques such a split screen and colour correction, allowing my knowledge of final cut to grow. Having said this, I did use the idea of layering images right from the start of the preliminary task, however, in my final film the transition in and out of the layered image is a lot more subtle and looks more professional.

I had a better awareness for more of the micro-elements in the main task. Things such as mise-en-scène, cinematography and non-diagatic sound were thought about in a lot of detail, whereas in my preliminary task there were certain areas which needed a lot of work (lighting mainly, most of the shots were too dark). In my opening sequence, I think all of my shots are well lit, showing a progression in both planning, and in actual filming ability. The shots below are taken from the two tasks, it's clear to see the progression made in terms of lighting, camera angles, and also in location - in my final film the locations were really scenic and well chosen, and in my preliminary task I just used the school.

I feel that I have progressed a lot over the course, at the beginning I was barely able to open a file on final cut express and had never filmed anything before, now I can use a wide variety of editing techniques and shot styles to create a professional looking opening sequence which fits the codes and conventions of my hybrid genre.

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

One of the main things I've learnt about is the technology avaliable to help create a smooth, intricate piece of media.

Above is a screen grab of both Final Cut and also the toolbar, which contained the pen tool for editing the music and how it faded, along with various other things including the tool for cropping shots.

I learnt how to use the editing programme Final Cut effectively. I am now able to add music to my clips, and then cut the music to fit perfectly with the action in the film, as well as how to use the pen tool to fade the sound in and out appropriately, this is located on the toolbar above. I can now add, order and cut clips to get the pefect combination of shots, and learnt how to use various transitions, such as cross dissolve. Now I know how to place effects onto a specified clip, for example, monotones and grayscales, and I can also use the colour correction feature like in the walking home and killing scenes.

For my titles, I used font animation programme LiveType, which really added another dimension to my film because it incorporated the titles well and made them more aesthetic, capturing the audience's attention from the start. 

However, in my opinion, the best thing I learnt was how to split screen two or more clips together using the V1 and 2 chanels on Final Cut. It helped me to achieve the final outcome of the film - and is undoubtably a very useful tool for future projects.

5) How did you attract your audience?

I tried to attract my target audience in a variety of ways. Firstly, as mentioned in the previous post, I tried to use protagonists similar in age to my preferred audience, ensuring that the film is easier to relate to, and therefore more enjoyable to watch.

I built tension and suspense through the many jump cuts, which as well as adding fear, imply that the film is fast paced and full of action. By placing these cuts after the very beginning, where I used more lengthy transitions such as cross dissolve, it breaks the audience's preconceptions about the pace and genre of the film - which should attract them to the remainder of it. Also, I feel the non-linear storyline helps to attract the audience because they'll want to know how it got to the point of  murder. However, looking back I realise this was quite ambitious because my film could be seen as a trailer, not an opening.

The genre of my film should attract teenagers, who are statistically the largest demographic to watch horrors. However, I wanted to target both genders, so by using one male and one female protagonist, and by adding elements of the romance genre I feel that my film could appeal to both sexes. To reflect my chosen genre, and to keep the audience's attention I placed the killing scene at the end of the opening, using a stereotypical prop and a dimly lit area to denote action, violence and death. Depsite this, I now see how this could enforce the fact that it appears quite trailerish due to the sudden cut to the title and halt in music, next time I would place it at the beginning to try and make it seem more obviously an opening.

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

I think that my film would mainly be for teenage culture and young adults for the reasons stated in my original target audience post.

Personally, I'd rate my film as a 15 because, after going onto the BBFC's website, http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ and reading the criterion for a 15 film I discovered the two following statements:

1. (In a 15) strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised. My film doesn't contain any sadisitc violence or horror, yet I would imagine it to contain strong threats throughout. 

2.  Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. Although my film features a stabbing scene using a kitchen knife, I made sure it was done fairly subtley and in a way which doesn't condone the seriousness of using such weapons.

Also, I researched the gender of teenagers who watched horror films and although it's predominantly male, I feel that my film could also appeal to teenage girls because of the romantic underlying storyline and the female protagnoist, allowing the girls to relate more. The younger cast I've chosen to use permits the teenage audience to identify with the characters more, this has been done in many recent horror films such as the popular Final Destination series and lesser known films for example The Human Centipiede, which has become a teenage cult phenomenon.

I looked at other psychological horror films which are globally known such as The Sixth Sense and The Gift - both have been rated as 15's by the BBFC, and because my film contains similar themes to them, I have rated it the same.

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

The best way of getting our film to make the highest possible profit would be to go to a major distributer such as Warner Bros who produced The Exorcist, A Nightmare on Elm Street and House of wax. People are more likely to buy from a well known film production company as they're seen to be more reliable and get more publicity.

I could also go to smaller companies like 'Hammer Productions', who produced the Frankenstein, and Dracula films, as well as many psychological horror films. They would be useful because they're specialised so will have a better idea of how to market the film to the target audience.

Another way I could distribute my film is through video sharing websites such as youtube or metacafe, which has a whole section for films, making my movie easily and freely accessible to a wider audience for quick feedback. These sorts of video sharing websites are exceedingly popular especially with my target audience and so putting a few clips or a trailer of my film onto them would increase it's popularity. There are also lots of well known websites made specifically for watching films and videos on, for example megavideo or imdb (internet movie database), which would be good for gaining publicity.

Finally, television channels like Sky could distribute my film on Sky Horror, Sky Movies or on the horror film channel , number 319, this would then make my film more widely avaliable to people because they wouldn't have to pay to go to the cinema and so it would widen my potential audience.

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

Emily mainly conforms to the sterotypical female in horror films. She is young, attractive and potrayed as being quite weak and easily lead. Her being lured by Jay is particularly obvious in the walking home scene where they're holding hands, this is after she's had the vision of him chasing her, connoting that women aren't as self-reliant as men and are more easily taken advantage of - a sterotypical view of women as the 'damsel in distress'. However, in some horror films, halloween, the female characters are quite promiscuous, in my film Emily is the picture of innocence so, you could say she is a countertype,pictured are the two outfits we see her in, she wears the shorts and jumper and is holding her dress, however, her lack of promiscuosity could make her a stereotype because it implies she's the naieve victim.

Jay's character is a countertype of the traditional anatagonist of horror movies. Firstly, he is in no way disfigured and on the surface looks relatively like a normal, teenage male. He doesn't own anything dark coloured, nor does he appear menacing. We first see him being a stereotypical teenage boy (taken from the influence of the romance genre), and he comes across as gentlemanly and sweet, another countertype to the normal antagonists of horror films (Freddy Krugar - A Nightmare On Elm Street). Male characters in my film are portryed as mysterious and as having an ambiguous personailty, we do not know whether or not we trust him or if he's a good or bad character until the end of the opening (however elements of mystery are shown in the shot of his eyes, below). They are also seen as dominant over the females, which is a common convention of many horror films.

My film is also countertypical due to the fact that I have a female protagonist. I showed this by giving her more screen time and also by giving her a supernatural trait, the vision, and so an upper-hand over the male. This connotes that although men are physically stronger, women play a more important role within society and are more knowledgeable. It is uncommon for horrors to have female protagonists because of the ideology that they're too weak to defend themselves. My film defies this by presenting a lead female who seems a lot more capable (until the last shot of the stabbing) than the male lead, I have shown this in the last spilt screen of the getting ready shots, Emily is calming putting on mascara whereas Jay is sitting on his bed nervously playing with his hair (a role-reversal of the typical male/female stereotypes - women are usually portrayed as nervous wrecks and men are presented as calmer), the screenshot of this is below.

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

I chose to do a predominantly horror based film for my two-minute opening. A horror is one which deals primarily with human fears: nightmares, vunerability, the unknown and death. My film plays with the idea of death and having someone you love turn against you, so in that respect it's fairly conventional. However, I decided to create an unusual hybrid genre of horror/romance and so to mix in conventions of a romantic film I added an underlying storyline of the characters falling in love yet having something preventing their happiness, and, unlike most romance films, they do not have the fairytale ending convention.

The typical themes in a horror are: superstition and possession (the exorcist); a fight between good and evil (this could also be in a religious sense); the apocalypse (Dawn of the Dead); common fears; killing and servere injuries. Within my opening I look at common fears, as well as the idea of betrayal and murder. I chose not to look at the religious side of horror films because personally, I am more interested in human insanity, although I did include elements of the supernatural by making her physic.

The titles within a horror film normally go one of two ways: they're either really overly creepy or completely ambiguous as to which genre they belong to (like in the fourth kind). I felt by having an implacable font it added to the tension and made the stabbing shot more dramatic because it wasn't expected. As for structure, I feel my film is quite unique. I chose to use a non-linear storyline (more notably a convention of the thriller genre).

I think my film is quite similar to Psycho: 1960 because it looks at the horror behind psychopathy and insanity, I looked at the idea of the 'monster within the human' (like in Psycho), however, unlike most horror films, I haven't included any prominant binary oppositions. This is because I wanted to make the antagonist's (Jay's character) evil side more shocking and unpredictable.

Looking at iconography, a horror film normally uses: haunted houses, disfigured faces, screaming victims, a phallic murder wepon and darkened places. I used a dagger as a phallic wepon, one of our shots shows Jay in a dimly lit plac holding the knife high, connoting masculinity and power. I have included this shot below (knife circled):

However, I subvert some of the ideas, within my opening there aren't any screaming girls, in fact the whole beginning contains no diagetic sound, I feel this adds to the eerie atmosphere. I also break the sterotype because instead of a haunted house, the only houses you see are from the romantic side of the film (the date and when they're getting ready).