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

The purpose of the preliminary task was to shoot a short clip within our groups and upload it to YouTube to demonstrate that we knew how to use specific shots for our thriller film opening. We also had to edit the clip to make it look smooth with the changing of shots and dialogue. This task helped me and my group to practise filming different shots and learning how to edit the clips together so they look smooth and professional. Also, it allowed us to see what difficulties we may find when filming, and give us time to see how we can resolve these issues, the preliminary task also allowed our group to discuss different opinions when filming which we will also need to do when filming our thriller opening. This task has helped me to understand when to use certain shots within a clip, such as a shot reverse shot which is used to show the audience the different characters who are speaking. Also the tri-pod which the camera was on helped to do panning shots which will be good to use in my thriller opening.

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

In the whole production and development of our thriller we used many different types of technology such as: camera (for filming), tripod (to have steady camera shots), macs (to make blogs and to edit), laptops (to make blogs), final cut pro X (for editing), blogger (to write and evaluate different stages of making our thriller opening) and YouTube (for film clips). Miss Georgiou briefly explained how to use the tripod and camera, the rest we figured out for ourselves when doing our preliminary task and during our filming process. The tripod was easy to work and was very helpful also, the editing programme (Final cut pro X) was very difficult to use but our editor Joe was familiar with it and taught me and Cara the basics during the editing process and we quickly learned how to edit for ourselves. Some camera shots were more difficult to film than others, for example a low angle shot was simple as the tripod could be adjusted to get very low and film upwards. On the other hand, a handheld camera shot was very difficult to film; this was because it couldn’t be too shaky, and in the cold night when filming is was very hard to keep my hand still. We overcome this issue by editing the shot to skip a few frames to look like the audience were moving towards Alice when she turns around in her gas mask making the shot very mysterious. Also panning shots was quite difficult to film because the adjustments on the tripod could be very loose of very stiff making it hard to shoot a smooth pan shot. We overcome this by finding the perfect adjustment on the tripod making the pan shot smooth and professional looking. The editing software we used was Final cut pro X, this was very professional and quite difficult to edit with at first, after trimming and editing a couple of clips the software became easier to use and very helpful. I learned how to trim clips down to remove unwanted shots and just keep the good part of the clip which was very helpful as many clips had accidently laughter or bird chirping in the background. I wasn’t very good at putting transitions in-between clips because sometimes it lasted to long and cut out half of the following clip, this was one of my weaknesses but Joe was good on Final cut pro X and perfected the transitions. The ending of our opening shows a very good bit of editing on the editing software, the handheld, POV shot flashes and jumps quickly towards Alice with a mask on, and this is very mysterious and surprising for the audience as it feels as if they are racing towards the possessed child.

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

.To address our audience we created a questionnaire to see what elements throughout our film would appeal to them the most and make our thriller opening more enjoyable for them to watch. To create our thriller film, me Joe and Cara had to carry out many different types of research to make our film as successful as possible, we started analysing other thriller films such as ‘ Sinister’ we made blogs on the camera shots, mise-en-scene and soundtracks to inspire us to make a successful opening. The mask/face paint on the antagonist’s face hides his identity creating enigma and tension about who he is and why he is killing these families. Secondly, we had to research film certificates to see what elements and themes to include for a 15 rated film as this was the average age of our target audience, 15 rated films consist of strong violence, brief sexual scenes or references and/or discriminating behaviour. As our opening is only two minutes long it is hard to include any of these elements but our film will still be rated a 15 due to the physiological horror. Also we researched into narrative theory’s, we are using the Aristotle theory because we want to make the audience feel sympathy and empathy, also we want to use an antagonist and protagonist to allow the audience to relate to the characters as we aim our films at teenagers aged 13-16. Also the Aristotle theory will create an emotional relationship with the audience because they are aware of the situations going on in the film whereas the characters do not. All this research helped plan our film especially analysing other films as they have been made successfully so the inspiration we got from ‘Sinister’ and ‘The woman in black’ helped our planning a lot as we knew the conventions taken from them were perfect for our thriller film.

Question 4 - Who would be the target audience for your media product?

.A target audience is important when making a film as they are the people your film is aimed towards and the people who are most likely to enjoy it. The codes and conventions in our thriller film have been specifically produced to aim towards teenagers aged 13-16. This is because of the babysitter character as teens this age may babysit themselves and be able to relate to the characters and enjoy the film more thoroughly than an adult would. Also, teenagers are always looking for a thriller film to see and be scared at night; I believe our thriller ticks that box with the conventional themes throughout the opening to appeal specifically to our target audience. The narrative of a possessed little girl  is mysterious and tension-building, it was also chose most scary in our questionnaires, the mise-en-scene used in our thriller was also chosen by our target audience such as: gas mask, homely house, little girl antagonist, babysitter protagonist to make the film enjoyable to watch for them. The cinematography used creates an eerie atmosphere throughout the whole film with fast paced editing to create enigma to the audience which makes our thriller opening appeal to our target audience well.

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

.A media institution is important to consider when distributing our thriller film because it determines the success of the film and how much money will be made. A bad media institution would ruin advertising and getting our thriller film recognised by our target audience; this would result in a decrease in profit as less people will watch our film. I would like ‘Filmdistrict’ Film Company to distribute our thriller film because they also distributed ‘Insidious’ which is a very scary film aimed at the same target audience as our film. When people see ‘Filmdistrict’ being involved with our film they may associate it with ‘Insidious’ which was very successful, this will make them have high standards for our film and make them want to watch it more urgently. Insidious was the first film that FilmDistrict distributed which was successful, since then other films such as ‘Olympus has fallen’ and ‘Dead man down’ have been distributed by them, all these films are aimed at the same target audience as our thriller which makes FilmDistrict the perfect company to distribute our film and make it as successful as the previous films they have worked with.

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

'The antagonist in our film is Alice; she is a little blonde girl who is seen multiple times in our opening wearing a gas mask. This is contrasting as little girls are meant to be cute and innocent which makes our opening mysterious and surprising which is conventional to thriller films. At the beginning of our opening Alice is singing nicely playing with dolls, this use of a sharp transaction of playing to being possessed will shock the audience and make our opening enjoyable to watch as it has generic conventions of thriller films in it. Our protagonist is a baby sitter whose name is unknown, she is a conventional victim as she is innocent, vulnerable and home alone. This makes her open to any attack or danger, this is again conventional to thriller films as a female victim is very stereotypical as they are seen as less able to defend themselves compared to men. This use of character choice in our film and other films are used to appeal to the audience as they can make an emotional link with the characters because they can see their fear and also see them being in a similar position.

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

.Every successful thriller film team uses cinematography, mise-en-scene and editing to ensure that their film follows the generic conventions of shock, fear, tension, mystery and many more. This is so that the audience can create an emotional relationship with the characters and enjoy the film they are watching, this can be specifically seen in ‘Paranormal activity’. The use of the home-made camera effect allows the audience to relate to the characters as they seem like a normal family and that the scary happenings could occur to the audience, making them feel afraid. This can also be seen in ‘Insidious’, the use of a mysterious hidden antagonist creates tension towards the audience as they don’t know what could be hiding behind the black vale. Similarly in our thriller opening, our antagonist (Alice) is hidden by a gas mask, this also creates tension as the audience can’t see what she looks like and why she may be hiding her face. The use of a young antagonist may shock the audience as they would not expect it to be an innocent looking girl which adds the mystery to our opening thriller scene. This element of our thriller specifically resembles ‘Sinister’ by the use of a young female child who turns evil, this creates again, tension and surprise as the audience is shocked by this unusual happening. These elements used in my thriller opening, and real thriller films are generic conventions that are purposely included into the films to make them stand out and have an emotional link with the audience.