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

Looking at the project beforehand i believe i have gained so much knowledge due to the first prelimary task, in comparison to know where i feel i can undergo bigger and more adventurous ideas. At the beggining when told about the sequence we had to create ourselves, i was very naive when thinking of big ideas, in which would not be able to be created due to too much information, unreliable setting and characters being unreliable to, therefore i decided to create an simple sequence, with it it worked perfectly because i didnt have complecations creating the scenes, and also was able to drop a various amount of ameras shots to produce a nice rounded sequence filled with various shots, frequent titles and simple storyboard.

Looking back it may of been easier to work in a group because then there would have been less pressure to arrange so many things such as casting, location camera equipment , therefore all of this did take strain on me so a group could of been for the best. Also when shooting more people would of been great for more ideas and also more imput to the film, because i worked alon more input was alone therefore more could of provoked more ideas for the sequence to make it better, also getting anothers perspective of the story. Another negative was the changing of ideas came new storyboards and ideas and this took more of my time to create, in fact i didnt have time to create., therefore a group could of shared tasks to make it easier to achieve more work efficiently. Overall i believe the process of creating my sequence was a good one because it really opened my eyes to want i could achieve if the knowledge and effort is there. Now at the end of the process i am very proud of what i have accomplished and believe this have showed me so many techniques, ideas to use in the future...

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

Through making my opening title sequence i have learnt many key technologies through the process. First of all i have learnt alot about the type of equipment i have needed to create my sequence, because without one of them, the sequence would of not been made. Starting from the beggininng it was key to buy a DV tape to use to film my sequence, this would have all my footage i have used to produce this and through the process if loosing it could have been costly. Therefore i have realised, through learning the process of making a film with technologies, you also have to organised. I also was unaware of what a tri-pod was at the begginning of the process, through engaging more and more with practise and with the sequences practice shoots, it certainly taught me how to position key shots to use and also how to keep silly mistakes such as loose shots and jerky pans to a minimum. This shows how much importance is of the equipment and more importantly, how to use it.

When making our prelimary task, i was a novice at trying to create the perfect piece of footage, this was without knowing the simple terms of camera movement, shots, shot meaning and quite frank, actual different camera shots. This task was sucessful in the fact of getting me into using the camera and although producing a low piece of work, it opened my eyes and familirised with the camera. I also saw through making this first task how to put shots together, realising to back then, a hard task thought of is now a task i would thrive into doing. therefore from the prelimary task i learnt alot about technologies of making the sequence.

When beggining my opening title sequence process, i had a rough idea of location, shots and thoughts of what i wanted it to be, therefore from the start of the process and making reference to my prelimary tasks i had clear shots i wanted to use. I also began to use the shots when i began to understand representations of shots, mid shot for example. Thereforei was beginning to enjoy creating my sequence, through it my knowledge grew about the technologies due to experimenting with shots, camera angles and even the same scenes from different positions.

The final task after my footage was complete was to edit in finl cut pro. When only using i-movie beforehand, i found final cut pro harder then first glance, i began to also experiment with the effects and gain knowledge as i edited more and more of my film, the film was first cut to five minutes in which was too long, therefore i had lots of trouble cutting out shots to fit the time scale, i eventualy went down to three minutes then finally trying to keep the best shots to make the sequence complete. Where i had so much footage, i had to much to include. i then realised the effect titles can play by breaking up shots and continuety to produce an quickly cut piece, through the use of editing i learnt that editing is a technologie that can change the complete scenes of continuety into broken down shots which is better outcome due to frequent cutting and shakey titles.

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

Before making my sequence, I addressed my friends in the perspective of my audience and just used the word of foot and mouth to tell them of what my film is about and what it will relate to. I also approached my friends as they would be the target audience for my sequence, getting a thought before it was made, just in the planning process in order to know if my sequence was for one; the right target audience, and two; if I am creating a film they would enjoy when watching. The audience can also be addressed because it is locations like the audience would go to relate to.

During the process of creating my opening sequence, I knew I needed to attract the audience straight away, thus knowing I needed the sequence to lure my audience into the sequence from the off. Therefore I decided to begin the sequence with a point of view, I believe the point of view is a unique shot to open with and thought it would draw the audience in thus raising a question to who’s point of view it is. It also attracts visitors as the point of view gives anxiety to want to know who this is and therefore draw them into the sequence.

When wanting to get feedback, we did so by watching my classes and my film sequence in our class to critique them all very thoroughly to be beneficial to provoke more ideas if needed so. When getting to my sequence everyone gave positive feedback, everyone enjoyed and began to ask questions about the next scenes, storey of the film and also how it would, thus this indicates it was successfully when attracting the target audience.

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

From watching other horror films I was trying to decide what rating I wanted to give my sequence. I then chose to give my sequence a rating of 15 to 18 because it is filled with violence, abuse and twisted motives throughout and I didn’t want the film to have a lower rating and be regarded as less serious.

My sequence focuses on a young teenage girl being stalked, watching her through point of views indicates there is going to be a killing with lots of violence, blood involved making my film very harsh giving it such a high rating of 18. But in the context, I believe a huge numbers of target audience would be teenagers of 15 years because it is near their age group as the girl is about 17 years old. Therefore engaging younger generation of the audience of 15 years.

From gaining feedback from a critique lesson with my class we looked at each other’s film and then gave advice to one another. From a class of around 25 students ageing around 16 to 17, I was told my film was a film they would go to see as the character of the girl was around their age group, especially the boys because they like lots of violence and was intrigued to find out what happens to the girl. Overall I believe my sequence is very much like Halloween as it does not give too much away and will have violence and lots of blood in it.

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

I think my sequence would need to be produced by an institute that produced well known successful films such as Saw, but then when researching, I found Hammer film productions. Hammer film productions has produced lots of different films, as well as creating science fiction, horror is their main productions. I would choose hammer film productions because they are very successful when producing and distributing as they managed to distribute worldwide, this due to good connections with Warner bros in the United States. I believe this English production fits perfectly with my sequence in order to make it a success.

In the terms of the sequence becoming a worldwide success, I believe it appeals to a number of people of the world who can relate to the sequence and engage with it, therefore being distrusted around the world would enable lots of people to consume the film, creating lots of revenue in sales. From creating lots of revenue the film could then be produced and distributed to DVD where another production could buy the rights to sell it creating more money, this a way in which most institutions make their money through all of these processes.

In the terms of franchising my product, I feel that it would not be as successful in doing this because a horror film does not give too much away in the terms of some characters, therefore creating lots of merchandise might take away the emphasise on some characters. I feel that a big success would be through a conversion with a mobile phone company to produce a ringtone of ‘indication the stalker will attack’ therefore this may make lots of success due to the fact it would be cool for the teens to have this on their phone.

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

My media sequence represents social gender and age. The opening of my sequence shows a teenage girl sitting in her home at Christmas time, shown by a point of view. In the terms of using age, I wanted to use a teenage girl to play the most important role of my sequence to create stereotypical characteristics and also use her to focus on my films target audience. The point of view shot I used was to emphasise that this girl is being watched, but I did not want to give away who or what is watching her. Through the use of the point of view shots, I wanted to show the stereotypical view of the ‘Stalker’ watching a ‘Teenage Girl’, therefore the teenage girl is always the target of a horror film. My sequence shows that the girl being watched is in her later teens showing that my media product is showing representation of gender of a stereotypical character. My sequence also shows realism within the society, because girls are always the targets of stalkers in our society and I believe my sequence is a reflection of how society is today.

My horror sequence is a representation of a young woman being oblivious to her surroundings and unable to look after her well being because of being oblivious. The girl in my sequence portrays a stereotypical young innocent girl becoming the victim of a growing attack from a more dominant character, this creating appeal for the young audience as they may have recalled representations of the girl being dominated by another stronger person in society.

The shots in my sequence show the girl characters modern house, showing her social appearance in modern society. First of all, through camera shots they show the time of year of the film, Christmas. Christmas time being a time of happiness for families, our shots show the girl is alone, giving indication she has no family, or they are not home at this time. When filming i did not take into consideration of the costumes therefore I believe I could of made this better enabling me to portray the girls life, time of year a bit better. The location we used was also very good but i began to question if it was in fact too big to use, but I feel this is worked in favour now reviewing it.

Another aspect to represent dominance over the girl through another character is through editing. Throughout the sequence the girl is unaware of being watched therefore showing an indication of dominance already, as the stalker is always one step ahead. The point of view shots from the stalker last longer than shots of the girl showing another aspect of dominance as although the main focus is the girl in the shot, the main objective of the audience is wondering who this stalker actually is and why is he watching her. As the stalker gets closer to the girl frequent cuts are made to make the sequence jumpy, therefore showing how his dominance will come apparent once the girl realises she is being stalked, this showing more stereotypical views of the woman being weaker and helpless to the dominant stalker.

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

My opening title sequence consists of many conventions of a typical Horror genre, one being my titles. My Titles have a smartly ragged look to them, this to reflect the film being edgy. My sequence opens with a title and therefore I wanted it to set the tone for the rest of the sequence. The font is red with a black background; the red giving indication that there will be danger in the film, also sign of blood, and the black to resemble my horror sequence being dark and not giving too much away to the audience, thus raising questions. Following the first title, the opening begins with point of view shots, focusing on a teenage girl (17 years old), in her home, being watched. Engaging with the audience is common throughout Horror sequences to draw their attention; I wanted to follow this in my sequence by putting my titles in places to break up the shots of the girl, indicating to the audience that they are missing certain scenes, which may be key to understanding the film more. The Idea and technique of using point of view shots for an opening came from the 1978 film Halloween, I believe the point f view shots engages and intrigues the audience to wanting to know who is watching, and why? The point of view shots also show the setting for most of the film, a big house. This also follows another convention as a young teenager living in a big house alone, the perfect setting for a horror to be set.

I then developed the conventions with the point of view shots, as I wanted to emphasise the fact this teenage is being watch very closely (stalking) by this person, who we do not know anything about. The points of views are to draw the audience more and more into the sequence, beginning to feel worried for the girl, who is completely oblivious to it. The girl is another convention of a horror sequence because the girl is always is the target of an attack and this is reflected through the point of view. This used in Halloween also.

Most conventions of a horror sequence begin their sequences very eerie and slow, with my sequence I wanted to show this in numerous ways, one being through my titles. When my titles appear they move ever so slightly every half a second to create a shaky movement, suddenly getting quicker, therefore showing how my titles control the pace of my sequence. From this platform I then complemented the music pace by the shots I used, especially for the point of view shots that I wanted to be jumpy and twisted, giving indication to the audience about this something watching the girl.

Through another convention of a typical horror sequence I chose not to have dialogue, this allowing my mise en scene to tell the story, also I didn’t want the dialogue to take the suspense away from the sequence therefore leaving it out as I felt it would take the edgy feel away and I didn’t want that. I also chose not to have any dialogue because I wanted the audience to focus on the setting of my sequence giving the audience various shots of where the film would be set and also focus on the main character, showing through her body language what is happening.

Another common convention of horror is the use of editing, editing of a horror sequence has various amount of shots been cut together to produce a sharp, quick pace sequence, one example of this being the opening of saw two, where lots of shots were produced and cut together so the sequence flows, but with lots of cuts of the various shots making the sequence fast paced. From watching I decided to do a similar technique by using various amounts of shots in my own sequence, I cut the shots together so they’re not lingering on the same shot for too long giving the sequence its pace to go with the music. I also used frequent cutting of the point of views to create a jumpy feel to the sequence, by cutting every half a second out and then placing the rest together created a jumpy, edgy feel to the sequence, also to engage the audience into the sequence and raising question to who or what it is watching this girl.