Question Two

"How does your media product represent particular social groups?"

Our products presents two different social groups: Teachers and Students (The killers identity is unknown).

Student-
The student in a stereotypical situation and what a lot of people have come to expect from pupils based on what is being covered by the media (News, TV Dramas etc) the student looks powerless when compared to the teacher instructing him to do his work, the student is also of black skin colour and that is a negative stereotype driven also by the media and are normally portrayed as having some form of gang affiliation for example the London riots in which it said that 75% of riots where of black skin colour, However the student is wearing glasses which subverts our expectation as someone who wears glasses in most commonly known as being a nerd or a geek who always does his work but in this opening clip the student wearing glasses and is in trouble which suggests that he had been misbehaving and the teacher saying "Finish off your work" shows that he did not do the work. The student is also male which is fairly playing up to the stereotype that boys are ones that cause trouble and are the ones that always misbehave and are lazy.

Teacher-
In contrast to the student the teacher is white which is stereotypical of having the higher classed jobs and are in higher powered status, He is also a teacher who are meant to have the most power in the classroom, which he does as he is the one giving the instructions as well leaving the classroom when his phone rings, He is a male which shows that males are dominant and better at being strict to the students.

Question Seven

"Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you think you have learn't in the progression from it to the full project?"

The preliminary task thought us to beware aware of all the objects in the video and in the background to be relevant to what is happening in the video, as I am meant to be the "evil" boss in my office but it seems to be more like a librarian in the library because of all the computers and books in the background,  in the main task we were aware of the background and what would be shot in each camera angle.

We had a lot of audio problems and had to record the audio after we finished recording that was all well and good but the audio volume makes it obvious that the audio has been edited and recorded after the video recording had ended which does not give it that realness feeling and makes it look tacky and fake, by using and external mic to be able to capture for of a clearer sound.

There was a lot of continently errors in the preliminary exercise as when filip open the door from the handle the door was just starting to be opened but on the next clip the the door was on its way to close, we learnt from this mistake as when the student in the main project opened the door we edit it to perfection so we would not get any continuity errors. However we made one major mistake in the main project, as the student left the classroom you could not see the blood on the floor but in the next shot the blood suddenly appears.

 

Question Six

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


I was the camera man and the creator of the music for our main AS Media production.


Firstly with the camera work, I was lucky enough to get a High Definition camera to record our video but I had decided to use standard definition settings as it would make the video smoother for the video editor as recording the movie in HD would make the recording larger and make the video while editing jumpy. There were many features on the camera such as changing the contrast and brightness levels, there was a feature to use focus but we weren't able to use "manual focus" as we encountered some technical difficulties.


We tried to use focus to emphasize the religious state but the problem was that the camera was touch screen and we did not know about that feature `until we finished recording.


We used the brightness settings to good effect and I experimented with the contrast and brightness a lot since I knew that we could change it when we started editing.


I also created the music for our group and I used the music editing software "Fruity Loops 9.0 XL" for windows, I had limited amount experience with the software, I learnt how to use the software by experimenting a few days prior to the day, I started creating the music, I encountered a problem as I had a different sound card to what the software needed, I found my way around the issue by watching a YouTube tutorial on how to change the settings for my soundcard.

Question Five

"How did you attract/address your audience?"

The way I addressed my audience was by setting the movie in a high school which would be more appealing to a teenager more than any other aged audience, the movie is also about a student in detention and that is something that the audience could relate and could empathize with the student when he was in detention, and the audience could put themselves in the shoes of the student as he was falling in the hands of the killer.

The movie could also attract some horror film fanatics after researching around the web I saw that there are many of them and they are constantly on the look for new movies, whether it is because of the camera work or because the plot of the movie differs from the regular horror movie.

Looking back at this movie it seems to me that this movie has become more of a thriller than a horror movie, at first I thought it was a negative but then I realised that I could use this to my advantage as it could bring a whole lot of different types of movie fanatics attention to this movie, as fans of the thriller genre can be both horror movies fans or action movie fans either way I think we could gain interest from both.

Question Four

"Who would be the audience for your media product?"

The clip is meant to be an opening for a horror movie which is aimed at students teens 15+ or young adults as the whole of the opening sequence is set in school and the teenagers are familiar with the school environment, we wanted to set the movie to a 12+ but since there was blood and we need the rest of the movie to be scary there isn't too much you could do in a 12+ film however setting the movie to a 15+ still attract children from a younger age as it still meets the agenda to what children who are slightly younger than the target audience, however some young adults maybe interested into looking in to our film as it may bring back memories about when they went to school.

Question Three

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

There are many boxes that the opening clip of the movie ticks which may interest some media institution's who are willing to distribute our media product.

After doing a bit of research I think that the institution that I would personally want to distribute our product is a company called "Twisted Pictures" most famously known because of there production of the Saw series which is one of the modern days most popular horror series.

The reason I chose this institution is because of all the movies that they have produced seem to be of the horror genre and they have also produced a horror movie called "Chain Letter" (2010) which is more of a psychological horror movie feel and is also a teen horror movie, which shows that they have an interest in distributing teen horror movies.

Question One

"In What Way does your Media product use, develop or challenge conventions and forms of real media products"

Our media product has used many conventions from real media products from using our cliché setting for the movie to the audio we used for our AS media clip.

Characters-
The characters in the the clip are students and a teacher which are common in the teen horror movies like: "The Faculty" (1998) and "When a Stranger Calls" (2006), We chose to have students in the movie, as the audience we are aiming for were in the 15 - 18 age barrier, so I think that the audience would get in to the teenage students mind set and have more feeling for him than a 30 year old man.
We also had a teacher which is classic of the teen horror genre and he was first to get murdered which bizarrely challenged conventions of the teen horror genre as I was searching through the internet and to look for a movie which had a teacher being murdered but there was none, this suggests that the role of the teacher stands for authority and in most teen horrors most of the victims are students and it happens behind the teachers back, this would probably be used as it gives a feeling of uncertainty amounts the audience.

Setting-
The entire opening clip was shot in school while a student is in detention as the target audience would relate can relate to the story and school is some where your would think that there is rules and boundaries, "Prom Night" (2008) majority of the movie was set in a school which gave a certain element of shock and the fact that it took place after school hour gives the feeling of uncertainty.


Props-
Blood was used as a prop and has been used in probably every other horror movie however Mr.Halsey warned us no to use to much fake blood as it would make the clip look unreal and over the top.
The school uniform was used because it would let the audience know about who the students are, and also it shows that the students have less authority than the teacher and if the teacher is murdered that shows that the students chances of survival are minimal, In "The Ring"(2002) there is a part where they find the corpse of a young girl wearing a school uniform and that seems to give people a certain amount of sympathy for the student dying so young.

Audio-
For the audio I was trying to make our movie as cliché as possible as that is a simple and obvious way to give the audience a weird and horrific feel to build up suspense for the killings, Listened to a lot of horror music by going on YouTube and went for classic Horror music like "Jaws"(1975) which is famous for its music and I used the audio as a kind of template by trying to get my music to get louder and quicker as it leads up to the death of the student and the teacher.