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

It was a lot more difficult to make the film than it was the preliminary task.

Firstly it was a lot more demanding technically. Organising people and locations and props before the shoot even began was really difficult as everyone was so busy and the location was only available at certain times.  Although we had storyboarded and scouted the locations before-hand, when we got there we realised we had to set-up a lot of the shots differently, which took time and was frustrating for the actors. We had a lot more difficulty with sound also, as we had not done any exterior shots for the preliminary and didn’t realise how noisy it could be. Directing the actors was also a lot more difficult as they hadn’t learnt their lines and it took a long time to get them able to run through a master shot. It was hard to constantly think about where to put the camera in order to keep to the 180 degree rule also. This was much easier for the preliminary. When we came to editing the film, it took a lot longer than the preliminary because it was longer but also because there were different ways we could do things but there were also some cuts we wanted but couldn’t do because we didn’t have the right footage. When we came towards the end of the editing, it felt a lot more satisfying than the preliminary did though. It felt like we had achieved something that we had spent a long time planning and thinking about and that the film was quite close to what we thought it might be, although there are obviously things that could have been better. By the end we were working much better together also, and had become really good at editing and suing different technologies like blogging and filming. Although we liked the preliminary, and it felt difficult at the time, we were much more proud of the film and the preliminary now looks a lot easier than it felt then.

6. What we learnt about technologies form the process

6. What We Learnt About Technologies Form the Process

5. How did you attract/address your audience

Having established just who our target audience was, we sought to create an opening sequence that would appeal to them in terms of style, narrative and genre, but that would also speak to them on their level. We found out our target audience were very much like us, 16-24 teenagers, and that they liked Horror movies a lot. We also found out that they liked teen movies. We therefore decided that to include people like them in the film would help them to identify with the characters and feel more comfortable. The characters and situations would be familiar to them. We looked at other teen/horror hybrid movies and realised that the horror element usually came from or after a normal situation situation which doesn’t look as if it will lead to anything. We therefore tried to incorporate this kind of situation (a boring family party that kids have to be at) into the film. We also thought that the smoking and drinking as a result of peer pressure was a common thing for our audience so we sought to include that as well. As it is only the opening sequence to the film, we had not time to include any adult characters in the film, but were we to have had the time, we would have represented as either bitter or pathetic in some way, as this would have appealed to our audience and this is what teen movies often do. We were also fairly stereotypical with our characters which should have made them familiar and recognisable to the audience.

4. Who would be the audince for your media product

Our sequence is mainly aimed at teenagers from age 14-21 male and female, it’s also aimed at people who like horror and for people who like hybrid movies. We chose teen-horror because they are both highly popular genres and a lot of people are big fans of hybrid movies, and since we are teenagers we know exactly what our age groups is looking for and enjoys in a movie. From our questionnaire we could identify that people generally liked our movie because they enjoy seeing people their own age in movies and because teen/horror is a favourite for the set age group.

3. what kind of media institution might distribute and why?

2. How our Media Product represents particular social groups.

Social groups we have used in our Media product are both teenage boys and girls. The stereotypes used within the sequence are the way in how young teenage boys and girls are a target by adults in the way boys and girls are believed to act. 

 The teenage youths shown in the clip are illustrated as young people who smoke and drink intending to be “cool.” The common stereotypes seen in today’s generation is the way “cool” youths take advantage of supremacy and bully those who are less trendy and able than them. This is a common masculine stereotype which is seen in the clip. 

However, Eric challenges these stereotypes because he’s young and doesn’t smoke or drink, but still being trendy and fashionable he is the victim of bullying.

We also see the way the girls are very giggly and are influenced by the guys. The girls also seem to have an interest in impressing the boys. 

There are no adults in the scene because the clip is mainly trying to appeal to teenagers. Unique attitude and the use of props, for example the cigarettes and alcohol bottles within the scene illustrates the different, young and conventional attitudes we are depicting to those watching the clip.

 

Eric is a positive stereotype as he is young and responsible; however Drake is a negative stereotype because he plays the role in peer-pressuring Eric.

1. In what ways does yor media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Please make sure annotations are turned on.
Our sequence suits the teen-horror genre in different ways, one of them is the fact that it only contains stereotypical teenagers and to add to the stereotype we decided to film at a house where teenagers are having a gathering drinking alcohol. In teen movies there are always different groups of people like in the breakfast club for example there is an outsider, a jock, a prom queen, a geek and a bully, but we only had 4 people so it was a bit of a hassle to create groups, we however managed by having one outsider and one bully who is friends with girls. one of the differences from our sequence and a typical teen movie is that ‘ the final girl’ (the one that doesn’t drink and is responsible) in our case is a male character, also the teenage gathering is during the day and in almost all teen movies they always meet up at people’s houses at night. Another thing that differs from the usual teen/horror is that it’s a gathering and not a party and only contains a few people instead of hundreds. We tried to make our sequence look as professional as possible by using various shot distances, camera equipment (like a tripod) and continuous editing. The significant event that disrupts the equilibrium is a very similar one to ‘I know what you did last summer’.