Evaluation for my main task

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

My media product uses codes and conventions of real media products by having those elements within the product. For my media product, the codes and conventions are of the horror slasher genre which my media product contains eerie music, sustained horror, isolation, protagonists being inferior and vulnerable to the antagonist, the antagonist being relentless and almost invincible, the antagonist wearing a scary mask, the antagonist having a signature weapon and the location having elements of isolation.

The codes and conventions of camera shots – high and low angle shots, point of view shots, camera movements- hand held, static, and tracking. The codes and conventions for editing is slow editing, pacing and lighting (dark).

These codes and conventions match horror slasher conventions as you will find these codes and conventions on horror slasher films such as Halloween (1978) as in the film of Halloween there is a point of view shot of Michael holding a knife at the beginning.

The lighting was dark, as at the beginning of Halloween, the inside of the dining room had a dark purple lighting. The props/ iconography were a knife and white mask which was the signature weapon and similar mask in my film.

The code and convention of isolation matches the same convention found in the horror slasher The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), as the protagonists were stranded on a massive countryside farm which was way out of any civilization.

The code and convention of eerie music is a code and convention used in my film which matches the same code and convention of eerie sinister music on Halloween when Michael takes a knife from the cutlery draw.

The code and convention of the antagonist being unstoppable and almost invincible was used in my film which matches the same code and convention used in the scene Halloween when Michael confronts Laurie (the babysitter) which she fought him on several occasions and Michael kept getting up, being persistent after being stabbed, hit, shot and even falling out of a three story house landing on is back.

How does your media product represent different social groups?

The characters within the product represent college students of modern society. This is evident due to their costume which is of casual clothing which typical college students wear and by their age of the actors being between the ages of 16 – 17, it makes it more believable for the audience that these characters are college students.

The antagonist of the film, which represents a killer, possessed characteristics of relentlessness, intelligence and superiority upon the protagonists, which is evident within the film as the antagonist hunts and chases the protagonists expressing the characteristic of relentlessness, hides and waits for the protagonists to come near him and is expecting them to come nearby which he jumps out and stabs one of the protagonists, expressing the characteristic of intelligence and superiority as the antagonist outsmarts the protagonists and appears to be more stronger.

My inspiration for my characters came from the horror slasher film Halloween especially the antagonist, as the antagonist within Halloween appears to be relentless, unstoppable, invincible and tries to outsmart the protagonists, which these characteristics make a powerful antagonist which creates a strong vulnerability upon the protagonists making them look weak in comparison, thus making a gripping and engaging encounter when the antagonist confronts the protagonists making the audience feel tensed and keep them engaged with the film.

The type of media institution might distribute my media product is Dimensional films due to the type of genre that they distribute which is the same genre as my product as the films have the same ideologies and codes and conventions as the films they have distributed which include eerie music, usually a masked killer, almost unstoppable killer, gore, sudden appearances of the killer to startle the audiences, Final girl, masculine males are killed, the props used are usually knifes or any other type of blade to inflict a slow painful death and to reinforce the fear of gore, lighting is normally dim which is supported with eerie music to create an eerie atmosphere, point of view shots, low angle shots, slow editing, the colours of red, black, and white is used within the film especially in the title sequence.

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

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product is based upon my research which was researched through my questionnaire and by looking at what types of people watch the existing films that share the same genre as my film.

My questionnaire asked people what their age is and what gender they are, if they enjoy watching my genre and how often they watch the genre. The majority of people are female (57%) who answered my questionnaire and the majority of my target audience enjoy watching my genre.

Target audience gender

Female 57%

Male 43%

As mentioned before, I have researched similar products that the audience watches and it matches the same target audience I have for my product as the genre is mainly based on characters that are young adults or teenagers that attend college or school and it creates more of a connection between the audience and the characters within the film and also creates more of a connection between the audience and the film as they have recent or past experiences of those educational establishments which can make the audience more engaged with the film.

So overall, my target audience is aged between 15 – 25 years old as mentioned earlier due to that the characters within the films are young adults that attend college or university which the audience can connect with the characters with their previous experiences with college and university on the film which will make the audience more engaged within the film. The majority of the gender is that of females than males according to my questionnaire results. The background of my target audience will moderately be middle class which is the most common consumers/audience due to the accessibility of cinemas and purchasing the product and the price of how much the product costs.

So overall, my target audience is aged between 15 – 25 years old as mentioned earlier due to that the characters within the films are young adults that attend college or university which the audience can connect with the characters with their previous experiences with college and university on the film which will make the audience more engaged within the film. The majority of the gender is that of females than males according to my questionnaire results. The background of my target audience will moderately be middle class which is the most common consumers/audience due to the accessibility of cinemas and purchasing the product and the price of how much the product costs.

How did you attract/address your audience?

My group and I attracted the audience by including the codes and conventions of a horror slasher which we included: suspense, sustained horror, masked killer, isolation and minimal gore (due to questionnaires’ response of disliking gore), but keeping some elements of gore in line with traditional aspects of a horror slasher. All these codes and conventions would be found within a horror slasher, which our target audience would expect to see in horror slasher. Due to the responses from the questionnaires, we targeted our audience with particular conventions which we tried to improve upon and make those conventions better.

The responses for what makes a horror slasher scary were the unpredictability, size and scariness of the antagonist (the masked killer). The antagonist was wearing a white mask which can represent the colour of death as the colour white can be associated with ghosts and also the colour white stands out better than red or black which those colours also represents death.

The costume the killer was wearing was black clothing, wearing a black hood to emphasize the mask that the killer was wearing to make it look more scary as if the darkness is enveloping the soul (which the mask could represent the soul of the killer as the colour white can represent a soul or a ghost) of the killer which makes the killer more sinister and fearful. The prop used for the killer is a knife which a knife is a type of blade which connotes the convention of a horror slasher of inflicting a slow painful death as the audience can assume that the killer is going to use their knife on their victims which makes the audience tense as they do not want the victims within the film being hurt as they have an understanding of what the victims may feel when they are stabbed by a blade.

The killer is bigger in size than the protagonists/victims to further emphasize the power, strength and dominance of the killer making the killer more superior and making the victims/protagonists more inferior making them more vulnerable which makes the audience tense as it subliminally tells the audience that the killer has a higher chance in succeeding in killing the victims than the victims overpowering the killer. The costumes for the students are casual wear, which represents what a student would wear, modern fashion. We chose students as our target audience for horror slashers are teenagers and young adults which are students themselves which makes them more immersed within the film, have more of a connection with the characters, thus making the audience more scared and tensed when the characters face danger when confronted with the killer.

The setting is at late afternoon drawing into the evening as it can connote that darkness is drawing as it is lurking in the horizon and is soon approaching which builds up the anticipation of danger approaching which sets the tone for the film at the start. The location is at an empty college with just two students (the protagonists within the film) and is set within the woods as well. This was chosen as it creates isolation for the victims and makes them more vulnerable as no one can help them, as a result of this, the audience will be more tensed as they do not want the victims hurt or killed when they are confronted with the killer which no one will be able to help the victims. The sound used was ominous sinister music which creates and sets a dark eerie tone to the film which enables the audience to get an understanding of what genre the film as well.

Setting

The setting of the film is set at a six form college which appears to be isolated which reinforces the fear of isolation and vulnerability. The audience can use their past experiences of college and can understand what the characters could feel and what the thoughts could be going through their head. It creates a sense of sympathy and reinforces an attachment for the characters from the audience, so as a result, when the characters are endangered through the encounter of the antagonist, the audience will feel tenser as they subliminally do not want the characters to be harmed from the antagonist.

Characters

I chose Tawanda Tsanga and Calvin Palin to play the protagonists/ college students as they had the correct look as they look like college students, due to the age of them being 16 – 17 years old, which makes it more believable to the audience, and they also are shorter than the antagonist as it creates the illusion to the audience that they look more inferior and vulnerable compared to the antagonist, thus creating tension for the audience when the protagonists are confronted by the antagonist and creates the feel of desperation as the audience does not want the protagonists to be harmed or killed but can sense danger upon the confrontation of the antagonist and the protagonist.

Colour

The colour for the background was dark/ evening with a tint of purple to create an eerie, sinister atmosphere, which follows the code of convention of horror slashers, as they are normally set at night as night symbolizes the idea of when sins, crimes and especially for the horror genre, death or murders being committed. This can subliminally create anticipation and fear as the audience is expecting something bad to happen, which can create more of an engagement from the audience.

Camera work

I chose for this shot to be a long shot and a low angle shot as it makes the protagonists look more inferior and the long shot emphasizes the size of them making them look smaller thus creating more vulnerability upon the protagonists, making the audience feel tense as there will be a bigger contrast between the inferior protagonists and the superior antagonist. I also chose the camera movement to be hand held as it immerses the audience within the film as it will stimulate the experience of what the characters are going through thus creating more of an emotion for the audience making the audience feel like they are there with the characters, therefore making the film scarier if perfected.

Costume

The costume for the protagonists is of casual college wear such as jeans, hooded jumper and trainers which can be described as the stereotype for teenagers and students which will appeal to our audience as our audience are teenagers and young adults which is common for them to wear this type of clothing, especially male teenagers and young male adults, who which these characters are. It will create more of a connection with the audience and the characters within the film as our audience communicates with people and have relationships with these types of people i.e. college students having friends that has similar traits to our characters, which therefore, have more of an attachment for the characters.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product?

I have learnt how to use different technologies for different techniques for constructing my product. I have learnt how to use iMovie which is the software on the apple mac. I learnt how to use the camera for our recording of our product and what type of shots you can use by using the camera which makes the product look more professional. I used the website YouTube to research different title sequences to use and also how they portray the codes and conventions of my genre for my product which improves my product as I have a better understanding of how to present and represent the codes and conventions of my which overall improves my product.

What I found difficult was editing the film by using the software program iMovie as it can be hard deciding what parts to edit, what needs improving and to make it look impressive and be able to understand what each function on the software does and what it is.

I also found difficult to film the shots during different days as the weather varied on different days as some of the days it was overcast, sunny and some spells of rain. So there were some days we had to reschedule as there were interruptions with the weather and some people in the background of our shots. I and my group edited the background by using IMovie and used editing of the background changing the background of our shots from day to night which created an sinister eerie feel as my film follows the codes and conventions of a horror slasher which are set at night as that is where sins and crimes are committed.

Also, I and my group found it difficult to implement eerie non-diegetic music in the background of our film at first but we found it quite simple to use after a while and we were able to implement the non-diegetic music with our film.

From when I and my group made our film in our preliminary task, we learnt that planning particular shots, camera angles and camera movements is vital as the film will look more professional and look more aesthetically pleasing. It will also have a better flow which will make the audience more engaged with the film and enjoy the film more.

I feel that I have a better understanding of how to use the hardware and software now than when I was producing my preliminary task as I know how to use different software programs and how to use different hardware such as the camera.

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

I feel that I am more confident on how to use an Apple Mac and iMovie which is the software which I used on the Apple Mac. I also learnt different shooting techniques (in terms of camera work) and different editing techniques. By developing new editing skills, it will make our film look more professional and because our film is horror slasher, it will create more tension through the use of slow editing being implemented within our film which will keep the audience engaged and gripped to the film.

The pacing of the film is well balanced as tension starts at the beginning of the film drawing the audience in, creating anticipation, and then the use of use fast editing of the antagonist chasing the protagonists, making the audience gripped. Then after the chase scene has finished it reverts back to slow editing making the audience feel relaxed but at the same time feel tensed and the longer slow editing persists, the more tension builds keeping the audience gripped. The use of stings and the jump scare startles the audience through the use of slow editing which overall gives the film a good balance of pacing.