"In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?"
Used Conventions
In our thriller piece we have used binary opposition we have used this by incorporating a young female (protagonist) and a dominant male (antagonist). As you can see here we have a first glance at our antagonist with the protagonist in the background, you do not ever see the antagonists face which I believe really helps set the contrast between the two characters.
We also use binary opposition when changing the lighting in our opening from light to dark, this adds to the mystery as in the light you can see what is going on for instance you can see the antagonist however when the lighting turns to dark you are unable to see the antagonist clearly and therefore could imply that something else or someone else is in the forest with them.We have used props in our film in the form of teddy bears, this is a good prop to use as it is a stereotypical thing for a little girl to be carrying with her. By doing this it also makes it seem like the girl is younger than she actually is adding to the vulnerability of the individual. The teddies also link into the music which is used throughout the opening, this is a song that everyone knows and it will be able to stick in their heads and make them remember the film. When ever a children's nursery rhyme is used in this manner it adds to the tension of the opening and film in general.
Developed Conventions
A convention that we have developed is isolation, we have got this convention from the film Silence of The Lambs. In the opening scene there is a lady which is running in a forest however we do not find out why until later on in this section. I thought this was a very clever use of this convention as she is isolated and running however we do not know if she is running from someone or something and therefore that entices the audience causing them to purposely being to ask themselves questions.
Using Silence of The Lambs as our second developed and also challenged convention we decided to push the boundaries with the choice of our protagonist. We did this because most films use an adult of male gender so therefore by using a young female we being to challenge this stereotypical convention of age and gender. By using a young female we also are letting the audience realise our protagonist is extremely vulnerable to attack therefore this keeps them curious as to why this man is following her as he is not the stereotypical paedophile. This could make the audience wonder if this male following the girl has some form of disorder or could even potentially be clinically insane. In the end this challenged convention helps us build three major things, tension, mystery and suspense. All of these things are commonly seen in Thriller and Horror films.
Another convention which we developed is the woods, in every shot the woods are in the background or being looked through to finally ending up inside at the very end. We have used the woods because everyone sees it as a stereotypical place for bad things to happen. We also show that the wood we use is very dense and full of trees so visibility is poor so you cannot see something or someone. Also the distance from anyone is extremely long which makes it very lonely and secluded. It makes the audience question why the child is out there and this is something that we should have addressed as nobody really knows if she is allowed to be there. However when she gets into the woods and you see her playing with her teddies it make it clear to the audience what she has gone there to do and through assumption the audience knows that she probably isn't allowed to be out this late and possibly not in the woods either. We can link this in very slightly to the Blair Witch Project this is set in a woods and is meant to be a thriller, these children go into the woods where they are not meant to be to find out if a witch really is in there. Our film in its very basic form is a child that goes into the woods where she is not meant to be to play with her teddy bears. The woods is a very important part of both of these story lines. If ours was set in a park or somewhere like that it would not be a sinister because that is quite an open area where as in a wood there is low visibility and also it is a confide space for anyone to be in adding to the overall atmosphere that we are trying to get across. Challenged Convention
A dominant convention that we have used is the use of diegetic/non-diegetic sound throughout our opening task we do not use any diegetic sound. Normally in an opening music is used to set the scene however we do not use any. It is the well know children's rhyme teddy bears picnic, I think that this is a very good use of music as it automatically sets the scene. By twisting this nursery rhyme the audience establishes that this film is going to be a horror or creepy in some way or another. The song also links in with our storyline as the child is literally going down to the woods. By doing this it means that we are able to hint at what will happen later on and leaves the audience asking themselves questions and building tension. The song also is very memorable which means that people will remember our opening and if we were to create a trailer for this film then it would defiantly contain this song as it is a strong part of the piece.
Question 2
"How does your media product represent particular social groups?"
http://prezi.com/9br8huphv1lm/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
Question 3
"What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?"
Below is a link to my answer to Question 3 of the evaluation. It is on the website WikiSpaces!
https://nfgssilver.wikispaces.com/Into+The+Woods
Question 4
"Who would be the audience for your media product?"
Name: Gemma
Age: 16
Class: Working/Middle Class
Gender: Female
Location: Essex
Bio: The reason I have chosen this person is because the things that we have included in our film could relate to people of this demographic. She does have younger siblings and therefore she will be able to relate to our main character and therefore will be more incised into it because she would be imagining the main character to be her sister. She enjoys going on long walks with her dog and also she plays netball during school and after school. This can also be a good aspect and can relate to our film as the main character in our film is going on a walk to play in the woods. Therefore she could see herself in her position and also in the situation that could later occur. This will automatically build suspense with this individual that you may not get with others. She will spend her money on clothes and sports related things as she is not too worried about makeup because she is an outdoorsy person however she will spend a little on this as she is likely to want to fit in with the people around her. By doing this she is giving into peer pressure something most people who are shy or who are not able to speak out for themselves would be like. As our main character is young and considered weak she may see herself doing what the child would do as she doesn't feel as if she has power in the situation. From this she will be further putting herself in the characters shoes and adding to the intensity of the film. She believes in supernatural occurrences and also criminal justice. Simply by her believing in these things it can draw her into the film more than another individual as where the film is set, in a dark wood, it is a stereotypical place for supernatural things to occur. This would mean she is curious and looking out for things that others may not be because she believes in these types of things and her mind may wander when she sees the main antagonist. As she believes in the justice system she will want the antagonist to get caught therefore as we continue the film we could add in a controversial ending by making it so the antagonist gets away with what he does. This could make the person of this demographic surprised but like the film however it could go the more likely way of her not liking the film and therefore saying to everyone that it isn't a good film and therefore making our limited views drop. The smarter option would be to make it so the antagonist gets caught and therefore making this individual happy as this is the person we are aiming our film towards.
Question 5
"How did you attract/address your audience?"
Please see the comments section of our Thriller opening, Into the Woods for my answer to this question by using the link below:
Question 6
"What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your media product?"
After constructing our thriller opening I have broadened my knowledge of new technologies and now understand to a greater extent on how you can take full advantage of these technologies.
The very first piece of technology that we got introduced to was Blogger, at first it was rather challenging to use as I had never used any kind of blogging website before so this was all new to me. There were something that I found easy to pick up on and be able to do with easy such and starting a new post and editing posts. However there are somethings that made laying out posts challenging. When putting in an image onto a certain post, to then move this image around we found challenging. This was a reoccurring factor when using blogger and made it difficult to get the structure of our posts correct and consistent with previous ones.
Here are some screenshots of blogger, on the left this is the main page which lets you choose the blog you want and on the right is our post reel where you can see all of your posts and edit them.
We also used a range of camera's while filming, these were used to get different angles on shots and also so we could film the time lapse while getting other footage at the same time. In the end we stuck to using just one camera so it kept our footage at a consistent definition apart from when it came to the time lapse where I have mentioned we used a different camera for that shot contrasting with the previously used shots and their definition. I found using these cameras fairly easy once I knew what buttons did what. 
Another piece of equipment that we frequently used was a Mac, this helped us keep our blogger up to date and also keep track of our other social media websites. We were going to use this to edit our final piece but Kieran had a different software that was easier to use and therefore for time efficiency we used this software. I have not used a Mac before so this was a new experience for me, I have learnt a lot from using this however. One thing I did find when working on a mac is the keyboard shortcuts. These were very different to that of a PC, I have begun to get used to the layout of them but it has taken some getting used to also uploading the video clips and then finding them we found tricky as it wasn't as simple as we thought it would be. In the end we used Kieran's laptop to edit together the final piece and you can see the difference when it comes to our final ask and preliminary task.
During research and planning throughout our media production we used Youtube and Twitter. I have used Twitter before so setting this up was not hard, we used it to send of information on our production and how far a long we were. We used our company logo as our profile picture, this keeps everything consistent when we are on different social media formats. This means that when the audience is changing between our social media webpages they will be able to know which one is us easily. We also posted our surveys onto Twitter making it so people can do our survey and so we get honest feedback. It also was a good and free way to advertise everything that was happening in real time with our company and gave us instant access to millions of people world wide.
We used Serif MoviePlus X6 to edit our final piece, this was due to us finding the Mac confusing and it was slowing us down. Therefore we thought it would be a better use of our time to change to something that we knew as we would be able to get it done it half the time and to a very high quality. This was also a wise idea as we had many complications in the lead up to the editing process which meant we were already short of time meaning it would be more efficient to use something less complex. I had used an older version of this software a few years ago as well meaning I had some experience with this program. We did not come across many issues with the software apart from it sometime not being able to handle having many other things running alongside it. It has everything that Final Cut Express has so we were able to edit and play around with things like lighting and filters which was also essential to us as when we were filming it got dark very quick meaning we needed to brighten up certain parts.
We used tripods through out our products of both the preliminary task and main task and if you watch our preliminary task closely we struggled with placing them correct to get the best shot even when we were not using them. Despite this it thought us a valuable lesson when it came to the main task and that is check all equipment is not in the way of the camera. The other struggle we had was we had both had limited experience with tripods in general so it took time figuring out how to mount the cameras on the tripods safely and securely so they did not fall and break. Even though this did take sometime we did figure it out eventually and it made our production much better in my opinion because the camera is steady when it needs to be and also when it isn't steady the audience will know that it is purposeful and not just bad filming. Question 7
"Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?"
When researching, we found a variety of videos with the basic narrative where somebody was making their way to meet another person and a brief discussion was made. However, we found this to be quite boring and we challenged this. We wanted to make our preliminary task full of action with some comedy therefore altering the genre. When completed, we were very proud of our product- not only did we successfully use a variety of shots with unfamiliar filming equipment, we also stood out from the others. This was exactly our aim. The use of a storyboard was incredibly useful as without it, we would have struggled to film anything without setting a location or basic plot. By using an animatic storyboard, we knew what frames would need to be shot, including what actors and roughly how long this would take. From the succession of the storyboard of the preliminary task, we took our experience into the main task and used it successfully create our Thriller opening, Into the Woods.
The first few attempts at filming were either paused by bad weather or due to a change in the plot. However, when it came to filming the new plot, we had already experienced certain problems and we knew how to overcome them. For instance, one problem we had was with the lighting. Previously, we had filmed on two different days and the light and sky were completely different. We made sure that when we filmed for the final product, we did this on one day. Also, we checked that this day had decent weather so there weren’t any issues when filming. We were very strict on time as we knew how long it could take to film just a fraction of the story. In order to optimise the amount of film we got, we used multiple cameras from different angles.
Due to our experiences in the preliminary task, we had used the filming technology to a good extent that we were confident when it came to using it for the main task. The use of the tripod was something that we wanted to improve on as it wasn’t pulled off well in the preliminary task. We had used video editing software previously and we were very optimistic about what we effects we could use on the software. As for the array of camera angles and shots, we felt we had completed this well in the preliminary task and we wanted to continue this in the main task. Overall, looking back at both tasks, I believe I have progressed and extensively learnt about the process of media production, development and marketing
The preliminary task was a very useful task as it helped us to understand the processes of making a media product as well as using equipment which could be used in making a real Thriller film.
The planning of the preliminary task was essential because it helped us to prepare for the planning for the main task. The planning included the animatic storyboard; the selection of actors; the selection of location; the script; and the list of camera angles and shots. It also included research of other similar products.
The first few attempts at filming were either paused by bad weather or due to a change in the plot. However, when it came to filming the new plot, we had already experienced certain problems and we knew how to overcome them. For instance, one problem we had was with the lighting. Previously, we had filmed on two different days and the light and sky were completely different. We made sure that when we filmed for the final product, we did this on one day. Also, we checked that this day had decent weather so there weren’t any issues when filming. We were very strict on time as we knew how long it could take to film just a fraction of the story. In order to optimise the amount of film we got, we used multiple cameras from different angles.
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