Evaluation Question One

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


During the research for our film production we spent a lot of time looking at conventions of both the Horror genre, and also film openings in general. We did this to ensure that our own work looked a) like a film our target audinece would want to see, and b) as professional as possible.

• The conventions of a film opening include; the production company (logo), the titles - the film's name, actors, directors, producers, the music in the start of the scene to set the mood of the film (this all depends on the genre/type of film) and different shots eg; establishing shots, close ups and long shots.
• The conventions of my genre - horror
  gore, blood, killers, murders, victims, scary music for tension, close ups, long shots, hand held camera chases/shots, diagetic sounds such as footsteps, screaming, trees rustling and low key lighting.
  
  Here are some examples of opening horror scenes
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• I believe I have challenged, developed and used conventions of the genre in my two minute film opening.
• I used conventions such as;
  - a weapon which (was a hammer). Most horror films have a killer with a weapon, for example -  the weapon in this particular horror is a chainsaw:
  
  - a victim in distress or a kidnapped victim, for example - in Psycho Marian in the classic shower scene is unaware of what will happen to her, but then soon realises and is in distress.
  
  - a killer (dark, tall, scary) for example - ghost face from the Scream movies is quite scary since he conceals his identity with a mask, but is still a violent killer
   
  - dark places where bodies/kidnapped victims are kept for example in the texas chainsaw massacre : the beginning the kidnapped or deceased are kept in the kitchen or basement
   
• I developed conventions such as;
  - the titles used were not in the order of the usual conventions that we expect to see because usually directors/producers/camera men are shown in the first titles usually actors are shown first.
  - the male killer is not wearing the stereotypical clothes of a killer, he is wearing everyday clothes but they are dark
• I challenged certain conventions such as;
   - The time we set our filming at was dusk rather than night. For example this scene in a horror is dark
   
   - The scene was set on a busy road which is not usual of a stereotypical horror unlike most horrors where the killers are out of the way of people. Unlike The Human Centipede 2 which challenged this convention to because he kidnapped people in a busy setting and kept them all close to a busy road.
  
• I feel we have used and challenged the conventions of a horror film and this helped to make our production a lot better  than it could have potentially been if we did not research into different conventions.We used these conventions to give the audience an idea of what was going to happen because if they have watched other horrors its obvious so the audience knows what to expect. Challenging and developing conventions may give the audience a chance to be scared because they may not expect what is going to happen. 

Evaluation Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My character is an average teenager with a younger sister, the audience may connect to my character because they feel sorry for the child. This already creates a bond with the audience because they are emotionally attached to a character because they may have children or may be teenagers themselves.
Talk about your characters in relation to:
Because of the age of the child my stereotype is met because most people would think she in vulnerable and scared once her sister is taken away.
The female gender in this particular video is less dominant and meets the female stereotype because I am scared, vulnerable, i cannot defend myself and i'm in the kitchen making food. I'm also wearing makeup even in the house because i want to make myself look nicer, my clothes are quite casual but ive obviously tried to make an effort, my actions show i am scared and unable to help my sister or myself so i am weaker. The male gender's stereotype is met because he is more dominant and controlling of the female character, and also brings fear to the audience in this sense because he is stronger than the female gender. His actions show he is more dominant because of the heavy hit when he hits the female with a hammer, strength when he drags her away, and keeps her from trying to escape from the cellar once she is in there because she is scared of him.
The house is quite large so this makes the audience assume the female character is wealthy which goes against a female stereotype because men generally make more money. She is obviously comfortable in her home which also may show dominance because this is her home, no one elses, i own this house. Whereas the male is walking the streets, looks quite dark and scary so this again may go with the male stereotype of dominance. because he had his hands in his pockets so he may feel quite dominant but also wants to keep his head down because of the act he commits in a later scene.

Evaluation Question Three

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

A film distributor is a company that gets films into the cinemas, DVDs/BluRays and onto other sites such as iTunes. The film distributor makes sure that there are enough film copies for the potential audience of the film, this also includes sending DVDs, BluRays etc. around the world. 20th Century Fox for example is major film studio that has its own distribution  subsidiaries.






Our film is a small studio film and is also on a low budget so it would be distributed by a smaller film distributor, this film would be promoted by smaller local cinemas and by local film festivals. I think that Dogwoof would be a good film distributor because even though they're a small film distribution company they are quite successful at film distribution,



I believe that our film could potentially become quite successful, it would start off at film festivals and in small local cinemas, come out on DVD and then perhaps may become recognised by larger film distributors. Sometimes a lot of money is spent on a film and it is not always potentially good.

In 1999 a film called "The Blair Witch Project" was made with $60,000 and created a gross profit of $249,000,000. This a perfect example of a low budget film that has become successful because of a film festival named The Sun dance festival. The film became much more successful because they decided to say it was based on real events and this added a unique selling point (a lot of other films such as paranormal activity have used this idea), so this allows people who like to be scared a potential experience while watching this film.



Our production would start off at an independent cinema to attract smaller audiences, this would hopefully sooner attract more people and hopefully "Something In The Way" would make it to larger cinemas such as Odeon and Vue.





Our film has a target audience of men and women aged from 18 to 35. I think that our film should be advertised on Facebook and Twitter because a lot of people use these social networking sites so this may attract a larger audience. Trailers could also appear on YouTube because of how many people use the site in a day so this could also target a larger potential audience. There are many horror film trailers on YouTube, such as;










Our film could potentially have a global audience because it has a professional feel to it because it has been checked over and over for mistakes. People can spread the word via mouth and make the film much more well known and would also convince people to want to see it.

Evaluation Question Four

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our film is aimed at both genders (female and male) - females under the age of 35 and males over the age of 18. I have chosen this because I based the ages on the research from the UK Film Council Website.
The main target audience for this film was lower middle classes because they enjoy horror alot more than any other class. (23% of upper class enjoy horror compared to 43% of lower middle class who enjoy horror more). Marketing is easier to spread because of this via social networking sites and word of mouth.
I cannot really relate to this audience because they are not my age so i created some questionaires to answer our questions. 

Our film was rated an 18 because of the graphic horror, violence, language, gore etc. This is so we can advise the public to watch it once you're this age so a younger audience doesn't watch it. The film will bring extra interest because of its rating so more people will want to watch it because it will potentially be scarier.


Our film would be released in a smaller cinema from a small scale distribution company because it can target to a smaller audience, and if it becomes succesful it can move onto a bigger screen and be distributed by a main stream distributor.