Final product

Question 7

Question 6

From constructing my final opening sequence I have learnt many different things from all stages these being: research, planning and construction. Therefore by including all these new technologies I was able to produce a successful media product.

In our first media lesson our teacher introduced us to our media coursework handbook which helped us understand what is ahead and the different forms and conventions to create a successful final product and a creative blog. 

I had little experience in the AS Media studies course so most of the technology i hadn't used before. These skills in the different technologies I developed over the year, such  a website blog to present the way i came up with ideas for my final product, a video camera and also websites like padlet and popplet. 

The first new technology site I used was blogger.com 

I now have an account which i can access wherever i am through different devices such as phone, iPad, computer etc. 

I posted frequently about the different idea i had come up with and the research i had gone through to create my final product. Through using blogger i learnt how to write in a different style, embed documents ( compose and html) and imputing images.

The next step i carried out was completing my preliminary task this is where i carried out both film and print tasks which influenced me to come to the decision to make a film opening. It was the first time i had used a video camera which was a Cannon HFG25  which was used for both the preliminary task and final production. I was not great at using the camera at first as i did not have the knowledge or skills. However after some practice and the time by the time i got to my main production i was able to carry out a smooth running film opening. 

When planning the for the final product I used storyboards, screenplay and treatments. In order to write a screenplay for 'Run' i used a new technology that i was introduced to called celtx. This software allowed me to write different stage directions effectively and made it look professional for when i uploaded it for my blog.  

Question 5

Question 4

Please click on the image to see its full version 

Question 3

I have used Padlet to create a creative visual answer to my question 3 

Question 2

Here is my response to Question 2 in the form of a blog post essay containing pictures and screenshots. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

A social group can be defined has been defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics and collectively have a sense of unity. This can be through gender, ethnicity, age and class. 

The characters within the film range from the age of 16-40. I have done this deliberately to show the different social groups that are affect through the horrific events that are carried out. The audience are meant to question why the young adults are being killed and what made them deserve this. Every character has a little back-story to them but this is discovered gradually throughout the film, so by the opening have no dialogue it creates a mystery and makes it more intense for the audience. 

The two characters in my horror film opening is 'Amy' the teenager and the serial killer. I am creating the representation of females being the victim which reinforces the conventions of a horror film as the female is usually the victim and she is also blonde, blue-eyed adding to her vulnerability. I  carry this out through the certain camera, editing, sound, miss-en-scene and music techniques. As the opening reinforces the conventions of a horror genre with the female being the victim it matches Carol Clovers theory about how female murders are usually the ones in horror films. Other  existing media products that reinforce this are ; scream, Halloween and Friday 13th all have a female killed in the opening scene. 

The mise-en-scene in the opening of my film adds to the representation of Amy is different ways. Firstly the clothing Amy wears matches a typical ordinary teenager with her leggings, plain top, trainers. 

My setting of a forest is not somewhere which anyone would normally feel safe in after seeing all the signs and police tape, as a forest seems like an isolated area. , therefore I am representing my main character as someone who doesn’t feel safe in a this location which adds to the vulnerability of the character. This is shown through the camera low angle shot of Amy dropping the warning sign and then a close up of this. You then see her running off in the distance through a medium shot. 
Below are screenshots from my film production of the low angle shot and medium shot. These screenshots are taken from Adobe premier pro where i edited my film production on. 

I chose 'Amy' (Maddie) to represent this age as I felt it would be similar to my target audience. As my target audience ranges from 15-30 and British/Americans and my primary audience are males, I felt she is a character which my target audiences can relate to in some way. 

Gender 

Amy is a teenage female, which would relate to the horror conventions as normally its a female that get kills in the opening and my target audience will be familiar with this. In research on which gender is more likely to watch horror movies, males were found to prefer watching horror films compared to females. This could be seen as the stereotypical view of genre target audience as females are stereotypically more likely to be scared than males. Stereotypes of males are usually tough and strong where as females are seen to be weak and emotional, which relates back to the opening of my production as Amy's vulnerability is expressed. 

Class 

Class is not really represented in Amy or in horror in general as the genre does not appeal to one class. Amy is dressed in leggings and top and does have a large house , wit expensive cars which would suggest she is middle/upper class, as it is what those classes are typically associated with.