In what ways does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

Conventional Themes

I utilised some of the conventional films of horror film and played upon them a different way to many other films.

0 Death- The way death is represented is different as it is more of a convention to see the death whereas in my film you simply hear a scream.

0 Fear- fear is played upon in my film through the use of relief of tension, the build up of tension and anti-climaxes such as when she bumps into her friend.

0Reality- The reality of the film happening to anyone adds another layer of fear to my film.

0 My location plays upon the idea of being isolated in a public place, which is not a generic convention but links to the theme of isolation.

0 I use the convention of dark lighting in order to allude to my genre which was generally rather unavoidable.

0 I used non-diegetic sounds as well as layering diegetic sounds in order to identify with classic films such as The Exorcist.

0 My use of close-ups was appropriate as it allowed for the sense of paranoia to be communicated to the audience and allow them to associate with other existing films such as Psycho (1960).

0 (See Genre Conventions Prezi)

http://prezi.com/sxdelj5n_2tj/horror-thriller-genre-conventions/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

How effective is the combination

of your main product and

ancillary texts?

I believe my poster is a very effective communicator of the nature of my film whilst

holding onto the conventions of my genre. The main image of the figure dressed in a hoodie is a definite reference to my killer

whilst adding an air of mystery to the revelation of who it actually is. The colour

scheme also links to this idea of mystery and the unknown as well as relating to the horror

genre through the red, white and black theme alongside the distorted colours in the

rain.

I chose to produce my film review in the style of a review that would be published online in order to keep up with the expectations of my young target audience. I believe my review to

very fitting especially with the type of language used as I left this open and gave

nothing away in order to not spoil the film for my expected audience. I also included the colour motif of an already established review

site with a good reputation in order to ensure that the rating given had validity.

What have you learned from

your audience feedback?

I carried out audience feedback throughout the entirety of the course in order to make my audience have an active

rather than passive involvement in the film’s development.

My preliminary audience researched identified that my idea for my film was appropriate for it’s target audience and

gained interest about the film. I returned to my audience when any plot changes were

going to occur in order to make my audience decide what was best for the film before I continued with it.

I then carried out target audience feedback by asking participants to watch my film and comment on the quality and what they thought about both the film and the poster.

I found that my audience were very impressed with my film even participants

that would not usually be part of my target audience were impressed with my plot twist.

My sound and post-production editing was commented on however with mixed

opinions. It was suggested that perhaps more attention would be necessary for me to

perfect my short film. I fear that perhaps I did not have the technology nor the skills to

master post-production.

How did you use media technologies in

the construction and research, planning

and evaluation stages?

PreziI used Prezi in order to present my qualitative data on the genre conventions of horror films.

This was effective as I could easily refer back to them and reference where the conventions had come from. It provided me with a platform to use for inspiration.

Prezi also provided itself as a colourful and memorisable platform in the display of data and lead us through a journey of the conventions, adding another layer to my advanced portfolio.

YoutubeI used youtube throughout my production in order to create a youtube channel and use it to post not only my final production pieces but also developments throughout and my audience feedback.

Youtube is a very useful platform as the views it receives from all over the world is outstanding and could be a very helpful tool in filmmaking.

SoundCloudI used SoundCloud in order to present the different sounds that I wanted add and layer up in my film. This gave me audience the opportunity to sample the soundtrack for my film suringpre-production stages and many a time, I used soundcloud links to suggest my audience to view some of the sounds I was considering adding.

Audacity

Audacity was very useful in the production of a short film as it allowed me to alter my sounds, add effects and cut these to appropriate length for my scenes. My skills in audacity have developed considerably since the start of the course as I am now able to add in different effects, changing pitch and tone as well as simply just the volume.

Smart Photo Editor

Smart photo editor is a very effective program for editing as it allows you to do it all. All of my photo editing, cutting and text manipulation was carried out on smart photo editor. My skills on this program have drastically developed also due to me being more able to apply my skills and creativity to all of my print products.

FacebookI felt Facebook was appropriate for carrying out my target audience research as for a modern audience, facebook is a very visited site that is popular and effective at gathering honest opinions. It can be less formal to answer questions about the film online than in person. In this sense I believe that facebook was effective however in reflection, I may have carried out my own survey.

TumblrIn both my foundation and advanced portfolio, I utilised the blogging platform Tumblr. My skills from the foundation portfolio had drastically improved with this site as I have now included links to break down the texts post into categories and put these into chronological order to make my blog more readable.