AS MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION BY HIBA KAUSAR

1. How does your product use or challenge convention and how does it represent social groups or issues

Firstly I would like to start off by identifying my movie 's genre, my movie's opening sequence Showcases that it is affiliated with the thriller/mystery/horror side of genres. In my piece I have definitely used conventions such as usually in mystery movies they build up the suspense slowly and subtly to increase the tension factor, how I've implemented this is by showing shots (see below) that signify or establish someones perception of the character from corners and hidden spots (as shes getting ready) while the rest of the start of the scene carries on in its unnerved tone of girly and happy and lighthearted. Another convention that these shots simultaneously show is that of letting the audience in on whats going on or what's about to happen before the character discovers his/herself.

……The reason behind this is that it is used in movies to hint to the audience that things are about to take a turn for the worst. Such an example can be seen in the horror movie "The house at the end of the street".

Another convention that I have followed in my movie opening sequence is that of starting with a rather happy laid back and 'good life' tone for lack of a better word using colorful shots……..

I have also followed a few conventional shots inspired from the tv series eye candy on mtv that revolves around a similar idea of a girl being stalked through use of hidden and surveillance cameras by an unknown mysterious person. Below is a side to side comparison of the shots.

The character shown is a happy independent popular girl with a bit of an edgy style in clothing (matched to the character on the right in terms of appearance). I've shown her to be very typical of teenage girl caught up in petty things like popularity and who possesses not the highest level of IQ.

2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text

My product would probably have a rating of 14+ due to the fact that it contains subtle horror rather than the very paranormal, graphic type. Also I feel the storyline is comprehensive enough for the young audience.

My target audience however would be young teenagers mostly females though due to the fact that the storyline revolves around a female character and thus it is more relatable to them.

With this movie I hope to attract my audience using a combination of things such as high level of realism as the plot will be very carefully thought out and wont have any plot holes thus implying the ideology that it could happen to them (which really emphasizes the thrill factor)

With the use of innovative shots that keep the audience thinking and are quite captivating as to make the audience feel like a part of the movie

The right tweaks of suspense and subtly here and there (in the script) to keep the audience guessing and finding themselves discovering things that they did not see coming which accentuates the shock factor.

I think paramount pictures would be most appropriate for the distribution of my movie because it has produced a wide range of movies from transformers to cinderella to horror movie 'Paranormal activity' therefore it gives me reason to believe that they just might consider my movie. Another reason why I think its most suitable is because I feel that my movie could be widely appreciated however firstly it needs proper exposure and being a huge conglomerate, paramount would provide just that.

However in the event that my movie is turned down by Paramount I would be most likely to distribute it over the internet via youtube and other social networks I believe this would also be an effective way to market the movie as the target audience is the teenage population who are all about spreading information via social networks that they are so keen of.

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project

My production skills have developed quite extensively. After taking media studies. I am more aware of the techniques used in making videos and I am also more aware of the common problems that usually come along in the process of production. Not only this but the process of taking inspiration from movies has improved a lot, since now I watch movies from a critical point of view and that helps while making my own videos as I have more knowledge of common shots with derivative meaning for eg low angle of someone establishes that they have some kind of power or are feared , I also know how to make my shots more innovative taking inspiration from the script, the set etc. I have also learnt a lot of technical work involving editing software and with my current skills I am able to achieve a satisfactory outcome of my ideas.

4. How did you integrate technologies (hardware, software and online) in this project

For this project I integrated lots of technologies together to form my video into what I had imagined. Firstly the sounds effects had to be very carefully administered in my project since it has kind of a three layered audio; background music, narration and diegetic sound. While this project I discovered the wide range of audio music easily accessible for download on websites and I made use of that choosing different music at different points to elaborate upon the feel of the scene. Besides this I also learnt a lot in terms of editing, I used transitions and fade outs and fade ins to ensure the smooth flow of my video both in terms of cuts and music. I chose windows movie maker as my editing software specially because it is very user friendly and the ample amount of tutorials on the web also make it more convenient to use.

4. Continued….

Instead of using a microphone to record the narration I instead opted for the more convenient choice which was to record from my iPhone and load that recording onto that video.

To film, I basically used my standard dslr camera which had average quality and so I chose to shoot in the daylight in order to improve the quality of the video and make it more pleasing to view but there were cases where light was needed and my phones flashlight came in handy as long as it was at an angle that didn’t make the light look fake on the character's face.