Media AS: 2011

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel like I have improved drastically from the preliminary task a lot. I feel that I am much happier and comfortable with cameras and know what camera shot’s and movements to use to make it beneficial for the sequence. Also using many different effects on the Windows Movie Maker. I have also learnt that being in a big group and relying on others doesn't always have such a good outcome seeing as two members of our group dropped out.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing this product for example; we used many different techniques on our editing section for example cutting, fading in for transitions, speeding parts up to make it go quicker therefore making it look more scary. I feel like I have become very familiar with Windows Movie Maker and feel comfortable using it now. I am also extremely comfortable using a digital film camera and using different parts of it for example; putting it on night mode and also using the zoom to create better effects, also the focus to get a better effect. I also feel like I have gotten a lot better using many software for example emails, photoshop, internet, phones etc.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by created a very exciting hook at the first part of our opening sequence, for example we had a voice over and some quite fast pace, action filled first 2 minutes. I also made sure I didn't use any crazy special effects because I know that my audience don't like it. I also had to make sure I kept referring back to my questionnaire in which I found out my target audience. I had to make sure the characters I chose in my opening sequence were relatable so that my female audience of ages 16-18 could relate to the protagonist and feel like they could be in this situation. I also know that my audience like when the opening sequence challenges them with a linear narrative and a cliff hanger ending. In this sense I feel like I addressed and attracted the audience very well because I followed this very well.

Who would be the audience for your opening sequence?

By creating a questionnaire and looking back at it I know that my target audience are mainly females aged 16-18. I also know that my audience is people that go to the cinema often and have horror as their favourite genre. Also I found out that my audience will be watching the short film for the story line, not the special effects. Therefore I need to make my short film with straight cuts and not too many special effects so the audience feel like it hasn't met there wants and needs.

What kind of media institution might distribute your opening sequence and why?

Our opening sequence would be distributed to media institutions such as Youtube because we were largely influenced by the short film "iNSIDE" which was also from Youtube. Although we also feel that it could be distrubted to media institutions such as Working Title because it has a better selection of films and are more likely to pick smaller productions, for example ones with less of a budget and less investment like our opening sequence. Also Polygram Entertainment because it's a british film company, although it eventually sold and merged with Universal Pictures in 1999.

How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

Our opening sequence represented a middle class, nicely dressed, white female. We showed this off by putting her in very nice clothes, very high heels, plain jeans, a long black coat, and a bag. She looked very professional with no flesh showing. We did this because of the research we found.

We also put our protagnoist in a nice house which is rather large, we wanted to do that to back up our representation of middle class social groups.

In what ways does your opening sequence use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real opening sequences?

Our short film is of a horror genre, We tried to follow these forms and conventions of a typical horror by making it seem quite dark and jumpy, for example we put parts of the opening sequence in night mode so it was of a monochrome mode and it seemed a lot more darker, which also highlighted the lighter parts of the face of the main protagonist.

We also used very quick pace shots and flashbacks, we used editing software to speed up some of the shots to make it seem more scary because everything comes at once.
Although we challenged forms and conventions by dressing the protagonist in quite a upper class manner, we put her in heels a black coat with a big black bag, looking very business like. The research that we did showed us that usually the protagonist is dressed quite plainly.