1. In what way does your media use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of our opening sequence is sci-fi/thriller, and we have kept to the typical conventions of this genre by using low key lighting and a creepy setting for the wooded scenes. The films we used as inspiration for our opening sequence were the film I Am Legend starring Will Smith, and World War Z starring Brad Pitt. our opening sequence is similar to these films because they are all of the same genre, also they all have the main theme of a 'zombie apocalypse'.

 

We have used editing to meet the forms and convention of real media products similar to ours by adding a layer of black over parts of our piece to create a lower lighting, and therefore made our piece more scary. We also increase the cutting speed during moments of action, for example at the end of our piece the clip changed very quickly as the zombies walked towards the camera which further increases the tension of the scene.

 

We used camerawork to make our piece suit our genre by using close up shots of action such as when the experiment zombie wakes up, a close up it used to show their paleness and their dead look. We also used close ups on gore such as the bite marks; during the wooded scene when there is an interrupted signal of someone being bitten, there is blood and teeth marks shown in their arm.
 

We have used sound in different ways to create our thrilling piece, for example during the lab scenes we have used quite calm music that still has an eerie touch to begin building the tension in our piece just as our inspiration films had used at different points. We have also used the sound of TV static during different points in our sequence because that sound is often used in horror games to signify something bad happening, and we have also included screams at different intervals which stick to the thriller genre.

 

We used costume to create a realistic setting for our opening sequence such as the scientist is seen wearing a lab coat and glasses, and the experiment zombie is seen wearing minimal clothes, as would a human experiment in many other films, however nudity is sometimes used in moments like this, however we thought that this wouldn't appeal to our audience. We used props like Bunsen burners and beakers during the lab scenes to make the setting look more natural and like an actual lab.

2. How does your media product present particular social groups?

Our opening sequence only includes one line of dialogue so it was hard to create representations of certain social groups. However we managed to convey the type of people who lived around this government lab, and that it is quite out of the way as there is a large wooded setting where a jogger is seen, and if our film was set in the city, no wooded area would be seen. We have managed to convey to the audience what age group was attacked by using costume; the zombies seen in the woods are wearing stereotypical clothing of teenagers: superhero t-shirt, hoodie, jeans. This gives our audience a rough idea of what the different characters may be like during the rest of the film. We also used actors the same age as our primary audience (16-17years) which allowed us to portray the characters very accurately.

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

The production company that we chose to include at the beginning of our opening sequence was Warner Bro's because this is the same production company that produced a film similar to ours that was also part of our inspiration (I Am Legend). We also created our own production company that we though would suit the theme of our product, which we chose to call Dark Wood. This is because half of our filming took place in the woods and it gave our piece a more eerie effect.

Other films in this genre include I Am Legend and World War Z. It is films similar to this genre in which a trailer for our film would be shown as this would entice fans of thriller and science fiction to come see a new film. A trailer would also be shown before films rated certificate 12, 15 and 18 because our film would be certificate 15, and parent taking their children to 12 films may find interest in our film, as would people viewing 18 films.

 

The premiere date would be sometime in the autumn because this is a good season for scary films to be shown due to the building excitement of Halloween. We believe that this would gain our film the largest gross profit at this point in the year. After this film has been exhibitioned in cinemas it would be shown on the 'Sky Horror' and 'Sky Sci-fi' channels, enabling fans of these genres to see our film even if they didn't see it in cinemas.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The primary audience for our media product are young adults (15-25years) which is a mass audience; this means that the certificate for our film would be 15, we have decided on this as our main target because the genre of our opening sequence is thriller which means that there will be some scary scenes, and this film would also contain gore and violence as they are usually subject to zombie-apocalypse films. This film is aimed at both genders and all social groups. The different social classes that it is aimed at are lower middle class, skilled working class, working class, and casual/ lowest grade workers. This means that it is aimed at nearly all employment (with the exclusion of workers in the upper middle class and middle class). Our media product is aimed at people of all ethnicities who are English speaking as otherwise they wouldn't understand what is being said in the film.


Our secondary audience for our media product is adults or parents (26+years) because viewers who have just turned 15 may not want to see this film alone, or simply because this film isn't just aimed at you adults because we have included aspects that may appeal to people slightly older than the primary target.

The production company that we have chosen for our media product is Warner Bros because this is a big Hollywood Company that would provide us with a large budget for producing, distributing and advertising our film. We predict that this company would attract many viewers as it is famous for producing very successful films such as the Harry Potter film series.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Our primary target audience is young adults (15-25years). To address our audience we have used costume alike the clothing that this group usually wears like jeans and hoodies, we also used gory special effects to attract the thrill seeking audience. To further address this audience we have used popular music like a cover of the song Radioactive which will appeal to this mass audience. Throughout the film we would use images of gore and violence  which would help us stick to the thriller genre, and the low key lighting creates a darker, scarier film that would appeal to the thrill seeking audience. This film also appeals to fans of science fiction because this includes the zombie-apocalypse genre, which is what our film is primarily based around.

To advertise our film we would address our audience mainly through social media as this will expose our film to our primary audience as they are stereotypically 'always online'. We would use websites like Imdb, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr as these are the most popular for advertising films. We would ask the stars of the film to post 'behind the scenes' pictures and posters of the film to spread the film to a wider audience. We would also display these posters in cinemas and multiplexes so that all film goers are exposed to the film.

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

To plan for our opening sequence we had to first research other opening sequences to see how they are structured and how much of the story they tell, and to help us to decide on a genre and a story outline. Once we had decided this we then had to research other films of this genre, the ones we researched were I Am Legend and World War Z. We then created a storyboard of our opening sequence so we knew what shots we would have to film and so we could get an initial idea of any special effects and music. We then had to decide and analyse who our target audience would be and what we could do to make our opening sequence appeal to this primary audience. Once we had everything else planned we then created a production schedule which we would use to tell us when we will be filming, editing and when our deadlines are. We also created these blogs to keep track of all our work and so we can refer back to it to make sure our opening sequence is successful.

 

We then had to begin filming our media product. We used a camera and a tripod to make sure that our camera was steady in most shots. Many times we had to go and film extra clips during our editing process as we needed to increase the shot pace and add more tension to the beginning of our story. For example the extra shots layered over the top of the wooded section were extra clips that we filmed to enhance our piece and make it more scary for our thrill seeking audience.

 

To begin editing our piece we first imported our clips to a programme called Premiere. This software enabled us to edit our piece in many different ways and allowed us to add effects and different audio. It also gave us the tools to increase our editing skills to create a successful product. During our editing process we kept a diary of what we did on both our production schedule and on different posts on this blog. This allowed us to keep track of what we have completed and how much we had to do before our first and final cuts. Editing the audio took us the most time because we had to create sound bridges on certain clips as they needed to be cropped and therefore the sound would also be cut, but we were able to pull the sound across to the previous or next clip to make sure our sequence ran smoothly.

 

When exporting our piece, at first we struggled because we hadn't taken media at GCSE so we were inexperienced in using the Premiere software. However we managed to learn how to export our product properly. We then had to export our final cut again but this time along with our exam information. 

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

Since our preliminary task me and my partner have greatly increased our skills with filming. We are able to use a tripod to create more angles and types of shots, we have also gained more skills with match-on-action shots so we were able to increase the shot frequency without it noticing as much because we have god continuity editing. Our editing skills have also greatly increased because we had badly edited music in our preliminary task as we didn't spend very long trying to find the right sound to go with our piece, whereas in our opening sequence we took our time finding music that will not only match our piece, but also appeal to our audience.

 

We have been more ambitious with our filming locations as in the preliminary task we used a hallway and a classroom, whereas in our opening sequence we filmed in a lab using different props and equipment to enhance the setting, and we also filmed in the woods, away from our original setting which shows how we spent time trying to find the environment that would give us the eerie effect that we was aiming for with the wooded scene.

 

For our preliminary task we had no maximum time limit so we could have made it as long as we wanted to and for our opening sequence we had a maximum time limit of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. This limited us to what amount of shots we could include and how much of the story we can introduce without giving it all away in the first few minutes. Considering that neither me or my partner took media for GCSE, we have quickly learnt the skills required for this A-level in order for us to produce a successful piece.