1.) In what ways does your media product use/ develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

‘The Chain Mail’ both uses and develops conventions of horror films. At first we decided that we wanted to challenge the modern conventions of gore and stick to the suspense and supernatural elements like in Halloween II. We therefore brainstormed and created the clown character and considered him being a supernatural figure rather than a conventional serial killer. However after looking at the footage that we first filmed we decided that our film fitted the thriller genre more than the horror genre, which is not what we wanted. Our film was lacking the sense of gore that modern audiences associate with horror films.
The conventions of both films that we looked at, Halloween II and Saw VI are different in the opening sequences, with Halloween II creating suspense and a supernatural feel and Saw being a modern horror film with lots of gore.

We decided to use red paint as blood, creating gore within our film. This succeeded us in making the film a more modern horror film. Using this modern convention helped us to create a sense of horror rather than a thriller. We then developed them in post-production editing, mixing the two different conventions from the two films to create a new horror.

Our film uses the conventions of; blood, death, killing and victims as that are what the audience wishes to see. From our questionnaires we decided to include these conventions as that is what the target audience described as their ideal horror film would include.

2.) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social networking and age are denoted within our film. The fact that it is teenage girls that are being attacked shows how vulnerable girls from that specific age group can be and how it is them that are particularly targeted and not teenage boys. Social networking is a modern phenomenon, with over 250 million people using sites like Facebook and Twitter. These social networking sites are thought to have major impacts on people’s lives.

The opening of ‘The Chain Mail’ reveals a teenage girl being attacked by the clown after she has opened a chain mail message on her phone. The girl in the opening scenes receives a BBM, a Blackberry Message, on her Blackberry smart phone. Blackberry’s are very popular now within the teenage society because BBM is available to Blackberry users as a way of messaging friends and family for free. The use of these modern technologies such as the Blackberry and the laptop gives the film a modern touch. The audience are able to relate more to the film as they too have these products.

The message on the laptop was originally filmed on one of our Facebook pages. However we decided that we needed a closer shot of the writing so this part was cut out. The use of social networking in the film represents the modern reliance on social networks of today.

There is a lot of media coverage at the moment about how dangerous social networking sites can be. There have been many stories in the news lately about how some people have posed as young teenagers in order to form relationships with other teenagers and consequently putting those teenagers in danger. Parents and guardians are encouraged to watch over and control their children’s online activity in order to prevent this from happening. There are always risks involved when using social networking sites and there are many trust issues that go alongside this.

Stereotypically it is teenagers who are associated with spending lots of their time on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and My space, as well as using their mobile phones. Social networking sites are branded as dangerous, especially for young teenage girls and this created an ideal narrative for us to use within our film as it is a very real scenario that could happen to anyone watching our film. This links with the conventions of teenage girls suffering in horror films and most main characters in horror films and teenagers.

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

Twisted Pictures is a production company which mainly creates films of the Horror genre and it gained wide attention through the production of the Saw series. The Saw films were very sucessful within the Horror genre. Twisted Pictures have also created films such as The Tortured, Vlog and Dead Silence. We used the Twisted Pictures opening within our own horror film.

Lionsgate would be an ideal distribution company to distribute a media product like ours. This is because they have released horror films like the one that we have produced with the same representations, forms and conventions that we have included in 'The Chain Mail'.

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

The audience of horror films are interested mostly due to the thrills and the adrenaline rush from being fearful and seeing gore. The age demographic for horror films is usually teenagers and young adults, which is what we decided our target audience for 'The Chain Mail' would be.

Mostly horror films are reviewed negatively with adults, yet sell well with teenagers as they find the terror and killings appealing. Because of this, most horror films are targeted directly towards the teen demographic rather than an older audience, which is another reason why we decided that teenagers would be our target audience.

Horror films such as Final Destination and Saw are popular amongst teenagers because they appeal to teenagers. Though they may be targeted towards an adolescent crowd, older generations still enjoy the horror genre.

Linking back to my questionaires, it was revealed that male gender teenagers watch horror films much more than female gender teenagers do. I believe that our film is targeted at both gender audiences as either gender could find themselves in the situation that the girls in 'The Chain Mail' are in.

5.) How did you attract/ address your audience?

During our research and planning we asked 8 people to fill out a questionaire in order to discover what their ideal horror film would be. By doing this we were able to make sure that we met the need of our target audience.

Here are some of the results from our questionaire:

Name: Alison Wright

Age: 16
What’s your favourite genre of film?
Romantic Comedy
How often do you watch them?
Not often
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes – the unknown
Something that plays on your mind after you’ve watched them
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
A Clown
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
Quick shots to make it confusing so that it makes you watch the rest of the film to find out







Name: Chloe Morgan

Age: 16
What’s your favourite genre of film?
Romantic comedy
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes – That I don’t want to watch it but I want to see what happens
How often do you watch them?
Once every 2 months
What do you look for in a horror film?
Something out of the ordinary
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
Mental patient
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
In a hospital

Name: Frankie Duck
Age: 17
What is your favourite genre of film?
Comedy
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes, making me jump and on edge - wondering what will happen next.
How often do you watch them?
Once a month.
What do you look for in a horror film?
A good story and narrative.
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The villain.
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
Meeting the villain and why they are crazy.

Name: Frank James
Age: 17
What is your favourite genre of film?
Comedy
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes, the thrill of being scared.
How often do you watch them?
Every month or so.
What do you look for in a horror film?
Death
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The villain or killer
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
Build up to the killing




Name: Michael Jarvis
Age: 17
What is your favourite genre of film?
Adventure
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes - the thrill of being scared
How often do you watch them?
Once every few months
What do you look for in a horror film?
Unusual murder methods
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The one who survives
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
A scare so bad I don't want to watch the rest.



From our results we found that most people wanted to meet the villain in the opening sequences to a horror film and that they wanted to be scarred. They also wanted a good narrative in order to keep them in suspense.

In order to attract our target audience we had to keep to the generic conventions of a horror film.

These are the reactions of what my target audience thought about the opening to our horror film 'The Chain Mail':


Thea Quain

Ned Harvey

Melisa Harvey

Chloe Morgan

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

I had never filmed before starting this media course or used a Mac computer. I feel that I have learned a lot since the first time filming when carrying out the preliminary task. The first time I used a camera I learnt how to construct long shots, mid shots and close up’s. I learn the importance of the 180 degree rule and how to make someone appear larger or smaller by where you place the camera.

I also learnt how to use final cut on the Macs and improved my understanding of editing vastly. I quickly understood how to cut shots by using I and O and how to add slugs for the titles. I discovered that the size and style of teh font is very important in order to fit together with the narrative. We used AppleGothic as it suited our genre best.

I learnt how to add music over the top of the film footage and was very surprised at how much difference music made to our film.I focused on using the pen to gently alter sound levels in order to balance the sound. It was interesting to experiment with making the sound louder and softer in order to enhance the diagetic and non-diagetic sound within the film. At the end we decided not to include dialogue within our film and to include only music in order to add to the suspense.

Over all I feel that I have progressed largely from the beginning of this course to now. I have thoroughly enjoyed gaining knowledge about the different programmes on the Mac and how to use them.

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

I think that I have progressed from my preliminary task to the coursework successfully. I mainly feel that I have improved on framing, continuity and the editing part of the process.

When I produced my preliminary task I had never used a camera before and had never used final cut. I was unfortunately working on my own and found it difficult as everything was new to me. However I learnt well eventhough time management was a bit of an issue as I had to do everything myself.

The coursework needed much more time and planning going into it than the preliminary task had previously needed and I was glad that I had a partner this time. By putting our ideas together and working well I feel that we came out with a much better product than if I was working independently. Research into genre and audience was needed before we could do any storyboarding and before and filming could be done. Therefore we needed to focus on our work and have a time limit for each area. In total we had 9 weeks to complete the pre production, production and editing.

I am pleased with the different shots that we included within our film, the shots that i used in my preliminary task were quite basic and sometimes out of frame. Between the preliminary task and the coursework we had experimented and learnt new camera angles and shots that we could inlcude within our film.

Finally I belive that I have aquired the skills i needed from my preliminary task and improved them in order to come out with a good final product.