1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Costume: When we thought about the different types of costume and props, we looked at different films that have had similar character types, with out antagonist we wanted to use a figure which would be easily recognisable at the “bad” guy. So we looked at other films such as SCREAM and Inside Man which was incidentally one of my own case studies. With both of these the figure was simply dressed in dark clothing which hid their face and would make them unrecognisable under normal circumstances. So we also chose to utilise this and decided to have plain dark trousers, hooded leather jacket, sunglasses and neck mas which covered from the nose downwards. We felt this added an air of mystery. It's similar to the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho which shows only the shadow of the killer. (Clip from Psycho).
With our Protagonist Alex's costume we wanted something completely normal that would simply blend in. We wanted nothing that would single him out as a possible target for our killer.
Location: For our location we wanted to use an urban are with a telephone box, this is because our whole film is based around the idea of the telephone box and how communication can offer anonymity. With most films the location is set in a normal are. We also mainly chose our location as it offered the most simplicity in travel for us. But also an urban area has been a proven way of showing that an attack like this can happen anywhere it doesn't always have to be somewhere important like an office building where all the worlds leaders are gathered. It also offers a sense of surprise as no-one would expect it to happen in such a setting. This is similar to The Strangers where a couple is attacked by some strangers in a country house setting.
Soundtrack: Our soundtrack is simplistic. Along with a few basic sound effects (Wind, door creaking) we only have two prominently featured music tracks. The first we hear is the sound which is shown as coming from Alex's headphones (Clip of Alex walking with music). This can show how oblivious he is to the situation which is around him in that he is being followed. This also shows how sound can envelop us and make us unaware of our surroundings. For instance, Psycho, the shower scene the woman is oblivious to the danger which is so close to her mainly because of the sound which drowned out the man's footsteps. The second music track is a dark and suspenseful. Obviously this helps build the tension and makes you very aware that something is about to happen that will change the story dramatically. In this case Alex's potential death.
Camera Angles: Our camera angles were mostly simplistic. Most of our shots were done with the stand, this was mainly to look more professional. With most of ours shots we included a part in which Alex walks away from a certain scene and then the antagonist will appear from nowhere. This works with the audience to add mysteriousness to the character, it may also add scare value which in turn keeps the audience interested as it isn't just an endless reel of shots where Alex is walking. One shot that I feel stands out particularly is the shot where Alex is walking along the road but the camera is being hand held, it is similar to a P.O.V. Except that we are looking at Alex not seeing everything from his point of view. This distinguishes what Alex is seeing hearing from what is actually going on around him.
2) How does your media product represent particular social social groups?
There are very few social classes that are represented in this as there are only two characters which also are both male. But the protagonist Alex, is shown as a normal teenager. You could say that he represents teenagers as normal people who are almost oblivious to the world around them. You don;t really see him act as if he is under any particular threat, this means that we cannot particularly tell how Alex as a male or a victim is represented, but so far he is shown as a normal student who just goes around his business, to college just like a normal person.. The Antagonist is represented as a male who looks like he has psychotic tenancies, he chooses his victims by using a public telephone.
I beleive that because there are no women in this production, you cannot tell how they would react in this situation. Therefore we cannot compare it to a males reaction. Another point which could possibly be argued is that as there are no women, they are smart enough to stay out of a situation. They possibly wouldn't hav picked up the phone. Only the males would be careless enough to do so.
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I feel this film is quite mainstream, so if it was a full length feature I think it would be good if it was released into traditional cinemas or multiplexes. This is because I don't think the audience of an art house could completely appreciate the potential violence, I believe art house films are mostly about emotions and feelings, although I may be wrong. If this film were to go straight to DVD I don't think it would get the recognition that would suit the film. I would also rather that the film would be put on a service which would generate less money and have better recognition that vice versa.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
To answer this question we must look at our audience research which we recorded with questionnaires. When we asked our age groups these question we discovered that the older generation wanted more scripted and dramatic productions with a complex plot which is tricky to follow. What the younger generation wanted was almost the opposite; they wanted a film was plenty of action and violence with a simple but elaborate plot line also. So for instance the older generation would be watching Frost the younger ones would be watching Ultimate Force. Both have much differing levels of action and violence. And as we found out, most younger people would like lots of action. These are the main reasons that we feel that our film would be much more suitable for a younger audience.
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
We attracted our audience with our opening. So we wanted to include a small part of everything. For instance we included confusion for when Alex was talking into the public phone. Anger, when Alex is woken up by his phone ringing in the middle of the night. Fear, when he sees the black covered figure and the flickering light. So our main tactic to attract them was to keep them interested and to try not to let the story ever get too boring. We made our production thirty seconds too long, which turned out to be a blessing when we had edited it down because we found that the story flowed much more smoothly and there was less time when there was very little camera action. When we addressed our audience we wanted to have the bare minimum time without sound that was possible which also helped keep the pace of the film up. And the only times where we didnt have sound was when we were using the silence to help keep the suspense up. When we were looking at connecting the main character wirth the audience we didnt use any first person voice roles, but instead we were looking at making the audience feel pity for Alex, and empathising with him, he has no idea what is going on until the final moments but the audience knows exactly whats going on.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this?
When it came to using the video camera it was a situation where we made mistakes and learned from them. We started out having no major problems, a few issues with uncharged batteries but all the same normal, but the problems came when we started trying to look back at our work on the camera. The tape began tpo mix up and put pieces of filming in different places causing large problems when we thought we had lost a lot of our work, but after recovering it we then knew that we should only check sparingly with our camera and waitr until we had a computer available to check. The most of what we learnt with the technologies came from the editing process. For our preliminary product we used iMovie. And we were supposed to move onto Final Cut for our main product. After we switched over we had problems with sound as none of it was transferred to Final Cut. Also our transitions had just been turned into black slides about 5 seconds in length. So we made the decision that we would much rather that we could easily make our video to the standard that we desired than have difficulty making it but have the possibility of a few more features. So we made the right choice in turning back to iMovie as we discovered simple is better. When is came to other sides of editing we soon knew that you should nevewr leave anything so that it was "Just okay", always make sure everything is perfect when you make it. After all we realised that mistakes become much more noticeble when you watch the film from start to finish which can become annoying especially when it only takes five minutes to fix. When it came to putting shots in the right order there wasnt too much trouble as the main issues usually come with scenes with a lot of talking. But as we were very low on this type of sound we had no real issues. But the ending changed three times before we decided on something that was suitable. So when it comes to filming there is nothing wrong with being a perfectionist.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When we first started making our preliminary project we really wanted to experiment to see how far we could go in our video. We were thinking about using camera angles and even the possibility of using special effects for an apple throwing scene in our video. So my first criticism would be that we were possibly too ambitious with our filming and we may have bitten off more than we could chew. So the first thing we learnt was to keep it simple. Some simple camera shots and sound effects can create a much stronger image than a badly done, more complicated scene. Another main thing we learnt which saved us a lot of difficulty which was that we shouldn't look back too much on the shots we have taken, on the camera. This saved us lots of time when it came to importing the video. We also learnt that if you want a certain look a certain shot can make this look much smoother. For instance, if you want a shot where it looks like you are walking as a normal person or a P.O.V. Shot, holding the camera by and instead of on a tripod or a dolly. It makes it look jerky yet still professional as you can tell the shot isn't supposed to be a smooth shot. This worked well with out walking shot with Alex. Sadly we had to edit over 30 seconds of our video so the shot isn't quite how we would like it. This leads me onto my next point. When we made our first video we made the video with all the editing complete and then worried about the time. This is something we tried to rectify in our main video This I felt was our biggest problem.
