Evaluation

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

Peek-A-Boo, an opening sequence to a horror film, my media product, uses numerous traditional horror conventions.

One example of the use of traditional horror conventions is the title font design, this because it consist of the colours red and black. Red and black are typical horror colours, as the connotations of these are darkness, blood, danger and gore. Many other horror films have used the same colours to create an eerie feeling. One example is Dracula, which is a Hammer Film Production. In Dracula there is the use of clear red titles, similarly to our title sequence in Peek-A-Boo, to indicate that it is a horror film that is about to start.

Another horror convention which has been used in my media product is the horror convention of blood and gore. This has been used in the scene where Dolly Pocket kills Tanya, where she stabs Tanya with a knife (we used a plastic knife to ensure nobody would get injured) from the behind. Blood and gore are familiar conventions to find in a horror film, one example is from Halloween (1978), which is an American independent horror film directed, produced and scored by John Carpenter. In the opening of the film we get to see a scene where Michael Myers stabs his own sister. 

In the opening sequence, my film has also used the horror convention of a 'home made' video shot, where the camera is being hand held by one of the characters within the film. This makes it possible for them to look directly in to the camera, and it creates a sense of home, and safety. It therefore makes it more disturbing when something horrible is happening, as a home is suppose to be a happy place, where everyone can be safe. This home made shot has also been used in the famous films Paranormal Activity 1, 2 and 3. 

As my horror film use numerous of horror conventions, it also develops and challenges this genre. 

Usually horror films utilise at least one main male antagonist, as males are looked at as the strongest and stereotypically most aggressive gender, for example Freddy Kruger. In our film however, we challenged this convention by only using one female antagonist. 

As soon as we knew we wanted a female antagonist, we developed the idea, and made her a mother. This also challenges horror conventions, as a mother is looked at a person who is kind, loving and a type of character who belongs in a romantic film, rather than a horror film. 

Before we started filming, we planned that Dolly Pocket's baby was to be murdered, however, we decided against it shortly before filming commenced. We decided that the baby should have an innocent death, caused by natural causes. This way we developed conventions as it made the sequence appear more shocking when the audience could see what an innocent death of a baby could do to a mother, namely make her a brutal murderer. By doing this we also challenged the horror conventions such as violent epic deaths, because one of the deaths in our film is natural. Usually the deaths in horror films are very extreme and horrifying, such as the ones we can find in the films Saw and The final Destination, which are both Hammer Film Productions.

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

In the film Peek-A-Boo, there are two visible characters; Tanya and Dolly Pocket. The characters are from middle class, in their early twenties and they are both mothers. Tanya who is the victim in the film represents a stereotypical young middle class mother, which is very proper and reserved. Since she put her baby in day care (Shown in the film as she says “dropped the baby of at Susan’s”), it reinforces that she is from middle class, as she can afford day care.

Tanya’s clothes however, which is very simple and run down, indicates she is from working class bordering on middle class. Young mothers often dress down, as they are about to go through their daily routines of day care and work. This is exactly what Tanya’s clothes suggest she have done. This gives the character a simplistic and young look.

In the opening scene of the film, Dolly Pocket represents a stereotypical middle class mother, as she is walking around in a middle class house with her new born baby. When her husband is talking to her, we get to know that he is from middle class as well. This is because of his posh, sophisticated accent.

When Dolly Pocket’s child dies, and she becomes an insane killer, she represents a very unconventional middle class woman. She now dresses up in doll clothes. This is very childlike and babyish to the audience, however, she still lives in the same middle class house, and she can afford the doll clothes, something that indicates she is from middle class.

We chose that Tanya and Dolly were going to be near the same age, namely in their early twenties, to show the complete antithesis of Dolly. By showing one ‘normal’ mother, and one ‘disturbed’ one, my group felt that we  showed clearly how different and far from the norm Dolly really is. 






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

My media product is a horror film, it would therefore be a media institution such as a film studio opposed to a TV company that would distribute it. This is because of the fact that horror films are generally not the type of films TV companies, such as BBC and ITV, usually invest in. They generally invest in thrillers and mystery films, such as Poirot.
Therefore Peek-A-Boo would fit better in a cinema environment under a studio name.

Since my media product is a psychological horror, as it involves Dolly Pocket’s mental breakdown after her baby dies, Paramount Pictures might be the best film studio to distribute my film. Paramount Pictures have previously distributed films such as all the Paranormal activity films, ‘My Bloody Valentine’ and ‘Case No. 39’. Therefore this would fit very well to my media project ‘Peek-A-Boo’.

Hammer Film Production however, could also be the film studio to distribute Peek-A-Boo, as Hammer Film Productions have put their name on many horror films such as ‘The curse of Frankenstein’ and ‘Beyond The Rave’. Both of the films contains violence and gore, something which fits our horror film, as Dolly Pocket brutally kills random mothers to get revenge for her own child’s death.

Overall, if ‘Peek-A-Boo’ was to be released by either Hammer Film Productions or Paramount Pictures, it would be a high budget film. This is because it would then be necessary to be able to buy all the props needed for the film as well as to make it in good quality, , for example, the murder scenes look more realistic. This would make the film more horrifying for our target audience, which is the main aim for horror films.  





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

As my media product is a horror film, the audience for it would be people in their late teens to around 25 years old. The reason for targeting this age group is because younger people tend to like the scare factors in horror films more than other, older age groups.

In 'Peek-A-Boo' however, there are some themes which the older audience, around 25-50, might be better suited for. This is because the themes includes child death and how some might deal with it. These themes are more suited for an older audience as many of them can relate to how it is to have a child, and just the thought of loosing their children would scare all parents. The film might therefore be more scary to those who are already parents.

In terms of gender for the targeted audience, both men and women would be able to enjoy 'Peek-A-Boo'. 
Women however, might relate to the film more, as the cast in the film are female dominated, they are all mothers, and it therefore looks at things from a female's perspective.

When it comes to the ethnicity of the targeted audience it could be anyone. The cast in the opening scenes are dominated by Caucasian females, however this does not mean that 'Dolly Pocket' the murderer, would not be targeting mothers from all ethnicity's, as she seeks revenge on any type of mothers.

Ideally everyone from every social class could be attracted to 'Peek-A-Boo'. This is because, no matter what social class they belong to, everyone, ideally, gets the chance to experience how it is to be a mother. With that said, 'Dolly Pocket' is from middle class, and most of her victims as well. This means that we get a middle class perspective, which leads to the fact that the middle class audience might be the widest market for my film.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience in the opening title sequence by adding eerie music. The music I used was the famous 'Pop Goes The Weasel'. In the opening sequence however, it has been remixed into a scary, upbeat and tense version. By adding this version to the film, it catches the attention and addresses a large area of the targeted audience, which is the younger audience. This is because the music is still recognisable as the sweet tune they would have listened to when they where younger, however now it has been changed into a twisted disturbing version.

How the titles are in 'Peek-A-Boo' they are also created to attract and address the audience. They are based on a numerous other horror film titles, such as 'Halloween' (1978) and 'Red Dragon'. This makes the audience attracted to those films and pay attention to 'Peek-A-Boo' as well. The titles of 'Peek-A-Boo' have the same fade-in, fade-out effects as those in 'Halloween', and they are in the colour red and black, which is the same as those from 'Red Dragon' . The fact that the 'Peek-A-Boo' titles are a lot like those from other famous horror films, makes people think it might be a good movie, and they will therefore go an see it.

Another way I have attracted and addressed my audience on, is by creating a serious and phsycological storyline that contains many dimensions people can relate to. Not only does 'Peek-A-Boo' contain gore and horror, but also a very serious meaning as 'Dolly Pocket' looses her baby, and seeks revenge by killing other mothers. This shows the psychological damage a person can get after loosing something very dear. 

In the film  'Dolly Pocket's' costume in the final clips are very rare. My group choose to dress her up in a doll costume as this would attract people to our movie. This would make the audience raise questions about why she is dressed like she is. This makes 'Dolly Pocket' more mysterious and also scary as the audience would not understand her. By the confusion of a grown up woman in a doll costume, with baby fetishes, it would attract the audience as they would like to know what which is wrong with her, and how she became so disturbed.

If 'Peek-A-Boo' was to be released I would use a lot of viral marketing as the targeted audience is those in their late teens to around middle age. This is because these tend to be the age group spending most time on their computer and on the Internet. I would for example create pop-up windows with commercial on about my film. 

I would also use a lot of traditional marketing, as this would reach a bigger group of audience, as not everyone have got computer and Internet. Through traditional marketing I would create posters and get it up in buses, school, cities, etc.

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

When I first started the task of making my own media product, I had never before used a tripod or a Sony HD touchscreen camera for filming. Using the tripod I learned how many different camera angles it was possible to get from using it, some examples are a high angle, low angle, wide shot and two shot. These shots were very easy to establish as I could decide how high or low I wanted the tripod to be, as well as I could easily move the tripod a bit back when needed to create a two shot and a wide shot. Since the tripod was relatively small, it was also possible to position it on top of things, which would create a even more noticeable high angle, when it was needed for the film. I also learnt that by using a tripod it would create a steady camera shot, without any shaking, as it would be if the camera was being hand held. This was highly effective as it made the film look more professional. 

By placing the camera on top of the tripod I learnt that it was also possible to move only the top part of the tripod, so we could move this part with the camera on it, allowing us to follow the action within the scene, whilst the tripod's 'legs' where standing still. This made it possible to turn the camera steadily around and film exactly what was needed. 

As I got to know the Sony HD touchscreen camera, I learnt that it was quite easy to handle. I quickly learnt how to film with it, and I managed to get useful shots for my media product. I also learned how to zoom in and out, however, we did not need any zoom in/out shots for the film.  As we were filming I also figured out how to watch the raw footage directly on the camera, this was a handy thing, as it allowed my group to see if we needed to take any shots over again before we headed back to school with the footage, ready to edit it. 

As I got introduced to Adobe Premiere Pro, which was the editing program I used when making 'Peek-A-Boo' and making sure it was ideally edited, I found out that, similarly to the tripod and the camera, I had never used it before. During the editing progress I learnt several different effects. First of all I learnt how to export the footage from the camera and into the Mac computer, by putting the memory card in the Mac. After putting the footage into a Mac, we safely moved them into an external hardware, to be sure that it was safely saved. 

When we started the actual editing I managed to learn how to cut and paste the different clips, allowing me to get the clips in the right order, and also cut down the clips, so the overall film would not last for much over than two minutes. I also managed to manipulate the colours in the different shots, making them darker and scarier. Furthermore I figured out how to put different types of soundtracks onto the film, as well as making the transition between soundtracks soft and almost unnoticeable. I also learned how to make the transition between the different clips to dissolve, and also make it look like a seamless editing.

Another big part of my project that I have learned it how to use blogspot.com. I had never before been blogging in any kind of way. Fortunately I found the blogspot.com setup easy to understand. I was immediately able to write posts about different tasks we had done during the project time. Adding pictures to my posts however, has sometimes been a struggle, as it seems like the pictures move around a bit on their own. 

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

Looking back at my preliminary task, one of the main things I have learned must be how to work as good as possible in a group. I have learned how important it is to listen to other people opinions and ideas when it comes to how to create and edit the film. I have learned that being able to cooperate within a group is crucial to make a good film. My group were very good at cooparating with each other as we brainstormed all of our ideas together, and made sure that everyone got to say what they wanted. Furthermore I have learnt that being a good team member is very important to make the filming process as smooth and fast as possible. To be a good team member I met up at the planned filming days, at the correct time, with the correct props and costumes needed for the filming process.

From the preliminary task I have also learnt how to use a HD camera, and how to get the best camera shots from it, needed for the film. I learned this by filming many different camera shots and frames. By filming different camera shots and put them in the film I also got to show the true range of skills learned from the task. Some examples of camera shots are: Medium close up, hand held and long shot.



Another important thing I have learned from the filming process is that not everything goes as planned. The original idea for the film was that Tanya was suppose to walk with her baby in a pram, to show that she was a mother. However, since we had no access to a pram we had to change the idea, and we therefore came up with a new idea of her talking to her husband, saying she "just dropped the baby of". This was a simple solution and it also showed that she was a mother, and it therefore covered the point we were trying to show.