Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Adolescents 

The whole of our thriller opening represents adolescents as careless individuals who drink excessive amounts underage. Teenagers are already stereotypically represented as this in society today and so our thriller opening keeps to this stereoptype as through out the opening the people who attended the party were all aged between 16-19 years. 


Adolescents are also represented as careless and crazy in media such as 'Skins'. Both characters from in these clips from 'Skins' represent both male and female teenagers as aggressive, party animals, sex obsessed and alcoholics. 



To some teenagers they may like the fact that they're represented like this in media today. However, some may be offended as it could give off the impression that all teenagers are like this. Another negative representation of teenagers is displayed in a BBC comedy where Harry Enfield plays Kevin Patterson, an annoying, careless, moody character that almost takes the mick out of teenagers.

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

• Using the 180 degree rule - I have learned from previous lessons and when creating the preliminary task that the 180 degree rule is very important when filming two people, especially when having a conversation. the 180 degree rule is a basic guideline in filmmaking that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left and right as each other  There's an invisible line that runs straight through the two people involved (usually having a conversation standing opposite each other) which cannot be crossed by the cameras as it will confuse the audience as to who is who. I hadn't notice this before in media products but after researching it and experimenting with it in the preliminary task I was then aware of how important it was and to stick to it for our final piece, although we didn't feel the need to use this in our thriller. 
• When creating the preliminary task I had gained confidence with using specific camera angle and movement. I had a lot learnt the names of these, camera angles such as: high angle, low angle, tilt, close up, long shot, mid shot. I was then able to challenge these and insert these into the preliminary task. I gained confidence from including these into the preliminary task and so therefore was able to take away what I had learned and used it in the final thriller opening.
•  Since the preliminary task I have completed loads of research on thriller conventions such as locations, sounds, costumes and character types. By getting a good outlook on other thrillers I was then able to take in my research and incorporate it into our planning for our thriller. Also from looking back at our preliminary task and getting feedback from other members of my class I was able to notice the strengths and weaknesses and avoid the weaknesses when it came to the thriller opening. 

Team work
When put into a group for the preliminary task I had never met the people I was working with before which was a good thing as I could build my communication skills and team working skills. We were able to help give each other constructive criticism and opinions on what we thought looked good or bad (both of the filming and editing (side). This helped to improve our individual skills for our final thriller opening piece as we could take away what we had learned from others and put it together. As a thriller group, we had all come from different preliminary groups so we all had learned different things and could put together all of what we had learned to make a very strong final thriller opening product. 


Also, we each had individual blogs in which we would post to and receive further feedback from our media teachers. The people in our group would all post very similar things, we would then individually each receive feedback from our teachers which would be slightly different and we could apply all of the feedback that we gained to our posts to make them at the best standard. Also, on our blogs we had all researched into different media products (especially thriller film) and had gained different ideas and used a range of intertextual references. 

strengths of our final product
location in our thriller film was a very important factor which highly suited our genre of a modern day thriller. The use of graffiti in a run down area as well as the underground gives off this dark feel and sets the scene of our thriller movie. The underground signifies the claustrophobic spacing and is also very similar to the location of other British dramas such as"Kidulthood" and "Adulthood".

Editing 

When editing our final piece together, from preliminary experience, we had more experience with the software so we found it easier to adjust and edit the final piece together. One thing that went extremely well was when the shots changed to the anonymous mask character, I was able to use my editing skills and razor that specifics shot out and distort the sound of the music and make it sound as if it was in the background. I was able to colour correct and edit the shots. For example, when everyone was dancing the colour was bright and highlighted. However, when everything went downhill I made sure that the brightness was lowered and everything became a lot more dark.

Lastly, the soundtrack was a good strength because it completed the genre and kept to the targeted audience of youth. Without it, the party wouldn't seem so active and there would be no build up of tension when Chione was almost passed out in the end scene.

Weaknesses of our final product

One weakness of our overall media product is the lack of diegetic sound.We found it very hard to include diegetic sound into our thriller opening as when filming there was a lot of noses that would have ruined the thriller genre i.e. dialect of people in the background and cars etc. We tried to include at least one diegetic sound (the noise of the tap) as it looked too much like a music video without it.

The font and colour of the title isn't very professional looking. We tried to make a relation between the posters for the party and the actual title (bright green colouring) but then we realised that the poster was too near to the beginning and the title was shown right at the end so there was too much time inbetween the both for people to even notice that they were related.

What is the most important thing you have learnt about filmmaking since the preliminary task?
Since the preliminary I have learned many things. The most important thing that I have learned from the whole experience is to keep an eye on time. I found that there were many weaknesses with our thriller final cut but I had spent too much time completing other tasks that I didn't give myself enough to make the final cut how we wanted it. There are still some weaknesses that could have been adjusted if we had organised our time more efficiently. Also, when shooting the film I learned that it shouldn't be rushed and I should take my time when filming because we found that we rushed filming and so therefore, didn't have enough footage that we could compare and edit in.

Question 5 - How did you attract/adress your audience?

How you addressed your audience?
We tried to address our audience for our thriller opening in several different ways; costume and location which our target audience may be familiar with, conventions that the audience can identify with and looking at society today and how that could effect our audience type. 

Explain which character your audience will identify with.

Chione after drink was spike at 1:45

Chione, the main girl character, is a vulnerable and typical party girl. Our audience can identify with this type of character as it's used a lot in today's media i.e. newspaper articles, films and TV dramas. When Chione's drink becomes spiked, this is an important moment as the audience can familiarise themselves with this kind of action as it happens a lot to teenagers in nightclubs and at parties nowadays and the audience may be able to relate to this action as they may have friends or family who have experienced it or who have experienced it themselves on a night out. After the drink becomes spiked, the music suddenly becomes distorted and slows down, along with the speed of the film itself; everything becomes much slower and creates a very dramatic feel which will lead the audience gripping, wanting to know happens next. Chione then falls over and stumbles around to show that the drugs have really taken an effect on her. The spinning of the camera over her head also exaggerates the effect and makes us, as an audience, feel like we are spinning, dazzled and weak like Chione. We also sped this up to create confusion and associate the camera movement with Chione's brain during that situation. This part of the thriller would hook the audience because it'll make the audience feel how Chione is feeling and it will also leave them with enigma of what will happen to her.

Costume - Chione (the main character) wears shorts with tights and red lipstick to attract to the young, female audience as it's seen as a very typical girly costume that teenagers would wear to a party today. This typical girly outfit would appeal to girls of that similar age as it's trendy and so therefore, if the costume appeals to the audience then the audience (young teenage girls) will be able to emphasize with the character more and relate to her.  Also, in our thriller opening the anonymous character wears a plain black leather hoodie. Hoodies are a stereotypically worn by teenagers and gives off a mysterious feel because you don't know who they can be as their identity isn't as clear. 'Hoodies' are also associated with teenage crime in the UK, for example, the London riots. By introducing this 'hoodie' into our thriller opening, it emphasizes the mystery whilst reinforcing the  stereotypical teenager who is likely to be bad because of the hoodies being associated with crime in the UK today. The audience of teenagers will be able to familiarise themselves with the hooded character as it's nowadays it's the adolescent look. 

The run down underground area with the grafitti relates to today's youth in society. The costume of the antagonist in our thriller opening is a plain black hoodie which hides their identity. We made sure that we considered this costume to relate to today's modern society and stereotypical views on young teenagers in run down areas. Films such as kidulthood and adulthood stick to this stereotype also and encourage it. In this clip from Adulthood the characters that wear the hoodies are carrying knives and speak/act in a very aggressive way which influences the teenage stereotype in society today.

What specific conventions have you used which audiences expect? In our thriller opening we included drugs, alcohol, a knife, hoodie which are all aspects of today's youth life in society. In today's news there are many stories that strongly relate to our thriller opening. One being a recent news story about a teenage girl who got taken advantage of from two teenage boys at a party because she was too drunk in Ohio. Also, in today's modern society, youth are exposed as dangerous and violent. We took this into account and tried to include this into our thriller to give realism and attract our target audience, that is teenagers. We also used a rough location with grafitti because the audience will expect something very dark and thrilling. The location sets the scene of darkness and creates the thriller genre. 

Questionnaire
After completing the thriller opening, it was essential that we got feedback from a range of people. Because I could only get people to complete it from school, the age range is very similar (ages 16-18), both male and female. I made sure that I received feedback from both genders so that we would benefit a fair rating from the audience. The feedback was very predictable and helpful as we predicted that our target audience would be females aged between 16-19 and the females were the ones who thoroughly enjoyed it more than the males that completed the questionnaire and gave it higher ratings and positive results. 

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

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Unfinished

Camera

For our thriller, we filmed using a HF R206 HD camcorder which, as a groups, we have never come across before so it was very new to us. Although it took a while to get the hang of and work out how to do the basics such as record, paus stop and playback. We got the chance to experiment with these canon camcorders when completing our preliminary task that can be found on our blogs.

Blogging

Before starting media studies at A-Level I had never heard of Blogger nor have I had any experience of it so it was completely new to me. Blogger is used to keep a a blog and update anything on from articles, discussing views, giving advice or just updating friends and family like a social networking site. However, for media studies we use Blogger as a simple blog to update our research for TV Dramas, Film industry, Thriller research and planning, Preliminary task and camera training. By putting all of this onto our blog, it puts into perspective all the work and research that I have done to complete my final Thriller opening. After using it regularly I finally got the hang of it and found it easy to upload imgages, videos and researched that I had completed instead of writing eveyrthing up and putting into a folder. It's also handy as my teachers can comment feedback and give me ideas on how to improve certain posts to give me a better grade overall. Also, I can save posts into drafts instead of publishing them straight onto my blog which is handy as I can go back to them and make changes to improve my post before letting anyone else see it. Blogger is very easy and simple to use and can be made in three simple steps; create an account, name your blog, and then choose a template. After this, the blog is available to be your own personal website and I can upload whatever I want in my spare time or during lesson.

Youtube

One website that I used a lot of the time is YouTube. YouTube is a video-sharing website which shows millions of videos including TV clips, movie clips, music videos, video blogging, short original video and educationla videos. Anyone can access it, make na account and upload their own videos for everyone to see, globally. It allows you to share videos onto other websites, email directly to friends and it also gives you acces to embedd these videos onto your blog and gives you space to write about them. Before starting media studies I was unsure about how to embed and share YouTube videos onto other websites (including Blogger) but now I find it very easy and quick to complete. 

Mobile Phones

Screenshot from thriller opening of text

The mobile phone we used

My iPhone 4

When creating our thriller opening scene, we used mobile phones quite a few times. At 0:42 there is a shot of a text being sent out on an ALCATEL mobile phone. As I have a touchscreen phone I wasn't used to this type of mobile and so by exploring it and sending this text out I was able to learn the basics. Also, on my blog I took several still images of potential location ideas that we may use. I took the still images on my iPhone 4. By taking the photos I was able to become a lot more familiar with my phone's camera. I also invested into a 'blogger' app for my iPhone which enabled me to upload still images onto my blog straight from my mobile phone. By being able to have a 'blogger' app on my mobile phone I was able to check for comments on my posts from my teachers as well as view other people's blogs to compare and check to see what I have or haven't completed.

Researching

 A website that was very useful when researching thriller films and audience was IMDB. IMDB stands for Internet Movie Database which is a website that contains movie information, trailers, actors/actresses, film history, articles and more information related to films. I became very familiar with the website after using it to research thriller films and was able to find things very quickly to share onto my blog. 

Editing

Adobe Premiere is the software that we used to edit together our thriller opening. I had never used this programme before our thriller project so I completely new to it and had no experience whatsoever. After a couple of lessons from Mr Seal he was able to help me with understanding the basics of how to use the programme and during the creation of our preliminary task I was able to get to grips with the basics. Whilst creating the thriller opening there were many things that I wanted to do during the editing, such as editing certain audio sounds out and replacing them with other audios or editing the audio to give it an effect. With the help of both my teachers I was able to find the right tools to do this. After learning these complicated techniques I was able to share my knowledge with other people in the class. 

 Soundtrack

For our soundtrack I managed to download music from Soundcloud. Soundcloud is website for, either signed or unsigned, music. Anybody can upload their own material and allow others to download it or pay for it. I chose to download free music from unsigned users that had created their music on their own equipment. I had never used this website before so after spending a couple of hours searching for music that was suitable for out thriller opening I got the hang of it and was able to search tags, genres and popular downloads. After working with SoundCloud I now have the confidence to use it again at other times. 

Thriller Opening "Rave" Final Cut

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Qu 4:

Who would be the audience for your media product?



Graffiti in the underpass.

Age: 16 - 19 year olds
Gender:Females
Ethnicity: White 

Chione, the main female character.

The age that our media product is aimed at is between the ages of 16-19 as these young teenage years experience and enjoy parties and raves. This age range would also identify with our thriller product as it contains certain aspects that may bring a 'teenage' and young feel. For example, the graffiti located in the underpass and the dance music at the party. The graffiti represents teens as society has created a stereotypical view of teenagers to graffiti through social media and video games. Secondly, the dance music represents a 'club' and 'pary' feel which teens can relate to. Our thriller opening also aims at young females as they can relate to the thriller's story line of a 'girly night out' partying and drinking with friends as it's a very common pass time for that particular age group. As the main character (Chione) was female than the female demographic will relate to her more than what a male audience would. The main girl character throws a party and invites all of her girlfriends, so the party's theme is very girly which a female audience would enjoy to watch as they may feel apart of the party atmosphere. However, Chione plays a very vulnerable character in our opening and most female audiences would be attracted to watching a thriller that had an independant and powerful female, such as Kill Bill or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Characters from Skins partying.

Girls in Kidulthood getting ready to party.

This same audience may also be interested in other thriller films/TV Series such as Pulp Fiction and Taken which is more of an action film but has a very similar theme to it. The popular TV series Skins attracts a very similar audience as our thriller opening as they both contain partying, loud music, alcohol, teenagers and drugs which would appeal to teenagers as they stereotypically experience this lifestyle more than any other age group. Our audience would also empathise with the music in the party mise-en-scene as it's modern and creates a club feel that teenagers can relate to and enjoy. Skins and Kidulthood also produce this stereotypical outlook on teenagers as drunken, crazy, careless party-goers (from pictures above).