Who would be the audience of your media product?

I think that our media product would be interesting to both males and females. Probably cult horror lovers. I feel that the film film's concept has something unique that would appeal to a wide audience. However I do feel that the subject matter would appeal more to late teens and early twenties probably because of the controversial themes of the film, however i feel that this edgy plot would definitely appeal to a younger generation.

'Tagged' - screen shots.

I am extremely happy with the outcome of our film opening. I believe it follows many of the conventions of our chosen genre without being too repetitive or similar to existing media products. We did something different and conveyed a subtle yet convincing and interesting story-line using the theme of 'photography'.

This was achieved through our use of the photographic mise-en-scene in the title sequence.

We continued this theme through point-of-view shots 'through the camera lens' of the tagger, following the victim. These shots froze with the sound of a camera shutter, conveying someone spying and taking pictures.

We also used an aspect of the video to show the predator hanging pictures. This allows the audience to identify the pictures as those they had previously seen be taken, which added an element of understanding and felt like you had put the pieces of the puzzle together.

 We used red lighting to portray the use of a dark room.

Black and white effects with a slight glow were used on other shots to reflect a distorted memory which I feel was very effective especially in chase sequences.

                                    

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

I think our product has many parallels with The Blair Witch Project but also many of the other films that Artisan Films has distributed.


I visited their Wikipedia page, the Lionsgate page (the company that bought them) and their imbd page, which was extremely informative - to aid my research

What would attract your target audience to your media product?

This was a brief talk through of my thoughts on our target audience. I believe that the audience would naturally be in their late teens and early twenties, mainly because of the way they could relate to the constant threat that is explored in our film-opening. Also, the title of the film is very snappy yet keeps enough of the plot a mystery in order to lure possible audiences into watching it. I think that the product fits the Thriller genre by evoking socieities worst fears, so Thriller lovers would also like the film.

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

What have you learnt about technologies since the beginning of the project?

As I opted to take Media Studies for the first time this year, the whole course has been one massive learning curve for me

Filming
I had never used a video camera before the start of our project and was initially apprehensive as to whether i would get the hang of it. However, i got the hang of it really quickly and was soon enjoying framing and filming shots. I filmed a good deal of our footage and really enjoyed experimenting with camera angles, challenging the conventions and being creative.

Developing my editing skills on iMovie
Once we had chosen our shots, we took on the challenge of using the editing software, iMovie. This was especially a challenge for me as I had not ever used an iMac, and this proved hard to grasp. However, I picked this up extremely fast and was soon editing competently. I really enjoyed changing the levels of exposure and saturation etc. in our footage, which gave the product its 'chilling' effect.

Using Blogger
This was my first time using the website 'Blogger' and although I have experience using similar websites such as 'Facebook' and 'Bebo', this was different and took me a while to pick up. I picked up several of the benefits that comes with using 'Blogger', such as being able to create links, upload pictures, videos and adding PowerPoint presentations via 'Scribd'. I loved this as it allowed me to be very creative with the way I used my blog.

Garage Band
This is the programme we used to compose our soundtrack, which is something I had never done before and I found it surprisingly simple to use and was probably one of the most fun elements of production. It enabled us to really take control over every part of our product which was really satisfying. As a team, we created a really effective soundtrack, in keeping with our chosen genre and that fitted our product perfectly.


I think the couse has made me realise how fast-paced the media industry is and how the technology is ever-changing. I have learnt so much about the beginning of the film industry which I found especially interesting. At the beginning of the year we looked into the history of the film industry which made me realise how privileged I am to be able to use this technology.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film opening only one social group is represented - teenage girls. Letitia plays the victim and represents a common convention in Horror films: vulnerability. We chose Letitia as we wanted to remain within the group so that filming was easily organisable with no need for communication with others. We dressed her in modern clothing, similar to that worn by many teenage girls currently. Her big, diamante earrings reflected teenage rebellion but sustained the feeling of female vulnerability.

I feel that Letitia is an actress that many young girls can relate to due to her accessible look, and this promotes interest from our target audience: teenagers.However I believe that the accessibility of Letitia's look and presence ensures that the film would be just as interesting to an older audience.

I also believe that our media product can be seen as representing teenage girls as quite reckless. The opening poses questions such as: why is she walking through the woods alone? From an older audience's point of view , the victim could be seen as a typical teenager, thinking they're invincible and not caring about any possible danger.

How does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing media products?

falling under the sub-genre of a Horror-Thriller hybrid, our film opening had a very specific theme to fit. in most Horror films the victims are usually young teenagers, a group of friends that are forced to fight for their lives. However, Thrillers are more psychological and this is what interested us the most. We combined the two genres' conventions to make our film opening what it is.



USING THE CONVENTIONS
- Sound is a very important aspect of each genre (Thriller and Horror) and imperative to the building of suspense. In our film opening we used a balance of diegetic and non-diegetic sound to create our thrilling, suspenseful atmosphere. The mixture of the up-beat yet sinister choice of music, the panting and pacing within chase scenes and camera shutter sounds - the sound of the whole opening creates a sense of pacem suspense and excitement.

- The use of isolated areas to create a sense of vulnerability and nervousness on the part of the victim is a convention reguarly used in Horror films and we incorporated this in our opening. We did this especially by shooting scenes in an area of woodland, showing there was no-one about and emphasising this through 'someone's watching you' style point-of-view shots.

- A major convention of Thriller films is leaving the identity of the antagonist secret to build suspense and this is something we did, teasing the audience with views of him from the back and point-of-view shots (giving an insight to his character), but never completely seeing him.

 DEVELOPING THE CONVENTIONS
- Instead of the usual group of young friends or several victims, we used a young female protagonist who is being stalked or 'Tagged' by a male; allowing the audience gradually feel sympathy for her.


- We followed a theme of photography (a specific theme which more typical of a Thriller than Horror); concentrating on the antagonist and giving him a story line and specific personality, which is why most shots are from his point of view.

- The camera shots within our product challenge conventions by incorporating typically used styles such as point-of-view shots but mixing these in with a variation of camera angles, close-ups, long-shots, mid-shots and pans. I believe this expresses the 'stalkers' perserverence in the stalking of the victim and gives a lot of diversity to the piece.


CHALLENGING THE CONVENTIONS
- The titles of our product are bot typical of the genre. Rather than the archetypal red or white on black, we have chosen to incorporate them as part of the 'stalking' storyline in the section of the film where the camera pans the mise-en-scene, this allows the intoduction to move quickly and I believe is very effective and suits the style of our product well.