Gehan's Evaluation

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product is a two minute slasher opening sequence to a film. A slasher usually consists of a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims. We used this idea by using one of our group members to imitate the act of a killer and his camera as a stalking weapon/tool. Those pictures help charecterise the killer as a true psycopath who is hungry for revenge. Majority of the stalking happens in the night where low key lighting is used, and we used this idea as it does increase mystery and tension. Female victims are a tradition in slasher movies and we have used this convention through photos and the poster with the killer carrying one of his female victims. However this idea was challenged as its usually blonde girls with big breasts that are usually attacked but we decided to use a brunette instead. Another use is the quotes that are usually written on the poster of horror-slasher movies and we wanted to incorporate this into our version. This phrase is a taster of what the movie or in our case the two minute opening is about.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There is alot of sexual discrimination within our sequence. The male charaters which usually play the role of the killer in most slasher conventions are portrayed as the character with more power and control(this is seen espically through camera angles such as low angle shots which shows superiorty of the male character as if we're looking up to them.) In comparison to the female characters which tend to be victims and are seen as defenceless and naive (this is shown through camera angles such as high angle shots as if we're looking down on them).

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A famous media institution that could distribute our media product is Universal Pictures Video as it specialises in horror conventions therefore attracting a niche audience of 18+. This compliments our media product as there are several graphic scenes which could only be suitable for 18+ audiences. A low budgeted film that was distributed via Universal Pictures Video is 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' produced in 1974, which is a well known slasher movie that achieved great success.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
The constant use of killing, blood, death and harm to others will be extremely unsuitable for any persons under the age requirement of 18 as the BBFC would not recommend this to be displayed for a long period of time as it encourages the youngsters to imitate the act, leading to an unhealthy society and corrupted teenagers.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We constructed two different posters attracting different audiences to watch our sequence. One poster shows some clear slasher conventions like the blood whereas the other is more ambiguous. One has the outline figure of the killer alone in the moonlight in a graveyard in the dark, whereas the other has both the killer and the victim which breaks the generic conventions of slasher movies, as it reveals one of his victims which is not a tradition of slasher film posters. However, throughout the whole two minute sequence the weapon is not shown that is used to kill the victim. A weapon is a must as it's used in a majority of horror-slasher movies. We've broken the generic conventions therefore attracting the audience as it is more original and gives an air of ambiguity and enigma, as the audience don't know the killers murdering technique. The music used in the background (Russian Roulette) is quite well known song therefore increases the chances of attractiing the audience into watching our media sequence.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
This product has enlightened me in many ways such as how to operate a camera using different angles and understand the different shots and the effect they have on each scene. I also learnt what shot or angle is most appropriate on certain parts of the sequence. ie. a shot reverse shot is commonly used in conversations etc. I also learnt how to edit clips from our media sequence and add non-diagetic sounds i.e. 'Russian Roulette' music, thunderstorm etc. over the clips. The programme imovie was new to me so navigating was difficult at first but after several attempts I understood the process. All of these skills have been developed from our preliminary task through a feedback that was given in which lighting, editing and not having enough angle shots was a slight downfall to our task. Technology and other equipment is extremely helpful but very difficult to operate with sometimes, nevertheless it's up to me to make the sequence look plausible and get the desired effect.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you tell you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The preliminary task was a useful starter for me to get use to operating the camera and develop my understanding of the different angles and shots. It also was a starter in editing which was extremely difficult as the programme was very unfamiliar to me which i learnt to use appropriately through trial and error and, finally i've finally gained reasonable amount of knowledge. The editing for the two minute opening sequence. I've learnt to add voice over's i.e. narrative-killer speaking and music and thunderstorm. After completing the preliminary task i condcuted a mini-survey and asked a question on what the group had needed to improve. I took this into account and made everything much better in the sequence. I grew confident using the camera and editing sequnces too for the second time round. We used different camera shots i.e. point of view shot from the victim's perspective and this was a very tricky task but it was also very effective. We also used extreme-close up shots shot of the moon as it symbolises the killer's morals. We also used angles such as tilt up to the killer's face and tilt down from the moon. Light had been a problem in the preliminary task (according to the feedback) so i made sure that the lighning was even and less distarcting because it does have an affect on the outcome of the movie.