Question 7 Holly Hunter-Brown

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

Since the preliminary task I now have a much more extended knowledge of how to use technologies such as the cameras and i-movie. An example of this is the use of auto-focus as for some shots in our preliminary task we forgot to use it, which meant that when filming our opening we knew to check every time that it was on.

I also learnt to use how to use transitions more effectively, we didn't use any for our preliminary task however, we used a variety of fades and washes in our opening in order to show the different times.

We also made more interesting use of shot-revese-shot, rather than just during conversation we used it while our murderer was watching her victim. This makes better use of it within the thriller genre.

Question 6 Holly Hunter-Brown

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

During the process of this project I have used a large number of technologies for the first time. These include:

• Blogger
• Photoshop
• I-movie
• Cameras
• Youtube
• Grab

I had the most trouble with the cameras and Photoshop; this is due to the fact I have never had to use them before. On Photoshop I had to edit the titles, drawn by Ameena. When we scanned them in they were in black and white however, we wanted them to have an older look so I had to change them to sepia as well as adding the titles.

I also found using i-movie very difficult during the editing of our opening. As I had never used effects before on sound or footage. In our opening we used black and white effects and slow motion for the memory to signify the difference and we made changes to sound for the same reason.

Question 5 Holly Hunter-Brown

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract our audiences we used a number of techniques:

• We used other popular thrillers as inspiration and included similarities in order to ensure it would be enjoyed. For example; we decided each of the murders taken place within the film would be based on a different fairytale which is similar  to Seven in which the killer bases his murders on each of the seven deadly sins- trailer. We also took inspiration from Seven in the respect that his murders could be justified as moral killings, also seen in the Saw series, although we made it more central to the storyline. This is a narrative which is not often seen or developed in many films making it a Unique Selling Point. (Both these films were chosen as poplar in our audience research-http://group1productions.blogspot.com/2010/02/audience-research.html) In order to suggest her fairytale obsession in our opening we had her holding a fairytale book throughout:

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  We also used a teenage girl as the main character in order to allow the younger audience to relate and those with teenage children.
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  The use of the fairytale book as a motif could be used to attract those who read them as a child.
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  We also used the flashbacks in our opening; this would appeal to our audiences sense of nostalgia and create a sense of mystery to intrigue.

Question 4 Holly Hunter-Brown

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We initially decided to target our film at teenagers as they would be able to relate to the main character whilst still understanding the issue of whether or not her murders are justified. However we would have to tackle the issue of certificate as while it is a thriller, since our audience research told us that Saw was a popular film we chose to use more horror elements in our film which would make it difficult to determine whether to make it a 15 or 18.

Overall, it would attract any audience who is interested by current affairs and the problems in todays society. Due to the issues explored that we see in the news so often such as child abuse and disruptive teenagers.

Question 3 Holly Hunter-Brown

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

Our Production company name is H.B.N Productions we chose this very last minute as we had not thought about it previously; we used this as it was the initials of our last names. We didn’t come up with a logo as when we were looking for the order in which to write the names we saw that most productions companies do the same.

The production company is vital for the development, funding and production of a film.

For a film like ours we would find funding from the UK Film Council which gets funding from the institutions such as the National Lottery. By using them it would be easier for us to succeed as UK Film Council investments in British films have been hugely successful – for every £1 we have invested, £5 has been generated at the box office.

We chose to order our titles with the production company name first, then our names (as producers/directors) and then the film name. This is because when researching it we found that this was the order.

Our film would be similar to Seven institutionally with New Line Cinema distributing it as they are a mainstream company who produce many thrillers. We decided that our film would be mainstream due to the exploration of very mainstream issues explored in our society.

Questions 2 Holly Hunter-Brown

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Teenages- Our film centres around a teenage girl who was mistreated during her childhood. We showed her as very hurt, disturbed girl who has never recovered from the abuse. She is never shown with anyone in the shot which tells us that she is very lonely and isolated from society.

Parents- We chose to use to tackle the subject of child abuse and neglect as it is a current issue in the media and a problem that we see on a daily basis in the news. We only made a very sublte referance to it in our opening but did show a child being dragged by her mother.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2010/apr/29/baby-p-social-work-reform-backtracks

Question 1 Holly Hunter-Brown

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

Our opening uses conventions from real media products in the following ways:

• In many thriller the killer/villian wears a disguise to keep their identity hidden and create a motif that the audience will regognise throughout the film. This inspired us to do the same in ours, we spefically took inspiration from 'The Dark Knight' after our initail idea to use a mask.
• We also used special effects during the flashback in our opening, we included black and white and slowed it down in order to signifiy that it was a memory and create tension. In almost every film including a flashback there is use of special effects or Flashback Effects. An example of this is The Butterfly Effect and the use of blurs to signify the flashback.

• The title of our film, 'Once Upon a Time' is also very conventional in terms of thrillers as it doesn't give much away but still hints at the themes and motifs we used. It's similiar to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds which tells us the main subject of the film but without telling us the threat. It also implies the subversion of innocence, which is often explored  in thrillers such as The Omen.
• After the titles and flashback we introduce the action with an establishing shot of the school in order to show the audience where it will take place, used in almost every film for the same effect.
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  The sountrack to our opening is also seen in thrillers. It's very repetative which creates tension as seen in the opening of The Shining:

We also challenged and developed conventions of real media products:

• The use of faiytale images in the titles and throughout the planned narrative develops the creepy way in which fairytales are sometimes presented. We got inspiration from the scary forest scene in the Disney version of Snow White and developed the idea of the mistreated children in fairytales and how they can be presented in a scary way.

• The font we used challenges the conventions of real thriller films as we chose to use one which refelected the fairytale theme rather than one which implied the scary elements.
• The introduction of the villian first rather than the victim also challenges the conventions of usual thrillers and introduces our narrative which sees the murders from the killers point of view.