In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productions?
Our media product challenges stereotypical conventions as during the creation of our two-minute psychological thriller, we ensured that we included an argument between the four girls. This is stereotypical for girls around our age, because other age/ social groups perceive us as having pointless arguments, which escalate into unnecessary measures. We developed this idea through making the situation escalate into Danika (Xhuliana) killing her friends out of revenge. However, in our introduction we also challenged normal forms of stereotypical conventions. The usual perception of teenagers is that we all drink lots of alcohol and smoke. In order to come away from these views, we did not include any smoking or drinking in our introduction. By making three girls act calm and normal, without the typical viewpoints that are perceived of them, we conflicted against the conventions of real media productions. Furthermore, we continued to rebel against sexist viewpoints because normally men are suppose to hold a lot more potential power than women. However, in our thriller we had Danika (a girl) turn against her friends, meaning she held a significant amount of power. On the other hand, some may say that this does conform to stereotypical viewpoints because although Danika holds power, she is psychologically damaged; showing sexual objectification.
How does your media production represent particular social groups?
In our two minute psychological thriller the main social group that we targeted was teenage girls. However, we created different personalities and psychological welfares between the different characters. The three friends act casual, not dramatic and they wear normal clothing. During our planning process, we used bubbl.us to look further into the characteristics of each individual person. We worked on what kind of clothing we would be wearing, in order to present ourselves as middle class citizens. We achieved this effect by really analyzing our clothing; make up, actions, expressions and individual appearances. The use of teenagers work very well in our group, as this gave all of us the opportunity to choose independent characteristics, whilst exploring character representations.
Through using teenagers (ourselves) this allowed us to connect to our target audience better because our viewers are aged around this age sector, and therefore our story is made more personal and individualized. By using teenage girls as our main topic, this also added to the suspense and tension of our two minute psychological thriller. By using teenagers, this created an overwhelming sense of vulnerability, as the young beings are a lot less able to protect themselves. Through creating a lack of protection, through the girl’s positions, this meant that the audiences were a lot more suspicious regarding the girls near futures.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
In my opinion, I think the main media institution that would be interested in producing our product would be companies that promote thrillers. There are many different types of thriller and in our video we have analyzed in depth the psychological form of thriller. We think that companies would be interested in distributing our product, as it is more than likely to receive a large amount of prophet. Teenagers are becoming increasing interested in different forms of thrillers. As large groups of teens continuously pay for the thrill of horrors, media institutions receive massive sums of money, and this is their main goal.
I think that our psychological thriller would appeal to media institutions as it follows similar conventions of modern day horrors. This is a positive aspect of our film because media companies will be looking for thrillers that are up to date with modern technology and ideas. Our introduction contains a lot of tense scenes that we think would scare/ creep out our target audiences. Our product also rebels against some modern day conceptualities, which in order makes it a lot more individual from common thrillers. I think that teenagers become increasing annoyed with the perceptions held about them, regarding other age/ social groups. By conflicting against these common norms, teenagers can finally have a break from the viewpoints that are continuously placed upon them.
In order to distribute our movie to media institutions, we would firstly sell it to a few small companies to sample our production. By doing this we could review our final target audience, and see how effective it was in selling. We would take these small steps because if we were to firstly sell our product to a large range of higher media companies, this could lead to disaster. If the product was in effective then media constitution would lose a lot of prophet and therefore the process would crash and burn. To prevent this from happening, small steps are taken to ensure stability and back up protections.
Who would be the audience for you media product?
We found that through looking at our psychological thriller, and making analysis during the whole process, our media product is based around people between 15-25 years old. We choose this age range because when looking at different types of audiences, we found out that this age group is most common for watching thrillers. This is important because if we do not address the correct target audience, then it will be in effective; as other age ranges will be lest engaged and interested.
During our media progression, we analyses our target audience by asking a range of different question on numerous occasions. By following this procedure, we were able to get a greater insight into who our real target audiences were. We thought as a group that girls were more affected by our thriller, as during the audience feedback, girls seemed to be more greatly affected than boys. This is a positive aspect regarding the world of media, as companies would receive a greater value of money if the target audience was girls. The reason for this is because stereotypically, girls travel in groups when visiting the cinema to watch scary films, as they act as forms of protection for each other. Therefore media companies receive large prophets. However, our thriller does also apply to boys because some boys are affected emotionally the same as girls. By addressing both genders through our production, a maximum amount of money could be produced, through the process of advertising.
How did you attract/ address your audience?
During the editing process of our two minute psychological thriller, we had many chances to address our target audience to get updated feedback, on their viewpoints regarding our introduction. Our two main forms of this process was addressing our audience through survey monkey and also recording ourselves asking our target audiences numerous amounts of questions. By following this continuous process, we were able to look greatly into who our true target audiences were, and how we would be able to attract them towards our psychological thriller.
Before our film was fully created, we used forms of propaganda to advertise our thriller. We created a poster of the first victim Jane (me) covered in blood, dead. We done this because at first glance the image is very shocking, and therefore it attracts our audience from the beginning; before the film is even released. We chose to create this type of image because it creates a real sense of vulnerability regarding the victim, and many teenagers our age can relate to that feeling during their lifetimes. This also attracts the audience as similarities between two parties create a sense of understanding, and therefore current audiences can relate to the characters in the film.
In addition, we continued to entice our target audience by having re occurring problems occur between groups of friends. Teenagers are well known for having pathetic fights that can lead to an overdramatic consequence. We related to the audience in this sense because we created a little flashback fighting scene, which allows the audience to acknowledge that there is nothing supernatural about the actresses; they are merely teenage girls from a middle class background.
Finally, we addressed our audience through making our thriller follow the origin of a psychological thriller. We added different scenes to keep the audience engaged, whilst also experimenting with different lighting to add to the feeling of suspense. Through doing this, we ensured that the audience would continue to remain engaged during our thriller, and feel tense in the process. We are happy with the outcome that we managed to create, in order to connect to our audience; overly making the experience of thriller seems more personal.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Looking at different forms of technology has really helped me to view media from a different perspective. Before the process of construction, I did not really realize how much effort is actually taken to create just a few minutes of filming. Now when I watch clips, I tend to overly appreciate the amount of effort that must have been taken, just to produce a short piece. During this interesting journey, I have been made aware of many types of technology, which have really extended my capability and intellectual capacity.
The first technology that I learnt to use was the camera. Before media I had a certain aspect of knowledge of how to use a camera; however my own experience was limited. Through being able to record a psychological thriller, I was personally able to experiment with different shots and angles, whilst also learning how to work the buttons/ touch screens associated. Before media, I did not realize how many different shots were needed merely for a short clip, and therefore the use of the camera really helped me to explore this factor. There was a variety of different models we used to film, and as a result this deepened my understanding.
Moreover, during the editing process I was able to explore the use of prelim for the first time. Before the creating of my thriller introduction, I had no experience in using editing software, and therefore I found the process very interesting and eye opening. I came to realize by the end of the editing stages that my improvement skills were actually pretty effective, and more importantly I really enjoyed the ongoing process. Prelim helped me to gain skills regarding improvements; such as cropping, adding music, taking sound away, adding captions, including fades and changing colour effects.
Finally, one of the most important technologies that I have been exposed to through taking this course is blogger. Blogger allowed me and my group to update work on a regular basis, in a neat and ordered format. Before taking media, I had never used blogger and through learning how to use the site, whilst also gaining a greater understanding of how to perform uploads; this has been extremely helpful. Without the use of blogger, I have no idea how I would have managed to keep my work so neat and tidy, without losing/ missing out crucial information.
Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Before the creation of our two minute psychological thriller, each member in our group had to carry out a preliminary task. The task was to walk from a corridor, into a classroom and then to sit down and have a conversation with one of our friends. The purpose of this task was to allow us to explore prelim and to also come to terms with the shots that were required in this example. We used full shots, medium/ medium close up and close up shots.
Now that I look back on my preliminary task, which seems like such a long time ago, I think I have gained a lot of knowledge regarding filming and different techniques that can be used. If I was to re do my preliminary task I think there would be multiple things that I would do differently, in order to make it a better quality piece of work. There were a few problems with the lighting and the matching up of scenes, showing a lack of continuity. Through analyzing different pieces of coursework, it is becoming increasingly apparent to me that in some of the old pieces of work I have produced, there are continuity problems.
Another problem that I realized regarding my preliminary coursework was the positioning of the camera. In a few shots you can only really see one side of the girl’s faces, and therefore this takes emphasis away from the expressions that they are trying to convey. If I was to re do my preliminary coursework, I think I would spend more time trying to position the camera more accurately, so that the girl’s expressions could have been captured more accurately.
Overall, I think that my preliminary coursework was successful from the terms of a first time attempt. However, now that I have more experience in how to use the camera and knowing more about problems that can occur, this makes me very hypercritical and judgmental regarding my work. However, I do not think this is a bad thing as this analysis allows me to improve my current work and make it to the best of its capacity. I think that media is a real ongoing process, where what you learn over a certain amount of time, really allows you to form judgment regarding your own work and how you can make improvements. Media analysis has really allowed me to view clips from a whole new perspective, and therefore I am a lot more appreciative/judgmental of them.
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