Introduction to the project.•Our video was based on a stalker.

•It was in the genre of a horror film.

•I progressed quite well in the fact that I learnt some key skills in working the camera and learnt different kind of shots e.g. long shot.

•I worked with Lewis Crichton, and Lily Conchie.

•Lewis was the main stalker character, and Lily was the main character that was being stalked.

•I researched the music and I also researched the opening sequences of other horror films. This helped us quite a lot because we had a great selection of music to choose from and we had good knowledge of what made a good opening sequence.

Evaluation and FeedbackOn the whole people found our project quite good and they commented on our good camera work. They picked out that our music did not fit right with the clip and that we had rushed it. We could have been more organised in the way that we organised to meet up and do some filming. We changed our film very close to the deadline day and had to rush it to be finished. We had ten people watch our project and comment on what they thought of it. We did this because we wanted an honest opinion of what people thought of our opening sequence and what they thought we could have done to improve it. We asked people that were interested in horror films this is so they could have given us productive feedback, if people watch horror films quite often they obviously know what makes a good opening sequence for a horror film. We gave out questionnaires so that we could get anonymous results, this would not put people under pressure to be nice, we could get accurate relevant results.

Questionnaire results

Question Yes No Other

Did the pace of the sequence feel right to you?

95% 3% 2% Sort of

Did you want to keep watching the film? 97% 3% n/a

Could you work out what genre the film was? 50% 30% 20% Think so

Question Yes No Other

Is it c lear what is going on? 98% 2% n/a

What genre was the film? Horror 60% Action 20% Crime Drama 20%

Who were the main characters? Lewis and

Lily 98%Brodie and Lewis 1%

Lily 1%

Conventions of Real Media• One way in which we used the conventions of real media is when we dressed the bad character up in dark clothing.

• We also made him wear a hood to disguise his face, it helped build up suspense and created a mysterious character which we wanted it to do.

• We used a rope as a prop to create tension, it shows that the stalker is armed and that he has intention to hurt the good character.

• It is quite normal for a bad character to have a weapon so we stuck to the original convention.

• We decided to show a close up of the bad characters eyes.

• This is a bit different to what a horror film would normally do, Normally they would keep the character disguised but we decided that it is a good way to show the villains emotion, and what his motive is.

For our title page we decided to do it in black and white, that is because black and white are a contrast to each other, kind of like good versus evil, which normally happens in horror films. Many horror films use black and white on the title page. We thought that it looked quite good and because many horror films use it we decided that it is the best way and most effective.

Title pages for horror films: Using black and white.

What i have learnt about the technologies I have used whilst making the opening sequence.

I have learnt a number of things whilst creating the opening sequence about the technology as I did the majority of filming. I learnt how to use the camera and tripod to keep the camera still and smoother shots compared to handheld camera work. I learnt a number of various shots e.g. the long shot, and the close up. Whilst doing the close up shots I learnt how to zoom in on certain things, like in the film I zoomed in on Lewis’ eyes.

I also learnt how to add special effects such as how to fade in and fade out. How to add music over the top of talking, how to quieten the sound which the camera picks up and how to turn the music up. These things really helped me whilst I was creating the film, I would not have been able to create as good a product without all of these. I also learnt how to use the internet to watch opening sequences of films such as severance etc.

How does your media project represent particular social groups?

My media product represents teenagers and also how real life events can lead up to a dangerous situation e.g. Stalker victims. You can realise that it is based on young people because it is in a school or college dining hall. And it

displays young people.

You can tell that Lily is being stalked because she receives an unknown number phone call, and she is followed. It also displays the girl as being naive and innocent, in how she thinks nothing of the unknown phone call and how she does not realise that she is being followed. Also we use the stereotype of a hooded person as being dangerous. It shows the teenagers socialising in the dining hall as normal people would, but it shows the stalker sat by himself and staring at Lily, displaying strange behaviour.

Image of teenagers.

Looking back at our prelim task what do you think you have learnt from it to the full product?

Comparing our prelim task to our final project you can see how much we have improved in our filming and how much better our storyline is. We did a very basic prelim task compared to how much better our final project is. You can easily tell how much more effort and work we put into our final project. For example we worked around with lighting and we put a lot of work in deciding what music to use. We also made the storyline more believable and realistic. Whilst doing our prelim task we had a big problem, this problem was that we had to re film it due to bad camera work. We did not really learn from this mistake because we had to do the same with our final project.

What audience are you looking for and how did you go about attracting them?

Our target audience for our film were teenagers roughly 16+. It isn’t really a good film for people of a younger age to watch because there will be some potentially violent parts and the storyline is that of a stalker so it isn’t really suitable. It would scare younger people so for that reason I would probably rate it at the age of 15, we discussed this earlier as a group and we all decided that 15 would be the better age classification. I think it is potentially the best target audience because it has teenagers in the film but it also has a more serious side for the older people to understand.

We found a common setting for people to relate to, and it was a normal place for people to notice and it is quite a comforting place so you would not expect anything bad or dangerous to happen. We used a lot of different camera shots so this made it a lot different to normal opening sequences. I allowed my parents to watch our final project and they thought it worked quite well and I asked them if it made you want to watch more and they said yes, so it is also appealing to a viewer that is not just a teenager. It is also appealing to someone that is middle aged.

Photograph of our typical target audience.

What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute your film?

There are a number of media institutions that would distribute our media product. But the one that I found most fitting to our style of film is the media company ‘hammer’ they seem to pick horror films as there most popular selling genre that they create. They have had some classical horror movies, and most of them seem to have good reviews. They would consider our film because it builds up a lot of suspense and has some non-diegetic music playing over the top of the film to do this. ‘Hammer’s’ films seem to shock audiences all around the world and I believe that our film is very similar to this media company’s products. Also they would make a lot of money because it has a good record of selling good films, and because it is different to what most other film company's have to offer.

Photograph of a typical teen horror,

one in which we have tried to make. Created

by Hammer Films.

Personal ProgressOn the whole i think that the project was reasonably good, but we could have made it a lot better if we had put more work and effort in, and I think we could have found a better location. We had some good camera shots and stuck to a simple storyline so that we could make it as easy and effective as possible.

I have made a lot of improvements in myself, I have learnt how to work a lot of the media equipment and how to create a lot of effects on the editing software. I think it has also made me become more organised as it made me realise not to leave everything to the last minute. And I will put more work and effort in the future to make a better more quality film. However I plan to work with people that are not as much my friends because I found that a lot of the time I lost focus and concentrated on having fun when I should have been doing more work in the group.