Questions for our exam!!

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Use?
In terms of use, we decided to stick the common theme of a horror/thriller film. We use the input of the airy feel of the music and we also picked over dramatic music to compensate how short our teaser trailer was. We decided to make our teaser trailer short because this followed the normal convention of a horror film , as most horror film are very short, but have been done at a high standard. One main reason for keeping a teaser trailer so short is in order to build tension for the audience, and this makes them want to watch the film to find out the plot of the film is. We also followed key elements of a horror/thriller film by making the victim be a female. The convention of these films will usually have the female as a main character, who is the followed by a male. We also use the most alarming thing for a woman, which is been followed and not feeling safe in your own home. The lighting has a big impact as well, as we shot most of our scenes in night time lighting, so we could create an airy feeling, and it also connotes and suggests that something may happen the victim while she walks home alone. As most murders take place in the night time, in order to hide the identity of the murderer the scenes would have to be in the dark. In our film we decided to bring in a new character in, and made the audience question if her friend may have something to do with the victim disappearing. In terms of our film poster and our magazine front cover, we used to common theme of dark colours and simple writing to connote a horror film poster. In most film poster they made the title of the film, bold and in capital letters and also the writing was in white. We copied this, and place the title in the bottom centre on the poster. We also placed the main characters names in the film on the top of the poster, and made the writing smaller, so you didn’t draw your attention away from the impact of the image, of the girl being attacked.
In relation to the magazine front cover, we kept it simple by using three bold colours like blue, red and black. The reason for using these colours is we wanted it to match up the magazine with our film and our poster, so people realise that they all link. We also included common things such as a free cinema tickets and also the countdown of the best classic films.

Develop and Challenge?
Firstly we did this in the teaser trailer using a young black woman as the person for being attacked. In most of the horror/thriller we saw for out investigation for our research, we found that most of these had young white British or American females as their role; we decided to go against the convention, and at the same time send out a message as well. Another reason for having me play the role in the film is that due to my dark skin colour, it would be easier for me to mix in with the surroundings, making people unsure if the victim will get home safe in the end. Secondly we decided not to use a large amount of dialogue, in order to create the airy feeling, and made sure not even to show the sex of the murderer, this will therefore make the audience uneasy, it also makes the audience ask question to why this certain people is carrying out these attacks. In terms of the magazine front cover it wanted to connect with a different target audience. Therefore we made our front cover very feminist, to connote the increasing power women now are getting in the film industry, and to help them get recognised in society today. We also use the director on the front page instead of the main character. The reason for this, is that we got the idea from a lending magazine called ‘Sight and Sound’ who have been putting directors on their front cover for many years. Therefore we went against the normal conventions of a magazine.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Most of our feedback was positive. In terms of the teaser trailer that we done; the audience suggested that instead of having the phone ringing in the back when the teaser trailer is about to end, we should instead do the scream of the victim while there is a blackout. They also said that the teaser trailer starts up a bit too quick, and we will therefore to another blackout with writing on it, to create the build up of the film. Other things were some people found it was difficult to read the words that were popping on the screen because they were too focused on the images instead.
In relation to the film poster, some people suggested that we should move the words vulnerable further down, so that the writing isn’t touching the image of the hand. In the magazine front cover, people found a few spelling mistakes, which we have to change. People also said the magazine front cover did not include a barcode, and also that we need to fill up the gap on the right hand side were it says Mia-El-Kassir.