My product mainly used forms and
conventions similar or the same of those of real media products. I have
specifically done this as I know how risky it can be to produce something
completely opposite, risking the product being a complete disaster and nobody
liking it. One particular convention I used and is important in my product was
the use of stereotyping, for example that of schoolgirls. I showed
stereotypical views through costume, actions and dialogue. This links in with
representation also. Although in some ways my product takes the form of many
real life media products of the same genre as mine. One way I have  challenged conventions is that in my product
I do not have any sense of mystery, the killer is exposed to the audience
straight away, although the characters do not know this, this gives us extra
effect as we are watching and waiting for how and when they find out who the
real killer is, later on in what would be my product.

As already mentioned briefly, I have
represented different social groups through the use of stereotyping. Although
in my product I have only represented about 3 different social groups.

My first social group would be the school
class; this is an important group as after all, my product is based and set in
a school. I have stereotyped the school class by making them as “Geeks.” I have
done this by simply having them doing they’re work, getting on with it quietly,
no talking at all. Ever teachers dream perhaps? The lack of dialogue helps to
emphasise to the audience the concentration of the students, making it easier
to clearly see the representation of this particular social group.

My Second group would be the Teachers. I
have mainly represented this group through the use of costume, and partly
dialogue. Our costume is simple, a commonly stereotyped male teacher. Ugly dull
clothes, reflecting the person’s life. Long hair slicked back into a pony tail
and then the glasses thrown in just to make him look slightly more intelligent
and for that added effect. In regards to dialogue, full properly spoken English
language must be used, to give a sense of professionalism. Some male teachers
are seen as a little bit creepy, or maybe sleazy is the word for it. This is
what I intended to create, and I think I did a good job in finding the right
actor. My final group would be schoolgirls, or more commonly known as “Sluts”
or the popular girls. I have represented this social group my having my main
character/s in this category and also by costume. The costume for my main
character consisted of a low cut top, skirt, tights then also perfectly done
hair and make up, as after all, these type of girls are said to love themselves
to a certain extent, and to also take pride in their appearances. Another point
to make with costume is that the clothes used in the production are currently
in fashion, adding emphasis to the stereotyped character.

Stereotyping is a thing which we see every
day, but subconsciously. The way in which I have represented these social
groups are appropriate to my product but perhaps not as appropriate in real
life. Stereotyping portrays characters and I found that this plays a massive
part in most real life media products. So I thought id give it a go myself! But
not forgetting, in reality characters can be much different than shown in my
film, but stereotyping makes things more fun and interesting!

The main target audience for my product
would be people of my own age, teenagers. I have chosen this audience as I
thought I could relate directly to them. One main reason for this audience
would be that the setting of my product is almost identical to that which teenagers
see for most of their time, a school. I was aiming to make my target audience
simply think “What if..” Or in other words I wanted to mess with they’re minds
a little, for added effect obviously, or to make it much more realistic to the
viewer.

The setting explained in the paragraph
above helped me to attract my target audience, as its something they can relate
to.  One main way I tried to address my
audience may not be visible, depending on the programme you viewed the product
in. This is by the use of sound. Right at the very beginning the sound was
meant to be completely silent, but then fading into a low key rumble, in
similar products I have found this to be very effective in engaging the
audience as it adds eeriness to the overall mood of the product. Secondly,
whilst conducting my research I found that the use of low key sounds but also
sudden sounds, proved very effective in attracting, engaging and addressing
audiences. Mainly I used sudden sounds, these were used in effect to try and
make the audience jump, or to wake them up. Two main parts that I used this
effect would be the school bell and also the short scream near to the beginning
of my product. The school bell wasn’t actually intentional but as soon as I
realised that this would work in this way also I upped the volume and used it
to great effect! The scream used also teamed up with the lighting, I attempted
to create a very short flicker of the upcoming future. I did this as that one
sudden flick could change the whole mood of the product as it then brings in
the idea of fear and pain.

Throughout my coursework and developing
from the preliminary task, I have learn quite a lot about Media productions
such as mine. One thing I’ve learnt would be that it is very time consuming,
just for 2 minutes I had 2 filming sessions lasting about 2/3 hours each and
then little bits at random times. Not to mention time spent editing etc. I have
also learnt that lack of equipment can cause a lot of problems, or in my case
the quality of equipment. The tri-pods we have in school aren’t the best in the
world, so that explains the jerks and shakes at various points in my product.
Another thing I have learnt is how to properly work a video camera, yes im not
“hip” with all this new technology. I am very proud to say I was the first one
who found how to eventually do a focus pull on one of the cameras we have in
school, although it takes a long time to work, hence not using this in my
production. I have also learnt how to use the Mac’s and the relevant software
on them (GarageBand, iMovie.) From my preliminary task, I have seen a vast
improvement in the quality of my work, learning things such as editing and sound
techniques  has helped me to see this
improvement, not to mention the help I gave myself from the research and
planning, again one more thing to add to the “What I’ve learnt” list!

There are obviously still some improvements
I can make to my product, for example the lighting, working in a school on a
budget of £0 has proved to be tricky, not to mention daylight was against me.

Main institutions who would distribute my
product would be those like HammerHorror or Brain Damage Films, these
specialise in horror films such as mine so they would know exactly how to
distribute my product in an effective manner, as well as being able to give me
any tips needed on how to make my product much more successful in the Horror
genre.

The dreaded mistakes!!  You may notice two vital errors, firstly in
costume, filming on two different days resulted in the characters wearing
different clothes! Oops! This was covered up by a jacket zipped up to the top,
and as this was only one clip it goes relatively unnoticeable. My second vital
mistake, look closely at the fast paced shot going from rolling out the duct
tape to walking with the chains, in the shot with the killer walking with the
chains, the piece of duct tape torn off and the roll of tape can be seen to the
right of the screen, again, oops! So next time I need to watch out for
continuity errors such as these two!  Oh
and another mistake I made, I may not have kept to the 180degrees rule at all
times during my production!! I have kept to it at just about most of the piece,
killer left, victim right.

You will have probably noticed a lot of
change from my planning to my actual piece. Throughout the filming and
production of my film, I hit a few snags. These included problems with the cast
through to things just not looking right. So I changed my piece to make it look
as good as I could, basically!

Overall im quite happy with how my final
piece looks!

Decided to do my research as a powerpoint presentation enjoy?

So im not too good with this stuff..
but hopefully this link will get you to my presentation?

We used Comic Life to do our storyboard on, ok so its not a comic, but it looked alot better!

chris-and-toms-storyboard

First scene

None

Second scene

Screaming

Third scene

(First part of main dialogue – 10 seconds)

Kirkland – “Nicole could you stay behind for a minute please?”

Nicole – “Yeah sure” (walks over and sits down)

Fourth scene

Crying, screaming (maybe a “No!”)

Fifth scene

(Second part of main dialogue – 10 seconds)

Kirkland – “It’s about extra work after school”

Nicole – “What do you mean?”

Kirkland – “Just staying behind, after school to do some extra work. One to one”

Sixth scene

Screams…ect

Seventh scene

Nicole – “I’m not sure”

Kirkland – “It will be worth it”

Nicole – “How?”

Kirkland – “It just will. Honestly it will be worth it.”

(Nicole goes to open her mouth…)

Kirkland – “Get you a better grade?” (sounds unsure)

Nicole – “Oh… OK then”

Kirkland – “so I’ll see you tonight”

Nicole – “OK” (walks towards door) “Bye!”

Eighth scene

None

Ninth scene

(After match on action of Nicole walking through door)

Nicole – “Hey”

Tenth scene

(General chatter from class)

Media Studies A Level coursework

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of 2 minutes.

Seventh

General idea.

Based in school, day and night.  Two different time periods, same characters. Switching between the day and night shots.

Day; normal school day, mid close up of date on board (07-02-08) panning round to an establishing shot of class working. School bell rings, class then leave, victim asked to stay behind. Dialogue exchanged between teacher and pupil, persuasive language used to make her stay behind. Eventually succeeds, victim agrees to the idea, leaves. Hear school bell, Eyeline match of Mr Kirkland looking at his watch (from mid close up to over the shoulder shot from a high angle).  Match on action Shot of Tammy walking into Kirkland’s room. Then flick to last shot of her on the table.

Night; fast paced, a lot of screaming and panicking. Not much dialogue used, none from the murderer at all. Murderers face isn’t shown until the very end match cut part of this scene. Idea of torture; shown by crying, pain, noise from chains, dragging body.  Ends by simply a scream ended abruptly by the sound of a stabbing, extra sound effects may be used.

One year later; similar to the starting of the whole thing. Establishing shot panning round to see our next victim, focusing on her, see her writing the date in her book (07-02-08)

End.

Day scene Ideas

[Starts off normal school day, bell rings. Class leave, schoolgirl asked to stay behind to talk to the teacher]

• Girl – “slut” – Tammy
• Teacher – normal teacher – Kirkland
• Dialogue used- Persuasive language asking her to stay behind after school. (Extra work?)
• Background music- normal music
• The longer clips.
• Opening credits at bottom of screen, White with black outline. Transitions- fading in and out.
• Classroom- Mr Kirkland’s room.

 Schoolgirl must stand out from the rest of the class;

Short skirt, cleavage on show, short tight shirt, short school tie, plain black tights, boots.

Make sure the big clay body in the corner of the room is not in the shot at any time during dialogue.

 Shots used:

2 shots

Establishing

Mid shots

Camera tracking used.

Dark Scene – Ideas

*       Fast pace

*       Footsteps

*       Slow to fast pace

*       Deep breaths – Condensation (Breath)

*       Panic

*       Contrast of opening credits (colour) + footage

*       Short clips and jumpy

*       No faces shown  - murderer is anonymous

*       Screams/crying

*       Diegetic sound – bangs, dragging, chains, scrapping(nails),

            doors, hinges (squeaky)

*       Murderer framed by doorframe – Kirkland’s room, lights

*       Pale skin

*       Use gallery – stone walls

*       Shaking

*       Framing

*       Idea of murderer being psychotic – disturbed

Shots used

*       Close ups

*       Extreme close ups (different body parts)

*       Point of view shots

Last bit of dark bit we see is the murderer covering body (e.g: eyes, mouth, face…) in clay scene – then clay body.

OR

End on fade to black screen, scream ended by noise to simulate a stabbing.