The document discusses the media production of Connor Barclay and Damien Johnson. It covers how they used conventions of horror/thriller genres in their poster and radio trailer. It also discusses how they developed conventions through their chase scene and challenged conventions through a lack of dialogue and diegetic sound. The document then covers their use of various media technologies in the research, construction, and evaluation stages of their project. This included using YouTube, Final Cut Express, GarageBand, and other tools. Finally, it summarizes the positive feedback received about the story, editing, soundtrack, camerawork and how it conveyed the psychological nature of the story.

1. Connor Barclay and Damien Johnson

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

3. USE
 our poster utilised a number of key horror/thriller poster conventions
 ie dark colours to create an ominous mood, gothic styling, and symbolism to give an idea
of the film, ie an eye to signify the soul, and a silhoette to signify the unknown.
 our radio trailer uses some conventions from other horror/thrillers such as a deep
voice, which again creates an ominous mood
 snippets from the audio of the film to give the listener a glimpse of the full product
 the title of our film and release date last as it means that is the last thing the listener
hears and will stay in their mind.

 Our film used a number of conventions that can be found in real media products
 these include;
 an eerie soundtrack to create a mysterious atmosphere, until later in the film when
louder, more intense music is added to create the feeling of tension.
 Also as with many horror/thrillers we used the nightime to film as this is a lot easier to
create a scary atmosphere, although at times the lighting of our area was hard to work
with.
 Another convention we used is the idea of a chase scene as this is used in many films.

4. DEVELOP
 one of the main ways we developed the conventions of
the horror/thriller genre was the chase scene. We did
this in the way the character was running from his own
thoughts, whereas conventionaly he would have been
running from a physical being who would want to
cause him harm.

5. CHALLENGE
 we challenged the conventions of the horror/thriller genre
in a number of ways to tell the story of our film.
 This included a lack of diagetic sound, this was done to
highlight the isolation of the character, and how he is
somewhat oblivious to the world around him until later on
in the film, this is metaphorical for his life( not noticing he
is causing his own problems until he is confronted head
on)
 lack of dialogue, as with the above point this was a
concious move to highlight the isolation of the character
and we think this worked very well overall.


6. How effective is the combination
of your main product and ancillary
texts?
 RESEARCH STAGE
 during the research stage we used numerous different
media technologies that can easily be found on the
internet, this included youtube to watch trailers for films
such as “insidious” and “paranormal activity” both of which
are films in our genre.
 We also used youtube to watch short films in our chosen
genre, including
 “the insane”
 “about a girl”, which gives the idea of a psychological
message to the film
 we also used microsoft word to record our thoughts
effectively, and saved these pieces to memory sticks and
the desktops of our home computors to back our work up.

7. CONSTRUCTION STAGE
 During the construction stage we used many different media
technologies
 such as an HD film Camera to shoot our film ready for editing.
 A portable microphone to record sound for the camera.
 Garage band to create and find loops to use for our soundtrack to
create an appropriate atmosphere.
 Garage band was also used to create our radio trailer using a
microphone built in to the laptops used to record a voice over.
 Final Cut express was used to edit our sample scene, first draft
and final draft of our film.
 By the end of the construction stage I had a much greater
knowledge of how to use final cut express and garage band then
when we were first beginning the project.

8. EVALUATION STAGE
 During the Evaluation stage we have used garage band
to once again record audio and edit it, this time our
audience feedback which was uploaded to the website
blogger, along with the rest of our work.
 In order to write the evaluation it was initially typed up
on word and then into microsoft powerpoint.

9. How did you use the media technologies in the
construction and research planning and
evaluation stages?

10. RESEARCH
 during the research stage we used numerous different
media technologies that can easily be found on the
internet, this included youtube to watch trailers for
films such as “insidious” and “paranormal activity”
both of which are films in our genre.
 We also used youtube to watch short films in our
chosen genre, including “the insane” and“about a
girl”, which gives the idea of a psychological message
to the film
 we also used microsoft word to record our thoughts
effectively, and saved these pieces to memory sticks
and the desktops of our home computors to back our
work up.

11. CONSTRUCTION
 During the construction stage we used many different
media technologies, such as an HD film Camera to shoot
our film ready for editing.
 A portable microphone to record sound for the camera.
 Garage band to create and find loops to use for our
soundtrack to create an appropriate atmosphere.
 Garage band was also used to create our radio trailer using
a microphone built in to the laptops used to record a voice
over.
 Final Cut express was used to edit our sample scene, first
draft and final draft of our film.
 By the end of the construction stage I had a much greater
knowledge of how to use final cut express and garage band
then when we were first beginning the project.

12. EVALUATION
 During the Evaluation stage we have used garage band
to once again record audio and edit it, this time our
audience feedback which was uploaded to the website
blogger, along with the rest of our work.
 In order to write the evaluation it was initially typed up
on word and then into microsoft powerpoint.

13. What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
 We had quite a lot of postive feedback,a lot of people really liked the story. And
the use of narration to convey it. This had the aim of letting the audience
understand the fact that it was all in his head and we can see we did this
successfully with the positive feedback we have received. We used a lot of dark
areas to give the impression Of the dark state of mind that the character has
 many people liked this idea however it has been pointed out that at some
points the lighting is slighly too dark, looking at this we know we would have to
somehow use artificial light sources to create the appropriate lighting
throughout the film.
 A common theme in our feedback was that our audience liked the quick cuts
and editing in the chase scene as it really helps to build up tension as well as
the use of the crescendo style build up of the non diagetic soundtrack.
 A lot of people said they like the camerawork leading up to the chase scene, as
it showed the isolation of the character well, as well as the lack of diagetic
sounds and dialogue to again, illustrate the fact that the story is in his mind or
“psyche”.