The document discusses a horror film media product created by the author and their group to fit within horror film conventions but also challenge typical conventions. They drew inspiration from films like Scream and Blair Witch Project. While using typical horror elements like violence and screaming, they also introduced twists like the filming style in Blair Witch Project. Their target audience was teenagers and they included teenage characters and settings teenagers could relate to based on audience research. Creating the film involved learning new technologies like iMovie and using various camera shots and angles, which they found took more time and planning than expected but improved the quality. Overall it was a learning experience that showed the importance of research and planning.

2. My media product is a video film which has been created to fit in with other horror films, however at the
same time it has been made to challenge conventions of real media products allowing it to be considered
as unique. There were various aspects which influenced our decision to create a film based on the horror
genre. It was important that our audience were satisfied by the film and all there expectations of a horror
film were met. Looking at the typical conventions of a horror film, such as blood, killing, violence and
screams helped us to consider the aspects of a typical horror film that we did and didn’t wish to include.
We knew that to create a good film we needed to incorporate some of the elements from an ordinary
horror film, causing us to place our focus on a range of similar films and pick out ideas which we felt
would also fit into our own work. Films such as ‘Scream’ and ‘Blair witch project’ were considered and
ideas which we liked were considered for our own film. By using blood, violence and screaming we
allowed our movie to fit into the same category as general horror films, however using a slight twist as in
Blair witch project by creating a similar setting and style of filming we were able to challenge the
conventions of real media products. We used a completely new storyline however used old and
previously used ideas to put he storyline together creating a new and different type of film. By then using
iMovie to help us with editing we were able to create effects to make our film more scary and fit into its
specific genre.

3. Our media product is aimed towards young adults/teenagers so we felt it would be a good idea to
use the same age range in our actual work. Teenagers are often used in horror films and I feel this
makes our film seem similar to those. People expect to see there types of characters, average,
everyday people who wouldn’t expect to be targeted. Both males and females are targeted as the
audience in horror films can appeal to both. Also people of all different ethnic origins may find the
product appealing as a mix of people from different backgrounds have worked together to create
it. Our film however does fulfil a stereo- type as it is a young, teenage girl who is attacked which
happens in my horror films as many people may think they are more venerable. I feel that this
works in both a positive and negative way. Positive as its what the audience expect to see in a
horror based film and negative as its very predictable. Teenagers are often placed into a
stereotype in which they are always causing trouble, this is partly the reason they are made out to
be the victim in most horror films. I feel that our film fits in with this stereo-type as we have also
used a young female character as our victim.
I personally feel that if our opening sequence was to be produced it would fit into the British film
institution, I feel there are many reasons behind this. As our film is yet amateur I feel it wouldn’t
completely fit into the American film institution, however it is professional enough to be part of the
British institution. I definitely believe the opening sequence could be shown over the internet to
introduce viewers to the film. Our film is based on a good storyline, however many films have
similarities and in order to make it big in the film institution I feel that our film would have to be made
more original. YouTube viewers in my opinion would enjoy watching our creation as the storyline is
understandable without giving to much away which leads viewers wanting to watch more.

4. Our film was created for a specific audience in which we took out time to clearly thing about ideas
which would let our audience know we had created this for them. Teenagers and young adults were our
aimed audience as we used these same characters in our film. Depending on your other taste in films
you would find our film interesting. Our audience feedback helped us in this department as we found
out that the majority of teenagers would enjoy our film, there own taste and what they themselves like
to see is what would determine whether our film met there standards. In our film we have tried to bring
in mystery which we felt would also help us in drawing in a wider audience as many are interested in
‘what happens next?’ Audience feedback helped us here and encourage us in making decisions which
would help bring in a wider audience. Both males and females, depending on there taste would also
enjoy our opening sequence as we gave featured both genders. Also the genre of the film is appealing to
both, however audience feedback allowed us to see males find the genre more interesting.
In order to attract our audience we had to look at things from there point of view. What do they
expect to see? What do they want to see? Research was essential and by the time it came to
filming we realised there was no better way to attract teenagers, by using them in the actual film!
We also looked at the setting, rather than using a place where no teenager would ever be found,
we chose to pick the simple route home and the woodland area fitted perfect with our genre. By
gathering audience research we could see this is what our audience would expect to see. The
element of mystery is what interested many of them so we chose to bring this into our media text.

5. When creating this project we all learnt a lot about new technologies such as iMac, although
the device has many positives and allowed us to edit our media in a professional way, I feel
it was hard to get to grips with at first, however after this problem was solved we were able
to effectible make changes to our film creating a positive piece of media text. The camera
was easy to get to terms with, by playing around with it we were able to find applications
such as slow filming and snap shots which then allowed us to use convections from real
media texts.

6. Looking back at the production which we created I feel that we as a group and I individually have learnt a
lot, not alone from using new technology, but also from the way I have worked myself. I realised just how
crucial planning and research is and how this can affect your work. When watching films in the past I
haven't taken any particular notice in camera shots however when creating my own film I realised just
how important it is to ensure the a variety of camera shots are shown. Although I found filming from
different angles quite easy, I realised how time consuming this really was. Planning and having a
storyboard was definitely an advantage, although whilst filming we did decide to make a few changes in
order to be more practical. iMac then again helping us in making even more changes to benefit our work. I
feel the tripod helped us a lot especially filming from so many angles, it ensures our filming wasn’t shaky
and helped us in improving the overall quality of the film. Overall I feel our media production was very
successful, we didn’t just challenge other media texts, we also created a different and fun piece of media
text. From this production I have taken out that research and planning can make or break your project.