3 What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

3       What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

We would have to use a film institution to distribute our media product. My preference was lionsgate for several reasons. The first reason is because it covers a variety of genres such as horror, Action adventure and comedy. The second reason is because is largely recognised. This means that our film opening looks more mainstream and professional. The final reason is because lions gate are strongly respected as a company around the world meaning more people would watch the film if it is a respected company that are producing it.

We decided for our company to be called Black Crow Productions because it fits the horror genre. For example we know that crows are stereotypically portrayed in death or are portrayed as evil. This fits the horror genre because obviously horror is meant to be evil. We also decided to have a crow because they are dark. This matches the horror genre because stereotypically it is supposed to have mostly low key lighting. This means that most of the shots were supposed to be in darkness or only use one shot of light. You can see an example of this when you see someone burning their arm, the only light we use is the light from the lighter.

As you can see there is only one type of light in focus in the shot.

2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

2       How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Our media product represents many social groups differently. For example we have a female protagonist. This means that woman are portrayed to be stronger than males and that they have more power in the circumstances that the protagonist is put in. We also have a teenager as our protagonist which means that teenagers are more likely to be able to survive in the film. Also having a teenager playing a protagonist role it widens our audience so that it reaches teenagers as well as adults.  A good example of a weak woman is the main character's wife , Wendy Torrance, in the Shining. In the film she is shown to be intimidated very easily and made the victim. This is a very good example of a woman who is weak in horror film.

 This is the protagonist for our film.  There is a scene where she decides to burn her arm. This means that she is very strong as she can handle physical and mental pain.

This is the scar that the main character gets from the burn. This shows that we are going against stereotypes of females characters being labeled as weak. Our protagonist is independent and strong. 

We also break the stereotype of mental illnesses . For example the main character is very strong and is treated normally. Stereotypically people with mental illnesses are perceived to be weak and different to everyone else. 

Final Copy

This is the final media production. We decided to add more content near the end of the piece. this extended the amount of time and made the whole thing more realistic. It makes the audience want to keep on watching. it makes the film seem more realistic and makes the film seem like it makes sense. Overall i believe that we have used a variety of different camera shot and have used a variety of different shots and effects. You can see this just after the light bulb when we did the fade effect. We have also used a variety of different skills throughout the course. A good example of this is a voice over which we used at the start of the project. We decided to created a voice over because we felt like the clip needed some context and some explanation of our ideas and the story. I believe we have some good ideas. I also learned some Photoshop skills along the way. For example i learned how to fade the text into the background using the gradient tool and the over mask tool on photoshop. This created a ghostly effect and was conventional of the horror genre. We have also used a variety of different transitions through out the course. For example we have learned how to fade music out using the fading tool. We had to also do some of the shots using our own time. We all had to agree to a time when we were free and had to book a camera from our technician.

BLUR

This is a tutorial on how to do the blur which we used for our main title. It is very detailed and improved my knowledge of photoshop and allowed me to learn new skills. An example of this is being able to use a gradient over a text that is selected. I believe that the blur looks very nice and is very conventional of the horror genre, this is because the words fade away into darkness. This could help with a theme that darkness is prevailing over  light. This is very typical of the horror genre.

Me and my group decided to use this idea for our main title. I believe that it is very conventional of a horror genre. I believe this because when you look at the text it looks like it is fading away into darkness and that's what horror films are about. Another reason is because it looks really good and fits our opening sequence.

New Production Ident

This is the new Production ident for my group. It is a lot more simple than the last one and looks a lot smoother and professional. It consists of a logo and the name of the producers.  We decided against the first ident because it did not look good against a cloudy background, and having a black symbol on a white background is more clear and easier to understand. However there are improvements that are still needed. For example we know that there is still no music or sound effects in the background of the ident. This is not typical of any films as they normally have some type of sound to go with the animations. This means that we need to add these improvements for our opening to be conventional.

Production Idents should be simple and not to confusing. This is because if a production ident looks busy it may take your interest away from the film.This is why i have decided to use a icon in stead of a moving object across a screen. i believe that this looks a lot more neat and professional. Also, the production ident should fit with the genre of the film. This is why i used a crow for the logo as crows are conveyed as dark or evil.

Voice Over

This is one of the voice over scripts that we could use for our opening. The  voice over is going to be used at the start of our sequence after the production ident because this is conventional of a horror. 
 The horror genre also uses a lot of tension and a lot of pauses in between the words. this is why i have decided to use the '...'s. these are classed as pauses.  i tried to show the story line in the voice over because this is also typical of a horror film.  I used the title of the film on the voice over because it emphasizes the title later on in the opening. Shannon has also done a voice over so we will decide which one fits the film more and pick which one we will use. Improvements that should be made are i should have said where the pauses are and i should have changed my voice when i was making the voice over, however i believe it fits the genre of our piece.

Film Name Suggestion

We considered changing the name of our opening to 'Dark Delusion' . We decided this because we believed that the title of 'Dark Nightmare' sounded very vague. We then decided to turn against re naming it because most horror movie titles are very vague as well. An example of this is 'The Exorcist'. This title is straight to the point and tells us about the meaning of the film just through the title. this is a main part of the opening sequence because if it does not match the contents of the opening it will not make sense for the audience.  It may have also not fit the genre of horror as dark delusion sounds a bit like an action adventure title.

First draft

This is the first draft of our horror opening. It has many problems such as continuity and some things that are not meant to be in. For example the shouting scene at the start of the sequance. This scene does not mae sense without some of the other shots that we were going to implement but decided not to. This ,means that we should delete the footage of the shouting scene and replace the spot with something else that fits the context more. We also need to shoot at Shannons house again to get more shots to add at the end of the piece, so that we can include more titles therefore making the overall piece long, and so that the examiner notices that it was a dream.

Class Feed Back

 

This is feedback from the rest of the class. I agree with most of the feedback. We will take the feed back into consideration when we are making improvements to our film. Because of the feedback we will be able to appeal to our audiences easier.  It also means that we can use more ideas that are conventional of a horror film, therefore increasing the amount of marks that we will get for the unit. Some of the arguments are very vague meaning that we had to ask the people who put it down what they meant. For example confusing beginning. We asked what they meant by this. The group said that the context of the beginning doesn't make sense. This meant that we were still able to change the opening and took out the beginning.


 

What we did in the lesson.

This is what i did in my lesson. i managed to finish all of the titles that we need in the opening sequence.  They all consist of a positive and negative effect. This meant I had to do two sets of titles. I decided to use Positive and negative because it could flash and created a uneasy feeling. This is typical of a horror film.

Cut (Experiementing)

This my group experimenting with paint. We will be using this when the main character cuts her arm with the knife in one of our shots. We decided as a group we would use the second cut as it looks more realistic and more like a cut. We only used paint for it but when we actually shoot we will be using wax to make it look like she has actually cut her skin. This fits the genre of a horror because a lot of blood is involved in the genre, also the main character cutting herself can connote to her not being able to take any more pressure. This is a picture of what we did during a filming session.

Design

I have changed my blogs colours so it reflects design ideas. For example you can see that i have used black with white writing. this has been used because dark is a sinister colour and most horrors and dark. another reason is because there is more black than white. This gives the effect that light is being prevailed by darkness.

Music and sound effects location

This is the location where we can get possible sound effects and other sounds. it contains hundreds of sounds that we can use so we can make our horror opening sequence more original, unique and conventional. all of the sounds or music are copy right free which means we will not lose marks for copyright on the mark scheme. Also when we are choosing what music we are going to use we need to all agree to ensure that we all have shared interests in the music  which is being used.

Our Institution

We are using lionsgate as our institution. we decided to use lionsgate because they create a lot of horror films. they are also known by a lot of people so if people were to watch it and see lions gate they may think it is a large production cost, meaning it is going to be better in terms of production, props, acting and any other mise en scene. There are several types of lionsgate openings which we could use but we decided to use this opening because it looks more like a horror type opening. Lionsgate is also a professional institution which means that it makes our idents look a lot more professional.

What is Genre?

Genre - 'a style or category of art, music, or literature'. For media it is the type of film or show that you are watching. For example - Horror, Comedy, Thriller, Action Adventure, Documentary ect.'

Depending on your chosen genre you should only implement themes and conventions from that area of study. for example if you are using action adventure as a AOS you should not use themes typical of a horror film such as low key lighting and tense scenes. Genre also categorises the films and makes it easier for people to watch depending on what type of film they are watching. Genre expands the audience that are watching the film and increases the amount of money that the producers get.

Character Development

This Is Our Production Ident

This is our production ident. we will add improvements to it at a later date because at the moment it is very sticky and does not look professional. For example you can see that the bird is not moving its arms and that it is only moving across the screen. we may decide at a later date to go against the ident completely and make a new one with only a logo, which is still conventional of a horror film.

Target Auidence

Target Audience

Equipment Bookings

Equipment bookings

After creating our group's shooting schedule, we sent an e-mail to book the needed equipment. This help ensure that we would have all the equipment needed on the dates we want. Sending one e-mail with all of our dates also ensured that we do not forget to book equipment later on.

Survey

 

This survey was created in order to find out more about our target audience for our horror genre. The questions to be answered will allow our group to evaluate what would appeal to the majority of the audience. It is also a way of getting ideas and inspiration which can be used when planning and creating our opening sequence.  

 These are some of the favourite horror films that people said. We know this because of our survey.