Evaluation: Below is a Prezi of our questions with all questions in full below with relevant pictures and embedded clips for reference. 1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our film does fit the codes and conventions of the thriller genre as there is cultural bias as all of the characters in our film are white, making the cast white centric as the protagonist and antagonist are both seen as middle aged white men. On top of this only males are in the cast, this again is bias but this time to gender as in this case all of the roles showed are seen as strong powerful roles and much like other thrillers only sees women as a weak link needing to be saved. A common example is Se7en (1995) which only has Gwyneth Paltrow who is the wife of the detective (Brad Pitt) and ultimately is seen as weak as her character is killed by the villain, showing that she did need protecting. So in the sense that there are no weak roles, specific for women it fits the norm that men fill the roles.

Then we challenged the codes and conventions by showing the villain as being either asexual or the possibility of being homosexual, this is because he shows no emotion to the hearts to emphasise that he cannot love or that he is bitter to those lucky enough to love. To compliment this he shows the most attention and care in any scene to the knives almost as if he lusts more for something not even living than he does for any human. The idea that he may have some homosexual tendencies stems from the fact that the only known victim is male so that could be a sign of sentiment towards one gender. However the key to this idea is at the end of the opening sequence it becomes apparent that the killer shows some attachment to detective Youngs which is shown as he waves to him, this is strange as it is the only time we see signs of emotion from the killer in the clip, giving the sense that he has formed some sort of attachment to the detective. This idea of the killer having homosexual tendencies or no tendencies at all is rare in a film but one example is in a very similar film to ours in terms of style, Silence of the Lambs (1991), which is a thriller with elements of horror coming from firstly the antagonist and secondly what is technically a helper but equally still a villain in the form of Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) who is seen by many as asexual as he shows no emotion to a human for his actions to show a distinct lack of empathy, however the way in which he speaks and taunts other characters, mainly prison officers becomes uncomfortable for them as their characters are obviously heterosexual but he subtlety becomes suggestive to them sexually which makes the guards obviously uncomfortable. This is similar to ours based on the lack of emotion or empathy in our character and also the very subtle hints that our character may have some homosexual tendencies.

Another way we tried to fit the codes and conventions of the genre was the music we used, as the film Blue Velvet (1986) began with a soft melody to take the ideology back to a safe suburban America before cutting a short but sinister tune before the cut of the scene. This is a form of foreboding as it suggests that there is a ‘calm before the storm’ in the story of the film. Like this ours uses a piece called ‘The Dread’ which builds powerfully to suggest that the scene is surrounded by danger although like Blue Velvet the melody changes, the minor difference is our relaxing melody comes after the chilling melody. In ours we use a piece called ‘Relaxing Piano’ which gives the viewer a feeling of comfort as if they were happy and safe at home but the concept of this is to show that the dangerous people can be living in plain sight, close to you. It mimics the idea of Blue Velvet which shows that there is a deep underworld of crime to a sleepy, quiet town. In terms of development we didn’t really need to develop many ideas as our characters and plot fit well with the stereotypes and conventions of Horror and Thriller. For example we kept the similar idea of a partnership that is conflicting as this can be compared to the partnership in the television series True Detective (2014) as in that the two characters have conflicting ideas, one is by the book, sensible and a simplistic family man who is a Detective called ‘Marty’. He is more similar to the character of Detective Bishop in our film who takes the leading role and seems to be in control of each conversation and scene. Then there is Detective Youngs who mimics the detective known as ‘Rust’ and both are considered loose cannons in many respects, ‘Rust’ will disobey direct orders, while Bishop similarly does not react well to orders by making sarcastic comments as well as both being a loner and not necessarily attached to anyone to much as they live for the job above all else. The profile of the killer also fits the idea of the main antagonist in a horror film as they are typically a middle aged white man and that was good for our film because one of the key concepts that was meant to add a fear factor to the film that the killer could literally be anyone and that they could just blend in and with the villain being a common middle aged white man, stereotypically that is one of the most common types of people you will come across everyday so it does give the impression that the killer can be right next door to you.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? In our media project we used the aspect of horror to represent teenagers, as during this period of time in a person’s life they go through changes to try and find themselves and in our film the idea of the characters differences shows the transition of a boy becoming a man. Mainly the idea of responsibility as the character Detective Bishop shows that he is in charge and a mature, upstanding character, while in contrast Detective Youngs still shows a lack of control over his actions with sarcastic outbursts and constantly questioning his superior officer (this also shows his immaturity as it is a sign he is still learning about the job). On top of this seeing the killer puts the fear into the audience, again fitting the profile of a teenager as at this point in their life there is a sense of fear for the rest of their life because at their age they are beginning to think about leaving home and preparing for the rest of their life and this feeling of fear is channelled through the fear of the killer. In terms of class we look at the classification and consider our audience to anywhere from class C1 to class D because our film being a thriller/horror did not need a large budget for the production so the ticket prices would be of a standard rate and not made more expensive, as that is what normally happens to larger blockbuster films. As well as this factor we feel that the people within these social groups are going to be living in well populated urban areas, such as cities or large towns so it fits quite well to the idea that the antagonist in our film gives the feeling that they are one of your neighbours as the people watching can then relate to that idea of having a neighbour in the area that they don’t know very well and may find suspicious. This may not work as well for those that fit the social class of B or A as they are more likely to live on private estates and therefore not understand the dangers of the people around you, this therefore does not provide that social class with the full experience of horror and fear the film is meant to offer the correct social group. It can also be argued that middle aged men fit the representation as the killer is typical to the horror genre which is stereotypically male and middle aged so the idea of seeing yourself as the killer allows the viewer to feel some form of escapism. This can be a factor that influences that male social group to see the film as at that time in their life it is when they go through the so called ‘midlife crisis’ and by being able to escape from reality and feel the bond between this killer it helps to either put their life into perspective or it allows them to enjoy the violence and feel as if it is them in that situation and give them a thrill in one of their potential low points. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The big studios that make thrillers are going to be universal as they are responsible for some huge blockbusters, one of the most iconic being ‘Jaws’ which at the time this was one of the highest grossing films, however this was a film that took hundreds of millions of pounds to make where as our film is more likely to be either independent or a low budget film (millions rather than hundreds of millions) so based on this there are two studios that would fit our film well, the first is Hammer films. This is a good studio to use as it has a well-built association with horror films for a number of years with films like Dracula (1958) or The Mummy (1959) and in more recent years The Woman in Black (2012) and since the earlier horrors popularity has faded over the years they have had to branch out and now they have begun to make films that fit the horror thriller crossover, such as The Resident (2011) which was a paranormal thriller so fits well like our film as it has elements of both horror and thriller.

An alternative to this studio could be the smaller company of White Lantern Films which is more focused on small independent films in the UK so it would fit our film because it is from the same context as we made it at a low budget independently and we made it in the UK using a UK cast. As well as this it has recently released a film with the similar genre to ours called K-Shop (2016) which is a Sweeney Todd (2007) inspired film that is meant to be a thriller about a Kebab shop owner cleaning up the streets in honour of the loss of his farther, killed after an altercation with a group of drunk men. This is similar to our film because both villains are looking for some form of justice or are acting almost as a vigilante type character to make the world a better place, with the major difference the fact that the villain in ours is seen quite a lot with no real identity where as in this existing film for the company the killer is recognised and the story is about him. However one other main factor is the way both films use the horror aspect of brutally murdering people and emphasise it with the use of gore, something very specific to horror, in ours the opening shows a heart of a victim and in the trailer for K-Shop the best representation of this is a mans singed face in a fat fryer. So overall our film, when considering the budget and location, would best suit a British independent company our film suits the type of film that White Lantern Film is starting to produce to I would believe that that is the sensible and realistic option for our film to be distributed with. 4. Who would be the audience for your media product? The reason that we have rated this film '15' is due to many things. It has strong violence and horror and elements of blood and gore. Even though it doesn't seem that there isn't many reason why is should be 15 rated the statements show that if you have just 1 of these it should be highly rated. We wouldn't want anyone under the age of 15 to see these kind of images. With our film we tried to aim it towards the more mature 15 year olds. This is because we would know that they knew it would be completely fake and staged. Unlike if anyone under the age of 18 would possibly feel like this is real and could happen to them. This could them mean they could have nightmares. We also think that 15 year olds and above would enjoy this kind of film. They would enjoy the tension and excitement that our film withholds. Unlike other ages or social groups may think the tension and excitement scary and honestly not enjoy the film. Its all just blood and violence, 12 year olds + would may not enjoy the film as it may scare them but they would understand that non of its true. We also knew that any kind of gender would like to see this film. Whether it is a lad taking his girl on a date or just a group of lads or girls just going to the cinema as they enjoy scary movies, but when it comes to the older generation (60+) I could see them not enjoying this film as they may find it pathetic and in all context just not enjoy it. In other cases even scare them. 5. How did you attract/address your audience We attracted our audience in many different ways. Obviously through social media and on websites was the best strategy for us. This is because we had to think about money when it came to advertising, it wasn't too much to get a sponsored advert onto Facebook or twitter then allow it to get shared around the whole of the Facebook or twitter community, to addition to this strategy we thought that once its on the internet it will always be there, they could not take it down because some people will download it and re upload. The reason we did not want to use our budget money on adverts on the TV is very simple. If we wanted to get a good advert spot it would honestly cost a fortune to do. Whenever there is a super bowl occurring or possibly a world cup, basically anything major that is happening on the television, companies can pay millions upon millions to get a 30 second spot. Yes there are 50 + million people watching at the time, but are they really paying attention to the adverts? I'd rather people go and pay attention to our advert while they are scrolling through that certain website. Although websites are good and how I've just criticised TV it can be cheap and beneficial to get some certain spots on programs people don't watch when you have such a small budget, you can get a lot of creative ideas for adverts and you could get more major spots like on ITV at 8. People have no choice to watch the adverts in between their programs so they will pay more attention. Billboards are not very effective at all because they can be to high up for people to notice and to be honest people are driving therefore they do not concentrate on the adverts besides them. Premiere in London is probably one of the best because people are their just for your movie and only your movie. Newspapers are quite strange. This is because they have their advantages and disadvantages. You could say that your movie advertisements is always going to be in that newspaper plus people are clearly buying that newspaper to read therefore would pay attention and possibly read your advertisement, but if they don't they could easily just throw away the newspaper and won't be seen again. Overall I think website advertisements is the best. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? In terms of filming we were using Sony HD cameras and the main element we that we have learnt from is the sound as after filming we realised that the weather had affected the sound quality as well as external factors so next time we use this equipment we may be better off covering the microphone on the camera from the wind or using another form of microphone to record the voices in time with the video as this will not only make it easier to fit the soundtrack to the video it will also provide us with good quality ambient sound for the film. In terms of the sound because of these problems, we had to record the voices of the characters in the classroom so there was no ambient sound, we used a microphone to do this and was straightforward to use, however I have learnt how to import sound from YouTube as this was needed to provide the ambient sound and sirens within or film to make the scene sound realistic because the sound of the characters voices on their own lacked any external sound. On top of this I have learnt how to use Adobe Premiere as before I hadn’t used the software but now there are a lot of techniques I used to improve the product we made. One of these was with the sound as I had to alter the volume of certain sounds, mainly edit the volume of ambient sounds, then I had to cut the sounds that had been edited in so that each sentence fit with the video, to do this the cutting tool was required. Then when the music was added into the film there were two changes made to the pieces, there was one piece called ‘the dread’ which needed to be faded out so an exponential fade was used so that the music gradually went silent, however the next piece used was called ‘relaxing piano’ and came straight after ‘the dread’ so to stop their being a clash in sound we added a constant gain to the piece so that had the opposite effect of the fade in order for the piece to start quietly and gradually build up to stop the two pieces from conflicting with each other. The fade was also used of the sirens so it gave the effect that they are becoming more distant for the ambient sound then to come in quickly so there is no silence in the scene. In terms of editing the actual video there was a black filter at the start of the scene with the victim’s body to give the feeling of death and the dark colour helps show the idea of murder or foul play. The other form of colour editing was to give the scenes in the title sequence that had skin peeling off the killers hand a pale blue filter to give the effect of death, maybe that those hands bring death to anyone who touches them. It gives this effect as it almost makes the hands seem zombie like or even as if they have been in a morgue for a long time as it gives a chilling effect as if life has been grained from the depressing colour. The other use of editing is using a time lapse as the videos speed percentage was changed to 6000% so that the ice seemed to felt in a matter of seconds rather than minutes. The use of blogger has been a simple way to share and brainstorm ideas as well as analyse similar films to the product made, on this format the main process that had to be learnt was how to embed videos of our production or of other films that we had written about.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Personally I think working as a group/team in any part of learning or production is the best idea. This is because sharing ideas and combining each others ideas can become something really unique and creative. I learnt that both me and my partner can come up with some decent ideas and allow ourselves to construct them into something truly something amazing. Working as a two was definitely more effective than working as a four. Even though there are more people to allow us to get us more ideas like we did in the preliminary task we did, me and my partner came up with even more creative ideas plus we were always busy and never lazed around doing nothing Operating video cameras was a major thing for this course work. We had to get different camera angles in all of our different cuts and shots for extra marks within the course work. We tried using ones that wouldn't of been thought of often and some that would upraise the tension or suspense during that particular scene/cut. We both enjoyed thinking about what camera angles we could use because it inspired us to get more ideas with the space that we could use around us. We managed to think of a lot more than what we used in the preliminary task, as the preliminary task had very basic and standard camera angles unlike we developed and improved in our course work majorly 180 degree was quite easy to follow, we understood this rule since we did the preliminary task and we managed not to break this during the preliminary plus our production. We knew it would lose us many marks due to the fact its a crucial aspect when it comes to filming. Knowing this we took extra care when it came to recording and double checked before we started to make sure we weren't breaking this important rule. Basically our whole production is match on action. It was much easier to record and remember our lines to say during the recording session. We believed that it would look a lot better also than just simply going from the start of the script going straight through the end. Doing this also allowed us to use and execute the various of camera angles we had in mind the boost our marks up. We applied our basic knowledge from GCSE and the preliminary task straight into our major production. Without the preliminary I personally don't think it would of turned out as good as it did. This is because with the preliminary task we managed to get the basic position of the camera and allowed us to express our thoughts and opinions through the group. It also got us used to the editing part of the task but lastly the storyboarding; the section where we develop and assess our ideas and put them into action. Overall we learnt a lot during the preliminary task and without it I don't think we could of executed our final production as good as we did, but also the fact we had a lot more camera angles in mind from the lessons and had more understanding about editing and general ideas about how and where to film our final productions.

Detective Youngs character profile: Youngs is by no means a mature officer and would be considered by many as a loose cannon, so to try to show this lack of sense and maturity we used ill timed jokes at the crime scene, mainly sarcasm, to show his true self. A good comparison for this would be Woody Harrelson's character 'Detective Martin Hart' in true detective season 1 (2014). This is a good representation because he too could be bold and compromising in his actions, shown in the series mainly when he was involved in an affair and eventually ruined his marriage. On top of this he was in constant disagreement with his partner which eventually ended with them temporarily separating their partnership to pursue other work. This shows the similarity in the sense that being close to Youngs puts you in a significant chance of harm and that mentally he can implode at a moments notice.

However others may just see him as a light hearted character and it can be argued that in the context, a line of work that involves so much depression that a sense of humour is desperately needed. A character similar to him in that satire and sarcastic sense is Q in the James Bond franchise , played by Ben Wishaw, and they are similar s they seem to always make good of a bad situation, or at least manage to show that to the audience as there is almost some pleasure when those two characters appear on screen.

In another view of his role it could be that the sense of humour is slowly going to fade and that this case is going to be a coming of age for this young eager detective and that the new detective Youngs is going to see some things that in turn change his way of thinking. This would be similar to the film Silence of the Lambs (1991) in which Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster) goes from the FBI academy to then been taken to some pretty dark places, one being meeting Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins), to then coming out a complete confident woman by tracking down and eventually killing a notorious yet elusive serial killer. This is very similar to the position Detective Youngs is stuck in within our film, the main question in ours though, is he capable?

Detective Bishop character profile: In the opening scene of the film the way this character asserts himself sets the tone for the character throughout because he takes no nonsense in any sense of the imagination from anyone, it is a case of he is the superior and you will treat me that way in his mind. This mimics the approach of a well known television character, Luther (played by Idris Elba) who in the same way has little fear of anyone else and is drawn to danger in the same way that Detective Bishop is drawn to such a gruesome and dangerous case.

However there is also the argument that this character has a very supressed side to himself, shown in the end of the opening scene when he chooses not to discipline his partner for answering back to him. This idea of being quite mellow when it comes to confrontation could potentially be linked to a character in the film Collateral (2004) in which Jamie Fox's character (a cab driver) discovers that he is driving around a hitman all night and his approach to keep his mouth shut and remain in an uncomfortable pleasant state almost mimics that of Bishops relationship with Youngs.

Another alternative link could be the idea that Bishop acts almost as a villain as the television show Hannibal (a spin off series from the film silence of the lambs) uses his position of authority to mentally chip away at an FBI investigator (Will Graham) and due to that is able to manipulate him and hide his twisted second life. In similar effect in ours our killer could literally be anyone so detective Bishop is not out of the question as the killer and the way he quickly supresses Youngs emotions and sense of humour depicts that same web of control and manipulation of a higher power from being a superior officer.

Production Schedule:

Storyboard: The story board for our film shows the step by step break down of our scenes, some of which we stuck to in principle and others we completely changed or merged the ideas of two scenes together. One of the scenes that was changed and moved for example was the opening scene as we intended it to be a backdrop of the town the murders take place in however we changed that as we felt it was more important to think about the context of the film rather than where the film is set (in terms of a specific city/town) so we changed it to the scene of the dead body being seen for the first time as it was more important for the message to be about the deaths within the film and start the film as it means to go on, with a high number of casualties. We did however keep the idea of having the killer carrying out actions throughout the title sequence as we wanted there to be fear in the audience and by seeing the killer early on so openly we felt that it would create a bond of fear between audience and antagonist.

Title sequence, analysis of Skyfall: In a title sequence there is an accepted order of titles come first and how the order changes, these sometimes change but there is a traditional order. Firstly the studio logo must come first, they made the film, they clearly want to show that and for the bigger companies that are credited with a lot of success it is a stamp of approval as the audience see certain logos and are filled with confidence because they are a household name.

In the case of the James Bond franchise it has always remained an iconic opening credits for its unique song in each film and varying background to the titles. It also remains very classic in terms of order. After the logo it is always the studio presents as they make it certain tat the audience knows that it is their film and they have its rights. Following this the starring title always comes up. This is the actor that catches the eye and is often a household name, they often create a buzz in the audience about and around the film and then come other major actors or people in major roles, who again can create some sort of buzz to the audience.

Then there is the title, in the context of 'Bond' it will usually have the star 'as James Bond...in...' and the titles purpose if anything is to just confirm the film and to some people at this point it hits them that the film is now in full flow.

Then after these major parts of the sequence it adds the more minor, behind the scenes roles: camera person is followed by the editor then composer, all are very important in the film process and deserve credit but to the majority of the audience they don't know who they are and won't be to bothered with them.

Then it goes back to more major people who have been more frequently heard of, the screenwriter is first and must take credit because in a lot of cases the text/script can make or break a film so this role is considered key. Next is the producer as they had a lot to do with the making and production of the film, in many cases helping a lot of the production team and director, they have an active role in its making.

Finally the director is last as it is considered their masterpiece, visually it is us watching their image of what they thought the film should look like and how the characters should be seen so it is always fitting their position I at the end because in a way it is their film.

Villain character profile: The villain in our film remains anonymous because we feel the sense of not knowing their identity is more thrilling to the whole film but one thing is obvious, he is extremely sociopathic because of how he works, everything is private to him and it epitomised in the final scene where he waves to the detective, he wants to fit in and do right, in many ways look like a model citizen even when he knows you couldn't be further from the truth. In this way it can be compared to the villain in Django Unchained (2012) as Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) is clearly a sociopath in the way he has a very formal and friendly front and makes himself approachable and tries to relate to the other character, yet when it comes to business or being angered by another the mask you see at first fades and he becomes someone who could only be described as pure evil. So in a very similar way to our character they both wear a mask in the eye of the public because they know mentally they are not the same as others and feel it must be hidden.

However there is the argument that the character has lost all sense of reality and is actually a psychopath. This point would be shown best when he begins to drink a glass of whiskey while he has a heart sat right next to him, so from a psychological viewpoint that socially is not normal so he has deviated from the social norm which is one classification of a psychopath. A character that also fits the idea of not fitting in to society at all is the Joker in the Dark Knight (2008) who is played by Heath Ledger. He fits this idea because socially he completely deviates from any norm, shown best by the way he dresses with clown make-up all of his life which is not accepted by society. So this comparison between the two is best summarised by saying that the pair do not realise that socially they are wrong in all senses but do not realise and frankly feel they are in the right and show that through fear in power.

The last character the villain is best compared to is that of the killer in Se7en (1995) played by Kevin Spacey due to the fact their ideologies are similar in that they want to rid the world of all that is bad; Se7en it was a case of highlighting the seven deadly sins and exposing of them where as our film it was a case of the killer sees himself as a vigilante who disposes of those who he feels are a burden to society. They link well because to themselves their motives are good and in heir own mind their actions are justified but to others and by law they are wrong.