AS coursework reflection

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

• The use of a digital camera, adobe premiere, a computer, youtube, blogger and a microphone (use for the voiceover evaluation activities)

How did you use media forms to come up with something new and original?

• Using different aspects and ideas from other films to create our own original opening. Not using a monster type character like most horror films and instead using a person (like in The Grudge) which is something unusual in a horror film. 

How effective was the research & planning that you undertook in helping you construct your media product? 

• The research and planning was affective as we looked at many different films to get an idea of what to base the media product on, looking at the different aspects of horror films (characters, times of day etc.)
• This also helped with looking at different types of music and where it was placed. We decided to add it in when we wanted to show the tension starting to build up.
• Looking at different films helped with choosing a text - the font and colourings to clearly show this film is of the horror genre.
• Research and planning also helped with choosing what characters to include. For example, we did not want to include a 'monster' type character, as we thought we could not create this affectively. Instead we went for a more realistic approach, having a person as the 'horror' character. This can be compared to The Grudge, where the main horror character use to be human, and the same with Friday The 13th.
• We chose to include a father and daughter character. The father character shows the feeling of safety, and that the daughter is safe there, but when she leaves the home she is not.
• Time of day was also considered in our research. Most horror films are set at night, as this is a time humans are seen as more vunerable as not a lot can be seen. We decided to stick with this stereotypical idea of a horror film, as we saw this worked well.

What have you learnt from your feedback?

• Hearing other people's opinions helped seeing the positives and negatives of our work.

• The negatives showed people's opinions of having silent scenes between music and dialogue, questioning wether this works well or not. Also having no music over the opening titles was questionable if this works well, or if music should be there also.
• The positives were the use of dialogue and music, which we shall keep in mind for our A2 piece, as it was highlighted that this worked very well. Also the use of close ups/ zoom in's on significant objects (e.g the cat poster) which we will also be using in our A2. Another positive was the use of different camera angles, highlighting emotions and scenery to help the viewer with the storyline.

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

• The use of dialogue and music, which is used in all films. It also includes the technique of close ups on significant objects for the storyline.
• By having a father character this challenges conventions of a real horror film, as it suggests the female character may be able to be saved (as men are stereotypically heros/ stronger)