Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

When i look back at the preliminary me and Hannah produced, i feel that we have progressed in terms of the various shots and conventions such as mise-en-scene and lighting in order to produce a film of good quality. After looking at aspects of the preliminary (above) it is obvious our knowledge of types of shots has improved as we have more of an understanding of how various shots create different effects.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

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In terms of learning about technologies, i think we have progressed alot with the use of the Macs and equipment such as cameras and the use of tripods etc. At the start of the year, I didn't know how to use the Macs to edit anything, however over the course of the year, we have learnt how to import our filming from the camera onto Imovie so we can edit accordingly. We've learnt how to put special effects onto things such as the typography making it look more professional, aswell as using precision editing on the shots so we get the timing just right and the film doesn't drag out. Aswell as this, we have continually used the cameras at school to film various parts of our piece and my knowledge of using cameras with equipment such as tripods has progressed quite alot, specifically knowing what angles to use the camera at and what type of shots we want to incorporate within the film. As a group, we were lucky with the Mac that we chose as it had the programme 'Final Cut' on it, which enabled us to have a typography different from the limited simple ones that were offered in IMovie. After using it a few times, i would still probably need a bit of help using this, however i feel that as a group we are independant in terms of using technologies, although we did come across adversities on the Macs which we sort out help for.

Q4. Who would the audience be for your media product?

As stated, the target audience for our film is 15-24 year olds, as we know they are the main cinema goers, however this age catagory is important due to the fact that they are the key users of the social networking websites. We felt that to direct our production piece away from that of horror conventions which we felt some other films didn't do, we specified between the use of shots of images such as the sink with the effect of blood. Instead of using a bright white sink with vivid blood, an effect which would most likely be seen in a thriller, we used a large outhouse sink with what looked like blood yet not using much focus on it, which was also due to the very low key lighting. I think this would attract the right audience for our film as they will know it is not a horror as we have tried, and hopefully successfully, diverted away for this and specified our film to the thriller genre. Finally, we have tried to involve the audience with the film by the use of point of view shots, in effect putting the audience in the killers shoes.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

In terms of attracting our audience, we felt through the use of shots such as point of view shots that this would incorporate the viewer and make them feel as if they were the killer themselves. We didn't want to mislead the audience into thinking our film was a horror piece so instead of using vivid effects such as blood in the sink, we used very low key lighting and an outhouse sink to film this aspect of the montage. In terms of addressing an audience, we used younger characters around the target audience age, although hiding their identity in keeping with the enigma we wanted to create. Below are a few comments we received when the class watched our production piece.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

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As said in the voice over, we think that highly popular social networking websites such as Facebook and Myspace to distribute our film, aswell as Youtube, with its increasing number of teenage users, an audience which our film is directed at. Sites such as Youtube are so popular, we feel that it would be easier for people to access and watch/gain information about the film in a shorter amount of time, and as many times as they want. It is a quick and cheap way of gaining an audience and something that doesn't require alot of money, which we don't have. We also thought that pirate radio stations would be a good way of letting our key audience of knowing about the film, after researching films such as Shifty which too was distributed this way. Sometimes we think that if a film has a major distribtution budget then it will automatically popular but in terms of our film we would rely on word of mouth and adverts or online posters on the internet to generate a hype or interest in our production.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film, we didn't want to conform to stereotypical social groups due to our characters being mysterious figures and their faces are not seen due to the enigma we wanted to create with all our characters, especially the killer, hence the name Anonymous. However we still wanted the audience to relate to the characters within our film yet without a specific social group being portrayed. From audience feedback, we gathered that a number of viewers would prefer if they could see the faces or the people acting in the production piece and after considering this, we still decided that it wouldn't coincide with the 'anonymous' effect we wanted to create.

Q1. In what ways does your media product use/develop/challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

As heard in the voice over, after researching films from the thriller genre we used and developed conventions found within the catagory of thrillers. In terms of our opening, we felt that in our production, it established the setting well, as in other films from previous study such as 'The usual Suspects' and 'Se7en'. We wanted to convey the aspects of the plot within the 'se7en' inspired montage sequence in which we used shots such as extreme close-ups and over the shoulder shots to enable the audience to understand what's going on, whilst also making it disorientating with the rapidity and fast images that we combined within the film. The typography translates to the image of the typewriter as it has the same effect a typewriter would if it had been written on this, overall giving it a professional aesthetic quality.

Evaluation- audience feedback

After a viewing of all the films in our class, in terms of feedback that we got it was overall positive. Classmates said that there was a good use of conventions for the thriller genre such as the mise-en-scene. The lurking point of view shot which we thought would add a sinister effect turned out well when the audience commented positively, as well as the build up of the montage sequence which they said created suspense, something which we were hoping for. They also agreed that the pace of shots worked well, in terms of the rapidity of the film. Another comment was that they liked the use of sound as it quickened as the plot progressed. A negative comment was that someone would have rather been able to see the faces of the characters in the film, however after considering this comment, this doesn't coincide with the effect of mystery and the enigma we wanted to create, hence the title Anonymity.

Anonymity Final Production Piece

This is our final production piece for AS media. It is shorter than 2 minutes but we think it connotes the thriller genre well and in terms of conventions, we would like to think ours is traditional but with a more sinister and orginal twist.

Problems with sound

After using the Macs at school to access my blog, it appeared that the sound files weren't working. However after using my laptop at home and logging into freesound.org, the sound files played perfectly fine.

Sounds

This sound is a breathing sound which we have incorporated at the end of our production piece as something that will hopefully create fear and a further point of view perspective making the audience closer or in the shoes of the killer. It will be heard after the title 'Anonymity' and will appear during the view of the photographs on the wall.

Music Research for Film

This is a non diegetic sound which we were thinking of using however we realised it sounded too unrealistic and didn't coincide with any of the shots that we had, making it look unspecific to the plot.

Music Research

This is a non diegetic sound that we considered using throughout the production as a sort of theme tune for the opening and title sequence. Once again we realised it wasn't the most accurate sound as it was too slow for the montage and rapidity of shots that we had.

Further music Research

The sounds I have provided on my blog are representation of the sounds we want to use for our production piece, with the music relating to that of a conventional thriller. The sounds above are just samples of sounds we are thinking of using and applying to our film.