1. Evaluation of my media product
Forest Of The Dark

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Within this media product we have stuck to conventional forms by creating a story through our titles and also the action within. The storyline is quite straight forward and fits in with a specific niche group. However, we wanted to stray from the cliché forest movie by using the drawings as an opening to create tension. We thought of an idea to leave our title sequence as a cliffhanger to the rest of the film. Making the audience want to watch the product.

3. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I believe that we represented children as vulnerable beings and especially girls throughout our title sequence. By dressing our main character in an all white dress I think this represents girls as innocent and pure. Also, by using the child like music I think this contradicts my previous point as the music sounds very twisted and horrific. These are two words that you wouldn’t normally associate with children and that is why I think that so many people were surprised with our sequence.

4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?
I believe that a relatively small and independent distributor with a lenient budget would distribute our product as we have used well known actors/actresses (Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone). Also, as we have used BBC Films which is not a major film company. Which is another reason why I feel that our title sequence would be distributed by a small and independent distributor, for example Twisted Pictures. This is because our genre of film links in with the types of film that they usually distribute. We have also added our own production company, called Satanic Production.

5. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Starting the assignment I thought that our audience was teenagers of both genres or those who have a particular interest in the horror genre. However, from feedback it has become apparent that many people thought that adults would enjoy the film also. We aimed our product towards an audience of a similar age to ourselves as we know what aspects of a horror film will be chilling and scary to the teenage age group.

6. How did you attract/address your audience?
I think that the music helps to attract our audience because of the sound of a winding Jack in the box. It is seen as a pure and innocent sound but by modifying the music, for example slowing it down, I think this adds to the dramatic tension of the sequence that we wanted to include. It creates a spooky twist to an innocent sound. How the titles appeared on the screen could have also had an attraction to the audience as we didn’t just place them anywhere. We thought that placing the titles logically would emphasize the dramatic tension. I also wanted to show the audience that not all cliché forest sequences/movies are the same. I believe that specific people in our feedback changed their views on the idea of a forest sequence, as we got some very constructive feedback and many liked the twist of the child like drawings shown first.

7. What have you learnt from technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I believe that both myself and my partner have learnt a vast amount about the technologies involved with constructing a product. I feel that I have been given more of a chance to experiment with the footage on the iMacs now and I feel that we have constructed a great opening title sequence due to the time we spent editing. I have learnt that you can manipulate the lighting, for example day for night. We used this in a couple of our shots as the footage that we got was too bright for the time of day we was meant to be portraying. Also, from controlling the sound of the music and effects I believe that this slowly built up tension through the sequence as the sound grew throughout.

8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Before constructing this title sequence I thought that it would be relatively straightforward. However, through the progression of our product it became clear that shooting would not be as straightforward as we once thought. Even though we had planned what we was going to do in so much detail, it couldn’t prepare us for some of the aspects that held us back. For example, as we shot our product outside, the weather at many stages of filming meant that we had to postpone. Otherwise this meant that there would be a difference from one set of shooting and the next. I have learnt not to be so hasty with shooting and that to ensure a good final product is submitted each shot should be taken at least twice. Also, in the future to allow more time for filming as not every shot is completed in one take.