5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our target audience by holding a screening of our film in the media suite. We gathered some of our target audience, multi-cultural pupils aged 15-21 and we asked them questions for example could they identify with the location, what genre is the film and how do you know and many other questions. From the feedback, most of our target audience correctly identified the genre of the film and they also gave us valuable feedback as to how they know it's a psychological thriller. Also, we found out that the audiences wanted to know what was going to happen next; they wanted to know why this male was following this female and they wanted to know why the male was writing an article about the female. Their curiosity and the questions led them into stating that they would like to watch the film in the cinema because it appealed to them and it would be something that would keep them entertained. The fact that our target audience correctly identified what the male was doing, the genre, how the music was supposed to make them feel and how they related to the characters in the film tells us that we have followed the conventions as closely as possible and have addressed how our target audience connect with the characters and the film as a whole.

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

The opening of "Neurosis" with "The Butterfly Effect" and "Hannibal"







Based on conventions, a psychological thriller can be released under an indepedent studio however it can also be released under a huge film studio based on location, cast and budget as well as many other things. "The Butterfly Effect" was distributed by New Line Cinema in 2004. New Line Cinema started off as an independent film studio however it became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996, and later merged with sister studio Warner Bros in 2008.

From my research, I noticed that a psychological thriller is commonly released based on the budget of the movie. For example the budget for "The Butterfly Effect" was $13 million and it was released under New Line Cinema which has a history as an independent film studio whereas the budget for "Hannibal" was $87 million and was released under Universal Studios which is known for releasing big budget films. My group's film budget was significantly lower than a few million pounds therefore we opted to release our film under an independent studio because we wanted our film to be presented as an artistic small piece rather than a 'money-maker' which is released by a huge film distributor. To avoid copying "The Butterfly Effect" and "Hannibal" we decided to research independent film studios that specialised in small artistic films. We decided to use "Fox Searchlight Pictures" because it specialised in small independent movies as well as British films. An example of an independent psychological thriller released under "Fox Searchlight Pictures" is "One Hour Photo"

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

Equipment technology:
With the tripod I learnt how to keep a shot steady and to make sure that the camera was steady and level.





With the digital camera I learnt how to upload pictures from a memory stick reader. I also took some shots of Jemima from Horatio's point of view whilst he was stalking her and sent them to Hannah for her to print them.




I learnt how to use a digital video camera for the first time. I learnt how to use the record button, zoom in and plug in to the computer to upload our footage. I also learnt about the white balance in these cameras and how the balance is unstable whilst recording a computer screen. For example in our media product when Horatio is typing the article, the screen is unstable and shakey.


We had to use a professional camera because the digital video camera's white balance did not work well. I learnt that the white balance on the professional video camera worked because the lens was able to focus better on the screen. I also learnt that the footage we recorded on the professional camera could not be uploaded from the normal camera.





This is the first time I've ever used an Apple Mac and I learnt how to upload pictures and videos onto the computers. I also learnt how to screengrab on a Mac which is much easier to do than on a PC. Most of the screen grabs on my blog are screen grabs taken from a MAC. I also learnt how to upload footage from a camera onto the imovie programme on MACs.





Online software:
I learnt how to upload videos on to youtube in order to embed them into my blog and also in order to recieve feedback from online users however I also found that the people who watched our movie and commented would not necessarily be in our target age range therefore we decided to hold a screening in order to directly target our audience.

I llearnt how to embed our media product onto facebook in order to recieve a direct response from our target audience because most of my friends are aged 15-21. Many people commented on our posts and gave us good feedback which helped us to improve our product. For example we asked our target audience to give us feedback on which ending scene would suit the final media product.

On blogger, I learnt how to upload files, create new posts, embed videos and presentations in order to present my work as clearly and attractively as possible.


I learnt how to research a particular style of font on dafont.com in order to find a possible design for our title film and I also learnt how to to create the titles for my planning, research and evaluation blog by writing the title of the blog into the "custom preview" box and copying and cutting it on paint and then uploading it onto my blog.



I learnt how to upload presentations and word documents onto slideshare in order to embed them into my blog.

I learnt how to download a video from youtube and use it for editing purposes. For our final media product, we downloaded the "fox searchlight production" opening and edited it into our film in order to give it a more professional quality.

Evaluation of: Neurosis rough cut without music

Please watch the following video and answer the following questions:
1. does the male look sinister?

2. Is it clear that he is following the female?

3. Can you rate it out of five... for how clear the story line is (5= great and 1=poor)

4. does it suggest that the female is vulnerable

5. any other strengths or weaknesses?

6. Are you left with questions at the end of the clip?

From audience responses we found that most people thought Horatio was sinister and that Mia was portrayed as vulnerable. However a lot of people thought that Horatio could be just walking in the same direction as Mia however the pictures at the end changed their minds and they thought that he was stalking her. Most have people have rated us 3/5 for the storyline and most of our audience are convinced that the pictures determine Horatio's true motives.

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

Social group presentation

View more presentations from arfa4739.

Alternative ending response

Some of our audience told us that the original ending which consisted of Mia's pictures was too abrupt therefore we added another scene to the ending and asked the audience which ending they preferred along with some questions about both endings and conventions of psychological thrillers.

Questions to target audience:

1) Which ending do you prefer and why?

2) Which ending is the most effective and follows the

typical conventions of a psychological thriller?

3) What questions are you left with at the ending of "ending 1"?

4) What questions are you left with at the ending of

"ending 2"?

5) Are the transitions in the

movie: ok, good, great or excellent?

6) Do you think the camera shots used are effective in

portraying the movie?

Question responses:

Alternate ending response:

Overall, we found that our audience preferred ending 1 because they were taken into Horatio's mind. One respondent stated that ending 1 was most effective because it follows the conventions of a psychological thriller by focusing purely on him and zooming in at the end in order to make it seem like the audience are being taken into Horatio's disturbed mind. Also, we were told that the zoom in the end because it makes the audience question what's going to happen next.

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

Coursework2

View more presentations from arfa4739.

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

Our audience for our final media product are teenagers aged 15-21 because the story is aimed at that particular age group. We followed the conventions of a psychological thriller in terms of characters and audience because we deliberately created characters that are teenagers in order for our target audience to relate to the characters. Also, we used "The Butterfly Effect" as our example because the actor who plays Evan, Ashton Kutcher, is widely popular amongst a younger audience therefore we decided to create a young character that can relate to our audience. We drew experiences from our school experiences and found that in a school, different social cliques exist. For example there are the athletes, nerds, popular groups, outsiders etc. We decided to create an isolated unpopular character, Horatio, in order to relate our character's experience to that of the audience. Similarly, there is always a popular girl in school therefore we created the character of Mia in order our our character's experience to that of the audience.

Also, the fact that we had young actors in our group also helped us in determining the age group of our movie. However our movie is open to many audiences. For example older adults who have an interest in psychological disorders may want to watch our film in order to view how we portray the symptoms of the disorder within teenagers.

Both males and females can watch our film because our main characters are male and female therefore our audience can identify with the main characters in terms of age, lifestyle, friendship groups, common location (school) and the typical teenage life.

Question 7- progression from preliminary task to final product

Progression from it to the full product

View more documents from arfa4739.

Final Film