Blog Post #30 - CCR Script

 

Hello my name is Ilya McClure and I'm currently studying AS level media studies at Hudson high school and this is my creative critical deflection for the film opening Rumo.

To answer the question, “how does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues”. Conventions are simply the things that the audience are expecting to see in a media product. So before i began working on my plot i did a lot of research on generic conventions used in horror movies. A horror movie is expected to be unsettling and viewers expect to be scared. Good examples of horror films are paranormal activity, Annabelle and IT. The camera angle conventions i used included close ups, high angles, and point of view shots. These camera angles emphasize emotion, disorientation, and fear. Horror films usually use dramatic music to create suspense of fear towards the audience and get their heart racing using their sense of hearing. I made sure to utilize this component as i used a combination of fast, slow, and suspenseful music typically heard in horror movies in my film opening. Another important convention is the use of a scary location that's able to instill fear. This location was the empty house which seems normal however the events create the horrific and terrifying atmosphere and emotions. The house was also dark and hollow which adds the sense of no one can save the character because no one is around, adding to the fear felt by the character and reflected onto the audience.

Lastly, another convention of a horror film is using common fears. These fears often include death, pain, nightmares, and fear of the unknown. My antagonist is an unknown figure who is seemingly hunting down the main character throughout the entire film. The unknown figure is never revealed up close until the very end to add more suspense and mystery to the movie.

Moving on to the question how does your product engage with the audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text. One of the ways my film engages with the audience is through familiarity for example when the character ran inside the room towards the end of the movie, it can be seen that he dropped the knife he picked up earlier onto the ground in the heat of the moment without thinking. Also the character who is in my film is a teenager and teenagers are a major part of my audience so the audience would feel connected in some way to the character.  The audience would also feel connected to the environment in which they are in which was just an ordinary house.  

If my media product was real it would be distributed in several different ways but similarly to how most horror movies are typically distributed. i would utilize social media platforms such as twitter instagram and tiktok and start off with online ads on these sites for many people to see.  

These social media platforms have a wide variety of people of all ages and includes a lot of diversity.

i would also create movie posters with the release date and a captivating image my film opening could also be used as the trailer for the movie along with that. I would also create a website that people can visit and use i would post updates on the filming process and progress as well as behind the scenes.  

This will create hype or popularity before the movie is even released. After the movie is released, the audience will be able to use this website to post their questions, comments, and concerns, along with an interface that allows viewers to interact with eachother.  

Moving on to the question how did your production skills develop throughout this project. Well, prior to this project my production skills were at a minimum. I never really had much experience producing a film or anything close to a film so this project was a completely new experience for me. However i did have experience editing videos and experimenting with editing settings. Photography is actually a hobby of mine so i was able to integrate some of those skills while producing my film opening.

The hardest part of producing this project was everything prior to filming such as creating the plot script shot list and storyboard and I had to do a lot of research to successfully create these components.  I was able to learn a lot as i planned, filmed, and edited everything. Creating this film opening was a first and i could say that my production skills have significantly improved throughout this project  

Finally, to answer the question how did you integrate technologies such as software hardware and online in this project. Well i had to utilize the technologies that were available to me including hardware software and online websites. throughout this project i grew to understand the importance of combining different resources to create a great outcome or final product. The hardware i used included my iphone, my computer, my headphones, and led video light, all of which i already had. The software i used to edit my film opening was imovie. i used imovie to edit each clip and my entire film opening. I was able to Adjust lighting settings, add filters, add special effects, merge videos, and overlap the entire video with the audio and music. Online websites and applications were useful in creating my film as well as my blog. They provided me with a large amount of information and taught me a lot. The online websites and applications that i used included google, online articles, youtube, itunes, and many related websites. That answers the questions that I had and that's a wrap on my creative critical reflection.