My media product uses the conventions of Horror having moments of suspension and creating a tense atmosphere with speedy shots, we also used sinister eerie music for our opening sequence which is again a convention in horror.  My horror also challenges the conventions by showing some of the crucial moments at the start, bringing the film full circle at the end. 

My media product is very traditional and follows the social group of teenagers going to the woods to drink underage and have a good time, it also shows the female social group in the sense that from the start when they first hear a strange noise they both jump and are 'freaked out', where as stereotypically males wouldn't react this way.  There is a slight twist on the antagonist although in horrors there are often creepy little girls we added the twist of having it be a woman with the mind of a child giving it that slight advance on horror conventions.

Personally i believe that two major institutions that would distribute my film would be Hammer especially if you look at some of their productions like 'Beyond The Rave' and i believe that Lions Gate would also release a film like mine especially after the infamous torture franchise of saw.

My target audience would be teens to mid-twenties, male, any ethnicity, but mainly the white and black communities and social grade wouldn't have a massive effect but if i had to choose i would say C1 and below, i have decided this based on my research conduct in my questionnaire

I feel i have attracted my audience by first showing them the scene mixed in with some titles and music this would make them wonder what they are about to see and be intrigued as to how such a picturesque place could be turned into a place of bloodshed and torture.
In terms of marketing i would use my institution to help me spread the story and make it larger than life, i would also try and have some form of synergy with another brand, such as galaxy, promoted with a free chocolate bar for everyone who purchased a cinema ticket for my film.  I would also have trailers put on tv and in cinemas.  I would also make some form of promotion using fandom giving people who are amped up to see the film a day where they can do something, this would not only let the fans feel involved but also promote my film further.

I have learnt how to use the mini DV camera's in ways i didn't know before, whilst filming i've learnt how to take freeze-frames, change the settings, put on night mode, a timer and how to zoom correctly.  I also learnt how to put up a tripod and get it straight.
I had never used final cut pro before now and once i had gotten over how complicated it looked i could see how to change things, i started small with a rough edit then started adding and taking away things like replacing original sounds with music and adding transitions to create a smooth cut.
I had also never blogged before and using blogger at first was a bit difficult but once i had gotten used to it i have discovered the potential that it holds i now know how to add pictures, videos, alter text size colour and font, i learnt how to use it that much that i started enjoying it and now have my own blog separate to this

In the preliminary task i noticed how my recording was shocking, i couldn't hold the camera still without a tripod and began doubting the work we would get at the end of the year, after a few trial and errors and finally learning how the tripod worked it became easier to shoot things and filming match on action, shot-reverse-shot's and the 180-degree rule became second nature.  Once i had gained this knowledge i then wanted to make sure that it reflected in my final task and so made sure that i made a note of how i got the shots i did and how the tripod worked and how to edit them into place.

Pitch

The following is my pitch which i feel would get people to want to produce and be a part of my film,

''Classic Horror is no longer shown in our cinemas, you see sci-horror, horror-thriller, horror-comedy, but never a traditional slasher, with shots that make the mind tick and think, ones that can only make the audience imagine the horrors behind this unseen moments.  I want to bring traditional horror back, the unpredictable devlish turns of each plot and narrative device.  My film is based around a rare mental disorder known as Munchousens Syndrome By Proxy, a form of child abuse, however with the mind of a child what can she do but abuse those around her?  Some have been known to go to the extent of killing their own for attention.  So this woman in the woods who hasn't left since her home burnt down and hundreds of patients escaped has been offered two unsuspecting teenagers to torture until their final demise.  The woman in question will slowly hunt the teenagers and play tricks on their minds, she then attacks in the night, making one teenager so ill by bleeding her making her look sucidal, when found she couldn't form a word let alone a sentence, then the second teenager makes a run for it as her friend slowly stops breathing.  The woman then finds the second teenager and does her the honour of breaking both of her legs leaving her helpless the woman is then seen being motherly and talking of how she should get her to the hospital to fix her and make her better, so that people will think she's a hero,  The woman then cradles the teen holding her head, she then swiftly breaks her neck yet continues to cradle her.  Now that the woman has no one she wanders aimlessly, she doens't like that she can't get any attention now and so decides to hang herself so that people will see her and give her body attention.  This being the end, a twist where the killer kills themselves.''

Film Planning

Due to my audience questionnaire and statistics from the UK Film Council website: http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/information/statistics/yearbook/?pf=&low=&y=2005&c==5&s=
i decided that the best film i could do would be a Horror and so i began my planning

Firstly i made a mood board: I took an A3 piece of paper, rubbed it with a mixture or dirt, water, grass and green food dye to show the ground and the setting which is a forest.  I then used a black marker to write down the various ideas i had which were things like:
Woman-mind of little girl
Teddy Bear
Rocking Chair
Mental Asylum
Knife
Cannibalism

and various other ideas.
Eventually i decided that i wanted to have the teddy bear to represent the mentally disturbed woman and her thoughts, the teddy bear had been torn apart and was severely aged and dirty.  I then filmed my film at an abandoned mental asylum, however upon filming i decided on just using the forest surroundings due to buildings and modernization occurring around the wreckage. 

Audience Research Results

Gender: 20 Males 20 Females

Age:  10 - under 18's        10 - 20-35's           10 - 36-50's           10 - 51's+

Household Income:  13 - under £25,000       18 - £25,000-£50,000           3 - £50,000-£75,000       1 - £75,000+             5 - N/A

Ethnicity:  4 - White-Irish           14 - White-British          8 - Black-British           6 - Asian-British        8 - N/A

Q1: Rom-Com: 8           Thriller: 16          Horror: 16

Q2: 0: 27           1: 9              2: 3              3: 1

Q3:   Weekly:  1       Fortnightly:  8     Monthly:  15       Yearly:  8      Never: 8

Q4:  Varied, majority were in the horror/thriller genre


Q5:  Director: 5      Cast:  3       Storyline: 8        Genre: 13        Trailer:  11

Q6:  Internet: 0      Television:  9        Magazines: 2       Posters: 5          Trailers: 24

So from this questionnaire i gathered that most people favoured thriller and horror, visiting the cinema once a month who based their decision on either genre or trailer and they had access to films from trailers seen either in cinema, through word of mouth or on television.