1.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
 Like all official films, we used a mock green banner to create realism and convey the
suitability for the TA audience’s age group = 18
 The Production logo also adds realism; the locked production grows in size,
becoming more prominent, thus more memorable.
 Quotes from magazines/newspapers/critics are a major marketing; we used the
same quotes and taglines and linked this throughout our ancillary texts.
 Conventionally, credit is given to the director or famous actors, we used a mock
previous hit film to influence the audience to come and see REDEMPTION.
 Iconography we used was blood and subverted this by adding an element of
infection and disease. Where you instantly realise the film is a horror genre.
 Our teaser trailer also followed the shock tactics used in real horror teasers. The use
of quick cuts builds tension and the sudden black out at the end, followed by the
name of the film at the end, leaves a lasting memory in the audience’s mind.
 Teaser trailer conventionally give very little away. The news report builds on the
idea of an epidemic and justifies that the film is British and links the trailer
throughout e.g. us of trains.
 When researching horror posters they tended to be black, we subverted the idea by
suing the ‘SAW’ posters for inspiration. White, sterile type images that give a horrific
impression, we tried to achieve this, and the dirty white background allows the
tainted dark red blood to stand out and draws all the attention to the shocking image
of the syringe through the tongue. Playing on the idea of purity, destruction and the
immoral. Searching on Google we found this image and tried to replicate it.
 The content at the bottom of the poster follows conventions of all film posters. E.g.
the names of actors, release date production crew etc.
 The masthead, top banner, date and price layout followed the conventions Empire
film magazine; however, the ‘I’ in our Empire cover is replaced with an object (the
syringe) which subverted any other empire masthead, giving us originality.
 The puffs, lower banner, the name of the film and the tagline advertise all extra
content, revealing more value for the reader in parting with their money.
 The plugs; the exclusivity of new releases in 2011 and free merchandise entice the
reader to buy a magazine and this is a convention we adhered to in our cover.
The New Norman Bates of horror. Psycho inspired. The only interview.
 Creep’ is a British horror, set in a train station; we used and developed the idea of
isolation by filming at Clapham Junction. Similarly to ‘Creep’ our victim is being
hunted down by the immoral villain. We aimed at challenging any idea of forests or
vampires. We subverted any corny Twilight idea of taking blood into our villain
injected his victims with contaminated blood.
 Quarantine’ - infection in the plotline is more terrifying than any monster or ghost.
This is because it’s realistic and isn’t impossible. This provides a perfect example of
moral panic. Similar to how people were scared to shower after Psycho. Perhaps
there Redemption will have the same effect on fear of injections. We were inspired
by the use of mirror and eye’s in Psycho, playing on the idea of being watched.
2.How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 The effectiveness of our texts came down to good analysis and pre-understanding of
what our target audience wanted. I carried out a survey and questionnaire that
influenced the type of horror film we created.
 For our texts as a whole, we implanted cohesive images, texts and music. The subtle
links include the depiction of syringes throughout conveying our infection plot idea.
 All three of our final texts included the Empire Quote “A film that will change horror
forever” and we imbedded our tagline “The next stop is purification” further playing
on the commuting in central London, which is the location of our film trailer.
 Our inspiration from Psycho is evident in our film poster, instead of making our
villain look innocent like Bates; we chose an image that revealed the menacing side
of him. The use of the black and white image gives the cover a sense of nostalgia and
indicates it’s a special edition cover.
 Our production company logo is fixed in to our film poster, branding our symbol and
thus the film.
 The musical score of Thom Yorke is referred to in our poster. I chose the song for
our trailer because it creates pace and matches the use of quick cuts. The lyrics also
suggested being pushed off the right path and into the immoral. Therefore, the
trailer and music foreshadow the events that will play out in our plotline and film.
 We also ensured that the audience could tell that our film was for 18 year olds. This
was conveyed through our texts. For example, the drug abuse conveyed in our
trailer, instantly makes the film fall into the 18+BBFC guidelines.

3.What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 We were really happy with the feedback on our trailer. Overall the majority
agreed that they would watch the film. 95% agreed that the trailer looks
professional, the rest were unsure.
- If I could improve something I would definitely make the trailer a little
longer, however, I think the teaser is effective in creating intrigue and
mystery because being frightened is part of your own imagination, therefore,
its more about what you don’t see than what’s obvious and pretentious.
 Feedback on our film poster revealed that the main image was effective and
created that feeling of being uncomfortable because of the sadistic image.
 The combination of our texts received some scrutiny (5% disagreed with the
three linking together), perhaps because the colours used in the three texts vary,
however, we meticulously planned the smaller and finer details to link together,
so it’s not instantly obvious.
 The magazine cover was commended for its professional look and I have learnt
that every element, every colour and character used in magazine has a thought
process behind it; nothing is done on a whim.
4.How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?

- IMDB – search film posters, trailers and plotlines for inspiration

- Begin collecting props and making them over Halloween (October best time
to buy).
- Advertise for actors on ‘Gumtree’, received a large number of replies and
shifted through them, received pictures and CV’s that helped us decide who
would be best. Scheduling conflicts mean that our Final Girl could not make
it, so Louise stepped in for her.
- Kept in contact with actors through email, using my blackberry and
overcame difficulties during the snow week by keeping them informed of the
delays at all times.
- We then began filming and I learnt essential directing skills, gave Kanwal
(camera operator) clear instructions of angles and how I wanted the shots to
look.
- Began photography for the film and learnt how to operate a SLR camera in
more innovative ways, e.g. the flash, the lens and getting focus.
- My skills on Photoshop have drastically improved this year, I can manipulate
images, by layering, cutting and changing opacity unlike before.
- I used new tools such as Photobucket to upload my storyboard and we got
fonts for all our texts from online sources.
- Then it was a case of constantly updating my blogger as often as I could. This
year I learnt how to add more multimedia for example my storyboard.
- We received feedback and advertised our final product through YouTube and
social networking sites like Facebook, this was something didn’t do last year.
- Using Prezi instead of producing repetitive power points