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

Our horror film would represent the particular social group of young teenagers. We managed to represent this group through our use of costume. We were particular about what our actors wore, for example the female who is murdered by the child collector, Lucy, wears clothing that you would assume a girl of that age would wear. The scarf that she wears is red which implies that she was in danger. Again the costume that Josh wears represents that age group as it’s like what a boy of that age would wear. The clothing isn't necessarily dull because that wouldn’t represent the social group of teenagers; instead the clothing is somewhat fashionable for this time is represents modern teenagers. We chose this younger age group because they are considered more vulnerable
The age difference between Josh and Lucy is evident; as Lucy is older than Josh she has the authority to tell him what to do, for example in our film she tells him that they need to leave the park. Josh represents a younger age group as he is adamant not to leave the park where young children often go, portraying him as somewhat childish.  Being the older sibling Lucy is the one who needs to protect a younger Josh when she hears his screams, but then because she is female she is portrayed as weak as she is soon murdered by the child collector, this is how our film also represents different genders. Furthermore, gender is represented through the use of the shot reverse shot between the two siblings. It only shows each gender one at time to show each one speaking but this also shows the opposites between the two, this is also shown by the fact that they are on a see saw where they have to sit opposite each other.
The villain of the film, the child Collector represents the social group of the disabled as he is mentally unstable, most horror characters have a past which comes out during a film and they display their abnormal behaviour because of something that has either happened to them in the past or because they want revenge.

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

For our opening sequence we decided to follow the horror genre, we realised that in order to attract our target audience we need to follow the conventions often seen in other established horror films. 
After our research into horror conventions we found out what conventions our target audience would want to see in a horror film and we incorporated some of them into our opening sequence such as a masked villain. We often see masked villains in some of the most successful horror films such as 'Saw', it proved popular as the scariest element to

have in a horror as what’s behind the mask is unknown and people are often scared by the thought of the unknown. It’s also a frightening aspect because they are disguised completely of appearance or emotion, and the audience can make no connection with them whatsoever.  From our research we also found that young children were the most frightening character in a horror so we thought that the baby mask fitted in nicely to needs and wants of the audience. The mask is very distinct and makes the film more recognisable, everyone who has watched 'Saw' will immediately link the masked villain with the name of the film. 
The costumes contribute hugely to the horror genre, especially for the villain. In horror films very minimalistic clothes are worn. In many horror films the killer will most likely be wearing dark clothing which portrays them as evil characters, and perhaps a character in red may symbolise that they’re in danger. For example, in the horror film 'Strangers' almost all of the characters are in relatively dark, dull and boring clothing to portray the negativity that comes from a horror.
One example of a convention that we have used is the music. The music in horror films are used to increase the tension and fear, such as immediate drum type beats that increase in frequency and tempo and we often hear high pitched sounds too. In our film the music at the beginning links in with the villain, the child collector in a baby face mask as its music we could associate with young children, it reminded us of a music box that young children could of received in the past. It creates a sense of mystery and makes us feel slightly unnerved, it’s also very suspenseful keeping the audience interested in the film. 

A young boy is the victim in part of the opening, they are often the victims of wrong doing that make them become the villain such as in the film 'Bereavement' where the young boy is made to slaughter innocent people. However, we used a young child as the actual victim, but are more mentally hurt than physically because its considered ethically wrong and the audience would find it difficult to watch a young child being physically hurt or murdered, this is how we have challenged the genre.

We also used the typical horror convention of a young female victim, There is almost no horror film without a female victim, as they are portrayed as being vulnerable, weak and incapable of saving themselves which reinforces traditional representations of gender. This was also seen in the film Candyman where a young attractive female is murdered by the Candyman after repeating his name five times whilst looking into a mirror. This convention is often used in horror films as it usually attracts a more male audience because it encourages their instinct.
Another convention of a horror is the dark lighting, we had to post edit our film opening to make the lighting darker to create an eerie atmosphere that is often present in most horrors, for example in 'Se7en' the dark lighting to create a sense of evil and it comes across as quite sinister, by having the lighting in this way you are able to create shadows to emphasise the horror element of the unknown.

There are common sights that you are likely to see in every horror film such as weapons and blood. These sights are the things which allow the target audience to recognise this genre, and they expect to see these things again and again in horror films as it is conventional- without these sights, the film may not be a successful horror. We included blood in our horror film and tried to incorporate a weapon but as it was set in a park with young children present this was difficult to do, so we had to use other conventions such as the blood which we have used in our title sequence and after Lucy has been attacked by the Child Collector she is left with a wound to the head.
The titles on our film also represent the colours associated with horrors, black white and red. In almost every horror the title follows this colour scheme, for example the horror ‘Scream’.

Our setting was based in a park as this links in with the baby mask and young child victim, we thought that the man in the baby mask was perhaps a victim himself which made him the way he is a brutal murderer. His life was better as a child and is therefore reminiscing his early childhood at the park, but murders innocent people because of what happened to him, almost like revenge. The park is not a common convention of a horror but this makes the films more unique and because of the other conventions that we have included it is still identifiable as a horror film.

The shots that we used through out the film also portray the horror genre. For example, we used hand held shots to suggest that the person who's view point it is from is in panic, we had done this where Lucy is running to her brother as she heard his screams. This is often used in horror films to create that panic felt by the character onto the audience, usually during a murder or a frightening scene. Another shot that we have use is a low angle shot as the child collector climbs up the ladders of the slide, this portrays the villain as a dominant figure and all of those below him are submissive. It makes him seem like a powerful figure that could determine the actions of others and also portrays the strength that he has to brutally murder others out of revenge.
Other shots that we have used include flash backs, this often happens in the opening of a horror film in order to give background to the story about to be told. They often show murders without giving too much away. Flash backs are used in the horror film 'The Village' however, this is shown towards the end of the film rather than the beginning. In many horrors including flashbacks they are used to fill in gaps, this is how we have developed this convention because ours is at the beginning to set the scene for the film and so that the audience can gain some background knowledge into what happened to Josh.
Overall, we have used several conventions of a typical horror film so that we attract a wide audience, but we have still being able to develop and challenge some conventions too such as a flash back.

Flashback

Hand held shot

Low angle shot

Production Schedule

Dates of filming

When (Dates)	Where	What shots are we filming	Who is needed	What equipment will we need	Health and Safety implications
18th March	Castle park Tamworth	Shots: -1-2 -11-13	Renya Emily(Lucy) Abi Matthew(Josh)	- Camera - Tripod - Everyday clothes - Gloves	- Take care with the equipment
21st March	Castle park Tamworth	Shots: -14-16	Renya(killer) Abi Emily(Lucy) Matthew(Josh)	- Camera - Tripod - Black hoodie - Gloves - Everyday clothes	- Take care with the equipment
26th March	Castle park Tamworth	Shots: -17-23	Renya(killer) Abi Emily Matthew(Josh)	- Camera - Tripod - Black hoodie - Mask - Gloves - Everyday clothes	- Take care with the equipment -Take care when running in scenes
28th March	Castle park  Tamworth	Shots: -Re-shoot shots 13-16	Renya (killer) Abi Emily (Lucy) Matthew(Josh)	- Camera - Tripod - Black hoodie - Mask - Gloves - Everyday clothes	-Due to the snow on the ground we had to re-film - Take care with the equipment
2nd April	Castle park Tamworth	Shots: -19-22	Renya (killer) Abi Emily Matthew(Josh)	- Camera - Tripod - Black hoodie - Mask - Gloves - Everyday clothes	-Take care with the equipment
8th April	Castle park Tamworth	Shots: -3-10	Renya (girl 1) Abi (girl 2) Emily Ryan(Josh)	- Camera - Tripod - Black hoodie - Mask - Gloves - Everyday clothes	-Take care with the equipment
11th April	Castle park Tamworth	Shots: -24-30	Renya(killer) Abi Emily(Lucy)	- Camera - Tripod - Black hoodie - Mask - Gloves - Everyday clothes	-Take care with the equipment - Had rained the night before so had to take care when filming due to slippery conditions - Take car in the running scenes -Take care when falling onto the ground

Casting and Avatars

Once we had decided on our plot for our film and the characters involved we needed to decide on appropriate actors to portray these characters. I have gave a description of each character in the opening sequence, their roles and other factors such as the costume they will wear. We created avatars using a website called Pickaface to give a clearer representation of what our characters will look like.

Lucy -main character
Played by: Emily Driscoll
Role: Lucy is the older sister of Josh who gets murdered by child collector after an attempt to save her younger sibling.I play this role, I thought that I would be best to play this role as I was always available to film when we needed to and I also have blonde hair which is considered a convention in horror films that blonde women are the victims.

Costume: Average Clothing of a 17 year old teenager. She wears a red scarf that suggests that she is in danger.





Female friend 1Played by: Renya Szczodrak
Role: Friend of older Josh at the beginning of the opening
This will played by one of the group members as she is also the same age as the character and as shes part of the group she knows how best to play the role to our desire.
Costume: Average clothing of a teenager, clothing was not specific and we came in what we would normally wear because this is the age group we want to represent.

Older Josh - Protagonist
Played by: Ryan Spencer
Role: Plays the older version of Josh who has a flashback to a past horrific event at the park.
We thought that this actor would be best for the role as he is of the same age as the older version of Josh and can play a believable role.
Costume:  Average clothing of a teenage boy

Female friend 2Played by: Abi Nash
Role: Female friend of the older Josh at the beginning of the opening sequence.
This will played by one of the group members as she is also the same age as the character and as shes part of the group she knows how best to play the role to our desire.
Clothing: average clothing of a teenage girl in 2013

 The Child Collector - AntagonistPlayed by: Renya Szczodrak
Role: The antagonist of the film who is set out to murder Josh. In the opening they murder Josh's older sister.
Costume: Wheres a mask of a baby face. The clothing that she will wear will be baggy dark male clothes and a 'hoodie' to disguise the fact that the Child Collector is a played by a female

Younger Josh
Played by: Matthew Driscoll
Role: the main character of the opening sequence who witnesses the murder of his sister after she attempts to save him from the Child Collector, he survives.
Costume: Average clothing of an 11 year old

Role Allocation

Director:  We decided that we would all direct the film because we all have our own individual ideas, if one person was to direct the film may not be created to the best of our ability, we all need input into the directing. 

Writer: We all wrote the script and plot because they were both a combination all our ideas and by writing it together we could expand on our ideas as we went.

Cameraperson: We decided as a group that we would all film some scenes, we allocated ourselves particular scenes because we all had acting parts in the film and therefore we will be unable to film ourselves. I personally have a big acting role in the opening sequence and therefore it was better for me to film the opening scene and the end scene in which I am not involved in. However, we all had input even when we were acting as to where the camera should be placed and what angles should be shot.

Editor: We all decided we would edit the film together so that we can all have some input in to the film so that it is edited to the best of the groups ability.

We thought that by allocating roles evenly all of our individual ideas could be taken in to account so that our film involves the best of our ideas. 

Storyboard

Scripts

As a group we decided to change our original script and idea that involved a mother and father watching their children at the park to a brother and sister, it follows a similar story line but we had to change it because we couldn't find actors of the age that we wanted to act in our film.

New Script:

 At the park during the evening

 Group of friends- Josh why are you standing there come in you idiot

 Josh – I can’t

 Cuts to flashback of lifeless body (screaming) then a cut back to a medium close up of Josh’s face

 Group of friends – like what

 Josh – Bad things have happened in my child hood

Group of friends – What happened (they all heckle and made jokes)

 Flashback of park at twilight with distant ambient sound of families walking way.

 Lucy– Josh, it’s time to go home now

 Josh- No, I don’t want to go home yet. Let me go and play on the swings

 Lucy– all of the other families are leaving

 Josh – only because it’s getting dark

 Lucy– that’s not the only reason

 Josh – what do you mean?

 Lucy– have you ever heard of the child collector?

 Josh – who?

 Lucy – There is a legend about a man called the child collector who haunts this park seeking and kidnapping children like you who don’t leave the park by nightfall

(fade out dialogue)

Child collector – little did they know I was watching them

(Fade in)

 Josh runs off to play on swings 

 Lucy – (frustrated) Fine, let the child collector catch you

 (Lucy gets up to leave)

 (Cut to Josh going up to a man on the swing)

 Josh – can I have a go on the swing?

 (Man starts to turn, then a cut to close up of josh’s face he then screams and cuts back to his sister Lucy walking away)

 (Lucy hears a scream and runs over to where he heard the scream to see a man on the swing facing towards him with his head down but no josh in sight)

 Lucy - where’s my brother?

 (Slow zoom which speeds up rapidly to the child collector looking up towards him)

 (Lucy turns to run away but child collector is faster than him so he grabs him by the neck)

 Child collector – I told you so

 (Makes his way over to the slide, laughter going down the slide)

Child Collector - it’s time for round two josh (laughter)

Old Script:

At the park during the evening

 Adult Josh – (to wife) c’mon, let’s get the kids and go home (anxiously)

 Sally – don’t be silly Josh, the kids are having fun don’t ruin it for them.  What’s wrong with you?  Why are you always anxious here?

 Cut to flashback of lifeless body (screaming) then a cut back to a medium close up ofJosh’s face

 Adult Josh – you know I don’t like to talk about my childhood

 Flashback of park at twilight with distant ambient sound of families walking way.

 Tom (older brother) – Josh, it’s time to go home now

 Josh - No, I don’t want to go home yet. Let me go and play on the swings

 Tom – all of the other families are leaving

 Josh – only because it’s getting dark

 Tom – that’s not the only reason

 Josh – what do you mean?

 Tom – have you ever heard of the child collector?

 Josh – who?

 Tom – There is a legend about a man called the child collector who haunts this park seeking and kidnapping children like you who don’t leave the park by nightfall (fade out dialogue)

 Child collector – little did they know I was watching them

 (Fade in)

 Tom – that’s why we should go

 Josh – no, I don’t believe you (runs off to play on swings)

 Tom – (frustrated) Fine, let the child collector catch you

(Ambient sound of mobile phone)

 (Exaggerated loud breathing)

 (Extreme close up of phone saying ‘I will’)

 (Cut to Josh going up to a man on the swing)

 Josh – can I have a go on the swing?

 (Man starts to turn before a cut back to Tom)

 (Tom hears a scream and runs over to where he heard the scream to see a man on the swing facing towards him with his head down but no josh in sight)

 (Slow zoom which speeds up rapidly to the child catcher looking up towards him)

 (Tom turns to run away but child collector grabs him by the neck)

 Child catcher – I told you so