Evaluation

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

Different genre have different codes and conventions, each genre uses its own codes and convention to create its meaning. In every movie, there should always be protagonist and antagonist which an audience can clearly distinguish. The audience can distinguish the characters with their characteristic behaviour, costumes and make up.

I have used codes and conventions in my product which fits within the horror genre. Within a horror film we expect to see spirit, ghost as antagonist who is always chasing after the protagonist and killing people who comes in her corridor.

In this product the character Jennifer is introduced as a geek and loner who is locked up by her mates in radio room whereas Sakura is introduced as Ghost, the antagonist haunting innocent people who crosses her space. Sakura is a ghost who disappeared from Havering College few years ago.

Title of the Film

This is the print screen of the title of our 2 min opening sequence. I have chosen "Cherry Blossom" as a title of my product as it is the English name of "Sakura" and I am mainly focusing on the character Sakura. I chose red colour in the text of the title as it connotes danger, blood. "Cherry Blossom" is a mixture of red and white, red connotes danger whereas white connote peace which means Sakura is both innocent and danger.

How characters are introduced


This is the print screen of the characters in the radio room; it introduces the characters of opening sequence. The protagonist Jennifer is introduced as a geek and loner who is locked up in a radio room where as Sakura is introduced as antagonist haunting Jennifer. Sakura is a ghost who disappeared from Havering few years ago.

Setting/ Location


I chose this location for our opening sequence as this sequence is based on students. Radio room was a perfect place for us as it was perfect place for the development of situation where important events would take place. As our character goes with the stereotype of being geek and media students, both has association with Jennifer. It also has a suitable place to hide, as it is easy to access and spacious with the connotation of being mysterious. The corridor gives a feeling of being trapped.

Camerawork and Editing

I have used different angle, shots and movement while shooting this sequence, to create enigma, dominance. Two shot was used to show the relationship between two characters. Close up shot is used to show the expression of the characters and focus on the props, medium shot was used to show both expression and body language of the character. Long shot is used to show the body language of the character and also to show the location. Tracking movement is used to track the movement of Jennifer.

Costumes and props



I have used high buttoned shirt and pencil skirt for Jennifer to stereotype Jennifer as a geek and nerdy character whereas white dress for Sakura to show her character as spirited ghost. I also used white dress as it is used in most of Japanese Horror to create enigmatic appearance of antagonist. The prop used in this sequence is phone. It is used in this sequence to create tension and fear to audience.

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



I have chosen a key character Sakura to compare with Kayako of "The Grudge". Although the story lines are different they have some similarities in their character at certain points but also have some dissimilarities.

Sakura is a stepsister of Kate Miyazaki. She was a student of Havering College who was studying GCSE. One day she suddenly disappeared from her college, nobody knew what happened to her or where she was. After some months, few students disappeared. Sakura was the one who killed all of those students as they were found to be strangled by the corridor neart to the radio room. Sakura also kills Jennifer who was locked up by her classmate in radio room. At that point we realise that Sakura is a ghost.

Similarly, they both share fate. They both were murdered and hold a strong grudge against someone. Kayako is a ghost who kills every person who comes in her house. All people who steps in her house are cursed by her. They both rule a particular area- Sakura rules her corridor whereas Kayako rules her house. They both wear white dress and have long hair which hides their faces most of the time.

There are also vast differences between these characters as they are of different ages. Sakura is a student where as Kayako is a mid wife who have a son. Other differences are that Kayako was murdered by her husband after she fell in love with a professor. Sakura is just a 15 year old girl who doesn't have any knowledge about love. Sakura kills all her victim within her territory whereas Kayako kills her victim in places other than the house, Kayako's curse follows the victim and spreads curses even in that areas. In full length of my movie Sakura enters in her sister's body where as Kayako is accompanied by her son.

Overall both the characters are female ghost, which is common in most of the horror movies. Both character holds grudges against someone and spreads curse. The target audience could relate these two characters easily as they represent similar characteristics and images.

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


The production name of our opening sequence is 'Lightning' with a picture of an animated eye. I chose this name as a production name as it sounds strong and effective to the horror production. I chose animated eye as I was inspired by Japanese Anime, our target audience are mostly European and Asian. I also chose the production name Lightning as it fits with the image.

This production company produces films, Tv programs, adverts etc. and distributes it in different media. They also get funds by producing their product. Dreamworks has produced many films, records and Tv programs. This studio has also won three Best Pictures Oscar. This company has produced films like Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind. This production also produces animation; it has produced animation like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda etc.

A distributer is someone who distributes films in different media and supports it fully. Dreamworks would be the most reliable as it has been existing since mid 1990s and have distributed Horror film 'The Ring' which was a very big hit within horror genre.

We could also distribute our movie online because this is the 21st century, year of technologies and it is easily accessible. Youtube is the easiest way to distribute our product as it is very advanced and easy to access. Audience would prefer to watch it online as it is free of cost.

The production name is shown in the beginning of the movie following with the name of association and two actors. The other cast are shown as the movie begins. Our film is influenced by Horror movies like The Ring, Grudge and the Thai movie called'Shutter'.

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

We produced our product for several audience group,15+ of both gender. From all of this target audience, I chose a female audience named Anu for analysing on our product.

This is Anu Tamang. She is 20 years old and lives in Essex. She is curently working in restuarant as a waitress. She have passed her A-level with good grades. She wears a casual dress Jeans, T-shirt and Jacket. She enjoys shopping with her friends. She shops in places like Zara, H&M and River Island.

She enjoys watching all genre movie especially horror, sci-fi and comedy. She enjoys watching horror movies like The Ring, The Grudge, The Witchboard, Shutter and many more although she is scared to watch it. She also loves scaring people and throwing on people as she gets all these ideas from Youtube. She watches movies a lot and goes to cinema hall once a week. Most of the time,she watches movies online. She needs popcorn by her side even if she watches at home. She also recommends a movie to her friends which is very helpful for us at it is also a source of distribution.

She listens to classical music which she buys from HMV. She has lots of CD piles in her house which is her hobby and token from friends.

I think our film would appeal to this girl as she is a horror freak. If this film is to be screened in her local cinema, this may appeal to her. As it is similar to other films such as The Ring, Shutter and The Grudge.

5) How do you attract/address your audience?
We handed our questionnaire to the audience to know what codes and conventions in particular are they attracted in horror movies. From the feedback of audience, we realized that the most of audience would like to see death, chilling drama and taste their nerves in horror movies which seems more real and conveying than fake bloods which was filled mostly by male of ages 18 - 22. We used this survey for our benefit through stereotype of representation of male. We used female characters in this opening sequence to create sympathy towards this characters. This is supported by technical aspects like mise-en-scene and cinematography.

We also attracted our audience through the engaging story line. For example:- we made Sakura disappear and reappear by editing different shots which was placed together at last. The opening sequence starts with Jennifer shouting from room. It creates the sense of being trapped and helplessness. The enigma created throughout the opening sequence was to create a question in audience's mind about why is Sakura haunting Jennifer? Is there any relation between Sakura and Jennifer?

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

We have learnt many stuffs about technology, we learnt to use camera equipment and other softwares like finalcut pro, soundtrack pro and many more. It was fascinating using this equipments. I was fine with using camera equipments as it was easy to set up camera and tripod.

For our shooting we used
i) NP-F970 Battery
ii) MiniDV Tape
iii) Shotgun Mic with Fluffy
iv) Tripod
v) DT 100 Headphones

We had a smooth shooting for two days. Though the 1st day of our shooting was a bit difficult as I had to shoot by crawling under the table as there wasn't enough space. The software we used are -

Blogger: We used blogger to create our blog and to post our work on a blog. By using blog,I realised that we can post anything on our blog and there are so many blogs about fashion, filming and personal blogger.

Youtube: We used youtube to upload our prelimainary task, opening sequence and audience feedback. We also used youtube to learn elements of cinematography like shots and angle. We also learnt how to use blogger in youtube.

Finalcut pro: We used finalcut pro to edit our preliminary task and opening sequence. We added sounds, title sequence through Finalcut pro

7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

This is the print screen from our preliminary task.From Preliminary Task,I have learnt a lot of stuffs. It was my first time using camera equipments on my ow. It was college property so I was little scared that I might not handle it properly. For this task I have used 3 of the most important elements of editing while filming which are Match-on-actoin, 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. I also used these elements for my final piece which was very helpful.

From the preliminary task I have learnt how to set up the camera equipment

The cuts from one shot to another shot that matches the first shot action is called match on action.The two characters in the same scene should always have same left-right relationship to each other which is called 180 degree rule. We should always use 180 degree rule otherwise it confuses the audience.An editing where 1st shot is cut to 2nd shot and again cut back to 1st shot is called Shot reverse shot. We have used shot reverse shot in our final product while Jennifer looks at Sakura and again cuts back to Jennifer. This helped us to understand the importance of Shot reverse shot. We also tried to use 180 degree rule but there was not many scenes where we could use it.




This is the print screen of our preliminary task which clearly shows that we have the knowledge of 180 degree rule.

The preliminary task taught us the elements of technical aspects. Our preliminary task didn't ran smoothly. We shot it twice as it was our 1st time and we didn't had understanding of all these elements. Preliminary task was short so it was easy to apply the rules.

Textual analysis (Anju and Sustika)

Anju Tamang 50%
Sustika Limbu 50%

We are analysing a 90 minutes Sequence of an American version movie The Grudge 2004.In this textual analysis, we will be writing about 4 technical aspects. Mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound.

This film was directed by Takashi Shimizu.

This movie starts with the title sequence and follows with the written text "When someone dies in a greap of a powerful range ..... a curse is born" the word "Curse" is highlighted in red, the screen fades in black for a while and again appears with other written text " The curse gathers in that place of death" again the word "Death" is highlighted in red. Soon after that, other phrase takes place "Those who encounter it will be consumed by its fury" the word "Fury" is highlighted in red again. The reason behind highlighting these words "Curse", "Death", "Fury" are interconnected with the storyline of the movie whereas red connotes danger.

The movie starts with establishing shot which shows the location and camera tracks towards the character's face whose worrying facial expression is visible to see. Few minutes later, a brief introduction of 1st character Professor Peter, his short lived scene ends which automatically ends after he jumps from his balcony which happens to be witnessed by his wife. The new character, a social worker is introduced who is assisting the ill woman Emma. One day her assistance, Yoko Maki hears a sound from the room while cleaning. She wonders into the rooms to find the source of sound. She hears the sound coming from ceiling upon careful inspection. She sees that that the passage to the attic when she opens the cupboard. She climbs the ladder through the cupboard. stretches her body to get the proper view inside the attic. Therefore, she burns the lighter and looks around there. She sees the ghost (Kayako), the main antagonist of the sequence. After this event, the main protagonist is introduced.

Karen Davis


Karen Davis is the main protagonist of the film. She goes to assist the same person Emma, in the place of Yoko Maki. While working, she finds a closet being barred by the tape. The cat like noise comes from it. Out of curiousity, she rips off the tape and finds a little boy. She asks her to come out of closet but he refuses. She asks him his name of which she gets prompt reply of his name being Toshi. This get interrupted as Emma begins to chatter alone. As she calms Emma, the dark, long hair flows above the ceiling which terrifies Emma. Kayako reaches to Emma while Karen continues to stare at her. Karen lose consciousness from fear. Finally Karen's boss Alex appears who witnesses Emma's death and finds Karen in a state of shock. Karen is taken to hospital and another character detective Nakagawa is introduced. The detective interrogates Alex about the other family members of Emma. Finally the detective interrogates Karen. She tells her part of the story, indicating the appearance of the boy. Over the next few day she is distressed by Kayako. Frightened and stressed, she begins to research the history of the house. Eventually Karen discovers that the house had been embroiled by the murder case. This gives her more initiative to investigate on her own. She meets Peter's wife Maria and questions her about connection between Kayako's house and her husband's suicide . Unfortunately, Maria doesnot have any clue to help her so she allows Karen to search through the old photographs. Looking every photograph in detail, Karen gets a hold of photograph with Kayako in the background. It indicates that Kayako had been following the couple without their knowledge. Karen tries to talk with her boyfriend Doug but he has already left to investigate situation on his own while trying to get hold of Karen. Karen returns to the house searching for her boyfriend where she gets the flashback of Peter's visit. She experiences the event that took place after Peter finds the corpse of Kayako and Takeo's hanging on the noose by Kayako's hair. The flashback allows Karen to see a brief, final moment of his life: him murdering his wife, Kayako and his son, Toshio. Overwhelmed by revelation about the murder,Karen wobbles on the way down to the stairs.Doug has been crippled so he gets dragged towards the door by Karen when he grabs her ankle, but Kayako's ghost suddenly appears upstair. Kayako crawls down the stair towards them. Karen gives a kiss of death to Doug. She bangs the door and kicks over the gas can. She tries to burn the Doug's lighter and fires it onto the gas, as suddenly Doug turns into Kayako. The screen goes white and shows the ambulance taking Karen.

Later she learns that the house has been saved and mourns the death of his boyfriend,Doug. Suddenly, Kayako's hair appears beneath the sheet that covered him, she soon realizes it was just a figment of her imagination because it turns out to be the normal sheet. Kayako, then appears behind Karen. As Kayako utters her death groan, the movie ends with her eyeshot.


Kayako is the antagonist of the film. She was killed by her husband after he finds out that she fell in love with an American Professor(Peter) in Tokyo. Takeo, Kayako's husband beats her up and while escaping she crawls down the stairs in futile as he kills her and packs her in the white, transparent bag to hide her dead body above the ceiling. Then, Takeo kills their child Toshio by drowning him inside the bath tub, full of water. Later, Takeo hangs himself.

Since the day Kayako was killed, the each and every person who comes to live in that house or those who steps inside the house are cursed, gets haunted by her and the curse spreads.

Textual Analysis

I have chosen 1976 Horror Genre movie "The Omen" to analyse. The director has used 4 main technical aspects- Cinematography, Mise-en-scene, Editing and Sound to attract its audience.
This film was written by David Seltzer and directed by Richard Donner. This movie is a production of 20th century fox which is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

The movie starts with title sequence including name of all the person involved in movie like name of directos, producers, casts and other crew member. The movie starts with the protagonist shown from medium close up shot to establishing shot to show the worried expression of the character and the location. The non-diegetic sound voiceover is used to inform whats happening in the scene. He finally arrives his destination hospital where her wife is on the labour. The priest informs him, his wife gave a stillbirth and is convienced to audience by director using two shot and medium long shot. At the same time antagonist is shown in care of a nun who is singing lullaby to fall him asleep. Medium close up shot is used to show the existence of antagonist, nobody would belive he is antagonist as he is just a child who was born sometime ago. The protagonist adopts the antagonist without knowing his true identity.

This opening sequence has used props like car, bench as necessity of daily life during their hardships.

The information of this film is revealed to audience through voiceover and dialogue. This opening sequence created enigmas like why did the antagonist chose protagonist to be his adopted father??? Is there any reason for antagonist to choose protagonist???
I enjoyed wathching this opening sequence and made me think what would happen in the film. I would be watching the whole movie later to know what will happen later.

Preliminary Task

I learnt how to use camera and other equipment. I was asked to set up Tripod and camera, load a camera into it and filmed it. Since, this preliminary task was combined of 2 groups, the camera person of the other group and me worked together and filmed it.
From Preliminary I have learnt how to use 180 degree rule, match-on-action, shot reverse shot and effects on film of not using it.
180 degree rule is used not to confuse the audience.

Group Role

I have taken the role of "Camera woman" in the group of AS media coursework where as Sustika has taken a role of "Editor" and Liridona has taken a role of "director". We have to make 2 min opening sequence of horror genre for our coursework.