1. Critical Reflection
By: Alexandra Guerra

2. How does your product use or challenge conventions?
My groups one minute clip of a horror film uses several conventions that are frequently used in horror and suspense films. One convention that our clip used that is frequently used in horror films is dark lighting. All of the shots of our clip that were filmed outside were filmed at night on purpose to add suspense to the scene. Most of the shots that were filmed indoors were taken with all of the lights off and spotlights on what the audience is supposed to see to also add suspense to the movie. The dark lighting adds suspense because the audience cannot see what is happening in the dark areas of the screen; therefore, they are in constant suspense because they do not know what could possibly happen next. Jaws and Insidious two are two of the movies that I researched about before beginning to film, both of these movies used dark lighting which is what caused my group and I to use dark lighting in our film. Another convention that our clip used that is frequently used in horror films is a jump scare. Many horror films such as Sinister and The Conjuring use jump scares throughout the movie to startle the audience and keep them engaged. My group and I used a jump scare at the end of our clip to make the movie scary and to keep the audience in suspense. A third convention that our clip used that is used frequently in horror films is the use of non diegetic score. Throughout our whole clip there is non diegetic score playing in the background, the non diegetic score we chose to use was a eerie instrumental that added a creepy scary element to our clip. We chose to include this non diegetic score because we saw that it was used in Jaws and Scream to add suspense and fear to the films. All in all, my group used the conventions dark lighting, a jump scare, and non diegetic score to add suspense to our horror film.

3. How does your product represent social groups or issues?
My groups one minute clip of our horror film represents the social issue of peer pressure. The pitch for our film is that a girl is at home alone because her parents have left for the weekend and a serial killer invades her house and recruits her to the dark side where she will also become forced to be a serial killer. The film itself represents the social issue of peer pressure because in the film the little girl that is recruited was forced to become a serial killer. Peer pressure deals with people being forced to do something that they would now want to do, this is exactly the issue that is represented in our film.

4. How does your product engage with audiences?
My groups one minute clip of our horror film has a target audience of teenagers and young adults. The reason we chose to target this specific audience is because this is the audience that will be able to relate the most to the character in the film and because this is the audience that enjoys horror movies the most. Teenagers and young adults can relate to being in a situation where they are home alone because their parents have left the house. When teenagers or young adults are home alone they frequently become frightened when they hear any little noise; therefore, they can relate to the girl in the movie that is home alone which creates a connection between the actor and the audience. Creating a connection between the actor and the audience is important in horror movies because if the audience feels like they could be the actor or if they have sympathy for the actor they become more frightened and scared when something happens to the actor. Another reason why we choose teenagers and young adults to be our target audience is because they are the people who most enjoy horror movies. Young adults and teenagers are always looking for a thrill and they enjoy suspense as well as being frightened, all of these factors are found in horror movies. All in all, my films target audience is teenagers and young adults because this is the audience that will be able to relate the most to the character in the film and because this is the audience that enjoys horror movies the most.

5. How would your product be distributed as a real media text?
My group and I decided that our film would be best distributed in movie theaters all throughout the nation. We chose to distribute our film in movie theaters rather than in places like netflix and festivals because we want our film to get the most publicity as possible. We believe distributing the film through movie theaters will be the most effective way to distribute our film to get the most publicity as possible.

6. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Throughout the whole process my group and I have gone through to create this clip of film I have learned many new production skills and I have improved many of the production skills I already had. One of the first skills that we used that I had never heard of was creating a storyboard before filming. I learned that a storyboard captures quick sketches of all the shots in the film, creating a storyboard helped my group and I to plan out how we wanted each and every shot to look like. The next skill we used after creating a storyboard was filming, I had filmed other films before; however, I had never used a tripod before so many of my films were shaky. Learning to use a tripod helped my group and I create a steady film. Another production skill that I learned was editing. I had never edited a film before; therefore, editing was very new to me. When editing our film I learned how to cut clips to make them shorter, mute noises in our actual film, add non diegetic score to our film, and how to create a blackout. All in all I learned how to use storyboards, how to edit a film, and I improved my filming skills.

7. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?
My group and I used several technological programs and a camera to create our film. The editing program we used on our project was Adobe Premiere Pro, this program allowed us to completely edit our film. Some of the things we were able to do with Adobe Premiere Pro were cut clips to make them shorter, add non diegetic score to our film, mute noises in our actual film, and create a blackout. In order to get the music we were going to use for our non diegetic score we used the website youtube.com to search for the type of music we wanted to add. The camera we used to film our video was a Canon Rebel T3i, this camera allowed us to create a film with great quality. All in all, the technological programs we used and the camera we used were Adobe Premiere Pro, Youtube, and a Canon Rebel T3i camera