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

Effect	Scene	Evidence
Use of Narrative		By seeing someone dead on the floor with blood smudged beside them, immediately connotes to the genre thriller/horror. By having this at the start of the film, is going against the conventions, as normally the person/people will die later on. Within the first few seconds of the sequence you can tell that there has been a murder, the audience will then automatically assume that they will find out what happened further on into the film, which in Sharp White is correct. Luke comes in and rushes down to my side, with his head in his hands phoning 999.
Mise-en-Scene		We used fast jump cuts of the splattered blood and open wound to create tension. This connotes to murder as there is a camera noise played and evidence cards are also showed, this tells the audience that this is now a crime scene. By not introducing the protagonist challenges the conventions of thriller films, usually the protagonist is shown and then maybe later on killed. Also by having the protagonist murdered in her own home is again challenging the conventions, as she is meant to feel safe within the comfort of her home, but we seen her as vulnerable as she is home alone.
Editing Techniques	SHORT CLIP OF THE PHONE CALL	We used several different types of editing techniques within our sequence, the one that stands out the most is the 999 phone call. We had a two way phone call to the police of Luke reporting the murder, to do this we recorded it with my phone then i made it compatible with iMovie then merged it into the film. The audience can hear in Luke's voice the fear and shock, without seeing his emotion we made sure you could hear it. The other editing that is in this sequence is added in thunder and lightning, jump cuts and slow motion when the living room door opens.
Use of Camera	SOME OF THE DIFFERENT SHOTS USED.	We used a range of different shots in our sequence, such as; close up, long shot, mid shot, over the shoulder shot and a wide shot.  We used a long shot of me going to my car to show the audience that in the background are the three strangers,watching me. This adds tension, as they know that I'm being watched but I don't.
Special Effects		The only special effects used in sharp white is the film title, actors names and a slight change of colour to the jump cuts of blood/open wound.  We went against the conventions of a thriller title by having a plain font, most fonts are red to symbolize blood. Ours is grey and white, the white part is the word 'white' to emphasize the word. When adding in the jump cuts, we thought we would play around a bit with the colour and found an effect which made the blood look more eerie.

Ideas From 'The Strangers'

We liked the idea that in the strangers they are watching their victims, without them knowing, so we used that in idea in our film.

This is from The Strangers, one of them is inside the house watching the woman in the kitchen. At this point in the film, she has a feeling that she is being watched but hasn't seen anyone yet.








This is from Sharp White, all three strangers are watching the victim (me) get stuff from my car. I am unaware that they are down the road watching me as I carry on fetching my school work.

We also used the idea of them watching me as I walked into my room, as I place my books down I think that I see them. When I turn around there's nothing there. This then builds the tension on where the person has gone. 

Research into Existing Titles

Before coming to a decision of what our title should look like, i did some research into existing titles from some thriller films.

Most thriller film titles are red, this symbolizes blood and danger. Some are white, this stands out on DVD covers and advertisements against the dark dingy backgrounds.

I then used the website 'dafont' and searched in the 'horror' genre. And picked my favourite designs, this is what i ended up with. 

I like all of these designs, they all look like something you would see on a existing DVD cover. Some look like they are written in blood, this makes it clear to the audience that the film would be gory. 

Gender representation in films

Male Stereotypes; 

• Tough
• Heroic
• Strong
• Not sensitive
• Aggressive

Female Stereotypes;

• Fragile
• Victim
• 'Damsel in Distress'
• Weak
• Sensitive

In Thriller films the male is usually the hero, whereas the female would be the victim or the person in need of help. There could be a male 'hero' then the female could be his 'sidekick'. 

In 'The Stranger' there is a male and female victim, the male is more in control of the situation as he tells the woman what to do and how to react. He takes control over the gun, as he sends her to look for ammo. The strangers target the woman as they see her as vulnerable. The strangers are two females and one male. 

In 'Sharp White' the victim is a female, as we see her as vulnerable, weak and helpless. Our three strangers are all female, then the person who finds the dead body is male. This makes a change from the killers being male, which is normally the case.

Sharp White Film Cover

This is the official DVD cover for Sharp White, which was created by my group member Keira. It includes pictures from the movie, a blurb, a barcode, names of actors and the film certificate. This is what every DVD cover has, by including these she follows the typical conventions of a DVD cover.

Audience Response

I sent the link to the youtube video to some friends, after watching it i then sent them the link to an online survey. Some completed it, others didn't. I did this to find out what people thought of our film. The questions were straight forward and easy to answer. These were my results.

Altogether i would say that 'Sharp White' got a positive review from the people who filled in my survey, they all seemed to rate it quite high. Everyone agreed that the music went with the film and everyone understood the storyline of 'Sharp White' even though they only seen the first 2 minutes.

Production companies

I decided to take a look at the production company behind 'The Strangers' turns out there was two; Vertigo Entertainment and Mandate Pictures. 
Both companies are well known and successful. 

So our film will be produced be either of these companies, or maybe both. 



'Vertigo Entertainment' have produced films such as;

• The Woman in Black
• Abduction
• The Uninvited
• Possession

This is just a few of their films i have picked from their list which is on,Vertigo Entertainment List of Films.

'Mandate Pictures' were founded in 2001 and produced their first film in 2001, under their old name of 'Senator International'. In 2006 they produced their first film under the name 'Mandate Pictures'. They have produced films such as; 

• Juno
• The Strangers
• Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

This is a few of their films which i got from, List Of Mandate Pictures Films.

The Strangers was released by 'Rogue Pictures'. Who have also released a number of successful films, such as;

• Hot Fuzz
• Doomsday
• The Unborn
• Shaun of the Dead

This is were i got these films from, Rogue Pictures List of Films.