Question One:

In what ways does your media

product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?
This is an example of the font and colour we use for
the other titles, for example production designer and
director. We used this font as it looks similar to bones
which again denotes death, and also the decay of a
dead body. We used white to connote the innocence
which contrasts against the font which looks like
bones.
?
 Question Two:
How does your
media product
represent particular
social groups?
• We decided to place the female as the
antagonist within our film, as it is typically a
male role. We decided to do this to make our
film unique, to entice more audience and to
boost our viewing figures and profit as it isn’t a
typical “boy meets girl, girl falls out of love and
boy kills her” storyline. Although we represent
the female as possessive, the male is
represented as dominant as he is portrayed as
having two females attracted to him. This could
also be construed that we portray males as
cheats and liars.
• Within these three shots, we see how we present the two
females within our piece. Katie has her hair tied back, much
like Annie, but it is very plain and simple. We placed a
headband in Annie’s hair to show her following the trends in
fashion, making her more appealing to a male. We also see
long nails which are typically feminine.

The two females contrast each other even though they both
include the main elements that make them female. This is to
show the audience that people can be different, but we are
also inviting the audience to identify with one or the other of
these two females, as stated by the Uses and Gratifications
theory.
• Annie is shown to follow the trends in fashion
as we dressed her in typical fashion clothing
such as UGG boots and a duffel coat. Her hair
is down which denotes she uses straighteners
which Katie clearly doesn’t as she ties her hair
up and appears to not take pride within her
appearance. Annie’s clothes show her wealth
and show she is from a higher class
background.
• Annie here is dressed in yellow. This is to
connote her bright and happy personality
which contrasts the fact she appears to have
been murdered, or at least seriously injured.
The yellow contrasts against Katie’s plain
white t-shirt, showing the difference between
the characters and perhaps why Chris decided
to leave Katie for Annie, which is what is
implied through her anger.
• Katie is representative of the lower class as
she wears plain clothes which don’t include
“labels” of any kind. We dress her plainly to
show not only her simple character, but her
lack of money to buy materialistic things.
We placed her in a setting that was outside
and enclosed. The fact she is in what appears
to the audience to be a wood, shows she
doesn’t feel comfort in a house which majority
of people would do.
• Through Katie, we see the “jealous ex-girlfriend”
stereotype. This is brought into question here as we
show Katie from a lower class and her behaviour
questions why she would be able to be attached to a
boyfriend. She is portrayed to begin with as weak and
this is often the stereotype media plays upon when
describing people such as Katie’s character. After the
murder, this stereotype is turned into much more of a
dangerous one and we see that perhaps the “jealous
ex-girlfriend” has much more power within her. We
are also showing females as being the strong ones in
taking control of the situation, even though it isn’t a
positive situation to be in control of.
• The age of the characters within ‘Peephole’ is
not directly specified to the audience, inviting
them to come to their own conclusion. The
age of our characters is infact around 18-20
which is the typical age for a semi-serious
relationship and also the age of who we are
aiming our film at so they will be able to
identify with the ages of the character.
We didn’t choose any of our characters based on
 

race or disability and neither of these are really

shown. The only race that we have in our film is
our male actor who is from an Arabic
background, but we didn’t choose him for this
reason to include race in our film.

Equally, we have no disabilities shown or

highlighted.
 Question Three:
What kind of media
institution might
distribute your media
product and why?
I think that our film is more likely to
appeal to a niche audience as the theme
that occurs in ‘Peephole’ is not one that
appears in a mainstream or Hollywood
film. I think this because of mainly the
storyline and conventions used were
often confusing and we could’ve
included more conventions to make the
film seem more ‘horrific’, even though
we covered the basis.
When researching into different media
institutions, I looked at how Universal Pictures
works, as it is a mainstream company, to see if I
could apply it to our film.
Universal is a company that produces
mainstream, Hollywood films; for example ‘It’s
complicated; (2009) and ‘Wolfman’ (2010). “It’s
complicated” is a romantic-comedy whereas
“Wolfman” is a horror. This shows that Universal
caters more than one type of film so we could use
Universal if we wanted to make ‘Peephole’
mainstream.
Universal have produced a number of Horror films. Their most
“truly great monster movies” (
http://classic-horror.com/reviews/wolf_man_1941) ‘The Wolf
Man’. This film was re-made in 2009 and achieved:

Total Lifetime Grosses

Domestic:  $61,792,180    45.0%
+ Foreign:  $75,400,000    55.0%
= Worldwide:  $137,192,180

(figures taken from boxofficemojo.com)

This shows me that Universal are capable of producing a big horror

film, therefore if they produced ‘Peephole’ we would get
sustainably large amounts of profit.
• Another production company that could be
considered if we were going mainstream could be
20th Century Fox. This production company hasn’t
produced many horror films, therefore this may
be an advantage as mainly all of their other films
are extremely successful. The most notorious
horror film they have produced is The Omen
(2006). I wouldn’t consider using 20th Century Fox
as our production company as they don’t focus on
any particular genre, so it would be difficult to see
which genre they produce the most and how
much box office takings the films would receive.
• Fox Searchlight Pictures was founded in 1994 as
the independent arm of Twentieth Century Fox.
Fox Searchlight Pictures is a specialty film company
that both produces and acquires motion pictures.
It has its own marketing and distribution
operations, and its films are distributed
internationally by Twentieth Century Fox. Fox
Searchlight Pictures is a unit of Fox Filmed
Entertainment, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group.
I think we could consider this production company
for ‘Peephole’ if it wasn’t accepted alongside the
mainstream films.
When researching into non-mainstream production
companies, I looked into Hammer Film Productions who are
a UK film company founded in 1934. They are the creators of
famous horror films such as ‘Dracula’ in 1958. They have
also been partnered with Twentieth Century Fox.

Hammer Productions could be a possibility as they are

producers of smaller films and are producers of horror films
only. But as they are a smaller company, many films don’t
receive world wide recognition.
• I think we would aim our film towards a mass
audience, to maximise our profits. Through
following typical horror conventions, we would be
able to pitch our film to larger production
companies as we would be in line with the other
leading major films.
Altogether, I think Universal would be the best
production company due to their wide varied
films they produce from all the genres. Also,
Universal Pictures are known all over the world so
we would be able to generate the desired amount
of attention to gather large profits.
• I think ‘Peephole’ should be released due to its new
brand of horror storyline. Relationships and relationship
break downs are not often the focus of horror films as
nowadays, society prefer the gore and thriller side of the
genre, such as the ‘Saw’ series. ‘Saw’ offers the
hypodermic needle effect as the audience are passive to
the action therefore being submerged within the action.
The new storyline would hopefully generate much
attention as it would appeal to the 15+ age gap as these
are the audience members who are likely to be aware of
a “jealous girlfriend” situation, with some being able to
identify with the characters – as stated in Denis
McQuails’s Uses and Gratifications theory.
 Question Four:

Who would be the

audience for your
media product?
I would put the target audience age of 15 and above. I think
this because when I looked the BBFC website and looked at
what is allowed in each age category, the 15 rating reflected
our film. A 15 allows moderate language and violence, which
is what our film includes. We minimised swearing in our film
and the only real violence that occurs is at the end, where
the knife is used. We’ve categorised our film at a 15, firstly
being the 18 age category was stronger than what our film is
and secondly being that we can get a bigger audience in as
an ‘18’ cancels all the teenagers who go to the cinema.

Also, I think our film could be aimed at both male and

female. We tried to make sure our film could be available to
both sexes, but horror films are mainly watched by the male
population as the gore and graphicness appeals more than to
females.
We wrote a questionnaire to accompany our film for year 11
students to watch and fill in for us. The main feedback we
received was the section with Katie following Annie with the
knife was unrealistic and gave away the storyline too quick .
We took this advice removed this scene. We got good
feedback on our camera techniques, music,
actors/characterisation and general enjoyment of the film
which we set as closed questions.

We then completed a second questionnaire for similar

students to fill in and these results were very positive. The
storyline was clearer with the sequence of events changed and
our ratings were 8-10 for all aspects.
Bar Chart Of Second Result
We attracted our audience mainly by the theme of the film
and the nature of it. I think that by changing around the cliché
‘male in love with the female’ to the opposite, would attract
our audience because it was different, and almost unique and
we know that there are rare films that follow this pattern in
the horror genre.
We have aimed this at male and females of the age of 15
onwards, and I think teens and young adults are more likely to
go and see our film because they can identify with the
situation as within society, relationships are the gel within
society and what moves it on. Also, more people will be of the
correct age to go and see it.
On the other hand, it might attract a more female audience, as
maybe they would be able to relate to the feeling of falling in
love with someone who doesn’t return your love, whereas the
males for this film can’t really relate to the lead male.
• We found from another questionnaire that females are less
interested in horror films than males and the older generation
aren’t particularly interested at all. This also uncovered that
people would be more interested in a complicated plot line
than a film with gore. We have decided to target an audience
from demographic groupings C1 to E who are passive and
interested in the simple conventions of horror films.
Males would watch the film as the film is based around a
female and therefore they may go to watch just for the
Entertainment need defined by Denis McQuail, to watch for
the pleasure and enjoyment rather than for identification.
Females may be attracted to our film as they would want to
see the opposing view of characters in a horror movie and they
would not feel victimized as the female is the antagonist in the
film.
 Question Five:

How did you

attract/address
your audience?
We attracted our audience mainly by the theme of the film
and the nature of it. I think that by changing around the cliché
‘male in love with the female’ to the opposite, would attract
our audience because it was different, and almost unique and
we know that there are rare films that follow this pattern in
the horror genre.
We have aimed this at male and females of the age of 15
onwards, and I think school children are more likely to go and
see our film because they can relate to the school
environment, so therefore, another attraction. Also, more
people will be of the correct age to go and see it.
On the other hand, it might attract a more female audience, as
maybe they would be able to relate to the feeling of falling in
love with someone who doesn’t return your love, whereas the
males for this film can’t really relate to the lead male.
• Any audience member would be able to
identify to the relationship we see between
Chris and Annie, as stated by the Uses and
Gratifications theory, as relationships within
society currently are prominent with majority
of the population being in one, or at least able
to draw on a situation similar. The open
setting connotes the openness of their
relationship and their honesty, which
contrasts to how Katie is feeling about them.
 Here we use a high angled shot to show Katie
speaking to a picture, which we cannot see.
The high angled shot makes Katie look
vulnerable and sad and this is used to make
the audience feel sympathy for her, which we
turn around so the audience feel anger
towards her after she has killed Annie.
• This over the shoulder shot is used to make
the audience feel included as they feel as if
they are watching Katie burn the picture
themselves as burning a picture is something
you would wish to hide away.
• This shot is actually a tracking shot to make the
audience feel they are thoroughly included within
the plot as they are close to the feet being dragged
away.

We used a wide range of shots to keep the action

moving so the audience don’t get bored of seeing
the same shot to tell the story. Our wide range of
shots make the audience feel included within the
action and to be able to identify with the character,
as stated in Denis McQuail’s Uses and Gratifications
theory.
 Question Six:
What have you learnt
about technologies from
the process of
constructing the
product?
The camera equipment we used was useful, but
the quality that sometimes was a result of the
camera’s was poor. We sometimes found it
difficult to get the correct lighting so the action
would be clear on the camera. We had one major
issue with this where we had to make sure we
could shield the light from the camera lens to
make sure we could create the desired effect of
darkness which is a convention of horror films.
A strength of these cameras was they were light
and easy to move and use. They were also simple
to set up, and also to look back over film.
We decided not to use equipment such as
dollys and tripods and all we filmed was
handheld. This was so the shots aren’t always
completely straight and steady as we wanted to
achieve the look the audience are always
watching Katie, making them feel fear as they
are always watching what is happening.
• We used the programme iMovie on the Mac to edit
our footage. We found that using this programme
edited our work much quicker than any other
programme we have used before. There were far more
advanced settings involved within this programme that
enhanced our film altogether, such as the light filter we
added to create the dark effect because the light was
too bright. It was easy to cut clips to the exact timings
and places using the precision editor. I have learnt that
editing is crucial when creating any type of film from
any genre. If the clips you have filmed are not perfect,
there are ways to make them exactly how you wish to
have them and this constantly enhances your film.
• I think myself and Jo, my partner, worked well
as a team. We distributed work evenly to
make sure we had every element completed
to the highest standard and consulted each
other if needed and whenever possible. By
working as a two, I found that filming was
quicker as there was only two persons
opinions that needed to be put together,
instead of 4 for example. Working as a two
helped us co-operate with each other through
every element of the production of ‘Peephole’.
• Using Blogger to log my work was extremely
helpful. It saves a lot of time when getting my
marked worked and then to change and add
corrections was quick and easy. It was easy to
add links to back up points you are making
within your work and also to add pictures for
the same reason.
 Question Seven:

Looking back at your

preliminary task, what
do you feel you have
learnt in the progression
from it to the full
product?
With the editing from the preliminary task, I think this was
successful. The shot-reverse shots worked well and fitted in
properly, therefore making sense to the audience. Our use of
music was the theme tune from “The Pink Panther”. We used
this to add a comic element to the piece and the credit
sequence we used was to refer to the nature of The Pink
Panther; Spy.
The difference between the credits for the preliminary task and
our film is substantial. Our credits are simple and we made our
logo and end credit ourselves and didn’t rely on anything digital.

We use a good transition to show the passing of time from the

woman walking in the door to sitting on the table with the
other lady. We use transitions in the same way in ‘Peephole’ –
to show the passing of time or events so I learnt it from this.
I think the main difference between the
preliminary task is the quality of filming. In the
preliminary task, we resulted in problems with
continuity, whereas in our film now we have learnt
how to overcome this and make the film consistent
with no problems with the continuity.

There is also a difference in the places we shot the

film, this was down to having planned our actual
film down to every last detail whereas in the
preliminary task, this was not the case.
The main issue we
encountered with this
project was learning how to
deal with continuity!
Within this shot, we see 4 females sitting having
a chat round a table. There is also Laura in the
background.
Within this next shot, the females aren’t at the table and Laura
is standing by the door.

What should be included within this shot to keep it continuous

should be Laura sitting and also the four females still in place!
Another issue we encountered
was framing our shots...
 In this shot, we can see the
script they are reading from. As
it is a private conversation, we
could’ve used a close up on their
lips to highlight the secrecy.

Within this shot, there is too much

space about Jenni’s head, showing
little of her body language so the
audience are unable to tell much
about her character.
• I feel much more confident with the filming
equipment thanks to this task. It made me
aware of the different settings on the camera
and also I learnt how to use a tripod and how
to attach a camera and adjust the height.
• Overall, the entire preliminary task I think is of
poor quality and if I were to re-film I would do it
completely differently, making use of mise-en-
scene and camera’s efficiently.
On the other hand, the preliminary task has
shown me how important planning is and the
depth and detail it needs to be done in. We did
complete a storyboard for this, but any other
storyboards I draft and use will be of a high
quality and I will plan every precise section of it
as I am aware now that it is all within the
planning.
• Comparing the preliminary task to my main task, I would
definitely say that my main task is much stronger. I think this
is due to the planning and research that went in to creating
‘Peephole’. Through the use of storyboards, research into
conventions and the planning of every detail has helped us
film an excellent piece of film that I am very proud of. I feel
my use of camera work has improved dramatically and I am
able to frame a shot, including everything we need and
excluding what we don’t. Through research of the genre of
our film, we could see which shots we needed to use and
where about and which created the most tension. I have
applied all I have learnt through every element of research,
planning and the preliminary task and I now feel I could make
any genre of film because I am aware of the extent the
research and planning needs to be in.