Evaluation

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

We used the title Euphoria as it was such a contrast to the horrific aspect of the film yet had meaning because it refered to the Clown which is usually seen as a happy, joyful and funny figure. The white font on the black background showed the true sinister aspect of the film though, an effective contrast between the film title and the grpahology of it.

We used the setting of the woods for the opening scene because it was a spooky location which fit the horror convention of a deserted,desolate area -  making the audience uneasy and clued into the fact that it is in fact a horror film.
We used the typical costume a clown would wear, white shirt, bow tie, braces, red wig and nose and for the character who escaped from the mental hospital we used a plain large white shirt that we ripped and dirtied to make ragged and oversized jogging bottoms and ratty plimsoles - bare essentials. The clown was holding a noose - the only prop we used - these were typical horror conventions, potentially a weapon.

We edited the opening sequence using quick flashes of the clown between the slow motion of the camera moving over Jennifer Stone's (the main character) hospital files. This stuck to the horror convention of fast paced, snappy shots to make the audience on edge. While editing we used special effects on iMoive to make the setting darker as we shot it in the afternoon which was too bright as we wanted the opening sequence to look as if it was at night. We used the effects also when editing to make the files look rather old and to show that she had been in the mental hospital for quite a long time and that she had been experiencing the hallucinations of the clown from a young age. These effects created a creepy atmosphere, fitting the horror genre and keeping to the conventions. The tint of a different colour as well, the sepia tint in the beginning and the greenish tint during the action of the sequence also sets the audience on edge and makes them uneasy as anything out of the ordinary doesn't feel right. This convention is used in Paranormal Activity as they want to give off the effect of using a night vision camera and also in 28 Days Later.

We used persepective camera so the audience were seeing certain things in the characters point of view. This is a very effective horror convention because the shaky camera movements and seeing through the characters eyes make the audience uneasy and feels as if they themselves are experiencing what the character is experiencing, making it quite terrifiying to watch. This convention is seen in many horror films such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity.

The story is of a girl, Jennifer Stonem, who is being terrorised by a clown. The clown has apparently killed her friends and family and is now after her when in fact the clown is a hallucination that she has had ever since a traumatic experience at the circus when she was young. The clown is an imaginary friend gone bad. Instead of the clown killing everyone she knows it was actually her and she has been put into a mental hospital - she has escaped however, which is where the opening sequence begins. Our opening suquence sets this up as the first thing the audience sees is Jennifer's mental hospital file, the camera is slow as it zooms in on specific words such as "Psychiatric", "unstable", "harm", "imaginary friend" and "clown". The quick flashes on the clown between lets the audience know that the clown is something to fear. The camera zooms in onto the pictrure of Jennifer Stone in the file and we used match-on-action because as the camera zooms out again from Jennifer's face she is seen running through the woods, supposedly away from something - this is how Jennifer is introduced. The audience soon find out she is running away from the clown as every time she turns around the clown is seen getting closer and closer carrying a noose. The clown seems to pu the noose over Jennifer's head and the camera is raised (still in her point of view) all that is seen is the clown before it fades to black and the title of the film.
The opening sequence suggest that the film is a horror due to the quick flashes of the image of the clown, the eerie, menacing circus music, the perspective camera shots and the effects - the tinted colours.

 

Question Two: How does your media product present particular social groups?

These characters are very similar in the role they play in their films. They both believe that there is somebody “out to get them”. In Jennifer’s case in our film Euphoria she believes the clown she is seeing has killed her family and loved ones and is now after her and in Nina’s case in the film Black Swan she believes it is another girl who wants her role as the Swan Queen and is intending to kill her to get it. Both characters confuse fantasy with reality and in fact it is them who are causing all these bad things to happen and in the end it is them who kill themselves, believing it was someone else – the clown and the other girl. They both seem to have the same illness of hallucinating.
Their appearances are very different, in the small opening sequence we created – the end of the film – Jennifer is wearing a dirtied ragged t-shirt and jogging bottoms, her hair a mess, covered in mud. Throughout Black Swan, Nina has a very polished appearance, perfect hair, perfect clothes but nearing the end of the film her appearance becomes ragged – her hair a mess her clothes untidy, in that respect they are very similar. If we had been able to contiue the film we would have put Jennifer in very neat a tidy clothes which would be a complete contrast to her actions and what is going on inside her head. We would have done this because young girls who are mentally disturbed - the social group Jennifer represents - seem very normal from the outiside (as seen in many films) and it is only the audience who really know what is going on inside the characters head and none of the other characters in the film realise until it is too late. Therefore, at the end of this film Jennifer has the rugged, worn out appearance as does Nina from Black Swan.

Question Three: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

I think our film Euphoria would be screened at film festivals such as Screamfest LA as it gives a good opportunity to get investors to invest in our media product which would then hopefully be distributed to the larger multiplexes such as the Odeon. Then, if Euphoria is successful it would be made into a DVD and perhaps viewed on television. 

Question Four: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The targert audience for our media product would be anybody who likes horror films - teenagers to adults from the age of fifteen to thirty of different races and genders. We are targeting our film to both genders as even though more males than females enjoy watching horror/thriller films there are still girls and women who like horror films, myself being one of them. People who would be attrracted to our film would be people who are quite daring and risk taking, perhaps. They get a thrill out of feeling scared, much like those who enjoy rollercosters, sky diving -people who are looking for an adreneline rush.

Question Five: How did you attract/address your audience?

I think the Unique Selling Point of our film that will attract our audience would be the aspect of using the clown as the supposed villan. There aren't many horror film out there at the moment with the use of a clown apart from the film "It". I think this was a way to attract our audience as it was something different, something interesting to watch as it hasn't been done many times before.
We used the carnival/circus music to also attract our audience - we hoped it would've become the signature music of this film had it actually been real. Much like the Jaws signature music which is very famous now and is immediately associated with sharks and the sea.
Although we used a different sort of villan than most films out there to make the film stand out and attract the audience we still used the typical conventions of horror film as they are ususally what attracts audiences to the horror genre in the first place. We used the dak lighting, quick flashes, perspective camera shots and the general storyline of a victim and a villan.
We used our audience research to help us create an opening sequence that would attract our audience - the survey and results. For example, we used eerie tenshe music because the majority of people was asked said that it added to the horrific effect of a horror film.
We had the main character as the victim as most people said this is what they preferred, we used flashing and fast paced images as most agreed that this added to the enjoyment and the fear of the film. We also used perspective camera becuase our audience research suggested that most thought this made the film more scary to watch. And as most said they preferred the villan to be a human like figure such as a doll or a clown we used a clown as the supposed villan.
This is how we attracted our audience to our opening sequence.

Question Six: What have you leanrt about technologies from the process of constructing this media product?

I have used numerous different technologies throughout the course of creating our media product, the one most frequently used was iMovie. I had only used iMovie a few times before creating our opening sequence but can now edit clips, add music and titles and special effects to create a good, well done short movie/scene/opening sequence. 

GarageBand is another technology used, one that I had never used before. I used it to create music which we used in the action of our opening sequence where Jennifer is being chased by the clown, everytime she turns and the audience can see the clown this music plays.

We used YouTube a lot throughout creating the sequence. I used it to help us with research, finding interviews with directors who had directed films of the horror genre. I also used it to find iconic sounds typically heard in horror films. We used YouTube to find the music we used at the very beginning of our opening sequence when the hospital files are being viewed. We made sure that the music - clown/carnival/circus music - wasn't copyrighted before using it in our sequence.
Edexcel was used as a way of presenting the data we collected from our survey which we used to find out what people most enjoyed about horror films, what they preferred to see, what type of music they thought made horror films more frightening etc.



Every member in our group used Blogger. I had never used a blog before and wasn't really aware of what was expected but now I know that it is a fun and fairly easy way - one you get the hang of how to use it - to log things you would like others tro view and perhaps form an opinion on. We each have our own blog on which we presented our individual work and we have a group blog which displays all our research and work we did towards creating our opening sequence.

I used wordle.net to create a wordle as a different way to present our research. It was something I have never used before but is very useful and is something I will be using in the future. 
I created a wordle to display the conventions of the horror genre.




Bubbl.us was another way in which I presented my research. We originally used a mind map to jot down our initial ideas about our opening sequence (the plot, the characters, costumes etc.) and I thought a mind map on our blog would be a good way to present our ideas. This is also another useful technology I will be sure to use again.

We used an MP3 converter, a useful way in which we got the circus/carnival music from YouTube and uploaded it on iMovie so we could use it in our opening sequence.
We also used the camera to record our opening sequence. I am very familiar with a camera so it wasn't difficult for me to use while we were doing the perspective shots from my point of view.

Question Seven: Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt from the progression from it to the full product?

If I hadn't done the prelinimary task I think I would have struggled a lot more while creating our opening sequence even though they were very different to do. All we had to do in the preliminary task was to create a short thirty second sequence in which one character had to walk into a room and have a conversation with another character while maintaining the rule of the 180 degree shot and use both shot-reverse-shot and match on action. Whereas in the other task we had to create a two minute opening to a made up film, using music, titles, creating characters and setting up the storyline for the rest of the film. 

It was a lot more challenging than the preliminary task as there were so many aspects that we had to cover such as settings, costumes, actors, when we were going to shoot it. We also had to do a lot of research before even shooting the sequence which we didn't have to do for the preliminary task. There were so many things to consider such as what the audience would like to see, who our audience would actually be, making it a lot more difficult and testing yet more enjoyable and beneficial to us as we were learning and experiecing throughout.

Analysing Psycho

We watched a clip from the horror film Psycho made in the 1960s. The woman was in the shower when she was murdered by a dark, unknown figure using a knife. 

The white, clean bathroom she is in connotates  her innocence and purity. And the fact that she is the shower and her facial expressions portray she is relaxed yet completely unprotected and exposed to any danger that may be lurking which is indicated by the tense eerie music.

The audience is given an idea that the woman is in danger when a dark shadow appears to enter the room. The dark shadow in contrast with the white purity of the bathroom indicates that they are a danger to her and the music becomes more powerful and builds in volume.




The shower curtain is ripped to the side and this dark figure is standing there with a knife - connotating death, danger and evil - and starts to stab the woman repeatedly with the now famous music playing. Again, the dark faceless figure against the pure whiteness of the bathroom indicates that this character is an evil and dangerous person.

This is a very significant part in the clip we watched, her hand reaching out, it connotates her last desperate attempt for help, grasping at what little life she had left. She grabs onto the shower curtain which tears and it falls to the ground with her. 

The close up of her eye as she lies on the floor of the bathroom shows that she is in fact dead, there is no light/life left in her and the odd angle of the camera uneases the audience as it is intended to do.

This is also a significant part of the scene we watched. The blood of the woman washes down the drain, it connotates her life she drained and washed away into something insignificant, her life no longer exists.

Analysing Horror Genre

The Hills Have Eyes

This trailer had all the conventions to fit the horror genre, it had the typical deserted, dead looking landscape of which a family - typical characters who the audience connect with - was travelling through. It has tense and eerie music throughout and disconcerting sound effects immediately setting the audience on edge.

The audience are given an idea about the narrative and background information of the film in a horror like way - for example the flashing images of the mutated babies and old newspaper headlines - then are brought to the present shown by the colours brightening. 

The fast paced scene changes create tension and suspense and the short scenes freezing into an image give the feeling of the characters being watched which uneases and disturbed the audience. 

The dark and gloomy lighting and colours create a fearful atmosphere and the disturbing quick still images, tinted a green colour, doesn't sit right with the audience because it is unnatural.

The way the title of the film, a red colour - conotating blood, danger and death - appears onto the screen in a way that relates to the title (its appearing before they're eyes, somebody is seeing it, they are looking it's coming into focus and view which relates to the hills having eyes). As does the tag line "The lucky ones die first" which scares the audience as it is intended to do.

Evaluation Preliminary Task

We were asked to create an opening sequence which involved one character moving across a room and sitting down and talking to another character. We had to include a match on action shot, and shot reverse shot while maintaining the 180 degree rule.

I had the role of playing an actor in the sequence, I helped direct the scenes I wasn't in and helped to edit the sequence.

This is a still image of the match on action shot we included in our piece. I helped to direct this part of our sequence, we used a long to medium shot of him walking down the stairs and out of the door.

 This is a still image of the shot reverse shot we included in our sequence, at this part of our piece I had the role of an actor. We also used a medium shot of us actors talking to one another.

 

This is a still image example of our shot reverse shot while maintaining the 180 degree rule. Again I had the role of an actor and we used an over the shoulder shot to capture this part of our sequence.

We were very happy with our final result as we managed to include all the necessary shots in our sequence, abiding by the 180 degree rule and used the correct conventions to fit the genre of our opening sequence.

I think to improve it we could have made the jumps from one scene to another a lot more fluid and slower paced because the quick scene changes would fit more of a horror or thriller genre rather than our own. Also, although the match on action shot matched up well I think we had the actor too close to the camera as he passed it to move to the door. But the shot types for our shot reverse shot were appropriate for the dialogue we used.

We worked well as a group, each of us giving ideas and having our own input. Us actors listened well to the direction given while adding our own ideas. We each had a turn editing as we had to get our sequence down from one minute to thirty-five seconds and all worked well as a team.

I feel a lot more confident using the camera and although there are a few things I need to learn I am fairly confident using Imovie to edit.

Horror Genre

28 Days Later

An American Werewolf in London

An American Werewolf in London and 28 Days Later are very different in the way that they portray the genre of horror. AAWIL begins with jazzy blues music playing “Blue Moon” and sets the scene of the countryside, which doesn’t really give any horrific or sinister effect; at first it doesn’t seem much like a horror film. Whereas in 28DL we are immediately set on edge by the use of a floating camera and scenes of violence, such as people being beaten. We quickly find out that the beginning scene of 28 DL is set in a lab which is much more horrific than the hills of the countryside.

In AAWIL we are soon introduces to two naive American tourists who are immediately told to stay off the moors and to stick to the road, this is where the audience would start to feel uneasy as we now know something bad will happen if they wander onto the moors which they are surrounded by. The characters in 28DL are completely different, at first we are given the impression they are some sorts of criminals as they are seen on a security camera and are wearing balaclavas. But we soon find out they are being rather heroic and are trying to rescue the chimps that are being confined in cages in the lab and are being subjected to experiments.

The story/plots of the two films are completely different. AAWIL is about one of the tourists who was bitten by a werewolf and has become one himself. 28DL is all about how the chimps had been infected with rage and when the apparently “heroic” people let one loose it bit one one of the women who then went on to infect the human race – “the beginning of the end”.

Two very different films, very different characters, settings and plots but both share the same genre of horror.

Shutter Island

The Key groups of people involved in the production of Shutter Island were:

Director / assistant director

Producer

Writer

Art director

Composer

Editor

Technical advisor

Location scouts

Sound Editor

These groups of people are key to the films production because without them there would be no film. They all have different roles to play which are vital to producing a film. Most of these groups of people are in charge of a particular department in which so many other people are involved.