Evaluation

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

My media project uses various different conventions of real media products. The main convention of the horror genre it uses is the fact that the music to create tension, used in films such as 'Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho', 'John Carpenter's The Thing' and 'John Carpenter's Halloween', and also uses pathetic fallacy to create tension, used in films such as 'The Hills Have Eyes', '1408', 'DOOM' and 'Silent Hill'.

The films that I researched helped me create my production because I 'borrowed' parts of the film that I thought were effective. I had planned to use a pan and fade to black from 'The Book of Eli' trailer, but this wasn't used because of constraints on time and that it didn't fit in with the style of the opening. I also used the idea of a narrative during the opening, taken from 'Max Payne', because it makes the audience ask questions about the narrative. Having a twist near the end of the opening is something else my production 'borrowed' from the 'John Carpenter' and 'Rob Zombie' versions of 'Halloween'. I also made the protagonist known because it allowed me to challenge conventions of other media products unlike 'The Blair Witch Project' where the protagonist isn't obvious and it creates more tension because of it, which is where my product could be criticised.

My film is based within the woods like 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Wrong Turn (WT), WT 2: Dead End and WT 3: Left for Dead' which doesn't really challenge many conventions, which means that it uses that convention. It also uses chronological story telling which is a convention of most horror films.

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

My media production represents two different social groups: 'Serial' Killers and Teenagers. They are represented by the unnamed man with the knife (Played by Tom Howarth) and the teenage girl (Played by Charlie Lane).

I decided to have the teenage girl in plain clothes because it makes her seem like a 'normal' teenager. She has her iPod with her, which is playing 'Heavy Hangs the Albatross' by the metalcore band 'Alesana', this is because we wanted her to listen to some sombre music as our original choice 'Brick by Boring Brick' by the punk-pop band 'Paramore' was too up beat for the style of our production. She is of a Caucasian descent which could be considered racist because there is not a mix of ethnic backgrounds, but this isn't due to choice, there just aren't any other ethnic backgrounds in our class. Overall the film portrays teenagers in a fairly positive light; although it does stereotype Charlie's character as slightly 'emo[tional]'

I decided to have the killer dressed in casual clothes so that he didn't seem as threatening as a killer dressed in combat gear, or covered in blood. He has a large kitchen knife with him; this was chosen because I felt that it would be a good idea to accentuate the knife he was holding to make it scarier. Although in Joss Whedon's TV series 'Dollhouse' Alpha (Played by Alan Tudyk) kills multiple people with a scalpel. Overall the film portrays killers in a negative light, because they stalk teenage girls and attempt to kill them.

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

There are multiple media institutions that could distribute my product. Examples of some of these are Pathé, who distributed the 'Wrong Turn' franchise in the UK, DreamWorks who distributed some of Rob Zombie's films; most notably 'House of 1000 Corpses' and 'The Devil's Rejects', another suitable distribution company would be Dimension Films and MGM as they distributed Rob Zombie's remakes of 'Halloween' and 'Halloween 2'. Also Artisan films could distribute my film because they distributed 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'House of the Dead'. These companies would be interested in my film because it contains elements of films that they have already distributed and that it would relate to the public's ongoing preoccupation with violence, gore and abduction.

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

Generally horror movie audiences are between 18 and 21 simply because that is what the age rating on the films is 18+, in these horror films they look for suspense and violence, whether it be gory or not. Potentially my film will appeal to that audience because it has standard conventions that fit the horror genre. Naturally films like 'Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell', 'Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead', 'Wes Craven's Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'Samuel Bayer/Michael Bay's Nightmare on Elm Street' have a calling toward that audience because they all contain lots of suspense and gore. Those films have gone on to be very successful (discounting the Michael Bay film; hasn't been released yet and Michael Bay films have a tendency be quite bad) which is what I'd like my film to do. Therefore my target audience would be 18-21 year olds.

 

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Generally audiences watching horror films expect the same thing each time—a coherent story line, violence, gore and tension. My film has lots of tension in it, which is generated by Underoath's song 'Salmarnir', and some violence which is implied off screen. Although in the rest of the film, the violence would be on screen to shock the audience. My film doesn't have much gore because the opening of most of the horror films I researched didn't have much gore in them.

I attracted my audience by using tension which was created by the use of pathetic fallacy and using non-diegetic sound to create tension. I also attracted the audience by forcing them to ask lots of questions in the opening; like 'why did the girl kill the guy with the knife?', 'how did the girl kill the guy with the knife?' and 'why was there no blood on the knife?'

This is what some members of the target audience had to say about the film:

"I like. The beginning is great; beautiful picture and great font (suits well!). The audio is great and I love the music at the beginning. The cut when she takes her earphones out is great. The Black and White is brilliant, but I think the cuts need to be quicker when the threat is introduce to create more tension. I don't like the shot of Tom with his hand on Charlie's shoulder - doesn't fit the shot before (unless he can disapparate!) I love the ending shot with her running from the camera - great angle!"

"Looks good. The bit with the music when it changes to be quiet at first I thought it was an error in the upload but after watching it back I realized my error, so I think that could be improved. Not too sure on what the story is meant to be but that could be my fault, I'm not sure. Overall I think it was overall a good outcome. Good job."

"Some very nice sound design. But you need to pay more attention to framing and shot composition (TV is primarily a close up medium - and even the BIGGEST films have to be designed to end up on the small screen) The first 1.40 has a certain coherence - not visually stunning, but at least some sense of developing story. But then your narrative falls apart - becoming incoherent and fragmented, as is the danger with a project like this, if feels more like a trailer than a film opening - but this is probably more a flaw with the brief than the film making. Overall some nice things, great sound choices, but let down by a very old fashioned sense of shot composition and pictures."

I think that my film fell short of expectations because there wasn't as much tension as there could've been, and the story wasn't as coherent as I wrote it to be. That will be discussed later.

 

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

I have learnt that when saving an iMovie project file, never save it onto a server because they cannot read/write fast enough to play video, which results in the Mac crashing or refusing to save. I have also learnt how to reverse and slow down/speed up shots in iMovie HD; this wasn't used in the final cut though because it was deemed "too music video like". I have learnt to always search IMDb when researching films as it always give a detailed analysis of the plot and a multitude of genres the film falls into. I also learnt about how useful Blogger is to jot thoughts down and reflect upon decisions and research. It acted like a 'diary' whilst creating this work.

7. Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression of it into the full product?

Individually I have learnt that I need to organise myself better so that I can meet deadlines. [Best summarised by Douglas Adams "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."] This is because throughout the production of this product I have missed multiple deadlines. I have also learnt that I need to spend more time creating a first edit, because the prelim task had about six edits before the finished product and this one had two edits before the finished product; although this could just be because I have learnt how to edit more efficiently.

As a member of a team I have learnt that I shouldn't work with people I get on with, simply because there is a guarantee that an argument will break out somewhere. Especially when we discussed the script, which is why the ending of the opening makes no sense because I foolishly assumed that there were no problems with the script before I handed it to Sandie and Charlie. Obviously there was something wrong with it, I think Charlie didn't like the idea of dying, but I'm not sure.

This task has progressed significantly from the preliminary task because I have used my knowledge of framing and continuity to make my foundation task successfully meet most of the conventions horror movies should meet.

Finished Product

More Movies

Stephen King's 1408 (Psychological Horror)

The opening to this film really doesn't set the tone enough, although this could be to lull the audience into a false sense of security, 'cause the rest of the film is really get in your head scary. I've seen it about 4 times now, because sometimes I love that kinda thing, and each time it always scares me in a new way. Although that could just be me, because a few of my friends thast watched it said that it wasn't the best horror they've ever seen. The opening basically uses pathetic fallacy to set the scene, it's effective, but I wouldn't use it in my film.

Equilibrium (Action)

The opening to this film sets the scene perfectly, there's a narration explaining how emotion destroys the human race (set late 21st Century) and how the government has removed emotions and created a group of "superhuman" fighters called grammaton clerics. There's also a huuuuuge gunfight. So it sets the tone of this film to a T; epic fight scenes without emotion....
The idea I'd take from this opening is the narration over the top of the scene.

Dollhouse (Science Fiction)

I enjoy watching stuff like this. Simply because it interests me, and Joss Whedon is a great writer. But anyway, in one of the episodes, I forget which one, but it shows a graphic flashback to Alpha (Alan Tudyk) slicing up some 'dolls'. I would've liked to use this in my film because it would shock my audience.

John Carpenter's Halloween (Horror)

Watching the opening to this reminded me why John Carpenter's films are always full of twists and turns. Especially when we find out that the gruesome stabbing was done by the main character. I would've liked to have taken that twist to use in my film. Although technically we did have a twist in it.

Saw Franchise (Horror)

To be honest, I don't really like this series of films; simply because they just go on and on for ages. Apparently there's supposed to be 7-10 of them. Because killing 15 people in increasingly gruesome ways just isn't enough for James Wan.
Anyway, the only thing I really like is the soundtrack, because it is my genre of music. Well only the Saw VI soundtrack. Which includes 'Ghost in the Mirror' which is what I based my choice of music on.

More Music!!!

The song I'd like to use from this album is 'The Broken' (click to go to their site; then click next on the media player in the top-right corner, it should change from 'Here we are Juggernaut' to 'The Broken'. I'd like to use this song because it conveys the emotion of being alone and having '' no one to fix us'', which could be used to generate mood and atmosphere.

Script! The Abridged Version

Points if you can guess what the title parodies.
[Opening pan of background]

Narrator: I am here to tell you a story. A story that will torture your thoughts by day and poison your dreams by night. And though I will do my best, there are no words that can be written nor brush strokes laid on canvas that can describe the stark and utter horror of the night that Annabel died. The emptiness will haunt you.

[stuff happens]
Charlie: Why are you doing this?!
[Fade to black]

Music Choices

This is Alesana's album cover for "The Emptiness", which is due to be released on the 26th January all over the world, they have released two tracks to the public: "The Thespian" and "To Be Scared by an Owl" (Shortened to: To Be Scared).
I could also use Heavy Hangs the Albatross (album has been released now. Shortened to: Heavy Hangs)

The album is available to listen to on their myspace page. I have chosen to use this album for possible tracks to accompany my film opening because some of the tracks have a relevance to the story of my film, i.e: at the end of To Be Scared, the lyrics "you killed her, murderer!!" are repeated which could be played when the killer drops the knife at the end of the opening. Also the chorus of The Thespian is "Tell me I'm forgiven. Say you'll always be mine. Say that everything is over, tell me I'm fine." which could be played when the killer sees the victim. I could use Heavy Hangs because it is a rather sombre song, which the girl could be listening to when she is walking through the woods.

Some horror films that I've seen, most notably the Saw franchise, use the same genre of music (heavy metal//screamo) as I intend to use, this is probably because the 'tone' of the songs is relevant to the scenes that they are in, for example 'Ghost in the Mirror' by Memphis May Fire is used in Saw VI because it creates a sinister mood as the song could reflect how "The Jigsaw Killer" is everywhere and how his games force people to make rash decisions, it could also be about how people are scared of various things, mainly death. Hence why it is used in a horror film. If you listen to the songs I have in mind, but this will probably change when it comes around to editing the film, you will notice that they have an incredibly sinister tone//feel to them. This is what makes them relevant for use in my film.


This is Consider the Thief's final album, Signs and Wonders. I wish to use the track Via Dolorosa because it is a serene song. This creates mood and atmosphere because it could be considered quite an eerie song whilst being used in my film because I have seen that horror movies use serene music to create a false sense of security with the audience which allows them to scare the audience more, it also creates atmosphere because it slows the pace down.

This is Coheed and Cambria's third album, Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star: Volume One: Through Fear Through the Eyes of Madness. The album follows the story of a writer, who is plagued by horrific dreams about the story he is writing. Eventually he finds out that he is being "stalked" by his possessed ten-speed bicycle. The story ends up with him being 'transported' into his writing and he causes multiple characters deaths, the result of this is that he is wracked with guilt and he takes his own life. I wish to use some songs from this album because the songs convey a rather dark message, which would be ideal for a horror movie.

This is Underoath's fifth album, Define the Great Line, released in 2006. I would like to use some of the tracks from this album, mainly Salmarnir because it is a serene, and slightly eerie song. I intend to use it for the same reasons I intend to use Via Dolorosa for.

Digital Storyboard