Evaluation

For the past few months, we have been creating and developing ideas towards our final media product ( Horror film opening). During this journey, I have progressed in my knowledge of film openings, particularly regarding the Thriller/horror genre, discovering key codes and conventions of this genre, and how marketers appeal these products to their target audience. By researching other horror films, we have been able to use their ideas and conventions to influence our own final products.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We were very pleased with the final outcome of our Horror film opening. During the course of this project based on Horror/Thriller genre, we were able to research key codes and conventions used in these genres and were influenced by the concepts, including the ideas into our final piece. By looking at various film openings from all different genres, whether that be horror, romance, comedy or action, we were able to see how an average film opening is represented and what media techniques it uses.
We started off by looking at general film openings, and writing down denotations and connotations for each example. We discovered that nearly all films from a variety of different genres all shared things in common, i.e. they would all include the film’s title, along with short credits displaying the names of the main actors, directors and producers. They all also tended to give an immediate sense of story line and are instantly introduced to the genre of the film as an audience. For example, in the opening few minutes of ‘The Dark Knight’, we are bombarded with fast paced action, destruction, weapons, murder and a sense of a dark, sinister plot. This is typical of an action adventure film.
After briefly looking at the key codes and conventions of film openings, we were given cameras and told to go around taking organised shots of particular camera types/angles included in these film openings. This particular activity gave us a chance to dig deeper and have a more detailed look into camera angles and why they are so important in a films as a whole. We took various shots including high angle, low angle, establishing, close up, extreme close up, long shot, mid shot, two shot, aerial shot, mid shot etc. After taking our own shots, as well as looking at examples of them used in film, we revealed why they were used and what importance they had. Two camera shots which are commonly used in horror films are the low angle shot and the high angle shot. These two angles, when used in the correct pretence are very visually effective and rub off on the viewer. A low angle shot is commonly used when showing the villain. The shot allows them to look, bigger, more powerful and superior, giving them control and making them seem intimidating, which helps create anxiety and apprehension in the audience. The high angle shot is commonly used when depicting the victim, making them look small, hopeless and vulnerable. The establishing shot often depicts an average looking house in the dark hours of night. The use of an run-of-the-mill, ordinary home relates to the audience, whilst eliciting fear and unease as it suggests that terrible events can happen in the most normal, safe places in anyone’s life. We integrated the use of this shot into our final horror film. The scene was clearly shot at night time, creating a sinister, dark atmosphere. Some other important shots we looked at where the 180 degree rule, shot/reverse shot, over the shoulder shot etc. These particular angles we noticed were commonly used in horror films. We were to develop these shots and include them in a preliminary task to see if we could recreate them in a way that was effective.
I focussed on 3 particular horror film openings (Halloween, Sweeney Todd and scream), analysing their techniques and connotations which linked them to the genre.
We then progressed from the general conventions of horror to their production and audience. I researched in depth the twisted pictures production institution which is responsible in creating many of the successful, good quality horror films out to date. This then lead to looking at the target audience of the horror genre, and how they were marketed towards them. I developed these ideas in my target audience profile which I thought would be an appropriate market for our horror film.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
After researching various horror movies, we looked at the ways in which different social groups are portrayed. We noticed that the victims are usually portrayed as being young, female or groups of people in the teenage age range. Using people of this social group that are more dependant and inexperienced creates a sense of vulnerability and naivety, causing them to be suitable and fitting as the casualty.
Whilst looking at the horror genre, we were struck with the realisation that a large majority of villains were male, whilst a large majority of the victims were female. This is usually so as the male gender are generally seen as the stronger, more dominant sex, whereas females are seen as weaker and inferior. This idea is a very old fashioned notion and to allow our film to fit in with modern times and appeal to a younger audience, we felt it was necessary to include a major twist in our storyline, using a male victim and a female killer. This turn of events creates a new, interesting look on gender, appealing to both a male and female audience. The male audience can relate to the male character and also enjoy the aspect of a dominant, independent woman which is very appealing and provocative. The female audience may feel a slight distance from the female killer, but enjoy the fact that the female character is in control. The female killer in our film uses her seductive nature and provocative allure (represented by the sleek, red high heel shoes) to rein power over the male victim.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
In our final horror movie opening, we have decided to use Warner Brothers and Twisted Pictures as our main film institution labels. We made this decision together in our group, as we felt these particular production companies were suitable and would benefit our final product.
Twisted Pictures is an independent production company, who specialize in producing films of the Horror/Thriller genre- particularly famous for producing the Saw series. Our film falls perfectly under this category so would work well together. The fact that this institution is well known for other, successful horror films gives our film advantage, maybe attracting the attention of fans of this institution and films it has previously produced. The company was only founded in 2004, and is therefore relatively new, which adds to our concept of a fresh, new film for our modern, young audience.Warner Brothers is also a hugely successful company name, and could attract a lot of attention towards our film.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
After researching the way in which products are sold, the most important aspect is determining its specific audience at which it is aimed. The target audience range of the genre of horror, are males between the ages of 15-30. We therefore decided that it would be appropriate to aim our film at the same demographic. After researching on the internet, reading the listing figures of horror films and their audiences, I was lead to believe that this was the appropriate age range and gender. I also made some primary research, creating questionnaires and surveys concerning horror as a genre, finding out what people of different age ranges and social groups felt about it. Most of the participants who had a particular interest in horror were revealed to be in the age range of 15-30 and male. Our film centres on the main character, Mark, a successful young male in his twenties, who the main audience could hopefully relate to and feel a connection with. We have daring decided to use a female killer, may not appeal directly to woman, but the independent, powerful representation of women may be alluring and attractive again to the male audience.
A film always has a secondary target audience (people who are in the room whilst the film is on or accompanying a member of the target audience) for our film would be couples (male of 15 years + accompanied by other half) and gangs of friends (older teenagers +) watching the film together. After questioning 10 people of the audience age range, 80% prefer to watch horror films with other people, as it gives them a sense of security and feel safer than if they were viewing it alone.

How did you attract/address your audience?
We used various techniques and decisions throughout the process of creating our horror film to allow it to relate to our target audience
Our main character, mark, is an everyday average teenage boy (the prime example of our target audience). We dressed him in a smart suit to show that he is a member of a college/sixth form. The normality of his being and appearance makes the events throughout the film even more dreadfully haunting as the target audience has been allowed to form a bond and relate to him as a character, causing them to sympathize and identify with him.
We have shown Mark carrying out various every day domestic tasks such as making a cup of tea and watching TV. The violent scene which we have shown on the TV screen almost foreshadows the dark, sinister events to come, as well as engaging the audience in the film, showing them that the character performs everyday tasks out of the norm, not knowing his wicked awaiting fate. The intertextuality of including a scene from another successful horror film, Sweeney Todd draws in the attention of the audience, declaring that this film is suitable for them as it contains a scene of a different film from the same genre which they may already be a fan of.
By looking at my recorded results from my horror genre surveys, most of the people said something along the lines that the thing they most enjoy about horror films is the building of tension, as opposed to the actual outcome after the climax. We tried to create as much tension as possible in our horror opening, including eerie, unnerving music and camera shots such as over the shoulder shots, giving the feeling that our victim is frequently being watched in the safety of his own home, stimulating panic in the audience.
Another aspect of attracting our audience to our film would be through the medium of advertisement.
Movie posters/ print advertisements which could be included in magazines, billboards, newspapers etc could be created to promote our films release. I would hope that they would appear in magazines such as film or horror magazines as they would have a similar target audience to that of our film.
The target audience of our film is largely populated on social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and myspace. Accounts could therefore be created on these various sites to ensure maximum exposure to the public eye through the source of the internet, one of the highest form of advertisement in the media.
Another great way to advertise cinema releases is through television trailers. We created a trailer for our film using the ‘I movie’ software on the Mac computer. The perfect place for the trailer to be shown is on film channels, horror channels and any channels not associated directly with children due the explicit content.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
For me, the editing process of our film was the most difficult section of the course. I felt this was due to the fact that I was unfamiliar with the software of which we had to use. As I had never really used an editing programme before, I struggled with the concept and found the process very challenging, but my group and I worked together to face any problems that came our way and managed to solve them efficiently. After the process of using these new softwares i feel more confident and able when it comes to editing.
We used various cameras throughout the process. We used a digital camera for our preliminary exercise. This was easy to use and was sufficient to our filming needs. Whilst filming both our preliminary task and our horror film opening, we used a tripod, which kept the camera sturdy and made the filming look more professional. For our horror film opening we used the program Final Cut Express, however, for our preliminary task we decided to use’ I movie’, a simple and easy editing program on the Mac computers. Although ‘I movie’ may not be as developed and have as many editing applications as Final Cut Express, it was a simple, easy way to edit our film and contained all the necessary elements which we needed to edit our prelim, i.e. a timeline, allowance to cut down clips, transitions between each clip (which added to the continuity and gave the whole project a steady flow).
In the early days of filming our film opening, we decided to use emmas video recorder, as it produced HD sound and picture, which would give us a professional quality to our film work. We did not realise until we plugged it into the school computer however, that the camera was unrecognized and this was an extremely frustrating obstruction. After converting the videos so they operated with the school computers, we began the editing process.
Formerly, we had edited our movie on as we were all familiar with it as an editing program and thought we would be able to use it with ease. However after a short while we realized it was not the right method to use as it has very limited edits and looked like an armature attempt at editing. In one of our media lessons, the school technician gave us an introduction to a piece of software on the Mac computers called, ‘Final Cut Express’. This was perfect for our film as it had much more advanced tools and was available on the school apple Macs.
Whilst recording our film we worried that we would need to sound dub parts of our film, as well as the fear of additional unwanted noise created by the sensitive recorder of the camera. This was not an issue as the sound quality was of good quality. I enjoyed experimenting with different soundtracks to include in our opening. We used previews of suitable tracks on ITunes, recording them and importing them to play over the video on Final Cut Express.
The soundtracks we used were vital as they incaptured the atmosphere of the scenes, as well as adding tension and eliciting fear from the audience. We included sound bridges and repeated some of the tracks numerous times which covered up the moments where one track changed to another.
I feel that we progressed from ‘Windows Movie maker’ and ‘Imovie’, getting used to the sorts of tools and edits that were present in Final cut Express, as well as additional methods and tools. This program was much more up-to-date and technical, allowing us to experiment with many different techniques in improving our final product. This program included a large variety of transitions, fonts and settings such as colour level and saturation editing which made our finished piece look very professional and of high quality when completed.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel u have learnt in the progression from it to your final product?
When looking back at my preliminary task at the start of the course, I realise how much I have progressed and learnt from the whole experience and journey. Before we started this course I was completely unaware of any editing softwares and feel that I have now developed to the level where I am confident in using them and feel I can make an effective, high quality piece of material when using such programs such as Final Cut Express.
I feel as a group we developed the most during the editing stages on Final Cut Express. Instead of the simple, bare minimum editing that was available to us on Windows Movie Maker, The extended line of options on Final Cut really helped improve the quality of the final outcome. We progressed with our editing skills on this porgram, not only importing and placing onto a time line and cutting down to desired size, but also adding and downloading appropriate sound effects and soundtracks and adjusting colour levels to add to the atmosphere of the scenes.
Although this program was difficult to use at the start and took a long time to create our final product, It was worth while, and ended up creating our final film opening of great quality and professional standard.
I have also learnt a lot about different camera shots, how and why they are used in creating a certain mood or atmosphere to a piece of film. I feel by developing my new knowledge of camera angles, and actually putting them into action by shooting my own examples has extended my awareness of how important they can be in a scene of a film. Spending a majority of the time filming on various cameras has got me used to the filming process, as well as techniques and additional equipment used to enhance the quality of film work, I.e., a tripod to create a steady, stable level for the camera.
We had brainstormed different ideas for the vague narrative of our preliminary exercise, but in the end felt that an interesting storyline to pursue was one that linked to our ideas for our main task. The story is set after the events of our film, where the killer has escaped from the mental asylum of which she was the number one most dangerous patient. We set the story line and script as to include all of the 3 vital camera shots. We felt this was a good way to practise and experiment with conventions and codes of the horror/thriller genre.
I am happy that we were given almost a 'practise run' in the form of a preliminary task. This gave us an insite to what was expected of us when creating our main task and permitted us to progress a long way and create a highly professional looking final Horror film opening. When looking back to the whole concept of our preliminary task, I feel it could be hugely improved. However, we have developed our main task by creating a strict filming schedule, making sure our scenes were filmed in appropriate locations ( dark, menacing, intimidating woodland) and making sure they were filmed at appropriate times (night time so there was a more threatening, dark atmosphere). We paid clear attention to detail when filming our opening and think this paid off in the end, leaving us with a high standard of professional work. I am extremely satisfyed with our main task and feel as a whole process it was a success.