Evaluation - Closing Post

Blog is now complete, there might be areas that are unfinished because of technology problems.

Evaluation Question 7

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


Planning and preparation is very important when creating a film opening from the beginning, especially when the film has never existed. Storyboarding is very important as well because it is the basic idea of what I want the opening to look like. Getting an actress, location, costumes and props was easier then I anticipated.

Organisation of time could have been better. Myself and my partner were meant to film over the Christmas period but I came down with flu so my partner filmed last minute and the filming was all right but slightly rushed.
But later we had to film again because some of our key footage would not work on the college software very well. This is when we changed our idea and got something better.

Evaluation Question 6

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

I used a wide range of technology to create my horror opening from a mobile phone to editing software.

To start with, I've used Blogger from the beginning. I've used this site publish all my work on alongside other bits of class work. Then through out the project I have used computers with Premiere Pro CS5 for all editing, Cameras for storyboarding and still shots, a video camera to capture all the material I needed and Facebook, the social networking site where I hosted my audience research along with Google for standard images.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?



The film opening certainly gives the audience a sense of reality and with more technology and higher funding this would probably make the film seem real.
Our target audience was a young age group who enjoy watching horror films. The opening, in my opinion is appropriate for my target audience. The ending if left open for anything to be added and developed.
I wanted the audience to be really drawn in so I created the opening with a lot of enigmas so it would really make them want to see more.
From the audience feedback, the majority wanted to see the whole film. The mysteries of what was in the house and what happened to the girl really gave the right suspense.
The audiences emotional response was more than i expected. They were really drawn in when the scream occurred in the last scene.
The audience definitely recognized the genre from the beginning of the opening. Everything about the opening gave the audience the idea 'horror'. The name, the opening sound, how the montage was put together, the definition of the name and most certainly the creepy noses and the screams.
The feedback that I've received certainly gives the feeling of a successful film opening and the audience want to see more. The audience took a preferred reading. They read and understood the text in the way i wanted them to.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My media product is aimed at a young audience ranging from 18s to early/late 20s. Possibly over if an older audience prefers horror films to others

Evaluation Question 3

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

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As my chosen genre for the film opening was horror i had to consider how the characters were represented. For my opening, my character is represented as the helpless victim, typically found in the majority of today's horror movies. It is very stereotypical that the character that dies or disappears is a young helpless female.

The way I have presented the character sends the right messages to the audience, allowing them to understand she is the main character that its a horror opening. These messages were created through costume, the character wears normal every day clothes, suggesting she isn't a wealthy person with posh attire. Clearly from the footage, our character doesn't give any indication of occupation or how she acts outside of home but her behaviour does show that shes a nice girl living on her own. The location isn't really seen in the opening just it is slightly isolated from a village which, if in the video would add a bit more atmosphere.

My video certainly represents a dominant representation of female victims . As I have said, the way I have focused the video The sound that I have used makes the female seem very isolated and alone especially with no indication of the female character living with anyone.
The video starts off with a montage of the characters house. With how I did the cinematography makes her house seem creepy and gives it a feel that something is there.
Straight after this clip then comes a dead fish in a stagnant pond. I only found this by chance but along side the previous clip adds tension and gives the idea of death. This links into the stereotypical idea of a vulnerable female as it  gives the audience

Friends who have viewed the video already have commented on how the music really emphasizes the creepy atmosphere.

Evaluation Question 1

'In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop, or Challenge Forms and Conventions.'
The title of my film opening is 'Purgatory'. It means a temporary condition of torment or suffering. I thought this title would suit our genre and opening ideas.
Use of genre conventions in the film opening consist of the use of mise-en-scene where we have the use of montage to create an atmosphere for the audience.

This is an example of the montage I created. There are many other images from the opening that could create the atmosphere that I've been looking for such as the creepy house I use at the beginning of the opening.

These ideas are similar to the opening in the grudge.















Our narrative also helps develop the conventions of our chosen genre as we have the typical story line lone female victim.
Paige, Our female victim (Left)
Female victim from the Grudge (Right)




The structure of our opening compared to others is rather similar. We build tension from the beginning using P.O.V, Close ups followed by the shock of the scream at the end.
Our film opening did'nt challange the forms and conventions of real media products because of how we presented our chosen genre. Horror films need tension the beginning to draw the audience in more. Which is exactly what we did.

‘Final Production Video'

Research and Planning Script - Character says no more than 5 words

"Hello Puss"

Opens bedroom door "Hello... Hello"

Screams

research and planning: Synopsis

Anna comes home from work, think's everything is the same but then hears a creepy sound coming from upstairs. She goes to investigate and finds herself under attack by an unknown assailant.

Research and Planning:Time Plan

Casting: We chose our actress quite quickly after are planning began. But we wanted to get a actress at least by Christmas so we could record over the holidays

Location: Find the location was quick because our actress lives near a creepy looking graveyard and strange and creepy looking houses and abandoned areas. We were able to find this location at least 2 weeks before the Christmas holidays began

Rehearsing: First rehearse took place on Wednesday  1st of December at 4'clock at the found location, Another on the 8th of December and the of December.

Film: Filming took place between 19th of December ( first part of filming ), none filmed over 24/25/26th of December, continued filming on 28th and 29th for a short period and finished filming Wednesday 5th of January.

Editing: Editing started 13th of January, editing took a long time due to technical problems, finished editing on the Friday 4th of January. During this the technology didn't allow us to use some of what we filmed so between the beginning of the editing and the deadline we re-filmed a lot of our work.

Research and Planning: Audience Research

A typical audience  for the film will be between 15 and 25, generally male but perhaps female, middle class, perhaps a student educated to A level. One word to sum up my audience might be 'individualistic'. A typical audience member for my film might spend their spare time doing things such as going to live music events, surfing the web, studying, and might be a film fanatic. I imagine my typical audience may be drinkers, perhaps smokers, who enjoy socialising and reading.
Male: 70%

Female: 30%

Age Group: 16-25

Brands:

Clothes: Attitude, Darkside, Phaze.

Shoes: Converse, Doc Martens, Babychams. 

Alcohol: Cider, Spirits, Beer.

Bands:

Avenged Sevenfold, Breaking Benjamin, Bullet for my valentine, creed, Disturbed, Escape the fate, Evans blues, Five Finger Death Punch ect

Film and T.V.:

Film: The Grudge, Saw (1-7), Donnie Darko, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Shining, The Ring, The Mist, IT, The Others, Hostel, Final Destination. 

T.V:  Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Ghost Whisperer, True Blood, Being Human, Heroes.

Demographic:

The mainly aimed at males, aged 16-25

The film will be aimed at C1, C2 and D Psycho-graphic

Mainstreamers: people who don’t like to be different but are conventional in their tastes and aspirations

·   Traditionalists: people who don’t like change and are very
       set in their ways

·         
     Hedonists: people who just want to have a good time

·         
Individualists: people who want to stand out from the crowd
       and like to think for themselves

· Rebels: people who don’t want to conform but challenge the traditional way of doing things.

The film will be aimed at Rebels, Hedonists and Individualists.

Research and Planning typical features of the chosen genre - pictures and sound

Research and Planning: Animatic

Research and Planning: Genre Theory

Neale says that 'genres are instances of repetition and difference'. He also says 'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre'.

Genre films use conventions. This is typical of narrative, technical features, sound, cinematography, editing and mise en scene. And iconography. But uses various combinations with different genres and unusual characters.

For a horror film i looked at Thirteen ghosts which is basically a violent haunting story. In this film everything is typical of a horror film. There is blood, creepy music, scary images, screaming, death. Although the only thing that is different are the conventions for female victim dies first - in almost every horror there is a female victim that dies first, this is what has always occurred in this particular genre. But the first victim is male and throughout the film there is male victims, and only one female dies which normally doesn't occur in horror films.

Research and Planning: Facebook focus group

Research and Planning: Planning the Opening.

Our opening will be turned into a montage with credits, transitions and coloured clips. The first 30 to 40 odd seconds will consist of this montage and then it will go onto the acting part.
More will be added to this once we have completed other tasks.

Research and Planning: Audience Profile

A typical audience member for my film will be between 15 and 25, generally male but perhaps female, middle class, perhaps a student educated to A level. One word to sum up my audience might be 'individualistic'. A typical audience member for my film might spend their spare time doing things such as going to live music events, surfing the web, studying, and might be a film fanatic. I imagine my typical audience may be drinkers, perhaps smokers, who enjoy socialising and reading.

Research and Planning: Risk Assessment

During our film there are many opportunities for injury or accidents to occur so in order to prepare for this we must write a risk assessment.


- Tripping over, during our film there are many times when Paige is running and may trip over things or fall, to try and stop this we will clear all routes and ensure Paige is familiar with her surroundings.
- Shutting fingers in door, during the film the door is opened and closed regularly with some slamming, we will ensure Paige is careful and aware.
- Falling over pets, there is a cat in the house which may be hurt or tripped over.
- Tripping over the camera tripod, to target this we will be extra careful and ensure the tripod is not left out when not in use.

Title Sequence Analysis: The Grudge

This opening is 3 minutes long.
This is my second opening analysis and I've chosen to study the Grudge.
Like Thirteen Ghosts, my first study this film opens with the Columbia Pictures logo with slow, slightly creepy music.The screen then goes black and the second credits come up which are the production company, Ghost House Productions. With this film being a supernatural horror, the music and the appearance of the ghost house production logo sequence.
Unlike Thirteen ghosts, The Grudge has an opening involving words.

Every time words come up and fade away a single word remains making the opening more interesting. Along with the writing , creepy music is being played.

This happens for 1:03 minutes. Then opens to roads, bridges and traffic noises.
This then continues to a man looking out at the view, at this point it doesn't give any feeling that something will happen. A close up of this face determines something is bothering him and makes the audience wonder what he is thinking or is going to do. His partner speaks to him but remains silent, this starts to build tension up for the audience because of his strange behavior.

His behavior also suggests that he doesn't know what he's going or doesn't understand something.
Then out of the blue he throws himself off the balcony. This gives the audience the idea that something strange is going on. Before hand an impression from his partner suggested that there were no problems.

A useful way of cinematography is used here, as the man has just jumped to his death the camera is used to allow the audience to see what he is seeing when he is falling to his death.

This is the view that his partner see's when she runs to the window. When the audience see a chose up of her face, they get the impression of confusion. 'Why did he do that?'
As the shot is playing weird creepy music is being played over the top of the partner's heavy breathing.

Camera movement is then used to show the audience how far he fell by trailing his falling pattern.
The camera comes down and pan's over to the body, capturing the crowd collecting not far from his body.
While this is happening the strange sounds are still being played.

Once the dead body is shown the music gets louder and dims into a black screen where 'Sam Raimi and Columbia Pictures Present', now with eery watery sounds playing in the background, still with strange sounds.

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment:
Trip with camera (perhaps whilst walking backwards to film)
Drop camera
Fall down stairs whilst filming 
Break camera
Drop camera in puddle (electrocution)
Trip over tripod
We filmed near a construction area, so avoid hazards


We found a location in college which was suitable for filming. We chose this particular location because it fitted in well with the idea we came up with. It looked how we wanted it to and it was a safe and realistic place to film. We created a storyboard which covered the following events: Me walking through a construction site mission impossible style, walking sneakily down the corridor, looking around, running down the corridor, entering a room (which was our eye-line match and match on action), a room for a conversation (this is where we filmed our cutaway). We decided to have a student rolling her eyes as our cutaway as it suited the scene and made the story easier to understand.

Preliminary Task - Video Production

The preliminary task is a continuity task which is basically filming and editing someone opening a door, crossing a room/walking down a corridor, sitting down with another person present involving some dialogue. This will show a match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule, also including a cut in.
Here are some quick photos of how we want are video to look:-
















An actor sneaking up to the door in a 'James Bond ' stand
















A close up of the actor walking slowly towards the door.
















A close up of the actor opening the door.














Close up/Zoom of actors hand.
















Full body shot of actor posing.




























































Another full body shot of actor creeping down a hall-way.














Mid-shot of actor posing.




































Close up of actor opening a door.














Another actor found in the room. 'Caught in the act' atmosphere
















Another Mid-shot of actor thinking/ 'playing innocent'

Research and Planning: Planning the sceniero

 Since me and my partner love supernatural horror we came up with this unique idea.
The film will be called "Purgatory". 
As our film genre is horror/supernatural, we have decided that our main character is going to be a helpless female who has just moved in to a new house with her father, who is not home. She's unpacking boxes and looking through photo albums when she hears a strange noise from upstairs. She investigates this noise and enters a dark room when suddenly the door slams shut, seconds later she screams. The location we've used to film is our actress's home, which is right next to an old church and graveyard.
We want our film opening to have a montage effect So we plan on taking a camera out and go look for objects and areas around the house that look creepy to create this effect. This will happen through out the acting parts of the opening.

Research and Planning: Planning the film

In the film opening our main female character will be present, 'Anna'. Another will be present who will be our ghostly creepy character (which will be the ghost of Anna). The audience will know who the main protagonist is through the use of close ups, we will do this to allow the audience to really connect with Anna, also as she will be the only main character in the scene. There is one binary opposition in terms of Proppian roles, this will be Anna vs her ghost self. This fits in well with the theme of the film as the idea  is that she is her own worst enemy, and at war against herself. The audience will know this by the narrative and dialogue between her and her dad. In terms of casting we have an idea for a main character, she is a young dark haired girl with a slight rebel side. We want her to wear average teenage attire when she is playing Anna. When she is playing her ghost self we want her to wear a white nightie with bare feet, messy hair and ghostly white make-up.  We will film at a friends house. It is an average sized family cottage based in Ombersley, it is exactly how we want it and suits our storyboard. We want the interior of the house to look as if the girl is unpacking and just moved in, we will need props such as boxes. We'd like to create a slightly creepy atmosphere with tense moments and plenty of enigmas. In terms of mise-en-scene we will create an awkward atmosphere and the feeling of a paranormal thing being present through the use of camera shots, angles and close ups. Almost all of the filming is going to be indoors so we have little need to worry about weather. We are going to use the local churchyard for some filming and have asked the church verger, he said this was fine as long as we didn't film any new graves, as this is disrespectful to families. For example, we can't show a grave that was put there this year but can film the ancient graves. We will film just before dusk so the lighting shouldn't be a problem. We will use enigma codes to ensure the audience want to keep watching, we will do this by using shots to give the idea that another person or spirit is present and plenty of unanswered questions. Action codes will be used and by the end of the sequence the audience should feel on edge, tense and interested to find out more, they will know who the main character is and the basic story line. We will use white writing on a black background for our titles with eerie fonts. Smooth transactions mixed with sudden flashes of scene to credit. The information on the titles will be; "Decorus Nex productions presents", "starring Paige Sturgeon", "Filmed, edited and produced by Hannah and Georgia" and any other necessaries entered at a later date.

Filiming risk assessment

 While filming there are opportunities where injuries and accidents can happen. These areas were assessed and avoided while filming.
 .
  1.Tripping over, during our film there are many times when our actress is running and could trip over things or fall, to try and stop this we will clear all routes and ensure our actress is familiar with her surroundings. 
  2.Shutting fingers in doors, during the film the door is opened and closed regularly with some slamming, we will ensure our actress is careful and aware.
  3.Falling over pets, there is a cat in the house which may be hurt or tripped over.
  4.Tripping over the camera tripod, to target this we will be extra careful and ensure the tripod is not left out when not in use.

Research and Planning: Planning the Film

I have discussed the plan with my partner and have come up with this unique idea and film title:

Our film will be called "Decorus Nex", this is Latin for Beautiful Death.
As our film genre is horror/supernatural/haunting, we have decided that our main character is going to be a helpless female, and then later on in the opening, another character comes on who will be a creepy figure. We will be using a lot of close up shots to allow the audience to really connect with the female character.

At the moment we have a potential female lead that hopefully we could cast but we are still looking into it.

We have found a suitable location. We want the set to look fairly new. The character has just moved into the house so we will want everything that is involved in a house move such as boxes, objects being unpacked, and cheap plates that are breakable.

The film starts when our female character has just moved into her new house, the location is right next to a grave yard. She is still unpacking when she feels as if something was watching her and hears a light tapping on the window. She then looks out of her window and something swiftly shoots passed the window. As she lives on her own, she becomes scared. As she moves closer to the window to see if there is anything outside, her phone suddenly rings, adding tension to the atmosphere. The phone call is from her father. The atmosphere then calms down until there is an unusual soft banging at the door. This brings the tension back. She walks slowly towards the door, opens it and walks outside to see if there is anybody there. The door suddenly slams shut behind her and she cannot get it open. She then runs to her back garden to try and open her back door, to no avail. She looks through her kitchen window and sees objects such as furniture, crockery, utensils, slowly moving and smashing on the floor and  moving around the kitchen. She sees the lights flickering and then notices a scary figure staring at her in her hallway. It scares her so she runs back round only to find that her front door creeks open. She walks back into her house, the door slams shut behind her, flickering lights come back and then the title comes up.

Research: Target Audience.

The target audience I would imagine would be between 15/16 to 25. As it's a horror supernatural it wouldn't be something a young audience would be allowed to see. For this type of film opening the audience would probably be mostly male but as our main character is female, it could be seen as female dominance so it could appeal to a female audience as well.

Genre Mood Board

Research and Planning: Narrative Theory

                                                    Roland Barthes, Narrative Codes.

What Rolad Barthes means by narrative codes is the combinations of technical features that are meant to have a specific meaning. In this theory there are three types of codes, these are The Hermeneutic Code, The Proairetic Code and the Semantic Code.

The Hermeneutic Code is also known as the Enigma Code. This refers to any elements of the story that are not fully explained, this is how it becomes a mystery to the reader. This is used to keep the audience guessing until the last few final scenes when they realise what's happening.

The Proairetic Code which is the Action Code. It builds up tension, refering to any actions or event that indicates something else is going to happen, getting the reader to guess what will happen next.

The Semantic Code refers basically to the way images or music mght be used to mean something in addition to the thing it shows.

Linking to Dexter, TV Series.

The opening sequence really is based on a Hermeneutic Code. Because its full of mystery. The audience never get to see a full image until the very end of the opening. The opening is based on loads of close ups of Dexters morning routine. But we only get close up images. This leaves the audience thinking why its in this particular lay out.

There is also some Proairetic Code aswell, for example the dripping blood, the unusal shaped knife cutting through the blood orange that looks like its cutting through something human, him tieing his shoe laces that looks like hes also strangling someone. These examples would also fit in with the Semantic Code.

Levis-Strauss and Binary Oppositions.

Levi-Strauss introduced the idea of binary oppositions as a useful way to consider the production of meaning within narratives, this means stories driven by paired opposits.

Title Sequence analysis: Thirteen Ghosts

As i could not get the proper opening scene from the film, I'm having to use the first part from the movie.
The title sequence finishes after 1 minute 20 seconds.

As my coursework's genre is supernatural horror i felt like i should study an opening with a similar genre. So i chose Thirteen Ghosts.
At the beginning of the opening there's the advertisement of the entertainment company's who have helped create this film - Columbia Picture entertainment, which was presented in black and white with an eery backing sound of a whistling wind. Which then leads on to the next entertainment company, Dark Castle Entertainment, which is ironic seeing how the way their advertisement is a scary gargoyle roaring that's on a dark scary castle will give the audience straight away feeling of a supernatural horror.
This then leads on the this opening scene:

This scene opens with the backing sound of thunder and straight away the audience see's this image. The fact that this scene is dark, foggy, lighting that emphasis's the atmosphere really gives the feel that something is going to happen that will make the viewers jump.

At the same time that the sound and the mise-en-scene is giving off this feel of something bad will happen, cinematography takes over with a jurky hand-held feel as the image moves slowly towards the car suspended in the air by the crane.

As soon the camera has crept closer to the car, the start of the title sequence begins with this lettering appearing with it looking like it's on fire.

The mise-en-scene is one of the bigger aspects used in this opening that shows the genre of this film. Even though it is difficult to see, prop's such as dead cars piled on top of each other really gives an 'off' feeling. Making the audience feel the realism. This is also due to the cinematography, how the camera still moves in a jurky way as if its hand held. To add to the effect wind is blowing. Old bits of torn ragged fabric have been used to emphasis this, and is high lighted above.

Also at this point, more sound's become more effective at this point with sound's of sounds like a gate either being opened and creaking or the wind blowing it. Again with added thunder sound effects.

After more camera movement the main title appears with editing it gives the audience the feel of certainty that it is going to be something along the lines of a supernatural horror. Along with the title appearing, the backing sound for it almost sounds like people but its distorted.

And then the title sequence ends with some action of a lorry driving through a pair of large gates.

In this opening sequence there is no music when there normally is but the opening to this film really sets the scene so creepy background sounds are used.The sounds that are used really show off the genre for this film. Sound's of strong winds blowing, gates creeking open and closed, thunder are used to open the scene, then the sound goes into a weird sounding wind that give's the feel that something is there or is about to happen. This strange sound is used with the cinematograpghy to create a strong atmosphere.

The use of mise-en-scene is very strong. Even though in the opening there are no characters, just the location of the first scene really gives the audience the idea of something 'eery'. Lighting is obviously important as this scene is set at night, so the use of flood lighting in the corners of this car junk yard really shows off how creepy the setting is. The prop's mainly used are these crushed or broken cars, along side the fog adds to the effect.

One of the most obvious techniques used to show off the genre is the cinematography. When the camera goes 'all over the place', as if it's following someone. Sort of a jurky hand held movement, along with the strange sound effects really give the audience the feel of realism.