Question 2

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

Our media product represents the teenage social group in a different way as it doesn't completely fit the stereotype of teenagers. Our two main actors are both teenagers and represent the same age group the bbfc age certificate is 15.

In our film the teenagers are normal teenagers in the first 30 seconds as they ignore the locked gate and jump over (typical behaviour of teenagers today) because it is normal for teenagers to do so we have avoided offending any teenagers; our villain is a young girl who the teenagers fear. Children aren't the most popular thing that teenagers are afraid of, in normal horror films the villain is a crazy person or a ghost sometimes even children but teenagers are normally shown to be afraid of children.

We have avoided being predictable as before the identity is revealed everyone is waiting to see something big and scary when all it comes down to is a a quick flash of the little girl. By using the little girl we have widened the expectations of the film. We have done this by changing around what people expect to see and putting in what they least expect to see. 

We have represented the teenagers as clueless and adventurous, which is what is portrayed in the film opening.

Horror Film Final Copy

After weeks of planning and editing and filming we have finally finished and have uploaded our final copy of our horror film. Here is a link to our final copy:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4CVl4-PLjI

Before we finished our final copy we had to go back out and re-shoot some footage that was not valuable to our film. We managed to successfully do so with very little problems. The second time around filming it was much easier and quicker because we knew exactly what went wrong before and what we needed to do to fix that problem.

All the feedback that we received was very helpful and helped us piece together something we are very happy with.

Evaluation Question 1

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

My Horror film "November 23rd" goes against and also matches the stereotypes of other horror film openings. Our story line and characters followed the themes of the two films "The Ring" and "Paranormal Activity" Both Films were used as examples for our own film for example, the little girl from The Ring was used as our starting point for our scary character. The costume and make up was used also. Also from Paranormal Activity we used the point of view camera angle for the second half of the horror opening. Using this camera technique it made the footage seem more realistic.




 Form 
For direction or examples we looked at existing Horror Film openings found here
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=as+media+horror+opening+&sm=3 

- For music/sound we used the website freesound.org , the website allowed us to find a range of different sounds to help build the effect of our film.

- We made the characters very clear 

- We used our production company logo (Bullet Proof Productions)

- There was very little dialogue but this helped to piece together a more clear film opening, due to the fact that there was very little words it made the audience pay closer attention to the film. 

- Traditionally we put the tittle of the film at the end 

- We used the different tittles on screen to introduce the director and actors (without obstructing something on screen)

-Showed clear themes throughout 

By using the traditional theme of putting the tittle at the end we conformed to the typical horror film opening this just allows us to be safe when making our film we know that by using this technique the audience or a majority of the audience will be pleased by what they have seen.

When receiving feedback from the audience we often were told that the sequence and pace at which we showed all the tittle was really effective, there was positive feedback on the use of tittles.

Genre 

Our genre is horror/thriller. For research we looked at different horror film openings (successful ones). We watched films such as "The Blaire witch project", "Insidious", "Scary movie" and "Halloween" etc.  

(picture of one ^)

When watching these different openings I noticed a constant repetition but still major differences in all of them and that was the structure in which they opened and the sound used. Some used high pitch frequency to build up tension a film that was particularly good at this was Insidious. 

The things usually shown in the opening to do with the genre are the colours, so red is a common colour used in horror, if red is not used then dark colours are used to represent the evil in the ghosts or killers. Something else that is common is that the identity of the killer is not shown straight away, this is also a tradition in horror/thriller and keeps the suspense high.

When filming our film all of the research used was valuable and helped us by leaving guidelines of where all the successful movies both failed and succeeded. In our film we pushed the boundaries by going against well known traditions in horror such as the female being the first to be hurt, by doing this we hoped to catch the eye of the audience by showing them something different. Apart from a few challenged stereotypes we played it safe by sticking to all the other conventions of horror.

Style 

In class we watched several examples of horror film openings and their styles were very different even though they all had the same horror conventions, mostly set in dark places with clear signs of danger and scary music. We all conformed to the typical horror film stereotype. 

We used the films The Ring and Paranormal Activity as examples and mimicked the camera and horror style of both films in order to make it a believable horror film opening. What is different about the horror films that have been produced by big name companies is that it is based in the united kingdom so we have British actors and actresses. 

Our film has a range of camera angles that imitate the style of paranormal activity because it has handheld filming and keeping the bad guy in disguise but also showing the camera from their point of view. Point of view shot is another camera style that is used; I could list all the camera angles used but the range is too wide but that is something very successful that we did, we managed to use a good amount of different angles although the last 40 seconds of the film is point of view.

Breakdown

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number:17

Date:                                                                                               Time:

Setting: Little Kids' Park                                                                                    Location: Kenington Park 

Crew members and roles:
Kristal & Luke - Filming 

Cast members:
Fernanda - Little girl 

Extras:
(NONE)

Wardrobe:
Long white dress, dolly shoes and white socks 

Make-up:
(CAN'T SEE FACE IN THIS SHOT)

Props:

Small/medium sized music box (covered in blood)

Special effects:

Music from the toy box playing (little kids lullaby)
Laughing from a little girl (evil laughing)
Screaming from victims
Screen cuts out or fuzzes and then goes back to normal after the teenagers are dead 

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them:

Since the camera is sideways it may be difficult to capture the disoriented shot as the camera cant be too straight or it will look unrealistic. To overcome this problem i have decided to shoot more than one shot and from those decide which shot captured this scene correctly.
Another problem that may occur is that the costume might not be able to be ready by the time we have to film this scene, due to our short time schedules we plan to try our hardest that the costume for the little girl is put together from the best that we can find. 

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number: 15 

Date: 13 - 12 - 13                                                 Time: 4 - 6 

Setting: Abandoned park                                       Location: Kennington Park 

Crew members and roles:
Kristal - Camara
Luke - Camara and acting
Fernanda - Camara and acting 

Cast members:
Little Girl - Fernanda 

Extras: No extras needed 

Wardrobe: Long white dress ( old fashioned , dirty , with blood )

Make-up: Pale foundation 

Props: Fake blood 

Special effects: None needed

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them: As we are filming this in a dark park it will be difficult to maintain the correct lighting . The solution to this problem will be to get a torch or film in the park but closer to the post lamps. Also it will be difficult to make the make-up and costumes look scary. To overcome this problem we would search on-line how to do the correct make-up so we don't over do it.

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number: 1

Date: 06 - 12 - 13                                                 Time: 4 - 6 

Setting: Abandoned park                                       Location: Kennington Park 

Crew members and roles:
Kristal - Camara
Luke - Camara and acting
Fernanda - Camara and acting 

Cast members:
Teenage girl No.1 : Ana 

Teenage girl No.2 : Daniela 

Teenage boy No.1 : Luke 

Teenage boy No.2 : Luke's friend 

Extras: No extras needed 

Wardrobe: Their own clothes 

Make-up: 

Eyeliner 

Foundation 

Mascara 

Lipgloss 

Props: None needed

Special effects: None needed

Potential problems and how you’re going to overcome them: As we are making a long shot of the cast walking inside the park, it will be hard having the park empty , since is a public park. To overcome this we will have to be ready whenever there is a opportunity and also be quick because there will be a lot of people crossing the park 

Horror Film Rough Cut 2 Feedback

In class we showed our second Rough Cut of our Horror film to our media group. We have already shown them one preview of our movie and they have given us feedback  for our first one but this time we showed them a second rough cut which included tittles and improvements from our last rough cut. here is a link to our second rough cut http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A39uZBq1YX4&safe=active.

After showing the class our send rough cut we again received feedback on what we had done. Here is our feedback that we were given:

"The tittle chosen was a really good choice in colour, the red and white matches the theme to the rest of the film opening. With the titles looking professional it made it look like a real horror film opening."

"The added sound to the production company was effective to make it look like a real production company that had been producing your film."

"The theme of the colours match the production company."

"The use of titles and font was effective and fitted what was happening on screen. Also the positioning of the titles worked well with what was going on, it didn't obstruct anything happening on the screen."

"The fact that the original idea was to make it look like found footage, the title of the film 'November 23rd' was great because that was the date of the event and the crime. It made it better in the sense that it convinces the audience more that it is a true story."

"The tension building music made me feel like i was in the movie and that something bad was going to happen. Although as effective as it is to have it, at times i felt that is was too loud and it took over more than it should have. So much that i couldn't hear what was going on with the characters."

"There needs to be a transition between the production company and the beginning of the film because it makes it look very unprofessional."

I have read all these feedback comments and my group and I will do our best to take them all into consideration and put them into our horror film in order to make it better.

My Film Classification

In class we discussed what age our film should be. BBFC are the people who decide the age rating on any film depending what is being shown in the film. We went on their website to check all of their age  guidelines for what can be shown for different ages. Here is a link to their website http://www.bbfc.co.uk
While looking at the age ratings, as a group we came to the decision that our film was suitable for the age of 15 and over as it can contain; strong violence, strong language, brief scenes of sexual violence etc... The topics that our horror film touches on would not be allowed to show younger ages so 15 is the youngest someone should be to view our film without it being inappropriate.

Horror Film Rough Cut

Here is a link to the rough cut of my horror film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-gnsacI_KE 
After showing the rough cut to my media class we were given feedback on their opinions on what we 
have done so far. They understood that we were not finished and that there were some missing things 
 but this is the feedback that we have been given;

• WWW     (what went well):

" -They used the camera really well and also the sound matched with the scene."
" -Good use of synchronous  sound."
" -Good use of camera angles at the beginning."
" -Good use of camera shots."
" -The breathing and the filming from behind the tree was very affective."
" -The trees was very affective."
" -The sound used built good tension."
"- Good tension building music."
"-Varied camera angles."
"- Clear storyline."
"- Felt tension when the music came on."
"- When fernanda was taking a picture the camera angle used was a good choice."
"- I enjoyed the point of view shot." 
"- Good use of close ups."
"- Tension building music was successful."
"- Good use of handheld camera."
"- The different camera angles used were good."

• EBI          (even better if):

"- The lighting was poor."
"- When Gabby was speaking it was too loud." 
"- The transition didn't fit the genre horror."

I have read all these feedback comments and my group and I will do our best to take them all into consideration and put them into our horror film in order to make it better.