Visual-Eyes

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 6

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

Since the begining of our product, i feel that i have learnt various things about the technology that will be of great benefit to me. Previous to filming our footage, i had very little experience with the camera's and camera equipment. Therefore i feel i have learnt a lot about the cameras and how to use them to achieve my desired intention, i have particuarly found the use of a dolly very beneficial for the tracking of the male character of our film in the second scene. However, it did take several attempts with the dolly to obtain footage that wasnt shaky. Learning how to use the cameras and equipment was very time consuming at the start but it has enabled me to use them to achieve the maximum effect that i set out to achieve. I have learnt to record and manage my work on Blogger which has helped me to understand the hard work and time that goes into the production of a film.

During the production of our film, we encounted many problems with the editing software Adobe Premiere Elements and found it very difficult and time consuming to finish our film. However, we have found the program to be very useful and i have enjoyed watching our film progress from each stage. Using Adobe Premiere Elements has enabled me to be precise in working from our shot list and also how to frame each shot to achieve optimum mise-en-scene. I have also learnt to video merge still images with videos to create a distorted effect that we aimed to achieve in the first scene of our film. I have also learned how to record sound effects and insert them into our film, this has helped us to adapt the sound effects to fit with our film and the heartbeat along with the callaboration of the still images has enabled us to achieve a fast paced distorted effect to create suspense and fear in our audience.

We also encountered a problem during filming when the white contact lense for Rachel's character teared and cause discomfort for our actor. To overcome this problem we decided against using the contact lense, and therefore would have to make it explicit in the rest of our film that the attacks on Rachel had left her blinded in one eye. If we had more time on our product, we could of edited each frame in photoshop and coloured rachels iris white to make it look like she had the contact lense inserted. However the contact lense was not primarily important to us and due to the problems we encountered with the editing software crashing constantly, we had to use our time wisely and prioritise what we needed in order to achieve the desired effect we wanted for our film.

If we had more time for our film, we would like to have changed the speed of some of the shots in scene 2 and also to change the audio to backwards speed because we feel this would have maximised our chances of achieving the distorted look to portray how Rachel is disorientated after being tortured. We wanted to use the backwards audio particuarly to accompany the jump cuts used when she is struggling in the chair, we discovered the effect when playing the film backwards when experimenting with the program and found that the distorted sound really complimented the jump cuts in the scene.

On the whole, i have enjoyed the experience i have gained when producing our film. Despite the problems we encountered, i have learnt a lot about the technologies and equipment used in the film industry and this has been very beneficial to me because it has enabled me to experiment in my filming and editing. Everything i have learnt will be practical for when i get the opportunity to film another product and it has prepared me for all the prepartion work i have had to do on Blogger in order to create my film successfully. I particuarly have enjoyed working with the cast who i found to be very talented actors and working with my media partner has been an entertaining experience, i am particuarly grateful to the close relationship i had with each member of the cast and crew and i think this has added to the success of our production.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We decided that the target audience for our film would be 16-25 years olds as we have found in our survey that this age group is the most likely to watch a horror film. We fall into that age group and as young adults feel that our film has been developed into what plays on our fears and worries and that this will also relate to other people our age. Our film is very similar to the film, saw(2004), and after conducting a survey we found that the majority of participants that had seen saw(2004) were aged between 16-25.
To get a better insight into our target audience, we conducted a survey on a variety of particpants of all ages. In this survey we asked questions about what people expect from a horror film and what sorts of horrow films they had seen and rated as their favourites. This helped us to develop a horror film that goes beyond the audiences expectations.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our two actors were white british 17 year olds. These actor played characters that related to our target audience and also to our british audience. The character Rachel is a university student and our target audience is 16-25 year olds. Rachel is a typical damsel in distress and she could be represented in a stereotypical manner because of this, however the rest of our film will be about how Rachel seeks revenge on her torturer and this defies the generic conventions of how a woman should be the distressed victim. Our male character is tall and wearing a hoodie, this could be represented of a criminal youth and his dominant and agressive nature is a typical convention of a horror film where the antagonist is male.
In the first 2 minutes of the film the story is told from Rachels persective and the rest of our film will be told in Rachel's perspective. In order to make it clear that we are teling the story from Rachel's persepctive, we made sure to add lots of close ups on the character and have Rachel in the center of all the attention. For example, the very first image at the start of the film is the stalkerboard of Rachel and this denotes to the audience that she is the protagonist and connotes to the audience that she has been stalked.

Evaluation Question 1

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



Previous to creating the film, i researched into the history of horror and looked specifically at how horror has progressed over the decades and the generic signifiers and conventions in each film. This helped me to ensure our film used conventions and signifiers of a typical horror film but also to develop our film into breaking these typical conventions and going beyond the audiences expectations of a horror film. The first 2 minutes of our film used many generic conventions and signifiers, for example: The use of Rachel being strapped to a chair was typical of a horror film because she is a young woman trapped and helpless that the audience will feel sorry for. She is also wearing a white dress which denotes to the audience her innocence. Also, our antagonist was dressed in all black and this explicitly warns the audience that the protagonist is in danger.

Our film starts with a heartbeat that gets rapidly faster and by us using lots of flashing images of newspaper headlines, pictures of Rachel and the male character, we created a sense of fear in our audience which is the intention of all horror film directors in the industry. However, instead of our film slowly establishing the storyline of the film, from the very beginining we had suspense building to create terror and dove straight into a torture scene. We got this idea from the film Saw (2004) and unlike most horror films, this film breaks the convention and scares the audience from the very start. This tests the audiences expectations of horror films because most audience members would expect a horror fim to start by semi-establishing a storyline or a character, for example we looked at the film "The strangers" (2008) And this film starts by establishing a storyline between the male and female protagonists. This is typical of most horror films and therefore audiences have grown to expect these conventions, our film defies these conventions by delving straight into suspense and horror and therefore setting the audience up for fear.

Character Profiles

For this post i created the character profile for Rachel, while Georgie created the character profile for the male part. I decided that the character of Rachel should be a down to earth student who are young adult audience could relate to. This would create a sense of fear in the audience because it shows the reality that an attack like this could happen to them as an audience member or someone they know.

Similar Media Works

We both took it in turns to do a slide each, this post helped us into researching the generic signifiers and conventions of a typical horror film and to determine the different types of horror films. It helped us look at similar films to our idea and get inspiration for these films, for example the use of a white contact lense which was inspired from The Eye (2008).

Script

We both worked on the script at the same time, and i decided to have the males footsteps to be ominent so the audience could hear them clearly. I thought this would create a suspense fear in the audience.

Film Brief

The idea for the film was based on a nightmare that Georgie had had previously, and we both elaborated on the dream to make the film scarier and more compelling. My idea was to have the flashy images at the begining to confuse the audience slightly as we were going to use a subgenre of psychological thriller. I also thought it would be a good idea to have Rachel kill the male character at the end of the film to make our film break the traditional generic convention in horror films where the innocent girl dies.

Scream Remake

I created a shot list that we could work from so that we knew how long each camera angle would last. We took it in turns to film the scenes and i created the set for the remake by making it look as much like a kitchen as possible. I edited half of the film.

Gantt Chart

We created a Gantt Chart to help keep us organised and to make sure we met all the deadlines set in regards to our coursework. We decided that because there were only two of us in our group, that it would be easier to distribute work between the two of us. We decided to do each task together and both put an equal input into it. The only exceptions were: The history of horror post and the storyboard (which Georgie created) because Georgie is more artistic than i am.

History Of Horror

I researched into the history of horror and its origins, by looking at how horror has progressed over the decades i was able to look at similar traits in the horror films and what makes a horror. This has inspired me to think of new ideas that will break the generic conventions of a typical horror film.

Rogue Productions

We decided to call our production company, Rogue Productions, because we thought this was a comical name that fitted our horror genre.
The dictionary definition for 'Rogue':

1. A playfully mischievous person; rascal or scoundrel
2. No longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade: a rogue cop; a rogue union local.

We think it fits our genre because the protagonist in a horror is generally mischevious and cast out of society.

Preliminary Task and Evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation

To demonstrate continuity well, we made sure when editing that it looked as if we filmed each clip all at the same time. To do this we had to make sure that every time we filmed a section of the piece, our actors had to remain in the same postition as well as any props. When we were editing and we put a few clips together to see how it would look, we noticed that the when the camera went from Jo to Georgie, Rosie wasnt in the shot but when the camera focused on Jo again Rosie was in the shot. An example of continuity in our piece is when Jo walked in and it showed her walking through the door and then you hear the door shut when it shows her walking to her seat.

We set up our camera's so that we had the 180 degree rule and our camera never broke this rule, this is to show the audience where the actors are so they dont get confused. We also used shot reverse shot between the conversation to show when Georgie was talking and when Jo was talking. These techniques were helpful when editing because it was easier and more effective to use and watch this shot rather than a wide shot.

We worked in a group of 7 and all took it in turns to film and edit. I think we worked well together as we all got along and contributed to complete our piece. We shared ideas and decided the song and transitions in our piece. I would work with them again because everyone came up with good ideas and achieved all of these ideas.

I think if we were to film this piece again, we would have to make sure our camera wasn't shaky and that we chose a different setting that fitted better with our bar scene. I think we could of used a few more actors to portray the crowded bar and we could of put a close up in our piece. We also had our object in a carrier bag which was noisy and this affected how you can hear Jo's lines.

I think we planned our video well beacuase it all worked out but we could of re-thought a few of our camera shots and our object. Our object was a saw and this was a bit random and we could of zoomed in our the object to highlight its importance. We didnt know how to steady the camera so our footage wasnt shaky which is something we could of practiced before-hand.

We tried to use lots of transitions in our piece to make it more interesting. There were mainly fade in and fade outs for the opening and end creditd. We also used fade effects when the camera shot reverse shot's between Georgie and Jo.

When we started this peicem we edited our films in Adobe Premier which he hadnt used before and we knew very little about. After we experimented with it and tested all the controls, we got a basic idea of how to use it and how to use effects like fading in credits or a song.

I think i have learnt a lot from the technologies used in media after using the cameras and the software. I didnt know how to use the software until we experimented with it.

People Under The Stairs 0:00 - 3:00

Mise – En – Scène for ‘The People Under The Stairs’: (00:00 - 3:00)

The opening credits are a simple black background and plain white letters on the screen to introduce the film producer and the director, the dark background connotes that the film is scary. The title then appears as a light coloured font which is illuminated by a flash light shining quickly and brightly through the letters as they appear on the screen. There is also a very low toned music playing in the background which connotes the film is going to be a horror and will be scary. The letters for the title are then highlighted with an orange glow which gives an eerie element and denotes that the film deals with something sinister.
The film starts with a close up of a candle and a tarot card, this already denotes to the reader that somebody’s fate is being decided and could connote a danger to that person. The tarot cards are on a red tablecloth which connotes blood and death. While the camera zooms in on different cards of swords and staves, there is a child reading the tarot cards, the child’s voice connotes an element of innocence and creates an eerie effect along with the dark table. There is a close up onto a card that says ‘Judgement’ which tells the audience what will come later. The camera then quickly closes in on the next card which says ‘Death’ this is made specific that there will be death and the card is also next to a flickering candle which denotes that death will be soon. The camera then closes in on the next card which reads ‘Mr Devil’ which connotes evil. The camera finally stops on a final card ‘The Fool’; this denotes that the character makes a foolish decision later on in the film. Again, next to this card is a flickering candle which could denote that this fool’s life is coming to an end. The child narrator then tells the audience that the character is 13 today and being 13 could connote misfortune as 13 is an unlucky number. The camera then zooms in on the word fool and onto a dog on the card, the dog could connote help for the fool but it could also connote danger. The person on the card is standing on a cliff ledge which denotes to the audience that there is danger in store for this character. The camera then zooms in on the man in the card and then fades to the same card being on a bookshelf.
The camera then zooms in on a boy in a dark room lit only by candlelight reading a book. The dark room is full of shadow due to the candle and this creates a scary environment and the audience can see a flickering candle which again can connote the near ending of this boy’s life. There is then a mid shot of the boy as he listens to his sister talk to his mum, we can see that the boy is wearing a white hoodie which is relevant clothing to the time it is set and the white highlights the significance of the boy’s innocence. The camera then tracks the boy as he leaves the room and we can see that the room he was in is small and cluttered. It is also very dark and the windows are covered by barely closed blinds so the audience can see it is dark outside. The use of the blinds shows the audience that this boy is from a poor family and we can see this from his grotty under furnished house.
Next there is an over the shoulder shot of the boy looking at his sister sitting on his mothers bed, the mother is lying in a white bed which could connote her innocence and there is no natural lighting in the room, only a lamp. This could connote that the woman is losing a battle with nature as we have already heard that she is sick. We then see his sister shut the door on him, shutting the light out and you can see only his dark room again and refers to him as ‘Fool’, this connotes that he is being shut out of the truth about his mother and is being left in the dark, not only in the literal sense of his room being dark but also not knowing the truth.
The camera then mid shots the boy to show the audience his reaction to his sister’s actions and we can see here that he is frustrated about not knowing the truth. The camera then tracks him as he walks over to a grey undecorated wall and slumps his back onto it and slides to sit to the floor. Again the audience can see his frustration and depression in being left out which could connote that he wants to do something about it.