Before creating our final piece, I did a lot of individual research into a variety of openings from different genres of film. I looked at action, rom/com, sci-fi etc and found that on the whole each of the openings had the same conventions. They all contained a slight hint at the storyline through the use of characters and props and the information included in the credits was all similar with the exceptions of Independence Day and The Dark Knight which only included the institution.
After this I then looked into the horror genre in more detail. I analysed the openings from Halloween and Final Destination 3. Again from this I found that horror movies had specific conventions which made the genre clear to the viewer. I found that music was a key element to creating the atmosphere and setting the scene. Both low and high sustained string notes were evident in both as well as the non-diagetic score being minor. The lighting was very dark in both openings which added to the mystery of them. Finally, both of the openings contained young characters. In both of the extracts there were a multiple number of teenagers that we're shown through POV shots and low angle shots to really highlight and show their vulnerability, immediately allowing the viewer to connect with them.
From looking into a variety of film openings, we decided as a group that we felt the most effective openings were those that contained both the action and credits separately, so we knew that this was something that we wanted to use in our own opening. We also decided that after looking at the horror openings that we wanted to the music to play a key part in creating a scary, eerie atmosphere for the viewer. Initially we decided on having the nursery rhyme rock-a-bye-baby playing during the opening, however when watching it back this didn't have the effect that we desired. Therefore we searched around and came across a piece of music called The Doom March which we really liked and thought would create the effect that we were looking for. Once we had gotten permission to use the music, we edited it over all of our clips and watched the opening. We felt like this had the exact effect we were looking for and decided to keep it.
We also developed the idea of having groups of teenagers in our film and had the main character as a single teenager alone in a house. To show her vulnerability her costume was a white and red dress with the white connoting innocence and purity. We also used a low angle shot which is extremely stereotypical of a horror film as it added to the vulnerability of the character.
Personally I do not feel that we challenged the conventions of the genre and this is something that I would have liked to have done if we had had a bit more time. Horror films are about the unexpected, therefore if we had subverted expectations our film would have played this role.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There are two characters in the opening of our film, however the audience only get to see and interact with one of them. This is a young girl. It is clear to the audience that she is a teenager therefore they will immediately think of them as a vulnerable character. This is how we wanted to portray this character.
To help do this we originally decided that the costume would be a white dress as the white would connote innocence and purity, however upon filming a white dress was not available to us so instead we used a red and white dress. I still feel that this was effective as the red connotes danger and could be implying that later on the character will be getting blood on her. We also wrote the characters dialogue to show her in a naive manner. As she answers the phone she asks multiple questions showing that she's having difficultly understanding the person on the other end. Her body language and facial expressions also show the panic that she is experiencing which will make the viewer panic with her.
Although it is not clear in the opening of the film, the young girl is actually a babysitter. This is something that a lot of the target audience will be able to relate with therefore they will feel that more personal connection with her thus leading them to be more shocked and upset when she is killed at the end of the film. Also due to her being a babysitter this meant that the location of somebody else's house is foreign to her which will create a sense of worry and uncertainty for the viewer.
The killer's identity is not revealed and we do know see their face therefore there age, ethnicity, sex etc are unknown to the viewer. However the costume for the killer is a black coat. This is hugely stereotypical of the genre as the killer is often dressed in dark colours as they connote death. The killer also had a prop which was a knife that we covered in tomato ketchup to act as blood. Again this is a stereotypical aspect of a horror movie to give the killer their weapon and have them holding it up for the viewer to clearly identify what it is. Possibly if we had to create a long piece then the identity of the killer could have been explored, especially twisting the conventions of killers in other horror films as they are more often than not ethnic minority males.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
When deciding on an institution to be involved in our film, we had hundreds and hundreds to select from. After each individually researching a handful we decided that New Line Cinema would be an institution that would sit really well with our film.
We looked at the existing films that New Line Cinema had been involved in and many of these were similar to the film that we had created. The institution have been involved with films such as Final Destination and Nightmare on Elm Street which are both films from the horror genre. They've done films such as Austin Powers and the Lord of the Rings trilogy and although these films aren't from the horror genre, they have the same target audience of teenagers/young adults therefore we felt that they would have a lot of experience when dealing with our target audience.
In 2008 New Line Cinema merged with Warner Bros which is one of the most famous film institutions. This would be hugely beneficial as there would be a wide range of expertise and knowledge available.
One possible issue however is that New Line Cinema are and american institution. But we felt that this wouldn't have a huge impact on our film as all horror films, wherever they are from still have the same codes and conventions.
Many films, horror and other genres, often have a number of different institutions involved in their films therefore we decided to create our own institution called LHM Pictures. Our institution is a small, independent institution that specialises in english horror films.
Having the two institutions work together on this film would enable it to be the best it could possibly be as their would be a wide range of experience and knowledge. Especially as the two institutions are from different countries this would help the film to appeal to an even wider audience. It would also mean that the budget for the production, advertising etc would be considerably lower for each of the institutions individually as both would be contributing.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
We wanted this to be our target audience as it is already the main target audience for horror films therefore it would be easier to market it to them. We also felt that this would be the group who would be most accepting of a horror film as they can often be quite controversial. Finally, many people from younger generations are often more willing to part with their money when it comes to trying out new things like seeing a new film so this is another reason why we have chosen this age range.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Having a character in the film which a large portion of the target audience can relate with is key in attracting and addressing our chosen audience. The babysitter character is someone who we feel would easily fit into our target audience as she is between the ages of 15 and 25. She is shown to have a part time job of babysitting which again is something that a lot of the target audience will be familiar with and therefore will attract them to the film. The situation that she is in is also something which will attract the audience as it will be one that many have experienced before - being home alone and worried about what may happen. If a film has a character that people can relate to then it is more likely to be a success with the target audience as they will really feel a connection to them thus enabling to feel the emotions that we want them to experience whilst watching the film.
We haven't come up with any kind of marketing strategy for our film, nor have we discussed ways in which we could promote it (ie through TV advertisements, posters etc). However if we had I feel that using the internet would have been key in our advertising. Nowadays technology is a massive part of everyone's lives, especially 15 to 25 year olds. The majority of them own a computer and/or a phone, both of which usually have access to the web. We could have advertisements on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as this would hit the majority of our target audience. We could also develop some kind of interactive advertisement, possibly a game. I also think that posters would be form of advertising. Something quite simple and scary so that the person viewing the poster would know what to expect. The posters should be displayed in places where the target audience are most likely to see them. I believe that this is around areas of public transport. So having the posters on trains, buses, at bus stops, in taxis etc. Many young adults rely on public transport and often spend a lot of their time waiting for transport or on transport so this would be a key place.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I feel that I have learnt a lot about the technical side of media through creating my own opening and I feel that this knowledge is now something that I will have for a long time and will benefit me in the future.
When it came to the cameras it learnt that you should try a variety of different cameras before selecting a certain one to use. We filmed everything on one of our own personal cameras and then realised that the quality was poor so we swapped and re-filmed on a camera that we borrowed from school. The quality of the footage was improved considerably with this camera and it is evident when watching our film as the first scene of the cradle is filmed using our own camera. I also learnt that to ensure that the shots looked professional it was absolutely essential for us to use a tripod. Everything that we filmed without a tripod and just relying on a steady hand looked amateur. Again this is evident with the first scene as there is a slight wobble to the shot.
Lighting was really important in our film and I realised that cameras without lights do not pick other artificial lights up very well. Whilst filming outside the first time it was extremely difficult to actually see the baby and the killer as the lighting was too far away from where we were shooting. When we came to re-filming this scene we filmed in a different location where we had lighting closer to the camera which inevitably made the shot a great deal clearer.
Sound wasn't something that we had a huge issue with and I do not feel that I have learnt a great deal when it comes to sound. However when first filming it became evident that cameras pick up background noise easily and that it was important that our surroundings were completely silent whilst we were filming.
When it came to editing I felt that I personally learnt a great deal from this as I did the majority of it myself. The editing is something that I can personally say I am very proud of. Before I edited the film I had never edited video footage before therefore I was slightly apprehensive. To begin with I watched a few tutorial videos for the chosen software (iMovie) that I thought would be relevant to me whilst editing. From these I learnt about the basics such as importing the shots, clipping the shots and re-arranging the shots and I also learnt about the more complex parts of iMovie such as stabilisation, video effects, adding/changing sound and changing the colour and lighting of the shots. I feel that I used all of the skills that I learnt to the best of my ability and know now that I would be confident if I had to do something similar to this using iMovie again.
Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
I feel that a great deal was learnt by the other girls and I from filming the preliminary task and that our skills between the two tasks improved considerably enabling our final piece to be of a high standard taking our experience into account.
Whilst filming the preliminary we learnt some of the basic stuff such as how to use the camera to the best of its ability, what lighting was best, how close you needed to be for the camera to pick up sound, that a tripod was necessary and other elements regarding the camera.
From the preliminary task we also learnt about the variety of camera angles and shots that we could use and how they would show different things. We used a variety of the shots that we experimented with in preliminary video in our final piece such as mid shot and low angle shot.
Again, personally the preliminary task helped me to get to grips with the software that I was using to edit the film as before I did not have any experience of it. It gave me a chance to experiment with different effects, colours, sounds etc before applying them to our final piece.
In general, everything that we thought could have been improved on in our preliminary task, we asked ourselves the question of "how have we improved on this in our final piece?" to ensure that we had solved each of the problems that we originally encountered.
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