Foundation Portfolio Evaluation

Number 5: Final film

Evaluation

·         1. In what ways does your opening film sequence of a new fiction film use ‘Horror/Rom-com/Thriller’ forms/genres/conventions?

At the very start of the production there is a voiceover of one of the scientists scared for what he has released into the world. This is a popular convention within the horror genre as it instantly tells the audience that this is a bad situation and, to add to the forthcoming events that follow, it is told to the audience by a scientist and because of high status and figure it is instantly believed amplifying the event further.

The first scene, with picture, is silent. We used a lot of long silences as they added tension. It built on the horror genre conventions and maybe even touching into thriller or action as it leads up to a pinpoint event the audience are waiting for. We thought about putting eerie music over the silences to increase the horror convention theme however we believe that it was more refreshing challenging the horror convention creating these scenes silent, furthermore bringing in tension.

When the tension was released and an action scene broke out however we used silence in hand with a lot of noise to our favour. For example one of the first scenes when ‘Brian’ is being chased it cuts from loud frantic POV shaky cam to shots to black silence. We thought this also added tension to the action scenes as it demonstrated a sense of controlled madness which kept the audience entertained wanting to know what is going to happen. This is used in thriller and action films, mainly in gunfights.

We used POV shots of ‘Five’ looking at Brian also to increase tension. These shots were notified as POV shots to the audience as when ‘Brian’ looked at the camera we made it look like ‘Five’ was hiding and didn't want to be seen; He was stalking his prey. This convention is used in modern horror films often. Films such as “The evil dead’ and ‘The Conjuring’ used this technique.

Our finishing scene is one we are most proud of simply as it defies and goes against normal climatic scene conventions in films. It's 8 shots of ‘Brian’ being chased in hand with 16 beats of music. Each other beat a clip is shown. This was different and added to the challenging of conventions for modern horror films. We thought the silent aspect made the audience focus on the impact of the music and film together and the impact it had on building tension.

Our opening film included a back story and we believed this to be a major element in horror films as it gives the audience some context into what they are watching. Our back story revolved around a post shared a lot on social media. We thought this would link strongly to teenages, as they are our target audience. This would be similar to a horror film called ‘Unfriended’ which revolved around Facebook, the popular social media site used mainly teenagers.

The colour scheme used was a typical convention of horror/thriller films for the antagonist who wore all black. Obviously contrasting this to the protagonist, who was wearing normal relatively bright clothing, the antagonist looked sinister. This is a popular conventions for antagonists costumes to be black - For example ‘Darth Vader’ in Star Wars. We did also however go against the typical horror conventions when editing and changing the colour scheme. We wanted the scenes to be quite colourful to defy the normal convention and also to strongly contrast against the all black antagonist.

·         2. How does your media product social groups?

Our media product does not strongly relate or represent certain social groups in society however the actors used were teenagers of our age and we wanted them to also be perceived as teenagers. The fact our main actor is perceived as a teenager and his role in the film suggests that young people should not be underestimated. Our protagonist deals with the situation in our film opening perceived as a young character and we embraced this with open arms. We didn’t want an adult playing this role as we preferred the idea of a young person proving their worth. It also goes against the usual conventions of horror\thriller films having the teenager as the protagonist. We liked this so we stuck with it.

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

We are not going to pretend like our film should win oscars or be a feat of film to make you question life existence like some films are made to do. We went into this film after watching three similar horror/thriller films. We watched ‘The Conjuring’, ‘Insidious’ and ‘Paranormal activity’. We loved the idea of our film being a quick scare film with basic story but able to create tension and scares that pay off. It would be aimed at teenagers similar to most modern horror films; this is why the distributor we would go with would be ‘Blumhouse Productions’ whose most recent films ‘Sinister 2’, ‘The Visit’ and the upcoming ‘Ouji 2’. One of the first films they produced was the original ‘Paranormal Activity’. A film that has backed itself perfectly on the idea of it being a very low budget quick scare horror film. Critics weren't a fan however fans of horror films loved it and I believe one of the main reasons for the unexpected hype this film received was based around the low budget idea. Our film would also be low budget. More million that millions in budget pricing. We wanted to declare this as we thought a high budget film takes the rawness away. It adds too much Hollywood and it's noticeable. It removes the tension and the therefore the scare. Another great example of using this low budget formula would be ‘The Blair Witch Project’. A now cult film which probably wouldn't have its success if it was a high budget Hollywood blockbuster therefore, with our film, we follow the conventions of modern horror.

·         4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience would be older teenagers. People not interested in getting deeply involved with film, people just looking for an escape from reality with a few added scares on the way. So regarding this we would have our age rating a 15. As our film would include - strong language, violence and mild gore making it a 15. We wouldn't want a specific gender, social class of ethnicity for our film to be aimed toward as we believe anyone could pick it up and enjoy it. I understand this applies to some films, for example women prefer Rom-Coms however most i don't believe it has real world application and can be quite stereotypical as anyone can enjoy a good horror film.

·         5. How would you attract\address your audience?

In our film - The protagonist would be a typical relatable teenager. He would be studying, has a girlfriend, normal friendship group, plays football. He would be similar and relatable to most young people. This is so people instantly relate to him. This is a popular convention used in horror films; putting the audience into the same mindset of the protagonist.

The setting would be modern suburbia and then a forest. These are both also relatable to modern people. Most people have been to, or live in, out of city suburbia. This again relates to the audience being put into the same mindset of the protagonist.

The other characters would include the protagonists friends and girlfriend. The friends of the protagonist would have normal british humour with him. This again is relatable and would also provide a lighter aspect into some of the films sections as it would margin into humour. This would also be a factor challenging the normal conventions.

The music used twice in the opening sequence of the film is ‘Kanye West's - Runaway’. The well known hook of this song is universal instantly recognisable to those in the target audience and those not therefore attracting people as we would use it in the trailer also.

Marketing - We would use trailers however they would be different to the conventional horror trailer. They would depict a quality of normal life until the end of the trailer where things would get out of hand the audience would have a slight glimpse of ‘Five’. We wouldn't use a voiceover however as we believe they are used to often in modern horror films and believe a trailer sporting a different approach to the regular throwaway formula would be intriguing to people, attracting them to see the movie. For example - the trailer for ‘Highrise’ was set to be an advertisement for the highrise and created buzz.

We would use billboards in cities, preferably popular university cities to link with the target audience. The billboards would be intriguing and different. Not really advertising the film but instead making people think, that then would link to the film. A powerful slogan (or even question) with a powerful image.

Our main marketing plea however would be through the internet. Social media would provide an excellent introduction to the film. It would provide posters, trailers and other information instantly with rare updates to provide hype. We would produce a video on popular streaming site YouTube also; it would be a prank video scaring members of the public or even maybe celebrities to provide extra buzz. This methods work as other horror films have used them in the past also. They get popular fast as people share, like and eventually follow the film page. This is an instant, relatively cheap, way of marketing perfect for our genre.

·         6. What have you learned from the process of constructing this product?

Physically we used the cameras to film which we had to learn to use and adapt to. We also had to use tripods effectively.

For our film studio logo we had to use Adobe After Effects which included having to learn to add text and create a lens flare effect on an image.

We also had to learn how to blog; how to update and create a post to having to embed videos onto posts to show a media text we were analysing.

The biggest technologie however we had to learn was Adobe Premiere to edit our opening from a few clips we filmed into a film opening. This included adding texts for the titles, placing the videos on the timeline in the correct order and learning how to edit how we viewed the film image from its colour to the grain on the image. It was fun however finally getting what you wanted wanted the opening of the film to what we all originally planned that being with the quick editing to the image matching with the music on the final climatic scene. This we enjoyed.

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

I believe the quality of the actual filming plays a main part in the climb of quality. In our final product we use a range of different shots and act in the best way possible to complete emersion. This of course involved us to work professionally as a group; meeting deadlines and doing extra work in fee periods to refine the editing. Which brings us onto another factor of the final product which i believe was more refined in the final product, the editing. The editing had to be a crucial part of the task unlike the preliminary task we spent a long time learning the software. Learning how to edit the image and learning certain techniques used in the final product. We did not however really have to apply the 180 degree rule to our final product as there is not any dialogue scenes between people.

Script

Our script for '5'

Fade in:

News article appear onto screen explaining Hopwas woods witch problem.

Cut to Black:

Fade in:

INT. HOPWAS WOODS – DAY

Still of Hopwas woods. Line of trees parallel to the sky and ground. Its peaceful. There are blue skies and the soft hum of the forest.

. ‘We have reached a point in humanity where we can now revolutionise the idea of life, and more importantly, the lack of a scientific death’ 

Suddenly

POV shot from the

Cut to Black:

As ‘Five’ is said the word five comes onto the screen starting the opening credits of the film. The credits fade in to the screen, white bold text on a black contrasting background in chilling font to ‘Kanye West’s – Runaway’ opening set of piano cords. Each new credit on the screen will arise with every other cord until the last where the cord changes pitch. This will happen for 8 beats or in terms of the song – 11 seconds in to 21 seconds in. With the last cord the screen will stay black for a few seconds while the last credit fades out.

Cuts back to

Cut to a Crane shot/top shot looking down on 

Fade into a POV shot of a long shot of Brian walking through the forest through a bush of leaves. As Brian gets to the middle of the scene he goes to look at the bush. As this happens the camera reverses back into the bushes signifying the thing watching, which is supposed to feel like Five to the audience, doesn’t want to be seen. As Brian walks away the POV comes back out of the bushes to prey again. 

Filming

Filming

Filming the production was very difficult to master as the angles and lighting had to be different for each scene to show a change in environment and foreshadow how something bad is going to happen to the protagonist. 

We used various techniques and angles to give our production a wide variety of scenery, this worked well in our favour as the film works very fluently between each scene and we also added a slow motion scene which fits in very well with the actions that are unfolding. It adds tension and also could symbolise a moment of change in momentum as the antagonist has progressively been getting closer and closer to catching its target, and adding slow motion could depict a change in events, however the antagonist eventually catches the protagonist.

The film had to be within a duration of two minutes or below, this was challenging but also rewarding as when we had completed the production the film looked very clean and the whole plot was set in this time so it makes sense to the viewer. 

Horror genre

Horror

The horror film genre was established in the 1800's with the earliest film being 'The devils castle'. The short film is only about 2 minutes long and plays on jumo cut scenes of a man in a castle depiction who is walking around and seems to be using magic as he creates and makes things appear including a cauldron and a person. 

The new generation of horror's are mostly technologically altered with CGI and special effects whereas when there was less of a technological presence props were more heavily relied upon and so were physical effects instead of virtual. Colour is also a main part in many many horror's as certain colours depict situations and can foreshadow events which can be key and vital. All the first horror creations were in black and white as colour in film wasn't invented. 

Casting

Casting

The casting side of this production was very simple as we used Matt (Brian) to play the protagonist and Sam (Five) to play the antagonist. We used dark clothing for Sam as this represents a villain in the classic conventions of a horror/thriller and used light upper body clothing for Matt as this symbolises hope. We designated Jacob and Alfie as the camerapersons as there was no need for them to feature.