Ro Rosie:
Q1. Does our media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of a real media product?
Plot:
Generally uses/develops
Unknown assailant chasing female victim, who is a stock character.
Group of female teenagers acting quite maliciously and making callous comments towards the victim. This plot is conventional as you do expect one person from the social group in focus to get killed and then a series of killings within that group to be carried out through the rest of the film. Similar to films we researched – ‘Scream’, ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘I know what you did last summer’.
Unconventional in the way that that the group of girls are presented as antagonists, although in a subtle way, where we already have the unknown assailant acting as the antagonist. This is an unlikely combination.
Characters:
Generally quite conventional.
Female victim – stock character. Very archetypal…acts vulnerable.
Unknown assailant – presumed a male (this presumption is supported by the audience research) this is because it is assumed that it would be a male chasing a female victim.
Group of girls – there is always a social group shown within a teen/horror film, however, would be more conventional if males were present. Very female orientated.
Mise-en-scene:
Generally uses/develops
Dark lighting contrasting with bright lighting…highlighting the differences between the ‘danger’ scene and the ‘safe scene(s)’
This relates to the locations in our film opening. The dark alley contrasts with the school corridor and the bedroom/bathroom. However, although it is generally the alleyway that is meant to be the place of danger, the bedroom/bathroom is made out to be quite conspicuous, where the sinister phone call makes this safe, familiar place to be of slight danger. Just like in the film ‘Scream’ – this type of horror is quite conventional.
Characters wearing school uniform…typical of teen horror genre, as it identifies the age of the characters.
The girl character in the morning sequence wearing vest top with shorts as pajamas… gives the film more of a ‘sexually promiscuous’ feel, which is dominant in a lot of teen films.
The body language of the group of girls shows them to be acting superior – taking up all of the corridor space, laughing loudly so to be heard. Adds to the horror of the film, as their actions are sinister.
Girl getting ready acting calmly – walking slowly.
The NVC of the victim common of a horror film. She is running, constantly looking behind her – paranoid, she is screaming and breathing heavily.
No prominent props in the film that suggests it is a horror film, this can be seen as unconventional, as in the films we have researched there is a strong element of iconography within the use of props, i.e. Scream – knife, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – chainsaw.
Camera:
Again, our uses of camera techniques are generally recognizable in most films of this genre.
Use of close ups to show character exposition. Can be used to make a familiar object/person be seen in a different light/look distorted. Creates an eerie atmosphere – close up of the eye. At first glance not sure whom the eye belongs to….questions are raised; is the person dead/alive? Is the person male/female? Etc. This element of suspense and suspicion very typical for a horror style of film.
Use of the hand held camera also conventional of this type of film. This technique exudes an element of paranoia and confusion – a feeling that is felt by most victims in a horror film.
Low angle shots to make the group of girls look superior and to show the subtle element of antagonism being portrayed through their characters.
High angle shots used primarily for the victim to underline her sense of vulnerability.
However, unconventional camera techniques that we used include: the vertical pan that we used in the chase sequence is one that Casey and I were not familiar with in any other teen/horror films that we had seen. This shot was done by a stroke of genius on Casey’s part and fitted in well with our montage sequence, as the shot goes from darkness to light and then back to darkness again.
The other technique we used that we felt was unconventional for this genre of film was the diagonal pan of the girls walking down the stairs, as again it was one that Casey and I had not seen before.
Editing:
Casey and I felt that the fast pace montage editing, where we cut across two lines of action was not that conventional of the teen/horror genre. It is the sort of editing that you would expect to see in an action film. On the other hand, you do expect a sense of build up in a horror film, which is exactly what this montage sequence achieves.
However, there were more conventional elements to our use of editing. In particular our use of credits and titles, which appears in all types of films including teen/horror. Although, the way that we presented our film titles could be seen as slightly different, as you would normally expect them to commence at the beginning of the film, in particular, when stating what companies that are in association/presenting this film, whereas we do this towards the end of our opening.
This fits in with the ‘trailer’ feel to our film.
Font is eerie, colour = red – capturing horror feel through text.
The use of continuity editing in the morning sequence where we watch the teenage girl awaken and get ready is a very common sequence for many teen/horror films and can be seen as overused.
Sound:
Develops the forms and conventions by being layered, and not fitting to the characters being presented at the time
Generic sort of music, similar kind to what other people use. Discordant and creepy – a familiar tune for a horror.
Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our media product is a mainstream British film, which could be distributed by numerous companies such as, Optimum Releasing and Verve Pictures, which focus on these types of films that are not tentpoles and are not fully funded by huge conglomerates.
Verve Pictures known for releasing films such as, 'Bullet Boy'.
Would be an autumn release, so to miss the summer rush but to also match the genre of our film, as you generally expect a horror to be released in the darker months.
Our film does not require a high budget, as the general equipment that we need to produce this film is not that expensive and is mainly ready available stuff.
Platform release.
Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Discovered Adobe Premiere - learnt how to edit a film in a cohesive and effective way. This was done by finding out how to use filters, also how to create montage and continuity editing.
Presented our pitch using Microsoft PowerPoint, and explored the many ways to make a PowerPoint more visually creative.
Introduced to blogger.com, never experienced blogging before. Within this website, I learnt how to create a webpage that presented mine and Casey's work visually as well as just using text. Blogging also enabled Casey and I to work collaboratively, by communicating via the the blog.
Unlike Casey, I had hardly any experience with working a camcorder, so the process of making my film opening allowed me to be able to use a camcorder and a tripod with few complications. Through using a camera, I was also allowed to put the camera techniques that we discussed earlier on in the year into practice.
I learnt why you needed the rule of thirds, why you should not hold the camera sideways but also how to position a shot in the most effective way, using different camera angles and movements.
Using sound was a key technological thing I learnt, as this process included using a Dictaphone, which I had never done before but also using the timeline on Adobe Premiere, where I could change the sound by either amplifying or abbreviating the volume, or increase/decrease the pace, or even layer sounds to create a different one. Looking for sound for our opening familiarized us with several free sound websites, including freesound.org. This is where we researched pre-recorded sound to see if they would fit in with our opening, however, in the end one of friends who was a music student, came up with a couple of soundtracks that he had created himself, which came as a great help to us.
There were a few problems that Casey and I faced, that required us to 'creatively' overcome them, one being that at one point during our filming process I accidently filmed sideways, which meant that we had to reshoot that part of the film.
Survey monkey – how to construct a questionnaire, YouTube, Slideboom – learnt how to upload PowerPoint presentations onto this site so that we could embed them to other areas, this helped with putting presentations onto our blog.
