Evaluation

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

our film challenges the conventions of a horror movie as it does not entirely adhere to the mainstream conventions of a film, for example there is no dialogue or an entirely conclusive new equilibrium at the end of the film that would adhere to Todorov`s theory. however our product does fit the basic conventions of a horror movie as it has references to death, pain, fear and the dark side that exists within most people’s sub-conscience. there also appears to be a villain or supernatural force involved within the film, however we never actually witness the force we just see the after effects of its actions.


an example of a film that adheres to the horror conventions, is wolf creek, there is an equilibrium to begin with, there is an evil presence that disrupts the equilibrium, at the end of the film there is a renewed equilibrium.






an example of a film that does not fit the conventions of a horror movie is paranormal activity, this mirrors the process of events within our film alot more than other horror movies, there is no renewed equilibrium at the end, the last shot of our film, is a shot of Nicolle and Siobhan emerging from the forest screaming, we are left with uncertainty on somewhat of a cliffhanger. paranormal activity also uses the similar POV style of filming as used in ours.












How does your media product represent particular social groups?

our film represents teenage culture and the vulnerability and naivety of young people in today's society. an innocent camping trip turns into something alot more sinister. whilst making the film we decided to start the film with alot of characters and by the end have it reduced to only a couple, this mirrored the unknown cause of the disappearance of the other characters, representing youth culture and their "we are indestructible" mentality. to further represent this we used an unrecognisable outdoor setting to set it on wider scale rather than confining the film to a small indoor space and to also as the story was set around a camping trip. although the actors are credited we decided not to give them a script or to show their faces too much this is because we wanted to show them as a generalisation of young people rather then personalising it and making them recognisable individuals.

our film was based around the sort of film making style used in the Blair witch, we recreated the same sort of scene and characters as used within the film. in the blair witch the characters and film makers are young students, here is a trailer for the blair witch project the main inspiration for our film.




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

our movie does not fit the usual conventions of a horror movie that would usually be distributed by a more mainstream film company such as universal studios. therefore during production and filming we decided our film would be more suited to a more arty style of film making, so we decided to steer it even further into the arty style of film, that we felt would be suited to a distributor such as artisan films or focus features, we removed any dialogue to make the action and body language tell the story, using unusual music to create an eerie atmosphere and using a POV style of filming.

the Blair witch project was distributed by artisan films an independent film company which was then purchased by Lionsgate, it was a film company that concentrated mostly on distributing independent homemade style films.

a film company that i feel would be a likely, suitable distributor for our media product would be focus features, an independent film company which is the art house division of NBC.




Who would be the audience for your media product?

our media product is aimed at, and would draw in an audience of 16-24 year old female students as this is the demographic that is represented within the film. also the activities and character traits of each of the characters reflect those of people within this age band. a number of students aged 15-24 have been surveyed on which sorts of film styles they preferred and over 50% said they preferred arthouse style films this is due to the fact that young people between these age groups are just starting out in their adult lives and are more creative and innovative in their style therefore they prefer films that push the boundaries of modern film conventions, the fact that our film is made in an arthouse style certainly aids in drawing in our target audience successfully.

i researched the statistics for cinema attendance of different ages, its turned out that 15-24 year olds attend the cinema alot more frequently than any other age group, therefore on the production of our film , we decided to direct it towards this age group.




(HORIZONTAL = age groups)
(DIAGONAL = percentage of cinema visits per month)






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

from the making of my product i have learnt that less is more when making a horror film, the very first pieces of footage we uploaded were very obvious and in your face they took over from the atmosphere of the film and made everything apparent to the audience straight away rather than leaving anything to the imagination. one of the main ideas we had within our first storyboard was having an anonymous figure running at a high speed across the background of one of the scenes, with one of the characters in the forefront this looked like a Good idea on paper, however when it came to actually incorporating it into our film it just didn`t work. we also experimented with what camera angles we would use, we decided that using the most obscure angles such as feet running and wide shots of characters running round a corner would adhere to our arthouse style choice. i also learnt that using very simple subtle editing but still incorporating everything that we need is very effective. using a variety of different create certain effects and emotions such as intrigue, shock, fear etc, delicate camera work and shots can often replace dialogue.

we started to challenge ourselves with the technology we had by encorporating alot of it into our film for example we used livetype over shots within our film, rather than an creating individual title sequence.







in learning that less is more we decided to use less ideas within the film but make them more sophisticated and incorporate more shots.

our establishing shot was a wide shot of the characters being "watched" from behind a bush, this was how we incorporated our idea of POV, our initial plan was to use it all the way through however we felt this would pull us down on our technological skills, therefore we used steady camera shots for the most part of the film, every so often incorporating POV handy cam shots, another example of one of these shots is during the contrasting dream sequence where the camera is following Nicolle and Siobhan running.














looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?

through out the making of my main task i learnt alot about the mistakes i made during the production of my preliminary task. simply adhering to the brief you are given is not good enough you should use your own ideas, be creative and innovative to create a more interesting and diverse project. always try out different ideas that you have no matter how difficult they seem to be, by attempting to challenge yourself you will not loose anything but you may gain something. always watch your films a multitude of times in order to check for mistakes or lack of continuity within the film.

we also progressed in our knowledge of the technology as we leanrt how to properly integrate certain effects, whereas our preliminary task was alot more straightforward

we used an ariel shot in both our prelim and our main task



- prelim ariel shot (simple straight shot, filmed from an ariel perspective)





- main task ariel shot, more sophisticated, starts with close up zooms out into wide ariel shot.




- prelim task wide shot, with two characters, simplistic, sticks to brief doesn't really break the boundaries, static with dialogue.




- main task, wide shot two characters, more movement involved, no dialogue just screams, running, more movement.

our main task is evidently far more sophisticated than our prelim, i think this is because of a number of factors, we were able to be alot more creative on the main task, the brief wasn't as strict, the location and amount of actors allowed for us to be more extravagant with our production and editing of the task.

my assigned roles

the two roles which i was assigned with during the production process is, researcher and director. for my role as a researcher, i was able to research a number of different films based on our concept for our own movie opening, which is a favourite of mine, point if view films, i have always enjoyed POV films, after having watched a Blair witch project many years ago, i became fascinated with the idea of having a horror movie made from my point of view on a apparently hand held camera to give it a more real and authentic feel, i found it was an extremely effective technique to fulfill the conventions and brief of a horror movie. i researched 4 of my favourite POV films, the Blair witch project, Cloverfeild, rec and the American remake quarantine, and paranormal activity and looked over all of the different aspects that were used in these films to assist me and our group with the planning of our own film. then by using the information i gathered from my research i will go on to using specific camera angles, techniques and devices to create an effective opening for our own film.

narrative structure of a horror movie - 5 narrative stages

stage 1:

a situation of equilibrium is clear

within our film there is only a short period of equilibrium and this is before the film begins, there is a shot from behind some bushes of the characters in the film walking together and unharmed, although the shot choice being from behind a bush may give a sinister feeling to the film we still feel as though all is well.

stage 2:

disruption to the equilibrium by something negative

there is a disequilibrium within our film, where there is a zoom shot first of all focusing on one body then opening up to see a large number of bodies laying dead in a Field, this is where the equilibrium begins to become disjointed.

stage 3:

an anagnorisis of sorts, trying to resolve the problem

a realisation of the disequilibrium comes when we see the remaining two characters seemingly running away from something, screaming, they seem to be every disturbed.

stage 4:

attempt to fix the disruption, overcoming hurdles in order to do so

an attempt to repair the damage caused by the disequilibrium is during the dream sequence, where the audience is not entirely sure what is going on. the disturbed and frantic screaming crossed with the happy, peaceful dream sequence attempts to repair the damage.

stage 5:

reaching a conclusion, fixing the issue and returning to a new equilibrium.

the damage is not repaired as such, however we reach some sort of a conclusion in the fact that the two remaining characters escape from the maze they were running through, it is a metaphorical device for them escaping and a sense of equilibrium is restored.

conventions of a horror movie

Films within a genre such as horror, action adventure or romance usually apply and share similar codes and conventions. For example, the horror genre will generally make references to death, pain, fear and the dark side that exists within most people’s sub-conscience. Other criteria will include a villain or supernatural force, blood, a chase and a helpless victim. John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’, Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ and ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, all stick to these traditional conventions of horror films. All three male antagonists are evil personified, wear masks, chase helpless female protagonists, and kill people with carving knives or other similar weapons.

Horror films often involve a complex set of codes and conventions that will give the audience the idea that they are watching a horror film. In most media texts, particularly advertisement posters concerned with films of the genre, many of the codes and conventions displayed within the narrative of the film are portrayed to an effect that will suggest important aspects of the film i.e. lead characters and their alignment (good/evil). This is important in informing the audience of what to expect of the film and give them an idea of the narrative structure or plot, which in itself is very inviting as we want to see why these particular elements and themestool of representation for characters, the monster is often enshrouded in darkness and we rarely see its face in most posters.

A monster or representation of distorted humanity and evil:The monster is mostly a singular entity and is often pictured in the background if at all as if to linger over their victim. The monster often has a trademark tool for killing e.g. a claw, hook or knives that is emphasised in the pictography.

The victims:The victims are often displayed in different colours than the text and monster to show innocence or neutrality. The lead character that is often the sole survivor (another regularly used convention of the horror genre)


Freytag`s dramtic pyramid




Todorov`s theory of narrative

Scream title sequence analysis

the opening to this movie is infamous, the title sequence and the immediate effect it has upon the audience has alot to do with this. the non diegetic sound is heightened very much so at the start of the title sequence, with the first sound we hear being the distant yet deep and gloomy sound of a church bell clanging, then we hear a piercing and horrifying scream of a young girl, a phone ringing and an erratic heart beat and the heightened sound of violently slicing knives. the white scream writing springing down onto the black background, flashing quickly of off the screen and then returning in a red stained colour, creates a very sinister within the titles creating a correct atmosphere for the rest of the film, and displaying the definite possibility of impending doom. the opening sequence is very effective in building up tension and fear within the audience, an affect i would like to convey in my own title sequence.

The Blair witch project title sequence analysis

The title sequence of the Blair witch project is one of great interest to me, it is not conventional of a horror movie, or any movie title sequence, it does not have flashy glamorous writing, big bold pictures or loud attention grabbing music, it is a sort of documentary style, setting the scene for the rest of the film, which is also filmed as thought it were a documentary. it opens with no non-diegetic or digetic sound whatsoever, just a black screen with white writing over the top that reads "the blair witch project", followed by another black screen with white writing, which says, "in October 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville Maryland while shooting a documentary...a year later their footage was found." then the film begins with a blurry POV camera shot, and the filmmakers talking about how tot work it. the bareness of this title sequence, in my opinion is simplicity at its best, an uncomplicated but highly effective title sequence, a concept i would like to attempt to mimic in my own film.

The Blair witch project title sequence

Saw title sequence analysis

the opening to the horror film "saw" in my opinion is an extremely effective one. the titles themselves not being of great length, however there is a very prominent and powerful use of non diegetic sound, with the "liongate film" promo at the start having thunder clashing creates an angry mood and sets the correct atmospheric tone for the film. the next promo company is "twisted pictures" the name alone gives the feeling that the film is to be rather sinister, and "twisted", the diegetic sound accompanying said promo, is the sounds of knives slicing, this gives enhances the fear within the viewer even before the film has begun. the titles themselves are very simple, with just blue writing on a black background, the writing is shaking slightly, gives the feeling, that the pace and action of the film will oscillate vastly throughout, creating an uneasiness. the non diegetic sound is heightened within the titles, there is a rippling, bubbling kind of water sound, with the audience not being able to recognise immediately where the noises are coming from, a sense of mystery is created, setting the scene for the remainder of the film. it then becomes apparent where the noises were coming from with a close up and point of veiw shot on a mans face under water, being slightly illuminated by a small light. and then the film begins.