Ancestry (horror opening)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2MWMDSPXI4&context=C39daa44ADOEgsToPDskIRpVeh_UZzmwSOUwHhs-vv

Our horror opening. Best watch in HD, 1080p HD.

Evaluation Activity 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In frame 1 you can see an extreme close-up shot of a family tree used in the opening sequence, it is the first thing that the audience sees after the production logo. This prop is used to open the film and story. Showing audience members a prop or iconography that is important to the plot and reminding them of this in the film is not uncommon in Horror or other film genres and we did this in the opening sequence so the audience would remember it for later in the film.

In frame 2 is the name of our main actress Shara Hobbs who plays Ella Moore, who is the film's main protagonist. The font and style of the credit captions is basic with white on black colours to keep a dark toned mood. This sort of style is used often in psychological horror/thrill movies.

In frame 3 we have an example of our Horror iconography, a mid shot of a knife. Used very often in horror films, a knife gives the audience an immediate sense of danger and makes the opening scene more uncomfortable and tense. The knife also makes the mysterious character seem dangerous and odd. The dark colours and light make it look more menacing. It is shot at an angle to make the shot seem odd. Other horror imagery is shown in the opening sequence and the editing style cuts from one to the other in a fast pace (like in the movie SE7EN).

In frame 4 we see the name Ella Moore from the family tree further showing the tree’s importance. It also shows the names. These were used to show that this character is involved with the more psychological side of the film's horror.

In frame 5 we see the title of the movie. We used the same style for the credits, but using an older more hand-writing looking font to help it tie in with the family tree. As the opening suggests with the family tree the plot of the film involves a family line, so we used the Ancestry to suggest this further.

In frame 6 we see our main protagonist Ella. The character is introduced as cold and alone. The high angle shot shows that she is vulnerable which is typical for female characters in horror films. We see her in an old empty room; this shows that see does not live a comfortable life. Her costume is not the original one we had planned for her, but due to a scheduling mistake and that this was the last chances to film the opening scene, we had to go with it. Originally Ella was planned to be wearing cheap, old and dirty clothes to reinforce that she is homeless and moved around a lot. She was also meant to have a hoody to also show that she might not want people to see her face.

In frame 7 we see two nameless men in a changing room. It is not said who they are in our film, but they would be later revealed in this scene in the full movie as site workers who are here to remove Ella because she is trespassing. They are both wearing casual clothes and normal looking ones to show they are not rich or working for an organisation. One has keys hanging out his pocket. The opening scene uses cross cutting between Ella and the two men.

In frame 8 we have another high angle shot to show Ella as being vulnerable. In the shot we see more iconography that tells the audience more about Ella. The rucksack and thermos showing that she is on the move a lot. The sleeping bag showing that she has no home, and that she sleeps in places like this a lot. The books showing that she might be an educated person.

In frame 9 we have a low angle shot of the two men showing their dominance over Ella. The shot is placed where Ella would be, so it could be a POV shot, but the next shot shows that she is not there. The shot is also filmed at an angle to keep the theme of the film of things not seeming right which is used in psychological horrors.

Evaluation Activity 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our films main protagonist Ella Moore both is and is not a typical female character in a horror/thriller film.

One of the main similarities with our character to a stereotypical horror/thriller character (for example Jill Johnson) is that she is a young venerable teenage girl who is in a dangerous situation which is stereotypical for female characters for horror films and is like the character Jill Johnson from ‘When a Stranger Calls’. They also both appears weak and alone. They are both young and attractive which is also stereotypical. They also both have an unknown force that us endangering there lives.

She is however not a stereotypical female character because she lives on the streets and is a stronger and more independent than an average female character. She is also mentally unstable (hallucinating) and has trouble trusting people. This could make her harder for the audience to relate to so she would later be paired with a male character who the audience could easier relate to due to him being mentally healthy and wanted to help but the film would still be from her prospective. She can also be deceitful and untrusting at times which is unlike a female character from a horror/thriller, but this is used in psychological horror/thrillers which is the genre of our film.

The costumes look similar but Ella’s clothes are not the ones that she original meant to be wagering. Her original costume was meant to be old, cheap and dirty looking clothes to reinforce that Ella lives on the move, is poor and homeless. She was also meant to be wearing a hoody to show that she might not want to be seen. These are not the stereotypical clothes for a female character in a horror film who usually wear modern new looking clothes.

Evaluation Activity 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media production and why?

 Our commentary for our Horror film and how we would distribute it.
http://youtu.be/5Ik8Bfk--A8

Evaluation Activity 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

                        

Demographic

Our target audience would be teenagers between 16-24 both male and female. This demographic is in the E-C category. They would also most likely come from the middle or upper classes. They would watch our film because this demographic like the horror genre the most because teenagers enjoy scary and thrilling films. This is way we aimed our film at them because they would be the most likely to watch it. It would also be the demographic we understand best (because we are of the same age). The film could also attract older audiences who prefer more sophisticated film because our film is a psychological horror/thriller and explores the mind and insanity through our main protagonist. This would attract older audiences of about 28-40 in the C-B category but still has the thriller ‘edge of your sit’ style of film to appeal to the teenage audiences.

Psychographics

Being that our film is a psychological horror/thriller we want our audience to feel scared and tense. Our opening sequence uses music and unsettling images to create tension. This will put the audience in suspense and more reactive to scenes that are meant to surprise them. We also used fast paced editing to make create a sense of madness which is an important part of our film and can give the audience a hint of that.

Audience feed-back

For our audience research we made a questionnaire to ask them what they through of the film and what they liked, what they did not and what they would improve.

The questions where:

1.      Is the font we used for our titles appropriate?

2.      Is the editing sufficient?

3.      Dose the music fit the images?

4.      Dose the narrative make sense?

5.      Do the characters fit the genre of horror?

6.      Is the footage long enough?

7.      Did we use a range of shot types?

8.      What work well?

9.      What could we improve?

10.  Would you watch the rest of the film?

We gave this to a group of people from our target audience and learnt that our opening sequence was very successful and they enjoyed it as an opening for a horror film. They also felt that we had used enough media techniques in our film. They however didn’t like the opening scene and felt it could use some tweaks like making the fade in at the beginning less sudden.

Evaluation Activity 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRfg1Ef0rjc

I made annotations where main on a video on YouTube. You may need to puse some of the evaluactions. Best watched on HD settings (1080p HD).

Evaluation Activity 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constucting this product?

In our film we used an iMac and Finale Cut Pro to edit our film. From this we learned about how to use colour correct tool to give our film the lighting we could not create artificially on set. We also learned how to use colour filters such as cold steel and red filter and how to over-lay shots and sounds if we needed to. We also learned about the different editing effects we could use such as flash and image distort.

When filming on location with our tripod and a Panasonic HDC-SD60 camera we learned how to set up shots a range of different shots to match the genre i.e. we used slanted angles to make a shot seem odd. We also learned about setting up shots with the equipment.

We learned about how to use online blogs to create our film portfolios. We learned how to make a blog entry and how to use it to make a good portfolio and how to use a blog for course work.

We also used YouTube to put our finished films on to get audience feedback from a large source. I also used Facebook to advertise the YouTube video further. We used Adobe Photoshop to make our Production logo draft and create images for the evaluation. I also used Adobe Premiere for my preliminary. I also used Microsoft Word to document the write my evacuation and to write the scripts.

Evaluation Activity 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

In our preliminary task we look at using simple, common filming techniques in a short film. These were; 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot. We look at combining these three techniques in our film using a standard camera, tripod and Adobe Premiere. We created a short 30 second film using the three techniques and any other shots and edits we felt we could use for the film. This task helped us get an idea of how to setup and use different shot types for different effects in a film and also introduced us to editing styles like the shot/reverse shot and how to put the different shots film together in a film. We were able to take what we had learnt from this task and apply it to our horror film when we began. For example we used match on action when the door is broken down and when the main character escapes from the two men. There was no diologue scene in the opening so we did not get the chance to use 180 degree rule or shot/reveres shot.

When filming our horror opening we now using a Panasonic HDC-SD60 camera and Final Cut Pro on an iMac to make our film. We were still able to use what we learned from the preliminary task but we had a wider range of techniques we could use due our new equipment. The quality of our film had greatly improved allowing us to use more close up and detailed shots making them more eye caching and appealing for the audience. The new editing program allowed us to use more editing techniques we couldn’t use before like colour correct and anti-shake.

              

The left shot is from our preliminary task. It is a simple mid shot used for the shot/reverse shot. The film used many simple, still shots and only one effect; fade out. The right is a close up of a carrot being cut. This shot uses a variety of edits; a red filter, darkened lighting (using colour correct) and the shot has been speeded up with the speed adjuster. These all give a strange effect. We also used non-dietetic sound music in our horror film which we did not use for the preliminary task and learned how to edit the shots to the music for effect.

From the preliminary task we learnt the basic of film making and were able to takes these skills and expand them when making our horror opening.

Script/Shot List

Shot 1: Close up on ELLA's face as she is doing something.

Shot 2: Extreme close up on ELLA's hands packing.

Shot 3: Mid shot of ELLA packing frantically.

Shot 4: Tracking shot of MAN 1 walking through a room and into another room where MAN 2 is pointing at a door.

MAN 2: SHE'S IN THERE.

Shot 4+: Continue tracking shot of MAN 1 who goes to the door and starts to bang on it.

MAN 1: WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE.

Shot 5: High angle shot of ELLA and the door MAN 1 is behind as she still packs.

MAN 1: COME OUT NOW OR THERE'LL BE TROUBLE.

Shot 5+: Continue low angle shot.

Shot 6: Mid shot of MAN 1 trying to open the door.

MAN 1: GET THIS DOOR OPEN.

Shot 6+: Continue mid shot but with MAN 2 trying to force the door open.

Shot 7: Low angle shot of door as MAN 2 forces the door open and MAN 1 follows.

Shot 8: P.O.V shot from them looking at where ELLA was but her not there and then pan to 

a slightly open door to outside.

(Optional shot): Mid shot of MAN 1 pushing past MAN 2 to the open door

Shot 9: Mid shot of the door from outside as MAN 1 opens it (MAN 2 is behind him).

Shot 10: P.O.V shot of MAN 1 looking out and not seeing ELLA.

Shot 11: Mid shot of the two men slowly coming out of the door looking confused.

Actors

We have four character's in our opening so will would need four actors who would match the characters age and look:

 Ann Hayden as the mysterious person in the opening sequence (the hands). We chooser her because we needed someone who had old looking hands for the character.

Shara Hobbs who plays Ella Moore was chosen because she is the right age for the character and was could act the part well.

Jamie Magan and Adrian Moore who play the two man trying to evicted Ella in the opening scene were chosen because they were of the right age and both can look threatening plus they are capable to play their parts well.

Group Roles

Steven Kelly - Director
Kieran Hayden - Music
Charlie Hoxley - Camera work
Euan Davies - Editor

Story Board

Here are our first ideas of the the opening should look like.

schedule

This is the official schedule for our filming. We will try to have all the film done in these three days so we will have a good amount of time to edit but there will be room to go back and film more if we need to.

Iconography

The Iconography used in horror/thrillers are usually weapons or items that can be used to course harm to others e.g. a knife is a common prop seen in horror.


They will also use blade weapons in many horror films because it has become a horror stereotype. When people see a knife or blade weapon in a horror film they will often think of murder or death which will be unsettling and they can used just to set the mood of a scene and not be used as a weapon.

The Iconography of a horror set uses dirty or alien looking props to make the set seem uncomfortable and not somewhere were you would want to be.