Question 7

This is the first camera type shot that my group and I used, (low camera shot) it was not as effective towards the audience the way we planned however we understood why, when first recording we used random shot types that we thought looked okay without actually thinking properly, but now I believe we have progressed a lot as we now know what shot types to use and where to put them to have the correct effect on the audience the way we would have originally planned. 

When recording we thought clearly about the shot types, we thought together that this would be an effective ‘shot reverse shot’ because it is allowing you to see both character’s faces and get a real drift of how they are feeling, instead of one, it is allowing the audience to feel more a part of the clip. From this I was able to progress a lot as I found news ways of using this to my advantage.

In this screen shot, it from the most recent film that my group and I recorded, the name we decided to call it was/is ‘White Eyed Possession’. This is where we believed that if we didn’t just use shot reverse shot but changed it up a bit with a reflection of the characters letting them see the expression without having to change the angle the camera is in.

With this shot we thought it was the most effective, it is at the end of our horror film where you see the true demonic demon coming through the character, the extreme close up got the effect we wanted however we could have improved with the non-diegetic sound that was used. We progressed a lot than before but we can still do better.

Question 6

During the course of preparing and making my films I used a variety of different technologies. I used; YouTube, Blogger, Prezi, Final cut, Photoshop and Google. 

We used Google multiple times for research and to gather film industry news and other things based on the film industry. We also used it to find images.

I created a blog, as I needed to have a place where I could put all my research and preparation for the horror film opening. I put links and tasks that I had done during the course on there such as the animatic.

We used it to complete the hardest tasks. We used it to do our animatic and to put together and complete our preliminary task and our horror film opening.

I used Prezi to address the plan for our horror film opening by using location, setting, costume, props and lighting. I also used it to outline the problem that might occur and how we could overcome them. We then presented it to put peers and we got feedback from on how to improve.

I used Surveymonkey to create my questionnaire and I also used it to post my questionnaire so I could find out what my audience wants.

Question 5

How did you attract and address your audience?

the link to our horror film voice over: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkG9yN5SYm4

I think that people should go and watch out film because it isn't your usual horror film that completely conforms to the stereotypes. Even though our film conforms to the horror film conventions in certain ways its still unusual when compared to other films.

A film I watched before was called Mamma. This film is a typical horror film because it has a family and that has been targeted by something eve and they all suffer in some sort of way. The evil character is jealous as it wants something it cant have and it takes its anger out on the innocent family. It creates mayhem and tortures them. 

The trailer to Mamma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_f0G6wM_dE


Another example is the Blair Witch Project as it is the film we got out inspiration from. We used the hand held camera technique to give the audience the impression that it is a found footage and that it is based an a true story. However we used a couple of camera angels to construct it more and make it seem more realistic.

Trailer to Blair witch project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Hw4bAUj8A

Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?


This is Kiera she is 16 years old and lives in Clapham Junction. Kiera dresses in comfortable clothes that she likes such as jeans, tracksuits, jumpers and tops, she bases what she wears on what the weather is like. She likes going shopping and being with her friends. She shops at H&M New Look, Primark and BooHoo.

Kiera doesn't have a certain favorite genre, she watches films like Riddick series, Tangles, Fast and Furious series, Mamma and the Twilight saga. She watched these films in the cinema however she doesn't like buying DVD's. 

I believe that my horror film would appeal to Kiera because she isn't a typical girl she's a tomboy so she likes watching things that are weird and gruesome. therefore i think that she would like our horror film as its has gruesome murders and it builds up suspension which will make her want to watch it.

Kiera and her family don't really watch TV as they are usually on their laptops or on the phone. When Kiera watches TV she usually watches soaps because they are full of unnecessary drama that she finds funny and she watches comedies and crime shows.

Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute you media product?

White eyed possession would have to be shown in Film Festivals as it is a small budget film, the one I would choose to show it in the British Independent Film Festival because it is a festival that promotes new film makers and gives them a chance to get recognized and they help the film be shown to all audiences including the UK. If the film caught peoples eyes in the film festival then they would distribute their film to them and the people who approved of the film would then distribute it to cinemas such as Cineworld and Picture House and Odeon. it then gets two weeks to be shown to the public and then after a couple of weeks they put it on DVD and networks such as Netflix. 

Ourb company would seek to employ good distributors such as Universal or Warner bros. who are both good companies which good history in distributing films worldwide and being successful. 

Our film shows that you don't have to conform to the stereotypical horror films and its stereotypes or use special effects to make your horror film and that simple horrors can still be scary. An example of this is the "Blair witch project". this film succeeded because of the tension created throughout the film. I think that our film should be showed in cinemas as it could be a huge success with the fact that it isn't the stereotypical horror and this could appeal to the audience.

the current films in the cinema are not horror films which means that it would be a good idea to show our film at this time as it would be a different genre of film. The fact that cinemas are showing films like comedies and romances means that people might get bored of them and want to see something different and a horror film would be perfect. 

I would also show our film in small cinemas but also in well known and popular cinemas as it would increase our audience, I would also want our film to be distributed worldwide after its a success in the UK, this is because it would increase the numbers of viewers but also make the film known.

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups.

Within the horror film that my group and myself put together we didn't really stereotype a specific social group of young teenager, this is because we didn't want to conform the conventions of a horror film but we wanted to challenge it and see if the out come was a good choice. There are no similarities that can be traced back to any other film as majority of horror films that I have seen in my lifetime have all been stereotypical and have the dumb blonde, the girl who can do no wrong, a stupid macho boy who thinks he can not get killed and then the others that are like extra’s that no one cares about.

Question 1

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

The first frame is ‘setting/location’. This challenges and conforms the conventions of a setting/ location of an actual horror film. The way we act throughout develops the use of diegetic and ambient sound within a horror film genre. ‘Mama’ (Andres Muschietti 2008) uses the use of setting/location for the basis of the films plot.

The second and ninth frame is ‘camerawork and editing’, as well as a ‘special effect’. These frames conform and relate drastically towards the horror convention. The style and the way it is laid out is exactly how you would see it in a typical horror film lay out.

The third frame is ‘costumes and props’. It does not go against the conventions it conforms it instead. It is stereotypical that if a film is based around something demonic then the demonic things costume or probably has different colour eyes such as: red, white or black and they are not soft colours but are harsh. Such as ‘The Conjuring’ (2013) they use colours such as the ones mentioned before that helps conform horror films. Helping heightening the viewing experience.

The fourth frame is ‘The title of the film’. My film title sequence, ‘White Eyed Possession’, challenges the conventions of actual opening sequences. Our dialogue develops the use of technology within the horror genre. ‘Paranormal activity’ (Oren Peli 2009) and Scary movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans 2000). Both use simple props for the basis of their plots. ‘White Eyed Possession’ is a cross-over of these genres, and develops the use of technology by dialogue and sound throughout. The camera angles create tension which is able to draw the audience into the action, heightening the viewing experience.

The fifth frame is ‘title font and style’. ‘White Eyed Possession’ does not conform but it challenges the conventions of a horror film as the title and font style throughout the introduction, it is more of a theme you would see in either a comedy or an action film such as Hangover one-three or Fast and furious one-seven, both use roughly the same style of font. ‘White Eyed Possession’ is a cross-over of both of these font types and however it helps develop the use of font and style within a horror film.

Rough Cut Feedback 2

In out previous lesson we showed the class our updated our editing and adding titles that needed to be added, we was made to show our peers so that we could get feedback on what we did and things w improved on. two of our fellow peers both said that the liked the title effect they was used when showing the characters and who they were in order of importance and the way that it was displayed. it wasn't just anywhere it was thought of. they said it was positioned was very good as well as it wasn't a distraction to what was actually going on in the scene.

They also said they enjoyed the shaky camera effect that was used throughout, it was just put anywhere like if you had no idea what you was doing but it was done well enough to be put in places that it needed to be adding effect helping build that suspense that they could see. the shaky also wasn't a continued thing it was going on and on and on throughout the whole thing it was used only when needed.

An improvement that they gave us was that at the beginning of the film there was a bright flash after showing the director and that it should be changed of something different should be used as it is not a common thing that is used within horror film type genres.

However another peer named Luke had said that he liked the way it looked because it looked like a fluent transition between the two as it flowed nicely when starting the beginning of the Horror film introduction, without any interruption.

Classification

Certificate Classification

To determine our classification for our horror film we went to the BBFC website and looked at the classifications and what our film had to to have in it and what our film shouldn't have in it. This is a link to the website http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15 that we used to determine our film classification. 
We determined that our film was a 15. We chose this classification because our horror film contain violence, strong language and nudity, which is inappropriate for young viewers as they may think that they can behave the same way, also some young people may find some scenes disturbing.

Rough Cut Feedback

My group showed our rough cut of our horror film and we wrote down the feed back both positive and negative. Each group gave back their feedback.

One person said that the story line was good and the way we used the camera was good. however it would have been better to have seen more of a variety of lighting and they found it confusing with the heavy breath. 

Also another person said that even though we said we wanted to change part of it, it made sense to her, the story line was clear and that the idea of the contact lenses were good as it showed that she was becoming possessed. however she thought that we should do the changes we planed so it showed Shariece leaving the room.

Another person from a different group said that the music went well with the scene and what was happening in it, that it didn't look forced (we didn't put on an act it was just as if the camera wasn't there) and we recorded things that were relevant. However, they said that we needed more camera angles as out rough cut was a hand help type of movie. 

Another person said that the darkness,and the way we set everything out made it seem homemade and that we didn't know the video was there. But we could have more camera angles and we need to put the scene that we wanted to change in the movie so that it would make more sense to him.

Production Time Line

Production Timeline :

Jelly Babies

In groups of 4 we had to create a horror film using jelly babies. The jelly babies were used as characters and we had to use the horror movie conventions to create our horror scene. Using different materials, objects and the jelly baby characters we created a short horror movie scene and we incorporated the horror film conventions to make the scene more alive and exactly what is expected in a horror.

Settings

horror films are usually set in abandoned houses, dark streets, forests or in a small communities. The typical setting is basically an abandoned or isolated area that tells the audience that the characters involved in the film are in danger. We used this convention in our scene by making the setting a forest and an isolated area.

Characters 

in horror films there has to be victims, villains, and the survivors. This is a typical convention in a horror film. Usually in a horror film blonde girls and nerdy boys are made to be the victims and the strong brave characters are usually the ones to survive the frightening situations. We used this horror movie stereotype in our scene by having the victims as a blonde girl and ginger boy and the other two brave characters as the survivors.

Sound 

horror films usually include non-diegetic, diegetic and Foley sound in them. So we also included these sound types in our scene because we wanted to create tension but the diegetic sound also so that there was a naturalistic feel in the scene. There were also some silences to also build the tension but also to make the audience feel for the victims because they know something bad is about to happen.

The scenes are:

Horror Film Introducton

In my class I watched previous horror film introductions and there is a lot of various qualities that can make my horror introduction better that I have learnt from them. some of the videos had very good story line but couldn't perform it to their best ability because of difficulties such as light. Some of the videos were filmed at night and on the street in the woods and because of this there wasn't much light. also some of them I was not able to see properly because of the ongoing traffic in the background was so loud. From this I have learnt to think about lighting and to also make sure I bring some sort of light source and also not to record next to traffic.

Some groups used good camera angles which helped create the meaning of the film. They also used editing, sound, image and mise-en-scene for further effect. Also as well as having good use of these they also had good control over the camera by making it steady and shaky when/if needed.
I also learnt that you don't have to show death or blood to make it scary it could just be a guy who is scary by the way he looks and behaves as well as adding effects such as music to it. Also in the past horror film introductions I realized that some of them paid great attention to their costume and when to change it. This make it scarier as it flowed with the movie and made it more realistic.
While watching these I made notes of the most important things that they paid attention to as it is going to help me with my horror film introduction. Things such as:

You don't actually need to show the death to make it scary
Lighting is a difficult thing to do but will be good if we do it right
Bad acting will bring our grade down
Rushed scenes are bad
Using varied camera angles to create meaning is a good
Editing with sound is something we have to do
Including Mise-en-scene for effect is good
Editing is a way to make meanings clear
Steady camera work if necessary

BREAKDOWN SHEET FOR SHOOTING

Storyboard scene number: 1
Date:
Setting: A bedroom
Time: 4:30 - 6:00
Location: A house

Crew members and roles:
Katrina - camera
Shariece - make-up
Everyone is in charge of their own costume
Sephora - lighting
Katrina, Shariece in charge of editing

Cast members:
Shariece
Sephora
Katrina
Echarel
Joanne
Kyle
Devell
Tyrone
Taj

Extras:
Katrina
Sephora
Echarel
Joanne
Devell
Tyrone
Taj

Make up:

Props: none

Special effects: flashing lights

Potential problems and how you're going to overcome them: One problem is that we would be filming at night and there wouldn't be much lighting so it may be difficult to see and film as you wont be able to see anything.
We wuld overcome this by getting torches shining on certain spots so that it can light up the area.