Evaluation

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

Chloe: We all researched the opening titles from different series of American Horror Story. I researched American Horror Story: Freakshow and looked specifically at the typography and timings. The titles use a consistent theme throughout, using the same font, sound and mise-en-scene. I found that the font fit the genre as it was cracked and worn, so when creating our font for our film title I experimented with the smudge tool and eraser to distort and remove parts of the letters to make it look cracked. I also used dark colours to make our theme more evident. I also researched the timings and found that each title appeared every 3-4 seconds and stayed on screen for 2-3 seconds. The montage editing of these titles also inspired out opening as it shows restricted narrative but it sets the scene.

(Blog Post: Deconstruction of American Horror Story Freakshow Opening Titles)

Verity: Our opening titles sequence’ genre is supernatural/possession and the common conventions for this genre is, a supernatural antagonist, isolated location, low-key lighting and a female victim. We got our inspiration for our location from American horror story, murder house opening, due to the underground setting taken place in an old haunted house. Our location is based in a mansion in the country that was former mental hospital, and this conforms to our chosen genre as the conventions of a possession horror film are occasionally filmed in a hospital based location such as in the film ‘The possession”. (Blog Post)

Charlie: The conventions of our horror/possession film have been compared to other horrors as inspiration (AHS opening deconstruction). I deconstructed the use of mise-en-scene in the opening titles of American Horror Story Asylum which gave us ideas as to what we should base our props on. The constant use of abandoned locations in the openings is an idea we took as there was a broad range of props which we could relate to, such as old jars of foetus’, dated surgical equipment and a statue which we thought would add to the horror convention. We chose Bedgbury House based on this because it was under construction, making it good to highlight the use of mise-en-scene as it looked abandoned, like America Horror Story. The possessed dolls, a pick axe and that our location was abandoned with old wooden beams and, dust and hazards in every room conforms to the generic horror films we did for our research.

Ellie: The music uses ideas and themes influenced in accordance with pre-existing possession horror films, therefore developing on the ideas we were presented with. Two direct influences came from Grave Encounters and Insidious which I deconstructed and in doing so acquired a wider knowledge on instruments and techniques used in the possession genre. This included synthesizer sound’s, strings and use of building texture gradually and cutting off with one note. This allowed me to decide that one aspect that I should manipulate within my music was a gradual build of polyphonic textures and dynamics such as crescendos and diminuendos to add effect to the scenes. (Blog Post)

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Verity: The opening title sequence portrays the social group of age, the actor playing the young girl in the sequence is of the age of 11. The supernatural antagonist targets her due to her age as she is vulnerable and is an easy target. Her young age is evident through the use of the mise-en-scene such as the dolls. There is a close up of a damaged doll in a saturated and low key lighting shot which flashes to the next shot of the dolls hanging from a chain. This shows the young age of the girl and her vulnerability from the disturbing scenes of the dolls. Furthermore there is a close up shot of the young girl looking out of the window pressing against the window presenting the idea of feeling trapped and isolated from the outside world.  (Blog Post)

Charlie: The opening title represents mental health because it is about a young girl in an abandoned hospital who is on the run from a doctor. In our practical task we wanted the audience to know that mental illness is a key convention of horror/possession films. We represented this through the shots of a girl with a doll. We took inspiration from Bedlam as it signifies mental health through a patient who is haunted with spirits but faces bigger problems from the asylum. Like ours, the character signifies mental illness through falling up the stairs which we did by editing the footage by originally filming the character falling down the stairs but we re-winded, giving the illusion that that there is a supernatural presence wondering in an abandoned hospital/psychiatric ward. Adding to the genre of possession as our product uses similar mise-en-scene (decon of bedlam).

Chloe: In our opening we show two characters, a male and a female so we had to represent them in a way which the audience would expect. As we found in our research, villains in horror were almost always male due to their strength and dominant stereotypes. We highlighted the masculinity and strength of the character by showing him with a blood covered pickaxe which shows it is a weapon. Low key lighting was also used in this shot to show the villains dark behaviour. A mid shot of the villain putting on gloves under low key lighting also highlights his skill and status as a male doctor.

(Blog Post: Conventions)

Ellie: Females are often represented as victims in possession horror because of their common depictions as weak and inferior to their male counterparts. In our film opening we depicted our female actress in this way through her clothing of a nightie and her childlike actions of holding a doll. We also see a shot of her being dragged up the stairs displaying the way she is manipulated. (Blog Post)

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

Chloe: I created our own production company opening on software called AfterEffects. I used several effects such as CC Repetile which added shake to the footage and I also duplicated the video and coloured each layer to make it look like a VHS video. I also added grain, lines and interference to add to this VHS theme. A lot of films are produced by an indie movie studio and distributed by a larger company.  Working with an indie studio means we would be set a lower budget but with horror films the elements are generally of low cost. There is also a lot more creative freedom when working with an indie studio which means we can come up with our own ideas.
(Blog Post: Production Company Creation)

Verity: We began by researching the different horror film production companies that existed such as twisted pictures, warner bros, Lion’s gate films and dark castle entertainment. Twisted pictures is well known for producing horror films such as 'Texas chainsaw' and 'dead silence' and these films were very successful however those films have the genre of slasher which doesn’t match our genre of supernatural so that production company wouldn’t be appropriate. Another production company I researched was warner bros however most of the horror films they have produced were made in the late 1900’s, which are outdated, and so the company wouldn’t be suitable.

(deconstruction blog)

Ellie: I did a deconstruction of previous production companies that were created by previous schools. We discovered that they were commonly based on one simple idea where the footage would match the name of the company, for example the two I deconstructed were ‘Flipbook Productions’, where a flipbook showing a crying boy was shown and ‘Glitter Productions’ where a finger traced the words of the production company name. (Blog Post)

Charlie: Our media institution was New Line Cinema as our production company for our opening title because our research indicates that they specialise in horror/possession since other horror/possession films that we took as research and inspiration from have been produced by this production company. New Line Cinema has produced films, such as Annabelle, The Conjuring and Friday the 13^th. The fact that we show the company’s titles denotes the genre of our film because they are a well-known company for possession/horror. (decon) Compared to other production companies such as Universal, we felt that it was the most appropriate as Universal and other production companies lacks the specialties that New Line Cinema can offer as their reputation for producing horror/possessions are not well known and our opening title may suffer as a result. 

4. Who would be the audience of your media product?

Chloe: We opened our film to a wider audience by distributing our film through New Line cinema. New Line cinema is a subsidiary of Warner which is owned by Time Warner, one of the big 8 film studios. Warner worked with New Line Cinema to produce and create some of the highest grossing horror films of all time Including The Exorcist which made $441.3 million, and more modern films such as Annabelle and The Conjuring which grossed at $255.3 million and $318m respectively. This means New Line Cinema have a high reputation and the audience therefore trust that the high budget production will be worth watching. So Fans of other products of New Line Cinema will be the target audience of our product.

(Blog Post: Research into existing production companies)

Verity: Our audience for our opening titles sequence would be for people age 15 and above. At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualized threat and this fits in with our criteria as an 18-horror film would be able to contain very strong horror, gore or sustained threat. Having this age rating allows the audience to see if the film is suitable for them to watch and what sort of content will be in it. It is apparent that our opening title sequence is 15 due to the strong aspect of threat and horror from shots such as the hanging of the dolls and the use of the pickaxe as a weapon which would not be suitable for a younger audience yet doesn’t include a substantial level of conventions of gore or violence to be an 18.

(age rating blog)

Ellie: When the survey was done the highest responding age group was from ages 16 to 20, therefore any responses made were associated to this age bracket. This allowed us to take through these ideas and base any suggestions of gore or violence through mise-en-scene on this. Despite our higher age bracket we decided it would be suitable for an age rating of a 15 due to the limited suggestion of severe gore within the opening titles. (Blog Post)

Charlie: We specified our target audience through the use of prop work. The use of a bloody t-shirt and pick axe emphasizes the gore as a sub-genre of horror and the doll linking to possession. Like other films who use dolls in possession horrors, we felt it was appropriate that we use existing horror possession films as exemplars, making our film aimed at 15-24 year olds, preferably male with the use of props highlighting gore and action who would be our primary audience as it engages the psychographics of young men. It is not an 18 because the props do not demonstrate any excessive gore that would exceed the bbfc’s ratings.  We thought that our opening titles did not contain the requirements for an eighteen rating as they speify it to include violence  which is strong detailed (decon of 18 horror film props). We did not want to exceed this rating because we would be minimising our target audience, creating more of a niche audience.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Charlie: We attracted our audience through the use of props by collecting data from the survey regarding mise-en-scene when asked what they would expect to see in a horror/possession film on question four. Nearly half responded to a possessed object, as well as a creepy doll. We then used the data collected as a guide and used three dolls. Two of the dolls we used were broken and the other was in old clothing that was a traditional Victorian doll. Almost a third of the people asked for the theme of religion which is why we used a crucifix necklace. This would appeal to the psychographics of our target audience as they are key pieces of iconography to enforce the genre of our opening, therefore attracting our target audience. Based on the survey we thought it would be most effective to revolve our opening on what people chose on the questionnaire as using the most common opinion would attract a majority of the audience through the key conventions chosen by them. (Blog Post)

Ellie: Through responses received in our survey with regards to sound I aimed to meet the wants and ideas of our audience. A popular choice of when music would be heard was during moments of tension with 60% of our sample group requesting this. To meet this want, despite using music throughout the sequence, the texture was built up for moments when tension was created. Another question regarding music was what instruments our sample group would expect to hear within a possession horror. The highest rated response was strings. To address this, strings have been featured within the soundtrack which were recorded directly to the track. Percussion and keyboard were the joint second most popular option. I adapted the sound to cater for this so that synthesized keyboard sounds have been included as well as cymbal sound. These instruments were commonly heard in possession horror soundtracks that I listened to or deconstructed, such as Insidious. (Blog Post)

Verity: We attracted our audience by giving out a survey and asked questions before we created our opening titles sequence and based it on the results we were given. One of the questions was on the location and setting, we asked out of the following locations which one they would prefer the most; a graveyard, an abandoned house, hospital and a family home. The most popular location would be a hospital yet we found this wouldn’t be possible to film in yet our next best option was an abandoned house that used to be a mental hospital would created a ghostly atmosphere for our filming. In most of the shots we used the rooms in the basement of the manor house as they were more appropriate as they contained more low key lighting as upstairs was too bright to film in. furthermore the location was run down such having missing floorboards and ripped walls which created a more supernatural effect in the shots.

(questionnaire blog)

Chloe: We decided or audience would be both male and female aged 15-20. As the villain is holding a weapon it is evident that there are elements of slasher in our film which appeals more to males because of the gore. The majority of our target audience expected the victim to be female and 48% wanted them to be a young adult. We then collectively decided on a small list of appropriate actors for our film. We ultimately decided Verity would act as she had to be at the location. She is also within our target audience age bracket which wold appeal yet we still presented her as vulnerable through mise-en-scene such as dolls and costumes. We therefore used our audience’s preferences to attract them to what they want to see.

(Blog Post: Actors Practical)

6. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Ellie: Through the creation of the soundtrack for our sequence I have learnt how to use several products. I have used Garageband to create the sound and during this have experimented with recording violin tracks of a repeating ascending and descending three note pattern from a microphone input device directly onto the track, using loops and midi input to multiple sound options. Within the editing of sound on Garageband I have also learnt how to split and cut tracks with precision and how to master sounds and effects. I have also used Final Cut Pro to edit and add effects to our film and when adding the sound I needed to alter the sound levels on the video so it wouldn’t interfere with the soundtrack (Blog Post)

Chloe: I developed my Photoshop skills in the process of creating the product as I had experience using the software prior to the production but I hadn't worked with typography. I therefore took the skills I already knew and manipulated them using the smudge and shift tools to change regular text into a font more suited for our genre. I experimented with colours and aesthetics and asked people for their opinions and came up with a first title. I then decided it didn't fit as well as hoped and had to develop it more to create the final title which is at the end of our opening. I also learnt how to use a new software called AfterEffects on which I made our production company opening, I distorted the video of the eye by adding lines, grain, chromatic aberration and a VHS font to make the video look like an old VHS tape.

(Blog Post: Making the Titles, Final Titles)

Charlie: From constructing our end product I have learnt about the various uses of technology from constructing my own production company as it required me to use a camera and the use of iMovie, as well as to download sounds that would match the footage off the internet. iMovie allowed me to edit the footage of glowing embers of a fire to either slow it down, speed it up put filters on it or sync the sound effects over the footage. It was simple to use since I had experience from using iMovie before, but importing fonts from the internet onto iMovie software caused complications and the title of the production company didn’t look as professional, making the production company title suffer as a result. I also used final cut pro as part of my editing for the practical task where I edited the shots of props with filters and sped up the footage of the doll turning its head. These conventions of mise-en-scene ad to the horror/possession genre. (Editing practical) At first, using final cut pro was difficult to manage but once I got used to it, it was simple and easy to use. Luckily one of our group member was experienced with final cut pro and we were able to learn it quickly.

Verity: In the duration of the creating the opening titles sequence in my group I have learnt how to use new software’s such as final cut. On this we were able to edit out filming to make it fit in with the timing of two minutes, I began by practicing using the software before I used it on the real footage so I had I had some experience in navigating around it. I have developed my learning on how to edit, organise and add features to transform the footage in to the final opening sequence. An example of my own editing was the shot when the protagonist is being dragged up the stairs by supernatural forces and I did this by taking the shot of the actor falling the stairs and by reversing and increasing the speed to make it look more realistic.

(editing blog )

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

Verity: From our preliminary task it was evident that our costumes were very basic as the actors were only wearing their school uniform which isn’t creative. We then developed our filming by making new costumes and mise-en-scene to make the opening scene more effective. I began by buying a hospital gown for the antagonist from our story board and ripping the material to make it look older and then buy making fake blood and dripping this on it. I made the fake blood by mixing water, red food die, different types of syrup and corn flour together to make a dark realistic lookalike. During the production the costume was used in a low key lighting shot which made look more effective as it was positioned in the shadows.  

(Prelim Task blog post)

Charlie: From looking back to our first preliminary task ‘Roar’, the use of props dampened the quality of our short film because the stuffed bear with a drawn on lion face was not believable and lacked sophistication. You can see how we have overcome these problems from the progression of props in the blog post (progress prop decon), showing how we dealt with the problem as we have improved the realism of props and enforced the genre by using iconography which resembles our genre as a horror/possession. We used a pick-axe which we added blood to, as well as a ripped/bloody t-shirt we cut with shears and painted,  and possessed dolls which we made look old and used by damaging them.  It’s clear that the progression and development of props has improved and is shown in the final product. A major aspect which has improved is the amount of time, organisation and effort into creating the props. Knowing what props we needed and how to create them was the solution to improving the quality, as well as taking time to make them with detail to make it more real. 

Chloe: After reviewing our preliminary task, I learnt that time is difficult to organise as all group members had other commitments and the large time frame was not as long as we anticipated. It took a while to find a suitable day on which we were all free so that we could film. However, with a larger time period, we could create a much higher quality product due to being able to go back and reshoot and amend our work. We found that in our preliminary task, our actors were not as convincing or professional as hoped so to improve this in our final product, we didn’t use and diegetic speech and the actors were not required to do too much in the shots. When evaluating our final day of filming, I found that there were few problems such as access to the location which we were able to overcome by only filming outside the location.

(Blog Post: Preliminary Task evaluation)

Ellie: We included diegetic dialogue which when watching it again appears unprofessional as well as low quality due to the inexperience of our actors and brief script. We learnt that it was better to not use dialogue in our production, so when filming our full product we did not include any. When editing sound over the top of the recording we selected music and sound effects from premade sequences. Although we cut tracks down before inserting them to our preliminary task they were not cut in precise places so were jumpy. During the production of our full product we created original sound and edited it carefully to match with what was happening in our sequence. During practice recordings of ideas for the sound I used my phone with Garageband, recording directly onto it without any premade sounds. Although the effect and ideas were good, the microphone was of low quality and a lot of white noise could be heard behind the music. For the actual sound created I used my microphone input device on my computer which did not pick up any white noise. (Blog Post)