Task 10 - Evaluation

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

We were asked to produce a horror film as part of our AS media coursework. Our media product 'Aura of Evil' uses, develops and challenges the forms and conventions that can be found in real film openings of the horror film genre. We used a conventional soundtrack in the form of eerie and atmospheric music in order to complement the onscreen images and contribute to the uneasiness felt by the audience within the first minute or two of the film. The music becomes gradually louder, which grips the audience and adds suspense. The same music track  is used throughout our production, however, it becomes slightly quieter in some places which allows for the dialogue to be heard more clearly at significant parts. At some points within the production however, it is important that the volume level of the  music is increased, in order to create tension, which then leads the audience to a climatic place while watching the film. This is a conventional aspect which can be found in a number of horror films, which can already be found on the market. 

We used incidental music which is parallel to the onscreen images in the sense that with the soundtrack and film combined, the audience feels increasingly unnerved. This is a conventional aspect of horror film making that can be found in a number of other films, for example 'Halloween'. In some cases, the soundtrack becomes famous itself, Halloween is a successful example of this.

We used a creepy-looking font for the opening titles which was coloured red, against a black background. This is also a conventional aspect of horror film openings. A plain black background is almost always used within the opening sequence of horror films because this colour has the connotations of darkness, the unknown and death. The use of a red font in the context of the horror genre has the connotations of blood, passion and the devil. Therefore, by incorporating both of these colours and using them combined together, it creates a haunting feel and prepares the audience for the potential fright which they may experience while watching rest of the film.

The conventions of the horror genre have been adapted and challenged in the sense that the antagonist is an attractive, young female. This is less common in the horror genre, but can be found in films such as 'Jennifer's Body'. A male antagonist is very common in this genre, and can be found in a great deal of films, such as; 'Friday the 13th', 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and 'The Last House on the Left'. Males are usually selected to take the role of antagonist, due to being the stronger, and stereotypically more dominant sex. We wanted to challenge this convention by using a female as the antagonist, who is significantly smaller and less strong than the male in the film. The antagonist, despite the difference in size between her and the male, still manages to kill him. The character ‘Jim’, despite being a 'stronger' male is killed by Aura a 'weaker' female, while Georgia, the other female lives. Therefore the two girls within the production are ultimately shown to be stronger. This somewhat unconventional aspect of our media production may attract a wider audience due to being unique.

We used a young cast to challenge horror conventions, a typical cast in a horror film would generally be in their young 20’s. We concluded that our film would be more controversial if we showed teenagers in a situation where lives are in jeopardy as opposed to young adults, who would be much more likely to take care of themselves.

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

Or media product represents the particular social group of teenagers. In our film  production, there is a couple seemingly on a romantic date. They are Caucasian and are casually dressed in neutral looking clothes, which do not conform to any particular stereotype at a first glance. However, by the tattoos and checked shirt, and fashionable trouser braces that the boy - Jim is wearing, you can tell that he is perhaps into an indie rock genre of music. The girl is dressed in a dark, navy blue play suit with white polka dots, she seems to appear to be into an indie rock genre as well as the boy, as the way in which they are dressed compliments each other, and they look as if they match. This conforms to the stereotypical idea that teenagers from the same social group will usually 'get together'. Although you can tell that there is a slight stereotype from the clothes that the characters are wearing, we chose to dress the characters in simple clothing, which does not obviously conform to a particular social group. By doing this, we though the viewer would be more inclined to see that the characters in the production represent teenagers as a whole as opposed to just one particular social group, therefore enabling the viewer, no matter what social group they are in, to relate to the characters.

The couple appear to be of a middle class background, as the home that they are in is clean, tidy and decorated nicely, this indicates that the boy (owner of the house) possesses wealth. The girl also uses a Blackberry smart phone during the production, which could suggest that she has an abundance of money, and can therefore spare enough money to buy a 'posh' mobile phone.

The ages of the characters in the production vary slightly, the boy (Jim) is aged 19, the girl (G) is aged 16, and the vampire (Aura) is aged 17, therefore the ages represent an audience of teenagers, but not a specific age. The fact that the boy is the first to die despite him being the oldest, seemingly suggests that age will not always be an advantage in life. Furthermore, the fact that men are supposed to be the stronger and more dominant role over females, yet the male is the one who is murdered, goes against this assumption, and therefore shows that gender does not have an advantage. This empowers women, as it shows that they have the strength and control over men. In the first part of the production, the girl is shown to be weaker, as the boy 'tries it on' with her and she appears to not be in control of the situation, however as the boy goes outside and is seduced and killed by the vampire, the power is given over to women.
The vampire - Aura is infact South African, but conforms to the social stereotype of an 'indie/rock' type of person, similarly to the Caucasians in the film. This therefore suggests that they are all part of the same sub-culture, and perhaps know each other from college or school. This idea is futher implied when Jim addresses Aura by her name, but seems shocked when she seduces him and bites his neck. It seems that they already know eachother, but he was unaware of her alterior motives, and evil nature.

We chose to not include older characters in our production, which therefore shows that the film is aimed at a younger audience (15-25) which means that this age group will be able to relate to the characters more than an older audience would be able to.

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

The media institution that might distribute our product would be a British company such as Film Four. This is not a particularly large film company. It would be likely to be in favour of producing our media product because it is a low budget production and does not use CGI and special effects in it. Films associated with Film Four do not generally incorportate an abundance of CGI and special effects, therefore making our production particularly favourable to this corporation.
We did not want to use special effects in our production, because we wanted to enable the audience to concentrate on the acting and become engrossed in the story line, as opposed to being distracted by constant, big-budget special effects. However, if we were less pushed for time, and had more of the rescources available, which would be needed to create special effects, we may have experimented and used some within our film production.
Film Four is a British corporation which would be suited to our product because the majority of our cast is British, however with the exception of the vampire - Aura who has South African origins.

Overall, our film relies more on the storyline and acting within the film, as opposed to a 'theme park/roller-coaster' film which has less of a storyline, but incorporates copious amounts of CGI to literally give the audience an adrenaline boost as they watch the film, similarly to being at a theme park. Due to a lack of budget, creating this type of film was unfortunately, not an option.
We wanted to produce a film which felt 'real', which makes the audience feel in a way which is similiar to how 'The Blair Witch Project' makes its viewers feel. This film a sense of verisimilitude because it is seemingly filmed by students, therefore making the film, in my opinion, much more scary than a horror film with a high budget, purely because it seems more believable that the story of the Blair Witch actually happened, and has been documented. The use of handheld cameras within this film makes it seem almost as if the content of the film was captured by accident.
We produced our film using a low budget, due to a lack of funding, and ultimately, time to raise funds. However, there a number of other films which have also been produced on a low budget, but still appear to look exceptional and professional. With this as inspiration, we knew we would be able to produce an appealing media product, if all was to go as we planned. Due to careful consideration to all aspects of the planning process, our film was produced successfully and therefore looks professional and of a high quality.

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

The audience would be predominantly teenagers, over the age of 15 as this is what the rating for the film is. It is unsuitable for people under 15, and it might not appeal to adults a lot older than 25, due the the fact that the characters within the film are teenagers, who adults may not feel they are able to relate to. However, adults may enjoy this film as they feel they are able to re-live their younger days vicariously through the characters within the film. Due to our production being a horror film, the target audience would ultimately be horror film fans, who are not fazed by elements of blood and gore. 

Before deciding on the rating of 15, we were required to study the criteria for a 15 film, to ensure that it would be suited to our product, we did this by referring to the website: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/, by looking at this we concluded that our film is best suited for a 15 rating. This is because our film does not show scenes of graphic violence or gore, similarly to how an 18 rated film would, but indeed implies that there will be some later on in the film. However, our film would be unsuitable to be rated as a 12 due to the fact that there is some blood involved, though not enough to cause major discomfort for the viewer, if they are of the recommended age. There is also scenes of a sexual nature implied early on in the film as Jim suggests that him and G 'go upstairs', however this does not manifest into sexual activity as they are interrupted by a phonecall. Later on in the film, however, sexual activity may be shown. Therefore, nobody under the age of 15, ideally, should be viewing this film due to its underlying adult themes. We realise that by rating our film a 15 we may be missing out on a potential audience of those younger than 15, but due to the nature of horror films, it is completely inappropriate to rate a film like this any lower than 15 due to its content. The rating is therefore a warning to those younger than 15.

5.       How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted the target audience by building suspense from the moment the film begins. The company logo we used was a picture of a cobweb, due to our company name being 'Cobweb Studios'. We chose to use an image of a cobweb because they are associated with spiders, due to being produced by them. Many people are frightened by spiders, or at least feel a little uneasy when around a spider, therefore by using this image, a sub-conscious sense of uneasiness is felt but the audience before they have even started viewing the film itself. The audience will be attracted by the sense of anticipation and fear as they wish to view the film in order to see how the film will manifest. The opening titles attract the audience by building suspense which gradually becomes more intense as the opening titles roll. The text fades from one sentence into the next, giving a 'creepy' feel. The loud, gradually building eerie music compliments the title sequence and attracts the audience by making them feel that the music is building up to something big and scary.

At the very beginning of the film, the couple are shown to be watching a horror film, this is implied through the sounds of graphic violence which are coming from the TV. Throughout the opening sequence, the storyline is implied but not fully revealed which leaves the audience with the anticipation of coming events, and ultimately, the desire to watch the rest of the film in order to see how things fall into place.

In order to make the target audience aware of the film, we would be required to advertise and market the film. We would have to use viral and traditional marketing. Traditional marketing is most commonly used for promoting and marketing a film to the mass audiences. Posters, trailers and reviews would be used to market the film in a traditional way. Viral marketing is a more modern approach, now that the internet is an aspect of many people’s everyday lives, it is easy to spread awareness of a film and use the internet as a medium to promote a film. Certain videos or screen grabs from the film can be placed on the internet, which spread virally enabling people to pick up information about a new film in a non-traditional way. 'Clover field' and 'The Dark Knight' have both exploited viral marketing prior to their release, which has turned out to be upmost successful. Online teaser trailers and photographs could be drip fed online, with featurettes, Facebook pages, pop-ups, online news reviews and weblogs used to support the promotion and overall awareness of the film.

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

I learnt a great deal about various technologies which I had never used prior to the creation of my film opening. Before the film itself was shot, I was required to give evidence of thorough planning. This was done digitally with the use of the website 'www.blogspot.com'. Different entries were recorded with a breakdown of each aspect of the planning process fully covered, from the analysis of existing films, to research into the genre. Microsoft publisher was also used in order to create mood boards to demonstrate a collaboration of images associated with each genre - thriller, horror and romcom. An image of each mood board was then uploaded onto my blog.

To film and produce the film itself, we used a Sony HD touchscreen camera. This high quality camera produces professional-looking shots. To ensure the shots were steady we used a tri-pod to fix the camera onto which we could alter the position of, by using the leaver, in order to create 'pans' and 'tilts'. While using this equipment, we ensured that we adhered to the 180 degree rule at all times, as this is a very important aspect of film making, which ensures continuity.

We used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit final cut of product. We uploaded the final shots onto the computer and selected the best ones. Due to never having used this programme before, we were able to learn a lot about it as we went along, and demonstrating new skills. We experimented with different effects within the programme, and through trial and error, concluded which effects looked the most professional.

We then imported 'royalty-free' music from the website: 'www.incompetech.com' in order  to use as the soundtrack for our film opening. We downloaded it and inserted it into Adobe and made it fit with the images of the film. We figured out at which points the music needed to be louder or quieter, for example, when no dialogue is apparent, the volume level of the music is raised slightly.

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

Since our preliminary task, I feel I have learnt a great deal about what must go into the process of film making. The skills which we first learnt in our preliminary task have been improved through practice. We have improved our camera skills such as; match on action, close up, medium shots and long shots, the 180 degree rule has also been incorporated into our film, which give the production more continuity and verisimilitude, as the actors are not switching sides. All of these implemented improvements have added to the execution of professional looking shots.

During our preliminary task, we were slightly rushed for time, which in turn meant that we did not have time to get many shots. We ensured that for the production of our final media product, we allowed ourselves enough time to take more than one shot and choose from it the best one, as it is better to have more than enough shots than not enough to choose from. We started filming well before the deadline for filming, to ensure enough time for the editing process.

We decided to experiment with different filtering effects for our final product. For our preliminary task for example, we relied on natural light, however, we decided that for our final product we would use a colour filter to alter the effect. We experimented with a variety of different colours, but in the end we decided to use a blue tint, in order to make the product appear 'cold' and haunting.

Danielle and I found that from our preliminary task we would be able to work well together in order to film our final product. We both had similar ideas on the type of film that we would like to create, which meant that compromising on differences in regards to production and creative ideas was not an issue, as we were already united on our favourite ideas for the film. Therefore enabling us to produce a final piece which we were both very happy with.

 

Our Finished Production