Evaluation
In what ways does you media production use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our product was a two minute opening to a horror film, with an audience of 16-20 year olds. From my research, after studying films such as “Psycho” (1960) and “Scream” (1996) we came across several conventions which seem to appear in horror films. I believe to product somewhat develops and challenges forms and conventions of the real media product. The film product is rich in its employment of special effects, unique camera angles and shot layering. Although some would say this produces more of an art house effect to the film, numerous films have integrated stylized special effects to produce the real media products of a horror film. Films such as Halloween and Psycho employ a very stylized matter when it comes to camera and effects.
Furthermore, due to style some may consider the film to conform to the conventions of art house cinema. The art house film is normally serious in tone, non-commercial and independent. It normally target niche audiences rather than mainstream mass audiences at exhibition.
Another Art House styled short film:
Conforming or challenging conventions of Mise en Scene
Section 1 -Setting
Here is a shot from an existing media product, Psycho (1961). The movie incorporates generic horror movie setting conventions such as eerie building, trees and use of levelling to produce height which makes the figure appear for daunting. The house obviously obeys the classic conventions of the “haunted house”, Victorian/gothic style, large windows, and steel gates while the trees appear to mystify the image, creating a sense of ambiguity, something key to the horror movie. Moreover the trees appear to represent claws or hands, already a suggestion of the supernatural horror which most horror films conform too. When the audience watches this representation, they clearly expect something negative to occur as this is an archetypal representation of a haunted house, the audience already expects elements of horror for instance, murder, ghosts and fear.
In our film, we have conformed to the mise-en-scene conventions of setting, taking some inspiration from psycho;
Here you can clearly witness the incorporation of setting. The use of trees echoes the use of trees in Psycho, which is an example of us conforming to the conventions of media products. Moreover, the use of higher levels or hills is apparent, another convention integrated in psycho to produce a height and the feeling of being watched. The trees are bear due to filming in winter, which something we desired to capture and the trees appear like hands or claws, which adds to eeriness of the scene. When our audience sees this, they will already get an idea of the horror being portrayed. The red lighting tones denote danger, blood murder which is definitely what we wish to demonstrate.
Section 2 - Lighting
LOW-KEY LIGHTING
A generic convention of horror film is low key lighting. It is a lighting system that uses little light, producing intense contrasts involving the brightest and darkest components of the representation and frequently generating great shadows that obscure parts of the primary subjects. This lighting scheme is often associated with horror or suspense genres .. Here are some examples from Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958.)
Low key lighting has been utilized in our film. During the editing process, we increased the darkness and contrast of the images which increased the strength of the low key light and produced the darker images. The low key lighting obscured images and the primary subject, which produced an element of ambiguity which most horror films contain, especially in an opening. Consequently, we obeyed to conventions of lighting.
We used low key lighting because it is conventional of horror films to use it. For an audience member, the darkness on screen makes the scene appear ambiguous and it gives the impression that something (usually a criminal) is hiding in the darkness, consequently, it suits the horror genre perfectly as it provides ambiguity for a criminal. In the shot above, we have utilized low key light as well as a deliberate silhouette effect, the silhouette effect simply outlines the trees while the low key lighting makes everything dark. For an audience member this is very indefinite, as the darkness hides certain elements and highlights others. The trees for example in the silhouette effect are dead, the blackness connotes death, horror and fear which the audience already associates with death.
Section 3 - Costume
Costume simply refers to the clothes that characters wear. Costume in narrative cinema is used to signify character, or advertise particular fashions, or to make clear distinctions between characters.
From the front the audience can examine that the subject has an extremely classic, glamorous hair style, which tells the audience that she glamorous. Her dress is modest and feminine and although the film was shot in black and white the audience can tell that the subject is wearing light clothing, light colours connote purity, innocence and virginity, telling the audience that this women is innocent. The use of costume hears connotes the innocence of this subject, setting her out to be the victim and shock the audience greatly. When the audience view the film, these conventions tell them that this character is innocent and delicate and possibly demonstrates to them that this construct will fulfil the victim role.
This is another example from the horror movie psycho. The image depicts the main character Marion Crane, although this image is from the back of the character, we can see the subject is wearing a dress, and her hair is styled which produces the image of a very delicate, feminine figure and represents the victim in the horror movie perfectly.
We have integrated some of these conventions in our film;
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The clothing is obviously modern, and forms the representation of a teenage girl rather than women. However, each costume is feminine, both integrate light colours which connote innocence and the subject hair and make-up is also a representation of a teenage girl. The audience would gather from this that, the subject is teenage, that she is stylish and possibly this representation conforms to the stereotyped “Bimbo” status which from existing media products such as scream, tells the audience that she will most likely be the victim. Thus, I believe that in costume, we obeyed the conventions of existing products.
Section 4- Framing the shot.
The Parlour Set
When framng the shot, I decided that I would take inspiration from the existing media product Psycho (1960)
The room is depicted a tiny, only sufficient to fit in a lamp, a coffee table, two chairs, a chest, curtains, pictures, candles, several other small items and a lamp. The lamp is located toward the left of Marion, and it the only light portrayed in the scene. As the light was the only source it produced certain effects on each character, which demonstrate the certain aspects of their constructs.
As Marion is sat close to the lamp, her face appears perfectly lit and it highlights her beautiful features, telling the audience she is angelic, glimmering effect. However, the light makes her stand out, making her somewhat vulnerable, almost like a “rabbit in the headlights”. However, the light could indicate that Marion’s bad deed of embezzlement is not an act of evil, as she is not hidden by the shadows which demonstrations of the connotations of her innocent character. Moreover the soft effect the high key lighting makes her appear soft and delicate, furthermore making her stand out from the dull and grim background of the motel. No shadows of Marion are indicated, telling the audience she is pure and genuine. I would like utilize this sort of framing in my own film, to show that the main character is good, and that she has a victim status. However, because we are filming outside, I may be unable to produce such effect artificially.
However the composition of Norman is extremely clever. Norman is placed away from the source of light and slightly to the edge. This effect produces stark contrast, producing a shadow of Norman as well as additionally hiding half of Norman in darkness, demonstrating the psychological state of the character with the schizophrenia aspect of his character. Additionally the low key lighting portrays the consumption of his character by evil, the stark contrasts in shadow demonstrate how an element of his persona is hidden while the shadows which threateningly fill the room portray the hidden side of Normans mind which wish to emerge, how they are omnipresent in Norman, waiting to strike.
We attempted to mirror Hitchcock’s framing in our film.
I have incorporated several techniques to layer the shot.I deliberately placed the twigs and branches in front of the camera here to produce a sharp focus on the objects close to the camera, and distort the background which gives the impression that something is hiding in the vegetation, watching the action occur. I did this because I wanted the audience to feel like something is watching the young girl through the vegetation. The fact that the shot is a point of view shot poignantly portrays that the audience is seeing the action occur through the eyes of another subject. The fact that they layering makes it seem like the subject is hiding among the bushes, waiting to strike represents a sociopath killer, something we have achieved through framing,
Moreover I have framed it to produce particular contrast in colour; there is the haze of trees and sunset light in the background, the green of the grass then contrasts with the claw-style twigs close up to the shot creates a distinct contrast in the colours. This is significant because I wanted the colours to represent to the audience the time of day, that it is sunset and that the yellows and blue tones are representing evening which also makes the subject seem more vulnerable, as evening is commonly associated with negative occurrences due to the ambiguity of dusk; telling the audience this subject is vulnerable, and portrays the victim status.
The framing of this shot is interesting; the branches in the background appear as if they are stabbing the subject, distorting the face and appearance of the subject. Furthermore, the log is closest to the camera, which places the subject in soft focus which distorts the subject, increasing the ambiguity of the opening. I have done this for purely symbolic purposes, the twigs which appear to be grabbing the subject are foreshadowing the future action, and the most analytical audience members will recognize the symbolism in this shot; that the subject will die.
Likewise, I have placed the tree stump closest to the screen to produce a point of view shot from the sociopath killer. The placing of the log close to the screen gives the impression on the audience that this other subject is hiding, and adds to the eeriness of the scene as the point of view shot is through the eyes of a sociopath killer; demonstrating to the audience that the female construct is the victim.
Continuity
There are three main conventions of continuity which are utilized in the media production of film:
Match on Action; the scene was a running scene, and in some shots we integrated the girl running in a long shot, and then using a close up on the same action.
Shot reverse shot; we had no conversations in our film, this we felt it inappropriate to incorporate such shots, so here we flouted the conventions of existing media products.
180 degree rule; We obeyed the 180 degree rule throughout, thus we obeyed these conventions.
Sound
In our horror movie, we employed an echo on the breathing voice of our female character, which made the audience feel disorientated as the sound was so dominating.
Genre
In our film, we conformed to two main genres; horror and art house.
Layers of Interpretation
Layering the interpretation consisted of our response to initial brief and the audience we had in mind. Primarily, we wanted to produce a horror film, and we knew that the main horror film audience consisted of young males from our outside research. Thus, as a result, we felt that in order to connect to our audience directly we had incorporate a teenage cast, a relevant narrative and well-know non-diegetic sound.
From our research, we found that editing was key in horror. To produce fast running scenes we were inspired by the shower scene in psycho, where it integrated a fast cutting rate and rhythm, with shots lasting only a few seconds in order to produce the sharp, fast and vicious murder which would shock the audience. Moreover, as mentioned we discovered that our audience was younger, thus, we decided to use younger people in the film. The teenage girl first witnessed is a representation of our audience, which makes the film all that more relevant to our audience. To produce the teenage girl, firstly we incorporated a young actress, with a young costume to produce this layer of interpretation.
During filming and editing, we needed to make the meaning apparent to our audience. When I filmed I integrated a range of shots, firstly shots such as high angle, low angle and canted angle produced the idea of someone was watching the subject on screen. The close ups made the meaning more apparent as we could see more details of the subject, things like body language and costume denoted the subjects age, and the running action on screen portrayed her vulnerability and victim status. Long shots of the forest and hills produced meaning too; it set the scene, introducing the audience to the conventional horror movie setting of an eerie wood, somewhere lonely, and ultimately horrifying.
In editing, we introduced various techniques to layer the interpretation from out audience. We increased the contrast and darkness of shots, in order to produce an increased sense of vulnerability and that this scene, was shot near darkness which is conventional in horror, although we could not shoot at night for two reasons; that shots would be dull and the audience would be unable to see the action properly; the lighting created by the sunset was ultimately key in producing the eerie yellows, reds and blues which produced the art house style.
Furthermore, we added the song “In a heartbeat”, which had been utilized in films such as “Twilight” and “28 days later”, both of which targeted particularly young audiences, which we also desired to target. Consequently, our audience would recognize these songs while viewing.
How does your media production represent particular social groups?
Establishing realism and verisimilitude
We attempted to represent particular people, places, themes, ideas and time periods in the film.
Our first representation was teenagers. Teenagers were our audience, and tend to be the focus of particular horror films. We created representations of teenagers through integrating the main female subject as a female teenager. We produced this representation through mise-en-scene, camera and editing. The costume produced a realistic representation of teenagers because it is something we know teenagers wear around this sort of years, cardigans are hugely fashionable and our audience will instantly recognize this style on teenagers.
One of our most inspiring film opening we researched was “Scream”, although revolving around different settings we incorporated much of the conventions of screen into our film.
Above is a still from “Scream”. Initially, we incorporated the same representation of characters as we have both employed teenagers as our subjects. The scene above portrays a young female, dressed in light jumper, a blond bob hair cut and what appears to be natural make-up. As an audience there are several stereotypical elements of the scene which portray her victim status, the conventional blond hair which connotes the classic “blonde bimbo” stereotype, which feature as a usual victim in horror movie. Moreover the cream jumper connotes youth and innocence, as white has connotations of youth and purity while the sweater is casual and something teenagers wore during the late 90’s. The audience recognizes from this that the subject is young, and that she is most likely a victim which is also portrayed by her body language and facial expression; the subject is screaming, which tells the audience that the subject is upset and in distress while the phone prop is clearly the source of distress.
In this shot you can see how we have been influenced by the existing media product “Scream”. The long hair, cream coloured top and clothing all seems to construct a young, stylish subject, the boots also add a touch of style to the costume. In “Scream” the subject wears a jumper, while in our film the protagonist wears a cardigan which were both fashionable at time of filming, and also connote youth and current fashion styles which an audience would commonly associate with younger constructs; thus we represent the younger age of the construct.
Another representation was of a forest. Obviously, we decided to integrate the shire hill setting as it was a forest. However, we took special considerations with layering the shots, placing branches in front of the camera to produce the eerie feeling that someone other than the audience is watching the action unfold, while it also introduces the theme of death (dead branches, appear like claws ect) and further reinforce horror conventions.
The still above should demonstrate time period actually a flashback, although it reflects current days with the modern dress style the distorted special effects are mean to echo that of a disturbed dream, which terrifyingly is the reality for the subject. The red tones are definitely unnatural, the connote danger, blood and death while the echo effect completely distorts the figure. Moreover the echoed breathing and sharp sound effect represent to the viewer that this is an extremely disturbing flashback, the sound effect become disorientating for the view, making reflecting the fact that the chase is through the eyes of sociopath, the special effects in the scene reflect the disturbed mind of the sociopath; representing the audience that she is running from a murderer.
We only included a single subject in the opening of this film; the chaser is not shown once to produce the ambiguity of a horror film. The girl’s dominance over the opening demonstrates her importance in the entire film.
We have constructed a distorted form of realism in the text. The film is a horror, thus should incorporate supernatural elements thus producing something unrealistic. However, no supernatural beings, or sound effects were incorporated into the text, making the effect purely psychological. Yes, the audience is shown that the girl is being chased by someone or something, however exactly what is up to the audience to decide in their own minds, producing a realism dependent on the audience member.
This still from our film opening portrays another representation. The red lighting, layered effect affect give impression that someone is watching the girl run. The red lighting connotes, danger and blood, possibly indicating to the audience that this being is supernatural, either the killer themselves or the ghost of another victim. The construction of the scene can represent either group; the red colour tones, the layering of the shot makes it seem as if someone is hiding in the bushes as the girl is running, this teamed up with the heavy distorted masculine breathing makes it seem as if this representation is a sociopath killer. Furthermore, we represent some form of supernatural or sociopath is represented as chasing the girl - It might also be said that the social group of stalkers or killers is represented. This is shown through the killer in our media production as all of our shots are point of view shots. This shows the victim is being watched and followed.
What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?
If I were to choose a media institute to distribute our film it would be the distribution company Universal Pictures. Universal pictures are a subsidiary of NBC universal, founded in Los Angeles, California US (June 8, 1912) by Carl Laemmle. It distributes an extremely wide range of film from Hitchcock’s thriller/horror film “Psycho” (1960, distributed from 1968-Present) to science fiction films for instance “Jurassic Park” (1993).
I would choose this company because it is highly successful in distributing its products. For example “Jurassic Park” had a production budget of $63,000,000 and made gross revenue of $914,691,118 while “Psycho” had a budget of $806,947 and made $32 million. Surely, the successful distribution contributed to the high gross revenue. Moreover, Universal has distributed films for 98 years, producing dozens of the most famous films British films of the decade such as “Nanny Mcphee” (2005) which made $122,489,822 and Hot Fuzz (2007) which made $80,573,774.
However, as our film is an amateur independent production we would have to pick a smaller, independent production company such as The UK Film Council’s Distribution and Exhibition Department. The UK Film Council’s Distribution and Exhibition Department works to make non-mainstream films like “The Hunted” more widely available to cinema audiences in the UK via the subsequent methods:
Firstly The UK film council provides amateur film such as us with a Prints and Advertising Fund - £2 million per year to help UK distributors produce extra prints of non-mainstream or more commercially-focused British films, or to publicise films more effectively through advertising and other channels.
The Cinema Access Programme (launched in 2003) - provided £350,000 to help cinemas purchase subtitling and audio-description technologies that improve the cinema-going experience for people with hearing and sight impairments. The programme also provided funds to YourLocalCinema.com, the film listings website of choice for film-goers with sensory impairments, and the Film Print Provision strand, an ongoing funding initiative that helps distributors produce fully accessible film prints.
The Digital Fund for Non Theatrical Exhibition (launched in 2004) - a £500,000 fund to help expand the activities of film clubs, societies community groups and mobile film exhibitors in order to improve viewing opportunities for audiences in rural areas across the UK that may not be able to support a full-time cinema.
The Digital Screen Network (set up in 2005 by the UK Film Council and the Arts Council England) - a £12 million investment to equip 240 screens in 210 cinemas across the UK with digital projection technology to give UK audiences much greater choice.
Capital funding – the Small Capital Fund (2006) provided £800,000 to help smaller cinemas meet the costs of essential building refurbishments and other improvements such as disabled access; and the Capital and Access Fund for Cinemas (2007) provided £500,000 to help cinemas upgrade their equipment and premises to improve the cinema-going experience for audiences.
FindAnyFilm.com – the film search engine which tells users when, where and how a film is available in the UK, legally and across all formats and platforms – cinema, TV, DVD & Blu-ray sale or rental, or download.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
- Teens/Young adults aged 16-20 are our target audience. We choose this as our audience for a few reasons, because we represent them in our film, because from our outside research 16-20 year olds are the main audience for horror films and from our survey, this is the group who would be interested in the horror genre.
Chart One
The first chart demonstrates the ages of the horror movie audience. It demonstrates that although the 50+ age group makes up most of the general population, they only make up 3 percent of the horror genre audience, while the 35-49 age group also make a big 27 percent of the general population however make a minuscule 6 percent of the horror film audience. The graph does demonstrate however that the horror film drama is hugely popular with the under 25 age group with them making up a 72 percent share of the audience. Although it is a restrictive audience as it only makes up 19 percent of the total general population, which is further restricted through restriction of film through certification. By conclusion, the horror film genre is is very popular with the under 25 age group, particularly the 18-24 age group.
Chart Two
The second genre demonstrates the gender demographic of horror film. It demonstrates that a massive 61 percent of males make up the horror movie audience compared to only 39 percent of females. In conclusion, the male under 25 demographic are our main target audience and our focus group.
Furthermore, we produced a survey; http://gcc321matthewbridge.blogspot.com/2010/02/market-research-and-our-audience.html
How did you attract/address your audience?
Firstly, we addressed our audience through audience research. We found through surveys and outside research that, our the horror genre attracted a main audience of 16-25 year olds, especially males although horror was popular among females too.
To attract our audience we firstly incorporated a younger cast. In the opening only on female was represented, through the use of young, stylish clothing ect we feel that our younger audience would instantly associate themselves with this character. To confirm this theory, we asked members of our group who they would associate themselves with the most – the result was younger adults or teenagers, specifically the females audience members clarified that they would feel most empathy for a young female.
Moreover, we incorporated synergy. We utilized the song "In the House - In a Heartbeat" composed by John Murphy which featured on the album “28 Days Later: The Soundtrack Album” in our opening titles. However, not only has the song appeared in the 2002 British horror/science fiction film “28 Days Later” (Danny Boyle) which grossed $82,719,885, it has also made appearances in the “I Know Who Killed Me” (2007) trailer, the “Death Sentence” (2007) trailer and appeared in Twilight (2008). Twilight especially has a large teenage audience and has made $408,773,703 at the box office, thus it will be easily recognized by our audience. Moreover, the song has also been employed in the teen soap “Hollyoaks” (1985-Present), which has appeared numerous time in episodes, as well as crime drama’s such as CSI: Miami and even the 2009 series of “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”. The song is well know, and the song has been utilized in existing media products which have targeted our teen audience, thus our incorporation of this has aided in attracting our audience through borrowing credibility of successful media products.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Magix Movie Edit Pro 14
One of our choses was to use my home film editor Magix Movie Edit Pro 14 rather than the editor provided on the IMAC computers.
The advantages of using the Magix Movie Edit Pro 14 were;
• 32 tracks
• Upload directly to YouTube™
• Burn in real-time
• Optimised scene recognition
• Real-time audio mixer
• Batch processing for groups of files
• Personalised DVD menus
• Support for NextGen consoles
• Thematic intros/outros
• Full HDV camcorder support
• MP3 soundtrack export
• Burn miniHD DVDs and Blu-ray discs
Initially, the reason I chose this software was because I had used this software numerously to produce films for personal enjoyment. I understood how to import files to the movie maker, to use the “video cleaning” and “video effects” elements of the film making. Moreover I knew how to edit sound through “timestretch/resample”, “echo/reverb”, “audio cleaning”, adjust “volume” and even the surround editor.
Moreover, I knew how to add “fades” or transitions”, titles, 3D effects and movement.
One of the main methods I have learnt during the editing process was the use of shots lasting one tenth of a second. We encountered some difficulty reducing the shots to this length was the gaps left in-between shots which left an obvious black screen for more than desired, so editing one shot meant we had to shift all of the clips to avoid any gap. I loved the effect the fast shots as in the provide the perfect transition clips
Furthermore, I gained understanding over the significance of sound in film production. The technology we used allowed us to layer the sound and produce different volumes and gave us the chance to add reverberations and distort particular sound clips such as the breathing.
In addition, I gained particular knowledge in distorting colour for particular effect using the video cleaning tool on the movie maker.
Lastly, I learnt that I needed incorporate “Border Cropping adjustment” and an “anti flicker filter” to produce the highest quality videos.
I also learnt that when editing you must know your system and soft ware well before attempting to use it. When burning to a disk back up is also important. This method of backing your files is used in Hollywood films to ensure no mistakes and no theft.
That sound is crucial in producing effect.
Digital Film Camera
When I used the digital cameras I learnt I was incredibly difficult to produce steady shots unless we had a tripod. We required a tripod constantly to provide these shots, however on occasion we used natural surfaces such as trees, rocks and the ground to steady the camera.
Moreover, we had timing difficulties. As we needed to film at a particular time (sunset), we had to arrive a while before hand to set up equipment and ensure that we were prepared for filming at that time.
It was also important to contemplate the safety of the camera. A lot of our shot included filming from great heights or in an area where the camera could receive damage.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When we produced the preliminary task, we felt that we had many limitations during filming. Our location, action and other conventions of film were extremely simplistic whereas the final product required a lot of effort in comparison.
Moreover, In the preliminary task I utilized bland shot styles, for example I did not layer that shots or exclude/include particular elements such as lighting/costume/props/setting for effect, whereas with the final product I utilized framing, lighting and other elements such as costume.
Furthermore, I learnt some key elements of lighting the scene. When producing low key lighting outdoors, it is good to film in shadow, as this will block most of the natural light. Likewise, using silhoutte by filming directly at the sun can produce amazing effects, especially in a horror film;
Additionally, I learnt that filming at particular times of day can produce extremely different effects. We choose to film during sunset hours, which produced some spectacular lighting effects which really captured the eerie atmosphere we wanted to portray;
In addition I learnt how producing a chase scene requires an extremely fast cutting rate/rythm. And during editing, this could produce lots of issues. For instance, we had to constantly edit and shorten clips to ensure that they lasted the correct amount of time, and could last too long or else to rythm of the chase would be destoryed. Consequently, I found it annoying to reduce some of the beautiful shots to only a few seconds, as I did not think the audience would register the effort put into certain elements of framing.
