Here is the poster that we used on the front of the door in our mental institution. We believe this resembles what would appear on a proper sign from a mental institution. We also thought that this was a good way to introduce our character to the film.
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For this question we have to compare the conventions of existing horror films from our sub genre to that of our own and see if we follow these conventions. For this we need to ensure that our horror film develops or challenges the forms of these horror film.
I have taken screen shots from other horror films from my sub genre of psychological. These images reflect that in which I will use in my own horror They influence that of our final work and i have compared this to shots of our own.
Here is the logo for Universal, this is a instantly recognisable logo as it is worldwide known. I think that the use of the name and the image work really well together as they are both related. Universal means the world and this is what the image shows. By having the background jet black it makes the logo stand out and memorable for the audience
Here is my opening logo for our horror film 'What Doesn't Belong'. From this we had inspiration from the Universal logo whereas instead of using a globe we have used a old map however in this image it appears very faint. On top of this we added splatters of blood to make it clear that our convention was that of a horror film. The text is in white to make it stand out against the red and black and we also made a shadowed affect on the writing which fitted in with the name.
Here is the logo for the psychological horror, 1408. This image shows the title of the film in a recognisable way as the font of the text is in a fire like style and misplaced which is a relation to what happens in the film. I think that by having this simple logo it relates well to the plot of the horror, as there is a fire within the hotel room 1408 so it highlights the idea of there being phschological happenings in the hotel room. This means that it is developing the subgenre providing the sense of fear and evil. The background is solid black which makes the title stand out clearly, it also relates to lonliness and death which are both conventions of phsychological horror.
Here is the logo for our psychological horror that appears in the titles of our film. We followed the idea of having flames in our logo such as in the 1408 logo as we thought it gave a good representation of horror and evil, and our film incorporates evil and fear. In this image we can see it being quite dark and gloomy as we wanted our film to seem mysterious however there is a blood hand print on the book which links in with what actually happens within our opening to the film.
Here is a screen shot of the opening scene from 1408 which is within our subgenre of phsycological horror. Here we can see a male character sat inside of a car, set at a night time. Because it is set atnight it makes the atmoshpere more eirey. The character is looking intently at something which makes the audience wonder whhat he is loking at and eager to see the importance or relevance to the plot of the film. I think that the use of this mid close up shows the ways in which the camera angle can make the audience ivolved within the film. The image develops the conventions of our subgenre as it has a mysterious feel to it.
Here is a screen shot from our own titles 'What Doesn't Belong'. Within this you can see an old book with flames around it representing burning of the book. We created and used this image because it follows the conventions of psychological horror and not knowing what is happening, however the book represents that there is a untold story behind the girl in our film.
Within the horror film 1408 we see the character being established as an ordinary character by the use of his costume. He is wearing clothes that co-ordinate with the location that he is in, a hotel room. We can see that the character may be at work as he is wearing a casual suit, however we can also see that his work may not be such an important job.
Here is a shot of me, Samantha in 'What Doesn't Belong' our own horror film. This image establishes the character as being a young female as she is small and stood up straight. This image also sets a unfamiliar setting as the character Annabel is wearing a night gown as she has escaped from a mental institution and because she is outside it makes the story seem very strange and mysterious.
In this image we can see the setting of The Blair Witch Project as being in a woods style place. This is simular to where we want to film out horror sequence as it adds an airy atmosphere as being in woods is similar to being alone and relates to being no escape which could resemble how our character would be feeling having being in a psychological unstable state.
Here is a screen shot of our film that establishes the setting of where the action take place. This establishing shot shows the woods, like where The Blair Witch Project took place. It creates a sense of being alone and isolated which adds to the theme of mystery and the psychological effect.
This screen shot from the Blair Witch Project highlights fear in the woman's face. The close up is a reaction shot which seems to be a shocking image as you can see the fear in the characters face. This would be good to use in our own film as we include a reation shot of our own.
Here is a close up of the character Annabel in full makeup and costume. This shot shows the expression of being possessed it also shows that there must be something wrong with the girl as her makeup is not that of a normal person so you want to know what's wrong with her.
Here is a image that establishes the setting, of an abandoned house. The room is in black and white which makes a tense atmosphere as you can see shadows which make you feel on edge. By using shadows it instantly makes you think, of what you cant see instead of what you can. This would look good in a psychological horror as it will make the audience more focused on what might happen next.
Here is a establishing shot of a large building that we used a mental institution. As it is set on its own we thought it created a airy atmosphere which follows the conventions of our sub genre. Because the bushes and trees are in silhouettes it make the building stand out and makes this shot look very effective.
From this screen shot you see this high angle which shows the vulnerability of this character. It makes the character look weak and shows him as being a victim. This is cleverly used as without even knowing, the audience are introduced to who will be the victim and shows that the character might be in danger.
Here we can see a high angle shot of our young female character showing her vulnerability. This strongly follows the horror convention of females being a weaker gender and being the victim. By using this shot it makes it clear who the victim in the film is going to be without properly introducing them and their weaknesses.
From this establishing show of the woods, it shows whereabouts the film is set as well as making the audience aware that they are alone and in the middle of nowhere. This relates to our own horror sequence as we are setting it in the woods, so we could use a similar shot to this.
This shot of the woods is very similar to the one in the Blair Witch Project as once again it sets the scene of being alone in the woods with no escape. Also because the lighting on this is very dark it means that it gives a more horror effect used to build tension within the setting.
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Representation shows the stereotyping of how characters are and how they behave. The character represents the weaknesses by following the stereotype, in these videos we can see that the woman and young boy both appear to be very weak and vulnerable. To follow these conventions the character in our own horror is a young girl.
Here is a clip from Paranormal Activity 1, night 20. In this scene we see both a male and female characters aged around 30 years old in bed. As the clip goes on we see the woman established as the victim as she is dragged out of her bed in a supernatural way. This follows the stereotype of women being the weaker gender as she is the one who is facing the paranormal happening. By representing the female social in a weaker way, it represents to that of our own horror film as we have included a female character as the victim in our own horror 'What Doesn't Belong'.
Here is a clip from the 1999 psychological film 'The Sixth Sense'. In this film we see the young boy as the victim. Once again this follows the stereotype of children being weaker as in this he is the victim. The threat to the boy is his sixth sense of seeing dead people, this is a menacing threat as it is something the boy cannot help. In our own psychological horror, our main character is a young female. Even though the character is not as young the boy in this scene, she is still young to she will be able to follow the stereotype of a young helpless girl.
In relation to our own horror film 'What Doesn't Belong' we have used a young female as our victim to follow the stereotypical conventions of who victim usually are in horror films. From these examples we see that in Paranormal Activity the victim is a female in which the threat is after her and takes over her body while she sleeps. This is similar to what happens in our own horror film as our victim is a young girl who escapes from a mental asylum and runs away into the woods where she begins to hear strange voices whispering her name, however all of these are in her head. Shes then thinks that she sees a someone and after trying her best to escape she finds herself falling over and her body being taken over by the evil. This makes our film a psychological horror, and will also put our audience in the position of the girl. This also relates to the film ' The Sixth Sense' as somebody thinking something is there when it isn't. This follows the conventions of the sub-genre as he is a young victim and this reflects boldly in our own film.
After carrying out IMDB target audience we saw that the most viewers for psychological horror films was males aged 18-29. This is because they are more prone to sit through a horror film than females. However we still use a female character as they seem to be the weaker gender.
From these images they both show a very similar scene from looking very weak as they are the victims of a similar age, that the target audience (males 18-29) would be able to relate with. These high angles show the camera looking down making the subjects in this case the victims looks very inferior.
Here is my wordle from the feedback that my audience gave to our work after watching it. Here we can see that a lot of people thought that we represented social group conventions in a neutral way, and this helped by the actor, costume and makeup to make the horror sequence seem more believable. They also thought that the use of the glove worked well as it built tension as well as following the conventions of horror and being a physchological prop.
Here is the test shot of our character 'Annabel' in full costume. In relation to our sub-genres conventions we see that it is following the stereotypical victim of being a young female as these appear to be the weaker gender in horror films.
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Distribution is how you get your film seen. This means by the use of posters and trailer so that people will know about your film and want to go and see it through this promotion of the film.
Due to our film being made with no budget because it is a student film we will not be able to have a wide distribution for our film as it will not be being seen in the cinemas, this means that we would have to use websites such as YouTube and film festivals around Nottingham for our film to be seen. A film festival that would suit our horror film is the Mayhem Festival at broadway cinema, Nottingham. This is a film festival that specialises in horror films and takes place over 4 days.
Here is a trailer from the film 'The Awakening' by Nick Murphy which was one of the most anticipated films for the Mayhem Festival.
Here are some horror film poster that i think stand out and are very effective due to the use of image and colour which is an important factor when it comes to advertising your film. In these we can see the victim and the threat stood in the foreground and the background which makes you instantly afraid of what they are going to do which persuade you to go and watch the film to find out.
For our own horror film, I think that a good date for the release would be 31st October. This is because this date is halloween so it would be a more memorable date to go and see a horror film. Also, after carrying out cinema release dates i found out that the autumn and winter months are very popular for horror films. Another reason this is a good release date is that award ceremonies are in the early months of the year such as January and February so our film may be able to win an award. For DVD releases films are usually released 3-5 months after general release in the cinema. This means that our horror film 'What Doesn't Belong' would be released around February time. This would be a successful time of year because people will have money left over from christmas that they would be able to spend.
Here is the film poster from the horror film 'The Grudge', from this poster we can see the hair of something mysterious and only being able to see the eye. This creates a very striking and memorable image that a film need in order for people to recognise it and go to watch the film. I also think that by the use of black, white and red it automatically appears to be a horror film, also the important things on the poster are the most striking by being in red which is the title and the release date so you don't have to looks at the poster to hard top know this vital information. Evidently this was the film poster we decided to use as a large inspiration as we thought it was effective by the use of image and colour. In our own poster there is a similar image of the character 'Annabel' in the film and this makes our film look scary. We also followed the idea of highlighting the film name and release date so this would be bold if people were to walk past it. I think that by the use of the light on the side of the hair it makes there seem something missing and wondering where the light is coming from which could persuade people to go and watch the film.
With this poster i think that it would be good to advertise it in places such as bus stops and stands within shopping centers as we target a large range of audiences and these are places where this age range would be. A more specific place to target males and females of this age range would be at music festivals as this age group are the largest population that attend them so we would be able to put this poster inside a programme of the festival so we would be targeting the correct audience. These will be released around the beginning of August time as well as the trailer to ensure people will have heard about it and they will be wanting to go and watch the film. If we we're to make a trailer i would want it to look something like this from 1408 because it gives a good idea about the story however leaves you in suspense of what happens next.
Here is the logo for our production company 'Shadows Production' we used this name as we thought that it seems mysterious and added effect to out movie. This logo was influenced by the one from Universal, this is because we liked the idea of how they used the globe to establish it was a worldwide company, so instead of using a globe we used a map of the UK that looked old and focused mainly on the Nottingham and Derbyshire area where our production company would be located. We also used the idea of having a dark background so the main feature would stand out in Universals case, the globe and in ours the blood.
Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media project?
When creating a film it is very important to take into consideration the audience of whom your product is aimed at. For example if you were making a cartoon film with simple sentences about dolls, it would be targeted at very young girls who like dolls rather than old men. This also means that when promoting the film they are able to advertise in correct ways, such as on children's TV commercials rather than at rugby matches where the target audience aren't going to be.
For our horror film we have given it a rating of a 15. This is because it contains the criteria of being a 15 as we are not including an over menacing character or highlighting suicide. Although the main target audience for our horror sequence is men aged 18-29 as these were the main target on the research we found, we believe that the rating of 15 is a more appropriate age group. Also, although our horror is aimed at males, we also want to target women as well. We will do this by including a female character as the victim so women are able to relate to her.
Within the horror film that i watched, 1408, the main character was a male adult and he was solely focused on throughout the whole of the film. This challenged the stereotype of victims being young and female, however was portrayed very well, and because this film was aimed at males aged 18-29 after researching on IDMB it means that they would be able to relate with the character in this film. This is because the character is from a average social class which would be the majority of the audience who would watch this film. For our own film 'What Doesn't Belong' after carrying out feedback we feel that our audience would be both male and females aged 15+ as this is our age rating. These would be our audience because our character is a female so women would be able to relate to our story, and also other psychological horror films have the target audience of males 19-29 so these would be the people who watch our film. However we decided put the rating at 15+ after looking at the BBFC guidelines.
Question 5
Paranormal Activity
Certificate: 15 Audience: Males 18-29 Rated: average 6.5/10
The Strangers
Certificate: 15
Audience: Males 18-29
Rated: average 6.1/10
1408
Certificate: 15
Audience: Males 18-29
Rated: average 6.8/10
The Shining
Certificate: 15
Audience: Males 18-29
Rated: average 8.5/10
The Sixth Sense
Certificate: 15
Audience: Males 18-29
Rated: average 8.2/10
Nobody below the age of 15 may buy or go to watch a film that has this certificate. The film cant highlight discrimination in language or behavior or promote the use of drug use. Within a horror film , the film can include a menacing and threatening threat however not be overly sadistic or sexualised. Behavior that is included within the film is allowed but things like suicide are not allowed to be shown in a detailed way or anything that causes strong harm so that nobody follows this themselves. At this certificate nothing too brutal may be shown so it is not highlighting on criminal offenses. Weapons that have easy accessibility are not allowed to be highly glamourised. Use of strong language is permitted as long as it is not overused in a aggressive manner.
The 18 rating lets things more graphic to be shown such as highly dangerous and violent scenes and can also show things such as weapon or drug abuse. An 18 certificate may also show show more explicit images that may breach ideas of the criminal law.
We have chosen to give our film the certificate is a 15, this is because we are not going to highlight any criminal or weapon abuse, however we will be including that of a menacing threat that may make the audience weary of the horror film.
Here is some of the feedback we received in relation to targeting our target audience which were both genders aged 15+. Here it is evident that we did this well as in these feedback forms they both mention this target audience that we have captured. It also contained places were violence would be involved however we didn't show this and only shown the output of it. In this image we see the cut on the girls arm which shows the scene of violence however this is not a tormenting scene so we believe the age rating that we have given the film suits it well.
The locations and props that we used were both important aspects to our film as they were both things that were mentioned on our feedback sheets about the use of woolaton hall as the mental institution and the use of the black glove as a psychological demon.
The music in our film wasn't a main item that we focused on however i think that we managed to make it fit within our sequence very well as we kept it quite quiet to help build tension following the conventions of other horror movies. This also engaged our audience so they were unaware of what would happen next. I believe that our titles were engaging and i thought by the use of lights it gave the sense of psychological happenings before the actual film had begun. Here is a screenshot from where this happen and the cross is turned upside down, we did this because it reflects religion as well as the rosemary beads so by the cross being upside down it meant the devil which goes against religion.
Due to our film not being finished a lot of our feedback said that our film didn't make sense, however this was a issue we were able to solve due to other lessons were we were able to edit our film more and add other shots to our horror sequence so it was able to be completed and flowed so the story was understandable.
6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
