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

This is our production logo, we designed a few on photoshop but this was the one we chose for our final piece. We picked the leaf logo because its quite odd and ghostly looking, we also picked quite a simple font as we thought it would be more effective, and look more professional. It was not the favourite from the public but the most important people we asked (teachers) said it was the best to use.

This scene is of my feet running, we wanted to give the impression that the character is scared and make it seem like she is running away from something, we made it quite obvious she is panicking and breathing heavily so it connotes that she has been running for a while.

 'Psychotic Pictures' is what we decided to call our film company, this clip shows that it is this company that is presenting the film. We decided on this name because 'Psychotic' is a disorder which we thought it would be quite edgy as horror movies can sometimes get you thinking 'mess with your head'. I think the font we chose was a good choice becasue its quite edgy and it looks like a good font to use for our film genre.

This is another scene of myself running past the camera, this time we filmed more of my body running instead of just my feet, this is so we can slowly show the audience who the person is that is running and in a way to build up tension.

We decided to call the production name 'Chiller Entertainment' this is because it is quite dark and creepy, plus when we filmed our movie it was extremely cold as we had predicted! We used the same font as the 'Psychotic Pictures presents' scene as we thought it would look a bit silly and un-professional if we kept changing the fonts, plus in most films they would use the same font.

This scene is of myself again spinning around in a panic while the camera circles around her to show that she is in a large open field in the middle of no-where. This helps connote again that she is vulnerable and needs help.

This scene is a point of view shot, from the eyes of the creature that is chasing the character, she doesnt notice at first but then a twig snaps and she sees something hiding in the hedge and she runs away. The camera doesn't change to a different shot straight away to make it look as if the creature is thinking whether to follow her or to hide somewhere else to stalk her.

This is a scene to show that she is still running away from the creature from the last scene and maybe still has a sporting chance of getting away as there doesn't seem to be anything gaining on her heels.

This scene is where the creature catches up to the character as she falls and trys to get away from it, but fails! This is to show that the creature is very fast and impossible to get away from. This is to make the creature much scarier. 

We did the 3 still shots which get closer to the body to build up tension, and show that she looks quite lifeless.

This scene was to show that the creature has killed the girl as she lays there with blood on her neck and mouth to show how she died.

There is an extreme close up of her eyes which she suddenly opens them to the special effects music, this is to make the audience jump. We did this so the film has a twist and to make the audience want to see more .

Then finally the name of our film, 'Innocence'

we chose this name becasue the creature that is chasing the character is actually a fallen angel that has turned evil, so we thought angels are supposed to be sweet and innocent so we wanted our movie name to have a subliminal message. We used this font because it looks handwritten and we think it looks quite effective. We were going to go for an extreme old fashion writing but it was difficult to read and so we decided against it and went for this simplier one.



Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our project doesn't really represent any social groups in the first 2 minutes, but it does show that young teenage girls can be vulnerable even if they don't look like it. We wanted the actress to look very vulnerable and that is why we placed her in a white dress to give the subliminable message that she is a good character in this movie and that she doesn't have much to defend herself. If the movie would have carried on then it would have represented all the different social groups that go to a school and challenged the idea that because you might be known as 'popular' that doesn't mean you are nasty or bully people.  

Evaluation - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

This would be a blockbuster quality film and that would mean it went out in the usual cinema outlets.We would want our project to be distributed through Warner Bros Distributors. This is because they have a lot of experience and are one of the Big Six. They have distributed many big hits for example Sherlock Holmes and The Matrix. This is why we would want them to distribute our product.

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

 

This video contains footage of myself asking a few people if they like horror movies.

The audience for our media product would be teenagers and adults aged 15+. They must like horrors as that is our film genre. We looked on the internet movie data base to find some statistics and ratings for rescent audiences to films of our genre and we found that the ratings were usually above 5 stars out of 10 which would mean that people do generally enjoy horror films.

here are some screen shots of some fairly rescent films we found the ratings for:

Evaluation - How did you attract/address your audience?

We did a lot of research before hand to ensure we knew exactly what our audience wanted. We decided it would be 15+ people as we know that they are more likely to like horror movies and to not be affected by them psychologically. We decided we wanted to ask people what they thought of our project and here is a few of the comments that came from Mary asking the target audience.

Evaluation - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a great deal about constructing a product like this and about all the technologies that helped me do it. We used a variety of technologies from tripods to Apple macs and photoshop to microsoft office. A project of this kind has been a very educational time and I have realised just the amount of work it requires to get the finished result. Myself and my partner have worked extremely hard to get this far and it has not been easy. At the beginnning we really did have problems from ideas not being possible and fall outs in the team. The team ended up splitting into twos quite quickly and I must say it was a great decision. Mary and I have really learnt so much more and feel working as a two we got much more of a job and therefore got to explore the technologies more. 

Evaluation - Look back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product?

I feel I have learnt a great deal more since the preliminary task. My editing skills on the Macs I think have improved the greatest but also my knowledge of making a project like this. It is a great deal more work that it seems at first thought.

Final Piece

This is our finished movie. We had planned to do another scene in a hot tub, but unfortunately the hottub we were going to use broke down and was out of use until it was fixed.

RESEARCH: Marketing and Distribution

The British Board of Film Classification


The BBFC classifies over 500 films and around 7000 videos each year, together with trailers, adverts and a small number of video games.

The age categories are designed to help parents decide what to let their children watch, and also to prevent children watching films which may contain scenes of sex, violence and drug use.

U – Generally means suitable for all, it should have reassuring counterbalance to any threat or horror shown.
Drugs:  No references to illegal drugs or drug misuse unless they are infrequent and innocuous, or there is a clear educational purpose or anti-drug message suitable for young children.
Horror: Scary sequences should be mild, brief and unlikely to cause undue anxiety to young children. The outcome should be reassuring.
Language: Infrequent use only of very mild bad language.
Nudity: Occasional natural nudity, with no sexual context.
Sex: Mild sexual behaviour (for example, kissing) and references only (for example, to ‘making love’).
Violence: Mild violence only. Occasional mild threat or menace only.

PG – Parental guidance. This is general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children.
Drugs: References to illegal drugs or drug misuse must be innocuous or carry a suitable anti-drug message.
Horror: Frightening sequences should not be prolonged or intense. Fantasy settings may be a mitigating factor.
Language: Mild bad language only
Nudity: Natural nudity, with no sexual context.
Sex: Sexual activity may be implied, but should be discreet and infrequent. Mild sex references and innuendo only.
Violence: Moderate violence, without detail, may be allowed, if justified by its context (for example, history, comedy or fantasy).

12A – This category only exists in cinema viewing. No one under 12 can watch a 12A movie in the cinema without an adult.
Drugs: Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail.
Horror: Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained.
Language: Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’) must be infrequent.

Nudity: Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief and discreet.
Sex: Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. Frequent crude references are unlikely to be acceptable.
Violence: Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification.

 

12 – This category exists only for video works. No one under the age of 12 can buy or rent a 12 rated movie. This category has the same rules as 12A

15 – No one younger than 15 may buy or rent a movie that is rated 15.
Drugs: Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
Horror: Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.
Language: There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
Nudity: Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.
Sex: Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable
Violence: Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

18 – No one younger than 18 can watch an 18 rated movie in the cinema, or buy or rent an 18 rated movie.
18 rated moves are an extension of 15 rated movies; everything is more hardcore in terms of drug use, nudity, sexual activity, language and violence.

Our movie will be a 15 as it will contain moderate drug use but it won’t promote the drugs taken in any way, there will be a strong horror theme but it will not be sadistic or sexualised. There will be some strong language but it won’t be too extreme.
There won’t be any nude scenes in the movie but there might be scenes of a sexual nature.
There will be strong scenes of violence in the movie but only in small doses.

Editing the Movie

This is Mary and I editing our movie on the IMac. We had to use many techniques in our project to make it what it is. We learnt how to make sound effects to how to merge a cropped shot with an uncropped shot. We had to surge through many problems to get the finished project. We had continuity errors which needed sorting as well as diegetic sounds which weren't loud enough.

The camera we used to film our first scene was a new camera to the school. It didn't use tapes like the ones we were used to. This made it difficult to upload the footage as it required a different technique. We managed to do it after some time exploring the camera and were now ready to start editing. We had decided early on that we wanted the credits to cut through the action. So all we needed to to on that was pick the style we wanted. We decided on a very simple design with the names in the bottom right hand corner. This was very similar to our story board. We wanted the letters to be more spaced out as we felt it looked more horror genre themed. We then went through our footage and rejected all the bits we didn't like and were certain we weren't going to use. As the filming was done in chronilogical order to get the best light, it wasn't difficult to choose the shots we wanted and to put them in our project. After the we had the shots and credits in the right order we started to be perfectionists.

We came to our first problem when our best shot had a continuity error. We were determined to use the shot as it was by far the best. The shot from the antagonist's point of view we realised that I was wearing trainers when I was suppose to be barefoot. Instead of changing it we split the clip where the error was and cropped it so the error was out of the shot. We then had to merge the split clips together.

Our next problem, the twig that got snapped on the day of filming wasn't loud enough so we had to record over it with a twig we snapped in the media room. We then realised the scream on the footage cut out before it was finished, so we had to record a scream over the microphone as well.  

Poster for the movie

Our front cover is very important to us as we want it to attract the right audience. We also want it to give a teaser of what the movie is about and get the audience hooked into watching it. We researched film covers as they are similar to the poster. We had had to look at the specific horror / thriller genre are there was no point researching genres that aren't specific to our project.

The first film cover we researched was Sorority Row. We decided on this movie as we both were aquainted with it and its story has similarities. For example both our films are female orientated. We felt the front cover was very busy but interesting to look at and that it would attract an audiences attention when sitting on a shelf. We liked how it has shown most of the characters with the main ones as the biggest. It also has put them in a position where it is showing an arrow pointing to the middle of the cover. This could connote to the audience that there is more entertainment inside the box. The background is their sorority house on fire which could suggest their life going up in flames. The whole picture has a red/ orange colour scheme which could connote hell. None of the characters are smiling which shows the audience that it isn't a comedy and not for young children. The light behind them might suggest death and that some of the characters are going to die. We also liked how the picture is symmetrical. What we didn't like is that all the girls are in completely different outfits which don't particularly match with the background or colour scheme. It does suggest to the audience that these are glamorous girls but we feel we want a bit more co-ordination than that.

The Grudge is the second film cover we looked at. This is because it was a film we both found enjoyable to watch and it partly inspired us to make our project a horror/ thriller. The cover is very dark and inhuman looking. We liked the rough look about it and the proxemics to the character. The eye doesn't look particularly attractive and is dark which matches the colour scheme. The big, red writing could connote danger which would again show the genre. As the picture is so close it is hard to make out the shape of the face which could make the audience want to see more. The layout is quite simple and it doesn't show the main character which might make the audience intrigued, and curious. We liked this idea but we decided we didn't want to give away our antagonist that quickly. 

The Ring is similar to The Grudge in how simple the front covers are. They give away hardly anything for the audience. This film has the motif of a ring of light. This ring of light at first can mean anything to the audience from a wedding ring to a puff of smoke, but as you watch the film it shows how very important this ring of light is to the storyline. We like the thought of using semiotics to show very little information until you watch the film. This we think makes the audience very curious and want to watch the film even though they have very little information on it.  The colour scheme is very plain with the simple colours of white and a raspy black. The font of the writing is as if a little child wrote it which connotes there may be a young child in the film. The beginnings of the words are not capitalised which also suggests this. The slogan 'before you die, you see' connotes a very scary film which the audience may feel could have possibly put them in danger. It also makes more sense if you watch the movie. All these signs are to entice an audience to watch the film.   

Layout ideas for our poster

This design we wanted to give little hints on the storyline and thats where the halo idea came from. We also wrote innocence in latin to show the ancient timeline of the myth our story in based on. We tried to make it symmetrical as a common fact suggests people prefer it to unsymmetrical.

This design we wanted to be unique and so we decided on making the film name to be clever and interact with the background. We didn't want either of our layouts to be too busy as we really liked the idea 'The Ring' had displayed as it was really simple but really effective. We want the audience to feel that the movie must be so good that there is no point trying to justify the horror on the poster. We like the old fashion buildings with character and that is how we came up with this idea.

We decided to go for a fairly simple design but would be quite obvious after you watched the whole movie.

We wanted it to look like a sketch almost, so it starts as if it is just a storybook but as you get into the film it seems more real. To make this effect, Mary had to sketch some angel wings and then we edited them on photoshop. We then took pictures of me curled up as if the wings were behind me. We then edited that picture to make it smudged and then merged the pictures together. Here are the pictures we started off with;

 

Production Logo for film company

We decided we wanted a simple design for our production logo as we found that the least complicated designs looked better.  We made these on Photoshop exploring different techniques. We decided on our favourites and then ask for feedback on which the public preferred.  We were novices to photoshop and so we used youtube videos to get better aquainted with it. Here is a screenshot of a video we used

We made a facebook page to ask people which logo they preferred

http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_189680887735784&ap=1

At first we were considering using screenshots from a youtube video and so we were asking permission for them.

Filming the Movie

Gaining permission;

Music;

We found out the e-mail address for John Carpenter (the man who directed halloween) and emailed him asking if we could use the theme tune for Halloween. He was happy for us to use the music but unfortunately he could not give us permission, but instead he helped us out and gave us the email and number for the record company that owns the track.

Location;

The field 

 We wanted the location to be natural looking and far away from any help, this is why we chose this certain field as it had the required scenery and perfectly connoted the desired tension for the shot. We needed the grass to be slightly over grown and made look like it is not well cared for. We also wanted a couple trees to make the scenery look like has changed from each shot.

         

Getting ready;

There were many jobs we had to do to be fully prepared for the filming. Without each separate one the project would have suffered as we would have not got sufficient footage.

Job 1

The make up may look messy and done quickly but it actually needed practise to get the desired look. We practised different techniques on looking sweating and rough. We also had to put eyedrops in to make the make up smudge naturally. This is a picture of myself practising the make up.

Job 2

Although we had fake mud to add to the costume and actress we wanted it to look as realistic as possible and therefore we decided to use real mud as well as fake. It gave us a way to touch up the previous make up and cover anywhere we had missed on the costume and actress. It also let us experiment with what the character had previously been doing; we managed to put mud on the knees as if she may have fallen to them, been dragged through mud by what she is now running away from and fallen on to her backside. We managed to make mud marks in all the areas necessary to suggest this happened. It helped us get into the scenario and gives the audience an idea on what happened to her before the movie.

Job 3;

We wanted the weather to be dull and edging on darkness and we had to make sure we were filming on a day where it had been forecast the right conditions. However, when we desired this certain weather it made it a very cold day to be filming. Luckily, we had prepared for these conditions and rapped up and took lots of spare clothing to wear when we weren't filming. We also wanted the actress (myself) to be barefoot to make her look more in need of help. This did give the problem of very cold feet and danger of stepping on thistles. We sorted this problem by having very thick  shoes for when we weren't filming and we also had to map out each separate shot to make sure there was no thistles or sharp things of any kind to step on. The picture on the right shows the clothing I was wearing. We had lots of blankets and a couple microwave heat raps.

Job 4;

We needed to be sure we had all the equipment and weren't forgetting or bringing extra things we didn't need with us. It would have been inefficient and wasting time to have to go back and forth for things we had forgotten. It would have given us less filming time and therefore our project would suffer. It also would have been silly to take a whole load of stuff we didn't need or use, especially when we are climbing fields to get to our destination. To solve this problem we made a sheet full of things we would need and want. It was similar to the props and location sheet but it had the things we needed when we weren't filming. These were things like; Tripod, warm clothing, blankets and heat raps for us both, fake blood and mud for touching up the make up, a couple brushes, eye drops, time schedule and lots more. Here is a picture of myself making the sheet and speaking to Mary on the phone so we both decided on what to take.