1
Our film includes several generic conventions. For example, in the opening scene, it is night-time, which opens a lot of films. The female characters are also conventional, because they are typical, feminine teenagers who are naïve about their situation. We also have a villain who hides his identity with a scarf, which happens in a lot of horror/thriller films.
In our film, we challenge conventions by allowing the killer to have some sort of connection with the girls. In some parts of the film, the actor playing the killer will be shown as a friend to the girls and also trying to defend them. We also make the person who is seen as friend from the beginning as actually being a dangerous enemy in one of the endings. Another convention that we challenge is that the girls will have personalities. In a large proportion of horror films, the main girls are bland and brainless which makes their demise less exciting. In our film, the girls will be portrayed as strong women.
The weapons used in our film will indicate that it is in the slasher genre because there will be knives and other such objects used to attack the characters. These weapons will cause stereotypical horror injuries and deaths. The motives for these injuries are typical teenage issues; being shown up at school or in the wrong place at the wrong time which shows that it will mostly be aimed at age 18. The characters are everyday teenagers in circumstances that aren't ordinary. The killer will be a stereotypical horror monster.
Our film was partly influenced by "Paranormal Activity", and the idea of multiple endings. We used this idea so that people would talk about the film, and so that people would also, hopefully, see the film again to watch another ending.
In the opening of our film, we are introduced straight away to the main characters in the story. We also have the location shown and the time of day. In the opening to "The Hills Have Eyes", we are shown seemingly random images of nuclear bombs, mushroom clouds and deformed people. Even though these things are connected, they don't seem relevant to the film. In the beginning of our film, we are introduced to the villain. In "The Hills Have Eyes", we don't see any people who could be the villain, just some people being massacred by an unseen character.
Our film includes several generic conventions. For example, in the opening scene, it is night-time, which opens a lot of films. The female characters are also conventional, because they are typical, feminine teenagers who are naïve about their situation. We also have a villain who hides his identity with a scarf, which happens in a lot of horror/thriller films.
In our film, we challenge conventions by allowing the killer to have some sort of connection with the girls. In some parts of the film, the actor playing the killer will be shown as a friend to the girls and also trying to defend them. We also make the person who is seen as friend from the beginning as actually being a dangerous enemy in one of the endings. Another convention that we challenge is that the girls will have personalities. In a large proportion of horror films, the main girls are bland and brainless which makes their demise less exciting. In our film, the girls will be portrayed as strong women.
The weapons used in our film will indicate that it is in the slasher genre because there will be knives and other such objects used to attack the characters. These weapons will cause stereotypical horror injuries and deaths. The motives for these injuries are typical teenage issues; being shown up at school or in the wrong place at the wrong time which shows that it will mostly be aimed at age 18. The characters are everyday teenagers in circumstances that aren't ordinary. The killer will be a stereotypical horror monster.
Our film was partly influenced by "Paranormal Activity", and the idea of multiple endings. We used this idea so that people would talk about the film, and so that people would also, hopefully, see the film again to watch another ending.
In the opening of our film, we are introduced straight away to the main characters in the story. We also have the location shown and the time of day. In the opening to "The Hills Have Eyes", we are shown seemingly random images of nuclear bombs, mushroom clouds and deformed people. Even though these things are connected, they don't seem relevant to the film. In the beginning of our film, we are introduced to the villain. In "The Hills Have Eyes", we don't see any people who could be the villain, just some people being massacred by an unseen character.
2
The social groups represented are middle-class, white-British teenagers, both male and female. The male characters are shown to be dominant over the female characters, and are shown as violent and aggressive through attacking the girls and each other. However, Alexis is shown to be willing to stand up to these characters as she pushes the person strangling her friend out of the way to give her a chance to escape. This makes the female characters seem to have temporary power over the male characters and show them to be defensive and protective, breaking the stereotype. Amelia is shown to be a more stereotypical female character as she lets Alexis fight, while she escapes. She is shown as a more passive character. This links to the target audience by the male viewers seeing the male characters fight, but also letting the female viewers see the female characters stand up for each other.
3
This film could be produced by a Hollywood Studio. The company could add special effects to the film to help make the film seem more realistic. They could also produce sets with proper lighting equipment to make the atmosphere of the film more exaggerated. The props and costumes would also be more realistic and up-to-date to fit in with the time that the film is set in. This would help to sell the film as it would make the film similar to a film like "Scream" which was immensely popular. I think that at first, the film would be released in the cinema, then DVD and Blu-Ray, then digital TV and finally regular analogue TV. I don't think that it would be an Art House film, because it is not a specialist-type film with a niche audience. My film would be released because I think that films like this tend to do well in the box office. It also gives opportunities for merchandising with things like stills from the film or photos of the characters for posters and calendars. There could also be badges and key rings with quotes from the film on them, t-shirts with the cast on and possibly things like mouse mats that could sell well.
4
The narrative of the film and the style that it is, I would say that this film is for anyone over the age of 18, because of the frightening narrative and the fact that there is graphic violence and gore, making the film unsuitable for viewing by people aged under 18. This film would also appeal to viewers of films like "Scream" because of the similarities between the stories. For example, the characters in both films are young people trying to save their own lives. I think that the classification that would be the most appropriate to my film would be 18, because most of the weapons that are used are easy to get hold of, there will be graphic violence, bad language and possibly references to suicide.
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/
5
To attract the audience, I considered what my audience was. Because the film is mostly aimed at people aged 18, I thought about which things appeal to people of that age. In the film there is a teenage cast, which would scare the viewers because of the similar age that the viewers are to the characters. The location could also scare viewers because a lot of 18 year olds will be at college, which is where most of the action takes place, giving the audience the feeling that this could happen to them. In the opening two minutes of the film, we have point-of-view shots which help the audience to connect with the characters by seeing what they can see, and putting themselves in their position. We have a point of view shot of the villain as he looms over Alexis. This has the effect that when the audience sees this, they will see themselves as the victim and feel what the victim is feeling.
6 The camera equipment that we used was suitable for the tasks that we had to do. For the internal shots, we used a Sony HDV1000 camera. These cameras are easier to focus and the manual settings give you more control over the image that you end up with. For the external shots, we used a JVC-DV camcorder. These had a good quality image, however with the built in microphone, we had little control over the sound. These cameras were harder to focus and every time we switched it off, we had to reset the white balance which became time consuming.
During the filming process, we didn’t encounter many problems. However, during editing we had trouble finding some important shots but after checking our tape, we managed to find them and capture them onto the software again.
The editing software that we used was Final Cut Express. I thought that this was a good program to use because the controls are simple and effective, and it creates a good quality product. We made a rough cut, refined this cut, manipulated the images and finally added music, effects and titles.
For the music, I had a catalogue of copyright-free CDs that had different styles of music, so this made it easier to choose what music we needed, then choosing which song from the category best fitted our project.
7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaraRs35PyY
In the video is our audience feedback. We took a sample of our target audience and asked them to give us some feedback. The comments we received were mostly positive and I am sure that the negative comments we received, we can use to improve our films in the future. Some of the comments the people we asked gave us are as follows:
- Good editing
-Lots of suspense
-Good choice of music
During the planning stage of our project researched the horror genre and found out the various conventions and the certification system. By storyboarding our film, we were able to use our filming time more effectively and plan out all of the shots that we were going to do and how we were going to edit them. In our project, we used eye-line matches to show the points of view of our characters. We also used the various aspects of continuity, learned in the making of our Preliminary Task, in our film to make sure that everything flowed smoothly and that the story remained consistent. After completing this project, I feel more confident with the equipment and technology I used. I think that this is shown in the work that we have done and in the film itself.
I think that this project was good because I learned a lot about using the equipment and the technology. I think that our time management could have improved because all of our group members were rushing to get things finished. I think that overall, our project was successful because we did what was asked of us in the task, and we completed this to a good standard.
I think that this project was good because I learned a lot about using the equipment and the technology. I think that our time management could have improved because all of our group members were rushing to get things finished. I think that overall, our project was successful because we did what was asked of us in the task, and we completed this to a good standard.
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