Wednesday 23 April 2014

Evaluation

Evaluation

Question 1

In what way does your media product use, develop or challange forms and conventions of real media products?

At the beginning of the film the audience is greeted with an establishing shot of the setting in our film.
As the actress runs towaards the center of the shot to create a mid-shot there is a loud non-diegetic sound of a horror scream. From this shot and use of sound it is clear to the audience that something bad is happening and the setting is an abandoned and quiet forest. The  use of the abandoned forest is conventional of horror films and reinforces the horror genres cinematography connotations.~Thisa strange and enigma filled film opening creates a feeling of suspence and tention among the audience and also helps set the scene  of the rest of the film to unfold. The dark ambient shadow effect used on the frame of the shots exposes the audience to a dark and sinister feeling. this feeling matches the narrative of the genre and is what we want to portaray to the audience.A title font is also shown in this shot in bold white writing it fades in and fades out of the actresses name (Mary Thompson) this follows codes and converntions of films and exposes a real and proffessional element to the production.

as the character continuse to fumble around and the suspence and mystery of what is going on deepens like most conventional horror films the clip appears to flash to another of the character in a different position in a sped up motion. This is used to give the audience a twisted and weird feeling. The shot quickly switiches back to the deamon in this film played by Leah Gathergood she appears to appear then dissapear asif she is an hallucination this effect develops forms and conventions of real media products as it is a good use of creating a suspence filled film effect thet conforms to horror conventions, the effect on the audience is to scare them so the question what is going on exposing the feeling that they are on the edge of their seats.

Another convention of the horror genre we have developed is the hallucination of the evil girl she is denoted as dark and sinsiter looking and appears at different parts of the opening sequence this creastes a tense mood among the viewers and follows conventions of horro films as it is dark and scary looking, some of the spead up andles and close up also suggest that this is a hallucination watching mary in the forrest and messing with her head send ing her crazy an errie and dark atmosphere is created.

Some uses of the costume in this film follows the structure of our narrative mary is wearing leggins a white flowing shirt and wellington boots, this out fit follows steryotypicall representations of the 'average woman' in today society. Leah clothing as the deamon connotes steryotypical dress of ' ther average woman' as that is what she is she just turned evil and so effects are added to make that relivant.

Many uses of different types of camer a work are denoted in this production such as shot reverse shot and quick fast paced editis and cuts. 



Question 3

What media institutions may distribute our products and why?

Below, Mary has created a mind map which shows the companies we believe may distribute our product.

Mary also created a website which shows a variety of images that relate our product to the distribution. http://marythompson007.imgur.com/all/

Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For this question, I have explored how we have represented women in our media product.
I have compared our protagonist to the woman in the horror film 'unborn' 
As shown in the images below, the women have similar costumes. They are dressed casually, however their make up and hair has been done in a way which denotes them as if they are 'crazy'.
Their hair is scruffy, the have make up smudged on their faces and the character from unborn even has blood on her shirt.

In many horror movies, including our media product, women are often represented as a weak character. 
In the screen shots below both the woman seem to be breaking down suggesting they are weak and need help. They're screaming and crying which is conventional of women in horror films.

The third image is another screen shot from our media product. This woman is a hallucination of the main character. She is dressed casually as she is meant to be a normal woman in the main characters mind, however, the protagonist imagines her as evil, which is why we changed the effects when this woman appeared on screen. 
This is challenging the stereotypes of women in horror films as she is not seen as a weak woman, she is represented as someone who seems to have power and who may be evil, although it is all in the protagonists mind. 





A screenshot from our media product. 










A screenshot from the horror film Unborn.

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Ident research

Ident is short for identification, especially in informal or technical use. It is a short sequence shown at the beginning of a film, during the sequence the film production company linked with the particular film are identified.

Walt Disney's current ident


For more than nine decades, the name Walt Disney has been preeminent in the field of family entertainment. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to today's global corporation, The Walt Disney Company continues to proudly provide quality entertainment for every member of the family, across America and around the world.
http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/disney-history

Design
The walt disney indent is 15 seconds long and shows before every disney movie. The ident denotes a blue screen and a castle which slowly fades onto the screen. White font then appears at the bottom of the screen which says 'Walt Disney Pictures'   A shooting star the goes around the castle, creating a semi circle over the top of the castle.

Intention
The connotations of the castle could be attempting to create a sense of magic. As many walt disney films are mystical and about fantasy worlds this could be a link to their films. Disney films are aimed at young children therefore the shooting star could be there for the children watching to make a wish and again feel magical. The design is very child-like which may be again to link with their target audience. 




Dreamworks Ident

Design

Th dream works design is also childlike. The ident denotes a person being carried through the clouds, and onto the moon by balloons. The balloons then continue to float and pop and form into text which says 'dream works' The text is multi coloured which again suits the typical audience of dream works films, which is children.

Wednesday 29 January 2014

Film pitch and padlet response

Film pitch

Title: Sick Mind

Sick mind is inspired by films 'The eye' and 'Unborn'. Its about several women who are suffering from a mental disorder that they inherited from there ancestors of Nazi experiments, one woman foresees the mental problem and seeks answers and a cure. Little does she know... there is only one thing she can do.

Our film follows basic conventions of the horror genre, the film is based in dark creepy woods which is surrounded by murky water.its a mixture of paranormal and physiological demonisation
Our audience survey suggested that a phsycological thriller was more appealing and had the most scary impact so we have made the basis on this production on that.
We are focusing on handheld camrea movements and quick cut shots to build an intence and fast scene.The indecation that this is a phsycological horror and there is a clear mentaly ill person will be shown through screaming and fitting of the charactor.
Our films begins with a small title sequence introducing the producers and directors of the film. (Mary and Leah productions)

The scene begins rapidly with a young woman running through the woods screaming and going physiologically insane, there are a number of quick cuts and fast panning movements, there will be a disorientation effect added on in the editing process to make the scene seem blurry and wobbly.
The woman will fall to the floor in traditional horror film style and begin to go insane as her body bends and breaks. she lets out a huge screams.
The woman begins to cough and then it is clear that she is dead, it is clear that it is a mystery how she died as the camera pans away, the title of the film appears suddenly in white and black writing.

The film would continues as a physiological mystery as this death happens to several other people. There is the one woman who sees the danger and realises she is next, she tries to unravel the problem and break the chain by looking through history books and meeting the sufferers and their families  There turns out to be a correlation as to why the women are suffering from this, they all have a degenerative link to the phsycological problem dating back to the world wars in the early 18th century's from experiment conducted on her bloodline by the Nazis.

The woman finds the answers through discovery and chance she is shocked at the out come and try's to delay and find an alternative to what she has to do but only killing herself and her first born child is the one and only gruesome solution. She cannot let the demon phsycological problem kill her otherwise the chain will proceed to carry on and affect others life's including her daughter.

Resources needed:

  • Two digital cameras
  • One tripod
  • USB wires
  • Memory cards
  • Costume (Ripped and dirty clothing)
locations:
  • Scary looking woods
Charactors:
  • Sarah (mentaly sick lady)

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Horror Survey Results

Horror Survey Results

The demographics of our video show that majority of the people to complete our survey were female and the age range was between 17 and 19. Therefore we will aim our film at a female target audience and ensure that it meets the certificate ratings of this age range.

They psychographics of our survey show that majority of the people who answered preferred a psychological sub genre of horror.  We also found that the woods was voted the most frightening area, we will consider this when choosing our location to film. This is important as the location was also  what people voted had the biggest impact on horror films. 
The most unwanted things in a horror film were a typical damsel in distress and comedy. We also asked which weapon they thought would be most suitable for a modern day antagonist, the most common response was a knife therefore we will try to incorporate this into our film.