JG: Evaluation Question 3

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

As our film is a small budget film with low production values such as the use of prosumer cameras and Adobe Premiere Elements 9.0 editing software, it is likely to be distributed by an independent production and distribution company like Vertigo Films. They have produced and distributed films such as StreetDance 3D (Giwa and Pasquini, 2010) and Monsters (Edwards, 2010). Depending on how successful they believe our film would be influences whether it would be distributed to multiplexes and shown by major cinema chains like Odeon, Cineworld, or Vue which have a predominantly mainstream audience. The more likely option is to distribute it to and show it in art-house cinemas like Curzon as it is a low budget horror/thriller and has more of a niche audience who are much more likely to go to an art-house cinema than mainstream audiences. This means that it wouldn't go on blanket release.

It is likely that only these types of companies would distribute our film as the members of our group are completely unknown and this means they wouldn't create any buzz before the movie release, therefore distributing our film would be an incredible risk for the major studios especially as they would need to make 2.5x the budget to cover the costs involved like marketing, distributing and exhibition. Vertigo Films is more likely to help our group by distributing our film because part of the company's reason for setting up is to help independent production companies and improve British skills in order to make British independent cinema a big player in independent cinema worldwide. The company was formed for the express purpose of distributing and producing two films, The Football Factory and It's All Gone Pete Tong. Its current goal is to produce and distribute four films per year. Taking all this into account it would be a great company to have on board especially when it comes to marketing and distributing. This can be seen by the success of StreetDance 3D (Giwa and Pasquini, 2010) as it created a successful marketing campaign using the ITV show Britain's Got Talent to attract a large number of potential viewers as the film starred previous winners of the show George Sampson and Diversity. This led to it beating Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Newell, 2010) at the UK box office on its opening weekend which was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Thus showing us just how great it could be if we were to work with them in the distribution and marketing of our film, as even though they are a small production and distribution company they can still compete with some of the biggest and this is further displayed as they have won numerous awards in the company's history.

JG: Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our opening sequence shows young, white, middle-class teenagers negatively as there is a local tale warning them about the church, therefore it isn’t a bright idea to go investigate. However they represent traditional masculine gender roles and want to prove they aren’t scared and in order to show this they go and explore the church with the aim of finding out if there is any truth behind the tale. This is shown by mise-en-scène as it is a rather eerie and spooky location and you can see by their facial expressions that they aren’t afraid.

We used the location to express this idea of no fear as the two teenage boys are walking up a hill to an old church on a gloomy day and it seems to be in the middle of nowhere, we can tell by how natural they look that they aren't scared and that they don't believe in the tale, hence why they investigate.

As we can see from the image above, taken from our opening sequence, we used lighting effectively to create the atmosphere: for example the darkness of the Church builds suspense and the audience feel that something could happen at any point especially when it is accompanied by our creepy soundtrack that helps put everyone on edge. Throughout the opening sequence we use various camera techniques to create different effects.

For example, this image was in the entrance of the Church and we panned over it as it is old and also created enigma as later in our opening Michael dies and the audience is left hanging, thinking how he died. The continuity of our whole opening also shows a typical masculine trait seen in both horrors and thrillers of excessive confidence, or bravado, as at no point do the characters stop and hesitate when walking to or entering the Church.

An increasingly common ideology about British teenagers and young adults nowadays, that has been created by how they are represented in both movies and TV, is the idea of gang culture. Gang culture is all about being and looking 'hard' and is commonplace in cities. However it has also spread throughout the country into towns, hence why you have youths in places like Tonbridge, for example, impersonating gang culture by acting 'hard'. This is shown in our opening sequence by the incredibly casual way that our characters walk towards the Church. This is emphasised by the costumes such as trackies and trainers displaying them as copying  gang culture by acting 'hard'. Their body language reinforces this by displaying an attitude that nothing can harm them which is evident from their confidence. Therefore the look and actions of our characters reinforce the ideological discourse amongst British youth that gang culture is cool and is acceptable to be imitated.

JG: Evaluation Question 1

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

Our film opening fits the conventions of a real horror/thriller film opening as it is jumpy and builds up suspense through the narrative and sound. An example of this is seen in Amityville Horror (Douglas, 2005) which we studied the opening of, it uses sound such as whispers to give us the audience the idea that Ronny is possessed and camera techniques such as close ups to show emotion and fear.

This is useful for character exposition and we have done the same through prevalence as we see Michael and Josh walking up the hill towards the church and we realise that these characters are just ordinary teenage boys through the use of costumes. This is because the characters are wearing jeans and trackies thus showing them as lower-middle class meaning we can relate to them easily. Mise-en-scène is crucial to our opening as it creates the atmosphere due to the church being rather isolated, old and dark this makes it scary as it gives the audience an uneasy feeling due to the loneliness of the boys.

One of the most important aspects of a horror/thriller film is the titles and the soundtrack and I believe that in our film opening both of these are suitable. We used both diegetic and non diegetic sound an example of non diegetic sound being our soundtrack this is crucial in our opening to help create tension and this worked effectively as we really feel like Michael has been possessed and is mental due to the noises and whispers that we hear as if they are in his head. In terms of our titles I like the fact that they are quite simple and are on top of a black background as you can focus on them easily. They also allowed us to experiment with a different type of shot, we did a tracking shot while passing behind some gravestones and then embedded the titles of the group members and their role.


The narrative of our opening piece conforms to that of the genre as it builds up tension leading to a main event in the storyline. Our horror/thriller challenges the conventions of the genre as it is often a girl/woman that dies and we also see how they die. However in our production the protagonists are both males and therefore Michael dies as he is seen as the weaker of the two, but we don’t reveal the significance of his death or what exactly happens in the opening leaving the audience curious for more.

This curiosity is shown throughout as Michael sees the bible with an object poking out of it and wants to find out what it is and this leads to his death; curiosity didn't only kill the cat.

                                         

Our opening sequence is also conventional as we use a constant low drone to help build up tension and other layers of sound such as water droplets and whispers etc. which are frequently used in horror films. For example Amityville Horror to give the expression of hearing things making us think that the character is possessed this is used because it makes it tense especially when accompanied by the characters actions such as being jumpy and looking around as if something is there. We use this when Michael walks up to the bible at the altar in order to create tension and a certain mysteriousness.
The editing of our film opening is typical of the horror/thriller genre as it is used to make it scarier for example the use of tint and colour balance make it darker, we also used a jump cut when in the Church as in the really dark lighting it gives it a restless and on edge feel. Jump cuts are common in horror films for example Amityville Horror uses them accompanied with lightning to show Ronny's fear this makes the audience tense. This tension is then built up until it is released when he goes and kills his family, our opening does the same with the creepy music complementing the action as it builds anxiousness while Michael explores the Church and then this is let out when he collapses to the floor dead. Our opening sequence then uses intercutting to cut to the other boy who is in the darkness inside the Church gazing around looking lost. This is used for character exposition and this reveals there is now an element of fear which we can see from his facial expression as the boys have been separated and he is alone.

Group: Evaluation question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

This is a recording of our group reviewing our progress from our preliminary task all the way up to our finished film opening. Our points our demonstrated using clips of our horror opening and our preliminary task.

 

BW: Evaluation question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of making your film opening?

To put it simply, I have learnt many things in what was simply a fun and interesting experience. I have learnt how to use equipment such as tripods and tracks and dollies, I have learnt how to use the editing software ‘Adobe Premier Elements 9.0’, I’ve learnt to make use of technical things such as framing and lighting, and also about creating and maintaining a blog on the internet.


The internet played a big role in our coursework. The blogging was a collaborative group task, although it did involve each member of the group making individual posts when required. Our blog was used to illustrate the project being moved along so it included updates on the progress of the project as well as analysis of films that we could draw inspiration from, be it for the actual idea or for certain shots or transitions. As I’ve said the blog was maintained to show the progression of the project and an example of this is the location recce for our group’s horror opening. Putting the location recce on the blog simply helps to show the steps taken by the group and how we’re going to move on to the next step. It’s the group’s collaboration on the blog that has helped each group member with the production and post-production and even with answering these evaluation questions.

A screenshot showing individual and group posts,
this illustrates how we worked collaboratively on the blog

Other websites we used were Survey Monkey, YouTube, and Prezi. We used Survey Monkey as part of our audience research which we including when pitching our idea to the class. YouTube was used countless times for referring to, and taking ideas from, other films. We also used YouTube as the method to get our film opening and preliminary task online, and also as the link we posted on Blogger. Prezi enabled us to create zooming presentations that are easily accessible online. We used Prezi to respond to questions 4 and 5.

When filming our work we had with us at all times a tripod and obviously the essential handheld camera. The tripod was mainly used to keep the camera steady so the shots are of a higher quality but the tripod’s useful ability to tilt came in handy for some shots. Another somewhat unusual and random use of the tripod was for a high angle shot of ours. To make this we simply put the tripod on top of a dustbin. Odd, yes, but it showed the perseverance and adaptability that our group had when it came to using the equipment to get a high class shot. When filming the outdoors part of our film opening we effectively used the natural lighting to create what has been called our ‘A grade shot’. This shot features two gravestones but it is the grey sky that provides the perfect backdrop to make this shot what it is. We used the track and dolly to film the characters as they walk towards the church coming in and out of view behind the gravestones. For that same shot we intentionally made use of the rule of thirds because as the camera tracks the characters movement, as they pass each gravestone they move along to the next third of the picture. The 180 rule was of course used as a general rule of filming. The things talked about here taught me about how to make best use of your surroundings and the light. 

This shot has been called our 'A grade shot'

A problem that arose during filming was when we were shooting the indoors part of our opening inside Salehurst Church. We began filming in the afternoon but darkness crept in much faster than we anticipated. To combat this we lit a load of candles which actually turned out to work rather well with our opening because the soft glow of candlelight provided more opportunities for some nice shots and it also made the place really atmospheric. One opportunistic shot that we used was to shoot the candles out of focus, making it look blurry. A problem which we overcame not during shooting, but during post-production, was how the lighting conditions changed during outdoor filming. We simply added the tint effect using ‘Adobe Premier Elements 9.0’ to counteract the changing levels of light as the evening moved on.

Candles shot out of focus making the picture look blurry

As previously mentioned we edited our film opening on a computer using ‘Adobe Premier Elements 9.0’. Amongst the types of transitions used were, dip to black, dip to white, dissolve and soft glow. Among the many things I learnt about the editing software was how to slow the movement of the image. This came in handy when adding text for our titles. When adding text you find on the timeline where you want to add the text then click the text button and type it in. I’ve also learnt on Adobe how to add and alter sound. A group member, Michael, used a type of music software called CuBase. By being able to alter the sound we could change the placement of certain parts of the soundtrack, e.g. the bang of a drum, onto another part of the timeline to fit in with our footage. We were also able to adjust the volume of the music accordingly in order to give us control over the level of tension generated. 

This picture shows one of our uses of the ‘dip to white’ transition

Our production process is similar to real film production on the most basic level. That is, the crew simply goes to the location or studio and films whatever needs to be filmed there. However looking deeper into the filmmaking process, real film production becomes a lot more different than our production process. Although our group had taken a location recce in order to give us some ideas for shots, a real camera crew and director would also have a screenplay to work by instead of having to think up most shots on the spot. The pre-production part in real filmmaking is a lot more complex too as it involves countless meetings and much more planning first – and a serious idea. However our editing process was very much alike real film production as it involved a lot of tedious work making sure to cut at the right moment, down to the last millisecond, as well as many hours working on editing.



This is how we added titles to our opening sequence using the gravestones



This is a screenshot of 'Adobe Premier Elements 9.0'



Group: Evaluation Questions 4 & 5

• Who would be the audience for your media product?
• How did you attract/address your audience?
• Here is our Prezi document that we made to answer the evaluation questions 4 and 5.

Copy of Questions 4 & 5, Group 12 on Prezi

BW: Evaluation question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our film opening is perhaps the most independent and amateur media product you could get, so the only companies that would produce and distribute our media product would be small, independent UK companies such as Vertigo Films or Momentum Pictures. This would mean that we would have a very small budget. 

http://www.vertigofilms.com/home.php                                     

http://www.momentumpictures.co.uk/

Only these types of institutions would distribute our film because seeing as the members of our group are completely unknown in the business, distributing our film would be far too risky for the major studios. The risk concerning our group’s lack of fame is that one of the main weapons in a distributor’s arsenal when it comes to marketing is to use famous and acclaimed actors and directors to appeal to a mass audience. Since our group has none of that, we are high risk for distributors. Although Vertigo Films might be more open to our group because part of the company's ethos is to help develop British talent and to show off British independent cinema to the world. 

After we had finished filming and editing the distributors would begin advertising the film. This would mean hosting a test screening for a sample of our target audience, and drawing upon the feedback from that in order to create an effective trailer and advertise the film in the most appealing way to that target audience. Our research of our target audience demographic would mean that we would know the best places to advertise to them, so for example, due to our low budget we would use viral marketing on social networking sites such as Facebook - where we could create a fan page for free. Another reason we would use viral marketing is because our niche audience (the core horror audience of males from 15-24 years old) are some of the major users of social networking sites. 

Facebook logo

Twitter logo

Part of distribution includes selling to exhibitors and again due to our media product’s status as a low budget independent production it wouldn't be distributed to multiplexes and shown by major exhibitors such as Odeon, Cineworld, or Vue where the mainstream audience goes. Instead it would be distributed to and screened in art-house cinemas like Curzon, accommodating for the target audience of horror fans who are much more likely to go to an art-house cinema than mainstream audiences. So we wouldn't be looking at a blanket release. 


We may also submit our film to a film festival such as Cannes, Toronto, or Venice. If our film is successful at a film festival it will provide new opportunities to base our marketing campaign on. 

Vue cinemas logo.
A major exhibitor.

The logo for the Cannes Film Festival