Our group evaluation

Evaluation - question 9 - Luke Bull

What was your contribution to the process during the planning, production and post production stages?

During the making of this film, I think I main a good contribution in all parts, the planning, production and post production. In the planning I did parts of the storyboard as it was split between the group, I also did several pages of the script which was also split between the group. Mainly all of the planning was equally split between four as there is four people in our group and I did my part which involved stuff like the recee sheet, also me and dale researched target audiences on IMDB.



This is the recee sheet and below are the pictures for the recee sheet, these are the pictures of scenes used at the location, I took the pictures.

  

This is part of the storyboard i had completed, i had also done the last few pages of the final storyboard.

The production or the making of the film was also equally divided, the main parts i took part in was the filming, directing and the final editing. Whilst on set I would talk through what we would film and what needed to be done, I also took camera role alot of the time. When we had finished all f our filming we imported it onto the macs at college here me and dale did the editing of the footage as sancha and sarah concentrated on the sound by using garage band, me and dale took turns whilst doing the editing, and when it wasn't the other persons turns we would be sat next to each other guiding and helping one another.

Luke Evaluation - Question 8

How are the films different? Looking back at my preliminary task and comparing it to our final film you can immediately see a difference between the two. In the preliminary task our main mistake was the lighting, it was a huge problem for us as the location was shadowed out by the building surrounding and we ended up filming during the evening which didn't end well as majority of our shots turned out too dark. For example this is a shot from when we filmed our outside scenes.

As you can see its way too dark, we changed our filming tactics when it came to our final product as we realised it was easier to darken a shot than it was to actually lighten one, hence we filmed during the day instead. Also the street light in the shot makes a good effect however the light coming from it can sometimes make a weird line going down the screen, for example.

On the far right of the picture you can see a vague blue line, this was caused by the street light, to prevent this we decided to film inside when it came to our final product.





Straight away you can see changed in the two films, especially with the writing, as we changed our techniques on how we used the lighting and we decided to film in the day instead. Not only did we change the lighting but the whole camerawork in general was different as in our final film we experimented more and was more adventurous in the shots we used for example in our final film we used shots like canted angle instead of the conventional over the shoulder/long shots.

Our second picture shows our preliminary over the shoulder shot, as the first picture shows our more intriguing canted angle shot. We used this to help us improve our final horror film by allowing us to experiment and try different things, after the task we now knew what worked and what didn't work, we used this to our advantage whilst filming the final piece

Overall i believe that as a group and individually we have all learned how to use lighting effectively and how to use different camera angles to give off a certain effect, i think if we was to do it again i believe we would be able to make it even better due to the knowledge and experience we have gained from doing both the preliminary and final task.

Contribution to planning, production and post production - Dale Horton

I took on the role of editing once we had complete filming and inputted my ideas to the group. We split storyboarding across all of us in the group and few of other planning pieces. I didn't provide much input into the planning but did a lot more later on in the project. I did some filming when it came to others being in the shot and in few other shots. I also found the actor to play the lead role in the film and was the communicator between actor and the group.

 I did the majority of the editing as I quickly became familiar with the software and could edit it together efficiently. I edited it each time we shot and another members of my group also contributed to the editing. I believe my contribution to the editing helped largely into the final product of our horror film.

What was your contribution to the process during the planning, production and post production stages? - Sarah Carter

Throughout the entirety of this project, I feel I have taken an active and important role in the planning, production and post production stages. I feel that along with my other group members, I was largely involved in the planning of our film - it was a combined effort to come up with the initial idea for our film and I feel I contributed several very valid ideas in the process of developing and inevitably creating a final plot and storyline. The role of storyboarding our film was split equally between the four of us and I completed my contribution to the best of my ability.

 

I completed the character design sheet myself, along with the BBFC research sheet and I also contributed an equal part to the creation of the script, along with my group members.

With regards to production, I feel that I was very involved in the process of making our film. On several occasions I contibuted with the act of shooting the scenes.I shot several of the initial shots included in the film and tried to have as much input on this front as possible.

I also had a short acting role in this film - this did not restrict my involvement with the production of the project and it meant that we could achieve exactly what was required from the character with ease.

When it comes to props and character design, I contributed a lot of the props involved in the film whilst I also helped with make up and costume.

When editing was involved, I took a less active role whilst still keeping a creative input and opinion with regards to the film. I made sure that I voiced what I thought was good and what I disagreed with openly, along with the rest of the group, so that as a whole we could each have our own opinions and try to make our film as successful as possible. I did, however, contribute towards a large part of the sound production using Garage Band.

Throughout the production process, I made progress on the soundtrack to our film (along with another member of my group) and attempted to create a good, appropriate track worthy of a horror film. Towards the very end of the project, I made sure that the soundtrack was perfected and matched our final edited film well, making final tweaks to the sound. I feel this turned out very successfully.
Overall, I believe that I had a significant role in the entirety of this project and had an effect on how successful out film turned out.

Question 5 Evaluation - How did you attract/address your audience? - Dale Horton

With us choosing our target age we used a teenager as our victim to make the audience able to relate to it. We targeted them well by minimizing gore and making it fast paced as teenagers don't want to watch a film which takes a long time to get into. Our questionnaire showed we reached our target audience as the person who answered the questions agreed with our age which we chose before creation. Also with the person who did the questionnaire in our age group showed that we had met the target audience as they liked the story line and the soundtrack. From this I believe we succeeded in matching our film with the target audience.


We used a teenage actor to match the target audience which caused the film to appeal more to a teenage audience. We also used a creepy sound track which attracts our audience. The way we used mise en scene to target audience was to have the girl in a teenage girls room which matches with the actor and in turn can be related to the audience. In the clip in which the victim is going down the stairs, we shot down her from behind going down the stairs which makes her seem small and in turn follows generic conventions. The Exorcist also shows a young female victim which shows insecurity and fragility.

Evaluation Question 6: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? - Sarah Carter

For films such as ours, I think that British production companies such as Film4 and the UK Film Council would be interested in taking a producing role.

By using a British production company to produce, there is a much larger probability of our film being produced than if we were to target our film at much larger companies such as Universal etc. With regards to audiences, British companies tend to target a much more specific and perhaps niche audience that will be interested in a specific type of film - in our case, this would be under the genre of Horror. The film would probably only be shown in specific places and to a certain extent it will recieve a more direct and select audience viewing, unlike global blockbusters which will be aimed at a mainstream audience. This will often lead to a lack in originality, and therefore by pitching our film to a smaller, British production company, the originality will remain, attracting a niche audience. It is likely it would only be exhibited in the UK and that it would be distributed to a lesser extent than if it were to be produced by a large corporation.
Film4 have often produced films that have only been released in Britain. An example of this is in the film "Hunger". This film was released in 2008 and premiered at Cannes film festival. It went on to be released only in the UK and Ireland in October 2008 as opposed to globally.

Evaluation Part Two:After Completion of Film. Sancha

By Sancha O'Donnell

7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This screen grab from GarageBand shows how we tried to allow the opening title sequence to grab the audiences attention. It's fast paced flashing images in the nightmare needed a lot of integrated noises to help enhance the intensity of the nightmare. Including church bells, recorded whispering from myself and Sarah, serena swirl, aura bells, orchestral strings, a jazz organ and a creepy little laugh. These clash together but work so well because when the video intensifies with the girl tossing and turning in bed, the sounds emerge more to become more stranger and surreal. With the orchestral strings and the jazz organ echoed slightly so that when she wakes up it's still very strange. The moment when she wakes up it was more intense to have it silent, as the contrast from all the noises in the dream is like a violent awake into reality, with only the genuine creaks of the floor boards she walks on.
Stigmata being our source of inspiration, in the trailer above it shows how they used various different eerie sounds with symbolic chanting, which captures the attention of the viewer with it's mysteriousness. Inspiring us to try and replicate the same depth with the same approach.

As the impact of the shots in the film are quite high, (like the image above a bloody dagger in a sink,) a vast amount of instruments are needed to create the same impact aurally.

The church bell links to the Biblical references that are made throughout the film, yet it creates an eerie feel with the desolate gongs. The technology of GarageBand allowed us to be more creative with the keypad facility as we could make it rhythmical in the scene. This is very realistic to how church bells would be rung in a church and thus more realistic in our film and intense.

The whispering of myself and Sarah is essential to bring us in as the threat at the beginning. Cleverly we are chanting the verse from  the Bible at the time she wakes up at,  which is Acts 10:38, combined with another Bible verse of Deuteronomy 32:17 as the chant needed to be longer and the words fit well with the religion and satanic imagery. We then used our whispering to add to the intensity.

Blogger allowed the group to keep upto date with one another during the planning process, improving our control over the film making process. Imovie helped us to be more creative, we could cut and edit the different shots as we pleased and add effects. The Imovie structured our film and each week it was clear to see what needed re-shooting and what bits of the film needed something more scary to happen.

9. Final Question- What was your contribution to the process during the planning, production and post production stages?

During the planning stages we all made an equal contribution to the sheets and how everything should be done, it was good because as a team we helped and supported one another. We had to change the idea of the film at the beginning and I was inspired by the film Stigmata and told the group about the little ideas that we could use from the movie to create our satanic film, including the crying blood statue and just the subtle satanic images throughout.
During the production I became the person who made sure the group was organised to come together to film. During the filming I used my knowledge as an actress to help give input into how our actress should act, directing her and giving inspiration to the way she reacts on camera. I especially liked working with the camera to capture a shot, whilst trying to capture the essence of the horrorific atmosphere that we had created. I also did the beginning sequence shots capturing the satanic clips, it allowed me to be creative with the chalk on the floor and the angel crying. Myself and Sarah, also did the make up on the actress' body as she has hieroglyphics on her arms, alongside doing our own make up and costume with the shots of us as witches.

 Post production stages myself and Sarah had focused upon the soundtrack for the film, we converged our recorded whispering with various sounds, whilst making sure that it went with the film. However I did give great input into how the film should be edited and what works and doesn't. Overall I believe my significant amount of input into the project really made the film look of an appropriately high standard.

final film

Evaluation - Question 4 - Luke

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our film we used specific social groups or type of people to try and stay with the audience’s dominant ideology, to do this we chose to use a woman as many people in society believe women are more vulnerable than men. The actor is also small so this enhances the vulnerability of the character.

We put loads of writing over the female actors arm to make her look as if she is going crazy and we based this look on our image from the film 23.




We also thought if we use a teenage girl we would attract a wider audience and attract our target audience of 15-18 year olds as they would possibly be able to relate to the victim and be more attached to the film itself.



Coming away from the actor’s appearance but now onto where they are for example at the start of the film she starts of in a very pink bedroom (a typical girl’s bedroom) which represents also a teenage girl. The actual house itself represents a specific social background (middle class).

In the film itselfs we used lots of close ups on the girl actor as we believed this would make the girl seem weaker and frightened, also it built tension for the audience.











We have also used two girls as our threat also to challenge both dominant and recessive ideology by using female empowerment hence the two girls.

Another film that follows the same sort of ideologies as us is 'scream'

Here’s a clip to show the vulnerability of the girl.

This is the trailer of the film 'scream' this emphasizes the dominant ideology of society, women are more vulnerable.

These two screen shots are from the trailer above, they show how the women is represented as weak and helpless, in the first the shot it shows how the women is scared and shocked, whilst in the second shot is shows weakness and the women being over powered by the masked person.




We tried to get the same emotion in the first shot in our film to show the female actor being scared hence making her look weak. Heres a shot to show this.

The person who answered our questionnaire was within our targeted age group, the person is a female and she is 17 years old so this is the type of person we really want to reach.

The person said that the canted angles we used give an interesting effect, this is the look we went for, we tried to attract the audience a bit by making everything seem abnormal to show that the character is confused and keep the audience interested.

In the journey of making the character seem confused we may have lost our audience with it s the person said the narrative was slightly confusing.

She said we represented the gender (girl) in a negative way, we did intentionally do this because we knew that the dominant ideology of society is that the female is more vulnerable hence it may attract a wider audience, we also did challenge this idea as we used females as a threat also.

Review of unfinished movie

Some of the things that we need to improve in our film is we need more close ups, also the outside scenes need re-shooting due to the lighting of the shots and that it doesn't really flow well together. Some scenes such as the one were the door slams behind the girl and she turns around, we may need to re-shoot that as the reaction on the girls face was not really sufficient and she did not look scared.

However we liked many aspects of our film such as how the scenes flow well together at the start of the film, we have some really good shots like when she was coming down the stairs and we got a nice shadow effect, and when the door slams behind her before her reaction looked pretty good and creepy.

Evaluation Question 3 Dale - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Paranormal activity ratings. This shows that the majority of the votes come from people aged between 18 - 29 but received high votes from males aged 18 and younger.

This image from the film '23' gave us the idea to put symbols on the victim.

This is a shot from the film '23'.

This image is from stigmata which we watched for inspiration for some of our scenes in out film.

Following the trend of most psychological horrors we decided to make our film a 15. We believe this is correct as our film doesnt contain any gore or bad language which would cause the rating to go up. It also couldn't be any lower as some of the scenes could disturb younger viewers. The film is aimed mainly towards both males and females of age 15 and above as these vote similar films more highly showing that this age group enjoy the films more than the older population. This is because other psychological films (such as Paranormal Activity) receive similarly high votes from both sexes (see above).  We feel that this is the typical age for people who watch horror films as they like to experience the thrill and excitement of being scared. From this we will make aerie music and many moments which could cause the audience to jump to try and terrify the audience and succeeding in making the film like a horror is. We got a form in which we got someone to fill in and put their dislikes and likes about our film. One of the likes in which they stated was that they liked the soundtrack which was creepy. The bit that the audience especially liked was the whispering chanting. The audience also agreed with our age group that we aimed the film towards despite not actually telling them what age group it was aimed at. We targeted the audience by finding information on imdb.com which helped us judge our target audience for the film.

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

What are the forms and conventions of the Horror genre? Give some examples of films you have studied.
Typically, films in the genre of Horror tend to follow the same conventions. For example, many horror films tend to use a multitude of close up shots to create tension. Provoking fear is vital when filming a horror and the conventions of a horror are very important. When creating our own film, it is important that we take into consideration these stereotypical views and conventions, therefore we have tried to incorporate as many close ups into our film as possible.

A female is usually used as the victim, and a male as the threat in conventional horrors. Children are also commonly involved in horrors, but this alternates between threat and victim depending on the film. For example in films such as "The Grudge" the child is the threat, as seen below:

In other films however, children are used as victims to provoke sympathy and pity from the audience. This is seen in the film I studied for research;  The Others. Here the children are very much a part of the victimization:

The setting of a large, mysterious house is also typical of a horror and reinforces this idea of mystery and threat. We decided to use a house in our film to emphasise this feeling of familiarity.

Here you can see how we have mimicked the use of setting in "The Others" in our own film. We thought this convention would be particularly effective.
Being a psychological horror, this film uses a lot of the idea that it's what you can't see that scares you. For example, noises in the house and slamming of doors is something that we thought was particularly interesting.
How have you used this research to make a Horror film? Why is this important?
We have used this research to influence our film and help to reinforce the ideas and conventions of a horror to inevitably make our film successful. We took into account this idea that females are often seen as weak in terms of character and that they are often sought after to become the victim in a film. We therefore used this idea of a female victim in our own film.

We liked the stereotypical idea of a woman victim and within the film "The Others"the ideology that women are weaker is very dominant.
I think that the research we conducted before starting the production process helped us to understand that conventions and techniques used in horror films create tension and fear. Without research, it would be difficult to pinpoint exactly what are the most successful features of a horror film.
Did you challenge these conventions? If so, why? If not, why not?
I believe that in some cases, we did challenge the conventions of a horror. For example, instead of using a male character as the threat, we used females in this case. This is partly to do with the fact we wanted to use witches, however we also felt that by challenging this convention we would put across this idea that females can not only be the victim, but also the character in power (the threat).

By using this specific choice of casting and through the use of camera work, we are showing that females are dominant and powerful in this particular situation.
By casting only females in our film, we are challenging this idea and reinforcing our own idea and going against the stereotypical views. We tried to generally follow the typical horror conventions in all other areas however (i.e. an empty house, a female victim, series of close ups etc.) to try and make our film a recognisable and successful horror that will provoke a reaction of fear amongst our audience.

Evaluation Question One - Sancha

We have decided to create a psychological, satanic horror with the aspect of witchcraft being a key element. We had one term to create a 2 minute short introduction to the horror film. We carried out research into the types of films we'd personally want to create, meaning each of us watched different films relating to our topic. I watched The Others and Stigmata, from which a great element of ideas came. The Others provided us with the basic idea of a person not knowing what's happening and the feeling of being lost and trapped within themselves.

 The ideas from Stigmata, having Biblical links throughout captured our imaginations even more so. This was where our film title came from '10.38,' a biblical link as it's a certain passage in the bible which talks about the relevant subjects we wanted to capture in the film. We decided the flashing images in her dream could capture biblical themes but to make it even more atmospheric and grasping we thought it best to put a real threat into the film, consisting of two witches chanting and calling for the girl.

 The title sequence of having an angel statue cry blood, was also an inspiration from 'Stigmata,' (as seen above.) With our aim for the film being to scare the watcher into feeling  physchologically disturbed, as if the next victim could be you. Working in a group of four, made the tasks easier as we worked together to achieve the best ideas and shots. It was an effective relationship as we get along well, which made the filming decisions easier.
Religion in our human life, is always a big debate and religious events such as exorcisms are always themes that make the general public scared and thinking deeply into the issues raised.

 We've taken this film and made it more relevant for the target audience of young adults living in England, to allow them to relate to it more and thus get more scared. We adapted it by using actors of similar ages and a small location of a house to make it seem more personal and realistic.