Evaluation Activity 6: Technologies

For our film, we used many types of technology, some of which we had never used before. In order to make our film look as effective as possible, we used different technologies to intensify what we wanted to portray through our film and to ultimately create it to be what we imagined. These technologies included our camera and tripod, and programmes such as YouTube, Blogger and Adobe Premiere Elements.

CAMERA AND TRIPOD

For our project, we needed to make sure we knew how to use the equipment. As we used my own video camera, it was quite easy to get the hang of as I had already used it before and could teach Libby how to use it too. It got easier as we started to figure out how to upload videos from the camera as well as looking at how to frame the shot in the camera using the flip-out screen. We managed to use the tripod quite easily, however, getting the legs the right height on some uneven ground or on the stairs was a little tricky as we needed it to be as straight as possible for the shot to look effective in the final film. As well as a video camera, we used a DSLR camera to take photos and document our filming.

YOUTUBE (+ ANNOTATING TOOLS)

 

We had both used YouTube before which meant uploading videos wasn't a problem, however, when it got to adding annotations, we had to learn how to add them on to our existing film. Using the YouTube annotation tools, we added speech bubbles throughout the film to explain parts of it and why we included them. We wanted to make sure that they weren't too big on the screen and so had to learn how to re-size the font and the box itself as well as create the box in the first place and how to position it correctly. Using this tool was more challenging as it was something completely new to Libby and I, however we managed to understand it more as we continued to add more annotations to our film.

BLOGGER

 

Although I had a blog before, I had never used Blogger. It was very similar, yet had some features that I needed to get the hang of, for example, trying to get the photos next to each other and looking neat, as well as finding the ideal font and size. I was able to change the proportion of the boxes on the blog as well as the colours and theme, which is something I enjoyed doing as I was able to make it look how I wanted it to. 

ADOBE PREMIERE ELEMENTS

Adobe Premiere Elements, though very similar to other programmes such as iMovie, was very difficult to get the hang of. We had to make sure all of the clips went in together and in the right order before thinking about how to edit them together and add sound. To edit, we used transitions between some of the clips to make it flow better, as well as adding effects on to the titles so that they came in smoother. Adding soundtracks around the dialogue was a bit harder as it meant we had to be very careful about where to stop and start the soundtrack as well as where to fade it in and out so that it flowed better with the clips. Learning to use the sceneline and timeline meant that we were able to add the clips into the sceneline and then use the timeline to edit and cut clips together to create our film and make sure the clips were all in the right place.

Evaluation Activity 5: Attracting the Target Audience

Above is an annotated video to show how we attempted to target the audience through different aspects of our film opening. 

We wanted to ensure that the audience could relate to the characters, through age and circumstances, and locations within the film to make our film more interesting and to attract a wider audience as the audience thinks that the events could happen to them. A younger audience would be attracted to this film as it shows an alternative of what schools are normally like. An older audience may still be able to relate with children of their own or even as a way to reminisce about their childhood. 

Evaluation Activity 4: Target Audience

To find our target audience, we produced a questionnaire and asked people in our sixth form. They are teenagers and so are the age we are targeting. We wanted to find out their interests and how they spend their time etc.and thought a questionnaire was the best way to do this.

The questions we asked were:

• How do you normally spend money?
• How would you describe your music taste?
• What are the last three films you've seen?
• If you could only watch one genre of film, what would it be?
• Describe yourself in three words.
• Where is your favourite place to go on holiday?
• What scares you the most?

Evaluation Activity 3: Distribution

The pictures below depict our opening production sequence. This shows our production company name and logo and the transition we used between the images. We began with the photo of the clouds as we thought this was quite nice and peaceful but also seemed quite generic and quite typical of a production company. We used the name 'Cloudburst Films' as we thought this sounded quite professional and related to the image we had chosen. The change of the image from colour to black and white through the glow transition is effective as it hints at the dark genre of the film and helps to fade the production titles away smoothly.

A production company helps to create the film as it aids with the budgeting, scheduling, scripting and casting for the film. They provide the money and are responsible for finding a director and actors for the film. They overlook the creation process to make sure it is being filmed and edited properly for when they send it to distributors. For our film, we essentially had the job of producer and director. We had to make sure everything went to plan and that anything that went wrong, was fixed as best as it could be. We had to make sure that everything was in the right place and the film ended up like we wanted it to when we went to publish it.

A distributor is the company that sends the film out for audiences to watch. They decide where and when the film is screened and promote it accordingly. Netflix is currently a very popular distributor and would be perfect for our type of film. This is because it is a low-budget film and is aimed at similar youthful audience who are technologically aware. Multi-platform devices also help Netflix to be a leading distributor of smaller films, through buying the rights and showing it online. Netflix already have a keen fan-base meaning that people will be waiting to see our film and it will be promoted directly to people who have viewed similar things in the past, giving us a guaranteed profit.

We would not need much money as our film would be a low-budget horror film. We didn't spend any money creating the opening two minutes as we used simple and basic props and took advantage of our connections (e.g having our friend do Harriet's makeup). The money would ultimately come from the production company, however, we used a small budget to create an effective opening that looks like it was created with a much larger budget.

People named in titles are the people that worked on the film and are, usually, named in order of importance. Typical jobs listed in the opening credits are the director, producer, screenwriter, costume and props designer, main actors, visual effects and sound. We reflected each of these jobs in our opening credits which makes it look more professional and as if it were made by an actual film company.

Evaluation Activity 2: Representation of Social Groups

One of our main characters, played by Harriet Austin, is the typical victim. Her character conforms to the typical victim stereotypes in the sense that she is completely oblivious to her surroundings and is unaware of the person following her. She is in normal clothing, making her not only more relatable to the audience, but also making sure she blends in to her surroundings so that the audience can focus on what is happening around her. 

Harriet's character, as well as her friends, represent a teenage social group, similar to that of our target audience. Teenagers are usually quite oblivious due to distractions such as technology, represented through the teenagers in Alex's scenes where they are using their phones and rely on this for communication. Harriet is seen in casual clothing to suggest that even in a school environment, teenagers wish to be comfortable. This differs from adults in a work environment who tend to wear suits or smart clothing. She has a big group of friends, showing that she is quite popular, further representing a youthful surrounding for the character. The group of friends help to show the careless and fun-loving nature of teenagers, whilst Harriet shows the other hard-working side of teenagers.

Harriet's character is very similar to Drew Barrymore's character in 'Scream'. A typical victim, she is oblivious and unaware of dangers around her - shown through her flirting with the antagonist on the phone. She is a ditsy blonde, encompassing the stereotypical character of a teenage girl in horror films. Showing that she cares about how she looks and her popularity, represents typical traits of teenage girls who care what other people think. Teenagers in horror films are usually left alone in their houses, often leading to parties or gatherings at which someone is killed, or ensuring they are alone and no one can see who murdered them.

Evaluation Activity 1: Conventions of Special Effects

We didn't use many special effects in our film as we wanted the audience to focus on the tension within the scenes. Special effects aren't very common in horror films apart from things like fake blood and injuries as it isn't needed to increase tension. 

We used special effects to make Harriet look injured, which ultimately kills her. We had a friend do this as she had experience in doing horror makeup on people. It was very realistic, which made it really stand out and makes the audience focus specifically on Harriet's character and how it happened. It was effective in showing how she was killed but it also wasn't too over-the-top as this would've pushed the rating of the film over what we wanted and over our target audience.

We used special effects makeup as the primary effect in our film as horror films usually rely on small budgets to appeal to their target audiences. Makeup and costumes tend to be the reason why horror films are successful in appealing to their audiences and the genre. We would use a relatively small budget for our film, and we think that continuing to use makeup like this would be realistic and effective in expressing the genre and events within the film.

Evaluation Activity 1: Conventions of the Introduction of Characters

In our opening two minutes, we didn't really introduce our characters in much detail as we didn't want to take away from the suspense of the film. The characters we introduced were Harriet, Alex and Sammie's characters, however we introduced them in different ways to add a certain effect on the audience.

We wanted to subvert conventions by introducing Harriet as the main character that the audience should focus on by giving her prevalence throughout the opening two minutes. She is seen as a hard working student in comparison to her friends in the other shots, who are sitting on tables and not taking things seriously. We decided to make her character unconventional by making her intelligent, conservative and hard working where the victim is usually an unintelligent, blonde who is lacking common sense. This type of victim is shown in films like 'Scream', where Drew Barrymore's character is very ditsy and unaware of her surroundings. We decided to kill Harriet's character first as we wanted to change up the horror conventions of the ditsy and naive killed first. For example, in 'Jaws', the first people to be killed are the couple who stray from the rest of their group, and in 'Scream', the first to be killed is the ditsy girl who flirts naively on the phone with the killer, unaware of the danger she is in. We can see that it's the adventurous and unaware characters that get killed first, however by having Harriet's character - a conscientious, hard working, conservative girl - killed first, our film is showing that no one is safe and adds to the tension and intrigue of 'who will be killed next?'.

We introduced Sammie very briefly as the antagonist. It was very clear that she was the antagonist as she was dressed all in black and acted in a very ominous and secretive way. She makes the audience feel uncomfortable as they are unsure of who she is. This is because we wanted to hide her identity so that there was more tension in the scenes. This is quite conventional of horror films as they don't want to give away the villain at the very beginning of the film. This is why we decided to keep her character quite hidden in comparison to Harriet and Alex's characters.

We introduced Alex as the classic best friend who, although likes to joke around and doesn't take anything very seriously, cares about his friends as if they are his family. This is shown through the way he is joking and laughing when you first see him, but continues to ask about where Harriet is. He conforms to the best friend convention by being quite laid back and calm but is also not shown as much as the main character, keeping him at the back of our mind during Harriet's scenes.

Evaluation Activity 1: Conventions of the Genre

We wanted to express the horror genre through the use of costume and makeup, sound and setting. The costume for the antagonist is all black, ensuring her identity is hidden. We used black paint to cover her hands and she wore a black hoodie to make sure the audience doesn't know who she is. This creates intrigue as the audience do not know who this is and will want to know more about who is killing the group and why. The costumes of Alex and Harriet's characters are relatively normal in order to relate to the audience better and show that it is just a regular day. This increases the tension as the audience can see that it is not a regular day as Sammie is following Harriet. We used special effects makeup on Harriet at the end to show her head injury which ultimately kills her. This is effective as it is not too gruesome, to ensure the film fits within the 15 rating we want, but it gets the message across that she is injured and someone is in the school killing people. This adds fear and suspense to the intrigue felt by the audience.

The sound we used throughout the film is quite spooky as it uses minor keys to create an eerie tune. We added this throughout Harriet's scenes and lowered it slightly when we added a classic horror boom to particularly important parts, such as when her phone is stolen. We took it away during the conversations in the scenes with the friendship group and this helped to highlight the fact that Harriet was the one in danger. Harriet's scenes are dominated with the silence and the spooky music whereas Alex's scenes are full of laughter and conversation - showing not only the contrast between the characters, with Harriet liking to keep to herself and Alex liking to be a part of something bigger, but also foreshadowing the mysterious death of Harriet.

The empty setting of the school is unusual as it is normally quite busy. This makes the audience uncomfortable from the beginning as they know something is going to happen to the girl that is all alone. The school is relatable to the target audience and shows them the basis for the characters as pupils and the film as an eerie killer inside a school, which is every student and parent's nightmare.