Welcome to our Blog

Dear Examiner,

Welcome to Enigma's Film Blog, created by Nicole Moulder, Samantha Burton, Charlotte Evelyn and Gareth Austin.

To navigate yourself around the blog, please use the tabs of each page. These have been divided up into Research and Planning, Construction, Evaluation and Final Film. These pages contain all the posts that are relevant to the tabs. There are also labels on the bottom right hand corner of the pages, to show the blogs that have been created individually and also in groups. To view these just click on one of our names and all our blog posts should appear.

From the Research and Planning tab, you will find all blog posts that we have created on the research that we have found out about horror films, the camera rules and everything that we have planned and organised for our film opening 'The Hunted'.

In the Construction tab, you will find our drafts and our first cuts for our film opening and everything we have done on our credits.

In the evaluation tab, you will find our seven evaluation questions all answered in a creative and different ways. We have used pictures, links and even a website called 'Prezi' to make our evaluation question more interactive.

Finally, in the Final Film tab, you will find our final cut for film opening and also our final storyboard for it as well.

We would also like to Thank You Examiner :)

From

Enigma

(p.s - don't forget to feed the fish)

Final Copy

Here is the final cut of our film opening:

Evaluation Questions

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Question 1

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

We feel that our media film opening product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products. We have done this in a variety of different ways. I have explained below how we have done this.

In order for us to create a horror film, we had to include the most common horror film conventions. We successfully did this by using a weapon. The first way our film uses a convention from a real media product, is a weapon. A weapon is commonly used in films for the villain to kill his/her victim. We used a knife in our opening, this can first be seen in the very first scene, when the villain is choosing which knife to take from the draw. We used this form of convention, because the villain in our opening, is shown to have an obsession with women, as he is seen stalking his victim and killing her, so the weapon used is a common household item that everyone can easily get hold of.  We also used this convention because we wanted the audience to feel threatened, as they can see what a common household item can do, when placed in the wrong hands. Weapons can be seen in many horror films, such as The Shining, which used an axe and Friday the 13th which used a sword. 

Another very stereotypical form and convention, we used in our film opening was an alley.  We used an alleyway because it was an isolated area which creates a build up of tension for the audience, as the they do not know what will happen at any time. Even though the alleyway can be seen coming from a main road a  well populated area, we can only see the main two characters throughout the opening.We did this to make the alley more tense and bring a the audience a sense of fear, as there is only two people being shown, so no one is around to help if anything happens. The alley is also shown to be very long and curvy with large trees and bushes running along both sides, this helps to make the location feel eerie and a sense of tension, as it also shows how alone they are down the alleyway. 

  

Another way we have successfully used forms and conventions of real media products, is through non-diegetic sound (music). We used a piece of uncopyrighted music called "The House on the Hill", from a website Purple-Planet, which provides uncopyrighted music. We used this music from the start to the end, using sound effects during the opening to enhance some scenes. This music creates added tension and suspense to the film opening throughout, as the music speeds up and suddenly stops when they are walking up the alleyway. This is also creating a sense of fear for the audience as they know that something is going to happen. It is also important to create suspense and using eerie music, as it captures the audience's attention within the first few minutes of the film. One of the most famous pieces of music used in a horror film, to create tension and suspense is Jaws.

Another way we successfully used forms and conventions of real media products, is through using narrative theory, especially Vladimir Propp. According to Propp, each character has a narrative function that provides a structure for the text.   Propp also states that each film has a Villain, the teenage Boy in our opening and a Victim the teenage girl.
Propp also stated that there were 31 narrative functions that are commonly used in films, in our film opening we used some of them, however we haven't included some of them as they have been missed out.  

1.  Absentation - A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. (The teenage girl leaves home to go out).
2. Violation of interdiction - The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away. (The villain can be seen getting ready to go out and kill someone as we can see a knife and him pulling up his hood).
3. Reconnaissance - The villain (often in disguise) makes an active attempt at seeking information trying to actively capture someone. (Villain is on his phone outside her house).
4. Villainy or Lack - Villain causes harm/injury to family member. The villain causes some kind of harm, for example carrying away a victim. (Villain kills the teenage girl).

A way that we can see that we have used Vladimir Propp in our opening is by looking at previous horror trailers. So I looked at 'Cabin in the Woods'. Here we can see the seven different characters

One way we have challenged forms and conventions of real media products, is that our film opening is based during the day, instead of at night. Most horror film killings take place at night, this is because it brings it brings a more sense of fear to the audience and that it is also easier to create a more tense atmosphere. One reason why we filmed during the day, was because we didn't think that young teenage girl would walk down a dark alleyway at night on her own, as she would properly walk the long the way and miss out the alleyway or she would get a lift. This made our film opening more realistic to the audience and also more relate able to our target audience. Another reason why we filmed during the day, was because we knew that the quality of our film would be greater during the day as the lighting would be more suited to our camera, and the footage would not show up. 

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For our film opening, the social group that is represented are teenagers/young adults that may have had difficulties in their lives or troubled upbringings.  This could include troubled families, criminals and people that are mentally unstable.  We chose this social group as the character of the serial killer is very mysterious, and it may therefore suggest that he had a troubled upbringing, or is a criminal that is being searched for.

Although our actor is older than the female, he is around twenty years old, you can see from the two pictures, we represented the boy in a way that is similar to how criminals or older youths would normally dress.  For example, the clothes and the colours of the clothes that are worn, and also their presence and how they act in the environment that they are in.  Normally for this sort of social group, they would be cautious to not give away their identity and cautious of what is happening around them.
As well as this, we thought that another social group could be people that are lonely and need comfort, in which they result to violence to satisfy their needs.  However when thinking about it, we thought the most appropriate social group would be young offenders or those from a troubled background.
The dark clothing and bowed head implies the character has a dark and mysterious nature. The colour black also has negative connotations, as said before. It could foreshadow the death by murder and even could serve to show that he is effectively a shadow.

As for the actress, she can be represented by a lot of social groups in the role that she plays in our opening sequence.  For example, she is a sweet and innocent girl, that likes to socialise with her friends as we can see when she is leaving her house in the opening sequence to meet a friend.  Therefore, she represents sixth form students or school students as well as working/middle class young adults in their everyday lives.

 

The role of women in movies is mostly lesser roles, she is most often seen as a sex object or a victim. This coincides with her clothing as she is portrayed as a pretty girl that comes to a horrible death from a boy who is slightly older than her. The colour white (or extremely light colours) symbolises purity, innocence and the "good". Our actress portrays the girl in lighter clothing for specifically this reason.
We looked into films that we thought were similar to the social groups of our film opening, and thought that "Bully" was fairly similar.  Despite it having a different storyline, there was a lot of violence included for the type of horror/drama genre that it was.  This could coincide with the social group of criminals and/or mentally unstable teenagers/young adults.  The film includes similarities with our film opening, which are:

• Teenage actors (characters)
• Plot to murder
• Targeted at similar audience

Bully is an independent drama film distributed in 2001 in which it is based on a true story.  The film concerns the plot to murder a friend of several young adults in revenge for his continual abuse and psychological taunts and torture of others.  Here from the taunt and torture, we can immediately relate it back to the social group represented in our film opening, as it may represent harmful teenagers that have the possibility of being a criminal.

Evaluation Question 3

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

Inward investment in the film industry is where a group of companies (in the film/media industry) help to invest their money and maybe services to a film that is going to be made.

For example, The Lovely Bones is a fine example of the type of film we wanted to create, despite one major difference. It is directed by Peter Jackson and stars Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon, obviously we wouldn't have enough money to pay such well-known actors, which could be seen as a good thing as the unknown actors we used, had no typecast. The Lovely Bones is a film about a girl who is raped and killed, but returns as a ghost in order to make sure the man that killed her gets his comeuppance. When watching the film, you soon seem to forget the star actors and immerse yourself in the sensations of the movie, be them good or bad. As we wanted to create this effect with our movie, which we feel we have done, we believe Film4 would help distribute and maybe help produce our film.


The media product that we produced was an opening sequence to a horror film targeted at young adults and teenagers.  After finishing our project, we then thought about how and who we could distribute our film to.  As it is has unknown actors and location, and it was a low budget film, we would be unable to ask huge film companies such as Warner Bros or 20th Century Fox.  Therefore, we were interested to ask companies such as Film4 as they would immediately be linked to producing on TV's which would expand the viewing of our film.

 

Film4:

Film4 is a television channel available in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Switzerland that is owned and operate by Channel Four Television Corporation that screens films.  As well as Film4, the company has two 'spin-off' channels of Film4 +1 and Film4 HD which would also help with the distribution.  We decided that we wanted Film4 to distribute our film as a number of horror films that have been distributed by this company have had low budget films and fairly unknown actors, yet have become the most successful films of all time.

 

For example, The Shining has similar conventions to our film, unknown actors and a small budget and was distributed by Film4 to encourage it becoming one of the greatest horror movies of all time. It is intimate and you almost forget the star actors are in the film, which is sort of the effect we wanted to create. A film where the story and characters seem more important than the actors, themselves. We therefore felt it was appropriate that this distributor would do justice to our film. 

 

More recently, Paranormal Activity 4 has been distributed by Film4 which shows that a similar film has been successful through the film company whilst having unknown actors, setting and a small budget to work with.  This encouraged us to choose Film4 as a distributor for our film.

 

 

 

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

For our film opening, we felt that the most appropriate audience would be teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15-25.  We have therefore decided to give our film a 15 certificate as it contains strong language, strong violence and scenes that some viewers may find distressing. We felt like it was too explicit to be a 12 or 12A, and also we would be limiting our intended audience if we made it an 18. As well as this, we think it would appeal to both genders, as there is a possibility to sympathise with the victims but also to find out the story behind the serial killer that is revealed in the opening sequence.

 

 

With this audience that we have chosen, they usually use watching films as a sense of escapism from their lives of being a student, university graduate or in full time employment.  From the opening sequence that we created, we feel that this audience would be encouraged to watch the entire film, and enjoy it.

 

With the characters, we chose the actors for several reasons whilst baring in mind the audience that we have chosen to aim our media product at. From the research that we did, we saw that a lot of the victims in horror films were females and that the attackers were males.  Below I have included some examples of females that have played the role of the victim in a horror film.

 

 

Therefore we decided to stick with the trend and produce the same actors so that we could ensure the same audience.  By sticking with the pattern, it would be hopeful that the same audience would be targeted and attracted due to the likely characters and also the situation that they are in.  Below I have talked about the characters we have used and why we have used them for our opening sequence in relation to our target audience.

 

Actress:

 

For the victim, we chose a female actress to play this role as females are very vulnerable in this situation.  As you can see, throughout the duration of our opening sequence, all the victims were females which shows a pattern of the serial killer.  We felt this would also be of interest to the target audience that we have chosen.  One of the feelings that we wanted to portray throughout the film was sympathy for the victims that have been killed, as well as trying to work out why the serial killer is the way he is.  

Actor:

 

We chose the serial killer to be a teenage boy, as it is unusual to have a female in this situation.  Also, a male would be much more cunning in the way they handle this situation, and we felt that a male would be much more efficient at this role than a female.  Due to this, we felt like the age group of our audience would be interested in the storyline of a male turning into a serial killer, as they would be interested to see how the story plans out and possibly the individual story behind the male as to why he may be like this.