Evaluation 7 - Progression from Preliminary task, to our final product

 

 Here is a picture from our preliminary task where Emma was sat outside waiting for an interview, and James opened the door from a two shot and a side angle.

     This image is from when James had dissappeared as we forgot to show the clip of him closing the door and was an obvious error when looking at the task. This is a problem that we noticed and made sure we didn't do for our final 2 minutes of film.

This is a new shot that we used in our 2 minutes as it is quite an advanced shot and shows variation of shots.

  This is an example of the over shoulder shot and is usually included when wanting to look from their point of view. That is so you can get more involved in the film and there could be text or something that the person is looking at that you wouldn't be able to see from another angle. The shot shows the back of the person's head so you know who it is and what you're able to see.



 This is an example of a long shot and we used it mainly to show the surroundings of the area the victim (Emma) was. Because we set this scene in a graveyard it is meant to link with the horror genre and setting to create a more of a scary atmopshere for the audience.

 In our preliminary task we used an extreme close up, this is mainly to show emotion on the persons face. So on Emma's face we were trying to show that she was nervous for the interview she was about to have an audience would understand this by reading her zoomed in facial expressions.



 This is an example of a low shot and it is normally used to make the person look more powerful or important. It can be used to also show expression and captures all the key expressions on someones face. Both extreme close up and low shot show the victim (Emma) look worried and scared.

 In our preliminary task we used a high angle shot this was to get an angle of the whole room and can fit everything in so the audience is familiar with the setting and surroundings along with the location of the characters in the room.

We used different shots in both Preliminary task and in our Opening 2 minutes.
Preliminary Task:
- Over shoulder shot.
- Two shot
- High shot
- Close up
- Shot reverse shot
- Medium shot

Opening 2 minutes:
- Medium and Long shots
- Over shoulder shot
- Low shot
- Close ups
 This is a shot reverse shot and we used this in our preliminary task and it was very effective. It's because it's as if the audience is seeing it from this persons point of view and communicating and capturing all the emotions and expressions from the other person.
 Jump cuts were used in our final 2 minutes to add effect and we were praised for using it as it was a difficult camera technique to perfect. We used it as a way of the villain (me) catching up with the victim (Emma) and this gave off the impression I was following her.


This was our location of the second part of the film and where we did majority of our filming. This is improved from our preliminary task because we were given a choice whereas we only had the school grounds for our preliminary task and couldn't find a good spot whereas we did find a much better one for our Opening 2 minutes.


This is an example of us using the 180 degree rule and how we used it in our 2 minutes. This was used to not confuse the viewers and how they understand the positioning and camera shots of the film more. This is also more advanced camera shots and shows that we understand the shots.

Overall, we have all used a lot more camera shots, editing, and advanced work compared to our preliminary task.


We learnt that it is a good idea to film each shot at least 3 time to make sure you have a good one, as in the preliminary take we ended up having to film everything all over again. In our 2 minutes we did have to go back and film so things again, because we still made mistakes but we made a lot less mistakes then we would have done. Furthermore on the third day of filming, when we filmed our new ideas we filmed everything once and it all fit together well. This shows we were progressing even during our 2 minutes task. This also we have a better understanding of shots types now. As we didn’t need to film each clip from lots of different angles to make sure we had one that worked.

We progressed by learning from our mistakes. In the preliminary task, somehow we managed to look over one of our characters disappearing into thin air. So in our 2 minutes we were very careful to make sure no one suddenly disappeared, unless it was for effect. We learned that you can't just focus on little details when editing and forget the main bits of the scene. In our preliminary task the shot changes were a lot bumpier and the camera clicks could be heard. So in our 2 minutes we made sure we edited out the camera clicks.

Our shots are a lot steadier in our 2 minutes as we used a tripod, unlike in our preliminary task where we had to just try and keep a steady hand.
During the preliminary task we learnt about different shot types and how they work best (for example the 180degree rule, match on action, shot reverse shot). This was good because it meant that we were able to put shots like these into our story board in the best places because we knew were they would work most effectively. In our 2 minutes we tried to use as many different shot types as we could without affecting the continuity of our clip. This was especially important as we were making a horror.
From the preliminary task to the editing of our 2 minutes we learnt a lot more about different types of software and how to use them. This was good because it meant that when were able to edit more effectively for our main product. The main focus of editing our main product was to make the shots as effective in building up tension as possible. Hence the jump cuts and slow-motion shots.

In our 2 minutes our camerawork and editing was a lot more advanced and so therefore effective. We also used special effects, which we didn’t in our first 2 minutes. I think it is clear when you see the different products next to each other that we have progressed a lot.
However there are some ways in which we haven’t progressed from the preliminary to our final product. In both our story boards weren’t very accurate and we had to tinker with them while filming. For the 2 minutes our storyboard estimated all the shots to be a lot longer than they actually are. So we had to add in a whole extra scene what wasn’t storyboarded. In our preliminary task we had a similar problem as we found some of our ideas weren’t very good and we had to change some of them on the spot. Hopefully next year, (third time lucky) we will learn from this mistake.
Another thing was, again more timing issues, we always ended up having to rush bits of our pieces and we assume we have longer than we do. This is really bad because it means that we could lose marks because we didn’t have enough time consider different options. However this was more of a problem during the preliminary task, then our 2 minutes, as I feel we could have been more organised for the 2 minutes task, but I don’t think it would have meant us picking up more marks.

If we were to do this again, I would make sure that our story board was as accurate and detailed as it could possibly be. This way there would have been less room for error and we wouldn’t have wasted as much filming time as we did. This would have also make us a lot more organised as the prospect of filming would have been a lot less daunting if we had it planned out to the last second. Furthermore we would not had have to create a whole new scene as we would have made sure I idea would have been 2 minutes long.

Evaluation 6 - Constructing our product

What we used to make our media piece:

 

Camera: We set an effect on this Camera to give it a blurry effect and set the scene to make it appear more scary so the audience don't get revealed too much information. This links to the genre of the film to give off the feeling that the victim can't see very well, to engage the audience in the film. This was obviously our most used object throughout the film making and preperation.




Tripod: We used the tripod in the scenes which we needed a steady hand and this reduced a lot of error in our film making. We didn't use the tripod in some scenes e.g. the one where i'm walking from behind the tree, this gave off the effect that it was from my point of view. We will be definitely using this item next year as it helped us greatly to keep the camera shot still and very good shots from various heights and angles.



Iphone voice recorder app: This was an app on Emma's phone, and it seemed to be very good and extremely useful when we had to put Emma's speech in and also a few other scenes like the one at the end of the 2 minutes when Emma screams. This was used purely for Dialogue and it had a very clear tone too.

 

Piano: We used the piano in some scenes of tension and purely where the killer was in the camera view, this was to give the impression off to the audience that when they hear that specific noise then the killer was around.



Laptop: We used this mainly to pull all the pieces together, this included putting all the sound, editing, scenes, camera shots and other information into one. It took rougly 5 hours to edit our piece and we edited it from home until we were eventually happy with it.



Windows Movie Maker: This was to edit our piece because it is specifically designed to make films, so it really came in handy when putting all our scenes together and manufacturing the whole 2 minutes of the film. All we had to do was upload the scenes onto the computer and movie maker pretty much did everything else, all we needed to do was vary the duration of the scene, and where it went.



Photoshop: We used this to mainly edit and create our title image. We didn't know too much about this but we toggled with it for a while over our title as we weren't exactly sure on what we wanted the title style to be.

From using all of these types of equipment and software, I have learnt many things. Which ones are useful and which ones are a bit of a waste of time. And definitely which ones i'm going to be using next year as this would be great to use for the trailer in my A2. The main software i'm planning on using are movie maker to put it all together, tripod, possibly a different camera as the picture quality wasn't too great and also photoshop to add more spectacular effects to our final piece.


We used YouTube in our filming to upload recent updates on our film and this is where we put all of our film together. This was uploaded onto Bryony's account and we put all of our progress and ideas on there.


A good film needs to use technology in order to make it successful, technology needs to be used frequently to add advanced aspects to the film. There are certain areas you'll need to cover and things  you'll need to consider when making a film to the best of you're ability. Technology plays a big role in marketing the product, viral distribution and production of the film and is key to making the film get publicity and becoming successful.

Evaluation 5 - How the audience was addressed

This is a pre-title analysis so the production title is featured on our first 2 minutes do not appear.

Evaluation 4 - Who would be the audience of your media product?

The audience profiling we've done before enhances who we're trying to target as they are all horrors and share the same ages varying from the ages of 18-25. This audience would most probably relate to majoirty of the other horror films audience profiling as they all similarize with each other. I think the most popular age would be around the late teenage age as these groups of people usually watch horrors for the thrill. Although most of the viewers would probably be from the ages 18-25, there was also be a decent amount from the 25-35 category too as older people mind find it interesting because there is more of a storyline behind the film.
Audience profiling of other films was a great help to discover what our target audience would be and what age group would be most interested in watching our films. It also gives us a chance to compare our films to others and this could publisize the film a lot more, say if they were to watch 'The Ring' and enjoyed it, they would probably like our film too as there are distinctive similarities between the two.
I'd say our film is also very psychological and a horror, so this adds to who would want to watch this film as this might intrigue them more and make them want to watch it. An example of psychological horrors would be the Saw films.

This is a typical image of what our target audience would be, they are within the target audience age range and they look to be out at a party or a club. The teens appear to be slightly appearance motivated which shows they are likely to want to watch films such as ours to boast to their friends about the achievement of enduring it. The people in the picture also look like the type who would watch films like ours in groups, as social events, which is another area that our film excels as it aims to get reactions out of groups of people. Some of the feedback we received said that they thought the music was very successful in building up tension. When we compare the feedback we received from the first 2 minutes we created to what we received when we showed people our final 2 minutes, showed clearly that we made a good judgement to film more and take out the credits. Feedback from the draft 2 minutes suggested that some of the suspense was lost as little of the plot was established in this clip. They also said that it would be better if we added some sound to increase the sense of foreboding. Feedback from the our finalised product was a lot better as the audience understood the plot more and were intrigued about what happened to the girl and why. People thought the music was very creepy and so had the desired effect.

Evaluation 3 - Media Instuition

This is a pre-title analysis so the production title is featured on our first 2 minutes do not appear.

Evaluation 2 - How social groups are represented

Most target audiences for most horrors are 18-25, this means the audience will be related more to people their age and engage more with the usage of these aged characters. So, if the victim is about 20 years old, then the audience will be more likely to relate their lives to this situation as it automatically places them in their situation.

 

Often teenage characters are displayed as annoying and self centred so audiences are often driven to want them to die. This means audience engage with the characters but still feel themselves to be separate even superior to them.
However other times in these films teens are displayed as vulnerable and weak, causing the audiences to pity them and fear for their lives. Therefore when the characters die the audiences are shocked and so the scene appears scarier.

Our character (Emma) is similar to one of the characters in scream 4 in the way that she is lead astray by friends which causes her to get caught up in what she tries to stay out of. Which incidently causes her death, they are both characters whos deaths shock the audience.

Evaluation 1- Develop or Challenge

 The Title of our Film: Majority of horror titles today aren't very long and usually vary from around 1-3 words to add effect, that stand out. We chose to go for a dated look for ours, with areas that blur out of focus to imply mystery. For our image we chose to feature our pathway, just so you can't see the bridge in the background ao it gets the audience guessing what is at the end of 'The Pathway'. This is a development of the horror genre.

    Setting/Location: This location is very typical of horror films; it is deserted and dark with big shadowy trees. The first locations of horror films are often meant to imply that something bad is about to happen, they make the audience tense and build up fear. Having our victim alone in deserted, creepy woods, tells the audience she is in trouble. Dark woods are often featured in horror films and seen as a bad place to be at night, which plays into our hands of scaring our audience. In all horror films the victims are made to seem very alone and cut off from everyone else, so when they are attacked they seem to be without hope. For these reason our location very much complies with the traditions of most horror films.

 Costumes: The costume of our antagonist is too very typical, often the killers are dressed in black to conceal their identity. In our film the black clothing is used to create mystery about what our killer is as when the first on screen death happens it is make clear the killer cannot be human. In horror films the plot is often based around finding out who the killer is and what their motive is. There for completely hiding his identity

 Props: A warning is a common occurrence in horror films, it is very effective to make the audience feel like there is a bigger picture to the murders and that they have been happening for a long time. Having our note in the first 2 minutes allows us to give the audience some background knowledge so they understand the the rest of the content. Pictures of characters with murdered victims are also common in horror films as the audience can connote from the image that the character was close with the deceased. In ours specifically it tells us our victim was close to the girl giving the warning. Props such as these are common in the first 2 minutes of horror films as they help build up the storyline and set up the tension for the first death.

 Camera work and Editing: In one of our clips we made the camera to appear as if it was the killer approaching the victim. To do this, we walked with the camera rather then keeping it on the tripod. This meant that the clip was shaky, which successfully made it appear as if the shot was coming from the perspective of the killer. We included some fast jump cuts to make it feel like the character is being followed. This will put the audience on edge. Both this camera work and editing is very typical of horror films as they are very effective in rising tension. However some of the editing, such as the pixelated definition of the camera challenges the horror films of today, as many horror films are made to the rule, the more graphic the better. we chose to use the unknown to create the effect we wanted.

 Title font and style: Our title font develop the trends of modern day horror films. This is because, as shown in my research, nower days simplicity is seen as more scary. Horror film fonts tend to be very plain. This makes it seem scarier as it suggests that not even the norm is safe. We have conformed to this and chosen simple as it make the films seem more real.

 Story and how the opening sets off: Our start is very typical of horror films, as it starts with a bang and really captures the audiences attention. We did what most horror films do, teased some of the storyline to the audience and then hit them with a death. This way it forces the audience to watch on as they have seen enough to be intrigued but not enough to guess what the main plot is about.  

Genre and how the opening suggests it: The starts of horror films often happen at night, unlike ours, however the black and white, bleakness of our gives off a similar effect. The characters are often made to seem completely cut off and without hope of survival, like ours. So when they die, they appear to die all alone.

How the characters are introduced: In our first 2 minutes the only main character that is introduced is the antagonist, as the other characters are only there to give the killer a big enterence. This too is again very common of horror films. It makes the characters seem as though they are disposable, and that the killer has rain.

 Special effects:  We slowed the motion of some of our clips right down to make it seem as though time had slowed down for the killer, like it does when you are in a blind panic. This was particularly effective when we slowed the falling of the picture right down. As this signified all loss of hope for the victim. This is very typical of horror films as the slow motion build up makes the action seem faster and more impressive. We hardly used any special effects as we didnt want to make it seem too fake, because this would disrupt the continuity of our film. Most horror films will use minimal special effects of the film doesnt look really un realistic.

Final- Opening 2 minutes of Film 'The Pathway'

More Ideas for Film- Final

- The scene where I am behind the tree in black, we could use that scene again to put right at the end of the film and my body will appear and disappear in different places by the bridge and then end with me right in front of the camera too add effect after the scene of the camera going down the pathway.
- We could also going to use a scene of a little girl running around laughing during the scene of walking down the pathway at the end, to give the impression that was Emma as a child, the black figure will also appear there, to give the impression she has be haunted from a child. This scene will flash in, to set the theme of a horror.

What we're going to change about 'The Pathway' opening two minutes

In our draft of 'The Pathway', we had to change specific things to make it better as certain points of the two minutes let us down. We will be taking out the scene of the last minute as it didn't require much effort and let our marks slip. We also had to change some of the shots as Emma's face didn't blend in and there wasn't much music in the background either. To replace the 'walking down The Pathway scene' we decided on a scene where it would be at a graveyard, this would achieve more marks because it is more than just one location and it can be seen that we put more of an effort in to not just stay at one place. After feedback from Miss Martin, we have decided to put the original beginning of our film half way through at the end, and take out the 'walking down The Pathway' scene and replace it with the scene at the graveyard and put that at the beginning to give the 2 minutes more meaning and more of a storyline. We will be also adding titles to the beginning of our 2 minutes, this is to give more evidence that it's the beginning of the film and introduces cast members.

This should boost all our marks that we have missed out on in our draft and also make the 2 minutes of film more interesting to watch. It was until after we viewed the draft that Bryony, Emma, James and I had realised what was missing and will be including it our published version of the film.

Sinister- Audience Profling

Sinister shares the same genre as our film Bryony, Emma, James and I have made, so this is another example of the target audience we're trying to get watch the film as it is from the same genre, similar aged people will watch our film as well as this one. As you can see, it is most popular around the ages 15-24, this is because the younger generation would find this more thrilling and they would usually watch it in groups of people, which is why the income for the producers would be good as they would receive a lot of profit from this. More males watch this film purely because they would find it less scary, although they are most likely to be watching the film together and not alone. This film contributes to our target audience and how we would expect our audience profile to look like.

Opening 2 minutes of Film- Draft

This is our opening 2 minutes although we are a few seconds of our target, there is a bit more film to yet be added which should cover the time we haven't covered. The main pieces we need to complete are more sound effects purely at the beginning of the 2 minutes, and a few camera shots need to be edited e.g. Emma's face change needs to be blended and also the scene where I show up next to the tree needs to be ended with me not being seen, to give the impression I was never there, and the change between the Dreamworks animation and the shot of Emma walking to blend and fade it in better.

The Ring 2 Audience Profiling

This is a very similar type of film to ours, as we have used similar effects and styles that this film has used, along with the first one which I have already analysed. The most popular age group for this film is 25-34, this would be our target audience as it would attract this age as horror films are usually seen by the older teenager/younger adult generation. We would target this audience by setting the age classification as an 18 so that it will get us closer to the target audience and more groups of people are more likely to watch this film as it isn't really a film you'd watch on your own.

 

 

Age Certification for our Film

Our age certification is a 18, this is because it contains scenes of severe horror and this could be offensive to a younger audience. The people we're trying to attract are between the ages of 20-30, we believe the film would be most popular in this age group and would be most likely be watched in groups as people wouldn't prefer to watch a film like this one their own. This certificate usually contains scenes that can be inflicted in real life or put into people's interpretation and imaginations so it could damage the younger mind and advise them to do the wrong thing.

Animated Storyboard

Emma- Before and After Make-up

-Before- We decided to take a picture before and after we had applied make up to Emma's face to really show the difference and you can identify all the make up used closely and evaluate the differences.



-After- This is the ending result and as you can see, there are many make up effects used around the eyes to give them sore, scary look to it. We have used shading in the dented areas in Emma's face and dried out effects were used on her lips to make her look deserted and 'dead'.

Behind the Scenes of the Film

Bryony was the camera woman of the film and here are a few evidentual pictures to prove it, she used the tripod majority of the time to keep the camera steady. She only held the camera when it was the effect we used of seeing it from someones point of view and them walking, so the camera shook a little bit.
Equipment used:
-Tripod
-Camera

 Here is a picture of the costume and clothing of the villain in the horror film.

The Final Result- Victim Appearance

The Final effect was this:

Creating the Victims Look- Step 4

 

4. Lastly we went back over the black lines on Emmas face to make them look more prominent then we blacked her lips; We had to make sure the lines on her face very very clear to ensure the camera would pick them up whilst we were filming. We made her lips black to make them appear dead.

 

Creating the Victims Look- Step 3

3. We then used shades of pink brown and black to line her eyes to make them stand out and look withered; This made Emma look damaged and creepy, her eyes looked worn out as if they have been strained. This makes it look like the victims death was drawn out.

Creating the Victims Look: Step 2

2. Next we used black eye shadow to define the creases in emmas face and make her look darker; This gives the impression she is constantly frowning and highlights that she has changed, she is not the innocent victim anymore.