Question 1
In what ways does your media film use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real life media products?’
Sinister is a horror film which was released in 2012, it was directed by Scott Derrickson.
Our groups film- Bella is shown underneath the Sinister film
Frame one- in both frames we see the normal logo of the company, this happens in all films because it is a normal procedure. In both frames there is no picture shown with the titles, it just a clear blank screen. Some movies tend to use images however having the black and grey background links to the conventional dark and mysterious colours used in a horror film. as the film sinister used a black/silver screen we decided to use this idea and have a grey screen showing, both frames have a music soundtrack playing throughout this title sequence.
Frame two- in the sinister frame we see where the film Is taking place, we see an attic which in horror films is a typical place for a horror film to be set, this convention of a horror film had to be used in our video because it really helps clarify the genre of our film. We see the main character also which gives an idea of who's house the film is set. So, we decided to copy this idea and show in the first frame where the film is set and who the main character is by showing them in the first frame. sinister used a wide shot here to allow the audience to see the character and the surroundings, we chose to use this idea so our audience has a clear idea as to where the character is. In the sinister frame we see it s set in a dark room which is very conventional for horror films because, the darkness adds a lot more emphasis to the thrill, We used this idea and set our film in the woods because, we thought this would be a very conventional place to base a horror film, because its a very gloomy and scary place to be.
Frame three- In the sinister third frame we see a victim in pain, the close up allows us to understand the fear in her eyes, this sort of camera shot is very typical convention in a horror film because the audience really get an understanding of the actors feelings, which really puts the audience on edge. We went for a slightly different approach because we wanted to drag out the idea of something will shock the audience we didn't want to shock the audience straight away. However we used their ideas of showing the main victim, we did this so the audience could easily understand something may happen to Charlie. We also used the idea of using a close up shot, in the sequence we slowly moved the camera up Charlie's body so we could see his facial expression. I think close ups are a convention in a horror themed film because the audience is able to see his facial expressions- fear, nerves, sadness. in both frames we are able to see the background, which tells the audience where the film is set.
Frame four- In the sinister film we see the first piece of technology has been used, they used the idea of showing the villain, this isn't direct to the character its just so the audience see the villain for the first time and is able to understand who and where he is. The villain is shown here to give a message to the male victim however the male victim didn't see the screen. I believe the secret messaging is a very conventional part of a horror film because it adds a lot of drama to the film as the villain is scaring the main character. We used this idea of using technology to shock the audience by using a close up of Charlie phone and having the background set as 'If you're reading this its too late' (its hard to make out in the image used above). However we wanted to make the character Charlie see this message because we thought if we show the character showing more fear it would link to the conventions of a horror film and the male character shown in the sinister film also looks very nervous so we liked the similarity here.
Frame five- In the sinister fifth frame we are able to see another victim laying in bed asleep and the young villain is approaching her. The scene jumped from the father to then the daughter laying in bed, however we didn't want to use a jump scene we thought we would drag out the suspense and have Charlie walk towards where the villain is instead of jumping from one scene to another. Sinister at this point played a much more fearful song, this is very conventional in a horror film because, edgy music is always used in horror film to scare the we decided to use this idea and do the same and played a more dramatic tune whilst Charlie walked towards the villain, in sinister the music also changed whist the villain walked towards the girl in bed.
Frame six- In the sisters sixth frame a wide shot has been used to show the whole surroundings, we see the children sitting in attic looking very scary. The children look very pale and have knotted hair, the setting is placed in atypical convention of a horror film (in the attic) we liked the idea of showing a glimpse of the villain so we decided to use a wide shot also and show Charlie walking towards the swing, you can also slightly see the min character- Bella, behind the tree trunk, we only wanted her to be seen for a short amount of time just so the audience know she is where Charlie is and knows something is going to happen. We did this because behind the children you can see the main villain very faintly, so we copied the idea of showing our main villain for just a second because it would emphasis the fear of the scene.
Frame seven-In the sinister frame we see one of the main characters being carried by the villain, they've done this by using a wide shot. Both characters are looking straight at the camera in this scene. In our film we decided to use the same idea, we showed both the victim and villain in the same frame by using a wide shot. Although in the sinister film he to characters are touching we wanted to add a much more in depth suspense, because we thought if the audience knew he villain was behind the victim it would have a much more thrilling affect, by the victim not knowing she is there it makes the thrill much more exciting. I think suspense is a key convention of a horror film because it really creates the drama needed in a horror film. I t really emphasises the theme of the film.
Frame eight- In the sinister frame we can see that a close up has been used to show the props used in the film ,which included tapes etc. We decided to use the idea of using a close up. we chose to use the close up to finally show the villain being aggressive to the victim, we thought the idea of using a close up shot would make it clear to the audience of what's happening. In the Sinister film they also use a close up to tell the audience something, they tell the audience where the tapes have been the whole time.
Question 2
‘How does your product represent a particular social group?
In our film we have the social group of a victim- weak, lonely, nervous scared character this is portrayed throughout the role Charlie plays in the film.
Our film challenges the stereotype that men are the 'hero' or the 'villain' they are never seen as the weak victim. In the first picture we see Charlie being shown, who is the main character in our film. Charlie looks very worried about something, we see him with a pale face and messy hair, he doesn't look very well looked after, he has a beard growing and doesn't look as if he cares about his appearance, his eyebrows are frowned as if he's concentration and looking at something, which links to the idea that he is constantly worried and scared In the film. If we then look at the next picture we see the mum from Insidious, she also looks very worried and scared here, her eyebrows are risen and her hair is very messy, the man is the dad from sinister, he also looks extremely worries as his eyebrows are frowned (like Charlie's) his beard is grown and his dressing is very reckless.
I believe that all three characters are dealing with stress as they are the victim in the film, they all look weak, nervous, terrified and not themselves. The conventions of a typical horror film is a male is always the villain for example in sinister and insidious, so we chose to be slightly different and have a younger girl be the villain and have a victim of a male,
having this sort of social group really makes our horror film stand out more as the stereotypical roles have twisted.
Our film challenges the stereotype that women are also 'weak' because Bella is seen to be violent in the film towards Charlie, and is the main villain of the film. Which challenges the idea that women are always 'damsel in distress' because Bella is seen to be violent and aggressive. I think have the character who haunts people as girl makes it seem more scary because, in horror films there usually is a young girl who haunts people.
Question 3
‘What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?’
Question 4
‘Who would be the audience for you media product?’
Considering the genre of our film is horror/thriller, the ideal audience of our film would be 16+. The film would not be appropriate for anyone under the age of 16. We wanted to make our film be enjoyable for a range of audiences instead of just a specific age group, we know horrors are mainly viewed and enjoyed by teenagers as well as adults.
This boy is called Louis. He is currently a teacher at a grammar school teaching sports and English to GCSE students. He is 23 years old and is currently single. He has no cultural background or any Ethnic beliefs. In his spare time Louis enjoys going out with friends late at nights and also enjoys playing 5-aside football with his friends. He likes going to the cinema to watch any new interesting films, he enjoys a wide range of films however he says his favorite films are thriller/horror, he says he enjoys the cinema atmosphere and loves the thrill; he used to go to Thorpe Park a lot in his late teens with his friends from school. He doesn’t go to the cinema all the time but if there’s a new horror, Thrill or comedy genre film out he will always get a ticket. He used to work up Blue water and enjoys speeding time up there after going to the cinema as he enjoys shopping with his old University friends. As Louis has the sky network on television this allows him access to movies he enjoys watching Dexter and American horror story. Louis enjoys all the latest music he says he always has the radio on whilst driving to school and enjoys watching MTV’S latest hits, he goes for daily runs and has lots of music downloaded onto is phone. Louis used to work at the London Dungeons he said, he loved watching people’s reactions when scaring them and enjoys running after people in creepy costumes. Louis has always enjoyed horror/ thrill whilst working at London Dungeons. He answered the questions shown in the picture to give us a full understanding of his likes. He’s always grown up enjoying thrill as he used to go to Thorpe Park with his friends. I think our film would be enjoyed by Louis as he enjoys horror and thrill films; he doesn’t get scared easily so he won’t be afraid to watch the film. Louis also states he enjoys the atmosphere whist watching a horror film. I think Louis suits the criteria of the film because i asked him a few questions about film types/genre as seen below. i asked him to fill out these questions so i know if his age group is our target audience.
Question 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
To address my audience I decided to create a questionnaire (shown to the left) and hand out to my media class, the age of everyone in my class ranges to 17-18. I then filmed the class talking about the questions as a group, they discussed their ideas together and their thoughts on the film. The reason I did this because, it would give me a clear idea of who is my main audience for our final film. I asked seven questions all together to 6 pupils.
The first question was 'What was your reaction to the movie?' i gave the pupils 4 options being 1. excellent 2. good 3. fair and lastly poor. Luckily everyone enjoyed the film and either ticked the 'good'or 'fair' box, from the video below we asked questions about the first question so we gave the pupils a chance too explain their reasons for their choices.
The second question asked was ' Would you recommend the video to your friends the reason i chose to ask this question was because, i anted to know if other people at a similar age with different interest would also enjoy the movie.
The third question allowed the pupils to explain their answer, i asked 'How would you describe the movie to family or friends' the reason i asked this was to see if the audience understood the plot of the story line, the answers they gave, showed us that each student understood the plot and enjoyed it, however some students in the video below explained they didn't understand who the young girl was., this was discussed more in the video below.
I then asked the students to analyse their favorite parts of the movie and the parts they didn't like, this was discussed in the video. Some of the students said they liked the music because and the editing skills because,it helped made the film meet the theme- horror. Some students said they didn't like the wind blowing in the background because it interrupted with the music however, there was nothing we could do about this unfortunately.
I then decided to ask the students how they thought the actors in the film acted, each student said they acted professionally and was very serious and did a good job.
I then asked if the students like the initial idea o the film, because this would prove if it was interesting for them or boring, each student said thy liked the idea and thought it as unique.
The last question was 'Do you think the movie met the typical conventions of a horror film?' this was important because, it would be interesting to know if we used the ideas in our influential film well. Students in the class, discussed this in the video below.
The video gave a very clear discussion so the students were able to discuss their opinions and ask me any questions they want to know.
Question 6
‘What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?’
Fuji-film
I’ve always been a fan of photography therefore I am quite confident when using a camera; at home I have a Fujifilm camera which is shown in the picture. It involves a lot of extra features. Since filming I was able to learn how to use different effects on the camera, I was also a lot steadier with the camera as I was using it a lot more frequently. I learned how to use a lot more of the tools on the camera such as focus peaking, a histogram view in both shoots and playback mode, and built-in interval shooting. It also has a "Motion Panorama" mode that allows for fluid, single-sweep panorama images up to a full 360 degrees. I played around to make sure I was comfortable with the camera. I also learned that this sort of camera allows us to use a tripod which works so much better than a hand held cameras because the filming looks much steadier it allows for better control over focus whilst filming. The quality of the camera was extremely good because its a professional camera. As i was the cinematographer i was in charge of the whole filming process so i wanted to make sure i was confident with the camera, i read a lot of handbooks to help me, although there was a lot of features i didn't know about we only needed to use the basics for example zoom in and out, which is very easy to use. As i learned about many more of the cameras features i meant i was able too use them whilst filming for example i was able to change the contrast whilst filming which meant it wold help out when it came to the editing process. As the genre of the film is a horror we wanted to make the brightness darker so i managed to do this on the camera. The camera was quite big which meant it was harder to use a tripod however we found one which managed to fit the camera, this allowed us to get a much steady film, i decided to use a zoom as i found it was a lot clearer and more accurate than a push in because it gave a much more steady film. Using the camera i learnt how to film in various different angles and increased my knowledge for camera work as actually doing it gave me a better understanding as to how it works.
Philips computer The Philips computer was by far the most important piece of equipment I had to learn about. It stored the editing program which was vital for filming and editing, all the work we created was saved onto the computer and therefore we relied on the computer to store all of our work. I learned that the computer was the only way to upload our film onto YouTube or onto a separate disc, so it was a vital piece of technology. On the computer we saved all of our work we had done. I've never really been a pro at technology so i had a lot to learn on the computer.The main program we used on the computer was the editing program i learned how to use this editing software called Sony Vegas, I learned how to use effects for example, how to fade images, crop images and clips, re-size images and clips. I learned that this piece of technology is very important when creating a film opening. Because, it allowed me to crop and sequence clips together I think this was very simple software to learn how to use because some software’s are extremely hard. I managed to learn technical words and understand there meaning. As a guide for using these programs i watched YouTube videos on how to edit in flashback effects and black and white filters, in which i had to increase the brightness at the end of each clip and the beginning of each clip to make the transition flash in and out. The YouTube definitely helped me, i took notes especially on how to make the colour of our film a lot more darker, i learned how to change the contrast and tone of each clip to make the clips darker to fit the genre of our film being horror. Before i wouldn't of had a clue on how to use Sony Vegas but after i watched many YouTube videos i became much more confident and was able to edit the entire film opening by myself. When using the computer we learned that an iPhone cable
comes in good use, when we needed to upload any photos, we learned that this was a much easier and quicker way to upload photos so this saved us a lot of time.
Memory stick and organisation I learned how vital it was for each member in our group to have a memory stick; this would assure no work would ever be lost or accidentally deleted. If the work was deleted off of the computer we always had a back-up copy saved onto each memory stick in our group. Organisation was very important, having separate files was the key. We needed all our work to be correctly organised so it wouldn’t get lost in other areas or muddled up, this made it very clear to us on what was to be used in the blog. Before my organisation skills were poor but now i know how important it is to make sure i have clearly named files to assure no work gets lost. My memory stick became something i used all the time i used it to save work from my home computer to my school computer so that my work was easy to access, i used it to get work off of my teacher to help me with my knowledge of media which also helped me when filming and editing. As well as a memory stick i learned to always E-mail myself the work i have completed not only to myself but to my group members that way i knew my work was always saved and never lost, we made sure we had a lot of back ups so we didn't have to re-start the work again.
Podcast kit This piece of equipment was very important as it would offer a lot of essential key things in a film, sound. I learned how to use the podcast kit; I learned how to use the microphone, I leaned that the audacity the package allowed me to record and mix together a podcast or audio demo tape, which I could then use to upload onto the computer using a memory stick. I learned how to use the podcast kit well as we used it when we wanted to create snapping noises of twigs and sticks, this made the sound much more clear. I also used the audacity to edit the two sound tracks used in the film, with the first sound track i learned how to make sounds become much more clearer and louder than others, for example with the birds tweeting i adjusted the one to make the noise louder than the other noises. When using this piece of equipment we learned the importance of headphones and speakers because, for some reason the noise sometimes sounded different then it did out loud than with just headphones, so if we didn't notice this the sound would've sounded very strange so we were able to use the headphones and speakers to allow a much more unique and clear sound.
Tripod
At the start we didn't want to use a tripod however when we filmed our film we noticed that it was very shaky and didn't look very professional, so we decided to film again as we learned the reason why the film was like this was because we hadn't used a tripod. So we filmed again and this time uses the tripod and found that it gave a much more steady look to the film and mad it look a lot more professional. The first clip of the film where we see Charlie running looked ten times better with the tripod because it looked so much more steady and it made the clips flow really well.We learned that the legs of the tripod change in length, we decided to extend the legs fully to make it look like the same height as me filming. I also used the tripod when zooming it because i learned that it was a lot more easier to do this as it meant i didn't have to hold the camera steady whilst zooming in. As a group we learned the importance of a tripod it changes the film completely and makes the quality of the film look much better.
Question 7
Question 7
looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel like you have learnt in the progression from it to main product?
I created a video powtoon.com to answer this question
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