Evaluation of the Final Product

On our prelim task the shots we used were very basic. We had a list of shots we had to use in the task, while when we were preparing the final product we we able to come up with the shots that we wanted, giving us more independence and also teaching ourselves what shots would work and which wouldn't through trial and error. The editing on the final product was also more complex and we were introduced to after effects. On the day of the prelim task we didn't record any sound but merely recorded some after we had edited it, but when shooting the thriller we recorded sounds and we learnt how to import sounds onto the video.
When editing we had the idea to use the close ups as the first few shots, to create a sense of fear, confusion and closure as close ups would show little of what the audience wanted to see to answer the questions in their mind "where is he?" and "why is he there?" Initially we made the scene very slow paced before speeding up towards the end. We planned to have quick shots cutting between the bodies and rory's reaction but this didn't work as it looked poorly done. We realised that with the first shot it was a long take that lasted 30 seconds of the film. Because the film is only 2 minutes long, this dictated that the film wouldn't be fast paced. However, in order to make it faster and to make the horror more realistic we used several POV shots. POV shots enabled us to show the full extent of the horror on the screen, and also enabled us to get some quick shots and speed up the action. This gave the audience a sense of the horror of the situation.
On the day of the shoot we recorded many sounds, like a light switched on and off, a glass breaking, a table falling over and metal poles hitting and rolling on the floor. The scene didn't feature any music, only the sound effect we added over the top as well as the sound captured with the shots. When the final shot blacks out and the title appears, there is a loud strong metallic noise. This creates a further sense of fear, as the noise relates to the kinds of places generally feared like hospitals or prisons. Most of the film however has little or no sound, which makes the audience feel sympathy for the protagonist as the lack of music makes them think he is more alone.
Before the sequence starts, we introduce the production company 'Redrum'. It is a ficticious company that we liked the name of as it is inkeeping with the horror genre being murder backwards and being a famous phrase from horror classic The Shining. It comes in on a black background for a few seconds before it fades away to say the name of the director, another ficticious name. Both of these titles are in lower case. The title of the film however comes in after the sequence ends and is in capitals to seem more important. We didn't put any titles in the sequence itself to maintain tension.
I think the use of close up shots at the beginning was a good choice at it makes the audience want to keep watching in order to find out the key questions they would be asking. Redrum would intice any other horror fans who would have probably seen The Shining. The lack of sound creates an eerie sense of emptiness and helplessness in the scene, which again will make the audience want to know what happens to the protagonist. The increasing in pace increases tension which hopefully, after the title of the film appears, would make the audience want to keep watching. We had the aim of creating a horror film and the choices we made were influenced by targeting horror fans. Our choices were designed to maximise fear in out audience which is the desired effect of a horror film. We felt that keeping it to close ups emphasised the claustrophobia in our film, like in other films like Saw. POV and close ups were used to show fear on the faces of our actors which in turn would lend the film the look of a horror film and target our audience.

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

Redrum isn's an existing production company, instead the name was created for the purpose of the film. The name, before the film even starts, suggest the genre of the film, being murder spelt backwards as well as being a well known part of the cult classic thriller The Shining.

We used the shot of the eye as the opening shot as the eye is an image that automatically evokes fear. It is a sensitive and important part of the body, so having a close up shot on the eye creates a sense of vulnerability. It also gives a claustrophobic atmosphere as its all the audience can see.

This shot challenges the idea that the protagonist of a thriller is better as a woman, as they are seen as weaker figures and more vulnerable to the villains of films, but manage to overcome the obstacles with their resourcefulness. We used a male character, but made him look more vulnerable by making him look beaten up. Many horror and slasher films made in recent years open either the protagonist(s) living their lives unsuspecting of whats to come (e.g. Silence of the Lambs), or by introducing the antagonist and how they came into their position (e.g. Halloween, My Bloody Valentine). Our films however starts with the protagonist already caught by the antagonist and in the situation that would last for the whole film.

In this shot we challenge the conventional forms of horror by creating tension and suspense without use of the hero or villain. Using the antagonist is a common way to build tension, and is used in many of the slasher films (e.g. Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees).

This shot only has one source of light, being the torch in Rory's hands. This puts the focus on his face, showing an expression of fear giving him the audiences sympathy. We conform to current media that has successfully used this method, like The Blair Witch Project.

Here we conform to the current use of gore in horror. This shot, without being too revealing of whats to come, sets the scene for something brutal and gory. However, unlike many modern horror films that rely on it, like Saw, we are not heavily reliant on gore. This also challenges the style of modern horror because of this, as we use it as a way of creating tension instead of scaring the audience.

This shot challenges most modern media conventions as it is overlayed on a black screen instead of a real time shot. However on some levels it conforms to it as well, as in a title sequence the title of the films is expected as some point. We used it to separate the opening sequence from what would come next, leaving the audience wanting to know what happens after it appears and the sequence ends.

How does your product represent particular social groups?

All actors in our film are young people. Because we had constraints on who we could use for our actors there wasn’t a lot of choice. In the end it was a good choice to not get any older actors from out of school. Using teenagers would be ideal for what our target audience would be (15-24). The fact it is horror makes it leave an impression on the audience that they are not safe from a certain person or group because of their age, some thing they cannot control, making it more threatening. Many films have done this and tried to use this tactic on audiences to scare them both during the film and after it. Films that do this very well are Saw and Hostel. Saw features mainly young people, although they are often older than teenagers, in their late 20’s. These people are targeted because the protagonist “Jigsaw” believes he is punishing them for doing badly in life, and giving them a reason to live and appreciate life more in cruel and grotesque ways. Hostel, set in Holland, features the victimisation of young American university students on holiday in Amsterdam, also possibly because of their age being seen as more of a weak spot as opposed to a threat. The victims in our film were young people, much like those of these two films. We wanted to make a sense of fear and panic that people felt they had no control over like the victims in Saw or the backpackers in Hostel. They were taken somewhere strange and unknown for a reason not known to them or the audience before coming to a painful and horrible fate. This is what we aimed for in our film, by showing the protagonist’s realisation of what went on in the place he was in, by the bodies placed around the room covered in blood and taped at the mouth.

The reasons for the younger people being targeted in our film is unknown. A show like Skins portraying the life of teenagers in Bristol helps create a negative view of teenagers, having a fixation on drugs, sex and alcohol, as well as being reckless and aggressive. Today in the print media the idea had been created that young people are no longer victims but instead the attackers, creating a moral panics by focusing on youths as perpetrators of knife crime. However in our film the roles are reversed and young people are seen as victims. The bodies are all of young people as is the antagonist. This creates the idea that young people are being targeted possibly because of their age, and that the unknown protagonist is carrying out these acts against the social norm.

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

We aimed to make our film very simliar to other films of the same genre; horror with a high level of blood and gore, like Saw and Hostel. The whole idea of the protagonist waking up in a room somewhere in a strange environment and situation is itself symptomatic of the horror genre, creating fear and suspense.
A company like Lionsgate would be ideally suited to produce and distribute our film. They have made a series of many low to medium budget horror films as well as having a reputation for making quality independent productions such as The Cooler (2003). Lionsgate specialised in creating hits from low budget films; Saw is an example and has become a very popular franchise spawning many sequels. Our film is very similar to Saw and deals with similar issues, that include kidnapping, torture and murder. In Saw the antagonist "Jigsaw" chooses his victims because he believes they are unappreciative of the life they have so he attempts to make them appreicate their life more by focing them to go through painful and near-death experiences.
A big part of our film would be why the antagonist in our film chooses his specific victims, or maybe if the victims are not specific at all but are in fact random. Because the protagonist wakes up at the beginning not knowing why he is there, throughout the film he would try and find out why he is there.
Our film would appeal to teenagers, as the film features that age range, which would suit the other films made by Lionsgate, which also appeal to teenagers like My Bloody Valentine and Hostel.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our audience would be the age range of 15-24 of both males and females. The typical fan of the horror genre would be someone who appreciates thrills as well as someone who likes gore in films. While many of the males could watch it the females prefer not to but still watch the films because of the idea of a thrill of being scared being exciting.
These fans would be what is described as "emo", probably listening to metalcore and hard rock. They would usually wear dark tight clothes and maybe some make-up. The gore and brutality of the film may be the point of interest for them. They would most likely be students, or possibly be new into work. This would allow them to have a disposable income that they could spend without having to save their money for more important things like mortgages etc.

How did you attract/address your audience?

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

Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

When filming our preliminary task, we had a set list of shots to include. The shots were very basic, although we did try to fo further with some trickier shots, like tracking and panning. Doing these shots however made us feel well out of our comfort zone, and they also turned out not as well as we hoped. But because we attempted these we were quickly able to learn about how to master them as we had some experience of how they worked as well as knowing how hard it actually was. There was a massive difference between the types of shot used between the two activities. During the shooting of the final product we used tracking, panning and overhead shots. We tried doing a shot while holding the camera ourselves but we decided not to use the shot when editing as it wasn't well done.
Between the time of editing the preliminary task and the final product we learnt a lot through the lessons in the editing suite as well as observing the intro sequences of other horror films. Editing the preliminary task was a very simple task, and we only used simple cuts from shot to shot. In the final product we didn't just use these, we instead used a variety of cuts. We used a fade in at the beginning of the sequence, and added text over black and the real time shots.
When we filmed the preliminary task we didn't record any sound, so when editing we couldn't rely on the voices for when to cut. This didn't make a difference however as we had the chance to record sound over the images. Tom went and found someone and together they recorded the voices and layered them over the top of the video.