1.) In what ways does your media product use/ develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

‘The Chain Mail’ both uses and develops conventions of horror films. At first we decided that we wanted to challenge the modern conventions of gore and stick to the suspense and supernatural elements like in Halloween II. We therefore brainstormed and created the clown character and considered him being a supernatural figure rather than a conventional serial killer. However after looking at the footage that we first filmed we decided that our film fitted the thriller genre more than the horror genre, which is not what we wanted. Our film was lacking the sense of gore that modern audiences associate with horror films.
The conventions of both films that we looked at, Halloween II and Saw VI are different in the opening sequences, with Halloween II creating suspense and a supernatural feel and Saw being a modern horror film with lots of gore.

We decided to use red paint as blood, creating gore within our film. This succeeded us in making the film a more modern horror film. Using this modern convention helped us to create a sense of horror rather than a thriller. We then developed them in post-production editing, mixing the two different conventions from the two films to create a new horror.

Our film uses the conventions of; blood, death, killing and victims as that are what the audience wishes to see. From our questionnaires we decided to include these conventions as that is what the target audience described as their ideal horror film would include.

2.) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social networking and age are denoted within our film. The fact that it is teenage girls that are being attacked shows how vulnerable girls from that specific age group can be and how it is them that are particularly targeted and not teenage boys. Social networking is a modern phenomenon, with over 250 million people using sites like Facebook and Twitter. These social networking sites are thought to have major impacts on people’s lives.

The opening of ‘The Chain Mail’ reveals a teenage girl being attacked by the clown after she has opened a chain mail message on her phone. The girl in the opening scenes receives a BBM, a Blackberry Message, on her Blackberry smart phone. Blackberry’s are very popular now within the teenage society because BBM is available to Blackberry users as a way of messaging friends and family for free. The use of these modern technologies such as the Blackberry and the laptop gives the film a modern touch. The audience are able to relate more to the film as they too have these products.

The message on the laptop was originally filmed on one of our Facebook pages. However we decided that we needed a closer shot of the writing so this part was cut out. The use of social networking in the film represents the modern reliance on social networks of today.

There is a lot of media coverage at the moment about how dangerous social networking sites can be. There have been many stories in the news lately about how some people have posed as young teenagers in order to form relationships with other teenagers and consequently putting those teenagers in danger. Parents and guardians are encouraged to watch over and control their children’s online activity in order to prevent this from happening. There are always risks involved when using social networking sites and there are many trust issues that go alongside this.

Stereotypically it is teenagers who are associated with spending lots of their time on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and My space, as well as using their mobile phones. Social networking sites are branded as dangerous, especially for young teenage girls and this created an ideal narrative for us to use within our film as it is a very real scenario that could happen to anyone watching our film. This links with the conventions of teenage girls suffering in horror films and most main characters in horror films and teenagers.

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

Twisted Pictures is a production company which mainly creates films of the Horror genre and it gained wide attention through the production of the Saw series. The Saw films were very sucessful within the Horror genre. Twisted Pictures have also created films such as The Tortured, Vlog and Dead Silence. We used the Twisted Pictures opening within our own horror film.

Lionsgate would be an ideal distribution company to distribute a media product like ours. This is because they have released horror films like the one that we have produced with the same representations, forms and conventions that we have included in 'The Chain Mail'.

4.) Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience of horror films are interested mostly due to the thrills and the adrenaline rush from being fearful and seeing gore. The age demographic for horror films is usually teenagers and young adults, which is what we decided our target audience for 'The Chain Mail' would be.

Mostly horror films are reviewed negatively with adults, yet sell well with teenagers as they find the terror and killings appealing. Because of this, most horror films are targeted directly towards the teen demographic rather than an older audience, which is another reason why we decided that teenagers would be our target audience.

Horror films such as Final Destination and Saw are popular amongst teenagers because they appeal to teenagers. Though they may be targeted towards an adolescent crowd, older generations still enjoy the horror genre.

Linking back to my questionaires, it was revealed that male gender teenagers watch horror films much more than female gender teenagers do. I believe that our film is targeted at both gender audiences as either gender could find themselves in the situation that the girls in 'The Chain Mail' are in.

5.) How did you attract/ address your audience?

During our research and planning we asked 8 people to fill out a questionaire in order to discover what their ideal horror film would be. By doing this we were able to make sure that we met the need of our target audience.

Here are some of the results from our questionaire:

Name: Alison Wright

Age: 16
What’s your favourite genre of film?
Romantic Comedy
How often do you watch them?
Not often
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes – the unknown
Something that plays on your mind after you’ve watched them
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
A Clown
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
Quick shots to make it confusing so that it makes you watch the rest of the film to find out







Name: Chloe Morgan

Age: 16
What’s your favourite genre of film?
Romantic comedy
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes – That I don’t want to watch it but I want to see what happens
How often do you watch them?
Once every 2 months
What do you look for in a horror film?
Something out of the ordinary
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
Mental patient
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
In a hospital

Name: Frankie Duck
Age: 17
What is your favourite genre of film?
Comedy
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes, making me jump and on edge - wondering what will happen next.
How often do you watch them?
Once a month.
What do you look for in a horror film?
A good story and narrative.
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The villain.
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
Meeting the villain and why they are crazy.

Name: Frank James
Age: 17
What is your favourite genre of film?
Comedy
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes, the thrill of being scared.
How often do you watch them?
Every month or so.
What do you look for in a horror film?
Death
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The villain or killer
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
Build up to the killing




Name: Michael Jarvis
Age: 17
What is your favourite genre of film?
Adventure
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes - the thrill of being scared
How often do you watch them?
Once every few months
What do you look for in a horror film?
Unusual murder methods
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The one who survives
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
A scare so bad I don't want to watch the rest.



From our results we found that most people wanted to meet the villain in the opening sequences to a horror film and that they wanted to be scarred. They also wanted a good narrative in order to keep them in suspense.

In order to attract our target audience we had to keep to the generic conventions of a horror film.

These are the reactions of what my target audience thought about the opening to our horror film 'The Chain Mail':


Thea Quain

Ned Harvey

Melisa Harvey

Chloe Morgan

6.) What have you learn about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I had never filmed before starting this media course or used a Mac computer. I feel that I have learned a lot since the first time filming when carrying out the preliminary task. The first time I used a camera I learnt how to construct long shots, mid shots and close up’s. I learn the importance of the 180 degree rule and how to make someone appear larger or smaller by where you place the camera.

I also learnt how to use final cut on the Macs and improved my understanding of editing vastly. I quickly understood how to cut shots by using I and O and how to add slugs for the titles. I discovered that the size and style of teh font is very important in order to fit together with the narrative. We used AppleGothic as it suited our genre best.

I learnt how to add music over the top of the film footage and was very surprised at how much difference music made to our film.I focused on using the pen to gently alter sound levels in order to balance the sound. It was interesting to experiment with making the sound louder and softer in order to enhance the diagetic and non-diagetic sound within the film. At the end we decided not to include dialogue within our film and to include only music in order to add to the suspense.

Over all I feel that I have progressed largely from the beginning of this course to now. I have thoroughly enjoyed gaining knowledge about the different programmes on the Mac and how to use them.

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

I think that I have progressed from my preliminary task to the coursework successfully. I mainly feel that I have improved on framing, continuity and the editing part of the process.

When I produced my preliminary task I had never used a camera before and had never used final cut. I was unfortunately working on my own and found it difficult as everything was new to me. However I learnt well eventhough time management was a bit of an issue as I had to do everything myself.

The coursework needed much more time and planning going into it than the preliminary task had previously needed and I was glad that I had a partner this time. By putting our ideas together and working well I feel that we came out with a much better product than if I was working independently. Research into genre and audience was needed before we could do any storyboarding and before and filming could be done. Therefore we needed to focus on our work and have a time limit for each area. In total we had 9 weeks to complete the pre production, production and editing.

I am pleased with the different shots that we included within our film, the shots that i used in my preliminary task were quite basic and sometimes out of frame. Between the preliminary task and the coursework we had experimented and learnt new camera angles and shots that we could inlcude within our film.

Finally I belive that I have aquired the skills i needed from my preliminary task and improved them in order to come out with a good final product.

Editing

Here is an example of editing 'The Chain Mail'

'The Chain Mail'

We decided to call our film 'The Chain Mail'. This was because the main storyline of our film is about teenage girls being sent a chain mail. The name is simple and it is clear to our audience what the film is about.

Finished

Eventhough we had an issue with our software shutting down during the very last stages of completing our product, we managed to finish it on time.

Here are some stills from our finished product:

Distributors

During our research we found that one institute that distributed horror films was Twisted pictures. Twisted Pictures is associated with the horror films Saw. We decided to use Twisted Pictures as our institution and we included it within our film.

Titles that we used

The titles we have decided to include within our film are:

The names of actors -
Mikki-Leigh Gant
Mark Price
Robyn Green

Directed by -
Sophie Stacey
Faye Ratliff

Music Supervisor -
Ebrahem

Produced by -
Danny Boyle

Editing finished

We have finally compleated the video editing and have added the music to our film. All we need to do now is to add titles and think of a name for our finished product!

No reply!

Since we have had no reply from ebrahem91toy, we have assumed that it is ok to use his music within our horror film.

Music

After deciding on the music that we would like to use, we emailed the composer via youtube to see if he would be ok if we used it in our film.
Here is the email that we sent:

Dear ebrahem91toy,
We are AS Media students at Saffron Walden County High School, and we are creating a two minute opening title sequence to a horror film. We were wondering if it would be possible to use your music, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wwNAwkulMF0, within our film. This is not for commercial use.
Yours faithfully, Sophie and Faye.

New footage

We have uploaded our new footage and we are really pleased with the outcome. Now we just need to decide where we are going to put this new footage and make sure that teh film is no more or less than 2 minutes long!

The interior location for filming part 2

ACTORS!

Mikki-Leigh Gant as Victim 1

Robyn Green as Victim 2

Faye Ratliff as Clown 1

Mark Price as Clown 2

Post Filming

Filming went really well, we got everything we needed and we felt that there was a sufficent amount of gore within the footage for it to make it a horror film.

Filming

We have now added another part to the beginning of our film. We did this in order to add more gore to the film and to make it more of a horror film rather than a thriller.

This is me filming:

Possible Music

Preparation for filming

We have decided upon the location and the actors for our filming.
The location will be at my house, in Great Chesterford and the actors will be Mikki Gant and James Wells.
We will be filming on the 02/02/2011

Storyboarding

Today we created more storyboards for the additional part to our film. We plan to put the extra scenes the beginning of our film.

Not enough gore

After a few days of editing Sophie and I have realised that we do not have enough gore in our film. At the moment it is hard to see if the film is of the thriller genre or the horror genre. We have decided that we need to have another location and another actor.

Uploading footage

Today we uploaded our footage from the SD card onto the mac. From what we have seen it looks like everything has gone to plan and we are really pleased with the footage we have. I am particularly pleased with the variety of shots we have, although some seens are quite dark in the interior location scenes. We will have to improve the lighting during editing.

Post Filming

We have finished our filming, and hopefully we have all teh footage that we need. We were very pleased with the footage we have from the little we've seen and the speed in which we filmed.
Tomorrow we will upload teh footage onto one of the macs.

Day of filming!

The locations are sorted, the camera is charging and we have the actress ready and waiting! However, hours before filming, Lauren has suddenly been taken ill. It is now lunch and we need to find a new actor to be the clown, with teh correct costume, by 16.00!

Preparation for filming

The new filming arrangements are:

Girl - Robyn Green
Clown - Lauren Geddes
Exterior Location - Water Lane, Stansted
Interior Location - West Road, Stansted

Solution

Luckily one of sophie's friends has stepped in and offered to help with the location. We now have an interior set that is closer to Water Lane, which is much more convenient.

Another problem!

The interior location is no longer available for us to use.
The actor is still confirmed but another house is now needed.

Problem!

The clown mask will not arrive in time for our filming date. I have decided to make the mask myself to ensure that we will have it for filming. It also turned out to be much cheaper than buying the mask online.

Here is the finished mask

Filming date

The date that we have decided that we will film date will be on 18/01/2011

Props

Today I researched, found and ordered a clown mask from ebay for our two minute opening of a horror film.

This is the knife that we will be using:

Locations

Exterior Location - Water Lane, Stansted

Interior Location - Burnells Way, Stansted

Actors/ Actresses

Girl - Robyn Green
Clown - Lauren Geddes

Preparation for FILMING

When we had finished storyboarding our ideas we decided to ask friends about locations and actors/ actresses.
During early planning we had discussed the exterior scene and chose Water Lane in Stansted. In our later conversation we thought an interior location near Water Lane would allow us to film the scenes and keep the continuity of the fading light.
Once one of the actors confirmed they also allowed us to use their house for filming. All we needed now was an actor to play the clown. After a discussion about costume, we decided the clown need to be tall, to be able to lean over the victim.

Storyboard!

Here are the storyboards for our film:

Narrative!

The storyboard and narrative

Today Sophie and I, together, created both the storyboard and the narrative structure for our film.

Next...

Now Sophie and I need to create both the narrative and the storyboard!

Reflecting on the results

After looking at the results of the questionnaire, we have decided what to include in the two minute opening and how this will appeal to the mainstream audience we are targetting.

Results!

Name: Alison Wright
Age: 16
What’s your favourite genre of film?
Romantic Comedy
How often do you watch them?
Not often
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes – the unknown
Something that plays on your mind after you’ve watched them
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
A Clown
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
Quick shots to make it confusing so that it makes you watch the rest of the film to find out

Name: Alex Ratliff
Age: 15
What’s your favourite genre of film?
Action
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes – The storylines
How often do you watch them?
Once a month
What do you look for in a horror film?
Interesting plots
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
A Killer
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
A cliff-hanger

Name: Chloe Morgan
Age: 16
What’s your favourite genre of film?
Romantic comedy
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes – That I don’t want to watch it but I want to see what happens
How often do you watch them?
Once every 2 months
What do you look for in a horror film?
Something out of the ordinary
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
Mental patient
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
In a hospital

Name: James Perrin
Age: 19
What’s your favourite genre of film?
Action and Adventure
Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes – They make you jump
How often do you watch them?
Every now and again
What do you look for in a horror film?
Something that you have to work out
What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The Villain
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
A murder

Name: Frankie Duck

Age: 17

What is your favourite genre of film?
Comedy

Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes, making me jump and on edge - wondering what will happen next.

How often do you watch them?
Once a month.

What do you look for in a horror film?
A good story and narrative.

What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The villain.

What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
Meeting the villain and why they are crazy.


Name: Frank James

Age: 17

What is your favourite genre of film?
Comedy

Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes, the thrill of being scared.

How often do you watch them?
Every month or so.

What do you look for in a horror film?
Death

What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The villain or killer

What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
Build up to the killing

Name: Michael Jarvis

Age: 17

What is your favourite genre of film?
Adventure

Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes - the thrill of being scared

How often do you watch them?
Once every few months

What do you look for in a horror film?
Unusual murder methods

What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The one who survives

What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
A scare so bad I don't want to watch the rest.


Name: Alice Golden

Age: 16

What is your favourite genre of film?
RomCom

Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?
Yes, sometimes, I enjoy working out the plot.

How often do you watch them?
Not often.

What do you look for in a horror film?
A good story, not just blood and guts.

What is your favourite type of character in a horror film?
The person who makes it to the end.

What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?
A girl murdered in the comfort of her own home.

Questionnaire

The questions we decided to include in our questionnaire are:

Name:

Age:

What is your favourite genre of film?

Do you enjoy horror films? And what do you enjoy about them?

How often do you watch them?

What do you look for in a horror film?

What is your favourite type character in a horror film?

What would be your ideal opening to a horror film be?

These questions will help us when we develop our narrative structure and storyboard.

Audience Research

We decided that we were going to conduct some audience research by creating a questionnaire to identify what an audience wants from a horror film. This will help Sophie and I when we come to create both the storyboard and teh narrative for our two minute film opening.

The questions will include:

What do you enjoy about horror films?
What do you look for in a horror film?
What's your favourite type of character in a horror film?
What would your ideal opening to a horror film be?

We focussed on the teenage audience as they are the mainstream horror audience.

Dawn Of the Dead Poster

Dawn Of the Dead

Here is another example of an opening sequence from our chosen genre.
http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/06/30/dawn-of-the-dead/

Opening Sequence

As the task is to create a two minute opening sequence to a fiction film, we will be looking at various films to see how titles are used. The first film we looked at was Juno. We then took a film in our own genre and compared.

Horror

A horror film creates an unsettling image for the audience, playing on the emotions: fear and disgust. They, mainly, feature a supernatural force and therefore the genre overlaps with fantasy, science-fiction and thriller. A Horror plays with the audience's mind, their hidden fears and the fear of the unknown. Modern horror films focus on explict gore and material to make the viewer jump.
Early horror films are based on classic literature, focusing on the gothic and horror genre. My first film examples are these types of films.

Horror Genre

Genre and Hollywood By Steve Neale

Despite a long-standing intellectual interest in horror in France and else-where in Europe, there was comparatively little serious discussion of the horror film in Britain or America until the publication of books by Clarens in 1968 and by Butler in 1970. In consequence, as Gledhill points out, 'only in the seong half of the 70s was the genre put on the agenda of film studies'(1985b : 99). In partial explanation, she goes on to cite Wood (1979), who refers to the low cultural status of the horror film, and to what she calls 'the special relationship' (1985b : 99) between the genre and its fans and 'aficionados'

Steve Neale then quotes (Wood 1979: 13)
The horror film has consistently been one of the most popular and, at the same time, the most disreputable of Hollywood genres. The popularity itself has a peculiar characteristic that sets the horror film apart from other genres: it is restricted to aficionados and complemented by total rejection, people tending to go to horror films either obsessively or not at all. They are dismissed with contempt by the majority of reviewer-critics, or simply ignored.

Halloween II Title Sequence

00:20 Location
00:28 Date Set
04:20 Authorial
04:25 Production
04:34 Actors
04:48 Film Name
04:57 Production
05.06 Starring
05:13 Starring
05:20 Starring
05:27 Starring
05:35 Starring
05:44 Starring
05:52 Starring
06:01 Edited By
06:10 Executive In Charge Of Production
06:17 Music & In Association With
06:27 Associate Producer
06:34 Production Designer
06:40 Director Of Photography
06:47 Executive Producer
06:55 Written By
07:03 Produced By
07:11 Directed By

The opening titles of Juno in comparison to the opening titles of Halloween II differ in timing and the way that they are shown. The titles of Juno come within the first two opening minutes and are shown over the action. Whereas the titles of Halloween II come after the action and have a separate image accompanying them.

Poltergeist Film Posters

The Dead Of The Night Poster

Our Chosen Film Genre

Today after discussing with Sophie, my partner, we decided upon the genre Horror for our film.

Saw VI

Halloween II

The Exorcism Of Emily Rose