AS Media Horror Film- Cold Case

Preliminary task

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

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

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

https://www.mindmeister.com/675999338/what-have-you-learnt-about-technologies-from-the-process-of-constructing-this-product

Evaluation questions 4 + 5

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

Evaluation: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

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

Film update!

So.. we showed our teacher our film so that we could get some feedback. I knew personally that there was something not right about it and we needed to change some parts however I didn't expect her to say that we should remove the whole first part of our film (in the house). I was a little shocked at first and was unsure what I could do to fix it, however with some help I came up with the idea of showing some home video clips of the character 'Rachel Matthews' as a child. My friend who is luckily called Rachel let me use some clips of her when she was younger. During the next week or so, I plan on going into school to edit in these clips and change the titles and music to make our piece seem more scary and suited to our genre.Also, I like the idea of having some titles explaining what has happened eg. "Rachel Matthews was last seen on the 2nd April 2016 by her parents. She had previously said that she was going to school but never showed up" etc. This has previously been seen in films such as Devil Inside.

Refilming

Unfortunately all of our footage accounting our re-filming got lost or didn't film in the first place but we can assure you that it did happen! Instead I filmed my own personal vlog after filming explaining what we did.

We were finally able to film the parts with Rachel Matthews and refilm the parts that went wrong. This time we had a proper camera rather than our phone however the quality is visibly different.

Paranormal Activity case study

The first Paranormal Activity film was produced in 2007 by Oren Peli with the help of Blumhouse Productions. This film was a independent film with an extremely low $15,000 budget. The film was hugely successful and was called the most profitable film ever made despite the verification problems because of how it was produced independently.

The style of the film was realistic with the use of home video clips and CCTV cameras. To make the film even more realistic the camera was mostly always in a stationary position (on a tripod etc.) which made the audience more connected to the characters as they could clearly see everything that was happening and "were more invested in the story and the characters". To add to the realism Peli did not use a set script but instead gave the actors a brief outline of the story and told them to improvise the situation- this is called retro scripting.

The film was shot in seven days due to a strict schedule set out by Peli however hit perhaps would have been better for the story/actors if the film could have unfolded how he had imagined it rather than a rushed story.

Paranormal Activity was first screened at Screamfest Horror Film Festival in 2007 where Miramax Films (Jason Blum) saw it and saw the potential. Later, it impressed Stephen Spielberg who then created a deal between both Peli and Blum and were now working together to distribute it. In order to work with Peli, Dreamworks wanted to recreate the film with a bigger budget. However before remaking they decided to do a test screening of the original. It was here that they saw how many people were scared as many walked out. it was then that Dreamworks decided that the remake was not necessary.

Feedback

In class we showed our work (in progress) to eachother. This enabled our classmates to give us feedback and constructive criticisms which would help us achieve a better mark. Here are our comments:

Many of these comments were very understandable and we knew that we had to improve these straight away. This encouraged us to refilm parts that were not right and fix any imperfections. We aim to improve these by editing our clips so that they flow better and we have slightly changed the script for refilming so that it is easier to understand.

Furthermore, as this was shown to our peers halfway through editing it meant that we had not yet got to the climax so the audience had not yet seen many horror elements. We have now fixed this by filming the ending and are in the process of editing. 

Hypodermic needle

The hypodermic needle is a theory which suggests that the things shown through media can influence the way that people view others or topics, perhaps setting a stereotype. This is shown through a psychology study by Bandura which includes the Bobo Doll. In this study two groups of children were shown a model acting differently to the Bobo Doll; one group had seen the model acting kindly and the other had seen aggression. It was shown that the group who saw the aggression repeated the actions and they had therefore been influenced by what they had seen.

Bobo Doll experiment

This is shown in the media by things such as news articles where Islam supporters are portrayed as terrorists as the news shows only this side towards them. It was also shown by Hitler. Many people supported Hitler despite knowing his ideas and this could have been due to the fact of propaganda and how that portrayed Nazi's to be powerful and successful people.

Pre Production Analysis

Planning our main brief went very smoothly. Tommy, Olivia and I quickly came up with many good ideas for our main brief which were influenced by films such as Paranormal Activity, The Ring etc. Our first idea has slightly changed throughout the pre-production process as part of our story was that the girls would have been filming it themselves (similar to paranormal activity) so that the audience would possibly feel closer to the characters. However, we decided that this would be too hard to film and edit and feedback from others said that they would prefer a film which is filmed from an omniscient perspective. I think that watching other examples of AS horror films helped as we got some ideas for our own piece and we were shown mistakes that were made so that we do not do the same thing and also shown tips to make our pieces better by using the influence of others'.

We were slow with getting some actors as we needed 5 actors and there was only three of us in the group. We tried to ask some pupils in our school however many of them were not confident or were busy. Instead we found my friend Charlie from a different college. We still didn't have an actor for the character of Rachel Matthews so we did not film that section on the filming day. On the day of filming we had our camera ready and a tripod, however once everyone arrived at my house we soon found out that the camera didn't have a battery and it was essential that we filmed soon as we needed to start editing after half term. We opted with the idea of using my iPhone as a substitute and had to tape it to the tripod. Because of this our quality may be worse than it could have been however this hopefully wont make much difference.

In the process of editing we soon realised that some of our cuts did not go together smoothly as at one point a character was sitting down when she should have been standing up. Therefore we need to film again. At this moment we are planning to film at the weekend so that we have another week at school so that we can edit. Also, at this session we will film the Rachel Matthews scene as we have finally found an actor who is suitable. We need to refilm some bits so that we can accurately get the genre through clearly to the audience.

Amityville horror analysis

I had previously watched Amityville Horror as a suggestion from my teacher. We were shown the introduction in class as inspiration for our piece, I then went home and watched the full movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it because at parts it got me scared and wanting to find out what was going to happen despite the introduction foreshadowing the events. I then decided to do an analysis on the 4 minute opening. Below are my notes.

Before the film starts the production logos appear, each matching a sound. When Dimension appears the sound of wind or breathing gets played which displays signs of the horror genre. When the film starts we are shown a black plain screen which could connote the unknown or that there is something dangerous hiding. Then white letters appear showing the date. The font is in a typewriter style which matches the time context of when the introduction is set. The whit and black contrast makes each other stand out and tells the audience that there are both good and evil within the film.

We first see signs of characters after this although the camera is zoomed into Ronny's face and blurred which leaves the audience unsure of who this man is. This could lead to the audience being scared as it shows mystery and a sense that something is being hidden from them. Whilst this is happening we can hear the sounds of thunder and lightening which is used as pathetic fallacy but as also part of mise-en-scene. The sounds of thunder and lightening is a common fear of many so was used to inflict a sense of danger. The way that it was used as miss-en-scene was that it created dramatic lighting as it would switch from light to black frequently however the characters would continue to move. This means that the audience would have become disorientated within the scene and would feel like they are unable to know what is going on. 

To contrast the loud sounds of thunder and lightening we hear whispering from an unknown voice. This adds to the mystery as we do not know a reason for the voice telling Ronny to "kill them". This would make the audience feel anxious and scared as there is an anonymous evil source. The gun shots that we hear shocks the audience and makes them realise that Ronny has killed them in reality as the sound is diegetic rather than the sounds of screams and music when the fast montage is playing.

Religious imagery is frequently used in horror films to juxtapose the suggested demonic occurrence. In Amityville Horror we are introduces to religion when we see a book titled 'Evil is the proof of God'. This could suggest that evil is going to happen, furthermore the religious book is surrounded by (what I assume is) a glass of alcohol and cigarette ends. Both of these could be seen as dirty and unholy which contrast religion and goes against God. Religious imagery is common iconography as it is usually linked to possession and demons, this is shown later in the sequence as the newspaper images show that Ronny said that he was possessed. 

The setting has a dark black and yellow light which shows the shadows more which has negative connotations as the audience is unsure of what could be hiding in them. This could furthermore suggest that Ronnie could be hiding something or that he is an evil character as the black shadow behind him could connote death or that he has a double personality, in this case it would be the evil spirit. Also, the dark setting makes the television screen stand out. The fact that the screen is projecting a white light and contrasting the setting could suggest that the television has power over the man. Our eyes are immediately drawn to the television because of the contrast which makes the audience aware that something is not right with it. We know this as we see that a figure flicks across the screen hinting that something is wrong with the television. White often connotes innocence and purity however as we know that television could have evil possession it could be seen as mocking goodness.

Linking to the previous point, we can see that the television again has power over him and has possibly possessed him with the camera angle when we can only see his eyes. Here we see the reflection of the television which could indicate that the spirit is inside of him and is controlling what he can see- he can only see what the spirit wants him to. Furthermore, because we can see only the eyes it gives the audience the feeling that he is staring straight into ours which could make the audience feel intimidated.

The editing of the cuts has been used to show the contrast between good and evil. We see that the camera cuts to pictures of Ronny when he was younger or happy. This brings normality back to the character as we know that he was once a normal boy/man. However, the scene then cuts to present day Ronnie loading a gun. Here we can see how Ronny has change and it could give the audience an idea that he hasn't changed by himself because he was once a normal, smart boy as we can see his graduation picture- hinting towards possession.

Filming

On the 16th February Olivia, Tommy and I filmed our main brief film with the help of our friend Charlie to be one of the characters. We started filming at my house and when we was about to start we found that the camera has been given to us without any battery inside. Instead we improvised and used my iPhone 6s. We are unsure of which camera would have been better quality however we did not have any other camera which we could have used. Below are images of Tommy, Olivia and Charlie at my house before filming and our iPhone sellotaped to the tripod.

 This is a screenshot of the rough editing procedure on iMovie.

 We vlogged the day showing our progress and what we was doing.

Storyboarding

This is me drawing the storyboard. I took on this role as I took GCSE art. We spoke together as a group to decide what our story would be and what types of camera angles we should use and I completed the process by drawing it up.

Audience questionnaire

I created a questionnaire in order to find out the types of things that the audience would like to see in a horror. The questions included things such as 'What age certificate would you want to see on a horror film?' and 'What age would your preferred protagonist be?'.This helped us create our horror to the public's taste in horrors.


The link to the results on a spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QMBQVreGPSWTVFRyIOzWm5_bckQ6nzrgUyqeFuBo7bw/edit?usp=sharing


The link to the analytic is here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ON4MGIUGDFQeQr0MrdmtEz1DtxEG4BPcH20xqqueM7Y/viewanalytics

From responses of people aged 16-50 52.9% of people would prefer a 18 certificate however we are doing a 15 so that a large audience isn't left out.
76.5% would watch a genre hybrid which would successfully go with our film as it is a hybrid of horror/crime.

The results could have turned out biased because of the range of answers we got. We only received 17 responses and this could have been made more accurate for the general public if we had used a larger and wider range of participants. Most of the answers came from people of the age 16-18 with one from a 50 year old. It would have been better if we could have used participants of a lower and higher age than 16-18.

Mise-en-scene in horror films

Setting

Any typical horror film will set the main action in an abandoned house or a forest- somewhere where the audience will feel isolated and alone. This is famously used in Friday 13th. This gives the audience an idea that they have no way of help and will exaggerate the idea of someone being after them. Furthermore, setting the scene when it is dark makes the audience feel as if they are unable to see the full picture and be scared of the unknown.

Props

Most props used in horror films are linked to murder eg. a weapon, the devil/possession eg. crucifix that probably gets turned upside down and some type of object which links the protagonist to the evil character, for example, in Scream this would be the phone in the opening. Blood is also used throughout horror films to either foreshadow death or to suggest that someone has already died. This makes the audience feel as if there is danger around them and possibly that they cannot escape.

Examples of these props are used in Amityville Horror when the door handle gets turned around which has a cross on it and below:

Costume

The types of clothing differs with each character and what personalities they wish to portray. A typical young girl would have dark hair, pale skin and dressed in a pretty dress even though she will be covered in blood. Antagonist clothing makes it very clear to the audience who the baddie is. In The Woman In Black the woman is dressed in black, ripped gown which shows that she is dead and evil with the connotations that the colour black introduces. Using connotative colours are commonly used as it suggests to the audience what to expects and so that they have an idea of who the murderer (for example) is.

Makeup

The makeup used in horror films is mainly used to show the difference of characters. The protagonists usually have minimal/no makeup so that they look as natural as possible whereas the antagonist is most likely to have dark, dirty or bloody makeup. This makes the audience realise what the antagonist is going to do eg. murder or kidnap etc.

Recce

Today Me, Tommy and a new member of our group, Jake went to Clock House Gardens in order to take photos for our recce and see how we would film the piece. We were able to look at the lighting and shadows and the angles in which we would need to film from. The setting gives an eery atmosphere as it also seems isolated. The fact that there are many trees could suggest that something is hiding from the characters and suggests that the protagonists are trapped.

Empty path

Bushes where the body could be found

Tree hanging over pond

Tree where Rachel could be seen through

Memorial pathway

Memorial pathway

Old looking shed

Benches and wooden figures where blood could be

Pond

Geese which we can use as diegetic sound

The opening pathway to Clockhouse Gardens

This is the opening of Clockhouse Gardens where we will film a pan whilst the girls walk in.

Script

Script

Four friends ZOE, JOE, GEORGE and LUCY are together in a normal house. They are all in the kitchen/dining room talking together.

ZOE is standing up away from the others and holds up her phone.

Zoe: Guys, have you checked Facebook lately?

Joe: No not really, why?

Zoe: Well, do you have Rachel Matthews on Facebook?

George, Lucy: Yeah I think so, why? What’s happened?

ZOE walks to the table to show the group her phone. On the screen there is a post on Facebook from an unknown user to the page of RACHEL MATTHEW saying ‘R.I.P’. A location is set which says ‘Clockhouse Gardens’.

Lucy: Oh my God…

George: Well what does that mean?

Zoe: We need to go to Clockhouse Gardens and investigate.

Joe: What? No way! It’s probably just a trick from one of her friends.

Lucy: No… She only has like one friend. She only has five friends on Facebook and I’m pretty sure that two of them are her family.

Zoe: Exactly! Guys, I think this is serious and I want to find out what has happened.

George: Well I’m not coming with you.

Joe: Neither am I.

Zoe: Come on it will be fun!

Lucy: I’ll go; I want to find out what happened.

The camera cuts to a pan of the entrance to Clockhouse Gardens. ZOE and LUCY walk in.

Lucy: So what do we do now?

Zoe: Just keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

ZO and LUCY walk around and find a blood handprint on a tree/statue.

Lucy: What happened? Oh my God… Where is Rachel?

They walk around more in search for RACHEL. They come across a broken window with blood coming from it. Something catches the attention of Lucy and a hand is seen to be sticking out of a bush in the same direction of the sound.

Lucy: [quietly] Rachel!

ZOE and LUCY run over to RACHEL and they stare at each other in horror. The camera pans upwards from the body to their faces and behind them is an image of RACHEL staring at them.



Characters and props

Zoe White

Typical blonde girl- Usually irresponsible, gullible in the horror genre.

She is of secondary school/college age (16/17).

Overly excitable.

Can easily persuade people to do something.

Played by Olivia Watson

Costume: Red top which connotes danger- coincides with the blonde hair and the typical idea of this character being irresponsible and uneducated.



 

Joe Triggs

Un-enthusiastic about his friends interests.

Lazy.

Secondary school/ college age (16/17).

Quiet and keeps to himself.

Can be mean on occasion.

Played by Tommy Heath

Costume: Grey hoodie, Black trousers. Monochrome colours.

 George Dennis

Mature and well educated.

Aware of what is wrong and right.

Doesn't follow instructions unless he knows that it is the right thing to do.

Secondary school/ college age (16/17).

Tries to persuade others to do stuff but is not successful.

Played by Charlie Smith

Costume: blue hoody, Black jeans. Monochrome colours.

Lucy Roberts

Curious about many things.

Observant and remembers little details.

Usually is calm but can panic in tough situations.

Secondary school/college age (16/17)

Played by Lily King

Costume: Black top and jeans to connote death and danger (not as much as red as she is not the main protagonist.

Rachel Matthews

Lonely, didn't have many friends.

Secondary school/college age (16/17)

We do not know much information about her.

Played by

Costume: Ripped, bloody clothes with fake blood and make-up on face

Props

In our piece we used minimal/no props. However to create a more realistic feel to the house scene we had bags of food on the table which shows the normality of the characters' lives.
We had to use an iPhone to show the Facebook post.

For the blood that we used on the trees we used tomato ketchup as this is thicker than fake blood and would have been easier to see on camera.

Schedule so far

This is our schedule so far. We are currently on week 3 and by the end of the week we need to finish taking photos for the recce and finish drawing the storyboard. So far I am on track as I have completed everything in  week 1 and 2 and as a group we are completing week 3's content. 

This is in the process of me writing the script. Soon we will be able to do the storyboard and recce.

Pitch

In order to get feedback of our film ideas we presented the class with our film plot, target audience, chosen institution, the mise-en-scene we would use and our chosen age certificate. We had to read out our ideas or make a powerpoint showing our research and our decisions that we made.

This is what was included in our pitch

This is me (middle) presenting our pitch 

 

Here the worry of lighting was mentioned to us. However, I will try to overcome this by filming at around 5 o'clock when it is only starting to get dark so that we will be able to see everything or we could film on a cloudy day but edit it to make it seem that it is closer to night time.

A weakness was brought up about having smashed glass, although we did not discuss it to the class I have taken in the consideration as shown on our pitch sheet. I think that this would be a great opportunity to show signs of a struggle. Furthermore, make-up would not be an issue as I have access to stage fake blood and I can easily make someone look dead with normal make-up.

Again the idea of lighting difficulties was raised here. An opportunity that was raised was that there are lots of chances to engage the audience. I think we can do this by using modern day social media as a way that the group of friends find out the information as the audience will be able to relate to it more. I think that the fact that there will still be blood on the crime scene will not be unrealistic because in the story line I will make it so that not many people have heard it. For example, I came up with the idea that an unknown user posts onto the victims Facebook wall (as an example) saying something like 'R.I.P' and a location set. Therefore not many people, if any, would have known that the victim is there and cleaned up the blood. The group of friends would have been one of the only people to have seen the most as perhaps the victim didn't have many friends.

Institutions

Some institutions focus on certain genre films eg. Disney focus on children's films and cartoons. some horror institutions include:

20th Century Fox

20th  Century Fox is one of the six major American film studios (now owned by 21st Century Fox). Instead of producing horror films, 20th Century Fox focuses more on distributing horror films. The company has distributed films such as From Hell, Shutter and Jennifer's Body as well as producing highly popular films like The Alien and The Omen. The logo was designed by Emil Kosa Jr in 1935. Originally the position of the word "fox" said "pictures, inc." Over time there were different designs used. Those being in 1953, 1994 and 2009.

Warner Bros

Warner Bros is successful in creating, producing, distributing AND marketing and is one of the main film studios. Some of Warner Bros most popular films include Harry Potter, sex and the city and The Dark Knight Rises. Warner Bros has also been successful in creating horror films such as Friday the 13th, Sweeney Todd and House of Wax. All of these films WB distributed and they produced two. 

Warner Bros studios is older than 20th Century Fox and therefore would make this company more appealing to use in our media as they have more experience. Furthermore, 20th Century Fox is known to make films of a similar genre (comedy/family etc.) whereas WB has a larger range of genres.

Universal Pictures

Universal studios is one of the oldest American movie studios and again one of the 'Big Six'. Similarly to 20th Century Fox, Universal focuses on similar genres which are the most successful for the institution. However, Universal have been making very successful horror films like Dracula and Drag Me to Hell. Universal Studios are known for the series of horror films created by Laemmle, Jr which extended into the 19040's.

Lionsgate

Lionsgate is an American/Canadian film producer and distribution company. Again, Lionsgate focuses on similar genres for their films such as action, drama and thrillers. Lionsgate are relatively new to creating horror films and they have only few horror films overall. however, Many of the horror films produced and distributed by Lionsgate  have been highly popular including films such as Saw 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, The Last Exorcism and The Eye. The fact that they do not have much experience is not appealing and would want a company who is highly successful.

Hammer

Hammer is a British company which is mainly known for its horror films. This would be a great company to use as their work is focused on the horror genre which shows how experienced and committed they are. Many of them are very well known such The Curse Of Frankenstein and The Mummy. Hammer would be good to use because their love of horror films suggests that they will know the types of things needed such as the correct iconography needed in horror films which will draw in the audience.

Blumhouse Productions

Blumhouse productions produces low budget horror films meaning that they are likely to make a higher profit. They are currently signed to a 10 year first look deal with Universal Pictures. Blumhouse productions are one of the most popular horror film producers with such successful films like Paranormal Activity, Sinister and insidious.