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

Our film idea

Title: Hurting

Genre: Horror

Primary Audience: Ages 16-24 M/F

Secondary Audience: Fans of the horror/psychological horror genre

Our film idea and opening sequence use and challenge conventions of the horror genre such as typical characters, titles, setting and narrative. 

Narrative

Our narrative borrows several features from existing horror films. The theme of someone being possessed has been used in many existing films which we took some of our ideas from – for example, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Rite.

The narrative is conventional as we followed Todorov’s Narrative Theory, making sure that it had an equilibrium, disruption and resolution. At first Violet is safe and sound at home, but soon she hears some strange noises. As she goes to investigate, things get worse and she tries to contact her family for help. Later she would fight and finally overcome her disturbed mentality. 

Some of our influences:

• Insidious

We thought Insidious had a similar theme to our film, also sharing the Psychological Horror subgenre. Another element we looked at in Insidious was the house setting which is quite similar to ours.

• Paranormal Activity

We took a lot of inspiration from Paranormal Activity for our setting. The dark, low-key lighting style and low budget filming was also quite relevant to our film.

• Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D is a different style to our film as it relies a lot on special effects and is quite gory, however we took inspiration from its title sequence as we thought the titles had a nice look and were presented in a visual way.

Psycho title sequence

Silent Hill: Revelation title sequence

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

We tried to positively represent several social groups such as:

• Women
• Teenagers
• Families (particularly relationship between daughter and father)
• Racial minorities

 and develop some common stereotypes in our opening sequence.

Gender


Our opening sequence shows a positive representation of women. In most horror films women are portrayed as weak and vulnerable, often playing the role of a victim or support character. Although our female protagonist is also a victim to some extent, she shows courage and is independent as the tries to fight the demon inside her. When she gets into the closet and calls her dad, it shows that she still needs support from her family however.

The Final Girl Theory is a convention of thriller and horror films where there is a last woman or girl that survives to the end of the film to confront the killer. In our film, Violet could be seen as the final girl, as she survives her mental condition and in the end confronts the demon possessing her. This again shows her brave side and that she is more of a female 'hero' archetype than a victim.

Likewise men are represented as powerful and in control as Violet seeks her dad for help when she realises something is wrong. We don't get to see him and only hear him on the answering machine, but this still shows that Violet depends on him, and that he is capable of protecting her. Our film follows the convention of having a male who is in charge and has an important role, however the female is also represented as strong in her own way.

An example of a conventional female character with a vulnerable representation is Janet in Final Destination 4. When a car wash malfunctions she is left helpless and desperately tries to call her friends for help as she nearly drowns. 

Ethnicity

Our media product also has a positive representation of racial minorities, as our protagonist, Violet, is a young Asian female. This goes against traditional horror and film conventions where such characters are often given supporting roles. She also opposes the audience's expectations as traditionally a white protagonist has been used in horror films. For example Rachel, the lead character in The Ring can be seen as a conventional white female protagonist. However, even Rachel steps outside the stereotype - she has to be brave and save her daughter alone as ultimately nobody can help her. The Ring also shows that female protagonists rarely rely on physical strength like men - instead she has to be resourceful and use her wit.

As our film mainly focuses on Violet and her personal experience there is not much being shown of other characters, so to solve this problem the film would later introduce characters of a Caucasian background or a few male characters to represent a wider range of social groups.

Rachel - The Ring

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

We looked at a few potential distributors for the film including Lionsgate, Paramount and Momentum Pictures. In the end we decided that Lionsgate was best suited to our film because they have distributed horror films similar to ours in the past and are able to distribute in the UK and North America - the main areas we want to target with our film.

Marketing Campaign

Silent Hill: Revelation's campaign (also distributed by Lionsgate)

• Main Poster
• Theatrical Trailer
• Social Media - Facebook and Twitter

Our marketing campaign would consist of:

• Teaser poster
• Main poster
• Trailer on official Youtube channel
• Social media e.g. Facebook page and Twitter
• Viral Marketing via the web - emails, social networking, word of mouth
• Official website to create synergy in the campaign

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

The audience for our media product consists of a primary and secondary group. We primarily wanted to attract a younger audience of both genders because it would be a large market and we thought our film would be effective at keeping them entertained. Since it is an independent UK production, the film would have a large audience in the UK, however we also wanted to widen the reach of our film to have a global appeal.

Universal Themes

Our film has a few elements that would appeal to a global audience outside the UK:

• British values - Setting in London, British accents, characters who were brought up/live in London.
• Narrative - Conventional structure which all horror fans around the world can relate to.
• Characters - A strong unconventional female lead.
• Themes - Possession, good vs evil, persistence and bravery.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The opening sequence attracts/addresses the audience in several ways, aiming to entertain them by building suspense and making them sympathize with the character Violet.

• To attract our primary audience (ages 16-24) we tried to create a lot of suspense in our opening sequence. In order to achieve this, we focused on music and sound effects rather than visual/special effects to suit the style of our film. The music in the clip slowly builds up to a climax and the use of sound effects creates an eerie and creepy atmosphere. For example, when Violet looks through the spyhole of her front door, there is a high pitched note being played and static noise which gradually increases in pitch. After a moment of silence there is the climactic knocking sound which at this point the audience has become familiar with - the demon is after Violet. 

• Another thing that builds suspense is the use of low key, enigmatic lighting which leaves questions unanswered for the audience. The darkness in some shots makes them wonder if there's anything hiding around the corner that will pop out and shock them. We also added a vignette that slowly fades in around the edges of the screen to represent Violet's fear and loss of sanity. This also adds to the low key look of the opening sequence.

A low-key shot from our opening sequence.

• Our opening sequence attracts our secondary target audience (horror enthusiasts) by following horror conventions - this way the audience knows what to expect from our film and can often guess what will happen next, but also won't be bored due to our unique setting, characters and narrative. Some examples of the conventions we followed are the build up to a climax, low key lighting and a female protagonist/victim. 

Target Audience Feedback

I conducted a short questionnaire to investigate what the audience liked, what themes they associated the film with and what we could improve about the opening sequence. Here is an example of the responses I received:

What genre is the film? What gave you this impression?

Horror- the sense of the unknown, the music, the tone of the film and the general action on screen.

Do you think it’s a mainstream or independent type of film?

Independent

Who do you think the film is targeted at? (age, gender, interests)

Fans of the horror genre. The 16-24 year olds.

What do you think the film is about?

A girl getting attacked in her home when she’s on her own.

What works about the opening sequence? 

The editing, the use of sound to create fear and type of shots.

How could it be improved?

Have more scary things.

Would you want to watch the rest of the film? 

Yes

Can you rate the opening sequence out of 10?

8.5

The responses from the questionnaire showed that the audience generally liked the opening sequence, and that the genre and narrative were quite clear. It also gave the impression that it was going to be an independent film. However we could have included a few more elements to shock the audience.

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

I have created a Prezi presentation below which discusses some of the technologies we used while constructing the opening sequence, and what we learnt from using them.

We used technologies such as the Video Camera, Adobe software and Livetype on Mac when constructing our opening sequence. Some of these were new tools which we learned how to use during the project and some we had previous experience with, making it a slightly faster process.

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

Our preliminary task was to film and edit a short sequence of two people having a conversation, keeping in mind the continuity principles and 180 Degree Rule. In the progression from it to the full product, we learnt how to improve our continuity and create seamless movement of characters and objects, while also considering framing and shot types.



The preliminary task helped us to develop our understanding of continuity and put it into practice before starting to work on our opening sequence. We also improved on our understanding of framing and different shot types. Overall the clip was successful and we managed to make use of several techniques.

The 'Match On Action' was particularly important in our opening sequence, and in the preliminary task we tried using it to create a smooth continuous motion. For example when Olivia opens the door at 0:11 there is a cut-away to her hand, the door opens slightly and it is followed by a Long Shot from inside the room as the door continues to open. We managed to successfully apply the Match On Action in our opening sequence several times, such as when Violet is walking down the stairs and the voyeuristic window shot from outside shows her walking from the same position. If it wasn't for our preliminary task it may not have been done as effectively.

Match on Action in our preliminary exercise

Match on Action in the opening sequence

Another continuity technique we looked at was the 180 degree rule. When the two characters sat down to have a conversation, the camera kept cutting between them (Shot, Reverse Shot) but never switched to the other side of the table. This makes the conversation less confusing for the audience as they could get disorientated if the 180 degree rule isn't followed.

The 30 degree rule is another film editing guideline that states "the camera should move at least 30 degrees between shots of the same subject occurring in succession". In our preliminary exercise we achieved this by using Over The Shoulder shots, cutting to each character while they were speaking their line. This ensures that there is always a change in the camera angle between each shot. In the opening sequence we tried to apply the rule after Violet hears the knock on her front door. When she gets scared and begins to run back upstairs there are a few fast cuts of her from different angles, building suspense but still making it easy for the audience to interpret.

30 Degree Rule - preliminary exercise

30 Degree Rule - opening sequence

With regards to framing, we had to be careful about the cut off points for some of the shots in the preliminary task. In the OTS shot above we tried to keep as little space between Olivia's head and the top of the frame as possible. We also tried to have a variety of shot types, for example when entering the room we used a Long Shot to show the setting and then cut to a Medium Close Up of the two characters together. We tried to apply the same concepts to our opening sequence and overall it was successful.

We didn't run into any significant problems when shooting or editing the preliminary task, but we learnt a lot from the process and managed to apply the principles of continuity and framing in our opening sequence successfully.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our Film:

Our project is called Hurting and we chose to make a psychological horror film because we all had a mutual interest in the genre. 

Genre:

Main Genre: Horror
Sub-genre: Psychological Horror

(Movie Posters of other Psychological Horror Films.)

Conventions of the Genre:

• Female protagonist often seemingly innocent at first or genuinely innocent then gradually becomes more abstruse as the film progresses

This is displayed in the film The Others where the main female protagonist is a seemingly innocent and over-protective mother but throughout the films there are hints that she is not as guileless as we first assumed. In fact we find out that she actually murdered her children and that the whole family is in fact dead.

• Protagonist has other people in her life (e.g. family or close friends) to help them cope with whatever if happening

Violet is phoning her dad to come home and help her.

Violet's dad is the main person who tries to come to her aid however, in the end she must face her demons on her own and conquer them once and for all.

In Scream 4, the main protagonist Sydney calls the police to
guard her and relies on their help. Unfortunately, they prove
to not be of much use and Sydney has to confront the killer.

• An overall eerie atmosphere to the film and relies on suspense
• Conquers whatever the "psychological problem" is by the end of the film
• Often follow Todorov's narrative theory:

How that applies to our film/opening:

Opening Sequence Conventions:

• Use of many enigma codes that will put many questions in the audience's head therefore making them want to watch the whole movie. Some questions we raised through our sequence were: What are all the drawings on the girl's bedroom wall? Who is knocking? Why is she so terrified?
• In her bedroom, the master shot acts as the establishing shot, giving the audience a feel of where she is and what time it is. However, we did not have a shot of the house in its entirety which could have been added to give a full view of the setting to the audience.
• There are titles all through out the film which credits the crew and cast according to importance and fits in with what would be the legal requirements for the titling of a film

We wanted our colour scheme to be lots of blues/purples/whites/blacks, especially in the opening because it happens at night. One of our inspirations was from The Woman in Black which made use of a lot of these colours and successfully created a disturbing atmosphere. The Paranormal Activity series had a similar colour scheme except it was more prominently blue. But, it was filmed purposely in a "found footage" style which is not what we wanted in our opening.

The grading for Paranormal Actvity.

The grading for The Woman in Black.

The grading for Hurting. (Example 1)

The grading for Hurting. (Example 2)

By using these colours as soon as the opening started, the audience are put into the mood instantly which is one key job of an opening sequence- to set up the atmosphere.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

FEMALE/RACE REPRESENTATION
General Horror Movie Representations:

• Typically the females in horror movies are portrayed as the weaker sex always relying on the male to take care of things
  
  
  For example, Odette Yustman's character, Casey,  in The Unborn seeks out the help of a priest to banish her demons and to eventually reach an equilibrium she had to follow the instructions he gave her.


• Often portrayed by a white, American actress with blonde or brunette hair (hair colour is quite important as stereotypically blonde females are the ditzy victims, the brunettes are considered the smart and practical victims and the ones with black hair take more charge and have a darker side to them)


• Females are shown to provide the emotional support in horror films which draws on the stereotype of them being not physically strong so having to depend on their emotions
  
  
  Representations in our Horror Movie:

• Our female protagonist is Asian which breaks the conventions of having a white American actress. Furthermore she has a British accent which is fitting as it is a British film

• We are sticking to some stereotypical representations of females as our protagonist is partly reliant on her father for help from the supposed entity in her house. The male is taking charge of the situation however, we chose to do this so that the audience can instantly familiarise themselves with the plot and not have too many new things thrown at them

• However our film is a psychological horror and the main character is mentally disturbed and possibly dangerous which puts a twist on the usual expectancy of the male character being the threat

Why We Thought to Challenge Representations:

Among horror movies, it is uncommon for audiences to see an Asian female as the leading character. We thought it would be good to bring something fresh to the cinema screens. Often in films Asian females are shown as the smart ones with a traditional outlook on life. Especially older Asian females and we wanted to show our stance and counteract that stereotype. The British film industry has a growing reputation of successful films with Asian female leads that go against stereotypes such as Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice. This recent trend has been largely successful however, it has not been attempted in horror films and we thought our movie could be the one to possibly change that. 

SCREAM 4 EXAMPLE:

Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) is one of the main females in Scream 4. She is an example of the typical American actress. The Scream movies are a large franchise that is widely recognised unlike our film which is a one off, independent movie so large differences are to be expected.

Character wise, looking at Scream 4, Kirby is quite fun and daring but gullible at the same time. If our film progressed, we would have made Violet a strong and fierce character but have certain vulnerabilities too. This way she can also remain relatable to the audience.

THE AWAKENING EXAMPLE

In the context of our film we also looked at other British horror films. An inspiration for a strong female lead was Florence from The Awakening (2011). She starts off as a woman who does not believe in the supernatural and her career in fact is proving that supernatural occurrences are hoaxes. As the film goes on, we learn that she has been blocking certain memories as a child from her mind which is similar to how Violet's mind is confusing her and tampering with her memory.

 

The Awakening 2011 trailer.

The Final Girl Theory

The final girl is a common trope in horror films and it refers to the last girl or woman alive in the movie to affront the entity/murderer/etc. The generic idea in horror films is that some form of an attacker kills several victims and one female is the last one alive and turns the table by stopping the menace. Many theorists have stated that "the final girl" in most horror movies share the same qualities. They're often the virtuous girl who high morale or the clever/"geeky" one who is one step ahead of the killer.

Examples of "Final Girls" in horror movies:

From top left: Halloween, Scream, The Cabin in the Woods & Friday the 13th.

Violet is the final girl in our film.

A point we could have improved on was that we could have possibly explored Violet's character in more depth or given more signs throughout the clip that we was psychologically disturbed. The only giveaway was the connotations of the pictures in her bedroom at the beginning of the clip:

If we showed more aspects of her character through small habits or more dialogue, audiences might have been able identify with her easily.

Overall, we provided a view of social groups that opposed the general stereotype in order to bring something new to the film industry and to encourage better perceptions to be made of them.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our Distributor:

Why We Chose Lionsgate:

• Familiar with the genre as they have distributed many other successful horror films so they have the capability to distribute our movie just as successfully

EXAMPLES

The Possession (2012)

(IMDB rating)

Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

(IMDB rating)

• Lionsgate might want to invest in our film as it would add to their collection of horror movies that they have distributed successfully so ours will have the same fortune. If the quality of our film is good, it would help increase their reputation as a global distrbutor.


• Also they distribute to the UK, France, Australia and North America so we can hope to have a global appeal

Our Production Company:

• An independent UK production company
• Specialises in low-budget horror films
• Usually with the sub-genre of psychological horror or supernatural horror

Release Strategy:

• Earlier release date in the UK as it is a British film but also because if enough buzz and hype about it is created in the UK, it could be even more successful in places like the US
• Running time for about 3-4 weeks
• We would have a standard release: it is first released in the cinema and then after at least 3 and a half months it would get released to DVD and on other platforms such as Netflix or LoveFilm.
• Released at various local cinemas in the UK that a lot of people are familiar with such as:

 

(The picture above is of the Roxy Screen and Bar cinema where our film could be shown for the older audience members who wish to see it. It is a bar joined with a cinema which makes it more of a shared experience which a lot of people like with horror movies. E.g. if they are scared and want someone to be with. However the down side with choosing this cinema is that is has a more relaxed atmosphere which might take away from the intensity of Hurting.)

Firstly a theatrical release:

Secondly it would go to DVD:



Thirdly to Blu-Ray (Possibly):

The films we looked into that were released quite a few years ago were not released in Blu-Ray of course as it had not been invented at the time. Nevertheless, some were re-released on Blu-Ray as it has become very appealing to many consumers. There is the question, however, of whether Blu-Ray would be suitable for our movie? An independent horror movie might not actually benefit from a Blu-Ray release except for maybe if it provided features such as deleted scenes, interviews etc.

If our film happens to be very successful then approximately two years after the release, we would consider releasing it on freeview TV. Presumably, it would be shown on the Sky Movie channels (Sky Sci Fi/Horror) or possibly on Film 4.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

CORE AUDIENCE

Click mind map to enlarge.

The fact that our main character is a young, Asian female and that is a social group we're representing throughout the film opening, it would mean that young British-Asian females will be interested in seeing this movie as they have found a character that they are able to relate to in the movie industry.

SECONDARY AUDIENCE

Click mind map to enlarge.

Question 5: How did you attract/address the audience?

Core audience:

How we planned to attract our audience:

• Our film is quite a fast paced, suspenseful horror movie which would attract people of the age group to come see it
• It has a female heroine who despite her vulnerabilities and problems, has a strong and fierce personality which would attract female viewers
• The thrill factor would attract the male audience (not to say it wouldn't attract the female audience)

Feedback from our audience:

I put up a link to our group's opening sequence on a social networking account of mine and here are some of the responses I gained:

1)

This was from a friend called Jacki who is 17 years old and she lives in Austria. (This shows that our film could in fact have a global appeal)

2) 

This was from a friend, Li, who lives in Britain and is 16 years old.

Secondary audience:

• Our film is also similar to the Paranormal Activity series which gained what is called a "cult following" (definition: a group of fans who are highly dedicated to specific culture) and our film might get the same sort of fans enjoying it. So if the film was not highly successful in the box office, we could possibly still have a widespread, dedicated group of fans who enjoy it.

I have a friend who I know is an avid horror fan and she left me a typed up review with screenshots HERE and she fits in with both our core and secondary audience as she is 17 years old and lives in London.

Ash who is a male from London who is 17 years old left a review about our opening too. It was a very positive review showing that our film appeals to both genders:

Create infographics

Audience Feedback | Create infographics

Question 6: What have you learn about the technologies in the construction of your opening sequence?

Click on mind-map picture to enlarge it.

There were limitations to using the lighting so this video helped explain how we could do so much with simply using one light. This also helped me see that as a film maker, there is no need for excessive use of technology and how the main importance of a film is actually the way it tells a story and conveys a message.

Me using lights on set.

I cannot say that technology wasn't needed at all as for post-production, we relied on technology to be able to edit our sequence together however, I feel as though in the film industry many people are too concerned with modern technology and using it for everything. Independent film makers, such as ourselves, don't have all the access to expensive technology and the reality is that there isn't a dire need for them and we should not have to compete so heavily with the professional film makers because they do have access to the expensive technology. After, isn't a film about its plot?

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

Preliminary Task:

Faceless

Click on the picture for the video

Continuity Principles:

• The main thing I gained from the Prelim exercise was dealing with the different forms of continuity

MATCH ON ACTION

As Emily turns around we start with a close up on her face then cut to a mid shot from the point of view of where she is turning.

SHOT REVERSE SHOT

We used shot reverse shot when Emily's character and the faceless person are having their conversation. This way we get a clear sense of distance between the two people and keeps the conversation flowing smoothly.

180 DEGREE RULE

The camera remained on the right side of the conversation so we kept to the 180 degree rule. This helps stop the visuals from looking confusing to the audience.

What Was Different to the Film Opening:

• In our prelim task, it was to create any scene in a film so we did not have to worry about titling so that was something we had to learn for our opening sequence.
• Also for our prelim we were given guidelines as to what had to be in our clip whereas for our opening our group was given total creative control.
• Our final opening sequence was a lot more plot driven and we had to put in a lot more research into it

Film Opening:

Hurting

• We applied he continuity principles that we learnt for our preliminary task in our final opening
• E.g. From 0:41 to 0:47 we used match-on-action when she looked at the clock and then to the window
• Also we used the 180 degree rule when Violet was in the kitchen from 1:27 to 1:39
• However we made a few continuity errors in our opening:

1. At 1:42 Violet can be seen really scared and rushing to get out of the kitchen however in the shot right after at 1:44, she walks out from the kitchen quite slowly and calmly.
2. At 1:13 Violet walks into the kitchen and the door is already open however at 1:16 from the shot of the kitchen through the window, she can be seen opening the door fully

What Was Learnt:

• Group dynamics are important as we have to be able to work together to collaborate ideas and get things done. Luckily with both my Prelim group and Final group, we all worked together quite well. Obviously for the final opening, we were required to spend more time with our group members so it was helpful that we got along well.
• We had to put in a lot more research into factors like our audience and institutions for our main project because for our Prelim it was just to test continuity principles whereas our opening had to fit in with genre conventions and look like a professional opening. It was quite difficult to pick a distributor because for our Prelim it had not crossed our minds at all. A lot of research was put into that.
• For our final project, we went on multiple shoots: practice shoot, test shoot, the real shoot and a back up shoot. We maxed out each one of the shoots which was surprising because I originally did not think we would need the back up shoot but it ended up being very useful.
• We made use of set ups in our final piece which saved us a lot of time when filming. For example, all the scenes set in the bedroom (both at the beginning of the sequence and at the end) were all filmed at the same time.    

What We Could Have Improved in our Final piece:

• We should have focused on the continuity more so we could have not had the small errors
• Possibly maxed out our shooting time even more (it was difficult as for the correct lighting, we had to film when it got darker outside so we had to wait around a little bit, we would arrive at 3/4pm but wait until 5/6pm to actually start shooting footage)
• Think ahead about practical issues we would face. For e.g. we realised for the scene where Violet walks down the staircase, it was hard to place the lights as the space was quite limited

All in all, I learnt that it is all well to have an idea you want to film but it cannot just be done spontaneously. Every detail needs to be planned and every choice made should have a reason. In addition, you can never try and predict the problems you will face whilst filming or in post-production so the best you can do it try to think of innovative ways to solve it and there is never such a thing as too much footage!