Monday 27 March 2017
Evaluation Question 1
More:
In our film poster, we have also conformed to poster conventions, through this we believe that we have created an industry standard poster. For example, in our poster we add film/institution credits at the bottom of the poster, which is the conventional position and the used the conventional font to write this. Conforming to this convention has allowed us to appeal to a niche audience in our target audience who are film fanatics and may only wish to see a film because of the institutions involved, such as the production company, director, or sound editor. As a result, this helps us to gratify our niche audience within our target audience. However, me and my partner are not a well-established production company, so in our case, including film credits may encourage individuals within our target audience who know us personally to view what we have created.
In our film, we used green screen in moments the ghost appeared in our film and this is a convention found within the horror genre. The use of green screen allowed us to manipulate the ghost scene footage, so that along with the ghostly makeup, our ghosts looked freakier and grotesque. For example, in the ghost scene of Richard Williams in the modern section of our film, we increased the pace of certain parts of the footage, so that it seemed Richard Williams was moving his neck in an abnormal matter. The use of this effect, made the ghost of Richard Williams appear as if he was cracking his neck, which is seen in the final scene of the horror film The Grudge 3 (2009), whereby the female protagonist confronts the female ghost, as the ghost reaches towards the female protagonist cracking her neck. This increased the scare factor of our film and made our ghost seem realistic, in the sense that the Ghost of Richard Williams seemed less like a human and more of an evil spirit.
We have developed film conventions in our short horror film, by not following the linear narrative structure introduced by Todorov. Todorov argues, that every film starts off with an equilibrium whereby everything is normal, then the film moves to a disequilibrium due to the introduction of a problem in the narrative and lastly, a new equilibrium is created whereby the problem is solved and everything returns to normal. We decided to not conform to this convention, by ending our film on a cliff hanger, which provided our audience something to talk about and perhaps encouraged our audience to create a narrative for themselves to satisfy their curiosity, which agrees with Paul Auster, who argues “we construct narratives for ourselves”. Moreover, we developed Noel Carroll’s, 3 act horror structure, that in a typical horror film, there is an onset phase, then a discovery phase and lastly a disruption phase. We developed this narrative convention, by creating a discovery phase in the 50’s section, when Richard Williams sees the ghost of his wife in the mirror and in the modern phase where Alan Smith sees his ghost Doppelganger (Richard Williams) in the same mirror. Through developing this convention, we think we could offer our audience something new to see in our horror film, to feel gratified by. In our narrative we can apply and develop Propp's 8 stock characters, which is a theory that suggests all films will contain certain 8 characters in one shape or form. This is evident in our film, because the princess is represented by the wife of Richard Williams, who is Sofia Williams, as she is who Richard Williams attempts to search for after she goes missing in the 50s section of the film. The villain is represented by the spirits in the haunted office. On the other hand, we developed Propp's theory as instead of having one hero, there are two heroes represented by Richard Williams and Alan Smith, who both attempt to figure out the mystery of the haunted office, but both in the end are defeated by the villain. Therefore, we have challenged Propp's theory and added an unconventional element to our film, in doing so, we believe this gives our audience a different ideology of a hero, that not all heroes succeed.
Wednesday 22 March 2017
Sunday 19 March 2017
Wednesday 15 March 2017
Evaluation Question 4
Using Digital technology in evaluation:
During the evaluation process of the production both software and hardware were incorporated and all worked in synergy to produce all 4 evaluation questions. For example, I made drafts of each evaluation question by writing it up on Microsoft Word Document using a Mac book. This was very helpful, because I could always go back to the document and make amendments any time I wanted and I could store useful links on to the document to look into if necessary, such as a bit of extra research. In addition, to package my evaluation questions, I used a variety of presentation tools, such as Prezi, Powtoon and Video Scribe. Out of all that I have used, my favourite would be Video scribe, because it did not require internet access, as it was installed on to my Laptop, which meant that in my spare time anywhere, even if there was no internet access, I could package my evaluation questions.
Friday 10 March 2017
Q1 evaluation (Draft)
Question 1:
We have created a short horror film that also fits within the mystery genre entitled, The Living Past. To summarise our film, the narrative of our film is based on two time periods, the 50's and 2016. The film begins within the 50's setting and follows Richard Williams a middle class columnist, who stumbles across a haunted office that claims the lives of those who step in. Through a time skip, the film turns to a new beginning in modern times, were this time the narrative follows Alan Smith, a blogger by profession, who mysteriously stumbles across an article regarding that same haunted office. Both Richard Williams and Alan Smith fall in to the trap of the haunted office. We have also created two ancillary products to market our film, a radio trailer and a poster. We have carefully considered the conventions of real media texts to construct all 3 products and have made decisions to include unconventional elements to all 3 products.
We have adhered to conventions of the horror genre and the mystery genre in our poster, this is because the typography, colours and iconography in our film poster adheres to a lot of conventions found within posters of the horror and mystery genre. For example, considering the colour scheme, we have used the colour black and navy blue as the background colour and this is a stereotypical colour associated with posters within the mystery genre, for example the poster for the film The Prestige (2006), whereby the background colour of the official poster is a block black colour.
This is because these dark colours symbolise the absence of light, which may connote to the absence of truth and for that reason these colours really do represent the essence of mystery films, which is about searching and investigating for the truth.
The iconography and mis en scene of our film poster both help to establish to our audience that our film is within both the horror and mystery genre. For example, in our poster we have layered behind the foreground image of Alan Smith a hand clock, which represents time and this is iconic to the mystery genre, because stereotypical narratives within the mystery genre focus on time, the idea of going back and forth in time, for example, the film Twelve Monkeys, which is about a convict that is sent back in time to collect information about a man-made virus effecting those in the present times. Secondly, the use of heavy artificial lighting is a horror genre convention that we also adhered to in our poster, this is because to create the shadows from the hollow areas on our actors face we shone bright artificial lighting and the creation of shadows helped our actors face look creepier. The use of artificial lighting is also seen in the poster of another iconic horror film The Silence of the Lambs (1991), whereby, there is heavy white light that lights up half of the face making her face seem pore less and on the other side of the face a dark shadow is created, thus the contrast creates a binary opposition. Adhering to these conventions found within the horror and mystery genre, I believe has possible helped our audience construct a narrative of what they think our film will be about, which agrees with Paul Auster who argues “we construct narratives for ourselves” and this may contribute to audience gratification (Bulmer and Katz), as our audience may find pleasure in figuring out how the use of the clock and the use of harsh lighting to emphasise the sinister expression of Alan Smith relate to each other and thus our target audience may predict a narrative based on this enigma.
In our film poster, we have also conformed to poster conventions, through this we believe that we have created an industry standard poster. For example, in our poster we add film/institution credits at the bottom of the poster, which is the conventional position and the used the conventional font to write this. Conforming to this convention has allowed us to appeal to a niche audience in our target audience who are film fanatics and may only wish to see a film because of the institutions involved, such as the production company, director, or sound editor. As a result, this helps us to gratify our niche audience within our target audience. However, me and my partner are not a well-established production company, so in our case, including film credits may encourage individuals within our target audience who know us personally to view what we have created.
Conventions found within radio trailers for horror films are often within the manipulation of sound codes. These include, the addition of crescendos in the non-diegetic incidental background music and creepy dialogue. In addition, conventions found within radio trailers for films within the mystery genre do not differ too much from horror film radio trailers, but one large conventional difference would the use of ambience sound and the heavy use of dialogue from the film in mystery radio trailers. In our radio trailer, we have conformed to these conventions, for example, in the beginning of our radio trailer there is a brass crescendo and this has been used to represent the 50’s period, as the brass instruments are stereotypical to the 50’s period. Moreover, the use of a brass crescendo helps to build tension within listeners, as the gradual increase of volume has effects on the body, as it stimulates the production of adrenaline, thus contributing to a faster heart beat and so tension. This agrees with Bridgid Cherry that cinema codes are manipulated to bring about physiological and emotional responses. However, we have developed this convention by including the brass crescendo right at the beginning of our radio trailer, this helped us to add to the horror effect, as listeners may feel thrown off due to the brass crescendo being very immediate in the timeline of the radio trailer. As a result, my audience may have a negotiated response to this, as the more academically mature individuals of my audience may interpret that this crescendo connotes to danger, while other target listeners may think that the brass crescendo simply connotes to the 50s period if not then just the “olden time”. This applied Stuart Halls reception theory. .
We have also conformed to mystery radio trailer conventions by using in film dialogue for most of the dialogue in our radio trailer. This convention is found in the radio trailer for the film Shutter Island (2010), where we hear Leonardo DiCaprio’s (who plays the main character “Edward Daniels”) voice in dialogue that seems to come directly from the film throughout the trailer. Therefore, we have conformed to this by using dialogue from the modern and 50s section of the film from the characters Sofia, Richard Williams, their ghosts, and Adam. This is effective in giving our audience an idea as to the personalities of the characters in our film and decide whether these characters are relatable or/ and scary. In addition, within our listeners there may be a dominant response, as listeners may interpret form the use of dialogue from characters in both periods, that there is a time skip in the film. However, a small proportion of our listeners may interpret that the 50s and modern period interlink with each other, thus they have a negotiated response.
Lastly, conventions of radio trailers include features such as mentioning the name and release date of the film at the end of the trailer, such as the radio trailer for the horror film The conjuring (2013), where the date of cinema release was mentioned at the end of the radio trailer(https://vimeo.com/78269665). We have conformed to this by doing the same, as we mentioned the release date of our film at the end of the radio trailer. Moreover, we developed this convention mentioning a season release of our film for Halloween in October. This is effective, as it highlights to our audience that our film is the perfect film to watch during Halloween and thus connotes to our audience that our film is worth watching. However, at the end of our radio trailer, we used a demonic voice to mention the tagline of our film, this is unconventional to radio trailers, as the mentioning of the release date is the stereotypical signal to end a radio trailer, but we continued our radio trailer by including the tagline of our film after the release date. This I believe, provided a unique element to our radio trailer that can gratify our listeners.
Conventional music techniques used in films within the horror genre are the use of strings, high pitch sounds and long durational sounds. These are the conventions that we adhered to in the music score of my film. The use of long durational and eerie strings is seen in the title sequence of the film Insidious (2010), whereby as the camera moves around the house creepy high pitched violin strings can be heard and each time the violin piece is played the volume increases until, an old woman is seen. This is evident in our film, when Richard Williams and Alan Smith see the spirit of Sofia Williams and Richard Williams in the mirror of the haunted office, to support the action low pitched strong wind blowing strings can be heard, which increases in pitch until a glissando is reached. In both the modern and 50’s section, the use of the creepy and long strings is used to represent the disequilibrium (Todorov linear narrative) created by the ghosts and this aid to build that tension and create that jump scare, because throughout the film, the music score is eerily quiet until the ghost arrive. Moreover, the use of shaker percussion at the end of the film contributes to emphasising the urgency of Alan Smith as he runs down the stairs, because this sound effect works in cooperation with the quick cuts, which is unconventional in horror films where mostly piano and string instruments are used to increase tension within the audience. However, the use of the shaker percussion connotes to the mystery genre, for example fight scene between Dumbledore and Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, whereby the shaker percussion is used as a sound effect to show sand falling from the ceiling. This emphasises the action and the urgency in the characters, which is also seen in our film.
Conventional mis en scene in films within the horror genre consist of dark low key lighting, the use of blood and the use of gory or scary makeup. These are the conventions that we used in our horror film and these conventions are seen in mainstream as well independent films, such as the use of scary makeup and blood is evident in the franchise film Insidious, as well the Grudge franchise and short YouTube film “Don’t Look” (2016), whereby contact lenses as well editing is used to make the eyes of the protagonist all white. In our short horror film, we used makeup to create a ghostly look on our actors, to represent them as dead spirits, we used blood which is iconographic to the horror genre, to represent them as being avenging, because the colour red connotes to danger and thus our audience are likely to understand that these spirits are evil and are after human soul. However, in our film, the use of the convention dark lighting was developed as it was prominent mainly in the modern section and thus the second half of our film, this is because the 50’s section represents the equilibrium and thus we used high key lighting to represent that everything is orderly, as high key lighting is symbolical of goodness and happiness. However, in the modern section of our film, the disorder is created, thus low key lighting is used to represent darkness, which connotes to evil and mystery. Typically, horror films use dark tones and low key lighting throughout most of the film. Such as the film Paranormal activity, whereby the paranormal bedroom scenes where shot in almost complete darkness. In contrast, in our film we use both low and high key lighting, throughout the film, which creates a binary opposition, as the use of high key lighting represents the equilibrium in our narrative, such as when Richard Williams is moving in to his new office, connoting to celebration and good fortune. However, the scenes within the haunted office have low key lighting, which represents the the disequilibrium and the source of disorder (Noel Caroll) in our narrative, as the use of low key lighting may connote to evil. As a result, our audience may begin to consider our horror film to be unconventional in the category of lighting, thus giving our audience something new to feel gratified by.
Conventional camera work used in horror and mystery films are the use of slow tracking movements and specifically to the horror genre, the use of canted angle and hand held camera is conventional to the horror genre. Slow tracking movements is seen in the film “The woman in Black”, which horror film, with the mystery sub-genre and the use of tracking is very prominent, for example at the end of the film, a little boy is tracked as he walks across the train station platform in to the train tracks. Although, the use of this camera movement is conventional, we did not adhere to this convention, because, we did not have a dolly and our hands were not steady enough to complete a tracking shot. In the 50’s section of our film, low canted angle is used when the door handle rattles on its own and this is also seen in the horror film “Lights out”, when the female protagonist is seen opening the basement door, while holding a torch. This type of angle, is effective in distorting the setting and thus helps to bring about an unsettling feeling, because from the canted angle everything looks out of place and abnormal. This connotes to uncertainty, which is often viewed as a weakness and thus our audience may begin to feel subconsciously insecure and threatened, because the setting does not look normal. In addition, the use of hand held was prominent at the end of our film, whereby the protagonist of the modern section Alan Smith, runs out the haunted office and down the stairs. The use of hand held camera is conventional in films, whereby the camera operators happen to be characters within the film, such as The Blair Witch Project. The use of hand held camera gave a sense of urgency and desperation. As a result, this helped to build stress within our audience, as the intentional bouncy and jerky movements of hand held camera, helped our audience to feel like they are magically involved in the action, like they are there but not actually there, thus giving voyeuristic values to that part our film.
Conventional editing techniques within the mystery genre include fast paced editing when there is quick action, we used this in the end of our film, when Alan Smith runs down the stairs, in this scene quick cuts are used to increase the pace of the film and match the high energy in the running scene. This convention was scene in the film for example, in the ending scene of the mystery film 10 Clover field Lane, when the female protagonists tis attempting to run away from attacking creatures. Specifically, a conventional editing technique in horror is the use of slow paced editing, which is what we adhered to in our film, for instance when Richard Williams from the 50’ slowly opens the door to the haunted office and slowly steps in. This is also evident in the horror film Evil Dead (2013), whereby at the end of the film, slow-paced editing is used, to show the possessed female protagonist turn around and say to her brother “David, why are you hurting me?”. The use of this editing technique was helpful in building suspense and anxiety within our audience, which allowed us to produce a fake jump scare. This is because, as Alfred Hitchcock argues “There is no terror in the bang, only the anticipation of it.”, our audience considering their positioning (Stuart Hall), our target audience have existing knowledge on the conventions of horror films and based on this knowledge they may believe, if horror films slow down, it means a monster or a ghost will pop and scare them and thus our audience psychologically built fear within themselves. However, as nothing happened, the large jump from feeling scared to feeling relaxed also helps to leave an impact on our audience, making them feel rushed and unbalanced.
In our film, we used green screen in moments the ghost appeared in our film and this is a convention found within the horror genre. The use of green screen allowed us to manipulate the ghost scene footage, so that along with the ghostly makeup, our ghosts looked freakier and grotesque. For example, in the ghost scene of Richard Williams in the modern section of our film, we increased the pace of certain parts of the footage, so that it seemed Richard Williams was moving his neck in an abnormal matter. The use of this effect, made the ghost of Richard Williams appear as if he was cracking his neck, which is seen in the final scene of the horror film The Grudge 3 (2009), whereby the female protagonist confronts the female ghost, as the ghost reaches towards the female protagonist cracking her neck. This increased the scare factor of our film and made our ghost seem realistic, in the sense that the Ghost of Richard Williams seemed less like a human and more of an evil spirit.
We have developed film conventions in our short horror film, by not following the linear narrative structure introduced by Todorov. Todorov argues, that every film starts off with an equilibrium whereby everything is normal, then the film moves to a disequilibrium due to the introduction of a problem in the narrative and lastly, a new equilibrium is created whereby the problem is solved and everything returns to normal. We decided to not conform to this convention, by ending our film on a cliff hanger, which provided our audience something to talk about and perhaps encouraged our audience to create a narrative for themselves to satisfy their curiosity, which agrees with Paul Auster, who argues “we construct narratives for ourselves”. Moreover, we developed Noel Carroll’s, 3 act horror structure, that in a typical horror film, there is an onset phase, then a discovery phase and lastly a disruption phase. We developed this narrative convention, by creating a discovery phase in the 50’s section, when Richard Williams sees the ghost of his wife in the mirror and in the modern phase where Alan Smith sees his ghost Doppelganger (Richard Williams) in the same mirror. Through developing this convention, we think we could offer our audience something new to see in our horror film, to feel gratified by. In our narrative we can apply and develop Propp's 8 stock characters, which is a theory that suggests all films will contain certain 8 characters in one shape or form. This is evident in our film, because the princess is represented by the wife of Richard Williams, who is Sofia Williams, as she is who Richard Williams attempts to search for after she goes missing in the 50s section of the film. The villain is represented by the spirits in the haunted office. On the other hand, we developed Propp's theory as instead of having one hero, there are two heroes represented by Richard Williams and Alan Smith, who both attempt to figure out the mystery of the haunted office, but both in the end are defeated by the villain. Therefore, we have challenged Propp's theory and added an unconventional element to our film, in doing so, we believe this gives our audience a different ideology of a hero, that not all heroes succeed.
We have created a short horror film that also fits within the mystery genre entitled, The Living Past. To summarise our film, the narrative of our film is based on two time periods, the 50's and 2016. The film begins within the 50's setting and follows Richard Williams a middle class columnist, who stumbles across a haunted office that claims the lives of those who step in. Through a time skip, the film turns to a new beginning in modern times, were this time the narrative follows Alan Smith, a blogger by profession, who mysteriously stumbles across an article regarding that same haunted office. Both Richard Williams and Alan Smith fall in to the trap of the haunted office. We have also created two ancillary products to market our film, a radio trailer and a poster. We have carefully considered the conventions of real media texts to construct all 3 products and have made decisions to include unconventional elements to all 3 products.
We have adhered to conventions of the horror genre and the mystery genre in our poster, this is because the typography, colours and iconography in our film poster adheres to a lot of conventions found within posters of the horror and mystery genre. For example, considering the colour scheme, we have used the colour black and navy blue as the background colour and this is a stereotypical colour associated with posters within the mystery genre, for example the poster for the film The Prestige (2006), whereby the background colour of the official poster is a block black colour.
This is because these dark colours symbolise the absence of light, which may connote to the absence of truth and for that reason these colours really do represent the essence of mystery films, which is about searching and investigating for the truth.
The iconography and mis en scene of our film poster both help to establish to our audience that our film is within both the horror and mystery genre. For example, in our poster we have layered behind the foreground image of Alan Smith a hand clock, which represents time and this is iconic to the mystery genre, because stereotypical narratives within the mystery genre focus on time, the idea of going back and forth in time, for example, the film Twelve Monkeys, which is about a convict that is sent back in time to collect information about a man-made virus effecting those in the present times. Secondly, the use of heavy artificial lighting is a horror genre convention that we also adhered to in our poster, this is because to create the shadows from the hollow areas on our actors face we shone bright artificial lighting and the creation of shadows helped our actors face look creepier. The use of artificial lighting is also seen in the poster of another iconic horror film The Silence of the Lambs (1991), whereby, there is heavy white light that lights up half of the face making her face seem pore less and on the other side of the face a dark shadow is created, thus the contrast creates a binary opposition. Adhering to these conventions found within the horror and mystery genre, I believe has possible helped our audience construct a narrative of what they think our film will be about, which agrees with Paul Auster who argues “we construct narratives for ourselves” and this may contribute to audience gratification (Bulmer and Katz), as our audience may find pleasure in figuring out how the use of the clock and the use of harsh lighting to emphasise the sinister expression of Alan Smith relate to each other and thus our target audience may predict a narrative based on this enigma.
In our film poster, we have also conformed to poster conventions, through this we believe that we have created an industry standard poster. For example, in our poster we add film/institution credits at the bottom of the poster, which is the conventional position and the used the conventional font to write this. Conforming to this convention has allowed us to appeal to a niche audience in our target audience who are film fanatics and may only wish to see a film because of the institutions involved, such as the production company, director, or sound editor. As a result, this helps us to gratify our niche audience within our target audience. However, me and my partner are not a well-established production company, so in our case, including film credits may encourage individuals within our target audience who know us personally to view what we have created.
Conventions found within radio trailers for horror films are often within the manipulation of sound codes. These include, the addition of crescendos in the non-diegetic incidental background music and creepy dialogue. In addition, conventions found within radio trailers for films within the mystery genre do not differ too much from horror film radio trailers, but one large conventional difference would the use of ambience sound and the heavy use of dialogue from the film in mystery radio trailers. In our radio trailer, we have conformed to these conventions, for example, in the beginning of our radio trailer there is a brass crescendo and this has been used to represent the 50’s period, as the brass instruments are stereotypical to the 50’s period. Moreover, the use of a brass crescendo helps to build tension within listeners, as the gradual increase of volume has effects on the body, as it stimulates the production of adrenaline, thus contributing to a faster heart beat and so tension. This agrees with Bridgid Cherry that cinema codes are manipulated to bring about physiological and emotional responses. However, we have developed this convention by including the brass crescendo right at the beginning of our radio trailer, this helped us to add to the horror effect, as listeners may feel thrown off due to the brass crescendo being very immediate in the timeline of the radio trailer. As a result, my audience may have a negotiated response to this, as the more academically mature individuals of my audience may interpret that this crescendo connotes to danger, while other target listeners may think that the brass crescendo simply connotes to the 50s period if not then just the “olden time”. This applied Stuart Halls reception theory. .
We have also conformed to mystery radio trailer conventions by using in film dialogue for most of the dialogue in our radio trailer. This convention is found in the radio trailer for the film Shutter Island (2010), where we hear Leonardo DiCaprio’s (who plays the main character “Edward Daniels”) voice in dialogue that seems to come directly from the film throughout the trailer. Therefore, we have conformed to this by using dialogue from the modern and 50s section of the film from the characters Sofia, Richard Williams, their ghosts, and Adam. This is effective in giving our audience an idea as to the personalities of the characters in our film and decide whether these characters are relatable or/ and scary. In addition, within our listeners there may be a dominant response, as listeners may interpret form the use of dialogue from characters in both periods, that there is a time skip in the film. However, a small proportion of our listeners may interpret that the 50s and modern period interlink with each other, thus they have a negotiated response.
Lastly, conventions of radio trailers include features such as mentioning the name and release date of the film at the end of the trailer, such as the radio trailer for the horror film The conjuring (2013), where the date of cinema release was mentioned at the end of the radio trailer(https://vimeo.com/78269665). We have conformed to this by doing the same, as we mentioned the release date of our film at the end of the radio trailer. Moreover, we developed this convention mentioning a season release of our film for Halloween in October. This is effective, as it highlights to our audience that our film is the perfect film to watch during Halloween and thus connotes to our audience that our film is worth watching. However, at the end of our radio trailer, we used a demonic voice to mention the tagline of our film, this is unconventional to radio trailers, as the mentioning of the release date is the stereotypical signal to end a radio trailer, but we continued our radio trailer by including the tagline of our film after the release date. This I believe, provided a unique element to our radio trailer that can gratify our listeners.
Conventional music techniques used in films within the horror genre are the use of strings, high pitch sounds and long durational sounds. These are the conventions that we adhered to in the music score of my film. The use of long durational and eerie strings is seen in the title sequence of the film Insidious (2010), whereby as the camera moves around the house creepy high pitched violin strings can be heard and each time the violin piece is played the volume increases until, an old woman is seen. This is evident in our film, when Richard Williams and Alan Smith see the spirit of Sofia Williams and Richard Williams in the mirror of the haunted office, to support the action low pitched strong wind blowing strings can be heard, which increases in pitch until a glissando is reached. In both the modern and 50’s section, the use of the creepy and long strings is used to represent the disequilibrium (Todorov linear narrative) created by the ghosts and this aid to build that tension and create that jump scare, because throughout the film, the music score is eerily quiet until the ghost arrive. Moreover, the use of shaker percussion at the end of the film contributes to emphasising the urgency of Alan Smith as he runs down the stairs, because this sound effect works in cooperation with the quick cuts, which is unconventional in horror films where mostly piano and string instruments are used to increase tension within the audience. However, the use of the shaker percussion connotes to the mystery genre, for example fight scene between Dumbledore and Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, whereby the shaker percussion is used as a sound effect to show sand falling from the ceiling. This emphasises the action and the urgency in the characters, which is also seen in our film.
Conventional mis en scene in films within the horror genre consist of dark low key lighting, the use of blood and the use of gory or scary makeup. These are the conventions that we used in our horror film and these conventions are seen in mainstream as well independent films, such as the use of scary makeup and blood is evident in the franchise film Insidious, as well the Grudge franchise and short YouTube film “Don’t Look” (2016), whereby contact lenses as well editing is used to make the eyes of the protagonist all white. In our short horror film, we used makeup to create a ghostly look on our actors, to represent them as dead spirits, we used blood which is iconographic to the horror genre, to represent them as being avenging, because the colour red connotes to danger and thus our audience are likely to understand that these spirits are evil and are after human soul. However, in our film, the use of the convention dark lighting was developed as it was prominent mainly in the modern section and thus the second half of our film, this is because the 50’s section represents the equilibrium and thus we used high key lighting to represent that everything is orderly, as high key lighting is symbolical of goodness and happiness. However, in the modern section of our film, the disorder is created, thus low key lighting is used to represent darkness, which connotes to evil and mystery. Typically, horror films use dark tones and low key lighting throughout most of the film. Such as the film Paranormal activity, whereby the paranormal bedroom scenes where shot in almost complete darkness. In contrast, in our film we use both low and high key lighting, throughout the film, which creates a binary opposition, as the use of high key lighting represents the equilibrium in our narrative, such as when Richard Williams is moving in to his new office, connoting to celebration and good fortune. However, the scenes within the haunted office have low key lighting, which represents the the disequilibrium and the source of disorder (Noel Caroll) in our narrative, as the use of low key lighting may connote to evil. As a result, our audience may begin to consider our horror film to be unconventional in the category of lighting, thus giving our audience something new to feel gratified by.
Conventional camera work used in horror and mystery films are the use of slow tracking movements and specifically to the horror genre, the use of canted angle and hand held camera is conventional to the horror genre. Slow tracking movements is seen in the film “The woman in Black”, which horror film, with the mystery sub-genre and the use of tracking is very prominent, for example at the end of the film, a little boy is tracked as he walks across the train station platform in to the train tracks. Although, the use of this camera movement is conventional, we did not adhere to this convention, because, we did not have a dolly and our hands were not steady enough to complete a tracking shot. In the 50’s section of our film, low canted angle is used when the door handle rattles on its own and this is also seen in the horror film “Lights out”, when the female protagonist is seen opening the basement door, while holding a torch. This type of angle, is effective in distorting the setting and thus helps to bring about an unsettling feeling, because from the canted angle everything looks out of place and abnormal. This connotes to uncertainty, which is often viewed as a weakness and thus our audience may begin to feel subconsciously insecure and threatened, because the setting does not look normal. In addition, the use of hand held was prominent at the end of our film, whereby the protagonist of the modern section Alan Smith, runs out the haunted office and down the stairs. The use of hand held camera is conventional in films, whereby the camera operators happen to be characters within the film, such as The Blair Witch Project. The use of hand held camera gave a sense of urgency and desperation. As a result, this helped to build stress within our audience, as the intentional bouncy and jerky movements of hand held camera, helped our audience to feel like they are magically involved in the action, like they are there but not actually there, thus giving voyeuristic values to that part our film.
Conventional editing techniques within the mystery genre include fast paced editing when there is quick action, we used this in the end of our film, when Alan Smith runs down the stairs, in this scene quick cuts are used to increase the pace of the film and match the high energy in the running scene. This convention was scene in the film for example, in the ending scene of the mystery film 10 Clover field Lane, when the female protagonists tis attempting to run away from attacking creatures. Specifically, a conventional editing technique in horror is the use of slow paced editing, which is what we adhered to in our film, for instance when Richard Williams from the 50’ slowly opens the door to the haunted office and slowly steps in. This is also evident in the horror film Evil Dead (2013), whereby at the end of the film, slow-paced editing is used, to show the possessed female protagonist turn around and say to her brother “David, why are you hurting me?”. The use of this editing technique was helpful in building suspense and anxiety within our audience, which allowed us to produce a fake jump scare. This is because, as Alfred Hitchcock argues “There is no terror in the bang, only the anticipation of it.”, our audience considering their positioning (Stuart Hall), our target audience have existing knowledge on the conventions of horror films and based on this knowledge they may believe, if horror films slow down, it means a monster or a ghost will pop and scare them and thus our audience psychologically built fear within themselves. However, as nothing happened, the large jump from feeling scared to feeling relaxed also helps to leave an impact on our audience, making them feel rushed and unbalanced.
In our film, we used green screen in moments the ghost appeared in our film and this is a convention found within the horror genre. The use of green screen allowed us to manipulate the ghost scene footage, so that along with the ghostly makeup, our ghosts looked freakier and grotesque. For example, in the ghost scene of Richard Williams in the modern section of our film, we increased the pace of certain parts of the footage, so that it seemed Richard Williams was moving his neck in an abnormal matter. The use of this effect, made the ghost of Richard Williams appear as if he was cracking his neck, which is seen in the final scene of the horror film The Grudge 3 (2009), whereby the female protagonist confronts the female ghost, as the ghost reaches towards the female protagonist cracking her neck. This increased the scare factor of our film and made our ghost seem realistic, in the sense that the Ghost of Richard Williams seemed less like a human and more of an evil spirit.
We have developed film conventions in our short horror film, by not following the linear narrative structure introduced by Todorov. Todorov argues, that every film starts off with an equilibrium whereby everything is normal, then the film moves to a disequilibrium due to the introduction of a problem in the narrative and lastly, a new equilibrium is created whereby the problem is solved and everything returns to normal. We decided to not conform to this convention, by ending our film on a cliff hanger, which provided our audience something to talk about and perhaps encouraged our audience to create a narrative for themselves to satisfy their curiosity, which agrees with Paul Auster, who argues “we construct narratives for ourselves”. Moreover, we developed Noel Carroll’s, 3 act horror structure, that in a typical horror film, there is an onset phase, then a discovery phase and lastly a disruption phase. We developed this narrative convention, by creating a discovery phase in the 50’s section, when Richard Williams sees the ghost of his wife in the mirror and in the modern phase where Alan Smith sees his ghost Doppelganger (Richard Williams) in the same mirror. Through developing this convention, we think we could offer our audience something new to see in our horror film, to feel gratified by. In our narrative we can apply and develop Propp's 8 stock characters, which is a theory that suggests all films will contain certain 8 characters in one shape or form. This is evident in our film, because the princess is represented by the wife of Richard Williams, who is Sofia Williams, as she is who Richard Williams attempts to search for after she goes missing in the 50s section of the film. The villain is represented by the spirits in the haunted office. On the other hand, we developed Propp's theory as instead of having one hero, there are two heroes represented by Richard Williams and Alan Smith, who both attempt to figure out the mystery of the haunted office, but both in the end are defeated by the villain. Therefore, we have challenged Propp's theory and added an unconventional element to our film, in doing so, we believe this gives our audience a different ideology of a hero, that not all heroes succeed.
Tuesday 7 March 2017
Q2 evaluation (Draft)
Question 2
For my advanced portfolio, my partner and I created a short horror film for our main product and created a radio trailer and a poster for our ancillary products. Through the creation of both the radio trailer and poster, w am using above the line of advertising devices to market our film to our target audience, because these ancillary products are traditional methods of advertising to reach a mass audience. Moreover, the creation of these ancillary products to accompany our main product (film), is a conventional practice in the film industry and is important, because it is through these ancillary products that give our target audience an insight as to what our film is about, thus helps in encouraging our target audience to spend their time and perhaps money to view our film. As a result, this highlight how our main product and ancillary products link with each other, because essentially our film is dependent on the cheaper radio trailer and poster to encourage viewership.
As I have mentioned previously, it is the ancillary products that help our audience decide whether my film is worth viewing or not, because all the products contain similar elements, but our ancillary products miss out certain elements that can only be figured out if our film is viewed. For example, similarities that can be emphasised between our film and radio trailer, would be the use of dialogue and sound effects. This is because, our radio trailer contains dialogue spoken in our film, for example “this should’ve been done last week” and “yes sir I’ll get right to it”, therefore this gives our audience some information as to the types of characters in our film and may give them content to decide whether they can relate to the characters, which may increase the likelihood of viewership, as it offers our target audience a glimpse as to what our film will be about. For example, we obtained audience feedback on a draft of our radio trailer and one individual argued that she understood the narrative was about a possession and a ghost. In this case, you can apply the uses and gratification theory by Bulmer Katz, as my audience felt “excited” to watch our film after listening to the radio trailer, because we “didn’t reveal much”, thus the ambiguity of our radio trailer entertained our audience. However, despite the radio trailer containing dialogue from the film, the radio trailer lacks a continuous narrative, because the narrative is broken using sound effects, such as heavy breathing, banging on the door sounds and clock ticking sounds and some of these sound effects are also found in the film. This creates an enigma code and the use of enigma codes is conventional to both the horror and mystery genre, as both these genres are based on legitimizing audience “concerns, questions, and pleasures” though the use of enigma codes that can only be figured out if our film is viewed, which as a result may increase viewership of our film.
The use of music in our radio trailer also contains textual music, from the score of our film, for example when the door is rattling and when the dialogues “this should’ve been done last week” and “yes sir I apologise I’ll get right to it” is said, the use of dramatic textual music, helped to indicate that these dialogues are important to the narrative, thus as a response our target audience may produce a preferred reading, as considering the information they received from the radio trailer, they may begin to construct their own narrative surrounding the conventions of the horror genre that they aware off and the dialogues from the radio trailer. Moreover, in our radio trailer, the tagline of our film was mentioned “if you see yourself run” using a demonic tone of voice right after a female character says, “help me” and in this section of the radio trailer the mode of address rapidly changes, from begging to threatening. The juxtaposition created by the difference in tone and mode of address, connotes to the binary opposition of good vs evil and the living vs the dead. The word “run” is also mentioned in our film several times and it has been extracted from our tagline, using the same demonic voice, to which our audience may link to our radio trailer. Thus, this provides our audience with more hints as to what our film will be about, raising excitement and curiosity.
Secondly, similarities between poster and my film would be the use of colours, as in our poster, the background image of a close up shot of Richard Williams (the 1950s-main protagonist), has a sepia filter over the image, while the foreground image of a close up shot of Alan Smith (the modern main protagonist) does not have a filter over the image, instead heavy artificial white lighting lights the image, as a result from this our audience may infer that our film is perhaps based on two different time periods, which may target our niche target audience who enjoy history as a sub-genre. This is like our film, because the entire 50’s section of the film has a sepia filter over it, while the modern section does not. Moreover, the use of a pitch-black background is conventional to the horror genre as well as the mystery genre, as it connotes to the absence of life and truth, thus death, which links to our film, because our film is based on the dead who turn into vengeful ghosts and spirits. In addition, the title of our poster is in the colour white, but behind the white writing is red writing and the colour red represents blood, which is also found in our film, because blood is iconographic to the horror genre, as well as the use of ghosts and spirits. This is because, blood connotes to danger and death, which is a running theme in our horror film. On the other hand, my poster does not explain why the background image and the foreground image if of the same man, but in different time periods, which creates another time enigma code that my audience can understand if they watch my film. Therefore, it is very clear as to why ancillary products aid the advertising and perhaps viewership of our film, because my ancillary products tease our audience in a way, to tingle their curiosity and thus feel encouraged to watch my film. Our audience gave verbal feedback to us on our final poster, as they argued that the use of “a filter to represent time was cleverly done”. In addition, we used survey monkey to conduct a small survey whether our poster looks better with our without a hand clock between Alan Smith and Richard Williams, to which 80.00% said they preferred the poster with the clock, for several reasons, such as the clock “represents time and links with the title”, thus we decided to leave the clock in our poster as not only due to audience feedback, but due the idea that the clock is symbolic in our film, as in our film we have a time skip.
To distribute my film, I will be releasing our film through the incorporation of below the line of advertising, which are non-traditional methods of advertising to reach niche audiences, as well as using traditional methods such as the use of our poster and radio trailer. Considering, that our target audience are between the ages of 12 to 21, who fit in the demographics table of D and E are studying and mainly unemployed, it is important to consider that such individuals are likely to have several social media accounts and use social media regularly. This means that, we will upload our film on social media platforms, such as twitter and Facebook, because these social media sites have video viewing properties. We may not choose to upload my film on Instagram, because the time limit for videos does not stretch to 5 minutes and over. Moreover, I will upload my film in video streaming and sharing sites, such as YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion, this is because these video streaming websites are what many individuals within our target audience obtain their form of entertainment from instead of the traditional TV. Therefore, our film is more likely to gain views in these social media sites and video streaming websites. Furthermore, you can also describe individuals within our target audience as civic journalists, because as well as well as consuming entertainment from social media sites and video streaming websites, gossip and debate is also created, which may mean that our audience are likely to share our film with their friends and so on, thus garnering greater viewership due to word of mouth advertising. For our traditional audience, we would distribute our film to independent cinemas, such as Genesis and Arthouse cinema, because often the magnitude of fear is increased when watching a horror film in cinemas, therefore this would attract our traditional audiences that enjoy the thrill of watching horror films in the cinemas.
For my advanced portfolio, my partner and I created a short horror film for our main product and created a radio trailer and a poster for our ancillary products. Through the creation of both the radio trailer and poster, w am using above the line of advertising devices to market our film to our target audience, because these ancillary products are traditional methods of advertising to reach a mass audience. Moreover, the creation of these ancillary products to accompany our main product (film), is a conventional practice in the film industry and is important, because it is through these ancillary products that give our target audience an insight as to what our film is about, thus helps in encouraging our target audience to spend their time and perhaps money to view our film. As a result, this highlight how our main product and ancillary products link with each other, because essentially our film is dependent on the cheaper radio trailer and poster to encourage viewership.
As I have mentioned previously, it is the ancillary products that help our audience decide whether my film is worth viewing or not, because all the products contain similar elements, but our ancillary products miss out certain elements that can only be figured out if our film is viewed. For example, similarities that can be emphasised between our film and radio trailer, would be the use of dialogue and sound effects. This is because, our radio trailer contains dialogue spoken in our film, for example “this should’ve been done last week” and “yes sir I’ll get right to it”, therefore this gives our audience some information as to the types of characters in our film and may give them content to decide whether they can relate to the characters, which may increase the likelihood of viewership, as it offers our target audience a glimpse as to what our film will be about. For example, we obtained audience feedback on a draft of our radio trailer and one individual argued that she understood the narrative was about a possession and a ghost. In this case, you can apply the uses and gratification theory by Bulmer Katz, as my audience felt “excited” to watch our film after listening to the radio trailer, because we “didn’t reveal much”, thus the ambiguity of our radio trailer entertained our audience. However, despite the radio trailer containing dialogue from the film, the radio trailer lacks a continuous narrative, because the narrative is broken using sound effects, such as heavy breathing, banging on the door sounds and clock ticking sounds and some of these sound effects are also found in the film. This creates an enigma code and the use of enigma codes is conventional to both the horror and mystery genre, as both these genres are based on legitimizing audience “concerns, questions, and pleasures” though the use of enigma codes that can only be figured out if our film is viewed, which as a result may increase viewership of our film.
The use of music in our radio trailer also contains textual music, from the score of our film, for example when the door is rattling and when the dialogues “this should’ve been done last week” and “yes sir I apologise I’ll get right to it” is said, the use of dramatic textual music, helped to indicate that these dialogues are important to the narrative, thus as a response our target audience may produce a preferred reading, as considering the information they received from the radio trailer, they may begin to construct their own narrative surrounding the conventions of the horror genre that they aware off and the dialogues from the radio trailer. Moreover, in our radio trailer, the tagline of our film was mentioned “if you see yourself run” using a demonic tone of voice right after a female character says, “help me” and in this section of the radio trailer the mode of address rapidly changes, from begging to threatening. The juxtaposition created by the difference in tone and mode of address, connotes to the binary opposition of good vs evil and the living vs the dead. The word “run” is also mentioned in our film several times and it has been extracted from our tagline, using the same demonic voice, to which our audience may link to our radio trailer. Thus, this provides our audience with more hints as to what our film will be about, raising excitement and curiosity.
Secondly, similarities between poster and my film would be the use of colours, as in our poster, the background image of a close up shot of Richard Williams (the 1950s-main protagonist), has a sepia filter over the image, while the foreground image of a close up shot of Alan Smith (the modern main protagonist) does not have a filter over the image, instead heavy artificial white lighting lights the image, as a result from this our audience may infer that our film is perhaps based on two different time periods, which may target our niche target audience who enjoy history as a sub-genre. This is like our film, because the entire 50’s section of the film has a sepia filter over it, while the modern section does not. Moreover, the use of a pitch-black background is conventional to the horror genre as well as the mystery genre, as it connotes to the absence of life and truth, thus death, which links to our film, because our film is based on the dead who turn into vengeful ghosts and spirits. In addition, the title of our poster is in the colour white, but behind the white writing is red writing and the colour red represents blood, which is also found in our film, because blood is iconographic to the horror genre, as well as the use of ghosts and spirits. This is because, blood connotes to danger and death, which is a running theme in our horror film. On the other hand, my poster does not explain why the background image and the foreground image if of the same man, but in different time periods, which creates another time enigma code that my audience can understand if they watch my film. Therefore, it is very clear as to why ancillary products aid the advertising and perhaps viewership of our film, because my ancillary products tease our audience in a way, to tingle their curiosity and thus feel encouraged to watch my film. Our audience gave verbal feedback to us on our final poster, as they argued that the use of “a filter to represent time was cleverly done”. In addition, we used survey monkey to conduct a small survey whether our poster looks better with our without a hand clock between Alan Smith and Richard Williams, to which 80.00% said they preferred the poster with the clock, for several reasons, such as the clock “represents time and links with the title”, thus we decided to leave the clock in our poster as not only due to audience feedback, but due the idea that the clock is symbolic in our film, as in our film we have a time skip.
To distribute my film, I will be releasing our film through the incorporation of below the line of advertising, which are non-traditional methods of advertising to reach niche audiences, as well as using traditional methods such as the use of our poster and radio trailer. Considering, that our target audience are between the ages of 12 to 21, who fit in the demographics table of D and E are studying and mainly unemployed, it is important to consider that such individuals are likely to have several social media accounts and use social media regularly. This means that, we will upload our film on social media platforms, such as twitter and Facebook, because these social media sites have video viewing properties. We may not choose to upload my film on Instagram, because the time limit for videos does not stretch to 5 minutes and over. Moreover, I will upload my film in video streaming and sharing sites, such as YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion, this is because these video streaming websites are what many individuals within our target audience obtain their form of entertainment from instead of the traditional TV. Therefore, our film is more likely to gain views in these social media sites and video streaming websites. Furthermore, you can also describe individuals within our target audience as civic journalists, because as well as well as consuming entertainment from social media sites and video streaming websites, gossip and debate is also created, which may mean that our audience are likely to share our film with their friends and so on, thus garnering greater viewership due to word of mouth advertising. For our traditional audience, we would distribute our film to independent cinemas, such as Genesis and Arthouse cinema, because often the magnitude of fear is increased when watching a horror film in cinemas, therefore this would attract our traditional audiences that enjoy the thrill of watching horror films in the cinemas.
Saturday 4 March 2017
Q3 evaluation (Draft)
Question 3
Our film has been certified a 12 considering our target audience, who are between the ages of 12 and 25, who are demographically placed in the category D (semi-skilled workers) and category E (unemployed full time students). In the table of psychographics, our target audience fit in the Explorers category, as our target audience value difference, which is a theme that is present both in the mystery and horror genre, as in horror mystery films there is common use of binary oppositions, where the difference is based on the fight between the alive and the dead, thus good Vs Evil, such as The Grudge Franchise, whereby humans fight against the revengeful ghost. The definition of our target audience, means that our audience are not a “passive audience” but an “active audience”, as David Gauntlet argues, because our target audience are likely to produce varied meanings from decoding the messages we encoded in our film, thus they are likely to have negotiated readings. Therefore, this meant that we could produce a film that does not follow a linear narrative or does not contain a cast full of the dominant ethnicity.
For the narrative of our film, we decided to get written feedback on the final script for our film. Our target audience, liked the fact that our film was based on two time periods, starting off with the 50s period and flash forwarding to the modern period. Moreover, they complimented on the format of our script, as they argued that it was very “professional” and acknowledged that our script was written to an “industry standard”. However, our target audience, did argue that stage directions were lacking, we did not provide contact details on the title page and that the use of a cliff hanger at the end (enigma) is too cliché, they pointed out instead that we end our film on a happy note, thus end on an equilibrium. We responded to this feedback, by first adding more director’s notes to our film script and adding the contact details. However, we decided not to follow our audiences feedback on ending on a positive note, because we believed that we could overcome the cliché of ending with an enigma, by emphasising unconventional horror narrative elements in our film, such as the use of a time skip. We believe the use of time skip that links both the 50’s and modern section of our film, increases the mystery value of our film, as our audience are left to figure, how and why are the two periods linked. Therefore, connoting to the idea of an unsolved mystery, that can only be solved using imagination. Overall, the audience feedback on our film script, helped us to tweak the format of our script and helped us to get a better understanding of how our audience would feel with our production decisions.
For our poster, we drew up two possible poster ideas that we thought could be used as an official poster for our horror film. But since me and my partner were undecided on what we should choose, we decided to get audience feedback on the two posters and based on the level of criticism to positives, we decided to go for the poster design that had the least criticism. However, from our audience, they criticised our posters equally arguing that the use of characters in the poster were very vague, for example in the first poster, our audience said that the female arm looked like the arm of an “ordinary woman” instead of a female ghost’s arm. Secondly, in the second poster, our target audience, question whether the character drawn was a “man or a woman”, was it their “back or front”. Due to these criticism, we decided to redraw another poster idea, and received audience feedback on the new poster drawing, we received more positive feedback, such as our target audience thought “the use of a filter to suggest the past is interesting”. On the other hand, our audience argued certain tweaks needed to be made with the format, for example, to increase the size of the logo. From the audience feedback on our poster ideas, we could make improvements over time on our poster ideas, so that it represents both the horror and mystery genre.
For our radio trailer, we decided to create a radio script and obtain feedback on this script by a sound technician and industry practitioner Nirag Chag, who has worked on many BBC productions. We asked him to analyse our script and suggest improvements. Some of the improvements he suggested was first, that instead of starting the radio trailer with a brass crescendo of a French horn, we start off with a clock ticking. Secondly, he argued that we should make the dialogue “There were no traces of the couple found” more dramatic, by using a breathy voice, as it connotes to tension and anxiety. We followed these two improvement points and found that our radio trailer script sounded a lot more eerie and dramatic when read. In addition, after creating a draft of our radio trailer, we decided to obtain audience feedback on our draft radio trailer. Our audience commented on our draft, by arguing that the use of sound and music was effective, as it helped them understand that the narrative was about something “dark” and they argued the use “echo” explained something about being “trapped” in our narrative, which is a correct element in our narrative. However, they did argue that they could not hear what the narrator was saying in the beginning of the radio, because the music was too “loud “and “overwhelming”. They also criticised our radio trailer, saying that the narrative was slightly unclear. Therefore, considering our audience feedback, we made changes to our draft radio trailer, by first lowering the sound of the string music when the narrator says, “If you see yourself run” also we realised that our radio trailer was fit to be the score, sounds and dialogue for a normal trailer. Thus, we decided to increase the use of the narrator, by using phrases such as “they share the same face, but will they share the same fate”, which will inform our audience more about our film. Overall, audience feedback on our radio trailer was very effective, as it helped us realise a huge mistake, that our radio trailer does not do much to give details about the narrative of our film. Therefore, using our audience feedback we could fix the mistake before it was too late.
Bordwell and Thompson define narrative as “chain of events in a cause-effect relationship”. Considering this definition, we used conventional narrative theories of our horror film, so that we could create a chain of events, with cause and effect relationships, so that it makes sense to our audience, as for example, the use of enigma codes. Barthes introduced the idea that enigma codes presents a mystery that the audience are drawn in by, because it is something the audience do not know and must work out. For example, when the female protagonist Sophia does not return from her errand assigned to her by her husband male protagonist Richard Williams. This leaves an enigma code, because our audience may begin to wonder why is it taking so long for Sofia Williams to complete simple errand and whether something has happened. This enigma code is also stimulated using a sting sound effect. For example, a close shot of a clock was used and when the time showed 4:30, a sting sound effect was used, then a cross fade was used to show the passing of time to 6:30, whereby to emphasise the change in time another sting sound effect was used along with non-diegetic sinister incidental music, that connotes to danger. (Insert clip from actual film). This, narrated to the audience that a long time has passed and still Sofia Williams is nowhere to be seen. As a result, we are using conventional narrative theories in our film to create tension and anxiety within our audience. The use of enigma codes is seen across all horror mystery film, such as The Woman in Black, whereby at the end of the film, the character that helps the main protagonist sees “The woman in black” despite the character if she is a resting soul, which helped to dramatize the ending of the film.
However, we have also attempted to develop current narrative theories specific to the horror genre using mis en scene and editing. For example, Noel Caroll argues that every horror film stereotypically uses the typical 3 act horror structure, whereby there is an onset phase (which a disorder is created), discovery phase (whereby the source of disorder is discovered) and destruction phase (whereby the source of disorder is destroyed). In our horror film, we decided to use and develop this narrative theory, through editing by repeating phases and missing out phases. For instance, we create an onset phase using the mis en scene of a haunted 1950s office and makeup, such as the use dripping blood. We created a time skip, by merging an establishing shot of the old office building with the modern office building, and the difference in period was further emphasised in editing by putting a sepia filter on the 50s section of the film and leaving the modern section as it is, as the colour tone of the sepia filter is stereotypical to the 50s period, which our audience will be aware of. We create a discovery phrase, where the protagonist of the modern section of the film Alan Smith discovers the disruption and this was represented using mis en scene, as Alan Smith comes across an article regarding the haunted 50s office on his computer in his office. However, instead of creating a destruction phase, whereby the character(s), destroy the source of the disorder, instead we create another onset phase, by editing the green screen of the possessed spirits of Richard and Sophia Williams, who possess Alan Smith and ending the film on an enigma. As a result, through the development of this typical 3 act horror structure, we can provide our audience with something fresh and unique to experience, as we are breaking the conventional order of events in our horror narrative.
In our audience survey, we asked our audience what the disliked about horror films and many answered the idea that often horror films are predictable and end in a similar way. This means that, we can apply Stuart Halls; theory of audience positioning, as our target audience are aware of certain conventions in the horror genre from previous viewings of horror films, to which they have an oppositional reading to, because it is something they are perhaps bored of seeing, such as the use of a cliff hanger. However, despite this we decided to continue to use a cliff hanger, because we believe throughout the film, we have attempted to eliminate predictability through the narrative by developing both Todorovs typical linear narrative and Noel Carolls typical horror act structure narrative. Specifically, instead of using a linear narrative, with an equilibrium, disequilibrium, and new equilibrium, we used a non-linear narrative, due to the use of a time skip, from the 50’s to modern times. As a result, the although the use of a cliff hanger is a conventional ending of a horror film, I think it was important to stick to this convention, because we are already swaying away from the typical narrative structure, so by providing a stereotypical ending we are remining our audience that they are watching a horror film. We cannot apply the hypodermic needle theory our film, because our audience are not passive and since the horror genre contains elements that disagree with the scientific values of society, such as the idea of possession and spirits, our audience, are unlikely to believe and accept the mis en scene of a haunted office as real, therefore our audience are likely to enjoy the fantasy conventions of the horror genre, such as the fact that it creates jump scare, which individuals in or audience enjoy the thrill of being scared.
In our horror film, we have attempted to adhere and create countertypes to stereotypical representations of social groups within each period. For example, in the 1950’s period, men are stereotypically represented as being the professional breadwinner and the educated individual compared to women, for example, using mis en scene, we introduce Richard Williams in the 1950’s wearing a work suit and entering what seems to be his new office. The use mis ens scene, the settings and costumes indicates that Richard Williams, is a typical Middle class White man, who through his good educational background and skills has been able to earn money through a white-collar job. This is because, the use of a work suit connotes to professionalism and status, which are ideas linked to masculinity. Moreover, the fact that the audience are introduced to his wife visiting him in his new office, connotes that he is the main wage earner within the couple and thus is represent women as being economically inferior to men in the 1950s, which represents the patriarchal society of the 50’s period and represents the socially accepted division of labour of the time. However, the fact that Sofia Williams is of a different race to Richard Williams who is white and is of ethnic minority, being black, means that the characters in our film do not adhere to the stereotypical discriminative society of the 50’s. This is because, the use of silk and a silver necklace on Sofia Williams, connotes that she is of similar status to Richard Williams, as silk and silver connotes to luxury that only the middle class rich individuals of society could wear in the 1950’s. On the other hand, it could perhaps be inferred, that Sofia Williams could only wear such items, because she is married and thus she is dependent on her white husband. Therefore, representing women as being economically dependent on men, which happened to be stereotypical to the 50’s.
However, the wife of Richard Williams, Sophia Williams is an example of a countertype in 1950’s society, this is because she is represented as being an ethnic minority with a middle-class status, using camera angles. For example, when Jane Angelo (the female assistant) and Sophia Williams meet for the first time, a low angle is used to show Sophia Williams, while a high angle is used to show Jane Angelo. This represents, the power struggle between the ethnicities and represents the black ethnic minority as holding more power than the white majority, which connotes that there has been a swap of power and status than the conventional status quo between Sophia Williams who is black and Jane Angelo who is white. As a result, we are not adhering to the stereotypical status quo of 1950s, instead we are presenting our audience with something that may make them wonder and view 1950s society in a different light, perhaps as more equal than they think. In contrast, using an arc, our audience see Sofia Williams walk up the stairs and this camera movement happens to catch the outline of Sofia Williams body as she walks up the stairs. This applies Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, as the arc emphasises the movement of Sofia Williams butt and her bodyline, which connotes to the idea that she is just there for the pleasure of men. In addition, this also connotes to the idea that women are sexual objects of voyeurism.
In the modern section of the film, we represent men as being disorganised and professionally weak. For example, through dialogue, the audience hear that Alan Smith, speaking to his boss and how he is late in handing is work in. This representation is essentially stereotypical, in the sense that masculinity also connotes to laziness and unorganised. Therefore, in the modern period men are also represented as being stereotypically masculine, but it is not stereotypical that men are lazy when it comes to work and earning money. Therefore, Alan Smith represents men as being weak in maintaining professionality, due to poor deadline meeting skills. Therefore, the audience may view, Alan Smith to be a symbol of postmodernity, as some may argue, it is no longer expected of men to play a breadwinner role, so being proficient in work does not correlate to the need of earning money, because now both men and women play the breadwinner role.
Our film is within the horror genre and falls within the mystery sub-genre and thus joining these genres Forms a hybrid genre, the horror mystery genre. This reflects the theoretical dispute in defining genre, because there is no name for this hybrid genre. There is also the difficulty in categorising hybrid genres, to which Andrew Tudor argues, this is an "empiricist dilemma".
Our film has been certified a 12 considering our target audience, who are between the ages of 12 and 25, who are demographically placed in the category D (semi-skilled workers) and category E (unemployed full time students). In the table of psychographics, our target audience fit in the Explorers category, as our target audience value difference, which is a theme that is present both in the mystery and horror genre, as in horror mystery films there is common use of binary oppositions, where the difference is based on the fight between the alive and the dead, thus good Vs Evil, such as The Grudge Franchise, whereby humans fight against the revengeful ghost. The definition of our target audience, means that our audience are not a “passive audience” but an “active audience”, as David Gauntlet argues, because our target audience are likely to produce varied meanings from decoding the messages we encoded in our film, thus they are likely to have negotiated readings. Therefore, this meant that we could produce a film that does not follow a linear narrative or does not contain a cast full of the dominant ethnicity.
For the narrative of our film, we decided to get written feedback on the final script for our film. Our target audience, liked the fact that our film was based on two time periods, starting off with the 50s period and flash forwarding to the modern period. Moreover, they complimented on the format of our script, as they argued that it was very “professional” and acknowledged that our script was written to an “industry standard”. However, our target audience, did argue that stage directions were lacking, we did not provide contact details on the title page and that the use of a cliff hanger at the end (enigma) is too cliché, they pointed out instead that we end our film on a happy note, thus end on an equilibrium. We responded to this feedback, by first adding more director’s notes to our film script and adding the contact details. However, we decided not to follow our audiences feedback on ending on a positive note, because we believed that we could overcome the cliché of ending with an enigma, by emphasising unconventional horror narrative elements in our film, such as the use of a time skip. We believe the use of time skip that links both the 50’s and modern section of our film, increases the mystery value of our film, as our audience are left to figure, how and why are the two periods linked. Therefore, connoting to the idea of an unsolved mystery, that can only be solved using imagination. Overall, the audience feedback on our film script, helped us to tweak the format of our script and helped us to get a better understanding of how our audience would feel with our production decisions.
For our poster, we drew up two possible poster ideas that we thought could be used as an official poster for our horror film. But since me and my partner were undecided on what we should choose, we decided to get audience feedback on the two posters and based on the level of criticism to positives, we decided to go for the poster design that had the least criticism. However, from our audience, they criticised our posters equally arguing that the use of characters in the poster were very vague, for example in the first poster, our audience said that the female arm looked like the arm of an “ordinary woman” instead of a female ghost’s arm. Secondly, in the second poster, our target audience, question whether the character drawn was a “man or a woman”, was it their “back or front”. Due to these criticism, we decided to redraw another poster idea, and received audience feedback on the new poster drawing, we received more positive feedback, such as our target audience thought “the use of a filter to suggest the past is interesting”. On the other hand, our audience argued certain tweaks needed to be made with the format, for example, to increase the size of the logo. From the audience feedback on our poster ideas, we could make improvements over time on our poster ideas, so that it represents both the horror and mystery genre.
For our radio trailer, we decided to create a radio script and obtain feedback on this script by a sound technician and industry practitioner Nirag Chag, who has worked on many BBC productions. We asked him to analyse our script and suggest improvements. Some of the improvements he suggested was first, that instead of starting the radio trailer with a brass crescendo of a French horn, we start off with a clock ticking. Secondly, he argued that we should make the dialogue “There were no traces of the couple found” more dramatic, by using a breathy voice, as it connotes to tension and anxiety. We followed these two improvement points and found that our radio trailer script sounded a lot more eerie and dramatic when read. In addition, after creating a draft of our radio trailer, we decided to obtain audience feedback on our draft radio trailer. Our audience commented on our draft, by arguing that the use of sound and music was effective, as it helped them understand that the narrative was about something “dark” and they argued the use “echo” explained something about being “trapped” in our narrative, which is a correct element in our narrative. However, they did argue that they could not hear what the narrator was saying in the beginning of the radio, because the music was too “loud “and “overwhelming”. They also criticised our radio trailer, saying that the narrative was slightly unclear. Therefore, considering our audience feedback, we made changes to our draft radio trailer, by first lowering the sound of the string music when the narrator says, “If you see yourself run” also we realised that our radio trailer was fit to be the score, sounds and dialogue for a normal trailer. Thus, we decided to increase the use of the narrator, by using phrases such as “they share the same face, but will they share the same fate”, which will inform our audience more about our film. Overall, audience feedback on our radio trailer was very effective, as it helped us realise a huge mistake, that our radio trailer does not do much to give details about the narrative of our film. Therefore, using our audience feedback we could fix the mistake before it was too late.
Bordwell and Thompson define narrative as “chain of events in a cause-effect relationship”. Considering this definition, we used conventional narrative theories of our horror film, so that we could create a chain of events, with cause and effect relationships, so that it makes sense to our audience, as for example, the use of enigma codes. Barthes introduced the idea that enigma codes presents a mystery that the audience are drawn in by, because it is something the audience do not know and must work out. For example, when the female protagonist Sophia does not return from her errand assigned to her by her husband male protagonist Richard Williams. This leaves an enigma code, because our audience may begin to wonder why is it taking so long for Sofia Williams to complete simple errand and whether something has happened. This enigma code is also stimulated using a sting sound effect. For example, a close shot of a clock was used and when the time showed 4:30, a sting sound effect was used, then a cross fade was used to show the passing of time to 6:30, whereby to emphasise the change in time another sting sound effect was used along with non-diegetic sinister incidental music, that connotes to danger. (Insert clip from actual film). This, narrated to the audience that a long time has passed and still Sofia Williams is nowhere to be seen. As a result, we are using conventional narrative theories in our film to create tension and anxiety within our audience. The use of enigma codes is seen across all horror mystery film, such as The Woman in Black, whereby at the end of the film, the character that helps the main protagonist sees “The woman in black” despite the character if she is a resting soul, which helped to dramatize the ending of the film.
However, we have also attempted to develop current narrative theories specific to the horror genre using mis en scene and editing. For example, Noel Caroll argues that every horror film stereotypically uses the typical 3 act horror structure, whereby there is an onset phase (which a disorder is created), discovery phase (whereby the source of disorder is discovered) and destruction phase (whereby the source of disorder is destroyed). In our horror film, we decided to use and develop this narrative theory, through editing by repeating phases and missing out phases. For instance, we create an onset phase using the mis en scene of a haunted 1950s office and makeup, such as the use dripping blood. We created a time skip, by merging an establishing shot of the old office building with the modern office building, and the difference in period was further emphasised in editing by putting a sepia filter on the 50s section of the film and leaving the modern section as it is, as the colour tone of the sepia filter is stereotypical to the 50s period, which our audience will be aware of. We create a discovery phrase, where the protagonist of the modern section of the film Alan Smith discovers the disruption and this was represented using mis en scene, as Alan Smith comes across an article regarding the haunted 50s office on his computer in his office. However, instead of creating a destruction phase, whereby the character(s), destroy the source of the disorder, instead we create another onset phase, by editing the green screen of the possessed spirits of Richard and Sophia Williams, who possess Alan Smith and ending the film on an enigma. As a result, through the development of this typical 3 act horror structure, we can provide our audience with something fresh and unique to experience, as we are breaking the conventional order of events in our horror narrative.
In our audience survey, we asked our audience what the disliked about horror films and many answered the idea that often horror films are predictable and end in a similar way. This means that, we can apply Stuart Halls; theory of audience positioning, as our target audience are aware of certain conventions in the horror genre from previous viewings of horror films, to which they have an oppositional reading to, because it is something they are perhaps bored of seeing, such as the use of a cliff hanger. However, despite this we decided to continue to use a cliff hanger, because we believe throughout the film, we have attempted to eliminate predictability through the narrative by developing both Todorovs typical linear narrative and Noel Carolls typical horror act structure narrative. Specifically, instead of using a linear narrative, with an equilibrium, disequilibrium, and new equilibrium, we used a non-linear narrative, due to the use of a time skip, from the 50’s to modern times. As a result, the although the use of a cliff hanger is a conventional ending of a horror film, I think it was important to stick to this convention, because we are already swaying away from the typical narrative structure, so by providing a stereotypical ending we are remining our audience that they are watching a horror film. We cannot apply the hypodermic needle theory our film, because our audience are not passive and since the horror genre contains elements that disagree with the scientific values of society, such as the idea of possession and spirits, our audience, are unlikely to believe and accept the mis en scene of a haunted office as real, therefore our audience are likely to enjoy the fantasy conventions of the horror genre, such as the fact that it creates jump scare, which individuals in or audience enjoy the thrill of being scared.
In our horror film, we have attempted to adhere and create countertypes to stereotypical representations of social groups within each period. For example, in the 1950’s period, men are stereotypically represented as being the professional breadwinner and the educated individual compared to women, for example, using mis en scene, we introduce Richard Williams in the 1950’s wearing a work suit and entering what seems to be his new office. The use mis ens scene, the settings and costumes indicates that Richard Williams, is a typical Middle class White man, who through his good educational background and skills has been able to earn money through a white-collar job. This is because, the use of a work suit connotes to professionalism and status, which are ideas linked to masculinity. Moreover, the fact that the audience are introduced to his wife visiting him in his new office, connotes that he is the main wage earner within the couple and thus is represent women as being economically inferior to men in the 1950s, which represents the patriarchal society of the 50’s period and represents the socially accepted division of labour of the time. However, the fact that Sofia Williams is of a different race to Richard Williams who is white and is of ethnic minority, being black, means that the characters in our film do not adhere to the stereotypical discriminative society of the 50’s. This is because, the use of silk and a silver necklace on Sofia Williams, connotes that she is of similar status to Richard Williams, as silk and silver connotes to luxury that only the middle class rich individuals of society could wear in the 1950’s. On the other hand, it could perhaps be inferred, that Sofia Williams could only wear such items, because she is married and thus she is dependent on her white husband. Therefore, representing women as being economically dependent on men, which happened to be stereotypical to the 50’s.
However, the wife of Richard Williams, Sophia Williams is an example of a countertype in 1950’s society, this is because she is represented as being an ethnic minority with a middle-class status, using camera angles. For example, when Jane Angelo (the female assistant) and Sophia Williams meet for the first time, a low angle is used to show Sophia Williams, while a high angle is used to show Jane Angelo. This represents, the power struggle between the ethnicities and represents the black ethnic minority as holding more power than the white majority, which connotes that there has been a swap of power and status than the conventional status quo between Sophia Williams who is black and Jane Angelo who is white. As a result, we are not adhering to the stereotypical status quo of 1950s, instead we are presenting our audience with something that may make them wonder and view 1950s society in a different light, perhaps as more equal than they think. In contrast, using an arc, our audience see Sofia Williams walk up the stairs and this camera movement happens to catch the outline of Sofia Williams body as she walks up the stairs. This applies Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, as the arc emphasises the movement of Sofia Williams butt and her bodyline, which connotes to the idea that she is just there for the pleasure of men. In addition, this also connotes to the idea that women are sexual objects of voyeurism.
In the modern section of the film, we represent men as being disorganised and professionally weak. For example, through dialogue, the audience hear that Alan Smith, speaking to his boss and how he is late in handing is work in. This representation is essentially stereotypical, in the sense that masculinity also connotes to laziness and unorganised. Therefore, in the modern period men are also represented as being stereotypically masculine, but it is not stereotypical that men are lazy when it comes to work and earning money. Therefore, Alan Smith represents men as being weak in maintaining professionality, due to poor deadline meeting skills. Therefore, the audience may view, Alan Smith to be a symbol of postmodernity, as some may argue, it is no longer expected of men to play a breadwinner role, so being proficient in work does not correlate to the need of earning money, because now both men and women play the breadwinner role.
Our film is within the horror genre and falls within the mystery sub-genre and thus joining these genres Forms a hybrid genre, the horror mystery genre. This reflects the theoretical dispute in defining genre, because there is no name for this hybrid genre. There is also the difficulty in categorising hybrid genres, to which Andrew Tudor argues, this is an "empiricist dilemma".
Wednesday 1 March 2017
Q4 evaluation (Draft)
Question 4
Research:
During the research process of creating our film, poster and radio trailer, a lot of digital technology went in to audience research, specifically researching what our target audience (who are those between the age of 12-21, who are unemployed and students) want to see in all 3 products. For example, to reach a wide range of opinions within our target audience me and partner created a questionnaire using the software survey monkey. (Insert images from questionnaire on opinions on film, poster, and radio trailer). We created a web link that we could share by sending the web link to various people, using social media platforms like WhatsApp. The use of survey monkey to create our survey was very effective in collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, because we could create various types of questions, such as rank, open and closed question and through this we were able to get a better understanding of how our target audience firstly perceived films within the horror genre, secondly we were able to get a better understanding of what our target audience thinks makes a good poster and radio trailer, so that we could make all 3 products as appealing as possible to our target audience. Therefore, applying the uses and gratification theory (Bulmer and Katz). Moreover, the use of social media platforms to share our questionnaire was a very effective and efficient method, because we know that our target audience are likely to have a mobile phone and the social media app WhatsApp that they us regularly, so considering this, sending a web link via WhatsApp meant that we could share our questionnaire to a large range of individuals in a short period of time, with just a few clicks on our mobile phones. We specifically chose WhatsApp, because it is a software that is popular and widely used in our target audience, so we thought that the chances of individuals within our target audience viewing our questionnaire would theoretically increase, as well as the fact that WhatsApp has web link sharing properties.
Survey monkey is a great website to present the findings of questionnaires as well as a great questionnaire creating tool, because survey monkey automatically creates graphs and tables that contains our results. This essentially made it easier for me and my partner to draw conclusions from our findings and present our findings in a sophisticated manner, without having to create our own graphs, on our blog, thus saving precious time.
Am important research task that I completed was textual analysis and to do this I needed access to current short horror films. Thus, I used web 2.0 to do this, as I found several short horror film and radio trailers on YouTube, which allowed me to view the content that I required in high quality of 1080p resolution, so that I could produce a high standard textual analysis on word document. The research tasks that I produced were generally produced on Microsoft word and PowerPoint, but I did not want to upload my research tasks as word document or power point presentation. Instead, I used several presentational tools, such as Kizoa, that allowed me to upload audio of my own voice, images as well as extracts from films. Moreover, I could put this on blogger using the embed code. Therefore, the use of digital technology was heavy in the research section of the production.
Within the planning process of our film, poster, and radio trailer, we used a lot more digital technology, because we decided to get all the work done within the deadline it would be easier to split the work and put all our work together after we completed each of our parts. For example, for our poster I researched the typography to use, using the internet, a MacBook, while my partner edited the images we took for our poster using a mac computer on photoshop. For our films, I created the script using the software the software to produce professional film and radio scripts Celt X, as after a draft was written on Microsoft word, risk assessment, lighting plan and recee for the modern part of our film, while my partner did the same for the 50’s part of our film. This meant that, for a period we could not speak face to face and in these times, we used digital technology to communicate and complete each planning task. For example. We used our phones and downloaded the social media app Google hangouts to face time each other and discussed the lighting plan for the modern and 50’s sections of the film. This was very helpful to us and our teamwork, because it meant that we did not have to physically meet up and discuss things, when it could be easily discussed using web 2.0. As a result, this saved us time and improved our communication. To upload the planning tasks on to blogger, I used several presentational tools, such as Prezi and PowToon and these were very helpful in allowing me to present large pieces of writing in an appealing way, such as the use of animation, funky fonts, and images. I copied and pasted the embed codes from each presentational video, so that it could be placed on blogger. As a preliminary task, we created a practice radio trailer, in which a Mac book was used to record our own voices, which were then edited on the Mac book using the audio editing software Audacity. I obtained sound effects and background music on a website called Sound Bible as well as YouTube. We also received audience feedback though a VOX POP that was recorded using a Dictaphone and edited on audacity. For another preliminary task, we created 2-minute short horror film, called creeks, in which we practiced conventional horror and mystery film camera movements, angles and shot, such as the use of a slow pan and a canted angel. The footage was recorded using a canon camera and the footage was imported from the SD card to an editing software called Camtasia, where the practice camera shots were edited in chronological order, to produce a short linear narrative. This helped us get a small taster of what it would feel like when we are producing our actual film and thus helped us understand that being organised is one the most important aspects of filming. This use of web 2.0, gave us a feel of how it works in the film industry and helped us get a better feeling of what it means to be producers and a screenplay writer. Therefore, this benefited us, because it meant that we could include everything required for a radio script, such as the characters, sounds and SFX in one document in the proper layout four our actors to read and understand.
In the production of our film, a lot of hardware was used compared to the research and planning, whereby there was more use of software than hardware. Firstly, to shoot our scenes, we used a cannon camera and used various types of lenses, that changed the amount of light that could enter the lens. This allowed us the play with the aperture of the camera and to comply with the conventions of the horror genre, we reduced the aperture of the camera by choosing a lens that was narrow, so that we could darken the scenes, especially the horror scenes in our film. To create our poster, we used very strong artificial light from a torch, which was shone at low angle against our actors face in a dark room. Through this we could create sharp shadows on our actor’s face, to give him a sinister and evil look, which is conventional to the horror genre. As a result, using artificial lighting equipment, we could adhere to conventions of the horror genre in our poster, which is important because the poster gives a visual glimpse into our film and if the poster does not connote horror then our target audience may be confused as to how our poster and film link. Lastly, to produce our radio trailer, we used a zoom microphone to record the voices of our actor and actress for our radio trailer and this was important, because we could not create a date where we could book to use the unidirectional microphone in studio, but since the zoom is a portable high quality microphone, it meant that we could take the microphone to our actor and actresses who had tight schedules, instead of them coming to us to use the unidirectional microphone. Consequently, it meant that we could work our way around the timetables of our actors, so that we could finish producing our radio trailer within the deadline.
To produce our radio trailer, we used several hardware and software’s. To begin with, to record voices for our radio trailer, two types of mics were use. First, a zoom mic was used to collect dialogue for our radio trailer from our actress who played Sofia Williams and we decided to use a zoom mic, because it was too difficult for her to come in to the recording studio and use the mic in the recording studio. The zoom mic has two unidirectional condenser microphones. This made it ideal for moving around allowing us to go to our actress with the mic instead of asking her to come to the recording studio, therefore saving time and allowing us to compromise with our actress. However, other parts of the radio trailer, such as the narrator voice was all recorded using the unidirectional mic in studio. All the voices and sound were collated and edited on another audio editing software called Logic Pro X and to import the audio from the zoom mic, a USB cable connected and the audio was then imported onto Logic Pro X. In our radio trailer, we wanted to create a distorted effect and we did this on logic pro x, by using a reverbing tool, to make each dialogue sound like it was being echoed and this helped to elongate each dialogue, producing a longer effect on the overall sound of the radio trailer, as a result we achieved the distorted effect and our radio trailer flowed well,
Post-production:
In the editing process of our film, the use of software once again outweighed the use of hardware. First, the footage from the SD cards of our camera were connected to the mac computers and the footage was uploaded on to the computer. Then, we imported the footage from the documents folder of the mac computer to Final Cut Pro, which is an editing software that is used in the film industry and by huge companies to edit blockbuster films. To make efficient use of time, me and partner decided to split the editing by editing on two different mac computers, which meant we could edit both periods of the film (50’s and modern) at the same time. This was possible, because we do not go back and forth from present to past in our narrative, thus essentially, we treated our film as having two narratives, that linked in the end. Therefore, Final Cut Pro, was a perfect software, because after completely editing each of our parts, we could export both, create another Final Cut Pro file and render both footages as one. Without this feature of Final Cut Pro, we would have to take turns editing our film and this would have taken up too much time. In our film, we used green screen to create the ghost scenes and in this, final cut pro was stretched to its ability, as we needed to make sure the green screen appeared natural, but with a distorted effect. Therefore, we used several tools such as the keying tool and we played with the colouring, so that the saturation of the green screen footage, was a lot greyer than the normal footage, so that we could achieve the ghostly and sinister effect. Apart from the green screen, to highlight the 50’s section of the film, we used a sepia filter over the footage from the 50’s section, as the sepia colour is a stereotypical colour associated with the 50’s period.
To edit our poster, we used photoshop, which is the typical software used to edit still images to produce high quality, industry standard and professional posters. The use of photoshop was helpful, because there were many editing tools that helped us emphasise the horror genre and mystery genre in our film, for example, we changed the opacity of the background image of Richard Williams, so that the clock in between Richard Williams and Alan Smith is visible. Despite this being a small action, it allowed us to complete out poster, because originally, we weren’t going to put a clock, but after audience feedback we found that our target audience preferred our poster with the clock in the middle. In addition, due to the change of our male protagonist, we reshot the pictures for our poster using our new actor. However, our new actor was a lot younger the previous actor, he did not have the lines and hollowness in the face, for a light to reflect off. Thus, in photoshop se attempted to create shadows manually, using the light tool. Using photoshop helped us to produce an industry standard poster that advertised our film.
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