Plot synopsis of the opening sequence

The film begins with a girl bringing in the last boxes into her new home after moving in. However, it is revealed to the audience that there is a disabled (or possibly injured) man in the cellar of the house. As he hears her enter he prepares to go upstairs.

Meanwhile, the girl goes into the kitchen and takes out the kettle and mug from a box before realising that a plant needs to be taken outside. Whilst she does this, the man enters the kitchen and watches her, before leaving again as she returns. Upon coming back inside, the girl realises that the mug has been knocked over. As she thinks about this, she hears the cellar door creak and goes inside to investigate.

In the cellar she discovers a candle-lit desk covered in jars and photos; she decides to turn over one of these photos and realises that its a picture of her taken from many years ago. She retreats in terror before spinning to see the legs of the man at the top of stairs.

The title appears and it is left ambiguous as to what happens to her.

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

Our sequence is the opening 2-3 minutes of a horror/thriller film. It follows Todorov's theory of a classic narrative pattern (an equilibrium, followed by a disruption). A girl is moving into her home when she is found by the killer in the basement (time 2:30).

This is the disruption at the start of the narrative following the equilibrium of her moving in. By the end of the film the equilibrium will be restored (albeit a new one). Our sequence also follows the usual form of an opening sequence; the setting is established, characters are introduced and the narrative begins.

However, many horror films (such as Jeepers Creepers and Friday the 13^th) end with the villain still on the loose and therefore the equilibrium is only momentary. There are also several binary opposites present that fit into Levi-Strauss' theory:

light upstairs in the world of the girl - the dark basement

good - evil

female – male

Although the villain is disabled, he is above her at the top of the stairs and therefore is dominating. It challenges the conventions of media products by having our villain being disabled, since usually the villains are more physically powerful than the protagonists in films.

Sometimes the victim is disabled in order to appear more vulnerable, for example in Rear Window and Misery. This, however, is far more common than the villain being disabled.

One case of a disabled villain is in Casino Royale, in which the villain is asthmatic. We have used the disability of the villain as a twist in the story and as a result have a created a more intelligent, methodical killer as opposed to one that is physically dominant (time from sequence). By doing this we have challenged the media convention that the villains are physically superior. We have taken inspiration to do this from films such as The Dark Night (the appearance of our villain, including make-up and clothes, is taken form Heath Ledger’s joker) and Se7en.

Of course, our background music is eery and spooky and therefore similar to that used in real horror films. The music is slow at first before building up as the tension grows before stopping sharply as the girl sees the villain; the abrupt ending to the music fits the action on screen.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This is an independent (or indie) production, shown by the style in which the girl is shown; her clothes demonstrate this to the audience. Our sequence represents the indie teenage girl, most likely from Britain.

Although we do not show much of their personalities, we represent the male dominance; he is above her on the stairs and is in complete control.

We also represent disabled people as not being vulnerable. Here the villain is on crutches but is still able to take control and be more powerful that the girl, even though she is not disabled. We have demonstrated that physical prowess isn’t always better.

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

In my opinion, a small British independent institution would be likely to distribute the film because it is a low-budget British film and institutions such as these specialise in distributing this type of film. 

As well as this, the production and distribution companies (Black Cat Productions and Fallen Tree Studios) sound like British independent companies, something that reflects the film itself and the social groups portrayed. Interesting, the majority of our audience feedback tells us that those who've seen it think the film would be shown in a multiplex cinema (such as a Cineworld); this is surprising as our film was hypothetically intended to be shown at an independent cinema such as the Rio Cinema.

(Our Fallen Tree ident 0:05. Below are four stages of the ident to illustrate)

Taking inspiration from the film Paranormal Activity and their revolutionary "Demand it!" online campaign, I think the film could be marketed with an original (albeit similar) online campaign that could target our audience. For example, short trailers could be placed on websites that are associated with independent cinema such as FilmLondon and Alternative Cinema in order to get attention. As well as this, fans of the trailer would then have to demand screenings in their local independent cinema (for example The Phoenix) and this would make sure that the film would get through to our intended target  audience.

Who would be the audiences for your media product?

The target audience for our product would be young British adults between the ages of 15 and 25. Our film would be rated 15 to ensure that we reach these people. We are also aware that there are other horror films that have a similar target audience and therefore the same certificate, such as Paranormal Activity.

It is most likely that our production will attract indie teenagers over 15 because our film begins with a character that is within this social group and so this character is relatable to people who will then want to watch the film. The majority of our audience feedback came from teenagers aged 16 who said that they enjoy a wide range of films.

 

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our target audience by featuring characters that fit within their social groups in our film. As the uses and gratifications theory shows, people are willing to pay money in order to see a film that interests them. From our film the target audience will see a film involving people like them, whilst at the same time be able to enjoy a horror film that will make them jump and scare them.

Footage taken from a screening:

Our audience have a diversity in favourite film genres, therefore we thought that finding a common online website would be a wise way to target our audience. Groups, pages and events on Facebook allowed us to keep our audience up to date with screenings and directly targets them since only those interested in watching films such as this will click to attend the event. This use of technology helps us to market our sequence, as well as other websites such as Youtube.

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

During the project I have learnt to use a variety of new hardware equipment. For example, we experimented with a shotgun microphone and we used pag lights in order to help light the set when filming in the basement. As well as this I furthered my understanding of/ability to use the HD camera; this became useful for innovative shots such as the establishing 'through the floor' shot. As shown below, we used the tripod for most of our shots.

We used computer programs such as Adobe Premier Pro in order to edit our footage and Macromedia Flash to create our indent on the PC. We used the software on the Mac (specifically Soundtrack Pro and LiveType) to find sound effects and create titles for our sequence.

Importantly, I began to use Blogger. This was used to post updates during the project and the work done before and after it. It was very useful because it can be accessed from any computer with internet and therefore I was able to work on my blog at home and at school whilst it became easier for my teachers to view as well.

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

I feel that this is a significant improvement on my preliminary task because I have become more familiar with using the equipment, knowledge of techniques (for example the 30 degree rule and the 180 degree rule) and editing a narrative sequence so it works and therefore there have been less mistakes.

 

In the prelim task, the pan following the movement on screen wasn't very smooth (0:13) whilst my new sequence the entire action runs far more smoothly (0:54).

In addition, I have learnt to film the entire action from different angles in my new sequence whilst in the prelim we tended to stop filming too soon and therefore there were strange cuts (0:12) that didn’t work well and looked unnatural to the viewer.

Shots

On March 4th I posted a video that had been filmed in one shot.

From 0:52 to 1:20 we filmed one continuous shot and although this has cutaways, it reflects what I wanted to do with our piece.

Similarly, on February 2nd I posted a clip from Harry Potter, identifying the POV shot and the lighting which combined gave a sense of tension and mood that fitted well within the genre. Due to the change in location and therefore story our version wasn't as dark or mysterious. However, from 1:23 to 1:43 we have a similar shot in which we have a POV shot of somebody exploring their surroundings whilst watching somebody else's movements.

Final sequence

Finally, here it is!

19.3.10

We're signed off! It's a relief to have finished the piece; it's something that I'm really proud of and it has been fun to film and edit. We had to rush a lot in the last couple of days but so did most other groups. I'm happy with the finished result and I hope that the people who come to the screening agree with me.

15.3.10

Having captured the footage from yesterdays reshoot, I'm confident that we can reach the deadline. At the moment we're putting the finishing touches to our sequence before adding titles and music. The next few days will be tough but I'm sure that we can complete the task on time.

12.3.10

I'm looking forward to Sunday's reshoot and finally getting all the footage needed to make our sequence. Hopefully we can also come up with some new ideas as well as simply reshoot the shots that went wrong last time around.

In today's lesson we started to create the titles for our sequence and began to discuss the music for it. We're also cutting down the length of it which is extremely useful because it means we know how long the shots we will reshoot must be (for example we may be able to shave a second or two off of some shots).

9.3.10

Following our shoot, we've put together a very rough cut of our sequence; so far it's looking much much better than the test! However, its also a bit longer so hopefully over the next couple of days we can cut it down to the requirements.

5.3.10

In the lesson we came up with a new shot list for tomorrow's shoot; we are confident that this will work.

For the shoot I'm expected to bring hair gel and cardboard boxes.

Influential films

I know this isn't technically a film, but I like the fact that it's all done in one shot. I think it would be good to have one continuous shot (however, even though this would be different it is far more likely that it will be split up by cutaway shots).

Yet again, I'm sorry to say that the embed code has been disabled!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NrFa9Ur7U

4.3.10

The rest of the group have now read the list of problems (and more importantly, possible solutions) contained in our test shoot and we can discuss these in tomorrow's lesson. I have of course advised that they add to this list.