Evaluation: 4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages ?

Evaluation: 3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 

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

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

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Ancillary Tasks Comparison

Ancillary tasks comparison

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Final Movie Poster

Final Empire Magazine Cover

Truth or Dare Final Horror Trailer

Storyboard

Movie Poster Research

Throughout all my horror movie poster research, I found common ground. All have one very central focused image, that is clear, concise and eye catching. The title of the film is then very clearly displayed in bold font, generally at the bottom of the poster where the credits lie. Below the credits, I found most posters included a date of release for the film, distribution/production logos and sometimes even a website for the film. Most posters also have a tagline for their film, displayed clearly on the image, in a place careful not to intrude into the main focus of the image, or even sometimes, right at the top of the poster. These conventions I found through research, I have decided to definitely continue and maybe even develop during the production of my movie poster. 

Empire Magazine Cover Research

During my research of empire covers, I found that it was not common for empire to display horror films on their front cover. This cover displaying ‘new moon’ was the closest I could find to a ‘horror cover’. I noted the bold use of the red masthead against the darker background, and above the central image, which must be clear and eye catching. I also noted the way in which the smaller articles were positioned around the outside of the image, careful not to intrude onto the main focus of the image. I also found that empire more than often position their price and date within the ‘M’ for Empire, a convention I decided I will definitely follow. Their use of red and white, picked up from the masthead is furthered as colour choice throughout the whole magazine cover, and works very well against the black background of the image; also a good choice of colours as red and white against black backgrounds, could connote the horror genre. 

Prop List

Second Scene

Empty beer bottle

Third Scene

Retractable dagger knife

Fake blood

Fourth Scene

Log

Sixth Scene

Fake Blood

Eighth Scene

Retractable dagger knife

Ninth Scene

Rope

Fake Blood

Cast List, Location and Costumes

First Scene

Cast list – Toni Maybank, Freddie Francis, Melissa East, Martin Johnson.

Location-Isolated lake

Costume-Toni-Tight revealing clothes, Melissa-Casualwear, Freddie-Jeans and a shirt, Martin-Hoodie and jeans

Second Scene

Cast list – Toni Maybank, Freddie Francis, Melissa East, Martin Johnson.

Location-Isolated lake

Costume-Toni-Tight revealing clothes, Melissa-Casualwear, Freddie-Jeans and a shirt, Martin-Hoodie and jeans

Third Scene

Cast list – Melissa East

Location-Isolated lake

Costume-Casualwear

Fourth Scene

Cast list- Toni Maybank

Location- Woods

Costume-Tight revealing clothes

Fifth Scene

Cast list – Melissa East

Location- Woods

Costume- Casualwear

Sixth Scene

Cast List- Freddie Francis

Location- Lake

Costume- Jeans and Shirt

Seventh Scene

Cast List- Martin Johnson

Location-Woods

Costume-Hoodie and Jeans

Eighth Scene

Cast-Toni Maybank, Martin Johnson

Location-Woods

Costume- Toni-Tight revealing clothes, Martin-Hoodie

Ninth Scene

Cast-Toni Maybank

Location- Woods

Costume- Tight revealing clothes

Questionnaire Analysis

Questionnaire Anaylsis

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Questionnaire

Scripting and Shot Types

First scene

Walking to lake:

Group of teens walking to the lake and there is a clear division between the bullied boy (Lewis) and the rest of the group.

Camera Shots:

Establishing shot of the lake

Camera then pans rounds to the teenagers walking to the lake

Close up of Lewis’s face – longer than other close ups

Close up of all characters faces separately 

Job Roles:

Camera – Zoe

Lewis (Bullied boy) – Martin

Billy (Jock), Toni (Promiscuous Blonde), Melissa (Geek Chic girl)
Director – Ashley                                                                             

Risk Assessment

Make sure no one carelessly falls or drops the camera or anything valuable in the lake.

Second Scene

The game:

At the lake and the entertainment turns to truth or dare between the group and further bullying towards Lewis

Camera Shots:

High angle medium shot of bottle spinning round in the circle

Medium shot of bottle pointing to Lewis

Close up canted angle on Jock nudging/kicking Lewis’ foot

Continuous long shot of Lewis walking into the dark words alone

Medium shot of him walking towards the camera and looking back at his ‘friends’

P.O.V shot from Lewis’ shoulder as he looks back at his ‘friends’

Job roles: 

Camera – Zoe

Stage Directors – Ashley
Lewis (Bullied boy) – Martin

Billy (Jock), Toni (Promiscuous Blonde), Melissa (Geek Chic girl)

Risk Assessment:

Make sure no member of the public gets in any shots and to ensure that the woods are totally safe.

Third Scene

Confusion:

After inserting a tone card saying ‘Let the games begin…’ the action and cuts will be a lot quicker and will be supported by the increased tempo music.

Camera Shots:

Extreme close up of blood on Lewis’ hand

Canted angle shots of bloody knife on the ground in the woods, with quick jump cuts between shots to disorientate the audience

Over the shoulder shot panning around the final, geek chic girl holding bloody knife and aiming it at an ‘unknown person’

Job roles:

Camera – Zoe

Stage Director – Ashley

Lewis (Bullied boy) – Martin

Billy (Jock), Toni (Promiscuous Blonde), Melissa (Geek Chic girl)

Risk Assessment:

Be wary when filming in woods, be careful of hidden objects that camera operator could trip over.

Fourth Scene

Chase sequence:

A chase between the killer and a blonde promiscuous girl, when the blonde girl trips over a log

Camera Shots:

P.O.V shot from ‘killer’ walking swiftly towards a running promiscuous victim, before she trips and falls to the floor, as the camera tracks towards her and shows a high angle shot looking over her.

Job Roles:

Camera – Zoe
Stage Director – Ashley
Lewis (Bullied boy) – Martin

Billy (Jock), Toni (Promiscuous Blonde), Melissa (Geek Chic girl)

Risk Assessment:

Be careful when the actress trips over, that she doesn’t fall too hard and hit her head.

Fifth Scene

Body Scene

Geek Chic girl kneels down in front of a tree looking scared when she discovers her dead friend’s body, and then a hand from behind grabs her by the mouth to silence her screams.

Camera Shots:
Mid shot of the geek girl by the tree.
Close up shot of hand covering her mouth.

Job Roles:
Camera – Zoe
Stage directors – Ashley
Lewis (Bullied boy) – Martin

Billy (Jock), Toni (Promiscuous Blonde), Melissa (Geek Chic girl)

Risk Assessment:
Screaming could cause the public to panic and think somebody is really in danger.

Sixth Scene

Hand Scene:
A quick shot of one of the characters’ bloodstained hand.

Camera Shots:
Close up shot of the hand draping into the lake.

Job Roles:
Camera – Zoe
Stage director – Ashley

Risk Assessment:
Make sure hands are washed after being placed in the lake, as there could be harmful chemicals in the water of the lake.

Seventh Scene

Woods Scene

A quick reveal of a character in the distance, but the hooded clothing keep their identity concealed.

Camera Shots: 

Extreme long shot of hooded figure (the killer) in the far distance in the woods.

Job Roles:
Camera – Zoe
Stage director – Ashley
Lewis (Bullied boy) – Martin

Billy (Jock), Toni (Promiscuous Blonde), Melissa (Geek Chic girl)

Risk Assessment:

Be wary of public in the woods, as they could get in the shots.

Eighth Scene

Stabbing:
One of the characters gets stabbed in the stomach, but the identity of the killer and the victim is not shown.

Camera Shots:
Mid shot of the victims’ stomach being stabbed with a retractable knife.

Job Roles:
Camera – Zoe
Stage director – Ashley
Lewis (Bullied boy) – Martin

Billy (Jock), Toni (Promiscuous Blonde), Melissa (Geek Chic girl)

Risk Assessment:
The public may think that someone is actually being stabbed. Make sure we tell people we are filming a horror film to counteract this problem.

Ninth Scene

After Tone Card
One last shot comes up of promiscuous girl tied to a tree with rope and blood dripping down her. She is also in an unconscious state.

Camera Shot:
Long shot of the blonde girl tied to a tree.
Jump cut to a close up shot of her hands tied up in the rope wriggling.

Job Roles:
Camera – Zoe
Stage director – Ashley
Lewis (Bullied boy) – Martin

Billy (Jock), Toni (Promiscuous Blonde), Melissa (Geek Chic girl)

Risk Assessment:
In case of a real emergency make sure the actress is able to get out of the rope quickly and easily.

Pitch Analysis

Treatment Analysis

Treatment: 

After having nothing to do a group of teenage friends decide to take a trip round to a local lake. The group of friends consists of a promiscuous blonde with her jock boyfriend, the geek chic girl and the bullied boy. When walking to the lake we see the constant banter between the group and the bullied boy by tripping him up and making virginal references towards him.

They find a spot facing the lake and decide to play a game of truth or dare. Here we see the bullied boy as an outsider of the group as he is positioned slightly away from the others. As the dares commence the bullied boy gets pressured to spend five minutes in the dark woods alone. However, after the time has passed the rest of the group panic, 
as he doesn’t come back, leaving the jock to go in search of him. Whilst the jock is searching for him, the bullied boy grabs him from behind the bush, stabs him
and hides the body in the lake, leaving only the remains of the blood. As the rest of the group wait anxiously for their arrival, only the bullied boy comes back alone, acting clueless to the jock’s whereabouts.

As they all settle down, the blonde girl notices something on the boys hand and begins to stare to which the bullied boy looks down to his hands and realises the blood stains, so he slyly pulls his sleeve down. The game continues and this time the truth lands 
with the promiscuous girl, the question being, ‘have you had sex?’ to which she replies, ‘yes, unlike ugly boy over there’ pointing at the bullied boy. Slowly, the boy starts to get angrier and claims ‘you’ll be next’, and disappears into the dark. As the rest of the group query what he means the jock's dead body washes up from the lake.

With only two remaining in the group, the geek chic and the blonde start to panic and protect each other. The blonde sets out to find the bullied boy, leaving the geek chic girl to wait by her friend’s dead body. As she walks nervously through the woods, slight noises worry her making her scream and panic. She decides to run to find the exit, however tripping on a branch and banging her head on a rock, knocking herself unconscious. As she begins to wake she tries to move her arms but is suddenly shocked that she is unable to, looking up to find her hands tied with rope to a tree. Inspecting her body she has come to the realisation that she has been attacked, covered in bruises and blood head to toe. As she struggles to escape, her screams are heard by the bullied boy drawing his attention to find his victim has awaked.

Running to her side, he hears her screaming her boyfriend’s name to which he replies, “He can’t help you now.” She attempts to haul herself up but fails, shouting at him, “what have you done to my boyfriend?!” Smirking to himself, he asks, “would you like to join him?” He walks slowly towards her still smirking pulling a knife from his back pocket. Before she has time to react he brutally stabs her straight through the heart, killing her instantly.

Unknowingly to the geek chic girl, she is completely alone at the lake with the bullied boy, her secret crush, not understanding where her blonde friend had got to. When suddenly bumping into him, he confesses his love to her. Seeing the knife in his back pocket, she realises he is the killer, and deciding the best thing to do is go along with his affections and embraces him tightly. She steadily takes the knife from his back pocket and strokes his hair with her free hand, distracting him from the hand that holds the weapon. Believing all is well and in the moment, she whispers in his ear, “Would you die for me?” he unconsciously replies, “yes.” With this she brings the knife to his jugular vein and quickly slits his throat causing him to fall to the floor gripping his throat.

Knowing that she could be framed for all the murders, she wraps the knife in the bullied boy’s hat and in a state of shock walks to the lake where she disposes of the weapon

Analysis:

local lake – Stereotypically isolated setting for a horror film

promiscuous blonde with her jock boyfriend, the geek chic girl and the bullied boy – Conventional characters for horror, we are able to predict from the set of characters that the final girl will be the ‘geek chic girl’

bullied boy – Stereotypical motive for killing/murdering

dark woods alone – Conventional location for a murder; silent and dark and away from safety.

However, after the time has passed the rest of the group panic, as he doesn’t come back, leaving the jock to go in search of him – Chosen as the first person to die because he is the main bully

the jock is searching for him, the bullied boy grabs him from behind the bush, stabs him and hides the body in the lake  - Stabs him, insinuating conventional knife use, and hiding the body in the lake is conventional as it is mysterious and unknown

this time the truth lands with the blonde girl, the question being, ‘have you had sex?’ to which she replies, ‘yes, unlike ugly boy over there’ pointing at the bullied boy – Further bullying to fully display the motive for his killings, and setting the blonde girl up to be the next predictable victim, because of her promiscuous views and ways.

noises worry them making the blonde girl scream  – Stereotypical horror scream, and conventional promiscuous girl as a victim

The blonde girl decides to run to find the exit, however tripping on a branch and banging her head on a rock, knocking herself unconscious – Determining her as a frivolous, irrational thinker which is stereotypical of the blonde promiscuous girls in horror genre

pulling a knife from his back pocket – Cliché horror weapon

When suddenly bumping into him he confesses his love for her. Seeing the knife in his back pocket, she realises he is the killer and deciding the best thing to do is go along with his affections and embraces him tightly. She steadily takes the knife from his back pocket and strokes his hair with her free hand, distracting him from the hand that holds the weapon. Believing all is well and in the moment, she whispers in his ear, “Would you die for me?” he unconsciously replies, “yes.” With this she brings the knife to his jugular vain and quickly slits his throat causing him to fall to the floor gripping his throat - Showing her to definitely be the final girl, as she is far more intelligent and has a strategy for escape, which is conventional of horror.

Knowing that she could be framed for all the murders, she wraps the knife in the bullied boy’s hat and in a state of shock walks to the lake where she disposes of the weapon – Again showing her intelligence and reason for being the ‘final girl’  

Treatment

After having nothing to do a group of teenage friends decide to take a trip round to a local lake. The group of friends consists of a promiscuous blonde with her jock boyfriend, the geek chic girl and the bullied boy. When walking to the lake we see the constant banter between the group and the bullied boy by tripping him up and making virginal references towards him.

They find a spot facing the lake and decide to play a game of truth or dare. Here we see the bullied boy as an outsider of the group as he is positioned slightly away from the others. As the dares commence the bullied boy gets pressured to spend five minutes in the dark woods alone. However, after the time has passed the rest of the group panic, 
as he doesn’t come back, leaving the jock to go in search of him. Whilst the jock is searching for him, the bullied boy grabs him from behind the bush, stabs him
and hides the body in the lake, leaving only the remains of the blood. As the rest of the group wait anxiously for their arrival, only the bullied boy comes back alone, acting clueless to the jock’s whereabouts.

As they all settle down, the blonde girl notices something on the boys hand and begins to stare to which the bullied boy looks down to his hands and realises the blood stains, so he slyly pulls his sleeve down. The game continues and this time the truth lands 
with the promiscuous girl, the question being, ‘have you had sex?’ to which she replies, ‘yes, unlike ugly boy over there’ pointing at the bullied boy. Slowly, the boy starts to get angrier and claims ‘you’ll be next’, and disappears into the dark. As the rest of the group query what he means the jock's dead body washes up from the lake.

With only two remaining in the group, the geek chic and the blonde start to panic and protect each other. The blonde sets out to find the bullied boy, leaving the geek chic girl to wait by her friend’s dead body. As she walks nervously through the woods, slight noises worry her making her scream and panic. She decides to run to find the exit, however tripping on a branch and banging her head on a rock, knocking herself unconscious. As she begins to wake she tries to move her arms but is suddenly shocked that she is unable to, looking up to find her hands tied with rope to a tree. Inspecting her body she has come to the realisation that she has been attacked, covered in bruises and blood head to toe. As she struggles to escape, her screams are heard by the bullied boy drawing his attention to find his victim has awaked.

Running to her side, he hears her screaming her boyfriend’s name to which he replies, “He can’t help you now.” She attempts to haul herself up but fails, shouting at him, “what have you done to my boyfriend?!” Smirking to himself, he asks, “would you like to join him?” He walks slowly towards her still smirking pulling a knife from his back pocket. Before she has time to react he brutally stabs her straight through the heart, killing her instantly.

Unknowingly to the geek chic girl, she is completely alone at the lake with the bullied boy, her secret crush, not understanding where her blonde friend had got to. When suddenly bumping into him, he confesses his love to her. Seeing the knife in his back pocket, she realises he is the killer, and deciding the best thing to do is go along with his affections and embraces him tightly. She steadily takes the knife from his back pocket and strokes his hair with her free hand, distracting him from the hand that holds the weapon. Believing all is well and in the moment, she whispers in his ear, “Would you die for me?” he unconsciously replies, “yes.” With this she brings the knife to his jugular vein and quickly slits his throat causing him to fall to the floor gripping his throat.

Knowing that she could be framed for all the murders, she wraps the knife in the bullied boy’s hat and in a state of shock walks to the lake where she disposes of the weapon.

Final Idea

At first we all agreed that we liked the idea of the babysitter who is intruded on the night of Halloween, however, we thought this idea would be hard to portray well as we would have to incorporate a real child which would cause problems when filming. Due to this complication, we decided it would be best to go with the idea set around the lake, as this involves people of our own age and the setting automatically represents horror.

Once we had chosen the idea, we had to refine it by checking each scene would work and portray meaning within context to our idea. One of the decisions we made was to make the gang a conventional mixed sex group with definable stereotypes within it. For example; a promiscuous blonde and a geek.

Three Horror Trailer Ideas

1) One idea we came up with as a group for a horror trailer is about a group of teenage friends who take a visit to a quiet lake. However, what may seem like a harmless day out soon turns to disaster when one, so called friend takes revenge on the others after having enough of their torments. Slowly, the group decreases in numbers but no one can understand why, and who may be behind it all. The lake is a typical setting for a horror trailer as it can be a weapon in itself by using it to drown victims, and also creates a sense of fear, as no one knows what lies beneath.

2) Our second idea involves a group of girls who have been left alone in a house for the weekend, who decide to experiment with a ouija board. Everything seems well at first, until the supernatural take over. With the curse unleashed and tormenting the group, they have to figure out how to break the curse. But is it really a ghost creating the torment, or has someone gone a step too far.


3) Our final idea is based on a girl left alone to baby-sit a toddler on the night of Halloween. All is well when the baby falls asleep until an unexpected knock happens during witching hour. The babysitter opens the door to a mysterious character, but whilst getting the treats, the trick or treater sneaks into the house. When she realises the mysterious character has disappeared, panic strikes. But who is it?

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

The basis of our bussing sequence was an innocent, teenage girl targeted by a male killer in an eerie, bright white, mirror filled public toilet. We chose this location because of the advantages of using mirrors in horror films, and because of the representation of a surgical, hospital type surrounding, due to the brightness of the light. Throughout our filming, we encountered the inevitable problem of people wanting to use the toilet, in which case our choice of location may have not been very suitable for the limited amount of time we had for filming, but we just waited until the toilet was free for us to start filming again.

A shot that worked very well in our sequence was the moment of disequilibrium shot. The teenager walks over to the mirror, hears a very loud bang, just as the non diegetic background music abruptly stops, and the camera quickly pans the room to spot a toilet door swinging open, to show the victim isn’t as alone as she thought she was. During editing, we increased the sound of the door banging, to overpower the music and with the intention of really frightening the audience. The close up shots of the victim as she washes her hands are also very good shots, and fit well to create an atmosphere and a moment of distortion.

Whilst our choice of location wasn’t totally unjustifiable, the lighting was; the bright light made the location hard to film in and limited our use of mirror shots, as the camera wouldn’t focus quickly enough on the mirror, because of the lighting. I also think that more close up shots could have been used to show more of the victims emotions, so that as a masochistic audience, we sympathise with the victim more. For example, we could have added a close up shot of the victim’s face as she comes face to face with her killer, before she runs out the door and tries to escape.

Looking back at our bussing sequence, I feel that with the time and equipment we had, we did well, but little things such as our choice of location and camera shots could be easily improved with more planning, preparation and thought.