This is our finished production.
Friday 3 May 2013
Evaluation Q1 - Conventions
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our group decided that certain aspects of our slasher opening would have to be similar to previous successful slasher films so that we could target a specific audience.
TITLES
The first titles displayed are 'Fireline presents', like in the slasher film Madhouse (William Butler, 2004) except in Madhouse's case it was 'Lions Gate Productions'. This is a commonly used convention. Also in our production we used a convention shown in slashers such as Urban Legend. We displayed 'A cupkate Production', similar to Urban Legend saying 'a Gina Matthews Production'. As shown in Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2000), the title of the film is shown after the first killing. We did this in our slasher opening after the scream queens death and similarly to Scary Movie we centered the title and it fades to black.
IDENTS
A good example of idents from a slasher film are An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981). The idents from this film look fairly outdated but the the simple animated letters are still effective, and they continue to be used commonly in modern slasher films. All 4 of our company idents involved this same technique and also some other animation and effects. This helped our idents look effective yet they were simple to make.
OPENING SHOTS
The first shot we show in our film opening is an establishing shot. This instantly anchors the mood, genre and location of the film. Our establishing shot is of the wooden cabins where the main part of our film is set. An establishing shot also helps get the audience into the film and the action. This same technique is used in many slasher openings, an example of this is Cherry Falls (Geoffrey Wright, 2009).
GROUP SHOT:
After the establishing shots in our production we thought it was vital to include a group shot to anchor the main characters. Also the dialogue that is used along side this will add to the exposition revealed in the early parts of the opening. It also introduces possible protagonist and antagonists to the audience.
FINAL GIRL AND SCREAM QUEEN
Carole Clover's theory of the final girl applies to the majority of films across the slasher genre, including our production. 'Charley' our final girl character follows this concept in a number of ways. Her name is unisex and she dresses very covered up and comes across a positive an very morally right person. She also has masculine attributes. The binary opposite of Charley is our scream queen Ashley. Ashley dresses more provocatively and has a lazy and negative attitude. She also comes across less immoral by ringing her dad to pick her up because she's bored instead of commemorating her dead friend. Both these characters are common stereotypes of the slasher genre. A good example of a final girl is Sydney Prescott from Scream (Wes Craven, 1996). An extremely famous example of a scream queen is Janet Leigh from Psycho.
NARRATIVE ENIGMA:
In our slasher opening we show narrative enigma whenever the killer is shown. By dressing the killer in a black hoodie the audience are never able to identify him, this along with the shots of only the killers feet gradually being cut into the action helps create narrative enigma. This same concept is used in lots of slasher films. A well known example is the Friday the 13th franchise where Jason is always seen wearing a mask to hide his identity.
SOUND
The sound we used in the killing sequence of our production is inspired from slashers such as Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960). We added string instruments that created drama and tensions and helped replicate the screams that would be heard. Psycho is a very famous example of this technique. Throughout our opening we used a mixture of diegetic and non diegetic sound to create tension as well as keeping it realistic.
CONCLUSION
Our audience feedback was positive and came across as getting our preferred reading. We were most worried about our killing scene not coming across convincingly, but our audience feedback didn't bring up any concern about this. Using conventions from past examples has helped us to achieve better verisimilatude.
Our group decided that certain aspects of our slasher opening would have to be similar to previous successful slasher films so that we could target a specific audience.
TITLES
The first titles displayed are 'Fireline presents', like in the slasher film Madhouse (William Butler, 2004) except in Madhouse's case it was 'Lions Gate Productions'. This is a commonly used convention. Also in our production we used a convention shown in slashers such as Urban Legend. We displayed 'A cupkate Production', similar to Urban Legend saying 'a Gina Matthews Production'. As shown in Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans, 2000), the title of the film is shown after the first killing. We did this in our slasher opening after the scream queens death and similarly to Scary Movie we centered the title and it fades to black.
IDENTS
A good example of idents from a slasher film are An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981). The idents from this film look fairly outdated but the the simple animated letters are still effective, and they continue to be used commonly in modern slasher films. All 4 of our company idents involved this same technique and also some other animation and effects. This helped our idents look effective yet they were simple to make.
OPENING SHOTS
The first shot we show in our film opening is an establishing shot. This instantly anchors the mood, genre and location of the film. Our establishing shot is of the wooden cabins where the main part of our film is set. An establishing shot also helps get the audience into the film and the action. This same technique is used in many slasher openings, an example of this is Cherry Falls (Geoffrey Wright, 2009).
GROUP SHOT:
After the establishing shots in our production we thought it was vital to include a group shot to anchor the main characters. Also the dialogue that is used along side this will add to the exposition revealed in the early parts of the opening. It also introduces possible protagonist and antagonists to the audience.
FINAL GIRL AND SCREAM QUEEN
Carole Clover's theory of the final girl applies to the majority of films across the slasher genre, including our production. 'Charley' our final girl character follows this concept in a number of ways. Her name is unisex and she dresses very covered up and comes across a positive an very morally right person. She also has masculine attributes. The binary opposite of Charley is our scream queen Ashley. Ashley dresses more provocatively and has a lazy and negative attitude. She also comes across less immoral by ringing her dad to pick her up because she's bored instead of commemorating her dead friend. Both these characters are common stereotypes of the slasher genre. A good example of a final girl is Sydney Prescott from Scream (Wes Craven, 1996). An extremely famous example of a scream queen is Janet Leigh from Psycho.
NARRATIVE ENIGMA:
In our slasher opening we show narrative enigma whenever the killer is shown. By dressing the killer in a black hoodie the audience are never able to identify him, this along with the shots of only the killers feet gradually being cut into the action helps create narrative enigma. This same concept is used in lots of slasher films. A well known example is the Friday the 13th franchise where Jason is always seen wearing a mask to hide his identity.
SOUND
The sound we used in the killing sequence of our production is inspired from slashers such as Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960). We added string instruments that created drama and tensions and helped replicate the screams that would be heard. Psycho is a very famous example of this technique. Throughout our opening we used a mixture of diegetic and non diegetic sound to create tension as well as keeping it realistic.
CONCLUSION
Our audience feedback was positive and came across as getting our preferred reading. We were most worried about our killing scene not coming across convincingly, but our audience feedback didn't bring up any concern about this. Using conventions from past examples has helped us to achieve better verisimilatude.
Evaluation Q2 - Representations
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
SOCIAL CLASS AND STATUS
All the characters in our production are of a working/middle class. They speak the same, and don't dress completely different to each other, so they don't look different enough to class them as a different social status. The target audience is also working class, which helps the audience easily relate to the characters.
Here is the podcast version of this question:
There are 7 key areas of representation which can be analysed and applied to productions.
REGIONAL IDENTITY
Our film is set in West Yorkshire, therefore all the characters have a Yorkshire accent. They use typical teenage 'slang' language which attracts the target young adult audience. Because the production is set in Yorkshire, it is set in a very rural area to anchor the region.
AGE
All the characters in our media production are teenagers, including the killer. The age of the characters attracts the target audience of 15-24 year old's, as they can relate to the emotions and feelings expressed by the teenagers on screen. The clothes they are wearing also anchor their age, as they're clothes that a typical teenager would wear. A typical slasher film convention is that the authority figures and adults are useless. This convention is shown in our film opening, when the father of the scream queen does not answer his phone, signifying he is useless. The final girl is portrayed as the innocent and sensible character of the group, which shows that she is the leader of the group, and like the stereotypical final girl, she will eventually defeat the killer using her intelligence. The jock of the group comes across as the one who has a lazy negative attitude towards his peers, especially his girlfriend (the scream queen). The scream queen also has a negative attitude towards the situation, and ends up being separated from the group.The jock and scream queens attitudes are both binary opposites of the final girls positive attitude.
SEXUALITY
To reinforce a normative representation to the audience, we chose for all of the characters to be heterosexual. This is signified in our film opening with the scream queen and jock, by having them walk together at the back of the group and by having a photo of the couple on the background of the scream queens phone.
To reinforce a normative representation to the audience, we chose for all of the characters to be heterosexual. This is signified in our film opening with the scream queen and jock, by having them walk together at the back of the group and by having a photo of the couple on the background of the scream queens phone.
GENDER
Gender comes across strongly using binary opposites in our production. The scream queen and killer are binary opposites. The scream queen fits the stereotype of her role, as she is wearing a low cut vest top, and has long blonde hair. She is emotional and weak which is signified by being the first victim out of the group. The killer is the binary opposite of this, because he portrays no emotion. Although we used narrative enigma, it is still clear that there is an element of psychopathy about the killer. The killer also portrays strength and power as he succeeds at killing the scream queen. There are also binary opposites between the scream queen and final girl. Carole Clover's theory of the final girl and feminism in slasher films explains how the final girl takes the lead role as she has more masculine traits which are signified by her body being covered up. Our final girl follows this theory.
PHYSICAL ABILITY/DISABILITY
Again we are reinforcing a normative representation to the audience as all the characters are physically able. This was done because in our film production the group are walking in the woods, so having a disabled character would have made the situation less realistic.
Gender comes across strongly using binary opposites in our production. The scream queen and killer are binary opposites. The scream queen fits the stereotype of her role, as she is wearing a low cut vest top, and has long blonde hair. She is emotional and weak which is signified by being the first victim out of the group. The killer is the binary opposite of this, because he portrays no emotion. Although we used narrative enigma, it is still clear that there is an element of psychopathy about the killer. The killer also portrays strength and power as he succeeds at killing the scream queen. There are also binary opposites between the scream queen and final girl. Carole Clover's theory of the final girl and feminism in slasher films explains how the final girl takes the lead role as she has more masculine traits which are signified by her body being covered up. Our final girl follows this theory.
PHYSICAL ABILITY/DISABILITY
Again we are reinforcing a normative representation to the audience as all the characters are physically able. This was done because in our film production the group are walking in the woods, so having a disabled character would have made the situation less realistic.
REGIONAL IDENTITY
Our film is set in West Yorkshire, therefore all the characters have a Yorkshire accent. They use typical teenage 'slang' language which attracts the target young adult audience. Because the production is set in Yorkshire, it is set in a very rural area to anchor the region.
ETHNICITY
In our slasher opening, all the characters are white British, so there is no cultural diversity. There are very few slasher films with a culturally diverse cast, however Prom Night (Nelson McCormick, 2008) challenges this.
In our slasher opening, all the characters are white British, so there is no cultural diversity. There are very few slasher films with a culturally diverse cast, however Prom Night (Nelson McCormick, 2008) challenges this.
SOCIAL CLASS AND STATUS
All the characters in our production are of a working/middle class. They speak the same, and don't dress completely different to each other, so they don't look different enough to class them as a different social status. The target audience is also working class, which helps the audience easily relate to the characters.
Evaluation Q3 – Distribution
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A film distributor is a company or a person who is responsible for the marketing of the film. Film distribution requires the materials and rights of the producer and the cooperation of the exhibitor to promote the film.
Our product is a low-budget indie slasher film, without any established actors/actresses so large Hollywood distributors like Warner Bros and Universal Pictures are not an option.
We have watched films like Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th and taken the idea of a camp setting, and the plot in our film has some similarities to films in the Friday the 13th franchise.
Digitisation is changing distribution massively and nowadays there are other ways of getting our film noticed. Social networks can play a huge part in getting our film recognition for the public. The world now spends more than 110 billion minutes on social networks and blog sites per month. Video sharing websites such as YouTube and Dailymotion are a great way to get low budget films like ours recognition. Using social networks to distribute our film will not only be much cheaper than finding a company that would distribute our film, we could possibly reach our target audience more easily, as a large amount of people who have YouTube accounts are young people.
Even though low budget films such as Donkey Punch were released into the cinema and even in parts of the United States, many indie films have a lot of difficulty finding a distributor. Most low budget indie films end up going straight to DVD, never making it to the cinema, as the cost of marketing and creating film prints is so high. Donkey Punch was not overly successful at the box office but made most money in DVD sales. The distributor for Donkey punch in the UK was Optimum Releasing. They have also distributed films such as Kill List which had a budget of £500k and was partly filmed in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Kill List is one of the most recent films distributed. I think that Optimum Releasing would be a good company to distribute our film because they have experience distributing low budget indie films, and often succeed in getting cinematic releases for fairly low-budget films, for example Attack The Block (Joe Cornish, 2011) and The Awakening (Nick Murphy, 2011).
Even though low budget films such as Donkey Punch were released into the cinema and even in parts of the United States, many indie films have a lot of difficulty finding a distributor. Most low budget indie films end up going straight to DVD, never making it to the cinema, as the cost of marketing and creating film prints is so high. Donkey Punch was not overly successful at the box office but made most money in DVD sales. The distributor for Donkey punch in the UK was Optimum Releasing. They have also distributed films such as Kill List which had a budget of £500k and was partly filmed in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Kill List is one of the most recent films distributed. I think that Optimum Releasing would be a good company to distribute our film because they have experience distributing low budget indie films, and often succeed in getting cinematic releases for fairly low-budget films, for example Attack The Block (Joe Cornish, 2011) and The Awakening (Nick Murphy, 2011).
Warp X is a distribution company based in Sheffield. They were also involved in the production and distribution of Donkey Punch. This company would also be an ideal distribution company for our film, as they also have experience distributing low-budget productions.
Evaluation Q4 - Target Audience
Who would be the audience for your media product?
When our group was deciding the plot of our film, we also had an idea in mind for our target audience. We decided that the target audience for Camp Ivy would be 15-24 years old. We looked at the BBFC guidelines which helped us to decide this as it shows a scene of violence and scenes of this nature would continue in the rest of the film.
Our target audience are also most likely to be British. Also as the characters are all from Yorkshire other countries might not be able to understand their accent as global audiences are used to British accents from the south of England. I think that our production is likely to be popular with more Northern people as they can relate to the characters more and it could seem more realistic.
Slasher films are known for being popular with teenage audiences. Its a genre that is fairly popular all over the world so this might attract other countries as a lot of teenagers would go camping, because it isn't just specific to British culture.
The secondary target audience would be 18-34 years old. I think that our production could be well received with this age group because the slasher genre has proved to be quite popular in this age group before.
Our target audience are also most likely to be British. Also as the characters are all from Yorkshire other countries might not be able to understand their accent as global audiences are used to British accents from the south of England. I think that our production is likely to be popular with more Northern people as they can relate to the characters more and it could seem more realistic.
Slasher films are known for being popular with teenage audiences. Its a genre that is fairly popular all over the world so this might attract other countries as a lot of teenagers would go camping, because it isn't just specific to British culture.
The secondary target audience would be 18-34 years old. I think that our production could be well received with this age group because the slasher genre has proved to be quite popular in this age group before.
Thursday 2 May 2013
Evaluation Q5 - Mode of Address
How did you attract/address your audience?
I used the annotation tool on Youtube to answer this question on our final cut, to show how we achieved this. This is the video with annotations:
I used the annotation tool on Youtube to answer this question on our final cut, to show how we achieved this. This is the video with annotations:
Evaluation Q6 - Technologies
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Here is a list of the technologies we have used:
HD video camera
Mac software:
Final Cut Pro
Livetype
Garageband
Blogger
Youtube
IMDB
We used LiveType to create our own idents, and then again to create our film ident. We found that at first it was quite hard to get used to but after a short time it became easier and was a very effective tool to help our idents look more professional.
Here is a list of the technologies we have used:
HD video camera
Mac software:
Final Cut Pro
Livetype
Garageband
Blogger
Youtube
IMDB
HD Camera
Throughout the process of creating our slasher opening, we have used many different technologies. We have used a HD Camera to film our slasher opening. This meant that the quality of our finished slasher opening was much better and altogether looked more professional. We tried using smartphones to film parts of our teaser trailer but the shots were more shaky and looked very amateur.Final Cut Pro
To edit our opening we used editing software Final Cut Pro. We also use Final Cut Pro to edit vodcasts, and our productions such as a rough cut. Final Cut Pro is good for quick and easy editing, and uploading footage from SD cards is very fast. Final Cut Pro also has built in effects which we used throughout the process of our slasher film. for example we used the Day into Night effect to make some shots look as though they were filmed when it was dark. We also used Final Cut Pro to make the titles and credits for our slasher opening.
LiveType
We used LiveType to create our own idents, and then again to create our film ident. We found that at first it was quite hard to get used to but after a short time it became easier and was a very effective tool to help our idents look more professional.Garageband
Garageband was useful when we wanted to add sound to our idents. It was easy to add sound effects to our idents and build lots of layers of sound to make it more professional. We also used Garageband to soundtrack our entire film opening. It was easy to create the sound and music we wanted for our opening using mainly the string instruments. However there is a lot of choice when choosing an instrument and a sound so picking the right one for our slasher film opening after listening to them all the options can take a while.Blogger
We have used Blogger to document the research and planning of our Slasher opening. It is easy to link to sources on the internet and upload our own work so everything is all in one place. Blogger is very useful when communicating with other people in our production group, and we can easily embed videos from their blogs on to our own. Also links lists make everything easy to find so you don't have to search through the blog archive.
YouTube
We used YouTube as an easy platform to upload vodcasts, teaser trailers, rough cuts and our final product. It means that a wide audience can watch our productions and we can easily get feedback and constructive criticism. We also looked at a few coursework productions from past years to get ideas about what we should and shouldn't do within our own production. Also it is very easy to embed YouTube videos into Blogger posts, and share videos through other social networks such as Facebook.
IMDb
IMDb is extremely useful to look up a range of information about films we are researching such as distributors, directors and production companies. It has a lot of information that is useful for us as indie film makers such as budget and box office figures of films similar to ours.
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