Question 7 Post 12.7

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

Since the preliminary task, I have most definitely improved my skills in filming and using the camera appropriately.

During the main task, I successfully captured some amazing and effective shots (Featured below) that go well with the genre of our film:



I also improved my editing skills with the help of Adobe Premiere Pro:



This haunting screen capture is part of the establishing scene that I both recorded and edited. I am proud to say that it is the perfect picture for our genre and storyline.

Question 6 Post 12.6

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



1. The 'Flip' cam was used to film the feedback and focus groups of our opening sequence and the previous rough cut. I have learned how use one of these throughout the process.

2. All the tripod isn't seen as 'Technology', it was a hand piece of equipment that boosted the efficiency of other technology. It was used to help us film the footage of our opening sequence. It was easy to use and very helpful to keep the camera steady and also handy when spinning the camera round on the estblishing shots.

3. Microsoft Word was used when logging all of our shots so that we could tell what footage was being used and what wasn't.

4. Adobe Premiere Pro was used to piece all of the footage recorded together. It was also used to add special effects, sounds etc.

5. Youtube was used a great information source whne researching other horror film opening sequences. It was also handy as our roughcut, feedback and fina sequence was uploaded to Youtube so that we could have access to the videos whenever needed.

6. The Sony Handy Cam was our main camera used to film all the footage. It was good to learn how to use it properly throughout the process.

Question 5 Post 12.5

How did you attract/address your audience?
We used many unique selling points such as special effects, haunting locations and terrifying character actions and sounds that would keep the audience feeling terror throughout. One of our main Unique Selling Points was that it is simply a British horror film.


We used an unknown abandoned shed to create a sense of the unknown for the audience. They would question who or what lives in there and why the girls took note of it before they entered the forest.


The girls run into the forest whilst laughing which creates a sense of terror as the audience could tell this would be the last time any of them would laugh again.


The first time the audience realises the girl isn't alone they see a hooded figure run past her. Something that the character herself doesn't notice.

To gain feedback from our audience we took out a questionairre and filmed them with a camera. We learned that they enjoyed the opening sequence and they noted a great improvement from the original rough cut.

The BBFC Rating of our film would be a 15 due to the fact it contains violence in a non-sexualised why and would have a lot of harsh swear words but they would be justified with the context of the storyline. This rating attracts the audience as they can tell that it must be somewhat shocking if people under the age of 15 are prevented from seeing it, something that people between the ages of 15-24 would thrive on.

Question 4 Post 12.4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for our film would be a male or female 15-24 year old that would still be in education or living at home. This age/social group would be suitable as they are still looking for cheap thrills when watching a movie. Below is a typical member of our target audience.



This is Rachel. Rachel is a fun loving college student who studies Travel and Tourism at college. She enjoys shopping with her girlfriends and going to the cinema. Rachel also likes to enjoy nice food and to swim as her form of exercise. She enjoys clubbing, going to the pub and flirting. She is an opinionated yet kind girl who just wants to have fun. Rachel still lives with her parents as she is only 18 years old.

Question 3 Post 12.3

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

It is obvious that when producing a low budget film you will be taking many risks. One of these risks is that you will not have a 'big name' media institution to distribute your product thus you will have to market your work the best and most unique way possible. 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'Paranormal Activity' relate to our film as they both came from 'low budget' producers and distributors.

To get funding for a film, production companies would have a notoriously difficult job as funding opportunities generally come from organisations such as regional screen agencies or national film organisations, but can also come from private individuals or commercial companies.

We would have Artisan Entertainment distribute our product as it is of a similar genre and theme to 'The Blair Witch Project' which was distributed by Artisan and became a financial success. It was also a low budget film which proves Artisan Entertainment would be perfect to distrubte 'The Forest That Lives'.

Queston 2 Post 12.2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


The two school girls from our sequence


Two school girls from American film 'Scream'

Both films above feature the same social groups, just different nationalities. The reason for this is so that the audience of horror are attracted and can relate to the characters due to the fact they would be of a similar class and social group. All characters are shown to have taken care in their appearance as a typical teenage girl would.

Teenagers are known to find excitement through things that scare them hence why the characters are female as they would be more helpless than male characters. The school uniforms represent the immaturity due to the fact they are somewhat scruffy and they show they are somewhat rebellious, almost as if they are asking for trouble. The naivety shines through due to the fact they could both be seen as 'dumb blondes' who are notable for their deaths when it comes to the horror genre.

Queston 1 Post 12.1

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

Structure of sequence

The structure of the sequence is overall fairly conventional. We started off by establishing the scene without the introduction to any characters and just a few credits saying who produced the film, then revealing the title of the film once the scene had been set. (We had previously left the title of the film until the very end of the sequence but later on decided to bring it forward as we felt it looked too much like a trailer. Appropriate actor name credits are revealed during the beginning of the first introduction to the characters so that the audience could understand who plays who.

Style of presentation

We chose to present the opening sequence without colour during the 'scene establishing shot' due to the fact it would appear lifeless and more haunted. We would introduce full colour to the film once the characters first appear.

Style/colour of font

We chose to keep the same style font throughout the opening sequence (titles, credits, etc.) as this font suited the horror genre and being white it stood out on the dark background. The font was jagged and had a complete eerie feel to it, resembling the fonts used throughout another 'forest based' horror film 'The Blair Witch Project'.

Genre

Being a tough and slim audience, horror is a tough genre to pull off so by researching into the correct and successful conventions, we managed to create a successful opening sequence of this genre. To ensure the audience could relate to the characters, we created the characters to be around the age of the target audience. We set the sequence in a forest which is a typical yet successful horror setting.

Narrative enigma

The narrative enigma is created by the 'fear of the unknown' playing a huge role in this sequence. Nothing is known about the forest or what lurks within thus creating a mysterious atmosphere; our goal was to sppok the audience but also to keep them guessing by not revealing too much information during the opening sequence. This is a very effective convention in the horror genre.

Introduction of characters

The introduction to the two girls starts off by the viewer watching the mwalk towards the camera linking arms which immediately reveals a close bond between the two. More about their personalities are reveals when they starts discussing the forest and they begin to dare eachother to run in their, both showing a naive yet courageos nature. When the girls are sepearted, the girl searching shows to be very concerned for her friend.

Camera

We used camera cuts and jumps to create a sense of confusion and frenzy within the forest and the girl searching. This was purposely done which conforms to the horror conventions. Close ups were used of the girls face to show her terror and panic when searching for her friend. We used long shots when introducing the two girls to get a sense of their age and to show their full outfits so that the audience could see they werre students and relate to them more.

Sound

We used a copyright free horror track to set the mood and atmosphere. The sound and tempo builds up along with the action of the sequence which is a huge horror convention. Using the amount of dialogue isn't always a convention but within horror films such as 'The Wrong Turn', dialogue is used effectively within their opening sequence so we decided to go with frequent dialogue to cause the viewers to feel more emotion for the characters.

Editing & Special Effects

We used special effects during the establishing shot (this was the only time we used them due to the fact we wanted our sequence to be as believable as possible) to make the setting seem more spooky. We made the scene black and white and slightly blurred.

Mise-en-scene

To make it clear that our characters were school girls, we made them dress in full school uniform with school bags. This conforms to the horror conventions as school girls are used frequently throughout horror of any nationality.

Audience Feedback Post 12a

Audience Feedback on Rough-cut:



Audience Feedback on Final film:

(Questionairre based on majority)

Q: Was the genre (horror) obvious throughout the opening sequence?
A: Yes.

Q: Was the editing (mainly at the start) suitable for the genre and story?
A: Yes.

Q: At any time did you feel as if the camera work was cheap/low standard?
A: Not really.

Q. Did you feel scared?
A. Some of the time.

Q: Would you want watch the rest of the film?
A: Yes.

Q: Would you reccomend the film (based on opening sequence) to friends?
A: Yes.

Overall, based on the audience's feedback, the opening sequence was a success.

Final Opening Sequence Post 11

The Forest That Lives: Final Cut



It is out of sync due to a problem when uploading with Youtube.

Post-Production Post 10

Above is the 'Rough Cut' of our opening the Sequence: 'The Forest That Lived'. Overall, we are happy with the outcome so far. We have taken note that in order to have an effective sequence, music is vital and we will eventually cut out some of the lenghty shots to speed up the footage and to create a spooky atmosphere.

We logged our rushes so that it would be a lot more efficient for us to edit and piece together our footage:

Production Post 9

We decided to shoot our footage during the morning during schedule problems but also because the weather was holding out so we had to go with it. We didn't achieve our desired affect of an 'evening time' but it didn't matter as you couldn't really tell due to the trees enclosing on the set. It looked like a realistic time the girls would be walking home from school, and no too cliche with an obvious use of pathetic fallacy but we would need to use some editing to dim the light during parts.

We were generally pleased with our rushes and the overall outcome. We did however cut out some of the dialogue to speed up the action and remove anything that seemed unecessary. It worked out better in the end and was still appropriate to our original ideas and genre conventions. We also removed many clips and scenes of the girls randomly running about due to the fact they just felt useless and inapropriate. Obvious jump cuts were removed also.

We reveresed roles from our preliminary task, I filmed the majority of the footage (with the help of Jack) where-as Lucy starred as an actress in the film. We worked well as a team and got a great taste of what it's like to work in every area of production throughout the year. Our great team work shines through in our captured footage.

We decided that to create a scene in black and white would create a gothic and horror-like atmosphere and to add a haunting song playing through the whole sequence would cause terror and panic in the audience's mind.