Wednesday 15 December 2010

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

Throughout this project my knowledge of computer programmes such as 'Garageband', 'LiveType' 'iMovie' and 'IDvD' have all improved. 
'LiveType' was used to create our company idents and also 'The Moors' title screen which comes at the end of our opening. 
'Garageband' was used to produce a soundtrack which is used frequently at different points throughout the film opening
'iMovie' was used to burn our product onto discs and give them title screens.

At the start of the project I have knowledge from editing the preliminary task, therefore I was able to roughly edit clips together using 'iMovie' to produce film.
However I had no knowledge of how to work on the sound, or edit the clips, Throughout the course of creating our final product I gained this is knowledge, and this improved our final piece and made it look more professional. 

An example of how I edited the clips is the change of the contrast on the killing scene to accentuate the blue colour filter from the camera, this helps to make the scene look darker and also fits with the stereotypical horror film production. 

An example of how I edited sound is the extraction of the audio from certain clips, such as footsteps which I then repeated and changing the volume to make the actress sound further away.

As well as my knowledge of computer programme technology, I have improved my knowledge of camera equipment use. Previously I only knew how to use a camera and tripod, whereas now I'm able to alter camera setting such as adjust the focus. Other camera equipment we learnt how to use a was the boom mike, which allowed us to achieve a higher quality of sound in our final product. Whilst shooting our earliest footage we realised that the sound quality was poor, especially seen as our location was very windy. We resolved this problem by using the boom mike and now our audio sounds more professional.

Monday 13 December 2010

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

In our preliminary task there are many glitches such as; sounds in the background, actors smiling or talking when they shouldn't be, poor lighting, the verisimilitude of the costume, props. However in our final product we had to avoid these glitches being a part of it. 

In order to prevent sound problems we learnt how to use a boom mike which produced a higher quality of sound, although we also need to learn how to edit the sound one our footage was uploaded into iMovie. We learnt how to extract the audio and lip sync the footage, we also learnt how to add additional sound such as ambience, footsteps and music. Over all this meant that our product sounded much more profesional than our preliminary task.

The production of our own music, is again another aspect in which we developed our skills from preliminary task to final product. We used a programme on the macs 'Garageband' in order to produce our own music. This was a necessity as we aren't allowed to use other people's copyrighted products in our film without permission. When producing our preliminary task we didn't know this, although we didn't use any music anyway which hinders its quality and makes it sound amateur. The addition of music to our product helps us to create atmosphere as well as making it sound like a professional piece of work.


We learnt whilst editing that variety of shots and cut away shots were very important, compared to our prelim which uses only one or two shots within any one scene. However I think our product would be improved if a few more cut away shots were used. As well as this we also realised that in order to make our product more visually interesting we needed to shoot the same shots from different angles, which again is something we didn't do in our preliminary task and therefore the editing looks very basic.

With our real media product we were able to gain audience feedback, which helped us improve our film as they gave constructive critisism on which parts were less believable. Whereas with our preliminary task we produced it very quickly which meant that our first draft was the only one we submitted, the opportunity to draft and re-work our final product meant that scenes such as the killing scene were viewed by others and their feedback made it possible for us to improve them drastically.

For the preliminary task the group did not plan or organise the production of the film. When producing our final product we began by drawing up storyboards, and filled in production schedules. We also drafted and re-drafted our idea until it was as good as we could make it. This shows how we progressed from the preliminary task as we made the effort to organise what we were doing in order to produce a better product.

For the production of our final product we always planned in advance to ensure we had all the right props and our actors were in the same costume. For example, before shooting our killing scene we came prepared with the props which included fake blood and a large kitchen knife. As well as this we also stained the white top our actress was wearing with the blood and this meant we had to find another similar one for the next shooting. Though this does slightly damage the verisimilitude and if I were to re-do this in future I would remember that any drastic changes to costume should be the last scene to be filmed. However when producing our preliminary task we weren't as well organised and frequently made use of whatever props were available to us, therefore achieving verisimilitude wasn't possible.

We learnt the difficulties of shooting in the dark whilst producing our preliminary task, there are numerous shots where the lighting is so poor, it is hard to make out what is on screen. We had to learn from this whilst producing our final product however poor lighting was still a big issue with the final product production, because as a horror film the scenes would have looked better shot in the dark, but as we were unable to get hold of the right sort of lighting equipment, shooting in the woods in the dark was an impossible feat, so instead we shot in the daylight and edited the colour on the computers to make it look darker.

Monday 6 December 2010

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

The horror genre appeals to young audiences aged 15-24, this is because youth audiences typically enjoy the atmosphere created by tension and fear as well as watching graphic violence, more so than the older audience.

Also an older audience will typically prefer a more complex and sophisticated plot lines to a film than the horror, and especially slasher genre, provides. They may instead prefer psychological thrillers which are more cleverly written and are less predictable.

Another reason why our product will appeal to younger audiences is because our cast are all aged 17 which means it is unlikely to appeal to audienes much older than they are. 

Because of the violence violence within the film opening means the film would be rated 15. Teenagers younger than 15 will still typically find the horror genre appealing, this is because they aim to act like their older peers.

 
Male audiences would also enjoy our product because of the 'Scream Queen' we cast. She is blonde, attractive and wears a 'low-cut' top, it is also signified that she is sexually active, and all this applies to the male gaze theory, drawing in male audiences. For example, films such as 'Sorority Row' have cast an almost entire female cast, and all are attractive and wear revealing outfits, in that way we have used existing products and copied them to attract similar
audiences.

Our film is set in Yorkshire and our cast are all from Yorkshire, which means we do not have any cross-over appeal to the US and even other parts of the world such as Australia. In order to achieve cross-over appeal we would of had to set our film in a well known UK location, and/or used a famous actor or actress to achieve successful advertisements which would attract the attention of world wide audiences. The most likely audience for a film like ours will be British, similar audeinces to films such as 'This is England' and 'Dead Man's Shoes' which like ours are set in northern locations and have not cast very famous actors/actresses.

Thursday 25 November 2010

Evaluation - What media institution might distribute your media product and why?



As our media product is very low budget we would look at production companies who works with low budget film production companies. Throughout our AS year we have studied the production company Warp Films. They have produced several low budget digitally produced films such as 'Dead Man's Shoes' and 'This is England'. Just like ours, these are set in northern locations, because of this their work is usually within the social realist genre. This genre is growing more popular with British audiences but this also means the films have less cross over appeal as foreign audiences tend to only be able to associate England set in the capital city London.

As well as the similar locations these films were also produced with a very small budget, figures from IMBD show that 'This is England' was produced for just £1.5 million. Though this is far more than our film budget; consisting of a few pounds which we spent on tapes and props, £1.5 million is still far smaller than Hollywood blockbuster horrors such as the recent 2010 remake of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' produced for $35 million.


Warp X themselves have produced a slasher film 'Donkey Punch' which was filmed in Majorca, Spain then the set moves to a boat, although it isn't set in the same typical northern England location, there are cast member, such as, Nichola Burley who is from Leeds. Their budget was around £1 million which also makes the film a low budget production. Due to a lack of famous cast, they were able to produce the film so cheaply, despite the role of Kim played by Jamie Winestone who has since 2008 grown in popularity.


Warp Films distribute their films with the company Optimum Releasing, They are a company based in France, and are owned by a larger conglomerate distribution company, Studio Canal. Despite this Optimum Releasing have been responsible for distributing some very successful Hollywood films, one of the most recent being 'The Tourist' starring Jonny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Though mostly their repertoire features low budget production; many by Warp Films. 

Optimum Releasing would be the kind of Film distribution company that would distribute our media product if it was a full feature length film, as our horror film isn't dissimilar to those produced by Warp Films and WarpX. Our product is a digitally made film, it is very low budget, it features northern characters set in northern England and is a social realist film. All of this means our film, just like theirs will lack cross-over appeal, therefore Optimum Releasing would target British audiences only. It also means our product would be unlikely to achieve a box office release, just as many Warp Film productions are released straight to DVD as the promotion of the films cost substantially more than the production and would be likely to lead to a loss in profit overall.

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Evaluation - How does you media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group that we are presenting in our media product are teenagers.
In the media teenagers are stereotypically presented as antisocial 'yobs', news articles are frequently written about how the young generation of today spend their time illegally drinking and taking drugs resulting in violent crimes and underage pregnancy. This is an extreme view of teenagers however our representation of the teenagers in our text does not challenge this view, it just portrays it in a milder manor.
This meant incorporating in our narrative that our characters are sexual active, drinking and smoking into our plot. We had originally planned on inputting drug references as well however we found achieving verisimiltude with that rather difficult so instead we left it out. 
Another typical label of youths is the term 'Hoody' which we also incorporated into our text through the costume we picked out for the cast, the males as well as one of the females, in only one shot, are seen wearing hooded tops. The countertype for this typical teenage image is our final girl, as she is seen wearing wearing a smart black blazer. This helps to anchor the preffered reading that she is the final girl and doesn't partake in typical teenage activities which are seen as immoral.

Yorkshire as a region is steretypically represented as being an area full of eneducated working class farmers, this has come about from television programmes such as 'Emmerdale' and 'Heartbeat'. Also some well known films such as 'This Is England' have been set in Yorkshire, and once again the predominent class seen in this film is the working class which isn't renouned for being very intelligent. In effect we did nothing to either match or reject this stereotype, other than the fact that the characters are camping in an rural location which is more typical of teenagers northern regions than perhaps those in the south or living in inner cities. Our cast were not nessessarily given lines which would protray them as being unintelligent, however it is possible that this could be picked up by an audience as a negotiated reading.

Because we have used a local cast from the region of Yorkshire we avoided casting our characters as 'AB upper class' as this would have been less believable that they were upper class with yorkshire accents.

As well as this if we wanted a wider target audience appeal so we needed to widen the class bracket we worked with, therefore having middle class characters allows more people to be able to relate with their characters.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

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

Our media product conforms to the codes and conventions of the horror genre because, we input a lot of the stereotypical horror and slasher characters, locations/settings, props, music and story-lines into our plot. 

We cast a 'final girl' who has short blonde hair, despite this being a slight counter-type as it is usually blondes cast for 'scream queen' roles, the short length of her hair would liken her more to a boy than a female which signifies a lack of glamour in her appearance, it also helps avoid her appealing to the male gaze. She is also dressed conservatively which signifies she isn't sexually active.
We could compare our 'final girl' to Laurie Strodes character in 'Halloween'

We cast a 'scream queen' who is killed off in our opening, she matches the stereotypical image of a 'scream queen' as she has long blonde hair, and she is wearing some revealing and tight fitting clothing, this is seen in existing media products such as the opening scene of my bloody valentine it is also signified that she is sexually active, and also, unlike the 'final girl' she is drinking, which all adds to image of somebody who lacks morals and therefore is one of the first to die. As well as her visual image; as the title 'scream queen' would suggest, the girl we cast was made to scream a lot during her murder scene. 

We cast our 'scream queen' a 'Jock' type boyfriend, he is portrayed as a rebellious character by smoking, drinking and being sexually active. This would match the conventions of existing media texts such as the film,'Scream' and 'Sorority Row'.

There is also a psychotic character stalking and killing the characters which is stereotypical of the narrative in most slasher movies, for example 'Friday the 13th'. Also in keeping with the conventions of existing media texts our killer has similar motives for killing the people he does; for being sinful and immoral.

We have composed some music for our film which fits in with the horror genre, using the method of interfering with the heartbeat. This is an effective method of creating tension and a 'jumpy' atmosphere amongst an audience and is therefore an aspect of every horror film ever made, without it a scene would be bland and the audience would not be able to take the same enjoyment out the film.
                
We have set our product in a desolate location, which is the moors. This signifies horror as a location out in the wilderness such as a moor, or a wood/ forest or deserted lane is very commonly seen in horror films. It can be seen in the classic horror films such as 'Friday the 13th' and the more modern films such as 'Severance'.
                                                     

Thursday 14 October 2010

Final Product

Breakdown of our media text

BREAKDOWN OF A MEDIA TEXT
SHOT#
START TIME
DENOTATION
CONNOTATION/NOTES
1
0.57
All 4 characters in long shot
Mise-en-scene: tent, location in the background
Sound: dialogue “hey”
Handing 2 beers “beer?”
Location is desolate, signifies that the group are alone and vulnerable. Props such as tent and beer help to achieve verisimilitude, beer also connotes that the group are typical teenagers partaking in underage drinking. This is also illegal which suggests they are immoral and therefore are likely to be killed off throughout the film.
2
1.00
Straight cut to medium OTS shot of the characters taking the beers
Sound: dialogue “cheers”
The informal idiolect of ‘cheers’ instead of thank-you portrays a more realistic image of the teenagers, and helps therefore to relate with the target audience.
3
1.01
Straight cut back to long shot of all characters sat around the tent
Mise-en-scene: more location scenery
Sound: diegetic birds chirping
Added shot for a variety of shot angles.
4
1.02
Medium close up of female ‘scream-queen’ character
Sound: dialogue: “is anyone else kinda cold?”
Close up of her clothing, a revealing top, and her face and body to attract a male gaze. The dialogue further anchors that she is wearing very little.
5
1.04
Straight cut – shot/reverse/shot
Sound: dialogue – characters response to question “put some more clothes on”
Scream queen response “shut up George!”
Shot reverse shot used to signify she is having a conversation with the other group members. Dialogue’s aim is to be humorous for the teenage target audience, though could also be found amusing by both older and younger age groups.
6
1.07
Straight cut to long shot of group again
Character goes to stand
Sound: dialogue “right I’m off..”
Long shot is used to show the groups activity.
7
1.08
Continuation of same action from different angle, medium close up.
Dialogue: “..for a slash”
Character walks of the edge of the screen
Transition fade out to black
The cut has been used to make use of a variety of shot angles and also portray editing talents. The closer in shots of the female faces show their eyes following the male character off screen, this could connote sexual desire.
8
1.10
Fade back in to close up of knocked over beer bottles
Sound: diegetic birds chirping
The fading cut has been used to signify the passing of time. The close up of the beer bottles spilling out portrays the teenagers in a stereotypical way, as destructive, reckless and vandals.
9
1.14
Straight cut to medium two shot of couple holding hands
Sound: dialogue “maybe we should get a fire going”
“yeah shall we go get some fire wood?”
“Okay yeah I’ll catch you later”
slight zoom
Both characters walk off screen in opposite directions.
The two shot, and the physical contact further signifies a relationship between the two characters. It is also a different perspective to film a conversation from the previous shot reverse shot we used.
The dialogue anchors the idea in the audiences’ mind that the ‘scream queen’ is about to walk off on the desolate moor alone, this foreshadows a possible attack from whoever is watching them, if the had audience picked up on the preferred reading of the point of view shots used earlier.
10
1.20
Straight cut to long POV shot
Shaky camera work
Blue filter
Mise-en-scene: scream queen character walking down path alone
Trees cut across the shot
Non-diegetic sound of music
The blue filter is used as it is a common convention of horror film to signify an oncoming attack. The shaky camera again is used as a point of view shot to signify the characters are being watched by someone.
The trees across the shot are used to signify that whoever is watching is also hiding and doesn’t want to be spotted.
The music has begun at this point also to signify an attack is imminent and to affect the audiences’ heart beat, to make them on edge.
11
1.26
Straight cut to similar shot of character moving closer
Shaky camera work
Blue filter
Trees cut across the shot
Non-diegetic sound of music
The shot change is used to signify that whoever is watching her is continuing to follow her as she goes off alone to find fire wood.
12
1.30
Straight cut to a medium long shot of character from behind
Shaky camera work
Blue filter
Long take
Zoomed in closer towards the end of the take
Camera pans down as character drops her bottle
Non-diegetic sound of music
Diegetic sound of footsteps
The shot change is used here to show that the follower is much closer now, and the audience can expect some sort of jump very soon. Though the length of this take is used to build up more and more tension.
The diegetic sound of footsteps is used to create verisimilitude, as they stop when she drops the beer and therefore stops walking.
The zoom signifies the follower is close enough to make his move now and the pan down at the end continues to help the audience interpret a point of view shot. The dropping of the beer also provides the stopping point, perfect for an attack to begin.
13
1.39
Straight cut to close-up shot of characters face as she is pulled back by a hand
Man in black hoody
Blue filter
Non-diegetic sound of music
Diegetic sounds of screaming
The close up is used to show the characters emotion. The scream adds to the emotion and also will signify scream queen to the audience.
The killer dressed in black with a hooded or disguised face is a common convention of horror and therefore suggests to the audience that this is a violent attack. The hoody also disguises the killer and he remains anonymous which again is a common convention, as there is often a big reveal of the killer at the end of the film and sometimes it is an unexpected twist such as in the movie ‘Scream’.
14
1.40
Straight cut to same shot from over the shoulder angle
Blue filter
Non-diegetic sound of music
Diegetic sounds of screaming
Change of angle and perspective of the attack.
15
1.41
Straight cut to same shot from the front angle
Prop – large kitchen knife
Blue filter
Non-diegetic sound of music
Diegetic sounds of screaming
The kitchen knife is a basic tool for murder, but none the less it does signify that the scream queen is about to be killed.
16
1.42
Straight cut to a shot from behing
Girl is out of frame
large kitchen knife
Blue filter
Diegetic sounds of screaming
Having the girl out of frame meant that we could hint at violent stabbing without actually having to show any knife piercing the characters skin and use special effects.
17
1.42
Straight cut to close-up of knife drawn back out
fake blood on knife
Blue filter
Diegetic sounds of screaming
The zoom was used to gain clear focus on the fake blood on the knife to emphasise the blood and gore in the film in order to fit with the conventions of slasher horror genre which is renowned for the violence and gore.
18
1.44
Straight cut to close up of tree
Fake blood on tree
Blue filter
Diegetic sounds of screaming from off camera, then stops
Diegetic sound of birds chirping is heard again
This was used as a cut-away shot, an idea we saw in a Friday 13th film where there was a cut-away to a bed sheet and the blood splattered across it. We were unable to achieve the affect of blood splattering, so instead we filmed the spot on which the blood splattered after it was thrown.
The stopping of the scream is to signify that the scream queen is no longer either conscious or alive.
19
1.46
Straight cut to medium shot of body being dragged across the frame till out of shot
Top covered in fake blood
Blue filter
Diegetic sound of birds chirping is heard again
This shot is used to signify that the character is now dead. Dragging her body off screen creates narrative enigma as the audience don’t know what the killer intends to do with the body next. This would help to hook the audience, now that they, as fans of the horror genre, have witnessed the first killing they will hopefully want to watch on to see what happens next.

Monday 10 May 2010

Roughcut + audience feedback

Our audience feedback has shown us that we need to cut down our killing scene, because the longer the shots the more chance there is for the audience to pick up on details which seem fake and decide the whole scene is unrealistic, therefore jepodising the entire film.
Another part of the opening which needs editing is the scene with the car, as it is too long and adds little to the plot line we have decided to remove it completely, leaving more time for narrative at the camping scene.

Revised storyboard



Initial story board



Screenplay



THE MOORS


By Emma Graveling, Melissa Hodgson and Emmie Bryett




POST PRODUCTION SCRIPT – 20TH APRIL 2010-04-20

EME PRODUCTIONS
21 CHURCH STREET
LS29 9SV



 1. EXT: MOORS CAMPSITE – DAY

Four teenagers aged 17 are sat around outside a tent. Two boys, GEORGE and JORDAN, both dressed in jeans and hooded tops and two girls, ANNABEL and KELLY, ANNABEL is dressed in jeans, a high cut top and a long sleeved cardigan. KELLY wears jeans and a low cut white vest, despite the cold weather. JORDAN and KELLY stand with their arms around each other. ANNABEL looks uncomfortable and appears to not be included in their conversation. KELLY grabs JORDAN'S hand.

KELLY
come on Jordan lets go (they walk off together)

GEORGE turns to offer ANNABEL a beer.

GEORGE
fancy a beer? (passing beer to her)

ANNABEL
(shaking her head) nah I’m ok thanks I don’t drink

  GEORGE turns to face away from her and makes a face.



2.    EXT: MOORS CAMPSITE – DAY

KELLY and JORDAN return to camp, KELLY adjusts her top and   JORDAN fastens up his jeans. GEORGE hands them both a beer and they sit with the rest of the group.

KELLY
(shivering) is anyone else kinda cold?

GEORGE
maybe you should wear more clothes

KELLY
shut up George!

GEORGE
right guys I'm off for a slash

KELLY
bye

JORDAN
I reckon we should get a fire going?

KELLY
yeah shall we go get some wood for it?

JORDAN
you go ahead I'll catch up in a bit

KELLY
okay see ya in a bit then (walks away)

3.  EXT: WOODS – DUSK

KELLY walks alone down a path to collect wood for the fire. A man watches her and begins to follow her down the path. As she approaches the bottom of the path she drops her beer, as she stand back up the man, dressed in a black hooded top and tracksuit bottoms, grabs her from behind.

KELLY
(screaming hysterically)

The man plunges the knife into her chest, then drags her dead body away.

Sunday 9 May 2010

Soundtrack

Soundtrack:
We created our own soundtrack on Garageband, this means it is copyright free.
The opening scene and the title screen use the same extract of music, we composed it in the hope of creating a tense atmosphere. 

The music we composed for the kill scene is different but also aims to create a tense atmosphere by affecting somebodies heartbeat.

There is also a small extract of music which plays to signify that somebody is watching them.

If we made our whole film we would re-use the same piece of music for each kill scene, to signify to the audience another character is about to die. This is used in may horror films such as 'Halloween' 'Friday the 13th' and 'Sleepaway Camp'.
Again we would re-use the small extract for every scene which is a p.o.v shot from the killers pespective, the prefered reading would be that each of these shots is where the killer is watching the camp.

Audio:
We used a boom mike whilst filming during the camping scene so our audio for the dialogue is high quality, this meant we didn't have to gather our cast and re-record audio for the scenes. However one negative point is that this picked up the sound of the rain despite how we attempted to hide that whilst filming.

For the killing scene however we only had camera audio, so we used the voice recorder to re-record our character screaming, and extracted all the rest of the audio.
For the sound effect of the scream queen being stabbed Emmie recorded the sound of a melon being stabbed, a method used by Alfred Hitchcock in 'Psycho'. This is the vodcast of her doing this recording.


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

I also input some sounds from 'iMovie' itself, such as the birds chirping in the background. I put this in because otherwise it was silent and this helped achieve verisimiltude as the film opening is set outdoors. Also whilst our scream queen is being followed i input some footsteps, because of the background noise I'd had to remove audio and again if i had not it would have been silent which wouldn't be realistic because it was so quiet you wouls hear her steps. Unfortunately i couldn't find anything to put it when she drops the beer, but it isn't exceptionally noticeable.

Distributor, budget + exhibiton

Distributor:
Warp Films and WarpX are low budget, digital film production companies, and have released horror slasher films such as 'Donkey Punch' and 'Dead Man's Shoes'. They distribute their films with Optimum Releasing.
As our film is a low budget, digital production set in the north of England, Optimum Releasing would be suitable.
Budget:
A typical film of the horror genre is low budget, around $1,000,000
1983's 'Sleepaway Camp' was a low budget slasher of its time with a minimalistic budget of just $350,000
More recent low budget slasher productions such as 'Donkey Punch' had a budget of $1,000,000
Besides the cost of tapes and dvd discs our production was entriely free as we borrowed equipment, such as the boom mike and the tent. We made the blood ourselves, and characters dressed in their own clothes. The location was entirely free as was transport to and from. If we were to produce the entire film the budget would still be incredibly minimalistic as we would probably continue to borrow what we needed for free, or create our own, eg. fake blood.

Exhibition:
Films such as this often have a very short running time if they make it box office. for example, 'Sleepaway Camp' was on 85 screens for the opening weekend only.
It is likely our film would be a straight-to-DVD film exhibition. It is also unlikley it would ever be released on DVD outside of the UK as there is no cross-over appeal to US audiences within our film.

Thursday 22 April 2010

Target audience

AGE: Our target audience will predominately be teenagers and younger adults, the age range 15 - 24 is the most likely. This is because our cast are in the middle of this age range, all aged between 17 and 18. 
Also within our dialogue we have used slang, a younger audience is much more likely to follow the preferred reading of this whereas an older audience may only follow a negotiated reading.
Aiming our film toward this age range would likely bring more profit than targeting an older audience, as the younger generation are interested in the conventional horror/slasher genre, whereas older audiences find more sophisticated plot lines appealing.


ETHNICITY: Within our film we have no characters who aren't of a caucasian British nationality, though it wasn't our specific choice not to cast anyone of a different nationality. It might have been better to cast somebody who wasn't white caucasian, in order to widen the audience appeal of our film, although in general an all white cast doesn't seem to affect an films appeal to wider audiences. 
Many successful horror films have all white casts, such as;




GENDER: Our film will most likely appeal to both male and female audiences, this is because we have a 'Scream Queen', we can apply the male-gaze theory to this and predict that male audiences will enjoy watching 'her'. We also have the stereotypical, 'Final Girl' which would appeal to female audiences, as the role model of a strong woman. Also within our plot there is gore and humour, which will appeal to both genders. 

NATIONALITY/REGION: As our film is a low budget production, this factor is less important to the target audience appeal, many WarpX films which are renowned for their low budget appeal have been either set in the north or used characters with northern accents within their films, some examples of  northern characters being used within horror movies are:


FANS OF: We got an insight into the types of films which are similar to our initial film idea whilst doing our research, we compilled a list of films to watch for inspiration. A film such as scream which has a comedy aspect, alongside an all teenage cast is likely to attract a similar audience as what we are aiming towards, also films such as, 'Sleepaway Camp' and 'Shrooms' because these are set in camping locations.

TYPICAL AUDIENCES FOR THIS GENRE: Horror films appeal to youth and mostly male audiences, this is because the gore and stereotypical storylines and characters appeal to them more than older audiences.
Women are put off by the horror films genre because of their portrayal within the films, characters such as the 'scream queen' being brutally murdered by males punishing them for being sexually active.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Notional BBFC rating


Our film will be classified as a 15. This is appropriate because:

  • There is no discriminative behaviour or language towards any minority groups etc.
  • There are no drugs used on screen, although under-age drinking is portrayed as encourageable.
  • Horror is a present theme, though it isn't sadistic or sexualised.
  • There is no imitable dangerous behaviour, and weapons aren't glamourised.
  • It contains some strong language, though none of the strongest terms are used.
  • There is no nudity.
  • Sexual activity is only suggested, no sexual acts are shown on screen.
  • The violence is strong and bloody, though the infliction of pain isn't dwelled upon. The violence is also not sexualised in any way, and sexual violence isn't mentioned throughout.
Other horror films rated as a 15 certificate are:
  • Severance
  • Club Dread
  • Sleepaway Camp
  • Cherry Falls
  • Prom Night (2008)
  • Sorority Row (2009)

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Props, mise-en-scene, SFX, costume etc

As we are filming teens going on a camping trip, to achieve verisimilitude we will need 1 or possibly 2 tents.
We hope to film the characters arriving, so therefore we need a car.


We will need some alcohol bottles, to signify that the characters are drinking, we may also use some drug substitutes so signify that they're taking drugs also.
This ties in to issues of representation of teenagers, although it will be very believable to our audience as they would be of a similar age to the cast.









We want our final girl to dress modestly, hopefully jeans,
T-shirt and a cardigan/hooded top. This will portray that she isn't sexually acitve like her friends.



Our 'scream queen' and the other female character will wear low cut tops and skirts, to signify that they are sexually active, as more of their bodies will be on show.




The boys will all wear jeans and a hooded top, which will match a stereotypical view of the youth group we are using for our cast.








All of the characters will need to wear wellies because of the conditions at our location, but this will achieve verisimiltude as it is fairly common to wear that kind of outdoor footwear to go camping.




They will also all need bags with them to signify they're staying overnight and have brought food and a change of clothes etc.



As we are setting our film outdoors, we are less able to input mise-en-scene which could work as intertextual references, if we want to suggest to the audience any link between our horror film and other existing horror films it would need to be done through dialogue.

We may use props such as, a magazine, a camera, a mobile or gameboy as these will help to anchor the age of the cast and acheive verisimilitude.


For the death scene, we need our killer to be dressed all in black, or an equally dark colour such as navy, dark grey or dark brown. He will also disguise his face with a balaclava.



Another prop we will need for the killer is a weapon, we have chosen to use a kitchen knife as this is something that would be easily available to a killer, and to us.
For special effects we will need some fake blood. We found a recipe on the internet to make our own realistic blood.