Our film, Ellipsis, is a sub genre horror film - slasher, and uses quite a few of the generic horror conventions; we include several pieces of iconography and key themes commonly seen in horror films. When watching horror films, including “Wrong turn”, “Last house on the left” and “The Texas chainsaw massacre” I noticed that in the openings of these films stereotypical themes or iconic images are used. Most of these films involve blood and gore in their openings and had a stereotypical “damsel in distress” figure, this is like our opening. Our film opening was influenced greatly by these horror films, mainly “The Texas chainsaw massacre”, like our film they have a female figure that seems to be severely injured.
(Texas Chainsaw massacre)
(Ellipsis)
Our first scene consists of the main character (Mary-Alice) bound to a chair and obviously injured, she then screams and the screen cuts to black. This connotes the horror genre as blood & screaming are both icons of horror films. Our title sequence is influenced by the film “wrong turn”; we have used the idea of having shots of our setting, forest/woods, run with non diegetic music and out titles over the top.
I feel that our film also challenges the forms and conventions of a horror film due to the fact that our film is dominated by females- there are no dominant “heroic” male figures in the opening, I feel this challenges the conventional horror films as all of the films that I have watched seem to involve a stereotypically strong, brave and dominant male character.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Ellipsis does represent the stereotypical female character, due to the fact that the first character seen on screen is a girl, who is in the typical “damsel in distress” situation. This image is commonly scene in nearly all horror films, women are always placed in dangerous places where the “heroic” and “dominant” male figure has to come and save them. For this scene we were greatly influenced by films like “Wrong turn” and “Texas Chainsaw massacre” as they too include women in their opening scenes. In the film “Wrong turn” the female character is left alone after the male character is killed. This ultimately leaves her abandoned, alone and helpless which is the idea that we wanted to connote with our first scene.
Wrong Turn
Ellipsis
Our character Mary- Alice Jones is based loosely on the character Kristy Earl from the film “wolf creek”. She looks very similar to our character- with stereotypical long hair, and also both characters wear white clothes- which are then stained with blood. Suggesting the loss of innocence and also emphasizing the idea of torture and death.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I feel that a distribution company such as Rogue pictures would distribute our film as they have distributed films such as “Last house on the Left”, “White Noise” and “The Strangers”. They appear to work with a wide range of horror films, with different budgets and genres. I feel that our film is fairly similar in budget and would have a similar reaction from audiences to films such as “Last house on the Left”. Also all of these example films had a moderately sized cinema release and I feel that our film would do also. They also had a wide range of simple adverts such as TV adverts/trailers and billboards, which again I feel would be used to advertise our film.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
Our target audience is men and women aged from 15 to 30+. I feel that our film would be successful to this audience as we include characters of the similar ages. Also from our Questionnaire – from the people we asked (within our age range) 10 out of 10 said they would watch our film. We have a significantly younger age rating on our film, compared to the films we are influenced by- however we didn’t feel that our film was an 18 rating as we don’t include any serious images of Violence, torture or sexual activity.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
We have attracted out target audience by involving characters in our opening that are from our target audience age range. We have also included generic conventions of horror films and used iconography so that we attract horror movie fans. I feel that our opening builds up enough tension, but could have been longer. In the first scene with Mary-Alice tied to the chair I believe that suspense begins to build- but the scene is too short for it to peak. However I feel the “scream” will make the audience jump- a key target with horror films.
In the first scene we have quite low lighting, which creates shadows and therefore confusion and mystery. You can’t really see everything in the room which again gives the idea of mystery. We use a lot of slow shots that establish the environment and build suspense/tension. The sudden close-up of the character and scream will make the audience jump.
I have learnt a lot from this project, I have learnt how to use the Sony HDV 1000 camera and tri-pod and the editing software Final Cut Express. I have also learnt how to use other equipment such as tungsten lights to gain a better quality film.
This is the first time I have used the Sony HDV 1000 camera and I feel that it went very well; I have learnt how to control the camera in order to capture high quality shots.
On Final Cut Express I have learnt how to effectively edit by following these steps:
1. Capture and Log Footage
2. Name Shots
3. Rough Edit/Cut
4. Fine tune
5. Add effects/filters
6. Fine tune and improve sound
7. Add Music and titles
I have also learnt how to use the tools to reframe shots, add titles, effects and to manipulate images with filters.
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Since our preliminary task I feel that I have learnt how to produce a film of an overall higher quality. I know how to do this now by planning thoroughly threw storyboards and shot lists so I am fully organised when it comes to actually filming. I now know that it is easier to film when everyone in the group is assigned a specific role. Overall I feel that I have improved greatly since the preliminary task, with our current film we have followed the 180 degree rule and produced an effective eye line match. I also feel that my confidence with the camera and other equipment has increased now, I believe we have produced a successful opening and have achieved what we set out to do. If I could do this project again I would maybe try to use a wider range of shots, including a match on action. I would also try to make our title sequence longer as I feel that it isn’t long enough for a film opening. I would also try to make sure that all the camera shots are of a high quality standard.
No comments:
Post a Comment