Coursework Feedback

Research and Planning - 14

Planning and research work is complete and at times detailed. The work is proficient, with elements of excellence. The work into similar products is wide-ranging and detailed and the work into potential target audiences shows promise, although I would have liked to see more work on demographics here. There is some understanding of who the audience is through secondary research and even some primary research. The organisation of actors is excellent, with shot lists, storyboard (that needs updating to reflect the changes made) and props list etc. Overall there is a good level of care in presentation and time management was good.  

Main Task - 43

Excellent care and detail in the mise-en-scene, and also the use of props. The titles are in keeping with the genre and well positioned, care has been taken with choosing fonts etc. On the whole there is a good level of camera control, but on occasions this slipped and there are one of two issues with focus and camera wobble. The opening doesn’t necessarily set up the whole of the film, but it is clearly an opening and does clearly set up the main character and his intentions. 

B-

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

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

   

We started our film off with this scene as we wanted to show the beginning of a ritual. We did this through the use of mise-en-scene with the use of candles and blood. Both of these are in the normal conventions of a horror film and especially when a ritual is involved. We also show it through the use of makeup - Zoe made me up to look like a demon or spirit in line with the legend that our film was based on. We used the mirror to reflect me because we wanted a over the shoulder shot because mirrors in legend show a persons true soul. You can see the end of a voodoo doll in the background which also are used in many rituals. The blood on the table is there to show that this is a regular ritual and that their was a sacrifice of blood used before.

We used a couple of shots of candles in our film because the red candle represented infinity and the black candle was spirit. We used shots of the black candle more because the ritual was commenced by the baron samedi who was originally a spirit. We also used the shots of the candles because in horror movies these are seen as almost creepy because of the connection they carry to rituals.
The screenshot below as uses the character to portray the sense of eeriness as the candle is in focus but most of me is blurred.

The mise en scene we used for the mirror shots what the natural light shining on the wall but on the end of the room we put up a black sheet to make it look endless or lost. We also used the brick wall to show this is an almost human spirit - that the spirit would appear human until you angered it.
We also used a shot of me blowing out candles as we felt this represented peoples lives and how easy it is in horror films that people die - literally as if their candle was blown out.

We also used the element of voodoo in our film as Baron Samedi was believed to be involved with voodoo and we showed this by the voodoo dolls been covered in blood and one was set on fire and ripped apart.

We used a lot of blood in our film as this is a generic horror thing. We show it dripping down a wrist to show that this is a blood induced ritual and that the Baron mixes the blood in with the voodoo dolls - This is shown thrown the knife which also shown in voodoo that gets ripped apart.

The makeup we used in the film was designed to be creepy - this looked most effective under the candlelight as it reflected the creepy marks of the makeup. We used cracks around the mouth and eyes to show that this individual isn't a good spirit and
that it also shows how the spirit feels.
It also makes the audience uneasy as they can see the makeup is heavy and reflects the spirits attitude towards the ritual and life.

Movie

First Cut

First cut of my film. This had basic edits and basic titles on.

Update

We have filmed the film and I am now in the process of editing.

Target Audience Research

The statistics of both ages and genders of people factor in to who watches a horror movie. The most popular age group that watch horror movies are 18-24 year olds and more women watch horror movies then men do. We decided to aim the movie at men & women because the statistics are very close but women do watch more.
Some horror films and their aim group after knowing who watches the movies :

• Cabin in the woods - This was aimed at young couples, around the ages 16-25
• The Strangers - This was aimed at men. Specifically young men aged 16 and over.
• Nightmare on elm street- This was aimed at couples with no specific age range in mind. It is however, rated an 18 certificate so it would be aimed at people aged 18 and over.

After finding this information out, we think that our film should be aimed at both men, and women  I believe the graphic/violent nature of certain shots throughout our film would mean it it most suited to viewers over the age of 18, however as the film is based upon college students, it is most likely to appeal to an audience of under 25's. Before deciding on our target audience, we decided that we should create a survey of our own, rather than relying on information that is already online.

The survey we decided to create will help us to ensure that we have up-to-date information, that is reliable. We included questions on age, gender, occupation, and what their favorite horror sub-genre is. We also included a question to allow us to find out whether they enjoy horror's based on true stories.

We set a survey to be open to 50 people. This enables us to get a response from a wide audience in order to get the most accurate results.

These were our results:

The age group 18-25 was the most popular age group. This is also the same result as the information we found online. This shows that the age group 18-25 are the likely age group to watch Horror films throughout the globe.
 After this result, we have decided that we should base my film upon people aged 18-25.

This shows that more females watch Horror films, however there is only two more females than men. I believe that this shows that there is in fact an equal preference between males and females, as there is very little difference. Following this result, we have decided to aim our film towards both men and women. This will allow more people to enjoy the film.

This shows that students, and part time workers are the most likely to watch horror films.

Casting

We originally was going to have three actors and have them walking down to the college but because of personal issues we changed this. The original casting was going to be

Teenagers -
Katie A
Isabel A
Chelsea M
Brandon C

Baron -
Isabel

Because of the personal issues we then changed how we were going to film and decided to film it in the style of the film Se7en. I think played the role of Baron because of the time limit to get the filming done.