How did you appeal to your target audience?

Evaluation 5

I was originally planning for one of my female friends to play the lead in my product, however due to unavoidable circumstances she couldn’t make the shoot so my boyfriend stepped in to help.

For the shoot I put Callum into a dark hoodie with a white skull and crossbones on the back with dark blue jeans. Originally I thought to leave the hood down but once Callum suggested it I thought it was quite a good idea. I decided on these clothes because when put into black and white they will still look quite normal and unsuspecting, while because they’re all dark colours it can suggest evil and suffering as well.

As well as the costume I managed to get him into makeup. I used pale foundation to make his skin look washed out, red and brown eyeliner to give the appearance of exhaustion and white powder on his lips to make them look chapped and bitten. In his fringe I used a wax which made it look greasy and un-kept. All of these things contributed to him appearing depressed and confused.

While we were shooting I made him hove with his shoulders slouched, head bowed hiding his face and walk slowly dragging his feet. I did this to make him seem withdrawn and closed off to the rest of the world, caught in his own little bubble.

My choice of actor

After a lot of experimentation I decided on using a simple serif font throughout my product. I did this so that it was easy to read on all of my shots, looked bold and punchy and wasn’t too over-the-top-horror which could have made the sequence look tacky or cliché.

Fonts

I found out in my initial research that different genres of films all have their own conventions. A few examples are:

Stock locations such as haunted houses, ruined castles and graveyards

Films often have a blue filter on them Dark, creepy music in a minor chord is a

common indicator that something is about to happen. Often teamed with a discordant noise of some sort.

Most horrors have a set protagonist(s) and antagonist(s).

Low key lighting Characters being unkept and wearing dark

colours Morbid themes from the outset.

Typical horror conventions

Conventions that I followed/didn’t follow

Conventions I followed and why:

• Stock location of a graveyard- It’s an instantly creepy place for a teenager to be hanging out in during the day. Therefore the viewer gets the idea that there’s something wrong before any action happens.

• Removed saturation- I removed the colour from my project to make it seem cold and uninviting. The darkness comes with connotations of sadness and depression.

• Dark themes from the start- In the opening sequence it’s crucial to set the tone for the rest of the film.

Conventions I didn’t follow:

• Low key lighting- I didn’t want to be cliché with a graveyard late on a night. Instead I wanted to create a shock factor, that not everything bad happens when it’s dark.

• My opening sequence doesn’t set a protagonist or an antagonist.- I wanted to leave the audience asking questions. That way they’re more likely to watch the rest of the film.

After a short talk with my teachers some basic improvements were agreed on to make my product more appealing.

Add a filter- This was for two reasons, when my video was converted, some of its quality was lost, and this was made worse by turning my video black and white. As well as this I didn’t feel happy with the video being plain, it just didn’t feel distorted enough to portray the character’s emotions.

Change of font- I originally had a plain sans serif font Similar to this one as my titles, and another media student suggested that I changed it to make it look slightly older and more in-fitting with the theme of the video.

Improvements I made based on feedback