Media AS Evaluation

Shane Bingham

Ryan Gatland

In what ways does your horror film opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real horror film openings?

Another convention we used is symbolism which isn’t often used. The Jekyll & Hyde book was used as a tribute to our main influence for the horror film. However we did challenge two conventions by one not including any dialogue in the opening and having the opening scene during the day where as typical horror films have night openings.

In our horror film opening ‘Gemini’ we mainly made use of the conventions of real horror film openings. The conventions we followed are eerie music which we used to build and keep tension. We included a black out where only sound effects occurred. Tension was used to keep the audience thinking and we used camera movements, tilt shot and extreme close ups to give a mysterious and dark mood.

How does your horror film opening represent particular social groups?

In ‘Gemini’ the social groups we portrayed that were typical to a horror film are, Killer, Victim, Outcast/Loner.The way we portrayed the killer is through mainly the choice of costume, the character was dressed in all dark clothing and a long coat.

The ‘victim’ in our horror film opening is actually the family that are in the car. They are portrayed as being a simple family on the way back from a trip then suddenly tragedy strikes.In our horror film opening the outcast/loner is portrayed in a typical light, he is alone and isolated from society where he is seen thinking or contemplating to himself.

What kind of media institution might distribute your horror film opening and why?

The media institution that we believe might distribute our horror film opening ‘Gemini’ is Arrow Films. The reason we believe they would distribute ‘Gemini’ is because they distribute films of a variety of genres and horror is one of them.

Despite most of the horror films they have distributed have been rated as ‘18’ but they do have a few at a lower rating such as The Funhouse, The Card Player and Wes Craven’s Deadly Bliss which are all rated as ‘15’.

Link: http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/index.php

Who would be the audience for your horror film opening?

The audience which we wanted to focus on were teenagers aged from 14 to 18. The horror genre has proved popular with this certain age bracket thus the reason why we have aimed our filmed at that particular area of the market.

Also giving the film a certificate of ’15’ means that we would have a wider audience rather than if we gave it ’18’ rating we would be limiting ourselves slightly and cutting out the majority of the market that we wish to aim at.

How did you attract / address your audience?

We attracted our audience using a number of techniques. The three main techniques which we had used throughout filming were tension, the use of music and camera movements.

The way in which we used tension was simple but effective. We simply had the storyline building and building until we could not have anything else apart from having something go wrong (disaster). Timing also played a key element when creating tension because we had to time a scene just right so that it wasn’t cut short but neither extended. Using tension in our horror opening of course made it more ‘scary’ if you like but it gives you the feeling as though you want to continue watching to see would the outcome will be for the characters.

How did you attract / address your audience?

Camera movements were also key when it came to attracting the audience. We wanted to have clear steady shots so that the audience knew what was happening in each scene, So the use a tripod was a must. In most of our scenes we achieved this goal however there were some scenes where the camera work was ‘shaky’.

Music was another of our key elements to attract the audience. We knew that the music we needed was eerie, slow paced, continuous and of course copyright free. We found various tracks through the use of search engines and sound effects sites and decided on 2 songs and 4 special effects which we would use in the opening. We then began editing the songs down to just the parts which we needed and then matched them with the video footage so that there was no obvious transition from one track to another.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the horror film

opening?

Final Cut Express (FCE) is editing software which allowed us to edit down our footage into the pieces we needed, the pieces which would fit into our opening. Also FCE allowed us to edit down the songs that we had chosen and make them fit and match with the video. This great piece of kit was what we used the most when creating our opening.

During the process of constructing the horror film opening, we have learnt so much about the technologies used to create film. The knowledge that we have gained from working on this project is invaluable is it will help us in the future when making other projects. The were four pieces of software that we used to make our film opening successful, they were Final Cut Express, LiveType, GarageBand and SlideShare.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the horror film

opening?To create the titles for our horror film opening we used software called LiveType. LiveType allowed us to experiment with various fonts, styles and effects. Once we were happy with the titles we had created, we then imported them into Final Cut and placed them appropriately in the film.

The sound effects we used in the opening were created in GarageBand. This software allowed to us to create and edit sounds we needed with ease. Finally we were taught how to use the software ‘SlideShare’. This software allows us to upload power point presentations.

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

film opening? We have learnt many things in the progression from the preliminary

task to our horror film opening. Learning how to import video into iMovie and then to Final Cut, the ability to edit the footage down to what we need, to be able to add in titles, music and sounds.

Bringing all these elements together, we constructed our first 2 minute horror film opening. We are particularly proud of this because yes it may not be perfect, however it has been the first film opening we have created using footage we filmed ourselves, using the titles and sounds that we created, resulting in our very own film clip and having the feeling that we have accomplished something that we have not before, and that’s what learning’s about.