My Part of
the Script:
Question 1 - "In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"
Our media product mostly conforms to the majority of the
conventions of a real slasher themed media product, developing some of our own
ideas within the extract, making it unique rather than copied.
One of my main areas of
influence within making our film opening has been through mise en scene,
specifically props and room layout. I have carried out several thorough
deconstructions into specific items within the "killers den", looking
at two main films, ATM and pretty little liars, to ensure that the layout that
we ended up making fit conventions of a "killers den".
Developing on from this, I started to look at specific props
within the killers den. As a group, we ended up incorporating a few of them
within our final film opening including the killers trophies and the killers
diary. The killers trophies ended up being foetus', inspired by a deconstruction
into the killers trophies in Creep, and our own ideas, all linking to the
conventions of the slasher genre from research that my group and I had carried
out. For the killers diary, I deconstructed the scenes within the TV series The
Fall where a killers diary was used as a prop, and from this, I ended up
creating our own "killers diary" taking inspiration from The Fall,
but adding my own twist to the appearance, making it fit the slasher genre even
more by making the liquid that the killer writes in red- signifying to the
audience the idea of gore and violence. This cultivation of ideas lead to my
group and I creating a "back story" to our film opening, thinking
about where it would end up leading, also linking to the slasher genre, if we
were to make more than just the film opening.
From our ideas of the back story for the rest of the film, I
decided to do a deconstruction of names of slasher films, finally choosing the
name of our film opening, A + E. I felt that this was a very appropriate name
that met conventions of a real slasher themed media product as it is short and
catchy, but also has a meaning behind it. The "A" and "E"
link to the words that we later had carved into the killers forehead,- gore
also linking to the slasher genre- "Adore and Endure Me" of which we
would play on further if we had to finish the film. And the "+" sign
links to the fact that we would want our killer to be an ex-surgeon or someone
trained in medicine, which also relates to the "surgical" way in
which our killer ended up killing his victims, by cutting out their foetus',
again tying to the slasher genre with the blood and gore.
Finally, to ensure that everything links to real slasher
themed media products, I carried out a lighting investigation into how they
portray the killer and victim with different lighting. Looking at the films
Scream, Orphan and a video showing a general slasher overview, I was able to
use what I learnt from my deconstruction within the filming of our film
opening.
Link to "Deconstruction of Mise en Scene of Specific Items" , " Deconstruction of the Mise en Scene of the Killer's
Den", " Deconstruction of the Names of Horror and Slasher
Films", " The Killer's Trophies",
"Lighting Investigation for the killer and the victims", "Bedlam mise en scene
deconstruction", "Killers Diary" , special effects posts, "The Killer's Written Diary Investigation"
Question2- "How does your media product represent
particular social groups?"
Looking at the characters within our film opening, they
signify to the audience two very opposing social groups through only two
characters and no dialogue.
Sexuality is a large aspect of the representation of social
groups in the extract. As explored within my blog post on the representation of
sexuality within our film opening on the blog, the victim presents a very overtly
sexual woman through mise en scene including her costume, body shape and
profession, being a prostitute. She would be comfortable with her sexuality and
sells her body to get money. Juxtaposed to this open view to sexuality that the
victim portrays, the killer is completely against anything sexual, kidnapping
and murdering women who live their lives with the victims social views. This
depicted to the audience in our film opening when the killer is writing in his
diary, and through the titles that Raman made.
The contrast in these social groups, along with others,
would be explored upon further within the film, as stated, again, within the
blog post. The idea of these extreme outlooks being developed further would
allow more controversial issues to be looked into as well, which would add more
depth to our slasher film, rather than the conventional blood, gore and death.
Question3- "What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?"
Being that we were given the opportunity to create our own
production companies, I started off by deconstructing other homemade production
companies that previous media students had made, shown in my blog post. This
process was really important, allowing me to get an idea of what I could create
and properties such as genre, time frame and image that I could incorporate.
From this, I then thought about making my own, trying to
incorporate our slasher genre within the process of the design so that the
production company that I created would be appropriate for our slasher film
opening.
As a group, we
decided that we wanted our production company to be called "Kills
Productions", a link to all of our last names- "k", Kemp,
"ill", Gill, "s", Tibbs. As seen in this blog post, I
experimented with the idea of dripping blood and the words "Kills
Productions" in Photoshop, linking the slasher genre with the gruesome
blood dripping words, producing an final idea to discuss with the group.
However, on speaking to my group, we decided we didn't
really like what I had made, it not having a dramatic enough effect. To resolve
this issue, Raman and I worked together to create another one that would be more
appropriate. Raman created the footage of a bloody wound...[Raman can explain
more here]. Taking this footage, I went onto Final Cut Pro editing it
appropriately, adding effects and the Title "Kills Productions" onto
the footage. Once the extract was edited suitably, I added theatrical sound
effects to really make the clip sound gripping. This finalised our production
company nicely, the whole group happy with the product that I had created.
Leading forward, I feel that this homemade production
company would be a suitable media institution to distribute our film opening as
it links to the slasher genre in the name "Kills" and also the
visuals- a bloody wound- with dramatic sound effects added to create a tension
for the audience, initiating our film opening well. "Kills
Productions" would also have reason to distribute our film opening because
of the amount of gore in the production company clip, linking to the slasher
genre and a connection to the dramatic sound effects used within the main
footage of the film opening and the production companies extract.
link to " Homemade
Production Company Deconstructions", " Homemade
Production Company Deconstructions"," Editing of
Production Company and making changes"
Question4-"Who would be the audience for your media product?"
The age rating for our film opening is a 15+, allowing
anyone of and over the age of 15 to view the film. Linking to my blog post on
the target audience of our film opening, I looked at the limitations of an aged
15 film, seeing that a few of the points, such as strong violence and
portrayals of sexual activity (the subject of prostitution), linked to our film
opening. This research confirmed our choices of rating our film opening as a
15, reducing the limitations on user views that an 18 would have done.
Thinking about the target audience related to genre
preference, again discussed in the blog post, it would be those who like
slasher films and are not bothered by blood and gore.
link to "Target
Audience of our Film Opening"
Question5- "How did you attract/address your audience?"
The way that we attracted our target audience, in relation
to genre preference, is by really conforming to the gruesome aspect of a
slasher film, ensuring that there is a large amount of gore and blood. Linking
to my answer to the previous question about audience, our film would target
people who are not bothered by blood and gore, and would therefore attract them
with the aspect of this content.
Moving on from this, another thing that would attract the
age range that we have targeted as an audience is the diegetic sound throughout
the entire sequence. Linking to the blog post that I made as an evaluation of
the Death Scene Non-Diegetic sound and another looking over sound ideas, I
explored sounds that would be appropriate to the slasher genre. Within the
evaluation, I discussed how the sound that we decided upon is stimulating and
of a genre that is current at the moment to a younger audience, being
"industrial rock" with a quick pace, liking to the type of music that
is popular at present.
link to Evaluation of
the Death Scene Non-Diegetic Sound and "Sound Ideas"
Question6- "What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?"
Through the process of research, design, filming, editing
and finally creating the film opening, I have learnt how to use four complex
new programs and have also found out how to use the Apple Mac's of which we
used to create the film opening.
Starting off by learning how to use iMovie for our
Preliminary task, I developed my skills on this program, learning how to edit
footage, add music and produce a final outcome, of which became our preliminary
video.
Moving on from this, I then learnt how to use Photoshop in
the creation of my first idea for the production company. The process of
learning how to use Photoshop to create what I wanted, was much longer than it was with iMovie, as I
wanted to create a more complex thing. However, using YouTube tutorials, I was
finally able to figure out how to do what I wanted.
During the editing process of our real film opening, we
ended up using Final Cut Pro. This is another piece of editing software that
allowed me to apply footage to a timeline, layering sounds and videos to create
our final product.
The last, new piece of software that I learnt how to use was
GarageBand. This program enabled me to manipulate and develop my own sounds,
layering sounds appropriately.
Overall, this project has really allowed me to expand my
knowledge in different technologies, broadening the range of software that I
can efficiently use.
link to "Evaluation of
the Prelim Editing"- iMovie, all editing posts- Final Cut Pro,
"Death Scene
Non-Diegetic Sound Creation"- GarageBand, "My Homemade
Production Company"- Photoshop
Question7- "Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?"
Within my blog post on the evaluation of the preliminary
task filming, I explained how one of the main harder aspects of filming was getting
the camera angles correct, and so for me, this was an issue that I wanted to
ensure that we resolved during the planning and filming process of the real
film opening.
Carrying out multiple deconstructions on camera angles
including one for point of view of the victim/ killer and one for using camera
angles so that the audience doesn't see a characters face, I learnt a lot of
how to use multiple camera angles and where to place them, including how to make
them look consistent and allow the footage to flow easily. This worked well for
the group, making it so that through our planning, we didn't have to re-shoot
because of bad camera angles or poor planning of framing/ footage being
consistent.
link to "Point of
view- Victim/Killer Deconstruction", "Deconstruction
of camera angles- not seeing a characters face", " Evaluation of
Filming the Preliminary Task
The initial major problem that we had in this project, of
which we had to resolve, was when looking at the footage that we had filmed
from our first session of filming. Within the evaluation that I completed of
the footage, I explained how as a group we were not happy with quite a few
aspects of the different shots, rendering us with no option but to have to
re-shoot the chase scene with the new requirements that we had decided taken
into account.
We made the decision to change the location from the woods
to an urban area- Bexleyheath was an idea of a place we were thinking of
because of the street lighting. The change from the woods to an urban area made
the location more appropriate for the characters that we have within the film
opening. The killer and victims costumes were also going to be changed, the
killer wearing a more kempt suit with a white mask, and the victim wearing a
short skirt, a low cut top and running extreme makeup with a much smaller baby
bump. The timing that we decided on was additionally going to be changed from
during sunset- where we were having problems with the camera adjusting to the
changing light, to just at night with torches illuminating our "set".
I really feel that I have learnt how to plan out, design,
research, film and finally edit a piece of film well, linking it to the genre
that we chose- slasher. I have expanded my knowledge in how to use different
types of software, methods of going about planning footage and I know that I
have benefitted from the research and deconstructions on different film
openings, of which will help me when doing projects like this in the future. I started
this coursework thinking that my speciality would be in the mise en scene
special effects side of things, however, I have found that I am able to do much
more as well, of which I feel I have displayed during the process of making
this film opening with my group.
link to "Evaluation of
looking at our footage"
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