Evaluation - Question 1

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

When deciding on our initial plot for our horror trailer we decided we wanted to follow  Todorov's theory of narrative and the structuralist theory. When watching various horror trailers that were similar to what we wanted, like Prom Night, Scream and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, we soon came to realise that there were certain paradigms and codes and conventions that we had to follow in order to create the trailer that we wanted. These were an isolated setting, which would create fear and uncertainty within the audience, as it plays on peoples fear of the unknown. A knife and blood which is a classic form of killing your victim in horror films, but is also a more personal way of killing and it is available in every persons household, leading the audience to believe the killer is closer to their victim then they think. 

The final paradigm we used was a promiscuous blonde female, as this again is a trait you see throughout in real media products. This shows her as being helpless and unable to defend herself, which would then conform to the conventions of existing media products. However we went away from this and showed her trying to escape. We chose to dress the killer in black and hide his identity. And therefore followed the normal portrayal of how a killer would be. Which created an air mystery, which surrounded him throughout the trailer.

When we came to editing our trailer we made it continuous with a period of equilibrium at the begining that was easy to differentiate from the rest of the trailer. This was done through the fade in transitions through each scene.  We added tone cards to help with the flow of the narrative. We also put two tone cards at the end of the trailer showing the credits of all the people involved, we thought this helped to make it look proffessional. We also opted for putting a production logo at the start of the trailer to help with the professionalism and realism of the final outcome.

Overall through researching existing media products and theories, we were able to create a trailer that both used, but also challenged forms and conventions. This helped our target audience in identifying clearly with our trailer, as they are able to make the association to other horror films through the various paradigms we chose to follow.

Evaluation - Question 2

How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary tasks?

I think the combination of my main product and ancillary task work well together, as they both convey the specified genre of horror. I made sure there was a consistency between my trailer, poster and magazine, which I achieved through displaying the film name ‘Obsession’ clearly and using dark colours, to tie in with the dark and eerie tone of the film. By doing this, it meant that my target audience can easily identify with the products. I chose a font that not only was clear to read and understand, but was still relevant to the horror genre.

For my poster I chose to use the silhouette of the stalker, which can be identified in a scene from the trailer. By doing this both products are both automatically linked with each other. However by using a picture of the stalker instead of the main protagonist shows the dominance and control he has throughout the trailer as well as making it clear for people to identify it as a horror poster.

For my magazine I again used an image of the stalker. This meant continuity is running through both my ancillary tasks and my main product. I stuck with much the same colour scheme as I did for my poster, but played around with the tones. I feel from using these colours people can associate them with the horror genre, especially with the red and it's connotations with fear, blood and danger.

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback? How did you use market research to develop your ideas?  What did you target audience say about your finished products?

We decided to create a Twitter account for our trailer 'Obsession' (@ObsessionA2Media). We uploaded our film posters and magazines in order to gain feedback and comments for improvement. This was a quick way for us to get our feedback in a short space of time, as our target audience is aged 15-23, and the easiest way to do this was through social networking websites.We were able to interact with our target audience as well as getting feedback from a wider audience.This gave us a variety of different opinions on our work. I also posted my images onto Facebook asking for feedback, where i received comments saying what my target audience liked and what they would change.I found this very beneficial as I was able to tweak bits here and there on my work as and when i received the feedback. This meant my ancillary tasks were catered solely for my target audience. 

Evaluation - Question 4

Evaluation question 4

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Final 'Obsession' Film Trailer

Final Magazine Cover

Final Film Poster

For my final film poster I decided to go back to the way the quotes were positioned drafts one and two. This was so I had room at the top of the page to put actor’s names. This helped with giving my poster a professional look. I decided to use the same font and colour as I did for the tagline, and put a white border around them both, to help them stand out against the background. To help my image and font of ‘Obsession’ connect, like the original ‘Friday The 13^th’ poster I added blood dripping off the knife onto the letters, to make it look like ‘Obsession’ has been written in blood. I also added an age certificate of 18. Even though though the target age of my audience, which I found out from the results in my questionnaire is 16. I figured out it would have been better to raise the age to 18 from 15, because there is no age certificate of 16+. This would then stop anyone aged 15 going to watch the film. I changed the website name from 'www.obsession.co.uk' to 'www.obsessionthemovie.co.uk' because my first decision for a website name may more than likely already have been taken.

Film Poster Drafts and Analysis

For my initial idea for my poster, I took inspiration from the original 'Friday The 13th' film poster. I liked the idea of the simple image of the silhouette of the killer creating dramatic effect, making it the main focus. This made me want to design my poster around this idea. I chose to stick with much the same colour scheme of the red and black in my poster, as I think both colours work well together at creating an eerie tone, whilst still being able to make the association with the horror genre and what the colours connote.

For my first poster draft I played around with the idea of using the silhouette but changing it slightly from the idea of the original 'Friday The 13th' poster. I used the paint bucket on photoshop to fill the image black, but on doing this the colour only went to certain areas. I thought this worked well when I had finished. I decided to put the image in the top left corner, as I feel this was where it worked best, and it allowed me room to put quotes from movie magazines and newspapers to the side of it. I put a plain grey background behind the image, as it contrasts well with the black and the tone of red I used. When choosing the font for 'Obsession' I used a font that looked like blood had been splattered. This helped with conveying the horror genre, as well as helping the audience identify with the way the killer will kill his victim aside from the knife being visible in the image.

When it came to the second draft for my poster I decided to change the tone of grey I used for my background to a darker tone. This helped to create more of a dark tone within the poster, which would then tie into to the tone of my trailer. I also changed the positioning of 'Coming Soon' from above the credits to underneath them, the tagline from 'An obsession that want too far' to 'How far will you go to escape?' and the positioning of it from above 'Obsession' to below 'Obsession' and to the left. I also changed the colour of the writing from red to black so it would stand out more. I decide to change the brackets that were around the quotes to quotation marks.

On my third draft before my final poster I moved the quotes from the left of the image to along the top of the page. This was so it didn't look too crowded and cluttered. But it still left me room to add anything to my final poster.

Timeline before production - Prom Night

Risk Assesment

Shooting Schedule

Allocating Job Roles

Before we constructed our trailer, as a group we had to allocate job roles. This meant that when it came to filming and editing it would mean everyone played an equal part.

Georgia: I was the one to ensure we had all the correct equipment and props each time we filmed. I also knew how to edit our trailer, as I had watched many tutorials by different members of staff.

Ivana: Played a very big role of organising where and what time we would film. As she lives near to where we were filming, and is generally very organised. She also came up with the storyline, and shot by shot scenes.

Ramarna: Played the part of the killer. As she was away on holiday for some of the filming, she played a big part in the editing and contributing her ideas.

Research into similar magazines and posters

Research into similar magazines and posters

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Feminism and The Final Girl theory

A feminist horror film has a strong lead female character. Subsequently going against the typical codes and conventions of a typical horror film, of a promiscuous, blonde female victim who as such is ‘asking to be killed’, and  are normally portrayed inferior in comparison to the male leads, and be shown to need both physical and mental support from them. Further to this, many American horror films show a huge amount of misogyny and violence. However through the film ‘Halloween’ the concept of the final girl by Carol J. Clover was used, this concept shows the final girl being level headed and morally pure.  ‘Halloween’ uses both of these concepts and is therefore considered to be a feminist horror film. The main character is portrayed as strong both physically and mentally due to here escaping near death experiences on many occasions, which therefore classifies her as the final girl.

Freud’s psychological theory is used in this film as voyeurism and sadism is used mainly for the male audiences in order to cause gratification from another person’s pain, as it’s in their nature to be more sexually aroused by watching females in pain. Whereas, the female audiences are more passive and prefer films which consist of a physiological concept as it creates meaning to the film. 

Voyeurism links with Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory. As the woman would often fall victim to the ‘Male gaze’, and she believed that as an audience we are encouraged to view the female characters in films in a sexualised manner, as viewers we are meant to identify and sympathise with the protagonist who in the past, tended to be male. Mulvey believed that female characters were coded with ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ where women only appear in provocative manner.

Using Todorov's theory of narrative

Scene 1: Equilibrium

Candice and Sarah in bedroom- painting nails. Couple of words said and laughter. To ease/comfort audience. Medium shot.

Scene 2: Moment of disequilibrium

Long shot to establish the scene. 'Stalker/Killer' possibly behind a tree watching the girls walk.

Then the girls are walking through the quiet part of town.

‘Did you hear about George?’     (jump cuts throughout)

‘Did you just hear that?’ Sarah (Dannii) turns around with camera- Point of View shot. As she turns around someone quickly walks past at the end of the street.

The girls speed up. (music speeds up, intensifies)

Killer’s room filled with photos of girls- Candice and Sarah circled in red marker

Camera shows all photos, zooms in particular photo of the 2 girls.

Sarah’s phone rings (music stops as phone rings)

Candice is grabbed (killer’s point of view- canted angle when he grabs her)

Then the shot of the killer’s hand around Candice’s mouth (muffles- music stops, canted angle shows unstableness/terror)

Scene 3:

Scene 4: Sarah is chased; hides behind bush and car (heavy panting/breathing)

Loud scream at the end (blackness) 

Period of disequilibrium: release date & coming soon. 

Treatment/Film Ideas

Idea 1: Camping film idea
Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of Wax meet the classic slasher Friday 13th
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Road trip, serial killer,
House of Wax; Camping trip, isolation, no contact with outside world.
Friday 13th: slasher, teenagers, mental

Scenario:
‘A group of teenagers adventure on a camping trip in the isolated woods where they are brutally murdered by their stalker....one by one’
‘Group of teenagers’ and ‘stalker’-character paradigm
‘Isolated woods’- Setting paradigm
‘Brutally murdered’- props: weapons such as knives, poles
Infatuation (mental issues- photographs of girls)

Treatment:
Opening shot is the teens setting off on their road trip, discussing who is sharing tents with whom. One of the teens gets his/her personal camera out and starts filming how excited they are for their trip and fooling around. (Close up, low angle, canted angles as he/she is filming other people in the car) The unsteady camera shots portray a structuralist view. Long shot to set the scene showing them getting out the car and setting up their tents. They are starting to become aware that they are not alone and start hearing noises and seeing movements. (Tone card- Someone’s obsession, turns into another person’s nightmare) A jump cut to the stalker in a room looking at photos of the girls, (Photos of them having fun, laughing).


Idea 2: Obsession/stalker storyline
Scream meets I know What You Did Last Summer
Scream: tormenting the teens, knife

Scenario:
A stalker seeks revenge many years later...he couldn’t forgive and forget
Stalker- Character paradigm
Infatuation- mental issues (photographs of girls)

Treatment:
The trailer begins at the moment of equilibrium when the two best friends are talking and painting each other’s nails (sleepover setting). Then there is a long shot of the girls walking home through a quiet part of town. (Disequilibrium)They begin to feel a little paranoid (unsteady camera movement) thinking someone is behind them, (jump cuts of them speeding up) but when they turn around they catch a glimpse of someone walking past. (Close up of their facial expressions; shock, confusion). Tone card: They have no idea... George (Idea of ‘Martin’ from Human Centipede 2) is wanting revenge...after all these years. Then there is a shot of many photographs of the girls on a wall, zooming in on their faces at one point. (Close up shot)


Idea 3: Supernatural (Ghost activity)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose meets The Amityville Horror
The Exorcism of Emily Rose: Possessed Child
The Amityville Horror: Paranormal activity

Scenario:
Possessed child – Character Paradigm
Family House – Setting Paradigm
Paranormal activity, objects moving

Treatment:
The opening shot is of a young child sitting at the end of her bed staring at the wall when objects around her start to move. Her parents start then start to believe that there is something wrong with her. (Medium Shot). Her parents start to worry about her and decide it is best to keep her locked inside on her own. When her parents return home they find that the house has been trashed (High shot, canted angle). The young girl wants to get her own back for what her parents have done and starts tormenting them, by messing with their minds and rearranging objects around the house. She is left with only one option now for revenge, and that is to slowly murder them in their sleep.