Brief
The production brief we were working on was to create the title and opening of a new fiction film. The title of a our film is called 'Walking with the Dead' we chose this title because our film is a horror/thriller and the title connotes with the fact of dead people being part of the film The film is about two people a boy called Harry and a girl called Grace, their parents had died in a car crash and ever since then strange things has been happening and disturbing things happening to the boy. The older sister tries to help her brother by getting him help to find the cause for everything. This leads to Harry becoming more dangerous to himself and others, Harry talks to a psychiatrist which does help him. Grace is then told she can take him home and he will be fine. It in the end they work it out that their mum was pregnant when she died and the child/spirit possessed the boy all along to torture the sister who caused her parents death. The ending is left open and knowing if the spirit has gone or not. The sub-genre for our film is paranormal thriller/psychological documentary.
Who would be the audience for your product?
For our film we decided the target audience would range from 16- 24. We aim for normal older students and adults that get a thrill from watching a horror film.We also thought that the age of the characters would influence the audience as having a young adult as the main character would draw in a certain type of audience.For our audience their media interest would not be into mainstream of music and films , they would most likely listen to individual music from low key group that doesn’t link in with mainstream pop.
For our pre-production we looked at different audiences and see what they prefered to see in a horror film we had also pitched our idea to the class and got feedback back for what they would like see in the film. This helped us to create a back story and an idea for the title sequence. We also researched other horror films and the title sequences, especially films related to ours with children and the whole twisted dark plot with it. When watching the videos it helped us to come up with what we would shoot for our title sequence and make sure certain key points where included in the films to really stand out in the title sequence.
The target audience we had in mind for this film is both young male and females that are young adults, they may be students at college or even working. We researched different films and looked at the response they got.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The media institution that we choose for our distributer was ‘Universal’ we though this would best fit our film as Universal is one of the biggest companies and most films have been successful within Universal. Universal also has a wide range of genre in there films and they have history of horror/thriller films so they would know how to manage a horror/thriller film like ours.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?
When we were filming our title sequence we purposely didn’t film any faces or the characters, only below the shoulder or sometimes in certain shots the audience would only see the back of the head. This was to make the main character more mystery and not give too much away about the boy at first. We used our storyboards to help us keep track on key shots that needed to take place when filming for example when opening a door and getting a close up of one side pushing the door opening and the other opening. The first shot was an establishing shot of the house by this the audience can see where this film is sort of set and what sort of lifestyle the main character is surrounded by. In certain parts of the title sequence we filmed bits by hand to make it feel as if you are actually there with the boy walking up the stairs. We always used a tripod to make sure the some shots were steady and smooth looking.
The typography was very easy for us all to decide in what we were going to look for. We thought a childlike handwriting would look very effective as it’s a main key point of the film with a child being possessed by another much younger child . We did originally want the childlike handwriting to be scratched on but then we decided to have the childlike handwriting to look more scratched and distorted, this suggests a hint of something wrong in the way the boy is.
The lighting was very tricky for us because we wanted to make it clear to the audience that its was normal bright and homely in the house but then the sudden change of the boys room being all dark and scary looking. Right at the start the first shot was of a house in the dark pouring rain this straight away indicates to the audience that the film is a dark and gloomy atmosphere type of film and not light hearted with comedy. the boys room we had a lamp on in the room and nothing else so it would create a dark look but still clear enough to the audience. This was all to create a huge contrast in what you don’t see from the boy straight away. From the outside of his room he looks normal but then we see behind closed doors that actually the boy has some serious issues deep inside of him.
The music was a challenge to find and make it fit with the title sequence. Originally I and made music but then Amy had found some music that fitted perfectly and only needed minor changes. The music is slow but it has jumpy and horrible suspence feeling in it which would intentionally make the audience feel uneasy and alert to watching what is happening. With the whole title sequence focusing on the boy the music on its own cleary indicates that this is some “wrong “ and strange about the boy.
How does you media product represent particular social groups?
We wanted the boy to come off at the beginning like any average young boy and to stick with stereotypes and not go against. This makes the audience feels like that this could of happened to them and to make it seem not too far fetched in the characters. By making the boy on the same level as an average boy by his body language and how relax he was at home and dumping his things on the floor like any typical boy it makes the whole media product more realistic to the audience. The props used are nothing to alerting at the start until he gets into his room and whole image of ‘average boy’ vanishes when he rips teddies apart and draws sinister pictures. We carefully thought of things that children use that are innocent belongings and then changed it to a twisted and dark thing that no one wants their children to be doing or drawing. This makes the audience completely change what they originally thought of the boy.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I think we reached our target audience because of the feedback we got from it was positive. We asked people what they enjoyed to see in horror films and looked at other films with similar plots and genre to see what the response was, this helped us to create a title sequence and plot that would grabbed the audiences attention. People have said that “The idea for the plot is very good” and “Wonder what would happen next’ this is good feedback and promising news. We did have some concerns like “Don’t make it too complicated for yourselfs when making it” but we did split the jobs up to make it easier to get the job done. The feedback of the final version was very good and they like the music and the ending part with the shadow. We did get a comment saying that the title sequence “creeped them out big time” which to me means we have done our job with making the title sequence uneasy and sending shivers down your back as the genre was horror.
To improve this we could of maybe added more disturbing things for the boy to do to really creep the audience out more but although it seems we have made a good job of
making the audience feels uneasy watching it.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We learnt that we needed planned it all before in what we would use to film and edit the video on. We used my camera to film as we had a history of the school camera not working properly on the programmes we used. At it made it easier to us knowing that the footage would not be deleted in case we lost all footage of the computer. When editing the video we used Imovie for most of the editing and then Final Cut Pro as this programme is far more advanced for editing a thing like this. We learnt all new skills in editing with putting the writing onto the video in the font we had chosen and exactly where to place it. We learnt how to import music of the video and adding a beginning transition into a fade in shot from a black background. At one point we I used Garage Band to make music for the video but then we changed our minds in the music , however I did learn how to edit and make music which will come in handy with media in case we need a quick not copyright piece of music very quick. When editing the video on Imovie we shorten clips and edited them slower and changed the lighting on some this was successful production process on Imovie. However there was a less successful when Final Cut Pro we did find this hard to use but manage through some bits and the bits we couldn’t do we changed back to Imovie.
I personally have learnt the skills of adding writing to clip on Imovie and practially mostly all my skills on Imovie have advanced. I have learnt how to use Final Cut Pro as I have never used that before as well.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full production?
When looking back to the preliminary task I feel that the only thing successful about the task was managing to stick to the camera angle rules. Everything else just feel apart. We didn’t plan the filming properly and didn’t stick to the storyboards the editing then became hard work to try make it look right. Then there the surroundings we had the problem of background noise and conversation which really didn’t spoil our task. The last part was sharing responsibility, it did end up with some people literally just being there and saying things but not actually filming or editing or helping in any way.
We improved and learnt when making our title sequence, we really thought of post production this time and planning a lot more. We divided the jobs which made it easier and stuck to the storyboards so setting up for filming and referring back to it to make sure we filmed everything and got all footage so then this made the editing process a lot more easier. We made sure we had loads of footage to choose from so all shots ran smoothly together. We were aware of our surrounds making sure the angles where right and not shakey or off side at all .
All in all we learnt so much more from our preliminary task and to be honest without that first task I don’t think our title sequence would have been as successful as it became now.
Scott Smith - Actor playing Harry
